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Brinda Karat

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Brinda Karat
Member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
Incumbent
Assumed office
2005
Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha
In office
2005-2011
ConstituencyWest Bengal
Personal details
Born
Brinda Das

(1947-10-17) 17 October 1947 (age 77)
Calcutta, West Bengal, India
Political partyCommunist Party of India (Marxist)
Spouse
​
(m. 1975)​
RelationsRadhika Roy (sister)
Prannoy Roy (brother-in-law)
Vijay Prashad (nephew)
Signature

Brinda Karat (née Das; born 17 October 1947)[1][2] is an Indian Marxist politician and former member of Rajya Sabha for West Bengal, serving as a Communist Party of India (Marxist) representative from 11 April 2005 to 2011.

In 2005, she became the first woman member of the CPI(M) Politburo.[3] She has also been the general secretary of the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA) from 1993 to 2004[4][5] and thereafter its vice-president.[6]

Early life and education

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Karat was born on 17 October 1947 in Calcutta, West Bengal, India to Oshrukona Mitra, and Suraj Lal Das. Her mother was Bengali, and her father was a Punjabi refugee from Lahore in the newly created Pakistan. Theirs was an inter-community marriage fraught with familial opposition; Mitra’s father’s brother imposed a social ban on attending the wedding. In response, she approached her mother’s family, and finally the ceremony took place at Indian nationalist Subodh Chandra Mallik’s home.[2]

Karat grew up with 4 siblings—one elder brother, one elder sister and one younger sister. Her father raised them in a “liberal and secular” household. “We had no barriers or brakes on kind of friends we can have or kind of activities we were into,” she recalled in a 2005 interview, “We had tremendous amount of freedom. There was no personal battle I had to fight in this regard”.[7]

Karat's mother died when she was 5.[2] Until 12 or 13, she remained in Calcutta and studied at Loreto House under Irish nuns. Later, she enrolled in the Welham Girls’ School in Dehradun, where she demonstrated strong athletic skills that helped her secure admission into New Delhi’s Miranda House at 16.[7][8][9] At the time, she did not consider herself “politically motivated” although she expressed interest in drama, theatre and debates. She credits her then college professor Devaki Jain, the feminist economist, for influencing her thinking.[7]

Political career

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In 1967, after graduation from Miranda House, she left for London, where she worked with Air India at Bond Street for four years.[7] While working for Air India, she campaigned against the mandatory wearing of skirts in the airlines rather than the saree. The Air India headquarters finally agreed with her and ever since then women working for the airline in London can exercise a choice of whether to wear a saree or a skirt as their uniform.[9]

At the same time, anti-war movements across Europe and the Atlantic were on the rise to protest the intervention of the United States in Vietnam. For Karat, this was the turning point; “There was a whole range of questions,” she mentioned in 2005, “Why should a poor country like Vietnam be attacked by a big power like America? Why should young people go to war? What were the reasons for war? These questions are even relevant today. At that time you could not be young without questioning the Vietnam War.” Consequently, She was associated with a few Indian student groups, but no institution in particular. She familiarised herself with Marxist literature, and began ideating ways to “bring back home that awareness in the Indian context.”[7]

In 1971, she decided to leave her job and return to Calcutta. She started her political work as a student activist since under the guidance of the Party she enrolled as a student in Calcutta University. Initially she worked with students in the college campus and later during the Bangladesh war at refugee camps in the State.[7] She was also writing for the Party weekly and later became a full-time worker there.[citation needed] In 1975, she shifted to Delhi "In 1975 I shifted to Delhi because I wanted to work in the trade unions. At that time our party general secretary was Comrade P. Sundaraiah. He was ahead of his time. He had a clear perspective of the area of work to assign workers. He had a sensitive cadre policy. I was privileged to join the party in Delhi when he was the leader. I was accepted and got my membership."[7]

On 7 November 1975, she married Prakash Karat.[10] The same year she started working as a trade union organiser with textile mill workers in North Delhi.[11] She grew to be active with worker's movements and the Indian women's movements. She gained prominence in the campaign for reform of rape laws in the 1980s.[12] Karat is a prominent campaigner for gender issues and has fought within the party for adequate representation for women in its leadership.[13] On 11 April 2005, she was elected to the Indian Parliament, Rajya Sabha as a CPI(M) member for West Bengal.[14] In 2005, she was also elected to the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the highest decision-making body of the party and Brinda Karat is its first woman member.[13]

Family

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She is married to Prakash Karat in 7 November 1975, a Keralite by origin and a prominent CPI(M) leader.[15][16] Her sister Radhika Roy is married to Prannoy Roy, founder and CEO of NDTV.[7] In 2005, she participated in Amu,[17] a film made by her niece, Shonali Bose, on the Anti-Sikh riots in 1984. She is an aunt of the historian Vijay Prashad.[18]

Literary works

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Brinda is the author of Survival and Emancipation: Notes from Indian Women's Struggles, a work addressing the challenges faced by women's movements in India from a left perspective.[3][4]

Bibliography

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  • Survival and Emancipation: Notes from Indian Women's Struggles. Three Essays Collective, New Delhi, 2005. ISBN 81-88789-37-2.

References

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  1. ^ "B'day Special: Brinda Karat " from 'air-hostess' to first female member of CPM Polit Bureau". India TV News. 16 October 2013. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  2. ^ a b c Sharma, Ashish (11 August 2007). "Interview, livemint". Mint. Archived from the original on 20 December 2010. Retrieved 9 March 2022.
  3. ^ a b Menon, Pavathi (2 July 2005). "Book Review, Frontline, Jul 02 – 15, 2005". Frontline. Archived from the original on 15 May 2008. Retrieved 17 June 2023.
  4. ^ a b "Author profile, threeessays". Archived from the original on 4 January 2008. Retrieved 17 January 2008.
  5. ^ New woman on top December 2004
  6. ^ The 7th National Conference of AIDWA, Frontline, Dec. 04 – 17, 2004[usurped]
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h "Exclusive Interview/Brinda Karat". Rediff. 6 May 2005. Retrieved 13 November 2022.
  8. ^ Chowdhury, Kavita (5 July 2013). "Lunch with BS: Brinda Karat, CPI (M) Politburo Member". Business Standard India. Retrieved 12 November 2022.
  9. ^ a b "A brand named Brinda". The Telegraph. 16 April 2005. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  10. ^ "The less sociable socialist". India Today. 14 December 2007. Retrieved 19 September 2019.
  11. ^ "The Rediff Interview/CPI-M Politburo member Brinda Karat". Rediff.com. 6 May 2005. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  12. ^ "January 27, 2013". archives.peoplesdemocracy.in. Retrieved 25 May 2019.
  13. ^ a b "Our politics is still regressive vis a vis women representation: Brinda Karat". The Hans India. 8 January 2016. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  14. ^ "Yechury, Brinda Karat take oath"[dead link]. The Hindu. 23 August 2005. Retrieved 23 February 2019.
  15. ^ "Prakash Karat". Jagranjosh.com. 24 April 2014. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  16. ^ "Comrade Prakash Karat breaks his silence on Prakash Karat - Indian Express". archive.indianexpress.com. 8 February 2008. Retrieved 25 August 2020.
  17. ^ Brinda Karat at IMDb
  18. ^ "Who is Brinda Karat? All you need to know about CPI (M) leader who blocked bulldozer amid demolition drive in Jahangirpuri". Free Press Journal. 20 April 2022. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
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