POPULAR MOVEMENTS IN WEST BENGAL AND BIHAR Contents Page No. Introduction 1- 4 Section I: 2016 • Research Briefs 6- 22 • Reports 23-29 • Public Lectures 30-32 • Publications 33-34 Section II: 2017 • Research Briefs 36-56 • Reports 57-67 • Public Lectures 68-71 • Publications 72-73 Section III: 2018 • Research Briefs 75-88 • Reports 89-103 • Publications 104-106 Section IV: The Research Collective 107-109 • 2016 • 2017 • 2018 Introduction Postcolonial India has witnessed many occurrences of popular movements. Both Bihar and West Bengal are known for radical peasant and student mobilizations during and after the struggle against the colonial rule. While Bihar has also experienced spates of identity based (chiefly along the axis of caste) political movements, which raised the issue of social justice as the core of popular politics, West Bengal is yet to witness any mass-based popular movement against caste hierarchies, while giving birth to huge popular movements on issues of refugee rights, price rise, inflation, civil liberty, land rights, workers’ rights, etc. The Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung–Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group research project on Popular Movements in West Bengal and Bihar (2016-2018) highlights and explores many such differences and similarities between the forms and trajectories of some of the popular movements that had taken place between the early fifties and the early nineteen-eighties in Bihar and West Bengal.The research was formulated in keeping with a three years’ time frame in mind. In the first year (2016), the themes which were covered included the refugee movement in West Bengal, tram and teachers’ movement in West Bengal, food movement in West Bengal, J P Movement in Bihar and Marxist Literary Discourses. The paper on refugee politics in West Bengal in 1950s (Refugee Movement: Another Aspect of Popular Movements in West Bengal in the 1950s and 1960s by Sucharita Sengupta and Paula Banerjee, Policies and Practices, No 80) discussed in details how refugees became central to the Left politics of the state. The refugees did not see themselves as refugees waiting for government’s charity. They saw relief and rehabilitation as their rights as citizens. Their fight for their rights was led by various Left parties. The paper studied the role of various Left parties in mobilizing the refugees staying in camps and colonies. While studying refugee politics in West Bengal, it highlighted the heterogeneous character of this group along the lines of class and caste. The research on the tram and teachers’ movements (Tram Movement and Teachers’ Movement in Kolkata by Anwesha Sengupta, Policies and Practices, No 80) complemented the research on refugees in many ways. When the refugees took to the street under the leadership of UCRC in demand for rehabilitation, the students and labourers came out in large numbers in their support, turning their movement into a “popular” one. The refugees reciprocated by participating in large numbers in two great urban movements of ’50s, namely the tram movement against a decision to increase the second class tram fare and teachers’ movement demanding a pay hike for the secondary school teachers. The Tram Movement and the Teachers’ Movement were extremely violent yet they witnessed massive support from the residents of Calcutta. The movements revealed the discontent among the common people. That there could be such uproar over a 1 paisa hike of the tram fare or the city would come to a standstill for the teachers, point towards the politically vulnerable atmosphere of the period. This would be manifested further during the food movements towards late 1950s and 1960s. Food scarcity in Bengal had been a continuous feature since 1940s. The famine of 1943 perhaps marked the epoch of such crisis in colonial Bengal. But the situation did not improve with independence, rather scarcity of food grains and high prices became a constant point of criticism of the Congress party in power. People were mobilized across the state in demand of food and West Bengal witnessed two massive movements on this issue – one in 1950 and the other in 1966. Going beyond the city of Calcutta, the protests now engulfed the rural spaces and made it a state-wide affair. Participation came from all quarters of the society. Once again, the movements witnessed massive participation from the students, including school students. A shift was also evident in the nature and contour of popular movements in West Bengal. It was no longer refugees as refugees who formed a crucial support base for such movements; rather they participated as peasants, urban poor, agrarian workers, informal labourers and disgruntled middle class. The effect of the Food 1 Movements in West Bengal was so intense that it changed the political complexion of the state. In 1967, the United Front (a political front of 14 non-Congress and Left parties) replaced the Congress Government. It also paved the way for Naxalbari, the next militant phase of political movements in West Bengal (The Defining Moments of Left-Popular Politics in West Bengal: The Food Movements of 1959 & 1966 by Sibaji Pratim Basu, Policies and Practices, No 81). A paper focused on the Bihar Movement under Jayaprakash Narayan, popularly known as the JP Movement. JP movement has been in equal measure celebrated for its stand against a repressive state and vilified for its lack of coherence in ideology, strategy and tactics and even a positive political programme. What cannot be denied though is the fact that it did capture the imagination of a large section of society and more importantly was able to mobilize them across various divides so that the movement could be called for a brief political moment as constituting the ‘people.’ The paper demonstrated that Bihar Movement was an event that reflected all the contradictions of contemporary times and by rearranging those contradictions changed the structure of democratic politics in India. It also noted the need to reappraise the role of JP. There is a long held belief of JP being a confused popular leader, but the paper has showed him as a tactical leader who always came up with contingent ideas as a response to the events of the popular movement (From Insurrection to Popular Movement: Bihar Movement, its Possibilities and Limitations by Mithilesh Kumar, Policies and Practices, No 81). The paper on Marxian aesthetics reflects the culture of debating and discussing Marxist philosophy and politics in Bengal in the decades after independence. The Bengali intellectuals based in Calcutta and Dhaka had always been sympathetic to and informed about various shades of left politics. They had engaged with Marxism both at the levels of discourses and practices. Intense debates regarding Marxian aesthetics have shaped the literary, cinematic and other art forms in West Bengal in ’50s, ’60s and ’70s when the politics of the streets, factories and fields were being shaped by Communists of different shades (Marxian Literary Debates and Discourses by Subhoranjan Dasgupta, Policies and Practices, No 81). By way of a theoretical exposition of the concepts of class, people, citizens, multitudes, and the political moment in popular struggles/revolutions in terms of an analysis of Marx’s Class Struggles in France and Civil War in France along with the Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonarparte, an essay by Ranabir Samaddar entitled Class, People and Populism has been published as part of the Policies and Practices, No 75. Naxalbari Movement that shaped the West Bengal politics of late ’60s and ’70s was examined in 2017. Since 1967, peasants’ struggles in Naxalbari, Debra, Gopiballabhpur and other areas in West Bengal started to take shape inspired by the ideal of the peasant revolution in China. It also included the wave of students’ movement which, inspired by the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (GPCR) of China, launched anti (prevailing) education system and movement against icons of the established culture. A section of these students also went to villages to organise/strengthen peasants’ struggle in different pockets of the state. These mobilizations were countered by the state machinery with brutal police operations including arrests under special laws, torture, and killing. What is once again worth studying in this case is the overwhelming response from people of different social, political and cultural backgrounds to these mobilizations ranging from silent support and sympathy to active participation in militant struggle. Undoubtedly, through these movements a notion of people came into being. And hence, the question to be asked is: What constitutes the people in popular movements. This had been one of the major research questions in all the papers written in the first year of the project and this will also shape the research on Naxalbari movement in the second year (Ranabir Samaddar’s work in Occupy College Street: Notes from the Sixties, contends with, elaborates upon and analyses the insurgent movements in the 2 decade of the sixties of the last century in Kolkata, wherein the tactic of ‘occupation’ was employed for purposes of mobilisation - Policies and Practices, No 89). Naxalbari Movement inspired multifaceted creativity; from propagandist poetry to reflective verse; from novels or prose narratives hailing the movement to stories and novels severely criticizing the theoretical ballast and its related activism; from revelatory plays transcreating the most decisive moments of the movement on the stage to cut and dried one act plays serving as slices of the experiential truth; from gripping films like Hajar Churasir Ma and Herbert to full-throated songs which exhilarated hundreds. While in the first year debates around Marxian aesthetics in ’50s and ’60s have been studied, in the second year special emphasis will be given to the world of literature, films and art that were inspired or were produced as criticism to the Naxalite Movement. Particular importance will be provided to the theatre activities of the time as this was one site were Naxalbari emerged as a major theme.