The highlights of my academic achievements: 

The highlights of my  academic achievements are Publication, Editing, Research Guidance, Coordination of a large number of Projects and Consultancies, Networking and Monitoring and Collaborating with NGO’s.  I have a large amount of experience working with the National Government, State Government and Non Government Organizations and International Organizations. A historical sensibility and a combination of two major perspectives-cultural studies and  feminism, influences my work which covers diverse areas such as social movements, gender construction, religious and cultural aspects and women’s movements in   India. I am also an active interlocutor of teaching and learning practices, its reconstitution within the classroom, University structures and through national and international professional bodies. 

For the last four and a half  decades I am also involved with women’s issues.  I was one of the founders of Streemela, a society for the development of women. Currently, I am involved with two voluntary Organizations,  SEED, Society for empowerment through environment development and Women’s Association of Hyderabad ( WAH).  I have  collaborated, planned and executed thirty nine  projects  for the Department of Women and Child welfare, Government of India, Ministry of Labour and Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel, Government of India and National Commission for Women, University Grants Commission, Special assistance Programme,   on  themes such as  trafficking of women, violence against women, evaluation  crèches,  invisible work of women, domestic violence, illiteracy, Girl  child,  Child labour in the Beedi industry, Child labor in the old city of Hyderabad, the anti liquor movement ,occupational health hazard and globalization and its impact. These projects were implemented in collaboration with NGOs and civil societies. While working in these projects I have provided programmatic participatory support to sector mangers at village, district and state level. Further we have identified and conceptualized new Project designs especially those related to looking at women in Information technology and exploitation of girl child in the beedi (indigenous cigarette) industry. We have also collaborated with different organizations like DFID, Plan International, Alternatives and National Police Academy. 

I have also done a number of consultancies for both government and nongovernment sectors on Projects such as, Mobile crèches, women in Unorganised sectors, Child labour and creating a  Socio-economic profiles of certain regions. Some of the major issues were related to Gender issues in the Police, eradication of Child Labour,  the anti liquor movement, the unwanted girl child in India and Child care issues.

As a National Resource person I have facilitated and Coordinated a Women’s National Programme called Mahila Samakhya, for Women’s education and empowerment. Under this programme we have collaborated with various NGO’s and Government Departments, Elected village functionaries and Civil society. As part of this Programme I have provided direction and leadership to this prograame in the  State of Uttrakhand, Gujarat,  and Andhra Pradesh, during the first nomination in 2003-2005  and to the state of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand during the second nomination in 2006-2008.   As part of this Project I have helped in designing and monitoring the  Nari Adalat, ( alternative Justice system), Van Panchayats,( Forest courts), Samta Dharani( sustainability in dry land agriculture), Majdur Pathshalas( school for child Labours) and Jhola Pustakalya( Library in a bag). We have played a major role in awareness generation, developed posters, training material, held workshops and have  been actively involved with elimination of all forms of violence and  working towards developing a clear and comprehensive definition of violence against women and applying  a clear statement of  rights in this context.

 I was also involved with the committee with Feminist Jurisprudence, in the National Commission of women and facilitated discussions around the issue of feminist Jurisprudence as a compulsory component of Law curriculum and  gender Budgeting. I have  also been involved in the  processes surrounding the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and  using the Beijing Platform for Action as  a lens to understand and address the gender equality dimensions of the Millennium Development Goals. In these programmes, besides providing training and creating awareness,  I have also assisted in recruiting people under different levels such as Village level Coordinators, District Level Coordinators, and State level Coordinators for the implementation of  the programmes. I also serve as a National Resource Person for the University Grants Commission (UGC)Project on Capacity Building of Women Managers in Higher Education.

 

Besides these,   I have been invited as a Visiting Professor, Department of History, University of Arras, France, 2013, where I taught courses on women’s History. I have also received the International Visiting fellowship from the School of Policy Studies, University of Bristol, in 2003-2004 and this gave me an opportunity to work on Policy issues related to gender at the International level.  I have also received the Visiting fellowship, Maison Des Sciences De L’ Homme, Paris, France, 2007 and worked on the issue of Child labour.  I have also been the Visiting Scholar, Women’s Studies Department, University of Buffalo, The State University of New York ,2006- 2007 and worked on the issue of looking at Globalization from a gender perspective.

I also edited an International Journal, International Feminist Journal of Politics , Routledge, Francis and Taylor, U.K. and Foreign Policy Analysis, Blackwell, USA.  I am widely traveled and have a large network of Women activists and scholars all around the world in the University system and among the Non-government organizations; especially in USA, UK, South East Asia and East Asia and can always draw upon them for support. I have delivered invited Key note and plenary addresses, lectures and presented papers at different conference in various Universities across the world.

To me studying  women's problems is not merely a theoretical and academic exercise but one that must also be related to practice,  one that must comprehend various dimensions of the “women” question to resolve such problems from the grass-root/bottom-up level. Here, my approach is empowerment of women irrespective of class, religion, region, and race. Thus, a major part of my professional, service commitment, and activism lie in researching, guiding, and co-coordinating hands-on (i.e., practical) projects on gender and empowerment at the South Asian and the global levels. 

 How has Rekha Pande influenced Feminist historiography. 

Rekha Pande has made a profound and enduring impact on feminist historiography, particularly within the South Asian context, by challenging dominant historical narratives and reclaiming the voices of marginalized women. Here’s how her work has reshaped the field:

 Re-centering Marginalized Women

• Pande foregrounds the lives of courtesans, devadasis, temple women, and sex workers, arguing that traditional historiography has either erased or vilified them.
• In her essay Writing the History of Women in the Margins, she critiques the elitist and patriarchal biases of historical sources and calls for a re-reading that asks, “What about the women?”.

Methodological Innovation

• She advocates for a genealogical approach inspired by Foucault, which interrogates how power, knowledge, and discourse shape historical narratives.
• Her co-authored work Re-Inscribing the Indian Courtesan exemplifies this by tracing how the courtesan’s identity has been constructed, erased, and reimagined across time.

 Expanding the Scope of History

• Pande critiques the traditional focus on war, politics, and commerce—domains historically dominated by men—and instead emphasizes women’s labor, ritual, oral traditions, and domestic practices as valid historical subjects.
• She highlights how gender, like class or caste, is a powerful axis of historical analysis, urging historians to treat women as agents of history, not just passive subjects.

Decolonizing Feminist Thought

• Her work bridges postcolonial theory and feminist historiography, aligning with the Subaltern Studies collective to recover the voices of those doubly marginalized—by colonialism and patriarchy.
• She critiques the Eurocentric bias in early feminist histories and insists on contextualizing Indian women’s experiences within their own cultural and historical frameworks.

 Pedagogical and Institutional Legacy

• As a founding member of Women’s Studies Centres in India and a former editor of the International Feminist Journal of Politics, Pande has helped institutionalize feminist historiography in academia.
• Her interdisciplinary teaching and prolific writing have inspired a generation of scholars to pursue intersectional, inclusive, and critical feminist research.

 

 About this Blog

This third blog of mine, Pande rekha ,  is to highlight my philosophy about teaching and education and talk about my academic achievements.  I would like to concentrate in this blog on the two major areas where I have spent a large part of my life working that is Gender and History. Besides this blog, I also have two other blogs namely, Survasant pandes and My Journeys.

The title of the first blog  comes from Survasant Pande's. There are 5 Pandes who make this blog ,These include Su-Suresh,r-Rekha,va-Varun,sa-Sankalp,and t-Tarun.All five of us are very independent individuals and yet combine togeather to form the different voices and colours of vasant that stands for spring.We come from Kumaon the beautiful valleys n the Himalayas but have now made Hyderabad the most happening city in India our home. We are today scattered in diffrent parts of the world for career,academics and jobs.This Blog shows you our journey through life...This blog is for my children, relatives, friends and my numerous students, from six different Universities and spread across different parts of India and the world. Hence this blog focuses more on family. 

 The second blog is Journeys.  This blog started as I sat  infront of my lap top, I went back into the past and started thinking of my various Journeys in to life and through life. I then opened this blog and thought I should keep a record of all these travels and the different places that I have visited.   This blog would then give a peep into history and the different civilisations, cultures and the people that one comes across in this journey. I do not keep these in chronologica order but the event and the travel becomes the focus. I look into these journeys both in India and abroad.  

About Myself

 I, Rekha Pande,  am a Professor of South Asian History and Women’s Studies.  I  was also a Professor Emeritus at the Henry Martin Institute, an International Centre for Research, Interfaith Relations and Reconciliation, Hyderabad, India. I was earlier the Head of the Department of History and Head, Centre for Women’s Studies at the University of Hyderabad, India. I was also the Director of Women’s Studies at the Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU), India. I have been the founding member of two Centres for Women’s Studies, one at Maulana Azad National Urdu University and the other at the University of Hyderabad. I have to my credit 24 books and more than 200 articles in National and International Journals, book chapters and   proceedings.  I was also the Director of the Women’s World Congress, India, 2014,  for which we  won the bid  for the first time in India , and  which was held  from 17^th to 21^st August, 2014. To me studying women's problems is not merely a theoretical and academic exercise but one that must also be related to practice,  one that must comprehend various dimensions of the “women” question to resolve such problems from the grass-root/bottom-up level. Here, my approach is empowerment of women irrespective of class, religion, region, and race. Thus, a major part of my professional, service commitment, and activism lie in researching, guiding, and co-coordinating hands-on (i.e., practical) projects on gender and empowerment at the South Asian and the global levels. To sum up, my key intellectual effort in academia, professional service, and activism has been to transgress and bridge borders key among them being between disciplines, periods, theory- praxis, and between the Global South and North. Undoubtedly, these aspects have not only rendered (but will continue to render) me as a active member, contributor, and an activist in academia—with attention to issues of gender.