Naxalbari: The guns fell silent here long ago. The cries of ‘China's chairman is our chairman' are no longer heard.
The fields of Boroorujot and Bengaijot villages are lush green as crops are sown, and there is no trace of the revolutionary fervour that triggered a violent peasant agitation 44 years back, ultimately blossoming into the blood-splattering Naxalite (Maoist) movement engulfing various parts of the country today.
Even as India continues to be singed by red terror, with Maoists still active in carrying out an armed struggle, Naxalbari — a name that once used to send a chill down the spines of the authorities — now looks like any other sleepy rural hamlet in the plains of northern West Bengal's Darjeeling district, which votes on Monday to elect a new state assembly.
It all started on May 25, 1967, when police fired on peasants demanding their right to till a piece of land at Bengaijot, killing nine people and two children.
This action triggered a protest which snowballed into a militant movement that derived its name from the area, about 32km from Siliguri. Tukuriya forest. The site of the guerrilla warfare camp once run by the Naxalites, is now feared only for snakes.
Today, very few people are even ready to talk about the Left uprising cradled by the fields and tea gardens of the area.
Not surprisingly, the Maoist movement is not an issue at the newly carved out Matigara-Naxalbari constituency which will see a five cornered contest, with the main battle likely to remain confined to Jharen Roy of Communist Party of India-Marxist and Sankar Malakar of the Congress.
Predictable campaign
The three other candidates are Asim Sarkar of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Atul Chandra Roy of Kamtapur Progressive Party and Dipu Haldar of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
Formed of parts of Siliguri and Phansidewa constituencies, Matigara-Naxalbari has seen a predictable election campaign revolving around the need to change the 34-year old Left Front rule.
Sankar Malakar of the Congress said, "Pro-changers will come up with flying colours."
The fields of Boroorujot and Bengaijot villages are lush green as crops are sown, and there is no trace of the revolutionary fervour that triggered a violent peasant agitation 44 years back, ultimately blossoming into the blood-splattering Naxalite (Maoist) movement engulfing various parts of the country today.
Even as India continues to be singed by red terror, with Maoists still active in carrying out an armed struggle, Naxalbari — a name that once used to send a chill down the spines of the authorities — now looks like any other sleepy rural hamlet in the plains of northern West Bengal's Darjeeling district, which votes on Monday to elect a new state assembly.
It all started on May 25, 1967, when police fired on peasants demanding their right to till a piece of land at Bengaijot, killing nine people and two children.
This action triggered a protest which snowballed into a militant movement that derived its name from the area, about 32km from Siliguri. Tukuriya forest. The site of the guerrilla warfare camp once run by the Naxalites, is now feared only for snakes.
Today, very few people are even ready to talk about the Left uprising cradled by the fields and tea gardens of the area.
Not surprisingly, the Maoist movement is not an issue at the newly carved out Matigara-Naxalbari constituency which will see a five cornered contest, with the main battle likely to remain confined to Jharen Roy of Communist Party of India-Marxist and Sankar Malakar of the Congress.
Predictable campaign
The three other candidates are Asim Sarkar of the Bharatiya Janata Party, Atul Chandra Roy of Kamtapur Progressive Party and Dipu Haldar of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
Formed of parts of Siliguri and Phansidewa constituencies, Matigara-Naxalbari has seen a predictable election campaign revolving around the need to change the 34-year old Left Front rule.
Sankar Malakar of the Congress said, "Pro-changers will come up with flying colours."
