Architect of naxalite movement
KOLKATA: Kanu Sanyal, one of the architects of the naxalite movement and
who, in more recent times, was critical of the Maoists, was found dead on
Tuesday at his residence in the Naxalbari area of West Bengal’s Darjeeling
district - the same area from where an armed peasant uprising in May 1967
led by him, among others, had catapulted him into political reckoning.
He was 78 and was stated to have been ill for some time.
"Though it appears to be a case of suicide, we are investigating his death. A
case of unnatural death has been registered and our inquiries will determine
whether it is a suicide or otherwise," Inspector-General of Police (North
Bengal) K.L. Tamta told The Hindu over phone.
"He was found partially hanging with his feet touching the ground in his party
office-cum-residence," Mr. Tamta said.
At a rally in Kolkata in April 1969, Sanyal announced the formation of the
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
The CPI(M-L), with Kanu Sanyal and comrade-in-arms Charu Mazumdar at
the helm, had called for a “revolution” through an armed struggle that would
create “liberated zones” across the country. He was arrested the next year
and subsequently incarcerated at a jail in Visakhapatnam in connection with
the Parvatipuram naxalite conspiracy case.
Charu Mazumdar died in police custody in Kolkata in July 1972. Sanyal was
released from jail in 1977..
In recent times, Sanyal was critical of the Maoists and their cult of violence,
including the killing of political opponents. "I had never agreed with the
killings of individuals and I do not support it even today," Sanyal had told
journalists.
Special Correspondent, Hindu March 24, 2010
http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/24/stories/2010032465151400.htm
[See picture in the original link.]
Kanu Sanyal: Rebel who did not return home
Kanu Sanyal, the firebrand Naxalite leader who committed suicide this
Tuesday (23 March), had lit the fire of a violent revolution along with two
other Comrades Charu Mazumdar and Jangal Santhal of the Naxalite trio
out of a peasant uprising at Naxalbari in northern West Bengal in the late
60´s, although in later years he openly denounced the anarchist deviations
that the insurrection suffered.
Krishna Kumar Sanyal more popularly known as Kanu Sanyal, was born to
the third wife of Court clerk Annada Govinda Sanyal late Smt Nirmala Devi
at Bhalu Basti in Kurseong in 1930.
There is no authentic document available which mentions his date of birth,
though the matriculation certificate issued by the Calcutta University puts his
age at 16 years 8 months as on 1 March 1947.
Third among five brothers and two sisters, Kanu received education at the
Kurseong Primary School and the Kuserong Pushparani Roy Memorial HE
School from where he passed the matriculation examination in 1947.
He then got admitted in the Intermediate of Science (ISc.) course at the
Ananda Chandra College in Jalpaiguri. It was around this time that he
developed an inclination first towards the Forward Bloc and then towards the
Communist Party of India (CPI).
Enmeshed in political quest, Sanyal appeared for the ISc exam in 1948 but
failed. He then gave up studies and later that year got appointed in the
Kalimpong SDO office as a revenue collection clerk.
In 1948, the Communist Party was banned in India, opposing which Kanu
rallied teamed up with student activist Rakhal Choudhury of Babupara in
Siliguri and floated the Jana Raksha Samity. The Samity undertook a pro-
CPI campaign across Siliguri and created quite a furore by organising a
protest rally in the town in 1949 coinciding with the visit of then chief
minister Bidhan Chandra Roy.
Consequent to this, he was arrested by the police in January 1950 and spent
three months in the prison. Coming out of jail, he became a CPI member in
April that year and did not report back to his job.
Early in 1951, he got introduced to Charu Mazumdar and because of his
motivation, became a CPI whole-timer in October that year. Following this,
he left his family and started living in a party office at Matigara near Siliguri.
Finally, from 1952, he started living at Naxalbari among the Adivasi farmers
and tea workers. He gradually got assimilated among his hosts and began
organising the exploited masses under the Communist ideology.
Sanyal was specifically assigned the charge of organising the Kishak Sabha
in Terai and he successfully carried out a serious of movements to establish
the rights of the sharecroppers on the land they tilled.
As a culmination of the series of movements, the landmark Naxalbari
Movement broke out on 24 May 1967, wherein the armed Communist
activists led by Kanu gave the call for “Land to tillers” and forcibly occupied
the lands held by the zemindars above the ceiling limit.
In the course of the Movement, he also went to China through Nepal, Tibet in
late 1967 and received armed and political training there for three months.
He also met Mao Tse Dong, Chou En Lai there.
By the time he returned to India, the state machineries had quelled the
Naxalbari Movement to some extent, but Sanyal and his Comrades
continued to regroup themselves.
On 1 May 1969, together with Charu Mazumdar, he announced the birth of
the CPI-ML at the Monument Ground in Calcutta, calling for a continuous
armed struggle to effect a revolution in India.
However, there did exist a difference of opinion between Mazumdar and
Sanyal since the late 50´s over the modus operandi for the revolution. While
Mazumdar insisted on carrying out the struggle through small combat
groups, Kanu wanted to further the cause through mass organisations and
gradually equipping all cadres with arms.
As a result of the intra-party conflicts and the state suppression, the
Naxalbari Movement collapsed in 1971. Late in 1970, Santyal was arrested
from Naxalbari and in the summer of 1971 he was taken to Vishapatnam Jail
in Andhra Pradesh in connection with the Parvatipuram (Srikakulam)
Conspiracy Case.
He was shifted to the Alipore Jail in Calcutta in 1977 and was released in
1979. Following his release, Sanyal started living at the CPI-ML party office
at Sebdella Jote, Naxalbari till his death.
In the 60-year long political career, he has spent at least 16 years behind the
bars. In the post-1979 period and until his aberrant tragic death on 23 March
2010, Sanyal earnestly worked for the unification of the splinterd Communist
revolutionaries in India.
He is one of the rare politicians, not only in India but also in the world, who
scarified his entire life for the cause of Communism. He did not marry and
lived amidst the impoverished and exploited Adivasi tea workers and
farmers, whose cause he used to champion. Sharing the same
underprivileged life of his people, he lived in a humble one-room mud-house
that also catered as his party office and commune.
There are many Communists, who once swam along the undeniable current
of the Naxalbari insurrection but resultant to the state repression, returned to
the fold of their comfortable middleclass life.
But Kanu Sanyal was an extraordinary Communist. He was a rebel who did
not return home.
By Bappaditya Paul
* From Marginalmatters’s Weblog, March 25, 2010...2:28 pm:
http://marginalmatters.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/kanu-sanyal-rebel-who-
did-not-return-home/
(The author is a journalist with The Statesman, India. This piece originally
appeared in The Statesman on 24 March 2010 under a different headline
and is now being reproduced here with some additions.)