The 23rd martyrdom anniversary of Comrade Manju Devi was observed with a tribute and pledge meeting in Karpi, in Bihar's Arwal district, on Tuesday, 10 November. Comrades and supporters paid floral tributes to her statue and reaffirmed their commitment to carrying forward her revolutionary legacy and the struggle for social transformation, dignity and the rights of the rural poor.
Comrade Manju Devi sacrificed her life in the struggle against feudal oppression and for the rights of landless labourers, poor peasants and marginalised communities. She had been actively organising agricultural workers and mobilising the rural poor to fight for their rights and dignity.
She was assassinated on 10 November 2003 by armed members of the Ranvir Sena, a private militia of dominant-caste landlords responsible for massacres and attacks on the rural poor in Bihar. At the time of her assassination, she was returning from a village meeting organised as part of preparations for the founding conference of the All India Agricultural and Rural Labour Association (AIARLA).
Addressing the commemorative meeting, Comrade Mahanand Singh, former MLA and CPIML leader recalled the period of intense feudal violence and state repression in Bihar, when the struggles of agricultural labourers and the rural poor faced arrests, imprisonment, killings and massacres. They emphasised that despite repeated attempts by feudal forces to crush the movement, the resistance of the oppressed could not be silenced.
