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Land and Power: The Marxist Conquest of Rural Bengal

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Arild Engelsen Rund
Arild Engelsen Rund
Affiliation:
London School of Economics
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Extract

The Indian state of West Bengal is governed and politically dominated by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M) for short) which has been in Government there since 1977 as the largest constituent party to the ruling Left Front. The CPI(M)'s position in West Bengal is unique both in India and in the world in the sense that it is the only Communist party to be popularly elected and reelected to power for such a long period. Today it draws most of its electoral support from the rural areas where the party is supported by peasants of practically all socio-economic sections. It is to an interesting period in the history of Communism in Bengal that this article will turn, namely to the creation of a particular alliance of Marxists and peasants in the restlessness in that state in the late 1960s and the virtual elimination of non-Marxist forces in large areas.

Type
Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , May 1994 , pp. 357 - 380
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1994

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