TILL date, Purnea is the strongest bastion of the feudal forces in Bihar. It is perhaps here in Purnea that all the obnoxious features of feudal remnants appear in their crudest expressions. The district of big landlords (controlling thousands of acres in many cases) with their octopus-like grip over the lives of the peasants, Purnea was regarded as Kalapani (forbidden land) till few years back. The incidence of sharecropping is highest in Purnea — 534 out of every 1,000 cultivators as against the corresponding figures of 184, 139 and 86 for Bhojpur-Rohtas, Patna and Gaya respectively. In the 1950s Purnea had witnessed militant movements of the peasantry, particularly of the sharecroppers, under the leadership of the CPI and the Socialists. The rugged countryside of Purnea, often haunted by the fury of the dreaded river Kosi, produced the prose of peasant ‘distur­bances’ in the legend of Nakshatra Malakar. By the 60s, however, the legend was lost as all movements were locked up in the labyrinth of legalism by the CPI leadership. The Naxalbari movement in the 70s made little headway in Purnea, except sporadic struggles and ferocious attacks by the landlords (like the one at Chandwa-Rupaspur where 35 Santhals were burnt alive) nothing much was heard about the district.

It was again in the early 80s that we began to make fresh inroads in Purnea. At a very preliminary stage of our work we shed our first blood in the martyrdom of Comrade Brajesh Mohan Thakur on 15 March, 1986. Similar has been the fate of all his predecessors who had dared to rouse and organise the peasantry in Purnea. But the aftermath of Brajesh’s martyrdom has turned out to be entirely different: a new chapter of peasant movement seems to have been ushered in in this accursed district.

The initial shock following his murder soon gave way to militant protests. Hundreds of Santhal peasants armed with bows and arrows gheraoed the police station demanding immediate punishment to the culprit landlords and their goons. In another incident, the masses chased and thrashed one of the goons who was a party to this ghastly murder. The notorious landlord and the main culprit, Sitaram Singh was also encircled and he was let off only after he begged mercy. (Subsequently, on 7 June, he has been done to death.) Such militant protests in the wake of the martyrdom of Com. Brajesh were unique in the history of peasant movement in Purnea and even surpassed our own expectations. On May 30, 1986, nearly 10,000 peasants gathered at Kakkarbigha village in Dhamdaha P.S. to erect a memorial in the memory of Com. Brajesh defying Section 144 declared by the district administration. Undaunted by the threats of landlords and their goons, dozens of activists had put in tremendous efforts to make this mobilisation a success. Instead of getting panicked, the peasants are clearly in a militant mood and seem to be preparing for a showdown.