Senior communist leader Krishna Raj Burma, who died last month at the age of 93, had played a significant role against the autocratic Rana regime and the partyless Panchayat system. 

Born in Saptari district to an ordinary farming family, Burma learned to read and write from his father, who hailed from Nuwakot district, and later studied in local school. Originally of the Khanal caste, it was his father who had adopted the family surname ‘Burma’.

Burma had a political awakening while working as a schoolteacher during the Rana regime. He had said in an interview that his decision to be part of the anti-Rana movement was inspired by the political literature he had read while working as a teacher. He was only 17 at the time.

At the height of the 1951 democratic movement, Burma left his home to be a part of the revolution. He joined the underground revolutionaries in India where he met leaders like Gajendra Narayan Singh.  

After spending some time in India, Burma returned to Nepal and started mobilizing political activists in Spatari. To resist the Ranas, he formed a loose group of youths from farming and working class backgrounds. 

Burma joined the communist party only after the Ranas were ousted from power.  

According to his own account, though he had joined the anti-Rana movement led by the Nepali Congress, he had joined the cause only to topple the autocratic regime. He had no qualms about joining the communist party.  

As a communist leader, Burma had several run-ins with the Panchayat government and was jailed multiple times. Burma said in an interview that he spent his prison life reading newspapers and books.     

He was initially associated with the Communist Party of Nepal, which later split to become the Communist Party of Nepal (Rayamajhi Group), led by Keshar Jung Rayamajhi. 

Burma was one of the party’s five politburo members. The other members were Rayamajhi, Bishnu Bahadur Manandhar, Kamar Shah and Krishna Prasad Shrestha. Another party leader Manmohan Adhikari, who went on to become Nepal’s first communist prime minister, was in prison at the time.

The party, however, underwent many divisions during the Panchayat-era, and Burma formed his own party, the Communist Party of Nepal (Burma). His party was part of the ‘Unified Left Front’ during the 1990 people’s movement. 

The party merged with the Communist Party of Nepal (United) after the 1991 parliamentary elections, only to split again and reform the old group. In 2001, Burma’s party merged with the Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist). 

Besides politics, Burma was also interested in reading and writing. He has written a book on the political movement in Tarai titled ‘Madhes Ra Madhesi Aandolan’. 

Communist leaders remembered Burma as a great hero whose contributions shaped Nepal’s social-democratic and communist movement.  

Burma had for long been suffering from a nerve disease. Lately, he was being treated for pneumonia in Hams Hospital, Kathmandu when he passed away. He is survived by his wife and their three sons and three daughters. 

Birth: 1929, Saptari

Death: 3 March 2022, Kathmandu