This editorial is part of Ananke's 10th anniversary special edition celebrating the platform's work. You can view the eZine here.
It was a decade ago that the idea of Ananke was born. The birth of a new idea is always a moment of excitement and fear – even as infinite possibilities open up, the seed of fear, anxiety, uncertainty, perhaps even of failure, lurks somewhere in the background. By contrast, looking back on something ten years down the line, marks a different moment altogether – reflective, thoughtful and, if you’re lucky, happy. I have no doubt that Sabin, who founded Ananke all those years ago, and her team, must be feeling something of this happiness as they look back on their work.
Something like this is also what, I think, those of us who have been lucky enough to be part of the Ananke community in these past years, must be feeling.
Who would have thought a digital platform, focusing on those very important but increasingly buzz-wordy ideas of diversity and inclusion, creating conversations by women, about women, transcending administrative, political, identity barriers, would still be around, and thriving, ten years later? The digital, which in some strange ways we associate with ‘permanence’ is actually often the opposite, especially when the focus in on areas not considered marketable.
Ananke isn’t only still here, but in these years, it has continued to grow, bringing in new issues, new writers, opening up conversations, offering training, bringing on board a range of writers, helping so many of us make connections across borders and organizing summits for young girls, providing tech training and even creating an online festival that has attendance from all over the world. It’s hard to beat that.
This tenth anniversary issue, which I hope marks the beginning of yet another wonderful decade for Ananke, captures some of that diversity and indeed some of the joy as writers – principally women – tell their stories of success, of change, and of hope. There is so much here, much that has been spoken of earlier, much that is new and that relates to Ananke’s areas of focus – gender, health, entrepreneurship, education, culture, STEM, and more. While all of this is visible because it’s there for us to see and read in the back issues of the journal and in other publications, what is less visible is the hard work, the slog, the sheer attention to detail, the labour, that goes into the making of all successful platforms generally, and this one specifically.
So, even as we congratulate Ananke for its tenth year, and wish it several more decades of wonderful work that pushes us to think and encourages us to talk, let’s also recognize the team that puts this work together and mark our gratitude to them for the space they have opened up for us.
And finally, a personal note of gratitude. Every time I visit the Ananke website, I’m immediately hooked because I want to read everything there, and often, I have to ration my time and limit what I can read, with a promise to myself to come back later. I know I am not the only visitor/reader who feels this. As you go forward, Sabin and team, I hope more and more visitors feel this and read more – the experiment you began ten years ago to create the community you now have, holds the promise of widening, deepening, expanding and consolidating this community. More power to you.
About Urvashi Butalia
A Padmashree recipient, Urvashi Butalia is a feminist publisher and writer. She co-founded Kali for Women, India’s first feminist publishing house and is currently Director of Zubaan, an imprint of Kali. She has a long involvement in the women’s movement in India. Urvashi writes and is widely published on issues related to women and gender.