History of CPI-ML (Liberation)

Formation of CPI-ML The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) was formed by the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries at a congress in Calcutta in 1969. The foundation of the party was declared by Kanu Sanyal at a mass-meeting in Calcutta on the 22nd of April (Lenin's birthday).CPI(ML) advocated armed revolution and denounced participation in the electoral process. The party leaders were Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal, both of whom had belonged to the left-wing within Communist Party of India (Marxist) in northern West Bengal. Majumdar and Sanyal had mobilized a revolutionary peasants movement in Naxalbari, which evolved into an armed uprising of the mostly Santhal tribal inhabitants. CPI(ML) saw Naxalbari as the spark that would start a new Indian revolution, and the movement came to be known as 'naxalites'. In several parts of India, for example Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, different parts of West Bengal and in Srikakulam in northern Andhra Pradesh CPI(ML) organized guerilla units. The party got moral support from China, which actively encourages the attempts of CPI(ML) to launch revolution. The first party congress was held in Calcutta 1970. As a result of both external repression and a failure to maintain internal unity, the movement did however degenerate into extreme sectarianism. Instead of popular armed struggle in the countryside, individual terrorism in Calcutta became a principal method of struggle. In 1971 Satyanarayan Singh revolted against the leadership and sectarianism of Majumdar. The result became that the party was split into two, one CPI(ML) led by Satyanarayan Singh and one CPI(ML) led by Charu Majumdar. In 1972 Majumdar died in police custody, and after his death a series of splits took place during the major part of the 1970s. The naxalite movement suffered a period of extremely harsh repression that rivalled the dirty wars of South America at the same time that the movement got all more fragmented. Another heavy blow to the movement was the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 when China more or less asked the Indian naxalites to support the side of Pakistan (which was a political suicide in India at the time). On this issue Majumdar's line had some differentiation from that of the CPC. He gave emphasis to supporting the armed struggle of the East Pakistan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), which fought against both Pakistan and the Bangladeshi national liberation movement. Majumdar's line and the Chinese line caused conflict in CPI(ML) and produced splits, such as that of Ashim Chatterjee. Formation of CPI-ML (Liberation): Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation is a communist political party in India. Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) was formed in 1969 by the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries, who had split from Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1967. CPI(ML) advocated armed struggle and condemned participation in parliamentary elections and work in mass movements. Initially the party leaders were Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal. In 1971 the party was split in two, when Satyanarayan Singh revolted against Majumdars's sectarianism. CPI(ML) Liberation has its roots in the faction that remained loyal to Majumdar. Later Majumdar's CPI(ML) was split in pro- and anti-Lin Biao-factions. CPI(ML) Liberation is the party that evolved out if the anti-Lin Biao faction. In 1975 Vinod Mishra was elected general secretary. From 1977 a reform process took place in Mishra's CPI(ML). The party conference in 1979 declared that mass organizations ought to be created in every front (which the original CPI(ML) had condemned as "economism"). Mishra's CPI(ML) also maintained good relations with the Communist Party of China, whilst most other Indian ML-factions condemned the reorientation that was pushed through by Deng Xiaoping after the death of Mao Zedong. In 1982 the Indian Peoples Front was formed, and the party contested elections under the name of IPF. In 1989 IPF was able to win a Lok Sabha seat from Ara, Bihar. In 1991 the Ara seat was lost, but the party won a seat in Assam through the mass movement Autonomous State Demand Committee. In 1994 IPF was dissolved and the party started contesting elections under its proper name. However it continued to contest elections under the banner of ASDC until 1999. Mishra died in 1998. The current general secretary is Dipankar Bhattacharya, who hails from West Bengal. In the Lok Sabha elections in 1999 the party won 0.3% of the votes and one seat (the former ASDC-seat from Assam). In the 2004 elections the seat was lost, mainly due to a split within ASDC.The English-language publication of the party is Liberation, and thus the party is called CPI(ML) Liberation. In India there are several other CPI(ML)s, such as CPI(ML) New Democracy, CPI(ML) Janashakti and CPI(ML) Red Flag. The party is represented in the state assemblies of Bihar and Jharkhand. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Charu Majumdar:   Charu Majumdar (1918–1972) was a communist revolutionary from India.He was born on 1918 in Siliguri, West Bengal. His father was a freedom fighter. He dropped out of college in 1938. In 1946,Maumdar joined the Tebhaga movement. He was briefly imprisoned in 1962. During the mid 1960s Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal organized a leftist faction in CPI(M) in northern Bengal. In 1967, a militant peasant uprising took place in Naxalbari, led by the Majumdar-Sanyal group. This group would later become known as the Naxalites. The same year, Majumdar and Sanyal broke away and formed the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. AICCCR founded the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in 1969, with Majumdar as its General Secretary. He was captured from his hide-out on July 16,1972, and died in police custody at the Alipore Central Jail on July 28, 1972. Naxalbari Movement: Naxalbari, the village in West Bengal, famed for the peasant uprising of  May 24, 1967. Naxalbari is famous for being the site of a revolutionary peasant uprising in 1967, which began with the "Land to tiller" slogan and inspired similar revolts in other parts of the India, popularly known as Naxalite movement. At that time, West Bengal was going through a phase of severe unrest due to the Communist movement. Thousands of rural labourers and poor peasants chanting slogans inspired by Lenin and Socialism staged blockades against the police and the government resulting in violence and bloodshed. This movement had prominent consequences in the development of revolutionary and communist theory in India. The protests were headed by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) In 1971 activists from Naxalbari were instrumental in staging a similar uprising in Nepal's southernmost district Jhapa, which borders on Naxalbari.