The Inquilaab Rally, held in Delhi in 2007, was an impressive voice of resistance to corporate land grab and a reclaiming of our united anti-colonial legacy of resistance. Held in the backdrop of massive land grab being spearheaded in the name of promoting Special Economic Zones (SEZs), and with festering memories of the massacres of Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal, this rally proclaimed loud and clear that the only possible radical left resistance in this era of imperialist assaults was through reclaiming the legacy of the first war of independence of 1857, where Hindus and Muslims, farmers, peasants and labourers united to fight British colonialism.
The streets were lined with festoons and several hundred thousand people with red flags and banners from—Assam to Ajmer, Bhojpur to Gujarat, Uttarakhand to Tamil Nadu—marched towards the Rally ground in an unceasing wave to reassert that Bhagat Singh’s dreams were not wasted, the blood of the ordinary people battling the British imperialists before and after 1857 not washed away by parasitic rulers of the country and that the vision of the call for the final break from slavery given at Naxalbari would guide the struggle ahead. The streets were lined with festoons and several hundred thousand people with red flags and banners from—Assam to Ajmer, Bhojpur to Gujarat, Uttarakhand to Tamil Nadu—marched towards the Rally ground in an unceasing wave to reassert that Bhagat Singh’s dreams were not wasted, the blood of the ordinary people battling the British imperialists before and after 1857 not washed away by parasitic rulers of the country and that the vision of the call for the final break from slavery given at Naxalbari wouldguide the struggle ahead. The rally ground a splendid expanse of red – a tribute to those who have stained the flag with the colour of their blood against every act of oppression – determined to uphold the flag that was being betrayed by the CPM goons in Singur and Nandigram with their ghastly crimes against the poor and marginalised; the betrayers pretending to be the bearers of the red flag while acting as mercenaries of the big capital.
Amit Sengupta, a coloumnist who was present at this rally, had this to say about the rally:
“They came in disciplined, non-violent, totally committed and organised groups led by the CPI-ML (Liberation): from Giridih in Jharkhand and Arwal in Jehanabad, to Singur in Bengal, Sonebhadra in UP, Karbi Anglong in Assam, Mansa in Punjab and interiors of South India. They came in waves of red, the people of India, the invisible majority; there were no traffic jams, no violence, not a moment of metropolitan disruption. This was perhaps the biggest rally in years in the capital and the topical backdrop was the Nandigram massacre.
Next day, not a word was reported in any of the big papers in Delhi. Not one word. As if, this India, this massive protest, does not exist.
But this India exists, in affirmation and hope, in sacrifice and struggle, in dissent and resistance. Because revolutions don’t happen in Lakme fashion shows or in the big bucks of schizophrenic cricket, when the entire media lost it. People learn from history, from mistakes of the past. Revolutions move relentlessly in invisible spirals, of quiet, volcanic, unseen social unrest, in the daily struggles of survival and despair, when the radical turning point is waiting in the next bylane of an unknown village. Like Naxalbari, Nandigram and Kalinganagar“.
Reports on the rally:
Report on the rally that appeared in INSAF (International South Asia Forum) Bulletin
