The visit of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi to the United States in 1982 may have raised questions among American feminists about the situation of Indian women. Mrs. Gandhi's skill in handling the American media projects a powerful image of Indian women. Aggregate statistics convey an entirely different picture. Indicators of the precarious situation of the masses of Indian women include a low literacy rate (25 percent compared to 47 percent for men), a low labor force participation rate, high unemployment and underemployment levels, and a shorter life expectancy for women than for men.1 Moreover, Indian women are an extremely heterogeneous group. Numbering over 330 million, they are stratified by caste and class and further divided by urban or rural residence, regional cultures and languages, religion, age, and position in the family. Patriarchal domination has a long history in India, and its manifestations vary across caste, class, and region. In response women have evolved a variety of coping strategies, and some women have struggled actively against their oppression. Much of the history of these struggles has been lost, but today women's activism is increasingly visible. So far this activism has touched the lives of only a tiny fraction of Indian women, but the potential for growth is there. Four strands of activism have emerged over the past decade. Among the urban middle class there are feminists engaged in research and action. Among the lower class there are grassroots organizations of tribal women, militant women union members, and self-help associations of women in the informal sector of the economy (petty production, trading, service activities, and contract labor). There are some connections among these different strands of activism and between each strand and more established institutions such as left political parties and their associated unions, elite women's organizations, and the press. The established institutions (which are maleand/or elite-dominated) seek to use women's activism for their own ends but also offer organizational resources needed to reach a large number of women. The situation is further complicated because the women activists themselves have varying commitments to reform or revolution and to party-controlled or autonomous women's groups. In this paper I will try to convey a sense of women's activism in India today. First I will sketch briefly the historical and social context that has shaped the activism of Indian women. Then I will describe the issues on which each activist strand focuses, the strategies they advocate, and the impact of their efforts. Finally I will assess the obstacles to a weaving together of the activist strands. This paper is intended as a modest contribution toward crosscultural and cross-national understanding among white American feminists. Too often we have been insensitive to the factors that divide us as women (race, class, imperialism) and unaware of the struggles of our sisters in other cultures. A genuine international sisterhood can be built only on the basis of mutual understanding.