ABSTRACT
Even as the Bombay Commune was being set up, hunger was stalking many parts of wartime British India, including Orissa, Bengal, parts of the Madras Presidency, Maharashtra, Andhra, Bihar, several districts in United Provinces, and Punjab. Communist women were in the forefront of famine relief efforts, and their work catalysed the formation of a new kind of women's political organization – one which moved beyond the ambit of existing nationalist women's organizations, and simultaneously pushed Communist Party to engage with women's political activities. This chapter considers the two activities, the famine relief work of communists and cultural work undertaken by Indian People's Theatre Association during the famine, alongside each other. It traces their work and examines how women were pictured in the writings and cultural productions of communists about the famine. The chapter shows that communist representations of famine were deeply gendered; that is, they relied on stereotypical images of women.
