Of Captivity and Resistance

A materialist and political interpretation of dissenting writings that recovers a story of women's political participation.

An intervention in the field of dissenting writings by women political detainees in India in the 1970s, and it straddles three interlinked areas: politics, prison and writing. It focuses on writings arising out of Bengal's Naxalite movement (1967–1975) and from the pan-Indian period of Emergency (1975–1977).Of Captivity and Resistance offers a historical and political study of women's experiences of dissent and detention in postcolonial India. Primarily focusing on the Naxalite movement (1967–75) and on the pan-Indian period of Emergency (1975–77), the study traces women's political participation in revolutionary movements and in dissident politics, and attends to their experiences of torture and incarceration. Simultaneously, by drawing on the varied histories of women's incarceration before and after the 'long seventies', the book provides an expanded terrain for evaluating the gendered dimensions of radical politics and of testimonial literature on carcerality, state violence and impunity. The analysis focuses on women's transformation from marginal political participants to resistant detainees. By studying the linkages between radical politics, captivity and resistance, the book offers a widened account of women's political participation, contributes to contemporary debates on political incarceration and strengthens the resistant history of rights and of dissenting literature in India and in the Global South.