20/10/2023
On the 50th anniversary of Naxalbari
HISTORY WAS MADE TODAY ON OCTOBER 20TH 1969 WITH FORMATION OF MAOIST COMMUNIST CENTRE -50TH ANNIVERSARY .MAJOR PRECURSOR OF UNIFIED C.P.I.(MAOIST) WHICH PRACTICED MASSLINE MORE THAN C.P.I.(M.L.) AND ARGUABLY CLASSICALLY MORE LIKE THE CPC BEFORE THE CHINESE REVOLUTION THAN EVEN THE ERSTWHILE C.P.I(M.L.) PEOPLES WAR.MUTUAL SELF-CRITICISM OF BOTH PARTIES TO STOP IN INTER-GROUP KILLINGS RANKS AMONGST THE MOST GLORIOUS AND DEFINING CHAPTERS IN THE HISTORY OF INDIAN COMMUNIST MOVEME. THEIR EVENTUAL MERGING INTO THE UNIFIED CPI(MAOIST)WROTE A NEW EPOCH IN ANNALS OF WORLD COMMUNIST HISTORY.
Below posting article from August 2019 issue of Peoples March on 50 years of MCC.Invaluable writing to read for comrades.
Drawing a clear-cut line of demarcation on
political and organizational issues with revisionist
views and path, as a firm commitment was made
to build a genuine revolutionary party on the basis
of revolutionary theory and in the course of
revolutionary struggle, soon after the revisionist
Seventh Congress of the CPM in 1964 a
revolutionary centre was established, followed by
the emergence of the organisation as MCC on
October 20, 1969.
At the outset, the nature of this organisation
formed by the initiative of Comrade KC, Comrade
AmulyaSen and Chandrashekhar Das was that of a
revolutionary centre. This organisation then was
very limited in strength and was isolated. In such
a situation, Comrade KC had described what should
be our important duty, which in brief can be
summed up thus : as a guiding line for the Indian
revolution create public opinion on the basis of a
concrete line regarding Strategy and Tactics; build
Professional Revolutionary cadres; a line for work
in the rural areas, adopt a line for work in the cities,
a line for work among workers, students-youth etc.
and, as the principal and central task, adopt a
concrete plan for building the Army and Base Areas
in accordance with our strength and capacity; and
must in fact, to get involved in practice fully.
As concrete reflections of revisionism the
various expressions against which under Comrade
KC’s able leadership it was then decided to
conduct struggle were: (1) Economism (2)
Spontaneity (3) Legalism (4) Bureaucratic
Centralism (5) Bourgeois Parliamentary System etc.
The various opportunist perceptions that we
had to vigorously struggle against in the course of
our struggle against revisionism were: (i) The view
that did not accept neo-colonialism as a new form
of Colonialism, that is the method It was in the process of parting ways with the
undivided Communist Party in 1964, right from the
Seventh Congress of the CPM wherein the banner
of revolt was raised to rupture ties with the
revisionist line of the CPM, that the question
emerged as to what should be the correct line of
the Indian revolution, what would be the stage
and path of Indian revolution and who would be
the friends and enemies of the revolution, and so
on.
In fact, to find answers to such questions, an
attempt was made through documents called
‘Chinta’, published in 1965 [It was to vigorously
struggle against revisionism secretly within the
then CPI (M) party, that ‘Chinta’ was published, of
which 6 documents were brought out]. Later in
1966, the political and theoretical debate was
continued vigorously against revisionism through
a magazine called ‘Dakshindesh’. However, the
need was felt for a consistent line presented
through a basic document. In this process, as an
effort to find answers to the above questions,
Comrade KC presented (for discussion) a document
on the Outline of a Strategic and Tactical Line for
Indian Revolution. Comrade KC had prepared this
document basically on the basis of Comrade
Lenin’s Colonial Thesis and articles on Nationality
Problem; Comrade Stalin’s article on Nationality,
the History of the Bolshevik Party, Problems of
Leninism; the important documents related to the
Great Debate published by the CPC led by Mao,
especially the General line of the International
Communist Movement (the June 14th letter),
Apologist of Neo-colonialism; Mao’s On New
democracy, Analysis of classes in Chinese society,
The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist
Party, important articles on military matters etc.
Through this document presented by
Comrade KC, a sharp line of demarcation was
politically drawn with the revisionism of the CPI
and CPM. The political points on which the
documenton Strategy drew a sharp line of
demarcation were:
(a) Indian revolution as an inseparable part of
world revolution.
(b) Indian society today - (i) Has imperialism
been eliminated? On the contradiction between
imperialism and the broad masses; (ii) Indian
polity; (iii) Has feudalism been eliminated? On the
contradiction between feudalism and the broad
masses; (iv) Indian culture today.
(c) The character of the present Indian national
economy.
(d) The Indian social system and social crisis.
(e) The character of Indian revolution; two
stages of Indian revolution.
(f) On the internal relationships and the
leadership of National revolution and Democratic
revolution.
(g) The basic duty of democracy: (i)
Democratic state and politics - the specificities of
the state system; (ii) Democratic economics; (iii)
Democratic culture.
(h) The basis of unity of nationalities.
(i) The path of revolution - the central task of
revolution is to capture political power through
Peoples’ War; the path of Protracted Peoples’ War
demonstrated by Chairman Mao is the path of
India’s liberation.
(j) The protracted nature of the Peoples’ War
in India is determined by the specificities of the
actual conditions.
(k) Expose the Treacherous Façade of
Elections, Take to the path of Protracted Peoples’
War.
(l) Three Magic Weapons of Revolution.
(m) The international significance of the great
Indian revolution.
Then, the points on which a line of
demarcation was drawn with revisionism in the
document regarding tactics were:
(a) The central task of revolution is to seize
political power by armed force.
(b) The path of revolution in Russia or the path
of revolution in China? The path of the new
democratic revolution of India is the path of the
great Chinese revolution.
(c) The vast countryside is the enemy’s
weakest area - the storm-centre of revolution. The
peasantmasses are the firmest friends of
revolution, the Agrarian Revolutionary War is the
basic key that would make the peasant masses join
the Peoples’ War.
(d) The focus of all work is to establish
Protracted Peoples’ War; the primary, principal and
central task at present is to form a Peoples’ Army
and Base Areas in the countryside.
(e) The work in the rural areas must be
principal. On the correct relation between the work
in villages and cities, on the line for work in the
cities.
(f) The principal form of struggle and
organisation are Peoples’ War and Peoples’ Army.
The relationship between the main and
secondary forms of struggle and organisation.
(g) Maintain a firm hold over the class line and
mass line, centralise work on among the working
class and poor and landless peasants.
In fact, the above document on Strategy and
Tactics presented by Comrade KC is a concrete
expression of the political views and practical work
of the MCCI.
In order to give a practical form to the line of
Protracted People’s War and the building of the
Agrarian Revolution, Army and Base Areas, MCC
initially started work in Sonarpur of West Bengal.
But eveBut even before the organisation could be built
up and made concrete and functional to some
extent, the enemy began attacking it. In such a
situation it was not possible to adopt any tactics
(contd in p.36)
There are changes in the balance of forces
between the imperialist forces due to the severe
economic and financial crises of the world
capitalist system. The re-division of the market
gained momentum according to these changes.
The commercial and military conflicts between the
major imperialist forces are on the rise. These
forces are encouraging realignments in order to
increase their strength. The changes in the balance
of forces of the imperialist forces caused the first
two World Wars. But now there are large scale
nationality liberation struggles, Democratic
(contd in p.19)
PM
Revolutionary struggles and People’s struggles
against imperialism all over the world. In view of
the whole situation, in order to mold the present
crisis into a revolutionary explosion, in order to
build and continue the revolutionary wars to
end these wars by mobilizing the oppressed
nationalities and people against all these unjust
wars, workers, oppressed nationalities, oppressed
people, revolutionary, democratic nationality
liberation organisations of the world, unite! Work
with the objective to wipe out the imperialists and
their lackeys on this earth and achieve liberation!
30
People’s March-2019 August
other than the method of retreating in selfdefence.
In terms of result and quality, the
Sonarpur struggle could not reach an advanced
stage. The revolutionary struggle of Kanksa- Gaya
- Hazaribagh could be advanced only after taking
Lessons from the Sonarpur struggle. The history
of the Kanksa Struggle is one of serial episodes. It
began in the year 1970-71. In 1970 some economic
and political struggle commenced here and there.
Between February-March and June-July in the
year 1971, many economic and political struggles
were waged under the leadership of the Kanksa
Area Committee. There was a good mass
participation in these struggles.
Lessons of the Gaya - Hazaribagh struggle in
undivided Bihar
Keeping in mind the experience of the Kanksa
struggle, where the task of timely expansion of
the area and political and organisational
preparations within the area, that is, the task of
preparations regarding the Party, Army and United
Front could not be done in good time, an attempt
was made now to advance the revolutionary
struggle in Gaya-Hazaribagh of former Bihar in a
more systematic and planned manner.
By then, the revolutionaries had developed
an understanding regarding military matters that
in order to carry out military activities in a proper
manner, a vast expanse of area was required so as
to advance and retreat, or maneuver from time to
time. This thinking was later reflected in practice
with the formation of the Bihar-Bengal Special
Area Committee.
Anyway, in the then Dhanbad and Hazaribagh
area (Hazaribagh district then included the present
Chattra, Giridih and Koderma districts) and in the
Gaya area (Gaya then included Aurangabad,
Jehanabad, Navada and such districts) work started
with the perspective of advancing with the
concrete orientation of building the Army and
Base Area in the middle of 1969 and the latter half
of 1968, respectively.
Hazaribagh had plenty of hills and forests and
was inhabited by the Adivasis withthe influence
of the nationality movement i.e., the separate
Jharkhand movement. Gaya was a vast plain area
(also having a few hills and forests), in the strong
hold of the crude feudal system.
The clarion call of Armed Agrarian
Revolutionary Guerrilla struggle had echoed in the
Parasnath and Jilga hills of Dhanbad and
Hazaribagh and the Neri-Mehudia hill of Barkagaon
and surrounding areas in 1971 itself. Similarly, in
the latter half of 1972 the red flaming torch of
Agrarian Revolutionary struggle was lit in the
Chalho hills and the surrounding areas of Gaya
area.
In the struggle of the Hazaribagh area, owing
to the broad participation of the adivasi masses as
well as non-adivasi masses, a revolutionary
upsurge-like situation was created. The enemy
was alarmed at the revolutionary struggle in this
backward and adivasi-inhabited area. Thus, the
brutal “encirclement and suppression”
campaignstarted. In order to defeat this
“encirclement and suppression” the process of
advancing further also began from the side of
the revolutionaries. The “encirclement and
suppression” campaign of 1974 was stinging and
intense, wherein some comrades were martyred
and some other leading comrades were arrested.
Therefore, the struggle was forced to retreat for a
while.
However, within a year or two the work began
to be advanced afresh and with a new plan in a
vast expansive area comprising Hazaribagh
(including Hazaribagh, Giridih, Koderma, Chattra
districts) and Dhanbad (including the present
Bokaro district). Especially, as the enemy
conducted his “encirclement and suppression”
campaign, and efforts were made on our part to
defeat it and gradually to expand the struggle
further and take it to a higher plane, this process
enabled us to acquire new experience in political
and military aspects as well as in organisational
aspects.
Meanwhile, the struggle in Gaya area too had
surpassed the Chalho area, spreading into many
new areas. An earth-shaking struggle against
feudal landowners, their goons and private armies
made it a powerful upsurge. By the thousands, the
peasant masses and toiling masses participated in
this revolutionary struggle, devastating the old
rotten system and taking firm steps ahead to build
a new system that is a peoples’ democratic order.
The idea of forming a Special Area emerged
in order to give practical shape to the task of
building the army and base area. Although it was
decided very early that building the Army and Base
Area was the primary, principal and central task,
yet how it would be translated into reality had
always been a big question posed before the
revolutionaries. In what practical from would
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism (then Mao Tse-tung
thought) be implemented in the concrete
situation, or concrete specificity of India, was also
posed as a big question.
It was realized that to seek a proper answer to
this serious issue, it would not suffice to merely
give a general call regarding the Army and Base
area, but it was also necessary to actually
determine a concrete task to form the Army and
Base Area. In order to carry out this task, it was
also necessary to select some strategic area where
a Base Area self-sufficient in economic, political
and military aspects could be built.
Therefore, in order to build the Army and Base
Area on the soil of our country, the idea emerged
of considering Bihar (now Bihar - Jharkhand) and
some areas of Bengal (West Midnapore-Bankura-
Purulia) as a Special Area.
Efforts began in 1975 itself to form the Special
Area, and in mid-1976 a Bihar-Bengal Special Area
Committee was formed under the direct guidance
and leadership of Comrade KanhaiChatterjee with
some leading comrades working in the Kanksa
area of Bengal and Dhanbad, Giridih, Hazaribagh,
Gaya, Aurangabad, Navada and other districts.
The formation of a committee by the name of
Special Area had a very positive impact. This
nomenclature had aroused much interest about
why a Special Area was formed and what would
be its tasks. Thus, a clear concept was formed for
an Army and Base Area, and the building of a
Special Area in order to enable this. It was
understood by the revolutionaries that not even a
single step ahead could be taken as regards
forming the Army and Base Area in a spontaneous
manner, without any plan or without the concept
of Strategic Area.
Right from the beginning MCC held aloft the
great Naxalbari Peasant Struggle. It acknowledged
the role of great Naxalbari in the Indian revolution
and the positive role of Comrade CM as the
founder and leader of Indian Revolution. At the
same time it was critical of Party building in 1969
and a few of its tactics. MCC was critical towards
the splits after the temporary setback of the
movement in the leadership of ML Party in 1972
and their practice. MCC leadership took the
positive and negative experiences till the setback
of Naxalbari movement along with the
experiences of the revolutionary peasant struggle
in Sonarpur and Kankshainto view in developing
the movement in [Bihari Lal Chhabra](https://www.facebook.com/imbiharilal?fref=gs&__tn__=%2CdKH-R-R&eid=ARAmipBUS76NuLiVN6vzx1ndTnfj2V_uB8n8tm8PGGEvr73fHQXSDps4lwHW3oe9_1EHcUmpapdvzsYC&dti=172729396144229&hc_location=group)At the time when the movement was
advancing in the leadership of MCC, the founders
of MCC Party Comrades AmulyaSen and KC who
not only guided the movement but also led it
directly were martyred due to ill-health within a
few months. Central Organising Committee
formed with Comrade SushilRoy who came up
under the direct guidance and training of these
great leaders led the movement.
The State and the Central Conferences in 1989
and 1996 and the Bihar-Bengal Special Area
Conference in 2001 were historic. These
Conferences summarized the experiences of the
movement. As a part of it they adopted the
favorable and unfavorable factors and lessons and
tasks. The movement was developed
considerably through proper theoretical, political,
organizational and military efforts. The movement
spread to various states, vast areas and various
fields. Party, Guerilla forces (Military Management
Committee, Formations and others), and the Mass
base developed considerably. With the relentless
and firm efforts Party could enhance its
understanding about Party line, Party, People’s
Army, formation of Political power, tactics and
other things.
The Party produced a body of rich literature –
Party Basic documents, Polemical Documents, on
Nationality question, on the separate state of
Jharkhand, documents on woman’s question,
political organizational reviews, on the
revisionism of Deng, on the Three Worlds
theory, documents on Maoism, political-military
documents, political, military training notes,
circulars and other valuable theoretical, political,
organizational, military and tactical documents in
abundance. All these were adopted in the process
of practice in the light of Marxism-Leninism-
Maoism. They were embedded in the development
of the Party line.
With the theoretical struggle in the Central
Committee in 2001, the Party took a leap in its
understanding and practice. This internal struggle,
the end to the clashes with the People’s War Party,
unity of the Party, casting away dogmatic and
sectarian attitudes led to a favorable condition to
achieve a breakthrough in the formation of
People’s Army-Development of People’s War-
Liberation areas. The unity process speeded up, a
few genuine Marxist-Leninist groups and forces
merged with it and MCC developed as an All India
Party – the MCCI. It formed PLGA and Commissionsand Commands for this on the 22nd April, 2003.
MCCI took leaps and developed in a qualitative
manner in these fields very soon only after an
internal struggle over all these issues. MCCI and
People’s War Parties merged and a new Party CPI
(Maoist) emerged.
