Meet our Authors

Vaikhari Aryat is a queer Dalit feminist from Kottayam, Kerala, currently pursuing PhD in Political Science at the University of Hyderabad. She writes on gender and caste issues, queer rights and issues, intersectionality and student rights.  An active participant in student agitations in India in recent times, her narratives from the Rohith Vemula movement drew the attention of Amnesty International to the human rights violations at the University of Hyderabad. Vaikhari won the first Maktoob Media Award for her article on the role of caste in the rape and murder of Jisha, the Dalit girl from Perumbavoor.

Untold lives

"These fleeting glimpses also made me realise how history books at school had told me nothing about how women like my Achamma and her mother had lived their lives. If the stories of a Janaki or Alaki or Thirumala or Mala go untold, nothing will change for the world as we know it. But archiving it will change things for my people. Memory is a powerful tool, and archiving it challenges our invisibility, our non-existence, our oppression.

I am the granddaughter of all the women you made to stand outside your history books. I inherit my strength from their memories, and I will continue writing their stories."