Divine Sounds from the Heart—Singing Unfettered in their Own Voices

Rekha Pande is the Head of the Centre for Women’s Studies, and a Professor in the Department of History at the University of Hyderabad, India. She is a feminist historian who has been working in the area of Women’s History and Women’s Studies for the last three decades, with a large number of articles to her name which have appeared in national and international journals. She is the author of Religious Reform Movement in Medieval India (New Delhi: Gyan Publishers, 2005), Gender Issues in the Police (Hyderabad: S. V. P. National Police Academy, 2000), Child Labour in the Beedi Industry (Hyderabad: Delta Publishers, 1998), and Succession Struggle in the Delhi Sultanate (New Delhi: Commonwealth Publication, 1990). She has been the Editor of International Feminist Journal of Politics (IFJP; Routledge Taylor and Francis group, UK) and the Foreign Policy Analysis (Blackwell, USA). She received the International Visiting fellowship, University of Bristol, London, UK; the International Visiting Fellowship, Maison Des Sciences De L Homme, Paris, France; and the International Visiting Scholarship, Women’s Studies Department, University of Buffalo, The State University of New York.Professor Pande combines her academics with activism. She has been the National Core Group Resource Person of the Mahila Samkhya Programme (Women’s Empowerment), Government of India, Feminist Jurisprudence Committee, National Commission for Women and Sensitization and Capacity Building Towards Eliminating Child Labor, Government of Andhra Pradesh. She has been the Project Director of thirty five projects funded by different funding agencies in India and abroad. She is a Member of the Board of Studies in a large number of Universities in India. She has travelled widely in India and abroad to deliver lectures and present papers at conferences.