I was involved in a conversation with a gentleman on left politics in
I was not a witness to that era but I heard and read about this left ultra leader who was seen with awe and administration in the1960s. His revolutionary ideas inspired, a whole generation and a lot many people who read him, left their homes to live with the peasants in
So what was so attractive about Charu Mazjumdar’s theory? According to Charu Mazjumdar, a semi-feudal, semi-colonial society like
Charu Mazjumdar suggested forming a guerrilla unit to wage protracted peasant war and elaborated this in the "murder manual" how to launch "annihilation campaign."
The "annihilation campaign" would produce the new man who will defy death and be free from all thought of self-interest, professed According to Charu Mazjumdar.
In today’s context such ideas could at best be described as abrasive rhetoric and fetish but in 1960s it inspired many to sacrifice their lives to chase Charu’s Mazjumdar’s dream.
This led to the creation of a utopian space called Naxalbari in
With this began an era of violence, bloodshed and martyrdom unprecedented in the country. The breeze that blew from ‘Naxlbari’ shook the edifice of the Indian state
A surgical operation was done to extinguish the voices of dissent. It was Siddhart Shanker Ray, the then Chief Minister of
At the hindsight one may question was such a harsh measure necessary, instead, if those revolutionary youth were rehabilitated, the country in some way y may have benefited through their positive contributions. .
Now a last point; at a time, when our country is totally wedded to the capitalist mode of production, where are the thinkers like Charu Mazumdar gone, can any one point out a name that can match his appeal and aura in the contemporary India.
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Syed Ali Mujtaba is a journalist, based in Chennai. He can be contacted at syedalimujtaba@yahoo.com
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