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SRIDHAR SRINIVASAN

Sridhar Srinivasan was a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). Sridhar Srinivasan was born into a middle-class family settled in Mumbai. He was the youngest of three brothers and two sisters. Sridhar joined the Elphinstone College in Mumbai: for a graduate degree.

Entry into revolutionary politics

Then a student of arts in Mumbai’s Elphinstone College, He started participating in the student movements which began fermenting post-Emergency, in the decade of the 1970s.Srinivasan gave up his studies in 1978-79 and joined “revolutionary” politics. The Vidyarthi Pragati Sanghatana, a student organisation of which Sridhar was one of the founder members, took many struggles and campaigns for the rights of students and other oppressed sections. The Vidharthi Pragati Sanghatana, played a leading role in the Student Anti Fee-rise Action Committee, which led to the students takeover of Mumbai University and the installing of their own vice-chancellor and administrative staff for a day.This student agitation is considered till date one of the biggest and widest students' struggles in the city encompassing nearly all Mumbai colleges right from South Mumbai to Ulhasnagar.

Moving to other struggles

During one such 'go-to-the-village' campaign in 1983 organised by students in Sironcha, Gadchiroli, Sridhar was arrested and spent almost a month in Chandrapur prison. After his student days, Sridhar involved himself in working class struggles around the industrial units situated in Thane. With trade union leader Datta Samant, he galvanised workers during the mill workers's strike in the early 1980s. He also led guerrilla attacks during the period.

Leadership of state level politics

In the mid 1980s, the CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Peoples' War Party experienced an intense internal debate leading to an almost vertical split. As the then nascent Maoist movement in Maharshtra was part of this stream it too was affected by this crisis. Sridhar played a role in the organisational and political consolidation of the leadership and the entire state organisation so as to steer it and rejoin the all India movement in the early 1990s.

Vidharba activism

Since the 1990s Sridhar's responsibilities shifted to Vidarbha -- to organise the urban youth and the working class especially in Wani and Chandrapur. These areas lie in an industrial coal belt and have historically been witness to many militant working class struggles and their proximity to the armed revolutionary struggles in Gadchiroli and Telengana made them a potential ground for radical urban work.

Revolutionary organisation responsibilities

Sridhar was later made secretary of the Maharashtra state committee of the CPI (Maoist) before being promoted to the Central Committee in 2001. He was again made a member of the Central Committee in 2007. During this period Sridhar had played a pivotal role in re-organising and re-building the Maoist armed movement in northern Gadchiroli, Gondia and Balaghat, Madhya Pradesh.

Arrest and conviction

It was with this background that the State targeted Sridhar and got him arrested on August 19, 2007.The Maharashtra ATS arrested him with one Vernon Gonsalves in Mumbai: Sridhar was convicted under various sections of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA), Explosives Substances Act and IPC. Sridhar faced trial in almost thirty cases in Mumbai, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Balaghat, Rajnandgaon, Chhattisgarh, and Surat. In July 2013, Sridhar was convicted and sentenced to six years in jail. However having completed most of his term as an undertrial he was released on August 21 that year. After his release in 2013, Srinivasan continued organisational work in the urban areas of Maharashtra.

Death

Eight years after his arrest and two years after his release, Sridhar died on August 18, 2015. A press statement issued by the party stated that "Sridhar Srinivasan alias Vishnu, died on August 18 following a massive heart attack".

Legacy

The CPI (Maoist) in its statement stated; " Comrade Sridhar’s martyrdom is a major blow to the movement.The proletariat and toiling masses of our country have lost one of their greatest sons who selflessly served them till his last breath, with nothing but their interests and the interests of the revolution in his heart. Comrade Sridharwill live forever in the hearts of the Party’s rank and file and millions upon millions ofthe Indian masses.Our party upholds the ideals of comrade Sridhar. It vows to fight relentlessly to fulfill his dreams. Our CC, CPI (Maoist) pays red homage to him with bowed heads. It is sending its deep condolences to his family and friends and shares their grief."

On the first death anniversary of Sridhar, a group named "Friends of Sridhar" organised a function at the Bhupesh Gupta Bhavan in Prabhadevi, Mumbai in the first week of September 2016. N Venugopal, editor of A Telugu monthly journal, delivered a talk on “Significance of 50 years of Chinese cultural revolution, significance of cultural revolution to our times”.

Members of Sridhar’s family, his friends, activists and those who had worked with him were among the 80-odd people present for the function. After recalling his moments with Sridhar, Venugopal talked about “blending the political armed struggle with social and cultural revolution” and also about “annhiliation of caste”. A memorial meeting was held on Thursday, 8th October, 2015 at 6 pm at the 2nd floor hall of the Mumbai Marathi Patrakar Sangh, next to the Press Club, Azad Maidan, CST.

Sridhar was remembered by his “friends” on the occasion of his first death anniversary at a function at the Bhupesh Gupta Bhavan in Prabhadevi, Mumbai, on Friday evening.The group named “Friends of Sridhar” held a function in Mumbai, in which N Venugopal, editor of A Telugu monthly journal, delivered a talk on “Significance of 50 years of Chinese cultural revolution, significance of cultural revolution to our times”.Members of Sridhar’s family, his friends, activists and those who had worked with him were among the 80-odd people present for the function. After recalling his moments with Sridhar, Venugopal talked about “blending the political armed struggle with social and cultural revolution” and also about “annhiliation of caste”.