WAITING FOR REVOLUTION

Supporters of the Naxalbari movement believe hat a new left is coming up in India and its idea is to save democracy and the working class

- PRATUL SHARMA

Revolution will come, someday, though I don’t know when,” said Shanti Munda, 78, one of the last surviving members of the Naxalbari uprising. Advanced age, multiple ailments, failing memory and financial woes have not dampened the spirit of this eternal optimist.

Munda lives in a frugal two-room house at Hatighisa village in the Naxalbari block of Darjeeling district in West Bengal. Her room is spartan, while the adjacent room is full of numerous awards her daughter won in athletics. Pictures of Jesus and Krishna adorn the room. Munda’s father had come from Jharkhand, and made his living by tilling the land. She got married in her teens. Her husband was revolutionary leader Keshav Sarkar, who also mentored her in peasant politics.

She recalled the time when protests were held against the jotedars (landowners) for exploiting the peasants. “My husband first told me about the exploitation,” she said. “Then Kanu da (revolutionary leader Kanu Sanyal) came and organised us. We demanded that instead of paying our share in rice, we should be paid money, which the zamindars did not agree to.”

On May 24 1967, she tied her 15-day-old daughter to her back, and joined the peasant revolt led by the armed tribals of Naxalbari against the atrocities committed by jotedars. “The police had gathered in Naxalbari thinking that senior communist leaders were hiding there,” said Munda. “A huge crowd of peasants—most of them women—had gathered. Some of them were over 80. I felt bad resting at home. So I went with my daughter. We had bow and arrows. We struck Sonam Wangdi, a police officer. He died.”