People's Democracy

 Comrade Ramkumar Debbarma

Haripada Das

COMRADE Ramkumar Debbarma, a veteran leader of the communist movement in Tripura, breathed his last at 8.30 p m on December 24, in his house at Karbook. He has left behind his wife, five sons and five daughters. He was 97.

Comrade Ramkumar Debbarma was one of the leaders of the literacy movement in the state carried out by the Janashiksha Samity, one of the founders of Tripura Rajya Upajati Ganamukti Parishad and a pillar of ethnic harmony in Amarpur in South Tripura district. His demise aggrieved his innumerable admirers among the tribals as well as non-tribals in the area.

Soon after the sad news reached the CPI(M)’s state committee office in the evening, the party’s state secretariat members including Polit Bureau member Manik Sarkar, state secretary and Central Committee member Baidyanath Majumder and Bijon Dhar (another Central Committee member), who were in a meeting, stood in silence in memory of the departed leader. Red flags were hoisted half-mast on December 25 throughout the state in homage to Comrade Ramkumar Debbarma.

Born in 1907 at Kamalnagar, a remote tribal village of Khowai subdivision, Comrade Ramkumar Debbarma had no scope to receive any formal education because having a school in such remote areas was a day-dream at that time under the king’s rule. But he got primary education at home.

His unfulfilled aspiration to get educated made him take a plunge into the literacy movement in the state in the year 1946, under “Janashiksha Samity” led by legendary leaders like late Comrade Dasaratha Deb. Since the inception of this Samity in 1946, Comrade Debbarma contributed a lot to the literacy movement in the state, setting up innumerable schools in tribal villages in hilly areas of the state, which invited the wrath of the then existing monarchy. Comrade Debbarma was one of the founder leaders of Tripura Rajya Upajati Ganamukti Parishad formed in 1948. Soon, this Parishad had had to carry out a long drawn armed resistance struggle against the then Congress government’s police and military who perpetrated unprecedented repression on the tribal population in large areas in the name of weeding out the communists. Comrade Ramkumar Debbarma led many such successful resistance struggles during that period. He also organised the Hindustani tea garden workers under the Ganamukti Parishad and brought them into the resistance movement.

Comrade Debbarma got membership of the then united Communist Party in the year 1951. In the 1952 general elections, which were the first elections in the country after independence, the party deputed him to look after electioneering in Amarpur subdivision. He successfully performed the job after setting up a camp at Ampi. Next year, he was in charge of Teliamura party office. Since then, he continued to work among the tribal Jhumias (shifting cultivators) and led many movements against oppression, injustice, deprivation and the Pharias’ and Mahajans’ exploitation prevalent during the Congress rule. In 1957, he permanently settled in Karbook of Amarpur subdivision in South Tripura.

During the Sino-Indian border conflict in 1962, Comrade Ramkumar Debbarma was arrested by the Congress government and detained in Hazaribag Jail in Bihar. He was steadfast in the struggle against revisionism within the party. He joined the CPI(M) in 1964. He was elected state committee member of the party in its early days and continued in this capacity till the last state conference where he urged for being relieved due to advancing age and failing health. He represented the state in several of the party congresses. He was secretary of the party’s Amarpur divisional committee since its inception and successfully steered the party for two long decades through many twists and turns.

During the ethnic riot in 1980, Comrade Ramkumar Debbarma, a beloved leader of both the tribal and non-tribal communities, undauntedly stood against the miscreants and set a glorious example by saving the people of both the communities. That was an episode when the party set a glorious example and many fine comrades courted martyrdom while facing the miscreants and saving the common people from attacks. In 1982, he was elected to the Tripura legislative assembly in a bye-election. 

On December 25 morning, the party’s Central Committee members Bijan Dhar and Aghore Debbarma as well as state committee members Keshab Majumder and Jitendra Chowdhury reached Amarpur to attend the funeral of the late comrade.

The CPI(M) state secretariat, in a condolence message on the day, deeply mourned the sad demise of the veteran leader and conveyed heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family of Comrade Debbarma. While paying homage to the departed comrade, the state secretariat recalled his legacy and six decade long invaluable contribution to the struggle for literacy expansion, for the interest of the impoverished tribal people, for protecting the tribal-non-tribal ethnic unity and above all for protecting the constitutional rights of the tribals. The secretariat then urged the mass of party members and workers in the state to follow Comrade Ramkumar Debbarma’s life as an ideal communist, and take a lesson from his simple life.

On December 25 afternoon, the mortal remains of Comrade Ramkumar Debbarma were cremated at his native village Karbook after thousands of his compatriots and comrades, belonging to both the tribal and non-tribal communities, had paid him floral tributes. (INN)