->Artelpedia at 09:10, 11 January 2022

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{{Short description|Indian politician}}
{{Use Indian English|date=August 2021}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2021}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2011}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Charu Majumdar
| image = Charu Majumdar.jpg
| caption = Majumdar at a [[Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation|CPIML]] rally in Kolkata, 2021
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1919|05|15}}
| birth_place = [[Siliguri]], [[Bengal Presidency]], [[British Raj|British India]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|1972|07|28|1919|03|12|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Calcutta, West Bengal]], India
| alma_mater = [[University of North Bengal]]<br />[[Siliguri College]]<br />[[Pabna Edward College]]
| party = [[Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)]]
| spouse = Lila Mazumdar Sengupta
| children = 1
| footnotes =
| office = General Secretary of [[Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist)|CPI(ML)]]
| term = 1969–1972
| predecessor =
| criminal_charge = Criminal conspiracy
| criminal_penalty = Jailed
| criminal_status = Death in jail
}}

'''Charu Majumdar''' (15 May 1919 – 28 July 1972), popularly known as '''CM''', was a communist leader from India, and founder and chief theoretician of the Naxalite movement.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Roy|first=Arundhati|date=2010-03-29|title=Walking With The Comrades |url=https://www.outlookindia.com/magazine/story/walking-with-the-comrades/264738 |url-status=live|access-date=2021-10-18 |publisher=[[Outlook India]]|language=en}}</ref> Born into a progressive landlord family in Siliguri in 1918, he became a Communist during the [[Indian independence movement|Indian Independence Movement]], and later formed the militant [[Naxalite]] cause. During this period, he authored the historic accounts of the 1967 [[Naxalbari uprising]] and his writings— particularly the [[Historic Eight Documents]]— have become part of the ideology which guides Naxal movement.<ref name=":0">{{cite web
|url = http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/NM1/Charu-Majumdar-The-Father-of-Naxalism/Article1-6531.aspx
|title = Charu Majumdar – The Father of Naxalism
|publisher = Hindustan Times
|url-status = dead
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20121104221701/http://www.hindustantimes.com/News-Feed/NM1/Charu-Majumdar-The-Father-of-Naxalism/Article1-6531.aspx
|archive-date = 4 November 2012
|df = dmy-all
}}</ref>
[[File:Statue of Charu Majumdar & Saroj Dutta.jpg|thumb|Statue of Comrade CM & SD, Behala]]

== Biography ==
Majumdar was born in 1919 in [[Siliguri|Matualaloi, Rajshahi]] (now Siliguri) to the [[Zamindari|Zamindar]] family.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.thelallantop.com/tehkhana/50-years-of-naxalbari-remembering-charu-majumdar-kanu-sanyal-and-jangal-santhal/
|title=नक्सल आंदोलन इन्होंने शुरू किया, आज उनके नाम पर आतंकवादी घूमते हैं
|publisher=thelallantop}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://m.hindustantimes.com/india-news/naxalbari-50-meet-the-woman-who-lit-the-first-fire-of-uprising/story-5ey8bOCHpquwFT33vo9H5I.html
|title=Naxalbari@50: Maoist uprising was sparked by this tribal woman leader
|date=23 May 2017
|publisher=hindustantimes}}</ref> His father was a [[freedom fighter]] during the [[Indian independence movement]]. Majumdar dropped out of college in 1938.

After dropping out, Majumdar joined the then banned [[Communist Party of India]] (CPI) to work in its peasant front. Soon an arrest warrant forced him to go underground for the first time as a leftist activist. Although the CPI was banned at the outbreak of World War II, he continued CPI activities among peasants and was made a member of the CPI Jalpaiguri district committee in 1942. The promotion emboldened him to organize a 'seizure of crops' campaign in Jalpaiguri during the [[Famine in India|Great Famine of 1943]], more or less successfully.<ref name=":0" /> In 1946, he joined the [[Tebhaga movement]] in the [[Jalpaiguri district|Jalpaiguri]] region and embarked on a proletariat militant struggle in [[North Bengal]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Banerjee|first=Rabi|date=2016-07-03|title=The man India loves to forget|url=https://www.theweek.in/theweek/cover/charu-majumdar-naxalbari.html|url-status=live|access-date=2021-10-18|website=theweek.in}}</ref> The stir shaped his vision of a revolutionary struggle. Later he worked among tea garden workers in [[Darjeeling]].

The CPI was banned in 1948 and he spent the next three years in jail. In January 1952 he married Lila Mazumdar Sengupta, a fellow CPI member from Jalpaiguri. The couple moved to Siliguri, which was the center of Majumdar's activities for a few years. He was briefly imprisoned in 1962.

During the mid-1960s Majumdar organized a [[leftist]] faction in [[Communist Party of India (Marxist)]] (CPI(M)) in northern Bengal. In 1967, a militant peasant uprising took place in [[Naxalbari]], led by his comrade-in-arms [[Kanu Sanyal]]. This group would later be known as the [[Naxalite]]s, and eight articles written by him at this time—known as the [[Historic Eight Documents]]—have been seen as providing their ideological foundation: arguing that revolution must take the path of armed struggle on the pattern of the Chinese revolution. The same year, Majumdar broke away and formed the [[All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries]] which in 1969 founded the [[Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist)]]—with Majumdar as its General Secretary. He was captured at his hideout on 16 July 1972 at 3 am by officer Ranjit Guha Niyogi (alias Runu Guha Niyogi) and his team. He died of a massive heart attack at 4 am on 28 July 1972 – aged 53 – in the same lock-up, the CPI (ML) records say.

The radical leftist movement in India has seen many ideological splits since Majumdar's death.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Kujur|first=Rajat|date=2009|title=Naxal conflict in 2008: an assessment|url=http://www.ipcs.org/issue_briefs/issue_brief_pdf/848082154RP15-Kujur-Naxal.pdf|journal=Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies}}</ref> [[Communist Party of India (Maoist)|The Communist Party of India (Maoist)]] observes Martyrs Week in the last week of July in remembrance of Majumdar's death, where members revisit his ideology and memorialise his influence on their movement.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Bhattacharjee|first=Sumit|date=2020-07-31|title=Is Charu Majumdar’s ideology relevant today?|language=en-IN|work=The Hindu|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/is-charu-majumdars-ideology-relevant-today/article32236475.ece|access-date=2021-10-18|issn=0971-751X}}</ref>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mazumdar/index.htm Charu Majumdar Archives]
* [http://lesmaterialistes.com/english/there-charu-mazumdar-thought Is there a Charu Mazumdar Thought?]
{{Maoism}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Majumdar, Charu}}
[[Category:1916 births]]
[[Category:1972 deaths]]
[[Category:Bengali people]]
[[Category:Indian communists]]
[[Category:Indian revolutionaries]]
[[Category:Maoist theorists]]
[[Category:Anti-revisionists]]
[[Category:Prisoners and detainees of British India]]
[[Category:People from Siliguri]]
[[Category:Deaths in police custody in India]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian politicians]]
[[Category:Bengali politicians]]
[[Category:Pabna Edward College alumni]]
[[Category:Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) politicians]]

Charu Majumdar - Revision history

->Artelpedia at 09:10, 11 January 2022