“LAND struggles in Bihar”, is a recently published book by JankiPrakashan. Hassan Imam, a cultural activist has done a commendable job during the pandemic with the help of “Xavier Institute of Social Research” by fulfilling this long felt documentation and the socio-economic changes brought about in the lives of the landless and homeless people who fought with red flags in their hands to live a life of dignity, for a roof over their head and a patch of land to till.

Hassan has watched this saga of struggles unfolding before his eyes as his father Comrade Shamim Imam, the then CPI leader was an organiser and a leader of a land movement launched against the dreaded landlord of Bajitpur in Begusarai district.

Hassan toured the length and breadth of 11 districts and interacted with the actual heroines and heroes of the bitter class struggles and heard the exploits of the martyrs who faced the brutality of the big landowning classes and their saviours in the successive governments right from the ’50s to 2021.

Though  Hassan has surveyed many land struggles launched during the post independence period starting from the Sathi Movement against “Bettiah Maharaj” which completely exposes the pro-landlord character of the Congress leadership and many other movements led by CPI and socialist parties. Though the land struggle unleashed by CPI and at some places by the Socialist Party, forced the government to enact some laws in favour of the landless and the sharecroppers but the distribution of excess ceiling, government and Bhoodan lands was never on the agenda of the successive governments. After the split in the communist movement, it was the CPI(M) which carried on the militant tradition of land movements. Most of the districts covered by Hasan has seen many heroic struggles resulting in possession of excess ceiling, government and Bhoodan land by the landless and homeless people mostly belonging to the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes and other minority communities.

Marxwadi Nagar, Hare Krishna Konar Nagar, Pramod Das Gupta Nagar, Sundarayya Nagar, Lenin Nagar, Muzaffar Ahmad Nagar and many such villages and bastis dotting these 11 districts surveyed by the writer brings to the light the horror stories of the landlords and their backers in the government on the one hand and on the other, equally the determination of the dalits, marginalised homeless and landless people to realise their dream of having land and home even at the cost of laying down their lives.

At the beginning of the 90’s it was CPI(M) alone that fought and liberated thousands of acres of land from the illegal possession of the landlord and the land mafias.

The book has correctly noted that after the possession of the land the other activities connected with culture, education, struggle against obscurantist and unscientific ideas were not addressed, which are the fertile ground for the reactionary ideas to flourish. During the conversation with the land beneficiaries, it was a common complain that the leaders of red flag bearers are not in touch with the new generation who are living a better life and are vulnerable to the many reactionary political influences  based on religion, caste etc.

The book is a wake-up call for the Left Parties, particularly CPI(M) to make a fresh bid to win over the new generation of land beneficiaries and ideologically mobilise them against the neo-liberal  regime and its impact on their daily lives.

The writer of the book could not find time to tour the Koshi areas particularly Purnea, which was the epicentre of land movement during 90’s led by one of the tallest peasants leaders, Comrade Ajit Sarkar who was brutally gunned down by the goons of the landlords under the leadership of Pappu Yadav, an extortionist turned politician.