[WSF-Discuss] In Memory of Kanu Sanyal

Sat Mar 27 07:33:57 UTC 2010

Saturday, March 27 2010

Another one gone…

Kanu Sanyal, one of the architects of the so-called ‘naxalite’  
movement that shook India in the 1960s and since then spread across  
the country in different forms – but who, in more recent times, was  
critical of the current Maoist movement - was found dead this last  
Tuesday, March 23 2010.

See below for some postings on him.

             JS

fwd

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Sukla Sen <sukla.sen at gmail.com>
> Date: March 27 2010 8:54:20 am GMT+05:30
> To: Free Binayak Sen <free-binayaksen at googlegroups.com>,  peace- 
> mumbai <peace-mumbai at googlegroups.com>, greenyouth <greenyouth at googlegroups.com 
> >,  greenleft_discussion <GreenLeft_discussion at yahoogroups.com>,   
> indiathinkersnet <indiathinkersnet at yahoogroups.com>, IHRO <ihro at yahoogroups.com 
> >,  issueonline <issuesonline_worldwide at yahoogroups.com>,   
> chhattisgarh-net <Chhattisgarh-net at yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: [IHRO] In Memory of Kanu Sanyal
> Reply-To: IHRO at yahoogroups.com
>
>
> http://www.hindu.com/2010/03/24/stories/2010032465151400.htm has a  
> nice
> photo. Also below are two blogposts adapted from the Statesman:
> http://marginalmatters.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/kanu-sanyal-rebel-who-
> did-not-return-home/
> a tribute with a lot of personal information and photos,
>
> http://marginalmatters.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/lalgarh-is-not-a-
> communist-movement-kanu-sanyal/
> an interview from last year on Lalgarh.
>
>               Hindu March 24, 2010
>
>               Architect of naxalite movement
>
>               Special Correspondent
>
> 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.
>
> http://marginalmatters.wordpress.com/2010/03/25/kanu-sanyal-rebel-who-
> did-not-return-home/
>
>                   March 25, 2010...2:28 pm
>
>                   Kanu Sanyal: Rebel ~ who did not return home
>
>                   By bappaditya paul
>
> 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.
>
> (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.)
>
> http://marginalmatters.wordpress.com/2009/06/20/lalgarh-is-not-a-
> communist-movement-kanu-sanyal/
>
>                 June 20, 2009...7:01 pm
>
>                 Lalgarh is not a Communist Movement: Kanu Sanyal
>
> With heavily armed state forces marching fast to end Maoist  
> dominance at
> Lalgarh, a major bloodshed could be in the offing in the tribal  
> hinterland.
>
> Kanu SanyalIn an exclusive interview with Bappaditya Paul, founder  
> of the
> Naxalbari uprising, Kanu Sanyal, expresses his views on the Lalgarh  
> turmoil
>
>                 Excerpts:
>
> Q Do you support the Lalgarh agitation spearheaded by the People´s
> Committee?
>
> A No, we don´t. Because the Lalgarh agitation is strictly an ethnic  
> insurrection
> by the Adivasi community and it is not inclusive of other  
> communities living in
> there. It is easy to name an organisation as "People´s Committee"  
> but that
> does not necessary mean it represents all people cutting across the  
> various
> communities.
>
> Q Given that the Maoists are actively participating in the Lalgarh  
> agitation, do
> you consider this a Communist struggle?
>
> A I just told you that Lalgarh agitation is confined within the  
> Adivasi
> community alone. How can an ethic uprising be termed a Communist
> struggle? Lalgarh is certainly not a Communist uprising. The Maoists  
> are only
> exploiting the situation by using the Adivasis as stooges to carry  
> forward their
> agenda of individual terrorism.
>
> Q Activists of the People´s Committee are now taking to arms to  
> resist the
> police and paramilitary foray into Lalgarh. Do you think they are  
> doing the
> right thing?
>
> A See, the Adivasis hardly have access to sophisticated arms. Whatever
> arms they might be equipped with now, have been supplied selectively  
> by the
> Maoists. But the handful of arms and ammunitions can barely resist the
> march of the state forces. The resistance will be crushed in no time.
>
> Q How do you weigh the Centre and the state´s role on the Lalgarh  
> turmoil?
>
> A No one is wiling to take charge of the situation. Rather both the  
> state and
> the Centre are trying to pass the buck on each other.
> The CPI-M-led state government allowed the Lalgarh crisis to  
> escalate by not
> addressing the genuine grievances of the Adivasis on time.
> And now the Congress and Trinamul are on the look out to exploit the
> situation to dislodge the Left Front from power either immediately  
> or in the
> 2011 Assembly election in the state.
>
> Q What would be your suggestion to end the siege at Lalgarh?
>
> ~ Both the People´s Committee and the state government must instantly
> launch an unconditional dialogue.
> The People´s Committee should place their demands in clear words and  
> the
> state will have to address them earnestly.
>
> Q Should they keep the Maoists out of the process?
>
> A It´s for the local people to decide.
>
> Q Would you support a ban on the CPI (Maoist) in West Bengal?
>
> A State suppression can never be the answer for tackling any sort of
> terrorism. You ban one outfit today and another would crop up  
> tomorrow.
> Thus, the need is to alienate them by going close to the poor people  
> and
> address their grievances fast.
>
> (The interviewer is on the staff of The Statesman, India / This  
> piece orginally
> appeared in The Statesman on 20 June 2009)
>
> -- 
> Peace Is Doable
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______________________________
Jai Sen
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