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The Naxalbari uprising was an armed peasant revolt in 1967 in the Naxalbari block of Siliguri subdivision in Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India. It was mainly led by tribals and the revolutionary communist leaders of Bengal and further developed into the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) in 1969. The armed struggle led to the birth of Naxalism and the beginning of the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency, which rapidly spread from West Bengal to other states of India such as Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Telangana, and continues to this day.[1]
Prelude to the uprising[edit | edit source]
The uprising occurred during the height of the Sino-Soviet split, which was causing turmoil within the communist organisations in India and the rest of the world. The leader of the uprising Charu Mazumdar theorised that the situation was appropriate for launching an armed People's war in India following the Chinese Communist Revolution, Vietnam War and Cuban Revolution. Charu Mazumdar wrote the Historic Eight Documents which became the foundation of the Naxalite movement in 1967.
Throughout 1966 itself the groundwork had been laid. In 1965/66 the ‘Siliguri Group’ [(of the newly formed CPI (M)] brought out as many as six cyclostyled leaflets calling for the immediate commencement of armed revolution. One of these leaflets gave a call to initiate partisan warfare in the Terai region within six months. Throughout 1966 revolutionaries organised peasant cells in every part of Siliguri sub-division; bow and arrows, and even a few rifles were gathered and liaison established with the Nepalese Maoists active just a few miles away. In late 1966 a Revolutionary Kisan meeting was organised in Siliguri. On March 3, 1967 the seeds of struggle began to sprout. A group of peasants surrounded a plot of land in Naxalbari region; marking the boundaries with red flags, they began harvesting the crop.[1]
The uprising[edit | edit source]
The March 18 Convention was the signal for the peasant upsurge, which engulfed the entire area for four months. The U.F. government in West Bengal sought to diffuse the movement by announcing token land reforms. The revolutionary peasants replied to the revisionist rulers by setting up peasant committees to take over the land of the jotedars. Huge processions and demonstrations were organised by Kisan committee members, many of whom were armed with lathis, spears, bows and arrows. A sea of red flags struck terror into the hearts of the landlords and the countryside reverberated with the slogan "March forward along the path of armed peasant revolution."
The first clash was ignited when a share-cropper, Bigul Kisan, was beaten by armed agents of a local jotedar. This was followed by violent clashes and the forcible seizure of land and confiscation of food grains, by armed units of the Kisan committee. Any resistance by the landlords and their gangs was smashed and a few killed. By end May the situation reached the level of an armed peasant uprising. The CPI (M) leaders, who were now in power, first tried to pacify the leaders of the movement, having failed, Jyoti Basu, the then home minister of West Bengal, ordered in the police. On 23rd May the peasantry retaliated killing an inspector at Jharugaon village. On May 25, in Naxalbari, the police brutally killed nine women and children. In June the struggle intensified further, particularly in the areas of Naxalbari, Kharibari and Phansidewa. Firearms and ammunition were snatched from the jotedars by raiding their houses. People’s courts were established and judgments passed. The upheaval in the villages continued till July. The tea garden workers struck work a number of times in support of the peasants. Then on July 19, a large number of para-military forces were deployed in the region. In ruthless cordon and search operations, hundreds were beaten and over one thousand arrested. Some leaders like Jangal Santal were arrested, others like Charu Mazumdar went underground, yet others like Tribheni Kanu, Sobhan, Ali Gorkha Majhi and Tilka Majhi became martyrs. A few weeks later, Charu Mazumdar wrote "Hundreds of Naxalbaris are smoldering in India....... Naxalbari has not died and will never die."[1]
Aftermath of the uprising[edit | edit source]
The relations between the Communist Party of China (CPC) with the CPI(M) deteriorated following CPC's support of the uprising. Many members of the CPI(M) who supported the uprising were expelled, such as Charu Majumdar, Souren Bose, Mahadeb Mukherjee and Dilip Bagchi. Expelled communists later on organised themselves into one organisation, the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR), which later developed into the CPI(ML). CPI(ML) remained the centre of the Naxalite movement till 1975. A large number of enthusiastic youth joined the movement. Although the uprising was suppressed, it remained a landmark in Indian politics and the start of a revolutionary communist movement in India which led to several other similar kind of movements such as the Bhojpur uprising, the Srikakulam peasant uprising and began the ongoing Naxalite–Maoist insurgency.[2][1]