Mahalaya, Tarpan and vedic Rituals in Neo Brhaminical Age
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Calcuttaweb - Durga Puja
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But the MARXISTS do PRACTICE the Language of RELIGION as POLITICS, ..... The BENGALI MARXIST BRAHMINS joined hands with their MALYALI CASTE BROTHERS . ...... back as the Indus Valley Civilization, before the entry of the Vedic Aryans. ...
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Vodafone (Kolkata) celebrates Durga Puja
Vodafone today announced Aagomoni, a nightlong musical extravaganza to usher in Puja with memorable renditions by renowned artists. Aagomoni will be held on September 19, at Nazrul Manch from 8 pm. It is a yearly programme by renowned artists on the onset of Mahalaya to welcome Goddess Durga.
This year will see performances by eminent artists like Ustad Rashid Khan, Subhankar Banerjee, Jyoti Goho, Purbayan Chatterjee, Dohar, Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparajita Adhya, Debojit Bandopadhyay, Riddhi Bandopadhyay, Srikanto Acharya, Lopamudra Mitra, Ratul Shankar, Dibyendu, Kartik Das Baul, Mamata Shankar, Bratati Bandyopadhyay, Sreekumar Chatterjee and Friends of Fusion - Neel Dutt, Raj Kumar Sengupta, Arko Mukherjee, Debopratim Bakshi, Bijit Bhattacharya. The programme will be compered by Gargi Roy Chowdhury and Satinath Mukhopadhay.
http://mobigyaan.com/vodafone-kolkata-celebrates-durga-puja
Slowdown fallout: Fraud in $787 bn US stimulus
18 Sep 2009, 2102 hrs IST, New York Times
Little fraud in stimulus money has been found 10 most trade-friendly economies
Ben Bernanke: Face of the Fed
More on Financial crisis
Economies out of recession
It would not ordinarily go down in the annals of crime. But when Robert Fitzsimmons was arrested this summer and accused of cashing a check made out to his long-dead father at a Pay-O-Matic check-cashing store in New York, he became one of the first people in the country accused of stealing some of the $787 billion in federal stimulus money.
And officials fear there could be many more to come.
At issue was one of the millions of $250 stimulus checks that were sent to all Social Security recipients in May; Fitzsimmons was accused of cashing one that was made out to his late father, according to a complaint filed in US District Court in Manhattan, which goes on to accuse him of stealing Social Security money for at least four years. His lawyer, Julia Gatto, said he intended to plead not guilty.
Compared with the immense size of the stimulus program, the actual number of arrests so far has been microscopic. Earl E. Devaney, the chairman of the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, the watchdog for stimulus money, said recently that federal prosecutors were looking at only nine stimulus-related cases, including accusations of Social Security fraud and of businesses improperly claiming to be owned by women and members of minorities.
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“Quite frankly, I’m a little surprised it’s that small,” Devaney testified recently before the Senate, explaining that his office passes along questionable expenses to the various federal inspector-general offices following the money, as well as to the Department of Justice. “I know, from talking to them, they’re very interested in sending some very loud signals early, as often as they can, with this money.”
The small number of cases is partly a function of how much stimulus money has been spent so far, and how it has been spent. While more than $150 billion of it has been pumped into the economy, according to a recent report by the White House, some $62.6 billion of that was in the form of tax cuts. Of the rest, $38.4 billion was sent to states for fiscal relief; $30.6 billion was spent to help those affected by the recession by expanding unemployment benefits and other safety-net programs, and $16.5 billion was spent in areas like infrastructure, technology and research.
The biggest accusations of stimulus-related fraud so far have not involved the theft of public money at all. Rather, they have involved con artists fleecing gullible people and businesses hoping to profit from the stimulus.
Some cases involve fraudulent get-rich-quick schemes sold to dupes hoping to win slices of the stimulus money. The Federal Trade Commission has been working with several states to try to shut down an operation that used a telephone recording that said, “If you’re one of the lucky few who knows how to find and apply for these grants, you will receive a check for $25,000 or more, and we guarantee it.” The recording was actually pitching a $59 book on grant writing and hundreds of dollars worth of other grant-writing services.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Slump-fallout-Fraud-in-787-bn-US-stimulus/articleshow/5028086.cms
Mamata says Bengal focus not affecting her work as rail minister
Mohua Chatterjee, TNN 16 September 2009, 04:01am IST
NEW DELHI: Railway minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee has sought to defend herself against the charge of being an "absentee"
minister by arguing that her efficiency does not suffer even if her political agenda keeps her out of Delhi.
With that in mind, the railway minister has put project implementation plans on the fast or "duranta" track and is working against a challenging deadline for most announcements that she had made during her budget speech.
"I am not Delhi based... everybody has their own base, but that does not mean my responsibility as a minister is any less," she said on Monday when asked about media reports that her absence from Cabinet meetings had held up important railway agenda.
On Tuesday, when faced with the same question again, she told reporters, "Whatever I do, I do it with the consent of the Prime Minister and I know what I have to do... I don't have a single pending file." She added, "Most ministers here don't run a party, I run my party," implying that she also has to spare time for her political activity.
"When Parliament is in session, we have a commitment (to be present), but when there is no Parliament, there are other obligations for us (politicos)," Mamata said, adding that she had told the PM that she would be away in Bengal for the by-elections and had given her consent for issues related to her ministry that could come up in the Cabinet. While two bypolls are over, there are at least nine more to go by the end of the year in the state.
With an eye on chief ministership in West Bengal, the TMC chief intends to complete railway projects before the assembly elections in the state in 2011, to create the image that she can deliver.
Mamata also dismissed allegations that she kept away from the Capital. "Issues related to jute were not stalled when the textile minister was away... I was present at that Cabinet meeting. There are occassions when home minister P Chidambaram is away on other work... But nobody seems to be asking them this question, that is put to me all the time," she said.
On the decision to allow examinations for railway recruitment in different regional languages, Mamata said she was trying to gauge the regional divide. The minister said if Marathi was allowed in Maharashtra and Bengali in Bengal and the exams were held on the same day across the country, there was a better chance for people to get equal opportunity for the limited jobs.
The hint was at dealing with the trouble in Maharashtra, where the issue takes a political colour with Shiv Sena taking up the cause of Maharashtrians being left out of railway jobs.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/india/Mamata-says-Bengal-focus-not-affecting-her-work-as-rail-minister/articleshow/5015654.cms
‘Worship ancestors and be blessed’
Express News ServiceFirst Published : 18 Sep 2009 04:31:00 AM ISTLast Updated : 18 Sep 2009 08:17:13 AM IST
BANGALORE: Noted astrologer Dr S K Jain has said that people worshipping one’s ‘pitrus’ (forefathers) on Mahalaya Amavasya (Friday) will be blessed by them.
Jain told Express that forefathers should be worshipped by offering black gingelly seeds and ‘kusha’ grass. Mahalaya Amavasya is observed by people of all communities, he said. One must avoid journey on this day and desist from taking important decisions, he advised.
The Amavasya ends at 11.42 pm on Friday.
“If we worship God by chanting the ‘mantras’ appropriately on that day, the ‘pitrus’ and the demi-gods will be satisfied. Chanting of God’s name with ‘japa mala’ will protect the society from evils and natural disasters and there will be peace and happiness in the world,” he said.
Some unfortunate incidents have occurred during Amavasya, which is not auspicious, he said, giving the example of the Partition of India and the Mumbai terror attacks on November 26, 2008. Similarly, a tsunami had occurred on a full moon day, Jain said
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=%E2%80%98Worship+ancestors+and+be+blessed%E2%80%99&artid=DuyCZ3cZaPI=&SectionID=Qz/kHVp9tEs=&MainSectionID=wIcBMLGbUJI=&SectionName=UOaHCPTTmuP3XGzZRCAUTQ==&SEO=
Morning Raga
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PiyasreeDasgupta
Posted: Sep 18, 2009 at 0429 hrs IST
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Out of the Blue
Between dawn and day, last night’s weary dreams and morning’s impatient wait lies a tortured stretch of silence — one throbbing with anticipation, aching with the leftover fatigue of last day’s frantic final shopping. A silence that is nudged and tickled into a sleepy awareness as dida shuffles around the room, knocking the glass of water on the bedside table at times, stepping over your favourite novel that fell on the ground at others, finally settling down with the radio which starts whining and gurgling almost in protest. And then Birendra krishna Bhadra’s nasal timbre slices through the quiet – you dig deeper into your pillow, blink and close your eyes and let the dramatically shaky voice, the now-rusty music and familiar songs slide over your senses, leaving you with a sweet aftertaste that feels of all the good things to come. This is probably the most enduring memory that a Bengali collects in a lifetime. And Mahishasur Mardini, that is aired on the radio every Mahalaya pre-dawn has turned into not just a precious cultural relic, but an integral part of the identity of our community, our city to be honest.
At the same time, we are reminded that ours is an age of the electronic boom. Mahishasur Mardini is no stranger to the television too. The TV versions of the work, which recounts how goddess Durga battled the asura, flaunted names like Hema Malini and Tollywood stars like Debashree Roy playing the lead. Strangely, what has remained with us of the TV versions are only the names. “With due respect to the makers, the televised versions of Mahishasur Mardini were never a patch on the radio version,” says Ratna Sen, presenter with the All India Radio, which almost had a monopoly on the piece before the FM revolution. The reason why TV has never quite measured up to the radio version, says Sen, is probably because of the sensibilities associated with the ritual of listening to Mahishasur Mardini on the radio. “We are conditioned to the fact that listening to the recital is an early dawn phenomenon. The TV versions usually don’t air before 5 am,” says Sen. Also, since the emphasis is on the shlokas and how they melt into the songs in form of storytelling, what you hear becomes more important than what you see. “The TV takes your mind away from the essence of Mahishasur Mardini – the stirring recital,” says Sthitodhee Saraswati, an IT professional.
The reason why the reputation of the radio recital has remained undiminished despite the electronic revolution has to do with the comeback the radio, as a medium, has staged in the recent times. “The FM channels are as popular as TV. People are hooked to the radio all day. So, when the same medium strongly publicises the piece, people are bound to keep listening to it,” says filmmaker Arin Paul. Also, the fact that Kolkatans are as familiar with the piece like they are with their culture sees to the fact that they need no great cajoling to switch on the radio every Mahalaya dawn. “The legacy associated with the radio version of Mahishasur Mardini weighs down too heavily on TV. It’s almost a part of the Kolkata subconscious. Even advertisements and TV features during and before the Pujas constantly refer to the ritual of listening to the radio, identifying it as an important cultural icon,” says Rajarshi Burman, vocalist with city-based rockers Insomnia.
The production values of the televised Mahishasur Mardini also leaves a lot to be desired. Filmmaker Anindita Sarbadhicari, who has been approached to direct Mahishasur Mardini by TV channels, declined because she felt that a production with such content demanded high standards. “There’s so much that has to be done in terms of costumes, set designing, jewellery etc. Unless there’s thorough research and a seriously cinematic approach towards making the programme, it’s a futile exercise,” says Sarbadhicari. And stars don’t do much to give radio a run for its money. “Nobody wants to see stars in a tackily put together production. In fact, when AIR tried producing a new Mahishasur Mardini with stalwarts like Uttam Kumar there was widespread protest,” says Sen. The city, till now, has similar opinions it seems.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/morning-raga/518591/
A day dedicated to our manes
TNN 18 September 2009, 04:39am IST
The dark fortnight of the Bhadrapada masa is called Pitrpaksha or 'Mahalayapaksha' and the New Moon Day is called Mahalaya Amavasya. These days are
considered extremely auspicious for performing obsequial rites for the departed ancestors.
Legend has that, Karna, the renowned hero of Mahabharata, died after giving a brave fight to Arjuna. Angels then took his soul to heaven. On his way, he could find gold, silver and other valuables but nothing to eat, since he had done all charity work with only these valuables, all his life. Saddened, he prayed to Lord Yama (God of death). Yama blessed Karna and agreed to send him back on Earth during the 15 days of the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada masa. On these days Karna performed a lot of annadana and vastradana (giving food and clothes to the needy). Thereafter, he happily went back to the higher abode.
During this period, offerings (dana) should be made in the name of the departed manes. If not on all 15 days, at least on the last day (Mahalaya Amavasya) oblations and other obsequial rites should be performed for all the departed souls even whose names or death is not known.
Nowadays, majority of Hindus perform dana on Mahalaya Amavasya. On this day, they remember their ancestors and offer food, cloth etc, to the poor and especially the items which the departed relative liked. Charity in form of food is important during this observation. Feeding priests with payasa (sweet made of rice, dhal and jaggery) is considered to be highly pleasing to the pitr (manes).
This festival is nothing but a means to show our deep gratitude and respect for our ancestors and in turn invoke their blessings for our peace and prosperity.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/bangalore/A-day-dedicated-to-our-manes/articleshow/5024489.cms
The six-day long Durga Puja festivities begin today with Mahalaya. The people of West Bengal and other part of country have been geared up to welcome the Goddess Durga.
Mahalaya is the occasion when Bengalis welcome Goddess Mahisasura Mardini into their homes.On this occasion, people take a holy dip in the river Ganga and perform ritual called Torpon.
The Eyes of Durga idols and others are painted on Mahalaya.
The All India Radio and Doordarshan air the invocation of the Goddess Durga. Actually it describes the story of fight between demon Mahisasura and Goddess Durga.
Mahalaya 2009 also mark the beginning of Navratra 2009 in other part of country. A day after Mahalaya is the first day of Navratri.
Four persons were feared drowned in the Hoogly river today while offering 'tarpan' (obeisance) on the occasion of Mahalaya at Ghusuri ghat in Howrah district.
Sixteen persons were swept away in the river while offering tarpan this morning, police said, adding eight of them were rescued and four others were hospitalised, the police said.
Four persons, including a six-year-old child, were yet to be traced and search for them were continuing, the police said.
Thousands of people gathered on the banks of the Hoogly river on the occasion of Mahalaya to offer obeisance to their forefathers.
Pakistan must question Hafiz Saeed, prime suspect in the Mumbai terror attacks, and even "half a step is a good step", Home Minister P Chidambaram said today while regretting that no trial has been started against the perpetrators in that country in the last 10 months.Meanwhile, Pakistan must question Hafiz Saeed, prime suspect in the Mumbai terror attacks, and even "half a step is a good step", Home Minister P Chidambaram said today while regretting that no trial has been started against the perpetrators in that country in the last 10 months.On the other hand, Dil Bole Hadippa begins with Veera (Rani Mukherjee), the spunky Punjabi kudi in bright pink kurta and blue dupatta doing what Yuvraj Singh did to Stuart Broad in the Twenty20 World Cup two years ago: smashing six sixes off six balls.
BSF Director General Raman Srivastava on Friday said India has registered a strong protest with Pakistan over the two firing incidents by personnel of the Pakistani rangers, following which the forces along the border have been put on alert.
Indian generic drug companies will be the "first to be called" to collaborate with a $150 million joint venture between the US pharmaceutical giant Merck and British medical charity Wellcome Trust to develop and produce new vaccines in India.
National IT sector body, Nasscom reacted positively to the news about West Bengal government's decision to offer land at Rajarhat to Wipro
and Infosys, 10 days after the IT township project was scrapped.
"It is a good news and on behalf of Nasscom I congratulate Chief Minister for taking such a progressive decision. It is puja gift to IT industry," Nasscom East head and CIO of ITC VVR Babu told PTI.
"This will give right signals to IT business to invest here. Even customers across the world are following the development closely. I hope this will be beginning of new growth phase in Bengal," he added.
Bengal CM Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today announced to offer 45 acres each to Wipro and Infosys at Rajarhat township.
The government will formally inform the companies tomorrow.
Earlier, the state government had planned to offer land to IT majors at Rajathat but difference over pricing had led the government to scout for alternate land near Vedic Village at new proposed IT township in a JV with private parties.
Asked whether Pakistan's move to slap two cases on Saeed was a face-saver, Chidambaram said,"We should take it at face value. Let us see what they do now. Do they interrogate him, do they investigate his role. Let us wait and see. I think it is too early to reach any conclusion. But for me even a half step is a good step."
Excellent! Really the Holy War Goddess is iNVOKED in Nuclear format on Mahalaya!
TV reports say that Intelligence Bureau has alerted all the western coastal states on the possibility of terror attacks.
Times Now quoted IB sources as saying that all coastal state DGPs have been sent alert mails to increase patrolling in the wake of terror threat from sea.
Sources also warn that the attacks vessels would be launched from an Iranian port and a Gulf financier is believed to be behind the terror plans.
The development has come barely hours after Israel warning India that a Pakistan-based terror outfit affiliated to al-Qaida, which carried out the 2008 Mumbai attacks, is planning to carry out a string of terror attacks across India.
Israel's counter-terrorism bureau at the National Security Council (NSC) in a travel warning for Israeli tourists in India rated the threat as "imminent and concrete", putting special emphasis on the Jammu and Kashmir region.
"The terrorist group that carried out the serious Mumbai attack in India is planning to carry out a number of attacks across India, particularly against concentrations of Western or Israeli tourists," warned a statement from the counterterrorism unit.
The bureau has recommended Israelis currently in India to avoid crowded areas, especially tourist areas, which have no apparent armed security.
Taking note of Israel's warning, the government on Friday said it was fully prepared to deal with any situation.
"We are fully prepared and we will take care of whatever situation arises," a home ministry spokesperson said.
The Home Minister in an interview to Times Now said "solid" evidence has been provided to Pakistan against Saeed and other accused based on which they can be investigated.
A real Invocation of the War Goddess on Mahalaya!
Asked whether Pakistan's move to slap two cases on Saeed was a face-saver, Chidambaram said,"We should take it at face value. Let us see what they do now. Do they interrogate him, do they investigate his role. Let us wait and see. I think it is too early to reach any conclusion. But for me even a half step is a good step."
The Home Minister in an interview to Times Now said "solid" evidence has been provided to Pakistan against Saeed and other accused based on which they can be investigated.
AS THE autumn season begins in the earnest, the six day long Durga Puja activities begin in West Bengal and other parts of the country, from the wee hours of Friday (September 18) with the Mahalaya. The festival, according to legend, marks the beginning of the “Devipaksha,” the auspicious time when the Gods and Goddesses wake up from their slumber and prepare for the Durga Puja.
War Goddess Durga is Invoked to revive Retain resurgence! Mother God is Nuclear power and we live in Super Power Fantacies of blind Nationalism. bengalies are more Blind than any othre communities and most Habitual in Worship and hatred most Intense as they Practice Vedic Rituals Under Scientific systematic dipolmatic Manusmriti Rule led by Nrahamins only! Untouchability is practiced and we Never Feel the hatred or Discrimination as the Ideologue marxists and Brahmin Intelligentsia, Civil society and Media control our Mind to feel GOOD in and as BONDED Enslavement and SLAVES Perpetual!
Demonised Marxists have been made ASURAS Post Modern to be Killed. India Incs, zionsit global Order, intelligentsia and Civil Society as well as media have INVOKED Goddess Durga in new Format named Fire Brand Mamata Banerjee, the Railway Minister and Humanitarian face of India Incs government ruling US Colonial Perpherry India to sustain Zionist Manusmriti and apratheid Order! Marxists practiced Brahminism Full Fledged forming Brahmin Front Government and ruling Bengal for more than Three decades as the most Militant SC Communities of Bengal, which ELECTED DR BR Ambedkar, defeated in Maharashtra, to the Constitution Assembly! It Prempted national Indigenous Aboriginal Movement continuing since Chaitnay Mahaprabhu and sufi sant Clan , then strengthened by Harichand Guruchand Thakur, Anyakali in Kerala, Periyar, Jyothiba Phule, Shahuji Maharaj and finally Dr Ambedkar himself!
Bengali Brahmins first ensured Partition of bengal in alliance with Gandhi Nehru and Patel. BC Roy and Nehru gifted away the SC dominated Bengal districts to Pakistan thaks the Mr and Mrs Mountnbatten and Redcliff!They never recognised the East bengal Refugees as Partition Victims and Pushed them out of bengal systematically scattering all over India and stripping off their Citizenship, Civil and Human rights. Recntly back to back NDA and UPA governments have passed citizenship Amendment Acts in 2003 and 2005, masterminded by bengali Brahmins Somnath chatterjee, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Pranab Mukherjee and launched nationwide DEPORTATION Drive against the Partition victims.
Now, India Inc ICON Nandan Nilekani has escalated the scope of the Law to dispalace poor Indian Slum Dwelleres, Indigenous communities, Aboriginal People, Minorities and refugees from Commerciall Prime property in Urban, suburban and Rural areas! Unique Identity Number Project is MONOPOLISTIC Corporate aggression against not only Bengali dalit refugees but also SLUM Dwellers all over India and the Aboriginal tribes who hold no documents to prove their CITIZENSHIP!
The Bengali Brahmin Marxists reverted land Reforms, marxist ideology and the legacy of mass Movemnet, trade Union Movement and Peasant organisation, mobilisation of social and producive forces and Patronised a REGEMENTED Gestapo to ensure LPG Mafia raj and complete manusmriti rule in Bengal!
I have been almost every part of India. I know well how the Brahaminical forces in alliance with India Incs and global Zionis Order manipulated the Popular mandate to continue the so called Economic reforms feedingthe Greedy kiler Money machine National revenue and resources! But Rest Of India may boast Popular peasant and subaltern movement and activities ABSENT in Bengal! North India is said to be living in dark Age without any legacy of socila reforms, renaissance and Marxism. But the Cow belt represnts whatsoever national Indigenous Aboriginal MULNIVASI Movement and social mobilisation despite Continuous Brahaminical campaign led by Brahaminical politics, economy and Religion along with media! It is Absent in Bengal.
In fact, Marxists practiced HINDUTVA Core Ideology Non Negotiable with grass root network and promted Vedic rituals and brahaminical dominance in every sphere of life branding it Progress, Development, Culture, Langauge, Art and Ideology! Thus, DURGA Puja is a FESTIVAL in Bengal. On the other hand, the Fascist communal activities continued for SUSTAINED Ethnic Cleansing and genocide culture! Civil Society, imntelligentsia and media BRAHAMINICAL hitherto supported Marxists to sustain manusmriti rule and which Changed Wings tuning with India Incs and CentaraL Manusmriti Hegemony as well as Global TRIIBLIS Order!
Training of Vedic Rituals to priests and housewives have set the TREND under Brahmin Front Governance, media hype and Corporate Sponsorship!
Thus, we CELEBRATE the ANNIHILITION of our Aboriginal Indigenous Black Untouchable Fore fathers and Mothers by the FOREIGN Illegal Aggresive Migrants who captured Indian Society and Declared themselves the Mainstream Mraginalising us and Enslaving us under Inherent Caste System divided into more than SIX Thousan Castes! Manusmrii and so called Holy Scripts, Vedic rituals have made us Habitual to enjoy the Permanent Enslavement INFINITE and we may not dare to DREAM Change though we try our Best to chose better Killer amongst the Brahamins!
Marxist have no Survival Strategy at all as they RUN Blind on the Superhighway of Capitalist marxism in post Modern Manusmriti Apartheid zionsit age! Thus, we witness the Extreme Right to take over Bengal and the Marxists dying as fast as the USSR disappered into History Books!
Now,Nandan Nilekani, chairman of the Unique Identification Database Authority of India (UIDAI), who holds a cabinet rank, moved to Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi on Monday, following the UPA government's austerity drive.
Nilekani, quit Infosys to join the government two months ago. He shuttles between Bangalore and New Delhi spending about three nights a week in the latter city. He's so far been either bunking with friends or staying at hotels at personal expense. As the technology team that is working on the unique identity card is based in Bangalore, he continues to spend considerable time here.
He has been allotted a house -- No. 2, Safdarjung Lane -- but is unable to occupy it as the current incumbent is yet to vacate. Nilekani, who will be Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's neighbour, intends to move in as soon as it is available.
The last few days have seen the UPA government on an overdrive to cut down government overheads, especially related to travel and stay. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and finance minister Pranab Mukherjee have been travelling economy class. External affairs minister S M Krishna and his deputy Shashi Taroor were asked to quit their cushy 5-star pads and find more economical accommodation.
Meanwhile,the Allahabad High Court today issued notices to the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati and her cabinet colleague Naseemuddin Siddiqui on PILs seeking resumption of proceedings against the two in the Taj corridor case.
A division bench of the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court comprising Justice Pradip Kant and Justice Sabehul Hasnain passed this order on PILs filed by Anupama Singh, Kamlesh Verma and others challenging the special CBI court order dated June 5, 2007 by which the proceedings were dropped against the two in the case.
According to counsel for the petitioners C B Pandey, the the court has directed that these PILs be listed in the month of November for final hearing.
The Durga Puja festivities are carried out at the time when the Goddess leaves her heavenly abode and visits the earth for four days. The celebrations are a way to welcome her to people's home for the time she is here. The deity is welcomed in her form of Mahishasur Mardani, in order to mark the victory of good over evil.
In Kolkata, according to a conservative estimate, nearly a 1,000 pandals have been erected across the city.
From early morning, people go for a holy dip in the Ganges river and perform the Tarpan. Artisans who prepare the Goddess' idols for the Puja, traditionally paint her eyes on this day. The people of West Bengal and other part of country have been geared up to welcome the Goddess Durga. Puja Pandals are set up across cities and towns alike.
The Mahalaya is also the fortnight before the Navratras and is a time when Hindus pray for the well-being of their ancestors who are no longer a part of the mortal realm. Legend states that this the time when the spirits of these ancestors come to earth and visit their descendents. On the Mahalaya Amavasya, food is donated to the poor, in memory of these ancestors.
AFTER TEN years of Oceansat – 1 satellite, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is ready to launch Oceansat-2 satellite on September 23. Influenced from the European flavour, the mission would help to identify potential fishing zones and in coastal zone studies.
Preparations are going for the launch on full swing at Sriharikota spaceport from where the 970-KG spacecraft would set-off by the home-grown Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV). S Satish, spokesperson of Bangalore-headquartered ISRO, said “Oceansat-2 is tentatively scheduled to be launched at around noon on September 23. ”
Oceansat-2 satellite is intended for identification of potential fishing zones, sea state forecasting, coastal zone studies and providing inputs for weather forecasting and climate studies. It would be launched as an in-orbit replacement to Oceansat-1 that was launched by ISRO in May 1999 and was used to study physical and biological aspects of oceanography. “Data from Oceansat-1 was widely used by fishermen,” said the ISRO Chairman G Madhavan Nair.
Along with the scientists of ISRO, European space agencies would also be keenly looking forward for the success of mission as a set of six European nano satellites would ride piggyback and accompany Oceansat-2 on its trip to orbit.
Meanwhile, ISRO scientists are highly optimistic about the mission’s success and counting the days for the launch of the satellite. The ISRO officials have confirmed that the launch is expected at 11.56 am on September 23.
The festivities of the biggest religious event of Hindus in Bangladesh, Durga Puja, started on Friday through the observance of Mahalaya.
Sasthi Puja will begin through ceremonial awakening of goddess Durga on Sep 18. Earthen vessels have been installed at temples including Dakeshwari National Temple.
Cultural functions are being held at different temples in line with Chandigranth.
At Dakeshwari Temple, idols were sacrificed into the temple pond by beating drum and Kasha, and new idols were being made.
The Maharaj of Ramkrishna Mission, Swami Sthiratmananda, told bdnews24.com,"Durga puja consists of three festivals--Mohalaya, Bodhon (Awakening) and Sandhi Puja."
"Durga Puja has begun on Friday morning through Mohalaya," Swami said.
Referring to Puran, he said, the Fortnight of the Goddess (Devi Pakkha) begins through Mahalaya which follows Pritripakkha.
During the preceding fortnight (Pakkhah), devotees offer rice–water (Anna Jal) for the salvation of their forefathers, which is known as Tarpan in scripture, he said
Mahalaya marks the end of Tarpan fortnight and beginning of the Fortnight of Goddess (Devi Pakhkha). In this fortnight, the devotees remember Abahan and Lila through Chandrigranth reading.
Sthiratmananda also said Goddess Durga is born as the daugther of Katayani Muni in the previous evening of Mahalaya (Prak Sandha) to annihilate demon king Mahishashura.
"Puja will take place in 172 pavilions in the capital, nine more from the previous year," Dhaka Metropolitan Sarbajanin Puja Committee president Kazal Devnath said to bdnews24.com.
He said upcoming Durga Puja would be observed in over 23,000 Puja altars compared to 22,800 stalls last year.
Devnath said, "The culture of vandalising idols before Puja, which developed over the past few years, seems to have ended."
"Apart from some isolated incidents, no major untoward incident is yet to be reported," he said
An 11-day festival vacation including weekly holidays has started from Friday.
Government offices will remain open only on Thursday, Sep 24, and Sunday, Sep 27, before another holiday for Durga Puja on Sep 28.
Most are unlikely to attend office before enjoying the Durga Puja vacation that comes close on the heels of the Eid break.
The festival vacation will start on Sep 18 and end on Sep 28.
As per government announcement, Eid vacation will span from Sep 20-22 but it has begun from Friday, with Saturday being the other weekly holiday.
The government has already ordered extension of the public holidays by one day if Eid falls on Sep 22, depending on the sighting of the moon.
Therefore, the Eid vacation is likely to end on Sep 23, spanning six days.
On the other hand, in Bangladesh, the marxists behave otherwise as The National Committee on Protection of Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports, a public pressure group backed by left-leaning parties, has asked for a stop to all initiatives to sign contracts with foreign companies on offshore gas exploration.
Sheikh Mohammad Shahidullah and Anu Muhammad, convener and member secretary of the committee respectively, made the demand in a joint statement on Friday.
"The parliamentary committee (on energy and mineral resources) is proposing discussion on one hand and on the other, Petrobangla is trying to get the contract done during Eid holidays," they said in a statement.
"We disapprove of the duplicity of the government."
They urged the government to make a new production-sharing contract (PSC) and start gas exploration through discussion by upholding the national interest.
The nation will not accept any 'unethical attempt' to hand the gas of the country to foreign companies while depriving them of precious natural resource, the statement said.
Durga
In Hinduism, Durga (Sanskrit: "the inaccessible", Bengali: ) is a form of Devi, the supreme goddess. She is sometimes referred to as the mother of Kartikeya, and Ganesha only.
Durga is depicted as a warrior woman riding a lion or a tiger with multiple hands carrying weapons and assuming mudras, or symbolic hand gestures. This form of the Goddess is the embodiment of feminine and creative energy (Shakti). From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Worship of Durga
The 4 day Durga Puja is the biggest annual festival in Bengal and other parts of Eastern India, but it is celebrated in various forms throughout the Hindu universe.
The day of Durga's victory is celebrated as Vijaya Dashami (East and South India), Dashain (Nepal) or Dussehra (North India) - these words literally mean "the tenth" (day), vijaya means "of-victory". In Kashmir she is worshipped as shaarika (the main temple is in Hari Parbat in Srinagar).
The actual period of the worship however may be on the preceding nine days followed by the last day called Vijayadashami in North India or five days in Bengal, (from the sixth to tenth day of the waxing-moon fortnight). Nine aspects of Durga known as Navadurga are meditated upon, one by one during the nine-day festival by devout shakti worshippers.
Durga
In Hinduism, Durga (Sanskrit: "the inaccessible", Bengali: ) is a form of Devi, the supreme goddess. She is sometimes referred to as the mother of Kartikeya, and Ganesha only.
Durga is depicted as a warrior woman riding a lion or a tiger with multiple hands carrying weapons and assuming mudras, or symbolic hand gestures. This form of the Goddess is the embodiment of feminine and creative energy (Shakti). From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Worship of Durga
The 4 day Durga Puja is the biggest annual festival in Bengal and other parts of Eastern India, but it is celebrated in various forms throughout the Hindu universe.
The day of Durga's victory is celebrated as Vijaya Dashami (East and South India), Dashain (Nepal) or Dussehra (North India) - these words literally mean "the tenth" (day), vijaya means "of-victory". In Kashmir she is worshipped as shaarika (the main temple is in Hari Parbat in Srinagar).
The actual period of the worship however may be on the preceding nine days followed by the last day called Vijayadashami in North India or five days in Bengal, (from the sixth to tenth day of the waxing-moon fortnight). Nine aspects of Durga known as Navadurga are meditated upon, one by one during the nine-day festival by devout shakti worshippers.
In North India, this tenth day, signifying Rama's victory in his battle against the demon Ravana, is celebrated as Dussehra - gigantic straw effigies of Ravana are burnt in designated open spaces (e.g. Delhi's Ram Lila grounds), watched by thousands of families and little children.
In Gujarat it is celebrated as the last day of Navaratri, during which the Garba dance is performed to celebrate the vigorous victory of Mahishasura-mardini Durga.
The Goddess Durga worshipped in her peaceful form as Shree Shantadurga also known as santeri , is the patron Goddess of Goa. She is worshipped by all Goan Hindus irrespective of caste and even by some Christians in Goa.
Goddess Durga is worshipped in many temples of Dakshina Kannada district of Karnataka.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durga
Durga Puja on Wikipedia
Durga Puja (Bengali: ?????????? Durga Puja) is the biggest festival of Bengali Hindus. It is also called Akalbodhan, Vijaya Dashami, Dashain, and Dussehra. The actual period of the worship however may be over the preceding nine days Navaratri or five days ("Sasthi", "Saptami", "Asthami", "Nabami" & "Vijaya Dashami") - (Bengali ?????, ??????, ??????, ????, ?????? ????).
Mahalaya
Global Terrorism: 'Pre-emption' is the recourse
Dr VN Arora
In the wake of long drawn terror strikes, particularly the tragic events of 26/11 and a perceived threat from our neighboring country Pakistan, India has been forced to promulgate a New National Security Strategy. One critical element of this strategy is the concept of ‘Pre-emption’- the use of military force in advance of a first use of force by the adversary. In its New National Security Strategy purportedly discussed and approved by the Political Affair Committee on Sunday last, this critical element has been approved with a modifications – India may go for unilateral precision strikes if the situation warrants. It’s a contentious doctrine under International Law, the claim of a sovereign country to use pre-emptive course.
Although, traditional International Law required to be “an imminent danger of attack” before pre-emption would be permissible, the situation forces that “India must adapt the Concept of Imminent Threat to the capabilities and objectives of today’s adversary”. The world public opinion approves that Pakistan has become epicenter of Global Terrorism and its political objectives against India are also not under veil.
In fact greater the threat, the greater is the risk of inaction and more compelling the case for taking anticipatory action to defend ourselves.
Under the U N Charter paradigm for the use of force, unilateral preemptive force without an eminent threat is clearly unlawful. But this charter framework is for the states. What about those outfits, which are controlled by ‘non state actors’ and operating from adversary’s soil. I repeat by non state actors operating from adversary’s soil.
From the age of Kautilya to Machiavelli to Clausewitz to Quincy Wright phenomenon of war has been linked to politics but now the trend is deviating from the state. Horizontal expansion of terror strikes, globalization of violence and world discourse affecting peace and security is not on the line of age-old direction – the ‘direction of armed conflict’. The academics like us know that war is an act of violence which permits to carry on armed conflict by two or more states. But this act of violence now stands transformed into a Global phenomenon almost de-linked with politics.
Yes the phenomenon of present day terrorism called International Terrorism has transformed the concept of use of violence by state. If we accept Clausewitz’s famous dictum that war is politics by other means, then we ought to conceptualize terrorism as war by other means. Terrorism wages war by intimidation, by seeking to provoke mass fear and demoralization so as to undermine public confidence in governments and break the public will to resist. Terrorism applies violence for political ends.
The present day Terrorism manifests two frameworks. 1- Age old terrorism: Terrorists strikes inside or outside country for essentially national objectives. 2- Global Phenomenon: Not directed specifically against any territory or any regime but is transcendental in aiming to transform the belief system.
This new form of terrorism emanates from a belief system of one community, but seeks through mass violent means to transform the belief system of their targets; a belief system which is global. This new terrorism is essentially global in its purview rather than national or country specific. This is the reason world leaders landed one after another in Indian capital after 26/11.
The international peace and security have seldom felt so far away as it is today. Today the peace and security stands threatened worldwide. The impotence to understand the dynamics of conflict has paved the way for this monster – global terrorism. Now every suffering nation is busy in promulgating a pre-emptive policy having a shift from conflict prevention, diplomatic management and deterrence be it a developed country like U S or developing country India.
The discussion of peace and security today is stale. It is also dangerous. Though the dynamics of conflict since 1989 has vigorously changed but states still believe in mechanism of joint action. By using wrong mechanisms and by reacting to fear we are playing into the hands of those whose only skill is management of fear.
The need of doctrine to be used against Global Terrorism is: The macro violence can only be addressed through micro-control.
http://www.samaylive.com/articles/global-terrorism-preemption-is-the-recourse.html
A Dawn of Hope and Aspirations
Cold War is known as a war thought and fought more in minds than on fields. Fortunately, Super Powers did not exchange blows directly. But the struggle between the two blocks led many unresolved complications.
Few of them are still persisting in the world. The problem of Afghanistan which was started during cold war with the Soviet intrusion into the land locked territory is still burning and the temperature due to it could be felt in the round about areas. If the spices became the cause of colonial rule in the Indian subcontinent and petroleum for the struggle in the Middle-East, the strategic location of Afghanistan became the main cause of plight of the country. Afghanistan bridges Central Asia to South Asia.
The special geo-political status of Afghanistan has increased its significance not only for the regional power balance but also has made it attractive enough for the world leaders. 9/11 was another turning point in the history of Afghanistan as it paved the way for the United States to uproot the Taliban from Kabul. The 2004 elections introduced the new chapter bringing Hamid Karzai into the power as a Captain of a broken ship.
The recently held elections in Afghanistan are expected to bring a fresh dawn of hope and aspirations to the people of Afghanistan. The country has been suffering for the last thirty years and spells of violence have damaged the entire social, political and economic system. During cold war, Afghanistan became a ball rolling between the two super powers. The Soviet intrusion into the country gave birth an era of instability. When Soviet troops evacuated Afghanistan, a vacuum had been created. This resulted into severe clashes internally and distanced the peace far and away. The land locked country has been the centre of attraction for the other countries for strategic gains.
The people are keen to see their country making progress. They are now fed up of decades old violence. This election which were held under the shadow of fear and suspicion, are expected to be the milestone in the history of Afghanistan.
The Talibans had threatened the voters numbering approximately one crore not to turn to poling booths. There is no doubt that this was too complicated to conduct the elections in the proper way as is done in other countries. But in spite of all hurdles, the elections process kept on running. One of the important aspects of these elections is that even few women were contesting elections.
This is the same country where women were kept hostage and were not allowed to enjoy freedom.
For the entire South Asian region, Afghanistan is very important. The peaceful, prosperous and stable Afghanistan is in the interest of whole region. Unfortunately, this fact has been misrepresented. Pakistan has tried to use Afghanistan against India. The anti- Indian elements have been promoted by Pakistan in Afghanistan.
But irony is that Pakistan blames India for the same. According to a military official of Pakistan, India has established many consulates in Afghanistan to support the insurgency in Balochistan. Pakistan has been blaming India for disturbance in its North West Frontier Province.
But the reality is totally different. India has been playing a big and constructive role in Afghanistan. India’s agencies are active in making roads and other significant installations in the country. Millions of Dollars have been invested by India in Afghanistan to reconstruct the war ravaged nation. India is also keen to see Afghanistan politically stable.
Hamid Karzai knew the importance of India. As a result he tried to maintain good relations between the two countries. Because of his efforts both the countries have come closure on various matters including reconstruction and development of Afghanistan.
India is building roads, schools and many other installations in Afghanistan. The infrastructure of Afghanistan has been damaged badly in the last three decades.
India and Afghanistan have been in good relations since ancient times. India has been the favorite destination for afghani traders.
Indian films in spite of being banned have been popular in Afghanistan. The huge idol of Gautam Buddha at Bamiyan was destroyed by the extremists in 2001. This great idol was the symbol of honeymoon period of Indo- Afghan relationship.This gory destruction had been criticized by the whole world.
The elections though held under the shadow of fear and suspicion indicates a right step towards bright future of Afghanis who have lost their all and got nothing except pains. Though there have been doubts on the entire election process. But half a loaf is better than no bread. India has a big opportunity in Afghanistan in helping to let it stand on its own feet.
Santosh Kumar
(The writer is a Lecturer in Journalism with Amity School of Communication, Amity University, Lucknow)
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http://www.samaylive.com/articles/a-dawn-of-hope-and-aspirations.html
People offering 'tarpan' in memory of their deceased forefathers.
Mahalaya ushers in the aura of Durga Puja. The countdown for the Durga Puja begins much earlier, from the day of 'Janmastami'. It is only from the day of Mahalaya that the preparations for the Durga Puja reaches the final stage. The midnight chants of various hymns of 'Mahishasura Mardini' reminds one of the beginning of Durga Puja.
Mahalaya is an auspicious occasion observed seven days before the Durga Puja, and heralds the advent of Durga, the goddess of supreme power. It's a kind of invocation or invitation to the mother goddess to descend on earth - "Jago Tumi Jago". This is done through the chanting of mantras and singing devotional songs.
The day of Mahalaya is also the day of remembrance. On this day, people offer 'tarpan' in memory of their deceased forefathers. The banks of River Ganga becomes a sea of humanity. Priests are seen busy performing 'Tarpan' for devotees in groups. The rituals start from early down and end during the midday. Devotees and worshipers buy clothes and sweets to offer to their forefathers. 'Tarpan' is to be performed in empty stomach. After offering 'tarpan', people eat at the same place.
http://www.durga-puja.org/mahalaya.html
People take holy bath marking Mahalaya Amavasai
Rameswaram Island, Sep 18 : Lakhs of people from across the country took a holy dip and performed rites to their ancestors at 'Agni Theertham' in Rameswaram, 'Triveni Sangamam' in Kanyakumari and various holy ghats in Tamil Nadu on the occasion of 'Mahalaya Amavasya,' today.
Mahalaya Amavasya is considered auspicious for performing rituals to the ancestors and forefathers like 'Shradh' and 'Tarpan'. The devout Hindus believe that the rituals performed during Mahalaya Amavasya would reach the dead ancestors through the rays of 'Surya' (Sun).
The day was marked by significance at Sri Ramanathaswamy Temple, here, where lakhs of people congregated and visited the Agnitheertha Kadarkarai(Sea Shore) to offer pujas to their forefathers. Special prayers were also offered to Navagrahas at Devipattinam and 'Pithru Poojas', were also conducted.
A special procession carrying the idols of Lord Shiva, Lord Ram and goddess Sita from the temple reached 'Agnitheertha Kadarkarai' on the day and special prayers and poojas were performed.
Security had been tightened in view of Mahalaya here.
The rituals were observed at several places in Tamil Nadu, including Cauvery Delta Districts, Dhanushkodi, Muhuntharayarchatram, Sethukarai and Devipattinam, among others.
--UNI
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Mahalaya
The traditional six day countdown to Mahasaptami starts from Mahalaya. Goddess Durga visits the earth for only four days but seven days prior to the Pujas, starts the Mahalaya. The enchanting
voice of Birendra Krishna Bhadra fill up the predawn hours of the day thus marking the beginning of " devipaksha " and the beginning of the count-down of Durga Puja. Sarat in its bloom, mingled with the festive spirit of Durga Puja reaches its pitch on the day of Mahalaya. From this day starts 'Devipaksha' and marks the end of 'Pitri-paksha'.
It is the day when many throng to the banks of river Ganga, clad in dhotis to offer prayers to their dead relatives and forefathers.People in the pre-dawn hours pray for their demised relatives and take holy dips in the Ganges. This ritual is known as
'Torpon'. This day bears immense significance for the Bengalis. It is according to the myths that Sree Rama hastily performed Durga Puja just before he set for Lanka to rescue Sita from Ravana.
According to Puranas, King Suratha, used to worship goddess Durga in spring. Thus Durga Puja was also known as Basanti Puja. But Rama preponed the Puja and worshiped Durga in autumn and that is why it is known as 'Akal Bodhon' or untimely worship. It was considered untimely as it is in the myths that puja was performed when the Gods and Goddesses were awake i.e. "Uttarayan" and was not held when the Gods and Goddesses rested ie."Dakshinayan".
It was on the day of Mahalaya,the beginning of "devipaksha",the Gods and Goddesses woke up to prepare themselves for Durga Puja. Akashvani Mahalaya: In the year 1930, Mahalaya was first broadcasted over the radio in Akashvani. The programme was organised by Premankur Aatorthi, Birendra Krishna Bhadra, Nripendra Krishna Mukhopadhya and Raichand Boral. It was broadcasted live then. Later it was recorded and played. Bengal's cine star, Uttam Kumar had once recited Mahalaya while Hemanta Kumar Mukhopadhya was the music director. But it was not popular among the mass and from then it has always been the voice of Birendra Kishna Bhadra enthralling the listeners in the pre-dawn hours of Mahalaya. The script was written by Bani Kumar, music was directed by Pankaj Kumar Mallik while Dijen Mukhopadhya, Manobendra Mukhopadhya (Tabo Achinta....), Sandhya Mukhopadhya, Arati Mukhopadhya, Utpala Sen, Shyamal Mitra and Supriti Ghosh (Bajlo tomar alor benu....) sang in their melodious voices.
http://www.bangalinet.com/mahalaya.htm
Come September, and Hindus all over the world get enthused in festive fervor. Come “Mahalaya” and Bengalis get busy to complete the final preparations for their greatest festival - Durga Puja.
What's Mahalaya?
Mahalaya is an auspicious occasion observed seven days before the Durga Puja, and heralds the advent of Durga, the goddess of supreme power. It's a kind of invocation or invitation to the mother goddess to descend on earth - "Jago Tumi Jago". This is done through the chanting of mantras and singing devotional songs.
Why's Mahalaya So Special?
Since the early 1930s, Mahalaya has come to associate itself with an early morning radio program called “Mahisasura Mardini” or “The Annihilation of the Demon.” This All India Radio (AIR) program is a beautiful audio montage of recitation from the scriptural verses of “Chandi Kavya”, Bengali devotional songs, classical music and a dash of acoustic melodrama. The program has also been translated into Hindi set to similar orchestration and is broadcast at the same time for a pan-Indian audience.
This program has almost become synonymous with Mahalaya. For nearly six decades now, the whole of Bengal rises up in the chilly pre dawn hours, 4 am to be precise, of the Mahalaya day to tune in to the “Mahisasura Mardini” broadcast.
The Magic of Birendra Krishna Bhadra
One man who'll always be remembered for making Mahalaya memorable to one and all is Birendra Krishna Bhadra, the magical voice behind the “Mahisasura Mardini.” The legendary narrator recites the holy verses and tells the story of the descent of Durga to earth, in his inimitable style.
Bhadra has long passed away, but his recorded voice still forms the core of the Mahalaya program. In a sonorous, reverberating voice Birendra Bhadra renders the Mahalaya recital for two thrilling hours, mesmerizing every household with the divine aura of his narration, as the Bengalis submerge their souls in quiet moments of prayer.
A Landmark Composition
“Mahisasura Mardini” is a remarkable piece of audio drama matchless in Indian culture. Though the theme is mythical and the mantras Vedic, this program is a landmark composition. It's scripted by Bani Kumar, and narrated by Bhadra. The enchanting music is composed by none other than the immortal Pankaj Mullick, and the songs are rendered by famous singers of yesteryears, including Hemant Kumar and Arati Mukherjee.
As the recital begins, the serene morning air resonates with the long drawn sound of the sacred conch shell, immediately followed by a chorus of invocation, melodiously setting the stage for the recitation of the Chandi Mantra.
The Story of “Mahisasura Mardini”
The story element is captivating. It speaks of the increasing cruelty of the demon king Mahisasura against the gods. Unable to tolerate his tyranny the gods plead with Vishnu to annihilate the demon. The Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara (Shiva) come together to create a powerful female form with ten arms - Goddess Durga or 'Mahamaya', the Mother of the Universe who embodies the primeval source of all power.
The gods then bestow upon this Supreme creation their individual blessings and weapons. Armed like a warrior, the goddess rides a lion to battle with the Mahisasura. After a fierce combat the 'Durgatinashini' is able to slay the 'Asura' king with her trident. Heaven and earth rejoice at her victory. Finally, the mantra narration ends with the refrain of mankind's supplication before this Supreme Power:
"Ya devi sarbabhuteshshu, sakti rupena sanksthita Namasteshwai Namasteshwai Namasteshwai namo namaha."
http://hinduism.about.com/cs/audiomusic/a/aa092003a.htm
By R Shankar, 18/09/2009India's nuclear test: dud, fizzle or plain lies?
India’s 1998 thermo-nuclear test in Rajasthan is now snowballing into a major controversy with scientists demanding a probe and some saying that the bitter truth from the desert sands of Rajasthan has been hidden by a few top scientists for an embarrassingly long period.
India's nuclear bomb tested 11 years ago in the wild and wind-swept regions of Pokhran range in Rajasthan has now `exploded' into a full-blown controversy `yielding' embarrassing details. Three top Indian nuclear scientists have asked the government to set up an enquiry committee so that the nation can know the truth.
Being very critical, three former nuclear leaders -- M R Srinivasan, P K Iyengar and A N Prasad - have said that only a probe can bring out the truth. Prasad was highly critical saying he was ashamed that information on the May 1998 thermonuclear test was hidden. The scientists have now asked the government to institute an inquiry to determine whether the test yielded the expected results or failed.
K Santhanam, the project leader of Pokharan II, who first stoked the nuclear yield issue, has also favoured a probe, saying that creation of nuclear power could not be based on myths.
"I think this is standard procedure in science and if there are claims then an impartial group of scientists is normally formed to look into the relevant facts," Santhanam said.
Asked whether such a probe will affect the country's image as a nuclear power, he said one should not be carried away by "images or imagery" and that the image must be rooted in solid facts and cleared by competent group of scientists. "So the creation of a myth must be avoided," he said.
The latest authority to question former president APJ Abdul Kalam and R Chidambaram, former chairman of AEC (Atomic Energy Commission, is A N Prasad, former director of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre Former Barc director, Prasad has always been maintaining that the thermonuclear test was anything but a success.
Reacting to the fallout, he was quoted in The Times of India on Friday as saying that ``The painful fallout of this episode is that the credibility of the nuclear scientific community and the respectable name of Barc is being damaged by a few at the top.''
In a direct attack on Kalam and Chidambaram, Prasad said: ``If all that Santhanam has written is true, then people occupying high places have misled the country. If all the data about the thermonuclear test has been held by one man (Chidambaram), then how can it be scientifically contested or debated? He has kept it under wraps.''
Stressing that there should be a probe by a committee constituted by the government, Prasad said that the team should comprise those having serious doubts about the yield of the test as well as experts who can include former nuclear scientists who have been raising their voices. ``It should not consist of only yes men. It should consist of those who are knowledgeable, who have the capacity to investigate such a serious matter,'' he said.
"If this committee concludes that the thermonuclear test had completely failed then the government has played a major fraud on the people of this country," he said.
http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=3227827
Navaratri: The 9 Divine Nights
5 Things You Need To Know About
"Nava-ratri" literally means "nine nights." This festival is observed twice a year, once in the beginning of summer and again at the onset of winter.
What's the Significance of Navratri?
During Navaratri, we invoke the energy aspect of God in the form of the universal mother, commonly referred to as "Durga," which literally means the remover of miseries of life. She is also referred to as "Devi" (goddess) or "Shakti" (energy or power). It is this energy, which helps God to proceed with the work of creation, preservation and destruction. In other words, you can say that God is motionless, absolutely changeless, and the Divine Mother Durga, does everything. Truly speaking, our worship of Shakti re-confirms the scientific theory that energy is imperishable. It cannot be created or destroyed. It is always there.
Why Worship the Mother Goddess?
We think this energy is only a form of the Divine Mother, who is the mother of all, and all of us are her children. "Why mother; why not father?", you may ask. Let me just say that we believe that God's glory, his cosmic energy, his greatness and supremacy can best be depicted as the motherhood aspect of God. Just as a child finds all these qualities in his or her mother, similarly, all of us look upon God as mother. In fact, Hinduism is the only religion in the world, which gives so much importance to the mother aspect of God because we believe that mother is the creative aspect of the absolute.
Why Twice a Year?
Every year the beginning of summer and the beginning of winter are two very important junctures of climatic change and solar influence. These two junctions have been chosen as the sacred opportunities for the worship of the divine power because:
(1) We believe that it is the divine power that provides energy for the earth to move around the sun, causing the changes in the outer nature and that this divine power must be thanked for maintaining the correct balance of the universe.
(2) Due to the changes in the nature, the bodies and minds of people undergo a considerable change, and hence, we worship the divine power to bestow upon all of us enough potent powers to maintain our physical and mental balance.
Why Nine Nights & Days?
Navaratri is divided into sets of three days to adore different aspects of the supreme goddess. On the first three days, the Mother is invoked as powerful force called Durga in order to destroy all our impurities, vices and defects. The next three days, the Mother is adored as a giver of spiritual wealth, Lakshmi, who is considered to have the power of bestowing on her devotees the inexhaustible wealth. The final set of three days is spent in worshipping the mother as the goddess of wisdom, Saraswati. In order have all-round success in life, we need the blessings of all three aspects of the divine mother; hence, the worship for nine nights.
Why Do You Need the Power?
Thus, I suggest you join your parents in worshipping "Ma Durga" during the Navaratri. She will bestow on you wealth, auspiciousness, prosperity, knowledge, and other potent powers to cross every hurdle of life. Remember, everyone in this world worships power, i.e., Durga, because there is no one who does not love and long for power in some form or the other.
http://hinduism.about.com/od/festivalsholidays/a/navaratri.htm
Mahalaya – Birendrakrishna Bhadra
Mahalaya – Birendrakrishna Bhadra
Mahishashur Mardini: I can remember the time when I was little during the time of Mahalaya. My grand father used to wake me up very early morning. It used to be really dark in the morning, however every family member would get up early to listen to “Mahalaya” by Birendrakishore Bhadra broadcast by All India Radio Program.. We never missed this special broadcasting ever as far as I can remember. Now many of us are not living in Calcutta for various reasons. This page will let you all to listen to Mahalaya by Birendra Kishore Bhadra anytime you like.
Listen and watch Mahalaya by Birendra Kishore Bhadra and others – Selected Clips From Youtube
An Abridged Audio/Visual Presentation of an All India Radio Recording – MAHISASURAMARDINI : An Oratario Invoking The Goddess Durga (Sanskrit Chants and Bengali Devotional Songs)
Listen to Mahishashur Mardini by Birendra Krishna Bhadra online – Selected from Esnips.
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Mahalaya – The History:
Mahalaya is an auspicious occasion that is observed seven days before the Durga Puja, and heralds the advent of Ma Durga, the goddess of supreme power. It’s a kind of invocation or invitation to the mother goddess to descend on earth – “Jago Tumi Jago“. This is done through the chanting of mantras and singing devotional songs. There is a special type of devotional bengali music called “Agamani” which praise Ma Durga.
Since the early 1930s, Mahalaya has come to associate itself with an early morning radio program called “Mahisasura Mardini” or “The Annihilation of the Demon.” This All India Radio (AIR) program is a beautiful audio montage of recitation from the scriptural verses of “Chandi Kavya”, Bengali devotional songs, classical music and a dash of acoustic melodrama. The program has also been translated into Hindi set to similar orchestration and is broadcast at the same time for a pan-Indian audience.
This program has almost become synonymous with Mahalaya. For nearly six decades now, the whole of Bengal rises up in the chilly pre dawn hours, 4 am to be precise, of the Mahalaya day to tune in to the “Mahisasura Mardini” broadcast.
Birendra Krishna Bhadra and Mahalaya
Birendra Krishna Bhadra will be always remembered for his superb creation of Mahalaya Radio Program, the magical voice behind the “Mahisasura Mardini.” The legendary narrator recites the holy verses and tells the story of the descent of Durga to earth, in his inimitable style.
Bhadra has long passed away, but his recorded voice still forms the core of the Mahalaya program. In a sonorous, reverberating voice Birendra Bhadra renders the Mahalaya recital for two thrilling hours, mesmerizing every household with the divine aura of his narration, as the Bengalis submerge their souls in quiet moments of prayer.
A Landmark Composition
“Mahisasura Mardini” is a remarkable piece of audio drama matchless in Indian culture. Though the theme is mythical and the mantras Vedic, this program is a landmark composition. It’s scripted by Bani Kumar, and narrated by Bhadra. The enchanting music is composed by none other than the immortal Pankaj Mullick, and the songs are rendered by famous singers of yesteryears, including Hemant Kumar and Arati Mukherjee.
As the recital begins, the serene morning air resonates with the long drawn sound of the sacred conch shell, immediately followed by a chorus of invocation, melodiously setting the stage for the recitation of the Chandi Mantra.
The Story of “Mahisasura Mardini”
The story element is captivating. It speaks of the increasing cruelty of the demon king Mahisasura against the gods. Unable to tolerate his tyranny the gods plead with Vishnu to annihilate the demon. The Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara (Shiva) come together to create a powerful female form with ten arms – Goddess Durga or ‘Mahamaya’, the Mother of the Universe who embodies the primeval source of all power.
The gods then bestow upon this Supreme creation their individual blessings and weapons. Armed like a warrior, the goddess rides a lion to battle with the Mahisasura. After a fierce combat the ‘Durgatinashini’ is able to slay the ‘Asura’ king with her trident. Heaven and earth rejoice at her victory. Finally, the mantra narration ends with the refrain of mankind’s supplication before this Supreme Power:
“Ya devi sarbabhuteshshu, sakti rupena sanksthita Namasteshwai Namasteshwai Namasteshwai namo namaha.”
http://calcuttaglobalchat.net/calcuttablog/mahalaya/
Durga Puja 2009: Eye-catcher pujas
Jhimli Mukherjee Pandey, TNN 27 August 2009, 02:50am IST
KOLKATA: Durga Puja 2009 is all about eye-popping innovation. And, in their effort to ensure that their pujas grab more attention than the rest,
organizers are leaving no stone unturned.
Not surprisingly, one of the top themes is going green. Protecting and nurturing Mother Nature features largely in the themes of many big-budget pujas of the city this time, in sync with increasing environmental awareness.
To make sure its puja is the greenest of them all, Suruchi Sangha of New Alipore started well in advance. The organizers have been growing plants throughout last year on its designated plot. Today, many of the plants exhibit dense foliage; some, in fact, are as high as 30 feet. The goddess will be surrounded by this dense natural vegetation.
The theme is Jharkhand, which is associated with forests and greenery, said the organizers. "We want to spread awareness against global warming. We have grown at least 85 different plants, which will all be part of the natural pandal that we are developing," said an organizer.
Even filmmaker Goutam Ghosh who, for the first time, has involved himself in designing themes, pandals and goddesses this time, has made the environment his pet theme. Ghosh has developed the concept of Badamtala Ashar Sangha this time and has christened it "Nature". Their budget has gone up to Rs 17 lakh this time, up from Rs 12.5 lakh last year.
Neighbouring 66 Pally, another big draw every year, has also roped in Ghosh to plan the concept and even oversee construction. Keeping with the fact that restoration of heritage buildings is another important need of this city, the pandal of this puja resembles a beautifully restored baganbari of the zamindars. The goddess is etched out of a huge earthenware vessel. Here too, the budget has gone up from Rs 8 lakh to Rs 12 lakh this time.
There is no mistaking the fact that there's a distinct craze among organizers to recreate days of yore in their pujas. The Jodhpur Park puja, a favourite with pandal hoppers, is recreating portions of an old palace, complete with a thakurdalan, where the goddess will be worshipped. "Right from coloured glasses popularly used those days on arched windows to pillars, cornices and verandahs, we have tried to replicate a heritage building," said Sumit Chakraborty, an organizer. "We studied several buildings and then got our artist to prepare a design. Our budget has shot up to Rs 20 lakh this time, Rs 7 lakh higher than last year."
The Bosepukur Talbagan puja has gone back to Bengal's artistic roots. The organizers plan to recreate patachitras from Kalighat, Midnapore and Bankura for its pandal. However, the organizers have planned an entirely new two-in-one concept. "As you enter, you see an idol that will look familiar, but you will have to go around her to come out of the pandal; then, you'll see another goddess, in the Rajrajeshwari style," explained secretary Subhendu Ghosh.
Sreebhumi Sporting organisers have also increased the budget by Rs 10 lakh to recreate the grand Akshardham temple of Noida. This club had earlier recreated the original Akshardham of Gandhinagar and wanted to do something more spectacular this time. Hence, the budget of Rs 30 lakh. "We will stun the city with our lighting. We will have 14 huge gates of light on either side of VIP Road," said joint secretary Deepak Roy.
Some very popular pujas, such as Barisha Jubak Brinda, however, believe that it is not necessary to have a huge budget to design an innovative puja. "We have a budget of only Rs 3.5 lakh this year, a lakh less than last year, thanks to the bad market. We are designing our pandal in geometric shapes and this will be reflected in the idol also," said an organizer.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/city/kolkata-/Durga-Puja-2009-Eye-catcher-pujas/articleshow/4938830.cms
18/09/2009Narendra Modi’s new anti-terror mantra: 111 QRTs
In another move to toughen the drive against terrorists, Gujarat plans to set up 111 anti-terror Quick Response Teams (QRTs). The teams would be armed to their teeth with state of the art hi-tech weapons, night vision equipment and even armoured vehicles. Working round the clock in three shifts 365 days, the QRTs will be deployed in every nook and corner of the State.
Gujarat has now sent the proposal to the Centre for approval. If approved, Gujarat will be the first state to have such high level of security, sources said.
The salient features of the QRTs:
Will comprise highly trained men from the Anti-Terrorist Assault Squads (ATAS).
Highly mobile, teams will always remain very close to sensitive areas and targets.
The teams will be shuffled often and their positions will keep changing so that the surprise element is maintained.
Each fighter operator will have a semi-automatic pistol as a personal side arm, three submachine guns and two assault rifles.
Team will have tactical features like red dot self-powered optical sighting systems, three-point tactical slings, full coverage body armour tactical vests, helmets of very high protection level.
Gas masks, fire retardant gear, gloves, eyewear and tactical boots.
18/09/2009Tata Steel to develop Orissa's Jajpur onlines of Jamshedpur
Bhubaneswar: Committed to its Kalinga Nagar project despite a bloodbath in 2006 when 13 persons died in police firing during land acquisation, Tata Steel vowed to make Orissa's Jajpur "another Jamshedpur"
"We will make Jajpur district another Jamshedpur. Kalinga Nagar project is on the top of our priorities," Tata Steel's vice-president B K Singh told PTI after attending the review meeting on progress of implementation of mega projects in Orissa.
Dubbing the 2006 police firing incident as "unfortunate", Singh said the company was ready to help the families of the victims.
"We should forget the incident and heal the situation," he said.
Asked whether the company would like to make any change in the proposed site in the backdrop of the incident, Singh said the company had no such plan. "Rahter Tata Steel wants to make Jajpur as another Jamshedpur," he said.
Singh claimed that the company had already invested Rs 4,000 crore out of estimated project cost Rs 18,700 crore in the project and expected to go for first phase production in 2014.
Tata Steel which signed MoU with the state government for setting up a 6 MTPA steel mill required 3500 acre of land for the purpose.
Though the state owned IDCO (industrial development corporation of Orissa) had allotted 3040 acre of land in four phases, the company was yet to start construction due to law and order problem.
The proposed plant had also been allotted 74 cusec of water from the Baitarani river and permitted to avil power of 100 Mw at 220 kv from Duburi Grid substation.
The company had meanwhile set up rehabilitation colonies and sponscored local youths for vocational training, Singh informed the state government at the review meeting.
However, the company was asked several questions on its project at Nayagarh in Keonjhar district and Gopalpur in Ganjam district.
The company, which was developing an SEZ in the name of Tata Realty and Infrastructure Development, assured the state government that it would start activities at Gopalpur in next six months.
"Some companies will invest in steel, electric goods, auto-spare and other goods in its Gopalpur SEZ," Singh said, adding that it was taking steps for Keonjhar project.
Business Standard
18/09/2009Sensex slips in early trades
Mumbai: The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex slipped by over 80 points in opening trade today snapping its three-session winning streak on emergence of profit-booking at higher levels amid weak Asian markets.
However, gains in some heavy-weight stocks capped losses.
The BSE-30 share benchmark Sensex, which had gained over 495 points or 3.06 per cent in the past three sessions, fell by 80.22 points or 0.48 per cent at 16,630.89 in opening trade with retreating banking, realty and metal stocks.
Similarly, the Nifty on the wide-based National Stock Exchange plunged by 24.80 points to 4,965.55 after hitting 5,000-points level for the first time since May last year.
Brokers said emergence of profit-booking by fund as well as retail investors after recording handsome gains in the past three sessions and weakening trends on the other Asian bourses attributed to the decline in stock prices.
The major losers were the State Bank of India- down by 1.12 per cent to Rs 2,083, ICICI Bank by 1.43 per cent to Rs 860.05, HDFC Bank by 0.28 per cent to Rs 1,532.10, Sterlite Industries by 1.94 per cent to Rs 457, Hindalco by 0.40 per cent to Rs 135.50, DLF Ltd by 0.66 per cent to Rs 417, Bharti Airtel by 0.15 per cent to Rs 432.50 and Larsen and Toubro by 0.33 per cent to Rs 1,639.
Source: PTI
18/09/2009Rates may harden by fiscal end: Rangarajan
Hyderabad: Interest rates may harden a bit by the end of the current financial year, according to C Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.
Speaking to mediapersons on the sidelines of an international conference on 'Global Economic Meltdown: Challenges and Prospects' here on Thursday, Rangarajan said credit offtake was also showing signs of recovery.
He said though capital flow had improved, but were not of the same order as two years ago. Nevertheless, inflows through foreign direct investment (FDI) and foreign institutional investment (FII) would be larger this year compared with last year, he said.
Rangarajan said that fiscal actions involving a cut in excise duty and enlarging government expenditure would stimulate aggregate demand. The government has already extended its stimulus package up to March 2010, which could be reviewed thereafter. On the issue of the continuance of the accommodative policy, he said this policy of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the government might have to be withdrawn gradually.
"The quantitative easing cannot continue indefinitely. RBI particularly has to guard against the re-emergence of inflation," he said. In this context, Rangarajan cautioned that there shouldn't be a "premature" withdrawal of the accommodative policy. "It has to come after definite signs of recovery are visible. But once they are visible, we have to withdraw," he said.
Even in the case of central fiscal deficit, he said, we should revert to Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary Management (FRBM) targets as the economy began to recover. He does not envisage any increase in the 2009-10 fiscal deficit, which is pegged at 6.8 per cent of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Rangarajan said that RBI had taken right steps by reducing CRR (cash reserve ratio) and repo and reverse repo rates for expanding liquidity. However, it was being pointed out that the actions of the central bank have not percolated to the ground level and credit growth was slow.
"Is this a case of taking the horse to the pond but cannot compel it to drink?" he asked while emphasising that the role of RBI was to create an environment in which additional credit could be made available.
Motherland Calling: NRI investments in India
September 18th, 2009
For Saurav, today was a bit unnerving. He had received a call from his cousin Abhay in Ahmedabad and for once he was unable to make a quick decision. However, a thought struck him as he reviewed his financial assets. After all, NRIs were preferred borrowers in India…
Saurav Patel had migrated to the US ten years back after his graduation. He had done his MS in the University of Pennsylvania. He works now with Microsoft and is well settled in Seattle.
Patriotism for motherland India would surface once in a while, particularly when he wants to make investments. Although it was also true that India seemed a greater and better bet given the situation prevailing in the US.
He was a shrewd investor and he knew of every possible way to invest and multiply his money.
A sneak preview into his portfolio would show:
- NRE bank accounts into which he sends surplus dollars every month. His fixed deposits gave low returns compared to the general interest rates in India, but the interest was tax free. Also anything was better than the 0% he gets for his deposits in the US.
- NRO bank accounts into which his income from India, rentals from his properties etc are maintained. His father, who holds his Power of Attorney, meticulously handles all of it.
- Rental residential properties, one each in Ahmedabad and Mumbai.
- A rental commercial property, which he developed from the land his grandmother gifted him at Ahmedabad.
- A strong portfolio, of blue chip stocks, in his demat account - the one he opened after he gained NRI status. His bank where he has his NRE account, helped him with the opening of his PIS (portfolio investment scheme) and demat account and the process was actually easy.
- He carefully dematerialised all the shares his father had gifted him when he got married.
- A trading portfolio of mid cap and small cap stocks which his broker buys and sells depending on market conditions and research tips. Though he was skeptical of this method of investing, this portfolio has given good returns in the last year when the equity markets tanked and then recovered.
- Mutual funds, quite a bit of them - equities, call money market, bonds. However some mutual funds that have entities registered in the US as sponsors or partners do not accept his money. But that’s ok. His father, who holds his Power of Attorney, meticulously handles all of it.
- The moment he got his VISA he went and opened a PPF account through the local Post office with minimum investment of Rs.500/-. He knew as an NRI he cannot open a PPF account, but can invest if the PPF account was opened before he gained NRI status. He continues to invest in this account up to the maximum limit every year.
- He also owns a few ULIP products which he bought last time he visited India, some child plan and retirement plans.
- He bought Gold Exchange traded funds in the US. He bought the argument that the US dollar is likely to depreciate as a result of the bailouts and inflationary situation that might follow. Gold might well provide him the necessary hedge. It made sense to buy gold in the US rather than in India because he knew that the domestic price of gold in India is dependent on the dollar prices and that fluctuates quite a bit.
He couldn’t benefit from the high interest rates and relative safety offered by investment options like NSC, KVP and Post office small savings schemes as they were not available for NRIs.
But now this call from his cousin Abhay in Ahmedabad kept him mulling over a lot of issues. This was basically about an investment in a new NRI community that is being developed 30 kms from Ahmedabad, in the outskirts of the city. The price was attractive after the recent meltdown in the real estate market in India and the property was sure to appreciate.
He generally borrows from his bank in the US for buying properties in India. He used to get these loans pretty cheap and he anyway had a good track record. But now, would his bank lend him money?
Also would he be able to repay? He did not know, because the job scene in the US is not hunky dory and all that uncertainty over Barrack Obama’s policies on discouraging hiring of H1B holders. He was keen on buying the property, but was not sure. He kept thinking about it all night.
Next day morning, he contacted his father and explained his plan. His father was thrilled. He quickly mailed all his papers to get a loan approved in India. NRIs were preferred borrowers in India and they accepted his assets in India and other property rentals as supportive income streams.
His could own that property now… and maybe enjoy it someday too. This seemed to work out and he walked to work with a spring in his steps, happy about his decision to get back to India soon.
http://msn.bankbazaar.com/guide/motherland-calling-nri-investments-in-india/
"Obama is not American!"
Recently, former US President, Jimmy Carter, asserted (in his usual matter-of-fact style) that the recent attacks on President Barack Obama were racially motivated at their core. As expected, the White House 'respectfully disagreed' (as should be their stance) but the reality as we all know it is that the former president, always one not to mince words, was dead-on and the evidence is there as we all continue to be witnesses to the coarsening of the national discourse, more-so over the last eight months.
The article (below) titled "Obama Is Not American", written by a Nigerian-American writer, Paul I. Adujie and reprinted with permission, takes a rather poignant look at the history and chronology of the politics surrounding the making of the first black president, in the history of the United States of America.
"Obama Is Not American"
In 2007, events in the United States moved me to wonder publicly, whether race relations were actually getting worse as opposed to, progressing? I asked then and I ask again now, whether “Race Relations Is Regressing in America? What with the return to slavery era language? What with a return to tactics of that ignominious era? Brandishing of weapons, guns, knives, fire, fists, clubs, stones and the pinning of mustache on Obama to portray his as fascist and even as Adolf Hitler?
Last Saturday, crowds of mostly racists, illiterates and bigots besieged Washington D.C. in their thousands. And they chanted USA, USA, USA, they claimed that they are the “real” Americans; self-proclaimed “Nativists” who were saying that this is a matter of self-preservation, against socialists and communists, arguments cloaked in identical façade during battles against slavery and segregation when racists claimed that they were trying to preserve their race or its “purity” They mostly spoke in code words often used by racists and xenophobes. Those Minuteman types, who never worry about terrorists coming into the USA through Canada, as has been the case, but they are paranoid about hardworking immigrants coming into the United States from Mexico. Racism, bigotry and prejudice is written all over the current attacks against President Obama, by these chortling crowd.
This is all about Obama’s color! Some Americans are labeling President Obama Adolf Hitler, Al Quieda sympathizer, a September 11, 2002 hijacker, an advocate of Eugenics, a Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro identical policy twin! Ignorant protesters with a herd mentality, they are so illiterate, so much so, they confuse feudal Russia with Czars, with communists who overthrew the feudalists! So that the appointment of czars (heads of government agency) to enforce policies is synonymous with the introduction of communism into America by Obama, so that, transport czar, internet security czar and narcotics enforcement czar, are all harbingers of the onset of communism into America through Obama!
The protesters were mostly nuts and simpletons, who are being choreographed by the inanities of political handlers and some ratings conscious members of the so-called mainstream media, who are milking the advertised idiocies of these nuts, for high ratings. There are willful exploitation of these multitudes of illiterate Americans by Machiavelli like politicians and journalists, who are polarizing the American populace for monetary benefits. President Obama is falsely accused of planning to confiscate privately owned properties of individual Americans as well as planning to impose Islam on unsuspecting Christians in America.
Since the presidential campaign in 2008 during which the term “real Americans and real America” was made a recurring term by that incongruously ignorant Sarah Palin of small town, in Alaska, it has become a euphemism for those with the nonsensical conspiracy theory regarding whether or not Obama is ineligible to be elected or to have been elected president of the United States. Those conspiracy theorists, better known as “conspi-racists” for their “conspi-racism”, have become so loud, and they are also now, alternately referred to as the “birthers”
Harsh racial politics of South Carolina is historical. A South Carolina Congressman once brought an Iron rod or can to whip state of Massachusetts congressman Sumner almost to death because Sumner was an abolitionist… and all this happened on the floor of the US Congress.
In proper perspectives therefore, historically, South Carolina, has been perennially backward, in racial matters… it is no surprise that Joe Wilson, the “Con-gressman” for SC would, on the floor of the US Congress shout-down President Obama, in Wilson most outrageous manner. South Carolina is also one of the states in the South, which still proudly hoist the “Con-federate” flag… which celebrates confederacy, with all its pungent putrid history of slavery, segregation, Jim Crow laws and institutional racism etc
On the floor of the US Congress, the following statements were made by Congressman James Henry Hammond:
"All this leave one to wonder what would happen next, would South Carolina and their fellow con-federates with shared racism seek secession from the United States as they did in the past? A South Carolina Congressman, James Henry Hammond once said, “Although I am perfectly satisfied that no human process can elevate the black man to an equality with the white - admitting that it could be done – are we prepared to face the consequences which then must follow? Are the people of the North prepared to … place their political power on equality with their own? Are we prepared to see them mingling in our legislatures? Is any portion of this country prepared to see them enter these halls and take their seats by our sides, in the perfect equality with the white representatives of an Anglo-Saxon race – to see them fill that chair – to see them placed at the heads of your Departments; or to see, perhaps, some Othello, or Toussaint, or Boyer, gifted with the genius and inspired by ambition, grasp the presidential wreath, and wield the destinies of this great republic? From such a picture I turn with irrepressible disgust”
This was hundred of moons ago. We all thought that these sorts of mindsets and racists attitudes were behind us” But no!
There is so much idiocy going on in America these days. Racism is alive and well, but it now too often wears fine clothes and expresses itself in impeccable grammar wrapped in robust syntax. These season of unreason and idiocies by racists, (and their facilitators) have been exacerbated in recent times, as more and more racists are expressing their crude umbrages because a man with darker hues, unusual and unknown in the “traditions” of the Oval Office, in the presidential building of the United States, which is also known as the White House. Why would any sane American compare President Obama to Adolf Hitler? It is the case that Obama has been called Marxist, fascist, socialist, communist and his upper lip adorned with a mustache reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s mustache, how egregious!
Many American racists are obviously pained and sorely disappointed by the fait accompli of having, this colored-man at the helms of political affairs, in the United States! Who would have thunk-it?! That there is a biracial man, who now parades himself as president of the United States! What has the world turned to? And they seem to hide and seek refuge in the open, with their base racists commentaries against Obama, even as the cast themselves as being merely interested in critical examinations of Obama’s public policies.
These strident and most vociferous critics are no critics at all; they are really bigoted attackers of President Obama. Their racial prejudices cannot be concealed, despite their most ostentatious efforts at obfuscating their real motives in all of this. What does any reasonable person make of those who remain adamant and persistent insistence, in their conspiracy theories regarding President Obama’s place of birth and religious adherence? ” Despite incontrovertible evidence, and available facts, the Birthers” continues to assert that Mr. Obama was not born in the United States! And clearly, this is an attack as to his qualification to be president of the United States. If these shenanigans were merely at the fringes of public debate and the American society, it would have been easy to dismiss it.
But, when so-called journalist such as Lou Dobbs, Glen Beck and many more on the television, are continually and continuously giving pedestals and podiums for psychotic debates about Obama’s citizenship and religion, the prejudice and bigotry rises to a din and uncomfortable decibels.
Tea Party, Freedom Works, Lou Dobbs of CNN, Ann Coulter, Glen Beck and his 9/12 Project and now, Congressman Joe Wilson, have demeaned and denigrated the president of the United States in terms and manners not seen since the 1800s.
President Obama inherited two foreign wars, and a third war at home, here in the US, the wrecked economy, with attendant joblessness and frayed nerves, were the doings of Obama’s predecessor. Former President Bush burned billions of dollars, a trillion dollars and counting, in foreign wars, in his wrong-header policies and pursuit of phantom terror wars. And Obama is not even at the deck for 8 months and he is being blamed for the mess which he inherited!
Attackers of President Obama rallied in Washington D.C this past weekend, and their pronouncements, their placards, their composition, their sponsors, organizers all point to the unsavory motives of the rally and the participants. The rally was not about Health Care Reform or about any public policy. But instead, it is clear that they were motivated by vile and hatred. Just imagine those who picked quarrels with the present speech to students who were returning to school. This president is not the first to have given pep-talk to American youngsters. However, some racial baiters and racial racketeers, found it fit to suggest that President Obama was in the process on introducing their children to socialism, communism etc. They accused the president of the United States of planning to indoctrinate their children, and these magnificently ignorant attackers of the president, chose to withdraw their children and wards from school, as if the president was visiting schools, oozing with contagious diseases, maybe Swine-Flu?
I think it should be clear that the undertones of this “revolt” against President Obama’s pep-talk to American school kids, was an unstated retort, “I do not want this Negro to indoctrinate my children into socialism and theories about wealth redistribution; My child should not have to hear anything this Negro has to say” The truth of the matter is, even for those who disagree with Obama, can agree that he has the antecedents which makes him a good example or role-model for children everywhere! And I do not understand why any parent would tell a child not to listen to such a compelling example? Or why the fixation of about risks children being indoctrinated by the president. This is all about total disrespect and devaluing the presidency because of the individual who now occupies the position. There are concerted efforts to demean the current occupant of the White House.
Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina, brought this to the surface last Wednesday, when he behaved like a thug in the hallowed halls of the US Congress, he shouted epithets at the Negro who is parading as president of the United States!
There are, sadly, too many Americans, whose patients have been tested in the past several months, tested by the singular fact of having to call a man with a natural tan, the president of the United States! The events have been unfolding in sequence. There are those who have argued forcefully that Obama was not born in the United States, and that if he is an American citizen at all, he does not qualify, as a matter of constitutional law, to hold the presidency, as a matter of law, only citizens by birth, and not by naturalization or registration, qualify, to be elected president of the United States.
Then, there were those who were so affronted and miffed, at the prospect of this Negro and charlatan, posturing as president of the United States, and using such “false” claims, as pedestal, podium or platform to teach American children about anything! Not even a Pep talk about how to succeed against all odds? And certainly not about personal hygiene in foreboding possible Swine-Flu! Don’t you talk to my kid! No Negro talks to my kid or tells my kid how life works, never! Say the racists. And just when you were convinced that the birthers and their ilk are deranged conspiracy theorists, mostly at the fringes of the American society, a confederate soldier showed up and bared his fangs in the hallowed halls of the US Congress, he disgracefully, unabashedly and shamelessly interrupted the president mid-speech to the nation, on prime television no less, while the world watched!
You may not be as rattled as some of us are about this sequence s of events. But please be reminded that Obama was mentioned in the same sentence with guns and assassinations during the presidential campaigns in the United States in 2008. Kindly be further advised, that the Health Care Reform debates have been hijacked by persons who have demonstrated vehemence beyond impolite and cantankerous hectoring-heckling of anyone a scintilla of support for any health care reform measure.
There have been occasions when some opponents of the reforms have felt the “need” to show up with weapons at Town-Hall meetings or such other venues, just to add toxins and “gunpowder” to the needful health care reform debate. All sorts of bizarre extremisms have been employed by attackers of Obama’s Health Care Reform, among which is the falsehood, that the contemplated reforms, includes Death Panels, which would summarily decide who lives and who dies, as features of the reform rules.
We have witnessed the theatrics of the so-called Tea Party or anti tax opponents of President Obama. It has become clear, if gradually, that there is a taint and tinge beyond the pale, all these cloaked attacks on President Obama, even though many a racists still pretend to have finesse and freedom of expression sheaths, over their racially sharpened swords.
The opposition by these racists, steeped in their resentment, in having to “endure” the tenure of a president, whose color operates as an unmitigated shock to their intelligence. Congressman Wilson impulsive outbursts is proof, that racism directed at Obama since his election, is not isolated, nor should it be dismissed infinitesimal or inconsequential chatter by those in the political fringes of the American society. Those in the business of protecting President Obama should become robust and rigorous in his security and safety precautionary measures. Mr. Obama’s security team are now sufficiently on notice, that there are those in the United States, who would do Obama harm, physically, if Obama’s security detail slips.
All these are clearly indicative of the fact that racism remains an albatross around the neck of the United States. We only need to just look at the “Tea-Bagers” pretend Tea Parties, then The “Birthers” Con-gressman Joe Wilson outrageous outbursts and now, these marchers consisting of one peculiar hue; even as they wrap themselves in their CON-federate flag… what does all this tell us?
Only last week, we all witnessed the silliness of those who did not want President Obama to give their children pep talk about how to stay in school and succeed in life against all odds. Some clearly did not want their children to listen to whatever that “Negro” has to say!
I will have to assume that everyone can see clearly now, that we do not as yet, live in a color-blind society! Or live in the nonsense which some call a post-racial society, especially, since President Obama’s election!
Racists are alive and well, and sadly, in huge numbers!
During this tumultuous week, the only speech to which its listeners did not behave like a bunch of children was actually the speech by Obama to school kids. This was quite unlike the speech to the US Congress which met unsavory reactions, such reactions, as from those who mechanically clapped, or stopped clapping midway or the Joe Wilson outrageous outbursts as he castigated the president a liar!
http://www.examiner.com/x-9372-Federal-Way-Independent-Examiner~y2009m9d17-Obama-is-not-American
Political Punch
Power, pop, and probings from ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Jake Tapper
ABC News' Rachel Martin and Mary Bruce report:
Struggling to come up with the cash for college? The Obama administration wants to cut out the middle man from federal student loan programs and give students the chance to borrow directly from the federal government, specifically the US Treasury. That’s the thrust of a bill expected to pass on the House floor today. Supporters of the bill say it would save about $87 billion over ten years and increase students' access to low interest loans and grants. But conservative critics say the bill is further evidence that the Obama administration is ushering in an unprecedented level of big government.
“We need competition in the private sector. We don't need to take over this sector like what we did with the automobile industry. Socialism doesn't work. government control doesn't work,” Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind., said.
But it’s worth pointing out that students are facing more and more challenges in this economic climate, trying to secure loans they can afford. And the existing private-lender school loan system is not without its critics.
The President addressed the bill today during a health care rally in College Park, Maryland. He said the bill would help simplify financial aid forms and make more money available to more students. “Because you voted for change in November, we’re going to bring change in the House of Representatives today. And then we will take this battle for American schools and America’s working families to the Senate and then I intend to sign his bill into law. Because that’s the change you voted for. That’s the change we’re going to deliver. “
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi spoke out in support of the bill earlier in the week. “Expanding access to higher education is essential to building America's way out of the recession and keeping our nation competitive,” Pelosi said. The Speaker claimed the bill “means that many more students will enter college; that they will graduate with less debt; that the federal loan initiatives that they and their families depend upon are strengthened for decades to come; and that taxpayers will save money."
Administration officials say this bill is a major part of the President’s overall education agenda. But they are prepared for pushback from those in the GOP say this is an unprecedented intrusion of government into the lives of Americans. Here’s how Rep. John Kline, the Senior Republican on the House Education Committee put it:
“The vote we’ll take on student lending is the culmination of a plan set in motion more than a decade and a half ago – and one that bears an eerily strong resemblance to the health care debate that rages on today.” He added “I urge my colleagues to slow down, take a breath, and ask yourself whether another government takeover is what we need right now. I think the answer is a clear no.”
-Rachel Martin and Mary Bruce
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/09/loans-r-us.htmlSeptember 18, 2009
Simon Pitchforth
Metro Madness: Rock ’n’ Roll Religious Experience
Well, it hasn’t been a particularly holy month around the world, if you ask me. Pitched battles have been fought outside a mosque in my hometown of Harrow, in northwest London, between local Muslims and fascist goons. It’s a sad mirror image of what Indonesian Muslim hard-liners have often got up to outside churches here over the years.
Meanwhile, Acehnese lawmakers have passed a bill that could actually see Indonesian citizens being stoned to death. Clearly I’ve seen Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” too many times, because images of warungs selling packets of gravel keep flashing through my mind. Acehnese philanderers (mainly women, no doubt) can now look forward to the full terminal rock ’n’ roll experience.
According to a Mr. Iskandar of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), “We have received much support to ratify the bill. We hope with the existence of the qanun jinayat that there will be a clear mandate to enforce Islamic Shariah in Aceh.” Mandate? Ratify? That’s a nice little 21st century media sound bite isn’t it? The use here of the dull and bureaucratic language of modern secular democracy could almost make one believe that they were talking about implementing new parking regulations or something. I’m sure getting stoned to death merits prose a little more purple than this.
Meanwhile, a friend of mine converted to Islam last week in order to marry his local girlfriend. Down at the mosque, the cleric on duty ran my acquaintance through a short checklist that aimed to clarify why Islam is better than all the other religions. Apparently, the gist of it was that Islam is the true word of God, whereas all other faiths were invented by man.
On to more personal family news, I also learned this week that my lesbian cousin has been impregnated by a gay male friend so that she and her life partner, who enjoyed a civil marriage ceremony last September, can have a child. I wonder how my cousin’s unusual family setup would get on in Aceh? The Shariah police would probably have the gravel out before they could get through the arrivals hall.
I, for my part, was in the mood for some slightly more moderate religion this week. With this goal in mind, I popped along to Istiqlal Mosque for a bit of peace and quiet. Muslims like to ask God’s forgiveness during the final 10 days of Ramadan and many break their fast at the city’s mosques every evening and then join in with the evening prayers. Some even spend the night or even the whole month down at the mosque.
I arrived at about 10 p.m. and the Istiqlal complex was still a hive of activity. Outside the gates, sellers were hawking Islamic headwear and prayer beads; religion is always a good money-spinner. People were also tucking into a veritable Matterhorn of rice, not only outside but inside the mosque itself.
“They are just breaking their fasts,” the security guard informed me.
“What? Still? They’ve been scoffing for four solid hours have they?”
People were sprawled all over the main prayer hall, sleeping, reclining or actually praying. Rather than the insomnia that the blaring of my local mosque usually induces in me, the gentle mantras of the faithful, as they filled Istiqlal’s huge central hall, started to make me feel a bit drowsy. This was the real opium of the masses, as opposed to the amphetamine rush of the prefast wake-up call that’s been a flea in my ear all month. Istiqlal would make a great place for a concert of ambient music.
My guide, clearly looking for a tip, took me around the impressive mosque and gave me the rundown. Istiqlal was built by former strongman Suharto in 1978, no doubt to burnish his Islamic credentials and thus confirming the Marxist suspicion that religion serves the interests of power. (Sorry, I’ll stop with the Karl references.) The mosque cost Rp 7 billion to build at the time and the site covers 10 hectares.
The mosque itself can hold an impressive 120,000 people during Idul Fitri celebrations. The interior is a mix of Italian marble, Saudi Arabian carpeting and German stainless steel, and the main hall contains five separate levels, reflecting the five daily prayers that are obligatory for all Muslims. The minaret is exactly 6,666 centimeters tall and looms over the mosque, as does the national monument, Monas.
I was also shown the huge three-ton drum, made from a single 300-year-old piece of wood from Borneo, that is thrashed enthusiastically when it’s time to break the fast. Tour over, I gave my guide a Rp 30,000 tip, left the faithful behind and headed down to another local house of God for a few glasses of holy water.
Worship takes many forms, my children.
Simon Pitchforth has lived in Jakarta for 12 years. His Metro Mad Jakarta blog is at metromad.blogspot.com.
http://thejakartaglobe.com/opinion/metro-madness-rock-n-roll-religious-experience/330673
Are Nepal's Maoists a threat to India?
September 15, 2009 17:02 IST
There is more to it than meets the eye. It is not merely a squabble over custodial rights to the overflowing coffers of the Pashupatinath temple. Neither is it a dissension prompted by nationalistic sentiments. The attack on two Indian priests in Kathmandu, earlier this month, is in fact another facet of China's multi-pronged design to contain India by curbing its influence in Nepal with Nepali Maoists willingly acting as the front paw.
During Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal's recent visit to India (August 18-22) he remarked: 'Both our societies derive their fundamental social norms and values from a common pool of ancient wisdom and cultural heritage whose timelessness has been universally recognised. As the proud inheritors of one of the enlightened and ancient civilizations known to mankind, our two countries have much in common. These shared commonalities and the deep sense of social affinity subsisting between our two peoples since time immemorial need to be nurtured and consolidated further for our mutual benefit in the days ahead.'
Conscious of Nepal's newly anointed status as a secular state, Madhav Kumar Nepal appears to have deliberately refrained from mouthing the word 'Hindu' in describing the shared legacy of the two nations. Semantics, however, cannot deny the intrinsic nature of Indo-Nepali ties which is grounded in a common cultural and religious heritage that is basically Hindu in character; a bond that has remained indelible over the ages because of the privileged status of Hinduism in that country. The recent conversion of what was historically a Hindu kingdom into a secular state must be deemed as the first step of a grand communist design to erode Nepal's Hindu identity and weaken its fraternal ties with its predominantly Hindu neighbour.
But mere decrees rarely produce tangible results and the Maoists seem to be fully aware of that; hence the need for a direct physical assault on the sanctity of the Pashupatinath temple, the most prominent symbol of Hinduism in Nepal. Hindu temples imposing in their architecture and resplendent in their affluence have been a source of inspiration and strength to Hindu societies in the sub-continent through the ages. But their striking visibility has also made them easy targets for those who wished to weaken the fabric of these societies. Islamic invaders destroyed thousands of Hindu temples in order to crush the morale of locals in their unholy rampage across the subcontinent. The Pashupatinath temple episode represents a modern day avatar of this same intention albeit with a slight twist. In lieu of a direct destruction that modern times will not allow, unscrupulous detractors, read Maoists, have resorted to malicious interference in the traditional workings of the temple in order to gain control and eventually destroy this Hindu icon.
Baburam Bhattarai, the Nepali Maoist ideologue in an interview to the International Humanist and Ethical Union in August 2008 remarked: 'We are Materialists and Marxists and in a secular state we should be promoting scientific and atheistic values; not merely delinking religion and state. Today there are more religious channels and programs than any other on TV; programs glorifying the Ramayana [ Images ] and the Mahabharatha are amongst the most popular. Polluting the minds of the young is not what we need. Religion should find no place in school text books and public programs, we must discourage such kinds of beliefs and values, and then slowly religions will die out.'
Erasing Nepal's Hindu identity would facilitate the spread of Maoist ideology transforming Nepal into a Communist fiefdom ripe for exporting its virulent ideology across the border. A completely Maoist Nepal, a distinct possibility in the future, poses a real security threat to India. Nepali Maoists have had close links with radical Communist organisations in India since the early nineties and together they envision a 'red corridor' of Maoist control that stretches from Nepal in the north to Tamil Nadu in the south panning across the Indian states of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh [ Images ]. This swath of communist influence is referred to as the Compact Revolutionary Zone in Maoist literature.
What makes this scenario even more scary is China's new found love for the Nepali Maoists. After siding with the King Gyanendra in the early phases of the Maoist revolution, the Chinese have changed track and are firmly behind the Maoists today as they see in them a malleable via media to carry out their anti-India activities.
Completing an unholy troika of anti-Indian interests is an unlikely third player whose role may not be obvious: the Indian Communists particularly the Communist Party of India-Marxist. One must be wary of the CPI-M [ Images ] and its ideologue Sitaram Yechury's [ Images ] growing influence over the changes unfolding in Nepal. Under the guise of promoting democracy in Nepal, the CPI-M maybe orchestrating a far bigger gameplan that conceives bringing India into the gambit of an international camaraderie of communism through a bloody revolution with China acting as the 'friend, philosopher and guide' and Nepal being the access route.
At the outset this may seem farfetched or the fantasy of hare brained chauvinists. But close scrutiny tells a different story. The exponential growth of Naxalism in India specifically during the last five years is a cause for concern. In 2004, the Naxalite problem was confined to 156 of India's 602 districts. By 2008, Naxalites [ Images ] had expanded their reach into 180 districts or roughly one third of the nation's territory. Home ministry sources state that there were 1,509 Naxal-related incidents in 2006, 1,565 in 2007 and 1,591 in 2008. In 2009 with half the year still to go the number of Naxal related attacks stood at 1,128. Not only have the attacks increased in number but have become more daring as well. The capture of Lalgarh in West Bengal [ Images ] by the local Maoists was a flagrant exhibition of violent Communist power.
Interestingly this was the period when the CPI-M wielded great influence over the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance [ Images ] government at the Centre. Whether this upsurge in Naxalite activity was coincidental or consequential is open to question? Another factor providing impetus to Naxalism in India could have been the Maoist victory in Nepal.
Indian Communists have always subscribed to the notion of internationalism as opposed to nationalism, colluding with China and even blatantly endorsing China's viewpoint with regard to the Sino-Indian border dispute; a position the Communist Party of India maintained even during the difficult period of the war of 1962. Excerpts from declassified CIA documents titled Caesar, Esau and Polo papers released in 2007 throw light on the subversive tendencies of the united CPI during the late fifties and early sixties and clearly substantiate this anti-national attitude:
'In the midst of these dealings with the CPI left faction (read present day CPI-M) leaders, Peiping (Beijing [ Images ]) at the end of December is believed to have sent a formal party letter to CPI headquarters -- the only such message known to have been sent through official party channels after the Moscow [ Images ] Conference. Details on this Chinese message are sketchy although it was in large part concerned with the border issue. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) expressed readiness to support any just struggles of the Indian people and expected the CPI to reciprocate on international issues of concern to Peiping (Beijing); the Indian party was particularly expected to oppose and expose the Indian bourgeoisie when the latter instigated border difficulties.
'Finally, a sharp battle was fought in the National Council (of the Communist Party) on the border issue, with inconclusive results. An effort by some of the rightist to secure an open condemnation of China was overwhelmingly defeated, and a subsequent attempt to obtain endorsement of the Indian case on the basis of the report of the Indian negotiating team was blunted.'
The CIA papers further indicate that the Communist Party's faith in parliamentary democracy was only skin deep and nothing more than subterfuge to buy time for an armed struggle, that was being clandestinely planned:.
'While the leftists (left faction of the CPI) were thus stalemated on the question
of national democracy, they were apparently successful in imparting a more militant and revolutionary tone to the meeting generally; in line with the earlier Soviet stipulation in Moscow, the National Council members were reported to have been generally agreed that a peaceful transition to power was possible only if preparations for an armed capability were made simultaneously. Jaipal Singh, the head of the secret CPI organisation in the Indian armed forces, was subsequently said to have been heartened by this new militant trend in the party and to have decided to reactivate his organisation in May 1961 following an expected victory of the left faction at the party congress.'
Eventually the dichotomy of views with regard to supporting China vis-à-vis the border dispute was an important factor that led to a split in the unified Communist Party with the left faction metamorphosing into the present day CPI-M. Most Naxalite groups are offshoots of the CPI-M. No distinction must be made between the Naxalites and the mainstream Communist parties that outwardly profess faith in Indian democracy for they are two sides of the same coin with possibly covert interaction.
One wonders whether the Communists in India are still at their old game: ostensibly nurturing democracy (in Nepal) but in reality waiting for the right moment and the right circumstances to launch an armed bloody revolution in India via Nepal with the backing of China. China has already made known its preference for the balkanisation of India using internal dissenting forces, the Communists being one of them. India needs to be cautious.
Vivek Gumaste
http://news.rediff.com/column/2009/sep/15/guest-are-nepal-maoists-a-threat-to-india.htm
Change we can believe in
Chris Patten, Hindustan Times
New Delhi, September 08, 2009
First Published: 23:40 IST(8/9/2009)
Last Updated: 02:45 IST(9/9/2009)
Groucho Marx has always been my favourite Marxist. One of his jokes goes to the heart of the failure of the ideology — the dogmatic religion — inflicted on our poor world by his namesake, Karl.
“Who are you going to believe,” Groucho once asked, “me, or your own eyes?” For millions of citizens in Communist-run countries in the 20th century, the “me” was a dictator or oligarchy with totalitarian powers. It didn’t matter what you could see with your own eyes. You had to accept what you were told the world was like. Reality was whatever the ruling party said it was.
Groucho posed two insuperable problems for the ‘whateverists’ of communism. First, reason would surely tell you before long that the communist idyll — the withering away of the State and the triumph over need — would never come. Communism, like the horizon, was just beyond reach. It would be interesting to know how many of those at Beijing’s Central Party School — the party’s main educational institute — believe the Chinese state is about to wither away, or ever will.
The application of Groucho’s question was that citizens of Communist countries soon learned that their loss of freedom wasn’t compensated by greater prosperity. In his magisterial book The Rise and Fall of Communism, Archie Brown notes how travel abroad opened Mikhail Gorbachev’s eyes to the failure of the system that he had lived under all his life. So, in the political sphere, reason has trumped both faith in an unattainable goal and self-delusion about the consequences of its pursuit. Authoritarian party-States, like China and Vietnam, survive, but their legitimacy depends on their ability to deliver economic growth through State-managed capitalism.
Democracies allow people to use their reason to make choices based on evidence of their own eyes. When you don’t like a government, you can turn the rascals out without overthrowing the whole system; in an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, way. But debate in democracies is not always based on reason, nor does democracy make people more rational. Sometimes reason does prevail. This is what appeared to have happened in the last Indian election. The election of President Barack Obama was also plainly a supremely rational moment. But reason doesn’t seem to be getting much of a hearing during the current healthcare debate in the US.
Outsiders, even admirers, have often wondered how the world’s most globalised country can be so irrationally insular on some issues. We scratch our heads about America’s gun laws. We were astonished during President George W. Bush’s first term at the administration’s hostility to science, reflected in its stance on climate change and Darwin’s theory of evolution. Opposition to healthcare reform is a similar cause of bemusement.
We know that despite its great wealth — and groundbreaking medical research — America’s healthcare system is awful. It is hugely expensive. Its costs overwhelm workplace health-insurance schemes. The poor go unprotected. Too many of the sick are untreated. Overall health statistics are worse than those in comparable countries.
Yet Obama’s attempts to reform healthcare have run into hysterical opposition. His proposals would lead, it is said, to the State murdering the elderly, and introduce Soviet communism into the US, like what apparently exists in Canada and Britain, with their State-sponsored health systems. Communism in Toronto and London? Or just better, cheaper, more reliable healthcare for all?
Reason seems to be having a hard time of it in the US just now. Maybe it’s no coincidence that Groucho Marx was an American citizen.
Project Syndicate
The author is Chancellor, Oxford University
The views expressed by the author are personal
http://www.hindustantimes.com/Change-we-can-believe-in/H1-Article1-451697.aspx
Betrayal of the cause of Telangana
Posted On :16-Sep-2009 03:25:21 News Source: Vidya Bhushan Rawat
New Delhi: One of the most important struggles for a separate state in India is definitely that of Telangana state. Unfortunately, immediately after partition, when the state of Hyderabad merged into Indian Union, various new states were being formed or re-formed on the basis of languages. Big states like Madras, Hyderabad were recreated on the basis of languages. So part of Telugu speaking areas in erstwhile Madras state and other areas from the state of Nizam formed the part of new Andhra.
The history of Telangana’s movement lies in its struggle against the autocratic Nizam who sucked the blood of its Telugu populace and was not willing to accede to Indian union against the wishes of the majority of its people. Hence, when the new state were being formalised, the issue of Telangana ceded to the Telugu maître of maha Andhra issue simply because the political parties and their leaders succumbed to the temptation of their caste politics, ofcourse, in the name of linguistic affinity. I know such facts are not accepted in politics but anybody can guess the politics of Andhra Pradesh in the post independent era is actually the politics of power grab between two powerful communities of Reddy and Kamma.
Therefore it is tragic that a movement so popular and widespread could not culminate into the formation of a new state. Who are the forces responsible for this? Why Telengana is still a far away dream? Have the political class betrayed the cause of telengana? What about the cultural movement? Why have the intellectuals and social activists of Telengana remained mute? If not why were they not able to translate people’s anger into a focused movement for the formation of a new state? These are questions which the authors of this book are looking. ‘ Civil society is yet to create the intellectual tool and action plans that can distinguish people’s politics from power politics’ says the authors of the book,’ Telangana : The state of Affairs’.
The editors acknowledge that there is very little information about Telangana in other languages as well as outside Andhra Pradesh. ‘One drawback is that most of the available material in print about Telangana can only be accessed by readers in Telugu’, they write. That brings us to a new point which I consider as a draw back of this book or may be of that of Telangana movement. The reason for my discomfort is that there is not a single chapter devoted to the demand for autonomy in other parts of the country. It is natural for people who have been left on the margins to call for a separate state and for more fiscal autonomy. Telangana was not the first one to demand for it. It will not be the last one. We all know how the anti Hindi agitation in Tamilnadu in the 1950s and 1960s shook entire India. The fact is very clear that Tamilnadu had a distinct identity and it aspired for it and did not succumb to the pressure of the central leadership. It resulted in a unique situation of this state that except for a brief period, Tamilnadu rejected the national parties and powerful castes. It is another matter that the less powerful castes now have become more powerful and replicating the brahmanical ‘wisdom’ in Tamilnadu but that is another matter of discussion at a separate place. Andhra’s politics remained loyal to strong Centre. In fact it provided strength to Congress party and its leadership in Delhi. Andhra Pradesh got that symptom very late in the formation of Telugu Desham but the fact is that the formation of Telugu Desham was not really a demand for more autonomy to Andhra but more as a counter to the Reddy domination of Congress Party. Till that period, Andhra’s Reddy’s dominated the political discourse and occupied all the space including the so-called revolutionary space. One has nothing against them in person but the fact that such a monopoly over the political cultural space in Andhra Pradesh resulted in doom of the politics of marginalized in AP. In the past 15 years the Kamma, Reddy dominated Andhra Pradesh has witnessed significant marginalization of the Dalits, Apasis and backward classes. Both Chandra Babu Naidu and YSR Rajshekar Reddy became big magnet and darling of the upper caste media and corrupt business companies. The tragedy of the entire state is that no credible leadership has emerged from the marginalised communities and even the social movements have been hijacked by the powerful communities. The result is that Mao and Marx have failed by the brahmanical system and their deep rooted caste conspiracy to sideline everything that come in their way.
That gives rise to my question. How come a leader of another power community called Velma, lead the voices of the marginalized in Telengana. Since Telangana remained part of the Nizam and even the left wing forces fought battle for independence the communalization of Telangana is not ruled out. Hence, it is an ideal ground for the Hindutva forces. One must not feel that BJP is not present in Telengana. The agenda of Hindutva does not lie with a particular party. Their agenda is to Hinduise the political parties and we have seen that systematic Hindutvaisation of the political parties in India who works on the agenda of the Sangh Parivar. Narsimha Rao’s connections with the Sangh parivar dates back from the days of anti Nizam struggle in the region. The dominant party of Telangana joined hand with everyone from BJP to Congress for its pursuit to power but could not force them to accede to its demand for a separate state when they were in power in centre. Now the Congress actually rubbished them and got a majority of seats in the last Vidhan Sabha elections in May 2009.
So consolidation of all the ‘Hindu’ votes against a Muslim challenge could bring some more vote to powerful party of Telengana but at the end of the day defeat the very purpose of the movement. Any movement is the result of the marginalization and ostracisation of communities. In the case of Telengana, it is basically Dalits and other marginalized. Similarly Chhatishgarh, Jharkhand were tribal states and remained marginalized under the Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Uttarakhand’s case is different. It was a mountain state and the Pahadis were considered to be inferior in not only Delhi but also in other parts of Uttar-Pradesh. Little funds were allocated for educational and other developmental programmes. A majority of Netas and ministers hailed from the Uttar-Pradesh were least bothered about hills as they were not able to influence the power politics of an elephantine state of Uttar-Pradesh. Yet, not all Pahadis were equal in socio-economic status, as the Brahmins of Uttarakhand actually were among the most powerful in India. Some of these Brahmin families ruled Uttar-Pradesh hence leader became bigger then the state and the cause of the state remained marginalized. It is not a tragedy that the biggest obstacle of the Uttarakhand state was Narain Dutt Tiwari but he was imposed on a state which did not fight elections under him. So, the brahmanical leadership is actually powerful in denigrating others and creating artificial differences in the name of religion, region and castes.
Demand for autonomy has been one of the major reasons of discontent in India. Right from Kashmir to North Eastern regions like Nagaland, Manipur, Meghalaya states have been demanding more autonomy and freedom. Punjab suffered a lot under it. However, there is a wider difference between these movements for autonomy is that while movements for self determination in Kashmir, Manipur and Nagaland, yet a good linkage to understand the issues of the people and their voices for freedom and autonomy.
In the chapter ‘Subregionalism in India : The case of Telangana’, Duncan B Forrester, says “ it remains true that it is not possible to distinguish Telangana sharply from the rest of Andhra Pradesh in terms of caste’. He writes : ‘ Non Brahmin feeling was never as strong in the Telugu Country as in Tamilnadu, but nevertheless Brahmin dominance was gradually challenged by rising non Brahmin castes, particularly, the Kammas, and Reddies who tended initially to support justice party and the Andhra Movement, finding themselves at loggerheads with each other only after setting up of Andhra Pradesh in 1953.’
Actually, a comparison would have helped analyse things much better how certain powerful communities dominates each state. So whether you get a state or not, the question is that we are imposing a democratic value system on a society which remain highly antidemocratic and feudal. Hence The issue of mulkis and non mulkis is evident in other parts of the country. Uttarakhand never got the right due from Uttar-Pradesh. Since the region had only 25 seats and the contempt for the people of uttarakhand was high.. Vidarbha is complaining the same from Maharastra, Darjeeling asking for its right from West Bengal, Bodos are asking the same from Assam and Chhatishgarh had similar problem with Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand always remained undeveloped under Bihar. Leaders became bigger than the movement.
A number of activist friends from Telangana always claimed to have a unique ‘cultural’ difference between Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. However, these distinctions exists every where including those states which have been created in past 10 years.
I however disagree with the point that ‘subregional conflicts can break down caste political solidarity in a different way and force state politics to concern itself not so much with balancing the claims of significant caste groups as with balancing the claims of various areas with in the state to equality of treatment, particularly in economic development. Actually the article was written by the author in the late sixties and that time the popular media and popular intellectual discourse was pided between Congress and the left forces. That time any talk of the Dalits and Apasis or backward communities was considered as ‘caste’ approach. However, witnessing the degradation of the Marxian principals hijacked by the upper caste landlords, one can easily say that a new caste identity of the Dalits and backward communities along with Apasis is the need of the hour to save the Telangana movement being hijacked by the same forces as happened with other states particularly in Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhatishgarh. In all these states, the forces of Hindutva were the first to do the social engineering while the social strata of the self proclaimed revolutionaries remained highly feudal and upper caste. One can not shy away from the fact that the leadership of the Telangana movement largely drawn strength from specific communities with the Dalit communities simply jumping in their bandwagon without focusing on the issue of their identity.
N.Venugopal in his essay ‘ Demand for separate Telangana Towards Understanding the Core issues, has pointed out the regional inequalities. He explained the Telangana struggle in historical perspective. He argues the inequalities during the Nizam’s period against the Telugu Speaking people as well as Kannada speaking people. I think we make mistake here too. A number of Muslims living in Telangana regions have not benefited from the Nizam’s rule. A few of them might have got benefit in the name of their religion but majority of them remained under the poverty line. The biggest damage to the cause of Telangana was caused by the power elite of Andhra Pradesh which hobnobbed with Congress party at the centre. It brings us back to question that castes matter a lot in India. So, for the power elite of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana cropped up only according to convinence and not really a matter of conviction.
The historical cultural evolution of Telangana is not reflected outside Andhra Pradesh. The activists feel they are special but they should also understand that the communist fighters fought against Nizams, so were many other forces. Like any other movement in India, in Telengana too, no efforts were made to understand the discontents among the Dalits against the upper caste leadership of the movement. While the leaders hobnobbed with power elites and played with the sentiments of the people, it is important to understand the feeling M Bharat Bhushan in his analysis mention that initially it might have been a movement against resistance and crossed caste, class and religion differences but it looks today that ‘movement’ by political class is basically to monopolise the power structure, resorting emotional blackmail, non people means of the movement which he says are political one upmanship, Unpredictability of the political class, but I would prefer to use the term ambiguity of the political class is another reason for inability to get a separate state. So Bharat is right in saying that a Telengana for TRS may be different than what a large number of activists think. Like activists who died for the cause of Uttarakhand, Jharkhand and Chhatishgarh today feel betrayed as the leadership in these states remains the hands of status quoists. Most of the chief ministers that Uttarakhand have so far, whether under BJP or Congress are Brahmins who constitute not more than 20% of the population. The Chief Ministers in Chhatishgarh is a non tribal at the moment.
There is no guarantee that such things will not happen in Telangana if state comes into being. That the elected representatives become more loyal to their party and party leaders then to their constituents. If there is any uniqueness of Telangana struggle then the activists, students, academics should join hand and start a social movement. The voices of marginalized should lead the movement of Telangana. If a separate Telangana have the same order as existed in Andhra Pradesh, I am afraid it would become more dangerous than Andhra Pradesh. Let me put some more points for cause of three states that were carved out. Uttarakhand came into being because BJP wanted a state where upper caste interests remain intact as people were unhappy with the Mandal commission recommendations. It was essentially a movement against Mandal Commission Reports that resulted in building of Uttarakhand state. Chhatishgarh and Jharkhand were created to facilitate the World Bank and transnational corporations. Since Andhra government was already facilitating things for the neo liberal policies, there was no need for a separate state here. One has to understand the factor that the day any government creates problems for facilitation of SEZs or SAZs, the power games would offer you a separate state in platter.
Telangana’s marginalized people have suffered a lot from the hands of the power elite of Andhra. In an article ‘Do elections foster separatism : The case of Telangana’ written by Dean E McHenry suggest if he goes by the election results of 2004 assembly elections and 2006 Karimnagar byeelection when Telangana Rastra Samiti members overwhelmingly got support from the masses. But I have not ready to take this argument the reason for separatism. The original demand for separate state is caused by a variety of issues such as socio-economic marginalization, cultural gaps and continuous exploitation of resources. As revealed in the book itself how Telangana produced more revenue and how the State Reorganisation Committee Report was rejected by the government.
As far as the book is concern, it contains very important documents, articles and annexures which I have seen for the first time. Stories such as Golla Ramavva written by PV Narsimha Rao and Land by Allam Rajayya are also part of it. However, I would definitely have loved if such stories are reproduced which comes from the communities themselves. People like Narsimha Rao were proclaimed intellectuals but at the end of the day they contributed very little for the cause of Telangana and its culture. It is important to note that mere by being born in a region does not make a person concerned about its identity. Rao presided over a communal regime in Delhi(despite being a congress person), opened up India’s land for the grab by the international companies as well as our own feudal lords in the name of ‘globalisation’, just to counter the growing assertion and awareness among the Dalits and marginalized in the post Mandal era’s India.
The annexures contains State Re-organisation Commissions Report, Gentlemen agreement in 1956, Six point formula issued on September 21st, 1973 by Andhra politicians, article 371D i.e. special provisions with respect to Andhra Pradesh, Order of Government of Andhra Pradesh in 1975 on the issue of recruitment of local cadres. All these information are very relevant to understand the crisis of Telangana. They are important document which reflect clearly how the cause of Telangana was betrayed by the people in power. It is important that such documents need to be analysed fairly so that generations may know how the issue of backwardness of a region is tackled by our political class and how the ambition of a few makes way for the miseries of the majority.
The Telangana debate must continue. Even if political Telangana is not there, let there be efforts to develop the socio-cultural values of Telangana. It is time to know who betrayed of the cause of Telengana state in the struggle for which 370 students and youths were killed in the police firing, and for the loss of academic year in 1969. If the state could not become a reality then time is to fix responsibility. That can only happen if there is a movement which has mass support and which is not based on sentiments but positive thought of what makes Telangana and its people different than Andhra people despite their common language and common castes? Can we expect that Telangana will not have the politics of the domination of two or three power communities in like Andhra? If the Andhra dominant theory is repeated here in Telangana, then there is no point fighting for such a state as it would be more damaging to the cause of the people of Telangana.
This book can be termed as good beginning for people like me who are far away from the living realities of Telangana but who were always fascinated by the people’s struggle of Telangana. Definitely it is an entry point for all those who wish to understand socio-cultural crisis of Telangana and its polity. One hope that the authors will not end with this only and will bring more such volumes so that people get evidence based information on the issue of Telangana and may understand its uniqueness.
Telangana : The State of Affairs
Editors : M Bharath Bhushan
N. Venugopal
Published in August 2009
Publisher L AdEd Velue Ventures,
Hyderabad
Price : Rs 250
Pages : 210
http://www.mynews.in/News/Betrayal_of_the_cause_of_Telangana_N25955.html
And why does not the Indian government protest, as the Chinese would indeed have, for a twisted and perverted portrayal of its own reality?
There are several answers:
When the missionaries began to evangelise India, they quickly realised that Hinduism was not only practised by a huge majority, but that it was so deeply rooted that it stood as the only barrier to their subjugating the entire subcontinent.
They therefore decided to demonise the religion, by multiplying what they perceived as its faults, by one hundred: caste, poverty, child marriage, superstition, widows, sati … Today, thes e exaggerations, which at best are based on quarter-truths, have come down to us and have been embedded not only in the minds of many Westerners, but also unfortunately, of much of India’s intelligentsia.
We Westerners continue to suffer from a superiority complex over the socalled Third World in general and India in particular.
Sitting in front of our television sets during prime time news, with a hefty steak on our table, we love to feel sorry for the misery of others, it secretly flatters our ego and makes us proud of our so-called ‘achievements’.
That is why books such as The City of Joy by Dominique Lapierre, which gives the impression that India is a vast slum, or a film like Slumdog Millionaire, have such an impact.
In this film, India’s foes have joined hands. Today, billions of dollars that innocent Westerners give to charity are used to convert the poorest of India with the help of enticements such as free medical aid, schooling and loans.
If you see the Tamil Nadu coast posttsunami, there is a church every 500 metres. Once converted, these new Christians are taught that it is a sin to enter a temple, do puja, or even put tilak on one’s head, thus creating an imbalance in the Indian psyche (In an interview to a British newspaper, Danny Boyle confessed he wanted to be a Christian missionary when he was young and that he is still very much guided by these ideals — so much for his impartiality).
Islamic fundamentalism also ruthlessly hounds India, as demonstrated by the 26/11 attacks on Mumbai, which are reminiscent of the brutality and savagery of a Timur, who killed 1,00,000 Hindus in a single act of savagery.
Indian communists, in power in three states, are also hard at work to dismantle India’s cultural and spiritual inheritance. And finally, the Americanisation of India is creating havoc in the social and cultural fabric with its superficial glitter, even though it has proved a failure in the West.
Slumdog plays cleverly with all these elements.
Many of the West’s India-specialists are staunchly anti-Hindu, both because of their Christian upbringing and also as they perpetuate the tradition of Max Mueller, the first ‘Sankritist’ who said: “The Vedas is full of childish, silly, even monstrous conceptions. It is tedious, low, commonplace, it represents human nature on a low level of selfishness and worldliness and only here and there are a few rare sentiments that come from the depths of the soul”.
This tradition is carried over by Indologists such as Witzel or Wendy Doniger in the US, and in France where scholars of the state-sponsored CNRS, and its affiliates such as EHESS, are always putting across in their books and articles detrimental images of India: caste, poverty, slums — and more than anything — their pet theories about ‘Hindu fundamentalism’..
;
Can there be a more blatant lie? Hinduism has given refuge throughout the ages to those who were persecuted at home: the Christians of Syria, the Parsees, Armenians, the Jews of Jerusalem, and today the Tibetans, allowing them all to practise their religion freely.
And finally, it is true that Indians, because they have been colonised for so long (unlike the Chinese) lack nationalism.
Today much of the intellectual elite of India has lost touch with its cultural roots and looks to the West to solve its problems, ignoring its own tools, such as pranayama, hata-yoga or meditation, which are very old and possess infinite wisdom.
Slumdog literally defecates on India from the first frame. Some scenes exist only in the perverted imagery of director Danny Boyle, because they are not in the book of Vikas Swarup, an Indian diplomat, on which the film is based.
In the book, the hero of the film (who is not Muslim, but belongs to many religions: Ram Mohammad Thomas) does not spend his childhood in Bombay, but in a Catholic orphanage in Delhi. Jamal’s mother is not killed by “Hindu fanatics’, but she abandons her baby, of unknown religion, in a church. Jamal’s torture is not an idea of the television presenter, but of an American who is after the Russian who bought the television rights of the game. The tearful scene of the three children abandoned in the rain is also not in the book: Jamal and his heroine only meet when they are teenagers and they live in an apartment and not in a slum.
And finally, yes, there still exists in India a lot of poverty and glaring gaps between the very rich and the extremely poor, but there is also immense wealth, both physical, spiritual and cultural — much more than in the West as a matter of fact.
When will the West learn to look with less prejudice at India, a country that will supplant China in this century as the main Asian power? But this will require a new generation of Indologists, more sincere, less attached to their outdated Christian values, and Indians more proud of their own culture and less subservient to the West. fgautier26@gmail.com This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Related articles below:
1) Motivation of Indologists
2) Invading the Sacred
3) Interview of Evangelist
http://www.merabharatmahan.org/current-articles/8-religion-marxism-and-slumdog.html
Karl Marx in the New-York Herald Tribune 1853
The British Rule in India
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Source: MECW Volume 12, p. 125;
Written: June 10, 1853;
First published: in the New-York Daily Tribune, June 25, 1853;
Proofread: by Andy Blunden in February 2005.
In writing this article, Marx made use of some of Engels’ ideas as in his letter to Marx of June 6, 1853.
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London, Friday, June 10, 1853
Telegraphic dispatches from Vienna announce that the pacific solution of the Turkish, Sardinian and Swiss questions, is regarded there as a certainty.
Last night the debate on India was continued in the House of Commons, in the usual dull manner. Mr. Blackett charged the statements of Sir Charles Wood and Sir J. Hogg with bearing the stamp of optimist falsehood. A lot of Ministerial and Directorial advocates rebuked the charge as well as they could, and the inevitable Mr. Hume summed up by calling on Ministers to withdraw their bill. Debate adjourned.
Hindostan is an Italy of Asiatic dimensions, the Himalayas for the Alps, the Plains of Bengal for the Plains of Lombardy, the Deccan for the Apennines, and the Isle of Ceylon for the Island of Sicily. The same rich variety in the products of the soil, and the same dismemberment in the political configuration. Just as Italy has, from time to time, been compressed by the conqueror’s sword into different national masses, so do we find Hindostan, when not under the pressure of the Mohammedan, or the Mogul[104], or the Briton, dissolved into as many independent and conflicting States as it numbered towns, or even villages. Yet, in a social point of view, Hindostan is not the Italy, but the Ireland of the East. And this strange combination of Italy and of Ireland, of a world of voluptuousness and of a world of woes, is anticipated in the ancient traditions of the religion of Hindostan. That religion is at once a religion of sensualist exuberance, and a religion of self-torturing asceticism; a religion of the Lingam and of the juggernaut; the religion of the Monk, and of the Bayadere.[105]
I share not the opinion of those who believe in a golden age of Hindostan, without recurring, however, like Sir Charles Wood, for the confirmation of my view, to the authority of Khuli-Khan. But take, for example, the times of Aurangzeb; or the epoch, when the Mogul appeared in the North, and the Portuguese in the South; or the age of Mohammedan invasion, and of the Heptarchy in Southern India[106]; or, if you will, go still more back to antiquity, take the mythological chronology of the Brahman himself, who places the commencement of Indian misery in an epoch even more remote than the Christian creation of the world.
There cannot, however, remain any doubt but that the misery inflicted by the British on Hindostan is of an essentially different and infinitely more intensive kind than all Hindostan had to suffer before. I do not allude to European despotism, planted upon Asiatic despotism, by the British East India Company, forming a more monstrous combination than any of the divine monsters startling us in the Temple of Salsette[107]. This is no distinctive feature of British Colonial rule, but only an imitation of the Dutch, and so much so that in order to characterise the working of the British East India Company, it is sufficient to literally repeat what Sir Stamford Raffles, the English Governor of Java, said of the old Dutch East India Company:
“The Dutch Company, actuated solely by the spirit of gain, and viewing their [Javan] subjects, with less regard or consideration than a West India planter formerly viewed a gang upon his estate, because the latter had paid the purchase money of human property, which the other had not, employed all the existing machinery of despotism to squeeze from the people their utmost mite of contribution, the last dregs of their labor, and thus aggravated the evils of a capricious and semi-barbarous Government, by working it with all the practised ingenuity of politicians, and all the monopolizing selfishness of traders.”
All the civil wars, invasions, revolutions, conquests, famines, strangely complex, rapid, and destructive as the successive action in Hindostan may appear, did not go deeper than its surface. England has broken down the entire framework of Indian society, without any symptoms of reconstitution yet appearing. This loss of his old world, with no gain of a new one, imparts a particular kind of melancholy to the present misery of the Hindoo, and separates Hindostan, ruled by Britain, from all its ancient traditions, and from the whole of its past history.
There have been in Asia, generally, from immemorial times, but three departments of Government; that of Finance, or the plunder of the interior; that of War, or the plunder of the exterior; and, finally, the department of Public Works. Climate and territorial conditions, especially the vast tracts of desert, extending from the Sahara, through Arabia, Persia, India, and Tartary, to the most elevated Asiatic highlands, constituted artificial irrigation by canals and water-works the basis of Oriental agriculture. As in Egypt and India, inundations are used for fertilizing the soil in Mesopotamia, Persia, &c.; advantage is taken of a high level for feeding irrigative canals. This prime necessity of an economical and common use of water, which, in the Occident, drove private enterprise to voluntary association, as in Flanders and Italy, necessitated, in the Orient where civilization was too low and the territorial extent too vast to call into life voluntary association, the interference of the centralizing power of Government. Hence an economical function devolved upon all Asiatic Governments, the function of providing public works. This artificial fertilization of the soil, dependent on a Central Government, and immediately decaying with the neglect of irrigation and drainage, explains the otherwise strange fact that we now find whole territories barren and desert that were once brilliantly cultivated, as Palmyra, Petra, the ruins in Yemen, and large provinces of Egypt, Persia, and Hindostan; it also explains how a single war of devastation has been able to depopulate a country for centuries, and to strip it of all its civilization.
Now, the British in East India accepted from their predecessors the department of finance and of war, but they have neglected entirely that of public works. Hence the deterioration of an agriculture which is not capable of being conducted on the British principle of free competition, of laissez-faire and laissez-aller. But in Asiatic empires we are quite accustomed to see agriculture deteriorating under one government and reviving again under some other government. There the harvests correspond to good or bad government, as they change in Europe with good or bad seasons. Thus the oppression and neglect of agriculture, bad as it is, could not be looked upon as the final blow dealt to Indian society by the British intruder, had it not been attended by a circumstance of quite different importance, a novelty in the annals of the whole Asiatic world. However changing the political aspect of India’s past must appear, its social condition has remained unaltered since its remotest antiquity, until the first decennium of the 19th century. The hand-loom and the spinning-wheel, producing their regular myriads of spinners and weavers, were the pivots of the structure of that society. From immemorial times, Europe received the admirable textures of Indian labor, sending in return for them her precious metals, and furnishing thereby his material to the goldsmith, that indispensable member of Indian society, whose love of finery is so great that even the lowest class, those who go about nearly naked, have commonly a pair of golden ear-rings and a gold ornament of some kind hung round their necks. Rings on the fingers and toes have also been common. Women as well as children frequently wore massive bracelets and anklets of gold or silver, and statuettes of divinities in gold and silver were met with in the households. It was the British intruder who broke up the Indian hand-loom and destroyed the spinning-wheel. England began with driving the Indian cottons from the European market; it then introduced twist into Hindostan, and in the end inundated the very mother country of cotton with cottons. From 1818 to 1836 the export of twist from Great Britain to India rose in the proportion of 1 to 5,200. In 1824 the export of British muslins to India hardly amounted to 1,000,000 yards, while in 1837 it surpassed 64,000,000 of yards. But at the same time the population of Dacca decreased from 150,000 inhabitants to 20,000. This decline of Indian towns celebrated for their fabrics was by no means the worst consequence. British steam and science uprooted, over the whole surface of Hindostan, the union between agriculture and manufacturing industry.
These two circumstances – the Hindoo, on the one hand, leaving, like all Oriental peoples, to the Central Government the care of the great public works, the prime condition of his agriculture and commerce, dispersed, on the other hand, over the surface of the country, and agglomerated in small centers by the domestic union of agricultural and manufacturing pursuits – these two circumstances had brought about, since the remotest times, a social system of particular features – the so-called village system, which gave to each of these small unions their independent organization and distinct life. The peculiar character of this system may be judged from the following description, contained in an old official report of the British House of Commons on Indian affairs:
“A village, geographically considered, is a tract of country comprising some hundred or thousand acres of arable and waste lands; politically viewed it resembles a corporation or township. Its proper establishment of officers and servants consists of the following descriptions: The potail, or head inhabitant, who has generally the superintendence of the affairs of the village, settles the disputes of the inhabitants attends to the police, and performs the duty of collecting the revenue within his village, a duty which his personal influence and minute acquaintance with the situation and concerns of the people render him the best qualified for this charge. The kurnum keeps the accounts of cultivation, and registers everything connected with it. The tallier and the totie, the duty of the former of which consists [...] in gaining information of crimes and offenses, and in escorting and protecting persons travelling from one village to another; the province of the latter appearing to be more immediately confined to the village, consisting, among other duties, in guarding the crops and assisting in measuring them. The boundary-man, who preserves the limits of the village, or gives evidence respecting them in cases of dispute. The Superintendent of Tanks and Watercourses distributes the water [...] for the purposes of agriculture. The Brahmin, who performs the village worship. The schoolmaster, who is seen teaching the children in a village to read and write in the sand. The calendar-brahmin, or astrologer, etc. These officers and servants generally constitute the establishment of a village; but in some parts of the country it is of less extent, some of the duties and functions above described being united in the same person; in others it exceeds the above-named number of individuals. [...] Under this simple form of municipal government, the inhabitants of the country have lived from time immemorial. The boundaries of the villages have been but seldom altered; and though the villages themselves have been sometimes injured, and even desolated by war, famine or disease, the same name, the same limits, the same interests, and even the same families have continued for ages. The inhabitants gave themselves no trouble about the breaking up and divisions of kingdoms; while the village remains entire, they care not to what power it is transferred, or to what sovereign it devolves; its internal economy remains unchanged. The potail is still the head inhabitant, and still acts as the petty judge or magistrate, and collector or renter of the village.”
These small stereotype forms of social organism have been to the greater part dissolved, and are disappearing, not so much through the brutal interference of the British tax-gatherer and the British soldier, as to the working of English steam and English free trade. Those family-communities were based on domestic industry, in that peculiar combination of hand-weaving, hands-spinning and hand-tilling agriculture which gave them self-supporting power. English interference having placed the spinner in Lancashire and the weaver in Bengal, or sweeping away both Hindoo spinner and weaver, dissolved these small semi-barbarian, semi-civilized communities, by blowing up their economical basis, and thus produced the greatest, and to speak the truth, the only social revolution ever heard of in Asia.
Now, sickening as it must be to human feeling to witness those myriads of industrious patriarchal and inoffensive social organizations disorganized and dissolved into their units, thrown into a sea of woes, and their individual members losing at the same time their ancient form of civilization, and their hereditary means of subsistence, we must not forget that these idyllic village-communities, inoffensive though they may appear, had always been the solid foundation of Oriental despotism, that they restrained the human mind within the smallest possible compass, making it the unresisting tool of superstition, enslaving it beneath traditional rules, depriving it of all grandeur and historical energies. We must not forget the barbarian egotism which, concentrating on some miserable patch of land, had quietly witnessed the ruin of empires, the perpetration of unspeakable cruelties, the massacre of the population of large towns, with no other consideration bestowed upon them than on natural events, itself the helpless prey of any aggressor who deigned to notice it at all. We must not forget that this undignified, stagnatory, and vegetative life, that this passive sort of existence evoked on the other part, in contradistinction, wild, aimless, unbounded forces of destruction and rendered murder itself a religious rite in Hindostan. We must not forget that these little communities were contaminated by distinctions of caste and by slavery, that they subjugated man to external circumstances instead of elevating man the sovereign of circumstances, that they transformed a self-developing social state into never changing natural destiny, and thus brought about a brutalizing worship of nature, exhibiting its degradation in the fact that man, the sovereign of nature, fell down on his knees in adoration of Kanuman, the monkey, and Sabbala, the cow.
England, it is true, in causing a social revolution in Hindostan, was actuated only by the vilest interests, and was stupid in her manner of enforcing them. But that is not the question. The question is, can mankind fulfil its destiny without a fundamental revolution in the social state of Asia? If not, whatever may have been the crimes of England she was the unconscious tool of history in bringing about that revolution.
Then, whatever bitterness the spectacle of the crumbling of an ancient world may have for our personal feelings, we have the right, in point of history, to exclaim with Goethe:
“Sollte these Qual uns quälen
Da sie unsre Lust vermehrt,
Hat nicht myriaden Seelen
Timur’s Herrschaft aufgezehrt?”
[“Should this torture then torment us
Since it brings us greater pleasure?
Were not through the rule of Timur
Souls devoured without measure?”]
[From Goethe’s “An Suleika”, Westöstlicher Diwan]
Karl Marx
Footnotes from MECW Volume 12
104 A reference to the rule in India, mainly in the north, of the Mohammedan invaders who came from Central Asia, Afghanistan and Persia. Early in the thirteenth century the Delhi Sultanate became the bulwark of Moslem domination but at the end of the fourteenth century it declined and was subsequently conquered by the Moguls, new invaders of Turkish descent, who came to India from the east of Central Asia in the early sixteenth century and in 1526 founded the Empire of the Great Moguls (named after the ruling dynasty of the Empire) in Northern India. Contemporaries regarded them as the direct descendants of the Mongol warriors of Genghis Khan’s time, hence the name “Moguls”. In the mid-seventeenth century the Mogul Empire included the greater part of India and part of Afghanistan. Later on, however, the Empire began to decline due to peasant rebellions, the growing resistance of the Indian people to the Mohammedan conquerors and increasing separatist tendencies. In the early half of the eighteenth century the Empire of the Great Moguls practically ceased to exist.
105 Religion of the Lingam – the cult of the God Shiva, particularly widespread among the southern Indian sect of the Lingayat (from the word “linga” - the emblem of Shiva), a Hindu sect which does not recognise distinctions of caste and rejects fasts, sacrifices and pilgrimages.
Juggernaut (jagannath) – a title of Krishna, the eighth avatar of Vishnu. The cult of juggernaut was marked by sumptuous ritual and extreme religious fanaticism which manifested itself in the self-torture and suicide of believers. On feast days some believers threw themselves under the wheels of the chariot bearing the idol of Vishnu-juggernaut.
106 Heptarchy (government by seven rulers) – a term used by English historiographers to describe the political system in England from the sixth to eighth centuries, when the country was divided into seven highly unstable Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, which, in their turn, frequently split up and reunited. Marx uses this term by analogy to describe the disunity of the Deccan (Central and South India) before its conquest by the Mohammedans at the beginning of the fourteenth century.
107 The island of Salsette, north of Bombay, was famous for its 109 Buddhist cave temples.
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The Marxist
Volume: 10, No. 4, Vol. 11, No. 1
Issue: October 1992-March 1993)
COMMUNALISM, RELIGION AND MARXISM
Sitaram Yechury
The December 6 destruction of the Babri Masjid and the subsequent developments constitute a qualitative change in contemporary Indian politics. These developments represent an assault on the very foundations of modern, secular and democratic India that was established following independence from the British rule.
Communalism, consequent conflicts and hostility have been part of the Indian social and political fabric for over a century. What are the reasons that promoted this constant source of tension in our society to assume such a qualitatively new offensive today?
To investigate this it is necessary to recapitulate, briefly, certain aspects of the experience of the class rule in independent India. The Indian bourgeoisie and its leadership, Indian monopoly capital, due to the compulsions of its narrow social base had to align with the landlord sections in order to maintain its class rule in independent India. This in itself set in motion new set of contradictions that continue to determine the content and direction of India's socio-political and economic development. Such an alliance meant the inability of the ruling classes , on the one hand, to break decisively from the economic stranglehold of imperialism and, on the other, eliminate the vestiges of feudalism and its grip over Indian people and its economy. This latter aspect found expression in the continued narrowness of the domestic market despite the recent burgeoning of the middle class. Historically, nowhere had capitalism developed, or could develop, without decisively eliminating feudal relations of production. Such a compromise with imperialism on the one hand, and landlordism on the other, in independent India could not lay the complete basis for the flourishing of the capitalist path of development as required by the Indian bourgeoisie. All efforts at super-imposing capitalism on feudal structures did not and could not yield the desired result of eliminating the vestiges of feudalism. The consequent narrowness of the domestic market, as reflected in the low levels of purchasing power in the hands of crores of people, as a result of the inability of the ruling classes to effect a thorough going agrarian revolution through radical land reforms, forced the bourgeoisie to look for external markets in pursuit of its capitalist path of development. This in itself paved the way for greater dependence of Indian economy on imperialist capital and technology in order to enable the Indian capitalist class to compete in the external markets. The consequences of this has been the new economic policy with all its implications for the Indian people. (for details see Marxist Vol X, 1-2, Jan-June, 1992)
Thus, the compromise with landlordism in the sphere of economy had led to a situation where the Indian bourgeoisie is attempting to overcome the contradiction arising out of such a compromise by, on the one hand, perilously increasing the country's dependence on imperialism and, on the other, transferring the burdens of the resultant crisis on to the shoulders of the common people.
While this has been one manifestation of this contradiction, there was another, an equally important one. The inability to eliminate the vestiges of feudalism meant, at the level of the super-structure, the existence and perpetuation of the social consciousness associated with feudalism. The feelings of communalism and casteism continued to dominate the social order. The efforts at super-imposing capitalism only created a situation where the backwardness of consciousness associated with feudalism was combined with the degenerative competitive aspect of capitalist consciousness.
The process of class formation as a consequence of capitalist development was, thus, taking place within the parameters of the existing caste divided society. It was taking place not by overhauling the pre-capitalist social relations but in compromise with it. It is precisely this aspect that explains the complexity of issues that effect and dominate Indian society today. The advancing class struggle, has therefore, to encompass the already existing and surviving caste oppression. This lies precisely in the overlapping commonality between the exploited classes and oppressed castes in contemporary India.
Thus, at the level of the superstructure, feudal decadence was combined with capitalist degeneration to produce a situation where growing criminalisation of the society, coexists and grows in the company of caste and communal feelings, which are exploited by the ruling classes for their political-electoral purposes.
This particular manifestation of the contradictions set in motion after independence, lays the objective basis on which the present concerted offensive by the communal forces has been mounted. The discontent amongst the Indian people, as a result of the crisis of the system, accumulated over the years, is growing. Discontent is affecting also the expanded and vocal middle class, drawn more from the former exploiting classes rather than from the upward mobility of the exploited classes. The domination of the consciousness of the exploiter classes combined with discontent provides fertile soil for the growth of communal ideology. Exploiting this discontent and on the basis of the perpetuation of backward consciousness, the communal forces are able today to divert this discontent into communal channels in pursuit of their political objective.
The CPI(M), particularly since the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s, had constantly highlighted the growing crisis in the ruling bourgeois landlord class order. The CC meeting in May 1990 had noted :"The situation facing the country and the people is indeed very grave. The communal challenge, the separatist challenge, are combined by an intensification of the conflicts in many parts of the country. Even the exercise of the fundamental right of franchise is becoming increasingly more difficult.....the criminalisation of politics, the unbridled use of muscle power in running the daily administration, the degeneration of the law keeping forces...are manifestations of the deepening crisis of the bourgeois-landlord class rule."
Subsequently, the central committee and the 14th Congress of the Party had concluded that the bourgeois-landlord class rule had never before come under such a combined stress and strain. Both in its range and depth the crisis of the class rule had become very intense.
It is precisely the discontent amongst the people generated by this crisis that the communal forces seek to divert to achieve their political purpose. A conclusion of seminal importance that the 14th Congress arrived at was that the future of India is dependent upon whether the communal forces succeed in channelising this discontent for their purpose, or whether the Left forces are able to channelise the discontent into the democratic mainstream leading to a change in the correlation of class forces favourable for People's Democracy. It is precisely this choice that defines the cross-roads at which our country stands today.
The communal forces have been able to mount such an offensive, in today's circumstances, precisely because they have been able to achieve a certain degree of success in diverting people's discontent, on the basis of an inflammatory propaganda and hate campaign, that went virtually uncontested (barring the left) for nearly a decade.
The CPI(M) and the Left forces, had all along warned Indian people and secular bourgeois opposition parties of this danger. Particularly since the middle of 1988, the CPI(M) had posed the struggle between two lines - one of all-in unity including the BJP against the Congress(I), as advanced by some bourgeois opposition parties, and, the other, of unity of left and secular forces opposed to both the BJP and the Congress(I) - for achieving the objective of defeating the Congress(I), then led by Rajiv Gandhi. It is today a matter of history that many bourgeois opposition parties did not heed such warnings by the CPI(M), only to realise, to their own detriment subsequently, its correctness. Notwithstanding this however, it must be realised that the secular opposition parties also represent the same bourgeois-landlord classes and hence vacillate on all such struggles against the manifestation of backward consciousness, precisely because of their own class nature. But, the crucial point is that while the BJP and its affiliates openly proclaim the communal banner for their political purpose, the others vacillate. This marks a crucial difference in today's context, as we shall see later.
The significance of the tactical line evolved by the Jalandhar Party Congress in 1978, and pursued by the CPI(M) since then in this context must be reiterated. The essential element of this tactical line is the following : on the one hand utilising the conflicts amongst the bourgeois-landlord parties to advance the people's interests towards a change in the correlation of class forces favourable for a Left and democratic alternative, (ever conscious and vigilant of the vacillations of the bourgeois opposition parties) and, on the other, to sharpen the class struggle. This, essentially, constitutes the basis for the current tactical line being pursued by the Party.
It is by diverting the discontent generated by the crisis of the bourgeois-landlord class rule, that the communal forces are able to mount such an offensive today to make a bid to capture state power. In other words, the extreme right reactionary sections of the ruling classes today are making a bid for state power. They are doing this by utilising fascistic techniques and methods of propaganda. (For details P.D. January 17, 1993)
However, an important difference between the situation in Germany, on the eve of fascist ascendancy and the current situation in India must be noted. Dimitrov, in his address to the Communist International in 1935, had pointed out that the ruling class in Germany, the German monopoly capital, as a whole, moved away from the existing form of class rule- from bourgeois democracy to an open terroristic dictatorship. Secondly, the threat of the proletarian revolution was much stronger in Germany then and the fascist response of the German monopoly capital was to thwart this. In India today, the ruling classes as a whole have not yet come to the conclusion of abandoning the present form of parliamentary democracy, notwithstanding the severe stress and strain that it is under. On the other hand, the threat of the immediate seizure of power by the proletariat is not on the agenda today. Finally, this is also because the stage of the revolution in India is democratic, while in Germany it was Socialist.
These differences are crucial. What we are witnessing today is the attempt by the extreme right-wing sections of the ruling class to make a bid for state power by diverting popular discontent utilising fascistic methods and techniques.
In the pursuit of this objective, the communal forces have adopted a two pronged strategy. On the one hand, they seek to generate a sort of a monolithic unity amongst the vast diversity within the community of Indians embracing Hindu religion, and, on the other, they generate hate against an enemy outside of the Hindu faith, i.e. the Muslims. The entire propaganda mechanism and techniques unleashed by them is to achieve this dual strategy.
In fact, the ideological foundations for a Hindu Rashtra, were laid in the 20s by V.D. Savarkar. It was later adopted and an organisational structure provided for this by the RSS after its foundation in 1925 and particularly, in the period of the late thirties when the British inspired communal divide was exploited to the full. (For details see, Sitaram Yechury, P.D. March, 14, 21 and 28, 1993).
ROLE OF IMPERIALISM
This offensive being mounted in India today, co-incides with the rise of religious fanaticism and neo-fascist forces all over the world. The dismantling of socialism in the USSR and Eastern Europe had led to a situation of very bloody civil war conditions raging in that part of the world. The gravest example being Yugoslavia. But, the common feature in all these countries, has been that the mass popular discontent is being diverted by these forces to achieve their political ends. In the absence of a working class movement, based on the revolutionary ideology of Marxism-Leninism, popular discontent is finding expression in right-wing neo-fascist forces in West European countries, especially Germany and France.
Imperialism, all along, had utilised such forces in its pursuit of dismantling socialism. Even in the former USSR, extreme ethnic chauvinistic and religious fundamentalist forces were directly aided and abetted by imperialism to achieve this purpose, especially in the Baltic and the Asian republics. Imperialism, true to its character, has had no compunctions in utilising such forces to achieve its political objectives. USA today, finds a strong and dependable ally in the theocratic Muslim fundamentalist state of Saudi Arabia. In its efforts to retain and strengthen its global hegemony, imperialism derives great mileage in destabilizing independent third world countries. By fostering such divisions, Imperialism, is able to gain the maximum advantage in the pursuit of its objective.
The recent developments in our country likewise also directly help imperialism in its objective of strengthening its stranglehold over Indian economy. The colossal loss, running into thousands of crores in the aftermath of the December 6 events will only help imperialism. Apart from this, it has now been documented, that all through the period of the cold war, when India pursued a policy of non-alignment, US imperialism had found as its ally the extreme right-wing sections of the ruling class, the then Jan Sangh, the predecessor of today's BJP. (see "Envoy to India" by Escot Reid, who was the Canadian Ambassador in the 50s.)
In many of the newly independent third world countries, following the defeat of colonialism, the newly emerging ruling class under the leadership of the bourgeoisie were unable to complete the tasks of the democratic revolution. In many of these countries like in India, the emerging bourgeoisie had to compromise with the pre-capitalist elements to retain their class rule and leadership. The consequent crisis that this generated, and the resultant popular discontent, was likewise, utilised by reactionary forces aided by imperialism for its political advantage. Even in the case of Algeria, where through a popular democratic revolution the people had achieved tremendous gains, the fundamentalist forces were able to mount an offensive exploiting popular discontent to perilously threaten the gains of the democratic revolution itself.
Thus, we find that at the international level, the rise of neo-fascist and reactionary forces exploiting popular discontent to their advantage, in the absence of a revolutionary Left movement. In the third world countries, particularly, we find the growth of fundamentalist forces, - a result of diverting popular discontent consequent to the path of economic development pursued by ruling classes after independence. In both these cases, imperialism finds for its global hegemony, an ally in these forces and hence constantly aids and encourages them.
But to conclude that communalism and its fundamentalist ideology is the creation of Imperialism alone would be erroneous. It is an ideology of revivalism of internal reactionary forces appealing to backward consciousness amongst the people utilising the existing social contradictions. Imperialism utilises it in order to establish its world wide hegemony to destablise and thus weaken all forces that oppose it. Imperialism used it to its advantage in the former socialist countries by aiding and abetting such forces of internal reaction. While fundamentalist ideology is a reactionary ideology, an ideology of revivalism, it is utilised by the exploiting classes in different times and different countries for advancing its political interests.
Thus, both the Hindu communalist offensive and the Muslim fundamentalist response today constitute a frontal assault on the very independence and sovereignty based on a secular democratic polity that defines modern India. Both these forces, in fact, feed each other. Their similarity in attacking the modern concepts of secularism, democracy and nationalism are indeed glaring. While castigating these concepts as alien to their respective religious cultures they however, have no compunction in borrowing the modern 20th century concept of fascism. (For details of similarity see P.D. Jan 31, 1993). Both base themselves on a distorted definition of nationality, central to which is religion. Rejecting the historical experience till date of how religion has never been and can never be a cementing factor for any national formation, they openly advocate the predominance of religion, both in politics as well as in the ordering of the society. Thus, they reject, both the historical experience of the nation states and negate the scientific basis of nationality.
Communalism and its fundamentalist ideology is not the championing, far less the protection of religiosity. It is the utilisation of the religious divide between the people consciously engineered and perpetuated for a political purpose. It is an ideology based on a religious conflict for a specific political purpose. The British had used this for perpetuating their colonial rule and in the process elevated it to such an extent that they could succeed in partitioning our country and leave behind a scourge that continues to claim countless lives. Communalism hence, is far removed from religion. It generates and perpetuates hatred amongst religious communities as the basis for its existence and growth.
MARXISM AND RELIGION
In such a context, a great deal of controversy has always existed regarding the Marxist understanding of religion. The popular perception is the normally out of context quotation that "religion is the opium of the people". In fact, deliberately, the passage in which this statement finds place is never quoted in the full. Marx had stated :"Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of the heartless world, just as it is the spirit of the spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people."(Introduction to the critique of Hegel's philosophy of Right, 1844).
Religion, is the opium in the sense that it is as potent as opium is in creating an illusory world. For a human being who is oppressed, religion provides the escape for relief, it provides a "heart in a heartless world, a spirit in a spiritless situation." For this precise reason, it is the opium that the people require, to lull themselves into submission so long as they continue to remain in conditions which appear outside of both their comprehension and control.
In fact Engels says that all religion "is nothing but the fantastic reflection in men's minds of those forces that control their daily life"(Anti Duhring).
The Marxist understanding of religion is essentially integrated with its entire philosophic foundations. In pursuit of the simple question of what constitutes the real freedom of a human being and his consequent liberation, Marx proceeded to reject the Hegelian idea of the revolution of the mind as represented by Feuerbach, during his time, to come to a conclusion of seminal importance. That was: consciousness of a human being is determined by the social conditions and not vice a versa. "It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary their social being that determines their consciousness"(Introduction to the critique of Political economy).
It is on the basis of such a fundamentally important conclusion that Marx says :"the basis of irreligious criticism is : Man makes religion, religion does not make man". In other words, like every other manifestation of human consciousness in terms of thinking and the consequent intellectual practice, religion also is the product of human social existence and not the reason or the cause for the same.
Such an understanding at once places religion, not as a thing in itself, not as something that exists by itself independent of the driving force of society in history. In fact, precisely for this reason, Marxism does not lay blame e.g. the persecution of Copernicus or that of Ekalavya on religion itself. It regards all these things as the natural manifestation of social forces and movements expressing themselves in religious terms because religion has been the dominant form of ideology throughout all recorded history. Progressive and reactionary ideas, the vested interests of the ruling class or the demands of an exploited class equally present themselves in the form of religion in men's mind so long as religion is a dominant form of ideology. Hence Marxism is able to take cognisance of the positive and progressive content of religious reform movements e.g Sufi, Bhakti movements but at the same time point out their limitations that they would not be able to effect the desired change in society by remaining only within the limits of the religious fold. Unless they are able to change the social conditions that find expression for domination in a specific religious form, that particular form and associated oppression cannot be removed. Thus, while recognising the positive content as well as the limitations of religious reform movements, Marxism is able to place the history of religion also within the realm of the evolution of human civilisation and the corresponding human consciousness.
As Engels says, religion is a reflection in which the terrestrial forces assume the form of supernatural forces. In the beginning of history, it was the forces of nature which were so reflected. (In the Indian political context, this can be seen in the primitive forms of worship to the images of Surya, Vayu, Agni, Naga etc. The vedic rituals are essentially based on Yagna which is an invocation to Agni. But "side by side with the forces of nature, social forces begin to be active; forces which present themselves to man as equally extraneous and at first equally inexplicable, dominating them with the same apparent necessity, as the forces of nature themselves. The personifications, which at first only reflected the mysterious forces of nature, at this point acquire social attributes, become representatives of the forces of history. At a still further stage of evolution, all the natural and social attributes of the innumerable gods are transferred to one almighty God, who himself once more is only the reflex of the abstract man. Such was the origin of monotheism, which was historically the last product of the vulgarized philosophy of the later Greeks and found in the incarnation in the exclusively national god of the Jews, Jehovah. In this convenient, handy and readily adaptable form, religion can continue to exist as the immediate, that is, the sentimental form of men's relation to the extraneous natural and social forces which dominate them, so long as men remain under the control of these forces. We have already seen, more than once, that in existing bourgeois society men are dominated by the economic conditions created by themselves, by the means of production which they themselves have produced, as if by an extraneous force. The actual basis of religious reflex action therefore continues to exist, and with it the religious reflex itself"(Anti Duhring).
Hence, Marxism, when it imparts a scientific treatment to history is able to see the complex role religion played in great social struggles. The origins of Christianity can be seen in the role of mass revolts that marked the decay of the Roman empire. In the rise of Islam, Marx and Engels both drew attention to the internal struggles between the Bedouins and the towns people, the awakening of Arabian national consciousness for the liberation of the Arabian peninsula from the Abysanians and to recapture the long dormant trade routes. Similarly, the Protestant reformation was seen as a reflection of the complex class struggle taking place between the decaying feudal order and that of the rising bourgeoisie. "The ineradicability of the Protestant heresy corresponds to the invincibility of the rising bourgeoisie"(Engels, Feuerbach)
Religion, therefore, for Marx and Marxists is a product of the social conditions in which man existed and continues to exist. The history of religion, in one sense, is also a reflection of the history of human evolution. Hence, religion, like any other form of consciousness is not a thing in itself but a reflection of the real world. In so far as human beings are unable to comprehend the forces of nature or of society that appear to determine their day to day existence and guide their destinies, the need for creating a extraterrestrial supernatural force remains. Religion therefore, provides for the human being a sense of comfort, beauty and solace that he cannot find in the real life. At the same time, the class struggle that is taking place in society at any point of time can also find expression in religious terms, as long as religion remains the dominant form of ideology.
In so far as it finds a ideological expression of the concrete class struggle taking place at a point of time like all other ruling class ideology, it becomes an instrument and justification for the exploiting class. As Lenin had said : "Religion is one of the forms of spiritual oppression that everywhere weighs on the masses of the people, who are crushed by the perpetual toil for the benefit of others, and by want and isolation. The impotence of the exploited classes in the struggle against the exploiters engenders faith in a better life beyond the grave just as inevitably as the impotence of the savage in his struggle against nature engenders faith in gods, devils, miracles and so forth. To him who toils and suffers want all his life religion teaches humility and patience on earth, consoling him with the hope of reward in heaven. And to those who live on the labour of others religion teaches charity on earth, offering them a very cheap justification for their whole existence as exploiters and selling them at a suitable price tickets for admission to heavenly bliss"(Lenin, Socialism and Religion, 1905).
Hence, religion according to Marxism is both a necessary creation of the social conditions, at a point of time, and an expression of class exploitation at another, and an integral part of the ruling class ideology.
For this precise reason, Marx and Marxism alone, having understood the genesis, origin and the continued domination of religion on the human mind in a scientific manner, states with authority that the role of religion is contained and determined by the states of social organisation. And, for that precise reason, Marxism does not attack religion per se. Its attack is on the conditions that give rise to religion and the conditions that perpetuate the hold of religion on the people. Since religion is not a thing in itself, Marxism seeks to radically alter the conditions that provide the basis and perpetuate religion as an instrument of class oppression. Engels, in his famous argument with Duhring who had stated that socialitarian system has to abolish all the essential elements of religion, stated : "Herr Duhring however cannot wait until religion dies its natural death....He incites his gendarme of the future to attack religion and thereby helps it to martyrdom and a prolonged lease of life"(Engels, Anti Duhring).
Marxists are materialists. And as materialists they understand and comprehend the complex role that religion plays in a class divided society. And also how religion as a form of the superstructure continues and will continue to exist for a long period even after the establishment of a classless society. Its attack is not on religion per se but on the social conditions that give rise to religion and hence this determines its direction of activity. As Marx said "The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is required for their real happiness. The demand to give up the illusions about its condition is the demand to give up a condition which needs illusions. The criticism of religion, is therefore, in embryo the criticism of the vale of woe, the halo of which is religion"(Introduction to the critique of Hegel's philosophy of right).
This then is the Marxist materialist understanding and appreciation of religion. Its humanist content and at the same time its utilisation as a instrument of class rule have to be understood in its totality. A communist works to change the conditions that continues to give rise to the hold of religion and not attack religion per se because it is not and can never be a thing in itself independent of the social organisation of human civilisation. Lenin had asked the following question : "Why does religion retain its hold over the backward sections of the urban proletariat, over the broad sections of the semi-proletariat, and over the peasant mass? Because of the ignorance of the people, replies the bourgeois progressivist, the radical, and the bourgeois materialist. And so, down with religion and long live atheism! - the dissemination of atheist views is our chief task. The Marxist says that this is not true, that it is a superficial view and narrow, bourgeois culturism. This view does not profoundly enough explain the roots of religion; it explains them not materialistically but idealistically. In modern capitalist countries these roots are mainly social. The deepest root of religion today is the social oppression of the working masses and their apparently complete helplessness in the face of blind forces of capitalism, which every day and every hour inflicts upon ordinary working people the most horrible suffering and the most savage torment, a thousand times more severe than those inflicted by extraordinary events, such as wars, earthquakes, etc. "Fear the gods". Fear of the blind force of capital - blind because it cannot be foreseen by the masses of the people - a force which at every step in life threatens to inflict, and does inflict, on the proletarian and small owner "sudden", "unexpected", "accidental" destruction, ruin, pauperism, prostitution, and death from starvation - such is the root of modern religion which the materialist must bear in mind first and foremost if he does not want to remain an infant-school materialist. No educational book can eradicate religion from the minds of the masses, who are crushed by the grinding toil of capitalism and who are at the mercy of the blind destructive forces of capitalism, until these masses themselves learn to fight this root of religion, the rule of capital in all its forms, in a united, organised, planned and conscious way"(The attitude of the Workers' Party towards Religion).
Thus, exposing the self-bestowed monopoly of upholding religion by the communal and fundamentalist forces is also an integral part of the struggle against existing social conditions whose transformation is what Marxists and the CPI(M) seek in India. Communalism in pre-independence India was generated and utilised by the British as a constant instrument of state power in their notorious divide and rule policy for maintaining the colonial order. It is in fact following the 1857 first war of independence when the Hindu-Muslim unity was demonstrated at its highest form that the British consciously engineered a policy of communal politics. The consequent separation of electorates on the basis of Hindu-Muslim divide, the partition of Bengal and the patronage given to the Muslim League etc. were part of the political agenda for continuing the colonial rule.
In post-independent India, the crisis of the bourgeois-landlord class rule that we discussed above leading to growing popular discontent was also sought to be overcome by the ruling classes by utilising the deep communal divide. Instead of consciously working for the eradication of the communal poison, that continued to be perpetuated following partition, the communal divide was often utilised through vacillation and compromise for narrow political benefits. True to the character of the very class that they represent, the bourgeois-landlord parties have not consistently upheld the principle of secularism as the separation of religion from politics. In periods of acute crisis, which in the recent period can be seen from the mid 80s with the Rajiv Gandhi's new economic policy orientation, was also accompanied by compromising attitude towards both Hindu communalism and Muslim fundamentalism. The opening of the locks on the Babri Masjid/Ramjanmabhoomi site and the Muslim Women's Act reversing the Shah Bano case judgement in 1986 were crass examples of how compromise with communalism were affected for the ruling party's electoral aims.
However, such compromising positions and the open assault on modern India through the eradication of both secularism and democracy on the basis of a avowedly blatant communal platform, need to be differentiated. The latter's bid to capture state power represents, as we have seen, a qualitatively new stage in the assault on the very foundations of the existing polity.
The ruling class, however, also realises that to keep India, with its enormous size and diversity, united, such a communal agenda would not serve the purpose. The geographical unity of India needs to be maintained for the ruling classes in order to consolidate and strengthen its class rule. A communal divide like what the BJP is mounting today, also justifies the ideological foundations of separatist movements like Khalisthan etc. This can only act contrary to the interests of the leadership of the Indian ruling classes in their effort to maintain the geographical unity of the country. People's disunity can be encouraged to the extent that it does not cross the limit of posing a threat to the geographical unity. Such a disunity may well be useful in the short term for the ruling classes to divert their attention away from the real problems and thus mount the struggle for a class alternative.
Thus, we find representatives of the big business like Tatas coming out openly against such communal violence. But, at the same time, the ruling classes exercise their class rule through agents, which are political parties. When an avowedly communal party makes a concerted bid for state power sections of the bourgeoisie themselves will vacillate and some will extend support to it. This is the precise situation in which the country finds itself today.
The spread of communal poison and the sharp polarisation taking place, creates the dangers, not only for the dismemberment of the country and lays foundations for a virtual civil war conditions, but also consciously and effectively disrupts the unity of the very toiling sections on whose unity rests the advance towards people's democracy. The rise of communalism, today, therefore, represents simultaneously the weakening of the unity of the basic classes on whose strength the struggle against the present class rule can be mounted. The struggle against the communal forces today is, at the same time, the struggle for maintaining the unity of these classes and to that extent, is an integral aspect of the class struggle.
It is under these circumstances, the CPI(M)'s tactical line is one of unity of Indian patriots in defence of a secular democratic polity on the one hand, and strengthening the struggle against class policies of the ruling class, which continue to impose further burdens on the people, on the other. It is this simultaneous conduct of this struggle - broad based unity in defence of the existing Indian Constitution and the strengthening of the class struggle on basic economic issues that can save India from the assault of fundamentalist theocracy.
India has to be saved in order to change it for the better. The CPI(M) Programme, adopted in 1964, had stated in unambiguous terms that the task of completing the unfinished democratic revolution rests on the shoulders of the working class led People's Democratic Front. The assault by the communal forces today, is to reverse whatever little that has been achieved through political independence in 1947 and since. The task of the communists is to preserve whatever has been achieved in order to advance for the future.
http://www.cpim.org/marxist/199204_marxist_religion_sry.htm
International Trotskyism
Robert J. Alexander
Trotskyism in India
During the nearly half-century of existence of Trotskyism in India the movement there has experienced many of the same kinds of controversies and divisions which have plagued it in most other countries. Although relatively little influenced by the splits within the Fourth International, Indian Trotskyism has been affected by the strong influence of regionalism in Indian politics and has experienced the same kind of personalistic struggles which have characterized the movement elsewhere.
In addition, Indian Trotskyism has been faced with the existence of two other Marxist parties to the left of the Stalinists which have been regarded by most other elements of the Indian Left as being "Trotskyist" and whose leaders have in fact shared at least some of the ideas and positions of The Old Man and his followers. These are the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), neither of which, in fact, ever belonged to the Fourth International or any of its factions.
Because of the importance of the RCP and RSP in the evolution of Indian Trotskyism we shall, in the pages which follow, not confine our discussion only to those parties and groups which have professed loyalty to the international Trotskyist movement. We shall also briefly look at the two "semi-Trotskyist" parties as well.
The Beginnings of Indian Trotskyism
The first Trotskyist groups in India were organized mainly by members of the Communist Party who refused to accept the turn of the Comintern in 1934-35 towards the Popular Front which in the case of India meant supporting the Indian National Congress Party. R. N. Arya has noted that these people "were denounced as Trotskyists. So they studied the works of Trotsky, especially The History of Russian Revolution and The Revolution Betrayed. They ended by accepting Trotskyism.[1]
Groups proclaiming loyalty to Trotskyism were established in several parts of India in the middle and late 19305. Probably the most important of these was that which developed in Bengal, principally in Calcutta, under the leadership of Kamalesh Banerji, with India Sen, Dr. P. K. Roy, and Karuna Roy among its other principal figures.[2] It took the name Communist League.[3]
Another group was established in the United Provinces (UP—later Uttar Pradesh), particularly in the city of Kanpur. The leader of that group was Onkar Nath Shastri, who had come out of the earlier nationalist revolutionary movement and had joined the Communist Party during its Third Period.[4] By 1937-38, "Shastri had a group of workers at Kanpur and a few students in U.P. and Bihar. He called his group the Revolutionary Workers Party."[5]
There were two principal early Trotskyist leaders in the Gujarat region. One of these was Chandravadan Shukla, "who worked at Bombay and formed groups at Ahmedabad, Ghav Nagar." [6] The other was M. G. Purdy. Apparently born in England, where his name was Murray Gow Purdy, he sometimes used the name Murgaoun Purdy Singh in India. He had apparently moved to South Africa when quite young, had joined the Communist Party there and, as he reported ten years later to Max Shachtman, had been converted to Trotskyism in 1928. He had some activity in the Bolshevik-Leninist League and International Workers Club in South Africa and finally due to persecution by local authorities decided to go to India.[7]
R. N. Arya has Said that before coming to India, Purdy had participated in the Spanish Civil War.[8] However, Broué has noted that Purdy made no such claim in the letter he wrote to Shachtman in December 1938.[9] In any case, once arrived in India Purdy "recruited a few individuals from the Congress workers at Bombay and set up a group there. He chose Congress as his sphere of activity."[10] The Shukla and Purdy groups operated under the name Mazdoor Trotskyist Party (MTP).
In mid-1939 Chandravadan Shukla of the MTP went to Calcutta to meet with some leaders of the Revolutionary Communist Party and discuss possible merger of the two groups. Among those he met with were Gour Pal, Mrinal Ghosh Choudhury, and Magadeb Bhattacharya. Although they agreed on the need for a new revolutionary international they apparently agreed on little else. In the end, there was no merger of the MTP and RCP, although Magadeb Bhattacharya did join the Trotskyist group.[11]
The various Trotskyist groups worked within the Indian National Congress, at least to the extent of sending representatives to its annual meetings. They were present at the 1938 and 1939 Congress sessions at Haripur and Tripura, where there was a bitter struggle between leftwing and rightwing elements in the Congress, and they were joined at these sessions by representatives of the newly emerging Trotskyist movement of Ceylon. The Trotskyists, understandably, supported the Congress left.[12]
R. N. Arya has noted that in that period the Indian Trotskyists had no contact with Trotsky or the international movement. They did not hear about the establishment of the Fourth International until the winter of 1939-40.[13]
Trotsky himself seems to have been largely unaware of the existence of groups of his followers in India. He was informed occasionally about current political trends in the subcontinent by Stanley Plastrik (using the party name Sherman Stanley), a young member of the Socialist Workers Party in New York, who on his own initiative had taken it upon himself to learn about the subject and had various correspondents in the Congress Socialist Party in India. He had also recruited an Indian immigrant into the SWP in New York City.[14]
It may have been at Plastrik's urging that Trotsky issued an Open Letter to the Workers of India, on July 25, 1939. In it Trotsky dealt with the impact of the coming war on India and denounced the roles of both the Indian National Congress and the Communist Party. He argued that "those immense difficulties which the war will bring in its wake must be utilized so as to deal a mortal blow to all the ruling classes. That is how the oppressed classes and peoples in all countries should act..."
Trotsky then added that "to realize such a policy a revolutionary party, basing itself on the vanguard of the proletariat, is necessary. Such a party does not yet exist in India. The Fourth International offers this party its program, its experience, its collaboration. The basic conditions for this party are complete independence from imperialist democracy, complete independence from the Second and Third Internationals, and complete independence from the national Indian bourgeoisie.[15]
It was not until early 1942 that a nationwide Trotskyist party was finally established in India. The Ceylonese Trotskyists, some of whom had had personal contact with the Fourth International and with some of the European Trotskyist groups while studying in Britain, played a significant role in bringing together their Indian counterparts.
A number of Ceylonese Trotskyists had fled to India at the beginning of the Second World War either to avoid arrest, or after having escaped from police custody. Several of the Ceylonese, including Colvin de Silva and Leslie Goonewardene (who in India used the name K. Tilak) settled in Calcutta, and entered into contact with the local Trotskyists there. Other Ceylonese made contact with the Uttar Pradesh Trotskyist group, including C. F. Shukla and R. N. Arya; Philip Gunawardena contacted the Bombay group, while Victor Keralasingham worked with the Trotskyists in Madras.[16]
R. N. Arya has noted that between the Ceylonese and Indian Trotskyists there was "thorough discussion over programme and policy," and that this "resulted in the adoption of a programme and the formation of a single party, Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India..." [17] By the end of 1941 there had been established a preliminary Committee for the Formation of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India. It issued an extensive document entitled "The Classes in India and their Political Role," which set forth an orthodox Trotskyist analysis, arguing that neither the native bourgeoisie, nor the peasantry (although the latter made up 70 percent of the total population) could lead the struggle against imperialism and for revolutionary change. Only the proletariat, although numbering only 5,000,000 people, could carry out these tasks and it could only do so under the leadership of a real revolutionary party which once it had gained power would simultaneously carry out the tasks of the bourgeois democratic revolution and the beginning of the socialization of the economy.[18]
Arya has noted that the Trotskyists "finally formed the party in 1942 when they were all living underground..."[19] Most of the existing local Trotskyist groups became part of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party. Among its leaders were Onkar Nath Shastri, Chandravadan Shukla, and Kamalesh Banerji. M. G. Purdy and his supporters did not join the group but maintained a separate party of their own.[20]
The Bolshevik-Leninist Party (BLP)
The BLP adopted a program. R. N. Arya has remarked that in this program, "The new party noted the conflict between the imperialists and the Indian bourgeoisie, the two partners of the bourgeois exploitative system in India, but it was clear to them that the national bourgeoisie were incapable of playing any revolutionary role, being themselves closely tied to feudalists as well as imperialists. They held that the working class in India was strong enough to play an independent role, and win leadership of the revolution by winning the poor peasants and agricultural proletariat to its side."
Arya has also noted that "the program characterized the Soviet Union as a degenerated workers' state, and condemned Stalin's policy of reaching compromise with imperialists at the expense of world revolution. The theory of Permanent Revolution was accepted as the party's guiding principle." [21]
The BLP got off to a good start, with the launching of a party publication, Spark, first issued in Calcutta. Later, when police repression made that necessary, the periodical was shifted to Bombay, and its name was changed to New Spark. [22] They also published Trotsky's Open Letter to the Indian Workers and several other pamphlets, including one attacking Gandhi as a "utopian, reactionary and counter-revolutionary," and one opposing the Stalinists' support of the war as a "people's war."[23]
During the remaining years of World War II, the Bolshevik-Leninist Party had at least modest influence in the trade union and student movements of several Indian cities. This was the ease in Calcutta and Bombay, as well as Madras, where the party established substantial nuclei among the tramway workers and the workers of the Buckingham and Carnation textile mills, as well as among students in at least two of the institutions of higher learning in the city.[24]
The BLP was recognized by the International Secretariat in New York as the official Indian Section of the Fourth International, as was indicated by an is document, "Manifesto to the Workers and Peasants of India," dated September 26, 1942. [25] During much of the World War II period, contact between Fourth International headquarters and the Indian Trotskyists was maintained largely through Ajit Roy, a leading figure in the BLP who went to Britain, ostensibly to study there, but in fact principally to maintain liaison with the FI. After the war, Kamalesh Banerji, upon being released from jail, went to Europe and became at least for a time a member of the International Secretariat.
About three months after the establishment of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party the Indian National Congress Party launched its Quit India Movement, calling for a civil disobedience campaign against the British until they gave up control of India. The Trotskyists and other far leftists supported the objective of British expulsion from India but did not approve of the methods used by the Congress. Gour Pal has noted that the Trotskyists "risked their everything to transform the imperialist war into a civil war and socialist revolution involving the workers and poor rural population in areas where they worked..." In doing this, he adds, "The Trotskyists unmistakably proved their real revolution metal and loyalty to their ideology."
However their efforts to convert the Quit India movement into a revolutionary one brought severe reprisals upon the Bolshevik-Leninist Party. Its preparations for its first national conference were disrupted, and many of its principal figures were arrested, including Kamalesh Banerji and Indra Sen. [26] Others were forced to go into hiding. Persecution of BLP leaders did not end until the termination of the war.
Governmental repression undoubtedly undermined the BLP in another way. R. N. Arya has noted that "unity, however, could not last long. Shastri was arrested at Kanpur in September 1942 before the cadres of his party were integrated into the new Bolshevik-Leninist Party. When he came out of jail in 1945 at the end of the Second World War, he declared that he would have nothing to do with the 'Ceylonese,' i.e. the BLPI. His group of students stayed in the BLPI, while he revived his RWP within his group of Kanpur workers. Shukla left BLPI in 1943 following some quarrel in a meeting of the CC of the BLPI in which one of the Ceylonese comrades, Philip Gunawardena, slapped him. He had his groups at Bombay, Ahmedabad, Ghav Nagar, and a few other places."[27]
It was not until early 1946, several months after the end of the war, that the BLP was able to hold its first All India Conference at Nagpur. At that meeting it was decided that the Ceylonese section of the party would be separated from the Bolshevik-Leninist Party. Some of the Ceylonese assumed the name they had used before the war, the Lanka Sama Samaja Party. [28]
With the end of the war the Indian Trotskyists were for a time quite optimistic about the prospectives for the BLPI. K. Tilak (Leslie Goonewardene) wrote in September 1945 that "the young Bolshevik-Leninist Party . . now faces its first real chance for expansion. The situation is changing and without doubt, of all of the parties and political groups in India, the BLPI is the one which is going to gain most in this change. . . . Only the BLPI offers a program and clear policy, while on the other side, the name of the IVth International today has a power of attraction for the revolutionary elements which comes from instinctive recognition that it is the continuer of the revolutionary traditions of the III. . The Indian section of the IVth International faces a great opportunity, that of transforming itself from a small persecuted group, with a revolutionary program, into a party with sufficient cadres to turn with confidence towards the real task of winning over the masses."[29]
In the immediate postwar years the Trotskyists made some modest progress, particularly in the organized labor movement. R. N. Arya has observed that they "entered trade unions at Madras, Bombay, Secunderabad, Calcutta, and Raniganj, and Kanpur."[30] Gour Pal has also noted that "In the industrial belt of Calcutta, BLP had developed considerably. It controlled Khardah Jute Mills Workers Union, Bengal Fire Brigade Workers Union, workers unions in Tittagarh Paper Mills, Bengal Paper Mills, Tribeni Tissues and also the central organization, Paper Workers Federation. . . . BLP secured a good hold among the coal mine workers around Raniganj [W. Bengal] and in 1948 Jagdish Jha, an outstanding BLP labour leader took charge of the coal mine workers movement in that area." Pal also noted that the BLPI had some success among the peasant organizations of Bengal in the same period.[31]
Soon after their first conference BLP members (and other Trotskyists and far leftists) were presented with an entirely new political situation in the country. After serious disturbances within the Indian armed forces, the British Labor Government finally came to the decision to negotiate Indian independence with the country's two major political groups, the Indian National Congress and the Moslem League. Of course the upshot of these negotiations was the formation in 1947 of a Provisional Government headed by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the partition of the subcontinent in the following year into India and Pakistan.
These developments contradicted the analyses and confident predictions of the Trotskyists, such as the International Secretariat's statements in its 1942 "Appeal to the Workers and Peasants of India" that "British imperialism will never accept the national independence of India,"[32] and that "the loss of India would provoke without any doubt a socialist revolution in Great Britain."[33] In the face of the agreements among the Congress, the Moslem League, and the British government, the Indian Trotskyists "rejected the Independence deal as formal political independence, and began to prepare for the stage of socialist revolution."[34]
As independence approached, the Bolshevik-Leninist Party denounced the way in which it was taking place. Their statement read that "the direct rule of British imperialism is ending. The job of governing the country has been handed over to the Indian bourgeoisie, with whom the British imperialists have entered into a partnership. . . . Despite a certain improvement in the relative position of Indian capital, the volume of British capital investment in India has undergone no significant change, while the grip of imperialist capital over the exchange banks, insurance companies, and in shipping and key positions in industry continues.. . . The direct rule of British imperialism, we declare therefore, is being replaced by indirect rule."[35]
Entrism
The country's changed political circumstances brought the Trotskyists of the BLPI to reassess their strategy and tactics. They began to think in terms of entrism. They first turned towards the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCPI) as an appropriate field to apply an entrist strategy. As early as 1946, a (BLPI) delegation consisting of Ajit Roy, Indra Sen, and a third person met with Sudhir Dasgupta, Tarapada Gupta, and Gour Pal of the RCPI to discuss the possible merger of the two groups. These negotiations failed because of the refusal of the RCPI to have the united group join the Fourth International, and the rejection by the Trotskyists of what they considered a very premature campaign by the RCPI to establish soviets (under the name of panchayats) throughout the country. [36]
Two years later the BLPI leaders decided upon another organization to which to apply the entrist strategy. Shortly after the independence agreement, the Congress Socialist Party, which had until then operated within the Indian National Congress as a recognized affiliate of the Congress, decided to break away and reorganize as the Socialist Party. In doing so, it expressed considerable disillusionment with the nature of the deal which the Congress Party had struck with the British government.
The Bolshevik-Leninist Party held two conferences at which entry into the Socialist Party was considered. The first, in Madras, rejected the action but suggested that advice be sought from the Fourth International.[37] There is no indication that such advice was forthcoming or what it was if it was received. However, Gour Pal has argued that "The BLPI folly of 'entry tactics' must be traced to the Fourth International direction to its colonial units in its resolution adopted in the World Congress in April 1946, as below: Our sections must, furthermore, undertake systematic and patient fraction work within the revolutionary national organizations of those countries, with the goal of creating a Marxist revolutionary tendency within them, to facilitate the leftward development of the revolutionary national elements." [38]
A second conference of the BLPI to consider entry into the Socialist Party, held in Calcutta, likewise rejected the idea, but by a very small margin. After further discussion those who had opposed the idea finally accepted it. As a consequence, negotiations were entered into with Jai Prakash Narayan, Ashoka Mehta, and others in the leadership of the Socialist Party, who finally agreed to accept within their ranks the members of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party. Such entry took place in 1948.[39]
The Indian Trotskyists' first experiment with entrism did not prove to be satisfactory. This was largely a result of the failure of the Socialist Party to develop as the BLPI and the leaders of the Socialist Party expected. As a result of that disillusionment the former Bolshevik-Leninist Party people were within a few years once again organized as a separate party.
When the Congress Socialist Party had broken away from the Indian National Congress Party its leaders had hoped that it would become a major party, offering a Socialist alternative to the increasingly conservative Congress party and government. This did not prove to be the case.
R. N. Arya has sketched the conditions after the achievement of independence which thwarted the hopes of the Socialist Party (and of the Trotskyists within it). He has written that "it was a period of capitalist reconstruction and development after unprecedented destruction during the Second World War. Technological revolution took place which placed capitalism on a new footing. India also shared this general prosperity. Although its share could not be big enough to solve its problems, there was a visible change. Nehru introduced five-year plans and claimed that he was building a socialist pattern of society. The state itself took a hand in the industrialization of the country, established some basic industries, built canals and tubewells for the irrigation of fields, and subsidized small industries. General elections were held every five years and even a Communist Government was permitted in one of the states, giving the illusion of growth, prosperity, stability, and democracy. The political influence of the Indian bourgeoisie strengthened rather than lessened. Reformist illusions spread and overtook even some of the old revolutionaries, who joined the Congress."[40]
In the face of this the hopes of the Socialist Party were smashed. They did very badly in the first post-independence elections in 1952. As a consequence of this, right after those elections the leaders of the Socialist Party decided to merge their organization with a Gandhist breakaway from the Congress Party, the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party, headed by A. Kriplani. As a consequence, the Praja Socialist Party was established.
The Trotskyists refused to go along with this move and maintained their own organization, the Socialist Party (Marxist). The former BLPI members in Calcutta had already broken with the Socialist Party even earlier (1950} and had merged with a faction of the Revolutionary Communist Party to establish the Communist League, with a Bengali paper, Inquilab, as its periodical.[41]
In Delhi still another Trotskyist group maintained the Socialist Party (India), which published an English-language fortnightly paper, Socialist Appeal. The editorial board of the paper consisted of Hector Abhayavardhan, Birendra Bhattacharya, and Sachidananda Sinha. From time to time it carried articles by members of the Socialist Workers Party of the United States.[42]
The Mazdoor Communist Party
Meanwhile there were groups proclaiming allegiance to Trotskyism which had not become part of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party and so had not gone through its experience with entrism. These included the Mazdoor Trotskyist Party and the Bolshevik Mazdoor Party.
The Mazdoor Trotskyist Party was the group which had been organized under the leadership of M. C. Purdy. It had centers of relative strength in the Bombay area and in Hyderabad. Among its leaders in the Bombay region, aside from Purdy, were Ruralidhar Parija, who was active in the Engineering Workers Union; S. B. Kolpe, a journalist and later president of the All India Union of Working Journalists; Thangappan, secretary of the Kamani Metal Industries Workers Union, and Shanta Ben Joshi, also an active trade unionist. Due at least in part to Purdy's influence the Mazdoor Trotskyist Party sought particularly to gain a following among and to support the untouchables and aboriginal groups.[43]
The leaders of the Mazdoor Trotskyist Party suffered the same kind of persecution during World War II as did the other Trotskyist groups, and many of their leaders were jailed until the end of the conflict. M. G. Purdy was kept in prison after most of the rest were released under suspicion that he had been involved in a mutiny on a Royal Indian Navy ship in Bombay early in 1946. He was finally deported as an undesirable alien. Leadership of his group devolved on Mallikarjun Rao of Hyderabad and S. B. Kolpe and M. D. Parija of Bombay.[44]
A second group which did not join in the formation of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party was the Bolshevik Mazdoor Party. It had local units in Bombay, Madras, and some other centers. It published an English-language periodical, Bolshevik Leninist, and a Hindi organ, Age Kadam (Forward March), which continued to be published during and right after the war. In December 1945 the BMP absorbed a split-away group from the Bolshevik-Leninist Party. The BMP claimed to be affiliated with the Fourth International, although there seems to be little evidence that such was in fact the case.
The Bolshevik Mazdoor Party was strongly opposed to entrism. In April 1946, its periodical Bolshevik Leninist criticized the "left petty bourgeois dream of the BLPI to consolidate the left forces in the Congress, and asked 'is it a glimpse of its own character? Is it a continuation of leaning towards the easygoing elements like doctors, professors, and tall-talkers? . . the character of the maneuver shows unmistakable signs of a petty bourgeois leadership in a hurry to manoeuvre with the leftists to achieve sudden balloon-like expansion of the BLP."[45]
The Bolshevik Mazdoor Party and the Mazdoor Trotskyist Party finally merged to establish the Mazdoor Communist Party. Before long this union broke up, however with the elements of the former Bolshevik Mazdoor Party breaking away again to join the Socialist Party (Marxist) after it was established by those who had originally been In the Bolshevik-Leninist Party.[46]
By the mid-1950s there thus existed three groups in India claiming to be Trotskyist. These were the Communist League of India, the Socialist Party (Marxist), and the Mazdoor Communist Party. None of these, apparently, was affiliated with either the International Secretariat of the Fourth International or the International Committee of the Fourth International, the two factions into which International Trotskyism was then split.
Reunification
In 1955-56 moves were undertaken which were finally to result in the merger of the three Trotskyist parties into a single organization. In the beginning the objective, undertaken on the initiative of R. K. Khadilkar, an M.P. and leader of the Peasants and Workers Party, was the unification of all of the "non-Stalinist, non-reformist groups." It had the support of the leader of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, Tridib Chaudhury (also an M.P.) and of the three Trotskyist factions. However, soon after the negotiations had begun Tridib Chaudhury went to Goa, still under Portuguese control, to help those who were fighting for annexation to India, and was jailed for eighteen months. As a consequence further unity negotiations were postponed until after the 1957 elections.
As a result of those elections the broader unity negotiations came to nothing. The Peasants and Workers Party was virtually wiped out in the election, with the result that Khadilkar joined the Congress Party and became a deputy minister in the Nehru government.
Meanwhile the Trotskyists had already begun cooperating among themselves. S. B. Kolpe had begun to put out a periodical in Bombay, New Perspective, which apparently published articles by members of all three groups. After the collapse of the broader unity talks the three Trotskyist groups sought to bring about their own unification.[47]
Success was finally achieved at a conference from May 31 to June 2, 1958, at which the Revolutionary Workers Party was established. The new party was a merger of the Socialist Party (Marxist), the Communist League, and the Mazdoor Communist Party.[48]
Delegates were present from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bombay, Gujarat, Saurashtra, Madras, Andhra Pradesh, and West Bengal. The meeting adopted a program, a constitution, and a statement of policy. It chose Murlidhar Parija of Bombay, who was at the same time general secretary of the United Trade Union Congress of Bombay, as its general secretary. S. B. Kolpe was chosen as editor of the party periodical, New Perspective, which he had already been editing for some time. Among the other leading trade union figures of the new party were Raj Narain Arya of Kanpur and Somendra Kumar of Bihar.
A report on the founding conference of the RWP published soon afterwards commented: The statement of policy analyzed the situation in India since the "Independence Deal" of 1947, and showed that not a single basic problem of the masses has yet been tackled by the Congress government, nor can be solved within the existing socioeconomic framework. It characterized the major Left, such as the PSP, SSP (Lohia), and CPI, as basically reformist in outlook and as major obstacles to the revolutionary mobilization of the masses against capitalism. It defines the foremost organizational task facing the Indian revolutionaries as the unification of all genuine Marxist forces, now lying scattered in different parts of India, into a single organization, and it expresses the firm conviction that both the objective and subjective factors in the revolutionary process, which are now fast maturing both nationally and internationally, will inexorably drive all these forces ultimately to unite. The RWPI will strive to bring about a speedy consummation of this process.[49]
The RWPI joined the International Secretariat of the split Fourth International. This was the first time since 1948 that the Indian Trotskyists had been affiliated internationally. Their membership in the Fourth International had lapsed when they joined the Socialist Party in 1948, and when the Socialist Party (Marxist) had been established in 1954 it did not seek affiliation with either of the two factions of the FI.
When the three Indian Trotskyist groups established their Unity Committee in 1957 they were approached by Ernest Mandel of the International Secretariat with an eye to their joining the IS. At that time, however, they turned down Mandel's overtures, since they basically sympathized with the International Committee's policies. According to R. N. Arya, "they insisted most on unity in the world movement." Perhaps as a consequence of that desire for unity they finally decided to join the forces of the International Secretariat when the new party was established in 1958.[50]
Entrism Once Again
The Revolutionary Workers Party did not last for long. Once more the Indian Trotskyists attempted to carry out the entrist strategy, this time with one of the two factions into which the Revolutionary Communist Party was divided, that led by Sudhin Kumar.
Gour Pal has written of the beginning of this new entrist experiment:
In 1960 the RCP{K) held its All India Conference in Howrah town, which was quite a sizable gathering, since the Revolutionary Workers Party...that just merged with it, attended the conference in strength... It is queer that the same Stalinist position about peaceful coexistence with capitalism and socialism in one country was accepted, although all the members of the Revolutionary Workers Party, who merged, and attended the conference were avowed Trotskyists, they were the majority of the combined party and they (RWP) claimed that the merger took place on the basis of an agreed program. . Sudhin Kumar was elected party secretary. Five CC members were elected from the ex-RWP members by agreement. In the next general election in 1962, Anadi Das and Kanai Pal (ex-RWP) were nominated by the RCP(K) for Assembly seats of Howrah Central and Santipur, respectively, and both were elected.[51]
The end of this new entrist phase of Indian Trotskyism came as a consequence of the Chinese invasion of India in September 1962 and the reaction of the RCP(K) to that event, The Central Committee of the party adopted a resolution in which it proclaimed that "Peking must not be allowed to develop chauvinism on both sides of the border, with impunity, and hence, must be resisted by Nehru's army, by all means with RCP's full fledged backing." As a consequence of this resolution most of the former RWP leaders and members appear to have resigned from the RCP(K).[52]
The Socialist Workers Party
A new national Trotskyist party was not established until August r 965. It was principally the group in Bombay led by S. B. Kolpe who took the initiative to call a conference in that city which resulted in the establishment of the Socialist Workers Party.[53] Among those attending in addition to Kolpe were Shanta Ben Joshi, Bastant Joshi, and Muralidhar Parija, who was elected general secretary of the new party.[54] Kolpe became editor of Marxist Outlook, the SWP's periodical in Bombay.[55] In 1967, after Gour Pal, formerly a leader of the Revolutionary Communist Party, joined the SWP, he undertook to help Kolpe expand the periodical from a magazine appearing every two months to "an agitation propaganda fortnightly." Among those who soon became members of the new party there were a number of editors of political journals published in the Hindi, Bengali, and Urdu languages.[56]
During its early years the SWP was joined by several trade union leaders in the Bombay, Gujarat, and West Bengal areas who had formerly belonged to the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the original Maoist group which had broken with the Communist Party of India at the time of the Chinese invasion. These included leaders of textile workers and miners, among others. In West Bengal the party also recruited a number of leaders of peasant and agricultural laborers organizations, composed of members of the CP(M) and of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, among others, who led important strikes of their members in the 1968-70 period in the face of strong opposition from the United Front state ministry.[57]
The Second National Conference of the SWP took place in Baroda (Gujarat) early in February 1968. Gour Pal has written that "the conference finalized a draft program, and took a unanimous stand on various national and international questions, and elected a Central Committee, a Central Secretariat, and Magan Desai as Secretary of the party.[58]
Magan Desai wrote of this conference that "the party has pledged its defence of the property relations in the Soviet Union and other workers states, including Cuba, but has characterized the regimes in Soviet Russia, China, and the East European states, etc., as bureaucratically degenerated workers states. It has called for political revolutions against the bureaucratic privileges and for the revival of workers' democracy in these countries."
Desai also noted that the conference adopted a resolution on "non-Congress governments in several Indian states. It "strongly criticized their opportunist multi-class character and has said that the so-called non-Congress governments—even the left-dominated governments in West Bengal (now dismissed) and in Kerala—have subserved the interests of the capitalist class and played the role of the defenders of bourgeois property relations. . . . The resolution has called for the creation of a united front of workers and peasants parties and for the creation of new organs of mass struggle in the form of workers councils and peoples committees in West Bengal."[59]
Although the SWP condemned the collaboration of self-proclaimed revolutionary parties such as the RCP and the RSP in "bourgeois" governments, neither did it support the more or less spontaneous guerrilla reaction of the Naxalbari dissidents from the Communist Party (Marxist) which arose in the late 1960s. Marxist Outlook of July 1967 said of these movements: "We would....warn the Left CPI militants leading the Naxalbari movement that an isolated peasant struggle cannot succeed unless it is linked with the movements of the working class in the neighboring plantations and in urban areas. The immediate necessity for them is to break decisively with the hypocritical class collaborationist politics of their leaders. Every effort must be made to extend the struggle to other parts of West Bengal and to forge a united front of workers and peasants in their common struggle against the bourgeois state."[60]
At the time of the Second Conference Desai reported, the SWP had "functioning units in the states of West Bengal, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Kerala. He observed that "the party has built a substantial base in the trade union and peasant movement in several states of India."[61]
In terms of political tactics the SWP followed various policies in the different states. For instance, during the early years of its work in Kerala "the SWP functioned as part of the Marxist League of Kerala, which included dissidents from the CPI(M), the CPI, and the Revolutionary Socialist Party..." However, it was announced early in 1969 that "Now the SWP has decided to act on its own in the state." It also decided at the same time to establish a party youth group, the Young Communists (Trotskyists).[62]
In Bombay, on the other hand, according to Gour Pal, the SWP "developed very close fraternal ties with the Maharashtra unit of the Revolutionary Socialist Party of India... and the Lal Nishan Party [a Maharashtra-based leftist party]. . . RSP, Maharashtra unit more or less fully endorses Fourth International and SWP theoretical position and program. . . SWP had in 1969 set up a coordination committee of the three parties, which worked for about a year, undertaking seminars demonstrations, study classes, and other activities jointly, including camps...."[63]
The first years of the SWP were marked, as a June 1969 resolution of the party's Central Committee proclaimed, by "a great deal of 'confusion' in left politics. But one positive gain is the open debate now taking place in every left party . . . about the tactics and strategy of the revolutionary movement."
The Central Committee of the SWP added that "the present 'ideological confusion' in the working-class movement can be resolved only in the process of new united struggles of workers, the rural poor, and the radical youth which will throw up a revolutionary leadership guided by the experiences of the Fourth International, which has kept alive the banner of revolutionary Marxism-Leninism in spite of the betrayals of the traditional Stalinist and social-democratic parties on a global scale."[64]
Usually the SWP did not participate in electoral politics with its own candidates. However in state elections in Kerala in 1970 it did run one candidate for the state parliament, M. A. Rappai "a former sawmill worker and now a full-time unionist..."[65] The party issued an "election special" issue of its Malayalam-language periodical Chenkrathir and the candidate conducted a walking tour of his constituency covering some 360 miles. The SWP candidate received 362 votes and was not elected.[66]
At the time of the revolt in East Pakistan in December 1971 which brought Bangladesh into existence, the SWP West Bengal State Committee adopted a resolution in support of the movement for Bangladesh independence. It began "We congratulate and extend our unconditional support to the.... Liberation Forces on their heroic struggle." Then, after charging that "the Indian rulers will not allow any other government than a capitalist one to exist in Dacca," the statement said that "we hope that the Liberation Forces, remembering the mirth and jubilation of the people during 14th August 1947...and the grim aftermath, will march forward to a Red Bangladesh. This will immediately pave the way for a United Socialist Bengal culmination into a Socialist Revolution in the entire Indian subcontinent."[67]
The Communist League of India
The Third National Conference of the Socialist Workers Party met in Bombay during the first week of January 1972. It was attended by delegates from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, Kerala, and Maharashtra. Livio Maitan was there representing the United Secretariat of the Fourth International. The most important decision of the conference was to change the name of the organization to Communist League of India (CLI). A new Central Committee was charged with redrafting the program of the party. Magan Desai was reelected Secretary of the Communist League.[68] The name of the party's central organ was changed from Marxist Outlook to Red Spark.[69]
The most important political document adopted at the conference of the Communist League was one dealing with the emergence of Bangladesh. This long document denounced the failure of the Communist Party of India and Communist Party of India (Marxist) in West Bengal to give adequate support to the Bangladesh independence government. It also said that the Indian government's military intervention and consequent war with Pakistan resulted in "a war between two bourgeois states," and "had its own reactionary features. The military support extended by the Indian government to the freedom struggle in Bangladesh was motivated by the class interest of the bourgeoisie in extending its market and creating a new sphere of investment."
The CLI document also denounced the actions of both the Soviet government in supporting India and the Chinese regime in backing Pakistan. It ended with a list of ten "transitional demands" which included immediate withdrawal of Indian troops from Bangladesh, immediate elections "to choose a new Constituent Assembly to draft a socialist constitution for Bangladesh," agrarian reform, nationalization "of all means of production, including land," and "linking up the struggle of the masses of West Bengal with the struggle of East Bengal to establish a United Socialist Bengal.[70]
Soon after the Communist League convention the government called provincial elections throughout the country. The CLI issued an election manifesto on this occasion. It proclaimed that "thanks to the class-collaborationist politics of the traditional left parties they have destroyed the image of an independent working-class challenge to the bourgeois Congress. The masses have lost faith in the bourgeois electoral processes. . . . Under the circumstances, small revolutionary forces represented by parties like the Communist League—the Indian section of the Fourth International—can serve no positive purpose by wasting their limited material resources to fight a costly electoral campaign setting up their own candidates." However, it did call on its followers to "enter the campaign in critical support of the candidates of the working-class parties..."
This electoral proclamation ended by saying, "We reject the theory that socialism can be achieved through bourgeois parliamentary processes. Socialism can be achieved only through revolutionary mass struggles of workers and peasants who must eventually seize control of all means of production, including land, factories, mines, plantations, and all credit as well as financial institutions, through their elected councils. The immediate task is to combat the anti-democratic and repressive measures of the bourgeois state through united struggles of workers and peasants around their immediate social and economic demands, linked with the objective of an anti-capitalist socialist revolution in India."[71]
After the overwhelming victory of Indira Gandhi's Congress Party in the assembly elections, the Communist League passed a resolution assessing the results: "The revolutionary Marxists in India should not be swept away by the seemingly spectacular sweep of the Congress at the polls. They should not have any illusions regarding the ability of the bourgeois state to overcome the present economic crisis...." The resolution warned that "there is every reason to believe that repression by the bourgeois state will be unleashed against mass organizations despite the massive victory of the Congress...."[72]
On June 25, 1975, the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, faced with a deteriorating economic situation and considerable political turbulence, proclaimed an "emergency," virtually establishing a dictatorship. At that point the United Secretariat of the Fourth International issued a document entitled "Rend the State of Emergency in India!" It noted the "attacks against working-class parties like the CPI(M). . . and the banning of several Maoist organizations." It did not mention any action being taken by the Gandhi government against the Communist League, perhaps because the Trotskyist group was not of sufficient significance to have the regime move against it.[73]
An interview "with an Indian Trotskyist" published in January 1976 stressed that the proclamation of the emergency was just the culmination of a number of other repressive measures taken by the Gandhi government. It also criticized the support of the emergency by the pro-Soviet Communist Party of India, and the collaboration of the CPI(M) with conservative opponents of the emergency, in the so-called Janata Morcha. The Indian Trotskyist then noted that "in Baroda there was an example of a principled revolutionary approach, carried out by the Communist League. . . When processions were called earlier against the emergency the Communist League participated, but as a separate bloc, clearly distinguished from the Janata Morcha, and chanting its own independent anti-capitalist slogans. When the municipal elections were called in Baroda, the Communist League was able to field two candidates for municipal council, both of them militant workers participating in the workers committees in their factory that has been fighting against the bonus cuts."[74]
The Communist League was considerably weakened during the emergency period. R. N. Arya has noted that both S. B. Kolpe and former CL general secretary M. Rashid left the party early in 1976, and that six months later Arya himself and Mahendra Singh "also left the party as they felt that the new party had cut itself off completely from the old traditions."[75]
When elections were finally called in March 1977, putting an end to the emergency, the Communist League issued an election manifesto proclaiming that "We the Trotskyists of the Communist League, the Indian section of the Fourth International, view this election as a main battle of the bourgeois parties to sidetrack the consciousness and movement of the working class and the toiling masses." It then listed a series of demands for ending all repressive measures taken before and during the emergency, as well as for liberalization of labor legislation and measures to reduce the cost of living. It also called for "nationalization of all means of production, transport, and communication without compensation under workers control," and "speedy implementation of land reforms through and under the control of democratically elected poor peasants committees."
The Communist League also ran one candidate for parliament in the 1977 election, in Baroda. He was Tlaker Shah, a member of the League's Central Committee, and in charge of the organization's trade union activities.[76]
Although the CLI thus maintained a completely "independent" position in the 1977 election a number of those who had recently left the party did not. Arya has noted that "Trotskyists like Raj Narain Arya and Mahendra Singh in [Uttar Pradesh], Rashid in Kerala, and C. Gomez in Bombay supported the anti-Congress candidates on the slogan of defeating the Emergency regime. They exposed the Janata Front as an equally bad capitalist combination but for the time being committed to fighting the Emergency rule. They kept themselves united to the Janata wagon and when the mass struggles of workers broke out, they were always in them."[77]
R. N. Arya had developed sympathy for and contacts with the Militant Group of Trotskyists in Great Britain. He left the Communist League in 1977. However, instead of trying to organize a separate Trotskyist organization, he decided in 1980 to enter the Revolutionary Socialist Party.[78]
When in January 1980 new elections resulted in the restoration to power of Indira Gandhi and her faction of the old Congress Party, the CLI issued a statement warning that the Gandhi government would probably dissolve all state governments not controlled by the Gandhi Congress faction. The statement added that "While the CL has never placed any political confidence in these governments or extended its support to them since they are capitalist governments administering a capitalist state, the CL opposes any move by Gandhi to dissolve or oust them. The CL urges all left parties and civil liberties groups and mass and class organizations to initiate a mass movement to oppose such sinister moves. The CL also opposes and condemns the preventive detention ordinance and any move to enact such draconian measures."[79]
The Communist League did not get around to holding another national conference (officially referred to as its fourth) until November 1982. That was held at Santipur in West Bengal, and there were representatives from Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Bihar as well as "good participation from West Bengal."[80] Arya has sketched the state of Trotskyism in India by the middle of 1983:
(The] Communist League still continues as a small group in Baroda, Bombay, Samastipur (Bihar), and Calcutta. Some of those who have left CL have formed BLC Bolshevik Leninist Group) mainly centered in Bombay and Kerala. They stand by the Fourth International, CL is the official section of the FI. Another group of Trotskyists functions at Bangalore which follows the Militant tendency of the U.K. Labour Party... U.P. Trotskyists Arya and Mahendra Singh have joined RSP to work for the consolidation of all the forces of socialist revolution.[81]
The Revolutionary Communist Party
One of the two Indian far left parties which is widely regarded by other leftists as being "Trotskyist" but which in fact never belonged to the Fourth International or any of its factions is the Revolutionary Communist Party. This group was organized in August 1934 by Soumeynora Nath Tagore, a delegate to the Sixth Congress of the Comintern in 1928 who had opposed the lurch to the Third Period Left being urged by Stalin's associates. The organization originally took the name Communist League.[82] At the Third Conference of the organization in 1938 the name was changed to Revolutionary Communist Party of India (RCPI).[83]
During its first years the Revolutionary Communist Party carried out a wide range of organizing activities. It established unions among unorganized workers and at the same time worked within some of the established labor organizations, it played an important part in the growing student movement, and it had some activity among the peasants.[84]
Although originally established in reaction against the sectarianism of the Commtern's Third Period, the RCPI was equally opposed to the Popular Frontism which succeeded the Third Period. The significance of this in India was its strong and continuing opposition to the Indian National Congress Party. This was seen most particularly in its opposition to the Congress Socialist Party, the leftwing group formed within the Congress. The RCPI leader S. N. Tagore published books denouncing both the Popular Front policy in general and the Congress Socialist Party in particular.[85]
Shortly before the outbreak of World War II, which it was felt would bring persecution of such a group as the RCPI, the party developed a three-tier leadership group, the top level of which, composed of its best-known figures, would continue open activity until picked up by the police. A second level of less conspicuous leaders would work clandestinely, and a still lower group, not publicly identified with the party, would take over party leadership if the underground leaders were also arrested. As expected, S. N. Tagore and others were jailed under the Defence of India Act soon after the war began, when the RCPI came out with a statement denouncing the conflict as "an imperialist predatory war for redistribution of the colonial world, and calling on impoverished nations not to help the warmongers. ..."[86]
The RCPI strongly supported the Quit India movement launched in August 1942 by the Indian National Congress Party, but sought to turn it into revolutionary rather than passive resistance channels. This brought even wider arrests of the leaders of the party, most of whom were not released until the end of the war.[87]
As independence approached after World War II the Revolutionary Communist Party began to organize workers and peasants "panchayats," embryonic soviets, in preparation for struggle against the new Congress-controlled government. It developed the idea that on the basis of these groups—which it invited other far left political groups to join and help build—an ultimate Workers and Peasants Constituent Assembly could be established to organize a Socialist India.
On this general position there was no major dissension within the party. However, in 1948 the RCPI split between those supporting Pannalal Das Gupta, who had become party secretary general during the war and had a background as an activist in terrorist organizations before joining the RCPI, and the opponents of Pannalal under the leadership of S. N. Tagore. The Pannalal group extended the panchayat idea to the point of beginning to plan for an immediate violent seizure of power, and collected arms for that purpose. The Tagore faction regarded such activities as adventurist and refused to countenance them. The RCPI National Conference of April 1948 saw the party split into two separate groups, each using the party name.[88]
This split in the RCPI marked the beginning of the decline of the Revolutionary Communist Party. It continued to be divided into the RCPI (Tagore) and the RCPI (Pannalal), the latter becoming the RCPI (Kumar) when Sudhin Kumar succeeded Pannalal Das Gupta as its leader. As we have already noted, the Trotskyists merged for a short while in the early 1960s with the RCPI (Kumar), but abandoned the merger when it endorsed the Nehru government at the time of the Chinese invasion of India in 1962.
Arya, writing in mid-1983, has noted that "Panna Dasgupta himself became a supporter of Nehru when he was released from jail in the early sixties. Whatever remains of this group is led by its lifelong secretary Sudhin Kumar, now a minister in the seven-party Left Front Ministry of West Bengal."
Arya added that "the other group continued to be led by Tagore....Tagore has passed away and his group is now split into two parts. One is led by former MLA Anadi Das, and the other by Bibhuti Bhushan Nandi. Anadi group is opposed to the Left Front government of West Bengal. Nandi group supports the Left Front but is out of it. Both seek to trace the path shown by Tagore."[89]
The Ideological Position of the RCPI
It is clear that S. N. Tagore and those who followed him in the RCPI, felt a certain political kinship with Leon Trotsky and the movement which he organized. They believed in the Theory of the Permanent Revolution; they believed in the need for a new Fourth International. However, they continued to have serious differences with Trotsky, and had no great respect for those who succeeded him in the leadership of the Fourth International.
In 1944 Tagore published a book, Permanent Revolution, where he argued that "the theory of Permanent Revolution has two aspects, one relating to the revolution of a particular country, the immediate passing over from the bourgeois democratic phase of the revolution to the socialist revolution. The second aspect....is related to the international tasks of the revolution.... which makes it imperative for the first victorious revolution to operate as the yeast of revolution in the world arena... Trotsky became the target of Stalin's vengeance only so far as he drew the attention of the communists throughout the world to the betrayal of world revolution (Permanent Revolution) by Stalin."
Tagore also argued that "the theory of P.R. is not Trotskyism....Lenin was just as much a champion of the P.R. as Trotsky was, and with a much more sure grasp of revolutionary reality. But Trotsky certainly had done a great service to revolutionary communism by drawing out attention over and over again to the theory of Permanent Revolution since Lenin died in 1924, and the sinister anti-revolutionary reign of Stalin started. In the face of the next diabolical machineries of vilification and terror of Stalinocracy, he kept the banner of revolutionary communism flying in the best traditions of Marx and Lenin. Therein lies Trotsky's invaluable service in the theory of Permanent Revolution. So far as the Theory itself is concerned, it is pure and simple revolutionary Marxism."[90]
Whatever regard the RCPI leaders had for Trotsky they did not extend to his Indian followers. Thus, a thesis "The Post War World and India" passed by the Fourth Party Conference of the RCPI, in December 1946, in which was put forward the idea of establishing embryonic soviets throughout the country, commented that "objections to our slogan 'from Panchayats' have been voiced from different quarters. The Indian Trotskyists, who are far away from all that Trotsky really represents, have dubbed our slogan ....as ultraleftism and adventurism...."[91]
In his book Tactics and Strategy of Revolution, published in 1948 when the Bolshevik-Leninist Party was entering the Socialist Party, S. N. Tagore was even harsher towards the Indian Trotskyists. He wrote of "those panicky petitbourgeois capitulators, who so long had paraded themselves as Trotskyists, without having anything to do with the revolutionary teachings of Trotsky, had in the past clung to Trotsky more like religious devotees clinging to their guru, than as revolutionary communists accepting things after critical analysis. They moreover have chosen some mistaken tactics of Trotsky as a justification for their abject capitulation, abandoning all his great teachings on ideological and strategic lines of revolution...."[92]
In the abstract at least the RCPI favored establishment of a new revolutionary International. Thus, the Fifth Congress of the RCPI (Tagore) passed a resolution in 1948 which argued that "since organizing world revolution is possible only through a world party, the development of a revolutionary International is one of the most essential tasks of the revolutionary proletariat of the world in general, and our party in particular.[93]
At its Sixth Congress the RCPI, (Tagore) in February-March 1960 passed a resolution which stated:
Our task in the international field is to work for the emergence of this revolutionary world force.. . To unite and work for the creation of a new International, on the basis of the revolutionary internationalist programme of Lenin and Trotsky....The RCPI hopes for the creation of such an international by mutual exchange of views with the Fourth Internationalist groups in the countries of Europe, America, and China, with the Independent Communist Party of Germany, the Leninist Internationalist Party of France, the Proletarian Revolutionary Party of Tan Malaka in Indonesia, and other anti-Stalinist groups in various countries, professing revolutionary internationalist policy.[94]
One significant point on which the RCPI clearly disagreed with the Fourth International was in its analysis of the nature of the Soviet state and other Stalinist regimes which had appeared after World War II. At its Sixth Conference the RCPI (Tagore) proclaimed: "The Soviet state is no longer a workers' state; it is a state of labor bureaucracy.... antagonistic to the laboring masses in Russia and abroad With regard to China, "Instead of a proletarian Socialist State, the Stalinist 'New Democracy in China prepares the way for an anti-working-class totalitarian, bureaucratic rule of the Stalinist party...."[95]
At its Seventh Congress in November 1961, the RCPI, (Tagore) expanded on its characterization of the Stalinist states. Its resolution, "Revolutionary Communism—The World and India," declared:
Industrial production in Soviet Russia is not Socialist in character as will be clear from the following: 1. The wealth produced does not go to raise the standard of living of the people, but of the bureaucracy....2. People have no democratic voice and control in the productive system. . . . 3. The wage differential in the Soviet society is on the increase. . . . 4. Moreover, the domain of personal property had been enormously extended by the Stalin Constitution. . . . 5. The bureaucracy enjoys powers and immense privileges. 6. . . In the social and political spheres, inequality and curtailment of freedom prevail. . . . There is no freedom of opinion or the press in Stalin's Russia.[96]
Just as in capitalist society, labor aristocracy signifies the existence of a group of people, which though originating from the working class, has separated itself from the working class, likewise labor bureaucracy signifies in Russia and in such other countries, where proletarian revolution has been successful, the existence of a group of persons who, their proletarian origin notwithstanding, have separated themselves from the class....If all this is true, then doesn't the mere fact of the existence of the state ownership of the means of production and the system of planned economy signify that the state is a workers' state? And more so, when it is clear, that the bureaucracy did not sit idle with expropriating the proletariat politically, but had also introduced and continue to introduce profound deformities in the economic life of the country as well.
The Fourth Internationalists have not, while defending Trotsky's analysis of 1934 that the Soviet Union is a degenerated workers state, advanced a single argument of their own by analyzing the Soviet State as it is today. ....A revolutionary international is of utmost importance for the world proletariat. We had therefore welcomed the establishment of the Fourth International. Though we had our misgivings about the actual organizational structure and strength, we hoped that in time....the initial weakness would be replaced by growing strength. For us, what is of primary importance is the ideological stand of the Fourth International.....Till these fundamental differences are ironed out, our party cannot find its way to affiliate itself with Fourth International.[97]
From its analysis of the nature of the USSR and other Stalinist states, the RCPI in its 1961 resolution also drew a policy conclusion which directly conflicted with the position of the Fourth International. It stated that "in case of a war breaking out between the Stalinist Bloc and the imperialist bloc, we support neither of the blocs.... Victory of Stalinism, in our opinion, will be as great a menace to Socialism as the victory of imperialism."[98]
The Revolutionary Socialist Party
The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) has had an even less clear orientation towards Trotskyist ideas than did the RCPI for many years. However, R. N. Arya, a longtime Trotskyist leader who joined the RSP in 1980 without foreswearing Trotskyism, has said that "this group holds positions which are very akin to Trotskyism, and the Stalinists insist that it is a Trotskyist group."
Arya has described the origins of the RSP. He has written that "another group of Marxist-Leninists to turn away from Stalinism was the group of former revolutionaries members of the Anushilan and Jugantar groups of national revolutionaries and of the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army or Association who studied Marxism-Leninism in the early 1930s when they were in jail, and decided to function independently of the Communist Party and Communist International."[99]
Most of those ex-"terrorists" came out of jail in the late 1900s, and Tridib Chaudhury, the RSP secretary general, had noted that "all of these revolutionaries would have joined the Communist Party on coming out of jail. But the Communist International had, only a little earlier, under the instructions of the Soviet Russia's Communist leader, Stalin, and in the interests of the self-defense of Russia, adopted the policy of alliance and compromise with British and French Imperialism against Germany in Europe and with American Imperialism against Japan in Asia.....Revolutionary Socialists realized that behind this policy of the Communist International stood largely the national interest of Russia..... This policy the revolutionaries could not accept...."[100]
The Revolutionary Socialist Party was organized in March 1940. Arya has noted that "it is obvious that the revolutionaries who founded RSP....had no idea that a Trotskyist organization, Fourth International, had come into existence in September 1938. At that time Fourth International was confined only to some countries of Europe and North America, and consisted of small groups....But to claim that RSP rejected Trotskyism because one or two leaders of the present RSP find fault with some aspect of the theory of Permanent Revolution advanced by Trotsky is not true. Organizationally, RSP never took any decision about Trotskyism. It has rather invited and wooed Trotskyists into its fold. Even those leaders who object to Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution...do not realize that what they follow as Leninism in the light of their own understanding is what Stalinists call Trotskyism, and that Trotskyists themselves claimed Trotskyism to be nothing more than the Marxism-Leninism of the present epoch."[101]
Over the years the Revolutionary Socialist Party has remained the largest of the parties to the left of the Stalinist Communists. They have occasionally been able to elect a handful of members of state legislatures, particularly in Kerala and West Bengal They have also served at least twice in United Left ministries in both states.
Conclusion
For half a century a Trotskyist movement has existed in India. The official Trotskyist organization has never become a major factor even on the far left of Indian politics. Geographically, it has been confined largely to the provinces or states of Bengal, Gujarat, Bombay, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, and, for short periods, Madras. It has had generally unsuccessful experiences with the entrist strategy and has been plagued with the personalism and frequent party switching which seem to be endemic in Indian politics.
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Footnotes
[1] R. N. Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India" (Mimeographed-Type Memo, page 8
[2] Gour Pal: "Indian Trotskyism and the Revolutionary Communist Party," (typed Memo), 1983, page B/I
[3] Letter to the author from R. N. Arya, July 15, 1983
[4] Arya, op. cit., page 8
[5] Letter to the author from R. N. Arya, July 15, 1983
[6] Arya, op. cit., page 8
[7] Pierre Broué: "Notes sur l'Histoire des oppositions et du movement trotskyste en Inde dans la première moitié du XXe Siècle," Cahiers Leon Trotsky, Grenoble, March 1985, page 22
[8] Arya, op. cit., page 8
[9] Broué article, op. cit., page 22
[10] Arya Memo, op. cit., page 8
[11] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/1
[12] Arya Memo, op. cit., page 8
[13] Ibid., page 8, and letter to author from R. N. Arya, July 16, 1983
[14] Sherman Stanley: "Report sur l'Inde (12 mars 1939)," Cahiers Leon Trotsky, Grenoble, March 1985, pages 49-54
[15] Leon Trotsky: Writings of Leon Trotsky (1939-40). Pathfinder Press, New York, 1975, pages 28-34, 422
[16] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/I
[17] Arya Memo, op. cit., page 8
[18] See Cahiers Leon Trotsky, Crenoble, March 1935, pages 62-75
[19] Arya Memo, op. cit., page 8
[20] Ibid., page 8
[21] R. N. Arya: "The History of Trotskyism in India," (Typed Memo), I983, page 15
[22] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/2
[23] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page 8
[24] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/2
[25] Rodolphe Prager (Editor): Les Congrès de la Quatrième Internationale, Volume 2: L'Internationale dans la Guerre (1940-1946), Editions La Breche, Paris, 1981, page 57
[26] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/2
[27] Letter to author from R. N. Arya, July 15, 1983
[28] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/3
[29] Cahiers Leon Trotsky, Grenoble, March 1985, page 110
[30] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page 10
[31] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/2
[32] Prager, op. cit., page 57
[33] Ibid., page 59
[34] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page 10
[35] The New International, New York, January 1946, page 10
[36] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/2
[37] Ibid., page B/3
[38] Ibid., page B/4
[39] Ibid., page B/4
[40] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page 13
[41] Ibid., pages 13-14
[42] Socialist Appeal, Delhi, Early December 1983
[43] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/8
[44] Letter to author from R. N. Arya, July 15, 1983
[45] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/7
[46] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page 14
[47] Ibid., page 14
[48] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page B/8
[49] Quoted in Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page 15
[50] Letter to author from R. N. Arya, July 15, 1983
[51] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page D/79-80
[52] Ibid., page D/80
[53] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page 17
[54] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page C/1
[55] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page 17
[56] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page C/I
[57] Ibid., pages C/I-2
[58] Ibid., page C/I
[59] World Outlook, New York, March 29, 1968, page 275
[60] Quoted in Arya: "History of Trotskyism in India," op. cit., page 29
[61] World Outlook, New York, March 29, 1968, pages 275-276; see also Arya: "History of Trotskyism in India," op. cit., page 27
[62] Intercontinental Press, New York, January 13, 1969, page 25
[63] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page C/3
[64] Intercontinental Press, New York, November 3, 1969, page 982
[65] Intercontinental Press, New York, September 21, 1970, page 77
[66] Intercontinentol Press, New York, November 16, 1970, pages 989-990
[67] Intercontmental Press, New York, January 17, 1972, page 56
[68] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit, page C/3
[69] Arya: "History of Trotskyism in India," op. cit., page 50
[70] Intercontinental Press, New York, Tanuary 31, 1972, pages 110-111
[71] Intercontinental Press, New York, March 6, 1971, page 247
[72] Arya: "History of Trotskyism in India," op. cit., page 31
[73] Intercontinental Press, New York, August 4, 1975, page 1145
[74] Intercontinental Press, New York, January 12, 1970, page 5
[75] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page 22
[76] Intercontinental Press, New York, March 16, 1977, pages 278--280
[77] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op, cit., page 22
[78] Letter to the author from R. N. Arya, February 28, 1983
[79] Intercontinental Press, New York, April 7, 1980, pages 349-350
[80] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page C/3
[81] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit, page 22; see also Arya: "History of Trotskyism in India," op. cit., page 35
[82] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., page D/7
[83] Ibid., page D/13
[84] Ibid., pages D/13-20 and D/33-34
[85] Ibid., pages D/2I--23
[86] Ibid., page D/25
[87] Ibid., pages D/29-32
[88] Ibid., pages D/38-53
[89] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page
[90] Gour Pal Memo, op. cit., pages D/35-36
[91] Ibid., page D/39
[92] Ibid., page D/60
[93] Ibid., page D/57
[94] Ibid., page D/64
[95] Ibid., page D/63
[96] Ibid., page D/65
[97] Ibid., pages D/66-67
[98] Ibid., page D/65
[99] Arya: "Trotskyist Movement in India," op. cit., page 3
[100] Quoted in ibid., page 4
[101] Ibid., page 5
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