[Reader-list] The Communist Conspiracy !

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

1. The programme of Communist Parties (as it was expressed during and  
after the first world war) was against Nationalism in all forms. In  
contrast, today, and since Stalin's adoption of the theory of  
'Socialism in One Country' almost all Communist parties endorse  
nationalism in one form or the other.

2. This includes all Communist Parties in India. Every Indian  
Communist Party (none of whom I support) declares loudly and clearly  
that it wants to protect the nation-state in india. This is a  
deviation from the reasons why those who were to become Communists  
broke with the prevailing nationalist currents in Social Democratic  
parties in the early twentieth century. They broke because they  
considered loyalty to the international working class movement more  
important than loyalty to any form of the nation state.

3. For me, the fact that the undivided CPI supported the Pakistan  
demand is just as meaningless as the fact that its successors now  
support Indian Nationalism. Nationalism, whether Pakistani, or  
Indian, is a means to divide the oppressed classes of one country  
from their counterparts in others. A consistent communist position on  
the national question would mean opposition to all forms of 'national  
liberation'. This is the position of Marx and Rosa Luxemburg.
The fact that those who call themselves communists have stopped doing  
this for a long time is an indication of how low they have fallen  
from the heights they once occupied.

4. The Empire of British India, (the state that India and Pakistan  
inherited) was a prison house of many peoples, and the prison house  
continued exactly as it had done after independence and partition.  
Though I am not interested in nationalism of any sort. A post-1947  
scenario of smaller states (as happened when other Empires broke up)  
may have made more sense than the two behemoths of India and Pakistan  
that continue to stagger through history. Had there been smaller post  
1947 states, we probably would have seen a European Union type of  
move towards greater confederal consolidation by now.

  There certainly would not have been the bloated armies and nuclear  
arsenals that we see in South Asia today. This might have meant more  
allocation of resources for health, education, housing and less  
attrition, perhaps calmer populations.

Smaller states in South Asia would probably not have been able to  
afford such irrational luxuries (as bloated militaries) , nor would  
they have got drawn into the Cold War in the way that India and  
Pakistan did through the fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties.

5. As far as I know, the undivided CPI was formed in 1925  in  
Tashkent, by Indian exiles in the Soviet Union. Several communist  
circles existed in India at that time, but since the effort at  
forming a party was deemed illegal, the first 'official' party was  
formed elsewhere. However, before (and after) 1925 several communists  
continued to work in 'Kisan Mazdoor Parties' and 'Lal Nishan'  in  
Bengal and Punjab. Several of these activists were already in prison  
or in preventive custody, so they were formally outside the undivided  
CPI, as they were not in a condition to join it, some did not even  
know about it. Many, in fact most, joined in the brief intervals when  
they were released after 1925

6. You are right, two wrongs do not make a right. But, I think the  
circumstances of the period 1942-45 are complex, and I do not think  
that the decisions that people and parties took in that turmoil can  
be best described as 'right' or 'wrong'. Just as you say you are not  
interested in defending the RSS, I too am not interested in defending  
the undivided CPI. I am merely pointing out to you that in this case,  
both these organizations effectively followed the same course of  
action, namely a tacit collaboration with the British Raj's war aims  
during a period of the Second World War.

As for now, I think that it is shameful that the CPI(M) in Kerala  
works with the tacit endorsement of a blatant Muslim Fundamentalist  
like Madani. I see absolutely no difference between Hindu and Muslim  
Communalism. if the CPI (M) takes the support of Madani today, they  
might as well end up supporting and being supported by the RSS (or  
some faction of it) some day. I would not at all be surprised if that  
were to happen, someday.

Shuddha






On 18-Apr-09, at 12:57 AM, Pawan Durani wrote:

> Shuddha,
>
> Thank you for your detailed mail . However why are communists  
> always a suspect to integrity of India ?


>
> Is it not true that Communists originally wanted India to be  
> divided into 17 different sovereign states , more like failed  
> 'USSR' ? This is a well documented fact .
>
> Why is it that the CPI is not even clear when it was formed ...was  
> it 1920 or 1925 ? Was it formed in USSR or India ?
>
> Why are the Communists so obsessed with the division of the country ?
>
> I am not interested in RSS , Mahasabha or BJP . They are all  
> 'right' wing party .And if they have been wrong , why does a  
> communist have to justify their act by comparing it with that of  
> RSS or Gowalkar etc.
>
> Two wrongs dont make one right . I just wanted to learn if the  
> communists have a clean past......the present is all well know to  
> us and is being exhibited in Kerela with an electoral alliance with  
> Madhani.
>
> It would make an interesting understanding if you would explain  
> further !
>
> Pawan
>
> On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 12:21 AM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta  
> <shuddha at sarai.net> wrote:
> 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
>
>
>

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