Feeble Memories

On the 50th anniversary of the uprising, Naxalbari shrugs off its gory past.

- Jaideep Mazumdar

WHAT’S IN A name? A lot, so would say India’s ultra-left-ists who, caught in a time warp, still dream of “annihilation of class enemies” and a “revolution” to convert the country into a “dictatorship of the proletariat”. But quite like the name of the half village-half town in Bengal that the gory movement was born in, the revolution also means little or nothing today.

Naxalbari, about 40 kilometres west of Siliguri in north Bengal, defies all etymological definitions. While “bari” means home in Bengali, “Naxal” finds no mention in the lexicon of Bengali words. Or, for that matter, in the dictionary of the Nepalis, adivasis or Koch-Rajbanshis who inhabit the area. No one quite knows where the name originated from or what it means. Similarly, the movement that appropriated the name of this village also holds little political or intellectual significance today.

And what’s more, Naxalbari itself is trying desperately to live down its name. As was evident on the May 25 this year. Exactly 50 summers from that day (May 25, 1967), the deaths of 11 women and children being used as human shields by belligerent peasants armed with swords, spears, bows and arrows and other weapons in police firing ignited the Naxalite movement. The day is considered to be the birthday of the movement.