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30 years of Naxalbari

Posted by Indian Vanguard on September 17, 2007

We are reposting a booklet entitled “30 years of Naxalbari” Published by Revolutionary

publications, Kolkotta, for archive of our blog

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— An Epic of Heroic Struggle and Sacrifice

INDEX

Heroic Martyrs of the turbulent Sixties

15th August 1947….. The Union Jack is lowered, the tri-colours unfurled. A hope is awakened.Independence, freedom and a better life is expected and promised by the new rulers. A great

enthusiasm envelops the country. Time passes and so does Nehru, the first Prime minister of thecountry. Slogans of socialism, non-alignment of the Nehru era give way to Shastri’s Jai Jawan, JaiKisan and then Indira Gandhi’s Garibi hatao. Now, twenty years have passed, a full two decades.

The situation remains the same. The hopes are dashed, the expectations turn to frustration. TheBritish are gone, but their capital remained, their laws remained, their colonial structuresremained…. merely added was the parliamentary edifice. To British capital, was added American

capital. While people continued to live in grinding poverty, the Tatas, Birlas of the country filled theircoffers with enormous wealth. People’s cries for justice were as ruthlessly suppressed, as in the BritishRaj. The slogans of the rulers remained as mere slogans, the reality seemed different. The people werenow searching, seeking something genuine, seeking real answers. The people’s frustrations was

reflected in the results of the February 1967 general elections; when, for the first time, non-Congressgovernments were formed in eight states. And then in the spring of 1967, a new ray of hope,shattered the darkness engulfing the country. A fresh breeze from the East began to displace the

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stagnant, putrid air of the past twenty years. The veil of lies and deceit behind which our rulers took

protection, was torn asunder. A clap of thunder struck the remote village of Naxalbari in North

Bengal, and its reverberations shook the conscience of the entire country.

18th March, 1967…. The red flag is hoisted. The peasant convention of the Siliguri sub-division is insession, at Naxalbari. Five hundred delegates, some armed with bows and arrows, chalk out a newpath for their future. Revolutionary leaders explain the bankruptcy of the CPI (M) and the peaceful

path to change. The Chinese revolution is given as an example of how the poor can seize politicalpower in a backward semi-feudal country. The convention ends with a call for the immediate seizureof land and the setting up of liberated base areas. The peasants prepare for launching their offensive

against the landlords of the area..

PART-1 : THE NAXALBARI UPRISINGThe First Spark Towards a New Party Naxalbari-type Upsurge (1) Srikakulam

(2) Birbhum

(3) Debra-Gopiballavpur

(4) Mushahari

(5) Lakhimpur-Kheri Profile of a Leader

PART-2 : THE SETBACK The Government Onslaught Martyrdom of CM MovementRecedes Three Trends Emerge

PART-3 : INTROSPECTION A Self Critical Review The Importance of Mao Ze Dong Thought

PART-4 : REVOLUTION TAKES ROOT Bihar : (1) Maoist Communist Centre (2) CPI (ML) PartyUnity Andhra Pradesh : (1) The Initial Regrouping

(2) Telangana Regional Conference

(3) A Cultural Resurgence

(4) The Student Movement

(5) Go To Village Campaign

(6) Resurgence of the Peasant Movement

(7) Civil Liberties Movement

(8) Formation of CPI (ML) (PW)



PART-5 : 1980-84 — FIRST STEP TOWARDS GUERILLA ZONEGuerilla Zone Perspective

Movement’s Extension

(1) Dandakaranya

(2) North Telangana

PART-6 : 1985-89 — FIRST ROUND OF SUPPRESSION War of Self Defence

Efforts to Maintain Mass Links

Party Consolidates and Retaliates

Peoples’ Movement Regains Initiative

PART-7 : 1990-A BRIEF REPRIEVE

PART-8 : 1991 TO 95….. SECOND ROUND OF SUPPRESSION Tasks in the New Conditions ofRepression Struggles Continues Growing Armed Resistance PART-9 : POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

PART-10 : A GUERILLA ZONE IS BORN

Economic Gains

Political Authority of Peasant Committees

Social Transformation PART-11 : PARTY — THE LEADING FACTOR Continuing the Legacy of Naxalbari PART-12 :

INDIA’S BRIGHT FUTURE

The First Spark

Throughout 1966 itself the groundwork had been laid. In 1965/66 the ‘Siliguri Group’ [(of the newlyformed 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 inthe Terai region within six months. Throughout 1966 revolutionaries organised peasant cells in everypart of Siliguri sub-division; bow and arrows, and even a few rifles were gathered and liaisonestablished 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 tosprout………. A group of peasants surrounded a plot of land in Naxalbari region; marking the

boundaries with red flags, they began harvesting the crop.

Then….. the March 18 Convention was the signal for the peasant upsurge, which engulfed the entirearea 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 settingup 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 countrysidereverberated 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 foodgrains, 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, thepolice went berserk killing nine women and children. In June the struggle intensified further,

particularly in the areas of Naxalbari, Kharibari and Phansidewa. Firearms and ammunition weresnatched 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 forceswere 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 CharuMazumdar 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 aresmoldering in India……. Naxalbari has not died and will never die.”

Naxalbari gets recognition

The Communist Party of China, then the centre for world revolution, hailed the uprising. On June

28, 1967 Radio Peking broadcast : “A phase of peasants’ armed struggle led by the revolutionaries of

the Indian Communist Party has been set up in the countryside in Darjeeling district of West Bengalstate of India. This is the front paw of the revolutionary armed struggle launched by the Indian

people……”. Within a week, the July 5th edition of People’s Daily carried an article entitled ‘SpringThunder over India’ which said : “A peal of spring thunder has crashed over the land of India.

Revolutionary peasants in Darjeeling area have risen in rebellion. Under the leadership of a

revolutionary group of the Indian Communist Party, a red area of rural revolutionary armedstruggle has been established in India….. The Chinese people joyfully applaud this revolutionary

storm of the Indian peasants in the Darjeeling area as do all the Marxist-Leninists and revolutionarypeople of the world.”

Meanwhile, revolutionaries in Calcutta, who had also been running a campaign against revisionism,

took up a massive campaign in support of the Naxalbari uprising. The walls of college streets wereplastered with posters saying : “Murderer Ajoy Mukherjee (the Chief minister) must resign.” The

revolutionaries [still within the CPI (M)] held a meeting in Ram Mohan Library Hall in Calcutta and

formed the ‘Naxalbari Peasants Struggle Aid Committee’, which was to become the nucleus of theParty of the future.

Simultaneous to the police action, the CPI (M) expelled a large number of their members. Sushital

Roy Chowdhary, a member of the West Bengal state committee and editor of their Bengali partyorgan was expelled. So were other leading members like Ashim Chatterjee, Parimal Das Gupta, Asit



Sen, Suniti Kumar Ghosh, Saroj Datta and Mahadev Mukherjee. The Darjeeling district committeeand Siliguri sub-divisional committee were dissolved.

The spark of Naxalbari set aflame the fires of revolution in Srikakulam, Birbhum, Debra-

Gopiballavpur, Mushahari and Lakhimpur-Kheri. The states of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh,Bihar, Punjab, U.P and Tamil Nadu saw a big spurt in Naxalbari-inspired struggles and Maoist

formations sprouted in nearly every state of India.

The Naxalbari Path

Naxalbari put armed struggle onto the agenda of Indian revolution….. and since then, the Indianpolitical scene has never remained the same. Naxalbari took place at a time when not only the Indian

masses were getting disillusioned by the twenty years of fake independence, but, at a time when the

entire world was in turmoil. Small countries like Vietnam, Laos and Kampuchea were striking majorblows at the might of the U.S. Army; national liberation movements were surging forward in a

number of underdeveloped countries; in Europe and America massive anti-imperialistdemonstrations against US involvement in Vietnam merged with a violent outburst of the Black and

women’s movement; the student-worker revolt in France shook the DeGaulle establishment; and,

most important of all, in China, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (in the backdrop of theGreat Debate) attacked the revisionist ossification and distortions of Marxism. In the Communist

arena all Parties throughout the world were compelled to take positions in the Great Debate, betweenthe CPC (Communist Party of China) and the CPSU (Communist Party of the Soviet Union) which

had been going on since Krushchev restored capitalism in the USSR in the late 1950s. Naxalbari wasa product and a part of this ideological-political ferment taking place throughout the globe.

Most important, Naxalbari restored the revolutionary essence of Marxism on the Indian soil which

had been distorted, corrupted and destroyed by the revisionist semantics of the CPI and the then

nascent CPI (M). Naxalbari provided the answers both ideologically and practically.

ON THE QUESTION OF PROGRAMME it attacked the revisionist concepts of the CPI and CPMwhich saw India as basically a capitalist country with ‘feudal remnants’…….and clearly analysed

India as a semi-feudal country. It also attacked the revisionist theory that the ruling bourgeoisie inIndia is basically national in character and that India achieved genuine independence in 1947……..

and clearly stated that the ruling bourgeoisie is comprador, Indian independence fake, and that India

is a semi-colony. It outlined the stage of revolution as New Democratic, the enemies of revolution asimperialism, feudalism and comprador bureaucrat capitalism, while the friends of revolution being

the workers, peasants, middle-classes and national bourgeoisie – with peasants as the main force andworking class as the leading force.

ON THE QUESTION OF STRATEGY it opposed the path of ‘peaceful transition’ put forward by the

CPI and CPM, and upheld the path of protracted people’s war. It clearly stated that the path toliberation lay in guerilla warfare, building a people’s army, creating liberated base areas in the

countryside and gradually encircling and capturing the cities. It stated that the immediate goal was

the establishment of a people’s democratic dictatorship (of the four classes) as the first step towardstransition to socialism. The final goal was communism.

IN THE REALM OF TACTICS it rejected parliamentarism and called for the boycott of elections. It



IN THE REALM OF TACTICS it rejected parliamentarism and called for the boycott of elections. It

fought against economism, legalism and reformism in methods of work and organisation.

ON POLITICAL QUESTIONS it pin-pointed the two superpowers, US imperialism and SovietSocial imperialism, as the main enemies of the world people; it exposed the modern revisionists of the

Soviet Union; it declared India as a multi-national country and supported the right of nationalities toself-determination including secession.

AND MOST IMPORTANT, IN THE REALM OF IDEOLOGY, it uncompromisingly fought against

revisionism and all forms of bourgeois ideology within the working class movement and strongly

upheld Marxism-Leninism-Mao ZeDong Thought as Marxism of the present day. Particularly, itestablished Mao’s thought as a development of Marxism-Leninism and undertook a big campaign to

popularise it. This had a lasting impact, particularly on the student and youth of the country.Specifically, inspired by the on-going Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution in China, it responded

enthusiastically to Mao’s clarion call “It is right to rebel against reaction.” It thoroughly imbued thespirit of the GPCR call to “Fight self-interest and repudiate revisionism”, by displaying a death-

defying spirit of self-sacrifice, total devotion to the oppressed masses and a burning class hatred

against the perpetrators of exploitation in the country. Thereby, it struck at the class-collaborationistapproach of the revisionists and the pseudo-liberal approach of the intellectual Marxists and gained

enormous affection from the poorest in our country.

Though later, come tactical errors and a massive offensive by the enemy led to a temporary setback,Naxalbari made an indelible impact on the revolutionary movement in the country.

Towards a New Party

While the Naxalbari movement was crushed, the politics and ideology behind the Naxalbari uprising

spread throughout the country. The ‘Naxalbari Peasants Aid Committee’ (or ‘Naxalbari KrishakSangram Sahayak Samiti’) held a conference which decided to form the ‘All India CoordinationCommittee of Revolutionaries of the CPI (M)’. On November 12, 13, 1967 communist revolutionaries

from all over the country met and established the ‘All India Coordination Committee ofRevolutionaries of the CPI (M)’ A provisional committee was formed to consolidate all revolutionariesand gradually form a revolutionary party.

The coordination committee undertook the task of propagating Marxism-Leninism-Mao ZeDongThought; uniting all communist revolutionaries on this basis; waging an uncompromising struggleagainst revisionism; developing and coordinating the revolutionary struggles, specially peasant

struggles of the Naxalbari type; and preparing a revolutionary programme and tactical line. In May1968, at its second meeting held on the eve of the first anniversary of the Naxalbari uprising, thecoordination committee was re-named as the ‘All India Coordination Committee of CommunistRevolutionaries’ (AICCCR) with Sushital Ray Chowdhary as its convenor.

Earlier, the communist revolutionaries decided to bring out a political paper to propagate therevolutionary line. The first issue of ‘Liberation’ was brought out on November 11, 1967 with Suniti

Kumar Ghosh as its editor. ‘Deshabrati’ was brought out in Bengali. At its peak the circulation of‘Liberation’ touched 2,500 and that of ‘Deshabrati’ 40, 000.

Meanwhile Naxalbari-type struggles spread like wild-fire throughout 1968, and the struggle in



Meanwhile Naxalbari-type struggles spread like wild-fire throughout 1968, and the struggle inSrikakulam was growing into a major uprising. Under these conditions the AICCCR in its February8, 1969 meeting adopted the resolution to form a Party. At the plenary session meeting of the

AICCCR held between April 19 to 22, 1969 the final decision was taken and on the hundredth birthanniversary of Lenin the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) was founded. A coordinationcommittee was formed to draft the Party constitution and prepare for the Party Congress. TheParty’s formation was announced by Kanu Sanyal at a mammoth May Day rally held at the

Calcutta maidan.

In the process of formation of the Party the Dakshin Desh group and the APCCCR (Andhra Pradesh

Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries) did not join. The Dakshin Desh group feltthat it was hasty to form the Party at that juncture and it also had differences with the method offormation of the Party, while the APCCCR had differences with the political line of CPI (ML). TheDakshin Desh Group went on to form the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC) which is today, along

with CPI (ML) Party Unity, spearheading the armed struggle in Bihar. The APCCCR continued withits right deviations, later splitting into two factions – the T.Nagireddy-D.V.Rao faction of theUCCCRI (ML), and, the C.P.Reddy faction which later merged with the revisionist Satyanarayan

Singh faction of the CPI (ML) in 1975 only to split again into a number of factions.

By mid-1969 the government had moved in the para-military forces into all the struggle areas and aman-hunt was launched for the leaders of the CPI (ML). The movement went fully underground. In

April 1970 the government raided the office and printing press of ‘Liberation’ and ‘Deshabrati’ whichtoo continued from the underground. The government began its campaign of liquidating thecommunist revolutionaries.

On May 15, 16 1970 the Eighth Congress [in continuation of the 7th Congress held by the CPI (M)]of the CPI (ML) was held under conditions of utmost secrecy. The Congress was held on the firstfloor of a building in the railway colony in Garden Reach, Calcutta. On the ground floor were over

fifty volunteers who had gathered to celebrate a mock wedding. Some, were family members of thedelegates. The blaring loudspeaker helped drown the noise of the heated debates taking place above.

The Congress was attended by about 35 delegates from all over the country and elected a 21 member

central committee representing comrades from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, U.P,Tamilnadu, Orissa, Kashmir and Kerala with Com. Charu Mazumdar as general secretary. The nine-member politburo comprised Charu Mazumdar, Sushital Roy Chowdhary, Saroj Datta, Souren Bose

(all West Bengal), Satyanarayan Singh (Bihar), Shiv Kumar Mishra (UP), Shroff (Kashmir), Appu(Tamilnadu) and the two seats allocated for A.P. were never filled.

The Prairie Fire

The cream of India’s youth and students joined, what came to be known as the Naxalbarimovement. While the parliamentary politicians were busy playing the politics of power andamassing personal wealth, young revolutionaries were sacrificing everything-studies, wealth, families

– to serve the oppressed masses of our country. Displaying a death-defying courage, withstandingenemy bullets and inhuman tortures, facing the their hardships of rural life, thousands of youthintegrated with the landless and poor peasants and aroused them for revolution.



In Calcutta the university campuses were turning into hotbeds of revolutionary politics. During the1967-70 period, the prestigious Presidency College and Hindu Hostel had become the nerve centre

for Maoist politics. The Presidency College Students’ Consolidation emerged as an important forcefollowing their overwhelming victory in the student union elections in 1967/68. Throughout 1968 and1969 the Maoist students wing – the Progressive Students Coordination Committee (PSCC) –captured almost all the student unions of the different institutions in and around Calcutta. The Post-

Graduate students federation of Calcutta University under Maoist influence discovered the militantform of ‘Gherao’ by launching numerous such struggles against the university authorities in 1969.Later, at the call of the Party it was from these colleges that hundreds of students gave up their

studies and integrated with the peasant masses. Many became martyrs in the brutal massacres ofyouth in 1970/71 in which thousands were killed in Calcutta.

In Andhra Pradesh it was the students of Guntur Medical College who were the first to come out in

support of Naxalbari and form the Naxalbari Solidarity Committee. M. Venkataratnam andPremchand were the pioneers, translating articles from ‘Liberation’ into Telugu and distributingthem amongst the communist rank and file. Chaganti Bhaskar Rao and Devineni Mallikarjunudu

were the brilliant medical students who subsequently went to Srikakulam as guerilla fighters. EarlierBhasker Rao, a gold medalist, had brought out a handwritten magazine, ‘Ranabheri’, to disseminatePeking Radio news and articles and propagate Naxalbari politics among students.

In Punjab, Bihar, UP, Tamilnadu, Kerala and even amongst the Campuses of Delhi and Bombaythousands of youth were attracted to Maoism and the politics of Naxalbari. Youth, with ideals, at lastfound a meaning to their lives after total disgust with the deceit, corruption, greed and unprincipled

opportunism that pervaded parliamentary politics. Naxalbari symbolised to this youth a new futureof justice, truth, equality, humanity and a self-respect for the downtrodden which the present societycould never give . Fired with this missionary-like zeal they set out to exterminate the perpetrators ofinjustice, inhumanity , to eradicate the demons and ghosts who run this oppressive system, to

remove the sting of the scorpions, snakes and other vile creatures who roam the corridors ofpower……. to execute the executioners. They sought to create a paradise on earth. They shared theon dreams of their leader, affectionately known as CM, to create a bright future where no person

shall go hungry; where no one shall oppress another, where there shall be no discrimination based oncaste, religion or sex; where a new socialist human being will be born in whom greed, selfishness,ego, competitiveness will be replaced by selflessness, modesty and cooperation, and where a concernfor others will take precedence over concern for oneself. And it is these youth who, together with the

more experienced leaders, marched forth to turn their dreams into reality, by building Naxalbari-type struggles in many parts of the country.

Naxalbari-type Upsurge

The period 1968 to 1967 saw the outbreak of struggles of landless and poor peasants that stormed thefeudal bastions of the ruling classes.

(1) Srikakulam :

Charu Mazumdar once said that “Srikakulam is the Yenan of India.” Though that may have been

an exaggeration, it was a landmark in the history of armed struggle in our country. This hilly,forested tribal belt in the North East of Andhra Pradesh was the beacon-light that blazed the



revolutionary path for communists of Andhra Pradesh.

Two school teachers had built up a mass base amongst the tribals since the late 1950s. VempatapuSathyanarayana (popularly known as Sathyam) the legend of Srikakulam, together with AdibhatlaKailasam were finding the militancy of their struggle coming into direct conflict with the revisionist

state leadership. Forcible harvest of crops, land occupations, growing clashes with the landlords weredeveloping into armed clashes with the police. These two teachers were soon joined by the youthleader Panchadi Krishnamurthy. Added to this, the verse and song of Subbarao Panigrahi became

the vehicle of revolutionary politics. With the growing repression, the people were disarmed andpanic-stricken as the state leadership was unwilling to resist.

Then came the news of Naxalbari. Sathyam and others immediately embraced the politics of

Naxalbari as in it they found the answers for which they were groping, and which the stateleadership [of the then CPI (M) and later APCCCR] was unwilling to provide. The tribals were nowwelded into an irresistible force.

The spark was triggered on 31st October 1967 when two comrades – Koranna and Manganna-wereshot dead by landlords at Levidi village while way to the Girijan Sangam Conference. In reaction thegirijans rose in a big way against the landlords; seizure of landlords land, property and foodgrains

spread from village to village with tribals moving in groups armed with traditional weapons. Thiscontinued for six months paralysing the local police forces. But in March 1968 the government sentin a massive posse of police. The people fought back, but were faced with defeat as they were notadequately trained in guerilla methods of warfare.

It was only after coming into contact with the AICCCR that a decision was taken for squadformation and a more systematic resistance. The guerilla squads now assisted the people in the

seizure of landlords’ property and annihilation of class enemies. On 25th November 1968 the agendaof armed struggle was set, when 250 tribals raided a landlord’s house, took out a procession of thehoarded foodgrains and property worth Rs. 20, 000 and burnt hundreds of documents. On 20thDecember 1968 at Balleruguda village 200 police were surprised in a guerilla attack by 500 villagers

using stones, bows and arrows and one country-made gun. The police fled; the villagers pursued,killing two constables and one circle inspector.

In 1969 the number of functioning squads increased and so did the actions. But, in October 1969 the

government sent in 12, 000 CRPF and the battle raged on for nearly six months. Major guerillaactions took place in the upper Aviri area, on the Bothili hills and near Sanjuvai, Vegulavada andIthamanugadda. By January 1970, 120 police had been killed. But, one by one, the leaders became

martyrs. Sathyam, Adibhatla Kailasam, Panchadi Krishnamurthy, Panchadi Nirmala, Bhasker Raoand Subbarao Panigrahi became part of the folk-lore of the area.

(2) Birbhum :

‘Deshabrati’ drew a number of students and youth towards Naxalbari politics from the towns ofSuri, Rampurhat, and Bolpur. Organisers from Calcutta and Siliguri went to Birbhum in 1968 to

develop the revolutionary movement. After doing some rural surveys they began to organise the



villagers on issues of wages and tenancy rights. Many youth joined the movement. The next year thelandlords retaliated and evicted the peasants. A militant struggle was launched against the eviction.The struggle spread like wildfire and soon engulfed the whole area.

The party’s work had spread from Bolpur and Suri to Santhal Paraganas in the west. The first attackon a class enemy was made in Dubrajpur thana in 1969 and the annihilation campaign started fromthe beginning of 1970. Guerilla squads came into being and about 70 class enemies covering 20thanas were eliminated. In some cases jotedars were punished following the people’s verdicts in

people’s courts. The struggles also spread to the small and medium towns of the district, like Bolpur,Hetampur, Suri, Rampurhat and Nalhati, drawing in the youth and students. The squads alsoformed into larger units (then called the people’s army), eliminated many tyrants, destroyed

documents, confiscated their property and distributed it amongst the people. They seized guns in thevillages in nine thanas of Birbhum, three thanas of Murshidabad and three thanas of SanthalParaganas. In all over 200 guns were snatched from the landlords and police. In some areas secretRevolutionary Peasant Committees were also established. But by mid 1971, besides big contingents

of the police, the government moved in the CRPF and army. With the ‘Left’ line then prevailing, themovement could not face this combined onslaught and suffered a setback.

(3) Debra-Gopiballavpur :

Many revolutionary intellectuals from Calcutta settled in Gopi-ballavpur of Midnapur district in1968. In September 1969 a guerilla squad attacked and annihilated an oppressive landlord which

had an electrifying effect in the area. Landlords fled to the towns and in November 1969 a bigpeasant movement began which took up the forcible harvesting of landlords’ crops. In the midst ofthis movement a large number of guerilla squads were formed and in early 1971 launched an attack

on a police camp of the Bihar Military Police – one policeman was killed and nine rifles seized.

In neighbouring Debra a strong movement had been built in 1967 by the local CPI (M) cadres. Butas the movement became militant warrants were sent for the arrest of their own party men and Jyoti

Basu clamped prohibitory orders in the area. Meanwhile, two popular leaders who had joined theMaoists, influenced by the Gopiballavpur struggles set up a central guerilla unit and a number oflocal guerilla units. In October 1969 thousands of armed peasants, supported by the guerilla squads

attacked the house of a notorious jotedar, seized the hoarded grains, the mortgaged articles andbrunt the documents. This was followed by ten more actions in quick succession……

(4) Mushahari :

Naxalbari attracted the bulk of the CPI (M) cadres of Muzaffarpur district towards the CPI (ML). Bymid-1968 land struggles began…… peasants with arms in their hands openly harvested thelandlord’s’ crops. By August the ‘seizure of crops’ campaign intensified with increased clashes with

the landlords and police. The government sent in big police forces which resorted to assaulting andarresting villagers, burning their huts and plundering their property. The movement spread to seventhanas of the district with attacks continuing on class enemies. Towards the end of 1968 guerilla units

were set up to face the police. The masses and guerilla units successfully repulsed the police in manyplaces and continued their attacks on landlords……..

(5) Lakhimpur-Kheri :



The movement started in 11 villages in this Terai region of UP close to the Nepal border. Herelandlords owned anything from 500 acres to 2000 acres with large goonda gangs. The peasantsbegan their struggle for land in early 1968 and witnessed a big upheaval by June. Clashes between

the peasants and goondas ensued with the peasants thrashing the goondas, confiscating landlord’sproperty and seizing arms. Police camps were established, the movement went underground andcontinued in the form of guerilla strikes. Many landlords fled the area………..

The spark of Naxalbari spread to most corners of the country. The epi-centre was West Bengal, withstrong movements in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Punjab, Tamilnadu and there were flashes of Maoistresistance in nearly all the states of India stretching from Kerala in the South to Kashmir in the

North, from Maharashtra in the West to Assam in the East. The movement threw up brilliant leaderslike Sushital Roy Chowdhury, Saroj Datta etc but the chief ideologue and visionary was CharuMazumdar.

Profile of a Leader

Charu Mazumdar, or more popularly known as CM, was born in a Zamindari family of Siliguri in1918. As a school student he was influenced by the petty-bourgeois national revolutionaries and

became a member of the All Bengal Students Association, affiliated to the Anusilan group. Hisfather, a lawyer, was an active Congress freedom fighter and his mother was progressive for hertimes. In 1937-38 he dropped out of college and became a Congress worker organising bidi workers

and others. After a few years he quit the Congress and joined the CPI, working in the peasant front.Primarily he worked amongst the Jalpaiguri peasantry and became a popular leader amongst them.When a warrant was issued for his arrest he went underground. At the outbreak of World War II the

party was banned and he did secret organisational work amongst the peasantry and became amember of the CPI Jalpaiguri district committee in 1942. During the great famine of 1943, heorganised the seizure of Crops in Jalpaiguri. In 1946 he participated in the Tebhaga movement andorganised militant struggles of the peasants in North Bengal. This movement had a profound impact

on him and shaped his vision on armed peasantry developing a revolutionary movement. Later heworked amongst the tea garden workers of Darjeeling district.

In 1948 the CPI was banned and he spent the next three years in jail. In January 1954 he married

Lila Mazumdar Sengupta, a CPI cardholder from Jalpaiguri. They shifted to Siliguri, whichremained the centre of his activity. His ailing father and unmarried sister lived there under severefinancial constraints having lost their ancestral property. As the peasant movement receded he spent

his efforts organising tea garden workers, rickshaw pullers, etc. After the Palghat Congress in 1956his ideological differences with the party widened. Severe financial constraints added to hisdepressing conditions. But, the Great Debate, in the international communist movement lifted hisspirits. During the Indo-China war he was again put in jail. Though he joined the CPI (M) in the

split, he found the leadership dodging the key ideological questions. In 1964-65 he was sick anddevoted time to studying and writing about communism and Mao’s thought. It was here that hedeveloped his ideas which were recorded in his writings and speeches of 1965-67 – subsequently

known as the ‘Historic Eight Documents’ — which formed the political-ideological basis for theemergence of the Naxalbari movement.

PART — 2



THE SETBACK

Dark Clouds gather……….

The Government Onslaught

Martyrdom of CM

Movement Recedes

Three Trends Emerge

Revolutions never proceed in a straight line. The history of all successful revolutions show this. Thepath is zig zag, there are ups and downs, there is victory and defeat repeated a number oftimes…..before final victory. Of course, there is no final victory until the stage of communism isreached. Even the gigantic success of the Russian and Chinese revolutions were followed by reverses

three to four decades later…..no doubt these defeats will be followed by victories in the future.

Revolutions trace a tortuous course, there are no short-cuts, no easy paths. Setbacks are inevitable asthey face a rapacious monster, but with greater experience of class struggle, a deeper understandingof Marxism-Leninism-Mao Ze Dong Thought and a better grasp of the ground realities, the lossescan be minimised.

Though the immediate cause for the setback was the ruthless repression unleashed by thegovernment, the large losses came from certain short-comings on all the above three counts.

The Government Onslaught

It was during this period that the police introduced the method of ‘encounter’ killings. It is a methodwhich sets aside even their own bourgeois norms. But then, their ‘democracy’ is only for those who

accept their system while for those who question it, or challenge it, it is a cold, brutal fascist madness.During the Telangana uprising in 1950 the Nehru government murdered thousands of tribals andhung communists along the trees leading to the villages. The same Nehru treated the same‘communists’ as his closest associates once they entered parliament just two years later. During thosedays, Nasser, while on a visit to India, exclaimed in shocked surprise at the freedom communistshad, and chidingly told Nehru “we put all communists into prison.” Nehru smilingly replied “it ismuch the same, you keep them in prison, we in parliament – in both, they become harmless.”

Staged encounters became the norm in the 1970-71 period. Besides, revolutionaries were subjected toinhuman tortures. In all the struggle areas the police would pick up young men and women in theage-group 17 to 25, suspected to have links with the Maoist movement…. and subject them to brutaltorture. The purpose of torture was not just to extract information, but to break their will, destroytheir self-respect, so that they do not challenge the system and the established status quo. The rollertreatment, hanging from the roof and being beaten, inserting hot iron rods into the rectum, electric

shocks, burning with cigarette butts and many more savage methods were used against Maoistsuspects. Of course, this never frightened the revolutionaries, but made their hatred against thesystem more intense. So, the ‘encounter’ killings.



In 1969-70 the government had pressed into service not only the reserve police forces, but also thepara-military and even the army. By 1971 most of the Naxalbari-type uprisings had been cruellycrushed. Then the government turned its fury on the revolutionary youth of Calcutta. By 1970 urban

guerilla struggles had reached unprecedented dimensions in the city, effecting students, workers,employees etc. The tremendous support they received frightened the ruling classes, and the largesections of the CPI (M) cadres, that switched alliance to the Maoists, created panic in the CPI (M)leadership.

In the 1971-72 period hundreds of youth of Calcutta were systematically shot dead by Congress-ledvigilante squads. These killer squads were led by Congress leaders like Priya Ranjandas Munshi, and

put into action according to a plan hatched by the Chief minister Siddarth Shankar Ray and policechief Ranjit Guha. For example, in August 1971 Congress hoodlums joined hands with CPI (M)cadre to massacre hundreds of Maoists in the Baranagar and Howrah areas of Calcutta. The mostinfamous was the Cassipore-Baranagar massacre. Armed goons of the Congress together with CPI(M) activists conducted house to house searches, raping women, burning houses and beating upyouth with any known sympathy for the Maoists. Then, the Congress went on a killing spree, whilethe CPI (M) men formed a human chain around the area, to prevent anyone from escaping. Young

boys were murdered, elderly people were doused with kerosene and burnt to death. Two importantMaoist leaders of the area, Panchu Gopal Dey and Karuna Sarkar were killed in the most goryfashion. Dey’s limbs were cut off, one by one, and then stoned to death. Karuna Sarkar was caughtby the goondas and CPI (ML) was carved on her chest. Other places where similar massacres tookplace were Ratan Babu Ghat, Kashiwar Chatterjee Lane, Baral Para Lane, Kutighat Road, AtulKrishna-Bose Lane, Maharaja Navalakumar Road, Lal Maidan, Bholanath stree, JainarayanBanerjee Lane, Kashinath Datta Road and Vidyatan Sarani.

In this period over 10, 000 Maoists and their sympathisers were killed, most of the leadership hadbeen decimated and thousands more were languishing in jails. And while this savage exterminationwas going on not a single parliamentary party even raised a voice.

Martyrdom of CM

Earlier, two central committee members, Saroj Datta and Appu just ‘disappeared’. Till today is is not

known what happened, but it is quite clear that they have been arrested, tortured, then killed andtheir bodies disposed off by the police. Sushital Roy Choudhary died of a heart attack. In AP andPunjab the bulk of the leadership were killed. Charu Mazumdar, the ailing leader of the movementstill evaded arrest. By 1972 he was the most wanted man by the Indian government.

But, on July 16, 1972 after the brutal torture of a courier, Charu Mazumdar was arrested from ashelter in Calcutta. At the time of his arrest he was seriously sick with cardiac asthama. During his

ten days in police custody no one was allowed to see him – not even his lawyer, family members nora doctor. The Lal bazar lock-up had achieved a reputation throughout the country of the mosthorrifying and cruel tortures. At 4.00 A.M. on July 28, 1972 Charu Mazumdar died in the policelock-up. Even the dead body was not given to the family. A police convoy, with the immediatefamily members carried the body to the crematorium…. The whole area was cordoned off and not



even the nearest relatives was allowed in. Charu Mazumdar’s body was consigned to the flames. Andwith his martyrdom the first glorious chapter of the incipient revolutionary movement in India cameto a close.

Movement Recedes

With the martyrdom of CM the young Maoist movement was thrown into disarray. With much ofthe leadership, at all levels, killed or in jail, and with a fascist terror reigning, the links between therevolutionaries broke. It was left to local organisers to recoup the forces. Most of these lackedexperience, were being hounded by the police and, in many places, the mass base was shattered bypolice attacks. Yet pockets of resistance continued particularly in West Bengal, Bihar and AndhraPradesh.

But the government could not contain the peoples’ anger and a wave of protests shook the country.In Bihar and Gujarat there were massive student movements against corruption and governmentunaccountability; in Maharashtra severe drought sparked off unrest and the Dalits (scheduled castes)rose in revolt with the Dalit Panther movement; the nationalities were beginning to stir withmovements for the development of local languages, more equitable centre-state relations and forseparate states; the all India strike of railway workers in 1974 brought the economy to a virtualstandstill; and, to top it all, even sections of the police launched unprecedented revolts against the

government.

The ruling classes too were in disarray. They found themselves unable to contain the peoples’ anger.Each new day brought fresh reports of more attacks on the system. Yet, in the absence of a consciousintervention by a well-organised revolutionary party, the spontaneous challenge of the people wassought to be diverted into parliamentary channels. Jaya Prakash Narayan who became the symbolicleader of the movement against corruption gave a call for ‘Total Revolution’. In many places the

movement spontaneously took a violent turn, but JP’s ‘total revolution’ was directionless. But, themass movement threatened the ruling Congress government which finally clamped an internalEmergency on June 26, 1975. On 25th night the entire opposition parties and even some dissidentCongressmen, mass leaders, civil rights workers and revolutionaries and their sympathisers werethrown behind bars.

The pockets of Maoist resistance that continued in this period were particularly in the Telangana

region of Andhra Pradesh led by the AP State Committee of the CPI (ML), later to become the CPI(ML) (People’s war), in West Bengal it was the Second CC with a strong base in Nadia and 24Parganas districts and the MCC in the Sunderbans; and in Bihar three groups continued theirresistance – in Bhojpur it was led by the CPI (ML) faction of Jawahar (later to become the Liberationgroup), in Jehanabad by what came to be later known as CPI (ML) Party Unity and in South Bihar’sHazaribagh and Giridh areas by the MCC.

Three Trends Emerge

In this period of setback three distinct trends developed within the CPI (ML). The first was acontinuation of the left line of ‘annihilation of class enemies’ which was represented by some pro-LinPiao groups like the Second CC and the Mahadev Mukherjee group, also the CPI (ML) led byJowahar in Bihar and CPI (ML) led by Kannamani in Tamilnadu. The second trend comprised of



those who swung to the right, by criticising the entire tactical line of the CPI (ML) and once again

sought participation in elections. This was particularly led by the CPI (ML) faction led bySatyanarayan Singh. Others like Kanu Sanyal, Ashim Chatterjee, Souren Bose swung even furtherto the right finally veering towards the CPI (M). The third trend was particularly represented by theCOC (Central Organising Committee) which upheld the essence of the CPI (ML) line but sought torectify the left errors. The COC comprised the CPI (ML) state units from Punjab, West Bengal,Andhra Pradesh and Bihar – the Punjab unit later merged the Unity Organisation to form the CPI(ML) Party Unity and the Andhra Pradesh unit developed into CPI (ML) (People’s war).

The revolutionaries belonging to the first trend were unable to withstand the police pressure for long.They fought heroically, but were suppressed. This was particularly so in Bhojpur. Annihilationsrocked the district from 1971. Notorious landlords, upper caste gentry who had raped dalit women,goondas of the landlords …. all fell victim to the blazing guns of the revolutionaries. The movementthrew up dedicated revolutionaries like Jagdish Mahto and Butan Mushahar….both school teachersand lovingly referred to as ‘Master’; and there was Rameshwar Ahir, the landless peasant-turned

criminal, turned revolutionary. Then there was Dr. Nirmal the medical graduate who hadexperienced casteism even amongst the educated students and realised that genuine equality canonly be achieved through revolution. And then there was the legendary leader of the CPI (ML)group Subroto Dutta, popularly known an ‘Jawahar’. The battles raged in the plains of Bhojpur rightinto the Emergency. But four days after the declaration of Emergency the battle turned in favour ofthe enemy.

It was June 29, Bahuara village with 143 families. The CRP and the Jat Regiment aided by 300

heavily armed Bumihars surrounded the village. The attackers set the whole Dalit tola on fire. TheAhirs, led by the CPI (ML) cadres fought back. The battle raged for three whole days. Finally after96 hours of heavy fighting, four men made an attempt to break out of the heavy encirclement. Two,including Dr. Nirmal escaped. But a wounded Butan, ‘Master’, could not. He was arrested in thenext village and shot dead. It is said that in these plains the revolutionaries linked up huts withunderground tunnels, for their security. A few months later, a police party raided the house of

Sakaldip Chamar in Babubandh village. The people inside put up a valiant resistance. After thesmoke cleared, many lay dead. Among them was Dr. Nirmal. He was just 27 years. Among thosewho escaped was Jawahar; but he was severely wounded and died a few hours later. The Mushaharsdid not allow the police to capture the body; with tears in their eyes, they carried it away secretlythrough the fields. Resistance continued to smoulder throughout the period of the Emergency.Rameshwar Ahir and Jagdish Mahto too became martyrs. After the Emergency the new secretary ofthe party Vinod Mishra, while negating the left errors, step by step led the party to the extreme right.

By the end of the 1980s this party revised all its earlier positions ending in the camp of the CPI andCPM. Of the groups in the first trend the Kannamani group was totally liquidated, and the secondCC after some divisions, a few reviewed their past and tried to come out of the ultra-left line.

Most of the groups in the second trend, with varying degrees of right deviations, finally became partof the revisionist camp, like the SNS group, Kanu Sanyal, Ashim Chatterjee etc. A few, though stillwithin the revolutionary camp, are getting more and more bogged down in parliamentary politics,or keep on postponing the question of armed struggle. Some of these have been going through a

series of unifications and splits.



The third trend was the trend of the future……and it is this trend that has been growing in manyparts of the country. They are basically represented by three organisations : CPI (ML) Party Unity,CPI (ML) (People’s war) and the MCC. Though the MCC never joined the CPI (ML) and has anindependent history of its own it is today the strongest revolutionary force in Bihar. These three

trends, in order to coordinate the struggles, formed a broad common platform called the All IndiaPeople’s Resistance Forum or AIPRF in 1992 with its organ ‘People’s Resistance’ in English andHindi.

PART — 3

INTROSPECTION New rays of hope…………. A Self Critical Review The Importance of Mao Ze

Dong Thought

The major reason for the setback were some errors in the movement, specifically in the realm oftactics. Repression, brutality, inhuman torture, etc are second nature to the capitalists. These‘gentlemen’ are fine and courteous as long as their interests are not threatened; but touch one paisa oftheir ill-begotten wealth and they turn into poisonous vipers, ruthless executioners, inhuman demons,spouting death and destruction on their path to glory. It is the class struggle that brings forth their

real nature and any revolutionary or revolutionary movement must be equipped to face it. Thetragedy of the liberals is that they are unaware of this reality, while the revisionists seek to hide it.The bourgeoisie is not threatened by the liberals or the revisionists, who strain every nerve to look‘respectable’ (to the bourgeoisie), and so the rulers can afford to be ‘civil’, ‘decent’, ‘rational’ in theirdealings with the liberals, revisionists and their like. Some confuse this ‘decency’ for the gory reality.The politics of Naxalbari threatened them, and they came out in their true colours, discarding allrefinement, shedding all democratic pretensions, discarding all ‘decency’, with a ruthlessness that

would make even Hitler ecstatic.

After the setback in 1972 there has been much introspection. Specifically the COC units tried tograpple with the problems of revolution in India in the light of this latest experience. In doing sovarious assessments came forward one of which was the self-critical review put forward by theAndhra comrades led then by Kondapalli Seetharamaiah.

A self-critical review

Success or defeat in revolution is, first and foremost, governed by the political line of the party that isleading the revolution. If the line is in conformity with the laws of development of society andrevolution, then the movement will go towards victory. But if the line is not in conformity with theselaws it will be defeated. The CPI (ML), unlike the CPI and CPM, correctly understood the laws ofdevelopment of India society, when they characterised it as semi-feudal, semi-colonial and the stageof revolution as New Democratic. The CPI (ML) also grasped the fundamental law of revolution i.e.,

the need for revolutionary violence to change the system. Marx and Engels had shown that allhitherto existing social systems had not passed away peacefully but through violent class struggles.The very bourgeoisie in the capitalist countries had come to power through a violent overthrow of thefeudal order. Marx’s famous quote that “Force is the midwife of every old society pregnant with thenew” was thrown to the winds by the CPI and CPM. The CPI (ML) not only restored this Marxistlaw of revolution, they went about implementing it. And in doing so, certain errors arose in themethods adopted.



Being equipped with the general laws of revolution is not sufficient; there must also be a concreteanalysis of concrete conditions, a class understanding of friends and enemies, an assessment of thechanging class alignment of forces at any given moment and the methods required to build therevolutionary forces to face the enemy. Errors in any of these spheres can also lead to reverses. And itis here that some errors were made.

These errors were best summed up in the CPI (ML) (People’s war) document entitled “Summing up

the past let us advance victoriously along the path of armed struggle.” This document listed first thepositive aspects of the CPI (ML), then the shortcomings and finally drew lessons on the basis onwhich to advance. This contrasted sharply with numerous other critiques from erstwhile leaders ofthe CPI (ML) like SNS, Kanu Sanyal, Ashim Chatterjee, etc who merely sought to throw blame onCM and escape into the revisionist camp. Of course, genuine criticism was raised earlier, particularlyby Sushital Roy Chowdhary in late 1970, but he was the lone voice in the leadership then.Unfortunately, a few months later, he died of a heart attack. Though belatedly, Com. CM himself

initiated the process of rectifying the errors as could be seen in his article “People’s interest is party’sinterest” written in May 1972, two months prior to his martyrdom.

While clearly stating that the positive aspects were primary the CPI (ML) PW document outlined themain shortcomings as :

(i) An incorrect understanding of the era : The document stated that the party wrongly estimated

that the character of the era had changed and on that basis had called for continuous attacks,without a thought to the relative strength of the revolutionary forces and that of the enemy. Thedocument added that : “what should have been done instead, is to base (tactics) on a concreteassessment of the relative strength and weaknesses of the opposing sides of the contradiction, in arevolution.”

(ii) A wrong estimation of the International and National Situation: The document stated that the

Eighth Party Congress report had looked upon US intervention in Kampuchea as the beginning ofWorld War III. It also said that the party had wrongly estimated the situation in the country andtherefore called on the people to start armed struggle everywhere. The document added that in Indiathere is uneven economic development, and the levels of political consciousness and social andcultural development vary, this, it added, has to be borne in mind, while formulating the tactics ofstruggle.

(iii) A disregard for the subjective factor : There was no proper estimate of the strength of therevolutionary forces vis-a-vis that of the enemy. There was a tendency to get carried away by theimmediate success of the struggles.

(iv) Giving immature slogans : The over assessment of the objective factors of revolution led to manyimmature slogans and calls.

(v) The Line of Annihilation : The document succinctly analysed this point saying : “All forms of

struggle are subordinate to, and are guided by the concrete political line. If the concrete political linedeviates from the mass line, the forms of struggle cannot but be otherwise….. So in order to negatethe line of annihilation, we have to negate the wrong ideology which is alien to Marxism and itsconsequential political and organisational manifestations….. The problem is not whether the class



enemy will be annihilated or not ….. Rather the problem is, whether the party should adopt the massline or not …. Every Marxist-Leninist Party must propagate revolutionary violence which may

express itself in various forms of struggle; one of which may be annihilation of class enemies.” Theparty had earlier asserted that the annihilation of landlords was the only means of arousing thelandless and poor peasants. This document put the question in correct perspective.

(vi) The rejection of other forms of struggle and organisation : Until then the party negated all massorganisations and all other forms of struggle, thereby isolating the party from the masses whichmade comrades easier targets for the enemy. As the document pointed out “In order to combat the

long-standing revisionist practice of conducting mass struggles on the lines of economism andadopting legal and open forms of organisation as the only form of organisation, our party arrived ata one-sided and wrong formulation that the armed form of struggle is the only form of struggle andarmed form of organisation the only form of organisation.”

(vii) A wrong approach to the United Front : The document in its assessment of the earlier positionsaid, “The United Front will be formed in the course of struggle only…. to work for it right from the

inception of the struggle is the bounden duty of the working class. To say instead, that it will not bepossible to form a United Front until one or a few liberated base areas are established….amounts torejecting in practice the truth, that a United Front is essential for the victory of revolution.”

(viii) Guerilla struggles in the cities : The document said that it was wrong to have started urbanguerilla warfare in Calcutta… leading to enormous losses.

(ix) Wrong bureaucratic tendencies in Organisation : The document explained that – bureaucratic

methods, a lack of self-criticism, a lack of committee functioning, sectarian methods of solvingdifferences, and finally the assertion of Com. CM’s individual authority above the Party…. did muchto damage the movement. The document also added that this was a major reason why the partycould not correct errors in time.

These then were the major errors of the movement and it is on the basis of a rectification done withthis analysis, that the CPI (ML) (PW) has carried forward the heritage of Naxalbari, the basic line of

the Eighth Congress and created the primary forms of the guerilla zone.

The importance of Mao Ze Dong Thought

Remoulding of the existing petti-bourgeois outlook to a proletarian outlook is a continuous struggle.The pace of the incipient revolutionary movement outstripped the pace of development of proletarianideology. Besides, non-proletarian traits acquired through long association with the revisionists

added to the havoc and splintering of the movement. The lack of a self-critical approach allowedsome ‘leaders’ to swing from one view to exactly an opposite view without so much as a attemptingto analyse why the earlier view was wrong. Such political and ideological semantics abounded in thepost-1972 period. Together with this individualism, personality-based groupism, a small circlementality etc., added to the proliferation of groups-each one, ofcourse, claiming they alone wereright. Mao no doubt has written against all this, but it is one thing to accept Mao theoretically, quiteanother to imbibe his teaching in practice.

Mao had once said “A communist must never be opiniated or domineering, thinking that he is good



Mao had once said “A communist must never be opiniated or domineering, thinking that he is good

in everything while others are good in nothing; he must never shut himself up in his little room, orbrag and boast and lord it over others.” Sectarianism was deep-rooted at that time, highly opiniatedviews existed, intolerance of another view-point, an unwillingness to learn from others, not even frompractice and reality……all this added to the fissures and divisions, and also retarded, or atleast,delayed, the ability to learn from one’s own experience.

In 1972 itself the AP State Committee had presented a short self-critical assessment, though this was

accepted by Com. CM shortly before his arrest and martyrdom, it was not able to gain acceptance.These views, presented in a well elaborated form to the then COC in 1975 was not even able to rallythe other units, even though the COC contained many of the best elements from amongst the CPI(ML). Even if this was not accepted no other view could find a common agreement. With the result,the first COC literally withered away in 1977.

Mao Ze Dong Thought is the development of Marxism-Leninism and an essential weapon for theproletarian movement. It gives the ideological basis for fighting all forms of deviations and the most

powerful weapon in combating revisionism particularly modern revisionism. Today, when theinternational communist movement has faced a setback and even the mighty CPC has turnedrevisionist, the danger of revisionism lurking in the background is ever-present. The struggle againstimperialism and feudalism is impossible without a struggle against revisionism…..and for that,Maoist ideology, politics and military science are absolutely fundamental.

PART — 4 REVOLUTION TAKES ROOT The Storm clouds gather……….. Bihar : (1) Maoist

Communist Centre (2) CPI (ML) Party Unity Andhra Pradesh : (1) The Initial Regrouping (2)Telangana Regional Conference (3) A Cultural Resurgence (4) The Student Movement (5) Go To

Village Campaign (6) Resurgence of the Peasant Movement (7) Civil Liberties Movement (8)Formation of CPI (ML) (PW)

Where there is oppression there is resistance. Revolution is not a conspiracy, it is a festival of themasses. Secret methods of organisation and guerilla forms of warfare are necessary for a smaller

force to defeat a larger force. The Indian state is relatively big and powerful. Besides, they getcontinuous training from the Americans, British, Russians and the Israeli intelligence, Mossad. Afterthe defeat of the reactionary forces in Vietnam, counter-insurgency training internationally hasreached a higher level of perfection. Today, the strength of India’s armed forces is 15 lakh, plus thereis a 8 lakh central para-military force and 12 lakh police force (3 lakh of whom are the armed-police).The total expenditure on the army and para-military forces was Rs. 37, 000 crores in 1996-97 andthat on the police was Rs. 7, 200 crores. Together with this, large secret funds are allocated for covert

operations of the IB, RAW etc. This entire force of three and a half million, incurring a massiveexpenditure of over Rs. 45, 000 crores yearly is used for the suppression of the Indian people-i.e., thegovernment is spending Rs. 500 per family per year for their suppression. It needs a powerful force,with deep roots in the masses, and well-versed in guerilla warfare to take on the enemy forces of thestate. The amatuerish methods of the 1969-72 period were easily defeated.

Taking lessons from this experience, the movement began taking roots on a more solid foundation.

The seeds of this movement were sown in the early 1970s itself, they began to sprout in the post-emergency period, a strong erect structure developed in the decade of the 80s, and in the 90s they



began to bloom in the bright sunshine blazing over the forests and plains of Andhra Pradesh,Dandakaranya and Bihar. Through massive repression and most bestial brutality the Indiangovernment tried to snuff out the seeds, it failed; it tried to trample over the young saplings, it failedagain; it tried to axe the strong structure that began to take shape, yet again it failed; and now it istrying to drown the sweet fragrance by emitting a vile odour – it will also fail.

First, a brief introduction to the movement in Bihar led by the MCC and CPI (ML) Party Unity.Later we shall go into a detailed description of the movement led by CPI (ML) (PW) in AP and

Dandakaranya.

Bihar

After the suppression of the Bhojpur movement, the CPI (ML) Liberation made a swing towards theRight and slowly went into the morass of revisionist politics. The enormous mass base sosystematically built by the martyrs of Bhojpur was step by step disarmed and pushed into

parliamentarism. In short, the revolutionary movement was liquidated. What is worse, this groupwas utilised to launch attacks on the genuine revolutionaries. The most notorious incident being themurder of two leading members of the CPI (ML) 2nd CC – Ramachandra Thakur and Jassiya Ray.Thakur was member of the Central Committee. Also, they had aggressively attacked and killedcadres from the MCC and CPI (ML) Party Unity. It was only when these organisations retaliatedthat the Liberation group’s aggressiveness reduced.

Soon, the focus of the movement shifted from Bhojpur to the districts of Gaya, Aurangabad andJehanabad where two organisations with dedicated cadre were quietly building their revolutionarybase. These two organisations were the Maoist Communist Centre and, the other was, what latercame to be known as the CPI (ML) Party Unity.

(1) Maoist Communist Centre

The MCC, while supporting the Naxalbari struggle, did not join the CPI (ML) because of sometactical differences and on the question of the method of Party formation. Its history can be traced tothree phases.

The first phase can be stretched from 1964 to 1968 and began when the revisionist line wasestablished at the first Congress of the CPI (M). Functioning as the ‘Dakshin Desh’ group (after theBengali Magazine brought out by it) it led a revolt against the revisionist line and established a secretrevolutionary centre to develop a revolutionary line. The two main founders of this group were

Amulya Sen and Kanai Chatterjee. It was a period primarily of ideological struggles. While doing so,the major comrades were already playing a leading role in the trade union front, student front andyouth front. The leading comrades too were linked to the workers and peasants movement. Thetheoretical issues raised in this period were :(i) drawing a clear line of demarcation with therevisionists in the political and organisational fields, (ii) linking the daily revolutionary practice ofIndian revolution to the theory (iii) developing a political and tactical line not merely as a formality,

but giving it a concrete structure in various spheres of activity and (iv) based on these revolutionarypolicies, style and method, and in the course of revolutionary struggles and guided by arevolutionary theory, to build a revolutionary party.



The second phase, which stretched from 1969 to 1978, was a period of implementation of the party’sline, policies and plans. It was a period of gaining practical experience towards the path ofestablishing the ‘Red Agrarian Revolutionary Resistance War.’ It was initiated by two articles printed

in Dakshin Desh (Lal Pataka in Hindi) entitled ‘The Perspective of Indian Revolution’ and ‘TheTactical Line of Indian Revolution-perspective’, and, the formation of MCC on October 20, 1969.Work was begun on this basis in the Sundarbans, 24 Parganas, Hoogli, Midnapur, Kanksa, Gayaand Hazaribagh. Of these experiences the most encouraging was that of Kanksa and Hazaribagh.Here, a wide movement was built on issues like wage hike, seizure of crops, fertiliser problem,confiscation of grains from landlords and against various forms of political and social oppression.Also, a wide mass movement was built, some notorious landlords punished and steps were taken

towards disarming of the enemy and arming the people. Some guerilla squads and self-defencesquads were also built and through the Kanksa struggles the concept of the Revolutionary PeasantCommittees first developed. In the 1972-77 period the movement faced enormous repression.

The third phase, which stretched from 1979 to 1988, was a period of taking the lessons, both positiveand negative, of the second phase and enriching both the theory and practice. In this phase the MCCfocused on Bihar; and with the perspective of building a people’s army and base area, the Bihar-

Bengal Special Area Committee was established, the ‘Preparatory Committee for RevolutionaryPeasant Struggles’ was formed and soon Revolutionary Peasant Councils emerged. In this phasemilitant struggles developed and the landlords’ authority smashed, thousands of acres of land seizedand distributed to the landless, and property of the landlords seized and distributed. But it was in thisperiod that the two founding members of the organisation passed away – Amulya Sen in March1981 and Kannai Chatterjee in July 1982.

Now the movement has grown to a number of districts of Bihar including Hazaribagh, Giridh,Gaya, Aurangabad and others. Today, the MCC is a force to reckon with, in Bihar.

(2) CPI (ML) Party Unity

Cadres of the CPI (ML) from Jehanabad-Palamau region fought against the disruptionist andrevisionist line put forward by Satyanarayan Singh in 1971. Also while struggling against the leftline of the Bhojpur comrades, they built some roots in the area. After the release of many comrades

from jail in 1977, the movement picked up momentum and was re-organised. They organisedthemselves into the CPI (ML) (Unity Organisation) in 1978.

The Jehanabad-Palamau region is one of the backward regions of Bihar. In addition to cultivation,the peasants have to rely on the collection of forest produce for their subsistence. In this area the writof the landlord lay unchallenged. The situation began to change with the entry of the UnityOrganisation. Learning from their previous ‘left’ errors special attention was paid to build a mass

base for the activities of their armed squads. A peasant organisation was formed – The MazdoorKisan Sangram Samiti (MKSS). All old practices were questioned and landlords’ authoritychallenged. Struggles for wage increase, against the social oppression of women and scheduledcastes, and the biggest struggles arose over the auction of forest produce.

The incipient movement saw three of its young activists martyred on 10th August 1982. Thelandlords of Bhagwanpur village in Gaya district kidnaped Lakhan Manjhi (20 years), Sudeshi

Manjhi (19) and Balkishore Manjhi (15) and killed them. Lakhan was an important member of the



Party’s Red Squad. In June 1984 the movement faced a severe loss, when the popular secretary of theMKSS, Krishna Singh, was shot dead by landlords. In May 1984 the Palamau-Aurangabad RegionalCommittee of the MKSS had held its conference and plans were being made for fresh attacks on thelandlords. On June 17, Krishna Singh was conducting a meeting of the MKSS at Jharna in Palamaudistrict. The local landlord and goondas attacked the meeting, opening fire. A chase began, Com.Krishna Singh allowed his comrades to get away, and fell to the enemy’s bullets. Condemnation of

this murder spread in a spate of protests throughout the area. The protests led to the arrest of 35 ofthe hoodlums involved.

Meanwhile in 1983 the Unity Organisation merged with a section of the COC, CPI (ML) to form theCOC, CPI (ML) Party Unity. As the movement grew the party too put forward the perspective ofbuilding up a guerilla zone. At the Party Congress held in 1987 the COC, CPI (ML) Party Unityoutlined the following tasks : “We are tackling the steadily increasing armed onslaughts of the state,

through mass resistance. But gradually the squads too will have to come forward to participate inthis resistance. At the phase of confiscating all lands of the landlords and on the eve of building upthe guerilla zone, the activities of the squads will be the main aspect of the people’s resistance againstthe armed attacks of the state.”

In Gaya-Aurangabad a call was issued for all landlords to deposit their weapons with the KisanSamitis. Those who refused found their houses attacked and their weapons seized. The movement

grew, and today the COC CPI (ML) Party Unity is also a force in a number of districts of Bihar.

Andhra Pradesh

While in the late 1960s the nerve centre of the Maoist movement in India was West Bengal, by thelate 1970s it had shifted to Andhra Pradesh. … Ofcourse, Andhra Pradesh has a glorious history ofrevolutionary struggles. It had seen the historic Telangana struggle where, by July 1948, 2500

villages had been organised into’communes’. It was the famous ‘Andhra Thesis’, that for the firsttime demanded that Indian revolution follow the Chinese path of protracted people’s war. As early asJune 1948 the ‘Andhra Letter’ submitted to the Central Executive Committee of the Party, laid downin unambiguous terms a revolutionary strategy based on Mao’s New Democracy. It was the firsttime anywhere in the world (outside China) that ‘Mao’s Line’ had been asserted. In fact, the ‘ChinesePath’ for the backward countries was first asserted by the CPC only in November 1949 at a meetingof the World Federation of Trade Unions being held in Peking. But this line was vehemently opposed

by the Ranadive leadership of the CPI. It was only in May 1950, after the Cominform came out withits approval of the Chinese revolutionary strategy as a model for the backward countries, that the‘Andhra Thesis’ was accepted and became the official line of the Party. But this line lasted for just oneyear, as, with the withdrawal of the Telangana struggle and a decision to participate in theforthcoming elections, the Andhra Thesis was withdrawn. In May 1951 Ajoy Ghosh was elected assecretary in place of Rajeshwar Rao and a new leadership introduced the revisionist line.

Then came the Srikakulam uprising, and now, by 1972 the shift was once again back to theTelangana region.

(1) The initial regrouping

By November 72, of the 12 member AP State Committee only one remained to regroup the forces,



By November 72, of the 12 member AP State Committee only one remained to regroup the forces,the rest had been either killed or arrested. Kondapalli Seetharamaiah, together with some leadingmembers of the state, reorganised much of the fractured units. Earlier, in March 1972, the existingthree members of the state committee (two of whom were arrested in November) sought to correctthe errors of the Naxalbari period by maintaining its revolutionary essence. This committee decided

to build mass organisations, take up the partial struggles of the masses and spread to new areas bybuilding legal mass organisations, where possible. It also decided that the annihilation of classenemies should be conducted only as part of the class struggle. With these decisions a two memberdelegation went to meet CM. CM spoke to the delegation just ten days before his arrest andapproved all the decisions. At this meeting CM also disclosed the fraternal suggestions of the CPCregarding rectification of certain methods of work.

In August 1972 the Party launched its political magazine ‘Pilupu’ (The Call) to rally therevolutionary forces. This magazine, besides dissemination of the stand of the Party on national andinternational issues, conducted an ideological battle to repulse the attacks of the dissidents within theCPI (ML) (example – SNS, Kanu Sanyal, some of the jailed leaders in AP) and from those outside(erstwhile APCCCR), in defense of the CM-line and the new organisational methods to be adopted.‘Pilupu’ played an important role in repulsing the right and ‘left’ deviations rampant in themovement at that time…..steering the movement onto a correct path. Together with this, in order toknit the cadres on a strong ideological basis, a large number of political classes were held.

Besides reorganising the Party in AP, KS made attempts to contact central committee members fromWest Bengal and other states. Of the four central committee members from AP elected at the 1970

Congress two were killed and two in jail. In January 1974 KS attended a meeting of a reconstitutedCentral Organising Committee comprising Sharma (elected secretary of the COC) of Punjab, SunitiGhosh of Bengal and Ramnath of Bihar, of which the first two were original CC members elected atthe 1970 Congress.

Meanwhile as there was no state committee in existence in AP, in August 1974 it was decided toreconstitute a three-member committee comprising KS (representing Telangana region), Appalasuriwho had just escaped from jail (representing coastal Andhra) and Mahadevan, who had just comeout on bail (representing Rayalaseema).

The COC which had to prepare a common self-critical review was unable to come to any agreementon the three separate reviews presented. At the two month September 75 meeting it was decided towithdraw these reviews and instead produce a tactical line. It was hoped that this tactical line wouldstrengthen unity through practice and act as the basis for a common tactical line, entitled ‘Road to

Revolution’, though prepared after intense discussion, did not help unity. While the May 1977meeting the Bihar and West Bengal representatives resigned, and the AP representative did notattend due to the arrest of KS. With the collapse of this first attempt to reorganise the Centre, the APcomrades turned their focus back to the movement in the state.

(2) Telangana Regional Conference

At the time the Telangana Regional Conference was held in February 1977 all the preparations hadbeen completed for the launching of a powerful mass movement. In the previous five years, thescattered revolutionary forces had been regrouped, the political line had been effectively defended



from attacks from both the right and ‘left’, a powerful revolutionary student movement haddeveloped which were to provide a large number of cadres for the Party, fraction work hadeffectively laid the seeds of organisation amongst a section of the workers, particularly the coal mineworkers, and the seeds of a peasant movement had been sown in Karimnagar and Adilabad districts.All the conditions were ready for the take-off and the Telangana Regional Conference was to ignitethe fuse.

The Conference was held basically to review the growing Telangana movements and to elect a

leadership. In this conference three major decisions were taken – (i) to broaden the party’s baseamongst the masses (ii) to hold a series of political classes to train the big influx of new cadre and (iii)to send squads into the forest for launching armed struggle. Finally, the eight districts of Telangana,excluding Hyderabad, were divided into two regions and two regional committees were elected.

(3) A Cultural Resurgence

AP had a rich tradition of revolutionary culture. After Naxalbari, the big names of Telugu literaturelike Sri Sri, R.V. Shastri, Kutumba Rao etc turned towards the revolutionary trend. With the CPItaking to the parliamentary path, the Progressive Writers Association stagnated. It was theDigambara (naked) poets of 1965 which broke the dullness that had engulfed Telugu literature.Poets like K.V.Ramana Reddy, Cherabanda Raju, Varavara Rao, C. Vijayalaxmi, CV Krishna Rao,exposed social evils, corruption, exploitation, political bankruptcy, meaningless middle-classexistence, commercialisation of literature, etc. The anthology of 15 poets, Rathiri (night) was like a

flash of light in the darkness. The incisive poems of Cherabanda Raju and Varavara Rao have beentranslated in nearly all languages.

By 1965 there were three important groups of poets who were to rock the Telugu literary world : theHyderabad based Digambara poets, the Warangal based Thirugubatu (revolt) poets and the Gunturbased Pygambara poets. After the Naxalbari uprising these poets, together with the leading lights ofthe literary world ( i.e. Sri Sri and others) merged to form VIRASAM in 1970 – i.e., the ViplavaRachayithala Sangam or the Revolutionary Writers Association (RWA). Even in the period of setbackit was the inspiring poems, short-stories, novels which continued to attract thousands of the youthtowards the politics of Naxalbari. Not only were the writers politically uncompromising, they wereartistically brilliant. Further, RWA initiated the formation of an all-India revolutionary culturalforum in 1983. Revolutionary cultural organisations came together and formed the All India Leaguefor Revolutionary Culture (AILRC). The AILRC brings out a regular quarterly cultural magazine inHindi entitled ‘Amukh’.

Besides these writers, a number of artists from Hyderabad, inspired by the the Srikakulam struggleand the songs of Subbarao Panigrahi formed a group in 1970 called the Art Lovers. They comprisedthe famous film producer Narasinga Rao and the now legendary, Gaddar. In late 1971 this groupbecame directly affiliated to the Party and changed its name to Jana Natya Mandali (JNM). Throughits cultural programmes of song, dance and plays the JNM propagated revolutionary ideas and drewthe masses towards revolutionary politics. In 1977, district level troupes of JNM were formed inTelangana. An eight-member troupe was first formed in Adilabad which gave a record 300



programmes in 1978-79. District teams were formed in Warangal and Karimnagar in 1978 andcould function legally till 1984. Central training schools were held for the JNM troupes between 1980and 1982.

(4) The Student Movement

Once the left line was rectified, students who had been inspired by Naxalbari and Srikakulam andthe RWA and JNM, surged forward in their thousands. Initially the students of the CP Reddy groupand those with the AP State Committee worked under one banner – the Progressive DemocraticStudents Union or PDSU. But, as the differences grew sharper and working within one organisationbecame difficult (with continuous contradictions) the revolutionary students left and formed theRadical Students Union or RSU. This organisation grew with such speed and gained such supportthat even today activists are popularly known as Radicals.

The Radical Students Union was formed on October 12, 1974 and the first State Conference was heldin February 1975. This first conference released a manifesto exposing the various revisionisttendencies and holding aloft the banner of a revolutionary student movement. Hundreds of students

inspired and Mao Ze Dong Thought attended the conference. The biggest contingents were fromTelangana, specifically form Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam and Nalgonda. Large numbersalso came from Ananthapur, Tirupathi and Vishakhapatnam.

After the conference and before the next academic year, the Emergency was declared and the RSUhad to face the full brunt of the repressive machinery. More than 500 students were subjected toinhuman torture, and 70 were thrown into prison. Four young students, Janardhan, Murali Mohan,Anand Rao and Sudhakar were taken to the Giraipally forests and shot dead by the police. Studentactivist, Nagaraju, was also arrested and shot. Yet RSU re-organised secretly and continuedagitations specifically in their two strongholds – the Regional Engineering College of Warangal andthe Osmania University in Hyderabad. They also started a magazine ‘Radical’ which was widelydistributed amongst students.

After the lifting of the Emergency student agitations swept the state around a number of issues : InHyderabad it was around the Rameejabi rape (in police custody) case, in Kakatiya University it was

against the Hindu fundamentalists, in Bellampally in support of the workers strike, inMahaboobnagar in support of the hotel workers – also there were state-wide agitations on ITI andPolytechnic students’ issues and a state wide strike for students demands for better social welfarebenefits.

The second conference was held in Warangal in February 1978. In preparation to this conference abig debate took place as certain units said that mass organisations should confine themselves topartial demands and not propagate revolutionary politics. The two views were debated in all units,and finally the second conference rejected the proposed changes. Lenin’s writings on the nature of arevolutionary student movement were widely circulated to educate students and activists on thisissue.

The mass upsurge of students throughout 1978 and the active ‘boycott election campaign’ to thestate Assembly culminated with the third state conference of the RSU held in Anantapur with 2000

delegates. This was preceded by district conferences in 13 districts. With the sweep of the



revolutionary student movements RSU (jointly with PDSU) began winning all the student unionelections. The 1981 RSU state conference at Guntur was preceded by 16 district conferences. Prior tothis conference RSU had organised a meeting of 10,000 to condemn Soviet Aggression ofAfghanistan.

From 1981 the ABVP (student wing of the Hindu fundamentalist BJP) organised systematic assaultson RSU activists and even killed some leaders. The police stood by and watched. The RSU replied –first with a systematic exposure of the ABVP; and then they also resisted the physical assaults andwherever necessary retaliated. With this resistance campaign the movement spread to the HighSchools. In the 1982 student elections the RSU achieved unprecedented victories in OsmaniaUniversity (Hyderabad) and in the towns of Warangal, Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Mahaboobnagar,Adilabad, Guntur, Chittoor, Kurnool, Cuddapah and Khammam districts. The student union electionvictories further facilitated the spread of revolutionary politics in the educational institutions. The

inaugural functions, cultural events ….. all became centres of revolutionary enthusiasm spreadingthe movement to every corner of the state. By the time of the 5th

State conference, RSU had spread to 18 out of the 21 districts of AP. In 1984, 25000 polytechnicstudents from 47 colleges went on a 104 day strike and achieved their demands. Even high schoolstudents went on an indefinite strike to get their syllabus reduced. In February 1985, at the initiativeof the RSU the All India Revolutionary Students Federation (AIRSF) was established at a conferenceheld in Hyderabad. But by mid-1985 the police launched its massive attack on the party and a chieftarget was the RSU. Police raided schools, colleges and hostels, arresting students and brutallytorturing them.

Since then, the RSU has been pushed underground and had to change its style of functioning fromlarge open meetings to small secret meetings, class room meetings, etc. In 1985/86 a number ofstudents leading the RSU were killed in cold blood – Nageshwar Rao, Shyam Prasad, Sreenivas,

Yakaiah, Ramakanth, Muralidhar Raju and Satish fell to enemy bullets. Nageswar Rao was the statevice-president of RSU. Since then all conferences of the RSU have been held secretly.

(5) ‘Go to the Village’ Campaigns

The ‘Go to the village campaign’ was an ingenious method discovered by the AP Party to effectivelyintegrate the students with the ongoing peasant movement. It was also a brilliant method to pushahead the organisation amongst the peasantry with enormous speed. In the summer holidaysstudents scheduled to go on a campaign would first go through an intense one weak political school.In this school the method of conducting the campaign would also be informed. Also in this schoolthey would be informed about the subject to be taken for intense political propaganda amongst thepeasants. After this they would be broken up into batches of about seven each and proceed to thevillages covering an area as per the party plans. In the village campaign they were also to set upyouth organisations wherever possible and keep a note of the names of all potential activists. These

names would then be handed over to the local party organiser who would follow up and deepen theorganisation.

The first such campaign began in the summer of 1978. In the first campaign 200 studentsparticipated. The aim of this campaign was the propagation of the politics of agrarian revolution andthe building of RYL (Radical Youth League) units in the villages. The campaign went on for one



month and culminated in the holding of the first RYL Conference. The significance of this campaignwas that it helped trigger off the historic peasant struggles of Karimnagar and Adilabad.

In the next year, the ‘village campaign’ of April to June 1979 was for the first time jointly conductedby RSU and RYL. This time preparatory classes were held in 15 centres in which 500 students andyouth participated. Besides propagating the politics of agrarian revolution the campaigners strived toexpose the “Soviet-backed Vietnamese aggression against Kampuchea” – they sold Pol Pot badgesin the villages. The campaign focused on “Soviet Aggression against Afghanistan” and also

expressed solidarity with the nationality movement of Assam. The 1981 campaign exposed policebrutality in the wake of of the massacre of tribals in Indervelli in Adilabad district. The campaignmobilised support for the tribal movement being led by the CPI (ML) (PW) in the Dandakaranyaforests. In 1982, the theme of the campaign was the unconditional release of KS and other politicalprisoners and demanding a judicial enquiry into ‘encounter’ killings in the state. The teams alsohelped mobilise workers for the first State Conference of the Coal miners union SIKASA (SingareniKarmika Samakhya). The 1983 campaign exposed the repression being unleashed by the TeluguDesam government and explained that political leaders like NTR cannot usher in all-rounddevelopment of the Telugu nationality. The 1984 campaign, the last that was possible before the all-out onslaught unleashed in 1985, focused on government repression and demanded the withdrawalof the CRPF from Telangana.

With each campaign the number of student and youth participants increased, inspite of the fact thatin each successive year the police attacks were getting more and more vicious. In 1983/84 it was a

virtual hide-and-seek between the police and the campaigners. In the 1984 village campaign about1100 student and youth participated, organised into 150 propaganda teams. That year alone theycarried the message of agrarian revolution to 2419 villages.

(6) Resurgence of the Peasant Movement

In the latter part of 1977 huge peasant rallies and demonstrations were held all over the district, notonly on local issues but also for the release of political prisoners, against ‘encounters’, tortures inpolice lock-up and for removal of police camps. Slowly, peasant and agricultural labour unionsbegan taking shape. The three thousand strong public rally at Gollapally on September 27 was anindication of the growing force. Also, in the same month, the workers of the Singareni Colleries atBellampalli of Adilabad district rejected the revisionist leadership, took a militant agitation under theleadership of revolutionary politics and wrested bonus and other demands from the management.Seeing the growth of the people’s movement the landlords began their attack. In November 1977 thelandlords attacked and killed Lakshmi Rajam of Sircilla taluq and Potta Poshetty of Jagityal taluq.

In the next summer the RSU village campaign gave a big impetus to the peasant movement andfrom June 1978 the struggles began to pick up tempo. The major issues around which they ralliedwere : the enhancement of daily wages for agricultural labourers, increase of the monthly andannual wage rates for permanent farm labour, abolition of customary free labour and customarypayments in cash and kind to the landlords, refund of bribes, taking possession of government landunder landlord’s occupation, occupation of waste land, confiscation of firewood and timber grownby landlords in government forest lands, etc. Specifically, the struggles for the abolition of unpaidlabour and enhancement of agricultural wages spread like wild fire throughout Jagityal taluq. Thepeasantry of Jagityal alone collected refunds amounting to lakhs.



Strikes of agricultural labourers spread from village to village. Landlords were physically brought topublic gatherings and asked to confess their crimes and apologise for their oppressive behavior andpay back the illegal extortions. The peasants moved in big rallies, with red flags and occupied wastelands and government lands under landlord occupation. Also the strike movement, of labourers at

beedi leaf collection centres in many taluqs of Karimnagar and Adilabad, gained momentum.

One of the most powerful and popular forms of struggle that developed during this period was the‘social boycott’ of the landlords and their anti people agents. When it was decided to socially boycotta landlord, the entire village decided to stop any interaction and service to him – he was deprived ofhis servants in the house, cattle feeders, agricultural labour, washermen, barbers etc. Later, this formof struggle was also used against police officials camping in the village.

Another remarkable phenomenon in this period, was the usurping and revolutionising of theinstitution of ‘Panchayat’ by the peasantry. ‘Panchayat’ is a traditional institution of the villages ofthe Telangana region, where any petty dispute is publicly adjudicated – with the landlord presiding,and, of course, passing judgment. Now, the landlords’ authority was displaced and the revolutionarypeasants took over the running of panchayats, and, in many cases, put the landlords on trial.

Inspite of police repression, the movement grew and culminated in the historic march in Jagityaltown. On September 7, 1978 over 35,000 people marched to Jagityal town. Of the 152 villages ofJagityal taluq, peasants and agricultural labourers from 150 villages attended the rally and meeting.Shaken by the strength of the movement, while some landlords fled to the cities, the other landlordsand police began an offensive. Destroying and looting peasant houses, attacking, beating and evenresorting to firing on peasants, became a daily occurrence. The peasants retaliated. A war-likesituation grew. Heavy police re-enforcements reached the area and the rampage began. Within justtwo weeks all the 150 villages were frequently raided, mass beatings and arrests, and torture in policecamps of hundreds of activists took place. In Jagityal taluq alone, in just four months, 3000 peasantsform 75 villages had been implicated in false cases. Besides, 800 were jailed and hundreds moretortured in police camps and let off. On October 20, 1978 the AP government declared Sircilla andJagityal as ‘Disturbed Areas’ giving the police draconian powers.

While the peasant upsurge lasted from June to September 1978 the police onslaught continued from

September to December 1978. Though the upsurge receded in the face of police action, the resistancegrew, and, in some taluqs of neighbouring Adilabad, took on a mass character.

By the beginning of 1979, the peasants regained their initiative, after recouping from the first shocksof the white terror. Now, organisational consolidation took place, political consciousness was raisedon the nature of the state and the need to smash it, and the necessity of secret functioning was betterunderstood and underground methods became better developed. The political and organisationalbasis was laid, to raise the struggle to a higher plane. Also during this period the anti-feudal strugglespread to Peddapalli, Manthani and Huzurabad taluks of Karimnagar district and to Laxettipet,Asifabad and Khanapur taluqs of Adilabad district.

In 1979 the struggle intensified with a number of landlords being annihilated. Now the villagers,specially the women, found new methods of resisting and fighting back police terror. By early 1980the anti-liquor movement (initially for the reduction in price of liquor) had brought the liquor baronsto their knees. The authority of the peasant association was growing in all matters of village life.



In addition to this peasant movement, activity amongst coal miners had been stepped up by RSUand RYL units and the influence over the one lakh-odd miners grew substantially. In Warangal city,the student, youth and literary movement had revived and strengthened. The student movementextended to almost all the urban centres of Warangal district. In this district the urban movementwas stronger than the peasant movement.

On the eve of the reorganisation of the party centre the movement was poised to go to the next stage.But before proceeding to that a short mention must be made of the growth of the civil libertiesmovement which has and is playing a truly commendable role.

(7) Civil Liberties Movement

As AP has had a history of a strong communist movement which has faced continuous repression,there has also been a history of a strong civil liberties movement, involving lawyers, doctors,

journalists, writers, etc. Many selfless civil liberties workers have also faced the wrath of the state andbeen killed, like Dr. Ramanadham of Warangal. In 1965 the first civil liberties organisation wasformed with Sri Sri as president in the wake of the mass arrests of communists during the Indo-China war….. but this died out due to the absence of serious class struggles. Another body came intobeing in Hyderabad in the wake of the mass arrests and killings in Srikakulam and in March 1974the Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) was formed, again with Sri Sri as president.Conducting fact findings, carrying out legal battles, fighting TADA cases, exposing police brutalityand the fake ‘encounters’, APCLC has been a vibrant organisation. It has also built a network ofunits, going down to the district level.

(8) Formation of CPI (ML) (PW)

The CPI (ML)(People’s war) was formed on Lenin’s birth anniversary on April 22, 1980. Theformation was part of a process to reorganise a centre for the all-India revolution after it went out of

existence in 1972. As mentioned earlier, a similar attempt was made in 1974 when the COC (CentralOrganising Committee) was formed. This could not really get off the ground, though strenuousefforts were put in. This was dissolved in May 1977. So in fact the AP State Committee had tofunction without a central Committee from July 72 to January 1974 and again from May 1977 toApril 1980.

The 1980 centre was formed on the basis of two basic documents; the first was the self-critical reviewand the second was the tactical line. The self-critical review was basically the same as that presentedto the COC in 1975 with a few changes. The tactical line basically upheld the legacy of Naxalbariwhile rectifying the ‘left’ errors of that period. Both had been enriched by the practice of thepreceding eight years.

After the COC became defunct in 1977 the AP PC (State Committee) did not again make attempts tounite with other revolutionary groups. Instead, it concentrated upon building extensive massmovements in AP based on the self-critical review. As a result, it was able to not only build powerful

statewide movements among students, youth, and in the literary and cultural fronts, but alsodeveloped the peasant movements in Karimnagar and Adilabad districts of the Telangana region.This got recognition as powerful anti-feudal struggles not only in AP, but throughout the country.This success added to the credibility of the self-critical review. Hence, by the late 1970s other M-L



groups like the Unity Organisation (UO) and the Tamil Nadu state committee of CPI (ML) cameforward to unite with the AP PC. Unfortunately, due to differences on the question of formation of aCC, at that juncture the UO group did not join and the new CC was formed by the unification of theAP and Tamilnadu State Committees of the CPI (ML). The small Maharashtra group, thenfunctioning in Bombay, also joined, having accepted the basic documents.

PART — 5

1980-84 FIRST STEP TOWARDS GUERILLA ZONE

By the end of 1979 itself it became apparent that the government and landlords would resort tomuch more brutal repression for snuffing out the peasant struggles of Karimnagar and Adilabad. Inorder to face this situation it was imperative that, apart from extending the area of operation, thepeasant movement be raised to a higher level.

In the course of any revolutionary movement critical moments are reached, when hard decisionshave to be taken to advance the movement to a higher stage, or, get pushed back by the enemyforces. At such critical

moments any faltering, any hesitation to advance, leads to the loss of initiative on the part of therevolutionaries and can lead to confusion and disarray in the ranks. The movement in AP by 1979had reached such a critical stage. To advance, now meant, making necessary preparations to takeon, not only the landlord classes, but also the police and para-military forces. Preparation for such an

eventuality, meant not only adoption of new forms of struggle, not only new methods oforganisation, but also the military preparation of the party. Military preparations not only impliesacquisition of weapons, but the political, organisational and military consciousness which enhancesthe Party’s striking capacity. Above all, it meant, that the people had to be mentally prepared to takeon such a struggle.

To take a correct decision at such a crucial moment was a key factor to determine whether themovement would advance or retreat. It was, infact, at such crucial moments that the IndianCommunist movement has faltered. On a number of occasions the anti-feudal, struggles had reacheda high pitch, but when the Indian state machinery intervened with all its might the movements wereeither crushed, or, the leadership beat a hasty retreat. During the earlier Telangana movement (1948to 1951) the leadership betrayed the movements, while the numerous anti-feudal struggles in thewake of the Naxalbari uprising were brutally crushed. It is in this context that the Party’s document‘Perspective for a Guerilla Zone’ has a historical significance. The general line of taking the

movement towards a guerilla zone and liberated base areas already existed in the tactical line. Whatwas more relevant was to work out the concrete political, organisational and military details to take itin that direction. The guerilla zone document fulfilled this task. That too, at the right moment.

Guerilla Zone Perspective

Though the movement in Warangal and Khammam districts was at a lower level than that inKarimnagar and Adilabad the document combined all four districts in the proposed Guerilla Zone.The districts were closely interlinked and had a contiguous forest area. In order to take the movement



towards a guerilla zone the document first and foremost, focussed on building the party deepamongst the masses. It outlined that not only all the mass organisations should be built at the villagelevel and made functional, but also the village-level party cells should be built with part-timers. Italso focussed on the chief party organisers, now called Central Organisers or COs, who were to moveas a sort of mini-squad 1CO+2 Squad members) all of whom would be armed. Each CO group was

to be allocated a fixed number of villages (15 to 20) to develop.

The document foresaw the fact that, when the government repression intensifies in the four districts itwould become necessary to build a rear in the forests on the other side of the Godavari river – i.e. inthe Dandakaranya forests. Given this reality, the document pointed out, that it was necessary toimmediately make proper arrangements for such an eventuality.

Having said this, the document right away went on to outline the tasks of the squads that were toenter the Dandakaranya forests. It said, that these squads should take on the following tasks :

1) To provide protection to squads that temporarily retreat from the four districts of the guerilla zoneand to help them to counter-attack the enemy.

2) To organise tribals in the forest areas and to extend the struggle, building the Party and

revolutionary army from among them.

It also added, that as the prominance of point (2) increases, the task of the Dandakaranya movementwould move in the direction of taking it to a higher plane.

Finally the document concretely suggested, that one-third of all organisers and committee membersfrom North Telangana should be organised into squads and sent to the forests.

In accordance with this document, which had been thoroughly discussed throughout the Party in1979 itself, in June 1980 seven squads (of about five to seven members each) entered the forests.Initially they faced immense problems in getting roots amongst the tribals, specifically in the light ofthe police repression and combing operations, that started immediately. Yet, before the enemy’s firstsuppression campaign began in 1985, the movement spread like wildfire, even beyond the Party’sexpectations.

Movement’s Extension

In North Telangana, the movement extended to all the talukas of Karimnagar and Adilabad district,except one taluka in each. In Warangal district the focus developed from an urban to a ruralmovement. The movement in Khammam during this period faced some losses but that ofNizamabad saw big gains. The working class movement saw big gains amongst the one lakh andten thousand coal miners in the Singareni coal belt.

In the Dandakaranya forests, the movement spread to the Gadchiroli, Chandrapur and Bhandaradistricts of Maharashtra; Bastar, Rajnandgaon and Balaghat districts of Madhya Pradesh, and toKoraput district in Orissa. In Andhra Pradesh the movement spread to the East Godavari andVishakhapatnam forest areas.

(1) Dandakaranya



In Dandakaranya the movement was initiated by fighting against the arbitrary authority ofgovernment officials of the forest, revenue and excise department who had been ruthlesslyplundering the tribals. Also, struggles broke out against the management of the paper mill andcontractors exploiting the forest produce. Big movements were built for enhancing the wage rates fortendu leaf collection. Also, peasants were mobilised for raising the support price of cotton. From thevery beginning land struggles was a major issue. Within the very first year the tribal peasantrystopped paying a variety of taxes to the forest department and began occupying forest land forcultivation. Within one year two lakh acres was occupied. Some land, forcefully occupied by tradersand moneylenders was taken back. Also lands occupied by middle and rich peasants from the plains(non-tribals) was divided equally (50:50) amongst them and the problem settled. Anti-faminestruggles took two forms – first, through the collection of paddy from donations; also paddy bankswere started, where the peasants pool some amount of paddy in these banks at the time of theharvest and then draw on the stocks in times of need. Second, through famine raids on the houses oflandlords, moneylenders and traders who hoarded grain. Thousands took part in the famine raids.

Apart from these struggles, struggles were also taken up to stop the building of roads and cutting offorests and also for the recovery of losses suffered due to bauxite mining in Bailadilla (MP).

In the Dandakaranya region two big mass organisations were built – the Dandakaranya AdivasiMazdoor Kisan Sangh (DAKMS) and the tribal women’s organisation KAMS (Krantikari AdivasiMahila Sanghatan). The Sangams grew in stature to become symbols of struggle to the tribals.Slowly all disputes began to be settled by the sangam, whether a village dispute, a family dispute, amarriage dispute, a caste dispute or something related to tribal customs or community affairs. Also arelentless struggle was waged against backward tribal customs and traditions like human sacrifice,witchcraft, superstitions resulting in ill-health and disease and against practices which do not allowwomen to fully cover their bodies.

In 1980, six party members, organised as a squad, crossed the Godavari and entered Gadchirolidistrict of Maharashtra. Squad members recount how the tribals just on seeing them would flee into

the hills. When they entered villages there would not be a person left, except may be a few very oldand some children. Chatting with the old, playing with the children, sometimes physically catchinghold of tribals and forcing them to listen, was how the ‘Annas’ ( i.e. big brother as they are known)found their way into the hearts of the tribals…. and came to be loved by them. But, within sixmonths of entering the area the 18 year old Peddi Shankar was shot in the back and became the firstmartyr on Maharashtrian soil. But, the movement grew, and with it Shankar became alegend……..a part of tribal folklore. By the time the Kamalapur Conference was called in 1984 themovement had grown like a tornado. The government banned the conference, sealed all roadsleading to the village, arrested the speakers, journalists, students, folk artists-infact anyone who wasmoving in the direction of Kamalapur. From three days before the conference, police reinforcementscombed the forests attacking and dispersing the tribal processions which flowed like streams, fromall directions, towards Kamalapur. They encircled Kamalapur. Yet, on the day of the conference,playing hide-and-seek with the police, 10,000 tribals reached Kamalapur

and hoisted the DAKMS flag. The police lathi-charged…..the flag fluttered and then fell……but the

conference was held…..not in Kamalapur but in Nagpur jail.

Specifically notable about the Dandakaranya movement was the awakening of women. The



Specifically notable about the Dandakaranya movement was the awakening of women. TheSangam stood against forced marriages, against child marriages, and against all the age-old customsthat degraded women. The KAMS became a powerful force with its own organisers, its ownstructures and its own revolutionary programme linking women’s liberation to the new democraticrevolution. When the suppression began in 1985 the KAMS was as brutally attacked as was theDAKMS.

(2) North Telangana

While in this five year period the movement took roots in Dandakaranya, in North Telangana (NT)the movement spread and also grew more intense. In NT thousands of acres of government land(occupied by landlords) were distributed to the landless and in some areas even landlord’s land wasseized. When the landlords began fleeing the villagesand tried to sell their land, the party imposed aban on the purchase or sale of all

PART — 7

1990 — A BRIEF REPRIEVE

In 1990, due to the contradictions within the ruling classes, and because of the growing pressure ofthe peoples’ movement, the new Congress government in AP eased the repression for a while. So,

during this brief period, which did not extend even to a full year, some open mass activity and massmeetings were allowed.

Whatever, in this brief period the party acted quickly to consolidate its mass base and also use theopportunity for a massive mobilisation of the people. The party concentrated on building the partyleadership at the village level, by imparting training (political and military) to the village defensesquads and village militants.

This time the big sweep in the land occupation movements was for the occupation of landlords(patta) land. Thousands of acres of land were occupied in AP and Dandakaranya. Also lakhs ofpeople were mobilised on peasant issues like power cuts, writing off loans, remunerative prices foragricultural produce, reduction in rates of water cess, etc. The struggle against arrack contractorsnow became a struggle for the imposition of a total ban on the sale of liquor. The strike activity of theSingareni coal miners also reached a feverish pitch culminating in the September 1990 strike onworkers’ varied demands. The strike involved 80, 000 workers and continued for 42 days until the

major demands were won.

On the other hand, mobilisation of the masses in rallies, conferences, public meetings had reached acrescendo, disproving the lie that the People’s War Party was a terrorist group, with no mass base.This propaganda was widely disseminated not only by the government, but also by somerevolutionary groups, and some who had deserted the party. In times of acute repression the legalmobilisation of masses in meetings etc., is not always possible. Without a mass base and a mass lineno guerilla war can survive for long. Yet, when the repression was partially lifted by the new ChennaReddy government, the masses rallied as never before in a display of affection for the party and as asymbol of condemnation against the inhuman attacks of the past five years.



The first meeting held was that of the RWA in January 1990 at Hyderabad which drew one lakhpeople; 2 lakh people attended the 18th anniversary celebration of the JNM on February 20 atHyderabad; the April 20 Indravelli memorial meeting was attended by over one lakh people; the22nd April meeting at Bellampalli was also attended by one lakh people; the meeting at Mandamarriby 50, 000. All these meetings finally culminated with the 3rd Conference of the Rytu Coolie Sangamon May 5/6 at Warangal with a rally the size of which has never been seen in the history of AP. The

Conference was attended by 700 delegates and the public meeting and rally by over 10 lakhs ( i.e.one million) people.

Seeing the massive upsurge in the revolutionary movement the government was shaken, besides ithad no need to continue with its demagogy as it had already come to power. By May 1990 itself therepression was stepped up; and in the May-December period alone ten thousand people had beenarrested and six thousand implicated in false cases. Villages were again being raided and peoplebeing indiscriminately beaten and tortured. To terrorise the masses, they began shooting downsangam leaders in front of the people. By December 1990 all open activity throughout the state wasbeing ruthlessly suppressed and once again, repression on an even higher scale than 1985, wasunleashed.PART — 8

1991 TO THE PRESENT — SECOND ROUND OF SUPPRESSION

Tasks in the New Conditions of Repression

Struggles Continues

Growing Armed Resistance

Till 1991, police operations were run separately by the respective state governments. But now theCentral government set up a ‘Nodal Cell’ directly under the Home ministry, and a Joint Commandof Operations came into being for the ongoing war of suppression. In December 1991 it rushedbattalions of the BSF (Border Security Force) and ITBP (Indo-Tibetan Border Police) to Telangana toreinforce the already existing large force of CRPF, CISF and APSP. In May 1992 the AP governmentimposed a ban on the CPI(ML) (PW) and seven other revolutionary mass organisations (includingRSU, RYL, RCS, JNM, SIKASA). Thus, what was earlier an undeclared war, was now turned into full

scale counter-insurgency operations. Mass scale horrors, ‘encounter’ killings and forced ‘surrenders’became the dominant feature for the suppression campaign. Within ten months about 160encounters were staged killing over 200 persons. Thousands of people were arrested and tortured,houses were ransacked and crops and properties worth millions destroyed.

The method adopted was to encircle villages and then attack. The BSF, CRPF and the local policewould gather forces ranging from 200 to 600 men and would suddenly swoop down and encircle avillage or a group of villages, ransack all houses, destroy property and molest the women. Then,some suspect youth would be tortured and humiliated in front of all. All villagers, and especially therelatives of activists, would be served ultimatums to surrender the wanted persons. Some youthwould be whisked away. In some villages this would be repeated a number of times in a singlemonth.



Together with this suppression they combined vile propaganda, ‘reforms’, and set up their own rival

‘mass’ organisations. (eg. Janjagran Abhiyan in MP, and Shanti Sena in Maharashtra). The policeofficers themselves brought out handbills in the name of ‘praja vani’ (people’s voice), printed books,did propaganda through video films and through cultural troupes. The ‘reforms’ undertaken by ahost of bodies (govt and semi-govt), involved giving grants varying from Rs. 20000 to Rs. 3 lakhs inthe name rehabilitation, allotting house sites, granting land to chosen peasant youth – all with theaim of building a network of police informers in the villages. All these ‘reform’ schemes were rununder direct supervision of the police. The police began setting up various organisations in thevillages to try and isolate the revolutionaries, or, at least, build some support for their anti-peoplecampaigns – the ‘village protection committees’ to gather information on squad movement, liquorprohibition committees, to create a network of informants amongst women, the so-called ‘Citizensforum’ to rival the village committees utilising the Sarpanchs and village elders and the Rajiv youthbrigades to sponsor sport, drama, etc to wean away the youth.

The bulk of these organisations withered away with time, for lack of cooperation in the villages. But,

during this period, through their informer network, they were able to apprehend and kill a numberof leading party members. In January 1993 Com. Balanna, Warangal party district committeesecretary and regional committee member, along with squad member Padmakka were murdered;on January 26, 1993, Com. Sankar, district committee secretary of Nizamabad and regionalcommittee member was killed; Com. Vishwanath, of the Hyderabad city committee was murdered;also squad member Yerra Prasad and squad commander Naganna. But now, with each killing thefuneral processions were turning into big political events. Breaking prohibitory orders, thousandsand thousands would join the funeral procession, where hundreds would pledge to continue the workstarted by their heroic martyr. Between June 91 and end of 92 over 300 comrades had been killed.

This time the masses did not become frightened as in 1985….they were being steeled in armedstruggle and slowly being drawn into the armed struggle against the state. But, with this new roundof suppression, new tasks had to be formulated.

Tasks in the new conditions of Repression

The party had already declared that the Dandakaranya and North Telangana movements hadreached the primary level of a guerilla zone. A guerilla zone is an area where both the revolutionariesand the ruling classes contend for power. In order to consolidate the primary level of guerilla zonereached by the movement in NT and DK, face the increasing state repression, and move to a higherlevel of guerilla zone, the party outlined the following tasks :

(i) To build two to three local guerilla squads under the central guerilla squad functioning at present,to gradually develop them into platoons

(ii) To separate political and military tasks in the squad area committee and to develop political andmilitary leadership

(iii) To develop a military command from bottom to top

(iv) To consolidate the party organisation at the village level



(v) To establish the united front of revolutionary classes at the village level with the aim ofestablishing their political power through building the Gram Rajya Committees and to destroy thestate power of the comprador bourgeoisie and landlord classes.

(vi) To establish peoples’ power by building village development committees, village defence squads,panchayat committees etc., under the leadership of the Gram Rajya Committee.

But once again during this period of severe repression the party was plunged into another internalcrisis, this time led by the secretary of the CC KS and Company. While fighting KS’s opportunismand disruption within the party, it successfully faced the enemy onslaught by implementing theabove guidelines. Though the movement faced problems, it was not as severe as in 1985. Though the

peoples movement receded temporarily, this time there were no problems of food or providingprotection to the squads.

Struggles Continue

In the initial phase of the repression a lot of the land occupied lay fallow. But slowly, due to theefforts of the local organisation, cultivation of these lands once again began. By end of 1994 landoccupation struggles also picked up. Many landlords also began surrendering before the peasantassociations. During this period the party worked out a policy on how land distribution should bedone and the political and ideological criteria for this was set.

On peasant issues, a big movement developed for the reduction of fertiliser prices. With thegovernment bowing to World Bank pressure the subsidy on fertilisers had been reduced and pricesshot up. As the government did not restore the subsidies, merchants began selling fertilisers atexorbitant black market prices. Thousands rallied under the leadership of the sangams, raided

fertiliser and pesticide shops and seized large stocks of fertilisers and pesticides. The peasants resistedthe police lathi charge. Due to these movements blackmarketeering was reduced. In some areaspeasants also refused to pay back bank loans and the hiked electricity charges. Besides, there hadbeen big movements for the regular supply of electricity which was essential for running the waterpumps.

On the workers front, besides the coal miners, RTC (bus transport) workers and bidi workers wereorganised in a big way during this period. Between 1990 and 1995 SIKASA had organised 1, 825strikes which reached a new peak on April 14, 1995 when one lakh workers went on a twenty daystrike demanding settlement of the 5th wage board agreement. Though the strike was opposed bythe official trade unions over 90% of the workers struck work. This strike forced the wage boardagreement on April 28 in Calcutta. But as the agreement was a sell-out, the strike was revived fromOctober 16 to November 14, 1995. Big successes have been achieved through these struggles. TheRTC drivers and conductors have been facing humiliating conditions of work under the

establishment unions. Slowly, the workers have been shifting towards revolutionary politics and insome districts, like Nizamabad underground unions like AKASA (APSRTC Karmika Samakhya)have been established. In 1996 this union formed a front which led a series of agitations around a 60-point character of demands of which many have been granted. Bidi workers, mostly women, havealso been organised around their demands.

Another unique struggle that took place during this period was the struggle of the prisoners. On the



Another unique struggle that took place during this period was the struggle of the prisoners. On theeve of the TDP’s electoral victory in 1994, the revolutionaries in jail sent an open letter to NTR,placing a charter of 54 demands, of which eleven were political, while the rest related to jail

conditions. On December 26, 1994 revolutionaries lodged in the central jails of Secunderabad,Chanchalguda, Vishakhapatnam, Rajahmundry, Warangal and district jails of Cuddapah, Nelloreand Karimnagar jointly launched an indefinite hunger strike. The hunger strike received immensesupport from the other prisoners particularly the Muslim TADA detainees. Outside the jail,democrats swung into action in support of the prisoners movement. On January 4, 1995 the Homeminister accepted 42 demands. Later the government back-tracked. On January 12, 1995 12 life-convicts in Hyderabad jail went on a fast-unto-death. The revolutionaries organised the prisoners forrelay hunger strikes. From February 1, the prisoners went on an indefinite hunger strike, supportedby relay hunger strikes outside prison. The movement gathered momentum outside the jail. Thegovernment reacted arresting intellectuals, writers, artists and other democrats. On February 9,prisoners resorted to a ‘Jail Bandh’ boycotting all daily duties. On February 15 a statewide bandhwas called by the CPI (ML) (PW) in support of the struggle. On February 21 a ‘Chalo Secretariat’rally and public meeting was organised. Finally, the government bowed down accepting, in writing,40 of the demands.

Till today the masses continue their struggles. They have their ups and downs, depending on theintensity of repression….but already they have won large benefits to the oppressed masses.

Growing Armed Resistance

It is September 1993. Village Padkal in the Sirnapalli area of Nizamabad district. Meetings anddiscussions are just over. It was getting dark and just as the squad was preparing to leave the shelteron the outskirts of the village, all of a sudden hundreds of police surround the house and begin abarrage of fire on the house. Two of the women comrades are caught, mercilessly beaten and kepthostage by the police. The squad returns the fire but a burst of fire from the window of neighbouringhouse kills Sanjeev, the Deputy Commander. Now the police are also on the terrace, lobbying intotheir room tear-gas shells. It becomes unbearable and the bullets are running out. In spite of theheavy firing by the police, the squad stops the return of fire. It is 4.00 a.m. The police hearing

nothing from the house decide to enter. As they rush up the stairs one policeman is shot dead. Othersretreat, and as an act of vengeance they brutally kill the two women comrades.

The non-stop firing, tear-gas continues. It is 8.00 the next morning. Three comrades are left. ButCom. Gopi gets hit by a bullet and is seriously injured. Squad commander Swamy and Com. Kranticontinue the battle. It is now 1.00 p.m. in the afternoon. The DIG arrives and calls out the Swamyand Kranti to surrender, promising safe passage. Kranti decides to surrender, Swamy tries topersuade him of the futility. He hesitates, but after half an hours discussion (under continuous fire)he surrenders. Meanwhile, as Swamy is fighting the enemy single handed he finds Gopi trying toshoot himself. He prevents him. Gopi says that anyway he will fall into the enemy’s hands, so it isbetter to die. Swamy, consoles him and pervades him to fight to the end. Some time later, Gopi pullsthe trigger with his foot and dies.

It is now 7.00 p.m. on the second day. The police set fire to a part of the house. He walks towards the



It is now 7.00 p.m. on the second day. The police set fire to a part of the house. He walks towards thestaircase and finds the dead policeman’s A.K-47. He picks it up. Suddenly, sending a burst of fire,Swamy jumps over the broken walls of the house, and makes a drive for the bye lanes of the village.The police, stunned fire in his direction. But swamy has escaped into the lanes. The village issurrounded. No chance of getting out. He hides in a haystock. But soon thirst is killing him. Over 24hours and not a drop of water. He comes out towards the nearest house. They give him water, but,terrified, ask him to go. He finds a garbage dump, covers himself with cowdung, and hides there thewhole night. Meanwhile the police are searching every corner of the village, particularly thehaystacks.

It is morning of the third day. The mother of the house comes to wash the vessels. As she throws thewaste water on the garbage heap, it moves. She yells with fright. Swamy come out, explains that heis ‘anna’. He tell the frightened mother, he will go. She runs after him, saying, wait, they will kill

you. After much hesitation, fear, she keeps him in a safe place. During the whole day she gives himfood. She gives him the information that they have killed Kranti and cremated all five comrades. Sheasks him to leave at night. He does not, as he would be caught in the uniform. The next day themother brings him a dress, she plans a disguise and leads him through a safe path into the forests. Afew days later, militants come and take away the A.K-47 hidden in the village.

And so the Padkal encounter has become a landmark in heroism and courage. But Swamy is notalone. Last year the SIKASA DCM, Com. Sammi Reddy (alias Ramakant, Ashok) was similarlysurrounded by over 500 police while he was taking shelter in the heart of the coal mining colony inMancherial. In broad-day light, in front of thousands a nine hour gun battle ensued. In it,Ramakanth killed CI and a constable. Finally, the police burnt the house down, killing him and thelady sympathiser.

And so, the squads are learning to fight back. The government has been getting more and more

ruthless. In the 1985-89 period 250 comrades were killed; in the 1990-94 period 500; and in the twoyears upto mid ’96 another 210, in the last eight months about 100. These include leading comradeslike Puli Anjanna, AP State Committee Secretary, Comrades Venkataswamy, Reddappa andSudarshan – AP State Committee members; Regional Committee member Com. Shankar, DistrictCommittee members Comrades Sammi Reddy and Allam Manohar, a number of leading ladysquad members like Swarupa, Rukma bai, Lalita …..

With such a brutal offensive of the government, the Party has also been giving experience to hitback. In just the nine months between March 1996 and November 1996 the guerilla squads haveconducted four raids on police camps – on Potkapally PS in Karimnagar district, on Yellavaram PSin East Godavari district, on Manpur PS in Rajanandgaon district of MP, and on Sirpur PS ofAdilabad district – seizing 97 weapons of which 26 were semi-automatic SLRs. This was followed bythe Karakagudem raid in Khammam district in January 97 giving a further cache of weapons.Besides these major raids, several Sparrow actions were conducted in North Telangana resulting in a

further 20 weapons in 1996 and killing of 25 policemen in October/November ’96.

In any guerilla war, it is the enemy that is the main source of weapons. In the unequal war betweenthe poorly-trained, ill-equipped guerillas with an inferior numerical strength on the one hand, andthe well-equipped, highly-trained, overwhelmingly superior enemy force on the other, it is only by



means of innumerable guerilla attacks, that the people’s armed forces can gradually accumulatestrength.

PART — 9

POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS

Besides these movements on partial demands the party has mobilised the masses on various politicalissues. Dharnas, rasta rokos, public meetings have been held on – implementation of the MandalCommission report, on support of the nationality struggles, on support of the minorities and againstthe destruction of the Babri Maszid, in support of Dalits and against the Dalit killings atKaramchedu and Chundur, and against womens’ oppression. Big agitations were taken against the

New Economic Policies, against the GATT accord and the IMF and World Bank. Every year April 15(the day the Dunkel accord was signed) is observed as anti-imperialist day. On that day, meetings,dharnas, processions are held in village after village and in many places effigies of Dunkel and PVNarasimha Rao have been burnt. Also, as a rule, in every area, every year: January 26 and August 15are observed by hoisting black flags, wearing black badges and holding protest meeting against thisfake independence; May 21st is observed as anti-repression day and December 6th as Black Day-against communalism. Also on every May Day the Red Flag is hoisted and celebrations are held andMarch 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day.

One of the most important political struggles, right from the inception of the Party, has been the‘boycott election’ campaign. During the surcharged atmosphere of the elections it has been the mosteffective time to carry the political programme of the Party and educate the masses on the need tonegate this farcical democracy and take to the path of armed agrarian revolution for a truely NewDemocratic society. India, not having gone through a bourgeois democratic revolution, has a

parliamentary scaffolding built around an autocratic semi-feudal, semi-colonial state structure.Parliament is used as an important weapon to pacify the masses, divert their attention from struggleand lead them astray. In India, participation in elections has no practical value whatsoever…….. andthis has now been proved by the electoral semantics of many a revolutionary group. They continueto flounder as marginal entities, while those boycotting and leading the armed struggle are agrowing force.

The CPI (ML) originally, and then the CPI (ML) (PW), has continuously taken up wide ‘boycottelection’ campaign during each election. Handbills, posters, street plays, song and danceprogrammes etc. , have been conducted on a huge scale, to educate the masses during eachelection……whether it is to the Lok Sabha, or the state assemblies or even the local grampanchayats. This campaign, so frightens the government, that during each successive election, it hasbeen bringing in larger and larger police and para-military forces and resorting to intense repressivemeasures.

This particularly climaxed in the 1994 AP assembly elections when the government moved in 70, 000para-military forces. During this brief period thousands of youth were rounded up and villagers wereinformed that if they did not vote, the arrested youth of their village would be killed. Suspectedmilitants were publicly tortured and many were taken as human shields as the police rampagecontinued. Their message was simple – VOTE, or else……. Vote for any party, they would say, but



vote you must !! Finally, during the election week itself, between November 27 and December 3,1994, 36 comrades were killed in so-called ‘encounters’. But inspite of this terror the boycottcampaign continued.

Today in many of the guerilla zone areas, elections to many Gram Panchayats have not taken place.There is no Sarpanch and much of the work of the erstwhile gram panchayats is being conducted byVillage Development Committees under Party leadership.

PART — 10

A GUERILLA ZONE IS BORN

Economic Gains

Political Authority of Peasant Committees

Social Transformation

A mere glance at the lives of the people in the Guerilla Zones of Dandakaranya and NorthTelangana would be sufficient for the people of the country to welcome the new society being born incentral India. In it, we can discern in an embryonic form the birth of the New Democratic India ofthe future. The changes in the guerilla zones are not just partial, not just material they are all-

encompassing. With the economic, political and social changes taking place in DK and NT a newman is being born…. the socialist man. The dreams of Charu Mazumdar are turning to a reality.Naxalbari, that had blazed a new path for the people of our country, has taken a leap forward in thedirection towards its final goal. The goal, is still, no doubt distant, there are yet hundreds of hurdlesand obstacles to cross, but, the direction set by Naxalbari has proved correct. What is more, the lasttwo and a half decades of experience, has cleared the hazy vision that was there at the start, hasremoved many of the cobwebs, has swept aside the years of muck accumulated by the revisionists,and has created a new hope for the bright future of our country.

But, what do we see as we walk through the villages, plains and forests of Dandakaranya and NorthTelangana ?

Economic Gains

The economic benefits gained through the movement have been quite substantial. First, the gigantic

loot of the masses by the officials, specifically of the forest department, revenue department and ofofficials at various levels of the bureaucracy, has come to an end. Today, even the Gram Panchayatsand Sarpanchs (whenever they continue to exist) are under complete scrutiny of the villagers led bythe party and all government schemes are strictly implemented according to the decisions of thevillage bodies and all accounts are thoroughly checked. All this, in itself is a big gain, but it was onlythe beginning.

The major issue for the welfare of the masses has been the land question. With the landless and poorpeasants comprising a large majority of the population, land distribution has been a key aspect ofthe movement. Lakhs and lakhs of acres of government land, waste land and forest land have beenoccupied by the landless. Thousands of acres of landlords land has been confiscated, some lie fallow,



the rest has been redistributed to the landless and poor peasants. Besides, in making full use of thegovernment schemes a large number of peasants have been able to dig wells, borewells etc andirrigate their land. So, what 15 years back was a large mass of people eking out a subsistence

existence, are today peasants with at least three acres of land taking out one or two crops. This hasmade a big change in the economic conditions of the poorest. Also, in many villages, orchards of thelandlords have been taken over by the peasants and now the fruits are distributed to all the villagers.

In labour rates there has been quite an increase all around. On the question of agricultural labour,the daily wage rates have increased three fold in the course of these years. Also, earlier the hours ofwork were indefinite and much unpaid labour went to the landlord. Now there is – now a strict eighthour working day and of course, the question of unpaid labour no longer exists. For yearlyemployed labour, the rates have more than doubled from Rs. 5000 yearly to Rs. 9000 to Rs. 12000yearly. The biggest gains have been in the tendu leaf collection struggles and the bamboo cuttingstruggles (against the paper mills). In 1982 the contractors gave a mere three paise per bundle (of 75leaves)….with yearly struggles, strikes, attacks on contractors’ godowns….the rates have steadilyincreased to 17 paise by 1984 and 80 paise by 1993. Today they get over a rupee per bundle. Thedifference can be estimated from the fact that where as earlier a family barely earned Rs. 200 in the

leaf plucking season (of roughly one month) now they earn anything from Rs. 2000 to Rs. 5000. Inparts of NT where the government refuses to give decent rates (having taken over the task from thecontractor) the villagers sell their leaves privately. In bamboo cutting, the contractors, under thepaper mills, gave a mere 30 paise per bundle (of 20 pieces of 2 meters length) in 1982. In 1996 therate was Rs. 5.35 paise per bundle. Today bidi workers get roughly Rs. 30 to Rs. 32 for rolling 1000bidis with a large number of other benefits. This can be compared to their counterparts inneighbouring Maharashtra who get barely Rs. 15 for 1000 bidis with no benefits. Then there havebeen struggles for an improvement in wages of tractor and lorry drivers, a big improvement inconditions of work of RTC bus workers and most important of all has been the struggles of the onelakh ten thousand workers of Singareni coal mines. They have achieved gains in wages linked withlocal issues, in better housing conditions, better schooling for their children, better hospital and sportsfacilities and on hundreds of small issues linked to exploitation and oppression by the management.

The peasantry too have made gains. They are now more easily able to utilise government schemes,

bank loans, etc which were earlier cornered by the various rungs of the bureaucracy. Then therehave been major struggles for the reduction in price of agricultural inputs-like seeds, fertilisers andpesticides, electricity charges, water cess, etc. Added to this there have been movements for getting aremunerative price for their produce…..they have successfully raised the price of cotton, sugarcane,tobacco, haldi and some other crops. Also in the forest areas they have successfully struggled againstthe traders and raised the price of various forest produce like Mahua, brooms, Pauvuru leaf andbark, ginjala nuts, baskets etc.

Then, general conditions have improved by putting an end to usury. The party has instructed that amaximum of 2% per month can be charged as interests on loans – earlier it was a minimum of 10%per month. Also, all traders and merchants have been strictly instructed to sell, their merchandise atnot more than a 10% margin. Earlier these traders charged extortionist rates from villagers.

These are some of the economic gains, others are linked to overall village development.



Political Authority of the peasant committees

The peasant upsurge in DK and NT has smashed the authority of the landlords and established thepower of the peasant committees. The more notorious landlords have been eliminated, others havefled to the cities, and many of the smaller ones have surrendered before the peasant committees.Initially it was the various mass organisations under the leadership of the party that dominated thevillage. The peasants were organised into the various peasant associations (RCS, DAKMS, etc), theyouth into the RYL (those not involved in agriculture) the students into RSU and the women into thewomens’ organisations ( i.e. KAMS in DK and Mahila Vimukti Sangham in NT). Theseorganisations, led by the party, virtually guided all-spheres of village life including the arbitration ofinter personal problems.

But with the decision to establish DK and NT as primary-level guerilla zones, and, the call ‘All Power

to the Peasant Committees’ taking shape, the organs of political power began to grow in these areas.The chief organ of political power is the revolutionary peasant committees or Gram Rajya Committee(GRC) as they are known. Also, an important organisation, first to harass the enemy and later also toestablish the authority of the peasant committees, is the village defence squads – or Gram RakshakDal (GRD).

These organs of power are slowly taking shape throughout the guerilla zone. The GRC is beingformed only where there is at least one party member to lead it. It is a united front of the variousclasses in the village – i.e. landless and poor peasant, middle peasant and in some places also the richpeasant. Under the GRC are three committees with five members each (two of whom are from theGRC). These are the (i) Co-operative Society (ii) the Village Development Committee (VDC) and (iii)the Panchayat Committee.

Co-operative Societies are being set up in many villages to help the peasants with loans etc- in times

of need, specifically inputs during the monsoon. The society is set up with a corpus made with (i) afixed contribution from each family (ii) donation from the party and (iii) money misappropriatedand recovered from, say Sarpanch’s, some local Temple trusts etc. An interest of 1.5% per month ischarged on the loans.

The Village Development Committee has two major tasks – first to utilise government schemes forthe benefit of the village, and second to plan and organise development projects for the village. Allover the guerilla zone it can be seen that the VDCs are functioning, undertaking : repairs andbuilding roads, (in NT) schools, drainage schemes, water facilities and in some places even irrigationprojects like tanks, bunds and small dams have been built. All the projects are built throughvoluntary labour (Shramdan) of the villagers and funds donated through collections. For largerprojects like Dams the party assists by acquiring the use of tractors and lorries (free) owned by richpeasants, with diesel bought by the party. A few projects are of the size that can irrigate upto 1000hectares. The VDC has also organised teachers for running schools which are not functioning.

The Panchayat Committee is basically to arbitrate disputes within the village – a ‘peoples’ court’ tosettle problems and contradiction arising in the village. It can also meet out punishments if the crimeis serious or recurring.

All committees are democratically elected and have yearly general body meetings to review the work



All committees are democratically elected and have yearly general body meetings to review the workof the committees.

Social transformation

The two major social evils of our society – caste oppression and women’s oppression – are muchreduced in the guerilla zones – by conscious intervention and education by the party.

Earlier, even eight to ten years back, in village hotels SCs were made to drink out of separate glassesand were victims of extra-economic forms of coercion by the landlord (eg. Vetti-chakiri or unpaidlabour, utilisation of their women etc). With the smashing of the landlord authority, these extra-economic forms of coercion have, of course, ended. Also, oppression of scheduled castes is nowminimum with close interaction between all castes within the sanghams and committees. As SCscome from the poorer sections they will be found on most village-level committees. Also, inter-castemarriages, which were unheard of before, are now taking place with full support of the party (even ifopposed by the families or village elders).

A lot of emphasis has been put on ending women’s oppression by consistent education of thevillagers and supporting women in many cases of oppression. Wife beating, discarding women if

unable to beget children, etc are all being fought. Dowry taking has been banned, and, if at all ittakes place, has to be done secretly. Women are being encouraged to come out of the four walls oftheir house and participate in the social and political life of the village. The women’s organisations areplaying an important role. Also irrational traditions like removal of bindi and bangles with the deathof the husband, are being fought. Normally, all committees at the village level are encouraged tohave at least one woman member.

Added to these, superstitious beliefs are being countered and a scientific temper encouraged.Specifically in the realm of health care this is being emphasised. Many of the irrational andtraditional customs amongst tribals are slowly changing. Education is being encouraged and anyonewho enters the party or even mass organisation activists, are first made literate.

Now, in the entire guerilla zone areas drinking of liquor has been banned. Through patienteducation over the years and with the mobilisation of women, long before the AP governmentbrought in prohibition, drinking had been reduced to a minimum. With this, much social tensions in

the village and in the family has been reduced and economic conditions of a large section of peoplebettered. Also, since the last few years, the party has issued a total ban on cutting forest trees. Evenfire-wood is to be only collected from the dry and dead branches. Previously, entire tribal villagesexisted on felling the forest and selling the wood in nearby urban centres – now, these same people,live by agriculture. An environmental consciousness is brought to the people by educating themabout the importance of forests for rain.

These economic, political and social changes which are clearly visible in the guerilla zone areas of DKand NT are to a large extent also visible, if to a lesser degree, in the other three regions which are atthe preparatory stage of guerilla zone-that is the Eastern Zone, the South Telangana region and theNallamala forest region. But, the leading factor in all this change has been the Party.

PART — 11



PARTY….THE LEADING FACTOR

Continuing the Legacy of Naxalbari

The development of the party structures grew with the development of the movement. In NorthTelangana the movement was first built by Central Organisers in the 1+2 system i.e., one CO withtwo squad members. By 1985 all centres had adopted this system. But with the first round ofsuppression between 1987 and 89 these developed into squads having 5 to 7 members. At present thesquads have 9 to 11 members. In DK, the forest squads started with 5 members, now they have 11members. Now steps are being taken to form platoon size squads – where in one squad area (50 to60 villages) there will be a CGS (Central Guerilla Squad) under which will function two to three LGS(Local Guerilla Squads) of roughly seven members each. Each of these LGS will be givenresponsibility for 20 villages.

In the beginning the squads comprised of chiefly party members. But as the squads grew, non-partymembers also entered. Since 1992 in each squad there is a Squad Area Committee (SAC) of threemembers which is now the chief party unit within the squad-responsible for the political andorganisational tasks in their areas of operation. Each SAC member would have a responsibility of

roughly 20 villages. Village party cells began to develop since 1983, but the bulk of them weresmashed during the first suppression campaign in 1985-87. Since then, they have been steadilygrowing and today, a wide network of village party cells exist under each SAC. With these partycells have also grown the village defence squads-both function under directions from the SAC.

First the entire movement was under the AP PC (which functioned under the CC). Under the APPCwas the North Telangana regional committee and in 1982 a Forest Liaison Committee (FLC) wassetup to guide the DK movement. In March 1987 the first Forest Party Conference was held and aforest committee with 5 members elected. By 1990, with the growth of the movement, this wasexpanded to seven members with a three member secretariat.

Now with the growth of the movement there are three independent committees (of status of statecommittees) functioning directly under the Central Committee. These are :

(i) The AP State Committee under which function three regional committees – Coastal-Rayalaseema

Joint Regional Committee, South Telangana Regional Committee and East Zone RegionalCommittee.

(ii) Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee- under which function the four divisional committees ofGadchiroli, Bhandara/Balaghat, South Bastar and North Bastar.

(iii) North Telangana Special Zonal Committee – under this are the district committees ofKarimnagar, Adilabad, Nizamabad, Warangal, NTFD (North Telangana Forest Division comprisingthe adjoining forest areas of Karimnagar, Warangal, Khammam) and the Singareni Belt Committee.

The party centre has concentrated in raising the political and military level of the organisation. Foreach level of party leadership, political courses and classes are held. Military training camps are alsoheld at various levels – for village militants, for squad members and also, a central training camp.



Each state committee brings out its own political organ which propagates the line set by the CentralCommittee and also takes up the problems of its area.

With this the overall military and political level of the party has grown.

Militarily, it can be seen in the growing number of successful actions….the number of raids on thepolice in 1996 was eleven and the number of rifles snatched between March 1996 and November1996 was 130.

Politically, this growth can be seen by the preparations and successful conclusion of the party’s AllIndia Special Conference held in November 1995.

Continuing the Legacy of Naxalbari

A full quarter century after the holding of the 8th Congress – the founding Congress – of the CPI(ML), the All India Special Conference of the Party was held in November 1995. Though it was aconference, it had the stature of a Congress as it adopted the four basic documents of the party : (i)the Party Programme and Constitution, (ii) Strategy and Tactics, (iii) Political Resolution and (iv) thePolitical and Organisational Review.

Earlier, these four draft documents had been thoroughly discussed throughout the party and passed(with amendments, if necessary) at the various regional and state conferences before being presentedbefore the All India Conference for adoption. These state conferences had also reviewed the work intheir own respective states and had taken decisions on rectification and development of the

movements in the states of Tamilnadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra. Also the units of West Bengaland Haryana set out tasks for building the revolutionary movements in their states. Besides the four

major documents, a special resolution adopting the self-critical review of 1980 was passed. Also in adetailed discussion, delegates expressed their opinion on another document : “The Indian

Revolutionary War – Guerilla Zones” and authorised the CC to finalise it.

The Conference was attended by 41 delegates (including three women delegates) from AP, North

Telangana, Dandakaranya, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Haryana and a fewother regions and a fraternal delegate from the COC CPI (ML) Party Unity. The Conference was

held deep in the forests, guarded by armed guerillas and went on for about 20 days. After detaileddiscussions the draft documents were adopted with some amendments. The Conference also

approved the financial report. In the process of election of a new Central Committee, the out-going

COC members first put forward their individual self-criticisms, on which delegates made theircomments….then a new CC was elected. The Conference finally adopted seven special resolutions :

(i) On expulsions, (ii) Hailing the National liberation struggles and workers’ struggles throughout theworld, (iii) Condemning imperialist propaganda against Marxism-Leninism-Mao Ze Dong Thought

(iv) Hailing the revolutionary struggles of other countries (v) Supporting the Nationality struggles inIndia (vi) Demanding Com. Gonzalo’s release and (vii) Calling for united struggle against Indian

expansionism.

This Conference was the true successor to the 1970 founding Congress of the CPI (ML) as it upheld

the spirit of Naxalbari and reaffirmed the basic political positions taken at the Eighth Congress. TheProgramme and Constitution passed in 1970 was updated and refined at this Conference, the



Tactical Line (now called Strategy and Tactics) adopted in 1980 was further refined with the

experience of the past fifteen years which was summed up in the Political and Organisational

Review. The Political Resolution analysed the present national and international conditions takingcognizance of the important political and economic changes that have occurred in the last decade.

This Conference gave a new hope to the revolutionaries of the country; a hope that the three magicweapons needed for the success of the Indian revolution – an all India Party, a Peoples’ Army and a

Revolutionary United Front – would soon become a reality.

PART — 12

INDIA’S BRIGHT FUTURE

Today, besides building a number of guerilla zones in other parts of the country, an important task

put forward has been to raise the guerilla zone, that are at present, at a primary level, to a higherlevel,

where the Gram Rajya Committees and local peoples’ militia become a common form of

organisation in the villages,

where guerilla squads assume more and more the form of a Platoon throughout the zones,

where guerilla warfare advances from the present stage of actions by smaller units, to a new stage,where bigger units conduct operations by concentrating forces,

and where a centralised military command from bottom to top, emerges.

Such a guerilla zone will be more stable and yet another step forward in the long march to final

victory.

Already today, the party wields considerable influence over a population of six crores spread out over

an area of about three lakh square kilometers covering the two primary level guerilla zones and the

three guerilla zones that are at a preparatory stage. The Dandakaranya guerilla zone, with apopulation of eight million, comprise portions of two districts from Maharashtra and three from

Madhya Pradesh; while the North Telangana Guerilla Zone, with a population of 12 million,comprise five districts of the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. The three areas that are at a

preparatory stage of guerilla zone are :

(i) Eastern Zone, with a population of 18 million covering four districts of North Andhra and two

districts of Orissa.

(ii) South Telangana Region, with a population of 11 million, embracing four districts of the

Telangana region.

and (iii) Nallamala forest region, comprising portions of some five districts of Andhra Pradesh.

Yet this is only a small beginning, as India is a vast country with a population of over 90 crores.



Yet this is only a small beginning, as India is a vast country with a population of over 90 crores.

Besides Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Dandakaranya region and pockets of influence elsewhere the rest ofthe country is yet to be drawn towards revolutionary politics. But, the revolutionaries are not alone;

strong democratic movements, particularly the armed struggles of the nationalities are gnawing intothe foundations of the Indian ruling classes.

Besides, the Indian ruling classes are themselves in a deep crisis and not even able to form a stablegovernment at the Centre. In just one year, since the last general elections, the government has

changed three times. The imperialists are tightening their grip over the Indian economy, dashing like

mad elephants to every corner of the country trampling under foot the national aspirations andpatriotic sentiments of the Indian people. The Indian collaborators, the traitors, who today run the

country, are slowly getting exposed for what they really are – quislings of foreign capital, agents ofbig business and the multinationals and enemies of the people and country. They owe their survival

to the extensive semi-feudal base on which they depend….but this is getting eroded with the growingarmed agrarian movements. All the parliamentary parties, no matter what their shade or colour,

have come to be seen as direct brokers of these business and feudal interests, making crores through‘scams’, deals, kickbacks, links with the mafia and by defrauding the treasury. The stench from the

parliamentary pig-sty is getting unbearable and each call to clean it, results in added filthaccumulating.

Charu Mazumdar and the leaders of Naxalbari had predicted this thirty years back. What they saidthen has become a reality today. The reactionaries tried to muffle the voice of the revolutionaries so

that the truth would not come out. In the first phase of Naxalbari, in just the five years upto 1972,

they butchered over ten thousand revolutionaries. But, the voice of truth and justice could not bemuffled. They tried again in the Emergency, killing, maiming, arresting thousands of

revolutionaries, democrats and even many of their own class. But the more they tried to muffle it, themore intense it got. In 1977 the voice of justice burst forth with even greater fury than ever before.

Then came the new revolutionary upsurge of the 80s and 90s. Yet again they sought to smother thevoice of the revolutionaries. In these sixteen years since the formation of the CPI (ML) (People’s war)

about one thousand revolutionaries and their supporters have laid down their lives for the liberationof the oppressed masses of our country. Many have also been martyred in Bihar.

But the voice of revolution, the voice of freedom, justice and equality is getting ever more intense. Thelives of the heroic martyrs did not go in vain, their voices echo again and again in the hills and

valleys of the countryside, reaching a crescendo …..causing terror in the hearts of the reactionaries.Like the proverbial phoenix, Naxalbari has no death; it rises again and again from the ashes,

shattering the long, dark night of gloom and despair, becoming the siren song, awakening the

people of our country.

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7 Responses to “30 years of Naxalbari”

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1. rakesh said

October 1, 2009 at 12:05 pm

how to bring change and social transformation in naxal affected areas

Reply

2. CH.V.PRABHAKAR RAO said

November 2, 2009 at 1:31 pm

Jagtial jaitrayatra is facelift and inspiration to peasant movement in a.p. not presented clearly.youshould some more details of those days in that villages and impact of jaitrayatra

The date of jaitra yatra may be 8 th sep.1978.clarify whether it is 7th or 8th

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February 26, 2012 at 12:19 pm

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May 23, 2012 at 12:41 pmRed Salutes to all the martyrs of Naxalbari and their legacy,today on May23rd,2012,the 45th

anniversary of the Naxalbari rebellion.Irrespective of their errors and mistakes in the mass line we

have to applaud the sacrifices of the C.P.I.(Maoist) who continue the legacy of the Naxalbarimovement,today.

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May 26, 2012 at 6:38 amHanel Cung Cấp Dịch Vụ Sửa Chữa Tại Nhà Và Cơ Quan Nhanh Nhất – Thuận Tiện

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