Page 329 - Failure to Triumph - Journey of A Student

Violence in West Bengal

In 1970 the Naxalites gained a strong presence among the radical sections of the student movement in
Calcutta. Students left school to join the Naxalites. Majumdar, to entice more students into his

organisation, declared that revolutionary warfare was to take place not only in the rural areas as
before, but everywhere and spontaneously. Thus Majumdar declared an “annihilation line", a dictum
that Naxalites should assassinate individual “class enemies" (such as landlords, businessmen,
university teachers, police officers, politicians of the right and left) and others.

Throughout Calcutta, schools were shut down. Naxalites took over Jadavpur University and used
the machine shop facilities to make pipe guns to attack the police. Their headquarters became
Presidency College, Kolkata. The Naxalites found supporters among some of the educated elite, and
Delhi’s prestigious St. Stephen’s College, alma mater of many contemporary Indian leaders and

thinkers, became a hotbed of Naxalite activities.

The chief minister, Siddhartha Shankar Ray of the Congress Party, instituted strong counter-
measures against the Naxalites. The West Bengal police fought back to stop the Naxalites. The house
of Somen Mitra, the Congress MLA of Sealdah, was allegedly turned into a torture chamber where
Naxal students from Presidency College and Calcutta University were incarcerated illegally by
police and the Congress cadres. CPI-M cadres were also involved in the “state terror". After

suffering losses and facing the public rejection of Majumdar’s “annihilation line", the Naxalites
alleged human rights violations by the West Bengal police, who responded that the state was
effectively fighting a civil war and that democratic pleasantries had no place in a war, especially
when the opponent did not fight within the norms of democracy and civility.

Large sections of the Naxal movement began to question Majumdar’s leadership. In 1971 the
CPI(ML) was split, as the Satyanarayan Singh revolted against Majumdar’s leadership. In 1972
Majumdar was arrested by the police and died in Alipore Jail. His death accelerated the
fragmentation of the movement.

2000 Onwards

In a 2004 Indian Home Ministry estimate numbers were placed at that time at “9,300 hardcore
underground cadre… [holding] around 6,500 regular weapons beside a large number of unlicensed
country-made arms". In 2006, according to Judith Vidal-Hall, “Figures (in that year) put the strength
of the movement at 15,000, and claim the guerrillas control an estimated one fifth of India’s forests, as
well as being active in 160 of the country’s 604 administrative districts." India’s Research and

Analysis Wing, believed in 2006 that 20,000 Naxals were involved in the growing insurgency.

Today, some Naxalite groups have become legal organisations participating in parliamentary
elections, such as the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation. Others, such as the
Communist Party of India (Maoist) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti.

On 6 April 2010 Naxalites launched the most deadly assault in the history of the Naxalite
movement by killing 76 security personnel. The attack was launched by up to 1,000 Naxalites in a