Jagdish Mahto was born in Koeri caste at "Ekwaari" village.He was the first man in the Bhojpur region to pick up arms against the upper caste landlords.It is said that Mahto never stood up from his place when some of the village's notable Bhumihars passed by his house.This seemed an insult to them given their caste based antagonism with him. Mahto also established a newspaper called "Harijanistan" in order to voice support for the rights of the Dalits. According to Santosh Singh, he was first among his community members in the village to become a graduate.Prior to his involvement in naxalite movement, he was teaching science at HD Jain college, Arrah. In the later part of his life he had some political connection and he was deeply inspired by the writing of Karl Marx though he was also driven away by the teaching of Ambedkar.Mahto was a staunch supporter of the rights and honour of Dalits.He was also against the privileges that the upper castes enjoyed, which was ascribed to their birth as "twice born".In 1967, when Bengal and Punjab witnessed Dalit upsurge and popular movements, Bihar was quite and there was no reaction from the oppressed section of society. Scholars ascribe the prevalent landlordism and dominance of upper castes as the reason behind fear of lower castes to arouse their voices.The first spark of Naxalism evolved in "Mushari", but it was soon extinguished by the feudalistic forces.
Communist upsurge under Mahto
In 1967 elections, Mahto was supporting one of his friend who was contesting on the ticket of CPI and was pitted against a candidate supported by local Bhumihars.When Mahto went to polling booth a Bhumihar youth was not letting anyone caste their vote. Mahto resented and was beaten badly by other Bhumihars.He was admitted to hospital where he had to remain for several months; given his serious injuries.After he was discharged, Mahto decided to initiate the movement once again which was extinguished in 1930 without any result.In the meanwhile, Mahto also became inspired by Charu Mazumdar who had led a communist uprising in Bengal and had travelled to Bhojpur delivering a powerful speech to crush the enemy, i.e. the landlords. Ramnaresh Ram and Rameswar Ahir became close associates of Mahto and the Communist Party of India Liberation became their parent organisation. They now began organising murders of landlords and their henchmen.By the end of 1970s a large number of landlords were killed.The question was not only of economic reforms i.e. the "banihari", which Dalits did to their masters but was also of honour or the "ijjat" as there used to be unrestricted and arrogant access of the Dalit women to the landlords.The Dalits who were mostly landless labourers were fighting under Jagdish Mahto for their honour.
Death
Mahto was killed in a police raid.However, some sources also claim that he was beaten up to death by a Musahar mob who confused him to be a "Dacoit". Before dying Mahto is said to have spoken to one of his comrade that though he was dying but the upper caste landlords won't dare to touch Dalit women in future.According to Arun Sinha, Mahto was never given the respect due to him by the upper castes.Even his wife was defamed as a prostitute and the pro capitalist administration tried to negate the issues at naxalbari hiding it from the rest of the country. The suffering of the lower castes and their the saga of their retaliation came to be known later from an interview of Ramnaresh Ram at Delhi later. In later years according to Santosh Singh, Bhumihars who were most numerous in the region tired fighting with naxalites and peace came to the strife ridden district of Bihar.The Bhumihars, who took up the arms against naxalites under Mahto were working as security guards in Patna and the nearby areas while others were engaged in tilling.
Popular culture
Jagdish Mahto became a notable figure among people of Ekwaari and several books were written to commemorate his struggle against the landlords for the cause of poor and the deprived.Some of the biographical accounts of Mahto are, Bhojpur Mein Naxalvadi Andolan’, ‘Master Saab’, ‘Raktim Tara’, and ‘Arjun Zinda Hai’.
