Hare Krishna Konar

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Kalna
International affiliation Member of the Central Committee[a] of the Chinese Communist Party In office 1960–1974 Director Wang Jiaxiang Liu Ningyi Geng Biao Member of the Central Committee[b] 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 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[d]

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Hare Krishna Konar (

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

(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

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

Soon after the imprisonment in cellular jail, comrade Konar faced the inhuman and unimaginable tortures, treatment of

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

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

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

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]

In West Bengal government

1957–1962
In the West Bengal Legislative Assembly election of 1957, Hare Krishna Konar and Jamadar Majhi was elected as the representative of the Kalna constituency and the Communist Party returned as the second largest party with an increased representation. This platform enabled the Communist Party under the leadership of Jyoti Basu in West Bengal to exacerbate agitations against the prevalent food crisis in West Bengal by acting as the principal opposition on the floor of the assembly, increasing public awareness and providing a united front for agitators to rally around.^[13]

1962–1967
In the

1969–1971
For the mid term West Bengal Legislative Assembly election of 1969, the United Front Committee was formed consisting of all the coalition partners of the previous government which agreed upon a pre-poll alliance to contest the election together under a 32-point programme.^[17] Under terms of the agreement, if the alliance were to attain a majority then Ajoy Mukherjee would become the chief minister while Jyoti Basu would become the deputy chief minister.^[17][21] In addition during the negotiations Basu was able to secure the portfolios of fisheries, food, excise, labour, civil defence and education for the CPI-M as well as Minister of Land and Land Revenue was changed his name to Minister of Land and Land Reforms and the minister was Hare Krishna Konar.^[22][21] In the election, the United Front won an overwhelming victory with 214 out of 280 seats and as a consequence the Communist Party of India (Marxist) stood as the first party other than the Congress party to become the largest party in the assembly.^[23]

The second United Front government however too fell within a short period of time, on this occasion the chief minister Ajoy Mukherjee resigned in March 1970 after facing an aggravated and dysfunctional government where smaller member parties were in confrontation with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the largest among them on various issues. The government continued to be operational until the dissolution of the assembly by presidential proclamation on 30 July.

1971–1972
In the following

Naxalite movement derives its name from Naxalbari, a small place in Siliguri subdivision of Darjeeling district of West Bengal. It all started in 1967 after the first non-congress government came into power under the name of United Front Government. The dominant forces in the government were the Leftists. The main forces were the CPI and the CPI(M). They represented the aspirations of the marginalized and the poor. The minister-in-charge of Land and Land Revenue was Hare Krishna Konar who was a veteran peasant leader. In an interview with his party mouthpiece Ganashakti, he made his intentions clear about the quick distribution of surplus land and he further asked for peasant initiative and organized force. What he did not realize was that the aspirations of the poor peasantry were already on a high note and his invitation escalated them further. As the later developments showed they went far beyond his expectations. Although there were no doubts about the intentions of the leftists in the government about the redistribution, the path to achieve the goals was not that simple. There were some constraints before government. To name a few first they were not sure about how to recover the land from the landlords. Second the landlords could take the help of law to delay the seizure of land and thus postpone the redistribution for an indefinite period. Third was the working of the bureaucracy. There were some instances of even defying the orders of the ministers. As a result of these obstacles, the government could not implement the land reforms quickly. The CPI(M) was in a difficult situation because it was in the power so it could not totally do away the legal and official procedure and on the other hand the aspirations of the peasantry had to be satisfied. Everyone was not happy with government policy of redistributing the land through legal process. One of such prominent figures was Charu Mazumdar who was attacking Hare Krishna Konar on three accounts. The first point was that he submitted to the bureaucrats and feudal gentry. The second point was that there might be disputes among the peasants who acquired the land through legal process and those who got it through forceful means. The third point was that the peasants who would acquire the land through legal process might eventually become a complacent middle farmer. Developments at Naxalbari: In this light a peasants’ conference was held under the auspices of CPI(M) at Naxalbari and it gave a call for ending the monopoly ownership of land by landlords, organization and arming of peasants to destroy the resistance of landlords. Among the sponsors of the conference were Kanu Sanyal and Jangal Santhal who later became prominent leaders of the Naxalbari movement. Both of them were in favor of political propaganda and mass mobilization what was opposed by Charu Mazumdar. He wanted only action. So there were some differences on the part of the strategy to be followed but they were clear on many points such as that India's liberation could be achieved only through China's path, propagation of politics of agrarian struggle among the working class and the peasantry and building up a secret party to prepare cadres for this purpose. As a result of those differences pointed out already, Siliguri Local committee cadres decided to go on the path of mass movements whereas West Dinajpur unit decided to stick to the idea of Charu babu. Now the mobilization started on a large scale. From March to April (1967) all the villages of the Naxalbari were organized and 15000 to 20000 peasants were enrolled as whole time activists. They soon occupied the land in the name of peasants’ committees, burnt all land records, cancelled all hypothetical debts, and passed death sentences on oppressive landlords. They also formed armed bands by looting guns from the landlords, armed themselves with conventional weapons and set up a parallel administration to look after the villages. By May of that year itself three or four places were totally under the control of rebels. In the meantime Charu babu addressed a meeting of the cadres and asked them to always be on the side of the poor and landless peasant. He said that our relation with rich farmers would always be of struggling nature. Observing that the situation going out of control UF government woke up and Hare Krishna Konar was sent to the Naxalbari region and he asked the rebels to put down their arms and file the petition for the distribution of land vested with the government. It was also agreed that all the persons wanted by Police would also surrender. But the agreement was never implemented. Just after the return of minister from that place, a Police camp was established there. In the wake of these developments the first serious clash between Police and the peasants occurred on 23 May 1967, when a policeman was killed and in retaliation police opened fire on a crowd of villagers and killed nine people. Out of them six were women and two were children. This incident created tensions within and outside the United Front government. The West Bengal Secretariat condemned the incident and accused Chief Minister Ajoy Mukherjee, an ex-Congressman of laying ‘one sided stress on police measures to maintain law and order’. Meanwhile, news of clashes between peasants and landlords kept pouring in from Naxalbari and between third and 10 June. There were as many as eighty incidents of dacoity, two murders and also one abduction. Mr. B. Chavan Union Home Minister told the Lok Sabha that a reign of terror has been created in Darjeeling. By the end of June while the leadership of Communist Party of India (Marxist) was openly against the Naxalbari rebels. In Calcutta several groups within and outside CPI(M) were coming together. These groups formed the Naxalbari Peasants Struggle Aid Committee, which became a nucleus of separate party of the future. CPI(M) expelled 19 members in the light of the formation of the committee. In the meantime some other important developments were also taking place. On 28 June Radio Peking supported the movement and dubbed the United Front government as a ‘tool of Indian reactionaries to deceive the people’. This was the first incident of Chinese support to rebels and of Peking's disenchantment with CPI(M). On 12 July a major police action was launched. Although Chief Minister claimed that it was cabinet's decision, but CPI(M) tried to dissociate itself from the police action. The Chief Minister also came under attack. By 20 July the prominent leaders like Jangal Santhal were arrested and by October 1967 an apparent lull was set in Naxalbari. Assessment of the Naxalbari Movement and causes for its failure: Coming to the evaluation of the Naxalbari Movement, we should keep in mind that although it was a moderate success it was suppressed within a few months. It enjoyed immense mass support, but it could not sustain for a long period of time. There are mainly two versions for the failure of the movement. One is from the point of view of Kanu Sanyal and other one is from the point of view of supporters of Charu Mazumdar. Kanu Sanyal's in his famous Report on the 'Terai Peasants’ Movement has penned down some of the reasons. The main reason according to him was excessive reliance on the spontaneity of the masses and taking them as armed forces. Among the other reasons were the inclusion of some vagabonds and making them leaders of the movement. Lack of proper plan for the redistribution of grabbed land led to conflicts among the peasants. But according to him the main defect was failure to establish a powerful mass base. Talking about military weakness of the movement, Kanu Sanyal admitted that the revolutionaries underrated the strength of the State machinery and thought that United Front Government would not go to the extent of suppressing the movement.^[25][26][27]

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]

Our Land Problem

According to Konar the Land question is a national question and not one affecting merely the peasantry. If we fail to solve the land problem, the whole society will go down. If the nation as a whole does not stand behind the measures for land reform, the peasantry or the Government can do very little by themselves. History tells us that the land question and the struggle of the peasantry to resolve it were the motive force behind every revolutionary uprising whether in Russia or China or Vietnam. We are not sure how the land problem is going to be solved in India and what the future of this country will be. As I had said, the question of land reform does not affect the poor peasant only. Land reform is an imperative necessity for the revitalization of a moribund economy and a backward country. Modern research puts all the emphasis on providing technical know-how to increase agricultural production. This is a one-sided approach. Agriculture does not depend on the bounties of Nature alone. The peasant must have a love for his profession and there must be conscious effort for increasing production. Concentration of land in a few lands will condemn many to forced unemployment and make them a liability of society. Even if there is full production, it will not lead to equal distribution of food unless there is an equal distribution of land. Sanction of law will fail to put an end to malpractices. If opportunities to reap higher profits with less labour and investment exist, people will naturally try to take advantage of such opportunities and it is idle to believe their attitude can be changed through sermons. Solution of the land problem is necessary not only from the point of view of social justice but also from that of increasing food production. To build up our country try we must stand on our own legs and shed dependence on foreign aid. A scientific mobilization of our natural and human resources will go a long way to develop our agriculture. It is wrong notion that small holding are a bar to increasing production. Even if the peasant is given a small plot of land, he will feel the urge for increasing production since he feels it is his own. Of course, these is a limit to such an increase. The primary task, therefore, is abolition of large scale land and its distribution to the landless, the next step would be for the government to explain to the peasants the disadvantages of cultivating small holdings. The peasant will then voluntarily take to collective farming. Private ownership of land will thus be done away with. Then comes the question of removing the pressure on land. Land distribution by itself will not solve this problem. The pressure on land has to be reduced gradually. Cottage industries have got a positive role in this respect and those to be developed. The development of cottage industries, however, will not make for full-scale economic regeneration. We have to embark on industrial development. The rich will be denied the luxurious living they enjoy now, not because we have any personal grudge against them but because that mode of living does not fit with the over all interest of the country. Without going in for a radical change of the existing social system, we can not take the country along the path of progress and prosperity. It is impossible for the government to solve the land problem under the present social system. The Zamindars and Maharajas, who have other sources of income, should not be allowed to possess land. But the constitution stands in the way of taking such step. We, however, can and should try to plug the loop holes in the law relating to celling on land. The machinery of the Government connot carry out land reforms even though there are honest officers in the administration. In our case, there is the bureaucracy – a built in obstacle. The efforts of the administration have to be strengthened and supplemented by the conscious and organized participation of the peasants and the people at large. Academic discussion, to be useful, must shed their abstract nature and be practical and down to earth enunciation of policies and programme. A combination of all these factors will enable us to solve the land problems.^[32][33]

Ingenious strategy of Konar and Choudhury

Though 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]

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

Personal life

After being released from jail in 1938, his father hoped to put the son into business and further his prosperity. Although he was disappointed, he did not give up. He thought that if he could get his son married and if he had children, then Konar would have to return home. After 3 years of trying, Comrade Konar finally agreed to the marriage but only under 3 conditions: (1) no dowry should be taken (2) paying 1500 rupees to the Communist Party funds and (3) being allowed to talk separately with the bride before marriage. His father agreed to the conditions of his marriage, and before marriage, Konar talked with Pramila Dan and told her that:

I am a jailed communist; in the future, I must be in jail or hiding, and I may even be killed. Can you continue in this uncertain life of mine?

Pramila Dan replied that:

Yes, I can continue with you in your uncertain life.

In 1941, Comrade Konar married Pramila Dan, the elder daughter of a big landlord Sribrajeshwar Dan. The wedding ceremony was held at the house on Mohunbagan Lane,

But his father's hope that Comrade Konar would stay at home and look after his business was not fulfilled. After a few days, Comrade Konar received an arrest warrant and Benoy Choudhury took Konar's wife, Biva Konar to a secret lair. As Sribrajeshwar Dan was a big Zamindar, so at his daughter's marriage, Sribrajeshwar Dan gave his daughter a lot of jewelries. But during their party life, Biva Konar almost sold all his jewelries for the party funds. There was no political tradition in the paternal family of Biva Konar, but a simple devotion to her husband's ideals, an uncanny ability to throw herself into the crowd at the expense of the conventional notions of individual happiness, Biva Konar was a simple image of simplicity.^[36]

Comrade Konar was a brilliant student on the one hand and an increasingly wealthy father on the other between these two, it was natural to live in the certainty of what is meant by establishment in this society but Konar left the certain life and chose the uncertain life for the sake of emancipation of the exploited people in the class society. Comrade Konar was disowned by his father, although for the last few years of the father's life, Comrade Konar stayed with his father. Anyway, it was impossible to stay at home. It was then necessary to go underground. So, it was decided that

In the year 1930, Comrade Konar's mother Satyabala Konar gave birth to another son, who was Benoy Krishna Konar. Konar's younger brother, Comrade Benoy Krishna Konar was also a firebrand peasant leader who later became the national president of the All India Kisan Sabha and became the chairman of the central control commission of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Benoy Krishna Konar was an excellent orator, as was his brother and a great diplomatic politician who was the senior most leader in the 2000s and member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly for more than 7 years. In 1970, Benoy Krishna Konar was also accused in the most notorious Sainbari murder case. Konar Brothers are very famous in the Indian state of West Bengal.^[37]

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]

Gallery

Electoral history

Hare Krishna Konar was the

• 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

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

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

Notes