https://indianpedia.org/index.php?action=history&feed=atom&title=Ayesha_KidwaiAyesha Kidwai - Revision history2026-07-31T18:39:42ZRevision history for this page on the wikiMediaWiki 1.45.4https://indianpedia.org/index.php?title=Ayesha_Kidwai&diff=488521&oldid=prevRodEsters254334 at 17:09, 28 January 20262026-01-28T17:09:42Z<p></p>
<p><b>New page</b></p><div>{{Short description|Indian theoretical linguist}}<br />
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2018}}<br />
{{Use Indian English|date=December 2018}}<br />
{{Infobox person<br />
| name = Ayesha Kidwai<br />
| alma_mater = [[Jawaharlal Nehru University]]<br />
| occupation = [[Linguist]]<br />
| awards = [[Infosys Prize]]<br />
}}<br />
<br />
'''Ayesha Kidwai''' is an Indian [[Theoretical linguistics|theoretical linguist]]. She is a professor at the [[Jawaharlal Nehru University]] in [[New Delhi]],<ref>{{Cite web|date=2022-01-12|title=JNU's academic council to discuss common university admission test|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/delhi-news/jnus-academic-council-to-discuss-common-university-admission-test-101641927876808.html|access-date=2022-02-15|website=Hindustan Times|language=en}}</ref> and an awardee of the [[Infosys Prize]] for Humanities in 2013.<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=2013-11-14 |title=Five eminent scientists awarded Infosys prize |url=https://thepeninsulaqatar.com/article/14/11/2013/five-eminent-scientists-awarded-infosys-prize |access-date=2022-02-15 |website=thepeninsulaqatar.com |language=en}}</ref><br />
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==Biography==<br />
She is the grand-daughter of [[Anis Kidwai]]. Kidwai obtained a master's and doctoral degree in linguistics from the Jawaharlal Nehru University.<ref name="infosys">{{cite web|url=http://www.infosys-science-foundation.com/prize/laureates/2013/ayesha-kidwai.asp|title=Prof. Ayesha Kidwai|publisher=Infosys Prize|access-date=31 December 2017}}</ref><br />
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In 2023 Ayesha Kidwai was elected Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.<ref name="fba">{{cite web|url=https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/fellows/ayesha-kidwai-fba/|title=Professor Ayesha Kidwai FBA|publisher=British Academy|access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref><br />
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==Career==<br />
===Academic===<br />
Kidwai's theoretical linguistics work has applied [[Noam Chomsky]]'s notion of [[Universal grammar]] to South Asian languages.{{Citation needed|date=February 2022}} In particular, she studied the parameters that explain the syntactic properties of [[Meitei language|Meiteilon]], [[Santali language|Santali]], [[Bengali language|Bengali]] and [[Malayalam]]. She proposed a novel theory on free word order, exemplified by [[Scrambling (linguistics)|scrambled]] noun-phrases in Hindi-Urdu.<ref name=infosys/><br />
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Kidwai undertook several research projects in field linguistics. Between 1999 and 2001, she investigated the acquisition of the Hindi language among children, and she studied the Urdu's socio-cultural effects on other Indian languages.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.jnu.ac.in/sllcs/cl_project|title=Completed Projects|publisher=Centre for Linguistics, JNU|access-date=26 December 2017}}</ref><br />
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In 2008, Kidwai showed that because Sanskrit-speaking ruling classes captured only the public domain, this prestige language was unable to completely cripple less prestigious languages (Indo-Aryan, Dravidian and Austro-Asiatic) that pervaded the subcontinent. Still, the smaller the language, the likelier it was to be dismissed as undeveloped, resulting in its speakers choosing not to take up education in it, fearing that they would be disadvantaged.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Language Endangerment: The Fate of Indigenous Languages (A Theoretical Approach)|author=Meti Mallikarjun|year=2008|pages=46, 50|journal=Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences|url=https://www.inflibnet.ac.in/ojs/index.php/SHSS/article/viewFile/2930/2180|access-date=26 December 2017}}{{Dead link|date=October 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><br />
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Her grandmother, [[Anis Kidwai]]'s Urdu memoir ''Azadi ki chhaon mein'' (''In Freedom's Shade''), was translated by Kidwai into English in 2011. Anis's husband Shafi had been murdered in Mussoorie in 1947 following the [[Partition of India]], which prompted Anis to become a social activist. Her memoir documents the efforts of the citizenry to stop the cycle of murders and retributions, the activities of the Shanti Dal, an organisation that helped to protect victims of the violence, and the attempts to recover abducted women.<ref>{{cite news|title=Where violence is free|newspaper=DNA India|author=A Faizur Rahman|url=http://www.dnaindia.com/lifestyle/report-where-violence-is-free-1629728|date=25 December 2011|access-date=26 December 2017}}</ref> Kidwai continued the investigation of the fates of women abducted during the Partition, reporting in 2014 that nearly 80,000 women had been found in the massive recovery operations in the aftermath of the Partition.<ref>{{cite web|publisher=Countercurrents.org|url=http://www.countercurrents.org/kaul300714.htm|title=An Invitation To Remember: The Lightning Testimonies Comes To India|date=30 July 2014|author=Shivani Kaul|access-date=26 December 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.knma.in/node/358|title=A Lecture on Re-viewing Partition, Reclaiming Lost Ground : A Critical Recovery of the Recovery Operation|work=Kiran Nadar Museum of Art |date=4 December 2016 |access-date=26 December 2017}}</ref><br />
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===Activism ===<br />
In 1999, Kidwai set up a committee to help orient and sensitise against sexual harassment on the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University. It was responsible for crisis management as well as mediation, investigation, and redress in response to complaints of sexual harassment. The template was adopted by other universities across India.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/a-model-plan-for-campuses/article4302330.ece|title=A model plan for campuses|author=Smriti Kak Ramachandran|date=12 January 2013|access-date=26 December 2017}}</ref> In 2013, a survey she co-organised with Madhu Sahni revealed that more than half the women in JNU had suffered sexual harassment.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=DNA India|url=http://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-53-jnu-women-face-sexual-harassment-says-survey-1914238|author=Hakeem Irfan|title=53% JNU women face sexual harassment, says survey|date=6 November 2013|access-date=26 December 2017}}</ref><br />
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In 2016, Kidwai headed the Jawaharlal Nehru University Teachers' Association (JNUTA). When the student union president [[Kanhaiya Kumar]] was arrested on charges of sedition, she joined in the ensuing protests on behalf of the JNUTA.<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=Daily O|url=https://www.dailyo.in/politics/jnushutdown-delhi-police-shehla-rashid-nivedita-menon-ayesha-kidwai-kavita-krishnan-abvp-afzal-guru/story/1/9064.html|title=JNU Crackdown: 4 powerful voices you can't ignore|author=Ursila Ali|date=17 February 2016|access-date=26 December 2017}}</ref><br />
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==Selected works==<br />
===Articles and presentations===<br />
* {{cite journal|journal=Economic and Political Weekly|title=The Question of Language in Education|author=Ayesha Kidwai|volume=51|number=35|date=27 August 2016}}<br />
* {{cite speech |author=Ayesha Kidwai|title= Re-Viewing Partition, Re-Claiming Lost Ground: A Critical Recovery of the Recovery Operation|date=8 July 2014|location=New Delhi|publisher=[[Kiran Nadar Museum of Art]]|language=en}}<br />
* {{cite journal|journal=Linguistic Analysis|url=http://www.linguisticanalysis.com/volumes/40issue3-4/Introduction-To-Formal-Syntax,-Semantics,-And-Morphology-Of-South-Asian-Languages|volume=40|issue=3&4|title=Introduction To Formal Syntax, Semantics, And Morphology Of South Asian Languages|year=2014|author1=Emily Manetta|author2=Ayesha Kidwai|issn=0098-9053|access-date=26 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180105004835/http://www.linguisticanalysis.com/volumes/40issue3-4/Introduction-To-Formal-Syntax,-Semantics,-And-Morphology-Of-South-Asian-Languages|archive-date=5 January 2018|url-status=dead}}<br />
* {{cite encyclopedia|encyclopedia=Generation Palestine: Voices from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement|editor=Rich Wiles|title=India's Freedom Struggle and Today's BDS Movement|author1=Prabir Purukayathra|author2= Ayesha Kidwai|url=http://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/distributed/G/bo21634464.html|publisher=University of Chicago|date=March 2013|isbn= 9780745332444}}<br />
* {{cite journal|journal=Language and Language Teaching|volume=2|number=1|date=January 2013|author=Ayesha Kidwai|title=Chomsky's Innateness Hypothesis: Implications for Language Learning and Teaching|url=http://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/SitePages/pdf/January-issue-of-LLT.pdf|pages=57–61}}<br />
* {{cite encyclopedia|title=The cartography of phases: fact and inference in Meiteilon|encyclopedia=Edges, Heads, and Projections: interface properties|location=Amsterdam|publisher=John Benjamins|year=2010|editor1=A.M. Di Sciullo|editor2=V. Hill|author=Ayesha Kidwai}}<br />
*{{cite journal|title=Managing Multilingual India|author=Ayesha Kidwai|volume=XXIV|number=2|year=2008|journal=The Marxist|url=http://cpim.org/marxist/200802_marxist_multilingual%20india-ayesha%20kidwai.pdf}}<br />
* {{cite journal|title=Whose language is Urdu? |author1=Anvita Abbi |author-link=Anvita Abbi |author2=Imtiaz Hasnain|author3=Ayesha Kidwai|journal=Heidelberg Papers in South Asian and Comparative Politics|year=2004}}<br />
* {{cite encyclopedia|author=Ayesha Kidwai|doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-2719-2_9|chapter=The Topic Interpretation in Universal Grammar|editor1=V. Dayal|editor2=A. Mahajan A.|encyclopedia=Clause Structure in South Asian Languages|series=Studies in Natural Language and Linguistic Theory|year=2004|volume=61|pages=253–289|publisher=Springer|location= Dordrecht|isbn=978-1-4020-2717-8}}<br />
* {{citation |title=Unaccusatives, Expletives and the EPP- feature of υ|author=Ayesha Kidwai|year=2002|publisher=Delhi University}}<br />
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===Books===<br />
* {{cite book|author=Anis Kidwai|authorlink=Anis Kidwai|translator=Ayesha Kidwai|title=Dust of the Caravan|location=|publisher=Zubaan|isbn=9789385932892|year=2021}}<br />
* {{cite book|author=Anis Kidwai|translator=Ayesha Kidwai|title=In the Shadow of Freedom|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xv2xAAAACAAJ|date=1 July 2004|publisher=Zubaan|isbn=978-81-89013-07-3}}<br />
* {{cite book|editor3=Ayesha Kidwai|editor2=R.S. Gupta|editor1=Anvita Abbi|title=Linguistic Structure and Language Dynamic in South Asia : Papers from the Proceedings of SALA XVIII Roundtable|publisher=Motilal Banarsidas|year=2001}}<br />
* {{cite book|author=Ayesha Kidwai|title=Xp-Adjunction in Universal Grammar: Scrambling and Binding in Hindi-Urdu|year=2000|publisher=Oxford University|isbn= 9780198030393}}<br />
* {{cite thesis|title= Binding and Free Word Order Phenomenon in Hindi-Urdu|author=Ayesha Kidwai|year=1995|type=PhD|publisher=Jawaharlal Nehru University}}<br />
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== References ==<br />
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{{Reflist}}<br />
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== External links ==<br />
* [https://www.jnu.ac.in/content/ayesha Kidwai's webpage at JNU]<br />
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<!--- Categories ---><br />
[[Category:Academic staff of Jawaharlal Nehru University]]<br />
[[Category:Jawaharlal Nehru University alumni]]<br />
[[Category:Living people]]<br />
[[Category:Indian women linguists]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian linguists]]<br />
[[Category:21st-century Indian linguists]]<br />
[[Category:21st-century Indian women writers]]<br />
[[Category:21st-century Indian writers]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian women writers]]<br />
[[Category:Year of birth missing (living people)]]<br />
[[Category:20th-century Indian women]]</div>RodEsters254334