About Debra

Debra is a community development block that forms an administrative division in the Kharagpur subdivision of Paschim Medinipur district in the Indian state of West Bengal. In 1968 many revolutionary intellectuals, broadly termed as Naxalites, settled in Gopiballavpur. Amongst them was Santosh Rana, who was a local person. In September 1999 a guerrilla squad killed an oppressive landlord. The landlords fled to the towns and a big peasant movement began. Landlords crops were forcibly harvested. Around 150 people were killed. Santosh Rana was the key figure in virtually liberating Debra, Gopiballavpur and neighbouring areas in West Bengal, as well as in Odisha and Jharkhand (then it was Bihar). The movement gradually split and collapsed in the early seventies.[1][2][3]