Comrade Hare Krishna Konar
Konar in 1963
General Secretary of the All India Kisan Sabha
In office 1968–1974
President	A. K. Gopalan
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	K. Chathunni
Minister of Land and Land Reforms, Government of West Bengal
In office 1969–1970
Chief Minister	Ajoy Mukherjee
Preceded by	President's rule and Himself (as Minister of Land and Land Revenue)
Succeeded by	Benoy Choudhury (1977)
Minister of Land and Land Revenue, Government of West Bengal
In office 1967–1967
Chief Minister	Ajoy Mukherjee
Preceded by	Office established
Succeeded by	President's rule and Himself (as Minister of Land and Land Reforms)
Member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly
In office 1957–1972
Preceded by	Baidyanath Sanyal, Rash Behari Sen
Succeeded by	Nurul Islam Molla
Constituency	Kalna
International affiliation Member of the Central Committee[lower-alpha 1] of the Chinese Communist Party In office 1960–1974 Director Wang Jiaxiang Liu Ningyi Geng Biao Member of the Central Committee[lower-alpha 2] of the Communist Party of Vietnam In office 1960–1974 General Secretary Ho Chi Minh Lê Duẩn Deputy Member of the Administrative Committee of the TUIAFPW In office 1970–1974 General Secretary Claude Billault
Personal details
Born	(1915-08-05)5 August 1915 Kamargoria village, Burdwan, Bengal Presidency, British India (present-day Kamargoria village, Purba Bardhaman district, West Bengal, India)
Died	23 July 1974(1974-07-23) (aged 58) Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Cause of death	Cancer[lower-alpha 3]
Resting place	Sahanagar crematorium
Political party	Communist Party of India (Marxist) (1964–1974) Communist Party of India (1938–1964)
Spouse	Biva Konar ​ (m. 1941)​
Children	3
Relatives	Benoy Krishna Konar (brother)
Alma mater	Bangabasi College
Signature
Nickname	Kesto[lower-alpha 4]

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Anushilan Samiti
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Hare Krishna Konar (Bengali: হরেকৃষ্ণ কোঙার, romanized: Harēkr̥ṣṇa kōṅāra, /ˈhɑːrə ˈkrɪʃnə ˈkɔːnɑːr/ ^ⓘ; 5 August 1915 – 23 July 1974) was an Indian Marxist revolutionary, political theorist, charismatic peasant leader and politician. Konar was a founding member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the figurehead behind India's first land reform, and the chief architect of the West Bengal land distribution. Between the 1960s and 1970s, he became one of the principal leaders of the Communist movements in India. In 1932, due to his involvement in the Begut Robbery Case of the Jugantar Party, Konar was deported to the Cellular Jail of the Andaman for 6 years at the age of 18, there he took part in the first hunger strike and in 1935 he founded the Communist Consolidation and led the historical second hunger strike.^[2][1]

Early life and revolutionary activities (1915–32)

Hare Krishna Konar was the eldest son of Sarat Chandra Konar and Satyabala Konar, his father and mother lived in Kamargoria village across the Damodar River, the ancestral home in Raina of Bardhaman district. Konar was born into an upper-middle-class family on August 5, 1915. His father was a well known businessman as well as a landlord in Kamargoria village. After a certain age he started his primary studies at Kamargoria Prathmik Bidyalay and was a student of the school, although he was interested in all the subjects but specially in Sanskrit he had an interest, after few years he completed his primary studies from the same school in Kamargoria. And in class 5, he shifted to the South Radhakantapur village of Memari with his parents. His father enrolled his son's name in Memari Vidyasagar Smriti Vidya Mandir School. After shifting to the new village the Congress leader of burdwan Bibhuti Datta used to visit their house regularly, actually Konar was influenced towards politics by the thoughts he had listed from the Congress leader Bibhuti Babu, In this time a new leader who had recently made his name in Indian Politics named Mahatma Gandhi had come out with his new idea of Ahimsa Andolan and launched his first Satyagraha movement in 1930, which was going all over the country and were participated by teachers, professors, lawyers, college students and school students but the teachers of Memari Vidyasagar Smriti Vidya Mandir never encouraged their students to the revolutionary activities, they actually tried many ways to maintain distance between movements and the school students. So to attend the Satyagraha campaigns and the political campaigns of Burdwan Congress, Konar goes to school and in the lunch time he attend the campaigns, he regularly attend the meetings and rallies. So one day a meeting about revolutionary culture was going on konar's father came and grab his hand to take Konar back to home but Hare Krishna Konar was clinging to the balcony post in front of the District Congress House, Sarat Konar had a great reputation in the village as he was a wealthy businessman and had a dream to send Konar to Oxford University for his further studies but Konar had left everythings, his studies, his future, his properties literally everything to get the Britishers rid of the country, so by struggling to take him back home from Burdwan district congress office Sarat Konar said:

You have to go home! I have arranged everything to send you to Oxford University, Why are you so persistent to leave home? Come home with me.^[3]

Held the pole tightly Konar replied:

Father, I will not go, you go back alone.^[3]

On that day, under the advice of Benoy Choudhury who was then incharged for the burdwan volunteer camp for the civil disobedience movement, a senior Congress leaders sent Hare Krishna Konar back home. With a bunch of sorrowness Sarat Chandra Konar built a hospital in Memari with all the money he had saved to send Hare Krishna Konar in Oxford University, London, first he gave 1 lakh 20 thousand rupees and later 80 thousand rupees. After few days, while studying in 9th standard at the age of 15 Hare Krishna Konar was arrested for picketing in front of Burdwan Raj College. Just after releasing from jail again, Konar again ran away from home towards Disobedience movement and were again arrested in April, 1930 for 6 months in Burdwan Jail, In jail he met with Benoy Choudhury who was also arrested for participating in Civil Disobedience Movement and they discussed in various topics, In jail he talked with various revolutionaries and was initiated and influenced into the terrorist revolutionary doctrine, this jail period was the most important period of his revolutionary career, he learned that there are 3 streams of political movement in our country at this time—

(1) National Liberation Movement initiated by Congress

(2) Terrorist revolutionary movement

(3) Communist movement

All these 3 movements influenced Konar's life. The lives of many terrorist revolutionaries of the 1930s, who decided to take the path of Communism, marched with devotion and single mindedness in front of the goal of ending all forms of exploitation and oppression forever by judging the interests of workers, peasants and hardworking people. Hare Krishna Konar came from within these change movements based on practical experience. So After released from prison, Konar moved forward with the mindset of making Terrorist revolutionary movement by giving up the process of nonviolent, he moved towards the armed struggle and showed particular skill in creating revolutionary groups in and around Memari. It was during this time that Bhupendranath Dutta and Comrade Bankim Mukherjee were introduced to the revolutionary group in Burdwan. Under Dutta and Mukherjee's influence Burdwan revolutionary group got the supply of various Marxist books along with the news about the case which appeared in the newspapers article about Meerut Conspiracy Case. Hare Krishna Konar started his political activities as an active member of Jugantar revolutionary party in our country's freedom struggle against British Imperialism. As a political activist, his beginning was from involvement in various activities of the revolutionary movement of Jugantar. As we all know, Life is a Struggle for Revolutionaries. While still a student, Konar gave his life along with others to create a new tide in the freedom struggle of the country through the death struggle against British imperialism. On the other hand, Konar passed his 10th standard with an excellent result of first division in all subjects and letter in Sanskrit subject from Memari Vidyasagar Smriti Vidya Mandir, then he gone to Calcutta and taken admission in first year as a science student of Bangabasi College. He used to stayed in Canning Hostel of Scott Lane and was in contact with Benoy Choudhury and Saroj Mukherjee of Burdwan terrorist revolutionary movement and joined the Calcutta terrorist revolutionary movement. After a few days, the party's funds reached almost zero, and there was a special need for money. One of Konar's friends was Bipadbaran Roy, whose house was in Calcutta but who also used to stay in hostels. So, one afternoon, Bipadbaran Roy's uncle, who was a government employee, came with 10 thousand rupees and kept it in his house, so it was decided that they would rob that money and use it to make bombs. So Bipadbaran, Konar, and a few others went to the house and took all the money, along with some extra gold and cash, and used it to make bombs and arms in their Calcutta terrorist revolutionary movement. But then also, the full amount of money can't be arranged, so in the house of Memari Konar, he broke his father's chest to collect the remaining money, which he wanted for the organization. In Calcutta, Bangabasi College was then the center of revolutionary students who were directly associated with Anushilan Samiti or Jugantar. Then it was 1931, when the armed struggle revolution was at its peak. In the month of February, Anushilan Samiti's allies HSRA leader Bhagat Singh was sentenced to death, and in London Gandhiji made a pact with Irwin, which was Gandhi–Irwin Pact. Slowly, revolutionaries started opposing Mahatma Gandhi and his Nonviolence principles. Finally, In March 1931, Bhagat Singh was executed by hanging and Chandra Shekhar Azad was shot with a gun, who were the main figures of the armed struggle revolution. And just after that, Gandhi launched another Satyagraha movement, which was opposed by a large section of students and also by various revolutionary groups. So as a result, the armed struggle revolution increased and subsequently, the revolutionary groups also started increasing. At the same time Calcutta's biggest revolutionary group, The Indian Proletarian Revolutionary Party was formed, Konar along with Benoy Choudhury joined the group by holding each other's hand, soon Konar involved in various revolutionary activities such as making bomb, leading the robbery and slowly became the leader of that group.^[4][5][6]

Cellular Jail and Communist Consolidation (1932–38)

Hare Krishna Konar was caught on September 15, 1932, in the Begut Robbery Case. Konar was ridiculously tortured by the police after his arrest. But Konar never uttered a single name of any revolutionary and tolerated all the tortures by the British Police. In the special tribunal case, the police filed a charge sheet u/s 694 and u/s 398 of the Indian Public Penal Code against Hare Krishna Konar as an accused for robbery and murder. After the arrest he was taken to Midnapore Central Jail and on 20 January 1933 the judgment of the tribunal was delivered in Calcutta High Court, in his court trial Konar was present along with other revolutionaries from all parts of Bengal like Mohan Kishore Namadas (arrested for Netrokona Soarikanda armed case), Sudhangshu Dasgupta (arrested for Mechuabazar Bomb Case), Karthik Chandra Dey Das and Mukul Chandra roy (arrested for calcutta arms act case), Gourishankar Dubey (arrested for muzaffarpur political dacoity case), Bindubhushan Sen (arrested for jamalpur dacoity and arms conspiracy case), Jagadananda Mukherjee (cornwallis street shooting case) and when Judges ask Comrade Hare Krishna Konar if he was guilty for his revolutionary activities against the British Empire or not. On the reply to it, Konar said:

What I have done I am not shameful for that and what will be my consequences I will be proud for that.

After his addressing the judgment said:

Therefore acquit the accused of the charge under section 398 IPC with regard to the sentence to death on the accused under section 394 IPC. We have the consideration on the one hand that the offence is exceedingly grave one and on the other hand the youth of the accused who is to be about 17 years age, taking both the circumstances into account sentence the accused to undergo rigorous imprisonment six years.

After announcing the rigorous imprisonment, Hare Krishna Konar had no remorse for it. Again for a month he was kept in Midnapore Central Jail and in February 1933, the Central Government, in consultation with the Government of Bengal, decided that all prisoners who had been sentenced for 5 years or more, would be sent to the Kālā Pānī of Cellular Jail in the Andamans. As a result of the government's decision to give him the highest punishment of Kālā Pānī, at the age of 18, Konar was sent to the Cellular Jail of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in April 1933 by the Maharaja ship of the British Empire. As a companions on the ship, Hare Krishna Konar got revolutionaries like Satish Pakrashi, Niranjan Sen, Dr. Narayan Roy, Dr. Bhupal Bose convicted in the Dalhousie bomb case, although Sudhangshu Dasgupta, involved in the Mechuabazar Bomb Case, was earlier sent to Cellular Jail in December 1932.

106 = Hare Krishna Konar (The list of names who were integrated in cellular jail in 1932–1938)

Soon after the imprisonment in cellular jail, comrade Konar faced the inhuman and unimaginable tortures, treatment of Kālā Pānī, it was physical tortures as well as mental torture more over the food that was given was not fit for human consumption, there were worms when they opened the bread and wild grass was boiled and served in rotten vegetables, rain water was given for drinking and the water was full of insects and worms, 13×6 cells were dark and damp and dingy thickly coated with moss, there were no toilets, there were no lights, no reading material, prisoners were not allowed to meet with each other, the guards carried out physical torture and flogging, their behaviour was insulting, things had become unbearable, so the prisoners came in a conclusion to do hunger strike against the jail authorities to improve the systems in jail, soon on 12 May 1933 the hunger strike was fast undo death, Mahavir Singh (arrested for Lahore Conspiracy Case), Mohan Kishore Namadas (arrested for Calcutta arms act case) and Mohit Moitra (arrested for an Arms Act Case) died for Force-feeding by British warders during this hunger strike, their bodies were quietly ferreted away and thrown out to sea, so that the Indians could not get an issue to revolt against the British governments. Central Jail Lahore's inspector David Barker was called to break the hunger strike, he issued orders to stop the strike of drinking water. The freedom fighters were resolute, there was a huge outcry throughout India because of this hunger strike. After 46 days of this hunger strike, the British Raj had to bow and request to stop the hunger strike and they said the facilities they are demanding for will be accepted, so revolutionary of Cellular Jail had accept it, thus the hunger strike ended on 26 June 1933, and soon after the death of three respected revolutionaries Mahavir Singh, Mohan Kishore Namadas and Mohit Moitra in the hunger strike, the facilities won from cellular jail authorities improved, which prisoners will be noted as less dangerous he will be released but will under the eyes of Britishers, light was fixed in every cell, opportunity to play sports, cultural events was organised by the jail authority and jail work was reduced to minimal, prisoners were allowed and given:

• Soap to bath

• Bed to sleep

• Edible food

• Allowed to study

• Given respect by the jail authority to the prisoners

• Allowed to communicate amongst themselves and many other facilities were also grewed.

During the hunger strike comrade konar met with Satish Pakrashi, Subodh Roy, Niranjan Sengupta, Ganesh Ghosh, Batukeshwar Dutt, Sachindra Nath Sanyal, Jibendra Das, Nalini Das, Shiv Verma, met many others and soon after the hunger strike the supervision and checking process in the jail was extremely reduced, so the prisoners had been able to smuggle in a lot amount of communist and socialist literature. Dr. Narayan Roy and Niranjan Sengupta smuggled a largest volume of literature in the cellular jail from the group of Central Jail Lahore. Several prisoners were of high learning and had been permitted all sorts of books for study in jail, on their release the prisoners made over their literature to the other revolutionary, who brought them to the Andaman unchecked by the so many authorities which formally checked them, on their way to the Andaman. The prisoners also requested the warders outside the andaman jail to get books direct from the book smugglers, the prisoners requested their relatives though letter to send them particular books, when they arrived in jail, they were checked by the authorities who finding them objectionable set them aside. However, some revolutionary prisoners who were working in the jail office who picked those books and gave them to their comrades. Konar also arranged to bring books from his Memari's house and money to buy books for Konar to study, he used to read that book all day and meet at one place in the evening and Konar would explain the essence of that book in details. The cellular jail authority made a library for the revolutionaries but the control of the library passed into the hands of all the left radical who were formerly a revolutionary and named the library as "The Veritable University of Revolutionaries", this was about the year 1935. The prisoners spent most of their time in reading communist or socialist literature in "The Veritable University " and a thirst for books and knowledge began, there were students, doctors, lawyers, peasants, and workers all together, discussion of politics, economics, history and philosophy as the result that there was hardly any left who had not become a confirmed Communist or Socialist. Hare krishna konar, Shiv verma, Satish pakrasi held study circles, in which the principles of Socialism, Marxism and Communism were explained, biology and physiology given by the doctors amongst them, others gave the classes of historical and dialectical materialism eventually a different and new environment was created as the revolutionary met to discuss and read. Soon Hare Krishna Konar and Shiv verma decided to make an organ of the party which was called the Communist Consolidation, should be started immediately with 39 prisoners on 26 April 1935 the Consolidation was formed. "Vande Mataram" and "Bharat Mata ki Jai" and other national slogans were never used. The consolidation members only use the slogan of "Inquilab Zindabad" and "Dunia ka majduro ek ho". Dhanwantri, Bejoy Kumar Sinha, Batukeshwar Dutt, Narain Roy, and Niranjan Sengupta were appointed to the editorial board of a Newspaper, named "The Call", which were published from the jail. The "Call" was started as a monthly paper and act as a mouthpiece of communist consolidation, the number of member in communist consolidation swelled to 200 and all of them contributed articles on different subjects dealing with Communism, Marxism, Socialism, Biography of Vladimir Lenin, Karl Marx, etc., "The Call" was like a magazine paper, only one copy was written and placed in the library, it had about 150 pages, later the consolidation member celebrates the May Day, October Revolution Day, Vladimir Lenin's birthday, etc. These activities of the Communist Consolidation continued unhindered till about the middle of 1937. The Chittagong arms Group members therefore, started military parades, at first without the sanction of the authorities, but a little later with the full approval of the authorities. They also had their uniform prepared, they prepared their buttons and badges from the silver utensils they were given for use. Ananta Singh was their leader instructor, they were able to put up a very impressive show. When they marched past, and performed several lying and attacking formations with their Bamboo sticks used instead of muskets, they appeared really magnificent. The members of the Communist Consolidation were so impressed with these military drills of the Chittagong group that they also sought permission from the Communist Consolidation leaders to join the daily parades of the Chittagong Group. This resulted in the number of the Chittagong paraders increasing to about 90 and all the chittagong arms group member also join the Communist consolidation. This is the time of 1937 the prisoners were enjoying their daily activities and saying themselves as political prisoners of Andaman Cellular Jail.^[5][7][8]

In the time 1937 the revolutionaries of cellular jail started feeling the atmosphere for the world war and the freedom fighters thought that before the war starts we should get back to our country to be with our people and take active part in the Anti-war movement and as after studying about Marxism, Communism and Socialism the freedom fighters of jail started saying themselves as political prisoners so they want to get treated like other political prisoners who were treated in other jails for that's why a petition was sent to Viceroy and governor-general The Marquess of Linlithgow on 9 July 1937 by Shiv Verma and Hare Krishna Konar that:

All political prisoners should be repatriated to the mainland and released. An ultimatum was given that if these demands were not met a hunger strike would begin.

But there was no response from the viceroy The Marquess of Linlithgow, so finally on 25 July 1937 the 385 political prisoners went on hunger strike, some of the 80 other prisoners got bailed by giving the excuse to the jail authority that they are going on their personal works and businesses, but actually they were going to propagate and to encourage the Indians to do protest against the British government to transfer the prisoners from andaman to mainland and creating a noise and protesting against the force feeding by the jailers. The prisoners also arrange to get information regarding Indian reactions to the hunger strike, it had already been arranged that the newspapers containing Indian reactions should be smuggled inside the jail through some warders and other contacts which had been established with some of the local peoples. A country wide movement on the mainland in support of demands of the Andaman freedom fighters began to treated as other political prisoners like other jails. There was a mass demonstration of working people, intellectuals and students. This upsurge clearly showed that their people on the mainland did not forget them. After four weeks telegrams from leaders of the nation Jawaharlal Nehru, Subhas Chandra Bose, Sarat Chandra Bose, Rabindranath Tagore, etc. poured in imploring the freedom fighters to end their hunger strike. Letter to Viceroy on 3 August 1937 by Rabindranath Tagore that:

I as a poet appeals you to transfer the political prisoners of cellular jail to mainland as the hunger strike begins and we cannot allow this flowers of the nation to wither away, so please don't use cellular jail as a concentrating camp of revolutionaries and you have to release the political prisoners from jail.

Letter to Hare Krishna Konar on 28 August 1937 by Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Working Committee that:

The whole nation along with me and congress working committee members appeals to you to end the hunger strike and assures you to take up your demands and to see them fulfilled.

After a lot of deliberation and discussion this historic 36-days hunger strike of 200 revolutionary freedom fighters ended. The process of repatriation started on 29 November 1937. There were a total of 385 freedom fighters in jail at the time. 339 from Bengal, 19 from Bihar, 11 from Uttar Pradesh, 5 from Assam, 3 from Punjab, 2 from Delhi and 2 from Madras and most of the member of this organization along with Hare Krishna Konar was previously the member of Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar or from Pro Marxist groups and by January 1938 Konar was back to Bengal from Andamans Cellular jail, Hare Krishna Konar was kept in Dumdum Central Jail for some time and transferred to Burdwan Jail, from where he was released on 27 March 1938.^[7][9]

After being released from jail in 1938, he met with M. N. Roy, Muzaffar Ahmed, Abdul Halim, Bankim Mukherjee, and Bhupendranath Datta, with whom Konar had worked before being arrested in 1932. After being released, he again met with them and earned the membership in the Communist Party of India. From that year on, Hare Krishna Konar's Communist movement and path through Anti-capitalism and fighting for the rights of workers, peasants, and hardworking people started.^[4][5]

In Communist movement (1938–1974)

He first worked among the workers and trade unionists in Calcutta and Howrah. After some months Comrade Benoy Chowdhury took him to Bardhaman district and he started working in the kisan (farmers) movement. In 1939, he participated in the Canal Tax protest in Bardhaman district. In 1940 he was banned by the British Government from entering Asansol, Burnpur area and later on from Bardhaman district. But he still worked from underground in Bardhaman, and he was once arrested for few months.^[5]

In 1944 he was again arrested and he was banned by the government to step out of Bardhaman City. He played important role during the Ajay river Dam movement of 1943–1944 and second stage of Canal Tax protest of 1946–1947. While canvassing for elections in colliery area of Asansol he was physically assaulted by goons, and his legs were broken. In March 1948 when the CPI was banned, he was arrested immediately for 3 months. After being released he went into hiding and remained so until 1952. His chief role was maintaining communications between Kolkata, Bardhaman, Howrah and Hooghly in this time. He played an important role during the Food Movement of West Bengal in 1953, and Civil Disobedience movement in 1957, and was arrested both times. Sino-Indian war fighting began on the Himalayan border on 10 October 1962 between the Chinese People's Liberation Army and Army of India. This issue that fueled the split in the Communist Party of India was parting of the ways between the USSR and China. Though the conflict had a long history, it came out in open in 1959, Nikita Khrushchev sought to appease the West during a period of the Cold War known as 'The Thaw', by holding a summit meeting with U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. Two other reasons were USSR's unwillingness to support Chinese nuclear program and their neutrality in the initial days of Sino-Indian border conflict. These events greatly offended Mao Zedong and the other Chinese Communist leaders. In 1962, Mao Zedong criticised Nikita Khrushchev for backing down in the Cuban Missile Crisis. By that time the Soviets were openly supporting India in its border dispute with China. These events were followed by formal statements of each side's ideological positions: the Chinese came out with their document in June 1963. The Soviets too came out with their own document. Thereafter the two parties stopped communicating. During the 1962 Sino-Indian war, other parties portrayed left-wing parties as pro-China, since both were Communist. Hare Krishna Konar among with other Communists stated that the left Wings was focused on solving the border dispute through talk. As of 1963 the All India Kisan Sabha had been rendered dysfunctional as most of its key leaders and cadres had been jailed. However, by late 1963 and early 1964 most of jailed AIKS leaders and cadres were released from prison. During the 1964 split in CPI, there were efforts to retain AIKS as a united organization. However, there were tensions between the CPI(M) and CPI factions within AIKS, per Surjeet (1995) a mayor source of tension was the rejection of the rightists to demand release of jailed AIKS leaders. Among the AIKS grassroots, the majority sided with CPI(M). But the split in the AIKS top leadership was 'somewhat uneven' per Sharma (1978). Its president, Gopalan, went to CPI(M) whilst the general secretary Bhowani Sen sided with CPI(Right). Among key Central Kisan Council members, the ones that sided with CPI(M) included Lyallpuri, Parulekar, Konar, C.H. Kanaran and N. Prasad Rao. In the CPI(Right) faction, in the Central Kisan Council key leaders included Manali C. Kandaswami, B.V. Kakkilaya, Jagannath Sarkar, Z.A. Ahmed and Karyanand Sharma and on 11 April 1964, the landmark incident happened in Delhi, the "Leftist faction" happned in Communist Party of India national council including 30 Leftists P. Sundarayya, M. Basavapunniah, T. Nagi Reddy, M. Hanumantha Rao, D.V. Rao, N. Prasad Rao, G. Bapanayya, A.K. Gopalan, A.V. Kunhambu, C.H. Kanaran, E.K. Nayanar, V.S. Achuthanandan, E.K. Imbichibava, Promode Dasgupta, Muzaffar Ahmed, Abdul Halim, Hare Krishna Konar, Saroj Mukherjee, P. Ramamurthi, M.R. Venkataraman, N. Sankariah, K. Ramani, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, Jagjit Singh Lyallpuri, D.S. Tapiala, Bhag Singh, Sheo Kumar Mishra, R.N. Upadhyaya, Mohan Punamiya, and R.P. Saraf and two Centrist leaders, E. M. S. Namboodiripad and Jyoti Basu, walked out from the meeting to protest against the "revisionist policies" of General Secretary Shripad Amrit Dange and his followers, particularly the failure to have "class struggle" as its main policy. Shripad Amrit Dange's followers had an overwhelming majority in the National Council and The left fraction section organised their own conference in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh. These thirty-two leaders were also suspended from National Council of Communist Party of India on that day 11 April 1964. The left leaders who were ousted, in turn, announced a separated national convention. while the leftist fraction group holds a parallel congress in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh and The leftist section, to which the 32 National Council members belonged, organized a convention in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh 7 to 11 July. In this convention, the issues of the internal disputes in the party were discussed. 146 delegates, claiming to represent 100,000 CPI members, at the Tenali convention a Bengal-based pro-Chinese group like konar, mukherjee, Dasgupta, basu and halim, representing one of the most radical streams of the CPI left-wing and in that meeting they decided to make the party in 7th Congress of Communist Party of India. The Congress government of P C Sen in Bengal arrested many of the breakaway group's leaders days before the Congress, and in 1964 Hare Krishna Konar was imprisoned for two years, for that's why he could not take part in 7th Congress of Communist Party of India's parallel where the Communist Party of India (Marxist) were formed in calcutta, for that reason he could not able to be the member of 1st Politburo but he was elected as central committee and after some months many other communist leader was also arested for joining the seventh Congress in calcutta, such as the former chief minister of Kerala, E. M. S. Namboodiripad, the organisational specialist Promode Dasgupta, the former Chief Minister of West Bengal, Jyoti Basu, the Telangana revolutionaries, Puchalapalli Sundarayya and Makineni Basavapunnaiah as well as some members of the rightist section such as the trade unionist A. B. Bardhan and was released after an order from the Supreme Court of India in 1966. By 1967 AIKS was divided into two parallel organizations, as a consequence of the split in the party. At the August 28, 1967 Central Kisan Council meeting in Madurai, differences arose over the membership figures. The CPI(M) faction in AIKS accused the CPI faction of presenting false inflated membership data of state units in order to increase their influence in the organization. The dispute led to a walk-out from the Central Kisan Council. In 1968 Hare Krishna Konar was elected as the first general secretary of the new fraction from rightist organization to leftist.^[10][1][11]

Jyoti Basu, Harkishan Singh Surjeet, A. K. Gopalan, Hare Krishna Konar. (In All India Kisan Sabha conference held in Kolkata).

He was one of the co-founders of Communist Party of India (Marxist) when it was formed from Communist Party of India in 1964. From 1957 he was a member of the West Bengal State Council of CPI. From 1964 until his death he was a member of West Bengal State Committee of CPI(M). From 1958 he was a member of National Council of CPI and from 1964 until his death he was a member of Central Committee of CPI(M).^[12] From 1954 until his death he was the Secretary of West Bengal Provincial Kisan Sabha (part of All India Kisan Sabha) and Member of central council of All India Kisan Sabha CPI. From 1968 until his death he was the General Secretary of All India Kisan Sabha CPI(M). He was also the Member of Chinese Communist Party, Communist Party of Vietnam, Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Member of Trade Unions International of World Federation.^[12][3]

Land reform movement

Hare Krishna Konar played a leading role in getting surplus land held by big land owners in excess of land ceiling laws and kept ‘benami’ (or false names) vested with the state. The quantum of land thus vested was around one million acres (4,000 km²) of good agricultural land. Subsequently, under the leadership of Hare Krishna Konar and Benoy Choudhury land was distributed amongst 2.4 million landless and poor farmers. It has been argued that this land reform along with Operation Barga formed the base for the Left Front victory in subsequent elections.^[28][29][30]

It was a strange quirk of history that at each stage of West Bengal's two phase land reforms there was a stalwart to guide and lead the Program. One was Hare Krishna Konar, the other Benoy Choudhury. Both of them were totally committed to the cause, profound believers in the principles of Scientific socialism. The fearsome volatility of Konar was necessary to remove the immobility of the administration and to break the stranglehold of the landed gentry of West Bengal on the society and the political establishment in the late sixties. The amiable Gandhian mode of accommodation of Benoy Choudhury was equally essential in another socio-political setting to carry a large majority of people with him for the success of the massive 'Operation Barga'. Each performed his unique role to carry out land reforms in two different historical situations. Soon after the first United front (UF) government came to power in 1967, the first arrow of the now famous Naxalbari movement was shot, killing inspector Wangeli of the West Bengal police. The countryside was seething with discontent. It was a troubled time Hare Krishna Konar became the land and land revenue minister. His talks with his old compatriot Kanu Sanyal, held in a jungle about 6 km away from the Sukna forest bungalow from midnight to early morning, had failed. The new government faced a militant peasant movement. Konar was convinced that any attempt to suppress the movement by the brute force of the repressive machinery of the state would help spread the movement through underground channels. Being a practitioner of the militant peasant movement himself, he knew the fish in water tactics of armed partisan action. He was determined to evaporate the water by weaning away the landless and land-poor peasantry by substantially meeting their land hunger. And that could be done only through vesting of ceiling surplus land held clandestinely by the landed gentry of the state. Shortly after he assumed power Hare Krishna Konar had me appointed as director of land records and surveys and put in charge of unearthing land held 'Benami' in excess of the ceiling and vesting them in the state through due process of law.^[20][29][31]

Ingenious strategy of Konar and Choudhury

Though the UF came to power with tremendous electoral support, it had to function strictly within the rigid parameters of the Indian Constitution, the established basic laws, Judicial review of executive action and set legal and administrative procedures and practises. Any threat to any of the established parameters would have led to a summary dismissal by the not so friendly central government. The political genius of Hare Krishna Konar lay in his ability to play his own ball game with the same set of rules which were apparently set against it. The Constitution of India guarantees the right to form associations and unions and to assemble peaceably. The Indian Evi-Dence Act permits disbelieving of documentary evidence on the strength of overwhelmingly reliable oral evidence. The Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC)(u/s 110) allows some sort of public participation for gathering evidence against a person allegedly engaged in "bad livelihood" in order to bind him down for good behaviour. Nowhere is it stated that the restraining powers under the CrPC should always be used against the peasantry and workers. If the agricultural workers and share-croppers assemble peacefully to espouse a cause, if public order was threatened by landowners, the latter could be restrained under the CrPC in the interest of maintenance of public order. Combine the essence of these constitutional and legal rights and procedures and you have the "Konar" recipe of legal reform with popular participation. It was so simple, so bold and so novel. Konar did not approve of the seizure and occupation by force of private property by peasants, even though such lands had in many cases been held 'benami'. Peasants, according to him, were conservative by nature. In their psyche private property was inviolable. Having lost their land through the process of exploitation, they hankered for their land as their own property. Hence illegal occupation of even illegally-held land would not absolve them of the sense of guilt for an illegal and even immoral action. Therefore, they would not have the courage and determination to fight for their rights if threatened with eviction in a changed political situation. Konar, therefore, favoured the legal way of vesting land in the state. Once the land became the property of the state, what would happen to it would be a matter of state policy and no individual's property right would be involved. It may look strange for a revolutionary, but being a hard-headed realist, it made sense to Konar.^[20][29]

Syed Saidullah (left), Hare Krishna Konar (center), Benoy Choudhury (right)

Operation Barga was his notable contribution to the people from Left Front Government of West Bengal. To begin with, group meetings between Officials and Bargadars were organized during "settlement camps" (also called "Reorientation camps"), where the bargadars could discuss their grievances. The first such camp was held at Halusai in Polba taluk in Hooghly district from 18 to 20 May 1978. In noted camp two Adibashi Borgaders objected procedure adopted by the official for Operation Barga. They suggested to start it organising people in the field instead of sitting in the houses of rural rich people or the places dominated by them. Having that report Hare Krishna Konar immediately reorganised action plan and successful Barga Operation was done.^[3][29][31]

Political ideology

Communism

While comrade Konar was in cellular jail, he was an avid reader of the teachings of Mikhail Bakunin and also read Karl Marx, Leo Tolstoy, Maxim Gorky, Nadezhda Krupskaya and Clara Zetkin, he studied the history of the revolutionary movements in India, Europe, Soviet and abroad. Konar describe Lenin as an revolutionary of modern world and he also read the revolutionary thoughts of Trotsky and Mazzini. Dr. Narayan Roy used to bought those literature and let young Comrade Konar to read them and later Comrade Konar also acknowledged that Dr. Narayan Roy was the leading character behind the teaching of Communism, Socialism and their practical implementation in the society, actually Comrade Konar learned a great lesson of his life in jail from Dr. Roy, moreover for this man only Comrade Konar totally changed his mindset from revolutionary intellectual to a pure communist who wants to fight for downward and for working class peoples. By the help of this entire knowledge taught by Dr. Roy, in 1935 Comrade Konar founded an Indian revolutionary and Communist Organization named Communist Consolidation in Jail and later it was the highest resistant against imperialist British.^[35]

Hare Krishna Konar was influenced by the works of Karl Marx, in year 1934

In 1964 after the foundation of Communist Party of India (Marxist), Comrade Hare Krishna Konar's aim was to start the Land reform and Agrarian reform in India, and to snatch the land from exploiter Zamindars to distribute the land among poor landless people, he had also opposed the private land ownership for that reason while he was the first Land Minister of India in West Bengal he made a law of limited private Land and the limitation was 70–90 bigha per family and this law was started from 1967 until 2011 while Left Front led in West Bengal. During the Naxalbari uprising in 1967 many people thought comrade konar is an anti-Maoist, so he says towards the Maoist ideology that:

I support the thought of Mao Zedong but the ideology of Mao is extreme violent and that can be harmful for indian Democracy.

Actually comrade konar was the believer of Scientific socialism, so his process of land reform was also the formula of Socialism, he says Joseph Stalin once mentioned the differentiation of land between landless and landlords and that such differentiation among the peasants in India means they can have no uniform attitude towards revolution. Comrade konar says towards this agrarian revolution that:

If agrarian revolution in the villages is not carried forward, People’s Democratic Revolution would be a far cry, the core of People’s Democratic Revolution is agrarian revolution and the key to its success is People’s Democratic Revolution.

Comrade Konar legally recovered the land hidden by the zamindars and changed the Land reform Act for it. On the other hand, as the undisputed leader of the peasant society, the Zamindar seized the land hidden by intense mass movements and distributed it among the rural landless. The process of recovering land was very diplomatic and tactful it was done in two manner first legally and second forcefully. As a result, a wave of mass agitation was created in the villages of Bengal. Always Comrade Konar use to say that:

The land belongs to the plough, the price to which the sweat belongs.

In the latter case, the Left Front government did land reforms through legal means. Fundamental land reform is never possible in this state structure. So the campaign was put in the forefront to demand as much legally possible and fundamental land reform in the state of West Bengal. The liberation of the country stirred a new wave of life in the struggle for the liberation of the exploited people. He shunned all opportunities for comfort in his personal life. He knew how to read the minds of the village people, the main livelihood of the village people was agriculture and agricultural problems were at his fingertips. And because of his excellent speeches, ability to change Indian agriculture ideas, and positive impact on working class people's mindsets, the Union Cabinet Ministers used to have a fear of him. Indira Gandhi had never opposed any decision taken by Comrade Konar on land problems or agricultural matters. Although Comrade Konar was not a Cabinet Minister but Gandhi used to take suggestions from him on any agricultural issues because Delhi knew that Comrade Konar had great knowledge on peasantry, land, and agricultural issues.^[1]

Personal life and Death

Death

In the month of June 1974, Hare Krishna Konar was taken to Kimber Nursing Home in Parkcircus for treatment. An operation was done successfully, and another operation was underway. He said to Oncologist Dr. Ashok Sen that:

Make me well, I have a CC meeting

But unfortunately those were his last words because after the second operation, he slowly moved towards death and on 23 July 1974 at 6:30 p.m. (IST) he died of cancer at the age of only 58 in Kolkata.^[3] The next day, July 24, at 10 am, he was brought to Muzaffar Ahmad Bhawan at 33 Alimuddin Street. His body was in the hall of the PC office, and countless people lined up from 10 am to 3 pm to pay their last respect, including Indira Gandhi, A. K. Gopalan, many other cabinet ministers, and international delegations from North Korea, Vietnam, China and Soviet Union. The work of giving garlands went on till 3 pm, and then he was given a state funeral by the Government of West Bengal. During the time thousands of people gathered on the road from A.J.C. Bose Road to Keoratola, his funeral rally was the 4th largest funeral rally in India. It had nearly taken 2 hours to cross the road from Dharmatala to Keoratola, and finally at 6 pm, he was taken to the Keoratola crematorium, where he was cremated in electric furnaces. On July 25, there was a statement published in all the newspapers that:

Calcutta streets had never witnessed such a gathering like this before.

The unbridled procession showed the greatness of Hare Krishna Konar in people's hearts.^[38]

Comrade Konar c. 1974

Gallery

Electoral history

Hare Krishna Konar was the Minister of Land and Land Revenue consecutively 4 times and every time he was the Member of Legislative Assembly from Kalna (Vidhan Sabha constituency) seat 5 times.^[40]

Positions held

Published Books

• Pathera sandhāna
  (Published in 1976 by National Book Agency of India).^[34]
• Agrarian Problems of India
  (Published in 1977 by National Book Agency of India).^[29]
• Bhāratera kṛshi samasyā
  (Published in 1980 by National Book Agency of India and it is the Bengali version of Agrarian Problems of India is translated by Hare Krishna Konar).^[33]
• Selected Works of Hare Krishna Konar
  (Published in 1977 by National Book Agency of India and it is a selected articles, letters and political background of Hare Krishna Konar).^[46]
• Hare Krishna Konar Prabandha Sangraha
  (Published in 2015 by National Book Agency of India and it is a biography book of Comrade Hare Krishna Konar).^[1]
• Nirbachito Rochona Sonkolon
  (Published in 1978 by National Book Agency of India and it is a collection of articles about Hare Krishna Konar).^[5]
• Birth Centenary of Hare Krishna Konar
  (Published in 2015 by Local Book Agency and it is a short biography of Hare Krishna Konar).^[36]

Legacy and recognition

There was a major argument between MP Basudeb Acharia and MPs of BJP in the Indian Parliament in 2002 when Andaman's Port Blair Airport was decided to be renamed as Veer Savarkar International Airport over the argument that Savarkar was a fake nationalist who had submitted numerous mercy petitions to the British government and as a result, the airport shouldn't be named after Savarkar.^[47] This airport should be named after India's one of the topmost leader, Hare Krishna Konar, who spent a ridiculous amount of time there and later became a national communist leader, so this airport ought to be dedicated in his honor. Although Acharia's thoughts were later ignored by the BJP and the airport was named after Savarkar.^[47]

The headquarter of the All India Kisan Sabha of West Bengal was named after Hare Krishna Konar as the "Harekrishna Konar Smriti Bhavan".^[46]

A bridge on the Damodar River in Purba Bardhaman was named after Hare Krishna Konar as "Harekrishna Konar Setu".^[46]

Two government libraries were named after Hare Krishna Konar as "Harekrishna Konar Smriti Pathagar", one in Bankura and another one in Purba Bardhaman.^[46]

Many government schools have been named after him, such as "Hare Krishna Konar Smriti F P" in North 24 Parganas, "Harekrishna Konar Shiksha Niketan" in Purba Bardhaman, and many others in Purba Medinipur, Hooghly, Maldah, and Nadia.^[46]

Many streets have been named after Konar, such as "Hare Krishna Konar Road" in Kolkata, "Hare Krishna Konar Sarani" in Durgapur, and many others around West Bengal.^[46]

See also

• Sino-Soviet split

• Left Front (West Bengal)

• List of University of Calcutta people

References

External links

• The library named after Hare Krishna Konar
• Comparing two icon Piero Sraffa and Hare Krishna Konar
• Hare Krishna Konar v. DwijendraLal Sengupta