CHARU MAZUMDAR
(Charu Majumdar wrote the following letter, from which some organizational matter has been dropped, in reply to the Party worker in charge of the regional Party organization inMidnapur. He had reported to him that three heroic guerrilla comrades had been murdered by class enemies while returning after annihilating a hated jotedar in Keshpur (inMidnapur district of West Bengal), and added : “I told the comrades that, in order to build up the struggle in Keshpur, lives had to be laid down. The comrades went and gave their lives. Asking others to sacrifice their lives seems quite unbearable to me. I would like to know where we are committing mistakes.”)
From Liberation, Vol. III, No. 10 (August 1970). The introductory note and the first paragraph have been translated again, as the relevant page is missing.
Dear Comrade,
I had your letter. Comrades Gurudas, Shashi and Sudeb were your fellow workers. It is not possible for me to feel the anguish that you must be feeling. Comrade, the path of revolution is, indeed, crimson with the blood of martyrs. Price has to be paid for the liberation of the people. Every attack on us is painful and this pain gives rise to the strong resolve to make greater sacrifices and to the most intense hatred for the enemy. When these two are linked with Mao Tsetung Thought, the new man is born. The oppressed people of India, crores of poor and landless peasants of our country, are looking forward to the birth of the new man. When the poor and landless peasantry will beget the new man, the people of India will then wipe off all their tears and rejoice. What a flood of life will then sweep through the whole of India! Our country will blaze up like a bright star and illumine the entire world. It is through the self-sacrifice of countless men that the India of our dreams will become real. Each such death is heavier than a mountain, for they grew up much greater than what we are. That is why their deaths will create innumerable lives. That is why the dust of this road has to be washed with tears and the road made firm with blood.
Did we commit any mistake? Who can say that no mistake will be committed ? But this is not the day of repentance, this is the day when one should blaze up like a flame of fire, this is the day when the blood debt should be repaid in blood. For thousands of years the poor and landless peasants of our country have shed their blood and sacrificed their lives to build up this country: it is through their sacrifice that our society, culture, wealth, riches, tradition — all these have been built up. The burden of that debt rests on our shoulders. It is our task to repay that debt. But we must correct the mistakes, if we have committed any. Without correcting them we shall be unable to sharpen the edge of our attack. It seems to me that our mistake there arises from the old political deviation, that is, the division between the tribals and non-tribals. The class enemies could unite only by exploiting that advantage. If they hadn’t this advantage, each of them would have been busy saving his own skin and they would never come forward to help one another.
Out of every martyrdom arises new life. I shall live to hear the wonderful news of the rich harvest of new life the martyrdom of these three heroes will yield.
July 6, 1970