Manikuntala Sen - Studenthood in Calcutta

Studenthood in Calcutta

At that time Hindu bhadralok communities in Bengal were more liberal about sending their daughters long distances to study further; Sen found herself part of a group of young girls like herself living in the city for the first time. She stayed in a hostel and soon got over her initial awe at being in the big city. The conservatism and narrowmindedness of the established families she sometimes encountered rather disgusted her, and she also writes with remarkable frankness for her time about the harassment that she and her friends often faced from men. Through her friend Bimalpratibha Devi she became acquainted with leaders of the Mahila Shakti Sangha and several prominent Congress women; this nurtured her nascent feminism and inspired her to think about the need for change in women's position in society. She made contact with Soumyendranath Tagore's Revolutionary Communist Party of India. The 'real' Communist Party of India, part of the Third International was then underground, and after much searching she eventually discovered that its headquarters were in fact in Barishal.