Remembering Veteran Revolutionary Niranjan Bose

This article was published in People’s Truth bulletin #6.

Respectful Homage to Veteran Maoist Comrade Niranjan Bose!

Comrade Niranjan Bose, the oldest in the Maoist ranks in West Bengal, died at the age of 92 years on 26th April ’09 in Kolkata. Till his last breath he held high the banner of revolutionary Marxism and had consistently engaged himself in a significant way to further the cause of Indian revolution.

This nonagenarian revolutionary started his political career in the early 1940s, at first as a Congress activist and then courted Marxism and became a member of the United CPI of the then undivided Bengal. Comrade Bose played a significant role in bringing out the CPI’s Bengali daily Swadhinata in the 50s. He was sent to prison on several occasions.

When the CPI split in 1963 he sided with the left leaning comrades and joined the CPI (M). In the West Bengal unit of the CPI (M) comrades Niranjan Bose, Saroj Dutta, Shusital Roychowdhry et al had a pioneering role in bringing out the Bengali weekly named Deshhitaisee. All of them, the followers of Maoist leadership against Khruscevite revisionism, revolted against the CPI (M)’s neo-revisionist leadership.

When West Bengal’s United Front government went on a massacre spree in Naxalbari, killing mostly tribal fighters, not even sparing women and children, comrade Niranjan Bose, a dedicated communist, took upon himself the important responsibilities with regard to the publication of Deshabrati (Bengali) and Liberation. After the raid on the Deshabrati office in Kolkata and arrest of important comrades of the CPI (ML) publication team by police, comrade Niranjan Bose went underground. He played a stellar role in bringing out the CPI (ML) journals from underground in the early 1970s.

Even after comrade Charu Majumdar’s arrest on 16 July and then martyrdom on 28th July 1972, comrade Bose continued his political activities from underground in a state of acute political crisis when the Congress-led fascist forces aided by the police machinery broke loose hell in West Bengal. Comrade Bose was among the very few revolutionary communist leaders who could successfully outwit the police department hotly chasing to capture him dead or alive.

After 1977, comrade Bose came in to the open and started hectic activities to reunite the Party. When the erstwhile CPI (ML) [PW] started organizing the revolutionary masses in Bengal in early 1990s, comrade Niranjan Bose immediately joined the rising armed struggle.

Old age, frail health and hostile fascist atmosphere created by his erstwhile colleagues in the CPI and the CPI (M) in the name of ‘Left Front Rule’ could not deter this veteran communist fighter to be a part of the on-going struggle facing brutal repression.

Four years back, police forces fell on his house, arrested him and within days set him free when roars of massive protest unnerved the ‘Left Front’ leaders. Comrade Bose dreamt a revolutionary dream and worked day and night to fulfill all the responsibilities bestowed on him by his beloved party, the CPI (Maoist) till he breathed his last.

We pay our respectful to the memory of this great Maoist revolutionary who worked for more than six decades in the service of the oppressed masses of the country and who fought valiantly all throughout his life to achieve his beloved cause, the emancipation of the oppressed masses of the country.