Paper short abstract:

The paper explores changing ideals and norms of masculinity among middle-class Naxalites active in 1970s Calcutta. Male activism, just like female involvement, challenged moral norms, in particular kin-relations, and male activists created new kinds of relatedness.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores changing ideals and norms of masculinity among middle-class activists, who were involved in the Naxalite movement in urban Bengal during the 1970s. Existing interpretations of the relationship between gendered identities and the Maoist movement privilege a women-centred perspective and come to the conclusion that although women's involvement into the movement challenged stereotypical notions of femininity, through the activists' commitment to egalitarian and 'free' gender relations, cohabitation without marriage and progressive sexual relations between activists did often only thinly disguise the one-sidedness of such a liberation. While there can be no doubt that women have encountered many obstacles in their emancipatory efforts in this as well as other revolutionary movements, I argue that though a patriarchal ideology did persist critics overlook subtle processes of gender transformation at play, in particular how men renegotiated existing gender roles through their experience of the movement. I suggest that the new forms of relationships, which were fostered among members of Maoist groups in Calcutta in the 1970s, challenged the moral norms governing personal relations and redefined chosen bonds as the most valued personal relationships. Friendships, sexual freedom and egalitarian values - often represented in contrast to biological, blood and filial bonds - made male comrades question gender roles though the movement very often left the desires and expectations of female activists unfulfilled. The paper traces these challenges of the personal through the political in the life histories of former activists and charts how their experiences have created shifts in their understanding of patriarchal norms as well as challenges to hegemonic models of masculinity. The paper suggests that in many instances close relationships with other comrades - male and female - represent individually celebrated and developed breaks with tradition which may enable a questioning of such norms. Far from being simply hierarchical the ties that bind the former comrades together are a mixture of shared experiences and shared values as well as networks that are successful where they "create kinship out of ties of relationship that are originally ties of friendship...." (Schneider and Williams).