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Fifty Years of Naxalbari Peasant Upsurge

The paper presented by the Janamuktikami at seminar held on 29 June 2017 on the occasion of fifty years of great Naxalbari peasant upsurge has been published. The pdf is available here.

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Make the Programme of 50th Anniversary of Naxalbari Peasant Uprising a Grand Success

March Forward in the Agrarian Revolutionary Path of Telengana and Naxalbari

Dear Comrades and Friends,

     This year is the 50^th anniversary of Naxalbari peasant uprising. This uprising of 1967 was the resurgence of Telengana movement. Many of us are aware that at the time of Telengana movement Comrades Stalin and Mao unitedly launched ideological struggle to free the Communist parties of different countries from the influence of Trotskyite and Titoite line. Let’s look into the international and national political situation of this period.

     In 1948, Tito was expelled from Cominform. In 1949 great Chinese Revolution achieved victory. In 1950 a historic editorial was published in the organ of Cominform. In the same year, Ranadive, the then general secretary of CPI, was forced to make self-criticism. The CPI adopted a Party programme through an all India conference. Therefore, the editorial of Cominform, the self-critical report of Ranadive and the Party programme of 1951 marked  the fundamental line of Indian Revolution. But the CPI cancelled the programme of 1951 after the death of Com. Stalin in 1953 and adhered in the revisionist line.  On the other side, the two-line struggle continued within the Party.  Then the Khrushchevite revisionism appeared in the stage. It intensified the two-line struggle in the CPI.  At that time the great Naxalbari peasant upsurge came into being. In China, the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution broke out  against the Titoite-Khrushchevite revisionism. These incidents put forward the teachings of Telengana before the Naxalbari peasant struggle. Therefore, Telengana and Naxalbari, Tito and Khrushchev, Stalin and Mao cannot be separated.

    The Naxalbari peasant upsurge completes fifty years in 2017. After 50 years, is the path of Naxalbari relevant today? Several naxalite groups have already abandoned the agrarian revolutionary politics of Naxalbari. Like the CPI and CPI(M),  they are by now practising parliamentary politics arguing that the capitalist development in Indian agriculture currently plays a decisive role, the Indian big bourgeoisies are independent and therefore the stage of Indian revolution is socialist. Which social revolution has changed the state character of India? Which revolution has uprooted feudalism and imperialism from the Indian soil? They, however, keep silence in these questions. Some of them express faith on agrarian revolution in words, although they participate in parliamentary electioneering in the name of tactics. Thus they have chosen the road to escape from revolutionary arena. Some are strengthening the hand of imperialism by spreading confusions over Naxalbari politics.  There is no doubt that the set back in the revolutionary struggle was due to ultra-left deviation after Naxalbari movement. But the so-called Naxalites have made the leadership solely accountable for ultra-left deviation to justify their current right opportunist practice and therefore undermine the cause of Indian Revolution.  

    

     Even after 50 years, the Naxalbari peasant uprising is still relevant.  Not only the current objective condition of Indian society is the same as it was at the time of Naxalbari uprising, but the imperialist plunder and semi-feudal exploitation have now become intensified as well. It is noteworthy that historically imperialism cannot uproot feudalism which is the social base of imperialist plunder.  Rather, for its own interest it strengthens feudal system through cosmetic and partial reform.   Even with distorted capitalist development, semi-feudalism exists and will exist to play the dominant role in agriculture. With the support of imperialism, semi-feudal exploitation through usury and merchant capital has been strengthened. In India peasants are debt-bound and 57-77% of agricultural debt owes to usurer and non-bank lending agencies. According to the report of Mahalanabis Committee six crore thirty lakh acre of land is available to distribute among landless peasants, given the land ceiling is 20 acre per family. Till date less than 2 % of this land has been distributed.

        Multinational corporations have extensively penetrated the Indian agricultural market of fertilizers, seed, pesticides etc. through globalization and various WTO agreements. Thus imperialist capital along with usurer and merchant capital appropriate most of the surplus made by the small, medium and big peasants. This surplus therefore remains outside the arena of agricultural development, which, in turn, contributes to the hindrance in capitalist reproduction in agriculture and strengthens semi-feudal exploitation.

      Currently the central government of India as well as different state governments propose agricultural reforms which will actually help the land sharks to grab thousands of acres of land from the peasants.  

        Therefore, the basic politics of Naxalbari is correct and relevant even today. Let’s remember what Com. Stalin and Com. Mao said emphasizing the importance of agrarian revolution: “It would be foolish to think that feudalism and imperialism can be overthrown in China by armed strength alone. Without an agrarian revolution and without active support of the Wuhan troops by the vast masses of peasants and workers, such forces cannot be overthrown” (J V Stalin). “Establishment of Red Army, Guerrila  Units and Red Areas is the highest form and inevitable consequence of peasant struggle under the leadership of the working class in semi-colonial China” (Mao Tse-tung).

             In many regions of India, agrarian revolutionary struggle of Naxalbari is still continuing combating many hurdles, although more challenges are yet to be overcome. The fiftieth anniversary of Naxalbari peasant uprising does, therefore,  demand  united struggle of workers, peasants, students, youth, writers, artists, intellectuals, i.e., the whole democratic and patriotic force to accomplish victory of the New Democratic Revolution by  grasping the lessons from success and failure, positive and negative aspects of the heroic struggle of great Indian people. Naxalbari ekhee rastha.

                                                                             With struggling greetings,

                                                                            JANAMUKTIKAMI

                                                                                                                                                            

Fifty Years of Naxalbari Peasant Uprising

Seminar

29 May 2017

4-00 pm to 8-00 pm

Chandrasekhar Das Auditorium (Bharatsabha Hall), Kolkata 

* Published by Chittaranjan Das, Editor, Janamuktikami on March 1, 2017 from Kolkata