Hare Krishna Konar

Hare Krishna Konar

Hare Krishna Konar (1915–1974) was a fire brand politician, belonging to the CPI(M), who played a major role in land reforms in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Early life

He joined the Non-cooperation movement at the age of 14. He was condemned to the Andaman Islands in 1933 for six years. He joined the communist movement in 1938.^[1]

Elections

He won the elections to the state assembly from Kalna (Vidhan Sabha constituency) in 1957, 1962, 1967, 1969 and 1971.^[2] He was Minister for Land and Land Revenue in the United Front ministries in 1967 and 1969.^[1]

Land reforms

Hare Krishna Konar played a leading role in getting surplus land held by big land owners in excess of land ceiling laws and kept ‘benami’ (or false names) vested with the state. The quantum of land thus vested was around one million acres (4,000 km²) of good agricultural land. Subsequently, under the leadership of Benoy Choudhury, this land was distributed amongst 2.4 million landless and poor farmers. It has been argued that this land reform along with Operation Barga formed the base for the Left Front victory in subsequent elections.^[3]

Barga Operation was his notable contribution. To begin with, group meetings between Officials and Bargadars were organized during "settlement camps" (also called "Reorientation camps"), where the bargadars could discuss their grievances. The first such camp was held at Halusai in Polba taluk in Hooghly district from 18 to 20 May 1978. In noted camp two Adibashi Borgaders objected procedure adopted by the official for Boraga Operation. They suggested to start it organising people in the field instead of sitting in the houses of rural rich people or the places dominated by them. Having that report Hare Krishna Konar immediately reorganised action plan and successful Borga Operation was done.

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