Com.Nirmal
On 10th May 1999, Comrade Nirmal (alias Prakash), a state committee member of CPI (ML) [People’s War], Bihar was martyred in Upper Dumri village of Gumla district of Bihar in an encounter with the police. Another young and energetic comrade, Hareram Patel originally from Bilaspur, Madhya Pradesh was also martyred along with Comrade Nirmal. Hareram Patel had joined the squad two months back. The encounter took place when the police of Gumla and Ranchi PS, sent at the behest of Birla who owns bauxite mines in the region, who had been chasing the squad of CPI (ML) [People’s War] managed to block all the escape routes from this village in the early hours of 10th morning and subsequently surrounded the village and began firing indiscriminately. There was no option other than to accept martyrdom for Com. Nirmal and Com. Hareram Patel. Three squad members were arrested as well.
Nirmal or Prakash as he was popularly known in Bihar comes from a middle class business family of Shahadra area in Delhi. His actual name was Sunil. Small built, bespectacled, 31-year old Sunil with an infectious energy, wide grin and loud laugh was an extremely bright student. He completed B.Com Hons. from Shyamlal College of Delhi University and achieved 6th position in the university. He had just completed LLB, when inspired by the revolutionary peasant movement of Bihar being led by the CPI (ML) (PU), he shifted to Bihar in 1992. His affiliation with CPI (ML) (PU) started in Delhi itself in 1989. Even prior to that, Sunil along with a small group of friends in Shahadra had formed and was active in an organisation called ‘Shoshan Virudh Prachar Samiti (Shovipras)’. With a pro-people idealist outlook, this organisation propagated Bhagat Singh’s ideology amongst the students and youth of the lower middle class colonies of Shahadra, Delhi. As part of this organisation Sunil had also started going to some villages in Meerut district of Uttar Pradesh.
In 1989, when members of ‘Shovipras’ came in contact with CPI (ML) (PU), the main leader resisted affiliating with the Party. However, defying him, it was under Sunil’s leadership that the batch of activists of ‘Shovipras’ decided to affiliate themselves with the Party and to work under its discipline. There after Sunil became the founder member of the youth organisation, Bharat Naujawan Sangh (BNS) which was formed in Delhi in 1989. And with this began Sunil’s short but consistent journey towards achieving the goal of Indian revolution and the idealist outlook gradually matured into a Marxist understanding of society and history. Sunil also became a member of the leading committee of CPI (ML)(PU) in Delhi. Subsequently he played an extremely important role in establishing the work of PU in Delhi and especially in firmly establishing BNS as a militant organisation in the trans-Yamuna area of Delhi. After participating in a village campaign in the drought stricken areas of Bihar, very soon Sunil decided to commit himself even more directly for the revolutionary peasant movement of Bihar and was transferred from Delhi in 1992.
Sunil was also an ordinary person with ordinary feelings, fears, doubts, desires, weaknesses, uncertainties. But what was extraordinary was that Sunil had decided not to accept a humdrum existence. What was extraordinary was his determination and boundless energy and his concern for the oppressed masses. Sunil was a person in whom ‘consciousness determines the being’ was personified. At every step, he fought against himself and changed himself to be able to contribute more and more to the just struggle of the toiling people so as they can live a life of dignity. Once he understood the course of history; understood that those unnamed masses who have been carrying the society on their shoulders for years upon years, ought to be the actual rulers of this society; Sunil developed himself in every possible way to be able to be part of the struggle for a new society. The small-built boy whose friends were amused at his lack of ‘athletic skills’ consciously developed himself and went ahead to assume the leadership of military affairs of the armed peasant movement of Bihar.
Sunil also like most people was not born without fear. But he fought his fears at every step and starting from the position of a political commissar of a squad in Koel-Kaimur region of Bihar, went on to lead most of the daring military actions against feudal reactionaries and the Bihar police. And he was always at the forefront — he was a leader in an actual, practical sense. As a consequence, his name had become a terror for the reactionaries and the police of the region.
Sunil or Nirmal played a very important role in developing the armed peasant movement in Bihar especially in the Koel-Kaimur region. When he came to work in this region of Bihar, the organisational situation there was extremely grave with most of the leading activists being arrested. Nirmal not only stayed on in these difficult circumstances but also helped to stabilise the situation to a large extent. His contribution was particularly evident in building the movement in Garwah district. From 1995 onwards, he worked as a state committee member of the CPI (ML) (PU). He participated in a military training camp in 1994 and developed himself as a military instructor and played a leading role in subsequent training camps. He was already part of the Bihar state level sub-committee on military affairs and after the merger of CPI (ML) (PU) and CPI (ML) (PW) in August 1998, he became a member of the central level sub-committee of military affairs (SCOMA). He was also a member of the editorial board of the military affairs magazine, ‘Jung’, and a few weeks prior to his death, he was busy with bringing out an issue of this magazine.
The weight of organisational responsibilities or the problems of the movement did not ever make Comrade Nirmal brusque or bureaucratic. With his unflinching loyalty to the masses and the Party and deep conviction in the revolutionary cause, he was concerned with newer and newer ways of developing the organisation further. Disciplined, energetic and intelligent, Nirmal was also extremely popular both among the cadres and the people. He wasn’t merely a leader but also a friend to most of the cadres. He was also very alive to the situation and conditions of the people. He understood the patriarchal chains that the feudal society of Bihar subjects women to and consciously tried to make space for women activists in his area. Com. Nirmal was also very forthright about whatever he considered to be correct and fought against various weaknesses within the organisation.
It is difficult to imagine the armed revolutionary peasant movement of Bihar without Comrade Nirmal. The sudden martyrdom of Com. Nirmal has left a vacuum which cannot easily be filled. It is a great loss to the revolutionary movement not only in Bihar but in the entire country. But the movement must go on.... and history shall avenge the murder of Com. Nirmal and countless others who have given up their lives for building a new society, free of exploitation, free of oppression, where those who sweat shall live without fear and with dignity and self-respect and become the masters of their own destiny.
People’s March pays its red homage to these proud sons of the Indian working class who had laid down their lives for the cause of the ongoing New Democratic Revolution and for a Communist Society.
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