Subhashini Ali

Subhasini Sehgal (born 29 December 1947) is an Indian Marxist politician. She is a Polit Buro Member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). She is also the former President of the All India Democratic Women's Association and former Member of Parliament from Kanpur.

Subhashini Ali is the daughter of Colonel Prem Sehgal and Captain Lakshmi Sehgal (née Dr. Lakshmi Swaminathan) who were a part of the Indian National Army. She attended Welham Girls' School in Dehradun. She did her bachelor's degree from Women's Christian College in Madras and later did her master's degree from the Kanpur University.

As a trade Unionist and leader of the All India Democratic Women's Association, she was once very influential in the politics of Kanpur where the Communist Party of India (CPI) held sway over trade unions and which elected CPI-supported S.M. Banerjee to Lok Sabha four times from 1957 to 1971. This influence of CPI helped her win the General elections of 1989 to the parliament and she defeated her nearest rival BJP candidate by 56,587 votes from Kanpur. The CPI influence waned after the emergency in 1977 and she lost the General elections of 1996 by 151,090 votes. She finished at the fifth place in the General elections of 2004 polling only 4558 votes (0.74%). She fought the General elections of 2014 from Barrackpore as a CPI(M) candidate but lost.[citation needed ]

She is currently a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). She was inducted to the polit bureau (PB) of Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 2015 thereby becoming the second women member in PB after Brinda Karat.[citation needed ]

Ali published her translation of the Communist Manifesto by Marx and Engels into Hindi in 2019.

Subhashini Ali designed period costumes for 1981 classic, Umrao Jaan, directed by her then-husband Muzaffar Ali. She also dabbles in amateur acting, and her first starring role was in Asoka in 2001, followed by an English feature, The Guru, in 2002, and was seen again in 2005, with her fellow party member, Brinda Karat in the film Amu.

She inspired the film Anjuman (1986) directed by Muzaffar Ali with her struggles in Kanpur with the AIDWA.[citation needed ]

She was previously married to filmmaker Muzaffar Ali. Their son Shaad Ali is a film maker who is most well known for directing Saathiya, Bunty aur Babli, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, and Ok Jaanu. He married Shazmeen Hussain, daughter of famous conceptual artist Rummana Hussain and businessman Ishaat Hussain, in 2006 but they divorced in 2011. In 2013, he married Aarti Patkar.

Ali is an Atheist.[10] She is the cousin of Indian classical dancer Mallika Sarabhai, daughter of her mother's sister Mrinalini Sarabhai and scientist Vikram Sarabhai.[11]