Naxalite and the Naxal Movement
Naxalite is an informal name given to revolutionary communist groups that were born out of the Sino-Soviet split in the Indian communist movement. The term comes from the Naxalbari, a small village in West Bengal, where a leftist section of CPI(M) led by Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal led a militant peasant uprising in 1967, trying to develop a "revolutionary opposition" in order to establish "revolutionary rule" in India. Mazumdar greatly admired Mao Zedong of China and advocated that Indian peasants and lower classes must follow in his footsteps and overthrow the government and upper classes whom he held responsible for their plight. In 1967 'Naxalites' organized the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR), and broke away from CPI(M). Uprisings were organized in several parts of the country. In 1969 AICCCR gave birth to Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). After the internal revolt led by Satayanarayan Singh in 1971 and the death of Majumdar in 1972, the movement was fragmented into many competing factions.
Practically all Naxalite groups trace their origin to the CPI(ML). A separate tendency from the beginning was the Maoist Communist Centre, which evolved out of the Dakshin Desh-group. (MCC later fused with (People's War Group) PWG for to form Communist Party of India (Maoist).) A third tendency is that of the Andhra revolutionary communists, which was mainly presented by UCCRI(ML), following the mass line legacy of T. Nagi Reddy. That tendency broke with AICCCR at an early stage.
Today some groups have become legal organisations participating in parliamentary elections, such as Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. Others, such as Communist Party of India (Maoist) and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti, are engaged in armed guerrilla struggles.
Charu Mazumdar
Charu Majumdar (1918-1972) was an Indian Maoist revolutionary born in 1918 in Siliguri. His father was a freedom fighter. He dropped out of college in 1938. In 1946, Charu joined the Tebhaga movement. He was imprisoned in 1962 and on July 16, 1972.
During the mid 1960's Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal organized a leftist fraction in CPI(M) in northern Bengal. In 1967 a militant peasant uprising took place in Naxalbari, led by the Majumdar-Sanyal group. The same year Majumdar and Sanyal broke away and formed the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. AICCCR founed Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in 1969, with Majumdar as its secretary.
He died on July 28, 1972 after being tortured by police.
Naxalbari Movement Timeline
1967
25 May: Historic peasant uprising begins at Naxalbari in Darjeeling district of West Bengal under the leadership of revolutionary communists belonging to the CPI(M). The uprising is brutally suppressed by the CPI(M)-led United Front government of West Bengal at the behest of the Congress government at the Centre. In reaction, communist revolutionary ranks rebel against the reformist-bureaucratic leadership of the party. The rebellion soon assumes an all India dimension. Entire state units of CPI(M) in Uttar Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir and considerable sections in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh join this rebellion.
July-November: Magazines that would later become CPI(ML)'s organs such as Deshabrati, the Bengali weekly, Liberation, the English monthly and Lokyudh, the Hindi weekly started appearing.
11 November: For the first time after the uprising, Charu Mazumdar, the architect of Naxalbari, addresses the Shahid Minar rally organised by Naxalbari Krishak Sangram Sahayak Samiti.
12-13 November: Revolutionaries from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Orissa and West Bengal meet and form All India Coordination Committee of Revolutionaries in the CPI(M).
1968
14 May: The Coordination Committee is renamed as All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) with Su*bleep*al Roy Chowdhury as its convener. However, Maoist Communist Centre chooses to stay away from AICCCR. Within the AICCCR, certain fundamental differences lead to the exclusion of a section of Andhra comrades led by T.Nagi Reddy.
1969
February: AICCCR unanimously decides to launch a new communist party.
22 April: Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) launched on the birth centenary day of V. I. Lenin. Charu Mazumdar elected as the Secretary of the Central Organising Committee.
1 May: Declaration of Party formation by Kanu Sanyal at a massive meeting held on the Shahid Minar ground in Calcutta. CPI(M) tries to disrupt the meeting and it results in armed clashes. This marks the beginning of a whole series of CPI(M)-inspired attacks on CPI(ML) ranks taking an eventual toll of more than a thousand of its members.
By this time primary guerrilla zones had appeared at Debra-Gopiballavpur in West Bengal, Musahari in Bihar, Lakhimpur Kheri in Uttar Pradesh and above all at Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh. Severe state repression is let loose on Srikakulam struggle. Panchadri Krishnamurty and six others are murdered on the night of 26-27 May. The period between November and early December witnesses the killing of Subbarao Panigrahi, Nirmala Krishnamurty and several other frontranking leaders. An unprecedented student-youth upsurge rocks Calcutta and almost all other cities and towns of West Bengal.
1970
27 April: Deshabrati office in Calcutta, which virtually functioned as the open Party centre, is raided by the police. All out police repression ensues, forcing the party to go underground.
10-11 July: Vempatapu Satyanarayana and Adibatla Kailasam, legendary leaders of the Srikakulam uprising, are captured and murdered by the police in cold blood. Srikakulam guerrilla zone begins to suffer reversals. Appu, founder of the Party in Tamil Nadu and a member of the polit bureau dies some time in September or October. The news reaches after a lapse of time and the exact date of his death is never known.
1971
Exploiting the Bangladesh war, Indian rulers deploy the army to crush the movement in West Bengal. Uprising in Birbhum marks the high point of this period. Several guerrilla zones begin to suffer reversals. Thousands are killed. Over 50,000 put behind bars in various Indian jails. Saroj Dutta, polit bureau member and renowned revolutionary cultural leader, is secretly eliminated by the police in the early hours of August 5. More than 150 Naxalites are massacred at Kashipore-Baranagar near Calcutta on 12-13 August.
Inner-party struggles had started surfacing immediately after the First Congress. Amidst severe setbacks such struggles intensify and the Party begins to split.
1972
28 July:
After 12 days of torture in Lallbazar police lock-up, Charu Mazumdar succumbs to death. With his death, the last vestige of the Party's central authority collapses.
(For further information visit
30 Years of CPI(ML) Website)
An Article on The Maoist Movement in West Bengal
You may want to read this interesting article,
The Legacy of Maoists in Wet Bengal by Henrike Donner. This was a presentation for panel discussion on ‘The Legacy of Maoism in China and India’ 23.11.04 at the LSE Asia Research Centre Seminar. Please follow the above link to read the article.
Created on 2005-05-26 17:15:30 by sudipta
Updated on 2005-06-15 12:09:29 by sudipta
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