India: Tribute to Darshan Singh Dosanj by Harsh Thakor

Exactly 15 years ago veteran Comrade Darshan Singh Dosanj expired In memory I present this tribute.

Darshan Singh Dosanj- Few comrades reverberated the flame of the ideology of leaders of Marx,Lenin and Mao or shimmered the flame of Naxalbari as much as Comrade Darshan Dosanj.

His life was a living example of the ideology where he traversed the stormiest of seas. No doubt one of the best sons of the Indian Communist movement.

 A central committee member of the Central Team of the C.P.I.M.L.This veteran joined the communist movement in the 50’s.In the second half of the 60’s he joined the barricades of communist revolutionary ranks who were holding high the banner of Marxism -Leninism-Mao-Tse-Tung thought.Comrade Dosanj braved police torture as an activist.

He originally belonged to a Bengal family who abandoned him as an orphan. He was picked up by a lorry driver on his way to Punjab who brought him up. He came back to Calcutta as bad street vendor where he was unsuccessful. He came back to Punjab where he was adopted by a family of communist ideology

Here he was baptized with the communist ideology. He worked with the electricity board and became a communist part-timer. He refused the lures of marriage within a rich family who would easily have adopted him as he was so handsome. He abhorred the revisionist politics of the C.P..I.and later the C.P.I.M. 

During the Naxalbari role he played a great role, especially in the Doab region. He was falsely convicted in 10 murder cases.He was severely tortured and his leg had to be eventually amputated.

During the emergency he was again arrested. On coming out of jail he played a major role in combating the rightist trend in the communist movement being upheld by the Satya-Narayan Singh and Chandra-Pulla Reddy group and was instrumental in the formation of the Central Team of the C.P.I.M.L…This organization made a major contribution in the defence of the massline thwarting the menace of left adventurism and right opportunism.

It stressed on the re-organisation of the 8th central committee of the C.P.I.M.l..Comrade Dosanj defended Charu Mazumdar's contribution with great firmness.However the errors of left adventurism he critically analyzed and he stressed that mass organisations and movements were indispensable. Comrade Dosanj defended all the correct aspects of the theoretical line.

He fought against trends of soft-pedaling with Khalistani terrorism and earlier fought against parliamentary elections. However, he erred on certain political questions

His major error was not to agree with the Central Team merging with the C.C.R.I.into the C.P.R.C.I.(M.L) .He was also staunchly opposed to accepting 'Maoism' as a terminology replacing Mao Tse Tung Thought.

Neverthless he was a staunch supporter of the erstwhile C.P.I.(M.L.)Peoples War Group and even considered merging his group with it.

He differed on the question of upholding nationality struggle and urban work with the PW group .

He insisted in re-establishing the 8th central Committee of the C.P.I.(M.L.) and did not recognize the 1998 C.P.I.(M.L.) Peoples War Party as the re-organized C.P.I.(M.L.)However he lived his life as an outstanding personality of the Communist revolutionary camp. He was one of the bravest comrades in the Communist movement. C.P.I(M.L).

In spite of failing health he defended Marxist-Leninist-Maoist polemics with an iron sword as well as defended Comrade Stalin like a rock.

In times when many organization s took opportunist position s like C.R.C.C.P.I.(M.L.) group led by K.Venu he defended the concept of the Leninist vanguard party and the dictatorship of the proletariat tooth and nail

A massive martyrs memorial meeting was held in his memory in his native village Phagwara and a memorial commitee was founded in his name.

The youth in his village vowed to tread comrade Dosanj's path