Interview with Siva Parvati Nimmagadda – Life in India through the 1980s and 1990s as a Seamstress and Teacher, History 150 Spring 2023, Conducted by Yasasvi Paleti, March 17, 2023. 

Overview:

The 1980s and 1990s in India were a time when many women started entering higher education and the workforce. In this interview  Siva Parvati Nimmagadda, my grandmother, shared both personal and career moments of her life. This interview connects these moments with social change and historical context. My grandmother talks about her passion for sewing and its presence in her life as well as what it was like to go to college and finding a job as a teacher. Some of the aspects of social change that are discussed include gender, education, class, and economic security. More specifically, she talks about how she started a small sewing business and what it was like to raise a family and take care of the household while running her business. She also talks about what it was like to go to college with 3 children and becoming a high school Telugu language teacher. There are many complexities and layers behind government job reservations in India, and she discusses how this affected her ability to get a public sector job. Furthermore, she gave her own outlook on life, which has left a very meaningful impact on me, and I hope that other listeners take away something meaningful to them from my grandmother’s story. 

Biography:

I conducted this interview with my grandmother, my mom’s mother. Her name is Siva Parvati Nimmagadda. She was officially born on June 1st, 1962, but her actual birthday is unknown. Her and my entire family is from the state of Andhra Pradesh in the southern part of India. More specifically, her and my grandfather are from a village in Andhra Pradesh called Panidam. Currently, she lives with my uncle, her youngest son, in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India. She has never lived anywhere else besides Andhra Pradesh and places that are now in present day Telangana during her life. The language spoken there and by my family is Telugu. I will be conducting the interview in our native language, since my grandmother would feel more comfortable doing the interview in Telugu. She studied up until 10th grade and graduated high school when she finished. In India, 11th and 12th grade are part of college/career curriculum. Everyone takes similar or common classes and graduates from high school/grade school when they complete 10th grade. After that, she got married to my grandfather when she was 18 years old and had my mother when she was 19 in 1980. 

My grandparents then settled in the city of Nizamabad, which is in present day Telangana state, which was part of Andhra Pradesh until 2014 when Andhra Pradesh was partitioned. The state of Telangana is another Telugu speaking state. After settling in a one bedroom house made of cement, with a metal tiled roof, my grandmother decided to start a small sewing business from their home. My mother’s younger brothers were born in 1983 and 1985. In 1988, my grandmother went to college to become a teacher. She completed her degree in Bachelors in Education in 1991 in which she specialized in Regional Languages: Telugu, our native language as well as Public Administration and Sociology. After she completed her bachelors, she went on to complete Telugu Pandit Training (TPT) to become a Telugu school teacher in 1992. I chose to do the interview with my grandmother because she is a hardworking person and a huge role model in my family. She is someone who I look up to a lot and she has done so many cool things throughout her life. The general themes that will be focused on, are the economic and cultural impacts of sewing and the history of sewing in India and women in higher education in India. 

Research: 

Family Structures

In India and in most of South Asia, many, like my grandmother, grew up in joint families. A joint family refers to a family where all living generations of the family live in one household together. They are most commonly matrilineal, when the family traces lineage through the female or mother’s side or patrilineal, when the family traces lineage through the male or father’s side. Most people lived in joint families for almost all of the 20th century, to mainly ensure financial stability, especially land-owning families. The types of joint families that are most prominent vary from region to region. In most parts of South India, where my grandmother is from, matrilineal families were very common. My grandmother was primarily raised in a matrilineal joint family, where she was completely surrounded by members of her mother’s side of the family. Because they were a family of farmers, it was important for them to have a large close knit support system to maintain their land and ensure financial stability for all generations, since that was their main source of income. It was also common at the time to have arranged marriages between cousins and other relatives in families to keep land, properties, and wealth within the family. Today, while many have split away from joint families due to industrialization and urbanization, joint families are still largely prevalent in Indian societies. 

Sewing: A Historical and the Economic Background

Sewing is a huge part of my grandmother’s story and India’s culture. One of the most prolific instances of this was Gandhi’s emphasis on non-Western sewing practices and making clothes at home in his protests against British rule in India. My grandmother was not born yet to have witnessed these movements, but her reason for learning how to sew and starting a sewing business, reminds me of Gandhi’s protests. As she says in the interview, my grandmother learned to sew as a way to make and repair clothes herself instead of going to a tailor in order to save time and money. Gandhi, similarly, encouraged Indians to make their own clothes rather than buying British/European made clothes and heavily taxed Indian cloth as a way to oppose the British without being financially compromised. 

The sewing machine was introduced to India by the British during the early 20th century to support the British and Western European economy and like many things that the British brought into India, it has stayed and became integrated into the sewing culture of India. Because of the abundance of cheap labor, British and European companies sold sewing machines to memsahibs, someone, usually male, who oversaw a group of tailors, to make cloth, which would then be sold with heavy taxes that were enforced by the British. Although my grandmother grew up and lived in an independent India, the effects of colonialism are deeply integrated into Indian society in many aspects, the sewing machine for instance. 

Due to British colonialism, neoliberalism became the prominent economic system in India. Neoliberalism is the idea of a free market and lack of government regulations on businesses and the economy. This type of thinking came mostly from British imperialism in India for over a century. Although this is a broader economic theme in South India, my grandmother had a very small place in the economy of South India—Andhra Pradesh, more specifically, due to the fact that she used to run a small sewing business from her home. And connecting to my grandmother, she was able to start her business quickly and somewhat easily because of the lack of government regulations on businesses. There are not as many rules and regulations when it comes to businesses and the economy in India.

Higher Education

My grandmother started her college education in 1988 in Andhra Pradesh at a time when opportunities for women in higher education were rapidly growing and there was a growing emphasis on the importance of education, especially within Hindu communities, but it was still uncommon for most women to finish grade school or study past grade school in her generation. Overall, Hindu women from higher castes and social classes made up the majority of women in higher education in the late 1980s. Also, in 1988-1989 there was a rapid increase in established universities and colleges and of the 6912 colleges in India, about 825 were women’s colleges. This allowed more opportunities for women in higher education and there was a dramatic increase of women in education from 1950 to 1989. Popular areas of studies for women include arts and sciences and medical and teaching training courses. Medicine and teaching, especially, are female dominated areas of studies in India. There are also major regional differences in the numbers of women in higher education in each state. The states with the lowest female literacy rate from 1988-1989 include Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, and Andhra Pradesh. 

Reservations

I would like to preface that this topic has many layers and complexities and will not be able to explain it to its full capacity. This is a general summary of Reservations in India to gain a basic understanding. Understanding the history of reservations is important to my grandmother’s story because it directly affected her chances of getting a teaching position at a government school after finishing her college education and training. 

Reservations are a system of affirmative action where positions within higher education, central and state government jobs, and politics that are reserved for people that are from traditionally underprivileged castes and classes, which are categorized as Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), and Other Backwards Classes (OBCs). SCs are groups of people that come from castes that are traditionally at the very bottom of the caste pyramid, mainly including the Dalits (untouchables), while STs are groups of people considered to be withdrawn from “modern society”. This system was first incorporated into the central government of India through the Poona Pact in 1930, which was brought forth by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar and Mahatma Gandhi. It provided depressed classes an opportunity to be represented in the Legislature of the British India Government before independence. 

In post-independence India, the reservations were expanded to positions in central and state government civil services jobs and seats in higher education. The implementation of reservations was proposed in 1980, but was not put into action until 1992 during the supreme court ruling of Indra Sawhney v. Union of India. The ruling stated that the central government and state governments need to have a “permanent body” for the OBC lists. These lists vary from state to state since the census is done at the state level. Overall, about 23% of central government civil services jobs would be reserved for SCs and STs and an additional 27% would be reserved for OBCs. This excludes the “creamy layer”, which are groups of people that are considered to be a part of SCs or STs who are considered financially stable by the government, which is determined by yearly family income. While there is a correlation between caste and class, they are separate entities. Caste is a social hierarchy and class is an economic hierarchy in society. The ruling also stated that reservations for OBCs should never “exceed 50% of the population” under any circumstances. The ruling came about the same year my grandmother finished her requirements to become a teacher. Because my grandmother was part of the Other Castes/Classes (OC) category, she is not able to apply to positions through the reservations. The chances of getting into a public sector job is very competitive and is largely a numbers game based on merit, caste, class, region, and gender, and also mostly on luck.

Transcript:

Yasasvi Paleti (YP) 

Ok, Hello, I’m Yasasvi Paleti and today I’ll be interviewing my grandmother, Siva Parvati Nimmagadda. And the interview will be conducted in Telugu, our native language, to make things easier. So we’ll get started right now. [in Telugu] Um, Ammamma [grandmother], how are you?

Siva Parvati Nimmagadda (SPN) 00:23 

I’m doing good, dear. How are you doing?

YP 00:27

I’m also doing good.

SPN 00:29

Ok, good.

YP 00:31

First off, what is your birthday?

SPN 00:36

1962, June 1st [official recorded date of birth, real birthday is unknown].

YP 00:48

Can you describe the environment in which you grew up in?

SPN 00:56

We lived as a joint family, meaning I grew up around most of my relatives like my aunts, uncles, and cousins. When my father passed away when I was 3, my mom took me to her [family/grandmother’s] village where we lived with my grandparents and great aunts and uncles as well as my uncle and his daughters plus my other cousins. I grew up surrounded by many family members.

YP 02:00

When you were little, how did you picture yourself to be as in the future?

SPN 02:06

In those days, we didn’t really think about what we wanted to do when we grew up, it wasn’t like that—we didn’t have that type of mindset. We did whatever our elders’ thought was best for us. We listened and followed what they told us to do. 

YP 02:23

When and how did you learn how to sew on a sewing machine?

SPN 02:33

I went to school in my grandmother’s village, until I graduated in 10th grade. At that time, my mom and the others worked in our fields/farms, they worked as farmers, and we had cows and buffalos that had to be taken care of. With my cousins, I would also help out on the farm and take care of our animals on Saturdays and Sundays, when I didn’t have school. I would also milk the cows. During the summer holidays, I would visit my aunts, uncles, and cousins that lived in other places, and you know, people would have their clothes repaired or get new clothes from tailors before visiting family. The tailor, however, never got our orders back to us on time, that happened a few times. So, I thought, why not learn to do it myself? It would save time from going back and forth to see if our orders were ready. The summer after 8th grade, I spent 2 months learning how to sew from an auntie. After that, I would experiment and through lots of trial and error, I improved a lot over time, while I was still in school. The school in my village was until 10th class and they [her family—elders] sent me to school until I finished 10th class.

YP 04:55

I know that after you finished 10th grade, you got married, can you tell me about that?

SPN 05:09

At that time, they would have girls married at 16, 17, 18 years old. I got married [arranged marriage] to your grandfather when I was 18 in ‘79[—’78, ‘79], one year after I finished 10th grade and I was pregnant with my eldest child, your mom, at 19. I had her in ‘80, I had my son in ‘83, and my other son in ‘85. Throughout this time, I still worked as a tailor and managed the household, while raising the kids. I was able to do all this because my husband also helped a lot [with household work and raising the kids].

YP 06:20

And, when and why did you start your sewing business?

SPN 06:28

By the time my youngest was around 2, 3 years old—when he was walking, I got very good at tailoring and I worked a lot for my small tailoring business. Up until this time I still lived within my joint family with my husband and kids. But then, my husband got a job in a town that was far from the village, so we had to leave our family and move. [This was the first time she lived away from her joint family]. When we moved to our new home, I started my small business and ran it from our home to earn some money to help with the living expenses, so I would sew a lot. Living costs were not too bad back then, but I sewed to get some income to help my family. 

YP 07:41

Can you tell what your orders were like?

SPN

What was that?

YP

Can you tell what your orders were like?

SPN 07:49

Orders…I would get so many orders, but I didn’t have time for all of them, since I ran the business by myself. I would only take however many I could do. [Most of the people that went to her were women that worked at a factory nearby, and requested blouse repairs for Saris.]

YP 08:04

Were there any hardships or great experiences in sewing that you want to share?

SPN 08:16

During holidays and big festivals, I would have a lot more orders than usual and I would stay up till midnight, sewing— And I was paid accordingly of course. It wasn’t too bad or difficult or anything, since it was only like that during big festivals, and I enjoyed it, but it was also a lot.

YP 08:53

Since you ran a small business, can you tell me about any government rules and regulations that you had to follow?

SPN 09:05

There isn’t anything like that here. Small businesses that ran from homes, like mine, didn’t have any rules or regulations or objections from the government.

YP 09:25

Inka [Also], can you tell me about your college experience?

SPN 09:32

First of all, I decided to go to college and study again because at my husband’s workplace (office), one of his coworkers suddenly died from a heart attack and his wife only studied up to 7th grade, but if she finished 10th grade or 12 grade, they were saying that she at least would have gotten some government job. My husband thought, since you never know when something like this can happen, he was like, “I need to make sure she is well educated” and he asked if I wanted to go to college and encouraged me to go. Since I finished 10th grade, but didn’t study 11th and 12th grade, I had to pass the entrance exam in order to get into a college. If you finished 10th grade, you don’t have to complete 11th and 12th in India to get into a college, as long as you score well on the entrance exam. So, I studied for it and I ended up passing with good marks and enrolled in the college and started my degree program. It was a program that allowed me to go to classes on Sundays and the campus was also very close to our home, which is why I joined that college. There were grounds (fields) [at the college], where my husband would take the kids to play on Sundays when I had classes. I studied for 3 years, and I really enjoyed this time. 

YP 11:39

Can you tell me the name of your college and when you joined?

SPN 11:55

My college is Gururaj Government Degree College. The subjects that I concentrated in, are mother language, Telugu [language specialty], public administration, and sociology—I did my degree [Bachelor of Education] on these three subjects. [In India, they do not have majors, they have concentrations that would allow them to go into certain fields and workplaces.] 

YP 12:30

What year did you start going to college?

SPN 12:35

I did my degree from 1988 to 1991. In ‘92, to get into teacher training— Telugu Pandit Training (TPT), I wrote an entrance test. And I got a seat in the Comprehensive College [formerly in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India—currently in Hyderabad, Telangana, India], it was ranked No. 1 in Andhra Pradesh and I did my TPT there. So, I did that in ‘92 and it was a 6 month course.

YP 13:29

Why did you want to become a teacher?

SPN 13:39

I was advised that going into teaching would be better for women, so that’s why I went into teacher training. Teachers play a key role in helping children become good citizens, so that’s why I did my training in teaching after I completed my degree.

YP 14:08

And, Can you tell me about your teaching experience, like what type of school and grades you taught?

SPN 14:25

Ok, In ‘92 I was about 30 years old and after that [TPT], there are government job postings every year. Between ‘92 and ‘98, there were very few government postings. In every district, there were only like 1 or 2 open spots. When I wrote the entrance tests for those postings, I didn’t get any of them because it was extremely competitive. But in ‘98, ‘99, lots of posts became available and many people got jobs—many of my friends got jobs, but I didn’t get any jobs because I was no longer eligible because I was 36 at that time. If you’re 36, you are know longer considered eligible to apply for a government job, that’s what the system here is like. After that, I joined a private corporate school. 

First, I taught 5th class, then I taught 6th and 7th class and I taught up to 8th class. So, for 7th class and 10th class, there are public exams, and they can only move onto the next class if they pass the exams, which is why they need to study and work very hard. They would send the exam papers to another center where they would be graded and that’s how they got the scores. There are 4 subjects taught in 7th class, so the 4 teachers that taught the different subjects would compete with one another. In my subject, my students got marks that no other class has ever gotten. They got 98 out of 100 marks. [It is very difficult to score very high on language exams in general in India.] This was the first time in the school’s history that they got marks that high in Telugu. Because of that, I was well praised and at the school function, the DSP [Deputy Superintendent of Police] gave me prize money on behalf of the school.

YP 17:21

Before you got the teaching job at the corporate school, you tried to get a job in a government school. Can you tell me about the reservations in place that you previously mentioned to me?

SPN 17:44

Ok ok ok. So I tried for a government job 2 times and that time there were only like 2 or 3 posts for every district/county and for those posts, there were reservations. Here, there are reservations are for spots in government jobs that are reserved for underprivileged people—there are forward caste and backward caste people and there are rules that certain amount of spots would be reserved for people that were considered to be part of backward castes. For my caste, there were very few vacancies at that time, so that’s another reason for why I didn’t get a government job. There were very few posts available and within that there were even fewer spots for my caste [OC (Other caste)]. After that I joined the corporate school.

YP 18:59

When and why did you retire from your teaching career?

SPN 19:11

So, I joined the school in ‘96 and I taught until 2010. I took one year off in between when my daughter had her first child [me] to help her. After 2010, your grandfather had to transfer to another town for his work, so we had to move. By then, we were able to resolve our financial problems and so I didn’t work anywhere after that, so I retired and focused on my family by looking after my kids and grandkids. 

YP 20:00

Can you tell me about what your life was like after you retired?

SPN 20:12

We [her and my grandfather] now live with my younger son and his wife, who are both doctors. We look after their kids, my grandkids when they are at work. And our health is fine. There isn’t anything specific that I’m doing. We’ve just been living happily. Sometimes, whenever we want to or need to, we visit other family members and go on trips. Especially when we are with all of our kids, we go on trips together. We enjoy spending time with our kids and grandkids. Life is very happy.

YP 21:25

How did you maintain your passion for sewing throughout your life?

SPN 21:38

Over time new styles emerge on the market and I liked trying to recreate those new models and trends. Since I started teaching, though, I ended up stopping my sewing business, but I still sewed at home for my family. And I still sew all the time now for my kids and grandkids. If there is a new trend or style that someone wants, I’m able to replicate it myself.  

YP 22:26

Ammamma, is there anything else you want to mention for the audience?

SPN 22:37

For the audience, I would say, whenever you are working on something, if you learn and concentrate on it and use it to help others, you will be happy and you will make others happy. After I learned tailoring, I also taught so many others how to tailor. And they say happily, “My teacher-gaaru [a title of respect, often used to refer to elders and mentors] taught me well”. I taught so many people before I started my degree and some of them have started much bigger businesses than mine and that makes me very happy and proud. If you focus on learning something and develop it, it can benefit anyone—that is my understanding. 

YP 23:44

Ok, so those are all of my questions. Ammamma, thank you so much for doing the interview with me.

SPN 23:55

Thank you, welcome. Ok, bye!

YP 24:03

Bye!

 

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