Charu Majumdar | |
|---|---|
| General Secretary ofCPI(ML) | |
| In office 1969–1972 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office dissolved |
| Darjeeling district secretary ofCPI(M) | |
| In office 1964–1967 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office dissolved |
| State committee member ofCPI for West Bengal | |
| In office 1943–1964 | |
| Preceded by | Office established |
| Succeeded by | Office dissolved |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1918-05-15)15 May 1918 |
| Died | 28 July 1972(1972-07-28) (aged 53) Calcutta,West Bengal, India |
| Political party | Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) |
| Spouse | Lila Majumdar Sengupta |
| Children | Abhijit Majumdar |
| Alma mater | University of Calcutta Siliguri College Pabna Edward College |
| Criminal information | |
| Criminal status | Death in jail |
| Criminal charge | Criminal conspiracy |
| Penalty | Jailed |
Charu Majumdar (15 May 1918 – 28 July 1972) was an Indian communist leader, and founder and General Secretary of theCommunist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). Born into a progressive landlord family inSiliguri in 1918, he became a Communist during theIndian independence movement, and later formedNaxalism. During this period, he authored the historic accounts of the 1967Naxalbari uprising. His writings, particularly theHistoric Eight Documents, have become part of the ideology of a number of Communism-aligned political parties in India.[1]
Majumdar was born inMatualaloi, Rajshahi (now Siliguri) to azamindar family.[2][3] His father Bireshwar Majumdar was afreedom fighter and president of the Darjeeling District Committee of theIndian National Congress during theIndian independence movement.[4]
In 1930, as a student in Siliguri, he joined theAll Bengal Students' Association, which was affiliated to the underground anti-colonial organisationAnushilan Samiti, at the instance ofSewmangal Singh andBrojen Basu Roy Choudhuri.[5]
Having graduated from his ‘Matric’ exam in 1937 with a First Division, Majumdar took admission toEdward College inPabna district (present day Bangladesh). However he returned to Siliguri after sometime, having quit his formal education, in order to join the independence movement. In 1938, at the age of 19, he joined theCongress Socialist Party.[6]
The next year when theCommunist Party of India (CPI) was organised in the neighbouringJalpaiguri district, Majumdar joined the then-banned party to work in its peasant chapter. Soon an arrest warrant forced him to go into hiding for the first time as a communist activist. Although the CPI was banned at the outbreak of World War II, he continued CPI activities among peasants and was made a member of the CPI Jalpaiguri district committee in 1942. The promotion emboldened him to organize a 'seizure of crops' campaign in Jalpaiguri during theGreat Famine of 1943.[1] In 1946, he joined theTebhaga movement in theJalpaiguri region and embarked on a proletariat militant struggle inNorth Bengal.[7] The stir shaped his vision of a revolutionary struggle. Later he worked among tea garden workers inDarjeeling.
The CPI was banned in 1948 and he spent the next three years in jail. In January 1952 he married Lila Majumdar Sengupta, a fellow CPI member from Jalpaiguri.[8] The couple moved to Siliguri, which was the center of Majumdar's activities for a few years. He was briefly imprisoned in 1962.
During the mid-1960s Majumdar organized aleftist faction inCommunist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) in northern Bengal. In 1967, a militant peasant uprising took place inNaxalbari, led by his comrade-in-armsKanu Sanyal. This group would later be known as theNaxalites, and eight articles written by him at this time—known as theHistoric Eight Documents—have been seen as providing their ideological foundation. Majumdar contended that revolution must take the path of armed struggle on the pattern of theChinese Communist Revolution and that the uprising in Naxalbari was the beginning of a Maoist revolution.[9]: 120 Majumdar placed major emphasis onQuotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, requiring it to be studied and to be read aloud to illiterate peasants.[9]: 117 Majumdar viewedQuotations as an important mechanism for building unity among revolutionary intellectuals, youths, workers, and peasants.[9]: 123 Other texts emphasized by Majumdar includedLin Biao'sLong Live the Victory of the People's War, and theThree Constantly Read Articles (a compilation ofIn Memory ofNorman Bethune,Serve the People, andThe Foolish Old Man Removes the Mountains).[9]: 121
When theNaxalbari uprising was crushed in 1967, Majumdar said: "...hundreds of Naxalbaris are smoldering in India....Naxalbari has not died and will not die".[6] The same year, Majumdar broke away and formed theAll India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. In 1969, Majumdar and others founded theCommunist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist).[9]: 120
Majumdar was arrested on 16 July 1972.[9]: 127 The circumstances of Majumdar's death are unclear.[9]: 127 The official police response was that Majumdar died of a massive heart attack at 4 AM on 28 July 1972.[10] All theNaxalite factions disputed this however, and instead said that it was a custodial murder and that he was killed by not being provided medicine in the police lock up.[11] His body was cremated at theKeoratola crematorium under the watch of armed police and paramilitary forces.[12]
The radical leftist movement in India has seen many ideological splits since Majumdar's death.[13]The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation observes Martyrs' Day on the anniversary of Majumdar's death.The Communist Party of India (Maoist) observes Martyrs' Week in the last week of July in remembrance of Majumdar's death, where members revisit his ideology and memorialise his influence on their movement.[14]
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