ABSTRACT
It was the 124th birth anniversary of the eminent Communist Party of India leader, Muzaffar Ahmed, popularly known as Kakababu. The Communist Party of India affiliates had organised a celebratory and commemorative event at Mahajati Sadan in the heart of Kolkata. The curated programme included several political speeches and a range of short performances—poetry recitation, Rabindrasangeet (songs by the Poet-laureate, Rabindranath Tagore), a chorus song by the Indian People's Theatre Association, and a Kobigaan. Through his song, Biswas defended himself against the attacks of capitalist oppression, as role-played by his disciple kobiyaal Subhashish Banerjee. The song, a lengthy composition like Biswas's other songs, showed a farmer's agony. It reflected a collective of peasants’ voices against the evils of class conflict, economic deprivation, underdevelopment, and the repressive apparatus of the State (the police), often alluding to peasant movements of historical significance like the Telangana Rebellion and the Vetti Chakiri Movement between 1946 and 1951.
