Brinda Karat

Early life and education

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.

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”.

Karat's mother died when she was 5. 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. 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.

Political career

In 1967, after graduation from Miranda House, she left for London, where she worked with Air India at Bond Street for four years.

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.”

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. She was also writing for the Party weekly and later became a full-time worker there. 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."

On 7 November 1975, she married Prakash Karat. The same year she started working as a trade union organiser with textile mill workers in North Delhi. 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. Karat is a prominent campaigner for gender issues and has fought within the party for adequate representation for women in its leadership. On 11 April 2005, she was elected to the Indian Parliament, Rajya Sabha as a CPI(M) member for West Bengal. 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.

Family

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

Literary works

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, and of An Education for Rita: A Memoir, 1975-1985 over her life and struggle under the name of Rita.

Bibliography

• Brinda Karat, Survival and Emancipation: Notes from Indian Women's Struggles. New Delhi, Three Essays Collective, 2005. .
• Brinda Karat, An Education for Rita: A Memoir, 1975-1985. New Delhi, LeftWord Books, 2024. .
• Brinda Karat, Hindutva and Violence against Women. New Delhi, Speaking Tiger Books LLP, 2024. .

References

References

1. (16 October 2013). "B'day Special: Brinda Karat " from 'air-hostess' to first female member of CPM Polit Bureau". India TV News.
2. Sharma, Ashish. (11 August 2007). "Interview, livemint". Mint.
3. "Author profile, threeessays".
4. (December 2004). "India Together: New woman on top - December 2004".
5. {{usurped. [https://archive.today/20130125064416/http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/fline/fl2125/stories/20041217004602600.htm The 7th National Conference of AIDWA, Frontline, Dec. 04 – 17, 2004]
6. (6 May 2005). "Exclusive Interview/Brinda Karat". Rediff.
7. Chowdhury, Kavita. (5 July 2013). "Lunch with BS: Brinda Karat, CPI (M) Politburo Member". Business Standard India.
8. (14 December 2007). "The less sociable socialist". India Today.
9. (6 May 2005). "The Rediff Interview/CPI-M Politburo member Brinda Karat". [[Rediff.com]].
10. "January 27, 2013".
11. (8 January 2016). "Our politics is still regressive vis a vis women representation: Brinda Karat". [[The Hans India]].
12. [https://www.thehindu.com/2005/08/23/stories/2005082306871200.htm "Yechury, Brinda Karat take oath"]{{dead link. (April 2021)
13. (24 April 2014). "Prakash Karat". Jagranjosh.com.
14. (8 February 2008). "Comrade Prakash Karat breaks his silence on Prakash Karat - Indian Express". archive.indianexpress.com.
15. (20 April 2022). "Who is Brinda Karat? All you need to know about CPI (M) leader who blocked bulldozer amid demolition drive in Jahangirpuri". Free Press Journal.
16. Menon, Pavathi. (2 July 2005). "Book Review, Frontline, Jul 02 – 15, 2005".