Srikakulam peasant uprising

(Redirected from Srikakulam Girijan Naxalbari movement)

Part of the origins of Naxalite–Maoist insurgency

Date	1967–1970
Location	Srikakulam
Result	Uprising suppressed

Belligerents

India

CPI (ML)

Commanders and leaders

Vempatapu Satyanarayana †

Adibhatla Kailasam †

Units involved

CRPF

Local peasantry

Casualties and losses

120 CRPF killed

Unknown

Communism in India
Part of a series on

People M. N. Roy M. P. T. Acharya Sahajanand Saraswati Shripad Amrit Dange Abani Mukherji Yashpal A. K. Gopalan B. T. Ranadive Nripen Chakraborty P. Krishna Pillai Puran Chand Joshi Damodar Dharmananda Kosambi Bhagat Singh Ajoy Ghosh E. M. S. Namboodiripad S.K. Limaye Promode Dasgupta V. Subbiah Puchalapalli Sundarayya Kondapalli Seetharamaiah Saroj Dutta Jyoti Basu Bhupesh Gupta Hare Krishna Konar Dasarath Deb Harkishan Singh Surjeet T. Nagi Reddy Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri Charu Majumdar Indrajit Gupta E. K. Nayanar Shibdas Ghosh V. S. Achuthanandan Geeta Mukherjee Mohit Sen A. G. Noorani Biman Bose Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Pinarayi Vijayan Vinod Mishra Manik Sarkar D. Raja Ganapathy Kobad Ghandy Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya Sitaram Yechury Anuradha Ghandy Mohammed Salim
HistoryColonial period and partition Communism in the independence movement Conspiracy cases Peshawar Kanpur Bolshevik Meerut Kakori conspiracy Foundation of the CPI Tanka movement Quit India Movement Telangana Rebellion 1946 Naval Uprising Tebhaga movement Punnapra-Vayalar uprising Post-independence and Cold War 2nd Congress of the CPI Goa liberation movement 1957 general election in Kerala Angamaly police firing Sino-Indian border dispute 1964 split in the CPI Historic Eight Documents Naxalite–Maoist insurgency Naxalbari uprising Timeline Left Front Tripura West Bengal Rajan case Operation Barga Left Democratic Front Indravelli massacre Contemporary history Bara massacre Laxmanpur Bathe massacre Maoism in the Nandigram violence Salwa Judum 2013 Naxal attack in Darbha valley
Ideologies Marxism–Leninism Maoism Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Stalinism Marxist feminism Marxist humanism National communism Primitive communism Trotskyism
Principles Agrarian socialism Anti-fascism Anti-imperialism Class conflict Land reform in Kerala Left-wing nationalism Left-wing populism People's war Proletarian internationalism Revolutionary socialism Welfare
Current organisations AIFB TUCC BPI CPI AISF AITUC AIYF BKMU NFIW CPI(M) AIDWA AIKS CITU DYFI SFI CPI (Maoist) KAMS PLGA RYL CPI(ML)L AIKM AISA CPIML ND MCPI(U) AICTU MFB MLPI (Red Flag) NSA RCPI RMPI RSP SUCI(C) UCPI
Defunct organisations AICP BLPI CIC CC Communist Marxist Party Communist Party of French India Comrades Association CPI (ML) HSRA ICS Lal Communist Party Lal Sena LKPH MCPI WPP
Media Deshabhimani Ganashakti LeftWord Books Nava Telangana People's Democracy Prajasakti Qaumi Jang Theekkathir Visalaandhra
Related topics Anarchism in India Communism in Kerala Communism in Nepal Communist movements in India Gandhian socialism Inquilab Zindabad Lal Salam List of communist parties in India Red corridor Socialism in India State of socialist orientation
Communism portal
v t e

The Srikakulam peasant uprising occurred from 1967 to 1970, in Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh, India. The Naxalbari uprising at the beginning of the Naxalite movement during the 1960s inspired the upsurge.

Origin

The Telangana Rebellion that occurred between 1946 and 1947 left a deep impression on the communist movement going on in India. This ensued an internal debate and formulation of the "Andhra Thesis" where the communists from Andhra Pradesh urged that for the sake of Indian Revolution the communist movement must follow the style of communist movement in China. In June 1948, the "Andra Letter" was articulated that emphasised on the strategy of protracted people's war and new democracy based on Maoism.

The communists had gained a prominent mass base in the tribal regions of Srikakulam since the early 1950s under leadership of two school teachers: Vempatapu Satyanarayana and Adibhatla Kailasam. The songs and verses of poet Subbarao Panigrahi also had a great involvement. With the deepening debate and crisis within the major communist parties and subsequent upheaval of naxalbari the leadership aligned themselves with the newly formed All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries which later transformed into Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist).

Uprising

On 31 October 1967, two persons associated with the communists, Koranna and Manganna were killed by landlords at Levidi village while the two were going to attend Girijan Samagam Conference. In retaliation the Girijans started retaliating by land, property and food grain seizure from the landlords. This activities spread in different villages paralyzing the local police for six months until additional police forces were sent by the government. The tribals started facing severe offensive. The leadership started organizing the mass upheaval into an organized movement by forming peasant guerrilla squads and a more systemic resistance.

Incidents

On 25 November 1968, 250 tribal peasants raided a land lords house snatching hoards of food grains, taking possession of belongings worth Rs.20,000 and burnt many documents.

On 20 December 1968, at Belereguda village guerrilla squads composed of 500 tribal peasants launched a surprise attack on 500 police officers, inflicting severe damage.

Decline

By 1969 activities of the peasant squads increased along with there increasing actions. The government sent 12,000 CRF to tackle the uprising. Serious warfare continued from 6 months. The major conflict zone was spread throughout the regions of upper Aviri area, Bothili hills, Sanjuvai, Vegulavada, Ithamanugadda in Srikakulam. By January 1970, 120 CRPF were killed. But the uprising soon met a rapid decline. Their uprising faced with serious losses due to the casualties inflicted on the leadership. Youth leader Tamada Ganapathy, Panchadi Krishnamurthy from Boddapadu, Dr. Chaganti Bhaskar Rao from Parchoor, Prakasam district, Subbarao Panigrahi and six others killed by Andhra police between May 10 - Nov 3 1969. By 1970, 10 July, Vempatapu Satyanaraya, Adibhatla Kailasam and others like Panchadi Nirmala were also killed and the uprising soon disseminated.

The reminiscences of the uprising still have some influence on the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency and the splintered Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (CPI(ML)) factions that exist today.

In popular culture

Formation of VIRASAM (Viplava Rachayithala Sangam) or Revolutionary Writer's Association.
Formation of Jana Natya Mandali (JNM) group by artists comprising popular film producer like Narasinga Rao.
Formation of Progressive Democratic Students Union in Hyderabad, Osmania University remembering George Reddy.

References

^ "The Naxalbari Uprising". www.bannedthought.net. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
Rangarajan, A.D. "Literature lends voice to the oppressed". The Hindu. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
^ "History of Naxalism". The Hindustan Times. 9 May 2003. Archived from the original on 14 August 2016. Retrieved 17 December 2016.
"JSTOR: Search Results". www.jstor.org. Retrieved 18 February 2022.
"Frontier articles on Society & Politics". www.frontierweekly.com. Retrieved 17 February 2022.
Media, Ideology and Hegemony. BRILL. 11 September 2018. ISBN 978-90-04-36441-7.
"Keeping the Dream Alive: In Memory of George Reddy | Mission Telangana". missiontelangana.com. 14 April 2012. Retrieved 17 December 2016.

Misplaced Pages