A South Asian outlook
Kamla Bhasin was a feminist activist and writer born in Mandi Bahauddin district in 1946. In her 2017 interview with Ammara Durrani, she connected that birthplace with a career extending across South Asia. She described regional belonging as more important to her than national identification alone. The interview also records her master’s degree at Rajasthan and study of development sociology at Münster. Her outlook was practical as well as geographical: she criticised attention concentrated on prominent activists, arguing that such visibility could obscure organising in rural places. She pointed to women’s land struggles in Okara as an example. These were her assessments of a movement, rather than a statistical account of participation.[1]
Building a training network
Sangat’s institutional history traces the network’s origins to a gender-trainers’ workshop at Koitta, Bangladesh, in April 1998. Organised by the FAO-NGO programme and IDPAA, it brought together participants concerned that space for transformative gender work was contracting. They sought a continuing network for activists and trainers. Sangat describes this as a continuation of programme work coordinated by Bhasin, locating her contribution within a collective decision rather than a solitary founding act.[3]
Training connected with campaigns
Bhasin’s own June 2017 report describes an India–Nepal feminist capacity-building course that had just started at the Tara Centre in Himachal. Participants discussed One Billion Rising alongside their training. The report also describes Property For Her, a campaign launched the previous month to secure women’s access to land and property in South Asia. Activists, academics and other participants had discussed the issue before launching it. In her account, training and campaigning belonged together: learning could feed continuing organising around unequal resources and violence. The report records purposes and activities at that moment, without proving a completed course, changed ownership or a new law.[2]
Sources & notes
Source records include access dates and, where known, limits on what was examined. Checks used AI assistance; independent human or specialist review has not been completed.
- Ammara Durrani interviewing Kamla Bhasin; Herald. An Indian who talks about love with Pakistan is seen as a traitor: Kamla Bhasin ↗dated interview and editorial introduction · Source date: 2017-06-25 · Locator: Actual web-reader lines 40–62, publication-update line 18; March interview context distinguished from 25 June 2017 update. Accessed 2026-11-02.The actual edited interview was inspected. Views are attributed to Bhasin; the recording and listed books were not reviewed.Return to A South Asian outlook, paragraph 1 ↑
- Kamla Bhasin, South Asia Regional Coordinator; One Billion Rising. India and South Asia Rising! Update from Kamla Bhasin ↗author’s public activity report · Source date: 2017-06-21 · Locator: Actual dated report: ongoing Jagori/Sangat course at Tara Centre and Property For Her paragraphs; future September programme excluded. Accessed 2026-11-02.The actual signed report was inspected. An ongoing course and future plans are distinguished from completed activities and outcomes.Return to Training connected with campaigns, paragraph 1 ↑
- Sangat South Asian feminist network. History of Sangat ↗institutional origin account · Source date: publication date not established · Locator: History page, actual web-reader lines 25–26; repeated institution-history block in tribute page separately inspected. Accessed 2026-11-02.The institutional history and its repeated tribute block were inspected as one account, rather than independent corroboration.Return to Building a training network, paragraph 1 ↑
Record PH-PEO-0084 · English edition · human review not performed