How Can a Socio-political Conflict Speak? Some Trends in the Study of West Bengal’s Naxalbari Movement, 1967-1972

The article engages with the historiography of the Naxalbari movement in West Bengal in order to underline some epistemological problems in the study of recent history and revolutionary movements. The essay begins with the circumstances that gave rise to the movement, trying to underline its complexity and multifaceted character. It then presents the major literary and research-based publications in English to show some bias in producing knowledge about the movement. Thereafter, the article questions the bias or lack of interest on the historicization of the movement pointing at the problem of bipolarization of ideas by the authors, and at the absence of empirical researches for a considerable time. Finally, the author suggests that tropes, opposite narratives, and romanticization on socio-political movements may be overcome through questioning participation, and admitting the nuanced character of the personal and the political in history.