Patriarchy, 20th Century Bengal and the Naxalbari Movement (1965-1975): Tracing the Roots through Lives of Others

Authors

Pritha Sarkar

Abstract

The objective in this paper is to identify the roots of patriarchy in the Naxalbari movement (1965-1975) through one of the texts in Indian English Literature. The Naxalbari movement is the first peasant revolution within twenty years of Indian Independence that initiated in a small village named Naxalbari situated in the Darjeeling district of West Bengal. Through Lives of Others (2014) by Neil Mukherjee the paper analyses the patriarchy of the 20^th century urban Bengal society and how it seeped into the movement. Therefore, it exposes the androcentric underpinning of a movement dedicated to creating an egalitarian society. While the scholarly studies on the movement have recognized the dominating gender inequality, its cause has not yet been traversed upon. This paper addresses the gap by exploring the source of this patriarchy. Thus, it tries to examine the seeds of the concealed patriarchal framework within the dissenting Naxalbari movement.

Author Biography

Pritha Sarkar is a research student of English Literature in the department of Humanities and Social Science (H.S.S.), Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T.) Kanpur. She completed her master’s degree in 2016 and was a lecturer who taught graduate courses in a college for a year before entering research. Her areas of interest include Indian Feminist Literature, Indian English Literature, English Literature of Bengal, Gender Studies and Movement Literature.

Recommended Citation

Sarkar, Pritha (2021) "Patriarchy, 20th Century Bengal and the Naxalbari Movement (1965-1975): Tracing the Roots through Lives of Others," Journal of International Women's Studies: Vol. 22: Iss. 9, Article 11.
Available at: https://vc.bridgew.edu/jiws/vol22/iss9/11