50 years ago, a group of peasants rose in revolt against the oppression of landlords and back-breaking levies in the small north Bengal village of Naxalbari. The embers of this uprising spread across several states but quickly turned violent as hundreds of people were killed and the streets of Kolkata resembled a war zone. But today, the town has forgotten the revolution and the Left displaced by the RSS that has expanded. Also forgotten is how women shaped and led the movement. Half a century later, HT travels back to where it all began to find out if the Naxals achieved anything.
