‘I Confess’

Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri

[Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri, a long-time associate of Frontier and a renowned Naxalite activist passed away in Kolkata on October 24, 2020. Before his death he wrote a letter to his friends explaining some points, particularly in relation to his journey to London after release from jail in 1971. This is said to be the last letter of Dipanjan. Two of his fellow-travellers gave this letter to 12 persons, including Ashim Chatterjee (Kaka), as per Dipanjan’s wish to deliver it only after his death. Kaka apart, notable recipients of the letter were Tania, Muzaffar, Babu, Kumaresh, Tapas Bose and six others. We publish below this letter under the caption—‘I Confess’.]

My friends,
Corona virus prevents me from taking your hands.

Who knows this is the last of plagues perhaps and so we might meet in the anti-room of Mephistopheles? Of course, if you cross the plague successfully, we will be living separated for eternity. I find that, there are still friends, who wish to define me by my passage to England. For them, I say that, it was a bad move and not adequate compensation can be arranged, as I have also tried to explain this, in the ‘India’ book by Naipaul. However, it must be placed on the records that, during my penitentiary days, it was the party, who first introduced and offered me the role of playing ‘Shaitaan’ to Adam. It was a party project. As we had decoded that, old man would be kept out of the council hall, I drop the audacity of offering suggestions for the tactical line. I say only that all said and done the little momentum that remains at this moment may be harnessed by our friend and guide Kaka, with his critique of the pro-China line without falling into the Indonesian or the Filipino errors.

No woman to shed tears, not an ideal Dasvidaniya, or what say you?
From
Dipanjan Rai Chaudhuri

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Frontier
Vol 55, No. 14-17, Oct 2 - 29, 2022