Exploring the roles of agrarian working class women in agrarian struggles: participation, mobilization, and organizations in postcolonial Bihar, India

This article explores the roles of agrarian working class women in agrarian struggles in postcolonial Bihar, India. The article argues that the working class women played critical roles in mobilizing rural masses and providing a gender dimension of the struggles. They actively participated in the struggles, applying innovative ideas and techniques to resist their socio-economic exploitations committed by upper and middle caste landlords and rich peasants in rural Bihar. They took their decisions collectively while resisting the exploitation. The collective leadership and participation of the women in the struggles was a major noticeable feature in terms of women’s roles; nonetheless, in the 1980s, women’s grassroots leadership emerged at local levels; thus, the article also explores some women leaders who were locally famous and played a critical role in mobilizing women and in confronting exploitative systems. Additionally, the article studies various women’s organizations and justice delivery mechanisms that were active in the rural areas of the state and resisted women’s exploitation, gender-based violence, and police repression. In the 1990s, Dalit women began arming themselves to fight against the violence perpetrated by the caste-based private militias and oppressors. Finally, the article deals with the factors responsible for the emerging militancy of Dalit women.