Women of Nepal

Shanta Manavi

Member of Central Committee, the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)

Born in May, 1946 in Bangla VDC, Arghakhanchi district

Shanta Manavi belongs to a well-to-do Brahmin family of Arghakhanchi district. Her father was a Pandit (Hindu priest) who was respected by all members of the community. Although she was the daughter of an influential person in the village, she never felt proud of it. She used to work at her house and in the fields just like other villagers. She also always used to stand against injustice and discrimination since childhood. There was no custom in those days for parents to send their daughters to school. She was shocked to know her elder brother had the privilege of going to school, but she was not admitted there. Thus she learned about discrimination against women from her family.

She was married in a Brahmin family when just eight years old. Thus, she could not enjoy a pinch of free and inquisitive childhood. This is the reason behind her lifelong tussle with society and social dogma. Further, she had to face discrimination, exploitation and torture after her husband died when she was still a child of 13. She was forced to go through the hard rites of 13 days in a white dress. She was forced to play the role of widow before she could understand the significance of married life. In the aftermath of widowhood, her life was hell, and it remained so until she left everything behind and lived alone for her entire life.

"Remembering those dark days, I never brought the natural instinct of being tied in marriage-bond and living a life of an ordinary woman," she said.

There was no electricity in the house and the in-laws used to have dinner under an oil lamp, but they put it off when her dinner time came. The daughters-in-law had to fetch fodder and firewood, but they did not receive snacks after they reached home. The torture against the daughters-in-law was so severe they were later forced to learn the habit of stealing food.

"Now, I believe that it was good for me. The extreme luxury at my parents' house and extreme suffering at the husband's house taught me the reality of women's life, which later drove me to rebellion," she said.

Following the severe tyranny, she abandoned her husband's home after a year and took shelter in her parents' house. But society was not favorable for widows there either. After some time, her sister-in-law as well as her father started behaving differently towards her. "Even my own relatives turned their backs to me. After undergoing a long dilemma, I left even my father's home at the age of around 22 with a mere five rupee note in my hand and explored my destiny in many cities and villages of India," she remembers, adding that she wanted to study and thought her gold earstuds would be enough to pay for her expenses.

To pay for her studies, Shanta had to wash dishes at private houses and work as a peon in schools. And, evidently, she had to rescue herself many times from sexual exploitation. "Invaders were almost at every doorstep and living a dignified life for a single woman was very difficult," she said. Even in the extreme hardship for survival she never gave up her study and passed the School Leaving Certificate examinations as a private student from India.

While in India, Shanta had a chance to exchange letters with leftist writer Modnath Prashrit, who was then in detention in Bhadragol Jail in Kathmandu. Correspondence between the two on social, religious, cultural and political issues later took the form of a book, entitled "Women in Bondage and Liberation".

In the early 70s she lived in Benares where the office of the Communist Party of Nepal was located and was a junction for many Nepali leaders in exile. She describes her experience there. "Without knowing what they were, I entered into the world of politics. When I was in Benares I met Pushpa Lal Shrestha, who was a founder general secretary of the CPN. Everybody used to call him 'Maila Dai' and his wife Sahana Pradhan 'Maili Bauju'. Sahana, who was then a teacher in Kathmandu, used to visit Benares to see her husband who was in exile. Pushpa Lal was very helpful to us. Having been affected by his behavior I actually came into politics."

Shanta had never been freed from hardship while she was in India. "I was in financial crunches. So much so, I had my long hair cut short to spare money for soap. Since then I have never made my hair long," she said, adding that support from well-wishers was never lost. She remembers that Bishwakanta Mainali, present president of the Nepal Bar Association, once visited her bringing a gift of kitchen utensils after having seen her poor life condition.

In the course of time, she had chances to see more politicians from Nepal. Madan Bhandari, who was a former general secretary of the CPN (UML) and died in an accident in 1993, was another politician who gave her inspiration. People from Nepal in Benares formed a Marxist Study Group, which was presided over by Shanta. And thus her political life began.

In 1975 Shanta made up her mind to return to Nepal. In order to support herself, Shanta tried to find a job as a banker, a staff nurse or a teacher, but after finding exploitation against women in all fields she decided to spend her life in politics, fighting against gender discrimination. "I didn't know how to start my politics in Nepal but made a decision to go to western Nepal to organize peasants," she said.

Until then she had met with several activists of the CPN (Marxist-Leninist), such as Bamdav Gautam and Pradip Nepal, who are now standing committee members of the CPN (UML). Through their arrangement she started her underground life on May 16, 1975 by taking shelter in a local Tharu home in Rupandehi district. It was the toughest time for activists of underground political parties during the heyday of the Panchayat period. "I was ordered to work underground, living totally aloof from surrounding circumstances, under the 'one-man-contact' strategy. In a year-long period I had developed 11 different names to save me from the eyes of the police and the government," she remembers.

Around February in 1979, Bishnu Paudel made Shanta a member of the area committee of the party. The next year she became a member of Rupandehi district committee and was given the responsibility of being in charge of two areas. She also had to look after sections of women and peasants. She said, "In those days we had to learn how to use Khukuris, knives, sticks and even pistols. We used to have those trainings in river banks and crematoria where enemies could not come. We formed many self-defense forces. Even during a major operation I managed to establish the base for meetings of central level leaders in my area. To hold meetings we made a place under the ground."

Later, the police force received information about Shanta and a massive search was carried out for "a woman who had a short-cut hairstyle like a Vietnamese girl". "For some time I let my hair grow. I escaped from the police by keeping myself out of contact from the party for a month. Thank god I never got arrested and I think it was a great success of my underground life," she said.

Right after the beginning of her underground life, Shanta organized a gathering of around 40 women in Rupandehi. In those days it was not easy to assemble so many women in one place, but she managed to give a two-day political coaching to women, in which a district-level women contact committee was formed under her leadership. The main purpose to form that committee was to unite various revolutionary women's organizations which were working underground in the district. "Later, women in Rupandehi got actively involved in movements to end feudalistic culture in society to liberate women," she said.

In February 1981 women activists from various districts assembled in Pokhara and formed the All Nepal Women's Association (ANWA). Shanta Manavi became its first president. "Even now we have members of ANWA in many VDCs across the country. I feel this is a success of my work. I believe I have also contributed in making 197 women participate in the Constituent Assembly," she said. At the same time, Shanta believes the road to equal rights for women is still far away. She shows her concern that even after such a long history of women's struggle for equality the Act on Violence against Women has not yet been passed. "Women in Nepal still have to start their struggle for their rights as soon as they are born in this world," she worries.

Another remarkable work Shanta did was in the field of Dalits. She was given the responsibility to lead a four-member committee to organize Dalits when her party for the first time formed the department of Dalists, called Utpidit Jatiya Mukti Samaj (Society to Liberate Oppressed Castes). This organization now has branches in 72 districts, and over a million people are affiliated with it. "The government has declared Nepal an untouchability-free country. Still, there is no co-ordination between the government's provisions and the attitude of our society. Therefore the eradication of the caste system is only a slogan even today," she said.

She is also active in the field of literature. Manavi is Shanta's pen name. She loves to write about her life experiences in the form of essays. Several of her books as well as many articles have been published. Presently, she is writing an autobiography.

Shanta worked as a member of the Upper House for six years and is now a member of the central committee of the CPN (UML). Besides her struggle for women's rights in society and in politics, she is still fighting for women's equal position in the party. She has been carrying agony and dissatisfaction about the party's failure to evaluate her contribution and was especially hurt when she was not allowed to file candidature for a central committee member's position in the sixth general assembly. The only leader who supported her at that time was former Prime Minister Manmohan Adhikari, who turned out to be in minority. She said, "Dissatisfactions are there everywhere. You need access, money and everything in the party and I belong to the category of activists who have nothing."

Moving across the problems, barriers and dissatisfaction, she finally became a central committee member, after being elected in the seventh general convention. Shanta has never been afraid of struggling. Shanta's struggles and determination can be a source of inspiration for all women in politics.

Written by Laxmi Basnet