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{{Short description|Indian communist and revolutionary}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2019}}
{{Infobox person
|name = Anuradha Ghandy
|image = Anuradha_Ghandy.jpg
|alt =
|caption = <small>Source - bbc.co.uk - © [2009] BBC</small>
|birth_name = Anuradha Shanbag
|birth_date = {{Birth date|1954|3|28|df=y}}
|birth_place =
|death_date = {{death date and age|2008|04|12|1954|03|28|df=y}}
|death_place = [[Mumbai]], [[India]]
|body_discovered =
|resting_place =
|resting_place_coordinates =
|nationality = [[India]]n
|other_names = Narmada, Varsha, Rama, Anu, Janaki
|citizenship =
|education =
|alma_mater = [[Elphinstone College]], [[Mumbai]]
|occupation =
|years_active =
|employer =
|known_for = Prominent Figure of Maoist movement in India
|height =
|title =
|term =
|predecessor =
|successor =
|party =
|opponents =
|boards =
|spouse = {{marriage|[[Kobad Ghandy]]|1983}}
|partner =
|children =
|callsign =
|awards =
|website =
|signature =
|footnotes =
|relations =
}}
'''Anuradha Ghandy''' (28 March 1954 – 12 April 2008) was an Indian [[communist]], writer, and [[revolutionary]] leader. She was a Central Committee member of the [[Communist Party of India (Maoist)]]. She was one of the founding members of the [[Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist)]], in [[Maharashtra]].<ref name="The Hindu">{{cite news | url=http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/29/stories/2008042956290700.htm | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501170758/http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/29/stories/2008042956290700.htm | url-status=dead | archive-date=1 May 2008 | title=Maoist leader Anuradha dead | author=Special Correspondent | work=[[The Hindu]] | date= 29 April 2008}}</ref>

Among the policy papers drafted by the [[Marxist]] movement, Anuradha had contributed significantly to the ones on [[caste]]s and '[[Feminism]] and Marxism'. She made the guerillas realise the potential of [[worker cooperative]]s in areas like agricultural production, in [[Dandakaranya]]. She was also critical on shifting patriarchal ideas that were then dominant in the party.<ref name="OPEN">{{cite journal | url=http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/the-rebel | title=The Rebel | author=Rahul Pandita | journal=[[OPEN (Indian magazine)|OPEN]] | date=26 September 2009}}</ref>

In her obituary for Anuradha, with whom she was friends from the days when the latter was still a college student in the 1970s,<ref name="TOI">{{cite news | url=http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/sunday-toi/Memories-of-a-Naxalite-Friend/articleshow/2964822.cms | title=Memories of a Naxalite friend | work=[[The Times of India]] | date=20 April 2008 | author=Jyoti Punwani}}</ref> Jyoti Punwani wrote: "'The [[Naxalite]] menace', says [[Manmohan Singh]], 'is the biggest threat to the country'. But I remember a girl who was always laughing and who gave up a life rich in every way to change the lives of others".

==Early life==
Anuradha was born to an older generation of communists, Ganesh and Kumud Shanbag,<ref name="OPEN"/><ref>{{Cite news|last=Punwani|first=Jyoti|date=2020-12-18|title=Kumud Shanbag: More than a revolutionary's mother|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/society/kumud-shanbag-more-than-a-revolutionarys-mother/article33365475.ece|access-date=2022-02-17|issn=0971-751X}}</ref> who were married in the [[Communist Party of India|CPI]] office in [[Mumbai]].<ref name="OPEN"/> They were in the party till the mid-1950s, when it had not yet branched into the present Maoist and Marxist factions.<ref name="OPEN"/> Ganesh later got into the Defence committee, and volunteered to work in the cases filed against the communists.<ref name="OPEN"/> Kumud has been an active social worker all her life, and is at present involved with a women's group. The couple were very [[Left-wing|progressive]] in the way they brought up their children, who later became revolutionaries. Anuradha's brother, [[Sunil Shanbag]], is a [[Progressivism|progressive]] [[Mumbai]]-based playwright, writing left-wing revolutionary plays. Anuradha attended J. B. Petit School in [[Santacruz, Mumbai|Santacruz]]. The children were exposed to varied views and ideas and were motivated to read a lot and develop their own interests such as classical dancing and theatre.<ref name="OPEN"/> In such a household, where communist ideas enjoyed a monopoly, it was inevitable that Anuradha would become intrigued with revolutionary politics. The prime period for the communist propaganda in India was the 1970s, with the [[Cultural Revolution]] in China, [[opposition to the Vietnam War]] in the US, and many other social changes. It was during this time that [[Naxalbari]] came into being, starting tribal and workers revolts across whole of South Asia. Anuradha was then involved with PROYOM, a radical student group.

==Political career==
In the 1970s, [[Elphinstone College]], [[Mumbai]] was a hub for the extremist left-wing activists, and Anuradha played a prime role. What she saw in the refugee camps in war-hit [[Bangladesh]], and also the famine-hit areas of [[Maharashtra]] prior to that, must have brought her close to social work. Then she got into [[Progressive Youth Movement]] (PROYOM), from where she connected to the then-[[Naxalite]] movement. She took part in the 1975 [[Dalit Panther]] Movement.

She was one of the leading figures in India in its post-emergency days, when the [[Committee for Protection of Democratic Rights]] was founded. Her interests in the [[trade union]]s and the [[dalit]] movements of the [[Vidarbha]] region led to her move from Mumbai to [[Nagpur]] in 1982. She was arrested a number of times around this time, after which she went underground. There were mentions of her involvement with the tribals in [[Bastar District|Bastar]]. She was leading the women's wing of the party, working underground, until her death.<ref name = "OPEN"/>

==Personal life==
In November 1983, Anuradha Shanbag married [[Kobad Ghandy]], also a [[Naxalite]] like herself.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/india/the-rebel | title=The Rebel | date=23 September 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author= Kobad Ghandy |title= Letter to the Editor |url= http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/nation/letter-to-the-editor |work = [[OPEN (Indian magazine)|OPEN]] |date= 8 May 2010 }}</ref> Ghandy hails from a [[Gujarati people|Gujarati]]-[[Parsi]] family.<ref>{{cite web |author= Nauzer Bharucha |title= Kobad's father backed cause: Brother-in-law |url= http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-09-24/mumbai/28098945_1_kobad-anuradha-worli |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20110811063757/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-09-24/mumbai/28098945_1_kobad-anuradha-worli |url-status= dead |archive-date= 11 August 2011 |work= [[The Times of India]] |date= 24 September 2009 }}</ref>

==Death==
Anuradha died of causes related to [[Plasmodium falciparum|falciparum]] [[malaria]] on 12 April 2008. Due to her fear of government persecution including arrests or false encounters (she would be seen by the state as a ‘Maoist terrorist’) she had given the doctor she went to for a checkup a false name and dud phone number. When the doctor found that she had the parasite [[Plasmodium falciparum]], he could not get through to her to warn her about these test results. On April 11, 2008, she was admitted to a hospital in Mumbai, but by then it was too late to save her. She died at the age of 54 on April 12, 2008. [[Systemic scleroderma|Systemic sclerosis]] had weakened her immune system, leading to multiple organ failure, which was, among other things, a contributing factor to her tragic death.<ref>{{cite news | url=http://parsiana.com/archives/details.asp?article_id%3D2614%26search_for%3D |title=A Comrade and Companion |date=21 April 2010 |work= [Parsiana]}}</ref> It was during her stint in Jharkhand, educating the tribals against oppression of women in their society, when she contracted cerebral malaria.<ref name="OPEN"/> During her final days, she had been training the women cadre to develop leadership skills.

==Bibliography==
===Articles===
* 2001: "Fascism, Fundamentalism, and Patriarchy"<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ansari|first=Halima Zoha|date=2022-01-09|title=Anuradha Ghandy On Hindutva, Women In RSS & A Complete Abolition Of Caste|url=https://feminisminindia.com/2022/01/10/anuradha-ghandy-hindutva-rss-women-caste/|access-date=2022-02-17|website=Feminism In India|language=en-GB}}</ref>
*2001: "People's War has shattered the hesitations of the women of Dandakaranya"

====Books====
*2006: ''Philosophical Trends in the Feminist Movement''
*2012: ''Scripting the Change: Selected Writings of Anuradha Ghandy''
*2015: ''The Caste Question In India''

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Communist Party of India (Maoist)}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ghandy, Anuradha}}
[[Category:Communist Party of India (Maoist) politicians]]
[[Category:1954 births]]
[[Category:2008 deaths]]
[[Category:Naxalite–Maoist insurgency]]
[[Category:Indian activists|Feminists]]
[[Category:Anti-revisionists]]
[[Category:Elphinstone College alumni]]

Anuradha Ghandy - Revision history

Bot at 07:56, 24 August 2022