About us

Awaaz Collective is dedicated to translating, preserving, and amplifying voices from marginalized, oppressed, and historically silenced communities worldwide, spanning diverse languages, cultures, and literary genres. Our mission is anchored in the belief that translation is a transformative act of justice, cultural preservation, and empowerment, enabling critical ideas and narratives to cross linguistic and geographic boundaries.

Specifically, our mission encompasses:

Translating resistance literature across domains and languages: We work with texts that articulate feminist perspectives, minority experiences, grassroots activism, environmental and labor movements, freedom of speech, anti-corporate and anti-hegemonic narratives, and other expressions of dissent or marginality. This includes works originating from any language or region, ensuring that voices traditionally excluded from dominant knowledge systems are made accessible in English, Hindi, and Urdu.

Ensuring free and open access: All translations produced by Awaaz Collective are freely available online, creating a public repository of knowledge that promotes education, critical inquiry, social consciousness, and global solidarity without economic, linguistic, or cultural barriers.

Fostering global collaboration: We cultivate a network of translators, scholars, writers, and activists, encouraging dialogue, mentorship, and cross-cultural engagement. By working collectively, we amplify the reach and impact of marginalized voices while nurturing ethical, rigorous, and contextually sensitive translation practices.

Archiving and reclaiming narratives: Awaaz Collective actively documents and preserves texts that challenge dominant, hegemonic knowledge structures, ensuring that stories of resistance, resilience, and dissent are not lost, erased, or marginalized. Our work seeks to recover and circulate subaltern perspectives, contributing to a more inclusive, pluralistic, and historically informed understanding of the world.

Through this mission, Awaaz Collective envisions a living, global archive of resistance and empowerment, where translation becomes a tool for social justice, intellectual engagement, and intercultural understanding. By making the voices of the marginalized audible, legible, and widely accessible, we aim to transform translation into a practice of solidarity, bridging divides between communities, cultures, and languages, and fostering a shared commitment to justice, equity, and freedom of expression.

Awaaz Collective envisions a world in which language ceases to be a barrier to understanding, documenting, and amplifying struggles for justice, equity, and freedom. We imagine a global intellectual and cultural landscape where every act of resistance—whether a quiet personal defiance, a community-led protest, or a mass movement—is recognized, preserved, and shared across linguistic, cultural, and geographic boundaries.

Through the meticulous practice of translation, Awaaz Collective seeks to build a dynamic, living archive of dissent, one that encompasses voices from historically marginalized, oppressed, and silenced communities. This archive is not limited to Hindi, Urdu, and English; it is designed to incorporate texts from any language globally, ensuring that stories of resilience, courage, and defiance reach diverse audiences, fostering transnational solidarity and cross-cultural understanding.

Our vision extends beyond mere access to texts. By translating and disseminating resistance literature—encompassing feminist thought, minority and indigenous perspectives, grassroots activism, labor and environmental struggles, freedom of expression, and counter-hegemonic knowledge—we aim to empower readers, scholars, and activists to engage critically with complex social realities. We seek to nurture informed dialogue, encourage scholarly inquiry, and support creative and activist interventions that challenge structural inequalities and hegemonic power.

At its core, our vision is both ethical and transformative: translation becomes an act of justice, cultural preservation, and collective empowerment. Each text, each narrative, contributes to a shared repository of human resilience, enabling current and future generations to learn from acts of resistance, understand diverse perspectives, and participate in the ongoing struggle for equity and freedom.

By fostering a culture in which every voice matters, every story is preserved, and knowledge circulates freely, Awaaz Collective aspires to create a worldwide network of solidarity and intellectual engagement, where linguistic diversity is celebrated, marginalized perspectives are amplified, and the courage of the oppressed is documented as a permanent and accessible resource for scholarship, activism, and public consciousness.

In essence, our vision is to transform translation into a living, collective, and global act of remembrance, resistance, and empowerment, ensuring that no act of defiance or expression of resilience remains unheard or invisible.

Dr. Mohammad Tariq, Founder of Awaaz Collective, is an Assistant Professor of English at J.S. Hindu P.G. College, Amroha-244221, affiliated with G. J. University Moradabad, Uttar Pradesh-244001. With over 15 years of teaching and research experience, he specializes in English literature, literary theory, literary hermeneutics, and the philosophy of language.

Dr. Tariq is deeply involved in editorial and mentoring roles. He is Editor-in-Chief of The SPL Journal of Literary Hermeneutics and serves on multiple international editorial boards. He has authored over 15 books and 30 research papers, covering topics such as Indian Writing in English, gender and diaspora studies, narrative theory, and research ethics. His recent works include:

Diaspora as Cathartic Metaphor: A Hermeneutical Approach (2020)

Hermeneutics of Suspicion Framework for Literary Interpretation: Studies in Language, Metaphor, Time and Narrative (2022)

Victims of Forced Disappearance: Resisting Languages, Literatures and Cultures (2022)

Art, Theory, and Practice of 21st Century Short Stories in English: An Indian Perspective (2025)

He has also co-edited Cyberpunk in Indo-American Fiction (Bentham Science, expected January 2026). Dr. Tariq previously served as Assistant Professor in the Department of Languages, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, Integral University, Lucknow (July 2012 – February 2020). His teaching portfolio includes courses in Indian Writing in English, Gender and Diaspora Studies, Contemporary Literary Theories, Philosophy of Language, Literary Hermeneutics, and Research Methodology.

For more details, visit his University Profile, College Profile, and Personal Website.

Dr. Mohammad Ahmad has been a Junior Research Fellow (JRF) at the University of Lucknow and currently works as an Assistant Professor of English at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Postgraduate College, Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh. In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he is also the coordinator of the National Education Policy-2020 Committee and the editor of Sangam Magazine. His academic achievements are a testament to his hard work and dedication, having cleared numerous competitive exams, including the Uttarakhand-SET and the UPHESC exam for Assistant Professor. As a scholar and researcher, Dr Ahmad has co-authored a book titled Fragrantica Ultimatus: A Handbook for All Competitive Examinations of English Literature (2021). He has presented and published numerous papers in national and international seminars, conferences, and journals, demonstrating his commitment to advancing knowledge in his field. At present, he is Senior Editor of The SPL Journal of Literary Hermeneutics: A Biannual International Journal of Independent Critical Thinking. His areas of specialisation lie in contemporary American studies, cultural studies, and Indian writing in English. He teaches the history of English literature, British drama and fiction, American poetry, Indian writings in English, the English language, literary criticism, and new writings in English.

Awaaz Collective is committed to translating texts that resist, interrogate, and reimagine social, cultural, and political hierarchies, ensuring that voices historically silenced or marginalized are amplified and preserved. While our central work engages with Hindi, Urdu, and English, we embrace texts from any language globally, wherever narratives of resistance, oppression, and dissent are articulated. Our translation practice prioritizes fidelity to the original voice, nuance, and intent, while making these works accessible to readers in English, Hindi, and Urdu.

Our translation focus encompasses a broad spectrum of resistance literature, including but not limited to:

Minority and Marginalized Narratives: Essays, stories, memoirs, oral histories, and creative works from communities marginalized by caste, class, ethnicity, religion, language, or other axes of social inequality. These texts reveal lived experiences, cultural memory, and forms of everyday resistance that are frequently ignored or suppressed.

Feminist Literature: Works advocating gender justice, intersectional equity, and the experiences of women and gender-diverse communities, highlighting voices often excluded from mainstream literary or academic discourse.

Grassroots and Activist Movements: Texts documenting labor struggles, environmental and climate activism, student and youth mobilizations, indigenous and tribal resistance, and other local or global initiatives challenging social and political injustices.

Freedom of Expression and Civil Liberties: Manifestos, essays, speeches, and literary works defending freedom of speech, artistic expression, press freedom, and the right to dissent in the face of censorship, political authoritarianism, or societal pressure.

Counter-Hegemonic Knowledge: Writings that challenge corporate, state, or institutional monopolies over information, education, and culture, reclaiming alternative epistemologies, subaltern knowledge systems, and historically suppressed narratives.

We translate across diverse genres, including fiction, poetry, essays, oral histories, speeches, manifestos, and hybrid literary forms, applying a meticulous, context-sensitive methodology that preserves the integrity of the original text while rendering it meaningful and resonant for readers across linguistic and cultural contexts.

Through this inclusive, global, and interdisciplinary approach, Awaaz Collective seeks to create a transnational archive of resistance, enabling dialogue between communities, scholars, and activists, and fostering a deeper understanding of how literature, testimony, and cultural expression function as tools of resilience, dissent, and social transformation.

Translation is more than a linguistic endeavor; it is an act of solidarity, empowerment, and justice. At Awaaz Collective, we understand translation as a transformative practice that bridges communities, preserves cultural memory, and amplifies voices that have been historically silenced, marginalized, or excluded from dominant knowledge systems. By making texts accessible across languages, we actively participate in the circulation of ideas that challenge oppression and expand the reach of resistance narratives globally.

Through translation, we:

Enable marginalized voices to reach global audiences: By rendering works originally written in Hindi, Urdu, or any regional or international language into accessible English, Hindi, and Urdu, we ensure that stories of struggle, resilience, and dissent resonate across cultures, borders, and communities.

Preserve cultural memory and intellectual resistance: Many texts capture histories, experiences, and perspectives that are at risk of erasure. Translation preserves these accounts, enabling future generations to engage with, learn from, and build upon acts of resistance, cultural memory, and collective knowledge.

Promote critical thought, dialogue, and collective engagement: By providing multilingual access to literature, essays, manifestos, oral histories, and other forms of resistance writing, translation fosters cross-cultural reflection, intellectual discourse, and global solidarity. It encourages readers to critically examine structures of power, inequality, and systemic oppression.

Challenge dominant narratives and knowledge hierarchies: Translation disrupts the monopoly of ideas imposed by hegemonic powers, corporate interests, or dominant cultural institutions. By circulating texts that articulate subaltern, feminist, minority, or grassroots perspectives, we counter epistemic suppression and ensure that alternative knowledge systems are recognized and valued.

At Awaaz Collective, our work ensures that language ceases to be a barrier, transforming resistance literature into a public good accessible to all, regardless of linguistic or cultural background. Translation becomes a means of empowerment, cultural reclamation, and global solidarity, allowing marginalized voices to not only be heard but also to influence, inspire, and reshape collective consciousness across linguistic and national boundaries.

In essence, every act of translation is an ethical and political intervention, a deliberate effort to make the invisible visible, the silenced audible, and the marginalized central to the conversation. By connecting voices across languages, Awaaz Collective envisions a world in which knowledge, dissent, and resistance are freely shared, preserved, and celebrated as common human heritage.

1. Collaborative Translation

We bring together a diverse team of multilingual scholars, writers, translators, and activists who work collectively to ensure accuracy, nuance, and tone are preserved in every translation. This collaborative approach allows us to capture the cultural, political, and emotional layers of each text, ensuring that the original voice—especially from marginalized and resistance-oriented communities—is not lost in translation.

 2. Peer Review & Editing

Each translation undergoes a rigorous peer-review process, conducted by scholars and experts familiar with the source and target languages, as well as the sociocultural context. Our editing framework emphasizes clarity, fidelity, and contextual integrity, ensuring that the translated work communicates the original meaning while remaining accessible to a global audience.

 3. Open Access

In alignment with our commitment to equity and knowledge dissemination, all translations are freely available online, eliminating barriers to access. By making these texts openly accessible, we aim to amplify marginalized voices, support scholarship, and enable activists, students, and the wider public to engage with ideas that challenge dominant narratives and knowledge hierarchies.

 4. Community Engagement

Awaaz Collective actively fosters dialogue and participation through workshops, webinars, discussions, and collaborative projects, exploring translation as a tool of resistance, cultural exchange, and social empowerment. By engaging both contributors and audiences, we create a living network of readers, scholars, and activists, promoting cross-cultural understanding and the circulation of critical, transformative ideas.

Awaaz Collective curates and translates a wide array of projects that document, preserve, and amplify voices of resistance from communities around the world. Our projects reflect the diversity of struggles, the multiplicity of languages, and the depth of lived experiences, spanning literature, essays, oral histories, and manifestos. All works are made freely accessible to promote knowledge, solidarity, and global dialogue.

Voices from the Margins: A curated collection of essays, stories, oral histories, and testimonials from underrepresented and minority communities globally. These works document lived experiences of oppression, resilience, and cultural memory, ensuring that stories often excluded from mainstream discourse are heard and preserved across languages.

Feminist Resistance Anthology: A multilingual compilation of poetry, manifestos, essays, and narratives that foreground gender-based activism, intersectional justice, and feminist thought. This project highlights the strategies, struggles, and creativity of women and gender-diverse individuals resisting patriarchal structures, reclaiming public spaces, and asserting agency.

Workers’ Chronicles: Oral histories, essays, and narratives capturing labor struggles, grassroots activism, and social movements. These works document collective and individual resistance to economic exploitation, environmental injustice, and systemic inequality, giving voice to those often silenced in policy and media narratives.

Freedom of Expression Archive: A repository of critical essays, literary works, manifestos, and speeches defending civil liberties, artistic freedom, and the right to dissent. This project safeguards texts that challenge censorship, authoritarianism, and societal constraints on expression, ensuring that ideas promoting justice, critical inquiry, and intellectual autonomy are accessible globally.

Through these and other initiatives, Awaaz Collective creates an expansive, multilingual archive of resistance literature, bridging languages, cultures, and disciplines. Each project is underpinned by the principles of rigorous translation, ethical engagement, and scholarly fidelity, ensuring that the original voice, nuance, and intent of each text are preserved while making the work resonant for a broader audience.

By highlighting struggles across social, political, and cultural domains—whether feminist, minority, labor, environmental, or civil rights—these projects collectively aim to document the diversity of human resistance, foster global solidarity, and challenge hegemonic knowledge structures. In doing so, Awaaz Collective transforms translation into a dynamic instrument of justice, empowerment, and intercultural dialogue, creating enduring connections between voices, communities, and ideas worldwide.

Awaaz Collective thrives on the collaborative efforts of translators, scholars, writers, and activists who share a commitment to amplifying marginalized voices and promoting social justice across linguistic and cultural boundaries. We invite individuals and organizations to join us in making resistance literature freely accessible worldwide, ensuring that language serves as a tool of empowerment, solidarity, and cultural preservation.

We welcome participation in multiple capacities:

Translators: Individuals fluent in Hindi, Urdu, English, or any other language, who are committed to rigorous, context-sensitive translation of texts that document resistance, dissent, and marginalized experiences.

Writers, Scholars, and Editors: Experts who can provide contextual analysis, annotations, introductions, and critical guidance, enriching the translated works and ensuring fidelity to the original text while making them accessible to global audiences.

Volunteers: Contributors who can assist with editing, digital archiving, outreach, and dissemination, helping to maintain and expand our growing repository of resistance literature.

Supporters and Donors: Individuals, institutions, or organizations that share our vision and can provide financial, logistical, or promotional support to sustain free access, translation projects, and global collaboration.

Every contribution—whether through translation, scholarship, volunteer engagement, or financial support—directly strengthens our mission to amplify marginalized voices. By joining Awaaz Collective, participants help ensure that knowledge and literature transcend barriers of language, geography, and power, transforming translation into a dynamic instrument of liberation, equity, and intercultural dialogue. Through collaboration, Awaaz Collective fosters a global network of solidarity, where each act of translation, annotation, or support becomes part of a larger movement to document, preserve, and circulate voices of resistance, challenge hegemonic narratives, and make the unseen and unheard visible and influential.

12-Month Plan for Target Texts and Activities

Month 1 – Project Initiation & Scoping

Identify priority texts for translation across Hindi, Urdu, English, and other global languages.

Establish translation committees and assign initial projects to volunteers and translators.

Develop metadata and archiving standards for cataloging translated works.

Launch internal workflow for translation, peer review, and editing.

Month 2 – Translator & Scholar Engagement

Recruit additional translators, scholars, editors, and volunteers.

Conduct orientation sessions on ethical translation, contextual sensitivity, and maintaining voice.

Begin preliminary source text analysis for feminist and minority literature.

Month 3 – Initial Translation & Pilot Projects

Start translation of pilot texts, including short essays, poems, and oral histories.

Peer-review process to ensure accuracy, fidelity, and contextual integrity.

Publish first batch of freely accessible translations online to test workflow and dissemination.

Month 4 – Expansion of Genres

Extend translation projects to include manifestos, speeches, grassroots narratives, and labor movement texts.

Begin cataloging metadata for each text, including author, context, and source language.

Conduct workshops/webinars on translation ethics and resistance literature.

Month 5 – Archival Development

Set up a digital repository and archive structure for all translated texts.

Integrate searchable categories: feminist, minority, labor, freedom of expression, anti-hegemonic texts.

Begin documenting source texts and original author permissions where required.

Month 6 – Mid-Year Review & Quality Check

Conduct a review of all translations completed so far for quality, accuracy, and contextual fidelity.

Update workflow and project guidelines based on feedback from translators and editors.

Identify gaps in language coverage and plan for additional source languages.

Month 7 – Multilingual Expansion

Begin translating texts from other Indian languages and global languages, beyond Hindi, Urdu, and English.

Prioritize high-impact texts that address oppression, marginality, or grassroots resistance.

Collaborate with international scholars and translators for accuracy and cultural context.

Month 8 – Community Engagement & Outreach

Launch public campaigns to raise awareness about Awaaz Collective and its free translations.

Host webinars or online discussions with authors, scholars, and activists.

Encourage community contributions and volunteer translations.

Month 9 – Thematic Publication Drive

Focus on curated thematic collections (e.g., feminist resistance, labor struggles, freedom of expression).

Prepare introductory essays or scholarly notes to accompany each collection.

Ensure translations maintain voice, nuance, and intent of original texts.

Month 10 – Review & Consolidation

Conduct final editing and peer review of translations completed in months 7–9.

Consolidate all translated texts into the online archive, ensuring accessibility and proper categorization.

Prepare analytics on usage, downloads, and engagement for assessment.

Month 11 – Documentation & Impact Assessment

Document success stories, feedback, and translation impact from readers and communities.

Evaluate gaps in genre, language, and thematic coverage.

Plan next-year priorities based on assessment and lessons learned.

Month 12 – Annual Publication & Showcase

Complete final translations, editing, and peer review of all texts targeted for the year. 

Publish the full collection online, making all works freely accessible in English, Hindi, and Urdu, including texts from other Indian and global languages.

Launch a year-end showcase, highlighting thematic collections such as feminist resistance, minority narratives, labor struggles, and freedom of expression.

Release an annual report documenting project milestones, completed translations, outreach, and global engagement.

Use insights and feedback to plan Year 2, expanding source languages, larger collaborative networks, and new thematic priorities.

Awaaz Collective warmly invites scholars, writers, translators, editors, and activists from India and across the world to join our collaborative initiative dedicated to translating, preserving, and amplifying voices from marginalized and historically silenced communities.

Our work spans Hindi, Urdu, English, and other languages, translating texts across genres—including literature, essays, oral histories, manifestos, and speeches—while making them freely accessible to scholars, students, activists, and the public globally. Importantly, all our processes—from text selection and translation to editing and publication—are completely free, ensuring open access and equity for contributors and audiences alike.

Why Join Awaaz Collective?

Translate resistance literature: Engage with feminist thought, minority narratives, grassroots activism, freedom of expression, and counter-hegemonic knowledge.

Build a global archive: Contribute to a multilingual repository of texts that challenge social, political, and cultural hierarchies.

Foster dialogue and collaboration: Work with translators, scholars, and activists across disciplines and countries.

Ensure free access: Help make critical texts accessible to all, promoting equity, reflection, and cross-cultural understanding.

How We Work – 12-Month Structured Plan:

Awaaz Collective follows a year-long, stepwise workflow to translate and disseminate resistance literature:

Months 1–2: Project initiation, text selection, and recruitment of translators and scholars.

Months 3–4: Initial translations and pilot projects, expanding across genres.

Months 5–6: Archival development, metadata cataloging, and mid-year quality review.

Months 7–8: Multilingual expansion and community engagement/outreach.

Months 9–10: Thematic publication drive, final translation, and editing.

Month 11: Documentation, impact assessment, and final review.

Month 12: Full publication of all translations, online showcase, and annual report, completing the yearly cycle of selection, translation, editing, and dissemination—all freely accessible to the public.

Ways You Can Contribute:

Translating texts from any language into English, Hindi, or Urdu.

Providing scholarly insights, annotations, or introductions.

Mentoring emerging translators and researchers.

Collaborating on outreach, editing, and digital archiving initiatives.

Your participation will help amplify voices often unheard or overlooked, creating a living, global repository of resistance literature accessible to all.

We invite you to join us in this meaningful endeavor. Together, we can ensure that every story of courage, resilience, and resistance is selected, translated, and shared freely, reaching audiences worldwide.

Join the Collective: Volunteer, translate, or collaborate.

Dear Scholars, Translators, or Activists,

Awaaz Collective warmly invites you to participate in our collaborative initiative dedicated to translating, preserving, and amplifying voices from marginalized communities worldwide. Our work spans Hindi, Urdu, English, and other languages, translating texts across genres—including literature, essays, oral histories, manifestos, and speeches—and making all translations freely accessible to a global audience.

By joining Awaaz Collective, you will become part of a dynamic, multidisciplinary network of scholars, writers, translators, and activists committed to fostering dialogue, cultural exchange, and social justice through translation. We follow a structured, ethical workflow, ensuring that every text is carefully translated, peer-reviewed, and shared openly, while actively engaging communities through webinars, workshops, and collaborative projects.

We welcome contributions in the following forms:

Translators fluent in Hindi, Urdu, English, or other languages.

Scholars, editors, and writers providing contextual insights, annotations, or introductions.

Volunteers supporting outreach, digital archiving, or editing.

Supporters and donors sustaining our free-access initiatives.

Please fill out the form using the following link to indicate your area of interest, expertise, and preferred mode of contribution:

Google Form Link

Your participation will help amplify voices often unheard, contributing to a living global repository of resistance literature that is freely accessible to all.

We deeply appreciate your interest and commitment to this vital work. Together, we can ensure that every story of courage, resilience, and resistance reaches audiences worldwide.

Sincerely,
Dr. Mohammad Tariq
Founder, Awaaz Collective
Assistant Professor of English, Department of English Studies and Research
J. S. Hindu P.G. College, Amroha-244221, Uttar Pradesh, India
Email: lkotariqfaraz@gmail.com
Website: www.tariqfaraz.net