Proletarian Internationalism in the Contemporary Women’s Movement: A Perspective from India

Abstract

This article discusses the influence of internationalist perspectives on the women’s movement in India. It provides a history of anti-imperialist feminism in general but focuses on some of the major women’s organizations in India. The aim is to trace the legacy of anti-imperialist feminist politics as a response to the strategies of Western imperialist powers to counter the influence of radical and socialist politics, particularly after the Russian Revolution. The article also documents women’s participation in radical and socialist struggles for independence and social transformation, which received strong political support from the Soviet Union in the postwar period and extends the analysis to the period of neoliberalism and the structural adjustment policies imposed on the South.