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Revolutionary Desires: Women, Communism, and Feminism in India
Revolutionary Desires examines the lives and subjectivities of militant-nationalist and communist women in India from the late 1920s, shortly after the communist movement took root, to the 1960s, when it fractured. This close study demonstrates how India's revolutionary women shaped a new female—and in some cases feminist—political subject in the twentieth century, in collaboration and contestation with Indian nationalist, liberal-feminist, and European left-wing models of womenhood.
Through a wide range of writings by, and about, revolutionary and communist women, including memoirs, autobiographies, novels, party documents, and interviews, Ania Loomba traces the experiences of these women, showing how they were constrained by, but also how they questioned, the gendered norms of Indian political culture. A collection of carefully restored photographs is dispersed throughout the book, helping to evoke the texture of these women's political experiences, both public and private.
Revolutionary Desires is an original and important intervention into a neglected area of leftist and feminist politics in India by a major voice in feminist studies.
Through a wide range of writings by, and about, revolutionary and communist women, including memoirs, autobiographies, novels, party documents, and interviews, Ania Loomba traces the experiences of these women, showing how they were constrained by, but also how they questioned, the gendered norms of Indian political culture. A collection of carefully restored photographs is dispersed throughout the book, helping to evoke the texture of these women's political experiences, both public and private.
Revolutionary Desires is an original and important intervention into a neglected area of leftist and feminist politics in India by a major voice in feminist studies.
322 pages, Paperback
Published August 2, 2018
12 people are currently reading
336 people want to read
About the author
Ania Loomba
23 books34 followersAnia Loomba is an Indian literary scholar. She is the author of Colonialism/Postcolonialism and works as a literature professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Ania Loomba received her BA (Hons.), M. A., and M. Phil. degrees from the University of Delhi, India, and her Ph. D. from the University of Sussex, UK. She researches and teaches early modern literature, histories of race and colonialism, postcolonial studies, feminist theory, and contemporary Indian literature and culture. She currently holds the Catherine Bryson Chair in the English department. She is also faculty in Comparative Literature, South Asian Studies, and Women's Studies, and her courses are regularly cross-listed with these programs.
Many of her works - such as Colonialism / Postcolonialism (1998) and Shakespeare, Race and Colonialism (2002) - engage with Shakespeare and the Renaissance Theater. Her research on the history of racism since the early modern era includes work on England's early contacts with India, the Moluccas and Turkey.
Ania Loomba received her BA (Hons.), M. A., and M. Phil. degrees from the University of Delhi, India, and her Ph. D. from the University of Sussex, UK. She researches and teaches early modern literature, histories of race and colonialism, postcolonial studies, feminist theory, and contemporary Indian literature and culture. She currently holds the Catherine Bryson Chair in the English department. She is also faculty in Comparative Literature, South Asian Studies, and Women's Studies, and her courses are regularly cross-listed with these programs.
Many of her works - such as Colonialism / Postcolonialism (1998) and Shakespeare, Race and Colonialism (2002) - engage with Shakespeare and the Renaissance Theater. Her research on the history of racism since the early modern era includes work on England's early contacts with India, the Moluccas and Turkey.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 5, 2023
"Today, the gaps and omissions in the attempts of these communist women to fashion an
alternative world are only too evident –insufficient engagement with questions of caste and rank, for example – and they are widely, and often smugly, remarked upon by critics of the left in India. But, as this book has tried to show, such ‘failures’ were part of a complex history in which many women attempted to reach beyond the worlds they had been confined in, and thus revised the scope of what it meant to be both a woman and a revolutionary in India."
Really enjoyed this. The sections based on memoirs and the author's own interviews with specific women are stronger than those that look at novels, in my opinion. This book delves into 'communism-as-lived', the disjunctures between radical rhetoric and reality, and deeply personal histories of politicization, love, familial travails, and revolutionary commitment.
It's a fantastic look at some of the incredible lives that revolutionary women lived in 20th century India. Early 'terrorist' movements were imbued with a degree of puritanism, as well as a romanticisation of a (male-centric and often quite privileged) asceticism. While the Communist movement challenged some pre-conceived notions about the place for love, family, and gender roles in radical movements it did still operate in a deeply conservative culture and was thus far from immune to patriarchal modes and mores.
Still, as the quote above illustrates, taking part in revolutionary politics in India could often be hugely transformative for those involved- women especially. Serious texts like this, that seek to unearth the lesser-known stories of the Left, are hugely valuable; they can serve as a resource for thinking through both past and present, with one eye on the future.
alternative world are only too evident –insufficient engagement with questions of caste and rank, for example – and they are widely, and often smugly, remarked upon by critics of the left in India. But, as this book has tried to show, such ‘failures’ were part of a complex history in which many women attempted to reach beyond the worlds they had been confined in, and thus revised the scope of what it meant to be both a woman and a revolutionary in India."
Really enjoyed this. The sections based on memoirs and the author's own interviews with specific women are stronger than those that look at novels, in my opinion. This book delves into 'communism-as-lived', the disjunctures between radical rhetoric and reality, and deeply personal histories of politicization, love, familial travails, and revolutionary commitment.
It's a fantastic look at some of the incredible lives that revolutionary women lived in 20th century India. Early 'terrorist' movements were imbued with a degree of puritanism, as well as a romanticisation of a (male-centric and often quite privileged) asceticism. While the Communist movement challenged some pre-conceived notions about the place for love, family, and gender roles in radical movements it did still operate in a deeply conservative culture and was thus far from immune to patriarchal modes and mores.
Still, as the quote above illustrates, taking part in revolutionary politics in India could often be hugely transformative for those involved- women especially. Serious texts like this, that seek to unearth the lesser-known stories of the Left, are hugely valuable; they can serve as a resource for thinking through both past and present, with one eye on the future.
April 3, 2020
Chapter 1: the romance of revolution.
Revolutionary women have pushed against the culture dictated up until the 20s, where assumption was that an ideal revolutionary was dedicated and ascetic man. books likw pather dabi, chair adhyay have revolutionary women in the forefront that showed to some degree how the underground militia recruited and led these women. The author exposes the methods the women inductees had to go through to show their "toughness". Women were locked in airless containers, small cuts made on chest to show their strength to hold on to pain. (Have these men never heard of menstruation pain or labor pain???) Once the said leadership was satisfied with the recruits tolerance, they were recruited to the group. And when it came to romance, the literature managed to maintain the indian womanhood status quo. The women who were attracted to the leader or other member managed to stay loyal without conjugal relationship and sometimes not even living in same country. The loyalty for the man and the cause was blurred.
Chapter 2: Love in the time of revolution
In the vein of romance of revolution, Loomba takes on anecdotes of women who found love amidst revolution with men whose primary pledge was India's independence. For these women, their personal progression with romance was secondary and sacrificed it without a second thought. It was immaterial in the grand scheme of things and it was also what made men attractive to them. When they were written about, the prejudice was obvious.
Chapter 3: Commune-ism
Revolutionary women have pushed against the culture dictated up until the 20s, where assumption was that an ideal revolutionary was dedicated and ascetic man. books likw pather dabi, chair adhyay have revolutionary women in the forefront that showed to some degree how the underground militia recruited and led these women. The author exposes the methods the women inductees had to go through to show their "toughness". Women were locked in airless containers, small cuts made on chest to show their strength to hold on to pain. (Have these men never heard of menstruation pain or labor pain???) Once the said leadership was satisfied with the recruits tolerance, they were recruited to the group. And when it came to romance, the literature managed to maintain the indian womanhood status quo. The women who were attracted to the leader or other member managed to stay loyal without conjugal relationship and sometimes not even living in same country. The loyalty for the man and the cause was blurred.
Chapter 2: Love in the time of revolution
In the vein of romance of revolution, Loomba takes on anecdotes of women who found love amidst revolution with men whose primary pledge was India's independence. For these women, their personal progression with romance was secondary and sacrificed it without a second thought. It was immaterial in the grand scheme of things and it was also what made men attractive to them. When they were written about, the prejudice was obvious.
Chapter 3: Commune-ism
November 6, 2020
3.5
The only thing which lets down this book is the writing. If you can get past a few dull bits, it's quite a good read about the Indian communist women and their personal and political lives.
The only thing which lets down this book is the writing. If you can get past a few dull bits, it's quite a good read about the Indian communist women and their personal and political lives.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews