Comrade Nagabhushana Patnaik

Nagbhushan Patnaik
Comrade Nagbhushan Patnaik
Born	(1934-11-27)27 November 1934 Padmapur,
Died	9 October 1998(1998-10-09) (aged 63)
Known for	Naxalism
Parent(s)	Rajalaxmi Patnaik (Mother) Ramamurthy Patnaik (Father)

Nagbhushan Patnaik was a communist revolutionary from Odisha. Born in a middle-class family at Padmapur on 27 November 1934 to Ramamurty Patnaik and Rajalaxmi Patnaik, Nagbhushan later participated in Naxalbari movement and remained in its front ranks to determine the future course of communist revolutionaries. He was one among the few founders of CPI(M-L) who remained active till the end of their lives.

Patnaik spent his childhood days at Padmapur. He completed his primary education at Padmapur and then the family moved to Gunupur where his schooling continued in the Govt. Boys' High School, Gunupur. In one of his interviews at Gunupur, he has revealed one interesting story of his childhood. During his childhood once it so happened that his father got a complaint about Nagbhushan beating some boy and so his father chased him to punish. Nagbhushan started running and managed to enter into a temple, but his father closed the door. When Nagbhushan saw that there was no escape, he took a piece of brick in his hand to throw it at his father & warned him to face unwanted consequences, if he is caught. His father was very much afraid, started laughing, took him to his back and surrendered before Lord Shiva. From that fearful day onwards the boy was known as Nagbhushan.

At the age of 15, he joined the A.I.S.F. during his graduation at S.K.C.G. College of Paralakhemundi. Then he joined the BHU for his post graduation course. He was greatly influenced by the socialistic atmosphere at BHU. Very few people knew that Nagbhushan was a poet too. Najrul Islam was his inspiration. He knew well many languages like Oriya, Telugu, Bengali, but most of his writings are in English. Nagbhushan's poems of prisons has been released in Bhubaneswar on 26 August 2012 Nagbhushan was a practising lawyer at Gunupur. He met DBM Patnaik at Gunupur where both of them defended poor peasant cases.

Interestingly, he never moved a mercy petition, rather wrote a letter to the jail Suptd. asking him to comply with the orders and also to donate his body parts to the needy. At last their efforts compelled the Govt. to commute the death sentence to life sentence. It was only after a long and arduous legal battle that he was released in the middle of 1981 when he was almost on his death-bed. On release, the great leader moved to his residence at Gunupur. He was instrumental in the founding of Indian Peoples Front.