COMMUNICATIONS 61 tions the landholders obtained from law courts, and nothing very much could be done in this matter within the formal bounds of law. As the then Minister for Land and Land Revenue, Harekrishna Konar pointed out in a statement to the State Assembly on July 21,1969, The conspiracies of the landlord cannot be foiled and the complex programme of land reform cannot be implemented by sole reliance on the administration, and a call was, therefore, given for active help fiom the toiling peasantry.1 This "call for active help", given by the CPI (M) and the state Kisan Sabha, exhorted the agricultural labourers and poor peasants to take over the land whose benefits were being illegally enjoyed by those in possession of such surplus land. The village poor went in groups, planted the Red Flag on the land they knew to be surplus and started tilling, sowing and other agricultural operations on that land before they harvested the produce. This was a unique campaign in the peasant movement of West Bengal, very wide in participation. It was a campaign to enforce the law through the organised movement of those affected by it—a "legal" movement, so to say. The police, that willing tool of the rural rich, were kept in leash in this dispute between the landholders and the rural masses, as the United Front had pledged in its manifesto. The Government also came out in open support to the movement, as will be evident from the policy formulated2 by it for the harvesting of paddy : The salient features of this policy are (1) paddy grown on any plot of land will be harvested by that peasant who cultivated it this year; (2) the owners of land will, of course, get their just share; and (3) if necessary, the distribution of paddy between the landowners and the tillers will be done on the field itself. Ifthejotdars use firearms against the peasants in order to take posse-sion of paddy forcibly, or if there is any apprehension of firearms being used by the them, the police will seize those weapons. If, on the other hand, because of the carrying of spears and other weapons by the peasants, there is any apprehension of trouble, then the administrative officials of the district will take appropriate steps to maintain peace. The administrative officials have been instructed to be impartial. But impartiality should not mean the continuation of the old policy of siding with the jotdars and using the administrative machinery against the tillers of the soil. On the contrary, the bias of admins-trative action should be in favour of the peasants. This unique movement was able to 'unearth5 and take over about 300,000 acres of surplus land. While it is true that not every agricultural labourer or poor peasant of West Bengal could be given a piece of land for his own, this movement instilled a great confidence in them that