Page 172 - EW November 2023

Books

Latter-day LAND, GUNS, CASTE, WOMAN: and activities. A section
of this memoir discusses
revolutionary THE MEMOIR OF A LAPSED the activities of the party
REVOLUTIONARY
and the role played by her
memoir Gita Ramaswamy at length in forming the
Progressive Organization
NAVAYANA
Rs.454 Pages 432 of Women. This group
EMOIRS OF In- started an aggressive
dian revolution- campaign against sexual
Maries are few and harassment. Simultane-
far between. Those relating taboos, they did not make Memoirs of Indian ously, Ramaswamy got
to revolutionary struggles an exception. revolutionaries are involved with the Progres-
in the post-independence According to the author, few and far between. sive Democratic Students
period are nearly absent. an important turning point This book relates Union’s movement against
In this sense Gita Ramas- in her life came when she to revolutionary rising inflation. However,
wamy’s Land, Guns, Caste, began her studies in Kend- struggles in the post- her political activism,
Woman: The Memoir of a riya Vidalayas, at the age of independence period as she notes, came to a
Lapsed Revolutionary is 14. For it was here that she sudden halt due to the na-
an important watershed. was exposed to scientific tional internal Emergency
Divided into 25 sec- ideas, which besides being group, whose leader declared in June 1975.
tions, it covers the period liberating, provided her George Reddy was brutally There follows a vivid
from her childhood to opportunity to question killed in April 1972 by stu- account of developments
2013, by which time prevailing superstitions dents of the Right-wing which took place simul-
she was living the life and rituals. The years Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi taneously during this
of a “lapsed revolution- spent at school not only Parishad students’ organis- period, with long term
ary”. Beginning with her gave her self-confidence, sation. Thus, in a sense, implications for Ramas-
childhood, Ramaswamy but also made her aware, 1972 was a year which wamy, both personally as
discusses her early experi- as she notes, of the atroci- signalled the beginning well as politically. Drop-
ences of growing up in an ties committed against of Ramaswamy’s political ping out of college, going
orthodox Brahmin family. women. And perhaps, it career. In due course she underground, living with
From the point of view was this training which emerged as an excellent strangers and conduct-
of class and caste, this gave her confidence to orator and was invited ing party meetings only
accident of birth provided oppose acts of cruelty like to political meetings of at night, were problems
her several privileges, domestic violence, which Left-groups all over India. she faced and endured.
especially those related to her sister faced routinely. She reveals that for quite a In an attempt to lure her
education. Following graduation long time she was able to away from the Naxalite
Her relatively com- from school she joined keep her family in the dark movement, her worried
fortable socio-economic the prestigious Osmania about her involvement in parents made her return
background gave her an University in Hyderabad, student politics. In 1973, at home. They believed she
opportunity to receive where her intellectual the height of the Naxalite was ‘brainwashed’ into
quality education in some and political education movement in Andhra joining the movement.
of the best convent schools continued unabated. At Pradesh, the author along And to ‘cure’ this problem
in Bombay (Mumbai) and university, Ramaswamy with some of her college they subjected her to three
Madras (Chennai). That voraciously read the works mates, joined the Chandra weeks of electroconvulsive
her mother was unable to of English, Russian and Pula Reddy group (CPI- therapy, which permanent-
receive even basic educa- French writers, as well as ML) of the Communist ly changed the author’s
tion due to her family’s of various feminist writers, Party of India — Marxist personality.
conservative views, a fact which familiarised her with Leninist. This was a crucial Apart from other issues
sensitively stressed by the “a rational, liberal world turning point in her politi- it damaged the function-
author, this was indeed where there were explana- cal career. ing of her brain, affected
a privilege. Even though tions for everything”. Once in the CPI-ML, her memory, and lowered
Ramaswamy’s family was No major surprise that Ramaswamy started devel- her self-confidence and
open to the idea of her while she was still at Os- oping her political ideals vitality. While the Emer-
getting the best education, mania she came in contact through active participa- gency years opened up the
when it came to menstrual with a Left-wing students’ tion in their programmes floodgates of problems for

172 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2023