It would, perhaps, not be a hyperbole to argue that Marxism and Feminism as emancipatory theories shares some striking similarities that placed them close to each other, in so far as, elimination of oppression and creation of a discrimination free world is concerned. If the frst tradition aimed to build up a classless society, the second essentially desired for a society free from patriarchal prejudices. In their extensive analysis to reach for the ascribed goal, the two sustained within its fold diverse views, thereby providing for a more meaningful intellectual exercise in changing the world without afecting the principles that are primary to each of them. One such fundamental proposition for the Marxist is that of equality which the present paper is likely to take up for introspection and analyse how it deviated in its perception to gender. Classical Marxism with some of its intrinsic conceptual elements like dialectical materialism, historical materialism, base-superstructure, etc. as developed within its fold through which it tends to justify its theoretical inevitability, indicates its intimacy with science of society and cites a valid reason for its positivist position. Essentially, as a product of enlightenment and thereby of modernity, Marxism projected its logical arguments as the only universal expression of emancipation. This eventually earned its deterministic outlook and responsible for the transformation of theory into a dogma. A single outcry against the tradition is viewed with uter suspicion and dismissed thereby, confrming the post modern allegations of totalitarian implications. Consequently, voices of the repressed and marginalized are silenced thereby, vulgarizing the essence of democracy. This becomes more evident with the functioning of the communist party in which a strong party hierarchy with decision fowing from top to botom talks more of centralism and less of democracy. This adversely afects its core principles like that of equality. The objective of the present paper is to reveal the gender inequality existing within the communist party of West Bengal from its inception till party bifurcation in 1964. The study further aims to divulge the underneath experiences of the women members of the communist party in West Bengal, as expressed in personal interviews and autobiographies and tends to make a humble atempt in redefning the conventional understandings of what particular historical processes have entailed and thereby questioning the politics of knowledge production. A study on the women communists in Bengal can be best understood through their mass organization known as Mahila Atmaraksa Samiti. As an important auxiliary to the communist party, the Mahila Atmaraksa Samiti (henceforth MARS) was formed with an endeavour to mobilize the women of the then Bengali society. Born in the year 1942, till the late 1960s, the history of MARS traverses through diferent phases; each phase being diferent from the others as far as mode of operation is concerned with which the character of the organization also underwent a change. This change is, however, to a great extent conditioned not only by the arisen situation of the time but also due to the changes taking place time and again in its leadership. For a communist party a change in leadership essentially resulted in a change in the party strategy. Frequent changes in the strategy sometimes create confusion and inhibition in the minds of the ordinary members which ultimately hampers the smooth functioning of the mass organization. 1 In the initial years it was clear enough that MARS sought to mobilize women for the nationalist struggle and for this purpose they encourage women to adopt the techniques of self-defence. For instance, Nibedita Nag, a veteran communist member, who had herself admited in a personal interview at her Park Circus residence that she used to learn ‘lathikhela’ (a form of Indianised Marshal Art with a stick often used for self-defence) and ‘chhorakhela’ (same done with a sword). 2 The spirit was to draw those women who were inspired by revolutionary activity and hence, unable to walk along Communist Party in West Bengal and Some Gendered Paradoxes Dr Barnana Guha Thakurta (Banerjee) Research Articles * Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, School of Social Sciences, Netaji Subhas Open University, West Bengal.