She calls herself one of India’s ‘before midnight’ children. Devaki Jain—economist, feminist, author—was old enough at 14 to experience the exhilaration of Independence and grow up in an India that was still defining herself. Her memoir, The Brass Notebook, captures the optimism and idealism of those years.
Jain began her distinguished career as lecturer in Delhi’s Miranda House, but went on to do what she loved best, research. Considered a pioneer in India of ‘feminist economics’ that brings a gender perspective to the discipline, Jain founded the Institute of Social Studies Trust and Development Alternatives for Women for a New Era.
This memoir gives us insight into Jain’s life, her parents, the chances she had to travel (94 countries in 50 years), the friendships she forged (Gloria Steinem being one), and the choices she made. “How to project what can be called ‘my story’ in a landscape which was so full of originality, so revolutionary, so full of...
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