Remembering - Kanu Sanyal

  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 Jotedars, tea planters, the police and the administration. And KS was imprisoned on several occasions during this period along with his comrades, sometimes under Defence of India Rules while at other time under PD act.

Comrade Kanu Sanyal dedicated his whole life for revolution, breathed in March 23rd 2010.