1967: Naxalbari movement

The movement had a far-reaching impact on India’s politics, society and culture.

CPI(ML) supporters at the party’s 40th anniversary, in Kolkata’s Sahid Minar Maidan on May 25, 2007. | Photo Credit: SUSHANTA PATRONOBISH

In May 1967, two back-to-back incidents ignited the Naxalbari movement, which would have a far-reaching impact on India’s politics, society and culture. A simmering discontent among peasants was palpable in rural north Bengal, and under the leadership of Charu Majumdar, Kanu Sanyal, Mujibur Rahaman, Khokon Majumdar, Jangal Santhal and others, the peasants from Naxalbari, Kharibari and Phanshidewa were organising themselves to forcibly seize land from landowners. 

On May 24, during an operation to take over land, the police arrived to disperse a gathering of 1,000 protesting peasants in Naxalbari. During the confrontation, Inspector Sonam Wangde of the Naxalbari police station was struck by three arrows and was killed.

On May 25, at Bengai Jot village near Naxalbari, the police opened fire on a crowd of mainly women protesters and killed eight women, two children and one young man. From that point a new chapter began in India’s post-Independence history, written in fire and blood. On June 28, 1967, Radio Peking joyfully announced: “A peal of spring thunder has crashed over the land of India. Revolutionary peasants in Darjeeling area have risen in rebellion.”

The two incidents sparked the naxal movement, turning a peasant agitation into an armed struggle. It quickly spread from an obscure region on the Bengal-Nepal border to different parts of the country. It not only gave birth to a political movement but precipitated a cultural upheaval and encouraged a new strain of thought and idea that still haunts the imagination of the youth. Operation “Khatam” (finish off), calling for the annihilation of all class oppressors, came into being and spread to Kolkata under the leadership of young charismatic figures like Ashim Chatterjee (a.k.a. Kaka) and Dipanjan Ray Chowdhuri.

On April 22, 1969, the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) was formed under the leadership of Charu Majumdar and Saroj Dutta. The party has since split into various factions. The naxal movement itself underwent many changes. At present, it is represented by the Communist Party of India (Maoist), established on September 21, 2004, through the merger of the People’s War Group and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI). Though the Maoists’ activities are limited to certain parts of the country, and the naxal ideology has now largely lost its political and practical relevance, the Naxalbari movement continues to fascinate scholars and common people alike.