Zubaan New Delhi, India

Zubaan is a leading independent publishing house based in New Delhi with a strong academic and general list. It was set up in 2003 as an imprint of India’s first feminist publishing house, Kali for Women, and continues to publish books on, for, by and about women in South Asia. We publish academic books, fiction, memoirs and popular nonfiction, as well as books for children and young adults under our Young Zubaan imprint, aiming always to be pioneering, cutting-edge, progressive and inclusive.

‘Zubaan’ is a Hindustani word meaning tongue, voice or language. It is often used in a pejorative sense to refer to ‘women’s talk’, or ‘gossip’ – generally for women who talk too much! We are proud to reclaim the term on behalf of all those whose voices are silenced or marginalized by the mainstream, and will continue to be heard no matter others say.

Our academic list covers a range of subjects in the humanities and social sciences from research monographs to textbook and supplementary material for students. Special areas of interest include conflict studies, health, human rights and gender justice, history, cultural studies, and feminist and queer theory.

Zubaan’s name is associated strongly with high quality fiction by women in South Asia, both in translation and written in English. Our trade non-fiction includes memoirs, popular history and books on the women’s movement for a general audience. Under the Young Zubaan imprint, we also publish a range of fiction and non-fiction titles for younger adults and children.

Worldwide, the campaign poster, an immediate, often e

communication, used to mark an occasion, to mobilize support, to confront opposition, has received considerable recognition both for its aesthetics and its politics. In India, however, while film posters and some art posters have received a little recognition, the political poster has not had much attention. And yet, different forms of political mobilization have made use of posters, and many campaigns, such as the campaign for the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, or against the Narmada dam, are remembered as much for their actions and strategies, as they are for the posters that accompany them. This is also true of the Indian women’s movement. The Poster Women project began with the idea of locating and archiving as many posters of the movement as possible.

The idea was to look at how the women’s movement and its concerns could be mapped visually, to ask what the history of the movement would look like through its posters and the visual images it had used. Welcome to Poster Women.

Zubaan Books is an imprint of Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publishing house.

In 1984, Urvashi Butalia and Ritu Menon founded Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publishing house. Its objectives were to publish quality work which meet international standards. Over the years it has become an important publishing house nationally and internationally. In 2003 Urvashi Butalia founded Zubaan.

In 2011, Urvashi Butalia and Ritu Menon were jointly conferred the Padma Shri award, for their contribution to the nation by Government of India.

We have a diverse set of lists that range from fiction, non fiction, children’s books, young adult books to specific lists that focus on the North East of India, Sexual Violence and Sexuality Education. Discover more about Zubaan’s lists here.

We at Zubaan keep up with technology! All our books from 2007 onward are available as ebooks in multiple formats suitable for multiple platforms. What’s more, they’re DRM-Free! Find out more about our eBooks and shop for theme right here! Ebook readers confusing you? We can help. Check out our recommendations for e-readers and eBook reading apps for Android and iOS.

Zubaan has a considerable list of academic books examining issues of gender. It has a growing list of autobiographies of women, the best known of which is A Life Less Ordinary by Baby Halder. As part of its initiative to publish broadbased popular books, Zubaan regularly publishes fiction by women writers. Genres range from literary fiction to science fiction to speculative fiction. Under the imprint of Young Zubaan, there is also a growing list of fiction for the age group 6 to 18 including books like Riddle of the Seventh Stone.

Alongside our publishing activities, Zubaan functions as a not-for-profit trust handling a variety of research and outreach projects in the areas of gender, feminism and the women’s movement.

Apart from publishing many many books every year Zubaan also handles a few research and outreach projects. We’re currently working on the SVI Project that documents Sexual Violence and Impunity across South Asia funded by the IDRC, and a feasibility study that explores women’s museums across the world in teh hopes of setting one up in India, funded by Ford Foundation – IIE.