Naxalbari | Marx, Mao, Majumdar and a town that birthed insurgency

In Naxalbari, the cluster of red sandstone statues of the Left icons stands by the roadside, the only few visible reminders of a history etched in blood.

Khemu Singh was 17 when he picked up a weapon, 1967.

A memorial in Naxalbari dedicated to communists Karl Max, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, Lin Biao and Naxal leader Charu Majumdar. (HT Photo)

Sonam Gyentsen Wangdi had not yet been born when his father Inspector Sonam Wangdi was killed.

Jharen Roy grew up hearing stories of how his family’s grain stores were looted and how they were driven from their village.

Six decades later, and almost three months after the government declared India free of left wing extremism (LWE), the movement’s origins and human cost remain etched in the lives of the