New Maoist Revolts Didn't Identify Enemy, Have Plan for Land Capture

Santosh Rana was a 23-year-old student at Calcutta’s Presidency College in 1967 when the Naxalbari rebellion erupted. Having immediately plunged into the movement, he later went on to question a few of its methodologies and tactics. As the movement turns 50 in May this year, the 74-year-old, who is a cancer-survivor, reminisces in an interview with Dola Mitra.

You were part of the first batch of Naxalbari revolutionaries. Tell us about those early days.

The year was 1967. I was studying at Presidency College, doing my M.Tech. News had been trickling in that an armed rebellion was taking place in a village called Naxalbari in north Bengal’s Darjeeling district. This uprising, by the local peasants, was being led by district leaders of the Communist Party of India, namely Charu Majumdar and his comrades Kanu Sanyal, Mujib-ur-Rehman (not to be mistaken with Bangladesh’s founding father), Khokon Majumdar etc. I was deeply motivated. I immediately decided to take the movement to Gopiballavpur in West Bengal’s West Midnapore district, which is where I came from.

What about the Naxalbari movement attracted you?