What Women’s Jail Diaries Reveal About Society / For many Indian women jail sets them free
For many Indian women jail sets them free. ‘Home had become a prison’
13/02/2026
The Print / by Sakhi Mehra
Seema Azad’s Unsilenced and From Phansi Yard by activist-lawyer Sudha Bharadwaj were the topic of discussion at Delhi’s Press Club last week. Both books were born of incarceration.
In prison, for all its cruelty, one can still breathe—unlike many other spaces in society. That was the unsettling truth that became the centre of a book discussion at the Press Club of India on 7 February. Writers, activists, and scholars gathered to talk about incarceration as a lived reality.
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Beyond Bars and Charges: What Women’s Jail Diaries Reveal About Society
09/02/2026
Outlook / by Mrinalini Dhyani
At a discussion on women’s prison writings, the conversation centred on memoirs by two women political prisoners, Unsilenced: The Jail Diary of an Activist by Seema Azad and Phansi Yard by Sudha Bharadwaj which brought together feminist historian Uma Chakravarti, activist-journalist Seema Azad, legal scholar Shailza Sharma, and researcher Mary, among others.
Incarceration in India is not an exception but a long-standing social reality, one that has shaped women’s lives across generations, from the years immediately after Independence to the present moment of prolonged undertrial detention. This was the central argument that emerged at a discussion on women’s prison writings held at the Press Club of India on Saturday evening.
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▪ From Phansi Yard: My Year with the Women of Yerawada
Author: Sudha Bhardwaj
Publishing Date: Oct 2023
Publisher: Juggernaut
Pages: 216
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Also read:
▪ Book Excerpt | Unsilenced: The Jail Diary Of An Activist, By Seema Azad (Outlook / Jan 2026)
▪ The Cell and the Soul – A Prison Memoir
Author: Anand Teltumbde
Publishing Date: Sep 2025
Publisher: Bloomsbury India
Pages: 256
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▪ The Feared – Conversations with Eleven Political Prisoners
Author: Neeta Kolhatkar
Publishing Date: Dec 2024
Publisher: S&S India
Pages: 272
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▪ How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners
Authors: Suchitra Vijayan and Francesca Recchia
Publishing Date: Aug 2023
Publisher: Pluto Press
Pages: 247
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