Contents: Preface. 1. Shashi Deshpande. 2. Mahasweta Devi. 3. Amita Kanekar. 4. Jhumpa Lahiri. 5. Urvashi Butalia. 6. Lalitha Lenin. 7. Krupabai Satthianadhan. 8. Mahadevi Varma. 9. Suniti Namjoshi. 10. Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. 11. Romila Thapar. 12. Sarojini Naidu. 13. Lalitambika Antarjanam. 14. Akka Mahadevi. 15. Arundhati Roy. 16. Seema Mustafa. 17. Mirabai. 18. Mrinal Pande. 19. Kamala Markandaya. 20. Shobha De. 21. Rimi B. Chatterjee. 22. Bani Basu. 23. Krishna Sobti. 24. Simran Sethi. 25. Habba Khatun. 26. Anjana Verma. 27. Anita Desai. 28. Baby Halder. 29. Sooni Taraporevala. 30. Bharati Mukherjee. 31. Shama Zaidi. 32. Barnita Bagchi. 33. Kamini Roy. 34. Bem Le Hunte. 35. Chandrakala A. Hate. 36. Eunice De Souza. 37. Cornelia Sorabji. 38. Sugathakumari. 39. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak. 40. Atukuri Molla. 41. T.V. Sunitha. 42. Ismat Chughtai. 43. Vijaya Mulay. 44. Sujata Bhatt. 45. Jasodhara Bagchi. 46. Kaveri Nambisan. 47. Anjana Appachana. 48. Kamla Bhatt. 49. Anita Nair. 50. Kiran Desai. 51. Meena Alexander. 52. Sonia Faleiro. 53. Thrity Umrigar. 54. Krishna Hutheesing. 55. Mallika Sengupta. 56. Nabaneeta Dev Sen. 57. Maria Aurora Couto. 58. Nayantara Sahgal. 59. Parul Sheth. 60. Nirupama Dutt. 61. Shanta Shelke. 62. Pratibha Ray. 63. Rashid Jahan. 64. Balamani Amma. 65. Sudha Murthy. 66. Sister Nivedita. 67. Leela Devi. 68. Tanika Sarkar. 69. Sujata Madhok. 70. Manjula Padmanabhan. 71. Sharanya Manivannan. 72. Fanny Parkes. 73. Amrita Cheema. 74. Sivasankari. Index.

"Women in India occupy a significant place since yore days. Though in medieval period and later they suffered a lot on various counts--socio-political, religious etc. In the field of wit and wisdom and literary activities women had made great debut.

This book recounts the major Indian women writers from the past to the present. With a brief biographical sketch their major literary achievements are presented in a coherent way. Critique of their art and style is also given wherever possible." (jacket)