NIF Book Prize 2023: In a tell-a-tale, Gita Ramaswamy narrates her journey of a 'lapsed revolutionary'

“This is the story of my reckoning with myself and the world around me...” These are the words with which social activist and writer Gita Ramaswamy starts narrating the journey of her life that started with becoming a revolutionary at home and eventually finding a pedestal to fight and struggle for the basic rights of the deprived labourers in her book “Land Guns Caste Woman: The Memoir of a Lapsed Revolutionary”.

The book is awash with anecdotes of her struggle against societal dogmas, growing involvement with the Naxalite movement in the 1970s and the battle for landless Dalits of Ibrahimpatnam in Telangana in the 1980s. As she speaks about the caste diktats and deprivation faced by the powerless people, the book emerges like a bundle of a dreamer's tale of hardship and struggle sewn by courage, belief and hope to see a better and changed future someday.

But Gita Ramaswamy says collating a memoir was never the plan. “I never planned to collate it as a memoir. My husband died six years ago and after he passed away, I went through a very difficult time. At that time, I thought if I wrote about the times which were good and joyous, it would help me come out of that depression. So, I wrote the first draft in 2018 and I just kept it to myself. It was during the pandemic, when we had time in our hand, that I went back to the script and worked over it, after which it emerged as a full-fledged book,” Ramaswamy said while speaking to WION.

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Today, the book has made it to the Shortlist of Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2023 and has a fair chance to clinch the title. After the decades-long journey, which took her from being a part of the Naxalite movement to fighting against the powerful Reddys in Ibrahimpatnam, today as she looks back at those struggle years, she calls herself “a lapsed revolutionary”.

“Revolutionary means to me those who have joined the militant struggle. I was part of the Naxalite movement from 1973-76. After that, I left the Naxalite movement and hence, I see myself as a lapsed revolutionary,” Ramaswamy said.

The memoir stands at a different place with Ramaswamy's unabashed acceptance of misjudgements and failures and gives readers a very honest understanding of the ground realities. Speaking about her dismay and wish to run away from Ibrahimpatnam, she said, “In Ibrahimpatnam, if I had a group of people like me, who were educated and had resources and network, and were willing to work in rural areas that would have certainly helped me to continue.”

A 'crazy' feminist turned communist

Her feminist ideals speak throughout the memoir as she talks about the struggles of wearing a bra and being considered a 'slut' and the Dalit women being denied to repudiate their debts by the landlords. But interestingly, at one given point in time, Ramaswamy expresses how she didn't see any contradiction between feminism and communism.

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“It was really in the early 70s when I did not see any contradiction between feminism and communism. Because I came to communism through feminism. I was a feminist because of the conditions at home and I was rebellious. At that time communist texts were not available to me but feminist texts were. I had read the feminist texts before I came to college and it had a great impact on me. In college, when I talked about issues of feminism I was considered very odd, almost crazy. Only the leftists, accepted my ideas and did not see me as a crazy woman,” explains Ramaswamy.

“And for me, it was a great relief to find a group that did not think I was crazy. So, that's how I came to work on both issues. At that time, I did think feminism addressed inner life and Marxism addressed outer life, although I don't perceive it that way now,” she added.

Shadows of Emergency

Ramaswamy's memoir also traces back to the days when India was under Emergency and it was perceived as a dominant movement that overshadowed other political movements for restoration of democracy back in the day.

Speaking about her struggle through those dark days, she said, “There was no hope at the time of Emergency. We really thought the Emergency won't be lifted and so we prepared for the long haul which is why we wrote exams in Punjabi. My husband and I wrote exams in Punjabi to create a new identity and in a way disappear. We got the 10th class certificate as Jyoti and Vijay and we decided to go to Chattisgarh and work there. However, the Emergency was lifted. But many of the activists had given up and gone back to family and career.”

Today, the book has made it to the Shortlist of New India Foundation's Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay NIF Book Prize 2023 which is India’s largest and most respected Book Prize for non-fiction in the area of modern and contemporary Indian history. The prize was instituted in 2018 and carries an award of Rs 1.5 million ($17997 approx.) as well as a citation at the Bangalore Literature Festival. The final winner will be announced on December 1.

Speaking about the book being part of the Shortlist of NIF Book Prize 2023, Ramaswamy said, “My publishers have put in a lot of work and I would like to see their work also being rewarded. This award is for the book and not for me. If the award helps me connect with the younger generation who like and resonate with the book, it will be really thrilling and wonderful.”