"Women, Equality and the Republic: Landmarks in the Indian Story is a series dedicated to tracing the history of the women's movement in India vis-à-vis Indian democracy and the building of a modern nation. This series recognizes the need to archive women's voices, roles and contributions in a largely male dominated national history. The volumes in the series not only document but also analyse the evolution of ideas and strategies and the concrete measures that were taken to shape policies and programmes for women in India.

Scholars of gender studies have always struggled with the politics of language and memory that control the very construct of gender in social terms. In the absence of a feminine voice and vocabulary to counter this, large sectors of women's social experience have been left unrecorded and, hence, invisible. Education, Equality and Development: Persistent Paradoxes in India Women's History goes beyond the confines of quantitative data collection to gather these unrecorded voices. Bringing perspectives from several developing countries, the volume discusses the continued gender inequality despite improvements on issues of child marriage, female mortality, literacy and labour force participation.

The complex relationship between education, women's equality and their participation in development—¬national, regional and global—is articulated with great clarity in this volume. The debates focus on the issues of women's access to different levels of education, the content of such education, and its medium, purpose or value. The volume also critically examines the dynamics of historical, socio-cultural, linguistic, caste, class and regional variations that have governed the shaping of policies for women's development.

The result is an analysis that recognizes the paradoxes within the movements for women's development, and presents a more holistic and valuable guide to policymakers. The fascinating discussions with women from diverse sections of Indian society will also provide a detailed, qualitative appraisal of the ground realities in India for students and scholars of sociology, gender studies and cultural studies.

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