50 Years of Naxalbari: Haam nehee hategaa, I shall not retreat, Declared Jangal Shaaotaal, Naxalbari leader

Second of three interviews from the cradle of the revolutionary uprising

by Farooque Chowdhury

Countercurrents.org | March 19, 2018

Aneek, an independent, radical Baanglaa monthly from Kolkata, India, in its 53^rd years of publication, interviewed three leaders of the Naxalbari Uprising. The leaders with working class background were organizing armed struggle of the poor-landless peasantry in the Naxalbari region since the earliest days of the revolutionary initiative. Following is Khemoo Singh’s interview, the second of the three, conducted by Arijit and Subhasis from Aneek, and published in the monthly’s May 2017 (vol. 53, no. 11) issue. The interview was conducted in May 2017 at Khemoo Singh’s village home in Siliguri, more than 450 km north of Kolkata. All the interviews were video recorded; and its audio parts were transcribed by Subhasis, and were vetted by the interviewees. None of them denied any part of respective interview. The interview is translated from Baanglaa by Farooque Chowdhury. The first of the three interviews was carried by Countercurrents.org, an e-journal from South India, and Frontier, the radical weekly from Kolkata, on November 20, 2017 (https://countercurrents.org/2017/11/20/aabaar-naxalbari-naxalbari-again/) and December 31-January 6, 2017 (vol. 50, no.26, http://www.frontierweekly.com/articles/vol-50/50-26/50-26-Naxalbari%20Again.html) respectively.

India: How Billionaires Celebrate Naxalbari@50 (and some other sides of the Half Truth they show)

by Sandeep Banerjee

Frontier | February 23, 2018

A bare bodied mason, whose name was given as some Murmu, stood outside Kanu Sanyal’s home, “a single room hut thatched with corrugated tin… in a dilapidated condition… portion of the roof has cracked; sun-rays light up the room where his books, notepads and clothes lay in a heap…” A boy who helped open the door said “He was a recluse, totally disillusioned after the failure of the movement, and eventually hanged himself”. That boy was wearing a T shirt of Indian Cricket team bought online. We learn that some of visitors who came to Naxalbari took selfies in front of the Sanyal’s home and Mao’s statue using the selfie-stick of Murmu’s son. This is a scene from Naxalbari as presented by Indian Billion plus business FLIPKART in “In Naxalbari, Flipkart customers fly the flag of a new revolution”[1] (Dated 06-07-2017). How succinct was the portrayal – failure of the movement, frustration, self-inflicted death — one photograph in that page was captioned:  ‘The dilapidated hut of revolutionary Kanu Sanyal in Naxalbari. A depressed Sanyal committed suicide here after his dreams were crushed’. And we also find Murmu surmising: “It is a market economy, there may be inequalities but no scope for violent deaths…”

‘Naxalbari 50’–1 Repertoires and Politics in the Time of Naxalbari

by Ranabir Samaddar

Frontier | Vol. 50, No.31, Feb 4 – 10, 2018

The time of Naxalbari calls back to us the past narratives of how Bengalees became radicalised. Historians of Bengal agree that one of the characteristic ways in which Bengalees were radicalised was through the adoption of a critical, interrogative mode. In the process it may have gone at times to extreme length, but time does all the corrections in life. In the long run, the interrogations became part of the common sense of the people. Yet this is not all. Since interrogation and questioning imply acceptance of no final truth, the critical mode has meant a permanent workshop of ideas and a permanently dialogic mode. Once again, dialogues at times became quarrels, inter-sect strife, and battles over ideas to the point of death. But in this case also, time has been the healer. It is an irony thus that the time of Naxalbari with its extremely critical attitude to the period of what is called the Bengal Renaissance resembled in many ways the latter and exhibited the same critical attitude that latter had shown through figures like Akshay Dutta, Vidyasagar, and others.

‘Naxalbari 50’–2: Centenary of D V Rao and Nagi Reddy

by Harsh Thakor

Frontier | Vol. 50, No.31, Feb 4 – 10, 2018

2017 marked the centenary year of the two greatest architects of the mass revolutionary line in India. Significantly they were celebrated in the 50th anniversary year of the Naxalbari armed struggle. Tarimela Nagi Reddy’s centenary was celebrated on February 11th while Devullapali Venkateswara Rao’s took place on 1st June. They sowed the seeds and shimmered the torch for the building of the revolutionary mass line combating left adventurism and right deviations in the communist revolutionary camp.

50 Years of Naxalbari: Tale of a Roving Rebel

by I Mallikarjuna Sharma

Frontier| Vol. 50, No.30, Jan 28 – Feb 03, 2017

It was in 1967-69, when I was a student in Regional Engineering College, Warangal, AP, that I was attracted towards the communist extremist movement and in course became a staunch activist. In those days it was more fervor bordering on high fever than cautious and broad study and analytical reasoning—more of an emotional and romantic attachment to the ideal of socialism which could free all sorts of fetters and create a new society, etc. First in Marxist Party which split away from the CPI, soon we began to support the Naxalbari movement and its consequent developments. Sri K G Satyamurthy was our local leader—he was a close associate of Kondapalli Sitaramaiah (KS), a sort of father figure for the naxalite movement, especially the Maoist party, in Andhra Pradesh, but later estranged.

50 Years of Naxalbari Movement: Birth of a Naxalite

by Subhendu Dasgupta

Frontier | Vol. 50, No.24, Dec 17 – 23, 2017

I lived in a suburb. The locality had particular characteristics. It was a mixed social space. People speaking different languages—Hindi, Punjabi, Oriya, Bangla, different dialects of Bangla, lived here. Together. People of varied religions—Musalman, Hindu, Sikh, Baishnab, Brahmo stayed here. Together. People of West Bengal—ghati, and people who had migrated from East Bengal—bangal. Together. Orthodox and liberals. Together.

It was a mixed economic space. People of different economic stratum—middle, lower-middle, poor earning from organized and unorganized, formal and informal sectors. It was close to a large industrial area and a dock. There were old settlements—para, newly built settlements—colony, settlements of the poor—bustee.

Red Is The Color Of The Poor: Sumanta Banerjee Looks Into The Naxalbari Uprising In India

by Farooque Chowdhury

Countercurrents.org | November 17, 2017

Sumanta Banerjee (b. 1936), political and civil rights activist and social scientist, moved to the revolutionary position of the Naxalbari peasants’ upsurge in the north-eastern India while working as a journalist for The Statesman in the late sixties, and joined the movement in 1973. He had to resort to underground life while carrying on his revolutionary tasks in rural and industrial areas, Srikakulam forests and hills, and Kolkata slums. As an active participant in the toilers’ political struggle armed with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Thought he had the opportunity to know the movement closely from his work with comrades from grassroots and a part of leadership, and working with Liberation, the clandestine English organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). Sumanta Banerjee, author of In the Wake of Naxalbari: A History of the Naxalite Movement in India(Subarnarekha, Kolkata, 1980), Marxism and the Indian Left: From “Interpreting” to “Changing” It(Purbalok Publication, Kolkata, 2012), The Parlour and the Street: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta (1989) and Logic in a Popular Form (2002), regularly contributes to The Economic and Political Weekly from Mumbai. He is also editor of Thema Book of Naxalite Poetry(1987). In this interview, conducted in late-September-early-October, 2017 by Farooque Chowdhury, Sumanta Banerjee looks into the Naxalbari Uprising.

Red is the color of the poor

Sumanta Banerjee looks into the Naxalbari Uprising in India

by Farooque Chowdhury

Frontier | November 17, 2017

Sumanta Banerjee (b. 1936), political and civil rights activist and social scientist, moved to the revolutionary position of the Naxalbari peasants’ upsurge in the north-eastern India while working as a journalist for The Statesman in the late sixties, and joined the movement in 1973. He had to resort to underground life while carrying on his revolutionary tasks in rural and industrial areas, Srikakulam forests and hills, and Kolkata slums. As an active participant in the toilers’ political struggle armed with Marxism-Leninism-Mao Thought he had the opportunity to know the movement closely from his work with comrades from grassroots and a part of leadership, and working with Liberation, the clandestine English organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). Sumanta Banerjee, author of In the Wake of Naxalbari: A History of the Naxalite Movement in India (Subarnarekha, Kolkata, 1980), Marxism and the Indian Left: From “Interpreting” to “Changing” It (Purbalok Publication, Kolkata, 2012), The Parlour and the Street: Elite and Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Calcutta (1989) and Logic in a Popular Form (2002), regularly contributes to The Economic and Political Weekly from Mumbai. He is also editor of Thema Book of Naxalite Poetry (1987). This interview was conducted in late-September-early-October, 2017 by Farooque Chowdhury.   

India: After 100 Years of Peace-Land-Bread and 50 years of Naxalbari Peasant Struggle

Land Question: Where Do We Stand Now

by Sandeep Banerjee

Frontier | October 21, 2017

On the day our daytime and nighttime were equal (2017 Sept 22), during a march of All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee, Yogendra Yadav told us, “So, what we are witnessing is the beginning of something that can only be described as a peasant rebellion”[1]. What fuel his optimism are — outbursts of peasants’ movement in various part of the country in the last 12-14 months, and also, “Second, they are being run by different organisations, but the demands are actually common. Every single protest boils down to two demands: fair and remunerative price and complete loan waiver or freedom from debt. This de-facto common agenda has emerged in the formation of the All India Kisan Sangharsh Co-ordination Committee, bringing together more than 150 farmer organisations. So, there is a possibility.” And so the task as he visualizes is, “A lot of work needs to be done but if there was one opportunity for creating a nation-wide farmers’ struggle, today is that moment.”[2]

Half a Century of India’s Maoist Insurgency

by Siddharthya Roy

The Diplomat | September 21, 2017

With the largest Communist guerrilla army in the world — the FARC of Colombia — handing over its guns to the United Nations on June 27 this year and preparing to contest elections in the coming month, a curtain has been drawn on the once ubiquitous phenomenon of “Marxist insurgencies.”

Once present all across the globe, Communist guerrillas and their armed offensives against governments had shaped much of the 20th century. From small bands of deadly fighters to full-fledged armies with combatants numbering in the thousands, such groups once held significant firepower and control of land across Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. But as things stand today most of these groups have either been crushed, chosen the ballot over the bullet, or have withered into political irrelevance.