COMMUNIST PARTY OF
INDIA (MAOIST)
Central Committee
Press Release
December 18, 2021
Red Salutes to Member of the Central
Committee
Martyr Comrade Chintanda!
Member of the Central Committee of CPI (Maoist) Comrade Narendra Sinh
(Ashoda, Chintanda) laid down his life on the 6th January 2020 in a hospital in
a town. He was suffering with illness for a long time and was in Coma since
2018. He was 74. He was the native of a village in the limits of Kesaria police
station of East Champaran district in the state of Bihar in a middle class
peasant family. He has a sister. He had his primary education in his village.
His family shifted to Delhi where he had higher education in Jawaharlal Nehru
University. He did his Doctorate on the Tharu tribal people living in
Bihar-Nepal terai of the Himalayas. He did not marry.
After being granted a degree of high qualification he did not wish to take
up any job. He took up work for the oppressed people to establish an
exploitation-free society. During his education he was attracted towards
Marxism-Leninism-Maoism. He studied it in detail. After finishing his education
he started to work among the workers in Delhi. He was one of the founders of
General Workers Union of Delhi. He organized the workers under this banner.
During this time, in 1998-99 he came into contact with members of the Maoist
Communist Centre (MCC). He started to organize the peasants of villages as an
activist of MCC. During his research he saw the horrible conditions of the Tharu
and Uraon tribal, Dalit and landless peasants of West Champaran and was
terribly moved. It is well known that the peasants of West Champaran not only
face feudalism but also the dacoits. The people of the area are in terror and
despair.
As soon as he went to the area he opened four schools by the name ‘Jan
Shiksha Kendr’ (People’s Education centre) and started to impart education to
the Dalit and tribal children. Apart from formal education the People’s
Education Centres also imparted education about social change. Some of the
students became part of class struggle.
At that time revolutionary work was going on with the perspective of
establishing Base Area. He made efforts to build revolutionary movement among
the people of the area. He developed mass base, formed the Krantikari Kisan
Committee and guerilla squads. In the initial days of his revolutionary work an
incident took place. Dacoits attacked the house of a minority adjacent to
Sundarpur School. The men of the family were out at work at the time of the
attack and two girls and the mother were there. The dacoits attempted sexual
assault. The women cried out on seeing the dacoits. On hearing them Comrade
Ashoda took a stick and went there along with his students and those present
around. He shouted at them to stop. In that atmosphere the powerful voice of a
red soldier and the resistance of the village people made the dacoits run out
of fear. He brought the family the same night and gave shelter in the school
for many days. The incident became a point of organisation and struggle for the
people. This forest area of West Champaran developed into a guerilla zone. Land
and arms were seized from the landlords, forest was protected, dacoits were
chased away, there were attacks on the police and camps and arms were also
seized from them. people stopped the cutting of forests by the landlords and
the governments and protected them. They chased away the bandits. They made
guerilla attacks on the police and police camps that are constantly indulging
in attacks on the people.
When the North Bihar committee of the MCC was formed, Comrade Chintanda
became part of it and when 3U (North Bihar-Uttar Pradesh-Uttarakhand) Special
Area Committee was formed he was elected as a member of the Committee. When
MCCI and CPI (ML) People’s War merged to form the CPI (Maoist) in 2004 he
became a member of the Central Committee of the united party and subsequently
became part of its North Regional Bureau (NRB). With the losses the NRB was
dissolved and Comrade Chintanda continued to be a CCM until his last breath.
Comrade Chintanda was not only a good teacher of formal education but of
Marxism. He took the responsibility of educating the cadres of the party. He
taught to cadres of the areas of struggle on Marxist philosophy, Marxist economics
and politics. His method of teaching was simple and natural. He explained
complex things in a simple manner. He applied Marxism to practice and explained
it through present examples. He had good hold in English and Hindi languages
and also taught grammar of both the languages.
Comrade Chintanda was arrested three times in North Bihar, first in 2005 in
North Bihar and the last in Kanpur of Uttar Pradesh in 2010. Each time he was
arrested immediately after his release from jail. His arrest in Kanpur was very
awful. He was tortured. It affected him physically and mentally. He suffered
from mental shock three times due to the tortures by the police. In 2010 he
lost one ear. He acquired Bone TB in prison. He had BP, Hernia and Piles. After
his release in 2014 he could not take up any serious political responsibility.
He gradually lost control on his body and mind. Oppression by the police and in
jail deteriorated his body. He lost mental balance. In spite of treatment he
could not recover and finally bid farewell to the world on 6th January 2020. We
lost him forever.
Today Comrade Chintanda is no more among us. But we have his memory, ideals
and his political work. His sacrifice, commitment and dare continue to inspire
and guide all of us. His memory continues to make us feel strong.This is his
magnificent and unforgettable memory.
After his release from Kanpur jail he came to Bihar-Jharkhand border area.
There was an encounter with the Para-Military. They were firing and shelling
but Comrade Chintanda was neither afraid nor disappointed. He was physically
weak but his voice powerful. He courageously and heroically advanced in the
battle. He enthused the PLGA fighters and attacked the enemy. He shouted
‘Comrades! Para-Military forces are not lions. The fighters of People’s
Liberation Guerilla Army are live tigers and live long. Friends, advance and
wipe them out’. The young fighters of PLGA took on the enemy with this
inspiration and the Para-Military had to step back.
Comrade Chintanda was good at self-criticism. When he understood that he
went wrong he was least hesitant to admit and rectify it. He followed strict
discipline in his daily life. This continued inside the prison and until he
went unconscious. Mental shock deprived him the ability of tireless reading,
writing and speaking. He was good with his comrades.
Few quotes and lessons from his life
1. Comrade Chintan was born and brought up in an exploitive caste but stood
on behalf of the oppressed workerpeasants and oppressed people of the tribal,
Dalit, backward and toiling castes. He laid down his entire life for the sake
of revolution. He never demonstrated the least character of oppressed caste. He
was a Communist of good characteristics.
2. He had higher education in prestigious educational institution of the
country. He could have been a Professor in any University. But he sacrificed a
life of conveniences and became a Revolutionary Communist. He served the
proletariat like a proletarian. His sacrifice and commitment are ideal and
commendable.
3. He thought that nothing should come in the way to accomplish New
Democratic Revolution in India. He stood steadfast in the arena of armed
struggle until his last breath.
4. The lure for post and money is an enemy of revolution. He was conscious
about them. He even sacrificed his hereditary property and lived like a
proletarian in the Party and among the people. He sacrificed his house and
family and considered his comrades as kith and kin. He laid down his life among
them. In difficulty he approached comrades and not his family. He lived
according to his conditions and objectives. He did not compromise to anyone
outside the party.
5. We might not be alive but the world will change. Revolution need not
necessarily be completed during our life time. But we have the responsibility
to accomplish it and the future generation shall do the rest of the work. He imbibed
this and implemented it all through his life.
6. He made true what Nigerian poet and theatre personality Bole Shoyenka
said. When he was released from prison after two years Shoyenka said thus about
the effect of his prison life – ‘What you believe before going to prison you
believe even after release. But this belief would be stronger’. In spite of
arrest three times and torture, he neither broke, surrender nor was afraid. He
considered the secrecy of the Party more than his life. None of the states
reported that there was any loss to the Party due to him. Each time after his
release he became part of class struggle and people’s war with tempered
determination.
7. He had a special feature in life such as, to sustain confidence in
revolution and people in the utmost difficult conditions; stick steadfast to
the official line of the Party; stay strong on class line-mass line and MLM.
Comrade Chintanda is a great teacher, popular speaker, educated academician
and relentless activist. His proletarian characters made him a strong Communist
and unwavering Marxist-Leninist-Maoist. The CC pays tearful homage to our
comrade, co-warrior and teacher. We pledge to fulfill his work. We appeal to
all the ranks of revolution to take lessons, initiative, determination and
commitment from the life and relentless work of Comrade Chintanda. Transform
the grief out of his martyrdom into strength, the tears into anger. Let us
pledge again and again to fulfill the ideals of the martyrs,
‘Comrade we march forward holding the Red
Flag
Your loss grieves us but we go on
marching forward’.
Abhay
Spokesperson
Central Committee