Narmada (died 4 December 2012) was one of the "senior-most" female cadres of the

Communist Party of India (Maoist) The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist banned communist political party and militant organization in India which aims to overthrow the "semi-colonial and semi-feudal Indian state" through protracted people' ...

, a banned

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

insurgent

communist party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. ...

in India. She was a Central Committee member of the party, and reportedly used to frame "all policies for the female cadre of Maoists."

Family

She married Sudhakar ''alias'' "Kiran".

B. Sudhakar B. Sudhakar is a Maoist leader and members of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Maoist) Career Sudhakar alias Kiran hailing from Sarangapur village, Nirmal in states Adilabad district of Telangana State. Between 1982 and 1983, he ...

is seen as a Maoist

ideologue An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...

, and is a member of CPI (Maoist)'s "

publication To publish is to make content available to the general public.Berne Conve ...

division". He is also a member of the Politburo of the party.

Guerrilla life

Narmada was able to fluently communicate in seven languages, including English. She dropped-out the college and joined the CPI (Maoist) at an early age of 18, and she had spent over 30 years in the jungles as a veteran to the Maoist movement in India. Her father was also a supporter of the communist ideology, and his words so touched her that she made her mind to join the radical leftists. During an interview with Rahul Pandita and Vanessa (a French

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

), at an unknown time in the jungles of

Dandakaranya Dandakaranya is a historical region in India, mentioned in the Ramayana. It is identified with a territory roughly equivalent to the Bastar division in the Chhattisgarh state in the central-east part of India. It covers about of land, which inc ...

, Narmada said: And, it was after that conversation with her father, that she decided to join the

s. She was active as the Divisional Secretary of South

Gadchiroli Gadchiroli ( �əɖt͡ʃiɾoliː is a city and a municipal council in Gadchiroli district in the state of Maharashtra, central India. It is located on eastern side of Maharashtra, and is the administrative headquarters of the district. Gadchi ...

division of CPI (Maoist). She was the second female comrade to have been selected as a member of the Central Committee of the radical leftist organisation, after

Anuradha Ghandy Anuradha Ghandy (28 March 1954 – 12 April 2008) was an Indian communist, writer, and revolutionary leader. She was a Central Committee member of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). She was one of the founding members of the Communist Pa ...

(wife of

Kobad Ghandy Kobad Ghandy (born 1951) is an Indian communist activist and ideologue. He became involved in revolutionary politics whilst a student in England in the 1970s, and worked as an organizer for the civil rights movement in India. He was a founding m ...

). She was also acting as the chief of the ''

Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan (English: ''Revolutionary Adivasi Women's Organisation'') is a banned women's organisation based in India. The Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan (KAMS) is a successor of the Adivasi Mahila Sanghathana (AMS). ...

's'' unit of Dandakaranya region, which is among the top-most "women's organizations" in India when it comes to numbers of registered members, and

Arundhati Roy Suzanna Arundhati Roy (born 24 November 1961) is an Indian author best known for her novel ''The God of Small Things'' (1997), which won the Booker Prize for Fiction in 1997 and became the best-selling book by a non-expatriate Indian author. S ...

says that it has 90,000 members. She had as much as 53 police cases registered against her name in Maharashtra.

Death

Narmada was reported to have been gunned-down during a fierce hour-long exchange of fire between the

s and State's police forces on 4 December 2012, near Hiker village, bordering Abujmarh of Chhattisgarh, in south Gadchiroli. The Maoists managed to escape the scene along with her body; and her body is reported to have been buried at Malwada tribal village in

Kanker district Uttar Bastar Kanker District is located in the southern region of the state of Chhattisgarh, India within the longitudes 20.6-20.24 and latitudes 80.48-81.48. The total area of the district is 6432 square kilometers. The population is 748,941. The ...

of Chhattisgarh. After the encounter, the

Superintendent of Police Superintendent (Supt) is a rank in the British police and in most English-speaking Commonwealth nations. In many Commonwealth countries, the full version is superintendent of police (SP). The rank is also used in most British Overseas Territories ...

(Gadchiroli), Mohd. Suvej Haq, said to media personnels: She is reported to have been 57 years old when she died, by ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'', but

Hindustan Times ''Hindustan Times'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper based in Delhi. It is the flagship publication of HT Media, an entity controlled by the KK Birla family, and is owned by Shobhana Bhartia. It was founded by Sunder Singh Ly ...

reports that she was 46. And, Rahul Pandita has written that Narmada's age was 48, when he and Vanessa interviewed her. While the "police sources" also say that "Narmada Akka's funeral was carried out at a village in Chhattisgarh", the Maoists did not reach out to the

media Media may refer to: Communication * Media (communication), tools used to deliver information or data ** Advertising media, various media, content, buying and placement for advertising ** Broadcast media, communications delivered over mass e ...

following the incident.

External links

International Campaign Against War on the People in India

The French journalist, Vanessa's conversation with Narmada and several other Comrades

OPEN Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * ''Open'' (Cowboy Junkies album), 2001 * ''Open'' ( ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akka, Narmada 2012 deaths Anti-revisionists Deaths by firearm in India Indian guerrillas Naxalite–Maoist insurgency Communist Party of India (Maoist) politicians Women in Andhra Pradesh politics Year of birth missing Indian women in war Women in 20th-century warfare 20th-century Indian women politicians 20th-century Indian politicians Adivasi politicians Adivasi women People from Gadchiroli district People shot dead by law enforcement officers in India

Family

Guerrilla life

Death

See also

External links

References