Naxalbari

Naxalbari নকশালবাড়ি
Village
Naxalbari Naxalbari Location of Naxalbari in West Bengal
Coordinates: 26°41′N 88°13′E / 26.68°N 88.22°ECoordinates: 26°41′N 88°13′E / 26.68°N 88.22°E
Country	India
State	West Bengal
District	Darjeeling
Government
• Type	Gram panchayat
• Body	Naxalbari Gram Panchayat
• Mayor	Radha Gobinda Ghosh CPI(M)
Elevation	152 m (499 ft)
Languages
• Official	Bengali, Nepali, Hindi, Bihari, English and others Languages
Time zone	IST (UTC+5:30)
PIN	734429
Telephone code	0353
Lok Sabha constituency	Darjeeling
Vidhan Sabha constituency	Matigara-Naxalbari

Naxalbari is the name of a village and a community development block in northern part of the state of West Bengal, India. Naxalbari block comes under the jurisdiction of Siliguri subdivision of Darjeeling district. Naxalbari became famous for the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency, which started in the late 1960s.

Geography

Naxalbari is located at 26°41′N 88°13′E / 26.68°N 88.22°E.^[1] It has an average elevation of 152 metres (501 feet).

The stretch of land, where Naxalbari is situated, lies on the Terai region at the base of the Himalayas. To the west of Naxalbari, across the border river Mechi lies Nepal. The entire stretch of the land surrounding Naxalbari is covered by farm lands, tea estates and forests and small villages, consists of an area of 182.02 km². The Naxalbari block has six Gram Panchayats (village councils), viz. Gossainpur, Lower Bagdogra, Upper Bagdogra, Hatighisha, Naxalbari and Moniram, from north to south. The population of Naxalbari block was 144,915 in the year 2001.

History

Naxalbari became famous for being the site of a left-wing poor peasants uprising in 1967, which began with the "land to tiller" slogan, an uprising continuing to this day (see Naxalite).

The "Naxalbari" incident was triggered on 25 May 1967 at Bengai Jote village in Naxalbari when the police opened fire on a group of villagers who were demanding their right to the crops at a particular piece of land. The firing killed 9 adults and 2 unknown children.

The CPI(ML) have put up busts of Lenin, Stalin, Mao and Charu Majumder on that piece of land. The spot has Bengai Jote Primary School next to it. There is a memorial column erected that has the names of the people who died during the police firing. The names are 1. Dhaneswari Devi (F), 2. Simaswari Mullick (F), 3. Nayaneswari Mullick (F), 4. Surubala Burman (F), 5. Sonamati Singh (F), 6. Fulmati Devi (F), 7. Samsari Saibani (F), 8. Gaudrau Saibani (M), 9. Kharsingh Mullick (M) and "two children".

Notable People

• Charu Majumdar, co-founder of Naxalbari
• Kanu Sanyal, co-founder of Naxalbari
• Jangal Santhal, co-founder of Naxalbari

Education System

Naxalbari have two major government high schools (one for boys and one for girls) with a college and many public and private primary schools

• Nand Prasad High School (H.S) - a major and famous government boys high school in Naxalbari, Nand Prasad High School classes is 5th grade to 12th grade and Nand Prasad High School have big size land so citizens use it to Durga Puja and Kali Puja and others many events and purposes

Nand Prasad High School was founded 1943.

• Nand Prasad Girls High School - a major and famous government girls high school in Naxalbari, Nand Prasad Girls High School classes is 5th grade to 12th grade and Nand Prasad Girls High School also have big size land so citizens also use it to many events

Nand Prasad Girls High School was founded in 1973

• Naxalbari College also known Nakshalbari College, Darjiling - a government college in Naxalbari, Naxalbari College wss established in 2008
• Shreema Shishu Udyan School - an private primary school for boys and girls in Naxalbari, Shreema Shishu Udyan School classes is 1st grade to 5th grade

Shreema Shishu Udyan School was founded in 1979

Administration

Naxalbari block consists of one census town: Uttar Bagdogra and rural areas with 6 gram panchayats, viz. Gossaipur, Lower Bagdogra, Nakshalbari, Hatighisa, Maniram and Upper Bagdogra. This block has two police stations: Bagdogra and Naxalbari. The headquarters of this block is in Naxalbari.

Transport

Naxalbari is a station on the Katihar–Siliguri line.^[2] Daily trains are running from New Jalpaiguri via Siliguri Town, Siliguri Junction, Matigara and Bagdogra. There are four trains running from New Jalpaiguri; New Jalpaiguri-Katihar Passenger, New Jalpaiguri-Aluabari-New Jalpaiguri DEMU Ring Rail, New Jalpaiguri-Balurghat DEMU & New Jalpaiuri-Radhikapur DEMU.

There is also bus service from Siliguri Court More to Naksalbari.

Naxalbari's Panitanki neighborhood is on Nepal's eastern border with India at Jhapa District, Mechi Zone. There is a border crossing to the Kakarbhitta neighborhood of Mechinagar municipality with a checkpoint for customs and crossing by third country nationals while citizens of Nepal and India cross without restriction.

See also

• Naxal (disambiguation)

References

1. Falling Rain Genomics, Inc - Naxalbari
2. Indian Railways time table

External links

• The Rising: Naxalbari to now
• From Naxalbari to Nalgonda
• The Road from Naxalbari