Wheelchair tread marks in the history of Disability Studies: Remembering Prof. Anita Ghai By Dr Ritika Gulyani

To cite this work: Gulyani, Ritika (2025). Wheelchair tread marks in the history of Disability Studies: Remembering Prof. Anita Ghai. Disability Dialogues. Sheffield: iHuman, University of Sheffield. 

Prof. Anita Ghai was a force personified who was a very rare mix of both academician and activist. People usually fall into an either/or category or else are in liminal stages at both fronts. But Prof. Ghai had her feet firmly planted in both. Or rather the wheels of her wheelchair.

Her foray into the field of disability studies discourse was not straightforward. From a very young age, she identified as a person with polio. A highly stigmatised identity in those times. And her contracting it was also ironical as the cure for polio reached India just a mere year after she contracted it. However, with the support of her family, the privileges afforded to her vis a vis her class background and overcoming barriers (physical as well as attitudinal) she completed her education in Psychology and would have probably stayed on in that field lest certain political, economic and social conditions did not undergo a change.

The momentum around the Disability Rights Movement, the passing of the Persons with Disabilities Act 1995, the absence of voices of women in these processes, and her own identity as a woman with disability at stake, the lack of discourse about the understanding of disability in the Global South, all pushed her to take a plunge into Disability studies at both fronts. She wrote about the lived realities of individuals in India, the intersections of caste, class, gender, religion, which was not how the Western world perceived it. She also actively advocated for change in the laws and policies of the country. She was present at the formulation stage as well as the execution stage.

My introduction to Prof. Ghai was in the form of a renowned scholar whose name cropped up the most when I would be looking for literature on disability studies in India, a topic I was looking to explore myself about a decade ago. Being an able-bodied scholar myself, I would often wonder if I was 'allowed' to pursue this field of work, whether it was ethically correct. But her writings and then personal conversations with her made me realise that my fears were unfounded.

As I immersed myself into my study, I started encountering her frequently, through her writings, at various conferences, and at the 'Critical Disability Studies in India' reading group. Time passed by, and about 7-8 years after our first introduction, I had finished my PhD. At around the same time she had managed to establish a Disability Studies Program at Ambedkar University Delhi. She invited me to join the program as an Adjunct Faculty for a period of one year.

This was just in the aftermath of the COVID in 2022 where classes were still hybrid and in person meetings infrequent. However, she made it a point to come regularly and have discussions with me regarding the teaching, the students’ performance, the running of the program, the syllabus, the status of Disability Studies in India, her own academic responsibilities and her health conditions post the pandemic. These regular interactions made me see the person behind the pen and the voice, the individual behind the academician and the activist, who worked so hard because it meant things would change for her and for millions of others who would come after. It started as a personal
struggle and continued because she knew she had the position and the voice to be heard.

Prof. Ghai left a lasting impact on all of us who came into contact with her, those who met her in person as well as those who met her via the written word, and that is how she continues to live on, in spirit, through us all!