India- The spirit of legendary Comrade Gundahar Murmu- Part 1

By Harsh Thakor

RESURRECT SPIRIT OF LEGENDARY COMRADE GUNDAHAR MURMU IN 10TH DEATH ANNIVERSARY YEAR.A GREAT CRUSADER OF THE MASS LINE WHO EXTINGUISHED SPARK OF MAOISM TILL HIS LAST BREADTH.ONE OF THE PIONEERS IN FORMULATING REVOLUTIONARY MASS LINE AS AGAINST LEFT ADVENTURSIT PATH IN NAXALBARI ERA AND ARCHITECTS OF THE REVOLUTIONARY ADDIVASI MOVEMENT IN MALKANGIRI.

On April 12th earlier this year the Communist revolutionary movement commemorated the 10th anniversary of veteran Comrade Gundahar Murmu. He passed away leaving his wife, four daughters, a son, relatives and comrades but his memories will be embedded forever in the revolutionary movement like an inextinguishable red light shimmering.

Few comrades ever from West Bengal made such a penetrating contribution as an architect of the mass revolutionary line in agrarian revolution, hitting revisionism and left adventurism in its very core. With the skill of a surgeon, creativity of a poet and tenacity of a soldier he steered his way through the most tortuous paths or obstacles. At every crucial juncture with the resilience of a boulder and dialectical methodology of a scientist he countered all opportunist trends or attacks from the enemy. Till his last breadth he was a crusader for revolution, shimmering the spark of Mao (Zedong) thought. Without doubt one of the greatest protagonists of the mass line of Tarimela Nagi Reddy,being a committed member of the Communist Party of India Re-Organization Centre (Marxist-Leninist) till his death. He banged every nail in the coffin to consolidate the party forces on the basis of mass revolutionary line and establish the re-organization of an All India revolutionary party illuminating the spirit of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Thought.

His contribution is all the more significant today with the task of re-organization of the proletarian party yet to be fulfilled and serious deviations still pervading the Communist revolutionary camp of 'left' and 'right' variety in West Bengal. Even if the Communist Party India (Maoist) is the principal torch bearer of the camp the revolutionary movement still remain splintered between various groups. In spite of 50 years since Naxalbari a united revolutionary movement has not been built in Bengal with movements in fact becoming more marginalized.2decades ago a polarization took place between the groups of left deviationist trend, or right opportunist trend but hardly of those practicing the proletarian. mass line. Some very strong united movements took place of different groups on issues like bus fare hikes, struggle of employees, encounter killings of Maoists opposing building nuclear power projects like Pokharan, etc. In recent times some positive united protests have been waged on issues of opposing Hindutva fascsim or Communalism, state murder of Maoists in Malkangiri and Chattisgarh. However revolutionary forces basically remain isolated from the mass movement.

Today still an infection pervades which feels that the issue of correct revolutionary line has been decided which is solely practiced by the C.P.I.(Maoist). There are hardly any echoes reverberating the mass line of late T. Nagi Reddy. within the revolutionary camp in Bengal with the revolutionary camp split within the pro-Maoist section and those owing allegiance to Kanu Sanyal, SNS-CP Reddy etc. Even if great rectification has been made still there are tendencies to glorify individual heroism of armed squads and negate the mass line.

Gundahar Murmu was born in June 1927in Bela village of Debra in West Midnapur, into an adivasi peasant family and studied till the Higher Secondary certificate stage. In his student days he gained his baptsim in revolutionary politics when he organized the poor and landless peasants with Comrade Nikunja Behari Chowgdury, the then leader of the Communist party of India. After independence he became a member of the Communist Party of India and became the secretary of the Krishak Samitiin Debra area.

He stood by China in the 1962 war and was arrested during the Indo-Pak war when he was upholding the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution. He was branded as a an agent of China.(China-dalal) Later he was arrested for opposing the Indo-Pak war and called a 'Pakistan Chor.:'

After coming out of jail he understood the differences that had cropped up within the party. Gunadahr took a firm stand supporting the CPC in the great debate, upholding the general line of the International Communist Movement laid down in 1963.He was of firm conviction that Communists would steer this ideology along to the path of liberation. After split of party he joined the C.P.I.(M.)

Murmu lit the spark in the 1960's to defend the peasant's rights and organized them against the oppression of the jotedars-zamindars. When the Naxalbari peasant movement emerged he formed the Naxalbari Krishak Sangram Shayak Commitee in Debra police station. His voice played an important role in molding comrades towards grasping the fundamental relationship between armed struggle and mass line, like a wheel with an axle. In 1962 he built up the movement of workers, peasants, students and youth. However it could not develop into a revolutionary movement

In May, 1969 he joined the Communist Party India (Marxist Leninist) with comrades Bhadadeb Mondal and Netai Das. Earlier, activists who fought against revisionism like Kanhai Chaterjee, Amulya Sen and Sushital Roy Choudary supported Murmu.
Fascinatingly the former two comrades were the founding members of the Maoist Communist Centre.

Murmu organized peasants against Jotedars zamindars. Thousands of peasants thronged with tangi(axes) and bows and arrows. Raids were organized on black marketers. Under Murmu’s leadership peasants fought jotedars armed with 45 guns at the police station in Baulasani village of Debra police station where Jotedars ran away from the village leaving their guns. Active movements also occurred in Keshpur and Daspur police station capitalizing on previous struggles. In 1969 he organized the Kshet Mazdoor Krishak Sabha and edited the revolutionary “Lal Tara ‘magazine. Several peasant struggle committees were formed.

In a meeting in Kharagpur he raised his voice against the line of ‘annihilation of class enemies’ which the C.P.I.(M.L.) planned to implement in Debra, Gopiballavpur and Baharagora on August 21st,1969 for which Charu Mazumdar placed a more affirmative role. I recommend readers to read Gunadhar Murmu’s notes in the 2nd volume of History and Polemics of the Communist Movement of India, published by the Tarimela Nagi Reddy Memorial Trust. Comrade Murmu was one of the pioneers of the mass line combating the ‘line of annihilation of class enemies’ and abandoning of mass organizations.’ Comrade Murmu elaborated how armed squad actions isolated people from mass movements.

He stated “After a jotedar is annihilated his descendant would become the owner of the property. Whereas if a village revolutionary committee distributed land the people would benefit.” In November 1969,the police fled from places where thousands of peasants came forcibly to harvest crops. Murmu gave examples of how, actions of armed squads, people got more isolated Police camps were installed when the annihilation campaign began. However the police were helpless to curb the popular upsurge with several cases in November 1969 of police fleeing from places were thousands of peasants gathering to forcibly harvest the crops.

In spite of the leaders of Debra putting a proposal for building mass movements and formation peasant committees ,the Border-regional committee of the C.P.I.(M.L.) rejected it and criticized the Debra comrades. In Digha in January 1970 the Debra ledaers were condemed by the border regional commite of the C.P.I.(M.L.) ,for opposing tactic sof annihilation. A statement was published in the Bengali magazine Lal Taara in May 7th and May 22, 1975 as a 'Review of Debra peasants struggle by a Group of cadres "

On 5th March 1970 Murmu was arrested. During this era in jail he launched a strong battle against the line of ‘Individual annihilation. Through this struggle he saved the life of many a comrade. He also combated the right deviationist line of ‘Garibi Hatao’by comrades who supported the slogan of Indira Gandhi. In jail he hammered every possible nail in the coffin to defeat left adventurism and right opportunist and was convinced that the line of Charu Mazumdar negated the relationship betweejn the agrarian revolutionary protracted armed struggle. Within the prison walls he made a major contribution in publishing the Debra report in the Bengali magazine Lala Tara which exposed the anarchist tendency of the annihilation or Khatam line .In jail he came to know of the mass agrarian revolutionary line of the Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist revolutionaries. After his release on 15th August 1977 wit comrades Bhadadeb Mondal and Netai Das he contacted the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India ,at the beginning of 1978.He joined the Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries led by T. Nagi Reddy. (U.C.C.R.I.-M.L.)His joining the Unity Centre of Communist revolutionaries of India in 1976 was of great political significance. Under his leadership the UCCRI)ML led peasant associations did joint programmes with groups like the erstwhile Maoist Communist Centre.

Below are important characteristic sof the Debra report published in Lala Tara.

Positive features were

1.Re-occupation of land started on huge scale with large scale confiscation of benami land, khas land and land possessed by absentee landlords with mass mobilization of peasants being a firm feature.

2.Big black marketeers were hit in their very backyard with around ten thousand peasants mobilized to confront the check posts set up to thwart their resistance. Peasant samitis gave a slogan for stopping black marketing of rice. News of such demonstrations spread like wildfire.

3.With this movement for higher wages started with peasants armed with arrows and spears and on the other hand jotedars with guns.

4.Unity was established between the tribals and the poor peasant, ,middle peasants and rich peasants neutralized.

5.Authorities imposed section 144 but still peasants morale was not subdued .

6.The struggle expanded because the leadership had adopted a broad outlook in leading the struggle. A concrete example was how leaders returned guns to the Jotedars even after the peasants had snatched 20 gun sin struggle. This was because stage of creating armed squads had not been reached in Debra

Reasons for setback. Were:

1.Propogated that armed struggle is the only path and the connection between seizure of power and land were not explained.-"Political power only grows out of the barrel of the gun."

2.Mass struggle and mass organization was totally ignored in spite of border regional leadership formulating it.

3.Individaul annihilation was termed as the only path of struggle. Cadres from Debra practicing mass movement were lured into it.,with their weak ideological understanding.

4.Adverse influence of red guard propaganda movement which when marching in making their open activities harmful to the enemy.

5.No discussion on the building of base areas .Initially cadres felt they should build them in plains. They failed to understand that without expansion of area base areas could not be established. Geographical and natural advantages were ignored.

6.An atmosphere of conspiracy in Border Commitee, contradiction between intellectuals and peasants and sectarianism was built by the distortions of naxalbari and organizational line practiced..Antagonistic contradictions were created in various areas of the border committee.

In the 1980’s he strived for the mass line within the Jharkhand movement ,demarcating from reformist trends and Bengali Chauvinism.

He played a major role in the re-organizing of the Peasant Association. In June 1987 he had to face the wrath of C.P.M. goons who took every measure to suppress the work of Murmu in Belar village.

It was Mumu’s leadership that isolated the revisionist C.P.M., So they beat him with sticks.

However Murmu came back even more courageously and re-developed work.

Former comrades of the Maoist Communist Centre remember Murmu’s work and organization .

In 1988 he joined the Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India which later merged into the C.P.R.C.I.(M.L.) in 1995.It was of important political significance that Murmu demarcated from the right deviationist tend within the Nagi Reddy camp of the UCCRI(ML)Muktigami group joining the section led by An and first which later merged into the CCRI.

During the period of the Khalistani movement launched a series of programmes in Debra district in solidarity with the ‘Front against Repression and Communalism’ which was a mass resistance front combating both state and Khalistani terrorism in Punjab.

Com Gunadar Murmu was a staunch crusader in liberating the Adivasis from the shackles of economic exploitation, towards a development of language and culture, and for a livelihood of dignity.

He was detained as a ‘Jharkandi’ on 10th March,1990 for 18 days.

However he combated the wrong trends of the Jharkhand movement explaining that it lacked objective class analysis .He propagated that it was reformist and that a separate state of Adivasi people would not solve their problems as within the framework of the Constitution of India. The Adivasis had to build an anti-feudal, anti-imperialist agrarian revolutionary movement under the leadership of the working class and thus build a united front.

From 1992-2002 Murmu went to the Malkangiri region of Orissa to organize the tribals on the issues of Jangal, jamin and pani. He played a pioneering role in the building of the tribal revolutionary movement in the region of Malkangiri. He played the role of an equivalent of a turbine in creating electricity or a conductor in a symphony in building the Malkangiri Zilla Adivasi Sangh. Murmu in practice imbibed the very lessons he learnt from the Debra peasant struggle where he demarcated between mass agrarian revolutionary movement and armed squad actions. Avoiding direct confrontation he often refuted the squads of the erstwhile C.P.I.(M.L.) Peoples War when they initiated actions without basing it on the movement of the tribals. Most methodically like a professor writing a thesis he chalked out an agrarian revolution.

He played a major part in the movement in Tapu area and in the Padmagiri Panchayat.He organized the Adivasis in movements for forest,land and water..He possessed phenomenal stamina travelling 03-40 km. without any food or break.,withstanding the hills,mountains and dense forests. Murmu played a role as a sculptor in the great mass armed resistance built by the Malkangiri Zilla adivasi Sangh in the Padmigeri-Pandripani land struggle protest waged against the HAMCO project , tribal's rights for bamboo in forests,as well as the correct tactical line during elections of 'Active political campaign'.instead of boycott or participation.,and resistance against pipeline in Malkangiri.Murmu even travelled to Umerkot in Nabrangpur district at the border of Chattisgarh and Ramgiri areas.With great perseverance he infused the mass line of the Communist Party-Re-Organization Centre of India (Marxist -Leninist) which originated from the Nagi Reddy line into the day to day political struggles of the Adivasis.

Murmu sculpted the path for democratic functioning in May Day programmes from 1992 where leaflets were issued consulting all bodies of the Sangh and not exclusively the leadership imbibing democratic functioning.n 1992 ,the leadership of the Sangh and the workers of Balimela held a joint programme. Workers were organized to support peasant's demands while peasants were organized to support Peasants demands.The central demands of the tribals were land,jungle and water.

A leaflet as written explaining the birth of the Red Flag,the symbol of the collective strength,sacrifice and Struggle.It discussed he specific oppression faced by the tribals and dalits(scheduled castes ) in the society)It explained the relationship between the basic demands although they were relatively small with unity could change the basic conditions of labour.It went on to explain that expectations from the electoral process was an illusion.

The 1992 May Day programme was attended by 3000 workers and peasants. People came from distant places o attend the village programme, walking for 6-7 hours. The rally had a lightning effect with the message spreading far and wide. It reached distant places as a island region which could only be reached by boat and a seven to eight hours journey from Chitrakaonda and Paplur.

To Be continued=>