A true leader of the unwashed masses

Kanu Sanyal, the chief architect of the Naxalbari movement that gave us words like ‘Naxalite’, killed himself yesterday. I read the news in West Bengal, Sanyal’s home state by birth and choice. And am shocked by the arbitrariness of the reports and obituaries.

Suicide is suspected, the papers said, he was found hanging in his hut. But there was no suicide note. So speculation ruled. Sanyal was suffering from depression, they said. He may have killed himself because he wasn’t getting enough attention, suggested one paper. Another mentioned details of his failing health — apparently reason enough for an octogenarian to hang himself. Sure, there were the usual references to his being one of the main leaders of the Naxalbari movement. In general,  today’s press seemed embarrassingly unaware of the phenomenon that was Kanu Sanyal. Even in Bengal.

But that has been Sanyal’s fate with the press. Back in the heyday of Naxalism, his comrade Charu Mazumdar was the chosen voice of the movement in the press. That’s when Sanyal, the grassroots organiser forever working and living with the peasants, was projected as second to Mazumdar. Even in the Naxalbari movement, which was spearheaded by Sanyal in clear
opposition to his comrade’s line of thought.

The two CPI(M) rebels fighting together had serious differences. Mazumdar focused on individual killings in the name of annihilation of ‘class enemies’ while Sanyal’s focus was on claiming land for peasants. Mazumdar believed that small groups of armed revolutionaries could bring about a revolution, Sanyal believed in involving the entire working class, particularly the peasants. Mazumdar was an ideologue, Sanyal a leader of the unwashed masses. Mazumdar leaned on the gun, opposing elections and other democratic means, while Sanyal was not against elections, just disinterested in democratic processes that had failed to give the poor basic rights.

The Naxalbari movement, that began in 1967 when a policeman was felled by the arrows of peasants defending their right to the land, was spearheaded by Sanyal. The Naxalite movement, which spread through Bengal to other states, was built by Sanyal, Mazumdar and Jangal Santhal, the legendary tribal hero who is forgotten now by the urban middle class, especially its media.

In May 1969, in a mass rally in Kolkata, Sanyal had announced the birth of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). That was the beginning of Naxalism that has now morphed into our biggest internal security threat. But Sanyal disapproved of today’s Naxalites. “This is just violence,” he explained to me some time ago. “Maoists are exploiting the situation, this won’t improve the lives of peasants.” But weren’t they violent too, in their time? “That was very different. We made mistakes, but ours was an inclusive struggle, a genuine people’s movement.” The fact that
Mazumdar’s tactics of individual killings of class enemies is the chosen method of today’s Naxalites pained him. He was firmly against it.

The revolution that Sanyal had sparked off has splintered into a thousand shards and is doing more harm than good to his country. Even the land redistribution that Sanyal had fought for from his early days in the Tebhaga movement had not been satisfactory. He had much to be disappointed about.

Like Jangal Santhal, who also suffered from acute depression as he watched the march of politics and finally drank himself to death. Sanyal had tried to stop him then. Forever full of hope, he was convinced that he would see his country change for the better. But there may be a certain dignity in opting out of a situation when you reach a dead end. Mazumdar died in jail in 1972, Santhal in 1981 and with Sanyal passing away yesterday, the original flavour of Naxalism is almost history.