In volume 1, Lisa Armstrong has an essay that is - in many ways - the prehistory of her book on AIDWA. That essay - Indian Peasant Women’s Activism in a Hot Cold War - demonstrates how Indian communists built a mass movement in the aftermath of the Bengal Famine of 1943, and in connections with anti-imperialists across the globe. It was the combination of international connections and a deep commitment to organising peasant women that enabled the women in the communist movement to have a major breakthrough in the early years of the Indian republic. The book - Gender & Neoliberalism - is a granular study of AIDWA's work, making the case that AIDWA's unique theory of organising allowed for its growth during the lean years of neo-liberalism.

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