[Reader-list] The Communist Conspiracy !

[taraprakash]

I won't be able to say anything in answer to the below questions, but Indira 
Gandhi, whom Atalji equated with "maan Durga" got a lot of support from 
USSR/KGB. At one point of time India received a lot of financial support 
from the USSR, in that entire India was on the payroll of USSR.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Pawan Durani" <pawan.durani at gmail.com>
To: "Shuddhabrata Sengupta" <shuddha at sarai.net>
Cc: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>
Sent: Saturday, April 18, 2009 1:29 AM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] The Communist Conspiracy !


> Dear Shuddha ,
>
> Thoughts that emerge out are
>
> 1. Communists parties in India are not following the 'real' communist
> ideology. That the Communists parties in India are more or less more
> opportunistic who dont stick to their policies and deviate for their own
> gains.
>
> 2. You seem to be more of a hardcore 'communist' and not satisfied with
> 'Nationhood' policies of the Indian Communists.
>
> 3. You believe that the world or people in South Asia would have been much
> better and place more peaceful , had India been divided into smaller
> sovereign states.
>
> 4. You do not support the Communists policy of supporting radical Islamic
> politician and alleged terrorist Madani in Kerela . However I would like 
> to
> know what may be the compuslion of this alliance .....electoral gains ? 
> not
> letting Hindu right wing leaders getting elected even if it means having 
> an
> alliance with an alleged terrorist ?
>
> 5. Roy had founded the Indian Communist party in 1920 in USSR , though in
> 1924 or 25 the party was again claimed to be founded by [ don't recall the
> name ] .
>
> 6. I somehow am surprised to learn ,in plain terms, your hate for Netaji
> Subhash Chander Bose. Netaji was a great freedom fighter. Would like to
> learn why does the left brigade hate 'Netaji'.
>
> 7. Though  you may have given an explanation that the leftist were close 
> to
> Tagores institution , however sometimes back I had read a letter written 
> by
> Rabindra Nath tagore , and in that letter he did not seem to hold good 
> views
> about the communists. I would try to search for that particular letter.
>
> 8. Is it not the fact that according to Vasili Mithrokhin who had secret 
> KGB
> document , it was allaeged that Indian Communists were on payroll of KGB ?
>
> 9. What kind of disciplinary action did Communits take when it was alleged
> that  senior communist leaders  like Dange and Rajeshwar rao were supposed
> to be reaceiving money and favours from KGB .
>
> 10. Is it not true that the biggest corruption in India was founded by the
> Communists , who traded with India and introduced the 'middle man' 
> phenomena
> ?
>
> Would like to learn more ....
>
> Pawan Durani
> www.thekashmir.wordpress.com
>
>
>
> On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 1:25 AM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta 
> <shuddha at sarai.net>wrote:
>
>>  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
>>
>>
>>
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