Comrade
Kanu Sanyal- one of the finest and rarest personalities that the Indian
communist movement has ever produced, is effected as per decision of the
central committee. We are happy to implement the decision even though there is
delay in the implementation. Editorial work for the book was done by comrade
Subrata Basu, comrade Subodh Mitra and comrade Viswam.
In the course of our efforts to bring out the book many things related to the sixty years of long turbulent political life and activities (a major part of it is that of a professional revolutionary) of comrade Kanu Sanyal have come to light. We have not been able to collect all these in written form. The book contains materials that were readily available to us. These are articles by the comrades on him, his interviews with the media, some documents of historical importance by him and also some selected photographs. All these materials taken together help understand the political personality of comrade Kanu Sanyal- expanse and depth of his work, his firm adherence to the principle of practice in accordance with commitments, his courage and ability of standing firmly against the class enemy, his uncompromising attitude in dealing with administrative machinery of the state, his capability of drawing clear line of demarcation with the political adversaries. The compilation tells the evolution-development and maturing of his ideas through the course of his sixty years of political life as a communist.
Born in 1929 Kanu Sanyal came in contact with the communist movement some time in 1949. He earned the party membership of the undivided communist party in early 1950 after a brief stint of jail life for participating in a protest demonstration organized by the party against the then visiting state chief minister Dr. B.C. Roy. He became a whole timer. He opted for working in the Terrai rural area. In the context comrade Kanu Sanyal once reminisced that his association with comrade Charu Majumder - the then CPI Jalpaiguri district leader (whom he first met in 1950 while he was in the Jalpaiguri jail) led to the revival of the agrarian movement in the Terrai region.
The middle class origin and urban background did not deter KS to integrate himself completely with the Adivasi people and live among them. He and other comrades worked with dedication to mobilize and organize the people and lead them to wage class struggles against feudal exploitation to earn their right on land and the crops as well as their place in the society itself. “His was the call to the peasants, land belongs to you, occupy and till it”.
The years between 1951 and 1967 were fraught with series of open confrontation often militant with the Jotdars, Tea planters, the police and the administration. And KS was imprisoned on several occasions during this period along with his comrades, sometimes under DI rule while at other time under PD act.
During this period of peasants struggles KS and other comrades of the revolutionary section of the Darjeeling district committee often had to face the stiff opposition by the revisionist leadership first of the CPI and after 1964 of the CPI(M). These struggles made the comrades of Darjeeling district learn that mass revolutionary line could not be applied without fighting revisionism. It is interesting to note here that Harekrishna Konar- the then general secretary of W.B State Krishak Sabha went on propagating till the outbreak of Naxalbari. Uprising that fundamental land-reforms cannot be carried out within the existing state social and economic structure.’ ‘It can be achieved by passing through the fire of bitter class struggle.’ (Oct. 1966). But in less than a year when Naxalbari uprising took place he issued stern warning to the movement on behalf of the U.F govt. and advised to stop the movement. By June 1966 he and other leading party comrades of Darjeeling district waged ideological struggles inside the jail against the CPI(M) leadership and arrived at the conclusion that liberation struggle of India would follow Chinese path. From this time onward comrade KS and the other comrades with him. however, had to confront the left adventurist trend (that raised its head) also along with their ideological struggle against revisionism.
Naxalbari uprising in May 1967 was the outcome of successful application of mass revolutionary line opposing the two lines. “The lesson of Naxalbari in the words of Kanu Sanyal, the helmsman of the Uprising is that the main content of agrarian revolution in a country like ours is to distribute land to the peasants. It is for the preservation of that land in their possession that resistance struggles will develop in rural areas which in its turn will transform into a struggle for political power’. So ‘in the stage of agrarian revolution as an axis to New Democratic Revolution, struggle for land and struggle for political power are intertwined’. Deviation from this line to an incorrect formulation that the land distribution will take place only after the establishment of revolutionary peasant government, so, we must begin the armed struggle not for land, but for state power’ set the beginning of the setback to the movement.
It needs to be further explained that in the New Democratic Revolution, the question of land-state power-culture cannot be separated. In a country where the land is the main means of production, it will be a metaphysical understanding to separate the land question from state power. It goes against Marxist dialectical method. Secondly, the seizure of state power is an aim; but to go with a subjective evaluation that the armed struggle can be started immediately refusing to take the subjective situation into consideration is a deviation. The rejection of parliamentary path and the adoption of establishment of revolutionary peasant Government as an objective are great, indeed. But the road chosen for it was nothing but a product of petty bourgeois dreaming. It is alien to Marxism Leninism. Com. Kanu Sanyal made a re-thinking about all these factors in the light of his opposition against this trend during Naxalbari uprising. He made efforts to rectify himself. He broke himself away from this petty bourgeois trend. To this effect, six leaders in the Visakhapatnam Jail, who made a self-criticism, jointly issued an open statement. On several occasions after this in writings as well as in words KS made self-criticism on this point.
Notwithstanding the fact that he was present in the last meeting of the AICCR and it was he who readout the resolution of declaration of the formation of the CPI (ML) in the May Day meeting, at Sahid Minar Maidan in 1969 he was not a part either of the developments leading to the formation of AICCCR or of the policy decisions concerning the formation of party in April, 1969. After the Uprising he along with his comrades such as Kesob Sarkar, Jangal Santhal, Khokon Majumder, Kadam Mallick, Khudan Mallick and others was fully engaged in their efforts to make the people conscious for the establishment of peasant revolutionary power. Besides he had to remain busy with the arrangement for going to China in a clandestine way with a team of four comrades namely Khokon Majumder, Deepak Biswas, Khudan Lal Mullick and Kanu Sanyal himself.
During the period he was caught in two minds. He had put the decision of the party into practice in a most balanced manner. At the same time he felt that the danger of left sectarianism which was opposed in the Naxalbari uprising was haunting somewhere. This view point had become stronger after he came to know about the talks with the CPC leadership and their suggestions. He gave the call from Visakha Jail to come out of it.
Some comrades in the jail were still under the spell of left adventurism. Trends of insulting and heckling Com. Kanu Sanyal and other leaders who opposed anarchism had their manifestations in practice inside the jail and court room. Com. Kanu Sanyal stood firm in the face of all this. “More About Naxalbari,” was written by him in reply to these trends and arguments that provide a scientific analysis of the real history of Naxalbari uprising. He became closer to Comrades Tarimela Nagi Reddy and Devulapalli Venkateshwar Rao. He had discussed with them about the need for principled unity of the Communist Revolutionaries who had demarcated themselves from the left opportunism and right opportunism. He made several exchanges of ideas with these forces on the future course of revolutionary movement. These attempts however could not make much advance because of the proclamation of Emergency in June 1975. Intensified political attacks from the revisionists and the ever increasing onslaught of reactionary ruling classes coupled with Under Ground life and jail-term acted as impediments to this effort. Political and ideological vacillations, surrendering tendencies among the revolutionaries started gaining ground. The ultra extremist and anarchist ideas continued to persist.
This complex and confusing political situation can be said as one more critical juncture for the people's revolutionary movement. The earlier critical juncture was the one which we experienced after our break from Neo revisionism following Naxalbari, when the need of the hour was to build up the revolutionary Communist Party based on Marxism Leninism and Mao-Tse-Tung Thought. At these two critical junctures, the revisionists, reactionary classes and the ultra- extremist forces inside the revolutionary camp behaved in a most rude manner. Com. Kanu Sanyal stood firm and unshaken before the presence of these forces and their
activity. He demarcated himself from the ideological and political opportunisms and acted remaining firm on Marxist stand point. When he found certain responses crossing the limits, he restrained himself. Here lies the distinctive facet of his personality.
Comrade Kanu Sanyal had a pioneering role in uniting Communist revolution. The effort led to the formation of our organisation CPI (ML) through the Unity Conference in 2005. The formation is a part of the process of uniting the CRs. “Comprising of forces coming from CPI (ML), forces who were never a part of CPI (ML), forces who were part of CPI (ML) but came out of it and formed separate organisation and the forces who were new.”
This was a firm and determined effort to lay the foundation for and All India Party building capable of leading the New Democratic Revolution in our country. His departure is a great loss to the Party and the communist revolutionary movement. He adopted the dialectical materialism as his philosophical outlook, and refused to remain a passive onlooker at the political happenings in the country despite his ailment. He had shouldered the responsibility of uniting the CR forces aiming at building up a genuine communist party till the last moment of his life. He had confidence upon his colleagues and entrusted them with responsibilities to fulfill his unfinished tasks.
The end of comrade Kanu Sanyal came on March 23, 2010 but he would remain immortal as the voice of Indian revolution.
23rd March, 2013
Viswam
General Secretary
CPI(ML)
No comments:
Post a Comment