The Historic Eight Documents are a set of eight

monograph A monograph is generally a long-form work on one (usually scholarly) subject, or one aspect of a subject, typically created by a single author or artist (or, sometimes, by two or more authors). Traditionally it is in written form and published a ...

s authored by the

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 ...

Maoist Maoism, officially Mao Zedong Thought, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed while trying to realize a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic o ...

revolutionary A revolutionary is a person who either participates in, or advocates for, a revolution. The term ''revolutionary'' can also be used as an adjective to describe something producing a major and sudden impact on society. Definition The term—bot ...

Charu Majumdar Charu Majumdar (15 May 1918 – 28 July 1972) was an Indian communist leader, and founder and General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). Born into a progressive landlord family in Siliguri in 1918, he became a Commun ...

that outline the ideological principles on which the

Naxalite Naxalism is the communist ideology of the Naxalites or Naxals, a grouping of political and insurgent groups from India. It is influenced by Maoist political sentiment and ideology. Inspired by Maoism, Charu Majumdar wrote the Historic Eight ...

militant

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

movement in India was based. Snippet:''Communist leader Charu Majumdar wrote various articles based on Marx-Lenin-Mao thought during the period, which later came to be known as 'Historic Eight Documents' and formed the basis of Naxalite movement.''"The Indian Journal of Political Science, Volume 51", Indian Political Science Association, 1990. ''Snippet: ... The basic argument of these Historic Eight Documents may be summed up: (1) the Indian revolution must take the path of armed struggle, (2) it should be organized on the pattern of the Chinese revolution and not of the Soviet revolution, and (3) the armed struggle in India should assume the form of Mao Tse-Tung's "people's war" and not of Che Guevara's "Guerrilla War" ...'' They laid down the idea that the

Indian State India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories, for a total of 36 subnational entities. The states and union territories are further subdivided into 800 districts and smaller administrative divisions by the respe ...

was a

bourgeois The bourgeoisie ( , ) are a class of business owners, merchants and wealthy people, in general, which emerged in the Late Middle Ages, originally as a "middle class" between the peasantry and Aristocracy (class), aristocracy. They are tradition ...

institution and that the main Indian communist parties had embraced revisionism by agreeing to operate within the framework of the

Constitution of India The Constitution of India is the supreme law of India, legal document of India, and the longest written national constitution in the world. The document lays down the framework that demarcates fundamental political code, structure, procedures ...

. They urged a

protracted people's war People's war or protracted people's war is a Maoist military strategy. First developed by the Chinese communist revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (1893–1976), the basic concept behind people's war is to maintain the support of the population a ...

to overthrow the Indian State.Marius Damas, "Approaching Naxalbari", Radical Impression, 1991, . ''Snippet: ... The documents are historic in the sense that a sharp departure from parliamentary cretinism began to take place and revolutionary politics was resolutely put forward combatting revisionism which was well entrenched in the communist movement in India ...'' They denounced the Soviet Union both for being revisionist, as well as for supporting the Indian State.

Composition

* 28 January 1965 (1st document) - Our Tasks in the Present Situation * 1965 (2nd document) - Make the People's Democratic Revolution Successful by Fighting Against Revisionism * 9 April 1965 (3rd document) - What is the Source of the Spontaneous Revolutionary Outburst in India? * 1965 (4th document) - Carry on the Struggle Against Modern Revisionism * 1965 (5th document) - What Possibility The Year 1965 is Indicating? * 8 December 1966 (6th document) - The Main Task Today is the Struggle to Build Up the True Revolutionary Party Through Uncompromising Struggle Against Revisionism * 1966 (7th document) - Take this Opportunity to Build armed partisan struggle by fighting against revisionism * April 1967 (8th document) - Carry Forward the Peasant Struggle by Fighting Revisionism

Impact and commentary

Both communist and non-communist sources describe these monographs as a significant inspiring factor for the

Naxalbari uprising The Naxalbari uprising was an armed peasant revolt in 1967 in the Naxalbari block of Siliguri subdivision in Darjeeling district, West Bengal, India. It was mainly led by tribals and the radical communist leaders of Bengal and further develop ...

in 1967."Towards a New Phase of Spring Thunder: Evaluation of the CPI(ML) in Its Historical Background", Central Reorganization Committee, Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist), 1982. Snippet: ''... That is why these articles and speeches are called 'historic eight documents' in view of the historic role they played in the development of Naxalbari ...'' Snippet:''These "historic eight documents" inspired an entire generation of educated Bengali students to take up arms and be part of the Naxal movement in 1967.''

References

External links

Charu Majumdar Archives

Is there a Charu Mazumdar Thought?
{{Maoism 8 (number) 1965 documents 1966 documents 1967 documents Maoist works Naxalite–Maoist insurgency Monographs

Composition

Impact and commentary

See also

References

External links