Is a new Left coming to India? Supporters of Naxalbari movement believe so

Revolution will come, some day, though I don’t know when,” said Shanti Munda, 78, one of the last surviving members of the Naxalbari uprising. Advanced age, multiple ailments, failing memory and financial woes have not dampened the spirit of this eternal optimist.

Munda lives in a frugal two-room house at Hatighisa village in the Naxalbari block of Darjeeling district in West Bengal. Her room is spartan, while the adjacent room is full of numerous awards her daughter won in athletics. Pictures of Jesus and Krishna adorn the room. Munda’s father had come from Jharkhand, and made his living by tilling land. She got married in her teens. Her husband was revolutionary leader Keshav Sarkar, who also mentored her in peasant politics.

She recalled the time when protests were held against the jotedars (landowners) for exploiting the peasants. “My husband first told me about the exploitation,” she said. “Then Kanu da (revolutionary leader Kanu Sanyal) came and organised us. We demanded that instead of paying our share in rice, we should be paid money, which the zamindars did not agree to.”

On May 24 1967, she tied her 15-day-old daughter to her back, and joined the peasant revolt led by the armed tribals of Naxalbari against the atrocities committed by jotedars. “The police had gathered in Naxalbari thinking that senior communist leaders were hiding there,” said Munda. “A huge crowd of peasants—most of them women—had gathered. Some of them were over 80. I felt bad resting at home. So I went with my daughter. We had bow and arrows. We struck Sonam Wangdi, a police officer. He died.”

This set off a chain reaction. A day later, the protesting women surrounded a group of policemen and snatched their weapons. The women let them go after listening to their pleas. But as they were leaving, the policemen fired upon the group killing 11 people—eight women, two children and a man. The peasants decided that there would be retaliation. It was the beginning of the Naxal revolt.

“Later, Kanu da asked me to organise women,” said Munda. “There were 7,000 of them. When Kanu da was alive, people came from all over to meet us. Now the movement has gone down. But I am sure it will survive. There are comrades all over the country.”

As the police cracked down brutally, the Naxal movement gradually weakened and the cadres and leaders got divided into various factions. Munda took to mainstream politics for a while, contesting assembly elections in 1982 and 1987. After performing poorly, she gave up electoral politics.

She is not impressed by present day politicians. “Now, we don’t find leaders, only brokers,” said Munda. Ask her about the BJP’s growth in West Bengal, even winning the Naxalbari seat, and she would point towards the left front. “When L.K. Advani conducted his rath yatra, chief minister Jyoti Basu didn’t stop him. The left brought the BJP here,” said Munda.

At the place where the 11 people were killed stands a memorial, marked by busts of communist leaders like Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Charu Mazumdar. A handful of people gather every year at the memorial to commemorate the deaths.

The RSS has a strong presence in the region, with its active work among the tribals aimed at making them part of the “national mainstream”. It has opened schools, helps arrange weddings for poor tribals and also celebrates Hindu festivals with fervour.

“The area has changed. Many Hindus came from Bangladesh to settle here after 1992. They don’t have any memory of the revolution,” said CPI(M) activist Raju Sarkar, son of Naxalite leader Asit Sarkar. “They were forced to leave their homeland because of repression. So, they harbour an anti-minority sentiment, which the RSS and the BJP find easy to appeal to.”

With the Trinamool Congress and the BJP reinforcing their position as the principal political players in West Bengal, the left, including the Naxal factions, are struggling to stay relevant. A political party born in the ferment of Naxalbari uprising is the CPI (ML) Liberation. Legendary Naxal leader Charu Mazumdar’s son Abhijit belongs to this group. “In order to arrive at Naxalbari, one should see the social turbulence that existed just after independence. In Bengal, there were a number of mass and political movements which culminated in the Naxal uprising,” said Abhijit, who teaches English at Siliguri College.

He said the left should learn from its failures and adopt new tactical lines. He expressed hope that the prevailing political situation in the country could lead to a change. “The sufferings, apprehensions and distress—be it social, economic or psychological—coupled with the people’s movement... it is a very productive time to unleash huge energy,” he said. He clarified that his group is not looking at an armed revolution.

Despite the many failures of the left movement, Abhijit is optimistic about its future, pointing out that sections of the radical left are always around fighting for various causes, including in the farmers’ agitation. “Look at the price hike, unemployment, vaccination scam, we are heading towards a frontal clash,” he said. “We have role models from the farmers’ movement and the students’ movements. There are leaders like Akhil Gogoi. Things are happening.”

Abhijit said the left movement did not lack relevance. “The challenge is to explore local and national history to foreground the contribution of the working class and peasantry during the independence struggle,” he said. “This is a transition phase.”

The idea of a new left is coming up, said Abhijit, and its aim is to save democracy, the working class and the farmers. “Another Naxalbari will not happen overnight. But it is not time for hopelessness,” he said. “A new generation has already emerged. They are thoughtful. They can fight the regressive ideas of nationalism in a cogent manner. The spirit which is being ignited cannot be doused.”