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Kolkata Diary
Ideological Insurgency
by
Dr. Prasenjit Maiti
The Naxalite Movement
signified the end of values and ideology for an entire generation.
Subsequent generations did not feel enthused to follow the path of armed
struggle for liberation. This end of a dream actually spelt out the onset of
degeneration for the children of an abortive revolution.
This agrarian movement was ideologically located well within the tradition
of the Tebhaga and Telengana Movements that emerged due to agrarian
injustice and oppression exercised on the part of the unduly privileged
classes who were a product of the Permanent Settlement introduced by Lord
Cornwallis way back in 1793 in Undivided Bengal. The landless agricultural
laborers, the share croppers and the tenant farmers were the worst affected
classes under this land revenue system that created a category of absentee
landlords who stayed in their estates in Kolkata (erstwhile Calcutta) and
elsewhere and depended upon their managerial staff to collect revenue. The
Zamindari Abolition Act and the Land Ceiling Act were passed in the 1950s to
secure agrarian justice but land reforms in the objective sense of the term
were not carried out till 1977 in West Bengal.
Student intellectuals of Kolkata were inspired by the revolutionary
teachings of Mao Ze Dong (Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party). These
student activists mainly joined the Naxalite Movement from the famous
Presidency College of Kolkata that was established as the Hindu College way
back in 1817 even before Calcutta University was founded in 1857.
Naxalite leaders believed in radical doctrines such as the source of power
lies in the barrel of the gun and that the Parliament is a pigsty where
revisionists and reactionaries conspire with the bourgeoisie to relentlessly
oppress the proletarian classes by institutionalizing a mode of production
whose productive forces adversely condition the uneven relations of
production by hoarding any surplus value created by the laborers.
But the essential problem with the Naxalite Movement was that it was
organized by city-bred young intellectuals who cherished a noble dream
without being equipped with the resources that were require to transform
their vision of egalitarian social change into reality. Student leaders had
no organic intellectual or even psychological connection whatsoever with the
grassroots represented by the tea garden workers for whom they first took up
arms against the police and state authorities at Naxalbari Village in North
Bengal.
It is worthwhile to note at this point that more prominent Naxalite leaders
like Charu Mazumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Saontal had formed a new
political outfit called the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) by
breaking away from the CPI (M) that had itself broken away from the
Communist Party of India at the Vijaywada Party Congress in 1964 due to
perceptions in difference about the bourgeoisie democratic revolution and
the people’s democratic revolution among other related ideological concerns.
Naxalite leaders subsequently championed the politics of murder that soon
degenerated into the politics of vendetta led by the lumpen proletariat. The
high point of this period of mis-governance was reached during the infamous
Baranagar Cossipore Killings in North Kolkata when allegedly CPI (M) and
Congress activists rounded up and massacred several Naxal supporters
(supported by the police authorities) during one single night.
Failures of the Naxalite Movement point to certain political lessons. This
was an early attempt to conjoin the issue of economic development with the
ethics of governance but the movement still was destined not to succeed
because it was not supported by a mass base, perspective planning,
organizational strength, visionary leadership and essential resources. The
type of urban guerilla warfare that the Naxalite activists had started
practicing ultimately backfired when stiff resistance was offered by their
political opponents and the police forces (who were reported to have engaged
in a series of fake encounters to liquidate Naxal leaders and their
followers).
This aborted movement
signified virtually the end of a revolutionary dream and the end of the
so-called project of emancipation. One must remember that this period also
witnessed the Liberation War in East Pakistan that culminated in the
creation of Bangladesh just across the international border. Refugee influx
into West Bengal was a critical problem during this period. This problem in
fact continued right from the Partition of India and Independence at 1947.
The communists promptly utilized the refugees as a political weapon to
agitate against the ruling Congress Party during the 1950s and 1960s when
they resurfaced after the official ban against them was lifted.
The 1950s and 1960s constituted the disturbed period when several
communist-led agitations took place, including the food movements that were
organized to protest against the public distribution system policies of the
Congress Government. The infamous War for a Pice also occurred at this
juncture to protest against the fair hike in public trams.
The communists did not allow the refugees to resettle in the Andaman and
Nicobar Islands and Dandakaranya. But it was an irony of history that the
first Left Front Government unleashed police repression against the refugees
at Marichjhanpi in 1978.
July 30, 2006
Top |
Kolkata Diary
The Week of July 30, 2006
Upto the President: Parties will closely watch his
next move by Rajinder Puri
Israel Strikes Back by Dr. Subhash Kapila
US Foreign Policy: Code Name "Operation Frankenstein"
by Gaurang Bhatt, MD
Nuclear "Hostage" Crisis by Col. Rahul K.
Bhonsle
Can International Friendship be Developed by
Friendship? by TA Ramesh
India: A Failed State? by V. Sundaram
Courting Injustice: The Terrible Truth about our
Courts by Rajesh Talwar
Islamic Indian Nationalism by V. Sundaram
Ideological Insurgency by Dr. Prasenjit
Maiti
Jobless Development by Nitin Jugran Bahuguna
On the Footsteps of Kautilya! by VK Joshi
Agriculture Policy for Energy Security by Dr.
Anil K. Rajvanshi
Biodiversity and the Tribal Lore by Kusum
Choppra
Who Needs All-woman Spaces? by Barbara Lewis
Kaazi Nazrul Islam: The National Poet of
Bangladesh compiled by Aparna Chatterjee
Increase your Computer's Heartbeat: Add RAM to it
by Ruchi Gupta
Bakery and Confectionery as a Career by
Pallavi Bhattacharya
The Journey: From Creation to Creator by Dr.
Vidur Jyoti
The Spinning of a Legend: Alexander the Great
... by Kamesh Aiyer
Self Realization: How do you Attain it? by
Pradeep Joshi
Rainy Days and Mom Days by Monisha Sen
Me, My Wife and Synthesizer by Prakash Pathre
Radio Active Palamau by Ajitha G S
Girls as Sacrificial Lambs by Zofeen T Ebrahim
The Witty Side by Melvin Durai
Keeping Kids in School by Gagandeep Kaur
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