WHEN REVOLUTION MEETS PATRIARCHY
Two recent developments in South Asia have brought focus to Left politics. In Kerala, KK Shailaja’s omission from the Cabinet led to questions about the gender bias among “progressive” forces. In Nepal, Prime Minister (PM) KP Oli’s authoritarian turn has put democracy at risk.
This week, we recommend former Nepali Maoist leader, Hisila Yami’s memoir, Hisila: From Revolutionary to First Lady. Yami writes of her journey from Nepal to Delhi, where she turned to radical Left politics under the influence of her husband, Baburam Bhattarai, to the underground years of waging war against the Nepali State, to fighting elections and becoming a minister and then the wife of a PM.
The book chronicles Nepali politics, but beyond that, it is a story of how political movements in South Asia are patriarchal — women leaders are treated as appendages of their male partners, and are subjected to misogyny. And yet they fight for democracy.
Hisila: From Revolutionary to First Lady
2021