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lndia's Simmering Revolution Sumanta Banerjee lndia's Simmeri ng Revolution The Naxalite Uprising Sumanta Banerjee Contents India's Simmering Revolution was first published in India under the title In the llake of Naxalbari: A History of the Naxalite Movement lVlirps in India by Subarnarekha, 73 Mahatma Gandhi Road, Calcutta 700 1 009 in 1980; republished in a revised and updated edition by Zed lrr lr<lduction Books Ltd., 57 Caledonian Road, London Nl 9BU in 1984. I l'lrc Rural Scene I Copyright @ Sumanta Banerjee, 1980, 1984 I lrc Agrarian Situationt 1966-67 I 6 Typesetting by Folio Photosetting ( l'l(M-L) View of Indian Rural Society 7 Cover photo courtesy of Bejoy Sen Gupta I lrc Government's Measures Cover design by Jacque Solomons l lrc Rural Tradition: Myth or Reality? t2 Printed by The Pitman Press, Bath l't'lrstnt Revolts t4 All rights reserved llre Telengana Liberation Struggle 19 ( l'l(M-L) Programme for the Countryside 26 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Banerjee, Sumanta ' I'hc Urban Scene 3l India's simmering revolution. I lrc Few at the ToP JJ l. Naxalite Movement 34 I. Title I lro [ndustrial Recession: 1966-67 JIa- 322.4'z',0954 D5480.84 I lre Foreign Grip on the Indian Economy 42 rsBN 0-86232-038-0 Pb ( l'l(M-L) Views on the Indian Bourgeoisie ISBN 0-86232-037-2 Hb I lrc Petty Bourgeoisie 48 I lro Students 50 US Distributor 53 Biblio Distribution Center, 81 Adams Drive, Totowa, New Jersey l lrc Lumpenproletariat 0'1512 t lhe Communist Party 58 I lrc Communist Party of India: Before 1947 58 I lrc CPI: After 1947 6l I lre Inner-Party Struggle Over Telengana 64 I he CPI(M) 72 ( 'lraru Mazumdar's Theories 74 .l Nlxalbari 82 l'lre West Bengal United Front Government 82 Itcginnings at Naxalbari 84 Assessments Iconoclasm 178 The Consequences Attacks on the Police 182 Dissensions in the CPI(M) Building up the Arsenal 185 The Co-ordination Committee The Counter-Offensive 186 Jail Breaks 189 5. Srikakulam 100 Ominous Signs t92 The Background 100 The The CPI(M-L) and the CPI(M) 192 The'Ideological Polemics' 103 Police Operations in Calcutta 194 Guerrilla Struggles in Srikakulam 106 196 Nagi Reddy The 1971 Mid-Term Poll 108 (M-L) Achievements in Srikakulam l0 The Two-Line Struggle in the CPI 198 Message China 201 'Annihilation of Class Enemies' from il and Revolutionary Authority 204 Developments in Srikakulam t4 Saroj Dutta on the CPC 'People's Liberation Army' 204 Nagi Reddy's'Immediate Programme' l5 Post-Election Situation 206 The Area of Operations l7 The A Review of the Urban Youth Upsurge 207 6. The Birth of a Party t2t The Urban Proletariat 2to Revolutionary Activities on the Eve of the Formation of 215 the CPI(M-L) 9. The End of a Phase t2t The Countryside 215 Ideological Campaign by the Communist Revolutionaries t23 Punjab 216 Activities of the Communist Revolutionaries r26 Andra Pradesh 219 Differences within the AICCCR 128 Bihar 219 Birth of the Party 131 Naxalbari 220 Different Centres of Struggle 132 Birbhum 220 Charu Mazumdar's Suggestions t43 'Base Area' 229 7. The Party at the Crossroads 147 East Pakistan - l97l 233 Rumblings of War 141 China's Attitude 234 The Domestic Scene 148 The Indian Government's Policy 237 'Revolutionary Authority' 150 Dissensions in the CPI(M-L) 239 The Party Congress lsl The Sino-US Detente 243 Charu Mazumdar's Speech 153 The CPI(M-L) Splits 247 After the Party Congress ls5 The Indo-Pakistan War 248 Srikakulam - l97A t57 The 1972 Elections 252 Review of the Srikakulam Struggle ls9 Charu Mazumdar 254 Dissent from Bihar l6t The Aftermath 260 Misgivings in Midnapur 164 l0.The Prospects 265 Other Revolutionary Groups 165 Critique of the Movement 265 CPI(M-L) at the Crossroads 167 Failure to Reach the Higher Level of Armed Struggle 266 8. The Youth Upsurge 72 Disunity, Isolation and Decimation 270 Calcutta: 1970 12 The Military Failure 274 The Cultural Background of the Bengali Middle Class t5 The State's Repressive Forces 27s The Crisis in Education 76 The Indian Army 276 The Government's Policies: 1967 -7 2 279 The Urban Problems: 1967-72 284 A Note on the References 'The Countrywide Upsurge' 286 The Emergency and After 289 The Odyssey of the Communist Revolutionaries 297 Attempts at Unity in the Face of State Repression 30s United Front and Relations with China 309 The Prospects 314 Appendixes I. Biographical Notes on CPI(M-L) Leaders Who Died Between 1969 and 1972 319 II. A List of Charu Mazumdar's Writings )25 Almost all the CPI (M-L) documents lrom which extracts have been quoted or to which references have been made in this book. are originally in Bengali, Glossary 326 Hindi or Telegu. Somc of them have appeared in English in the pages of the party's jourrral - Liberation. But because olthe excessive freedom that seems to have been taken in certain places, I preferred to translate the orlginal documents. or get them translated whenever possible, directly into English. instead of using the ollicial translations. The sources ol quotations from Charu Mazumdar's writings are the three volumes of his Bengali articles. and a separate edition of his'Eight documents'. also in Bengali. published by the CPI (M-L). The party has also brought out an English version of thc'Eight Documents'and a volume of Charu Mazumdar's selected articles, translated into English. But when using quotations lrom Charu Mazumdar also. I lollowed the same course as with the party documents.+ Needless to say. most o[Charu Mazumdar's articles as welI as copies olthe party's journals- Liberation.Deshabrati.Lokayudh - were proscribed in India after May 1970. The CPI (M-L) publications. although quite voluminous and regular. are therefore largely out ol bounds lor the general public. Besides these published materials. there are heaps olmanuscripts containing minutes ol important meetings, letters lrom jails and Charu Mazumdar's unpublished notes. most olwhich have been extensively used while writing this book. A word about the style olwriting often to be found in CPI (M-L) reports of struggles. The language might sound rhapsodic. even exaggerated at times. But one has to remember that those who were writing the reports lrom the areas ol struggles. were seeing everything through the eyes olthe landless peasants. A traditionally downtrodden and humiliated people were for the first time handling rifles. or standing upright belore their erstwhile oppressors - things which might seem insignilicantto the urban middle class readers. butwere of tremendous importance to the rural poor. The news of the annihilation of some * A list olCharu Mazumdar's writings. rrranged chronologically. is appended at the end olthe text. (See Append* IIl. Quotations lrom his writings used in the text are relerred to by numbers according to which of his writings have been listed in the bibliography obscure landlord in a distant village hardly stirs the reader of a newspaper. but it makes a world ol difference to a landless peasant who for years has watched his C H N. A ._..'^'^'? own kind being coldly butchered by these landlords, not knowing how to resist. tr-...,.!.-._.-,_,.j.-.iSiI r' It is all a matter of adopting the class outlook of the downtrodden! ,r.t' tv c^ i +-i..' P A. E*iBHUTAN \.-., i'z'-'-... .l z -,, i.;ii A' ,0 '-.-.i \. (n fpuerter.''-. q \ ..!i'..-. \.-. ',t ',', t '] D ESH UM (] ,Jt_/ \. I-EI a I wesr BENGALI-: ,t-r.--- ( 'l---,-,-i'"s5[ffit"i;;;ix;-Jffi|llf"\\\\\, I " ") L i s .'i '1h-/fu1y6Yntol:-Uott os' / MAP I : llap of West Bengal showing CPI(M-L) areas of operations in the State and neighbouring rogions where bases 'were set up between 1967 and LClz. 1. 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