Shailaja Paik, a trailblazing Dalit historian hailing from Pune’s Yerwada slum, has been awarded the 2024 MacArthur Fellowship, often referred to as the “genius grant,” in recognition of her pioneering research on caste, gender, and sexuality.
Paik’s journey began in a humble tin shack, where she grew up alongside her parents and three sisters. Her family’s migration from a village in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar district in 1990 exposed them to the harsh realities of caste discrimination, as Dalits were forced to maintain a distance from public water sources to avoid contact with upper-caste utensils. A poignant memory from her childhood recounts a visit to an upper-caste household, where she and her grandmother were relegated to sitting on the floor with designated teacups, a stark reminder of their marginalized status.
Now a professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, Paik was named one of the 22 MacArthur fellows for 2024 on Tuesday. “I was ecstatic when I received the news,” she shared on the university’s website. The MacArthur Fellowship provides recipients with a no-strings-attached grant of $800,000, distributed over five years, and is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious honors in academia.
Paik’s groundbreaking work explores the intersections of caste, gender, and sexuality through the experiences of Dalit women, challenging entrenched inequalities and offering new perspectives on universal humanity and emancipation. “By studying the inequalities and dehumanization of people, we can provide new ways to think about universal humanity and universal emancipation,” she explained during the fellowship announcement.
The news has brought immense joy to Paik’s family in Pune. “I never dreamt my daughter would achieve such heights. Her hard work and determination have led her to this success,” expressed her mother, Sarita Paik.
After earning her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Pune in 1994 and 1996, respectively, and a PhD from the University of Warwick in 2007, Paik served as a visiting assistant professor at Union College and Yale University before joining the University of Cincinnati in 2010, where she currently holds the Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Research Professorship.
Despite the abolition of caste discrimination in India, Paik, now 50, highlights the persistent reality of caste biases woven into the social, economic, and political fabric of everyday life. Her first book, Dalit Women’s Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination (2014), documented the struggles of Dalit women in Maharashtra. Her second work, The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India, focused on the lives of Maharashtra’s Tamasha artists, many of whom are Dalit women.
To capture the narratives of the marginalized, Paik developed her own method of research, creating an archive of oral histories that provided a platform for Dalits to share their experiences and ideas. “To write and understand the stories of the marginalized, you need a different method. Their stories are not archived or documented,” she noted.
Since the fellowship’s inception in 1981, only 1,131 individuals have received the MacArthur grant. In interviews, Paik frequently credits her achievements to her parents, Sarita and Devram, who raised their daughters in the challenging environment of Siddharth Nagar in Yerawada, where they lived in a rented tin shanty.
Devram had envisioned a bright future for all his daughters, but his passing in 1996 forced Paik to abandon her initial dream of becoming a bureaucrat. Despite clearing the preliminary and mains exams for the UPSC, she felt compelled to support her family instead.
The eldest of three sisters, Paik began her career as a lecturer at Kirti College in Mumbai. “She was always clever, scoring 98% in her SSC from Roshni School. This was the first time our school made it into the news,” her mother recalled. Rohini, her sister, works as a senior officer in the public works department, while another sister, Kirti, practices medicine in London.
Friends and neighbors attest to the support Paik received from her family during their challenging early years. “Her mother stood as a pillar of support for all her daughters,” said Avinash Salve, a family friend.
Writer and theatre director Bhushan Korgaonkar, featured in Paik’s second book, praised her unique approach to research. “She believed in meeting people to understand issues rather than relying solely on books. She immersed herself in the tamasha plays, observing and interviewing the artists to gather authentic narratives,” he remarked.
Shailaja Paik’s recognition as a MacArthur Fellow stands as a testament to her dedication to illuminating the struggles and triumphs of marginalized communities, paving the way for greater understanding and change in society.
