Veteran Communist Revolutionary Leader Comrade Suniti Kumar Ghosh Is No More
By Countercurrents
14 May, 2014
Countercurrents.org
Comrade Suniti Kumar Ghosh, revolutionary communist and one of the theoreticians of the Naxalbari movement, passed away on May 11 evening, in Asansol, Paschimbanga (former West Bengal) , India. He was 96.
Comrade Ghosh was one of the last living members of the central leadership of the communist revolutionary movement that re-sparked with the peasant’s armed uprising in Naxalbari in Siliguri in the northern part of Paschimbanga (former West Bengal) in 1967. The Naxalbari uprising came to be known as the Spring Thunder Over India. The armed uprising followed years of theoretical struggle against revisionism upheld by Khrushchev and gang. Mao’s revolutionary politics was one of the sources of inspiration of the Naxalbari movement.
Comrade Ghosh was a member of the leading team of the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) formed in 1968 in the wake of the Spring Thunder. He was one of the founder-members of the Communist Party of India (ML) (CPI-ML) and a member of the first central committee of the CPI-ML formed in 1970, of which Charu Majumdar was considered one of the leaders.
He was the first editor of Liberation, organ of the AICCCR and then of the CPI-ML.
Comrade Ghosh was part of the leadership of the Central Organising Committee (COC), CPI (ML), which was formed in 1974 with the aim of reorganizing the movement after the death of Charu Majumdar.
He remained associated with political activities for some time after the COC was dissolved in 1977.
In the decade of the revolutionary movement, Comrade Ghosh, his wife Anima and his two daughters suffered turmoil, uncertainty, hardship and repression.
Comrade Ghosh never forgot the martyrs of that movement, to whom he dedicated a number of his writings; nor “the debt – that can never be repaid – I owe to those who, sharing my ideals and braving immense risks, gave me shelter and food when shelter was more precious than food.”
Later, he devoted his attention to theoretical writing and compilation of documents of the history of communist revolutionary movement in India.
Collection of important articles from Liberation was published as The Historic Turning-Point: A Liberation Anthology (in two volumes, 1992 and 1993); under his editorship. The selected articles and reports appeared in Liberation between 1967 and 1972.
While writing extensively on the history of the revolutionary communist movement in India now known as the Naxalite movement, Suniti Ghosh was well known as the author of a number of books on the recent history and political economy of India.
His well known book The Indian Big Bourgeoisie: Its Genesis, Growth and Character (1985, then revised and enlarged in 2000) helps understand the ruling class.
His essay on the history of constitution building and its nature The Indian Constitution and Its Review and essay Development Planning in India: Lumpen-development and Imperialism were published by the Research Unit for Political Economy (RUPE).
His book on the nationality question India's Nationality Question and the Ruling Classes; The Himalayan Adventure: India-China War of 1962 – Causes and Consequences; Naxalbari: Before and After: Reminiscences and Appraisal (2009); India and the Raj 1919-1947: Glory, Shame and Bondage (vol. 1: 1989; vol. 2: RUPE, 1995; re-published as a single volume in 2007 by Sahitya Samsad); Imperialism’s Tightening Grip on Indian Agriculture; The Tragic Partition of Bengal (2002) are some of his important writings. He wrote pamphlets and articles in national and international Marxist journals.
He also wrote a number of articles, some of which were excerpts from forthcoming books. These were published in journals including Aspects of India’s Economy, Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, Economic and Political Weekly, Frontier, Monthly Review, and Visvabharati Quarterly. Of particular importance was an article by Comrade Ghosh in Monthly Review, “Marx on India” [January 1984], which was later included in The Indian Big Bourgeoisie.
His writings in Bengali included The Political Economy of Bengal’s Dismemberment (in Bangla).
His writings were translated in Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi.
Comrade Ghosh was associated with the communist movement in India since the time of the Tebhaagaa Aandolon, the Bengal sharecroppers’ movement in 1946-47. The Tebhaagaa Aandolon, also known as Tebhaagaar Laraai spread over many districts in today’s Bangladesh and Paschimbanga, India.
He left the Communist Party of India (CPI) after the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist Party in 1956.
India’s China war of 1962 made him feel he should take active part in politics again.
He was persuaded to join the CPI (Marxist), the party formed in an effort to reignite revolutionary spirit of Marxism-Leninism.
But by 1966 he left the CPI (M) as disillusion with the party grew.
Comrade Suniti Kumar Ghosh remained committed to Marxism-Leninism till his last breath and always tried to defend its revolutionary content. He was grappling with the problems and concerns of the rebuilding of the communist revolutionary movement in India.
Communist revolutionary activists in India learned from his writings.
Communist revolutionaries salute this veteran fighter of the Indian proletariat and offer their heartiest tribute.
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