Ganamukti Parishad (
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
for 'Tripura State Indigenous People's Liberation Council') is a
left-wing
Left-wing politics describes the range of Ideology#Political ideologies, political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy either as a whole or of certain social ...
movement working amongst the
Tripuri peoples of
Tripura
Tripura () is a States and union territories of India, state in northeastern India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, third-smallest state in the country, it covers ; and the seventh-least populous state with a populat ...
, in north-eastern
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
. It is affiliated with
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...
as its tribal wing.
Split
In March 1967, the party split into two factions:
*Tripura Rajya Ganamukti Parishad, attached to
Communist Party of India
The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...
*Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti Parishad, attached to
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...
Origins
During the 1940s the royal house of Tripura tried its best to maintain its political rule over the state. However, monarchy was challenged by movements that were influenced by the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political parties in India, political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first mo ...
and the
Communist Party of India
The Communist Party of India (CPI) is a political party in India. The CPI considers the Foundation of the Communist Party of India, December 26, 1925 Cawnpore (Kanpur) conference as its foundation date. Between 1946 and 1951, the CPI led m ...
. These associations proposed democratic reforms, but were met with stern resistance from the royal house. In 1946 members of ''Janamangal Samiti'' (People's Welfare Association), ''
Janasiksha Samiti'' (People's Educational Association), the local cell of the Communist Party and individual left-wingers got together to form the ''Tripura Rajya Prajamandal'' (Tripura State Popular Assembly).
Prajamandal proposed a form of
constitutional monarchy
Constitutional monarchy, also known as limited monarchy, parliamentary monarchy or democratic monarchy, is a form of monarchy in which the monarch exercises their authority in accordance with a constitution and is not alone in making decisions. ...
for the state.
The Prajamandal included both communists and non-communists. In 1948 a ban on the organisation was proposed, on the ground that the organisation was under the influence of communists in
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was the eastern province of Pakistan between 1955 and 1971, restructured and renamed from the province of East Bengal and covering the territory of the modern country of Bangladesh. Its land borders were with India and Burma, wit ...
. This spurred the non-communist leaders of Prajamandal to try to expel the communists. However, the ban was enforced before the expulsion had taken place. Leaders of Prajamandal were arrested, and many cadres went into hiding. By not differentiating between communists and non-communists in repressing Prajamandal, the royal government indirectly contributed to increasing the support for the communist within the organisation. On Independence Day Prajamandal took out a militant manifestation in
Agartala
Agartala (, , ) is the capital and the List of cities and towns in Tripura, largest city of the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tripura, situated on the banks of Haora River, Haora/Saidra River, about east of the border ...
. Simultaneously, the movement started activating itself in the struggle for Tiprasas land rights. Following the
Partition of India
The partition of India in 1947 was the division of British India into two independent dominion states, the Dominion of India, Union of India and Dominion of Pakistan. The Union of India is today the Republic of India, and the Dominion of Paki ...
, a major wave of
Bengali
Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to:
*something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia
* Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region
* Bengali language, the language they speak
** Bengali alphabet, the w ...
Hindu
Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...
s migrated to Tripura from East Pakistan. On the Tripura countryside Bengali money-lenders started to take over agricultural land from indebted Tiprasas. Prajamandal organised resistance, a struggle that radicalized the movement.
On several sites the movement resulted in clashes with the state forces. In October police firing in
Bishalgarh
Bishalgarh is a major town located in the Indian state of Tripura & a Municipal Council in Sipahijala district. As of 2001 census Bishalgarh has a population of 23,721. 12,248 people are male. 11,473 are female.
See also
* List of cities and t ...
killed nine Tiprasa and injured twenty more. The military set up camps in the tribal areas, with the objective of rooting out Prajamandal. The Prajamandal leadership considered that it had no possibility to cope with the increasing repression, and decided to dissolve the association.
In the void that emerged after the disappearance of Prajamandal, Tiprasa leaders founded the ''Tripura Rajaer Mukti Parishad'' (Tripura State Liberation Council, generally called ''Mukti Parishad''). Mukti Parishad raised demands of withdrawal of the DIR and freedom of expression and association. The slogan of the movement was 'Democratic Rights for the People of Tripura'.
[- Majumder, Benimadhab; ''The Legislative Opposition in Tripura'', Agartala: Tripura State Tribal Cultural Research Institute & Museum, 1997]
Armed struggle
As Tripura was put under military rule in March 1949, the leadership of the ''Mukti Parishad'' went underground to escape arrests. In the
tribal belts of the state armed resistance was organized by the GMP. Inspired by the advances of the Chinese
People's Liberation Army
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is the military of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and the People's Republic of China (PRC). It consists of four Military branch, services—People's Liberation Army Ground Force, Ground Force, People's ...
, the Mukti Parishad set up the ''Shanti Sena'' (Peace Army), which routed out the troops of the administration from the tribal belt. In the ‘liberated areas’ people's government was in command, with the Village Committees of GMP managing the everyday affairs. The tribals didn't have to pay any taxes to the state, nor would they turn to the courts of the state to express their queries. At the same time, a cultural revolution took place within the tribal society as abolition of child marriages, forced labour, excessive alcohol consumption, oppression of women, etc. were outlawed by the GMP.
Entry into mainstream politics
Armed resistance lasted until 1951. Then the strategies changed as a result of the changes in the political climate of the state. The Communist Party had begun to operate over-ground. In the end of 1949 the leaders of GMP had joined CPI. Now the struggle of the GMP was to be taken overground, in cooperation with CPI. In the first parliamentary elections of India in 1952 both seats of the
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha, also known as the House of the People, is the lower house of Parliament of India which is Bicameralism, bicameral, where the upper house is Rajya Sabha. Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha, Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by a ...
(2nd chamber of the Indian parliament) were won by the CPI. Both of the elected MPs, Biren Dutta and Dasarth Deb, were stalwarts of the GMP. Deb, the president of GMP, was at the time of election still considered as a guerrilla leader on the run by the police. The cases against him were not dropped until he was pardoned by the Prime Minister
Jawaharlal Nehru
Jawaharlal Nehru (14 November 1889 – 27 May 1964) was an Indian anti-colonial nationalist, secular humanist, social democrat, and statesman who was a central figure in India during the middle of the 20th century. Nehru was a pr ...
himself after having reached the parliament premises incognito for his first session.
1967 conference
It should be mentioned that although the bulk of the leadership as well as the common members of the GMP were tribals, the GMP was not an exclusively Tiprasa organization at this time (Biren Dutta, for example was a
Bengal
Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...
i). After the end of the armed struggle, an intense debate surged within the CPI concerning the future role of the GMP. Some considered that the GMP, whose membership was overwhelmingly agrarian, should be integrated into the peasant mass organization of the party, AIKS, and that Tiprasas and Bengali peasants should fight together since their class interests were the same. Other, such as Deb, considered that the tribals were not merely peasants but also constituted a separate sub-national entity and that the GMP should be a Tiprasa organization articulating the sub-nationalist consciousness of the tribal community.
In the beginning of the 1960s CPI suffered a severe internal division. The party was split into two camps on issues such as the relationship to the
Congress party
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party, or simply the Congress, is a political party in India with deep roots in most regions of India. Founded on 28 December 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement t ...
and the Sino-Soviet polemic.
In 1964 the split was a fact, as two separate party congresses were held, one by CPI and the other by
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...
. The split also came to divide the Tripura unit of the CPI, with the CPI(M) soon having outmanovered the CPI in Tripura. Initially both factions agreed that the GMP ought to stay intact and that it would be spared from the split for the sake of unity of the mass organization movement, but soon competition over control over the organization started. At the GMP conference of 1967 the split had also reached the GMP, and CPI(M) formed ''Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti Parishad'' and its leader within the GMP, Deb, who were able to gather the support of the broad majority of the organization. At the same conference the GMP was re-christened as the Upajati (i.e., Tribal) Ganamukti Parishad. Subsequently, non-tribals were no longer able to obtain GMP membership. Thus Deb's thesis that Tiprasa constituted as separate subnationalist entity and needed a mass organization of their own had been implemented in the organizational practice.
Following the 1967 conference CPI formed ''Tripura Rajya Ganamukti Parishad'', led by Aghore Debbarma.
ATPLO merger
In 1983 the
All Tripura Peoples Liberation Organization of Binanda Jamatya gave up their arms and were integrated into the Ganamukti Parishad. ATPLO had surged as a splinter group of the
Tripura National Volunteers
The Tripura National Volunteers (also Tribal National Volunteers or Tripura National Volunteer Force) was a Tripuri nationalist militant group in the Tripura region of India that launched an armed struggle in the early 1980s to separate Tripura ...
, and a turf war between the TNV soon turned into a bloody fight. In the end, ATPLO found no other viable solution than to align with their former enemies and thus merge into GMP.
The organisation today
Today the Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti Parishad is affiliated with the
All India Kisan Sabha
All India Kisan Sabha ( AIKS; lit. ''All India Farmers Union'', also known as the Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha) is the peasant or farmers' wing of the Communist Party of India, an important peasant movement formed by Sahajanand Saraswati in 19 ...
, the peasant mass-organization of the
Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated as CPI(M)) is a Communism in India, communist List of political parties in India, political party in India. It is the largest communist party in India in terms of membership and electora ...
(CPI(M)). GMP does, however, maintain its own organizational character as an entirely tribal organization. Similarly, as the GMP is an affiliate to the AIKS, the
Tribal Youth Federation is affiliated to the
Democratic Youth Federation of India
Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) is a youth organisation in India. It was founded in its inaugural conference held from 1–3 November 1980 at Shaheed Kartar Singh Saraba village in Ludhiana, Punjab. DYFI was formed as an independent ...
and the
Tribal Students Union is affiliated to the
Students Federation of India. However at the same time as these organizations belong to different all India structures, they are organizationally interlinked. The general secretary and president of TYF are by tradition elected as members of the secretariat of the GMP. The GMP, TYF and TSU use other flags, symbols and publications than their all India bodies. The leadership of these three organizations are referred to as Central Committees, whereas the state leaderships of the AIKS, DYFI and SFI are referred to as State Committees.
By 2000 it claimed a membership of 70 000. It president is
Naresh Jamatia
Naresh Chandra Jamatia (born 16 November 1959) is an Indian politician from Tripura.
Career
He previously served in the Fourth Manik Sarkar ministry as Minister of Forest, Rural Development and Election. He is a former Member of the Legisla ...
and its general secretary is
Radhacharan Debbarma.
Footnotes
Bibliography
* Basu, Pradip Kumar; ''The Communist Movement in Tripura'', Calcutta: Progressive Publishers, 1996
* Deb, Dasarath; ''Mukti Parishader Itikatha'', Kolkata: National Book Agency, 1999
External links
Dasarath Deb, 1916–1998 article in Frontline
in People's Democracy
{{authority control
Politics of Tripura
Political parties in Tripura
1948 establishments in India
Political parties established in 1948
Communist Party of India mass organisations