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The Many Lives of Syeda X
A Peopleโs History of Invisible India
Brief Description
'A trenchant and invaluable people's history of the bottom of the pyramid in the world's most populous nation' Financial Times What does the life of an ordinary working-class, Muslim woman look and feel like in modern India? Award-winning journalist Neha Dixit traces the story of one...
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Format: Paperback / softback
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See moreA searing account of urban life in modern India, told through the eyes of an ordinary working class Muslim woman, Syeda X.
A searing account of urban life in modern India, told through the eyes of an ordinary working class Muslim woman, Syeda X.
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Description
'A trenchant and invaluable people's history of the bottom of the pyramid in the world's most populous nation' Financial Times
What does the life of an ordinary working-class, Muslim woman look and feel like in modern India? Award-winning journalist Neha Dixit traces the story of one such faceless Indian woman, from the early 1990s to the present day. What emerges is a picture of a life lived under constant corrosive tension.
Syeda X left the holy city of Banaras (now Varanasi) for Delhi with her young family in the aftermath of riots and communal violence in the early '90s. In Delhi, she settled into the life of a poor migrant, juggling multiple jobs a day - from sewing soccer balls and removing the stems from raisins, to shelling almonds sold in bulk to multinationals and assisting in illegal abortions. Syeda has held over 50 different jobs in 30 years, earning paltry sums in the process. And if she ever took a day off, her job would be lost to another faceless migrant.
We meet an unforgettable cast of characters: a rickshaw driver in Chandni Chowk who ends up tragically dead in a terrorist blast; a doctor who gets arrested for pre-natal sex determination; a Hindu nationalist 'cow vigilante' whose sister elopes with Syeda's son; and policemen who delight in beating up young Muslim men.
Written with empathy and deep insight, The Many Lives of Syeda X is a portal to a harsh, hidden world. It is the story of untold millions and a searing account of urban life in new India.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781804442609
Publisher: Bonnier Books Ltd
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 19 November 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Footnote Press Ltd
Audience: General / adult
DIMENSIONS
Width: 129.0mm
Height: 198.0mm
Weight: 250g
Pages: 320
About the Author
Neha Dixit is an independent journalist based in New Delhi. She has covered politics, gender and social justice for seventeen years. Most of her work is investigative, narrative and long-form. She has reported for Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Caravan, The Wire, and other notable publications. She has won over a dozen international and national journalism awards, including the One Young World Journalist of the Year Award 2020, the International Press Freedom Award 2019 from the Committee to Protect Journalists, the Chameli Devi Jain Award for Outstanding Woman Journalist 2017, the Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2014, the Lorenzo Natali Prize for Journalism 2011 from the European Commission, among others.
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