CPI (MAOIST) – Red Salutes to Member of the Central Committee Martyr Comrade Chintanda!

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MAOIST)

Central Committee

Press Release

December 18, 2021

Red Salutes to Member of the Central Committee

Martyr Comrade Chintanda!

Member of the Central Committee of CPI (Maoist) Comrade Narendra Sinh (Ashoda, Chintanda) laid down his life on the 6th January 2020 in a hospital in a town. He was suffering with illness for a long time and was in Coma since 2018. He was 74. He was the native of a village in the limits of Kesaria police station of East Champaran district in the state of Bihar in a middle class peasant family. He has a sister. He had his primary education in his village. His family shifted to Delhi where he had higher education in Jawaharlal Nehru University. He did his Doctorate on the Tharu tribal people living in Bihar-Nepal terai of the Himalayas. He did not marry.

After being granted a degree of high qualification he did not wish to take up any job. He took up work for the oppressed people to establish an exploitation-free society. During his education he was attracted towards Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. He studied it in detail. After finishing his education he started to work among the workers in Delhi. He was one of the founders of General Workers Union of Delhi. He organized the workers under this banner. During this time, in 1998-99 he came into contact with members of the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). He started to organize the peasants of villages as an activist of MCC. During his research he saw the horrible conditions of the Tharu and Uraon tribal, Dalit and landless peasants of West Champaran and was terribly moved. It is well known that the peasants of West Champaran not only face feudalism but also the dacoits. The people of the area are in terror and despair.

As soon as he went to the area he opened four schools by the name ‘Jan Shiksha Kendr’ (People’s Education centre) and started to impart education to the Dalit and tribal children. Apart from formal education the People’s Education Centres also imparted education about social change. Some of the students became part of class struggle.

At that time revolutionary work was going on with the perspective of establishing Base Area. He made efforts to build revolutionary movement among the people of the area. He developed mass base, formed the Krantikari Kisan Committee and guerilla squads. In the initial days of his revolutionary work an incident took place. Dacoits attacked the house of a minority adjacent to Sundarpur School. The men of the family were out at work at the time of the attack and two girls and the mother were there. The dacoits attempted sexual assault. The women cried out on seeing the dacoits. On hearing them Comrade Ashoda took a stick and went there along with his students and those present around. He shouted at them to stop. In that atmosphere the powerful voice of a red soldier and the resistance of the village people made the dacoits run out of fear. He brought the family the same night and gave shelter in the school for many days. The incident became a point of organisation and struggle for the people. This forest area of West Champaran developed into a guerilla zone. Land and arms were seized from the landlords, forest was protected, dacoits were chased away, there were attacks on the police and camps and arms were also seized from them. people stopped the cutting of forests by the landlords and the governments and protected them. They chased away the bandits. They made guerilla attacks on the police and police camps that are constantly indulging in attacks on the people.

When the North Bihar committee of the MCC was formed, Comrade Chintanda became part of it and when 3U (North Bihar-Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand) Special Area Committee was formed he was elected as a member of the Committee. When MCCI and CPI (ML) People’s War merged to form the CPI (Maoist) in 2004 he became a member of the Central Committee of the united party and subsequently became part of its North Regional Bureau (NRB). With the losses the NRB was dissolved and Comrade Chintanda continued to be a CCM until his last breath.

Comrade Chintanda was not only a good teacher of formal education but of Marxism. He took the responsibility of educating the cadres of the party. He taught to cadres of the areas of struggle on Marxist philosophy, Marxist economics and politics. His method of teaching was simple and natural. He explained complex things in a simple manner. He applied Marxism to practice and explained it through present examples. He had good hold in English and Hindi languages and also taught grammar of both the languages.

Comrade Chintanda was arrested three times in North Bihar, first in 2005 in North Bihar and the last in Kanpur of Uttar Pradesh in 2010. Each time he was arrested immediately after his release from jail. His arrest in Kanpur was very awful. He was tortured. It affected him physically and mentally. He suffered from mental shock three times due to the tortures by the police. In 2010 he lost one ear. He acquired Bone TB in prison. He had BP, Hernia and Piles. After his release in 2014 he could not take up any serious political responsibility. He gradually lost control on his body and mind. Oppression by the police and in jail deteriorated his body. He lost mental balance. In spite of treatment he could not recover and finally bid farewell to the world on 6th January 2020. We lost him forever.

Today Comrade Chintanda is no more among us. But we have his memory, ideals and his political work. His sacrifice, commitment and dare continue to inspire and guide all of us. His memory continues to make us feel strong.This is his magnificent and unforgettable memory.

After his release from Kanpur jail he came to Bihar-Jharkhand border area. There was an encounter with the Para-Military. They were firing and shelling but Comrade Chintanda was neither afraid nor disappointed. He was physically weak but his voice powerful. He courageously and heroically advanced in the battle. He enthused the PLGA fighters and attacked the enemy. He shouted ‘Comrades! Para-Military forces are not lions. The fighters of People’s Liberation Guerilla Army are live tigers and live long. Friends, advance and wipe them out’. The young fighters of PLGA took on the enemy with this inspiration and the Para-Military had to step back. 

Comrade Chintanda was good at self-criticism. When he understood that he went wrong he was least hesitant to admit and rectify it. He followed strict discipline in his daily life. This continued inside the prison and until he went unconscious. Mental shock deprived him the ability of tireless reading, writing and speaking. He was good with his comrades.

Few quotes and lessons from his life

1. Comrade Chintan was born and brought up in an exploitive caste but stood on behalf of the oppressed workerpeasants and oppressed people of the tribal, Dalit, backward and toiling castes. He laid down his entire life for the sake of revolution. He never demonstrated the least character of oppressed caste. He was a Communist of good characteristics.

2. He had higher education in prestigious educational institution of the country. He could have been a Professor in any University. But he sacrificed a life of conveniences and became a Revolutionary Communist. He served the proletariat like a proletarian. His sacrifice and commitment are ideal and commendable.

3. He thought that nothing should come in the way to accomplish New Democratic Revolution in India. He stood steadfast in the arena of armed struggle until his last breath.

4. The lure for post and money is an enemy of revolution. He was conscious about them. He even sacrificed his hereditary property and lived like a proletarian in the Party and among the people. He sacrificed his house and family and considered his comrades as kith and kin. He laid down his life among them. In difficulty he approached comrades and not his family. He lived according to his conditions and objectives. He did not compromise to anyone outside the party.

5. We might not be alive but the world will change. Revolution need not necessarily be completed during our life time. But we have the responsibility to accomplish it and the future generation shall do the rest of the work. He imbibed this and implemented it all through his life.

6. He made true what Nigerian poet and theatre personality Bole Shoyenka said. When he was released from prison after two years Shoyenka said thus about the effect of his prison life – ‘What you believe before going to prison you believe even after release. But this belief would be stronger’. In spite of arrest three times and torture, he neither broke, surrender nor was afraid. He considered the secrecy of the Party more than his life. None of the states reported that there was any loss to the Party due to him. Each time after his release he became part of class struggle and people’s war with tempered determination.

7. He had a special feature in life such as, to sustain confidence in revolution and people in the utmost difficult conditions; stick steadfast to the official line of the Party; stay strong on class line-mass line and MLM.

Comrade Chintanda is a great teacher, popular speaker, educated academician and relentless activist. His proletarian characters made him a strong Communist and unwavering Marxist-Leninist-Maoist. The CC pays tearful homage to our comrade, co-warrior and teacher. We pledge to fulfill his work. We appeal to all the ranks of revolution to take lessons, initiative, determination and commitment from the life and relentless work of Comrade Chintanda. Transform the grief out of his martyrdom into strength, the tears into anger. Let us pledge again and again to fulfill the ideals of the martyrs,

‘Comrade we march forward holding the Red Flag

Your loss grieves us but we go on marching forward’.

Abhay

Spokesperson

Central Committee