Unsung Hero

Ramchandra Singh, a communist revolutionary of the 1970s, died on 2 March 2018, in his village Bangarmau of Unnao district in Uttar Pradesh. Now, of course, the village and district are more known for their infamous “people’s representative.”

A young Singh swam against the tide of turbulent times, joining the young radicals who had resolved to “bombard the headquarters,” like the Red Guards of the Proletariat Cultural Revolution in China and the “new man” born out of the Naxalbari spring thunder. His area of activity was not in Darjeeling where the spring thunder first roared. Neither was it in Srikakulam and Wayanad where people inherited the Naxalbari legacy. It was in Uttar Pradesh—not a very well-known place in the annals of leftist struggles—from where Singh began his tryst with people’s movements.