Content Warning: This article includes discussions of revolutionary politics and examples of violence against women in Sri Lanka. Reader discretion is advised.
This blog post explores the fundamental questions of why and how women in the Global South and North have resisted and become revolutionaries to establish social justice, equality, freedom, and rights. It also investigates how these revolutionary women have been hidden in political history as “unnamed,” or, in other words, without recognising their efforts, contributions, and dedication to changing unjust governing structure.
By examining the revolutionary political movements of women in three different contexts—Sri Lanka from the Global South, and France and the United Kingdom from the Global North—the common and shared political aspirations of women in these regions are further asserted. This analysis will lead to a deeper understanding of the interconnected struggles and goals of women worldwide. It also looks at how women in these three spheres can raise each other’s political consciousness to continue recording Women’s History as Her + Story. To achieve this, Sheila Rowbotham’s scholarship and ideas on radical feminism are applied and extended to understand the political context of women in the Global South.
This blog post is divided into three sections. Section one describes the fundamental understanding of Rowbotham’s scholarship on the revolutionary movements of women during the French Revolution (1789-1794) and the social revolutionary movements of women in the UK in the 1960s. Section two explains Sri Lankan women’s contributions to the revolutionary politics of the country in 1972 and the 1980s. These Sri Lankan women did not form separate movements for their struggle but joined the main revolutionary political movements at the time. The shared history of these revolutionary women in the three contexts is explored in section three, leading to the conclusion.
Rowbotham’s scholarship on Revolutionary Politics : Referring to the women’s contribution in the French Revolution, Rowbotham claims that the sexually objectified and politically de-socialised women protested in the streets during the French Revolution, demanding “bread over roses,” demonstrating their capacity and political consciousness in protecting their families from the economic hardship caused by political dictatorship.[1]
However, these women are “the silent people of no names means, unnamed , the ignorant and ignored, move reluctantly into “official” history which reflects those who have power in the world as it is”. [2] Additionally, addressing how women have been defined through French folk and official history, Rowbotham contends that the shape of women’s bodies has been prioritized over their political consciousness, confining their political activism and autonomy. This constraint was broken during the French Revolution as women fought to ensure the survival of their loved ones, signalling that their political capacities extend beyond their physical appearance.[3] However, Rowbotham raised a critical question: Has any form of revolutionary political space been recognised for its role in shaping revolutionary women’s political consciousness and acknowledging their contribution.[4]
Given the revolutionary aspects shared with the Left movement, Rowbotham has examined the UK Left movement of the 1960s and argues that “many obvious questions about the Left (revolutionary politics) in the sixties have simply never been asked and many areas of political and social experience have been curiously ignored”. [5] She refers specifically to the case of women’s experiences.
However, she asserts that the 1960s UK Left movement evolved into a movement that brought women’s personal politics into the mainstream, sustained political mobilisation, and kept the dialogue alive. She concludes that a universal approach by the Left is necessary to eliminate oppression in all its forms.[6] In Daring to Hope: My Life in the 1970s, Rowbotham introduces a critical point: Although feminist dialogue remains vibrant within the Left movement, the internal divisions and challenges in uniting women’s political consciousness for collective liberation persist. This is due to a failure to recognise women as fully human with their own revolutionary political consciousness capable of challenging unjust structures for the benefit of everyone. Rowbotham suggests that the Left movement must acknowledge that oppression can arise not only from capitalist structures but also from the masculinity present within its own ranks. [7]
Rowbotham’s explanation of feminism and revolutionary politics primarily reflects the context of the Global North. However, the fundamental elements of her scholarship can be applied to understanding the revolutionary political movements of women in the Global South, such as in Sri Lanka. The next section explores the revolutionary political behaviour of women in the Global South and examines how their actions can be analysed through Rowbotham’s framework.
Revolutionary Women in Sri Lankan Politics: Sri Lanka, holding the world record for electing the first female Prime Minister in 1960, has experienced three significant revolutionary political movements since gaining independence from the British government in 1948. The first revolutionary movement occurred in 1971, known as the “youth upheaval,” driven by youth reactions to growing unemployment, uneven resource distribution, and the government’s failure to integrate youth into the economy and politics. Similar to the French Revolution, poverty and the struggle for survival led to political mobilization and organising the public for demands of justice.
Women’s contributions during this period are exemplified by the story of 22-year-old Premawathie Manamperi, a crowned beauty queen from the poverty-stricken rural area of Kataragama. She joined the youth upheaval to fight against injustice and seek liberation for the oppressed working class, akin to women’s roles in the French Revolution. Tragically, she was arrested, forced to walk naked through the streets in broad daylight, shot, and buried alive. It is worth to mention that Premawathie belonged to the working class of the Sinhala ethnicity- the majoritarian group of the country.
After 38 years, a similar narrative emerged in Sri Lanka concerning Tamil working-class woman Shobana Dharmaraja, also known as Isaipriya, who fought for the liberation of the oppressed Tamil nation. Like the revolutionary women of France and the UK, the contributions of these Sri Lankan women to political change have never been recognised by official historians or the Left movement, leaving them as unnamed revolutionaries. As Rowbotham explains, the revolutionary consciousness and behaviour of these women remain unnamed due to their gender and class. This article extends Rowbotham’s argument by asserting that ethnicity also contributes to the erasure of revolutionary women’s names from history.
It can further be explained as follows: Premawathie was defined more as a beauty queen than recognized for her revolutionary consciousness. She joined the political movement instead of conforming to traditional marital expectations, contributing to the empowerment of her community in pursuit of a just and orderly system, similar to the French revolutionary women. In the case of Isaipriya, her revolutionary consciousness was defined by the Sinhala ethnic majority as that of a terrorist rather than a liberator. This highlights the role of ethnic bias in defining the revolutionary consciousness of Tamil women, while Premawathie’s case illustrates the influence of gender politics on how her actions are perceived.
With this point, this article asserts that revolutionary women in both the Global North and South share a common history of being “unnamed,” making their contributions to political change largely unrecognised.
The French women during the revolution took to the streets, holding political signs and marching towards the monarchy with the objective of overthrowing the oppressive political structure that exploited them and their loved ones, leaving them in poverty and starvation. In the UK, women demanded economic recognition for their unpaid and underpaid labour, political autonomy over their bodies, and recognition as human beings.
Similarly, revolutionary women in Sri Lanka came to the streets demanding justice over poverty, unemployment, economic insecurity, and the disappearances of their loved ones due to their political views against the government. However, the revolutionary contributions of these women in both the Global North and South have never been recognised because they were stereotyped based on the shape of their bodies and cultural expectations to be obedient wives and mothers with roles confined to the private sphere, not the public sphere.
In conclusion, through Sheila Rowbotham’s scholarship, this article revisited revolutionary history across three different times and spaces, revealing a common story of silencing or erasing women’s revolutionary consciousness. These revolutionary women left their families—oppressive yet familiar and secure networks—for political causes, appearing on the streets with political slogans and facing torture, abuse, and sexual harassment. Whether during the French Revolution or the youth uprisings in Sri Lanka, their contributions should no longer remain ‘unnamed.’
Top image credit: The cover-page of Daring to Hope: Housmans Radical books sellers, ousmans.com/product/37831/
Aruni Samarakoon is a feminist scholar and a PhD candidate in Political Science at the University of Hull, UK. She is currently awaiting her Viva examination. Her research interests lie in feminism and revolutionary politics in South Asia.
[1] S. Rowbotham, Women, Resistance and Revolution. (England: Penguin Press. 1972)
[2] . Rowbotham, Women, Resistance, 101
[3] Ibid.
[4] S. Rowbotham, Women’s Liberation and the New Politics (United Kingdom: May Day Manifesto Group.1971)
[5] S. Rowbotham, Promise of a Dream: Remembering the Sixties (London :Verso. 2001), xii
[6] Ibid
[7] S. Rowbotham, Daring to Hope: My Life in the 1970s (London: Verso, 2021)
