ABSTRACT
The purpose of this chapter is two-fold. First I attempt to excavate cinematic narratives that center women’s participation in the 1960-75 Naxalite movement with the view to challenging the generally-held perception of this movement being solely led by men. Second I problematize the centrality occupied by cities in popular perceptions of the Naxalite movement and argue that non-metropolitan subjectivities, in particular rural women, too made considerable contribution to the movement. In doing so, I charge traditional understanding of Naxalism of classism, casteism, gender bias, and regionalism and explore the Naxalite resistance outside purely middleclass, masculine, and urban contexts. Some of the questions that I seek to answer are: How exactly did the 1967 Naxalbari1 uprising, a purely agrarian revolt, get highjacked by the city-in particular Calcutta? How did it transmogrify into a violent urban rebellion led by middles-class youth who changed an agrarian uprising into metropolitan ‘terrorism’ and left a lasting and dominant legacy in popular imagination? And what became of the voice of the tribal-in particular tribal women-activists who were at the forefront of the very fi rst Naxalite rebellion but were rendered anonymous by the available history? And most importantly, why were their voices erased in the fi rst place?
