This post was originally published as a press release on 28 October 2021.

28 October 2021 – To close a year marked by both shocking racist incidents and community resilience in the face of the pandemic, gender-equality group AWARE today launched a Kickstarter campaign for a new anthology of stories at the intersection of gender and the Indian experience in Singapore.

Titled Growing Up Indian, this book will be edited by AWARE’s Shailey Hingorani and A. Preethi Devi, and published in Q3 2022 by Ethos Books, who also published AWARE’s 2018 collection Growing Up Perempuan (focusing on the Muslim women experience). With the campaign, AWARE hopes to raise $20,000 to fund the production of the book for a 500-copy initial print run. The campaign will run for two months, ending on 27 December 2021; as per Kickstarter’s all-or-nothing funding model, the full goal will need to be reached for donations to be processed.

The anthology, consisting 30 personal essays and poems curated by AWARE from a pool of submissions from the public, will also feature original writing from an array of familiar names: Balli Kaur Jaswal, Akshita Nanda, Sharul Channa, Anita Kapoor, Devika Panicker, Grace Kalaiselvi, as well as former AWARE president Constance Singam. The (mostly female) contributors will celebrate and dissect the Indian experience, touching on as diverse and complex themes as language, immigration, belonging and otherness, stereotypes and taboos, myths, cultural rituals, pop culture, celebrations and festivals. 

“Growing Up Indian is a perfect embodiment of AWARE’s intersectional feminist approach,” said Shailey Hingorani, AWARE’s Head of Research and Advocacy. “The rise in racist and xenophobic behaviour that occurred this year alongside the spread of the Delta variant distressed us deeply. As such, we wanted to create a platform that foregrounds the lived experiences of Indian women, who are marginalised doubly in Singapore for their gender and their race. At the same time, we hope to remind readers of the joys of ‘growing up Indian’—which is an experience not solely of oppression, but of joy and camaraderie.”

“There are many untold stories about the challenges and joys of being Indian in Singapore,” said author Balli Kaur Jaswal (Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows). “Growing Up Indian will amplify the voices of emerging writers and explore a range of subjects that speak to our multifaceted experiences and identities.”

“To be ‘Indian’ in Singapore is to have an identity outlined by state and social norms,” said author Akshita Nanda (Beauty Queens of Bishan), “but our personal identities can’t be that easily summarised. We have so many tales to share: stories of heartbreak, humour, resilience and breaking boundaries.”

“Growing up as a brown woman in Singapore, I constantly felt an unspoken pressure to be apologetic for the space I took up,” said actress and model Devika Panicker. “It is about time we acknowledge the experiences of the countless Indian powerhouses in Singapore, and celebrate taking up space in a society that constantly tries to dim our light.”

With donation tiers ranging from $20 to $200, Kickstarter backers will receive at least one copy of Growing Up Indian before it goes on sale. Other perks include being listed on a special acknowledgements section of AWARE’s website, and invited to the book’s launch party in 2022.

AWARE is in the process of collecting essays and poems for the collection, with submissions closing on 14 December 2021. To assist aspiring contributors, AWARE is also conducting a free ideation workshop on 13 November 2021, led by Balli Kaur Jaswal, who will guide participants on refining their essay pitches before submission.

Beyond the anthology collection, the Growing Up Indian project will include an interactive website, a new play by Sharul Channa and a workshop series on interviewing and documentary, creative writing and cross-cultural understanding.

“Deepavali is traditionally a time of reminiscence and reunion,” said AWARE’s Ms. Hingorani. “It’s an occasion to reflect on our identities, histories and heritage—the differences that make us unique and the common bonds that unite us. We hope that whether you are a donor, contributor or reader, Growing Up Indian will be a catalyst for that.”