[Reader-list] May posting

[nirmal saha]

Anya Artha traces the development of the
re-construction of the ‘urban’ space of Calcutta in
various ways.
1.	It could be viewed as developing out of the impetus
of the naxalite movement, though the journey was later
de-toured.
2.	It could also be seen as a pre-condition of
Subaltern studies

Naxalite movement was built on the Marxian premises
with a cultural turn to it. The movement started with
a peasant struggle and was influenced by the Chinese
model of socialism. The movement also laid stress upon
the importance of armed struggle to bring about a
change in the society. A question automatically comes
to mind regarding the positions of the students and
the middle class in such a struggle. Anya artha tried
to engage with both the segments - the student
community in particular, and also the middle class
comprising of educationist, service holder etc. It was
felt that though they were neither of the peasant
class nor of the working class, they could participate
in the struggle and be an integral part of it in a
different way. In the earlier rendition of the model
being practiced, the strategy was to establish control
over the towns through villages. The only way of
participating in such a struggle was to go to the
villages and be a part in the struggle for land. But
the other spaces like the ideological formation of the
state and its various institutes, such as; educational
institutes were not given much importance. Anya Artha,
having full faith in the peasant and working class
movements decided to traverse their path a bit
differently, taking note of the importance of the
educational structure to create an environment and
understanding of the situations such that the students
and the middle class communities could be a part of
the struggle in their own ways. Members of Anya Artha
felt the need of including this sector of the society
in the movements, without which the change, they felt
would remain necessarily incomplete.

Various topics discussed in the journal points out
this understanding. Gautam Bhadra, one of the members
of editorial collective wrote on the issue of agrarian
economy during the Moughal period. Other articles were
also engaging with the mode of production debate, then
fashionable in academia. The education system was
being seen as a mere transition from colonial to
semi-coloniality even after the much-sought freedom
was achieved. Most of the members of Anya Artha
belonging to the Economics dept. raised an important
issue. Economics should not be confined within the
domain of academia, rather it should be a subject on
which common people could express their understandings
and views, for it affected one and all and formed an
important basis in the way the society is structured.
They understood economics as the essence on which the
cultural and social structure was built upon. The
importance and necessity of workers and peasants’
participation in a struggle to change the society was
acknowledged. The simultaneous critique of
neo-classical as well as the economic theories of the
so-called radical Cambridge school shows the richness
of their perception. Land distribution, abolition of
the middleman in the various sectors, strong critiques
of the then existing socio-economic structure, leads
to the development of an understanding that for a
change in society political prices needed to be paid.
The Chinese model of socialism and the various
phenomena happening in different parts of the world
kept them engaged while they were very much aware
about the particular historical situation of this
country. In a bid to understand seriously the question
of class in Indian society, Gautam Bhadra wrote a
series of articles on the agrarian class structure
during Mughal period. One interesting series was on
nationalist movements in rural Bengal during late
British rule. Hiteshranjan Sanyal did the analysis
from a Gandhian perspective. In spite of their
differences with the Gandhian ideology, the members
understood the importance and necessity to understand
the struggles, which had taken place in this soil
earlier from all the different perspectives. Here they
are distinctly different from the orthodoxy of general
leftist journals of that time. Not only the old
struggles, but the then contemporaty railway strike,
oil treaties, various government policies came into
the purview of the Journal.

One major aspect that comes out through the various
writings of the journal is the critique of Soviet
Union in terms of its economic structure. Decades
before the fall of the Soviet Union, they had tried to
show the capitalist form of economy working in the
Soviet. I would like to deal this aspect in details in
the course of my paper.


For the past few months I have completed taking
interviews of most of the members of editorial
collectives who are presently in Calcutta. As the
interviews are in Bengali, a lot of time is being
spent on their translation. Also the proof correction
of the soft copy, which is being prepared, is in
progress and the entire material is expected to be
ready by June. I am in search of some other Journals
of that period to make a comparative analysis. Also
the summarization of various issues like displacement,
economic policies of the government, nature of
academia etc are under process. I would also like to
contextualise the journal with respect to the present
day scenario. A question has been asked to all the
interviewee – what would the topics they would like to
deal with, had the journal re-started again in the
existing social scenario. Interestingly, they all
possess different opinions about the issues to be
addressed. Trying to understand these differences of
opinions, I find very thought-provoking moments
cropping up, on which I would also make some points in
the paper.  




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