21st Century Telugu Feminisms versus Neo-Colonial Capitalist Globalisation

Rositta Joseph Valiyamattam   
Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, U.K.

^{Rupkatha Journal, Vol. 18, Issue 2, 2026. https://doi.org/10.21659/rupkatha.v18n2.16
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Abstract

Inherently anti-colonial Indian feminist movements were hijacked by neo-colonial capitalist globalisation during the 1990s and later. Ironically, the same circumstances birthed a generation of Telugu feminist writers in southern India, who motivated and reflected the transformation of women from victims to anti-imperialist changemakers. Accordingly, this study employs feminist postcolonial theory to critique path-breaking translated short stories from twenty-nine Telugu women writers in the anthology ‘Beyond the Backyard’ (2019). These stories capture the clash of neo-colonial globalisation-induced socio-political and economic degeneration with the anti-imperialist feminist ideals of liberty, equality and sustainable development, in 21st century India. The study examines how such regional feminist projects play a crucial role in challenging neo-colonialist hierarchies of language, gender, knowledge and power. Regional feminist literature emerges as a kind of decolonial praxis, a political and epistemic act resisting neo-colonial domination disguised as globalisation. By connecting local feminisms with transnational feminist networks, it offers crucial visibility to regional feminist movements that strike at the roots of neo-colonialism. Regional feminisms thus serve as a subaltern archive, not only foregrounding marginalised feminist voices but also fostering crucial anti-colonial, transnational feminist solidarities.

Keywords: Feminism, neo-colonial globalisation, local feminisms, transnational feminisms, decoloniality, anti-colonialism, subaltern resistance, anti-imperialism, 21^st century Telugu feminism, 21^st century Telugu women story writers, feminism in 21^st century India