Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Ants Among Elephants
Ants Among Elephants: An Untouchable Family and the Making of Modern India | Sujatha Gidla
18 posts | 8 read | 37 to read
The stunning true story of an untouchable family who become teachers, and one, a poet and revolutionary Like one in six people in India, Sujatha Gidla was born an untouchable. While most untouchables are illiterate, her family was educated by Canadian missionaries in the 1930s, making it possible for Gidla to attend elite schools and move to America at the age of twenty-six. It was only then that she saw how extraordinaryand yet how typicalher family history truly was. Her mother, Manjula, and uncles Satyam and Carey were born in the last days of British colonial rule. They grew up in a world marked by poverty and injustice, but also full of possibility. In the slums where they lived, everyone had a political side, and rallies, agitations, and arrests were commonplace. The Independence movement promised freedom. Yet for untouchables and other poor and working people, little changed. Satyam, the eldest, switched allegiance to the Communist Party. Gidla recounts his incredible transformation from student and labor organizer to famous poet and founder of a left-wing guerrilla movement. And Gidla charts her mothers battles with caste and womens oppression. Page by page, Gidla takes us into a complicated, close-knit family as they desperately strive for a decent life and a more just society. A moving portrait of love, hardship, and struggle, Ants Among Elephants is also that rare thing: a personal history of modern India told from the bottom up.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
quote
Tralfamadorian
post image

Has anyone read this book??

blurb
batsy
post image

To be Dalit and to question the caste system inherent in Hinduism is to be a #heretic. This is an incredibly personal account of the costs of going against the social order in Indian society. Highly recommended.

#NoFemmeber @Billypar @Cinfhen

Cinfhen I thought I had previously stacked this one 🙄#stacked 6y
Velvetfur Wow, this sounds powerful, I'll research it x 6y
erzascarletbookgasm Sounds like an important read. ❗️ 6y
See All 11 Comments
batsy @Velvetfur @erzascarletbookgasm An important read, presented in a very accessible manner 👍🏽 6y
RohitSawant Couldn't have stacked this any faster. I remember the papers carrying a story about P. V. Sindhu's caste being the most Googled query in India after her Olympic victory. 🤦🏻‍♂️ It's sad and enraging that it's something people still obsess over & can only hope it'll change with the coming generation. 6y
batsy @rohit-sawant Ugh, that's awful. You're right, so sad and enraging at the same time. 6y
AppuNthebooks This one‘s a keeper. If nothing at least as a reminder that caste is alive and kicking no matter how much the urban elite would like to deny it. 6y
Billypar Agreed with the previous comments- an important book because most of us who live outside of India have little idea what kinds of things have changed in the culture and how much has remained resistant to change and why. 6y
Centique This sounds incredible. I would stack it but somehow I already have. Maybe it was after I read The God of Small Things which opened my eyes (a little) about caste. Keen to learn more 💕 6y
batsy @AppuNthebooks So true! In my experience there are swathes of the "liberal" urban elite who are only too happy to pretend that what implicates them doesn't exist. 6y
batsy @Billypar @Centique Yes, there is so much to learn. The way caste works in the South Asian diaspora is different from India; both have devastating implications and I'm always learning about how there are no limits to its awfulness 😞 6y
89 likes12 stack adds11 comments
blurb
AppuNthebooks
post image

This book still has me thinking. And it‘s not the rebel Satyam and his hardships that has left a dent. It‘s his sister Manjula, the author‘s mother whose story is riveting with its immeasurable scale of pain. Oppression of any kind beats down women twice as hard. Yet she survives and how! Art by Neelu Jadav

review
AppuNthebooks
post image
Pickpick

Essential reading for India‘s urbanites. The ones who pretend caste doesn‘t exist, that Dalit oppression is a sham, that reservation is unjust. Bye bye privileged ignorance! This book reveals what‘s happening now isn‘t new or isolated. There‘s a long history of injustice fed by a depraved insecurity. Add to this the plague of gender discrimination. Prepare to be schooled! Gidla says it as it is. Art: An exhibit from ‘Hidden Feelings On Canvas‘

5 likes1 stack add
blurb
AppuNthebooks
post image

The moon, me and a book.

review
Vansa
post image
Pickpick

Day 2 of #RiotGrams #Februarychallenge @bookriot -#Currentread. Sujatha Gidla's book is an excoriating read about a societal problem that's unfortunately alive and kicking in India , even in the 21st Century and even amongst supposedly better educated people.We keep saying we're post-caste, but that isn't true at all.

8 likes1 stack add
blurb
Redwritinghood
post image

Small #bookhaul from the library today. I‘ve wanted to read Almost Sisters for a while and the tagged book looked interesting for a #nonfictionnovember read.

67 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
batsy
post image
Pickpick

This is a social history of Gidla's Dalit ("untouchable") family. It focuses on her mother Manjula & uncle Satyam, among the few Dalits who were educated & held middle-class jobs. It's a stark picture of the brutality of the caste system. The family turns to radical politics to alter the status quo. There were some rough edges to Gidla's bare-bones prose that made certain points/transitions seem abrupt, but it's an eye-opening, important read.

batsy Letter A for #LitsyAtoZ 7y
57 likes3 stack adds1 comment
review
Lindy
post image
Pickpick

While I sometimes grew weary of all of the details in the political struggles against social oppression, this is nonetheless a remarkable family story. It's amazing that it's even in print, because the author was born an untouchable and grew up in extreme poverty. Most interesting to me are the parts about Gidla's mother, a college professor who faced unending discrimination & obstacles, rather than Gidla's uncle, a famous labour organizer.

44 likes2 stack adds
quote
Lindy
post image

"Sir, I know from my experience in Bengal what a library movement means. It is nothing but a revolutionary movement."
(When a group in Telangana wanted the right to speak Telugu in public, to print books & newspapers in their own language & organize Telugu literary festivals & libraries.)

[photo from Internet]

quote
Lindy
post image

With her education and her job, she would have made a desirable bride. But she was no such thing. She was dark, her family was poor, they didn't go to church, and, worst of all, her brothers were violent Communist sons of bitches. Manjula was almost 25 years old. The fear of Manjula's spinsterhood spread like a dreaded disease through the family circle.

TrishB 😔😢 7y
Lindy @TrishB Women's lives, always so hard. 7y
Riveted_Reader_Melissa Looks like a very interesting book! 7y
Lindy @Riveted_Reader_Melissa Yes, and I've learned a lot too. 7y
TrishB Truth 👍 7y
39 likes5 stack adds5 comments
quote
Lindy
post image

"Respected madam, I need one day casual leave, as my child is ill."
"How old is this child of yours?"
"Five, madam."
Sivagami laughed until her ribs hurt. "She is five and you still call her a child? Come off it, will you?"
Manjula was forced to stay.

[The 5-year-old is the author, who was left at home every day to care alone for her two younger siblings, who are pictured above with their mother, Manjula.]

41 likes1 stack add
blurb
Lindy
post image

Book synchronicity is happening. In The Golden House, Rushdie lampooned the many shifting incarnations of Communist parties in India. In Ants Among Elephants, Gidla describes her uncle Satyam's involvement with various Communist groups and their ideological differences. "After that meeting, the Revolutionary Communist Party split into two splinters, each one claiming the same name CPI(M-L)—ML for Marxist-Leninist." The SAME name! So confusing.

merelybookish It's funny when that happens. A few weeks ago, I read two different books that both featured Phillipe Petit's high wire walk between the twin towers. 7y
Lindy @merelybookish Oh, just thinking about Petit's tightrope walk makes my stomach flip in a sickening way. I read his memoir and still shake my head in astonishment at how they managed to even get that wire set up, never mind the back and forth walking the wire with police waiting on either end... 7y
merelybookish @Lindy I agree! I watched the documentary and it was hard to watch, evening know he succeeded! 7y
See All 8 Comments
Lindy @merelybookish it was very 😱 7y
Spiderfelt I love it when bookish worlds collide. 7y
Lindy @Spiderfelt Isn't it great? 😊 7y
Spiderfelt Without any intentional planning, I frequently encounter synchronicity in theme, or setting. I will listen to Exit West on my phone while walking my dog, and Alif the Unseen in print, simply because that is when my holds came in at the library. This summer I read a lot of books that centered around finding identity either because of loss (parent/home/country) or deliberate change (gender transitioning/emigration/travel). 7y
Lindy @Spiderfelt Nice. It's one of the ways that books enrich our lives. 😊 7y
37 likes8 comments
blurb
Lindy
post image

My windows are all steamy because I made highbush cranberry jelly this morning. And now it's snowing so it's just as well that I can't see outside! I will just curl up with a book now. 😸

BookishTrish Snow already?!?! 7y
AlaMich Snow? I live in Chicago and tomorrow it's supposed to be 88°! ??? 7y
No_One Snow in Edmonton!! Hahaha! Terrible! It's 28C in the Toronto area. Wish it was cooler, but not that cold! 😊 7y
See All 8 Comments
Lindy @No_One @AlaMich @BookishTrish It's 2C here; I'm just thankful that it's above freezing and so the snow won't stick. Yet. 7y
No_One @Lindy well the cranberry jelly sounds delicious! Enjoy your afternoon snuggling up with a book. 😊📚 7y
rabbitprincess Send the snow here! We are having a late summer heat wave, and after being in much cooler Wales for the past 2.5 weeks, I'm even more crabby about the heat than usual 😜 7y
ValerieAndBooks Snow! Wow. But it makes for a cozy stay-inside day! 7y
Lindy @ValerieAndBooks 😊❄️📚 7y
55 likes8 comments
blurb
Lindy
post image

I like the photo across the #endpapers in this nonfiction book. I also like the way it connects to Arundhati Roy's new novel, almost as if I'm learning the backstory of Roy's Tilo, child of an Untouchable and a Christian, and also learning more about the reason for her fury.

Cinfhen That's awesome ❤️ 7y
batsy Oh, fantastic. Now I'm really looking forward to this. 7y
37 likes3 stack adds3 comments
blurb
Lindy
post image

My fingers are crossed that these upcoming reads are #fivestarpredictions. Thank you to @Lacythebookworm for the tag. 😀

emilyhaldi Insomniac City is SO GOOD 🙌🏻 it's one of the rare books that I see myself picking up to read again someday 7y
Lindy @emilyhaldi Reread-worthy is high praise. I'm looking forward to my first experience with it. 7y
batsy I'm hoping Ants Among Elephants is, as well! 7y
See All 8 Comments
Lindy @batsy I will find out soon because it's due back to the library on September 22 and there's a long waiting list for it. 🍀 7y
sisilia Insomniac City is top-notch 👍🏻 7y
Lacythebookworm A Closed and Common Orbit is a fun read! 7y
Lindy @sisilia Yay! that's 2 votes in support of 7y
Lindy @Lacythebookworm I really liked the first one, so I have high hopes for 7y
53 likes8 comments
blurb
batsy
post image

It is #thebest feeling to unexpectedly receive two beautiful review copies in the mail #AugustGrrrl @Cinfhen #bookmail

Cinfhen I have Marriage of a Thousand lives ....part of my big summer haul and the NF sounds really interesting 7y
Cinfhen Lucky you 💚two good books 😊 7y
batsy @Cinfhen Yup 😊 looking forward to both! 7y
See All 6 Comments
shawnmooney I echo @Cinfhen utterly - have the one and covet the other! 7y
Leftcoastzen They look good!hope you review ! 7y
batsy @Leftcoastzen I hope so too! 😆 I'm intimidated by the tagged book but hope I can put some decent thoughts together on it when I'm done. 7y
75 likes6 comments