PEASANTS’ mass resistance against police repression and landlords’ attacks is one of the most important features of the peasant movement in Bihar, particularly in the districts of Patna, Gaya, Nalanda, Aurangabad and Bhojpur.

Gohar (armed gathering for confrontation ) has always been a common phenomenon in rural Bihar. But in recent years, its complexion has undergone a phenomenal change. In earlier gohars militants among the rural poor used to serve as cannon-fodder in the internal conflicts of the pro­pertied classes. Initially when the revolutionary commu­nists were rather weak, the rural rich tried the same weapon against them too. But in today's changed situation, they can no longer do that. The revolutionary communists today are much stronger, and above all, the poor now side with the poor. This peasant gohar is a new glorious phe­nomenon in the history of peasant movements in Bihar. It creates very favourable conditions for developing armed forces under the leadership of the Party, for creating ‘parallel government’ of the peasants and other sections of the people, and for transforming each and every peasant into a fighter. It has all the characteristics of a peasant insurrection-in-embryo. During these gohars a large num­ber of peasants, sometimes whole villages — men, women and children alike — temporarily plunge into a heroic battle against armed police, spontaneously erecting barricades, lying down in face of firing, and counter-attacking with whatever arms available to them.

The mass resistance against the police at Kunai on 25 December, 1985, may be considered as a typical example. The village remained a veritable battle-field throughout the day, with over 5,000 people determined to enter the village to erect a column in memory of their beloved martyrs and armed police surrounding the village to prevent their entry. Batches of people like wave after wave tried to enter the village from several directions. The police charged lathis at close quarters, but the masses still encircled them; they threw teargas shells, but the youth lobbed the unexploded shells back on the policemen, finally, the police opened fire, only to find the masses lying down en masse. Many policemen got injured in this day-long encounter, and on our side two poor peasants lost their lives, a loss, which, considering the proportions of the encounter, must be regarded as remarkably moderate, thanks to the experienced tackling of the police on the part of the masses. In one of the largest First Infor­mation Reports ever recorded, the police wrote that these people were all ‘Naxalites’ for they seemed to be ‘so well trained’ to face police firing !

In the course of these unprecedented resistance struggles, there have emerged three broad types of peasants' armed forces. Though their types are different they play a well-defined complementary role as the backbone of this resistance.

(i) Village self-defence corps : In almost every village, or more precisely in every two out of three villages in the areas of struggle, there can be found 10 to 15 people who rush with arms, mainly traditional ones, whenever any attack is made by the local reactionaries. It is such people who constitute the village self-defence corps. They protect the leaders and activists of the movement from the goons of the enemy. In normal times they take part in production and conduct night-watch.

(ii) Local armed squads : Comprising 5 to 7 militant youths from the village self-defence corps of 2 to 3 villages, these squads conduct revolutionary propaganda in the surrounding villages and keep the militant youths of these villages active and alert. They are generally aimed with fire-arms, and while resisting police operations or combating armed gangs of the landlords it is they who play the vanguard role, coordinating all the self-defence corps of nearby villages. Often they take independent initiative to disarm a notorious tyrant or a gangster, seizing his arms. So far such squads have seized no less than 500 guns in the main areas of struggle. At times a few members of such squads would march like an armed propaganda squad, get necessary training and take part in propaganda campaigns as well as in armed actions. They generally engage in production, but give priority to the work of the organisation. In short, these squads form the core of self-defence corps and act as links between self-defence corps and regular armed units.

(iii) Regular armed units : Small, compact and mobile in nature, these units form the core of all the armed forces of the people and are the chief architects of the peasants’ resistance struggle and resistance forces. They are composed of fighters who have left their hearth and home to work permanently for revolution. They operate over definite areas which are divided into interior and exterior boundaries. The interior boundaries cover areas where they take up intensive political work, while areas within the exterior boundaries are used for purposes of shifting / retreating / moving in circles etc. so as to retain military manoeuvr­ability. Unit incharges are appointed to look after the military and political work in each unit. Displaying keen sense of discipline and loyalty to the Party, these units work in close cooperation with Party organisers of the concerned areas and under full command and planning of the district committees of the Party. Only rarely do they violate some Party decisions and disregard the instructions of the Party representative. Recently when a district committee of the Party ordered a unit to return the gun seized from a Bhumihar landlord as this gun had not been used against the people and the seizure was contrary to the Party's policies, the unit members protested this decision en masse and lodged a written complaint with the Party Central Committee against the decision, and the agitated unit incharge even deposited his rifle and resigned from the unit. They did all this, but only after implementing the Party decision. However, in subsequent discussions they realised the implications of the decision of the Party and the incharge, too, resumed his duties.

Often such units are split up into parts with each member being put at the head of what is called an Armed Propaganda Squad, formed with selected elements from the local armed squads. The armed propaganda squads are entrusted with the task of undertaking propaganda campaigns in definite areas for definite periods.

To carry on fierce struggle against class enemies who are armed to the teeth and to defend themselves from the operations of the police, these units need modern fire-arms. And the main mode of procuring such arms has been over­running police camps and attacking mobile police patrols. Generally they do not kill policemen, except when it becomes absolutely necessary for the success of the operation or for their own security. Since 1977, in all 78 modern fire-arms have been snatched in 17 actions against police camps/patrols. However, a few of these arms have been seized back by the enemy.

Peasants’ armed forces adopt different tactics in combating and smashing different reactionary armed gangs. Here are a few examples of how the armed forces deal with various categories of reactionary armed gangs.

Armed groups belonging to individual landlords : To begin with, the masses are mobilised in struggles on socio-economic issues against the landlord, punitive measures are adopted against him and warnings are issued to his muscle-men, and through their own castemen and relatives they are even sought to be persuaded to mend their ways. If all these measures fail and the landlord still remains adamant, he is executed and his gang smashed, The killing of Keshari Sing and his gangmen in Kako area of Jehanabad is a case in point. This tyrant landlord (also a mukhiya) not only refused to mend his ways, but turned into a righthand man of notorious smuggler king and Congress (I) MP, Mahendra Singh, and even joined hands with Krishna Singh’s Brahmarshi Sena. So on 19 April 1985, his jeep was ambushed and he was killed alongwith his gangmen.

Individual criminal gangs : Take the example of Sheoji Singh of Sandesh P. S. (Bhojpur district). His landholding is not much, seven bighas, but he runs at least eight illegal country-liquor dens. And furthermore, this lumpen element has an armed gang of eight and there is no crime on earth that this gang has not committed. To counter it, initially we distributed leaflets, conducted mass meetings, staged demonstrations, and even a case was lodged with the court. The people were also mobilised in harvesting crops from his field. But the gang’s crimes continued unabated. Ultimately, our armed unit openly attacked him in the marketplace, but he managed to make a narrow escape, thanks to the intervention of the police.

Fascist gangs masquerading as peasant organisations : The Kshetriya Kisan Mahasabha is a case in point. Mahendra Singh of Amat was its founder-president. Standing parallel to this so-called Mahasabha, the BPKS continued to propa­gate its programme and launch struggles on diverse issues. Peasants’ armed resistance was also widely organised. Later on, Mahendra Singh was arrested and killed, and his lieutenant Umesh Singh and three others were attacked and their arms seized. Thereafter, nobody heard about the Kshetriya Kisan Mahasabha. Many peasants who were earlier deceived by that organisation are now under the influence of the BPKS.

Fascist gangs controlled by lumpen politicians : The case of ‘Kallu gang’ of Vaishali district can be cited as an instance. Kallu had managed to make his way into the Marxist-Leninist movement and sought to sabotage the move­ment from within. He even conducted secret killings within the organisation before being finally thrown out. But expelled, he quickly formed an armed gang of his own, recruiting some lumpen and criminal elements. Till date, this gang has killed at least half-a-dozen supporters and leaders of the peasant movement. Attempts are on to develop mass resistance against this gang.

Bhoomi Sena : “Hasten the process of disintegration of the Bhoomi Sena, win over the middle peasants/strata and bring rich peasants under control, isolate the gangsters from the Kurmi masses and smash them” — such is the policy adopted by the local Party organisation in combating the Bhoomi Sena. Widespread propaganda has been conducted among the Kurmi masses, appeals have been issued on behalf of enlightened Kurmi peasants, and intervention of various democratic organisations and enlightened personalities, particularly from within the Kurmi caste, has been sought.

The Kisan Sabha also took some reform measures. Mean­while, the Kurmi peasants, too, got disenchanted with the activities of the Bhoomi Sena. At the same time, peasants under our leadership firmly kept up their socio-political and economic offensive against the ringleaders, resistance continued unabated, and at least 11 ringleaders were punished by death. All these factors have contributed in hastening the disintegration of this gang.

But instead of resting content with this development, the Patna District Committee of our Party has issued a fresh appeal to the Kurmi peasants, urging them to foil any attempt of reviving the Bhoomi Sena and to fight shoulder to shoulder with the rural poor (see Appendix).

Incidentally, in a village that was once a Bhoomi Sena den, the village committee of the Kisan Sabha has success. fully won over the middle section of the Kurmi peasants, established control over rich peasants, and made even landlords (barring one or two) submit before the committee. It stipulated the following conditions :

    (i) Sever all connections with the Bhoomi Sena, in case of any complaint, lodge it with the village committee.

    (ii) Stop forthwith all oppressive activities like beating or abusing the poor or lower-caste people,

    (iii) Pay wages as fixed by the committee,

    (iv) Deposit all your guns/rifles with the committee (in the case of landlords).

    (v) Pay penalty for damages done to the people (applica­ble only to landlords and rich peasants).

Lorik Sena : Many progressive leading figures, intellectuals and mass leaders from among the Yadavas were mobi­lised to undertake padayatras etc. and the Party members explained the Party’s policies among the masses of Yadava peasants. Mass organisations, too, took various initiatives to diffuse the prevailing tension. They convened a meeting of some prominent Yadavas and gave a patient hearing to the grievances of the Yadava community, admitted mistakes committed during the implementation of certain policies and reiterated the principled stand of the organisation, and highlighted the achievements of united struggles, contrasting these against the harms done by the Lorik Sena. All of them arrived at a shared opinion and decided to work for restoring unity.

The lumpen armed gang did not receive enough support from the Yadava masses either, and in certain villages the masses even reprimanded them.

All these measures, coupled with certain favourable political developments, have hastened the disintegration of the Lorik Sena to a considerable extent.