HarperCollins is proud to announce the forthcoming publication of The Day I Became a Runner: A Women’s History of India Through the Lens of Sport by Sohini Chattopadhyay

New Delhi [India], June 20: “I have had the great pleasure of having read, in manuscript form, Sohini Chattopadhyay’s wonderful book on female runners in India. The book starts from a striking premise–that, since running is a solitary activity conducted in the public sphere, women who take up this sport pose a more direct challenge to patriarchy than those who play other sports like badminton, cricket, tennis, etc.

This thesis is elaborated through a series of compelling case studies, spanning the entire history of independent India, and involving female athletes from a wide range of social and geographical backgrounds. Sohini is both a superb reporter and a beautiful writer. While the motif of struggle and sacrifice runs through the book, each story is moving in its own distinctive way.

This is one of the finest works of non-fiction I have read in years.” -Ramachandra Guha.
The Day I Became a Runner tells the story of India from the 1930s to the present moment through the lives of eight athletes and one running school.

The profiles include prominent Olympians such as PT Usha and Lalita Babar, as well as some unremembered figures such as Mary D’Souza who played hockey for India and ran track; and Ila Mitra, the woman who could have been the first Indian woman at the Olympics had the 1940 Games not been cancelled for World War II.

The Day I Became a Runner is a rigorously researched anatomy of contemporary Indian patriarchy as well as an account of the iron determination ambitious women athletes have to muster in the face of poverty, meagre training facilities and unforgiving social conventions. Running requires minimal equipment and competitive sports’ association with patriotism–winning glory for India in international fora–allows women the licence to practise and participate publicly and to put themselves out there in the world.

The appeal of running is that it is a basic, full-body, minimal-equipment sport. And it is public: running puts bodies on view. The returns from athletics are not big. Women athletes who run are thus visible questions: Why are they running? Why are they here?

“Sohini Chattopadhyay’s The Day I Became a Runner is a truly extraordinary book. At one level, it is a story of modern India – our history, our society, our culture – told through an unusual but immensely insightful lens: that of women runners who have faced all kinds of obstacles but have also found a liberating space for themselves, challenging patriarchal structures in the most significant ways in the process.

At another level, it is an unforgettable and powerfully told tale of a personal journey, written with stunning felicity. A book like this comes along once in a while, and we at HarperCollins India are hugely excited to be able to bring Sohini’s debut work to readers under our prestigious Fourth Estate imprint. For me personally, this is without a doubt one of the most important and memorable works of narrative non-fiction publishing this year, and I can’t wait for readers to get their hands on The Day I Became a Runner.” – Udayan Mitra, Executive Publisher.

“The Day I Became a Runner is a spectacular debut, not only because it is an extraordinary narrative but because it brings so many diverse strands deftly together – history, gender, sports, reportage, and personal experience. We publish this important work at a time when conversations around women and sport are becoming increasingly urgent and relevant.” – Swati Chopra, Associate Publisher.

“I have been working on this book for so long now that those friends who knew would look worried when I mentioned it. They themselves would never bring it up out of concern, bless them. So, the anticipation around this book, the praise, the warm home it has found in HarperCollins, all of it is tremendously gratifying to me. A New India Foundation fellowship and two other grants that support research and writing, have helped. I’m now waiting with bated breath to see how readers respond to The Day I Became a Runner.” -Sohini Chattopadhyay, Author.

Sohini Chattopadhyay is a National Award-winning film critic, and a journalist with several global and national honours including the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Award, 2015, and the Human Rights in Press Awards citation in Hong Kong. Her writing has been commissioned by The New York Times, Guardian, Lancet Psychiatry, South China Morning Post, Hindu, Mint, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, and leading publications across the world.

HarperCollins is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, having begun publishing in India in 1992. HarperCollins India publishes some of the finest writers from the Indian Subcontinent and around the world, publishing approximately 200 new books every year, with a print and digital catalogue of more than 2,000 titles across 10 imprints.

Its authors have won almost every major literary award including the Man Booker Prize, JCB Prize, DSC Prize, New India Foundation Award, Atta Galatta Prize, Shakti Bhatt Prize, Gourmand Cookbook Award, Publishing Next Award, Tata Literature Live! Award, Gaja Capital Business Book Prize, BICW Award, Sushila Devi Award, Sahitya Akademi Award and Crossword Book Award.

HarperCollins India also represents some of the finest publishers in the world including Harvard University Press, Gallup Press, Oneworld, Bonnier Zaffre, Usborne, Dover and Lonely Planet. HarperCollins India has won the Publisher of the Year Award four times at Tata Literature Live! in 2022, 2021, 2018 and 2016, and at Publishing Next in 2021 and 2015. HarperCollins India is a subsidiary of HarperCollins Publishers.

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