Naxalbari movement to come alive on Nov 19

Pramod Giri, HT, 17 Nov 2016, SILIGURI: The 50 years of the Naxalbari Movement that once shook the nation and inspired similar movements throughout the world would be commemorated in a small way at the same hamlet where the first police officer was killed by peasants in the summer of 1967. 

The summer uprising of Naxalbari led by Charu Mazumdar, Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal and named Spring Thunder by China has lost much of its relevance in modern times. 

Naxalbari and its surroundings in Darjeeling district continue to witness the grabbing of plots by the land mafia. The villages mostly affected by the Naxalbari movement are under Naxalbari, Phasidewa and Kharibari blocks in Darjeeling district. Abhijit Mazumdar, the Darjeeling district committee general secretary of CPI(ML) – Liberation, who is the son of Charu Mazumdar said on Wednesday, “A three-day-long rally criss-crossing the villages that had participated in the Naxalbari Movement would be organised from November 19.” 

The commemoration ceremony organised by the CPI(ML) would kick start from School Dangi, Jharujot, a small village near Naxalbari, where police inspector Sonam Wangdi was killed on May 24, 1967. This was followed by the killings of 11 peasants, including eight women and two infants. 

This ignited many to join the peasants’ movements in the form of mass protests and guerilla campaigns in the whole of West Bengal, Kerala, Bihar and Telengana. Naxal leaders like Khudan Mallick, Khokan Mazumdar, Shanti Munda, Mujibar Rahaman and Nemu Singh who had actively participated in the movement would be felicitated, said Mazumdar. 

Many leaders from across the country and scholars from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jadavpur University and Presidency University would also take part. Mazumdar said, “Peasants, Dalits, tribals and the poor in the areas like Panitanki, Kharibari and Hatighisha continue to suffer at the hands of state machinery while local Trinamool Congress leaders are involved in land grabbing.” Sefdilla at Hatighisa near Naxalbari was the home and office of Kanu Sanyal, the then national general secretary of CPI(ML), who committed suicide on March 23, 2010. 

Charu Mazumdar was arrested in Kolkata on July 16, 1972, and died inside police lockup after 12 days on July 28, 1972, after the state government allegedly withdrew his life support system. On November 23, a seminar on the 50 years of Naxalbari Movement has been organised by the CPI(ML)Liberation in Jalpaiguri where all the Left parties have been invited. 

The celebration would be concluded on the Naxalbari Day on May 25 next year by holding the central committee meeting of the CPI (ML)-Liberation. May 25 marks the killing of 11 people by the police.