A 27-foot martyr column still stands in the village in the memory of Umakanta Mahato, a leader of a Maoist-backed outfit, who was shot dead in a gunfight with the security forces in August 2010. The paint on the structure has peeled off and the ground is overrun with weeds that have completely hidden four more smaller columns, one of which is in the memory of Sashadhar Mahato, a leader of CPI(Maoist). Villagers had built the memorials in 2010.

Barely 100 feet from the column that was once regularly washed and maintained by villagers, microphones are blaring away at the pandal of the only community Durga Puja in the 10 neighbouring villages that about 10 years ago formed one of core areas that was almost a “liberated zone” by the Maoists.

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“After (Maoist leader) Kishenji was killed in end 2011, the locals don’t mention the names of the rebels. Now we want lasting peace. So we are organising Durga Puja so that they (Maoists) don’t return here,” said Debendra Mahato, a villager who is about 70.

Weeds have covered the ground where, in 2010, villagers built five columns in the memory of five leaders of CPI(Maoist) and People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, an outfit backed by the rebels, who were killed in gunfights with the security forces. (HT Photo)

This is only the third year that members of Birihandi Udiyaman Tarun Sangha, the local club set up in 1974, is organising Durga Puja.

Though Bengal is now free from the rebels, between 2009 and 2011 they almost had a free run in vast forested swathes of the districts of West Midnapore, Bankura, Purulia and Jhargram. About 500 lives were lost in clashes between the rebels and security forces in Bengal in this period. In addition as many as 148 passengers of the Mumbai-bound express train died after a few bogies got derailed after midnight May 28, 2010 after Umakanto Mahato and his men cut of a part of the tracks.

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“We wanted to do something different to announce a decisive break with the past. The villages often used to lament that there is no puja in the area and during a chat three years ago, we decided to organise one in the village,” said Jagadish Mahato, secretary of the club.

About 150 families live in the village, where the main economic activity centres around cashew plantation and cultivating fish in local ponds. They pooled in Rs 7 lakh to organise the puja.

Most of the villagers of Birihandi not only supported the Maoists and their outfit People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities, but also joined hands with them and staged rallies in their support.

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The villagers admit that they were imbued with rebel fervour.

Baren Mahato, who runs a small tea and snacks stall, and joined hands with the rebels, said, “Later we realised that we made a mistake. Now we do not want to remember those days. Our prayer to the goddess is for peace.”

Words like “resistance”, not to speak of “revolution”, are no longer heard in these areas.

“Earlier what we though and spoke was largely influenced by the rebels. We raised our voice against the police. But now everything has changed,” said Madan Mahato, who is in his late sixties.

Last year, the speaker of state assembly, Biman Banerjee, visited the puja pandal in the remote village.

Residents of at least a dozen villages such as Madhupur, Chakua, Baropal, Kurashole, flocked to the puja in Birihandi.

Earlier, villagers had to travel to Jhargram town, about 13 kms away, to see the goddess.

First Published: Oct 20, 2018 12:16 IST