People's Democracy

 Comrade Ananta Kar: An Inspiring Figure

COMRADE Ananta Kar, who passed away at 2.55 a m on October 18, at the age of 64, because of acute myeloid leukemia (blood cancer), was an inspiring figure in Orissa politics. A veteran leader of the teachers movement in the state, Comrade Kar was a member of the CPI(M)’s Orissa state committee and secretary of its Mayurbhanj district committee.

Born in a poor peasant family in Namkana village of Balasore district, Comrade Ananta Kar had to struggle hard to get higher education and developed a conviction that a qualitative change of society was essential for providing the basic guarantees of life to the poor and the downtrodden. He joined the undivided Students Federation and became president of the Students Union of F M College at Balasore. His search for justice made him an ardent follower of Marxism and he joined the undivided Communist Party in 1960. He fought against revisionism and joined the CPI(M) when the party was reorganised at its seventh congress in 1964.

Inspired by the tradition of nationalist teachers of Satyabadee School led by Utkalmani Gopabandhu Das, who was one of the pioneer leaders of the freedom struggle in Orissa, Comrade Kar opted for the teaching profession. A veteran leader of the movement of West Bengal teachers, Comrade Satyapriya Ray’s role in creating human resources to fight for social change also influenced him. In the 1960s, jobs in various sectors were not so scarce as they are today. But Comrade Kar not only resolved to become a teacher; he also rejected the offer to join an established school run by Baripada municipality. Instead, he accepted the request of the organisers of a newly set-up school at Amarda village in Mayurbhanj district even though there was no job security or the guarantee of a minimum salary here. He identified this backward area as a fertile ground for developing human resources to fight for social change.

As a teacher, he was ideal, affectionate, and never tyrannical. He constantly strove to promote among his students the values of democracy, secularism, equality and compassion for the poor and weaker sections, encouraging them to fight for abolition of the caste system. In his opinion, the degree oriented education or technological knowledge, divorced from these values, was no education in the true sense of the term.

He belonged to a new generation of teachers who rejected the mythological definition of a teacher and sought to change the pro-establishment character of a large number of teachers. He, along with others, gave a militant twist to the teachers’ organisation and movement, and was one of the founders of the All Orissa Federation of Teachers Organisations, a broad platform of teachers in the state. This united struggle of the teachers liberated them from the bondage of the corrupt managing committees, provided them service security and decent salaries through the direct payment system.

Comrade Kar was against making the teachers’ movement a prisoner of economism. He emphasised that teachers should never neglect their duties or involve in corrupt practices.

The organisations of teachers in Orissa happen to be multi-party mass organisations, though the CPI is in a dominant position in them. Because of his political identity, Comrade Ananta Kar represented a minority in the movement and, throughout his career, passed through an adverse situation as a leader of the teachers’ movement. Yet he created an example of how to operate in a multi-party mass organisation even while being in a minority position.

Never resorting to factional feuds, Comrade Kar all along made appeals to the teachers to advance on the path of an uncompromising struggle and democratically run their organisations.

The gradual withdrawal of the state form education under the impact of the policies of economic liberalisation, the policy of commercialisation of education that seeks to deprive the poor of their right to avail of higher and technical education, and also the ongoing drive of saffronisation of education worried Comrade Ananta Kar in his last days. His worries were compounded when agents of saffron brigade sought to disrupt the teachers’ organisations. Earlier he held the idea of floating institutions parallel to the kind of RSS controlled Saraswati Sishu Mandirs. But, to combat the saffron challenge, he now gave up this idea and stressed on training the teachers to counter the saffron content while performing their basic duty --- of teaching in classrooms. He also urged for protecting the public education system by resisting the machinations of the so-called fiscal reforms, adopted at the directive of the World Bank and DFID.

Comrade Ananta Kar, who was a member of the Mayurbhanj district committee of the CPI(M) since its inception, became its secretary in 2002 and continued in the position till the end of his life. He was elected in 1988 a member of the state committee of the party and remained its member till his death. During his tenure as the district secretary, the district witnessed growth in party membership, in enrolment of members in mass organisations, in circulation of the party paper and activities of the party. Towards the end of his life, he was concentrating his activities on reviving the communist movement in the tribal dominated Mayurbhanj district, defeating the disruptive forces to ensure an advance of the teachers’ movement and isolating the communal forces from the people. He was an orator of extraordinary talent. The main thrust of his speeches was on countering communalism, for which he advanced cogent reasons and extensively quoted from mythologies and scriptures. He was also a voracious reader, a powerful writer and was connected with literary activities.