Born in a progressive landlord family in Siliguri in 1918, he not only dedicated his entire life to peasants’ cause but also authored the historic 1968 Naxalbari uprising.
Son of an active freedom fighter, Charu Majumdar or CM rebelled against social inequalities even as a teenager. Later, he joined All Bengal Students Association affiliated to Anusilan group.Dropping out of college in 1937-38 he joined the Congress party and devoted himself in organising bidi workers. He later crossed over to CPI to work in its peasant front and soon won respect of the poor and downtrodden of Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. Soon an arrest-warrant forced him to go underground for the first time as a Left activist.
Although the CPI was banned at the outbreak of the World War II, he continued his organizing activities among peasants and was elected to the CPI Jalpaiguri district committee in 1942.The promotion emboldened him to organise a ‘seizure of crops’ campaign in Jalpaiguri during the Great Famine of 1943, more or less successfully. In 1946, he joined the famous Tebhaga movement and embarked on a militant struggle in North Bengal. The stir shaped his vision of a revolutionary struggle. Later he worked among tea garden workers in Darjeeling.For taking the road of the intertwined revolution, the CPI was banned in 1948 and CM was put behind the bars for next three years.
CM’s growing ideological rift with the CPI came to fore after the party’s Palghat Congress in 1956. The ‘Great Debate’ across the communist world in the late 50s propelled him to mull a revolutionary philosophy suiting Indian conditions.He was again jailed during 1962 for criticising the Nehuru Government’s notorious attempt of Chinese expansion. Read the rest of this entry »