Two major events occurred in the world in the era following World War II. On one hand, the world witnessed the defeat of fascist forces at the hands of the Soviet Union under the leadership of Comrade Stalin, proving that only socialism can defeat fascism. On the other hand, the formation of the People’s Republic of China under the leadership of Comrade Mao stood as a bulwark against world imperialism. These historic developments ushered in a revolutionary high tide across the globe, sparking numerous liberation struggles, with countries like Vietnam, Laos, and Kampuchea defeating imperialist forces.
In India too, this period witnessed a peal of spring thunder. The Naxalbari uprising of 1967, led by Comrade Charu Majumdar and others, was an all-out war by the revolutionary masses of India against all feudal tyrants, imperialists, revisionists, corrupt officials, and the reactionary state forces. The movement immediately sparked a prairie fire, setting even the most remote and backward parts of the nation ablaze. The masses began organizing themselves under the banner of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought, aiming for a new democratic revolution.
From the outset, the movement saw huge participation from women, even taking the vanguard in many cases. To understand this, one must clearly analyse the socio-economic landscape of the rural, and thus its relation with the lives of women. India with the vast majority of its villages under a repressive feudal social and economic order has forced women, especially those from oppressed castes, to live a life of traditional drudgery, further denigrating their very existence. Thus, women had a major stake in uprooting feudalism, for them, the question of revolution was the question of emancipation, a means to gain autonomy.
Even on the day of the uprising, on 25th May 1967, women played a significant role in initiating the revolt.
Following the killing of police inspector Sonam Wangdi by an arrow fired by one of the female activists during a village raid, all the male activists sought refuge in the forest. Meanwhile, the female activists attempted to organize a meeting in the small hamlet of Prasadujyot in Naxalbari of North Bengal. The police opened fire on the demonstration, killing two children and seven women; Dhaneshwari Devi, Simashwari Mallik, Nayaneshwari Mallik, Surubala Burman, Sonamati Singh, Fulmati Devi, and Samsari Soibani, some of who belonged to the Rajbanshi Dalit community. In their honour, a memorial slab bearing their names was later erected in Prasadujyot.
Though women had an active role in laying the foundations to build and advance the revolution, there was not much discussion on women’s liberation in its particularity in the initial stages of the movement. One also should not expect a newly formed movement to address all issues right from the beginning. By the 70s, there were many developments in the movement regarding these issues. As women started coming into the public sphere, more and more women began organising secret meetings, rallies, and agitations by themselves. In the urban sphere, many female students and youth left their home and studies to integrate with the peasants in the villages at the call of Comrade Charu. In the villages, the female comrades from the cities would focus on organising the peasant women, a task that would be near impossible for the male comrades. Shanti Munda, a woman activist from Naxalbari, recounts how, inspired by the women of China, they thought of holding separate meetings with women: “Once at Bagdogra, we had organised 7,000 women. It is the universal truth that unless women come forward, the men cannot do anything, no matter whether they are scientists or scholars.”
The far-reaching successes of the movement were achieved through the role women played in the armed struggle alongside their male comrades. It was through the power that these oppressed women drew from the barrel of a gun that a sense of confidence was instilled in their minds, enabling them to wage a militant struggle against the ruling class. As the fire of Naxalbari spread far and wide, basing itself among the rural landless labourers, feudal practices such as the ‘right of the first night’ enjoyed by feudal lords came under fire for the first time.
Thus, the Spring Thunder of Naxalbari brought about innumerable changes in the lives of oppressed sections of women in India. However, the temporary setback of the movement once again placed women under feudal shackles. Many women activists were forced back into their old lives, and were left only to reminisce about the movement as a distant, cherished time in their lives. Additionally, due to the patriarchal nature of society, coupled with the underground character of the movement, the very process of recollecting its history became gendered. Memory, largely preserved and narrated by male activists, often neglected the immense contributions of women, reducing figures like Leela Majumdar and Galoshwari to mere labels as “wives of Charu Majumdar and Jangal Santhal,” rather than recognizing them as revolutionaries in their own right.
However many setbacks Naxalbari may have faced, it still stands as a milestone in the quest for women’s liberation and the radical transformation of society as a whole. Indeed the upheaval was such that nothing remained the same after Naxalbari. The fact that there can be no liberation of women without a revolution and vice versa, was grounded in reality by the masses of women partaking in the uprising.
