| Anuradha Ghandy | |
|---|---|
Source - bbc.co.uk - © [2009] BBC |
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| Born | Anuradha Shanbag 1954 |
| Died | April 12, 2008 Mumbai, India |
| Cause of death | Falciparum Malaria |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Other names | Narmada, Varsha, Rama, Anu, Janaki |
| Alma mater | Elphinstone College, Mumbai |
| Known for | Prominent Figure of Maoist movement in India |
| Spouse | Kobad Ghandy |
| Parents | Kumud (Mother) Ganesh(Father) |
Anuradha Ghandy was an Indian communist and Maoist leader. She was a member of the banned[1] Communist Party of India-Maoist. Maoists are also referred as naxalites in the media. Anuradha was mostly involved in the propaganda wing and in penetration into urban areas.[2] She was one of the founding members of the CPI (ML), in Maharashtra.[3]
Among the policy papers drafted by the Marxist movement, Anuradha had contributed significantly to the ones on castes and 'Feminism and Marxism'. She made the guerillas realise the potential of cooperatives in areas like improving agricultural production, in Dhandakaranya. She was also critical on the patriarchian ideas that were then dominant in the party.[4]
Jyoti Punwani wrote : “The ‘Naxalite menace’, says Manmohan Singh, 'is the biggest threat to the country'. But I remember a girl who was always laughing and who gave up a life rich in every way to change the lives of others.” in her obituary for Anuradha, with whom she was friends with right from the days when the latter was still that bespectacled angry collegegoer of the 70s.[5]
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Anuradha was born to yester yearcommunists, Ganesh and Kumud Shanbag.[4] The Shanbags were in the party till mid 1950s, when it had still not branched into the present Maoist and Marxist factions.[4] Ganesh later got into the Defence committee, and volunteered in favour of communists in the cases filed against them.[4] Kumud has been an active social worker all her life, who is at present involved with a women's group. In fact, they got married in the CPI office in Mumbai.[4] They were very progressive in the way they brought up their children, who would later grow to become revolutionaries. Anuradha's brother is a Mumbai based noted play-wright, writing progressive plays and he is into the theatre scene. Anuradha did her schooling at J. B. Petit School, Santacruz. The children were exposed to varied views and ideas and were motivated to read a lot and develop their own interests, like classical dancing, theatre and such.[4]
It was in such a household, very conductive to the communist ideas, where Anuradha would first get intrigued in politics during her college days. The prime period for the communist propagandas was the 1970s. A Cultural Revolution in China, the resilience of Vietnam to US and with many other social changes, the youth were fascinated with the changes that a revolution can bring. It was during this time that Naxalbari came into being,[2] torching the whole of South Asia. Anuradha was then involved with PROYOM, a radical students group.
Anuradha Shanbag married Kobad ghandy[6] in 1983, who hails from a Gujarati Parsi family.[7]
Elphinstone College, Mumbai, was a hub for the extremist left-wing activists in the 1970s. Anuradha played a prime role in them. What she saw in the refugee camps in war hit Bangladesh and also the famine hit areas of Maharashtra prior to that, must have brought her close to social work. Then she got into Progressive Youth Movement (PROYOM), from where she got connected to the then Naxalite movement. She took part in the Dalit Panther Movement(1975) and also in the Worli Riots(1974) with Shiv Sena.[5]
She was one of the leading figures in India in the post-emergency days, when Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights was founded. Her interests in the trade unions and the dalit movements of the Vidarbha region led to her move from Mumbai to Nagpur, in 1982. She was arrested a number of times in this period, after which she went underground. There were mentions of her involvement with the tribals in Baster. She was leading the women's wing of the Party, working underground, until her untimely death[4]
Anuradha was lost to an attack of Falciparum Malaria on April 12, 2008 . Systemic sclerosis, had weakened her immune system, leading to multiple organ failure, which was, among other things, responsible for her bad handwriting.[8] During her final days, she had been training the women cadre to develop their leadership skills. It was during her stint in Jharkand, educating the tribals against oppression of women in their society, when she contracted cerebral malaria.[4]