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Core vs. Periphery – plotting the work of Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathana (KAMS) in the graph of
Women’s movement history

1. Introduction

The write up is a result of a personal quest to understand the neglect of the revolutionary, left, armed political struggles
of women, their organization, their agency – Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathana (KAMS) and the space it has
occupied within the women’s movement from the 90s. In the course of this understanding one seriously finds that there
is an absence or silence in recounting their history or contributions within the mainstream women’s movement. While
there has been a considerable merit given to the armed political struggles of women (left leaning) in the colonial and
early post colonial periods as that of Tebhaga, Telengana and Naxalbari there is a long silence, a shift in perspective
and a planned ignorance in the way the contemporary women’s movement looks at organizations like KAMS. The
quest emerges here and the objective is to find if ‘violence’ is the only parameter we measure today against such
armed women’s struggle and could we possibly deny any existence of democracy at all because of the existence of
violence? Or is this stemming out from selective reading of the disillusionments expressed by women leaders of the
armed movements who came out of the revolutionary left movements questioning the persistence of gender inequality
within the party? But, Isn’t the women’s question prominently raised within all the parliamentary left, centre, right party
politics as well as within movements and trade unions time and again? And, why is there a selective disregard with
respect to the revolutionary movement alone on the question of patriarchy? How does one weigh the worthy battles
fought by the comrades of KAMS and their commitment to fight patriarchy within the ambit of the women’s movement?
Is it not important to study how the women of KAMS are trying to raise questions within the Communist Party of India
(Maoist) party to counter the party’s patriarchy? Can one see the Gond women’s struggle in the Dandakaranya forests
of the Central India without romanticizing it but by critically evaluating it against the other battles fought for achieving
the same purposes, against the same enemies in the same regions by different people (by looking at the ‘Soni Sori’
and the ‘Manish Kunjam’ factors in to account)?

In the backdrop of these questions, the personal quest to study the work of KAMS and their cultural, political armed
struggle against the semi feudal, semi colonial forces emerged. There were lots of difficulties in sourcing for literature
around KAMS within the mainstream academic women studies discourses and this lack of materials makes one think
whether the idea of an emerging women’s movement and the conventional notion of democracy has led many of us to
mainstream our thoughts. There were very few accounts available which were sourced majorly from talking to certain
people who have been from within the women’s movement sympathetic to KAMS, from the writings of Anuradha
Ghandy (Scripting the change, selected writings of Anuradha Ghandy) and from the editions of People’s March the
monthly magazine. The essay also attempts to discuss with some people who are engaging with movements and
politics in chattisgarh and elsewhere to try & build in an overall understanding and to bring in an impartial perspective
about these women’s struggles. In order to study the history of these movements or the inspirational roots of these
movements one has to also look in to the women’s role in Tebhagha, Telungana, Naxalbari and Srikakulam struggles
and the views of women as part of these armed political struggles. As visiting the organization physically was not
possible, have tried reading the organization and the issues it is dealing with through the available literature.

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2. Evolution of KAMS

2.a Lives of Adivasi Women

The Adivasi women are central to the economy of their society. They actively involve in agricultural production,
gathering of forest produce, work as wage labourers collecting tendu leaves or as road contractors with the government
or with the forest department. Apart from doing these paid work they also involve almost single handedly in care work
like that of child rearing, rearing of cattle/ livestock, taking care of the sick and old in the family and also in doing all
household chores. They do intense work as that of walking miles through different conditions when their heads are
loaded with fodder or leaves. The other major activities which they are involved in are - marketing the forest produces
and products made out of the forest produces. The issues faced by these women are endless and their lives are
characterized by monotony, harassment, poverty and exploitation.

The tribal society is patriarchal in nature and hence women face lots of issues within the society posed by the village
adults and men, over and above all these are external factors such as corporations, government and forest departments
making life miserable for them. The Adivasi women in spite of spending their majority of time in agricultural work, as
their entire society is agriculture dependent do not have property rights over the land. The number of Adivasi women
going for higher education or even gaining secondary level education is miniscule. This is often the case with Adivasis
as a whole owing to the central and state governments refusing to provide primary and secondary level education to
these children in their Adivasi languages forcing further alienation. The literature available on the adivasi women and
their health status is not very comprehensive and in most cases there is no way to avail cure, medical attention or
prevention for even the most common of diseases. There are prevalence of high rates of maternal mortality, mal
nutrition and cases of sickle cell anaemia & cerebral malaria among these women.

The Adivasi women are receivers of brutal forms of patriarchy from within the community as that of forced marriages,
rape and sexual molestation by the men of the village, existence of polygamy among the men of the community mostly
in order to find cheap and adequate labour to work in their farm and cases of desertion. There are also practices such
as witch hunting which are often practiced within these communities. This is a practice which is often used as a tool for
class and gender oppression against poor, adivasi women who are widows or deserted by the men by the upper caste
landlords or family members who hack them brutally by calling them ‘witches’ in order to take hold of their lands. The
attacks can include stripping them naked, parading them, blackening their faces, slashing them with knives, burning
them or even burying them alive which is followed by social boycott. This practice is often motivated by vested social,
economic and political interests. Even the police often take sides of people practicing such things and landlords to
support their vested interests.

Adivasi areas and the mineral resource richness of these lands have attracted many corporations & government’s
interest as over 90% of coal mines and almost half of other mines are present in the Adivasi regions. This has created
oppression and exploitation of the Adivasis from the colonial times. The ‘criminalising’ of Adivasis happened during the
British times in order to loot the Adivasi lands and oppress them. The current so called ‘democratic’ government post
independence is no less than the colonial powers in looting the lands of these people. The laws such as Forest
Conservation Act (1980), the colonial acts such as Land Acquisition Act (LAA) of 1856, the Mining Act, the Wildlife
Preservation Act and the Excise Act have exploited these Adivasis by grabbing their land and forest resources,
depriving them of their traditional occupations, traditional medications which have resulted in the Adivasis looking out
for work in these mines and are further exploited in there too. Many women from Adivasi communities work under
hazardous conditions within these mines to earn livelihood for their families and to overcome the imposed poverty. The
words ‘assimilation’ and ‘mainstreaming’ were used in the official documents of the governments to displace Adivasi

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community from their lands and to make their customary laws and practices invalid. The laws which are favourable to
these communities like the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT) and Santhal Paragnas Tenancy Act (SPT) are often
overruled and are amended to facilitate the acquisition of land in tribal areas to serve the greed of various corporations
under the pretense of ‘Public Interest’. 1

2.b Historical Struggles of Adivasi Women

Women played important role in the Adivasi struggles right from the colonial times and during the feudal periods.
Evidences gathered from British documentations on the women’s resistance shows the involvement of these women
from the period of 1763- 1856 in the various struggles such as Kol rebellion, Santhal uprisings, in the revolt led by Birsa
Munda and Bhumkal revolt. Women were also in the forefront of struggles such as Tebhaga, Telungana and Naxalbari.
The spontaneous creation of the ‘Nari Bahini’ troopes of women and the active role played by Adivasi women as Nari
Bahinis has to be noted down. The women through their courageous deeds, snatching police guns, forming semi milita
and staging defensive actions using their traditional skills and traditional weapons like brooms created an effective
counter against the powerful forces. The Tebhaga women continued their struggle against the feudal landlords
(Jotedars) and the police forces that followed the orders of Jotedars arrested the poor villagers and filed loot charges
against them. The women used strategies and tactics such as using warning systems to alert other villagers when
police forces enters their village and came in huge numbers out of their houses to counter the violence unleashed on
them by the powerful. These women were subjected to massive violence, threats, arrests, sexual tortures and rape yet
they braved out and organized themselves to fight for the movement. They even supported the Hindu Code Bill to be
passed in the parliament as it gave greater rights to women & especially the property rights.

Even in the Telangana struggle the women squads in spite of the backing out of the Communist Party of India from the
struggle stood strongly in the forefront, got arrested or went underground but braved their lives for the cause of their
struggle against the colonial and feudal forces. During the course of struggle more than 100 women were tortured and
raped in order to obtain whereabouts of the communist leaders but they withstood all the tortures and kept their secrets
in order to strengthen the struggle. There was also this Rambayamma who protested from inside the jail by being on a
hunger fast along with 150 prisoners.

The Naxalbari uprising in the 1960s against the Jotedars and the state was an important point and it attracted many
young women from cities to go and work with the dalits and tribals of the rural areas of West Bengal. The uprising
began in the village of Naxalbari when a massive action was demonstrated by the comrades of CPI ML headed by
Com. Charu Mazumdar and women played a very important role in both spreading the political message as well as
fighting in the frontline. Post the martyrdom of Com. Charu Mazumdar, the party appointed its State committee in
Andhra Pradesh and then it decided to move to the remote rural areas to organize the proletariats to fight against the
semi feudal, semi colonial & imperial capitalist and ruling classes.2

1 People’s March Vol no: 7, No: 8&9, August –September 2006 . Pg no 30

The following paper was presented at a seminar .Adivasi Women: Situation and Struggles. Summarised keynote presentation by
Prof. Uma Chakravarty organised in Ranchi in March 2006 by the Sangarshrath Adivasi Mahila Manch, a front of various
women’s organisations working among adivasi women in Jharkhand.
2
Scripting the change – Selected writings of Anuradha Ghandy, edited by Anand Teltumbde & Shoma Sen published Daanish
Books, 2011

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2.c Formation of KAMS

In the Bastar division of Chattisgarh (previously Madhya Pradhesh) is inhabited by the Adivasis belonging to the Gond
tribes under various sub castes such as Madia, Muria, Pardha, Dorla or Raj Gond. The Gond society is a patriarchal
society and though the women of these societies spend their majority of time in the land, doing hard labour they do not
hold any rights to the property. This particular tribal society also keeps the women out of decision making within the
families as well as in the community level. Their roles are restricted by various customs which was seen as hindrance
by these women. Their consent is never sought for while fixing marriage alliances and they are forced by their parents
and community elders to get married to a man of their choice. If the girl refuses to marry when an alliance is fixed she
is beaten up brutally and is carried off to the groom’s family house tied to a log.

Most of the girls faced trouble at home & they often ran out of their houses and get trapped in sex rackets by the
contractors, company goons and the army officials who often utilize their vulnerable situations to violate them sexually.

Polygamy was a common practice among the Gond tribes of Dandakaranya. Men married a lot of women in order to
exploit them and use their unpaid labour in the family farm. Often the husbands also desert their wives and get married
to other women outside the village.

The women had economic issues as there were harsh discriminatory practices in their work places and their wages
were often not paid to them on regular basis, or paid after deductions for unsaid reasons and is never raised or
equalized according to the market rate.

The squads of People’s War entered the Dandakaranya forest in the 1980s and have confronted these patriarchal
customs right from the beginning. They motivated these women to organize and fight their oppression by ideological
countering them. They even organized these women to fight against the forest authorities by striking & demanding the
raise of the price paid for the tendu leaves picked as they were suffering in the hot sun and under harsh conditions to
do the same. They even collected women to fight against the government and the contractors to increase their wages.
Struggle broke out in paper mills where these women went to cut bamboo, in road side workers and among women
who were working in the forests and nurseries. Young girls who have faced violence in their families and in the
communities owing to the harassment came out of their houses to campaign for the movement in their villages. They
started fighting collectively against the customary practices in the society, sexual exploitation, against their husband’s
polygamous practices, against their village elders and parents on forced marriages etc. Based on these experiences
KAMS was formed in the region in the 1990s.And since 1995 it became wide spread across the Bastar district and in
some parts of Kanker district, Gondia, Rajnandgaon and Balghat. It later spread to Malkangiri district and grew rapidly.

Their initial issue was to deal with the tribal customs which were oppressive to the women. The KAMS successfully
campaigned against forced marriages and other problems within the village using people’s government or Janatana
Sarkar. Cases were brought to the notice of the Janatana Sarkar by the KAMS members of a particular village where
in the villagers as well as the party members of the People’s War group discuss and the final decision of conviction
and punishment is exercised by the KAMS cadres. This process of bringing out the problems of women to a public
forum created a lot space within the communities for these women. This process reduced the occurrence of a lot of
sexual exploitations and forced marriages within the villages.

In the areas where ‘Ghotul’ a traditional custom is practiced, where in women were taken from their houses and were
forced to dance every night in front of the village adults was seen as an oppressive by the village women such systems

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were confronted. The KAMS organized meetings and rallies to abolish this system or at least stop the force on women
and came to a decision with the village elders that, only people who are interested will participate in such dance
henceforth. Similarly, the struggle for abolishing the practice of removing the blouse of a woman after marriage was
also successful by KAMS.

The KAMS is also organizing regular programmes on the 8th of March celebrating the International Women’s Day.
KAMS also organize against the national issues and have earlier have rallied many times against the State oppression.
Women from Dandakaranya are also travelling to other cities and working with other women’s groups to learn from
them as well to build in solidarity for their struggle. The organization expanded rapidly and has started working on many
issues relating to their life and livelihood including demanding for equal pay for equal work.

Looking at the emergence of these women in massive numbers- the state, the companies and the men of the village
felt that they are slowly losing their power and control over these communities. The party also supported the KAMS
cadres to sow seeds in the Jantana Sarkar lands where in women are not allowed to sow seeds even today in
Dandakaranya. The existence of KAMS and the radical political alterations challenged the patriarchy of the men and
the ruling classes.

The repression against these Adivasi women reached its barbaric form in the formation of ‘Salwa Judum’ by the ruling
class politicians along with some local support in the year 2005. The operation green hunt devised by the Indian
government to wipe out the Maoists and their supporters targeted a lot of these women for their mere organizing under
the banner of KAMS. Many women survived the grave tortures of the military force which raped, tortured these women,
burned their homes and even killed many of them. Under the pretense of creating a security infrastructure, Adivasis
were driven out of their homes and villages and massive displacements happened. The Government did not
compensate or rehabilitate these Adivasis post the operation rather allocated these lands to the corporations by signing
new MoUs and leases with these companies.

People living in these villages soon realized the hidden agenda behind these draconian operations and have joined in
mass numbers in the party and took arms to fight against these exploiting classes. This changed the work style of
KAMS. Merely being a KAMS member was the reason to arrest these women and they were subjected to severe torture
under the police custody. The no. of women political prisoners who are arrested in the area is in unimaginable numbers
today and most of them are arrested under the pretense of Maoists under the Unlawful Activities Preventions Act
(UAPA). There are no FIRs filed against these women and they are kept under harsh conditions in the prisons. The
KAMS is a banned organization today still exists as an underground organization and is said to have increased its base
and have extended its wings in other states such as Jharkhand, Bihar, Orissa, Telangana and Kerala. The recent work
of KAMS is to spread the understanding to involve the men in house work and child rearing as they have equal standing
as women in these works. The decision making in family and the community involves women. Land pattas of RPC are
in the name of both men and women in the newly occupied lands.

The women also question the discrimination they face in the guerilla life in order to gain their rights within the movement.
They are in the forefront implementing the elections boycott as a form of struggle.

2.d Cultural expression of the women of KAMS

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The Adivasi girls of the Dandakaranya have composed some campaign songs as well as awareness songs in Gondi
in order to express their oppression and connect with the other men and women of the community. Some of these
songs are very strong expressions stemming from their life and their experiences directly. The cultural expressions are
in itself a strong form of resistance as in the society earlier, women were only allowed to sing and dance for the tunes
of men and these songs written, composed and sung by these women dealing with the everyday issue records their
struggle and the growth of their struggle.

Some of the expressions as recorded by the comrades are as follows:

The song ‘red flower’ is about their everyday struggles, the subordinate position in the family and the lack of rights sung
by squad women in North Bastar

The red flower, sister, is flowering

Let us follow the path of the red flower and struggle….

In the village, the elders, sister

The elders threaten and suppress us sisters

In the house sister it is mother and father

They marry us off sister…

You bring up sons and daughters

You do all the work in the house

But the man has the right to the house

The children too are the father’s right

Sister, the sons and daughters get their fathers name

Sister, the house too is in the name of man

Wherever sister, we are seen as outsiders

Wherever we look everything is in the man’s name …

Sister in the forests of Dandakaranya

Let us take the struggle for new democratic revolution forward

All the people must unite sister

We have to build our raj (power)

Hold the red flag in your hand sister

Let us all join the war sister!

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These songs are often clear about the way forward; organized fight against the oppression and joining the war to reach
the goal of liberation and emancipation is seen as the only way forward. This they achieve by supporting and joining
the armed struggle and by establishing a new democratic order 3

2.e Structure & Functions of KAMS

The KAMS has village level women squads and also has its members in the regional level Revolutionary People’s
Committee (RPC) or the Janathana Sarkar. They take up various responsibilities as part of RPC, the KAMS women
hold post of President and Vice President in most of these RPCs. For example the one section of work of the RPCs is
the Jungle Bachao Committee program and as part of this committee they take care of the forest. They check regularly
to make sure that no one cuts the forests without their permission. The check done by them is different from that of the
forest departments fundamentally because they look at it from the intention of environmental damage and not from the
intention of harassing or looting the poor by joining hands with the elites. The KAMS comrades have definitely
implemented a new democratic consciousness through this and this is consciousness is on the rise throughout the
struggle. Apart from this the women are part of the judicial committee as well and give judgments on issues concerning
the villagers. Women participate in health, education, protection and other such departments as well. The PLGA
(People’s Liberation Guerilla Army) supports the KAMS in all its functions. Women who are in KAMS also join the
Special Forces and fight with the PLGA. Poru Mahila, a part of KAMS is its monthly newsletter which contains the
writings on various issues, articles published in English and Hindi from various other newsletters and magazines on
other movements across are also translated in Gondi are also included.

The women are also in active forefront in anti displacement struggles fighting against the land acquisition and
displacement by the State to implement the MoUs. 4

3. Movement, women’s movement, democracy et all

The difficulty lies in understanding the very meaning of a ‘movement’, what counts as ‘women’s movement’? whether
one can plot KAMS within the graph of women’s movement? These have been the great dilemmas and these questions
often are answered by people from within the women’s movement differently at different times.

But, in the present time when there is a military state in Chattisgarh and an everyday rise in the amount of forces
deployed in the forests of Dandakaranya. With the Adivasi women and men taken in to custody, tortured and acquitted
under fabricated cases, situations where in Adivasis are forced to take up the identity of Maoists and are asked to
surrender to increase the validity of the government and to further justify its military actions and human rights violations
in the Bastar region. The killing of young children below the age of 13 by accusing them as Maoists and by these
means targeting the entire community in order to create a fear politics that can drive them out of their lands, displace
them and would pave way for easy access to the corporations without much struggle is the agenda behind this violent
conflict. The chattisgarh government under the leadership of Chief Minister Raman Singh has signed MoUs with
corporations showing that there is a definite hand of the state in playing with the gaps between ‘development and
violent conflict’.

Yet, one needs to understand the perspectives of various people on the assimilation of these Adivasi women and their
ideology in lines of armed political struggle.

3
Same as reference 2
4
People’s March Vol: 7, No.3, March 2006 , International women’s day special edition

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Interview with Shankar Mahanand, Cultural Activist from Odisha (He was actively involved in the Kandhamal
struggle and is a sympathizer of CPI (Maoist))

The Adivasi lifestyle in earlier days used to be an egalitarian one, which was affected in many ways during the colonial
and post colonial regimes. The movement of the Adivasis resisting against the imperialism and capitalism is egalitarian
in nature. Adivasi women are in the forefront of these struggles both armed and unarmed. But, when it comes to
expressing about the movement or spreading the word to the outside world they are reluctant. They can lead the
movement by organizing, creating awareness, leading actions etc, they are much effective in these whereas when it
comes to political execution there is the involvement of privileged class or men in order to speak for them in the outside
world. In the CPI (Maoist) people with privilege belonging to educated upper classes mostly brahmins come forward to
lead the armed as well as the unarmed struggle. Yet, the party runs only on the evaluation of ‘grade of commitment’.
Many from outside as well as some who do not agree to the ‘commitment’ ideology often criticize the Maoists as
patriarchal and brahminical but as a Dalit actor who has seen the party closely in Kandhamal, I feel the commitment is
the only thing which is questioned when it comes to promotions or demotions. When Sabyasachi Panda made the
wrong decision by blowing up the ambulance which was carrying the civilians and villagers in it mistaking it for a police
van, the women cadre questioned the need for such an action and strongly demanded for the demotion of Sabyasachi
Panda. When he resigned from the party because he could not accept a demotion, the women comrades termed it as
patriarchy and brahminism. So, they have taken clear positions. The action in the Praja court is mostly to bring in the
egalitarian society back among the Adivasis where in a lot of cases of polygamy, desertions are dealt with. This also
created a trust relationship with the women.

The cadre building and the mobile education unit are also filled with Adivasi women and they have taken care of such
tasks really well. The women try to educate themselves in liberation politics and to them this education is much more
valuable than the sanskritised education they get otherwise. The mainstream women’s struggle has always kept its
distance from these armed political struggles of women as their working class ideology comes from the western
influence and there is a need to ‘localize’ the women’s movement. As a women’s movement we should not only fight
for identity politics but to also to look at the struggle as a human liberation.”Nariwaadi andolan sirf naari mukti roop me
hi nahi balki manav mukti ki roop me bhi mukti ko dekhni chahiye”

Interview of M J Vijayan, Founding member of Citizens for Peace and Justice in Chattisgarh initiative and the
General Secretary of Programme for Social Action, Delhi (He was also the member of release of Soni Sori
campaign and was an active supporter of the election battle of Soni in the Lok Sabha elections of 2014) on
‘The Soni Sori and the Manish Kunjam factor & why the unpredictability is better?’

My views and perspectives regarding the armed women’s struggle come from my understanding of why Soni Sori is
not part of the armed struggle?

She is a classic case proving that armed politics does not expand beyond individual revenge. Even with fear or
intimidation she never agreed to join the armed struggle because she wants to be the ‘unpredictable’. Soni has no
predecessor, no adivasi woman example who opted to take against the state single handedly without opting to be a
part of the armed struggle. She is unpredictable also because anyone who went through violence or torture has been
silent or has joined the armed political battle but she chose not to do either. Her strength is increasing day by day and
her strength also lies in the fact that she is alive and standing; she cannot be killed by calling her a Maoist.

When the question of whether or not she should stand in the elections on an AAP seat came up, the Delhi solidarity
for Soni Sori had organized a meeting. Various members and friends of Soni came for the meeting, there was a heated

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debate and the majority of people came to a conclusion that she should not fight the elections and even Lingaa (her
nephew) felt that they have no strength to do this right now. But, at the end of the session when I and Soni were eating
dinner I asked her what she has decided for herself. She replied “I want to fight the elections, not to prove any point to
anybody but, to see the actual number of people who are willing to support me. At the end of election I know I won’t
win but the people who have voted for me whatever number they are in will be my cadre for the fight”. Her determination
and will to fight a democratic battle and to be the unpredictable is to give a shrill to Ankit Garg and the likes has turned
many heads. A lot of people, including people like Nandini Sundar do not support Soni and there is a valid reason to
it. Because of individual battles arising, the long standing democratic struggles of the kinds of Manish Kunjam’s do not
find its desired value. Why is there a romanticization added to Linga and Soni and to the leadership that emerged as
an impact of state violence? And why is that romanticization not extended to people like Manish Kunjam? These
questions are important. Soni Sori’s only engagement with the Maoists is in the form of ‘negotiating and disengaging’.
Negotiating for her life, because the Maoist leadership does not want the likes of Soni Sori to divide their supporters or
her emergence as a leader where as she disengages to remind people as to why they should fight democratic battles.

Thoughts of Shoma Sen, Associate Professor at RTM Nagpur University and an activist of CAVOW (committee
against violence on women) on the relationship between KAMS and mainstream women’s movement

My perspective on why the movements like KAMS exist in the periphery of the women’s movement is that there is a
conventional notion about the democracy and the ‘new democracy’ that is prescribed by KAMS is not in the likes of the
liberal feminism which is at the core of the women’s movement. The mainstream understanding of the word democracy
stands for fighting elections, believing in law or in the women’s commission, involving in governmental negotiations in
a peaceful way and much more but what those people who prescribe to this mainstream notion don’t understand is
that this excludes a lot of people like the Adivasis and their rights in large numbers. This is the reality and one should
understand this reality in today’s world to alter the core-periphery argument. A lot of literature on the struggles such as
KAMS does not come out in the academic discourses because most of these academic literature is prepared with the
help of government resources and hence government funding is strictly restricted to produce materials of these kinds.

Thoughts of Rukmini Sen, Associate Professor, School of Liberal Studies, Ambedkar University Delhi on the
relationship between KAMS and mainstream women’s movement

The kind of literature written on that one reads from today on the women’s movement is a certain kind emerging from
a certain philosophy of the movement which has largely been a liberal democratic engagement with the state. There is
hope and belief in the state when it comes to women’s movement and that is the reason why KAMS kind of movements
remains at the margins of the women’s movement discourses.

4. Conclusion

Thus, based on the above discussions and by looking at the work of KAMS one can see that the ‘What’ is answered
by ‘How’ by the very aspects of looking at KAMS as an organized struggle with an ideology and standing to fight
oppression at large is in itself a characteristic feature that makes it a part of the women’s movement fighting everyday
battles in their lives.

The question of violence, arms, democracy and their engagement with the State often puts these movements in the
periphery of the women’s movement. When one looks at the core of the women’s movement the distinction between
peaceful vs. violence, armed vs. unarmed, democratic vs. undemocratic and the engagement vs. disengagement are
not defined clearly either. Even in the mainstream women’s movement there are situations where these terms are

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engaged with differently at different points in time. There are grey areas in all these differences drawn. When one reads
the new democracy prescribed by these women of KAMS, its scope and parameters carefully without any preconceived
notions one can understand that they do not completely disengage with the state. The demand for wage raises and
the other struggles of these women is also centred on the State and its policies. The withdrawal from electoral politics
and the building of alternate judicial systems to solve their internal crisis only tries to put in the people’s initiative towards
feminizing the state or thinking of the state differently.

But the essential question that has to be put to KAMS and other revolutionary women’s movement which can be put
forth only by the women’s movement is about the assumption and romanticization that women from all walks of life in
a revolutionary politics would gain greater space in politics and consequently, in the decisions concerning development
of their communities and societies, while men would predominantly be reinforced in their traditional roles. Like how the
dominant masculine paradigms lead to the exclusion of women and femininity from the definition of agency,
marginalizing women and men peace-makers, further obscuring women by involving them as participants in violence.
This makes the politics of war and peace both remain within a masculine framework which again reinforces the
understanding of state as well as the security within the dominant masculine domain. This paradigm can be overthrown
only when there is an alteration in the gender relations and in the understanding of masculinity and femininity in defining
politics and agency.

This understanding can only be developed within groups like KAMS, within the larger revolutionary left political
organizations as well as women’s movement when there is a critical engagement. For this to happen, we need to alter
the ideas of core and periphery within the women’s movement and creatively engage with different ideas, politics and
perspectives which are progressive in order to effectively counter the conservative forces and to feminize the state,
which is the only positive scope of liberation left in front of all of us today. This collective struggle which is critical and
engaging will change the face of the women’s movement and alter its core for good. Alienating this women’s movement
by writing it off as wrong shade of red or a misplaced shade of green or by keeping it at the periphery of women’s
movement can only be seen as a conscious wiping of an important historical struggle by mainstream contemporary
struggles and this historical mistake will be deeply regretted.

Other references

1. Women’s role in Tebhaga movement by Peter Custers, EPW, Vol. 21, no. 43, (October 25 1986), Pp. 97-104
2. Maoists in India by Gautam Navlakha, EPW, Vol. 41, no. 22, (June 3-9 2006), pp. 2186- 2189 (special edition)
3. Bastar, Maoism and Salwa Judum by Nandini Sundar, EPW, Vol. 41, No. 29, (July 22-28, 2006) pp- 3187-3192
4. Maoists in India : A Rejoinder by Azad, EPW, Vol. 41, No. 41, (October 14-20, 2006) pp 4379-4383
5. Adivasis, Naxalites and Indian Democracy by Ramachandra Guha, Vol. 42, No. 32, (August 11-17, 2007), pp3305-3312
6. The tragedy of Chattisgarh by Nandini Sundar, EPW, Vol. 44, No. 28, (July 11-17, 2009) p. 4
7. People’s March Vol. 8, No. 8, August 2007, for stories of all women martyrs of the party
8. People’s Marc h, Vol.8, No. 11, November 2007, to read more on Women and Salwa Judum
9. People’s March, Vol. 8, No. 9, September 2007, Pg: 12, Janatana Sarkars: Trend Setters for the all round development
of people
10. Contemporary Indian Feminism by Radha Kumar , Feminist Review, No. 33, Autumn, 1989 pp- 20-29
11. Naxalbari Politics: A Feminist Narrative by Krishna Bandhopadhyay, EPW, Vol. 43, No. 14, (April 5-11, 2008), pp 52-59
12. Revolutionary Marriage : On the politics of sexual stories in Naxalbari by Srila Roy, Feminist Review, No. 83, Sexual
Moralities (2006) pp. 99-118
13. Gender, Violent Conflict and Development, Edited by Dubravka Zakhov, Zubaan Publishing, 2008
14. Contemporary anti-displacement struggles and women’s resistance: A commentary by Shoma Sen, November 3, 2010,
Sanhati.com (http://sanhati.com/excerpted/2923/)

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15. Resources were also used from websites such as bannedthought.net and
https://naxalnaxalitemaoist.wordpress.com/category/feminism/

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