Agartala, June 30: A recently- published autobiography by a retired little-known Communist leader of the erstwhile undivided Assam has stirred a hornet’s nest in the Left-ruled Tripura. Octogenarian Pranesh Biswas has penned a 117-page memoir of his life, christened Smarane Manane (In Memory and in Mind).
Born into a middle class family of Churta village in Habiganj district of (present) Bangladesh, Biswas rose to become a leading light of the Communist Party in the undivided Assam and came into contact with all the Marxist stalwarts — from Jyoti Basu, B.T. Ranadive to Rajeshwar Rao.
Biswas had played a key role in the formative stage of the Communist Party in Assam. What stands out among his personal reminiscences is the sight of Jyoti Basu and former general secretary of the undivided Communist Party P.C. Joshi moving around in shorts and half shirt.
Apart from this, Biswas recalls how he found a fellow student copying openly from a book during the final law examination of Calcutta University way back in 1941.
When the student, seated in front of Biswas, was warned by the invigilator against copying, he shouted, “Get lost if you want to remain alive, shall I sit idle and fail when others are copying from books?” The invigilator quietly withdrew from the scene.
Biswas was also an eye-witness when former leader of the Marxist Cultural Front, Hemanga Biswas, was abused and turned out of his home by his father for his association with the Communist Party in Mirashi village under Sylhet district of present Bangladesh.
While these small reminiscences make the book interesting, Biswas’ reassessment of the “mistakes” made by the Marxists in confronting the serious issues of ethnic upsurge, land question and language problem may spark a major controversy.
“No national political party has made a serious effort to assess and understand the problems confronting the people in Assam and, unless it is done, ethnic discontent will continue to manifest itself in militancy,” he says in the book.
Biswas has also referred to the explosive issue of rush for land in Assam by the Bengalis from the then Eastern Bengal under the leadership of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Vasani.
“Vasani was considered a peer (Muslim theologian) endowed with spiritual power and his call for capturing Khoda’s (God’s) land evoked an overwhelming response from the landless peasantry in bordering areas of Assam,” Biswas says.
“All existing laws banning encroachment on tribal land were gleefully broken by the mad rush and the demographic balance in Barpeta, Dhubri and Goalpara district areas were permanently altered,” he adds.
He, however, seems to have retained the ambivalent attitude of the Marxists towards the aspirations and demands of the indigenous Assamese and tribal population in regard to their language, culture and identity.
Besides, Biswas’ endorsement of the view that the undivided Communist Party had indirectly supported the demand for Pakistan is also likely to trigger a controversy.
“It emerged clearly from the statements of the party and utterances of leaders that the CPI was at least indirectly supporting the demand for Pakistan,” he says in his memoir.
Biswas’ reference to how the undivided Communist Party had functioned without a concrete programme until Ranadive formulated his controversial “armed struggle” line may jolt some orthodox Marxists and his former colleagues.