years which have naturally led us to a condition of disorganization . To be frank , we are not organized in a way we ought to be if we were to function in a revolutionary way . We have created illusions among the people about the parliamentary action , organized the communist party ’ s machinery in a very parliamentary way . The old discipline has been lost ; the old unselfish tendency has gone to waste . The old hard work was disappeared . Everything that a revolutionary needed has been lost . We must rebuild . This will be our greatest difficulty ”. Naxalbari Armed Resistance “ In fact , for factual and proper assessment one is to go back to the days of peasant movement of 1959 . Everybody knows that the then congress government of West Bengal enacted ceiling on land and consciously kept loopholes to deprive the peasants from land . The Provincial Kisan Council ( PKC ) of West Bengal ( CPI period ) decided to give a call to stop benami transactions by the landlords within the limits of certain dates i . e . legally . But the Kisan Sabha of Siliguri ( SKS ) Committee opposed the move and stressed that if benami transfers were to be stopped then one should start with the enacted ceiling on the cultivable and non-cultivable land and only the ceiling land under purview of the enactment should be left out and all the rest beyond the ceiling should be captured . This was opposed by the PKC . Inspite of this , Kisan Sabha launched the struggle against benami transfers .
Inspite of official withdrawal , the struggle for land went on unabated . This period was covered by complex situation . Anti-China hysteria and division of party created immense political problems and along with it there were attacks on comrades by the government . The comrades were thrown into prison twice ; once in the year 1962-64 and again in the year 1964-66 . This is the period when wide spread attacks continued on the peasants and the tea garden workers and perhaps no district in the country had to face such wide spread attacks .
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Hundreds of workers and peasant leaders were arrested under Defence of India Rules . During this period on the one hand the party comrades had to reorganize the CPI ( M ) and ongoing peasant struggle and to look after their problems . On the other hand they had to combat the neorevisionists and also had to tackle the seeds of left deviation .
Over and above , the struggle against landlords went on unabated . A peculiar , cumbrous and a very complicated struggle had to be carried during the period , most of the comrades never faced such a situation . There were deaths of intellectual comrades in the rural areas . They remained mainly on their practical experience . In this period , the situation was such that either the comrades were to quit or to carry on struggle . In this situation the comrades again started recapturing land , especially against two landlords and the area virtually became free of landlords . The small landlords and rich peasants gave whole hearted support to us . The peasants snatched guns from the landlords ’ goondas . It happened in the December of 1966 . In another area a tea planter taking advantage of the absence of the leaders of the movement , thrown out the peasants from more than 100 acres of land and constructed 15 dwelling quarters for the workers of the plantation .
The SKS mobilized more than two thousand peasants and workers and demolished all pucca quarters and took possession of the said land . The land is till now in the possession of the peasants of that area . The incident took place in March 1967 . Fight against the military contractor and canteen owner and a biglandlord was very important because it created impact on North Bengal University students . The slogan of boycott of Elections came forward in 1967 . Com . Kanu Sanyal ( KS ) was in jail and was released just before 1967 elections .
After the release of Com . Jungal Santhal ( JS ) from Calcutta jail just a month before 1967 election , Com . Charu Mazumdar ( CM ) retreated from his position of election boycott . So , during the whole period political struggle and struggle for land were continuing . This fact should also be in the knowledge of the comrades that Com . JS was defeated in the election .
However the congress ministry was defeated and the United Front ( UF ) ministry came to power in 1967 in WB . Just at this period Ishwar Tirkey , a congress MLA tried to evict late Com . Bigul Kishan from his barga ( rented ) land in Naxalbari itself . Naturally the anger against the landlords gathered momentum . Our late com . Jungal Santhal led the struggle against the eviction . This attracted the attention of media because Ishwar Tirkey was not only a congress MLA but also a former deputy minister .
Comrades Kanu Sanyal and Souren Bose went to meet and talked with him ( H . K . Konar , the land reforms minister ) in forest bungalow at Sukna , the gate way to Darjeeling hills . The minister along with highest police officials of WB met them . They demanded surrender of all the comrades wanted by the police . The delegates put forward questions why the landlords were not arrested against whom many FIRs were already lodged and finally they said that list of wanted persons would be given within a few days and they were to surrender in batches . The talks broke down as the delegation refused to surrender . After this the delegation informed the minister that they were ready to talk on the basis of fixed agendas and the police camps were to be withdrawn . The talks finally broke down .
After 8 / 10 days a large police force entered a village Barajharu ( 3 kms from Naxalbari ) to arrest the comrades . The police force has to face strong resistance from the local villagers and the news reached other villages and surrounding tea gardens . Thousands of peasants and workers rushed to the area and a scuffle took place and as a result some police officers were injured and Inspector Wangdi was killed . This incident took place on 24 th May 1967 . It should be
Class Struggle