Social Scientist

"Dialectical" Materialism and Dialectical "Materialism"Communists in Indian Women's Movement by Renu ChakravartyReview by: Meera VelayudhanSocial Scientist, Vol. 10, No. 4 (Apr., 1982), pp. 60-63Published by: Social ScientistStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3520330 .

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RENU CHAKRAVARTY, COMMUNISTS IN INDIAN WOMEN'S MOVEMENT, People's Publishing House, New Delhi, pp 227, Rs 12.50.

SINCE the 1970s there has been a steady growth in the number of studies on the social and economic aspects of the situation of women in India. However, it was only during the past two years that the role and participation of women in various movements has become a key question in the analysis of the position of women in India. Initially, the focus was confined to certain social reform movements and to movements led by Gandhi and the Indian National Congress, which had taken up issues such as women's right to property, education, legal status in marriage, suffrage and women's poli- tical participation. Although this focus has not changed, more attention is now being directed towards the movements which questioned the social and economic basis of a society founded on in- equality and exploitation. A new feature in this debate on the perspective of the movement for women's emancipation is the demand for "autonomous" womeni's organizations being made by bourgeois "women's rights" groups and many social scientists. It is in this context that the book under review assumes importance.

The 16 chapters cover a broad range of struggles during 1940- 1950. These include the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist struggles in Bengal, the anti-feudal Tebhaga peasant movement, the Telengana peasant struggle, the Puinnapra-Vayalar struggle against the Travancore princely order, the struggles of working class women, the Warli Adivasi revolt and the campaign on the Hindu Code Bill. The last three chapters deal with communist women's work within the All- India Women's Conference, the formation of the Women's Interna- tional Democratic Federation and a review of communist wromen's participation in movements. However, we get a detailed account only of the anti-imperialist and anti-fascist struggles in Bengal, for the author was herself a participant in these.

In 1938, there was a growing mass movement for the release of political prisoners, particularly those kept in the Andamans and Deoli camps. Students were in the forefront of this movement and the All- India Students Federation (AISF), a broad-based students' organiza- tion,led it. Although a large number of girls participated in meetings and demonstrations, very few of them were members of the Federation. Backward social ideas and taboos kept girl students away

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WOMEN'S MOVEMENT 61

from the organization whose dominant membership was made up of male students, So, the first girl students' committee was set up within the Bengal Provincial Students' Federation (BPSF) with Kanak Dasgupta (now Mukherjee) as its secretary. This committee consisted of girls from the Communist Party, M N Roy's group and from the Soumyen Tagore group, reflecting the different trends within the student movement at that time. The girl students held an all-India meeting in 1940 at Lucknow, the first of its kind. This led to the formation of the Girl Students' Association, after which girl students' committees were formed in parts of Bengal, Bombay and Punjab. At the time of Patna conference of the Students' Federation in 1941, the Girl Students' Association had 50,000 members. Militant members of the Association laid the foundation of the women's movement in Bengal. In October 1942, soon after the legalization of the Commu- nist Party, the Bengal Provincial Women's Front of the Communist Party was formed.

The Japanese attack led to the formation of a broad-based women's organization, the Mahila Atmaraksha Samiti (MARS) in Bengal. Mahila samitis (women's groups) which had already sprung up in towns and villages came together to form the MARS. Fighting against tremendous odds in the form of social barriers and anti- communist propaganda, communist women campaigned on the issues of food scarcity, protection from Japanese bombings and the defence of the country. Area nmahila committees were formed through house- to-house visits and through the staging of dramas, baithaks (closed- door group meetings), and prabhat pheries (early morning singing groups). The MARS soon became a mass organization of women representing the peasantry, the working class and the middle class. It worked in cooperation with other committees like the People's Relief Committee and the Janaraksha Food Committee. The women's movement, at that time, was thus based on three issues-the defence of the country, the formation of a national government and protec- tion of the people from starvation and death. Added to these were the problems of famine, and communal harmony. The organization was now spread over Barisal, Pabna, Sherpur, Calcutta, Chittagong, Dacca, Rajshahi, Howrah and Sylhet (Assam). Since the communist women were in the forefront, they often faced political attacks and hostility from the AIWC members of the Congress Mahila Sangh.

In September 1942 communist women started famine relief work among the working class and rural poor women in Calcutta, Pabna, Rangpur, Barisal and Dinajpur. This period also saw the first of the marches to the Assembly on the issues of food scarcity and

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62 SOCIAL SCIENTIST

price rise. Thousands of poor peasant, working class and middle class women participated in these marches. The MARS members worked with medical relief teams, organized gruel kitchens, homes for desti- tute women, child care centres, handicraft and educational centres. In February-March 1943, about 28 communist women from Calcutta, Barisal, Faridpur, Khulna, Pabna, Dinajpur, Mymensingh, Chittagong, Hooghly, Nadia attended a training camp for activists. They discussed the attitude of the communists towards the fascist war, united action for building a national government, the women's movement and its links with students and workers. It was noted at this camp that only 140 of the 5000 MARS members were communists and that therefore there was a need to increase their membership.

Following the declaration of independence, the character of the MARS changed. In May 1948, the MARS organized a large procession of women to the Writer's Building demanding the release of political prisoners, including communists, held without trial. This was severely attacked by the police. The MARS was banncd and so was its journal, Gharey Baire. On 27 April 1949, four activists of MARS were killed in a police firing during a meeting demanding the release of political prisoners. In spite of such repression, the fifth conference of MARS was held in Novemberl949. The main message of the con- ference was that the social and economic structure of society must change if women were to be emancipated. From all this it is obvious that communist women were able to give a direction to the women's movement in Bengal.

Peasant Struggles The chapter on the Tebhaga peasent struggles provides infor-

mation taken from the collection of writtings on Tebhaga brought out by the Communist Party of India (CPI) on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the movement. On Telengana, P Sundarayya's book is quoted. The relationship of the Andhra Mahila Sangham with the Communist Party is not dealt with although we do get information about the political education camp for women activists organized by the Communist Party in 1937-1938 in Kothapalam and Mantanavari- palam. Wives and sisters of Communis Party members attended the classes. In Krishna district, wives and daughters of peasants began to be organized in a mass women's organization. Initially 6000 working class women from 124 local unions were drawn into this. Two training classes for organizers were held in Vijayawada in April 1943. The classes gave elementary lessons on disciplined group work, maternity and child care, health, sanitation, self-defence, economics

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WOMEN'S MOVEMENT 63

and politics, geography, organization of the women's movement, public speaking. Four provincial training camps for women organi- zers were held in September 1943. By April 1944, the Andhra Mahila Sangham had 20,000 members with a majority of peasant women. In Andhra, the AIWC kept away from the Andhra Mahila Sangham on the charge that it was led by communist women.

The section on the struggle of Warli Adivasis largely contains quotations from Godavari Parulekar's book Adivasi Revolt.

Communist women activists participated in working class struggles in the South Indian Railway, Coimbatore textile mills and in jute mills in 1946-1947, on the issues of dismissal of workers, eight- hour work day, victimization, and so on. Apart from these struggles, communist women participated in campaigns on the legal status of women-especially the Hindu Code Bill. Although communist women believed in one uniform civil code, its need was not felt by women in general and therefore it was decided that reform in legal status would be the first step towards such a goal. In Bengal, the MARS and AIWC unitedly campaigned on this issue. In Andhra, the Mahila Sangham launched a signature campaign on the issue along with the Kisan Sabha, the Youth League, bar associations, student organizations. In Punjab, the Women's Self-Defence League organized cultural squads on the Bill and the issues involved in it.

Although the author appreciatively writes about the work car- ried on by communist women within the reformist All India Women's Conference in Bengal, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and its contributions in giving a mass character to the women's movement, she seems to identify united activity with the merger of organizations. Throughout the book, this confusion is obvious.

Written in a simple style, this book is for popular reading. For those wanting a deeper insight into the experience of the women's movement in India, the book provides information on women's groups and organizations, journals and names of women activists which could be used for further enquiry. However, for a movement that is so little documented, this book definitely makes a break.

MEERA VELAYUDHAN Researcher at the Centre for Women's

Development Studies, New Delhi.

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