[Reader-list] The Communist Conspiracy !

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Pawan,

The Communist Party of India and its various off shoots over the  
years have a great deal to answer for, not least for their continuing  
fealty to the cult of Stalinism, one of the terrible monstrosities of  
the twentieth century. I have no doubts about that at all.

However, in our zeal to interrogate the legacy of the Communist  
Parties in this country, we need to be careful in terms of  
distinguishing a desire to question from a desire to abuse. And I  
think it makes sense to distinguish fact from fiction.

The article referred by you offers no sources, cites no evidence for  
any of the accusations it makes. And some of the allegations it makes  
are truly hilarious.

For instance - here is a priceless one -

"During the Ranadive party-line in 1948-50, Mahatma Gandhi was  
“unmasked” as the cleverest bourgeois scoundrel and Rabindranath as  
mãgeer dãlãl, that is, a pimp."

Rabindranath Tagore died on August 7, 1941, so it is a bit specious  
on the part of the author to suggest that the undivided CPI's   
Ranadive period (1948-50) would have seen attacks on someone who was  
not alive.
I would like to see where exactly the author finds the source of this  
statement.

Saumyendranath Tagore, the poet's nephew was a significant communist  
activist (though he belonged to the RCPI, which stood to the 'left'  
of the undivided CPI) and Tagore maintained cordial relationships  
with several communist activists and intellectuals. It is a little  
known fact that Tagore actually worked very hard to ensure that the  
civil rights of communist detenues in British prisons throughout the  
1920s and 30s.

If anything, the  undivided CPI firmly took on Tagore's legacy and in  
some ways interpreted it to its own ends, Tagore's poems and songs  
were regularly part of the CPI's cultural universe. I know this for  
certain, because among other things, I know that CPI activists when  
they were forced to work 'underground' in the 1940s often worked  
'overground' through Tagore Memorial Societies in small towns and  
villages in Bengal. This was by no means insincere.

The undivided CPI did however downplay the fact that thoughTagore had  
expressed admiration for the social strides made in the Soviet Union,  
he had also been sharply critical of the Stalin regime's suppression  
of the freedom of expression.

Certain intellectuals associated with the Chinese Communist Party had  
been sharply critical of Tagore during his visit to China in the  
1920s. Some other intellectuals and writers associated with the  
Chinese Communist Party were welcoming and appreciative. However, the  
criticism of some of these intellectuals of Tagore never gained any  
currency, either during the 1920s, or afterwards, in Indian communist  
circles.

As for Bose, yes, he was caricatured in cartoons in the CPI's paper  
'Peoples War' as a stooge of Japanese Imperialism. And no one can  
deny the fact that Subhash Bose was both a subordinate bit player in  
Japanese Imperial Military Strategy, and a long time admirer of  
Fascist and Nazi methods. He was not alone in this, both he and  
Golwalkar of the RSS have stated (on record) their admiration for  
Nazi Germany. Read the unexpurgated edition of 'We, our Our  
Nationhood Defined' by Golwalkar, and the 'Indian Struggle' by Bose.  
Both are not very difficult to find. I personally think that the  
people of South Asia were spared great calamities by the timely exit  
of the deeply authoritarian and militarist Bose from the Indian  
political scene after 1945. Bose in power would certainly have worked  
towards a fascist programme, his own stated political intentions were  
quite explicit in this matter.

As for the charge of being collaborators of the British in the 1940s.  
The reality is (as usual) a little more complicated than you would  
perhaps like. Thousands of Communist party members and activists were  
imprisoned, some for more than a decade, without charge, from the  
1920s onwards. The party itself was deemed illegal. In 1942, when the  
undivided CPI declared that it would support the war effort in India,  
because Britain and the USSR were on the same side in the war, the  
undivided CPI was legalized, and some Communist detenus and political  
prisoners were released (many of whom were re arrested soon after).  
However, it is true that the undivided CPI got a breather of sorts.  
Police surveillance on Communists, however, continued, especially on  
those, who participated in the 42 struggles in their individual  
capacities.

Several other organizations and individuals aided the war effort of  
the then British Colonial regime in India. Including the RSS and the  
Hindu Mahasabha, and its eminences such as Savarkar. Savarkar  
regularly addressed rallies for recruitment in the colonial regime's  
army.

So, if the source you pointed to is justified in dubbing activists of  
the undivided CPI as spies for the British, then the same charge  
could just as justifiably levelled against the RSS, the Hindu  
Mahasabha and the predecessors and inspirations of the current  
Hindutva family of organizations, including political parties such as  
the BJP.

Shuddha





Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net


Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net