Why there's outrage over Priyanka Chopra delivering Penguin's annual lecture
Penguin Random House India recently announced that actor Priyanka Chopra would be delivering their annual lecture, this time about “Breaking the Glass Ceiling – Chasing a Dream” on December 26 in New Delhi. In a release, Penguin stated: "Priyanka Chopra is an icon for today's young Indians who identify with her drive, passion, intelligence and charisma. She has been a social media trendsetter and has a massive fan base across the globe. Much loved and admired as an artist by people in India and around the world, she is also recognised as a global Indian - a woman who has broken the glass ceiling to reach the highest echelons of international stardom - and for her philanthropic work as UNICEF’s global goodwill ambassador.”
This has not gone down well in the literary circuit.
There is no doubt that Priyanka Chopra is accomplished. Her fame transcends borders and her films speak in great detail about her acumen as an actor. But is Chopra the right choice?
The Penguin Annual Lecture has unfortunately been, for the lack of a better phrase, a boy’s club. Despite the fact that this prestigious event has been graced with names as big as the Dalai Lama, APJ Abdul Kalam, Amartya Sen, Thomas Friedman, Amitabh Bachchan, Ramachandra Guha, Dan Brown, Jeff Kinney, Ruskin Bond and others, but shockingly have not included a single woman up until now.
So, for Priyanka Chopra to address people, especially on a topic like “breaking the glass ceiling” – an unacknowledged barrier to advancement in a profession, especially affecting women and members of minorities – is most certainly a big deal, but could the publishers not find anyone in the field of literature to represent women?
Or was this just a PR stunt by Penguin Random House India?
In an editorial in Scroll, author Krishna Shastri Devulapalli asks: “If breaking the glass ceiling was the theme of their annual lecture, couldn’t Penguin Random House find one woman - among the various hardworking writers, editors, publishers, poets, journalists, booksellers, literary agents, PR personnel - from the publishing and literary field who fit the bill?” He further points out that the publishing house’s own roster comprises names as prestigious as Kiran Desai, Jhumpa Lahiri, Tahmima Anam, and Shobhaa Dé.
Zubaan Books, an independent feminist publishing house that publishes fiction, non fiction, academic, young adult and children's books, in a Twitter thread elaborated with more names of authors, journalists and editors from varied backgrounds who would have made more sense as speakers.
If Penguin India needs ideas for #womeninpublishing to spearhead their next annual lecture, we can definitely help out there.
— Zubaan Books (@ZubaanBooks) December 26, 2017
And on the publishing side, there's V Karthika of @WestlandBooks, Sunandini Banerjee of @seagullbooks, Ruby Hembrom of @adivaani, V Geetha of @TaraBooks.
— Zubaan Books (@ZubaanBooks) December 26, 2017
Looking for journalists? How about Nisha Susan of @TheLadiesFinger, who have changed what digital news looks like for women in India? And in the same vein, Japleen Pasricha of @FeminismInIndia?
— Zubaan Books (@ZubaanBooks) December 26, 2017
Barkha Dutt this year started her own online news portal, @ThePrintIndia. Annie Zaidi, last year, compiled a book on 2000 years of Indian women's writing(s). Arshia Sattar, poet, critic, filmmaker, has been influencing how we read poetry since she began to write.
— Zubaan Books (@ZubaanBooks) December 26, 2017
And speaking a little closer to home: Easterine Kire, of Nagaland, was awarded the Tata Lit Live prize for Fiction this year and the Hindu Prize for Fiction the year before that. TWO awards in two years, for fiction. @speakingtiger14
— Zubaan Books (@ZubaanBooks) December 26, 2017
Also on the Penguin(-Zubaan) roster is Nivedita Menon — but why push women's voices when they're critical of 'India' when you could feature Ramachandra Guha instead?
— Zubaan Books (@ZubaanBooks) December 26, 2017
Should we talk about other women academics, historians? Uma Chakravarti, Kumkum Sangari, Kamla Bhasin, Sunita Narain, Githa Hariharan, Urmila Pawar. Each of these women, we think, have written more books than Priyanka Chopra.
— Zubaan Books (@ZubaanBooks) December 26, 2017
We're through with our itinerant list for now, but there are so many worthy names we've missed: women thinkers, activists, writers + critics, editors and publicists, who would've made hella more interesting speakers than Piggy Chops. Come on, PRH India. You've got to do better.
— Zubaan Books (@ZubaanBooks) December 26, 2017
Author Advaita Kala too noted that while Chopra is a modern success story for women in her own right, she hardly qualifies as a breaker of ceilings in the world of books, adding that Penguin inviting her may have something to do with the “Bollywood glam” and PR boost she will bring to the event. “Books and publishers need to be in the news, as media and mind space continually shrinks for them, despite the innumerable lit fests,” she wrote.
The fault of course does not lie not with Priyanka Chopra, but with our need to look beyond obvious role models.