Brinda Karat

Childhood and education

Political career

1 - In 1967, after graduation from Miranda House, she left for London, where she worked with Air India at Bond Street for four years.

2 - While working for Air India, she campaigned against the mandatory wearing of skirts in the airlines rather than the saree. The Air India headquarters finally agreed with her and ever since then women working for the airline in London can exercise a choice of whether to wear a saree or a skirt as their uniform.

3 - In an interview, Karat says she returned to India motivated to work for the people.

4 - While working in London, she became associated with the anti-imperialist, and anti-war movements during the Vietnam War and Marxist ideology.

5 - The Tribune, February 8 She joined many of the anti war demonstrations in London.

6 - In 1971, she decided to leave her job and return to Calcutta. She started her political work as a student activist since under the guidance of the Party she enrolled as a student in Calcutta University. On the suggestion of the party to understand practical politics, she joined the Calcutta University.Initially she worked with students in the college campus and later during the Bangladesh war at refugee camps in the State.

7 - She was also writing for the Party weekly and later became a full-time worker there.

8 - In 1975, she shifted to Delhi "In 1975 I shifted to Delhi because I wanted to work in the trade unions. At that time our party general secretary was Comrade (P) Sunderayya. He was ahead of his time. He had a clear perspective of the area of work to assign workers. He had a sensitive cadre policy. I was privileged to join the party in Delhi when he was the leader. I was accepted and got my membership."

9 - On November 7, 1975, she married Prakash Karat.

10 - The same year she joined the Communist Party of India and started working as a trade union organiser with textile mill workers in North Delhi.

11 - She grew to be active with worker's movements and the Indian women's movements.

12 - She gained prominence in the campaign for reform of rape laws in the 1980s.

13 - Karat was relegated from the central committee in the wake of her protest against the lack of representation of women in politburo. But the party found it an act against Leninist principles. Even today, Brinda stands out as a prominent campaigner for gender issues.

14 - On 11 April 2005, she was elected to the Indian Parliament, Rajya Sabha as a CPI(M) member for West Bengal.

15 - In 2005, only after the inclusion of 5 women members to the Central Committee did Brinda Karat agree to be nominated to the exclusive 17 member Politburo. . The Politburo is the highest decision-making body of the party and Brinda Karat is its first woman member.

Remarks on Baba Ramdev

Her remarks accusing Yoga Guru Swami Ramdev of violating labour laws, and publicising accusations about his workers mixing human body parts in potions, have drawn strong condemnation from some in India, including reprimands from politicians like Sharad Pawar, Mulayam Singh Yadav, Ambika Soni, and Narayan Dutt Tiwari. Pawar noted that Baba Ramdev's 'scientific approach' to yoga was useful while Laloo Prasad Yadav denounced Karat's allegations. Subsequently, she received a legal notice on the behalf of a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader in Faridabad.

Family

She is married to Prakash Karat, a Keralite by origin and a prominent CPI(M) leader, who was the general secretary of the party till 19 April 2015. Her sister Radhika Roy is married to Prannoy Roy, founder and CEO of NDTV. In 2005, she participated in Amu, a film made by her niece, Shonali Bose, on the Anti-Sikh riots in 1984. She is an aunt of the historian Vijay Prashad.

Literary works

Brinda is the author of Survival and Emancipation: Notes from Indian Women's Struggles. This is a comprehensive book on the wide-ranging concerns of the women’s movements in India from a left perspective.