Tara Books

6th Dec

Summing up what feminism means has always been a tricky business. Whilst there are formal definitions to be found, ultimately the concept is a fluid one: made real, developed and adapted by those that subscribe to it. So what does it actually mean for a publishing house to be steered by its feminist guiding principles?

For this is how Tara Books, an independent publishing collective based in Chennai, India, choose to describe themselves. According to Gita Wolf and V.Geetha – two of the women who run Tara – it all boils down to representation, dialogue and communication.

At the most basic level, they are conscious of ensuring that their books equally represent women’s experiences and provide a more balanced gender perspective. This means not only having more girls in children’s picture books, but also moving the representation of these fictional young women beyond the boundaries of a narrow understanding of femininity.

Take the protagonist of Today is My Day – a mischievous and strong-willed girl who spends an entire day refusing to fall into line - or the heroine of Catch That Crocodile – a humble fishergirl whose common sense saves the day and her village.

“We’re not about excluding boy children from our stories, though,” V.Geetha is keen to point out, citing their forthcoming title Excuses Excuses, whose naughty hero is the eight-year-old Neel.

What is most interesting about their interpretation of feminism is its broad scope. “An important aspect of feminism is a belief in dialogue and communication,” explains Gita Wolf. “So Tara is fundamentally non-hierarchical in the way it’s set up. All of us meet at regular intervals and talk about what we’re doing and what needs to be done. We eat together at a common table.”

When asked whether their feminist principles can be seen in their adult titles and some of what they have become best-known for – namely their handmade books and work with marginalized Indian tribal artists – they seem almost surprised by the question.

When you broaden your definition of feminism to include a commitment to social justice in its widest sense and an unwillingness to accept any form of stereotype, they argued, giving a voice to marginalized artists and ensuring that your handmade titles are printed in a fairtrade environment should seem entirely logical.

I’m pointed towards their book Nurturing Walls as an example of how these seemingly diverse strands of Tara’s philosophy can be seen dovetailing together. It is a book that features art by women of Rajasthan’s Meena tribe.

In this community in northern India there is an extraordinary tradition of public art by women, whose role it is to paint the mud walls and floors of homes and public spaces within the village.

Tara’s book about this tradition both documents its creation through photographs and recreates it with screenprints of the art. In utilizing this unusual fusion of political essay, photography and hand silkscreened art prints, it provides a space from which a marginalized community can speak in its own voice, rather than merely documenting the tradition in an anthropological sense.

“The art created by the Meena women is certainly not self-consciously feminist,” explains Gita Wolf. “If there is a feminist way of looking, then that comes from us.” While this is certainly true, the book has immense potential for complex feminist analysis, with its impact coming from the sheer scale of the art that it depicts.

It’s hard not to conclude that there is something extraordinarily powerful about these women marking their physical landscape in such an all-pervasive way. Not only are they asserting their presence in traditionally segregated public spaces, but they are engaging in activities that do not fit into a narrow definition of Indian femininity – using tools, climbing ladders, and taking complete ownership of their collective work.

“We were trying to show that segregation and the gendering of space does not necessarily mean passivity, and to demonstrate social labour – as opposed to housework – in action.” In this sense, they are demonstrating Engels’ argument that the task of managing a household is as much of a public and socially necessary industry as work that takes place outside of the home.

Getting from naughty girl-children in picture books to Engels might seem like a bit of a leap, but I am beginning to understand what they mean by ‘feminist guiding principles’. Whether it’s in children’s books, graphic novels, photography collections or books on art, there is a certain social and political responsibility that pervades all of their titles.

This, then, is feminism taken to its logical conclusion – from equality, justice and representation for women, to equality, justice and representation for all.

This was a guest post by Maegan Chadwick-Dobson from Tara Books. For more information, check out the website or the Tara Books blog.