OVER 1000 leading activists from Thane-Palghar districts of Maharashtra took part in a remarkable function held on October 10, 2020 at the Comrade Godavari Shamrao Parulekar Bhawan at Talasari to observe the anniversary of four historic events.

The first three were the 75th anniversaries of the formation of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha on January 7, 1945; the beginning of the famed Warli Adivasi Revolt on May 23, 1945; and the martyrdom at the hands of the British rulers of the first five adivasi comrades of this revolt on October 10, 1945. Comrade Jethya Gangad was the first martyr.

It was also the 24th anniversary of the cremation of the legendary leader, former CPI(M) Central Committee member and former AIKS national president Godavari Parulekar at Talasari on October 10, 1996. 

This special function was organised by the Thane-Palghar district committees of the CPI(M) and AIKS. The programme began with the flag-hoisting by 92-year old veteran Party and AIKS leader L B Dhangar, and floral tributes to as many as 61 martyrs of the district so far, killed by the British, Congress and BJP regimes, by another veteran Party and AIKS leader, 82-year old Lahanu Kom, ex-MP and ex-MLA.

The portraits of Comrades Godavari Parulekar and Shamrao Parulekar were garlanded by Prof Archana Prasad of JNU, Delhi, and by renowned journalist and founder-editor of 'PARI', P Sainath respectively. After the introduction by AIKS state vice president Barkya Mangat, AIKS national president Ashok Dhawale presided over the function. The three main speakers were P Sainath, Prof Archana Prasad and former general secretary of the AIPSN, Dinesh Abrol. Veteran Party leaders, both women and men, were warmly felicitated for their decades-long contribution to the Red Flag.

The highlight of the function was the release of the Marathi edition of Archana Prasad's book that had earlier been published in English by LeftWord Books and AIKS, titled 'Red Flag of the Warlis: History of an Ongoing Struggle'. It was written after painstakingly interviewing 165 comrades, old and young, from the area of the struggle. The book was translated by Maya Pandit and Uday Narkar.

Six other books were also released on this occasion. They were 'Brief Review of the History of the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha' by Godavari Parulekar, which was first published in 1986; a book on the Warli Adivasi Revolt by veteran deceased AIKS leader Krishna Khopkar; a book on the historic liberation struggle of Dadra Nagarhaveli from Portuguese colonial rule in 1954 led by the CPI(M) and AIKS, the Samyukta Maharashtra movement in Thane district, and the organisation of the 13th AIKS national conference at Dahanu in 1955 braving state repression, by veteran AIKS leader L B Dhangar who had himself participated in these struggles; a biography of Comrades Shamrao and Godavari Parulekar by Ashok Dhawale; a booklet on ‘How to Build a Strong AIKS Organisation’, based on the two classes taken by former AIKS national president S Ramachandran Pillai in Maharashtra; and a photo feature pamphlet on one year of work for the people by CPI(M)’s young MLA Vinod Nikole, who was elected in October 2019. 

These seven books were variously published by Janashakti Prakashan, CPI(M) Maharashtra state committee and Thane-Palghar district committee and by the Maharashtra Rajya Kisan Sabha. A stall of the above books, as well as Godavari Parulekar's famous book 'Adivasis Revolt' and other Party literature was set up by AIDWA activists. This stall sold literature worth as much as Rs 25,850 that day!

Archana Prasad, spoke about the importance of recording the histories of the Communist-led agrarian movements; she noted that the absence of a record of struggles has led the historians of contemporary India to the conclusion that the Communists have stopped struggles and therefore the Communist struggles are missing from the annals of history. Therefore, it is our responsibility to correct the way in which historical records are kept so that the Communist movements remain alive in public memory. It is with this understanding that Mariam Dhawale approached her to write the oral history of the historic Warli Adivasi struggle and all the other struggles carried out by the comrades sitting here to commemorate the 75th year of this revolt.

She said that in the process of writing this history two things became very clear. First, the history of the Communist movement is a living history because it can only be kept alive through continuous struggles; where there are no struggles there is no history. Second, the Communist leadership and ideology was not some external force that came and went away. In fact, the Warlis’ fight for their dignity and self-respect turned them into Communists; they adopted the Communist ideology and carried it forward. Archana closed her address by highlighting the need to have people’s historians who emerge from the process of ongoing struggle. She said that, for her the process of recording the oral history of the on-going struggles had made her realise, that if you are not part of the movement, you cannot write this history. In this era of fascism, the lessons of this struggle are important and will inspire us to one day, overthrow these oppressive structures of capitalist exploitation.

P Sainath spoke of the unspeakable misery and hardships imposed on the migrant workers, unorganised workers, peasants and agricultural labourers by the Modi-led BJP regime during the Covid lockdown. Hundreds of migrant workers died of exhaustion, starvation or accidents, but the Modi regime had no tears to shed for them and no help to give them. In fact, the government even went to the extent of submitting an affidavit to the Supreme Court flatly denying that migrant workers were trudging hundreds of kilometers on the highways to reach their homes. Similarly, in spite of unemployment at record levels and the agrarian crisis reaching its lowest depths, the Modi regime did absolutely nothing for the army of the unemployed or for the farmers in distress. All its largesse was reserved for its favourite crony corporates like the Ambanis and the Adanis, who got massively enriched.

On top of all this, said Sainath, the BJP government has recently rammed through three farm laws and three labour laws in parliament. All these are an unprecedented assault on farmers and workers and are clearly aimed at further enriching the corporate and multinational lobby. The need of the hour is to launch a massive campaign against these laws among farmers and workers and launch huge united struggles against them. For these coming struggles, the Warli Adivasi Revolt led by Comrades Shamrao and Godavari Parulekar, and all the other historic struggles like Telangana, Tebhaga and Punnapra Vayalar, led by the Kisan Sabha in the 1940s, will serve as shining beacons of inspiration.      

This 75th anniversary function concluded with revolutionary slogans and with great hope and inspiration for the future.