78 SOCIAL SCIENTIST women, could not be in all the villages all the time, but local leaders came forward to take the initiative. These were often poor peasants, belonging to the scheduled castes and tribes. Many of them were widows. As more and more men were drawn into the movement, their prejudices were also weakened and their women got more involved. Spontaneous leadership did not necessarily come from women of families whose men were most articulate and active. Prior involvement in the Samiti had created a precedent for women to get organized, encouraged them to think and participate, even if only in a supportive role, and spread the idea that women should be political. The nature of this leadership was different qualitatively. The middle class and student organizers spoke at meetings and organized relief activities, while poorer peasant women leaders formed village patrols and fighting groups. The nature of political involvement had changed because of the nature of the movement itself. Just as women entered the main-siream of politics, women's groups emerged in the movement to crystallize the new spontaneous militancy into a more formal organization. These women's volunteer corps and fighting units were organized under its auspices; women's issues wer6 raised in the village courts by united women's groups. The Samiti also organized a political education network. As women came to know of their rights they began to organize.For example, in Kakdwip the poor peasant women used to work without any payment in the households of landholders, doing jobs like washing clothes,cleaning utensils,swabbing floor and other domestic work,but now they began to demand fixed hours of work and payment for it. If men tried to force them to continue to work without payment the Mahila Samiti took it up in the village court. The fast development of the movement is an indicator of the fact that the so-called ignorant, apathetic peasants can be politicalized and made militant in a short time if they are organized and they see a realistic chance to get rid of their centuries old bondage and misery. In this learning .process the weaker section of the rural society, the poor peasant women, proved to be the binding force for the whole movement. Women's movement, however, will have to be clear about the implication of their actions. If the object of women's movement is merely to bargain for an equal share of the economic opportunities with men when there is a lot of deprivation among men themselves, it may lead to a perpetuation, and perhaps a reinforcement, of the system. AMIT KUMAR GUPTA