by Santosh Rana
Frontier | Vol. 49, No.46, May 21 – 27, 2017
Source: Internet
About fifty years ago, in May 1967, there rose a storm of peasant struggle in the Naxalbari, Kharibari and Phansideoa areas of the Terai region of the district of Darjeeling. Locally, that struggle was directed against landlords and moneylenders. But there took place some such changes in the political life of India in the light of this struggle that transcended local considerations and assumed an all-India and international character. On one hand, Naxalbari represented a continuation of the peasant struggles that had been building up since the movement for national independence. It was the continuation of the peasant struggles of Telengana, Punapra-Bhailar and the Tebhaga movement. Going further backwards, it can be said that it was the continuation of the Santal Rebellion, Munda Rebellion, Faraji Rebellion, Indigo Mutiny and other peasant rebellions. After setting up the colonial rule, the British built up a class of landlords in India through the Permanent Settlement and other arrangements. This class of landlords represented an intermediate layer between the colonial rulers and the peasantry for the appropriation of agricultural surplus. This layer was dependent on the colonial rule for its existence and prosperity. Whenever the peasantry was driven to rebellion by the cruel exploitation of the landlord class, the British rulers suppressed them by sending their troops. Hence the target of the peasantry was inevitably the alliance between the landlord class and the colonial rulers. It might as well be called the alliance between imperialism and feudalism.Read More »
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