Comrade Jagjit Singh Sohal (Sharma)

Comrade Jagjit Singh Sohal, commonly known as Comrade Sharma, was the only co-opted Central Committee member in the CPI (M-L). He was from Ropar district of Punjab. Due the martyrdom of comrades Daya Singh and Bhuja Singh, he became the PCS (Provincial Committee Secretary) of Punjab and was co-opted to the Central Committee. He was a staunch follower of Charu Majumdar, and played an active role in reforming the pro-CM Central Committee after 1972. Later he criticized the CPI (M-L)’s line of annihilation. In 1978, he was instrumental in forming the COC, CPI (M-L) with comrades Suniti Ghosh and Kondapally Seetharamayya.

Comrade Suniti Ghosh

A former lecturer in English in Vidyasagar College (Calcutta), Comrade Ghosh was known to have always taken leftist position in his political views. Prior to the Naxalbari upsurge, he was an important organizer of the lecturer’s cell of the CPI (M). His all round political activity started after the Naxalbari upsurge in 1967. He joined the CPI (M-L) in 1969 and was elected to the central committee in 1970. Comrade Ghosh was the Editor of the CPI (M-L) central organ – Liberation, and became its Editor-in-Chief in 1971. He was also given the responsibility of Deshabrati, the Bengali journal of the party, when Comrade Saroj Dutta died martyr on 5th August, 1971. After comrade Charu Majumdar’s demise, Comrade Ghosh wrote a self critical review under the pen name Prabhat Jana, that was published in Frontier, a reputed English political weekly. In 1978, he and comrade Sharma (Jagjit Singh Sohal) formed the COC, CPI (M-L), that upheld the line of Comrade Charu Majumdar, but at the same time, criticized some his formulations like – annihilation, authority, etc. Nowadays he keeps himself busy in writing important articles. His books, The Indian Big Bourgeoisie and India and the Raj (two volumes) are considered as rare contributions in the field of Indian Economics and Political Studies.

Comrade R.P. Saraf (Reproduced and edited from wikipedia)

Comrade R.P. Saraf was a leader in the early years of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). In Kashmir the entire CPI (M) organization had gone with CPI (ML). At the CPI (ML) party congress in 1970 Saraf was elected to the Central Committee. Two former Members of the Legislative Assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, Kristhan Dev Sethi and Abdul Kabir Wani, joined Saraf's group. The formerly CPI (M) local organ Jammu Sandesh became the regional CPI (ML) publication.
Comrade Saraf later formed his own splinter-group, the International Democratic Party.

Comrade Adibathla Kailasam (Reproduced and edited from wikipedia)

Comrade Adibathla Kailasam was an important naxalite leader from Andhra Pradesh. He was one of the original organisers of the Srikakulam armed struggle, that became as famous as ‘Yenan’.
Comrade Kailasam came from a landlord family in Srikakulam. He joined the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) and was elected to its central committee at the party congress in 1970. In July the same year, he was killed by the police.

Comrade M. Appalasuri (Reproduced and edited from wikipedia)

M. Appalasuri was one the leaders of the tribal uprising in Srikakulam. When the Andhra Pradesh Committee of Communist Revolutionaries was expelled from the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries in 1968, Appalasuri remained with the AICCCR led by Charu Majumdar. In 1969, Appalasuri was one of four Central Committee members of the new Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) from Andhra Pradesh.
Appalasuri became a leading figure in the Central Organising Committee, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), which was formed in 1972 by some elements of the erstwhile CPI (ML). The COC, CPI (ML) upheld the legacy of Charu Majumdar but was ready to retain a critical attitude to some aspects of Majumdar's role. In August 1974, Appalasuri became one of three members of the Andhra Pradesh State Committee of COC, CPI (ML). Appalasuri represented coastal Andhra Pradesh in the committee. The COC, CPI (ML) would also be torn apart by internal strife. In 1982 Appalasuri's COC, CPI (ML) faction merged with Bhowani Roy Chowdhury's West Bengal-based group, forming the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Party Unity.

Comrade Nagbhushan Patnaik

The very name, Nagbhushan Patnaik symbolizes the revolutionary spirit of the Naxalbari and the Srikakulam armed struggle. A senior politburo member of the undivided CPI (M-L), Comrade Patnaik was sentenced to death in connection with five murder cases. Later it was commuted to life sentence.
After the disintegration of the original CPI (M-L), Comrade Nagbhushan criticized the central line of the CPI (M-L). He was one of the signatories of the famous ‘Jail Letter’, that was based on Chou En-lai’s 11 Point Suggestions.
In his later years, comrade Patnaik joined the Liberation faction, and became one of its polit bureau members. He advocated the utilization of the parliamentary rostrum in a Leninist fashion in direct contrast to the boycottist nature of the undivided CPI (M-L).
On 9th October, 1998, Comrade Patnaik died at a private hospital in Chennai due to renal failure.

Comrade Vempatappu Satyanaryana

A school teacher by profession, Comrade Vempatapu Satyanarayana (Satyam), joined the CPI (M-L) through the AICCCR. He became a member of the Central Organising Committee of the Party in 1969. Later, he joined the new central committee that was elected in the first (eighth) party congress. But in the same year comrade Satyam achieved an untimely martyrdom. It is a common belief among the Naxalist ranks, that he was killed in a fake encounter in Srikakulam. He was also the Secretary of the Srikakulam District Committee of the party. His small booklet on Srikakulam Peasant Upsurge is an important document for understanding the nature of naxalist influence in the early phases of 1969 and 1970. Comrade Satyam is a highly respected figure, not only in Andhra Pradesh, but in whole India.

Comrade Sushital Roy Chaudhuri

Born in 1917 in Allahabad of United Provinces (Uttar Pradesh), comrade Sushital Roy Chaudhuri (SRC) joined the Indian Communist Movement at a very tender age. In 1943, he became the secretary of the Hoogly District Committee and in the Tebhaga days organized a strong peasant movement throughout the district.
In the late forties, he was transferred to the Calcutta District Committee. Comrade SRC was a prolific writer. In those days, people used to wait eagerly for his write-ups in Swadhinata and Matamat.
During the inner party struggle followed by the India-China war, comrade SRC joined the pro-Chinese left faction. In 1964, he joined the CPI (M) and was elected to the editorial board of Deshhitaishi, the Bengali weekly organ of the Bengal Unit of the CPI (M). He was also a member of the CPI (M)’s West Bengal State Committee.
In 1965, he wrote a series of philosophical articles in a progressive journal called Chinta. There he openly challenged the party’s programme as revisionist. In those days, along with comrades Asit Sen and Saroj Dutta, comrade SRC formed the Marxist-Leninist Institute, an inner party ideological study circle. In 1967, for bestowing his active support to the peasant guerrillas of Naxalbari, comrade SRC was expelled from the CPI (M).
After his expulsion, comrade SRC and other like minded comrades (comrades SD, Asit Sen, etc.) joined comrade Charu Majumdar, and founded the CPI (M-L). After the formation, he was elected to the Central Committee and the Polit Bureau. He was also appointed the Editor-in Chief of Deshabrati and Liberation, the CPI (M-L) Bengali and English organs.
In 1970, comrade SRC developed a few ideological differences with the party’s central line. He criticized the party’s view regarding the evaluation of the Bengal Renaissance.
Comrade SRC died of a heart attack in early 1971.
In comrade Charu Majumdar’s words, comrade SRC was the most erudite leader in the Indian Communist Movement.

Immortal Martyr Comrade Saroj Dutta

Comrade Saroj Dutt, commonly known as comrade SD, is an important name in the history of Indian Communist movement. He was born in 1914 in a semi-landlord family of Jessore in East Bengal.
Comrade SD joined the Amrita Bazar Patrika, after completing his post graduation in English from University of Calcutta in early forties. Later he became a political whole-timer, and joined Swadhinata, the organ of the Bengal State Committee of the CPI. He was also the editor of the famous literary journal – Parichaye.
During his imprisonment in 1962, SD came in contact with Comrade Charu Majumdar. Being a staunch communist, he aired harsh criticisms against the Dangeite leadership and joined the CPI (M) after the split in 1964. When the CPI (M) leadership nakedly advocated Khrushchev’s line of class-collaboration, comrades SD, Sushital Roy Choudhuri, Asit Sen and others formed the Marxist-Leninist Institute, an anti revisionist study group. After the Naxalbari upsurge, he vehemently criticized the party leadership and was expelled.
Comrade SD was instrumental in the formation of the AICCR and the CPI (M-L). He became the editor of Deshabrati, the Bengali organ of the West Bengal State Committee of the CPI (M-L).
He relentlessly fought for the consolidation of comrade Charu Majumdar’s authority, and played an important role in intra-party debates.
From 1970 onwards, comrade SD became one of the most wanted persons in India. The police was always hunting for him like a hungry wolf. Finally, in the early hours of 5th August, 1971, he was secretly eliminated by the state machinery.
Comrade SD was the ideologue of the famous statue breaking movement, that rocked the urban life of Bengal in the early seventies.
His write-ups in “Patrikar Duniyaye” in Deshabrati are treated as rare gems in the treasury of Leftist Journalism.

Comrade Souren Bose

Comrade Souren Bose was one of the pioneering figures of the Naxalbari uprising and CPI (ML). He was an active member of the anti revisionist squad of the CPI (M). At the congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in 1964, he questioned the absence of the portrait of Chairman Mao Tse-tung, and severely criticised the neo-revisionist party leadership. After the Naxalbari upsurge, comrade Bose went to China and met Chairman Mao Tse-tung. Next to comrade Saroj Dutta, he was Comrade Charu Majumdar’s comrade-in-arms, and the formulator of the concept of authority. He was one of the polit bureau members of the CPI (M-L), and the Secretary of the East Indian Zonal Committee of the Party.
He revisited China in 1971, and met comrades Chou En-lai and Kang Sheng, with whom he discussed several important issues regarding India’s New Democratic Revolution. After his return to India, he was arrested and put into prison. After Comrade Charu Majumdar’s demise in 1972, he and a few others came out with an open letter, criticising the basic political and organisational line of the CPI (M-L). This letter was based on the "11-point suggestions", offered by comrade Chou En-lai, during Comrade Bose’s visit to China.

In early nineties, he joined the CPI (ML) Red Flag, and became its General Secretary.

He authored a number of titles. His Bengali book, Charu Majumdarer Kotha chronicles almost all the important aspects of Indian Revolutionary Movement till the first phase of the CPI (ML). Comrade Bose breathed his last in 1999.

Comrade Kanu Sanyal (Reproduced and edited from wikipedia)

Comrade Kanu Sanyal, born in 1932, is an Indian communist politician. He is one of the founding leaders of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) formed in 1969.

He announced the formation of the original CPI (ML) on Lenin's birthday in 1969 at the Shahid Minar public rally in Calcutta. He came out with the seminal Terai report on Indian revolution.During this period the communist-sympathetic media in West Bengal portrayed him as a "great revolutionary" and compared him to the likes of Mahatma Gandhi and Jatin Das, largely because of his charisma and his public acceptance. He was one of the polit bureau members of the undivided CPI (ML)

After the death of Comrade Charu Majumdar, Sanyal questioned the basic foundation of CPI (ML) and alienated himself from the so-called CPI (ML) groups. He is now general secretary of a new CPI (ML), formed by merger of several splinter groups of the original party.

Comrade Sanyal has abandoned the violent and anarchist means of struggle, and accepted mass line and parliamentary practice, as a form of revolutionary activity.

Charu Majumdar - The Father of Naxalism - The Architect of CPI (M-L)

Born in a progressive landlord family in Siliguri in 1918, he not only dedicated his entire life to peasants' cause but also authored the historic 1968 Naxalbari uprising, the ideology that guides the red radicals even today.

Son of an active freedom fighter, Charu Majumdar or CM rebelled against social inequalities even as a teenager. Later, impressed by "petty-bourgeois" national revolutionaries, he joined All Bengal Students Association affiliated to Anusilan group.Dropping out of college in 1937-38 he joined the Congress party and devoted himself in organising bidi workers. He later crossed over to CPI to work in its peasant front and soon won respect of the poor and downtrodden of Jalpaiguri and Darjeeling. Soon an arrest-warrant forced him to go underground for the first time as a Left activist.
Although the CPI was banned at the outbreak of the World War II, he continued his organizing activities among peasants and was elected to the CPI Jalpaiguri district committee in 1942.The promotion emboldened him to organise a 'seizure of crops' campaign in Jalpaiguri during the Great Famine of 1943, more or less successfully. In 1946, he joined the famous Tebhaga movement and embarked on a militant struggle in North Bengal. The stir shaped his vision of a revolutionary struggle. Later he worked among tea garden workers in Darjeeling.For taking the road of the intertwined revolution, the CPI was banned in 1948 and CM was put behind the bars for next three years. He tied the nuptial knot with a fellow CPI member from Jalpaiguri - Lila Majumdar Sengupta in January 1954.
CM's growing ideological rift with the CPI came to fore after the party's Palghat Congress in 1956. The 'Great Debate' across the communist world in the late 50s propelled him to mull a revolutionary philosophy suiting Indian conditions.He was again jailed during 1962 for criticising the Nehuru Government’s notorious attempt of Chinese expansion.
The CPI split in 1964 over ideological differences among the cadres. Charu Majumdar joined the breakaway part, the CPI (M), but could not go with its decision to participate in polls by postponing 'armed struggle' to a day when revolutionary situation prevailed in India.

He kept a bad health during 1964-65 and was advised rest. But he devoted this time, even in jail, to study and write about the path of the Indian revolution on the basis of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought. The exercise shaped his vision and ideas of a mass struggle, which were recorded in his writing and speeches of 1965-67. These were later called 'Historic Eight Documents' and subsequently formed the basis of Indian Communist Movement or Naxalism.
The CPM formed a coalition United Front government with Bangla Congress in West Bengal in 1967 by betraying the cause of revolution.On May 25 the same year, the CM-led "rebels" launched the historic peasant uprising at Naxalbari in Darjeeling district of West Bengal. The rebels annihilated the notorious police inspector – Sonam Wangdi, and created the foundation of India’s New Democratic Revolution. The state government’s Home Ministry headed by the CPI (M) leader Jyoti Basu brutally suppressed this movement by killing 11 women and 2 children. But the ideology of "naxalism" not only survived but also spread in different corners of the subcontinent.

With the upsurge of naxalism, comrades from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, UP, Bihar, Karnataka, Orissa and West Bengal set up All India Coordination Committee of Revolutionaries (AICCR) in CPI (M) on Nov 12-13, 1967. It was renamed as All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries, which launched CPI (ML) on April 2, 1969 with Charu Majumdar as its General Secretary. In 1970, the CPI (ML) organised its first party congress in Calcutta in strict underground conditions. CM was re-elected as the General Secretary. The Party Congress put forward the programme of protracted people’s war advocated the battle of annihilation of class enemies.
Authorities mounted a fierce crackdown on Leftist movement across the country, particularly in West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh, which climaxed during and after 1971 Bangladesh war with the killings of many key Naxalist leaders. By 1971, Comrade Charu Majumdar and Comrade Saroj Dutta became India's most wanted men. In the early hours of 5th August, 1971, comrade Saroj Dutta was brutally murdered by the police at the Aryan Club ground. As per the CPI (ML) records, Charu Majumdar was arrested from a Calcutta hideout on July 16, 1972, due to the betrayal of the then PCS of CPI (ML), Bengal Unit, Dipak Biswas.

During his ten days in police custody in Lal Bazar lock-up no one was allowed to see him -- not even his lawyer, family members or a doctor. The Lal Bazar lock-up had achieved a reputation throughout the country for the most horrifying and cruel tortures. He died at 4 am on July 28, 1972 in the same lock-up. Even the dead body was not given to his family. Police, accompanied with immediate family members carried the body to crematorium... The whole area was cordoned off and no other relatives were allowed in as his body was consigned to flames.

Death of CM closed a vigorous chapter of Indian "revolutionary movement".