Godavari Parulekar Honored with Statue in Palghar

A statue of Comrade Godavari Parulekar, a towering figure in India’s communist and Adivasi movements, was unveiled at the Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar College of Arts, Science, and Commerce in Talasari, Palghar district, on her 118th birth anniversary. The ceremony, organized by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)), celebrated her lifelong dedication to the marginalized, particularly the Warli Adivasi community.

Born in Pune on August 14, 1907, Parulekar was Maharashtra’s first woman law graduate and a fierce freedom fighter. Alongside her husband, Shamrao Parulekar, she spearheaded the historic Warli Adivasi Revolt (1945–47), a landmark struggle against bonded labor and landlord oppression in Thane-Palghar. The revolt, ignited at a 5,000-strong gathering in Zari village on May 23, 1945, ended practices like veth begar (unpaid labor) and lagnagadi (marriage-related debt bondage), empowering Adivasis with fixed wages and land rights. Her work with the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS), where she became the first and only woman National President in 1986, influenced policies like Maharashtra’s 1948 Tenancy Act.

Parulekar’s Marxist-inspired activism began in the 1930s, leading anti-British protests and a 1938 literacy campaign in Mumbai. After joining the CPI in 1939, she organized anti-war strikes and later co-founded the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha in 1945. Her book, Jewha Manus Jaga Hoto (The Awakening of Man), earned the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1972, documenting the Warli struggle. She also led the 1954 Dadra and Nagarhaveli liberation from Portuguese rule and the Samyukta Maharashtra movement.

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The CPI(M) highlighted her 25-year tenure on its Central Committee and her role in founding the Adivasi Pragati Mandal in 1961, which continues to run educational institutions in Talasari. The statue unveiling, attended by local leaders and activists, reaffirmed her enduring legacy, with the CPI(M)-dominated Talasari Nagar Panchayat naming a town square after her in 2021. Despite the 1945 Talwada tragedy, where 10 Adivasis were killed by police, her movement’s impact persists, with CPI(M) retaining strong electoral support in Dahanu-Talasari.

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