Articles by Vasanth Kannabiran

The increasing participation of women in microcredit and formation of women's self-help groups have done little more than assuring short-term relief to ease immediate needs. What is absent is a long-term social, political and cultural vision that will end the subordination of women.

Recent actions by the Naxalite movement in Andhra Pradesh raise questions about the ethics and lack of accountability on the part of these groups. It is not merely in the bearing and use of arms that the Naxalite movement mirrors the state. Unfortunately there is a stark resemblance even in the indiscriminate and extremely moralistic identification of the enemy who must then be eliminated. The power of naming in this entire scenario vests with the police on the one side and the Naxalites on the other. Actions such as the recent killings by the Naxalites destroy public confidence and increase the faith of people in repressive measures and fascist solutions. The fear of terrorism is not easy to contain and when radical politics begins to use the weapon of terror that, in our view, signals the end of politics.

For over two decades, the feminist critique of revolutionary left movements in Andhra Pradesh has questioned the lack of visibility for gender concerns on the party agenda. The recent meeting and exchange of views between women's groups and parties on the radical left, however, provided cause for optimism on feminist politics and its impact on revolutionary movements.

Women and the 81st Amendment Vasanth Kannabiran Kalpana Kannabiran If women manage to push the 81st amendment bill through the parliament, it will topple all current assumptions about hierarchies of caste, class and gender. The legislation will mean large-scale reorganisation of constituency allocation in order to accommodate, women, and thus fewer seats for men. It also creates possibility for an SC woman to represent not only men of her own caste, hut upper caste men and women as well.