From: debchat@vax2.concordia.ca (DEB CHATTERJEE)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian
Subject: Marxists in West Bengal - Practice. # 2.
Keywords: CPI/ CPI(M)/ CPI(M-L).
Date: 26 Jul 92 00:22:00 GMT
Distribution: na
Organization: Concordia University
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41


Being an unfortunate subject of the Marxist ruled West Bengal, I recount here  
my views about Communism as it is practised and not preached. IMHO, in part 1,
I have made the comment that Reign of Terror was rationalized by Josef Stalin.
However, Soviet Communism is dead and so its territories in the Eastern Europe.
Nevertheless, such an idelogical heartbreak, particularly for the CPI (Communist
Party of India) is really unbearable !!! As if their father had died ! Alas what
a fall was there was my wandering countrymen of North America !!! The CPI(M) had
always held CPI with suspicion. (This is just a fight between two brothers as if
who is to inherit the lion's share of the property.) The CPI(M-L) i.e Naxalites
(extremists) are the new generation of Communists with an eye towards China -
the land of Confucius and the Cultural Revolution of Mao - combining the bizarre
chemistry of two different thought processes, producing a queer amalgam ! Yes,
we will see what the three parties stand for ! (The news may not be good for 
those `pseudo-intellectuals' in U.S/ Canada.)

- deb chatterjee
(a good samaritan)

P.S: Please post your views/ flames (on parts 1 and 2) directly on the SCI ONLY.
     Death threats or all personal e-mails will be directly posted on the SCI.
     It is also possible that your account may be cancelled should you think
     that SCI is your property and be upto some monkey-tricks.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------

                         Marxism in India and West Bengal
                         ================================

 The Communist manifesto hugged so dearly by Stalin, and, subsequently being
 converted into a rationale of killing machine, a modus-operandi for escalating
 terror and oppression amongst masses - raises the question why Communism is 
 at all taken seriously - at least in W.B ? IMHO, the major reason is romantic 
 - it has an intellectual aura ! It has `theoretical' appeal ! But so does Ayn
 Rand, DAMMIT !!!! The commis will be shouting out " We have Bertrand Russell".
 Here is where they are lying; Russell advocated Gandhi's philosophy along with
 Albert Einstien !!! These butchers, with razors shining between their teeth, 
 will, if you protest, say: " SHUT UP !". So, my dear SCI readers, are the 
 commis `democratic' ???? The answer is an EMPHATIC NO. One simply has to look
 at the Marxist parties in India to verify this. 

 The main point is to realize that for satisfying the conditions of existence,
 the Marxist theories were modified and adapted to make it look `desi' (Indian).
 In most cases this desi-ization of Marx resulted in a STRANGE BEDFELLOW CASE
 for the Communists. By that I mean, communists, when they decided to come to
 the forefront, rubbed shoulders with many fundamentalist religious groups like
 the Jamat-i-Islam. It was simply mutual backscratching. In other situations,
 communists even `went to bed' with feudal landlords - as in Vijaywada. (In that
 particular part of Andhra, one strangely finds a host of rich peasants who are
 staunch supporters of the CPI !!!! How can these happen ? Survival for 
 existence.) This is basically prostitution - the Marxist way !!!! Marxism and
 the followers there (Vijaywada) has not eradicated casteism, dowry-system or
 other social misdeeds of a feudal/ anarchist society !!! Instead of distancing
 themselves from all such corruptions, Marxism has been used to serve the vested
 interests of a group of greedy/ power-hungry individuals, and, the trend still
 continues. One of the oddities is that Marxist views are held with respect by
 a major group of RICH persons. This strictly contradicts the Marxist philosophy
 because Communist Manifesto asks to take the wealth of the rich and give it to
 the poor !!! One thus finds communists contesting parliamentary elections, 
 though Lenin clearly came to power by assassinating Trotsky in Canada.One must 
 also note that the Indian Marxists are really deceptive in every aspect. Thus,
 most Marxists hate faith in the Order of Divinity, while, they support 
 contesting elections. Is contesting elections forbidden ? Answer: Yes, because
 Lenin and Stalin both abhorred and boycotted parliamentary elections. Thus, in
 an Indian context, Marxism deviated from its main roots and took a completely
 distinct shape - that was fundamentally out of character of that great fool
 Dr.Karl Marx !  We will examine the characteistics  of all the three parties
 (major ones) along with their Student wings in India. 

 We begin with CPI. The party's onetime boss, Sripad Dange, was a transponder
 of the Soviet Union. CPI party bosses were on the payroll of the KGB for a long
 time. They used to sell information to the Soviet Union, as I remember reading
 the Anandabazar Patrika/ The Statesman, and, comprised of people with loose
 political ethics. CPI did never actively oppose Indira Gandhi except for those
 token protests - which formally the party line formulated after due breifings
 from Indira Gandhi and Leonid Brezhnev ! Thus, Indira Gandhi with her all
 tyrannical character, did not bother with the CPI, because she always had prior
 information about Dange, Bhupesh and Indrajit Guptas. (Dange in particular was
 thrown out of the party, because he apparently was a Cong(I) spy.) The Student 
 Wing of the CPI does not (???) exist. Now, CPI has unfortunately a large 
 following within the educated-rich community. People like Guptas are basically 
 immoral persons because, they never stand for any cause - unless told to do so
 by Kremlin of the former Soviet Union. (When I was a PG (M.Tech) student at IIT
 KGP, Narayan Choubey, a die-hard CPI activist, wanted Student's Union in IIT 
 KGP ! However, many Patelians, Azadians and Nehruvites plus buddas of J.C.Bose 
 Hall went out with field-hockey sticks with IIT guards near the Puri gate; 
 Narayan Choubey's CPI fled. They never came back ! Sadly enough, the old burnt-
 outs from B.C.Roy Hall and the new `brain-washed' ones from R.K.Hall remained 
 passive ! We told them the story the following evening at Chedi/D.V.C market/
 Nayyar and these jokers suppressed the grin of a non-believer !!!) Anyway, what
 we must note is that CPI, as far as my knoweldge goes, was not involved in 
 unleashing the reign of terror on average persons. 

 CPI WAS REGARDED AS SPINELESS HYPOCRITES. (The foregoing incident illustrates
 this.) They had a `kisan' and `majdur' mandalam and wined and dined with the
 Cong(I) who used CPI cleverly to fulfill theirs and Kremlin's vested interests
 in India. 

 The next in line is the CPI(M) - which is more organized and one of the most
                                                              ===============   
 dangerous parties in India. It is interesting to note that even moderately
 =========
 separatists like Sardar Surjit Singh Barnala was a member of the politburo of
 the CPI(M). The CPI(M) has been very active in West Bengal. It has very good
 student base - SFI (Student Federation of India). However, it will suffice to
 furnish some information about the " Violence in Politics " in Bengal - for
 the uninitiated, and, will be refernced later to show how this was exploited 
 by the CPI(M) to ascend the throne.

 In West Bengal many Bengali bhadraloks from the 1950 batch in Presidency 
 College Calcutta, were ardent CPI(M) fans. The following increased in character
 because of the cultural heritage of traditionally `terrorist' following in 
 Bengal since the times of INC formation [2, ch. 3 by Robert I.Crane]. Violent 
 opposition in Bengal, conceived first by Bankim Chatterjee, was promulgated by 
 Aurobindo Ghose and his brother Barindra Kumar Ghose in chanting Bande-Mataram 
 from Bankim's book. They ascribed a `terrorist character' (sort'a) to the song
 and this turned into a  `heroic' symbol, came to be associated with taking up
 the arms against oppression of the British. Thus, the Bengali bhadralok 
 understands the purport of the song, analyses the modality, and expresses in 
 general a rather emotive outburst about its political history. In 1930's, 
 (Jalalabad in Chittagong, Bangladesh), an armed uprising took place, where the
 Bengali bhadralok saw, and rather in an ambivalent manner, supported the rising
 of the terrorist movement. With the annihilation of Surya Sen and his followers
 in the Presidency Jail in Alipore, Calcutta the terrorist movement was crushed
 by the British. The average/ western-educated Bengali regards this with much
 sentimentalism, and, the most important point was: Bengalis had, in general, an
                      ==========================================================
 active/ passive sympathy for the armed revolution. This has a largely romantic
 =================================================
 character, and, many songs had been sung. (The main flaw, why the movement
 failed, has not been carefully investigated, EXCEPT for Robert I.Crane.)  In 
 fact Crane [2, p. 70], makes a very prophetic remark:

 " The teachings of an Aurobindo could stir Hindu imagination, but not 
   necessarily produce disciplined, systematic commitment to a distant and
   difficult goal: extremism and its terrorist allies are `lonely causes'. "

(The meaning of this very statement from Crane's essay will be analysed later 
 in a future context.) 

 The elite Bengali class had always a sympathy for the so-called `Marxist'
 theories - suggesting to take up arms in case of ridding the oppressed from a
 tyrannical group. 

 The CPI(M) labelled themselves as true adherents of Marx, criticizing the CPI
 for their attitude. The CPI(M) Bengali daily, `Ganashakti' (power of the masses
 ), described the CPI as a living being whose body was India and head - Moscow.
 CPI(M) had taken up very strange attitudes towards the problems in India - they
 sought to implement Marxist theories in verbatim. The result, which has been
 analysed in great depth by many scholars of political history, was that one saw
 in 1967 the reign of terror unleashed by CPI(M) on all industries in W.B. It
 was at that time, the United Front ==> (Bangla Congress+CPI(M)+CPI+Forward Bloc
 +RSP), was in power and many industries were made to come to a standstill. The
 common strategy of `gherao' and `bandh' were originated by the CPI(M) and they
 encouraged all other Left-Wing parties to join their ranks. The result was a
 total collapse of industrial base in West Bengal. Many industries were closed
 and or moved to other states for better survival. The `sudden impact' was that
 the educated in West Bengal found themselves jobless, and, many small-scale
 factory owners had suddenly found themselves on the street due to atrocities 
 of these fanatics - who had nothing else to do except to destroy whatever came
 on their way ! The police in Calcutta were accussed of being conspirators of
 the Central Govt. - which was headed by Indira Gandhi. The law and order was
 basically controlled by the `Red-Army' of the CPI(M) and United Front; the
 police officials had to take orders from the local party bosses - who were
 known by the general public of West Bengal to be murderers and goons. It was
 a total anarchy of the most diabolical kind. Joyti Basu (the present C.M) was
 the deputy C.M at that time. He held the portfolio of the Home Department and
 commanded ALL the police chiefs to listen to the CPI(M) party members and then
 perform the duties - as directed. If anyone refused to listen to the party
 orders that police officer met with a deadly fate. (The incident near the
 Narkeldanga bridge, where a police constable was murdered, because he refused
 to release some lynchmen, in 1968, provides a hair-raising witness to the
 history of anarchy.) The CPI(M) had two functionaries: members in the Cabinet
 and the Party. The party's chief was Pramod Dasgupta (thank God that he died),
 who openly used to command his party-men (lower ranks) to take `badla' (revenge
 ) against those who refused to listen to the party orders. However, internal
 clashes within the Front did not allow the govt. to survive. Moreover there 
 were dissents within the party, and, Charu Mazumdar emerged as the major leader
 with a handful of following. They soon formed a party of their own. This came
 to be known as CPI(M-L) ===> Communist Party of India (Marxist-Lenist) and
 were followers of Mao Tse Tung of China. Amidst total chaos the govt. was being
 dissolved by Dharmavir (Govt. of West Bengal), and, at least for the time being
 Calcuttans breathed a sigh of relief. 


 During that time CPI(M)'s `revolutionary' character was revealed - and acts as
 a forerunner of what is happening now. The CPI(M), being bootlickers of Josef 
 Stalin's method of controlling the state, had several agendas - which were of
 course revised in their Vijaywada Congress. This party contributed to the total
                                                                           =====
 collapse of the economic and cultural situation in India. We must note that it
 ========
 is easier to destroy something than constructing it. CPI(M) resorted to the
 policy of destruction. Everything that was non-Marxist had to be destroyed. One
 may recall the invasion of Mahmood of Ghazni who destroyed Somnath in the name
 of Islam ! The two aptly compare. The sports minister was Ram Chatterjee, a 
 notorious goon from Chandannagore - in West Bengal. The others are not to be
 named, because it is unholy to do so. 

 In the period of 1970-'76 Indira rightfully introduced MISA only for one year
 to show that things can work in India. (I personally would go for imposing the
 MISA again - under the present situations in India.) The common man, in W.B.,
 was not affected. Those with past records of crime, be it political or other-
 wise, were thrown in the Presidency Jail - Alipore, Calcutta. We digress here
 to examine briefly the rise and fall of the CPI(M-L) (Naxalites) in India. The
 detailed references can be found in the 3 vol. book series by Dasgupta [3].

 `Naxalites' - the name of the communist movement originated from the `krishak
 bidhroho' (peasant revolution) in the small hamlets of Naxalbari - a small
 town in North Bengal. The event took place in 1967, and, the faction of the
 CPI(M) party which supported the issue of the farmers in their cause of taking
 up arms, were termed as Naxalites. (I will refrain from discussing the major
 structural issues as such can be found in [3].) In general, CPI(M-L) party or 
 the Naxalites, differed from CPI(M) by what is known as adherence to the
 policies of Chairman Mao of China. The success of Mao inspired several of the
 leftist thinkers in Bengal at that time, and, many brilliant students from the
 Presidency College, Physics Department, took to providing the theoretical 
 basis of the movement. Notable are Asim Chatterjee, Santosh Rana, and others
 with their leader Charu Mazumdar - a one time physics teacher in a high-school
 in Bengal (?). However, the Naxalites could not provide any alternative to the
 CPI(M). The reason was the same as described in the quote by Crane, above. In
 fact it was very easy for the then ruling party Cong.(I) to isolate these
 commis from the masses. The years 1970-'72 were really bloody for Calcutta. It
 became commonplace to find corpses (brutally mutiliated) in the small conduits
 and adjust the watch according to the sounds of the bombs - that were hurled
 everyday between the feudal political parties - like a bunch of pit-bulls at
 each others throat. The warlords did not spare any neutral person, as, they
 thought neutral or non-alignment meant espionage. The average Bengali was
 thus demoralized and confused in the name of Marx. The Naxalites had a very
 good following in Presidency College, Calcutta Medical College and Jadavpur
 University in the main city. 

 These naxalites claimed that everything from the past was totally feudal and
 needed to be eliminated. Thus, they decapitated the stone-bust of Iswar Chandra
 Vidyasagar in 1971 near Hind Cinema, Wellington Square, Calcutta. It is very
 interesting to note that NO buisnessmen either during the reign of CPI(M) or
 during the atrocities of the CPI(M-L) were affected. NOBODY was bodily attacked
 or their buisness destroyed. These buisnessmen were known as `marwaris' and had
 their shops in a place called `Burrabazar' in Calcutta. (It is rumored that to
 appease the bloodthirsty Naxalites, these marwaris paid a handsome amount of
 money for our super-Marxist gurus to palint all the walls of West Bengal in
 black - with graffiti and slogans. I think that this is true.) The naxalites
 were without any cause, and, in the truest possible sense completely romantic.
 Who were physically affected ? Ordinary policemen earning Rs.100/- (in 1970)
 per month. I think that such acts of naxalites were simply cowardice because
 these policemen had families and were in most cases the single earning memnber.
 When a policemen died, he left a family who simply went to the streets, and,
 if the wife was young, she had to beg, or, prostitute. (I am stating facts
 and not posing to be a commi-basher. If ANYBODY challenges me on this, I will
 post the actual reference(s) - although Dasgupta discusses this in to some
 extent.) The interesting thing, i.e the greatest insult to these Naxalites
 came from Chairman Mao himself. Naxalites had acknowledged Mao to be their
 spiritual leader. However, when Sourin Bose went with some party members to
 China at the behest of Deng, then Mao rebuked these guys saying that he is 
 NOT the chairman of India or Naxalites. (Actually Naxalites used to chant the
 slogan: " China's chairman is our chairman ".) Mao thus pissed on their face,
 and the naxalites were strongly confronted with an identity crisis. This was
 in 1970. Immediately following this, Siddartha Shankar Ray's police rounded 
 up many `young and blossomed brains' and sent them to death. (See [3].) I
 support the action of terminating the naxalites in Ray's way. This is because
 there is NO LAW FOR THE OUTLAW. If you kill a person (policeman), who is simply
 doing his duty, then you must expect retaliation in equal if not vigorous terms
 from the police force. (One might recall that the Canadian Prime Minister
 Pierre Elliot Trudeau introduced the War Measures Act to crush the FLQ
 movement in 1970.) This citation is intended to show that what Ray did was NOT
 in anyway unusual. If a terrorist party does not have any following, then, it
 is doomed to failure. This does not imply that violence is garbage. By the time
                            ========
 in 1971, Naxalites were almost crushed, and, they shifted their operations to
 Andhra Pradesh - Kakinada, Warangal, Karimnagar and Belgaum districts. I am
 quite happy that they have gone forever from Bengal. 

 Lastly we come to the present CPI(M) in West Bengal. The naxalites were much
 naive as compared to them, because, this party contested in elections, and,
 thus posed that they believed in democracy. In actuality they were simply
 hypocrites. After the fall of Indira Congress in 1977, CPI(M) came to power
 and they rule till date. The party has always taken a revisionist attitude,
 distancing farther and farther away from basic Marxist principles. The only
 similarity we find is that the attitudes of the CPI(M) are same as those that
 of Josef Stalin. CPI(M) is extremely unhappy with U.S.A for her attempts to
 diffuse the cold war and her attempts in negotiation of peace talks in the
 Middle-East. Anything that is rightist is absolutely incorrect. For example,
 introduction of computers in railway stations, and, Fairley Place had raised
 lot of heat within the CPI(M) ministry. Buddhadev Bhattacharyya, a so-called
 `elitist' and an ultra-left wing think tank member of the CPI(M) hiearchy,
 halted the introduction of such advanced systems, and, called a token strike.
 When Asim Dasgupta (Finance Minister, and, a Ph.D from M.I.T - U.S.A), could
 convince Bhattacharyya, the work started. The major reason was that 
 Bhattacharyya `thought' automation would eliminate jobs and create more and
 more unemployment !! What a goddamn fool !!!! (IMHO, he represents the typical
 middle-class Bengali intellectual.) CPI(M) atrocities are enormous. These
 party of goons have eliminated all law and order and have converted government
 offices into party functionaries. The police have been totally demoralized and
 work according to the party's directives, and, not according to the Indian
 Constitution. They have denigrated Tagore, and, Vidyasagar calling them as
 total loyalists of the British Raj ! These people have made education a total
 farce. All they have done is to blame Cong.(I) for each and everything that is
 going on in Bengal. Most recently, they have become `bedfellows' with the
 fundamentalist Jammat-i-Islami group in Bengal. This is one of the reasons why
 communal riots are less there. The description of the Jammat-i-Islami group
 can be found in [1, ch. 4].(IMHO, [1] is a MUST reading for every right minded
 Hindu; Asghar Khan shows how Maulana Maudoodi brought an archaic and a 
 repressive form of society to suit his own ulterior motives.) This resulted in
 the rape and death of Mrs.Anita Dewan and her colleagues on May 27, 1990 in
 Bantala. (The area is a hotbed of fundamentalist Jammat in Calcutta - The 
 Statesman has reported this.)

 I conclude here only to assert that Communism is a menace to the society. It
 is repressive in charcter and halts the fullest blossoming of human spirit. As
 shown in [1, ch. 4], fundamentalist Moslem group has the same attitude. Thus,
 although the two originate from different sources, in Bengal, they have joined
 hands to spread the evil message of fundamentalism and violence. Nothing 
 constructive has been achieved in the years 1977 till date. I have restricted
 myself to  West Bengal, but, the situation though looked from a narrow view is
 expected to be an accurate representation of the grim reality.  

                        SOME IMPORTANT REFERENCES
                       ===========================

 [1] Mohmmad Asghar Khan (ed.)," Islam, Politics and the State: A Pakistan 
     Experience ", Zed Books, London: 1985. (PLEASE READ THIS BOOK.)

 [2] John L.Hill (ed.)," The Congress and Indian Nationalism ", Curzon Press,
     The Riverdale Company, MA, U.S.A: 1991.

 [3] Sukharanjan Dasgupta," The History of the Naxalite Movement in India ",
     (English), Rupa, 1983. (An Ananda Bazar Group of Publications).

 [4] Samaresh Basu, " Mahakaler Rather Ghora " (The Horse of Time) - a very
     emotive/ factual Bengali novel, based on the life of Ruhiton Kurmi - a
     farmer in the Naxalite movement. Extremely touching story. (in Bengali
     from Ananda Publishers, Calcutta, 1980 ?).

 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> END OF PART 2 <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian