Menu Secondary

Aidwa
AIDWA
  • About AIDWA
  • Events
  • What we do
  • Inspiring Stories
  • Resources
  • Videos
  • NewsLetters
  • Press Releases
search
menu
  • About Aidwa
  • Events
  • Inspiring Stories
  • Magazines
  • Resources
  • Reports
  • Publications
  • Posters
  • What We Do
  • Food and Health
  • Women and Work
  • Gender Violence
  • Gender Discrimination
  • Communalism
  • Legal Intervention
  • Media Portrayal
About us
Contact us
Follow us Facebook - Newsclick Twitter - Newsclick RSS - Newsclick
close menu

Godavari Parulekar

25 Mar 2017
Godavari Parulekar was a freedom fighter, a militant leader of the Warli Adivasi Revolt, a founder of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha, the only woman president of the All India Kisan Sabha,

Born on August 14, 1907, Godavari Parulekar was a freedom fighter, a militant leader of the Warli Adivasi Revolt, a founder of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha, the only woman president of the All India Kisan Sabha, member of the CPI(M) Central Committee for a quarter century, author of the celebrated work Adivasis Revolt, the first woman law graduate in Maharashtra, a dedicated social worker and a legendary leader of the Communist and Kisan movement in India. Convicted in 1932 for taking part in individual satyagraha, she came to Mumbai, where, through the Servants of India Society, she organised a massive adult literacy campaign in the working class areas of Mumbai in 1937-38, this being perhaps the first ever organised literacy campaign in Maharashtra. She led a 10,000-strong demonstration of domestic workers in 1938. Godavari Gokhale and Shamrao Parulekar were married on May 24, 1939, around the time they came into the Communist Party. The Parulekars helped in organising the first anti-war strike of the working class in Mumbai. Godavari was detained for over two years, from 1940-42, for her opposition to British war efforts. After their release from jail in 1942, Shamrao and Godavari switched over completely to organising the peasantry, to which they devoted the rest of their lives. Godavari was elected the first joint secretary of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha at its foundation conference in January 1945. Godavari and Shamrao were a unique revolutionary team, leading the Warli Adivasi Revolt during 1945-47. They also led the armed struggle of the Communist Party for the liberation of Dadra and Nagarhaveli from Portuguese rule in 1954. In the late 1950s, Godavari led the Samyukta Maharashtra struggle in Thane district until the formation of Maharashtra state in 1960. Shamrao died while in detention in 1965. Godavari was also in the same jail at the time. Godavari completed Adivasis Revolt in jail after Shamrao’s death.

 


More Stories

  • AIDWA
    A Diabolical Plot by the BJP’s Assam State Government to Target Minorities: Report on Recent Eviction and Killings in Dhalpur, Assam
    31 Oct 2021
    The Assam incidents once again prove that targeting the minority community has been at the centre of the hate politics pursued by the BJP with the aim of polarising Indians along religious lines.
  • Tapashi Praharaj
    Opportunity for Livelihood to Financial Abyss: Reality check on MFIs
    31 Oct 2021
    “I had to take loans from three different organizations, namely Spandan, SKS and HDFC. I received Rs. 16000/-, Rs. 10000/- and Rs. 15000/- respectively from those three organizations. I was unable to…
  • AIDWA
    From the Archives of AIDWA: A Report of a Fact-finding Committee of Women’s Organisations on Atrocities on Women in Tripura, 1990
    31 Oct 2021
    Crimes including the most brutal and heinous crimes of murder and rape against women have been committed with impunity by known criminals who enjoy political patronage.
  • Sandhya Shaili, Manjeet Rathee
    No Teachers, No Classes in the Schools of a Country that Boasts of Becoming World Guru…
    30 Oct 2021
    The present status of school education in India became clear from the title of the report itself -"No teachers - no classes".
  • AIDWA
    On the Withdrawal of Dabur’s Karva Chauth Ad
    30 Oct 2021
    Say two young girls are wishing each other long life and happiness this way, they might be lesbians, they might not be. But why this uproar as if they are demolishing all that is precious and pure in…
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us