Master Jagdish and Ramayan Ram Remembered
CPIML paid tribute to the immortal martyrs of the Bhojpur peasant upsurge, Master Jagadish and Ramayan Ram, on 50th anniversary of their martyrdom on 10 December. Beginning with an early morning meeting at Ekwari, the village of Comrades Jagdish Master, Ramnaresh Ram and Rameshwar Yadav, thousands of people proceeded to Aiyar in Jagdishpur, the village of Comrade Ramayan Ram and then Bihiya, the site of their martyrdom, garlanding their memorials and meeting their family members and comrades before finally concluding with a Sankalp Sabha at the Ara Kranti Park.
CPIML General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya along with senior leaders and veteran comrades led the march and addressed the people on this occasion.
Fifty years have elapsed since the tragic killing of Master Jagdish and Ramayan Ram at Bihiya in Bhojpur. Master Jagdish, the science teacher from Ekwari village of Sahar PS in Bhojpur had left his teaching job and chosen a new mission in his life in the wake of the Naxalbari peasant upsurge. With Comrades Ramnaresh Ram, Rameswar Yadav, Ramayan Ram and a group of few other young comrades, all raring to challenge the oppressive feudal order and blaze a new trail of revolutionary defiance and assertion by the most oppressed sections of society, Master Jagdish founded the CPIML in Bhojpur and Shahabad region of Bihar.
The movement began to spread like wild fire and the oppressed poor of Bhojpur began speaking a new language of resistance as they rose in revolt against the oppressive feudal order. The feudal forces unleashed repression in league with the state and spread rumour and prejudices to malign the movement and its leaders. On December 10, 1972, Master Jagdish and Comrade Ramayan found themselves encircled and attacked by a group of landless poor who mistook them as thieves. There was no end to their remorse when they later realised their mistake. The martyrdom of Master Jagdish and Ramayan Ram redoubled the revolutionary resolve of the movement and its appeal among the oppressed poor of Bhojpur. The movement never looked back despite tremendous state repression and feudal violence including serial massacres.
The fire lit by the spark that travelled from Naxalbari to Ekwari continues to glow in the hearts of the youth and rural poor of Bhojpur, and the movement is determined to defeat the fascist offensive the same way it took on the feudal power five decades ago, changing the identity of Bhojpur from being a feudal fortress to a bastion of the revolutionary communist movement.
