Nandini Oza's Work Profile

Nandini Oza is an author of books titled, The Struggle for Narmada-Oral Histories of Adivasi leaders of Narmada Bachao Andolan Keshavbhau and Kevalsingh Vasave; Ladha Narmadecha and Whither Justice- stories of women in prison. After having done her Masters in Social Work, Nandini has worked as a social and political activist in Non Government Organisations and people’s movements like the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA).  Between 2002-04, she worked as a lecturer in the Government College in Badwani, Madhya Pradesh teaching post graduate course in social work. Since 2004, she has been managing Zindabad trust, an organisation that supports financially environmental and social work across the country. However since 2004, her primary interest and focus has been on reading and writing. Her writings are focused on social and political analysis and commentary as well as on contemporary history. She remains a student of social and political change and her writing draws considerably from this as well as her earlier work as an activist. She writes both, fiction and non-fiction, believes that social media is an important medium in today’s times and uses it meaningfully.

Websites: Nandini maintains websites in Hindi and English titled, "Oral History Narmada", This websites share the people's histories of the mass resistance against the Sardar Sarovar Project, a mega dam based project on the River Narmada in Western India. The SSP has displaced 250000 people and has impacted an equal number of people due to the project infrastructure. 

Book Publications:

March 2022, Orient BlackSwan published Nandini Oza's book, The Struggle for Narmada: An Oral History of the Narmada Bachao Andolan, by Adivasi Leaders Keshavbhau and Kevalsingh Vasave. This book is the translation of her Marathi book titled, Ladha Narmadecha, details of which are given below. 

July 2017, Rajhans Publications published Nandini Oza’s book titled, ‘LaDha Narmadecha’ (Struggle for Narmada) in Marathi. This book is based on the oral history of the two senior Adivasi leaders, Keshavbhau and Kevalsingh Vasave of the NBA. The narrations of the two leaders are supplemented by extensive footnotes by Nandini, drawing from her own experiences as an activist of this powerful struggle. The book has been well received and has been listed among the top best sellers of the year 2017 by Akashrnama/ Granthnama, a popular Marathi web Portal.

May 2006 Oza’s first book, - ‘Whither Justice - Stories of Women in Prison’, was published by Rupa Publications. The book is  a collection of fictionalized accounts of true stories of women in prisons, many of whom she had met during her field work training as a student of Social Work and later when she was an undertrial prisoner as an activist of the NBA. 

The blurb of the book, describes the book as: ‘(T)his book gives the silent a voice, the forgotten a name and the abused, the justice that they crave. Whither Justice is a daunting and disturbing look at women in Indian prisons; these are stories of their battle against various forces...’ The book has been positively reviewed in many national newspapers.

In 2012, the book, ‘Whither Justice’, was translated into Marathi and published by Mehta Publishing House, Pune. The book has been reviewed well in Marathi newspapers and magazines. Reviewing the book in ‘Ajjcha Sudharak’, Deepti Raut writes, “ह्या पुस्तकाचे नेपथ्य म्हणजे कारागृह, त्यांच्या नायिका म्हणजे स्त्री-केदी आणि त्याचे कथानक म्हणजे अत्याचार, क्लेश, आणि पीडा ह्यांनी बरबटलेल्या त्यांच्या जीवनकथा. परंतु हे पुस्तक केवळ त्याच्यावर न थांबता त्या कथाचा अन्वयार्थ लावण्यास व न्यायची पुन्हा व्याख्या करण्यास भाग पडते.”

In the year 2017, Rupa Publications has brought out Whither Justice in a Kindle edition.

http://amzn.to/2qOR4zUht

Blog and Social Media: Nandini Oza  maintains two blogs,  

History Less Known, http://nandinikoza.blogspot.in/ focusing on the less known events of the social-political history of India, and

This is What I Think, http://nandinioza.blogspot.in/ commenting on the current economic, political and social issues in general.

Sangam House Writers’ Residency: In December 2017 and November 2022, Nandini Oza was awarded twice, the prestigious writers’ residency at Sangam House, Bangalore.  

Current Work: Nandini Oza has completed the manuscript based on the oral history of senior advocate and distinguished human rights activist of Gujarat, Shri Girishbhai Patel who has been a pillar of the NBA as well as a part of many other popular movements in the state. It covers the history of Gujarat since independence and can be called a people’s history covering all the important people’s movements post independence in the State. It is a history that leads up to the emergence of the Gujarat Model with Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) as the symbol and at the center of the current development model pursued in the State.

She is also simultaneously working on a book on the oral histories of the women leaders of the Narmada Bachao Andolan and also is focusing on her fiction writing which is based on the transformations in peri-urban Maharashtra, based on her own experiences, observations and study from living in a village near a big city. 

Other Work: Nandini Oza is an active member of the board of Manthan Adyayan Kendra, an organisation working on research of water and energy issues. She is also a member of the Greenpeace India Society and BIRSA.