Towards liberation: uncovering the principles of feminist mediation in Mukti magazine

This paper examines Mukti, a hitherto underappreciated feminist magazine that sought to engage, politicize, and aid organization amongst South Asian women in Britain between 1983 and 1987. Looking at the magazine as an archive of how these women mediated their political demands, activism and understanding of relevant issues to audiences within and outside their communities, it attempts to recover the principles of mediation employed therein and identifies the following as central to and consistent throughout its seven-issue print run: (1) a focus on strengthening communal knowledge production and ties between ‘Asian’ women; (2) prioritizing polyphony and reflexivity so as to enter in dialogue with other ‘black’ feminists in Britain; and (3) participating in a transnational feminist network. Through these, it presents a counters the idea of the magazine as a failed venture and presents a case for re-evaluating the standards according to which the success and effectiveness of print cultures of marginalized communities are measured.