881. Harekrishn a Konar (1915-1974)

Born on August 5, 1915, Comrade Harekrishna Konar passed away on July 23, 1974, at the early age of 59. This revolutionary fighter for freedom, became convinced that individual terrorism was futile, and Marxism-Leninism alone is the beacon light in the path of emancipation of the down-trodden throughout the world.

His was a life of total dedication – dedication to the cause of freedom, democracy and socialism.

At a very young age, in 1930, he was convicted for participation in the civil disobedience movement and later in 1932, convicted for revolutionary activities to overthrow the British Government and sent to the Cellular Jail in the Andamans.

It was during those days in the Andamans Jail that Comrade Harekrishna Konar came to accept Communism and became a member of the Communist Consolidation in the jail.

Released in 1938, when a mighty countrywide agitation forced the Government to release all those imprisoned in the Andamans, Comrade Harekrishna Konar plunged into the building of the revolutionary movement, the Communist Party and Kisan Sabha.

For years, he had been the General Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha. His strident voice upholding the cause of the peasants and agricultural labourers and powerfully exposing the venomous character of the exploitation of the landlords had been heard within the protals of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly and throughout the country.

During the short span of a few months when he was the Land and Land Revenu Minister in the United Front Government in West Bengal in 1967 and again in 1969, he showed the only way by which even the limited land reforms could be implemented – viz., by the peasants and agricultural laboureres organising themselves and implementing the reforms and not by depending on the bureaucracy.

As a member of the Central Executive Committee of the united Communist Party, he was among those who fought to the bitter end the revisionist leadership. In the years 1959-62, he was among the foremost who fought the crassest chauvinism of the dominant leadership on the Sino-Indian dispute. When events made it impossible to continue in that party, he had no hesitation in leaving that party and was one of the founders of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He had continued to be a member of the Central Committee. He fought the Left-sectarian trend in the Party when it raised the banner of revolt, defended the Marxist-Leninist line of the Party, and preserved the unity and strength of the Party.

Everyone who came in contact with him would be struck by his remarkable versatility. He was an able speaker, keeping his audience spell-bound, debator, writer, Party organiser and leader of the masses. In 1948, when the Party was declared illegal, he evaded arrest and till 1952, organised the Party and mass activities from the underground. His contribution in the Central Committee meetings was great.

During his whole life, he passionately worked for developing the agrarian revolutionary movement.

He had been incarcerated in jail for long years, both by the British and by the Congress Governments. Long years of jail and underground life had undermined his health. And yet, he carried on normal Party activities with a zeal which younger men might envy.