By Sandra Ratnasingham, Franca Iacovetta, and Kaitlin Sonneveld

The Rise Up! Feminist Digital Archive is pleased to announce new teaching materials inspired by Diva, a journal of South Asian feminism.

Suman Kumar, a Diva cofounder who served on its editorial committee and wrote for the journal, has noted that founding Diva was “in itself a highly political act.” A quarterly journal published in Toronto from 1988 to 1996, Diva challenged mainstream feminist claims to inclusivity, fostered feminist dialogue on a global scale, and participated in an international South Asian feminist movement spanning South Asia and the wider diaspora.  

Founded by Toronto-based feminists, Diva’s contributions to the national and international debates of its time are historically important and still resonate today. As we witness a fierce backlash to feminist and anti-racist activism and the horrific trampling of people’s human rights, a critical engagement with Diva is highly relevant to today’s classrooms in women’s, feminist, sexuality, gender, migration, diaspora, social movement, and historical studies. A collaborative project of Rise Up’s Educational Resources and Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion working groups, the resource aims to help instructors teach the rich, wide-ranging, and difficult material published in Diva with a sensitivity towards their students’ well-being.

A conversation about Diva

We greatly appreciate Suman Kumar’s support of this educational project. During a Zoom conversation with Suman, we discussed her involvement with Diva and our experience working with Diva to develop teaching materials on South Asian feminism.

Suman became an activist at a young age and her role in co-founding Diva reflected her commitment to a wide range of political, labour, and social justice causes, including anti-racist and anti-apartheid work. “I think being South Indian,” she recalled, “I was not part of any mainstream thing. A lot of women of colour were grounded in more than one movement. It wasn’t just about the women’s movement. It was about Third World politics, racism. I was involved in the anti-apartheid, the union, and anti-streaming movement.”

Regarding Diva, Suman noted the challenges posed by scarce resources but also the commitment of collective members, who used their skills and networks to keep the journal going. “Diva was a volunteer job with no funding” and “we didn’t have a huge subscription base,” she said, but “our magazine was in all the major bookstores downtown” because of a member’s connections with a “really cool distributor” who got Diva into those stores. “Can you imagine,” she added, “it would never happen today.” She recalled that their very small group was “not taken seriously at the beginning,” but that “we kept finding different, interesting things to write about,” and that attracted more attention. 

Working with Diva

As Rise Up members working with Diva, we noted being impressed by the range of subjects and transnational conversations, but also sometimes feeling challenged by the difficult material. Suman praised the deep commitment of front-line activists whose contributions to Diva covered many critical issues, including wife assault, sexual violence, mental health, and racism.

Diva amplified the voices of South Asian feminist writers in “western circles” because editors could translate their “really powerful fiction” into English. Including the work of famous women writers in South Asia, noted Suman, was hugely significant. The journal devoted space to the work of gifted local writers whose poetry and short stories also inform the teaching materials. Long-time editor Fauzia Rafiq’s own powerful writing appears in Diva as well.  

When Suman asked how we see Diva fitting into today’s curriculum, we noted the value of intergenerational dialogue and a broad understanding of activism. We also said “courage!”

Diva, we said, documents the courage of committed feminists who, despite scarce resources and “fringe” status, spoke truth to power, and today’s students should know that. Suman replied that “I’m really proud of the fact that we did this work and that I contributed in this way.”  

Teaching Materials

This educational resource draws on articles, reports, literature, court cases, and testimonials published in Diva, and additional sources such as documentaries, to explore the concerns and actions of South Asian feminists who, for example, challenged taboos against dating among young women and discussing intimate partner violence in the immigrant communities as well as lobbying for, publicizing, and delivering social services to immigrant women.

The teaching materials are designed with both secondary and post-secondary learners in mind and instructors can adjust requirements accordingly. The historical materials are organized around four major themes: work; sexuality and sexual health; sexual violence; and activism. An activist component is built into each thematic cluster. Students will learn to interpret historical items related to their theme, to comprehend specific stories or campaigns, and to consider how they are part of a broader history of and struggle against patriarchy and other oppressive systems of power. There are two short assignments and a final project (e.g., podcast, wikipedia entry, interview, mural design, walking tour).

For more educational resources, visit Rise Up’s Teaching and Resources sections on our website where you will find assignments, lesson plans, contemporary films about feminist activism, and other online materials.