Back issues of BCAS publications published on this site are
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other graphics that appear in articles are expressly not to be reproduced other than for personal use. All rights reserved. CONTENTS Vol. 4, No. 1: Winter 1972 Daniel Berrigan - For Saghir Ahmad Feroz Ahmed - The Struggle for Bangladesh Eqbal Ahmad - Notes on South Asia in Crisis Mohan Ram - The Communist Movement in India Mythily Shivaraman - Thanjavur: Rumblings in Tamil Nadu Saghir Amhad - Peasant Classes in Pakistan Kathleen Gough - Saghir Ahmad Kathleen Gough - The South Asian Revolutionary Potential Edward Friedman - China, Pakistan, Bangladesh Richard DeCamp - The GI Movement in Asia David Marr - Vietnamese Sources Communications BCAS/Critical AsianStudies www.bcasnet.org CCAS Statement of Purpose Critical Asian Studies continues to be inspired by the statement of purpose formulated in 1969 by its parent organization, the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars (CCAS). CCAS ceased to exist as an organization in 1979, but the BCAS board decided in 1993 that the CCAS Statement of Purpose should be published in our journal at least once a year. We first came together in opposition to the brutal aggression of the United States in Vietnam and to the complicity or silence of our profession with regard to that policy. Those in the field of Asian studies bear responsibility for the consequences of their research and the political posture of their profession. We are concerned about the present unwillingness of specialists to speak out against the implications of an Asian policy committed to en- suring American domination of much of Asia. We reject the le- gitimacy of this aim, and attempt to change this policy. We recognize that the present structure of the profession has often perverted scholarship and alienated many people in the field. The Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars seeks to develop a humane and knowledgeable understanding of Asian societies and their efforts to maintain cultural integrity and to confront such problems as poverty, oppression, and imperialism. We real- ize that to be students of other peoples, we must first understand our relations to them. CCAS wishes to create alternatives to the prevailing trends in scholarship on Asia, which too often spring from a parochial cultural perspective and serve selfish interests and expansion- ism. Our organization is designed to function as a catalyst, a communications network for both Asian and Western scholars, a provider of central resources for local chapters, and a commu- nity for the development of anti-imperialist research. Passed, 2830 March 1969 Boston, Massachusetts I Conlents , I SOUTH ASIA IN TURMOIL Danie l Berrigan For Saghir Ahmad Feroz Ahmed 2 Eqbal Ahmad 23 Mohan Ram 30 MYthily Shivaraman 45 Saghir Ahmad 60 Kath leen Gough 72 Kath leen Gough 77 EdLJard Friedman 99 Riahard DeCamp 109 David Marr 119 126 128 The Struggle in Bangladesh* Notes on South Asia in Crisis The Communist Movement in India Thanjavur: Rumblings in Tamil Nadu Peasant Classes in Pakistan Saghir Ahmad The South Asian Revolutionary Potential China, Pakistan, Bangladesh The G.I. Movement in Asia Vietnamese Sources Communications Contributors Editors: Mark Selden/Perry Link Book Review I Editor: Marilyn Young Managing Editor: Jon t Livingston Graphias: Steve Hart/Jon Living- , stan Staff for this issue: John Brockett/Michael i l ,.' Gotz/Steve Hart/Mark McCloud/Lee Markiewicz/ Mitch Meisner/Betty Ragan Editorial Board: Rod Aya/Frank Baldwin/Marianne Bastid/Herbert Bix/ , Fred Branfman/Noam Chomsky/John Dower/Kathleen f Gough/Richard Kagan/Huynh Kim Khanh/Alfred I McCoy/Jonathan Mirsky/Victor Nee/Felicia Old father/James Peck/Richard Pfeffer/Franz Schur mann/Yamashita Tatsuo Bulletin Correspondanae: BAl, 9 Sutter Street Room 300, San Francisco, California 94104. Manusaripts: Perry Link, 18 Eustis #2, Cambridge, Mass. 02140, in three copies if possible. Committee of Conaerned Asian Saholars national offiae: Boston CCAS, 146 Sixth Street, Cambridge, Mass. 02139 [through March 1972]. For further ! information please turn to pages 59 and 125. I Bulletin of Conaerned Asian Saholars, Winter 1972, Volume 4, Number 1. Published quarterly I in spring, summer, fall, and winter. $6.00; student rate $4.00; library rate $10.00. ' James Peck, Publisher, 9 Sutter Street, Room 300, San Francisco, CA. 94104. Second i,' class postage paid at San Francisco, California. f A subscription blank appears on page 97. Copyright (c) Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, 1972. Credits for the magnificent photographs of Vietnamese women in the Fall 1971 issue were inadvertently omitted; they were courtesy of Anne Dockery, Liberation News Service. *"The Struggle in Bangladesh" will be available as the next item in the Bulletin Reprint Series, from Glad Day Press, 308 Stewart Ave., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850. [Price not set] BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org The Straggle in Bangladesh by Feroz Ahmed Ever since its creation in 1947, Pakistan has been a geographical absurd ity, with its two parts separated by one thousand miles of unfriendly Indian ter ritory. Greater than the spatial distance was the difference in the social structure, economy and culture. Adherance to a comroon religion, Islam, was never sufficient to make these two dissimilar parts a single nation. But for almost twenty-four years Pakistan weathered all storms and main tained a precarious unity. That unity was finally broken in March 1971 when the West Pakistani military launched an all out war to suppress the movement for regional autonomy in East Pakistan, forcing the region to declare itself an independent People's Republic of Bangladesh. The genocidal attacks of the West Pakistani army against the Ben gali people and the agony of the millions of refugees who were forced to flee to India have now become a familiar story.l While focussing their attention on the massacre and the inhuman conditions of the refugees, the Western media have by and large ignored the roots of the crisis. The most common explanation of the con flict, i.e. traditional hatred between the Bengalis and Punjabis, misses the point entirely. In this brief article I shall attempt to show that the conflict in Pakistan is a synergetic product of the United States' foreign policy operat ing within Pakistan's social structure. Social Structure Basic to the understanding of politi cal developments in any country is the analysis of its social structure. Here I shall not attempt to discuss the economic rationale for the creation of Pakistan,2 but shall begin with the social structure inherited by Pakistan at the time of its creation. The regions which came to constitute the state of Pakistan had traditionally been the suppliers of raw materials to the industries located in other parts of India and in England. East Bengal (or East Pakistan) grew jute, the so-called golden fiber, for West Bengal factories. It did not have a single jute mill of its own. West Pakistan produced wheat and cotton which it exchanged for manu factured goods produced elsewhere. The emerging industrial capitalist class of India was almost totally non-Muslim, and the commercial life of the regions which later became Pakistan was dominated by Hindu and other non-Muslim businessmen. While landlords and peasants in the West were Muslims, in East Pakistan rural life was stratified along religious lines, with almost all landlords being Hindus and almost all rural Muslims being pea sants. The partition and the consequent emi gration of Hindu landlords to India created an enormous power vacuum in East Bengal. The land left behind by the Hindus was redistributed among the pea sants, 52 per cent of whom own their own land, with family farms averaging 3.5 acres. In the urban areas, the Bengali elite consisted of the elements of the decaying Muslim aristocracy, represented by the regional Muslim League. In the absence of an urban bourgeois class and real economic power of the aristocracy, the emerging petty-bourgeoisie, constitu 2 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org 1 ted of small traders, shopkeepers, pro fessional people, teachers and clerks, became the potentially most important class. Culturally, the influence of this class was predominant, but economically it was weak. In West Pakistan, which also lacked a bourgeois class, the absentee land lords became the most powerful class. However, the landlords were not politi cally well-organized and they lacked the capability of running a state which had inherited many modern institutions from the British colonialists. The bureaucracy, which was trained by the British as an instrument of colonial rule, became the most effective political force in its own right. Although this bureaucracy had strong links with the landlord class, the needs of a modern state and the chaotic conditions of the partition enabled it to become a semi-autonomous social force and to fill the vacuum created by the departure of the British. The bureaucracy was drawn almost entirely from the Punjab province and the Urdu speaking refugees who had settled in Sind. The third political force was the military, again British-trained and drawn mainly from the Punjab. But the political influence of the military was limited in the beginning. 3 West Pakistan also received, among its immigrants, traders belonging to the Memon, Bohra and Khoja communities of Gujrat and Bombay who settled in Karachi. These and other commercial elements later transformed themselves into an industrial capitalist class. Because of their small size, narrow community base, and lack of roots in Pakistan, these industrial entre preneurs never asserted themselves as a political force. Their marriage of con venience with the bureaucrats at least ensured them policies supporting their enterprise. Because of the virtual absence of capitalists, feudal landlords, bureau cracy and the military in East Pakistan, the West Pakistani power structure became the national power structure as well, ruling the eastern part with the collabora tion of the dying Muslim aristocracy. Colonization of East Bengal At independence, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of East Pakistan exceeded the GDP of West Pakistan (Table 1). Ed ucation was also more extensive in the East than in the West (Table 2). But given the economic disruption of the partition and the difference in the social structures in East and West Pakistan, in addition to certain advantages of economic infrastructure in West Pakistan, inevitably the industrialization of Pakistan turned the eastern region into a colony of the West and created disparities in economic and social development of the two regions. The process of industrialization in Pakistan began with the investment of capital in cotton textile industries in West Pakistan and jute mills in East Pakistan by the commercial bourgeoisie of West Pakistan. The development of industries in East Pakistan was carried out only to the extent that it benefited the West Pakistani capitalists. It was not simply a profit-making enterprise but an essential condition for the in dustrial development of West Pakistan itself. Availability of certain raw materials, such as cotton; presence of economic infrastructure, such as the sea port of Karachi, railways and roads; location of the central government and financial institutions; and lesser mili tancy of the proletariat offered a more suitable climate for investment in West Pakistan. But such industrialization required importation of capital goods and some essential raw materials. Develop ment of the jute industry in the East by West Pakistani capitalists, therefore, amounted to increasing the capacity of foreign exchange earning, since East Pakistan, producer of more than 80% of the world's jute, had ready-made world markets. In the early years, the export of raw and processed jute accounted for 70% of Pakistan's foreign exchange earning. This foreign exchange was used for the industrialization of West Pakistan. East 3 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Pakistan received only 25-30% of the total imports (Table 3). Thus penetration of West Pakistan-based capital into East Pakistan not only estab lished an antagonistic relationship between the Bengali worker and the West Pakistani capitalist, but it set off a process of draining East Pakistan's resources for the industrial development of West Pakistan. Policies imposed in order to guarantee cheap raw materials for the factories re sulted in the exploitation and increased impoverishment of the Bengali peasants. Such policies were adopted and enforced on behalf of the West Pakistani capitalists by the bureaucracy which was also largely West Pakistani. Not trusting the Bengalis, the West Pakistani capitalists brought along with them West Pakistani managers for their factories, many of them trained in the University of Pennsylvania-initiated business school in Karachi. The members of the Bengali petty-bour geoisie who aspired to have a slice of the industrial cake or to obtain civil and military positions and managerial jobs in industry found the West Pakistani ruling structure and its local allies obstructing their development. Thus all the classes of East Pakistan -- the proletariat, the peasantry and the petty-bourgeoisie - stood in an antagonistic relationship with the West Pakistani power structure and their local collaborators. In addition to the exploitation of Eas t Pakis tan's raw materials and cheap labor, the third important ingredient of classical colonialism -- using the colony as a market for the mother country's manufactures -- was also present from the inception of Pakistan. Table 4 shows the relative values of exports of one region to the other, with West Pakistan consist ently having a favorable balance of trade. With the industrialization of West Pakis tan, the need for the captive market in East Pakistan grew more acute, and manu factured goods began to occupy a much larger share of the exports to East Pakistan. The pattern of industrial de velopment was based on the assumption that the East Pakistani market would consume a significant part of West Pakistani manufactures, since these high-cost pro ducts could not compete in the world mar ket. Cotton textiles, which constituted the largest single item in West Pakistan's exports to East Pakistan, faced stiff competition in the world market. On the other hand, the largest item in East Pakistan's list of exports to the West was tea, which is a popular item of consumption in West Pakistan but which could always find a place in the world market. In fact, in recent years Pakistan had drastically curtailed her exports of tea, leaving the market largely to two neighboring countries, India and Ceylon. 4 Thus in the context of Pakistan's given social structure, economic p r o g r e s ~ amounted to tightening West Pakistan's power structure and perpetuating further exploitation of East Pakistan. The only way to break this vicious cycle was to redefine the social relationships and to organize production along socialist lines. That was the only guarantee of national unity. But such a program could not pos sibly be conceived by the exploiting classes. They chose a path which only aggravated the existing relationships between the two regions. Imperialism from Without Promotes Colonialism from Within The colonization of East Bengal was inherent in the power vacuum created by the partition, especially in the absence of an indigenous bourgeois class, and the exigencies of capitalist development in West Pakistan. But capitalism itself could not have experienced such an un bridled growth had not an external ele ment been introduced into Pakistan's political dynamics and into the relation ship between its two parts. The celebrated "robber barons" of West Pakistan would have faced competiton from, and yielded some ground to, the emerging bourgeoisie in Bengal had the rules of "free enterprise" and competi tive capitalism prevailed. After all, West Pakistani entrepreneurs were not so invincible in the beginning as to be 4 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org able to impose monopolistic control over East Pakistan, despite the support they received from the all-powerful bureau cracy. The emergence of A.K. Khan, who served as a minister in Ayub Khan's first cabinet, and a few other indus trialists in Bengal was an indication of the possibilities of entrepreneurship that existed in East Pakistan. But West Pakistan's capitalists were not a "national bourgeoisie" whose growth and prosperity would depend entirely on the exploitation of national resources and domestic savings. They sought colla boration with foreign capital in order to increase their fortunes and were willing to offer benefits to the im perialist powers at the expense of the people of Pakistan. Fortunately for them, the United States, the leading money lender since World War II, was actively seeking Cold War allies and was eager to provide economic and military "assistance" to third world ruling groups willing to collaborate with her. The Pakistani rulers seized this opportunity and in 1951 began to receive economic aid - mainly grants in the beginning -- from the U.S. By 1954, Pakistan was firmly in the orbit of the United States, having signed a mutual security treaty and joined the Southeast Asian Treaty Organization (SEATO). In 1955, it also became a member of another American pact, the Baghdad Pact (renamed later as the Central Treaty Organization or CENTO), with Iran, Turkey and Iraq as its allies. American military aid began rolling into Pakistan, amounting to $1.5-2.0 billion by 1969. 5 As part of her obligation to the U.S., the Pakistan government allowed America to build a military base near Peshawer, and to use its civilian airfields for espionage flights, including the ill-fated U-2 plane which was shot down in the Soviet Union, causing a major international crisis. Pakistan's leaders repeatedly assured the U.S. of their complete alle giance. In a 1961 address to the U.S. Congress, Pakistan's then-President Ayub Khan said, "if there is real trou ble, there is no country in Asia where you will be able to put your foot in. The only people who will stand by you are the people of Pakistan. ,,6 Although U.S. economic aid, like its military aid, was designed to maintain "a position of influence and control around the world, ,,7 the economic benefits to the U.S. were not unimportant. With its aid program as an entering wedge, the U.S. expanded its share of Pakistan's imports from 6% in 1952 to as much as 40% in the early sixties. Aid as an instrument of economic imperialism has been treated extensively by many scholars, including Magdoff 8 and Alavi. 9 What we are mainly concerned with here is the effect of foreign economic and military aid on political developments in Pakistan, especially the relationship between East and West Pakistan. Economic Aid By 1969 the United States had pro vided $3 billion in grants and loans - mainly loans in the later years -- for Pakistan's economic development. lO Among the many strings attached to U.S. aid was the explicit guideline to encourage "private enterprise." For this purpose US advisors under Harvard's Development Advisory Service (n.A.S.) were sent to Pakistan to influence the policies of the Planning Commission and other economic decision-making agencies. ll The U.S. aid mission in Pakistan played no small role in initiating economic policies for Pakistan. 12 In the interest of Pakistan's robber barons, Pakistan's bureaucrats -- and later military offi cers as well -- followed American advice. So faithfully did the Pakistani rulers abide by the U. S. advice that one of the top advisors to Pakistan had this to say about her development. Po liaies have been framed to assUY'e that the government intervenes in the economy when such intervention is in theory luhile Zeaving in private handS decisions according to shouZd be left to private initiative. 13 (Emphasis added) 5 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org PakUtan's dependence on foreign economic aid was so colossal that 35% of her first Five-year plan, 50% of her second plan and 26% of the third plan was supported by external loans and grants. The lower percentage in the last plan does not indicate relative self sufficiency; it was necessitated by strains in the Pakistan-U.S. alliance as a result of the Sino-Pakistan "friend ship." Pakistan's economic success was heralded throughout the capitalist world, and Pakistan was often cited as the "show-case" of non-communist development. 14 According to Professor Edward Mason, foreign aid was the single most important factor in Pakistan's economic growth. 15 But a model of economic development which envisaged growth through the agency of a handful of robber barons was bound to lead to contradictions and to negate the limited gains already achieved. As ~ result of the capitalist model followed by Pakistan, 20 fandlies came to control 80% of the banking, 70% of the insurance and 66% of the indus trial assets of Pakistan. 16 The gulf in income created by such accumulation of wealth, the disruption of traditional life, and the consequent alienation of the masses found their expression in the massive countrywide upsurge that lasted for five months in 1968-69 and overthrew Ayub Khan's dictatorship. The volcano was tranquilized by the imposition of martial law and the pro mise of free elections. But the momen tum of economic growth lost in 1968 has not been regained since. 17 These developments not only intensi fied the class struggle but aggravated already existing regional strains. The robber barons were all West Pakistan:f.; given their preference to invest in West Pakistan, the growth of this class alOOunted to increased disparity between the two regions. By the end ~ f the notorious "decade of development" (1958-68), West Pakistan's GDP exceeded that of East Pakistan by 34%, the official disparity in per capita income had become 62%, and the real difference in the average stan dard of living had widened to 126%.18 Table 1 shows the widening economic gap between the two regions over a period of twenty years. The manner in which foreign aid and foreign advice helped in widening this gulf may be stated simply: private enterprise, being mainly West Pakistani, preferred to invest in the more "condu cive" atmosphere of West Pakistan; the public sector followed suit by heavy allocations for the economic infra structure centered in West Pakistan; the growing power of the West Pakistani capitalists and the prevailing philoso phy of economic development prevented higner taxes on the rich. Insufficient public resources meant insufficient allocation to East Pakistan -- even if it had received its due share of public resources. 19 Regional disparities in allocation, and therefore in economic growth, have been given a great deal of attention by East Pakistani economists, who were the supporters of the Awami League. But in view of the fact that the private sec tor was allOOSt entirely West Pakistani 20 and the public sector existed merely to augment the private sector, removal of disparities would have led only to the equalization of the superficial economic indicators, such as GDP and per capita income. It would not have changed the colonial nature of the economy. Military Aid From 1954 Pakistan's status as an active ally of the United States in the Cold War necessitated altering the in ternal balance of forces: F ~ m a political viewpoint, u.s. m i l i t ~ aid has strengthened Pakistan's armed services, ,the greatest stabilizing force in the country, and has encouraged Pakistan to participate in collective defense agreements. 21 The u.s. military assistance converted Pakistan's army into the paramount 6 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org political force in the country -- the great defender of the propertied classes and a deterrent to a possible social revolution. In 1958 the army asserted its hegemony by staging a coup in order to prevent the scheduled general elections. The leader of the coup, General Ayub Khan, later revealed that he had consulted officials in Washington, including CIA chief Allen Dulles, before declaring martial law in Pakistan. 22 In terms of the regional relations in Pakistan, the ascendency of the military amounted to greater enslavement of East Pakistan. Military rule not only pre cluded any possibility of East Pakistan asserting her demographic strength in parliamentary elections, but the army's growth also led to more brutal exploita tion of East Pakistan. The overgrown military establishment consumed as much as 60% of the country's revenue budget. Not only did it consume resources of both regions, but East Pakistan's foreign ex change was vital to its survival, especially after 1965 when it had to buy spare parts and new weapons in the black market. Since military head quarters were located in West Pakistan and 90% of its ranks and almost 100% of its top positions were held by West Pakistanis, East Pakistan was denied a share in the local expenditure of the military and the job opportunities it created. Above all, the military's role as the guardian of capitalism and the pulverizer of the popular will expedited the colonization of East Bengal and diminished the possibilities of peaceful change in the regional relationships. It is evident from the above dis cussion that Pakistan's social structure was predisposed to creating colonial relationships between her two regions. But the possibilities of altering such relations were greatly reduced by the imperialist interference in Pakistan. While the Pakistani approach to economic development based on foreign aid and advice exacerbated the existing contra dictions between the mother country and the colony, the political power of the West Pakistani military, resulting from American military alliances, made it impossible for East Pakistan to secure its rights through parliamentary processes. Cultural Imperialism No discussion of the conflict be tween East and West Pakistan would be complete without refering to East Ben gal's national question. Although linked intimately with the colonial question, the cultural issue by itself was an important source of regional tensions. Geographical and historical condi tions produced enormous cultural differ ences between East and West Pakistan. Whereas the West was greatly influenced by the Middle East, with all of its written languages using modified Arabic scripts, East Pakistan was culturally homogeneous with West Bengal in India with whom it shared a long common history, a rich cultural heritage and a Sanskri t like script. The centrifugal potential of this cultural gap was recognized right away by the ruling classes of West Pakistan who feared that religious unity alone might not be able to maintain "national unity." True to colonial traditions, the West Pakistani rulers embarked upon a campaign of "assimilating" the Bengalis into Pakistan's "mainstream." As a result, Urdu, a language of 3.7% of Pakistanis, was imposed as the sole national language, despite Bengali pro tests. Bengali legislators trying to speak in their own language in the assem bly were warned that they could be tried for treason. The political and economic implications of this cultural imperialism were seen clearly by the Bengali masses whose spontaneous movement in 1947-48 and again in 1952 resulted in the acceptance of Bengali as the second national language of Pakistan. But this was not accomplished without a massacre of the Bengali protesters. 23 7 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org With the emergence of the West Pakistani (more accurately Punjabi) military as the paramount political force, and with the acceleration of capitalist development, the onslaught against Bengali culture and attempts at "Islamization" and "Pakistanization" also intensified. Former President Ayub Khan remarked several times that the Bengalis should be freed from the "evil influence" of the Hindu culture. He even banned the playing of Tagore' s songs on Radio Pakistan because Tagore was Hindu and, therefore, an evil influence. But the Nobel prize-winning Tagore was the national poet of Bengalis, loved and admired by Hindus and Muslims alike. 24 The Bengali masses considered this assault against their culture a weapon in West Pakistan's colonial domination over East Pakistan. In order to set back East Pakistan's cultural development, not only were there official attempts at "national integration," but educational progress in the region was retarded and Bengalis, who were previously more educated than the West Pakistanis, were forced into a secondary position, as can be seen in Table 2. This educa tional disparity was then used to ration alize lower participation of Bengalis in the civil service and the fewer scholarships awarded to Bengalis for advanced studies in foreign countries. In a survey I conducted in 1966-67, I found that barely 20% of Pakistani stu dents enrolled in U.S. universities came from East Pakistani institutions. 25 Colonial ruling classes, in order to exact the support of their own oppressed masses, not only throw them a few crumbs, but try to justify their conquest by in venting and perpetuating myths about the racial and cultural inferiority of the colonized people. The British had already left behind myths about the lethargy, cowardice and untrustworthiness of the Bengalis, to which the West Pakistani rulers added the promiscuity and semi Hinduism of the Bengali Muslims. 1hese stereotypes were readily accepted by a large segment of the West Pakistani intelligentsia who benefitted from dis crimination against Bengalis. 26 One of the favorite right-wing "scholars" of the ruling alliance, I.H.Qureshi, went to the extent of stating that Bengalis were a different (implying inferior) race from the West Pakistanis. The results of this indoctrination of West Pakistanis were reflected in the vengeance, pride and venom with which West Pakistani military officers carried out the carnage in East Bengal after March 25, 1971. Particularly illuminating were the remarks of a Major Kamal who told an American construction worker, interviewed on CBS television, that after the West Pakistanis had conquered East Bengal, each of his soldiers would have a Bengali mistress and that no dogs and Bengalis would be allowed in the exclusive 01it tagong Club. As a member of the West Pakistani "educated class" I can testify that this is by no means an isolated case. Anti-Bengali and anti Hindu bigotry is rampant in West Pakistan and it has now been adopted as the official doctrine of the regime. Political Response The colonial relationship between East and West Pakistan overshadowed the class struggle and united virtually all classes of Bengali society against West Pakistani domination. The urban petty bourgeoisie, because of its commercial, industrial and bureaucratic aspirations, in addition to its self-image as the preserver of Bengali culture, was in the forefront of the struggle. The first manifestation of Bengali resistance appeared in the form of the language movements of 1947-48 and 1952. But the growing political strength of the petty-bourgeoisie was demonstrated most clearly in the 1954 regional elections when the petty-bourgeois United Front, with the Awami League as its major component, gave a crushing defeat to the Muslim League, the party of the West Pakistani landlords, commercial bour geoisie and the bureaucracy, represented in East Pakistan by the dying Muslim aristocracy. The United Front program 8 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org essentially envisaged a bourgeois demo cratic revolution in East Pakistan and reflected the hope of the petty-bour geoisie for a peaceful sharing of the cake with West Pakistani capitalism. By that time, West Pakistani capitalism had not exerted its monopolistic power. East Pakistan still had a slight edge in GDP over West Pakistan. Bengali nationalism had not grown as intense as it did after wards, and class issues were still very much alive. The Communist Party, cam paigning on the basis of class issues, won four of the ten seats it contested. Twenty-two other members of the party and several sympathizers were elected to the assembly on the ticket of the Awami League or as independents. But 1954 was the decisive year in which Pakistan's ruling classes threw in their lot unequivocally with the United States by joining Cold War pacts. The stage was set for the development of West Pakistani monopolies with a tripling of foreign economic aid and for the con version of the military into the para mount political force through massive military assistance from the United States. The election results in East Pakistan provided a serious warning to the West Pakistani rulers. The latter quickly rendered the Bengali challenge ineffective by paralyzing the parliamen tary process with the dismissal of ministries and dissolution of the parlia ment, and by the co-optation of selected leaders of the United Front into the central government. The Communist Party was declared illegal in 1954. With the old aristocracy completely routed and the opportunism of the Bengali petty-bourgeois leadership exposed, there was a growing frustration among the masses and a serious split within the ranks of the petty-bourgeoisie. Not only was the United Front dismembered but a large faction of the Awami League, with its component of Communists, left the party to merge with several nationalist groups in West Pakistan and a. tiny left-liberal organization, the Ganatantri Dal, in East Pakistan, forming the National Awami Party (NAP) in 1957. Besides advocating many bourgeois democratic reforms in both parts of the country, the NAP became the only party to demand Pakistan's withdrawal from SEATO and the Baghdad Pact and pursuance of a non-aligned foreign policy. The growing influence of the NAP threatened the interests of the United States and its West Pakistani collaborators. But before elections could be held in 1958, the military led by General Ayub Khan staged a coup, abrogated the constitution and banned all political parties. The subsequent "decade of development" was a period of unbridled growth of the West Pakistani monopoly capitalists. The Bengalis not only faced more brutal ex ploitation, but were deprived of the forum for airing their grievances, the parliament. The Khan regime did not even consider it necessary to co-opt members of the Bengali petty-bourgeoisie in order to provide an appearance of Bengali representation. With the intensification of economic exploitation and political repression, the Bengali nationalism also grew more virulent, clouding the class issues and leading towards a generalized hatred of West Pakistanis. The Bengali left, represented by the NAP, partly because of its insistence on nationwide social justice and partly due to its cooperation with the regime on account of its "friend ship" with China, alienated itself from the national movement. The NAP was a national party which was concerned not only with the regional grievances of East Pakistan but which sought to end the imperialist grip over Pakistan as a whole. But political consciousness in East Bengal was essentially Bengali nationalist. Any support for the govern ment was, therefore, viewed by Bengalis as collaboration with the enemy. Under Chinese influence, the NAP went beyond according a principled support for the regime's "anti-imperialist" policies; it shied away from confronting the West Pakistani ruling structure on all sub stantive issues. The Awami League (AL) , with its six-point program of regional autonomy,27 became the unchallenged standard-bearer 9 I BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org of the Bengali movement. The AL program was essentially a bill of rights for the Bengali petty-bourgeoisie, but by demand ing the right of negotiating foreign aid and trade for the province, it threatened the vested interests of the West Pakistani military and bourgeoisie. Its program of abolishing the central civil service and replacing it with proportional repre sentation from the provinces ran counter to the interests of the West Pakistani bureaucracy. The Ayub regime responded to that program by jailing several mem bers of the AL and indicting its leader, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, for treason. But in 1968-69, before a judgement against Mujib could be handed down, both parts of Pakistan were shaken by a massive popular upsurge against the regime. The charges against Mujib were dropped, most of the political prisoners were freed, Ayub Khan resigned, and the new military ruler, General Yahya Khan, declared martial law, with a promise of future elections. 28 General Yahya Khan fulfilled his promise by holding elections in December 1970 -- the first direct countrywide elections in Pakistan's history. The Awami League, campaigning on the plat form of its six-point program of regional autonomy, was expected to emerge as the largest single party in the new assembly. But no one expected this regional party to win a simple majority nationwide. A devastating cyclone and tidal wave - this century's worst natural disaster - hit the coastal areas of East Pakistan three weeks before the elections, leaving approximately half a million people dead and another three million marooned. The military government's callous inefficiency in providing relief to the affected people inflamed Bengali passions and dashed the prospects of the political parties which did not support the demand for autonomy. Maulana Bhashani, the octogenerian pea sant leader and the President of the NAP, demanded independence for East Pakistan and boycotted the elections. A corrbination of these factors gave the AL 160 out of 162 contested National Assembly seats in East Pakistan -- a clear majority nation 10 wide in a house of 300 members. The way was now open for the AL to frame a new constitution on the basis of its six point program. But, as the world knows today, the AL was never allowed to frame a constitu tion or to form a government. Instead East Bengal has become a theater of the most gruesome drama of death and destruc tion since Auschwitz. This catastrophic end of Pakistan's honeymoon with democ racy can only be explained in terms of the colonial relations between East and West Pakistan and the semi-Fascist character of the West Pakistani military. On the basis of the analysis of the Awami League's class character and poli tical program, I had asserted earlier that the AL sought the limited objective of controlling East Pakistan's resources, but in order to develop itself into an industrial capitalist class, the Bengali petty-bourgeoisie needed the cooperation of West Pakistani and foreign capital. 29 By implication I suggested that indepen dence was not on the AL's agenda since given the peculiar class structure of East Pakistan, independence could lead to a rapid collapse of the nascent bourgeois political power and pave the way for a possible popular revolution whose objective would be socialism. There is evidence that the Awami League had contemplated a compromise with the West Pakistani power structure. 30 But the absolute majority won by the AL in the assembly, the increasingly uncom promising mood of the Bengali masses 3l and the fear that Bhashani' s demand for independence might destroy the credibility of the AL made it almost impossible for Sheikh Mujib to give in to the West Pakistani rulers during the constitutional talks. The West Pakistani bourgeois poli ticians probably understood the dilemma of the AL and continued to support it despite its insistence on including all of the six points in the constitution. 32 It is not unusual in Pakistani politics to go back on election promises. Probably the West Pakistani capitalists had reason to believe that partnership with the AL BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org would be possible even if the constitu tion were drafted on the basis of the six points. The military, however, believed it would be impossible to perpetuate West Pakistani dominance and win other con cessions from the Awami League once the constitution incorporated the six points. Even if the Awami League com promised with the military after assuming the governmental responsibili ties, there was no guarantee that the NAP or a future leadership of the AL would not demand implementation of East Pakistan's constitutional rights. Clearly the Awami League's policy of seeking a detente with India, basically through the provincial control of foreign trade, militated against the military's raison d'etre. 33 The military had two possibilities of sabotaging an unfavorable constitution: to nullify the elections or to refuse to validate the constitution after it had been passed by the AI..-dominated assembly. In view of the popular sentiment for return to parliamentary politics, both of these alternatives were somewhat risky. The military refused to convene the assembly before the AL had yielded to it in the extra-parliamentary talks initiated by Yahya Khan between him self, Mujib and the Pakistan People's Party chief, Ali Bhutto. But Yahya's blatant support for Bhutto' s announced boycott of the session scheduled for March 3, his indefinite postponement of the assembly session without consul tation with Mujib and his highly pro vocative speech of March 6, made it evident that the military was not pre pared for a ''business-like'' deal. It wanted an outright surrender from the Awami League. The non-cooperation move ment in East Bengal, started in response to the military's arbitrary actions, convinced the semi-Fascist hardcore in the junta that b rote force, which had previously been used in Baluchistan and the Northwest Frontier Province, was the only answer to Bengali nationalism. The dismissal of East Pakistan's moderate Governor, Admiral Ahsan, the appointment of the notorious General Tikka Khan as the new Governor, and the dissolution of the semi-civilian central cabinet were the signals warning of the impending military onslaught. Only the logistical problem of transporting troops from West Pakistan via the over-water route around Ceylon had to be solved. In a tactical move General Yahya flew to Dacca for talks with the AI.. leaders in which he appeared very conciliatory. As soon as the troop build-up was completed, with apprOXimately 50,000 West Pakistani soldiers in East Bengal, General Yahya left for West Pakistan and a reign of terror was unleashed on the people of East Bengal. Interestingly enough, in his March 26 speech, the General made no mention of any Awami League conspiracy to separ ate East Pakistan from the union; instead, he used the AL's alleged pro posal of calling separate sessions of East and West Pakistani legislators and the non-cooperation movement as the signs of the AI.. , s intention to "breakaway completely from the country. "34 The Prime Minis ter 0 f the "Provisional Govern ment of Bangladesh," Tajuddin Ahmed, later stated that the proposal for the separate sessions was Yahya' s own and that "at no stage was there any breakdown of talks or any indication by General Yahya or his team that they had a final posi tion which could not be abandoned. "35 Indeed, it took six weeks for the military to fabricate charges and to issue its "official expose" of the Awami League's "secessionist plot." All evidence goes to show that the smaU hours of March 26 had been set as the zero hour for an a:rrned up rising, and the formal launching of 'the independent RepubUc of Bangladesh. ' The plan was to seize Dacca and Chittagong, lying astride the army's air/sea lifelines to West Pakistan..... the Armed forces made a series of pre-emptive strikes around midnight of March 25-26, seized the initiative and saved the country. 36 11 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org If there was indeed a plot for seces sion, it is a very poor reflection on the American-trained Pakistani intelligence corps to have discovered it six weeks after the fact, or on the celebrated "Information" Minis t ry to have revealed it that late. But the "evidence" the military government is referring to has been presented nowhere. Simultaneous with the crackdown against the Bengali autonomy movement, the a ~ launched repression in West Pakistan, where a number of leftist politicians and working class leaders were thrown into jail. 37 The army then announced the decision to appoint legis lators to frame the constitution, to disallow regional political parties, and to continue martial law even after the formal trans fer of government to civilians. 38 These developments were consistent with the a ~ ' s role in 1958 and 1969 in sabotaging the possibilities of freeing Pakistan from the imperialist noose and af bringing radical social changes within the country. The Struggle Ahead The Pakistan a ~ ' s decision to seek a "final solution" of the "Bengal prob lem" by a genocidal attack, besides re sulting in the massacre of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, the burning and strafing of thousands of towns and villages and the exodus of millions of refugees, has qualitatively changed the nature of the struggle in Bangladesh and has generated new possi bilities and dangers throughout South Asia. For the struggle in East Bengal itself, the military operation proved the futility of the parliamentary politics of the petty bourgeois Awami League and vindicated the left groups which had demanded independence or resorted to guerrilla training instead of participating in the elections. The dream 0 f achieving regional autonomy within the union of Pakistan died with the first blast of canons on the night of March 25, 1971. Instead, an armed national liberation struggle was born. The military's offensive has already liquidated or put out of action a num ber of important Awami League leaders. Others, at the first sight of mortar fire, fled across the border to form the so called "Provisional Government" in the safe haven of West Bengal. From the published reports, messages received from our colleagues on the scene and interviews with Bengalis who have returned from West Bengal, it appears that the "Provisional Government" is firmly in the grip of the Indian government, which has prevented the At from including any leftists in it, and Which has carefully scrutinized the guerrillas training on Indian soil. Besides having nominal ties with the Mukti Fouj or Mukti Bahini [Liberation Army], consisting of the Bengali elements of the former East Pakistan Rifles and Bengal Regiment, the Provisional Government is mainly occupied with obtaining international recognition, appealing to the humani tarianism of the people of the world and co-sponsoring conferences on genocide with Western liberal organizations. As the struggle intensifies, there is no doubt that the legitimacy of the Awami League will be progressively eroded. The legitimacy gained as a result of an election vic;tory will no longer be relevant. The new legitimacy will have to be gained in the battlefield and it is here that the Awami League has been weakest. The Left Groups The inability of the petty-bourgeois Awami League to lead armed struggle for independence is readily recognized by most observers of the Pakistani scene. Given the class make-up of East Bengali society, a tradition of working class militancy, and the change in the nature of struggle since March 25, if the inde pendence of Bangladesh does not come about quickly as a result of the economic collapse of West Pakistan or Indo Pakistan war or big power pressure, it seems likely that the leadership of the movement will pass to the revolutionary left. 12 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Before considering the possibility of the transformation of the Bengali nationalist movement into a genuine revolutionary national liberation strug gle, it is useful to glance at the state of the left in East Bengal. After the banning of the Communist Party in 1954, party workers either operated under ground or inside the Awami League and the small left-liberal Ganatantri Dal. In 1957, the leftist faction of the Awami League, with its component of communists, left the party in protest against its pro-Western foreign policy. It then merged with the Ganatantri Dal and various nationalist parties in West Pakistan to form the National Awami Party (NAP) under the leadership of the Bengali peasant leader, Mau1ana Bhashani. Little is known about the underground activities of the Commun ist Party. However, many communists were active in the trade unions, the Krishnik Samity [peasants' committee], the East Pakistan Students' Union, various cultural bodies and other mass organizations. Differences appeared among the com munists over the Sino-Soviet ideological dispute, the Sino-Indian border clash of 1962 and the Indo-Pakistan war of 1965. By the beginning of 1968, both the underground party and the NAP had split into "pro-Moscow" and "pro-Peking" factions. The "pro-Moscow" wing of the NAP was led by Wali Khan, a Pathan lead er, on the national level and by Prof. Muzaffar Ahmed, a long time communist, in East Pakistan. Maulana Bhashani be came the national leader of the "pro Peking" wing of the NAP. The under ground organization of the "pro-Moscow" communists was headed by Moni Singh, a veteran of peasant revolts of the 1940's. Whereas the policies of the "pro-Moscow" communists remained consistent with the declaration of the 1960 Moscow con ference of 81 communist parties,39 the so-called "pro-Peking" group, despite its revolutionary rhetoric, failed to offer a coherent alternative program. The esteem and organization of the "pro-Peking" leftists were seriously damaged by their reluctance to oppose the dictatorial regime of Ayub Khan and to clearly support the demand for East Pakistan's autonomy. Mau1ana Bha shani's idiosyncracies had alienated many radical members of the NAP and the Krishik Samity. The country-wide mass spontaneous upsurge in 1968-69 brought the conflicts among the pro-Peking left ists into the open. Those advocating the formation of a genuine working class party separated themselves from the NAP and split into at least three major factions in 1970. The Pabna-based Matin Allaudin group called itself the Purbo Bang1a Communist Party; the Toha-Abdu1 Huq group, based mainly in Jessore and Noakhali , presented itself as the East Pakistani counterpart of the West Ben gali Naxalites and assumed the name of East Pakistan Communist Party (Marxist Leninist); and two former student lead ers, Kazi Zafar Ahmed and Rashid Khan Menon, formed the Communist Revolution aries' East Bengal Co-ordinating Commit tee (C.R.E.B.C.C.). All of them opposed participation in the elections. The E.P.C.P. (M-L) even rejected mass and class organizations and concentrated on organizing guerrilla actions agains t class enemies in the countryside. 40 Those staying with Bhashani did so mainly because of their interest in the elections. Thus when Bhashani withdrew his party from the elections and demand ed independence for East Pakistan in the wake of the devastating cyclone of November 1970, a large number of party leaders, including Haji Danesh and An war Zahid, left the NAP.41 The "pro-Peking" left was in a state of complete disarray when the mili tary launched its offensive against the Bengali people in March 1971. As a re sult of the military action, tactical differences in the left began to dis appear, and it was expected that the left would once again forge its unity on the basis of a program for armed national liberation. However, personal differences among the leaders led to the further fragmentation of the exist ing factions. Bhashani, despite his age (89), managed to escape to India and urged the world leaders to recognize the Provisional Government set up by the Awami League 1eaders. 42 He also met with the leaders of all "Maoist" factions, 13 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org except the E.P.C.P.(M-L), on April 25 to press for the formation of a Nation al Liberation Front. 43 On June 1 these groups announced the formation of the "Bangladesh National Liberation Strug gle Co-ordination Committee," urged the formation of a national liberation front of all parties, including the Awami League, and issued a declaration which called for the establishment of an "anti imperialist, anti-feudal and anti-monop oly" so cial sys tem in Bangladesh. 44 Pro-MOscow leaders, Muzaffar Ahmed and Moni Singh--the latter having es caped from the Rajshani prison--endors ed the Awami League's Provisional Gov ernment and extended their cooperation to the League and the Mukti Bahini (Awami League-affiliated liberation army) ., without publicly calling for the formation of a national liberation front. The E. P. C. P. (M-L), unlike the other "Maois ts" and the pro-Mos caw communis ts , termed the struggle in East Bengal a conflict between the West Pakistani monopoly capitalists and the East Pak istani nascent bourgeoisie. They remain ed inside East Bengal and refused to have any contact with the Awami League and the Indian government. Their atti tude was interpreted by their critics as Peking-directed opposition to the independence movement. Many non-Commun ist reporters have carried stories con cerning E.P.C.P. 's encounters with the Pakistan Army and cooperation with Mukti Bahini at the local level. 45 But Prof. Muzaffar Ahmed insists that the party does not support independence and that their actions consist only of killing landlords and distributing land to the peasants. 46 The organizational strength of the E.P.C.P.(M-L) and the support it is capable of drawing from its Naxalite comrades across the border have worried the Indian government, the AL and the pro-Moscow communists. The Indian government fears a radical Marxist, es pecially Maoist, Bangladesh on its bor ders. The Indian leaders have made it clear in their pronouncements that they want an Awami League-led government installed in Bangladesh. Such a gov ernment will be similar to their own in terms of its class character and ideology. The AL hopes for a quick vic tory--preferably the result of an Indo Pakistan war--to establish its rule before it has lost its legitimacy. The pro Moscow communists, who are quite adept at forming united fronts with bourgeois parties, would prefer a route to inde pendence which ensured increased Indian and Awami League dependence on the So viet Union. The signing of the 20-year Friend ship Treaty between India and the Soviet Union, which was necessitated, among other thing, by the continuing U.S. and Chinese support for Pakistan, represents a significant victory for Soviet strat egy in the region. Soon after the sign ing of the treaty, the Awami League, under pressure from New Delhi, agreed to the formation of a five-party Consul tative Committee of Bangladesh Struggle. This committee, which is expected to be the precursor of a united front, gives pro-Moscow communists representation out of proportion to their strength. It includes one member each from the pro-Moscow Bangladesh Communist Party and its front organization, the NAP (Muzaffar). Maulana Bhashani has been included in it in an individual capa city because of his enormous popularity and for creating a facade of all-party representation. The Hindu Bangladesh National Congress, which had submerged itself in the AL, also has one repre sentative. The Awami League has four members. All members of the committee have accepted the all-Awami League Provisional Government as the sole legit imate authority in Bangaldesh. All "Mao ist" groups, which had originally called for the formation of a national libera tion front, have been excluded from the Consultative Committee. The strategy of the pro-Moscow com munists seems to be consistent with their policy of achieving "independent nation al democracy" as the first stage of the two-stage socialist revolution. The independence of Bangladesh is supposed to accomplish only the first stage in this process of transition. One of the 14 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org two main ingredients of this line, as applied to the present situation, is the acceptance of the hegemony of the Awami League, as discussed earlier. The other important ingredient is the pur suance of a military strategy which does not entail radicalization of the masses. Both the Awami League and the pro-MOs cow left consider self-sustained and protracted guerrilla warfare inimical to their interests since such strategy will not only postpone the independence of Bangladesh but will require intense ideological education of the masses and create conditions favorable to the more radical "Maoist" groups. A slight pro longation of the struggle, however, will enable the pro-MOscow left to take advantage of the inertia of the Awami League leadership, consolidate its in fluence in the Hukti Bahini and among the Awami League political cadres, and acquire greater leverage within the coalition. The gains thus made will presumably place the pro-MOscow commun ists in a favorable position to carry independent Bangladesh toward the path of independent national democracy and eventually toward socialism. The military strategy employed by the Awami League and the pro-MOs cow left at this stage has consisted mainly of the Mukti Bahini commandos and leftist guerrillas disrupting the communications and power supply in the interior and the Mukti Bahini regulars, operating from sanctuaries in India, making incursions along the border and trying to hold a few liberated areas. It is quite ob vious that the Bangladesh coalition does not envisage Mukti Bahini alone de feating the Pakistani army. It will re quire lengthy training and costly equip ment for the Mukti Bahini regulars to become a match for the BO,OOO-strong well-trained and well-equipped occupa tion army of Pakistan. The Bangladesh strategy, therefore, implies involve ment of Indian troops against the Pak istani army at some point. The chances of Indian intervention grow in direct proportion to the erosion of the Awami League's legitimacy and the radicaliza tion of the liberation movement. Un less the Bangladesh crisis is solved quickly, the chances of having a friend ly petty-bourgeois regime in East Ben gal will be greatly reduced. Interna tional support for India's actions can come mainly from the Soviet-bloc coun tries. Acceptance of pro-Moscow commun ists in the Bangladesh coalition is, therefore, a small price to pay for Soviet material and moral support in a venture designed to protect the class interests of the Indian rulers. For the success of Soviet strat egy in South Asia--which includes dom ination of the Indian Ocean and contain ment of Chinese influence, it is more important to have friendly and depen dent--preferably petty-bourgeois-commun ist coalition--governments than equality and freedom for the peoples of the re gion. Ceylon, where the pro-MOscow communists have formed a coalition gov ernment with the petty-bourgeois Sri Lanka Freedom Party, is the archetype of the kinds of governments the Soviets would like to have in Bangladesh and India. Such a development would consti tute a major breakthrough for the Soviet policy of establishing a regional se curity alliance against China, first propounded in June 1969. The growing Soviet influence in South Asia makes it imperative for the United States to not only attempt a neutralization of India, Ceylon and Bangladesh, but to strengthen its stran glehold in West Pakistan. This leaves China limited alternatives in the region. It is difficult for China to support the independence of Bangladesh, since such independence is likely to streng then the Indo-Soviet front against her. On the other hand, despite friendly state relations between Pakistan and China, the West Pakistani ruling oli garchy is unmistakably fascist and pro imperialist. China's denunciations of India notwithstanding, she is not ex pected to involve herself militarily on Pakistan's side. Unlike 1965 when the Chinese diverted India from launching a major assault against Pakistan, today China feels seriously threatened by possible Soviet moves against her terri tory and her nuclear installations. 15 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org The dilemna of China is reflected in the dilemna of the Bangladesh "Mao ists." The objective conditions in Bangladesh offer an opportunity of car rying out a protracted people's war which would radicalize the masses and allow the development of revolutionary infrastructures during the course of struggle. But such developments are con trary to the interests of the East Bengali petty-bourgeoisie, the Indian ruling classes and the Soviet Union. The "Maoists" know that if independence comes quickly as a result of Indo-Soviet pressure, it will substitute new ex ploiters for the old. But at the same time they cannot sit idly by and watch their country being ravaged, their people being slaughtered and their women being raped by the fascist hordes from West Pakistan. Whether or not the Chinese openly support the "Maoist" insurrectionists in Bangladesh, the E.P. C. P. (M-L) and other "Maoists" are likely to continue building bases, training guerrillas, forming administrative infrastructures in the villages and eliminating class enemies. The AL-pro-Moscow coalition, which has now excluded the "Maois ts ," will have to face the reality of their presence. If an accommodation is not brought about soon enough, an indepen dent Bangladesh will most likely be ripe for a civil war of its own in which Soviet and Indian arms, supplied to the AL-pro-Moscow coalition, may be used against the "Maoist" peasants de manding radical restructuring of the society in place of the Awami League's parliamentary democracy and the pro Moscow communists' "independent nation al democracy." FOOTNOTES Editor's note: This article was com pleted prior to the outbreak of the Indo-Pakistan war. 1. The most authentic report of the genocide is to be found in the account of a West Pakistani journalist, Anthony Mascarenhas: "Genocide: Why the Refu gees Fled," Sunday Times, June 13, 1971; for a reliable account of the conditions of the refugees, see Congressman Galla gher's testimony in Congressional Record, June 11, 1971. 2. See Gunnar Myrdal, Asian Drama, Pantheon, New York, 1968, Vol. I, p.234 244; and Tariq Ali, Pakistan: Military Rule or People's Power?, William Morrow & Co., New York, 1970, pp. 25-36. 3. For a discussion of the military and the bureaucracy as semi-autonomous social forces, see Harnza Alavi, "Army and Bureaucracy in Pakistan," Interna tional Socialist Journal, March-April, 1966. 4. Since the launching of the mili tary operation in East Bengal, the Government of Pakistan has engaged in a wild propaganda war which attempts to disprove the widely accepted facts about the economic exploitation of East Bengal. As part of this propaganda, the Government controlled news agency, PPI, released an item which was printed in all the Pakistani papers on June 14, 1971 and circulated by Pakistani mis sions abroad. It read in part as follows: "The lates t figures of trade between East and West Pakistan disprove the myth West Pakistan has turned East Pakistan into a market for its industrial pro ducts." Even if the figures used for this story are taken at face value, the surplus of East Pakistan's export of manufactures over that of the West Pak istan amounts to only Rs. 100,000 for the year 1969-70, whereas the overall surplus of West Pakistani exports comes to Rs. 740 million. Two additional facts regarding inter-regional trade need to be taken into account: (1) East Pakis tan's largest item of export to West Pakistan, i.e. tea, is counted as a manufactured good and (2) most of the industry and plantations in East Pakis tan are owned by West Pakistanis and foreigners anyway. No amount of statis tical juggling can change the facts about colonialism. 5. Figures cited in Mason, Dorfman and Marglin, "Conflict in East Pakistan: Background and Prospects," Congressional Record, April 7, 1971. 6. This well-known statement has been quoted widely, including in the U.S. government's manual for military personnel: Area Handbook For Pakistan, DA Pam No. 550-48, Washington, D. C. : 16 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I Superintendent of Documents, October 1965, p. 339. 7. America's late President Kennedy, quoted by Harry Magdoff in The Age of Imperialism, MOnthly Review Press, New York, 1969, p. 117. 8. Magdoff, op. cit. 9. Hamz a Alavi, IIpakistan: the Bur den of U.S. Aid," in Imperialism and Underdevelopment, edited by Robert I. Rhodes, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1970. 10. M.A. Sattar, United States Aid and Pakistan's Economic unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Tufts University, 1969. 11. For a discussion of the role of Harvard's Development Advisory Service in Pakistan, see "Underdeveloping the World," a pamplet prepared by students and movement research people in Cam bridge, Mass.; reprinted in Forum (Dacca), September 26, 1970. 12. Hamz a Alavi, IIpakis tan: the Burden of U.S. Aid," op. cit. 13. Gustav Papanek, Pakistan's Development, Harvard University Press, Canbridge, 1967, p. 226. 14. Among the numerous favorable re ports and commentaries about Pakistan's economic development, one needs special mention, i.e. the World Bank-sponsored Pearson Report: Lester B. Pearson, Part in Development, Praeger, New York, 1969. 15. Edward S. Mason, Economic Develop ment in India and Pakistan, Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, no. 13, September 1966. M.A. Sattar's re cent study showed that Pakistan's economic growth rate would have been much slower without U.S. aid. 16. This widely quoted revelation by Pakistan's Chief Economist, Mahbub-ul Haq, appears in a number of places, including "Underdeveloping the World," op. cit. 17. For a discussion of the consequen ces of Pakistan's model of economic devel opment, see Arthur MacEwan, "Contradictions in Capitalist Development: the Case of Pakistan," paper read at the Conference on Economic Growth and Distributive Justice in Pakistan, University of Rochester, July 29-31, 1970; abstract published in Pakistan Forum, October-November 1970. 18. A.R. Khan, "A New Look at Dispar ity," Forum, January 3, 1970. 19. A confidential report on regional disparities singled out the policies of t the central government as the most im t , f portant cause of the widening gap between the two regions: Government of East Pakistan-Planning Department, Economic Disparities between East and West Pakistan, Officer on Special Duty, S. & G.A. Depart ment, In-charge, East Pakistan Government Press, Dacca, 1963, p. 15. For more recent discussion of the governmental policies, see several articles by Rahman Sobhan in Forum: "Fourth Plan Fiasco," February 14, 1970; "Doing Justice in the Fourth Plan," June 6, 1970; "Forced Five Year Plan," June 13, 19701 and "Budget from the Past," July 11, 1970; also, a number of unsigned articles in Forum: "Fourth Plan Maneuvers," November 29, 1969; "Finance Connnittee: Accused as the Judge," May 23,1970; "Budget Anti-Climax," July 4, 1970; and "Past Panels and Committees: An Appraisal," September 5, 1970. 20. Papanek, op. cit. 21. Department of State and Department of Defense, The Mutual Security Program Fiscal Year 1958, Washington D.C., 1962, Vol. I, p. 359. 22. M. Ayub Khan, Friends, Not Masters, Oxford University Press, New York, 1967, p. 59. 23. An authoritative account of the language movement appears in Badruddin Umar, The Language Movement in Eas t Ben gal and its Contemporary Politics, [in Bengali], published in November 1970; English serialization of the book was terminated by the events of February March 1971 in East Pakistan. The first installment appeared in Forum of February 20, 1971. 24. After declaring their independence, the people of East Bengal adopted one of Tagore's songs as their national anthem. 25. Pakistan Student, May-June 1967. 26. The recent massacre, flight and purging of Bengali intelligentsia have opened up many job opportunities for unemployed West Pakistanis and promotions for others. If the attitude of the West Pakistani employees of the Pakistan Em bassy in Washington is any indicator of the mood of the West Pakistani educated segment, the Bengal carnage has been greeted as a blessing in that region. 27. These points are: 1) a federal and parliamentary form of government, with 17 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org supremacy of the legislature, based on direct adult franchise and proportional representation, 2) the federal govern ment to have responsibilities of de fense and foreign policy only, 3) separate currencies or other alternate means of preventing the transfer of resources from one region to the other, 4) fiscal policy and power of taxation to be in the hands of the regional governments, 5) regional governments to control their foreign ex change earnings and to have the power of negotiating foreign aid and trade and 6) para-military forces to be provided to the regions. For details, see A.H.M. Kamruzzaman, Manifesto of All Pakistan Awami League, Dacca, June 1970. 28. For a graphic account of the events of 1968-69, see Tariq Ali, Ope cit., chapters V, VI, and VII. 29. Feroz Ahmed, "Vei1lee d' Armes Elec torale au Pakistan," Africasia, November 9, 1970. 30. Feroz Ahmed, "The Struggle in West Pakistan," manuscript prepared for a forthcoming book to be published under the sponsorship of the Committee of Con cerned Asian Scholars; see also, General Yahya Khan's statement of June 28, 1971, Pakistan Affairs, June 30, 1971. 31. Rashed Akhtar, "From Non-cooperation to the People's Raj," Forum, March 13, 1971. 32. The West Pakistani right-wing parties not only insisted that the Awami League be allowed to frame a constitution on the basis of the six points but sup ported the AL's four supplementary de mands which included the transfer of the interim government to the elected repre sentatives, Pakistan Times, March 14, 1971. 33. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's nationwide television speech, Dawn, October 29, 1970. 34. Pakistan Affairs, March 31, 1971. 35. Tajuddin Ahmed's statement of April 17, 1971, mime0 , distributed by the Mission of Bangladesh in Calcutta. 36. Pakistan [Affairs], May 11, 1971. 37. Pakistan Forum, June-July, 1971. 38. Yahya Khan's June 28 speech. 39. For the pro-Moscow position, see, "Leninism is our Guide," World Marxist Review, May, 1970. 40. For a critical analysis of the splits in the East Bengali left, see the three part article by A.H. Khan in Forum (Dacca), December 19 and 26, 1970 and January 2, 1971. 41. Most of these leaders have now re fused to support independence and have joined hands with West Pakistan-based parties. 42. "Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani 's' Appeal to World Leaders," published by the Provisional Government of Bangladesh. 43. Far Eastern Economic Review, May 15, 1971. 44. Sphulinga: Bulletin of the BangIa Desh Association of Quebec, Vol. I, No.3. 45. Far Eastern Economic Review, April 4, 1 9 7 1 ~ n d Economist, July 10, 1971. 46. Interview with the author, Pakistan Forum, October, 1971. 18 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I Table 1 I Gross Domestic Product in 1959-60 Constant Prices (in million rupees) East West 1949-50 13 ,130 11 ,830 1954-55 14,320 14,310 1959-60 15,550 16,790 1964-65 18,014 21,788 1968-69 20,670 27,744 Sources: Gustav Papanek, Pakistan's Development, Harvard, 1967, p. 317; and A.R. Khan, "A New Look at Disparity," Forum, January 3, 1970. 80 86 MAP OF IPAOCIIS1rAN I N D I SEA 6' 80 86 19 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Primary level Number of insts. Number of students Secondary level Institutions Students "General College Institutions Enrollment General University Institutions Enrollment Table 2 Educational Disparities East Pakistan West Pakistan 1947 1967 1947 1967 29,633 28,225 8,413 33,271 2,020,000 4,310,000 550,000 2,740,000 3,481 4,390 2,598 4,563 53,000 107,000 51,000 153,000 50 173 40 239 19,000 138,000 13,000 142,000 1 2 2 4 1,600 8,000 700 10,000 Source: Ministry of Education, Government of Pakistan, Education Statistics of Pakistan (1947-57); and A.O. Huque, "Educational Disparities in Pakistan," Forum, December 20, 1969. 20 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Table 3 Some Economic Indicators Area (in square miles) Population, (1970 estimate) Five-year plan allocations 1st 2nd 3rd 4th (unlikely to be implemented) Foreign aid allocation Export earning Import expenditure Indust rial assets owned by Bengalis Civil service jobs Military jobs Resources transferred from East to Wes tbetween 1948-49 and 1968-69 Per capita income, official 1964-65 1968-69 Regional difference in p.c.i., official 1959-60 1964-65 1968-69 Real difference in p.c.i., 1968-69 East Pakistan 54,501 70 million 32% 32% 36% 52.5% 20-30% 50-70% 25-30% 11% 16-20% 10% Rs.31,120 million * Rs. 285.5 Rs. 291. 5 32% 47% 62% 95% West Pakistan 310,236 60 million 68% 68% 64% 47.5% 70-80% 30-50% 70-75% 80-84% 90% Rs.419.0 Rs.473.4 21 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Real difference in average standard of living, 1968-69 126% Proportion of income spent on food by industrial workers (1955-56 survey) 69-75% 60-63% *At the official rate, u.s. $1 = 4.76 rupees (Rs.); current market exchange rate, $1 = Rs.1!. Sources: Pakistan Statistical Yearbooks and Pakistan Economic Survey for the various years, Government of East Pakistan (1963), Papanek (1967), A.R. Khan (1970), Interim Reports (May 1970) and Forum (Feb. 27, 1971). Table 4 Inter-regional trade (exports) Year East Pakistan West Pakistan (in millions of rupees) 1948-49 18.8 137.6 1950-51 46.0 210.8 1955-56 220.7 318.9 1960-61 355.9 BOO.5 1965-66 649.7 1,189.8 1969-70 915.7 1,656.2 Sources: Pakistan Economic Survey 1967-68 and Pakistan Times, June 14, 1971. 22 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org 1 Noles OD Soalh Asia iD C.-isis I by Eqbal Ahmad [This unfinished manuscript was mailed one hour before Eqbal Ahmad went to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania for his trial.] To the Editors: I am unable to fulfill my promise to write a researched and thought-out essay on the continuing South Asian cri sis. Pressure of events has been prevent ing me from sustained academic work. How ever, I am deeply touched by your gesture of sympathy and solidarity, and wish to somehow be included among friends who have contributed to this issue of the Bulletin. I can imagine no tribute more appropriate than this to the memory of a committed Asian scholar, my only sur viving brother, a comrade in hard times, and the best of friends. Here are a few reminiscences on the doubts and decisions we faced following March 25, 1971, when the Pakistani generals began their criminal suppression of the electoral verdict of the majority, to save the "integrity" of the nation. In the first few weeks of the conflict while Saghir was still with us, we had agreed on the fundamentals and thrashed out our minor differences - on the phone, at meetings in Seattle and subsequently, toward the end of June, in New York City where we met, for the last time, with Feroz and Aijaz Ahmed to discuss how we as Pakistani radicals should relate to the crisis in our country. These reminiscences are followed by my reac tion to the Indian military interven tion, and a few reflections on the chal lenge of the future in Pakistan. I hope this would convey at least a sense of the complexities which char acterized the conflict in the sub-conti nent, and of the political paradoxes and moral dilemnas it posed for us all. In recent weeks I have felt, with in creasing intensity, renewed contempt for the academic experts, liberal poli ticians, and professional peace-mongers who propagandized the cause of Bangla desh and of India with easy slogans, misleading information, and incorrect analysis. I am yet unable to fully comprehend why the crisis in Bengal aroused so much partisan passion among the "humanitarians" who are not known to have been particularly moved by the massacre of Indonesians, the plight of Palestinian refugees, or the genocide of the Vietnamese and Laotians. As persons who took extra risks to oppose the criminal conduct of Pakistan's military regime, I do not want that Saghir and I be bracketed with those supporters of Bangladesh. I On AprillO, 1971, the New York Times published a statement signed by us [Saghir and Eqb al Ahmad, ed.] jointly with Aijaz and Feroz Ahmed. The army !tad intervened to offset the results of Pak istan'sfirst freely held national elec tions, transforming the demand for autonomy into a movement towards indepen dence. Judging that a problem which owed its existence to the militarization of our society could not be solved by mili tary means, we condemned the Pakistani military regime, affirmed the Bengalis' right of self-determination, and commit ted ourselves to actively working for the creation of a situation wherein the people of East Bengal might indeed be able to exercise this fundamental right. In a subsequent article I explained the reasons for taking this position. (New York Review of Books, Volume XVII. Number 3.) Here I should speak mainly of the doubts we have had. Arriving at this position was not easy for us. We did not have natural BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org sympathies with the Bangladesh movement. We distrusted the Awami League's bour geois bias, elitist traditions, and pro Western outlook. From the beginning, Muslim nationalism in Bengal had two distinct populist and elitist traditions. The two had confronted each other occa sionally, and often coexisted in a rela tionship of antagonistic collaboration. The former, represented in the 1930's by men like A.K. Fazhid Haq, in the 50's and 60 's by Abdul Hamid Bhashani, had always played the primary role in mobil izing the masses by supplying social and economic content to political programs. The elitist wing, led by men like Suh rawardy (mentor of Sheikh Mujib), had always succeeded in ultimately appro priating, through powerful external support like that of the British in the 1900' s and of the Muslim League national leadership in the 1940's, the popular cause for advancing vested interests. As the successor and direct descendant of the elitist tradition, the Awami League elicited our ideological opposi tion. Its middle class composition, his tory, and external connections only augmented our suspicions. A reminder is needed that the origins of the party lie in its leaders' support for Pakis tan's alliance with the U.S. Before 1957, the old Awami League included the ele ments of what is now the National Awami Party, and Bhashani was its president. tn 1956, at the Kagmari Conference, there was a party split over the issue of al liance with the U.S. The pro-U.S. fac tion led by Suhrawardy and Sheikh Muj ib took control of the Awami League; oppo nents of the military alliance left and later formed the National Awami Party. At leas t since then, the party and its leaders have maintained intimate links with vested interests and insti tutions, in the U.S. no less than in West Pakistan. Unconfirmed reports existed that since 1961 when India, particularly the eastern regions of it, became a special area for anti-Chinese intelligence and subversive activities, the League developed connections with "friendly" elements there also. The connecting links were frequently the operatives of multi-national, inter locked, corporations such as Pan Am and Chase Manhattan, as well as the C. LA. For example, well known to us was Yusuf Haroon, a Pakistani "multi-national" millionaire from New York who has now admitted to keeping Sheikh Muj ib on his payroll for 15 years (including during his prison terms) and to providing the Awami League, UJith the consent of GeneY' aZ Yahya Khan, $300,000 in 1970 for the fateful election campaign. (New York Times, January 4, 1972). - We were less impressed by the Awami League's electoral victory than the for mal results suggested. It occurred in a virtually uncontested election since Bhashani's N.A.P. boycotted it. However, by giving the league a simple majority in the national assembly the election brought it a new esprit of power, and disturbed the army's calculation of cooling off Sheihk Muj ib with a conser vative West Pakistani coalition. The details of the Yahya-Mujib-Bhutto nego tiation are now beginning to be known. It appears that the army and the West Pakistani politicians were willing to accept the limitation of federal power to Defense and Foreign Affairs provided the authority of these two departments were not denuded by giving to East Pak istan the powers to raise a separate militia and to regulate international aid and trade (the Awami League's last two of six points). Our discomfort with the Awami League was increased by the quickness with which its leaders quit the interior of East Bengal, the promptness with which they established a provisional govern ment in mythical Mujibnagar (the fastest creation of a proviSional government in the history of "liberation" movements!!) , and the warm reception they were accord ed by the Indian government. It was clear to us that if the Indian govern ment did not feel confident of control ling Bangladesh, it would not risk sup porting a secessionist Bengali national ist movement in the Pakistani half of Bengal. However, until Saghir's death, i.e., until after the signing of the Indo-Soviet treaty of friendship in August and the massive flow of Soviet arms to India and the eastern front, our "scenario" did not include a full BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org scale Indian invasion of East Bengal. We had, nevertheless, viewed India as holding the winning cards in the pro visional government which claimed legit imacy, and in the Mukti Bahini on the frontier which was being equipped, ad vised, and logistically supported by India. Together, these two could chal lenge any combination of guerrillas inside East Bengal after the inevitable defeat and withdrawal of the Pakistani army. We underestimated the Awami League's capacity for disintegration, overestimated the Indian government's sense of propriety, and failed to fathom the depth of Russian commitment to acquiring allies against China. The press and public still do not seem to understand U.S. policy toward the crisis in the sub-continent. It will take an article to analyze this classic case of realpolitik and good example of how Dr. Kissinger's theories translate in practice. At first, Washington's pol icy of seemingly supporting Pakistan baffled us. Then it began to become clear that the U.S. was more interested in giving the Pakistani army an illusion of support than in actually aiding their military effort. For example, U.S. arms aid and sales to Pakistan in 1971 amount ed to less than $30 million according to independent sources, to $5 million according to Dr. Kissinger's December 7 "backgrounder." Throughout the crisis the U.S. maintained the unpopular pos ture of appearing to favor the military junta. Yet at no point did Washington provide the junta with concrete, as contrasted with psychological, aid cor responding to its needs. Obviously, geo-political considerations dictated that Washington should have little inter est in assuring the unity of Pakistan. In fact, since April 1971 the Nixon government had assumed that Islamabad would lose East Bengal -- a prospect not dreaded by the U.S. because Bangla desh as an Indian protectorate could be safely assumed to become at worst a Russian base against China, at best a client of the U.S. West Pakistan, on the other hand, is crucial to the Nixon-Kissinger strategy of creating in the oil center of the world, the Mediterranean and In dian Ocean regions, a new configuration of power, independent of Western Europe but dependent on the U.S.A., from Spain and Portugal through Greece and Israel to Iran and West Pakistan. Hence a pol icy designed not so much to help out a bogged down or beleagured ally, but to keep a client hooked, with spare parts and moral support, into the system of dependence. Whether or not Z.A. Bhutto has the inclination and courage to cut the umbilical cord and defeat this pol icy remains to be seen. There were personal factors which may have reinforced our doubts. We grew up during the independence movement for Pakistan and had lost our homes, friends, and kin during the conflict for its creation. It was hard for us not to wish that the two Pakistans would maintain some organic links and their peoples somehow would struggle together toward a socialist society. Finally, Saghir and I were agonized over the fate of the Bihari minority in Bengal. Biharis ourselves, we knew the anguish of these people who had to move two or three times since 1946 to escape massacres in India, and had finally found haven in Pakistan to which they remained loyal. Homeless, Urdu speaking, hated by Bengalis, favored by West Pak istanis in the east, they were caught in the middle. Throughout March, before the military intervention and while the Awami League had de facto control of government, some 10,000 of them were massacred by Bengali zealots. Later, the military cited these massacres as the reason for its brutal intervention, and the govern ment's White Paper of August 1971 gave exaggerated accounts and figures (100,000 killed) on them. We were appalled by the irresponsi bility of the Awami League, and mourned the death of the luckless Biharis among whom were several relatives. But we were not willing to equate the actions of Bengali vigilantes with those of the government and the criminal acts of an organized, professional army. In any case, the army could not provide lasting 25 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org security for them. In fact, it did not even intervene to stop their massacres which went on for three weeks while the Generals sought extra-parliamentary deals with the politicians. Saving civilian lives was not the motive behind the ar my's vast repressions. Furthermore, un equal bartering of brutalities is not a function of responsible government. And criminality is not a commercial proposi tion: one cannot deposit the crimes of one into the account of another. The very fact that the military regime sought justifications for its behavior by re ferring to the excesses of the Awami League and the aroused Bengali masses was a measure of the steep decline in the civic standards of our army and civil services. In sum, we had a sense that support ing the Bengali right of self-determina tion was ethically and politically nec essary. Yet it was not an anti-imperial ist struggle. In fact, the forseeable consequences of the junta's irrational, fascistic policy were to advance the ex pansionist designs of India, the power hunger of the U.S.S.R., and the imperial interests of the U.S.A. Given a choice between infantile Bengali bourgeois nationalism and fascistic Pakistani mil itarism, we decided to concentrate on opposing the military regime. II Now I must condemn India's massive military intervention. It violates the U.N. charter and reinforces the dangerous trend set by imperial powers toward direct foreign interventions in civil conflicts. How reprehensible the inter national community deemed the Indian ac tion is best indicated by the overwhelm ing vote in the U.N., including those of India's staunch allies, Yugoslavia and Egypt. That India ignored the U.N. resolution was a witness to its disre gard of international opinion, and another reminder of the helplessness of humanity confronted with aggression. Itself threatened by centrifugal forces, the Indian government does not view with favor demands for regional autonomy, much less secession. Hence regardless of human costs, India sup ported the Nigerian Federal Government against Biafra. The sword of central authority has fallen swiftly on recalci trant peoples in India. West Bengal, the Indian half of BangIa Desh, has been re peatedly subjected to military inter vention and, currently under direct Fed eral rule, is the scene of widespread and systematic repression of the left. Its people share with East Bengalis a contiguous boundary, a common culture and language, and the fate of being an overpopulated, undernourished mass de prived of their rightful place in na tional government. Only religion (Hin du and Muslim) and competing nationalisms (Hindu and Muslim) separate them. A sovereign, secular, and socialist Bengladesh can be enormously attractive to the Marxist majority of West Bengal, and threaten the 'integrity' of India. To prevent this, India must keep BangIa Desh in bonds and make it a hinterland of West Bengal rather than a beacon to its Bengali future. The power of the East Bengali people cannot flow out of the barrel of Indian guns. The direct military intervention is intended to promote an Indian pro tectorate rather than a genuinely inde pendent Bangladesh. It is aimed at prop ping the dwindling power of India's Bengali clients - the Awami League and communist (Moscow-oriented) leaders in exile; and the conventionally-trained frontier Babini constituted partially by Indian-trained elements but mainly by the East Pakistan Rifles and East Bengal Regiment which, by May, had re grouped in India after breaking a:way from the Pakistan army. It seeks to off set the growing strength of the nascent, but progressively radical, self-reliant ~ , : guerrillas who were inducted in the in terior by leftists who, unlike the Awami Leaguers and their [conventional] frontier Babini, did not flee the inter ior of Bengal for the relative security of Indian sanctuaries. India claims its intervention is motivated by its commitment to self determination, and concern over the ref ugees. It is incredible that self-deter mination is invoked as a justification 26 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org for war by a government which forcibly occupies Kashmir and denies its people the plebiscite pledged by India and sanctioned by the U.N., a government which has suppressed the Naga and Mizo peoples' juridically just struggle against Indian annexation with a vio lence little publicized but more pro longed and no less brutal than that of the Pakistani junta in Bengal. Deeply moved by their plight but unaware of the complexities of the ref ugees' problem in the sub-continent, world opinion accepts them as a credible justification for war. Yet, Mrs. Gan dhi's outright rejection of U Thant' s proposal indicated that the goal of dismembering Pakistan took priority over the refugees' welfare and return. While sympathetic U.S. Senators were given guided tours of the refugee camps, severe limits were imposed by India on international relief organizations, pre venting reliable estimates on the actual number of refugees. Full-scale war will aggravate suffer ing and create more refugees. Apart from indeterminable war victims, at least four million stranded minorities (Bengalis in West, non-Bengalis in East Pakistan) may be massacred unless there is a set tlement negotiated with provisions for these peoples. Furthermore, military victory in East Pakistan will not elim inate India's refugee burden. The bulk of the refugees, being Hindu, are un likely to return to predominantly Mus lim Bengal in the foreseeable future. And unless massacred, more than two million Bihari in BangIa Desh can now only return to India (they came to East Pakistan as refugees) where their pres ence might spark fresh communal riots. Prominent Americans who invoke the refugee problem to justify Indian mili tary intervention are either irrespon sible apologists of India or ignorant of the complexities of communal conflicts in the sub-continent. The U.S. administration has deceived J the public so often that few can believe it. American aid to the Pakistani junta, however negligible to its actual needs, only encouraged its intransigence in t coming to a quick settlement. Yet I know Dr. Kissinger's recent assertion to be true. By summer's end the Generals had begun bending to seek a settlement. Be set by the pressures of massive Soviet armaments, Indian troops on the frontier, inflation and growing resistance at home, by October they were willing to concede the autonomy which in March they had so brutally tried to prevent. Important Bengali leaders were initially interested but -- abjectly dependent on Delhi - began refusing discussions on any terms except immediate and total independence. Indian military moves put an end to the dim hopes of settlement. As always, outside intervention stifled the restor ative capacity and adjustive ability of a people torn by civil conflict. Separation of East Bengal from Pak istan is now a reality, and represents the first needed break in South Asia from the alien, colonial tradition of centralism. What is needed now is an orderly transfer of power, permitting the exchange of imprisoned and stranded persons, safeguarding the safety of minorities, and assuring the majority peoples their inalienable rights. The roots of conflict in the sub-continent lie in the two subcontinental govern ments' forcible suppression of public demands, and in politicians appropriat ing popular causes for advancing vest ed interests. The people of East Pakis tan voted for autonomy which the mili tary tried to prevent. But the Bengali clients of India did not have the man date to proclaim independence from be hind Indian tanks. Similarly, Kashmiris do not wish to live under Indian occupa tion, but I am not sure that they wish to join Pakistan. In both cases, as in Nagaland, only free and internationally supervised elections can determine wheth er the peoples concerned want autonomy or independenoe 3 federation or oonfedera tion. Peace may begin to have a chance in the sub-continent when the peoples of these ravaged lands have exercised their right of self-determination. III Chroniclers will record December 17, 1971, as the day of the dismemberment I 27 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org of Pakistan. Historians will say that the destruction of the country, as con ceived and constituted by its founding fathers, began on the night of March 25. From that moment, the movement toward disaster was inexorable, for the men who held our destiny were oblivious to rea son of politics, diplomacy, morality, and military strategy. Eight months later, that is, some 250,000 dead per sons, millions of displaced citizens, thousands of raped women and orphaned children later, the disintegration of Pakistan climaxed in the surrender of 100,000 soldiers and civilians and the betrayal of millions who had, out of choice or necessity, remained loyal to the state. Few nations can claim a chap ter so dark in history. To honor our past and for the sake of our future, we must ask why it happened? We welcome the appointment by Mr. Bhutto of a Commission to inquire into the causes of Pakistan's present pre dicament. Yet we fear the prevailing tendency to put blames on blundering in dividuals who, in fact, were mere agents of the forces that caused the crisis. The Commission will fail in its histor ic obligation if it does not examine the roots of the problem and satisfies instead the passions of the moment by finding scapegoats. We must recognize that the disaster occurred because we permitted it to develop. The excesses of the Awami League notwithstanding, the issues were relatively clear cut, the inhumanity of the military intervention unquestionable, and, from the start, its consequences obvious to anyone who dared to think. Yet few educated citizens at home or ab road had the clairvoyance or the cour age to disrupt their lives, jeopardize their ambitions, and take risks to chal lenge the junta they are so vocifer ously condemning today. Almost to the last day of ignominious surrender, no leader of importance seriously question ed the basic premises of the junta's policies. In that sense many who are now calling for the trial of Yahya and his cronies are not free of complicity in the crimes against the country and its people. Finding scapegoats, surro gates of our crippled sensibilities and bruised consciences, will serve no good purpose. To the contrary, it may prevent the needed concentration on fundamentals. The fundamental cause of the crisis lies in the betrayal of our people's ideals of Pakistan. The common muslims' struggle for a state was based on their longing for a society free of oppression, injustice and inequality. When the mus lim masses rallied to the appeal of an Islamic state, it was their way of say ing that they wanted a good state and just government. Hence Muslim national ism had earlier and stronger popular roots in those regions -- like Bengal where the oppressor class was largely Hindu. For the muslim elite, however, Pakistan meant the end of hindu compe tition and the establishment of its own monopoly of power and privileges. The tragedy of Pakistan lies in the fact that for 23 years this elite, consisting of landlords and capitalists, bureau crats and military men, held on to its privileges at the expense of the people and clung to power at the cost of par ticipation. The lesson we must draw is that only the total transformation of Pakistan's economic and social struc t ure will provide the basis for con structing a progressive, just and dur able new order. The sub-continent' s worst colonial heritage was consecrated in Pakistan. We were ruled in the vice-regal tradi tion of executive centralism. When per mitted to exist, the legislature was required to be a rubber stamp. Indepen dent judiciary was judged a liability and emas culated. Power was concentrated in the bureaucracy and the army, both trained and tested by colonial Britain and aided and armed by imperial America. The poor were disenfranchized; government was unaccountable to the public. The callousness of our rulers was undiscrim inating. Yet the more disadvantaged people of East Pakistan could only com prehend their condition as caused by regional discrimination. Their efforts to exercise their rights as a majority people were subverted in 1954, 1956, 1958, and 1968. In 1971 they were utter ly brutalized. 28 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org In order for Pakistan to prosper in freedom and dignity we must withdraw the power presently vested in the army and bureaucracy and restructure both insti tutions. Our armed forces are better trained to occupy the country than to defend it. The bureaucracy is raised to rule the people, not to serve them. Their colonial ethos, authoritarian structure, mediocre standards, and managerial out look were suited to the service of their foreign mentors, and are unfit for a modern, independent nation. They must be transformed into popular, participatory institutions emanating from and account able to the people, capable of defending the country, and serving the public. I hope that our defeat at the hands of an equally obsolete, if more numerous and gadget-heavy, Indian army will compel I ! 1 I j us to creativity and innovation rather than to put on more military fat and to harden the authoritarian arteries of the bureaucracy. Similarly, I hope that renewed quest for national unity will not lead us again toward mindless centralization. We are still a diverse country united by culture, religion, nationality and a yearning for justice, equality and free dom. Diverse lands like Pakistan do not respond to European models of "integra t ion." Nor can genuine regional griev ances be suppressed by the repressive arms of government. Respect for region al cultures and traditions, and maximum local autonomy within the framework of popular, national planning are the requisites of unity and strength. Pakistan is perhaps the best example of how foreign military and economic aid can destroy a nation. Yet so few Americans understand the U.S. role in the present political crisis and human tragedy of Pakistan. Fortunately there is one publication that can help you in understanding the nature of struggle in Pakistan before U.S. B-52s and napalm open your eyes to another Viet Nam. It just happens that PAKISTAN FORUM is published overseas. It. therefore has the distinction of being the only English language publication of Pakistanis which is not controlled by Pakistan's Fascist military junta. For news, views and perspectives on Pakistan and other third world countries, read PAKISTAN FORUM. Subscription rate for the second volume (12 issues) $7.00 Pakistan F o]["uJtn P.O.Box 1198 Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario Canada 29 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org The CODiDlaaist MoveDieat ia ladia \ by Mohan Ram Non-aligned India has been the focal point of the super-power d ~ t e n t e . The Soviet Union has been interested in fore closing a revolution in India because it regards India as the very model of "national democracy" which lends itself to peaceful transition to socialism. Besides, the Soviet Union, like the United States, wants a stable, viable India to ensure a continuing Asian con frontation with China. Both the super powers have tried to underwrite India in order to ensure that it is not convulsed by revolution. As India has been drawn into the vortex of the super power game to contain China, its non alignment has lapsed into double align ment. India's economic dependence on both super-powers has grown steadily. M>re than 20 years of s tate economic planning (hailed by Soviet ideologues as non-capitalist development through state intervention) have culminated in a serious economic and political crisis. Foreign aid accounts for one fifth of the total investment in development for India's three completed five year plans, and this component has been steadily increasing. Foreign aid accounted for 10 percent of the investment for the first five year plan, 24 percent for the second, and over 30 percent for the third. The fourth plan had to be suspended for four years because of aid uncertainties and a recession in the economy. State planning for development implies state intervention in the econ omy. Yet after three plans, about nine tenths of India's domestic production was still at the disposal of the private sector, while the government's share increased by a mere four percent ,during this period. The private sector has grown phenomenally over the past twenty years. Its growth resulted partly from the heavy state sector outlays for econ omic infrastructural assets, which provided new markets for private firms. Once constructed, these assets t h e ~ selves helped create external economies for the private sector. State intervention in India has resulted in concentration and monopoly of economic power in private hands. As of 1963-64, the top 75 monopoly houses, each with assets exceeding Rs. 50 mil lion (about U.S. $7 million at present rates of exchange) held 46.9 percent of total private assets excluding banks. 1 Inequities of income in the country at large were revealed in a study in 1967 which showed that in 1960-61, 2.3 percent of the urban population and 0.9 percent of the rural population received incomes ranging from comfortable to affluent. By contrast 85.6 percent of town dwellers and 86.9 percent of vil lagers lived "in a situation which is hardly to be defined even euphemistically as one of bare subsistence".2 State power in India resides in an alliance of the bourgeoisie and the landlords. Such an alliance cannot promote anti-imperialist, anti-ieudal or anti-monopoly policies. In spite of its official objective of achieving a "socialistic pattern of society", state intervention in India has created con ditions for capitalist development and has fostered the growth of monopolies and the concentration of wealth. Des pite the fact that a substantial portion of 30 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org economic aid to India has come from the Societ bloc countries, India's state economic goals have borne no relation to socialist objectives. Societ bloc aid has gone entirely to the state, which allocates it to such strategic sectors as steel, oil drilling, heavy engineering, coal mining, power generation, precision instruments, and electrical machinery. It is often claimed that such aid, by strengthening the state sector, has helped India fight imperialist domination of its economy. Actually it has only helped the mono polist Indian bourgeoisie to turn compra dor and to collaborate on a larger scale with foreign monopolies and with imper ialism. Foreign private investment, which has quadrupled in the post-1947 period, is on the order of Rs. 10,000 million to Rs. 12,000 million, or about 1.4 to 1.7 billion U.S. dollars at current rates of exchange. The United Kingdom still accounts for well over half the foreign private investment. The United States, however, is the most important source of new capital, contributing nearly two-thirds of the total net in flow in 1963-64 (Rs. 414 million) and over one half in the following year (Rs. 393 million). Taking the gross inflows for the four years 1961-64, the United Kingdom's share was Rs. 1067 million, compared to the United States' share of Rs. 1274 million, and a total for all other countries of Rs. 1034 million. Even purely Indian investments are often linked with foreign capital through collaborative agreements. It is estimated that almost two-thirds of Indian capital raised during 1957-64 went into foreign collaborative ven tures. Scrutiny of the 1,000-odd collaborative agreements in existence at the moment suggests that almost all the big Indian business houses have become associated with foreign capi talist enterprises. 3 Landlords, Peasants and the Green Revolu tion India's ruling-class alliance is not only incapable of fulfilling the anti- imperialist task of a democratic revolu tion; it is also unable to eradicate feudalism. Even limited bourgeois democratic land reforms to promote capitalist relations in the place of feudal relations have not been forth coming on any significant scale. Capital ist farming is, however, emerging in pockets. In the late 1950's, India's growing food gap was met by the massive import of PL-480 foodgrains from the U.S.A. (India accounted for over half the PL-480 aid in 1960.) Food imports obviated the need for immediate land reforms and provided the ruling class es with a cushion for administrative and policy complacency. When the United States found that it had no further large-scale food surpluses, it recommend ed to India the "new strategy" for agriculture. This program stressed fertilizers, insecticides, high-yield seed varieties, and greater use of irrigation. Areas already assured of irrigation have been chosen for the application of this strategy. The result is growing disparity between the favored and non-favored areas, as well as growing tensions among the farming classes. A study sponsored by the United States Agency for International Develop ment finds that the new strategy has not only intensified the process of economic polarization but has also con tributed to conflicts between landlords and tenants and between landowners and landless laborers. 4 The new strategy aims at creating an investible surplus for industry among the affluent landlord classes, the new kulaks (rich farmers using hired labor Ed.) who are emerging as the most strategic class in India's parliamentary system. Because they wield vast influence in the countryside, no party operating in the system can afford to alienate these kulaks. The new agricultural strategy may have helped close India's food gap, but it is no substitute for land reform as a means of changing the out moded agrarian structure to which the new technology is being applied. The 31 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org strategy will only increase India's dependence on the super-powers. The gates have already been opened to Amer ican private capital for investment in India's fertilizer industry, and for the use of Soviet bloc aid to import farm machinery or to manufacture it in India. Every fourth tractor in India is from the Soviet Union. Czechoslovakia, Poland, Yugoslavia and East Germany are among the other suppliers of farm machinery to India, where the problem is not one of shortage of labor but of labor surplus. As machines displace men, India's rural proletariat and its rural unemployment have grown. In fact the "green revolution", as the breakthrough in Indian agriculture is described by its votaries, may well trigger an explosion in the country side. As India's Home Minister, Y.B. Chavan, declared in 1969: "Unless the green revolution is based on social justice, I am afraid the green revolu tion may not remain green." The Indian Communist M:>vement Over 45 years old, the Indian commun ist movement is now fragmented. It has witnessed two major splits since 1964 and presently comprises two non-Maoist parties (the pro-Moscow Communist Party of India, or CPI, and the independent Communist Party of India - Marxist, or C P I - M ) ~ a Maoist party (the Commun ist Party of India - Marxist-Leninist, or CPI-ML)5; and several Maoist groups which are not parties as yet, notable among them being the Andhra Pradesh Revolutionary Communist Committee. Individual Maoists as well as those belonging to Maoist organizations have come to be known as "Naxali tes" , after the peasant uprisings in Naxal bari in 1967. This article attempts to sketch the development of the Maoist perspective in India, to examine the differences within the Indian Maoist movement, and to assess the prospects for a Maoist revolution. The first split in the Indian com munist movement occurred in 1964 in the wake of the Sino-Indian border war of 1962, and synchronized with the international communist schism of 1963 64. Yet neither the Sino-Indian border conflict nor the Sino-Soviet ideological dispute was the primary cause of the split in the CPl. The two factors inter acted first with each other, and then with an existing pattern of dissensions within the CPI, and hastened the split. The split did not represent a straight Moscow-Peking polarization, for it was not directly related to issues of ideology; it has more to do with differences within the CPI over issues of program, strategy and tactics for the Indian revolution. 6 The CPI-M, founded in 1964 as a result of the split, was not Maoist. The Maoist perspective in the Indian communist movement was developed three years later, in 1967, resulting in a further split within the CPI-M, as a large number of Maoist-oriented cadres either left the party or were expelled from it. These Maoist groups and individ uals did not at first form a party, but functioned within loosely knit committees. In 1969, however, this incipient Maoist movement in turn experienced a major split when a section of Maoists formed a party (the CPI-ML), excluding, among others, the most powerful Maoist formation in th, country, namely the Andhra Maoists. The two non-Maoist parties, CPI and CPI-M, have different bases of support. The CPI's following is exten sive rather than strongly localized. Its 1971 representation of 24 in the 525 member federal parliament comes from eight of India's seventeen states, including the populous and b ackw ard states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. The CPI-M's 25 seats were won from the three coas tal states of Wes t Bengal (20), Kerala (4) and Andhra Pradesh (1). These states are also CPI bases. While the CPI-M is the leading party in West Bengal and Kerala, the CPI is far smaller by comparison in these two states. In Andhra Pradesh, once a strong hold of the communist movement, the two parties are of roughly equal strength. The CPI-M's stakes are now virtually limited to West Bengal and 32 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Kerala, where support is extensive and where it has acted as a regional party by strongly espousing local issues. In these two states it stands a fair chance of winning power through the ballot box, with the help of other parties or without it. In contrast, the CPI's constituency, although limited, is spread over a larger part of the country. In the country as a whole, the CPI has a better hold over the organized trade union movement than does the CPI-M. The CPI's following among the peasantry is nationwide, while the CPI-M has powerful peasant bases only in the two states which are its strongholds. When the CPI split in 1964, the urban elite, most of the intellectual leaders, and the trade union functionaries, stayed on in the CPI, while most grass-roots leaders who had live links with the masses joined the CPI-M. The basic differences between the two parties stem from their attitudes toward India's ruling class alliance and their views of the present stage and proper strategy of the revolution. More specifically, they differ over the composition and leadership of the front for achieving India's democratic revo lution. The approaches of the two parties are, however, similar in important ways. Both advocate peaceful transition to socialism and both participate in the country's bourgeois parliamentary system. While the CPI's commitment to peaceful transition is unconditional, the CPI-M places the onus for such transition on the class enemy.S The CPI-M's emphasis on extra-constitutional methods is greater than the CPI's. Thus the con tradictions between the two non-Maoist parties are non-antagonistic in that both participate in the parliamentary system and believe in peaceful transition. Similarly, the contradictions within the fragmented Maoist movement are also non antagonistic in that all the Maoist formations reject the parliamentary system and agree on the need for a Maoist model of revolution in India. Their differences relate to the specifics. t f Division in the CPI The origins of the CPI split of 1964 date back to the party's confused under standing of the significance of India's attainment of independence in 1947. At the inaugural meeting of the Cominform in September 1947, Zhdanov made a famous speech in which he characterized the world as divided into two hostile camps, and called on communists to lead movements to oppose "the plans of imperialist ex pansion and aggression along every line. "9 The Indian communists misinterpreted the Zhdanov line to mean that in every non socialist country the bourgeoisie had gone over to the camp of the Anglo American imperialists and that this new alignment of forces had created two camps facing each other in irreconcilable con flict in every non-socialist country. The Indian communists went further than Zhdanov and embraced the views of Kardelj, a Yugoslav speaker at the Comintern meeting, who argued that the democratic and the socialist revolutions must "inter twine" and that communists must attack not only the big bourgeoisie but the bourgeoisie as a whole. Adopting this "Titoite" view, the Indian communists concluded that India was already a capitalist country (rather than a semi feudal and semi-capitalist one) and that they should intertwine the two stages of the revolution (democratic and socialist) into a single stage through attack on the whole of the Indian capitalis t clas s. This CPI conception came under attack from the communists of the Andhra region in south-central India, who had been leading a peasant partisan war in the Telengana districts since 1946. The Andhra communists invoked Mao Tse-tung's New Democracy to justify their strategy for a two-stage revolution in India, involving a four class alliance for agrarian revolution. lO In fact, the first recorded debate on the legitimacy of Mao Tse-tung's teachings as part of Marxism Leninism took place in India between the CPI's central leadership and the "peasant communists" of the Andhra region. 33 i BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org In the late 1940's the Cominform had no clear line for the CPI and the South east Asian communist parties, which had embarked on a series of insurrections following their own interpretations of the Zhdanov statement of 1947. As the Cold War began to replace class struggle on the Soviet agenda, however, the Cominform sought a broad peace front against United States imperialism. In 1950, the Cominform intervened to per suade the CPI to accept a strategy of two-stage revolution based on a four class alliance. This was in a sense a vindication of the Andhra communists, who had already espoused a four class alliance for agrarian revolution, in contrast to the all-India leadership's anti-capitalist struggle, based primarily on urban insurrection and the general strike weapon. The Andhra communists thus found themselves leading the CPI in 1950, and went ahead with their peasant partisan war in Telengana. Soviet foreign policy interests, however, required that the CPI abandon armed struggle in favor of peaceful constitutionalism. The Kremlin wanted to stabilize Nehru as a non-aligned ally in the peace front against im perialism, and hence in 1951 the Comin form once again intervened, this time to force the CPI to abandon armed struggle. The CPI gave up armed struggle in 1951, and in 1952 took part in the country's first general elections with universal adult franchise. Its success was most spectacular in Telengana and the adjoining Telegu-speaking districts of what was then part of Madras state, where the CPI had recently conducted peasant warfare. In Hyderabad state, where Telengana lay, the CPI was illegal at the time of the elections and over 2,000 of its active cadre were in jail. Nevertheless, while contesting only 42 of the 98 Telengana seats, the CPI won 36, clinched the victory of 10 socialist party candidates it had backed, and obtained about one-third of the votes. The Congress party, which contested all of the 98 seats, received about the same percentage of the vote as the CPI and won only 41 seats, 25 of which were in districts where the CPI did not run candidates. Similarly, in neighbor ing Madras state, the CPI contested only 75 out of 140 seats, yet won 41 seats and polled 25 percent of the vote, while the Congress party, although contesting all of the 140 seats, polled only 30 percent of the vote. In Hyderabad and Madras alike, the CPI gains were most spectacular precisely where the party had invited the most heavy police and military repression by leading peasant partisan warfare or guerilla squad actions. If the vote meant anything at all, it was a clear vindication of the Andhra Maoist line of armed struggle. Immediately after the elections, the CPI found itself divided in its attitude towards the Congress party and the Nehru government. Should it fight the Congress all out, or should it forge a united front with "pro gressive sections" to fight the right ist reaction which was growing inside the Congress party as well as outside it? A united front would require sup port of Nehru's foreign and domestic policies against his critics both inside and outside the Congress party. Soviet policies of the time had much to do with the CPI's dilemma. When, in the early 1950's Nehru showed an anti-West orientation and strove for closer ties (including economic aid) with the socialist camp, the Soviet Union supported India as a non-aligned ally in the peace front. The CPI backed Nehru's non-alignment policy without hesita tion because it served Soviet foreign policy interests. But the party re mained divided on Nehru's domestic policies. A ~ i d s t this continuing CPI con troversy, Moscow began seeing pro gressive features not only in Nehru's foreign policies but also in his domestic policies. With this shift in the Soviet attitude, India became the pivot of Soviet policy for Asia. The CPI's 1951 program had 34 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I assumed that India was a semi-colonial working class was to evolve as its and dependent country ruled by a big leader only gradually. The concept of bourgeois-landlord government which was collaborating with British imperial ism. This formulation now came under attack from a pro-Soviet section of the CPI which insisted that Nehru had abandoned collaboration with imperial ism and had taken to peaceful coopera tion and co-existence with the socialist camp. This group argued that India needed a national united front as the prelude to a government of democratic unity. Such a policy would require an emergency alliance with the Congress party to resist the "pro-imperialist and pro- feudal" offensive. ll This line of thinking was later to be developed into a slogan for a "national democratic government." In December, 1955, a few months before the 20th Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, CPI general secre tary Ajoy Ghosh outlined a program of "uniting with and struggling against the Congress" to build a national demo cratic front. This program implied not only peaceful transition to socialism (a concept which was to be proclaimed at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in February 1956), but also the concept of national democracy (proclaimed formally through the Moscow statement of 81 Communist parties in 1960). The CPI had thus anticipated two of the most controversial formulations which were later to be commended to the international communist movement by the Soviet leadership. The same concepts became the major ideological issues in the Sino-Soviet dispute. 12 The Moscow declaration (1960) des cribed the national democratic state as a form of transition to socialism, especially in the non-aligned countries of the peace zone, in which the national bourgeoisie played an objectively pro gressive role and deserved socialist economic and diplomatic support. The national democratic state was one that had achieved complete economic inde pendence from imperialism and was ruled by a broad anti-imperialist front that included the national bourgeoisie. The national democracy was a corollary of the concept of peaceful transition, and India was one of the countries of the peace zone where, in the Soviet view, peaceful transition via a national democratic state was possible.1 3 The "national democracy" concept added a new dimension to the CPI's continuing struggle for a new program to replace its 1951 program. As Nehru's domestic policies shifted to the right and tension mounted on the Sino-Indian border, the CPI attitude towards the Congress party and the Indian bourgeoisie continued to be the central issue of debate. The debate took a predictable form: national democracy versus people's democracy. The right wing of the CPI, with Soviet backing, contended that India's bourgeois democracy could meta morphose into a national democracy. It placed heavy reliance on Soviet aid as the instrument to secure national demo cracy. To this, the left wing countered that the bourgeoisie was compromising with domestic reaction and with imperial ism, and that Soviet aid, although necessary, was being used by the bour geoisie to bargain for more aid from the West. Rival program drafts were presented I at the CPI's Sixth Congress in April, 1961, and a split was averted only by the intervention of Mikhail Suslov, who headed the high-level CPSU delegation'to that Congress. Suslov, anxious to preserve unity, managed to salvage the rightist line and to maneuver the Congress into shelving the issue of a new CPI program. The conflict continued behind the scenes until the CPI split of 1964. The CPI Versus the CPI-M I The crucial difference between the post-split CPI and the breakaway wing which became the CPI-M lies in their I divergent interpretations of the class character of the Indian state. The CPI holds that the present Indian state is in the hands of the national bourgeoisie as a whole and is pursuing the goal of building an independent national economy along the path of capitalist development. 35 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org To embark on the socialist road, India must, according to the CPI, complete the present anti-imperialist, anti fuedal, national democratic stage of its revolution by reversing the process of capitalist development. The party's program proposes an intermediate stage called "the non-capitalist path of development." This is to be realized through a national democratic front comprising the working class, the broad peasant masses, the rising classes of urban and rural intelligentsia, and the national bourgeoisie excluding the monopoly sections. The CPI-H maintains that the Indian state is a bourgeois-landlord state headed by the big bourgeoisie. In its view, the big bourgeoisie has allied it self with landlordism and is collabora ting with foreign imperialist capital. Without working class control of the state, radical agrarian reforms and the expulsion of foreign monopoly capital will be impossible. Therefore, the anti imperialist and anti-feudal tasks cannot be completed without a clash between the forces of the democratic revolution and state power. The CPI hence favors a narrower front -- the people's demo cratic front, led by the working class in firm alliance with the peasantry. Poor and landless peasants are to be the basi callies, middle peasants can be reliable allies, while rich peasants can be brought in. The urban middle classes are also seen as allies who can be brought into the front. The broader sections of the national bourgeoisie which have no durable links with the foreign monopolies are seen as objec tively interested in the principal task of the revolution and worthy of being won over. But the big monopoly sections of the bourgeoisie, who control state power and who develop strong links with foreign monopolists, while sharing power with the landlords, can never be allies of the revolution. The character of the revolution sought by the two parties is basically the same -- anti-imperialist, anti feudal, anti-monopoly and democratic. The differences relate to the class composition of the front for revolution. The CPI thinks the national bourgeoisie can be a stable partner in the front, and is even prepared to give it a share in the leadership of the national democratic state. The CPI's national democracy therefore implies dual hegemony of the working class and the national bourgeoisie. The CPI-M on the other hand considers the national bourgeoisie to be at best a vacillating ally in the people's democratic front. Its analysis permits participation by the bourgeoisie, but not leadership, which must belong exclu sively to the working class. Maoism in India Except for the brief Maoist interlude in the late 1940's in Te1engana, the Maoist perspective in the Indian communist movement did not develop until 1967. The Naxalbari peasant uprising in 1967 and a revolt by the Andhra Pradesh state unit of the CPI-M in 1968 catalyzed a split in the CPI-M, and gave rise to a Maoist movement in the country. The 1967 general elections deprived the Congress party of its electoral monopoly. It lost office in 8 of the 17 states and could retairt office at the federal level only with a greatly reduced majority in parliament. In Kerala and West Bengal, the CPI-M was the dominant partner in coalition ministries which also included the CPl. The peasant revolt in Naxalbari, led by CPI-M radicals in West Bengal, placed the party in an awkward dilemma: if the coalition ministry did not crush the uprising, it would invite dismissal by the federal government for failure to maintain law and order; but if it crushed the revolt, the party would lay itself open to the charge of compromising with the bourgeois parlia mentary system and subordinating class struggle to the compulsions of survival in 0 ffice. The West Bengal government smashed the Naxa1bari uprising, with CPI-M power holders playing an active part in the suppression. As a result the CPI-M found itself at odds with the Communist Party of China, which hailed the Naxalbari 36 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org revolt 14 , and the party became internally When the CPI-M leadership placed the polarized over the questions of peaceful draft before the party for ratification, transition to socialism and participation there was widespread dissent. The Jammu in the parliamentary system. A large num and Kashmir and the Andhra Pradesh state ber of Maoist dissidents left the party, I I but did not form a new pftrty immediately. They functioned through loosely knit district, state and national committees which coordinated their activities. The Maoists wanted to build a party through Naxalbari-type struggles allover the country. While being confronted with this challenge to its leadership, the CPI-M had another problem on its hands. It had to come to grips with the ideological issues that were dividing the Indian communist movement. When it was founded in 1964, the party delayed taking a stand on these issues, while the CPI simply adhered to Soviet positions in the dispute 15 . In August, 1967, under pressure from the ranks, the CPI-M leadership took up the ideological issues and produced a draft resolution for party discussion. This resolution covered the entire range of issues in dispute: 1) the class assessment .and evaluation of the New Epoch; 2) the issue of war and peace; 3) the concept of peaceful 4) forms of transition to socialism; 5) the fundamental contradiction of the present epoch, 6) the contradiction between imperialism and the national liberation movement; 7) the assessment of Stalin's place and 8) the character of the Soviet state; 9) material incentives in the Soviet Union; and 10) Soviet pro posals for unity of action with the Chinese in Vietnam. The draft rejected as revisionist the Soviet positions on all the issues except one -- cooperation in Vietnam. But this anti-revisionist stance did not imply acceptance of Chinese positions on the issues, which, apart from the question of unity of action in Vietnam, were not examined. In spite of its opposition to Soviet positions, the CPI-M's stance could still be seen as revisionist from the Chinese point of view. 16 units rejected it outright. At the all India plenum, where the draft came up for ratification, the powerful Andhra Pradesh unit spearheaded the attack on the leader ship and demanded that the issues be ex amined afresh in the light of Chinese positions in the dispute. 17 When the national leadership tried to discipline the Andhra Pradesh unit, the dissenters broke off to become independent and functioned through a state-level coor dination committee. Thus, while the Nax albari revolt catalyzed the Maoist revolt against CPI-M participation in the parliamentary system and posed the issue of armed struggle in a new perspective, the Andhra revolt crystallized Indian Haoist support of the Chinese line in the international Communist movement. The Indian communist movement thus witnessed its second split in four years. Shortly after the Naxalbari uprising, in November, 1967, an All India Co-ordination Committee of the CPI-M was set up to accel erate the struggle against revisionism and to unleash mass struggles. This committee became the All India Co-ordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries in June, 1968. The AICCCR, which was committed to building a Maoist party through Naxalbari-type peasant struggles, converted itself into a party, the Communist Party of India-Marxist-Leninist, in April, 1969. 18 It excluded the Andhra Maoists and.many others who thought that formation of a party was premature at this stage. Peking recognized the new party immediately. The differences between the CPI-M and the CPI-ML cover the entire range of issues regarding the revolution -- its stage, strategy and tactics. The CPI-M holds that the Indian state is a bour geois-landlord state, led by the big bourgeoisie which pursues a capitalist path in collaboration with foreign mono poly capital. The CPI-ML, which generally follows the Chinese view, holds that India is a semi-feudal and semi-colonial coun try, whose obsolete social system serves 37 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org as a base for United States imperialism and Soviet social imperialism and facilitates exploitation by comprador bureaucrat capitalism. The basic task of the revolution is seen as the elimina tion of feudalism, bureaucratic capitalism, and imperialism. Of the major contra dictions, the one between feudalism and the broad masses of the people is viewed as the principal one. 19 This determines the stage of the revolution -- the democratic stage. The peasantry is to be the main force of the revolution, to be led by the working class. The working class must rely on landless and poor peasants, firmly unite with middle pea sants, and win a section of the rich peasants while neutralizing the res,t. }bst urban petty bourgeois and revolu tionary intellectuals will be reliable allies of the revolution. The CPI-ML seeks to build a demo cratic front through worker-peasant unity, to be achieved in the process of armed struggle and after red power has been established in at least some parts of the country. The path to liber ation is people's war, to be waged by creating bases of armed struggle and consolidating the political power of the people through guerrilla warfare. This will remain the basic form of struggle through the period of demo cratic revolution. The CPI-ML and the Andhra Maoists The CPI-ML assertion that the prin cipal contradiction is between feuda lism and the b road masses of the people leaves unclear the anti-imperialist task of the democratic revolution that the CPI-ML has in view. It lays lop-sided emphasis on the anti-feudal task. By contrast, the Andhra Uaoists who are outside the CPI-ML hold that the main contradiction is between the Indian peo ple and imperialism (including social imperialism) in alliance wi th feu dalism. They see imperialism and comprador bureaucrat capitalism as the props of feudalism. The CPI-ML does not regard the national bourgeoisie as an ally of the revolution, either firm or vacil lating. 20 But the Andhra Maoists want the national bourgeoisie in the front along with the workers, the poor peasantry and the middle classes. Further, the CPI ML is silent on the need to fight British imperialism and its references are limited to United States imperialism and Soviet social imperialism. The Andhra Maoists are more specific on this point. 2l The differences between the CPI-ML and other Maoist groups, especially the Maoists of the Andhra Pradesh Revolution ary Communist Committee, also involve the tactical line, the methodology of revolution. The first Indian attempt at working out a Maoist tactical line dates from the Naxalbari peasant struggle in 1967. 22 A year after Naxalbari, Indian Maoists who were functioning through the All India Coordinating Committee of Communist Revolutionaries reviewed the situation and renewed the call to build a "true" communist party through Naxal bari-type struggles. 23 The AICCCR leadership innovated an unorthodox (in the Maoist context) tac tical line -- that the primary condition for party building was to organize armed struggle in the countryside. They held that a party so built w o u l ~ not only be a revolutionary party but would at the same time be the people's armed force and the people's state power. These were seen as features of an indivisible struggle. Here armed struggle was meant in the rather narrow sense of guerrilla squad actions. There was no reference to mass organizations or to other forms of struggle besides armed struggle. 24 As an afterthought, the leadership recog nized the need to mobilize peasants on economic demands as the first step towards drawing in those backward sections which were late in grasping the politics of armed struggle. 25 But the leadership remained generally vague on the question of land distribution or an agrarian program as part of its program of armed struggle. When the AICCCR met in October, 1968, it determined that Naxalbari-type move ments in the country had already entered the stage of guerilla warfare. It there fore called upon revolutionaries to 38 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org plunge into work among the peasantry and to set up revolutionary bases in the countryside. (The leaders were not clear about what they meant by "revolutionary bases". They may have meant guerrilla zones. ) Meanwhile serious differences were developing between the national AICCCR and the Andhra Pradesh Co-ordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. Connnunists had been organizing the tribal people in an 800 square mile area since 1959. The movement, which predated Naxalbari and was quite inde pendent of it, gained strength in 1967, and police reprisals followed in 1968. The CPI-M, which was leading the movement prior to the Maoist revolt by the Andhra Pradesh unit of that party, was not organizationally pre pared for defense against the police raids. The Srikakulam district unit of the party disagreed with the state unit over the timing of armed struggle and the need for military training to re sist the police. 26 In October, 1968, the state unit, which had already left the CPI-M and was functioning indepen dently as the Andhra Pradesh Co-Ordina tion Committee of Connnunist Revolution aries, joined the national AICCCR. The Srikakulam district unit was, however, already dealing directly with the AICCCR. In December, 1968, the Srikakulam unit decided to launch armed struggle in the district, following the methodology of struggle recommended by the AICCCR, but without the approval of the Andhra Pradesh state unit, which had serious reservations about the timing and mode of operation. Shortly thereafter, in February 1969, the AICCCR disowned the Andhra Pradesh state committee and decided to go ahead with the formation of a Maoist party excluding them. As I the armed struggle continued in Srikaku lam, the new party (CPI-ML) claimed that the Girijan tribal people were I "learning warfare through warfare" and were setting up their own revolutionary organization, the Ryotanga Sangrama Samiti, which was described as "in I embryo, the organ of p e ~ ~ l e ' s political power in the villages." Significantly, the party claimed that the Ryotanga San grama Samiti was a mass organization I whose formation followed the "libera tion" of an area, rather than being formed in advance of the struggle. According to the party, the Samiti set up people's courts, people's militia, and village administrations which under took land distribution programs. The party claimed that "red power" had emerged in over 300 Srikakulam villages. About this time, the CPI-ML leader ship developed a new tactical line: that mass organizations were unnecessary and guerrilla warfare should be the sole tactic of any peasant revolutionary struggle. The peasants as a whole need not participate in guerrilla warfare, which could be started by an advanced section of the peasantry. The accent was on secret politicization. The ear lier line of drawing in the backward among the peasantry, by mobilizing them first on economic demands, was abandon ed. The CPI-ML leadership further intro duced the controversial tactic of "anni hilating the class enemy" in the country side. After the party unit had done some preliminary propaganda for seizure of political power, guerrilla squads were to be armed in secret and charged with annihilating the mos t hated class enemies. After the first action had taken place, political cadres were to whisper to the peasants about the benefits that would result when the oppressor landlords were forced to flee the village. Peas ants would be aroused and drawn into the struggle. When a number of such squad actions had taken place and the annihila tion line had been firmly established, political cadres would advance the slogan for the seizure of crops.29 The sequence was guerrilla terror--political propagan da--guerrilla terror. Mass organizations and mass participation were not parts of the annihilation campaign. These tactics were first tried in Srikakulam district and, because there was already a well-rooted mass movement there, met with some success. Since 1959 the peasantry had been organized on class and general demands under the leadership of the communists. The move ment had been directed against the 39 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org tyranny of the landlords, the village level. bureaucracy, and the forest admin istration. When the annihilation tactic was tried here, the effort was no mere guerrilla squad action to kill landlords. There was a high degree of mass partici pation. Thousands of peasants accompanied the guerrillas to raid landlords' houses, to e x ~ c u t e landlords, or to storm police stations. But after a point, the tactic proved counter-productive even in Srikak ulam. The actions provoked police repri sals and the guerrillas were forced to flee. The same tactics were tried indiscriminately in other Andhra Pra desh districts where there was no tra dition of mass movement. The results were disastrous: the guerrilla actions were unrelated to peasant demands. Squads belonging to one region would travel scores of miles to carry out an annihila tion raid, and then flee to another region. In the absence of political follow-up work, the the raids appear ed to the local peasants no different from acts of banditry, devoid of politi cal significance. In Srikakulam it was claimed that "red political power" had emerged in 300 villages, from which terror-stricken landlords had fled follwoing the annihila tion campaign. The CPI-ML expected Srikakulam to develop into India's Yenan, where a people's liberation army could be formed. But the party did not explain how this could happen through mere terrorist tactics. And in less than 18 months, the red bases crumbled in the face of the government's counter-insurgency drive. The guerrillas abandoned She peasantry to police on slaughts. 3 Meanwhile the Andhra Maoists who were functioning through the Andhra Pradesh Revolutionary Communist Commit tee were conducting limited actions in areas under their influence. Despite their reservations about the CPI-ML's tactical line in Srikakulam, they sup ported the movement there because it was a question of protecting the peas ants against the government's armed raids. Two Shades of Maoism The differences between the CPI-ML and the Andhra Pradesh Revolutionary Communist Committee (APRCC) relate not only to organizational issues but to the whole philosophy of armed struggle. To the APRCC, armed struggle should begin only as response to landlord attacks. They hold that people's war always begins as resistance and not as offensive, and further that the CPI-ML's methodology of struggle, by rejecting mass participation, has been unrelated to the people's demands. This became even clearer in areas other than Srikakulam where the CPI-ML's guerrilla squads killed individual landlords in the absence of a mass movement of any type. While the CPI-ML regards every armed struggle as a "national liberation struggle", the APRCC maintains that only after a series of armed actions by the peasantry and their coordination into a people's army does a national liberation struggle truly emerge. To term every peasant struggle a struggle for state power is to divert the people's attention from their basic and immediate demands. Further, when people are not organized on their demands and led to win them, guerrilla terror merely diverts their attention. According to the APRCC, people should be their own liberators under the party's leader ship, which in turn means that the people must be part of all guerrilla actions. The CPI-ML' s methodology, they say, makes the people feel that outsiders are their liberators. Indeed, in Srikaku lam as in other regions, CPI-ML guer rillas frequently included activists who did not belong to the region and had not lived among the local people. 31 According to the APRCC, the begin ning, development, consolidation and extension of peasant struggles must all be based on an agrarian program. Al though complete liberation is possible only after setting up base areas, sei zure of power throughout the country, and the establishment of a new demo cratic state, "liberation begins with the starting of anti-landlord struggle, with the starting of (an) agrarian revolutionary program." 40 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I The CPI-ML' s "annihilation"line, , t on the other hand, postpones the agrarian I I program to a later stage and regards destruction of the state machinery as its first task. Agrarian revolu tion has ceased to be part of the CPI-ML's immediate program, while the APRCC be lieves that agrarian revolution is the main content of people's war, in theory as well as in practice. Peasant strug gles to implement agrarian programs will naturally develop into armed struggle if the masses are trained to resist the reprisals that peasant actions invite. t A program of agrarian revolution should, according to the APRCC, be coordinated I 1 so that the masses understand the rela tionship between agrarian revolution and seizure of power. They should also be made to understand that the gains of their agrarian struggles can be pro I tected only by seizing political power, which is possible only through people's war. t The CPI-ML seeks to create "base areas" by annihilating individual land t t lords, arguing that 'when the guerrilla units begin to act in this manner in any area the class enemies will be I forced to flee the countryside, and the villagers will be liberated. ,,32 The APRCC counters that this is contrary to Mao Tse-tung's concept of liberated areas. Mao has laid down three condi tions for developing a liberated area: 1) building the armed forces, 2) de feating the enemy, and 3) mobilizing the broad masses of people. As the APRCC understands Mao, "building the armed forces" means building the people's armed forces; "defeating the class enemy" does not mean the an nihilation of the class enemy but de feating the class enemy along with his armed forces; and "mobilizing the masses" means mobilizing and arming them against the class enemy and its armed forces in complete coordination with the people's armed forces. 33 1 , The APRCC's line is summed up in a recent document: Amed struggle is the main form 1 of struggle but mass struggles \ have to be ooordinated with armed I 1 struggle and mass organizations should be ooordinated with the organization of the red army. By ooordinating olass struggles in urban areas and in the oountpY side and by ooordinating other forms of struggle with armed struggle" the majority of the people should be cir(JJJ)n into con scious participation in armed struggle. 34 The failure of the CPI-ML's tac tical line in the countryside is evident from the severe setbacks the party has received in Srikakulam and in Debra Gopivallahpur and other rural areas o ~ West Bengal. In May, 1970, shortly after the party's first congress, its activity in West Bengal shifted from the countryside to the city of Calcutta. The urb an movement, which has taken the form of low-level guerrilla squad ac tions based on the annihilation tac tic, is not coordinated with any move ment in the countryside. 35 The CPI-ML has become a truncated party, virtually limited to West Bengal. The Srikakulam unit has repudiated the central authority of the party, while the Bihar and Uttar Pradesh units, like part of the Orissa unit, have broken away. Thus the Indian Maoist movement, which showed signs of consolidation through the AICCCR, has begun fragmenting since the hasty for mation of the party in 1969. While the Srikakulam movement has collapsed under CPI-ML leadership, the APRCC's movement has recorded some pro gress. In April, 1969, the Committee prepared the tribal people of Warangal and Khammam districts in Andhra Pradesh to reoccupy land which had been taken from them by neighboring landlords. Once the landlords had been made ineffective, a land program was begun in earnest. Thousands of acres of government waste land, forest land and landlords' farms were occupied. All forms of feudal ex ploitation were ended. It took almost a year to implement the first stage of the program. In retaliation, hundreds of tribal people who had occupied land were jailed and repressive measures were launched by police and paramilitary for ces. This took guerrilla resistance to 41 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org a new level and the movement spread. In late 1969 the APRCC claimed to control an area of 5,000 to 6,000 square miles, inhabited by 350,000 to 400,000 people. By mid-1970 it claimed that this area had expanded to 7,000 to 8,000 square miles, with a population of 500,000 to 600,000. Repression has since been greatly intensified. The Government never felt called upon to deploy its regular army against the Srikakulam movement. But in the areas where the APRCC has tried to develop a guerrilla zone, the Indian army has, for the first time since inde pendence, been called out to quell a peasant movement. On March 1, 1971, about 5,000 troops and 10,000 para military forces carried out a major operation in Warangal, Khammam and Karimnagar districts. On that day the civil administration helplessly handed over control to the army for a Vietnam style clean-up operation. Something similar to the "s trategic hamlet" plan is being tried. Many scattered villages are herded together into concentration camps so that all food supplies to the guerrillas are cut off. According to one report, camps have been set up at three mile intervals allover the area. No civilian is allowed out after dusk.36 Despite its fragmentation, the Mao ist movement has registered extensive growth in the country. A strong Maoist undercurrent is evident within the CPI-M, and its leadership is under heavy pres sure to quit the parliamentary system. There is a growing conviction in CPI-M ranks that the party cannot achieve any thing significant within the framework of the bourgeois constitution, which con centrates power in the federal government and leaves state governments powerless to implement any substantial part of the party's program. Those who hold this conviction believe that the tas te of power via the ballot box which the par ty has enjoyed in Kerala and West Ben gal has made it a victim of parliamen tary cretinism. In the absence of a viable Maoist party on a national scale to serve as a rallying center, many ex tremist dissenters in the CPI-M con tinue to work in the party. There is a possibility that these dissidents may force a split in the CPI-M or leave it in strength to launch a new Maoist par ty. The emergence of a viable Maoist party in India depends on two factors: 1) the ability of the Indian Maoists to work out a unified tactical line to coordinate peasant movements with each other and with urban movements; and 2) the exodus of a large number of CPI-M cadres to the Maoist movement. For the CPI-M has by far the largest number of militant cadres in both urban and rural areas. Revolutionary potential has exist ed in India for quite some time. The serious economic crisis in the country, including a severe unemployment prob lem and growing tensions in the country side, add to this potential. The failure of the Indian Maoist movement to ex ploit it is a measure of the movement's weakness and of the need for a clearer Maoist perspective on the Indian revolu tion. [New Delhi, July 1971] FOOTNOTES 1. Monopolies Inquiry Commission, Report 1965. New Delhi, Government of India, 1965, pp. 121-22. 2. B.V. Krishna Murti, "Power Elite Planning for People's Welfare", Economic and Political Weekly, Bomb ay, May 27, 1967, pp. 966-67. 3. M.S.N. Menon, India and European Socialist Countries, New Delhi, Per spective Publications, 1970, pp. 138-50 and 154-56. 4. Francine Frankel, Agricultural Modernization and Social O1ange, New Del hi, U.S. Agency for International Develop ment, 1969, unpublished, mimeographed. See also Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, The Nature and Causes of Agrarian Tension, New Delhi, 1969, unpublished, mimeographed. 5. The Connnunist Party of India has been recognized by the Soviet bloc as the only communist party in the country. The independent Communist Party of India Marxist, recognized neither by Moscow nor by Peking, has been trying to build a bridge to the international communist 42 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org movement through the neutral or inde pendent bloc of parties -- Rumanian, North Korean, North Vietnamese and Cuban. The Communist Party of India Marxist-Leninist is the only genuine communist party in Peking's view. 6. For a detailed analysis support ing this conclusion see Mohan Ram, Indian Communism: Split Within ~ Split, Delhi, Vikas Publications, 1969. 7. Before the formation of the CPI ML, most Indian Maoists were functioning through the All India Co-ordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. The AICCCR expelled its Andhra unit before converting itself into the CPI ML. Its Maharashtra unit chose to keep out of the new party; it opposed the hasty formation of a party from above and the policy of exclusion of the Andhra Maoists. 8. That is, it is willing to attempt peaceful transition to socialism but does not rule out the possibility that India's governing classes may, through violent repression, drive the people and the party into militant resist ance (Ed.). 9. A. Zhdanov, "The International Situation", For ~ Lasting Peace, For ~ People's Democracy, 10 November, 1947, quoted in Mohan Ram, Indian Communism: Split Within ~ Split. Vikas Publications, Delhi, 1969, p. 12. 10. A four class alliance refers to an alliance led by the proletariat, with the peasants as their main allies, the petty bourgeoisie as allies to be won over through careful organizational work, and the non-monopoly bourgeoisie as potential but less reliable allies (Mao Tse-tung, "The Chinese Revolution and the Chinese Communist Party, Selected Works, Vol. III, pp. 92-93 - Ed.). 11. See Ajoy Ghosh, "The United Front", New Age (CPI Monthly, New Delhi), February 1956. 12. A brillant analysis of the issues can be found in Victor M. Fic, Peaceful Transition to Communism in India: Strat ~ of the "Co""mmunist PartY (Bombay, Nichiketa, 1969). 13. Mohit Sen, a cpr theoretician, claimed in 1961 that although the "state of national democracy" was a new concept in the international communist move ment his party had, since 1956, been putting forward a program and producing an analysis which was the same as the Moscow statement's. It was the culmina tion of a "very precise formulation of the CPr." Maral, New Delhi Monthly, January 1961. 14. The Communist Party of China, supporting the the Naxalbari uprising, called upon the CPI-M following to repud iate its leadership. The CPC's analysis was that India was a semi-feudal, semi colonial, only nominally independent country and that the Indian bourgeoisie had turned comprador. It held that the objective conditions for a revolution existed in India. For the CPI-M's views expressing disagreement with the CPC's analysis, see "Divergent Views between Our Party and the CPC on Fundamental Issues", Resolution of the CPI-M Central Committee, August 1967. 15. In the pre-split CPI, the right wing which had Moscow's backing in its struggle against the left wing, suc ceeded in committing the party to Soviet positions in the ideological dispute without a proper party discussion. Since the split the CPI has been consist ent in its support of Moscow on issues of ideology. 16. See Mohan Ram, Indian Communism: Split Within ~ Split, for a detailed analysis. 17. For these positions, see "A Proposal Concerning the General Line of the International Communist Movement," Letter from the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, June 14, 1963, in reply to the Letter from the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union dated March 30, 1963. 18. For a study of the evolution of the Maoist tactical line in India, see Mohan Ram, Maoism in India, Vikas Publications, Delhi, 1971. 19. The Chinese Party has never endorsed this position because it has never stated publicly what the princi pal contradiction in India is. 20. This analysis of the CPI-ML's program is based on unpublished docu ments. 21. Andhra Pradesh Revolutionary Communist Committee, Immediate Program, unpublished, mimeographed, April 1969. Also Andhra Pradesh Revolutionary 43 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Communist Committee, Problems of People's War, unpublished, mimeographed, early 1970. -- 22: An authoritative report on the lessons of the Naxalbari struggle by one of its leaders, Kanu Sanyal, "A Report on the Peasant MOvement in the Terai Region", Liberation (Cal cutta monthly), bears striking resem blance in its methodology to the famous Hunan report of Mao Tse-tung. 23. "Declaration of the All-India Co-ordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries," Liberation, June 1968. 24. For an analysis of the AICCCR's and later the CPI-ML's tactical line, see Abhijnan Sen, "'!he Naxalite Tac tical Line", Frontier (Calcutta Week ly), July 4, 1969. 25. (haru Mazumdar, "Develop Peas ant Class Struggles Through Class Analysis, Investigation and Study," Liberation, November 1968. 26. Andhra Pradesh Revolutionary Communist Committee, On Srikakulam Gir ijan Armed Struggle, unpublished, mimeographed, April 1969. 27. "Srikakulam Marches On", Libera tion, April 1969. --28. (haru Mazmndar, "Some Current Organizational and Political Problems", Liberation, July 1969. 29. (haru Mazumdar, "A Few Words on Guerrilla Actions", Deshabrati (Bengal Weekly, Calcutta), January 15, 1970. 30. Another area where the tactic was tried without success was in Debra Gopivallabpur in Midnapur district of West Bengal. See "Revolutionary Armed Struggle in Debra in West Bengal", Report of the Debra Thana Organizing Committee (CPI-ML), Liberation, Decenber 1969. 31. Narayanamurthi, "The Srikakulam Story -- II", Frontier, September 20, 1969; also Andhra Pradesh Revolutionary Communist Committee, "On Armed Struggle in Andhra Pradesh", July 1969, mimeo graphed. 32. Ch aru Maz umdar, "Carry Fo rward the Peasant Struggle", Liberation, November 1969. 33. Andhra Pradesh Revolutionary Communist Committee, Problems of People's War, loco cit. -- Pradesh Revolutionary Communist Committee, Some Problems Con cerning the Path of peq?Ie's War in- India, clandestine publication, late .. 1970. 35. Abhijnan Sen, "Naxalite Tactics in the Cities", Frontier, October 3, 1970. 36. C. (handrasekhara Rao, ''What to do?" Frontier, June 12, 1971. in the current issue of James 0 'Connor-Inflation, Fiscal Crisis, and the American Working Class David K. Cohen, Marvin Lazerson, and Joel H. Spring Education and Corporate Capitalism Bay Area Radical Teachers' Organizing Committee Towards a Movement in the Schools Gail Pellet- THE DIALECTIC OF SEX: The Case for Feminist Revolution Paul Sweezy-The Resurgence of Financial Control: Fact or Fancy? Past issues include James O'Connor on the fiscal crisis of the state, James Weinstein on the IWW, Ellen Willis on consumerism and women, Herbert Gintis on the "new working class," Andre Gon
on workers' control. L SPECIAL OFFER: For a New America: Essays in History and r: Politics from "Studies on the Left," 1959-1967. $1.50 with sub I scription. SOCIALIST REVOLUTION AGENDA PUBLISHING COMPANY 318 SANCHEZ STREET SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA 14114 NAME _________________________________________ ADDRESS _______________________________________ CITY _________________STATE __ZIP ___ Slnlle IslUe. $1.50 ______ Fore"n Subscription $6.50 ________ Subscription (6 IlIue.) .$6.00 ____ SPECIAL OFFER. 7.50 ____ 44 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I 1 Thanjavar Rumblings of Class Struggle in TalDil Nada Several heads would have rolled on the blood would have j10wed like the Kaveri in if only we had not been restrained by the higher-ups. But for that instruction from our we would have put real fear in their hearts. We would have shown them who we reaUy are. Adilingam, a thin man with bright, piercing eyes, seemed to relive that tense September day in 1968 as he continued: There were l2 police vans carrying hundreds of Madras Special Po lice forces. We gheraoed 2 the vans; they couldn't move an inch without killing several of us. We carried every bit of equipment we could get hold kitchen knife... TWelve of their men were wounded; not a single one on our side. The Superintendent of Police planted several white flags on the ground and asked for peace. We 'We wiU release one van if you go and bring our women you arrested last night like cowards under rover of darkness. Go get them. 1 And our women were brought back in an hour's time from Kivalur station. For the first time in the history of our the police took orders from the laborers. It was a great day. This was how a confrontation between agricultural laborers and landlords, backed by the police, was described to me by a leading participant. It was the village of Puducheri in Eastern Than javur. The incident was part of a familiar theme. In an area where agricultural labor was organized and strong, laborers had asked for a wage increase of half a liter per kalam. 3 A landlord who refused to concede the demand brought in outside labor; local laborers would not let outsiders harvest the land they had cultivated. On the day of the harvest, the out siders came to the field with police protection. Several local women laborers also came, despite attempts by the police to prevent them. When they had harves ted about an acre, the police asked both local and outside labor to clear out. They did; there was no further trouble. Early next morning, around 3 a.m., by Mythily Shivaraman FOOTNOTES 1. Tamil Nadu is the area where the Tamil language is spoken; it is used chief ly to refer to the state of Madras. There were about 33 1/2 million Tamil speakers in 1961, about one-tenth of them living in Thanjavur district (Ed.). 2. Surrounded and immob ilized: a common tactic in mass struggles through out India (Ed.). 3. One liter is roughly equivalent to one u.S. quart, and one kalam is rather more than 12 liters. In 1952, harvest-time wages had just been raised to 2 liters per kalam of grain threshed (Ed.). BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org the police entered several streets in Puducheri and rounded up 42 women, who were hustled away in a Eolice van. Within a few hours, several hundred Harijan laborers had gathered in Puducheri to fight the land lords and the police to the finish. I talked to one of the women who had been severe ly beaten that night - a frail, anemic girl who couldn't have been more than 20. "A policeman pointed me out and said, , That's the arrogant wretch who walked straight into the field not minding us one bit. She deserves a good thrashing.' I was pushed to the ground and a heavy booted policeman kicked me repeatedly." She talked matter-of-factly, simply, not a muscle in her face moving. Was police brutality a routine experience for Kathamma? The police stayed in Puducheri for three weeks "protecting" the landlords in the interests of "production". The Harij ans of Puducheri left their homes; it was bad enough when the nearest police station was five miles away. When they came back (and resettling them was a big problem for the local peasant union) they found their paltry possessions --pots and pans, old trunks containing tattered shawls or wedding sashes-- vanished. Their "animal wealth" of a few goats, hens, chickens and ducks went to supplement the three-course meals provided by the local trader --a landlord who so obviously needed protection-- to feed the police. No Wage Disputel The Puducheri incident was one of the more violent in a series of confrontations between the landed and landless sections of Thanjavur in the last three or four years. Landlord oppression found its classic expression in Venmani, where 42 Harijan women, children and old men were burnt alive a few months after the Puducheri episode. 5 The Madras daily newspapers, together with the scandal sheets, informed us that Thanj avur was ridden with struggles between local and imported labor over the wage issue. As laborers persisted in demanding wage increases year after year, the landowners exercised their right to hire labor wherever they liked. Consequently, local laborers attacked their competitors - the poor fighting the poor. What else could you expect from illiterate, uncultured laborers? The Mail went to the extent of suggesting that in Venmani, the "Communist laborers" had set fire to their own huts. This must have been an unparalleled case study in masochism! 46 4. The Harijans of India are the so-called "Un touchable" castes. They number about 77 million out of a total popula tion of more than 500 mil lion. They are unusually numerous in Thanjavur dis trict, where they fom perhaps a third of the people. Slaves until 1843, their ancestors then be came bonded debt-laborers (pannaiyals) or wage workers. They live in hamlets outside the main areas of villages and do the bulk of wet rice cultivation for land lords of Brahman or of high-ranking Non-Brahman castes. They were tradi tionally considered highly polluting and might not be touched or even ap proached by people of higher caste. For discus sion of caste in Thanjavur see, for example, Dagfinn Sivertsen, When Caste Barriers Fall (Allen and Unwin Beteille, Caste, Class and Power (University Press, 1965); and Kathleen Gough, "Caste in a Tanjore Village", in Aspects of Caste in South India, Cey lon and Pakistan, ed. E.R. University Press, 1970) (Ed.). 5. In the summer of 1970, a memorial built on the spot of the massacre of the Kilvenmani martyrs was inaugurated by the CPI-M leaders. Thous ands 0 f landless laborers had as sembled. A young Harijan woman told me, "Can you imagine that the landlord, that murderer Naidu, is still freely gallivanting BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org What a base lie this was became obvious to me after I had talked to two landlords in Alathambadi, not far frOm Venmani, about a year ago. Not only did the laborers deny that the wage issue was basic to the troubles, but even the landlords shrugged it off as secondary. An emaciated old man, owner of about 15 acres, lectured me on what he considered to be the source of the present problems: Things used to be very peaceful hepe some yeaPs ago. The labopeps wepe very haPd-working and pespectfuZ. But now.. the fellow who used to stand in the backyard of my house to talk to me comes straight to the front doop wearing slippeps and all .. And at 5:30 s h a ~ he says, 'Our leader is speaking today to a pub Uc meet ing. I have to leave. ' His leader holas a meeting right next door to me and parades the streets with the red flag. These fellows have become arrogant and lazy, thanks to the Communists. They have no fear in them any more. Listening to several other landowners, including an important functionary of the DMK6 party unit in Thiruvarur, was like hearing a broken record with the needle stuck at the same note. The monotony was relieved only by the vile abuse thrown at the Harijan laborers. "Throw J.May the Red Flag" The root of the problem was easy to locate. It was the emergence of the new, fearless, politically aware Harijan laborer and his militant union. This was confirmed by my recent visit to Kovil Pathu in Nagai subdivision. In the Harijan street of Kovil Pathu there are 45 families. About four of them own small plots of land. The rest are landless laborers. About 15 of them still work as pannaiyals or attached laborers. 7 The pannaiyal is bound to the landlord through out the year. He and his wife work on the land and in the master's house. In Kovil Pathu all the laborers worked in the field of the local land lord, who was said to own about 7 villages. Accord ing to the laborers, who should know, he controlled some 3,000 acres, although they conceded that there may not have been even an inch of land remaining in his name. 8 "Why else shoul d he build a school, a rest house and a dispensary?" they asked. He was also the trustee of a big temple. The land lord lived mostly in M a d r ~ s and his agent, "Iyer", managed the land. in the streets of Than javur!" She spat on the ground and continued, "Isn't there a single man among us? Why is that brute still alive? MY heart won't be at rest until I skin him alive and make a roof for my hut with his skin." Recently, the Court award ed life sentence to a laborer, a Communist, for having killed a hireling of the landlord Naidu; around the same time the court awarded ten years of imprisonment to the Naidu. The Communist is in jail while the Naidu, who has appealed to the High Court, is still "gallivanting freely." 6. The Dravida Munnetra Kazhakham (Dravidian Pro gressive Association), formed in 1949. A Tamil nationalist and populist party, it is opposed to North Indian economic dominance, the use of Hindi as a national language, and Brahman cultural dominance ! in Tamil Nadu. The party I at first advocated a separate Dravidian state in South India but modi I fied this in the 1950's to demand greater economic 1 and political autonomy I for Tamil Nadu within the I , Indian constitution. The i DMK won the elections in I , Madras against the Congress Party in 1967 and 1971. It 1 has, however, followed Congress policies faith fully. The Land Ceiling Act it introduced had enough loopholes built into it to prevent any radical re distribution of land. A militant champion of social justice in its opposition days, it has now become the wildest cheer leader the 47 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I had heard that Kovil Pathu had a long history of labor struggles. The absence of the red flag made me curious. Its story was told with a deep sense of bitterness. Not even a hint of this story and similar ones I heard in several villages finds a place in the reviews and surveys of agrarian problems of Thanjavur which are now becoming popular with our press. After some years of relative quiet, Kovil Pathu experienced a breakthrough in 1967. The landlord refused to implement a wage agreement. The tahsildar lO came but nothing happened. Then the struggle took several forms: forcible harvest (After all, who fer tilized the land and planted the seedlings? Can we quietly watch someone else walk away with what is ours?), nonviolent civil disobedience, squatting in front of the landlord's house, a show of force by parading the streets in large numbers and shouting slogans. When the officials came to investigate the charge that local labor was denied work, the landlord justified it on grounds of laziness and poor perfor mance. The struggle went on and the laborers managed to prevent strikebreakers from weakening their bar gaining strength. The landlord had tasted trouble and he didn't like its flavor. In September 1969, the CPI-M ll organized an anti-tractor struggle. 12 Only five men from Kovil Pathu were asked to join it. On the day of the demonstration, the landlord, who normally used one or two tractors in that village, hired about ten tractors and lined them up in the field. In the true spirit of TIlanjavur, the gauntlet was thrown. Even before the demonstrators approaChed the field, police arrested them. During this period all the laborers of the Hari jan street - only five had participated in the demonstration - were denied work for about three weeks. The police station, which is only a stone's throw from this street, was overflowing with Madras Special Police contingents. During this period of unemployment, one night around 3 a.m. (a favorite time for the police), more than 50 policemen entered the street and pulled out the sleeping men from their houses. Severe beatings followed. Ayyakannu, a pannaiyal who had recently returned from two months in the hospital following the beating, as well as others who still bore the marks of that night, re called it vividly: the raid was totally unexpected; they had not participated in the demonstration and they had had no work for three weeks; many had eaten little during that period. The police came stealthily and began thrashing the men. Ayyakannu, who still has Green Revolution ever had. 7. The pannaiyal is a van ishing phenomenon in Than .. javur, thanks at least partly to the pannaiyal Protection Act of 1952. The Act specifies the wage to be paid and pro vides for compensation in case of dismissal. Many landlords have preferred to get rid of their pannaiyals rather than to abide by the law. 8. Landlords customarily avoid having to surrender surplus land under the land reform acts by put ting it in the names of friends or relatives or nominally bequeathing it to charitable endowments of which they remain the trustees (Ed.). 9. "Iyer" is the cas te title of Smartha or Sai vite Brahmans, used as an honorific term of address. ~ f u n y bailiffs and village clerks are Brahmans (Ed.). 10. The tahsildar is a government official in charge of a taluk or sub division of a district. Under the Collector of the district, he collects revenue from the Village Headman and has certain magisterial powers (Ed.). 11. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is the "Left Communist" parliamen tary party which broke away from the "Right Commun ist" or pro-lbscow wing of the CPI in 1964. (See Mohan Ram, this issue.) It has a strong following among poor peasants and landless laborers in 48 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I a gaping wound on his heel, was left unconscious when the police went off with their booty, 33 men arrested and in semi-conscious state. The pannaiya1s were left behind. 1 The 33 day-laborers were booked on charges of trespass in a nearby village. Upon their release on bail, they had to walk to Thiruvarur, miles away, several times a week, to appear before the court. It cost them about Rs. 200 each. By then they had been unemployed for quite some time, save for occasional jobs in distant villages. The landlord's harrassment persisted. When they were away the whole day their cattle were stolen and occasionally even their chil dren were taken to the police station. The laborers couldn't afford the luxury of boycotting the landlord forever; they approached him for work. The landlord said, "Throwaway the red flag before coming here. I want that flag removed from the cheri (Harijan street). I should never see you again carrying that flag and parading the streets." They were made to sign a declaration that they had quit the Peasant Union, that they would not attend new moon meetings of the Union, that they would have nothing to do with the CPI-M. The men got their jobs, back. There is no red flag in the street any more., Down with Paraiyans, Down with Pa11ans! The labor union is, the real target of landed interests. The independence of the laborer and the strength of his class are growing in the country side, and landlords know that their interests are threatened. The Vadivalam Desikars and Vadapadiman ga1ams (local landlords of great wealth - Ed.) are not foolish enough to risk a confrontation with laborers over a quarter or half a liter of paddy. They have correctly sensed the impending disaster and skillfully mobilized the support of lesser land lords, and even of many small fry, for their "Paddy Producers Association". As one Alathtnnbadi landlord told me, "Don't think it is only the agri cultural laborer who has a Union. We have one too and we can also parade the streets carrying flags and shouting slogans." And in one such parade in Puducheri, the slogan was "Parayan ozhiga, Pa1lan ozhiga" (Down with Paraiyans, down with Pa11ans). Against Feudal Oppression The fact that Thanjavur has had more than its fair share of "trouble" in the last three years, and that, too, in places where the red flag move ment has been strong, does not mean that agricul tural labor struggles are new to this district. The history of such movements in pre-British India Thanjavur (Ed.). 12. In Thanjavur, where a laborer finds employment for only 5 to 7 months a year, the introduction of tractors presents a fur ther threat to his survival. The CPI-M protested against the use of tractors in the absence of basic land re forms. In view of the increasing ntnnbers of tractor cheer-leaders, including the Chief Mini ster of Tamil Nadu, the comment of an agro economist is significant: "In India they [tractors] are not a high priority investment . they do not raise yields, they damage poor soils and they dis place labor.. " (Doreen Warringer, Land Reform in Principle and Practice, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1969). 49 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org is very sketchy. We have, however, evidence to suggest that peasant uprisings against landlords, occasionally the killing of landlords and seizure of land, did take place during the British period. From the early 1940's, the peasants and agricultural laborers in Thanjavur were organized by the Communist Party.13 The strongholds of the Communists were the Harijan streets. The only two parties which really had an impact on the Harijans were the Dravida Kazhakam 14 and the Communist Party. Although E. V. Ramaswamy Naicker's anti-Brahman rhetoric greatly enthused the Harijans, the DK failed to mobilize them in actual socio-economic struggles. In Thanjavur, this was done for the first time by the Communists. Yes, Gandhi and the Congress did open the famous temples to the Harijans and gave the Harijans a new name. But it was the Communist Party which led the struggle to throw open the local teashops. In several Harijan villages where the party is strong now, its very first struggle was against untouchability against the Harijan having to drink tea in a cup reserved for Harijans, while standing outside the shop. The people whom no political party would touch (while making sure it had one or two Harijans in prominent positions) became the staunch supporters of the Communists. In the rigid caste society of Thanjavur this worked, in a sense, against the party's attempts to broaden its base by winning over the poor and middle peasants across caste lines. The landed interests worked hard at branding the Communists as a "party of the Pallans and Paraiyans" (Paraiyan Pallan kat chi). Using this caste weapon against the Communists, the landowners were to some extent successful in mobilizing the caste Hindu landless and small peasants on their side in disputes with the Harijan laborers. In the Puducheri struggle of 1968, the Harijans mentioned that many caste Hindu laborers had assisted the landlords in harvesting the land without their help. Puducheri is not the only instance of this disruptive landlord tactic. It is a familiar, universal game. Apart from untouchability, the Communist-led laborers fought the primitive and barbaric punish ments which were dealt them. The slogans used by the party at that time are very revealing: Sanipal kudukkade ("Don't make us drink COW-dung milk"), and Savukkadi adikkade ("Stop the whipping"). Other objects of the struggle were wage increases, fixing of land rent and security of tenure. "Behind the Trouble" The landlords, the press and the Government of 13.Some references to these peasant struggles are found in Kathleen Gough's article, "Peas ant Res is tance " and Revolt in South India", Pacific Affairs, Vol. XLI, No.4, (Winter 1968-69), pp. 526-544. An interest ing comment in regard to Kerala and Thanj avur by Gough: "While poor peasants and landless laborers were drawn into the strug gle, there was still a tendency on the part of the Communists to rely on the middle peasants for 1eadership. the failure of the revolts of the late 1940's was due more to vacillations of policy on the part of the Com munist leadership and to the fact that only iso lated sectors of India were at that time ripe for agrarian revolt than to a sectarian preference for poor peasants and land laborers. It would seem that the Communists have so far failed fully to utilize the militancy of the poor peasants and landless laborers in Southern India" (p. 530). 14. The Dravidian Associa tion; formed in 1944 out of the old Justice Party by E.V. Ramaswamy Naicker, a notable advocate of independence for Tamil Nadu. The party lost strength after the depart ure in 1949 of its more progressive wing, the DMK, and more particularly af ter the formation of Madras as a separate Tamil speaking state in 1956 and the shift of power within the Congress Party from Brahman to non Brahman leaders, which 50 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org t Tamil Nadu have a stale story: the Communists are at f the root of the trouble in Thanjavur. It is in their self-interest to create problems; by disrupting produc I i tion and the normal functioning of life, they create the anarchy which is essential for a Communist take over. The census of 1961 offers a more serious expla nation. lS Two features about Thanjavur stand out 1 its iniquitous land ownership pattern and its enor mous proportion of landless labor. J Land Ownership Pattern: Fifty percent of the I , cultivating households own less than 2.5 acres each. Seventy-six percent of the cultivators, holding up to five acres, own only 37 percent of the cultivated land, while about one-fourth of the cultivating house holds, holding mre than five acres, own more than 62 percent of the cultivated area. Within this sec t tion, the ownership pattern is very much skewed: 3.85 percent of the cultivating households, owning ( f more than 15 acres, own 25.88 percent of the culti vated area. Agricultural Laborers: Within Tamil Nadu, Than javur has the highest proportion of landless laborers, and it has been rising. Thirty-three percent of all workers of Thanjavur are agricultural workers, while the figure for Tamil Nadu state as a whole is 18 percent. For every ten cultivators, there are nine agricultural laborers in Thanjavur. The census of 1961 explains: "As most of the cultivators belong to the well-to-do class in this area, in many cases I J the actual cultivation is done by laborers hired on wage, while the landlords confine their activities to direction and supervision." It is doubtful that many landlords in the upper brackets "supervise" the I land, for most of them have migrated to nearby towns or to Madras. When laborers talk about mirasdars (landlords) they invariably refer to the agents who I manage the land; the landlords are rarely seen. Al though an accurate estimate of absentee landlordism in Thanjavur is not available, it must be one of the highest in Tamil Nadu. The extensive Hindu temple and i. monastic lands, managed by absentee landlords or by the government, also contribute to this. I I , Although it reveals the high proportion of agri , cultural laborers to cultivators, the Census of India , comes to a curious conclusion about the nature of the ! agrarian economy in Thanjavur: "From the ratio of the , cultivators to agricultural laborers it can be said t that Thanjavur is an example of capitalistic farming, while Salem (another district in Tamil Nadu state) j is an example of subsistence farming." That such a facile definition of capitalistic t ) made the DK 1argely redundant (Ed.). 15. Census of India, 1961, Vol. LX, Madras, Part X-V, District Census Handbook, Thanjavur, Vol. 1, pp. 241-242. 51 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org farming should find a place in the census report probably reflects the wishful thinking of some sec tions of the ruling class that the Congress reforms have already destroyed pre-capitalist relations in Indian agriculture. "Capitalist Farming" Although we cannot discuss here in any depth pre-capitalist or capitalist relations prevalent in Thanjavur, the casual assertion by the Census quoted above calls for at least a brief rebuttal. Capital ist farming is not simply the hiring of labor to cultivate land as against leaving peasants to subsist by cultivating their own land. Hired labor is but one of many requisites of capitalist farming. The fact that in the past ten years agricultural labor increased by 60 percent in Thanj avur can be bet ter explained by reference to the impoverishment of the small and middle peasantry, who have been forced to sell their land, and to the large-scale evictions of tenants. The tenurial conditions in Thanjavur have struck many a researcher, Indian and foreign. Wolf Lade jinsky, the Ford Foundation consultant to the Government of India who studied the suitability of Thanjavur's tenurial conditions for the Green Revolution, condluded that it was "a district with one of the nation's worst tenurial systems ... If land tenure conditions were a part of the criteria for selecting a package district, Thanjavur wouldn't qualify at all. ,,16 This was his second visit to Thanjavur after ten years and he found that tenurial conditions had actually worsened because the land owner's right of resumption for personal cultivation had been freely exercised. Actual rents ranged from 60 to 65 percent as against the legally fixed rent of 40 percent. Ladejinsky also concluded that a typical tenant of Thanjavur could hardly ever be come an agent of the Green Revolution. 17 The unfair rent and insecurity of tenure left too little margin for investment, and too little credit was available to the tenant. One of the criteria to determine whether capital ist relations exist in agriculture is the existence of a class of innovating and investing entrepreneurs using advanced techniques of production. The Green Revolution has attempted to create such a class by supplying well-to-do farmers with high-yield seeds, fertilizers, and credit. This has undoubtedly further enriched a small section of rich peasants and land lords. But there is no evidence to suggest that an entrepreneurial class is fast developing to replace 52 16. Wolf Ladejinsky: ! Study on Tenurial Condi tions in Package Districts, Planning Commission, Government of India, 1965. The Census has this to say on the choice of Than javur as a package district: "The choice fell on this district because of its favorable agrarian condi tions and abundant irriga tion facilities." 17. Ladej insky' s proposal: "We conclude .. that the problem facing the .. full success of the package program is how to enable him to secure a firm footing on his cultivated acres. This presupposes more favor able rental arrangements which are real rather than imaginary, security of tenure, and whatever land ownership can be promoted among the tenants. The initiative for all this doesn't lie with the package program but with the government of Madras" (p. 16). BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org the passive rent receivers and money-lending land 18. The Report ruefully lords. The Green Revolution has grossly distorted admits, after acknowledge capitalist development by crudely superimposing the ment of the Green Revolu advanced technology (good seeds, chemical fertilizers, tion 's "notable achieve , and machinery) which is usually associated with the ments" that "as an capitalist stage of production on the existing pre instrument of social trans capitalist organization of production. Certainly the Green Revolution has left untouched the high incidence of surplus agricultural labor and of insecure tenancies, the prevalence of share cropping, and the power of parasitical elements, while inducing a small group of rich peasants to use modern agricultural technology. The technique of cultivation is capitalist but the social organ ization of production is pre-capitalist. Venmani and the Green Revolution
The peculiar distortions brought about by the 1 Green Revolution in the name of capitalist farming ! and increased productivity are now seen to be doing much more effectively what was considered the t chief prerogative of the Communists, i.e., creating unrest. A Home Ministry report points out the two basic fallacies of the "New Strategy" of the Green Revolution: pests) by and large on an outmoded agparian somal structupe. The intepests of what might be called the agricultupal class es have not convepged on a commonly accepted set of social and economic objectives. Second the new technology and having been geaped to goals of with secondar-y pegard to social have brought about a situation in which elements of instability and unpest aPe becoming conspicuous with the possibility of an incpease in tension. 18 i After the Ladejinsky study of Thanjavur in 1964, a similar study was done by Francine Frankel in 1969 for USAID. Frankel traced the roots of the Kilven mani tragedy to the progressive polarization between landowners and laborers, a trend which was accelerated by the Green Revolution. It had widened the economic disparities between big and small landowners and between landlords and landless laborers. f The political implications of this polariza I tion were most discernible in Eastern Thanjavur. How did the new technology generate agrarian discontent, 1 especially among the small and middle peasantry? j Frankel found that the scheme had originally raised I hopes in the peasant that all classes could parti cipate in the Green Revolution. Yet, ,
, formation" its impact has been "disturbing". ! l I i f f } I I I I i ! , \ I ! f I I I
53 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org An enquiry into the actual dist1'ibution of benefits showed that economic dispa1'ities between smaH and large farmers had substan tially increased. Even when small far.mers adopted the the mUltiple handicaps under which they operated brought about a relative deterioration in their economic posi tion. As for the added to the grvwing discontent caused by growing mate1'ial dep1'iva there was increasing Pesentment over the inequitable of the benefits frvm the new technology. The Tamil Nadu Government, however, betrays no awareness of the Home Ministry's warning or of aca demic studies like Frankel's. On every possible occasion, the Ministers merrily reel off figures on the area under double cropping, on high-yield seeds, on consumption of fertilizers. As for "labor trouble", hasn't the Government already enacted the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Laborer Fair Wages Act? The "peace" in the district since the Act was adopted testifies to the justice done by the Government to agricultural labor. The Fair Wages Act In the Harijan street of Valiya Nallur, a little village in Nannilam subdivision, there are 30 fami lies. Three are tenant families holding one to three acres of land, and the rest are landless. For years landlords had claimed ownership of the laborers' homesites, but recently the laborers had heard the village clerk mention that the land was government-owned waste land. (puramboke). The villagers seemed at a loss to verify this. Were they getting a legal wage? They didn't think so, although they knew neither the legal wage nor how they were being cheated. After some question ing and calculating - theirs was a contract wage system unlike the simpler system on which the Fair Wages Act was based - we found that a laborer lost about 7 1/2 kalams during the harvest period. The loss worked out to about 50 paise (half a rupee or about ten U.S. cents) per day during the culti vating season. The laborers didn't seem much surprised when we worked out the amount that was really due to them. They had known instinctively that they were being cheated, and the questions of how and how much seemed to them trivial. Periodically, they had asked the landlord for wage increases, but they had never had a s trike or any kind of struggle. "Why? What's the use of going on strikes?" they asked. "If we refuse to work there are many others, 19. Indian Express, February 16, 1970. 20. Each village has a number of sites, espec ially beside roads and irrigation channels, which are classified as waste land by the State government and for which revenue is not assessed. In this case local land lords had claimed the waste land as their private property and exacted rent from the tenants - a common practice. The government-appointed vil lage clerk is usually threatened or bribed by the landlords not to divulge their fraud. In this instance the clerk seems to have been in discreet (Ed.). 54 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org not only outsiders, but even caste Hindu laborers of this village, who would be willing to labor at the existing wage rate. No, that won't work." They didn't know what would work. Certainly, the Tamil Nadu Agricultural Laborers' Fair Wages Act had not worked. Casual chats with agricultural laborers one meets in the fields and in buses and trains show that Valiya Nallur is not an isolated instance. There are thousands of Valiya Nallurs in which the Fair Wages Act is violated. What is the implementation maChinery provided by this Act? A complaint of unfair wages can be made , by an agricultural laborer to a Conciliation Officer, an official of the Revenue Department not below the rank of tahsildar. An appeal against the decision of a Conciliation Officer can be made to a Revenue f Court. The District Court may in turn examine the proceedings of the Revenue Court and order annulment or reversal of such proceedings. In short, there is t nothing new in this usual bureaucratic routine .. and the Tahsildar I In several villages where wages were far below the legal minimum and other irregularities went on, I asked the laborers, "Didn't you report it to the tahsildar or the collector - why didn't you do so?" I never found the laborers wanting in sense of humor--they didn't sound annoyed at my naivete but always laughed generously. In Ney Vilakku, 21 a little Harijan village in Val ivaI am panchayat, where the local landlord had been carrying out a I vendetta against the entire village for more than a decade, a laborer explained the functioning of the Indian bureaucracy from his life's experience: 1 Oh if we go and complain to the tahsildar's office a dozen he will come once- I though he hasn't yet come once to our street. He will go straight to the landlord's house and have coffee in a silver tumbler. He wiU I I sit in the swing and chat with the landlord for a while. After a good three-course meal I t he will send for us. We will stand near the gate while he comes out and sits on the ver andah. 'What's aU the trouble you fellows are creating for us?' he will ask. ' I have discussed the matter with the Iyer. If you want to keep out of you'd better 1 i behave from now on! '
Murugan's anecdote has formed the subject of several doctoral theses and research projects. Scholars and critics, foreign and native, have reached similar 21. A panChayat is a small cluster of villages, or sometimes one large village; it is the small est modern administrative unit and is administered by an elected panChayat board and president (Ed.) . 55 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org conclusions in dull, staid volumes. 22 No implementation machinery will be effective unless the predominant element in it is the people who are supposed to benefit from the law. This is an experience of the agricultural laborers of Thanjavur. In all the villages where the labor union (kisan san gam) was strong, the harvest wage was six liters even before the Fair Wages Act was adopted. Where the wage was below that level, it has been raised mostly in villages where the labor movement has become strong. In Puducheri, the familiar tactic of holding the wage line by threatening unemployment has been successfully resisted by a strong labor union using militant tactics to prevent the use of strikebreakers. It took several years of patient work by Connnunist Party cadres to help organize a people who had been rooted in servility and acceptance of the natural law of oppression by the higher castes. The laborers of Valiya Nallur just looked vacant when I asked, IIAren' t you going to fight for wh.at is at least legally yours? What are you going to do?" No, they had no tradition of struggle in their village. No doub t a Congress flag had flown there for years, a new one every five years. But a genuine labor 111ove ment, a strong political orientation - all this was foreign to them. "We t 11 Fight Even If Everyone Has ~ Die" What is it that can revive human dignity in a long-oppressed and debased individual that can make a man out of a human form, suddenly struck me vlhen a laborer named Vadivelu, who lived in Ney Vilakku, a militant Harijan village, told me. We will oontinue to fight even if every one of us in our village has to die. Ney Vilakku has always been the lone fighter against the landlord's oppression. No one but us has had the guts to fight back in this area. This is our land. Our forefathers cleared the forest here and levelled the land. We have worked here since our childhood. We will continue to live here and till this land; no one can drive us out of here. We will start our struggle again soon. Ney Vilakku had a long history of confrontation with the local landlord - the Communist Party had organized a union there. The residents, all Harijan tied laborers, had agitated for implementation of a wage increase in 1958. The local landlord was also the trustee of temple land on which the laborers worked. Soon after the agitation, a cow belonging to the temple died. The temple Trust, which in fact 22. Gunnar Myrdal in his Asian Drama concludes that the basic fallacy of Indian land reforms is that implementation has been left to the exist ing power structure of which the bureaucracy is an element. However, the Government of India does not seem to share this opinion, as is evident in the most inane solu tion it has so far offer ed to this problem: a few training courses in remote hill regions on "how to serve the people". Implant ing values unrelated to and in opposition to the economic realities of society cannot extend beyond the classroom. 56 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org meant the landlord, filed a case against four men who had actively participated in the agitation, charging them with killing the cow. The case was decided in favor of the four. The temple Trust then fired all 18 of the village's tied laborers, as they had all helped finance the case. An appeal to the court under the Pannaiyal Protection Act failed. Since 1958, the pannaiyals have been denied work on the temple land. Two years later, the temple was asked by 2 ~ e 1 j government to form a cooperative tenant farm. The Harijans wanted to lease the land and went to pay a deposit for membership in the cooperative. The Panchayat President, "Iyer", the agent of the landlord trustee, refused to receive their deposit. I t They had to go to Kivalur to hand over the money to the Registrar of Cooperatives. A few days later the money was returned and no explanation offered. The landlord formed a cooperative with all his adiyals and other 'loyal' laborers as members. 24 A woman, t still enjoying what must be an old joke, said: , I "Even the salt-merchant is a member. Once in a while he goes to the Cooperative Society to apply for a J loan. When he gives his loan money to the trustee, I I he gets a rupee. The merchant is mighty pleased." A few years later the society was dissolved, with arrears of 2,000 kalams of paddy from members. All of it had been going to the managing trustee's house. The society members lost their tenancy rights, which simply meant that they continued to till the ! temple lands as laborers. The trustee had proved that ignorant tenants could not work a cooperative I successfully. Production was going down, and could any patriotic person tolerate this? The land revert J ed to the temple for direct cultivation. t I The pannaiyals had lost many a battle against the I landlord but the struggle continued. Then there was the government-owned waste land j of four acres in Ney Vilakku. Every year the trustee landlord would buy its cultivation rights at the government's annual auction. 25 In 1961, however, 1 a group of laborers, denied jobs on surrounding J land (most of it owned by the trustee landlord), decided they too would bid for the waste land. The landlord's Iyer did not turn up (he was sure no one else would dare bid), and the pannaiyals got r the land for Rs. 125. Twenty days passed and then t came a notice that the land would be re-auctioned. No explanation. 1 On the day of the re-auction, the Iyer carne protected by his adiyals bearing arms. He got the ) land for Rs. 400. The pannaiyals pretended to retire peacefully; but after some time they found Iyer J 23. Experimental coopera tive farms have been tried in many parts of India over the past decade. In theory, they consist of groups of small owner-cultivators or cultivating tenants having security of tenure, who work their lands collec tively and together receive loans for equipment or capital improvements. In many cases (such as the present one), however, the persons registered as members of the coopera tive are purely paper members and the loans are used by a landlord or by one or two powerful peasant members for quite other purposes (Ed.). 24. Adiyal was the word for slave in use before slavery was abolished in 1843. It is still occasion ally heard and here evident ly refers to the personal servants of the landlord trustee (Ed.). 25. It is common for the cultivation rights in government-owned waste land, or its produce, such as coconuts, to be auctioned annually. A government servant from the Revenue Department comes to conduct the auction. Landlords often agree in advance on the buyer and price (Ed.). 57 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org returning home with a few men, caught them and gave the Iyer a severe beating with their slippers. A case was filed against them. Seven of their houses- those of the more militant pannaiyals-- were burnt. The Iyer's men saw to it that they did not come back to rebuild their huts. A few of the pannaiyals fled and never returned; others lived for some time under the trees; there was no point in putting up huts only to have them burnt down. After the Iyer became tired of this game they rebuilt their houses. Until today they still have not been able to find work in the neighboring fields. Every day, they walk to Tiruthurai Poondi subdivision to find work. The trustee continues to harrass them in many ways. Vadivelu ended this story with a challenge: "We will continue to live here and we will find a way to till this land again. We will start our struggle again very soon." Struggle was part of the proud past of this village, and Vadivelu its living symbol. The Red Flag - "No, We Can't Simply Let it Go" Every society has a period of "peace" when the exploited and the exploiters co-exist. In parts of Thanjavur, this phase now belongs securely to the past. The agricultural laborer, idealized as the silent sufferer, the epitome of Hindu virtues, has as last begun to take seriously the Gandhian slogan "Land to the Tiller" and to behave as if the law were meant to be implemented. Puducheri and Kovil Pathu, Adilingam and Vadivelu, prove that the "peaceful" past of Thanjavur can never be resurrected and that the future will be a long struggle sustained by the laborer's faith in a new social order in which even the memory of his barbaric past will fade. Puducheri and Kovil Pathu are, however, only isolated pockets in Tamil Nadu, Adilingam and Vadivelu by no means typical of their class. There are thousands of Valiya Nallurs in Tamil Nadu still untouched by ideas of independence, militance and struggle. There are many laborers who still scratch their toes and look vacant when asked, "Aren It you going to fight at least for your legal rights?" The Communists have touched only the periphery of the problem in terms of numbers in the laboring population and of politicization of these numbers. A visitor to Thanjavur receives the impression of numerous villages stagnating for want of leadership. As I left Thanjavur, however, I felt hopeful: a spirit of struggle, the urge to fight back, seemed to persist in some of the villages ~ had visited, 58 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org even villages like Kovi1 Pathu where the movement had suffered a recent setb ack. What the lab orers there said as they bade me goodbye summed up this mood. 26. An earlier version of this article was published in The Radical Review, Hadras, April 1970. 1 "When will the red flag fly here again?" I asked them. 1 "We can't do anything right now," someone said. I "We have been without work for so long and we are dependent on the landlord for our livelihood today.
But deep in our hearts we, every one of us, long to I t see the red flag in our street again. How can we just let it go? We have fought under it for so many years." A woman whose husband was hospit a1ized for months after the police raid in Kovi1 Pathu added, "How can we take it lying down? It is not for nothing that we have suffered so much. No, we can't simply let it go. We shall be up on our feet again soon." 26 NOTICE TO SUBSCRIBERS Because of postal regulations, The BuZZetin mailing list must be ar ranged according to Zip Codes. Therefore--with any correspondance about address changes, renewals, etc.--please enclose the address label on the cover, or at least note the Zip Code when you write. For changes, include both new and old addresses and Zips, otherwise we cannot locate your subscription. c OMMITTEE o F c o N c E R N E D A SIAN seRO LA RS CCAS is an international scholarly/political organization concerned with Asia. Member ship in CCAS is $5 yearly, $10 for those with greater resources. With membership comes the "CCAS Newsletter," a monthly newssheet with organizational and topical news. Membership in CCAS is contingent upon acceptance of the "Statement of Purpose," available from the national office. Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars Boston CCAS 146 Sixth Street Massachusetts 02139 USA Visitors to the New York meetings of the Association for Asian Studies in late March 1972 should also be aware of concurrently held seminars, talks, discus sions, and entertainment being hosted by CCAS at its fourth annual meeting. j 59 I I BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Peasaat Classes ia Pakistaa by Saghir Ahmad Introduction * In a very short time3 in China's central 3 southern and northern provinces 3 several million peasants will rise like a mighty storm3 a force so swift and violent that no power3 however great3 will be able to hold it back. will smash all the trammels that bind' them and rush forward along the road to liberation. l Twenty-two years later, Mao Tse-tung's unorthodox analysis and prediction came true. The Chinese were the first to make a successful peasant revolution. In later decades, the Chinese example was followed by peasants of other countries, forcing the world to take cognizance of their role as a vanguard of revolutionary change. Barrington Moore has, perhaps, best summed up the significance of pea sants in social change: process of modernization begins with peasant revolutions that fail. It culminates during the twentieth century with peasant revolutions that succeed. No longer is it possible to take seriously the view that the peasant is an object of history .. . which contributes nothing to the impetus of change. 2 But not all classes of peasants are agents of change. Mao recognized this when he wrote: But has this great revolutionary task3 this important revolutionary been performed by all pea sants? No. are three kinds of peasants3 the rich3 the middle3 and the poor peasants. three live in different circumstances and so have different views about the revo l ution. 3 The essence of much sociological literature on the role of peasants is a debate regarding the roles of various classes among the peasants. In order to assess these roles, it seems neces sary first to delineate the classes clearly. In much of the literature, the tendency has been to apply a model of the Chinese class structure mechanically to other societies. Though peasant societies share some common sociological characteristics, they are nevertheless marked by wide differences in culture, customs and traditions. It is impera tive to pay careful attention to the relation between structural and cul tural variables which have a bearing not only upon class position but also on class consciousness. In this paper, I examine the class structure and its relation with other structural and super-structural variables as observed in a peasant village in the Western Punjab. The Village The data for this paper were col lected in 1965 from Sahiwal - a village in the district of Sargodha. Sargodha division, like Multan and Bhawalpur, is a canal colony area, such areas compris ing about 70% of the cultivated land in West Pakistan. In contrast to the old settled districts, these were settled mainly after the introduction of irri gation works in the latter part of the 19th and early part of the 20th century. The systems of tenure in these districts are of two types: 1) peasant-proprietor- ship with small holdings of 5 to 25 acres"and 2) tenancy farming, in which large areas are owned by landlords. In recent years there has also been an in crease in capitalist farming, with wage laborers employed to work on the farm. At the time of this research, the land of Sahiwal was predominantly cultivated by tenant farmers. 60 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org The village land, whether cultivated, quoms with castes, others with clans, and non-cultivated, or uncultivable, is di still others with occupations. Indeed, vided between two landlord families, who guom has elements of all. But it is my also own two other nearby villages. The view that quoms are best explained as land of the three villages, a total of examples of Weber's "status groupe." In 4572 acres, was acquired in 1867 by a I , common ancestor of the present landlord families of Raj i and Khan. Farmers from various regions of the Punjab were en couraged to settle the land. They were I allowed to clear and settle as much as they wanted. The exercise of such a freedom was, however, restricted by I technology. One pair of plow-oxen can adequately plow only 12-1/2 acres of land. Hence, even today, when villagers are asked the amotmt of land they own j or cultivate, they reply "one plow" or "two plows" of land, meaning 12-1/2 or 25 acres. ! The primary obligation of the settler I farmers was to produce. Those who failed to fulfill the landlords' expectations or I demands were subject to eviction. The landlords provided the agricultural and residential land and paid the land revenue. In return, the tenants paid half of all that they produced and contributed begaar labor when this was demanded by the land lords. All the expenses and energy in t volved in agricultural production were the responsibility of the tenants. I ! i The settlers also included kammis, those who manufactured and serviced the farmers' tools and those who served the village. The duties and obligations of the kammis are traditionally defined, as are the amotmts of their payments in the form of annual shares of the produce. Sahiwal has 1,590 people divided into 274 households. The household, headed by the eldest male, is the primary social, economic and political unit. The quantitative data which follow, unless otherwise designated, refer to household heads. Social Differentiation Status distinction occurs in terms of quoms. Differ.ent definitions and us ages of quom have led many students of Ptmjabi society astray. Some have equated Sahiwal, quom distinction occurs in two forms. There is first, differentiation between Zamindars (traditional culti vators) and Kammis (traditional artisans). Membership in these groups dbes not spe cify one's actual occupation, for many Kammis are cultivators and a few Zamin dars are artisans. These two major Quoms further subdivide themselves into a num ber of minor quoms. The names of 23 of the minor guoms, such as Doogal, Mattan, and Sheikh, identify them as belonging to the major Quom of Zamindars, while the names of 15 other minor quoms iden tify them as belonging to the major Quom of Kammis. In contrast to the single occupation among the Zamindars, the Kammis have traditionally performed many different functions, such as weaving, carpentry, haircutting, washing, etc. Accordingly, the names of the 15 Kammi guoms indicate ancestral occupations Carpenter, Barber, Weaver, Washerman or Blacksmith. Membership in these groups is not today an indication of actual occupation. Quom membership is rather an indication of one's status in the social hierarchy. Although there is no exact corres pondence between guom and occupation, there does exist a high degree of over lap. In Sahiwa1, 107 households claim to belong to Zamindar quoms, while 167 households identify with Kammi quoms. In reality, however, 131 (47.8%) of the heads of households are cuI tivators. This number includes 100 Zamindars and 31 Kammis. Seven Zamindar households work in jobs other than their traditional occupations. Of the 167 Kammis, o n ~ y 61 (36.5%) work full-time, while 47 (28.1%) f work part-time, in one of their ancestral ! occupations. Thirty-one (18.6%) have ,.. become farmers, and the remainder (16.8%) .... are unemployed, semi-employed, or working outside the village. Altogether, only 75% of the Kammis can be said to be fully employed; the rest are either unemployed or partially employed. The quoms have often been equated 61 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org with cas tes, which has led many to speak of castes among the Muslims of rural Pun jab. In an earlier4 article, I argued that such an equation is inappropriate and that the concept of caste is inade quate for a proper analysis of social stratification among rural Punjabi Mus lims. Without going into detail, I will mention a few of the findings which might help further our discussion of class structure. MOst of the commonly accepted caste characteristics such as a) birth-status, b) traditional occupation, c) restricted social mobility, d) commensal and pol lution rites and e) endogamy do not apply to the quom. MOst of the structural, be havioral and attitudinal differences among villagers are also not explained by mem bership in different quoms. Similar conclusions are reached by HaDlZa Alavi, who recently completed a village study in a different district of the Punjab. He concludes that "caste, insofar as it exists in rural Punjab, is a vesti gial phenomenon and does not constitute a reference in social interaction. "5 In analyzing classes, however, we must pay attention to one vestige of caste. Analo gous to caste ranking in Hindu India, there does exist a hierarchy of quoms. Thus, when the residents of Sahiwal were asked to rank the various quoms, they universally separated the Zamindars and Kammis into two ranked groups. They further ranked each of the quoms (23 among the Zamindars and 15 among the Kammis) within these major groups. Al though the ranking of the quoms was neither as "elaborate" nor as "discrete"6 as among the Hindus, Syeds and Awans among the Zamindars and Miana among the Kammis were assigned highest status. High status alone did not appear to have great political or social significance. For instance, when the villagers were asked to name village inf1uentials, none of the Syeds, Awans or Mianas was named. They also did not appear to exert any signi ficant influence in the social or politi cal arena. It nevertheless appears to me that if a member of a high status quom also possesses other valued characteristics such as land, money, and/or a large patri lineal lineage (biraderi), he and his quom will be viewed differently and he will play a significantly different role. Unaccompanied by other characteristics, the recognition of the high social rank of a quam is more a reflection of his torical tradition rather than of political ~ reality. Another factor which impinges upon the significance of quom status is the nature of occupational and hence social mobility characteristic of rural Punjabi Muslim society. A common Punjabi proverb is: "last year I was a Jul1aha (weaver), this year I am a Sheikh (disciple of Prophet MOhammad), and next year if the prices rise, I will be a Syed (descendant of the Prophet MOhammad)." In other words, a rise in economic status or a change in occupation also leads to a change in social status. In Sahiwal itself, there were cases of families which changed their quom name on changing their occupation. In analyzing classes among the villa gers one has not only to be aware of these factors, but also take into con sideration the nature and form of changes induced by growing industrialization, urbanization, and market relationships. Because of the enactment of various land refonn laws, and because of a de sire eo accumulate capital and to invest it in industry with the opening up of opportunities in this arena, many Pun- j abi landlords have in recent years changed their previously tenanted land into capitalist farms or have emphasized the production of cash crops. Both of these changes have caused changes in the relations of production, and thus in the village class structure. Their net effect is a) to create tenants, artisans and landless laborers who are linked to their landlords through cash payments that derive from the operation of market forces, rather than through the sharing of a subsistence crop; b) to increase the proportions of laborers who are hired for short periods, as opposed to tenants and artisans having long-term ties to their landlords; and c) to impoverish tenants, artisans and landless laborers and widen the gap between their incomes and those of the more prosperous landlords. 62 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org 1 I To deal first with cash crops, the opening of a sugar mill twenty-five miles away gave impetus to the village land lord to grow more sugarcane. Previously, ,f only a small amount of sugar-cane was grown to feed the cattle or to make lump brown sugar for domestic consumption. f Now more than one third of the total land is planted with sugar-cane, of which all 1 ~ is supplied to the sugar mill. The re j sult is that the tenants are not only I j deprived of growing one of the tradi tional crops, b ~ ~ the customary rela tions between the cultivators and the kammis have been disturbed. Those fam iliar with sugar-cane know that it in t volves greater wear and tear of farming i tools, which means increased work for those artisans who are customarily responsible for repairs. But sugar cane cultivation also means that the kammi, like the tenant farmer, goes j j short of a portion of the wheat or cot ton crop he would customarily have re ceived and used for his home consumption. I In theory, tenants and artisans receive . ~ l cash payments for the work they contribute toward sugar-cane production. In fact, I t however, the price of sugar-cane is paid by the sugar mill to the landlords' agents, and by the time they have deducted sums for the tenants' seed, fertilizer, fines, and current loan to the landlord, only a I I few lucky tenants receive the rewards of their cash crop farming. A further shift towards capitalist 1 agrarian relations that impoverish the I tenants and artisans has been caused by the enactment of land reform measures and the threat of more radical landre forms. These have led many landlords to put a certain portion of their land into "self-cultivating" farms. In 1965, the two village landlords put more than 200 acres each into such farms, which are I t in fact land cultivated by hired laborers rather than by tenants. This has meant not only eviction of tenants but also loss of work for kammis. At the same time, the I growing industrialization of the country in general, such as the establishment of textile mills and shoe factories, has meant a loss of market for many artisans such as weavers and cobblers. i Another problem in delineating classes f ! among peasants is the very definition of peasant. Who is a peasant? Generally it is agreed that the concept of peasant refers to a rural cultivator and not, for instance, to a fisherman. But at the same time, those who thus define peasants refer to Indian and Pakistani villages as peasant villages. However, as we have seen in Sahiwal, which is typical of many villages, more than 50 per cent of the population are not cultivators. They are artisans, shopkeepers, village function aries, etc. Are they peasants? If so, what is their class position? Are they rural proletariat? If so, how do the kammis, who are paid a customary s h a r ~ of the produce, differ from the landless laborers who earn a daily wage? In seek ing an answer to these questions, we must briefly review some of the perti nent literature. In his pioneering works 7 Mao Tse tung analyzed the rural society of China into five classes: 1) landlords, 2) rich peasants, 3) middle peasants, 4) poor peasants and 5) workers. The landlords possessed land, did not engage in labor, and lived by the exploitation of the peasants. The rich peasants as a rule owned land, but some owned only part of their land and rented the remainder; in all cases, however, they possessed abun I dant means of production. The people whom the rich peasants exploited were I chiefly laborers. Many middle peasants I f possessed land; others rented all of the land they farmed. The middle peasant neither exploits others' labor nor sells his own. As a rule the poor peasant had to rent land for cultivation. While the J middle peasant did not have to sell his labor power, the poor peasant had to sell part of his. A worker had to make his living wholly by selling his labor power. I In Mao's analysis, the middle peasants ! and the poor peasants constituted the I largest mass of the rural masses. The "peasant problem" was essentially their problem. Harnza Alavi, while recognlzlng the distinction between rich, middle and poor peasants, argues that the "different strata arranged one over the other, in a single order.. is misleading. The middle peasants, for instance, do not 63 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org stand between the rich peasants and the poor peasants; they belong to a dif ferent sector of the rural economy." Accordingly, he distinguishes between three sectors. The first sector is com posed of the landlords and the share croppers or poor peasants. The second sector consists of independent small land-holders or middle peasants, who do not exploit the labour of others. The third sector is that of capitalist farmers or rich peasants. The farming is based primarily on the exploitation of the wage labour of the farm labor ers. Thus there are "capitaZist farmers;, independent small holdeY's;, shaY'ecroppeY's and farm laborers" 8 (author's italics). Kathleen Gough finds that the rural population of Kerala and Tanjore is divided into 5 classes in a manner similar to Mao's analyses in China. 9 There are landlords, rich peasants, middle peasants, poor peasants and landless laborers. It appears that in her analysis the classes tend to be arranged one over the other in terms of wealth and social status, and in this sense, among others, she disagrees with Hamza Alavi. Among the most recent attempts, and the one most pertinBnt to our case, is that of Tariq Ali.l Following others, Tariq Ali distinguishes five classes in rural West Pakistan. l)Big landlords, who own more than 100 acres and who number 63,348. Between them, they own 31.2 per cent of the total area under private control, and represent 1-2 per cent of the total landowners. 2) Rich peasants or kulaks own between 25 and 100 acres of land and number 286,470. The area they own amounts to 21.9 per cent of the total, and they represent 5.66 per cent of the total landowners in West Pakistan. 3) Middle peasants are the owners of 5 to 25 acres of land. They control 31.7 per cent of the total and constitute 28.65 per cent of the total owners. 4) Poor peasants own less than 5 acres. They number 64.4 per cent of all the owners, number 3,266,137, and own 15.25 per cent of all the land. Of these poor peasants, 742,216 own less than one acre of land, and must lease more land or work part-time as laborers to stave off starvation. Tenant sharecroppers who own no land of their own, and rural proletariats (farm laborers who work for daily payments in cash in kind) are lumped together and are separated from all those of the agricultural population who own land. They number over two million. To discuss these writers briefly, Alavi's analysis does not appear to deal with the problem of rural social stratification. His use of the terms class and strata is different from that which is generally accepted. Social scientists, however rarely they agree, do unanimously define stratification as hierarchical dif ferentiation. Speaking of "certain common assumptions in all different theories of social class, ,,11 Ossowski speaks of the major assumption "that classes are components of a system of two or several groups of the same kind.. It means that any definition of any social class must imply rela tion of this class to other groups of the same system; . the notion of middle class implies again the notion of upper and lower classes. ,,12 It is in this sense that I disagree with Alavi and follow a rather con ventional definition. Alavi's formu lation also tends to simplify the changing class structure. It will be recalled that Alavi separates land lords and capitalist farmers into two different classes, equating the latter with the rich peasants. This creates not only theoretical but also methodological problems. The two property owners of Sahiwal, like many others in West Pakistan today, rent part of their land to share-croppers, while another part is cultivated by wage laborers. Are they to be con ceived and analyzed as both landlords and rich peasants? It appears to me a difficult proposition to treat the same group of people as members of two distinct classes. Tariq Ali, on the other hand,
64 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org reduces the whole problem of class differences to the differences in the amount of land owned. He does not in corporate the notion of relation to the means of production. MOre importantly, all three, Alavi, Gough and Ali, while dealing with rural India or Pakistan, have neglected to incorporate the artisans into their analysis. Not being familiar with rural China, it would be presumptuous of me to criticise Mao's analysis on the same count. But for those concerned with rural India and Pakistan, the neglect of artisans, who in some areas constitute nearly 50 percent of the population, is a serious oversight. Perhaps this con ceptual problem can be resolved if we follow the accepted Marxist defin ition of class and in defining the peasants emphasize the structural and relational rather than the occupational criteria. Classes exist in relation to the means of production. This relation de fines the positions people occupy in the organization of production, which in turn refers to a hierarchy of a composite of social, economic and poli tical differences. "The classical Marx ist three or four class schema," i Ossowski says, "is formed by the cross cutting of three dichotomic divisions I based on different criteria: a) those who possess and those who do not possess means of production, b) those who work and those who do not work, c) those who employ hired labor and those who do not. "13 The exclusion of artisans from the definition of peasant appears to stem from the emphasis on the nature of the occupation. Firth, for instance, finds that "the term peasant has primarily an economic referent ... The primary means of livelihood of the peasant is cultiva tion of the soil. ,,14 Similarly, Redfield r concludes that peasants are "people who control and cultivate their land for subsistence. ,,15 Potter and others, after an extensive review of the literature, conclude that the "emphasis on agricul ture and self-sufficiency is implicit or explicit in many writings about pea sants, yet we believe that stressing occupation and cultural content obscures the really important diagnostic criteria." These authors then defined peasants in a manner which I find useful for our pur poses here: "We agree that peasants are primarily agriculturists, but we believe that the criteria of definition must be structural and relational rather than I occupational. For in most peasant socie ties, significant numbers of people earn their living by non-agricultural occu pations. It is not what peasants produce I that is significant; it is how and to whom they dispose of what they produce f that counts 1116 (Italics mine). Historically, artisans have been an essential component of rural India and Pakistan. Their specialized skills have helped in the development and survival of the village communities as more or less self-sufficient social and economic units. The work of cultivators has de pended upon certain artisans, generally referred to as agricultural kammis or artisans. In rural Punjab the traditional reciprocal rights and obligations between cultivators and artisans are best ex pressed in the concept of seip. The artisans serve their seip (cultivators) with their particular skills, and the cultivators in return are obligated to pay their seipi (kammis) a proportion of the agricultural produce and to look after their welfare. It is because of the nature of this work and payment relation ship that such village artisans cannot be treated as entrepreneurs. Those arti sans who are enjoined in the contractual relation of seip, and they constitute an overwhelming majority, do not run a business concern. Their economic fortune is tied to those of the cultivators they serve. This is not to imply that some village artisans are not entrepreneurs. The most striking example of a village entrepreneur is the goldsmith, who, at least in modern times, is not part of the system of seip. Others can also break their contractual relations and become entrepreneurs, but this, as is discussed below, entails structural changes. Like the cultivators, the artisans are also divisible iuto classes as de fined by their relation to the means of production. The changes in the "modes of 65 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org production and of exchange" affect their structural position. For instance, when a village landlord starts a capi talist farm or adopts modern farm machinery, both share-croppers and artisans lose their economic base and become laborers. Classes in Rural Punjab 1. Landlords/Capitalist jarmere: In West Pakistan, those who own 100 acres or more are frequently classified as landlords. Within this category, those who exploit wage laborers rather than share-croppers and make use of advanced technology are regarded as capitalist farmers. Such distinctions are, I think, inaccurate and misleading. Class position should be determined by one's relation to the means of pro duction and not by the amount of wealth owned. In this sense, all those who own land, who do not themselves work to produce, and who live exclusively by the exploitation of others should be treated as belonging to the class of landlords. Furthermore, the distinction between landlords and capitalist farmers is transitional rather than structural. In this period of transformation from a feudal-type economy to a capitalist economy, many traditional landlords have adopted new modes of production and new methods of capital accumulation. In Sahiwal, for instance, while most of the land is cultivated by share croppers, both owners have each put more than 200 acres into "self-cultivating farms". Since neither of the two owners lives in the village, both the tenant ed and the "farm" lands are supervised by the owners' employees - the managers. The difference between the two is that in one case the tenants take half of all that they produce, while in the other, laborers are paid wages for their work on the "self-cultivating farms". In both cases, the ownership of the means of production is in the hands of two families, who never engage in productive activity. The transition from landlord to capitalist farmer does, however, in volve some changes in social relations and life style. The relationship between the more old-fashioned landlords on the one hand, and tenants and other villagers on the other, is more "feudalistic" in nature. Although the share-cropper is exploited, his exploitation is never theless sweetened by customary norms. The traditional landlord, unsophisticated, uneducated, and well-versed in the customs and traditions of the area, easily mingles with the villagers, even when (as in Sahiwal) he does not live in the village. He also provides protection to the vil lagers and helps them in times of crisis. By contrast, the growing number of capi talist farmers tend to be urbanized, educated, and unaware of the villagers' customs. Their whole life is alien to the villagers. Thus, their method of exploitation appears harsher. While traditional landlords in dulge in more feudal pastimes, capital ist farmers are westernized; many are invited by Americans to study advanced methods of farming or farm management in a university in the U.S.A. Many are financed by one of the American agen cies to participate in leadership pro grams or 4-H activities in the U.S. These new developments have caused a cultural gap between landlords and capi talist farmers but have not created any noticeable division in class interest. Both landlords and the capitalist farmers continue to exploit the vil lagers to maintain their superior life style, to entertain lavishly, and to spend money on securing elected posi tions, which lead to the attainment of positions of authority and extended control in the larger society. The demands of the larger society are, however, contradictory. On the one hand, society demands that the seeker of higher positions indulge in "con spicuous consumption". On the other hand, he is required to have the back ing and support of many people. These contradictory demands lead to contradictory behavior on the part of this class. The need for money leads to exploitation and oppression of the villagers in general and of cultivators in particular. The usual means of ex tracting the maximum are beatings, BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org forced labor, fines, eviction or the threat of it, refusal to extend credit, and refusal to help against harassment by outsiders. But such behavior is limited by an equally important need to secure and insure the continuing alle giance and support of the villagers, which is not only necessary for certain types of success, but is also indicative of one's status. This was exemplified in the 1964-65 elections when both land lords were interested in elective offices for themsleves or their candidates. They competed with each other in gener osity and kindness toward the villagers to secure their votes. It is in this context that one must understand the Punjabi peasants' attempt to create competition, or to keep old factionalism alive between their lords, for the peasants benefit from suen rival ry and disputes. I was amazed and amused at the villagers' constant attempts to create dissension between the landlords, between the landlords and managers, and between managers. The results are, of I I course, limited, for the landlords make up the ruling calss. By controlling the land on which the people live and I from which they draw their subsistence, ~ the landlords have some control over I every villager. They set the tempo of village life and standards of right , t and wrong. 2. The Ricih Peasants: In Sahiwal I I there were no rich peasant cultivators, i.e. independent small landholders who owned their own land. Hence the follow ing observations are of limited gener I ality, based primarily upon the observa tion of village entrepreneurs - the goldsmiths, two carpenters, the village Hakim and a few shopkeepers. They, like the small landholders, also own their means of production. r The distinguishing feature of this class is that they own the means of production, but unlike the landlords they do not live primarily by the ex ploitation of others. The cultivators in this class hire labor only at the peak of the season; in addition some have one or two house servants. The only kind of labor the village entre preneurs exploit is that of apprentices or trainees. In contrast to other classes I they are fairly well-off and are able t to maintain a decent standard of life. I On the basis of my limited obser vation, it was my impression that this class appeared to be one of the more conservative elements in the village society. Those in Sahiwal appeared to be religiously orthodox, politically conser vative, and extremely conscious of their social status. Although the rich peas ants in Sahiwal were not ranked into a SOCially high status, they neverthe less pretended to and imitated the life of the socially and economically superior group. For instance, while the gold smiths were assigned to low rank among the kammds, they enforced strict purdah for their women, a rather uncommon practice among lower social groups. When asked for self-placement on a five point hierarchial social scale, they placed themselves at the top. The rich peas ants were the only group in the village which practised religion strict ly. Among the five Hajis (pilgrims to Mecca) in the village, four belonged to this class. In short, the class of rich peasants identified itself with the landlords even though they did not have the means to engage in similar activities or enjoy the same life style. 3. The MiddZe Peas ants: The middle peasants own land, but not of sufficient quantity or quality to make an indepen dent living. They are forced into supple menting their income by other means, most often by becoming tenants of the landlords. Their great hope is to become self-sufficient and self-cultivating farmers. In Sahiwal nearly 10 percent of the tenants belonged to this category. They were reputed to be "good farmers" and they worked hard, attempting to save enough to buy land of their own. Be cause their ambition was to be rich peas ants, much of t h e i ~ social behavior was like that of rlch peasants. However, given the reality of their economic situation, they were unable to practise the life style of their richer cousins. Thus, for instance, while higher class 67 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org es advocated purdah (the veil) for their women, the middle peasants were unable to practise it without hurting their ambition; the women worked in the field with their husbands or fathers. Unlike the women of the poorer classes, the women of this class were generally con sidered of good moral character. While, however, the middle peasants advocated greater religiosity, their actual be havior did not conform to their ideal norms. In contrast to other classes, the middle peasants spent more money for the ceremonial fund. They also conform ed more closely to the ideal Punjabi norm of hospitality and generosity. In the village they were named as influential members of the community ones called upon to settle disputes, to judge the merit of various cases and to be advisors in familial and com munal affairs. The landlords and their managers also respected the middle peasants. While others often received harsh treatment, the middle peasants were always politely treated. 4. The Poop Peasants: The second largest group of rural Punjabis are poor peasants. They include tenant farmers, or sharecroppers, and artisans. The farmers depend exclusively upon rented land as their only means of subsistence. Some among this class may have better equipment or more and better animals and may be richer than those who do not have these advantages. But poor or less poor, their livelihood depends upon rented land from which they can be evicted any time the owner finds it profitable. The artisans depend upon the c u s t o ~ ary seip relation, whereby they receive a share of all that their patrons pro duce in return for their work. Their subsistence, like that of share-croppers, depends upon the fate and whims of their patrons - whether those by rich, middle or poor peasant farmers. While the cultivators and the arti sans occupy the same position in the organization of production and object ively have similar class interests, one often finds social divisions be tween the two groups. The tenants who belong to one of the Zamindar quoms conceive of themselves as socially superior to the Kammis. This social division is often exploited by the land- " lords to exacerbate conflict among the poor peasants. However, it was my obser vation that such a contradiction in this class was an example of what Mao Tse-tung calls a non-antagonistic contradiction. When any element of this class is faced with the antagonistic contradiction, i.e., the opposition with the exploiting class, status differences are replaced by a unity around class interest. For example, when one of the landlords proposed the idea of buying harves tors, which would have enabled both the landlords and the tenants to make extra money by supply ing wheat in the market ahead of others, the idea was rejected by the poor peas ants. While the tenants knew they would make some extra money, they real ized that this would mean an end to the customary share of mehnati-mussali (win- ! nower), and if mechanization was approvedJ it might also mean an end of tenancy . over a period of time. Similarly, in the above mentioned case of sugar cane, both the tenants and the artisans together demanded remuneration for the artisans, who were adversely affected by the increased sugar-cane production. The mechanization .and capitaliza tion of farming hurt both the artisans and the tenants; both are forced to be come peasant proletarians. In this period of increasing emphasis on mech anization, the artisans are worse hit. However, mechanization being only the first step in the emergent capitalistic farming, the tenants will soon follow in the footsteps of the artisans. 5. The Peasant Proletariat: The members of this class are neither crafts-; men nor tenants. They have neither a share of produce nor a fixed income. They are laborers, and as laborers they sell their labor power. They form the largest army of the semi-employed and unemployed. Historically, they are drawn from the ranks of middle and poor 68 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org peasants. With the increasing mechaniza tion and capitalization of agriculture, their number has been growing. The , Planning Commission of Pakistan reports t that mechanization of farms reduces the need for labor by 50 percent. It is fur
ther reported that "with the arrival I of the 'Green Revolution', i.e. tractors, tubewe11s, new seeds, fertilizers, pesti ) 1 cides, etc., thousands of tenants have been evicted from land". It is needless to add that mechanization of farms affects not only the tenant farmers but even more, the artisans. In Sahiwa1, at the time of this study (1965), not many ex-tenants be longed to this class. Instead, this class was dominated by the artisans. It was recently reported to me, however, that more land had been put into so-called "self-cultivating farms", which could have been achieved only by evicting the tenants or decreasing their holdings, hence forcing them to work at least partly as laborers. Deprived of means to earn a living either by farming or craftsmanship, they roam from village to village and l \ from village to cities in search of jobs. They form the majority of the un ; skilled workers in the building and construction projects. I was told that the workers in the Rural Works Program are drawn primarily from this class, though they leave the Rural Works Pro jects during the harvest seasons for the agricultural work they prefer; the Rural Works Projects then come to a virtual halt. Those unable to find work survive because of the generosity of their fel low villagers. I , They are conscious of the status differences among themselves between I the ex-Zamindars and ex-Kammis, but t the recognition of difference is not acute. Smoking, drinking, rowdy and bois terous behavior are common character istics of this class. The women of this class are often accused of having low moral character; from this class are drawn the largest number of prostitutes. The ins tances of e10pment, run-away wives and abduction are more common among this class. Objectively, this class is the most exploited, oppressed and alien ated. Conclusions In the foregoing analysis of peas ant classes, I have incorporated the artisans as an integral part of the peasant social structure. This has been a departure from the established literature on peasants. The reason for taking this position is both structural and cultural. The artisans occupy posi tions equivalent to those of cultivators; some become village entrepreneurs with control over the means of production; their behavior and position in the total economic structure are then analogous to those of the rich farmers. The difference is occupational rather than positional. Similarly, the position of share-croppers is shared by those artisans whose fortunes are tied to the cultivators. When the owners of land, who rent their land to the share croppers, opt for capitalistic farm ing, not only are tenants evicted but also artisans, who lose their jobs and means of livelihood. Similarly, when a rich peasant implements mechaniza tion of farming, such as the use of f tractors or harvestors, the artisans, r such as carpenters and blacksmiths, I i i , also lose their functions. The tech nological developments in a capitalistic t mOde of production lead to equal pauper ization of artisans and cultivators occupying the class of poor peasants. r ! I have used the five class schema, not only because it approximates the observed reality in Sahiwal, but also because maintaining the more or less accepted classification will aid future comparative analyses. Among the five classes, the class of landlords/capitalist farmers is obvious ly the dominant and the exploiting class. In the larger society and especially in the rural society, they form the rul ing class. As the country changes from feudalistic to capitalistic, and from agricultural to industrial modes, the members of this class also change from 69 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org landlords to capitalist farmers and to industrial bourgeoisie. This class is dominant and superordinate in relation to the rich peasants. In relation to the other rural classes, they are the exploiters. The middle peasants suffer the most inconsistency of position. First, their class interest is often confused. Being primarily tenants but part-owners, their loyalties are divided. Psychologically, i.e., in terms of aspirations, they identify with and strive to become rich peasants. But structurally their posi tion is more akin to poor peasants. Secondly, and linked to the above, is the problem of status inconsistency. While middle peasants resemble poor peasants structurally, they neverthe less enjoy a higher social status. This conflict between their status and class position creates ambiguity in their be havior; their behavioral and attitudinal responses are often extremist in that they will tend to react strongly against exploitation and at the same time they will uphold traditional norms and cus toms. The poor peasants and the prole tariat form the largest mass in the rural population. They are also the most op pressed and exploited classes. Among the poor peasants of Sahiwal, it was my observation that the artisans were the most conscious of their class position. First, they suffer status discrimination, and secondly, they are the largest proportion of the class of peasant proletariat. They, more than others, realize that any social or technological change will adversely affect their means of subsistence. A desire to change their living condi tion is most evident among the artisans. The desire lacks any organized efforts, but the changes are evident in individ ual efforts. Of all the groups and classes, the younger generation of artisans have ardently pursued differ ent avenues than the traditional occupations. In Sahiwal, with a total of 13 high school graduates, 11 came from the poor peasant artisan families and 2 from the poor peasant farmer$. The only college graduate also belong ed to this class. Of the five government servants employed outside the village, 4 were artisans. Those whose jobs have been eliminated, such as the tobas (well-cleaners) with the introduction of canal irrigation, have been quick to retrain and learn new occupations. In any organized activities for social change, it is my prediction that the poor peasants, and especially the artisans, will form the most disciplined group. FOOTNOTES I am indebted to Kathleen Gough for her comments and criticisms of an earlier draft of this paper. *Minor editorial changes have been made in this posthumously published paper. 1. Mao Tse-tung, "Report on an Investigation of the Peasant MOvement in Hunan," Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung, Vol. I, Foreign Languages Press, Peking, 1967, p. 23. 2. Barrington MOore, Jr., Social Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy, Beacon Press, Boston, 1966, p. 453. 3. Mao Tse-tung, Op. cit. p. 30. 4. Saghir Ahmad, "Social Stratifica tion in a Punjabi Village," Contribution; to Indian Sociology, Delhi, 1971. 5. Hamza Alavi, "Clan, Caste and Class in Local Level Politics in the Punjab (West Pakistan)", Paper Presented at the Second European Conference on Modern South Asian Studies, Copenhagen, July, 1970. 6. For the literature on cas te ranking, etc., see McKim Marriott: Cas te Ranking and Community Structure in Five Regions of India and Pakistan, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Olicago, 1955; and Stanley Freed, "An Objective Method of Determining the Collective Caste Hierarchy of an Indian Village," American Anthropologist, 65, August, 1963, 879-891. 7. Mao Tse-tung, Op. cit., Vol. I "Analysis of Classes in Olinese Society,' pp. 13-21; "Report on an Investigation of the Peasant MOvement in Hunan," pp. 23-59; "How to Differentiate the Classes 70 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org 1 I in Rural Areas," pp. 137-43. , 8. Hamza Alavi, "Peasants and Revolu tion," Socialist Register, 1965, p. 244. better ideas . .from Xerox 9. Kathleen Gough, "Peasant Resist f f ance and Revolt in South India," Pacific The microfilm edition of the BULLETIN is Affairs, Vol. XLI, No.4, Winter 1968 now available. Back issues on microfilm 69, pp. 527-544. may be purchased for $4.00 for volumes 10. Tariq Ali, Pakistan: Military one through [March two 1969-Fall 1970]. Rule or People's Power?, William furrow Volume three, 1971, and future volumes and Company Inc., New York, 1970. are $4 per volume/year. Note catalog # 11. S. Ossowski, "Old Notions and 6049 BULLETIN OF CONCERNED ASIAN SCHOLARS. New Problems: Interpretations of Order from: Customer Services-periodicals, Social Structure in Modern Society," University Microfilms, 300 N.Zeeb Rd, in Social Inequality, ed. Andre Ann Arbor, Michigan 48106 USA. Beteille, Penguin Books, London, 1969, p. 80. -==== TRICONTINENTAL MAGAZINE - ..e e North American edition .. The magazine about the struggle for life on three continents-Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Each issue contains information- theoretical articles--contributions by Third ..
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I .. and bulk rates write to: Peoples Press, POBox .1...... -'1Ii1 40176, San Francisco, CA. 94140. 71 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Saghi.. Ahmad by Kathleen Gough Following Yahya Khan's invasion of East Pakistan on 25th of this year, a small number of West Pakistani intel lectuals living in North America public ly condemned the brutal massacres. Prominent among them were Saghir and Eqbal (brothers), Feroz Ahmed, and Aijaz Ahmed, all university teachers and writers. These men wrote open letters to their government and articles on BangIa Desh, demonstrated, and gave media interviews, braving possible reprisals. Together with friends from East Bengal, they tried to inform North Americans about the conditions of the people and the character of the contend ing forces in BangIa Desh, and to oppose the U.S. contribution to that slaughter. Saghir Ahmad's accidental death by drowning in North Vancouver, British Columbia on July 7th is a serious loss to radical social science, to the Pakistani and Canadian socialist move ments, and to the anti-war movement in North America. At 35, he was nearing the height of his intellectual powers and his capacity for political work. A sociologist and anthropologist, he wrote on class structure and class struggle in West Pakistan, on the thug gee guerrilla movement in Northern India in the nineteenth century, on imperialism and revolutionary struggle in South and Southeast Asia, and on the roles of radical social scientists. At the time of his death he was a new editor of Pakistan Forum and was about to visit refugee camps in India and to co-author a book on Bangla Desh. Saghir was born into an arena of suffering and struggle, and struggled all his life. A few weeks after his birth, his father, a landowner of an aristocratic Halik family in Bihar, India, was assassinated in reprisal for his support of land reform. When he was ten, the impending partition of India and Pakistan made Saghir witness to bloody attacks on the Muslim community of Bihar in which many of his friends and half his kinsfolk were killed. afterwards, he followed his elder brothers to Lahore in West Pakistan. At Forman Christian College in Lahore and later at the University of the Punjab, where he obtained his M.A. degree in 1958, he took part in the radical student movement and read the Marxist classics. He moved to America in 1961, received his doctorate from Michigan State University in 1967, and was subsequently employed at Oak land University in Michigan and at the University of Alberta and Simon Fraser University in Canada. In 1965 Saghir returned to Pakistan to study a village in Sarghoda District of the Punj ab, where he became deeply immersed in the lives of the peasantry. Saghir's intellectual work is the work of a man at war with a part of himself and with his colonial environ ment, yet a man who, kindly, tolerant and truthful, tries to distort nothing and to give each fellow human his due. In the opening editorial of Pakis tan Forum (October-November 1970), Eqbal Ahamd wrote: with few we have failed in our pPimay.y intellec tual responsibility of cary.ying out a meaningful debate on the opportunities for social and economic definition of national ard requisites for creating a balanced and democratic society. Our minds and our like our political and social await decolon ization. Saghir Ahmad's life and work over the past decade offer a striking instance of this process of decoloniza tion of the mind and soul. 72 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org As a doctoral student in America in the early 1960's, Saghir necessarily became steeped in structural-functional and other liberal social science approach es. His early work uses the best of such approaches to good advantage, yet from the first he is dissatisfied and looks for something beyond them. In his doc toral thesis, Class and Power in a Punjab Village (196i)"the authorities he quotes and whose theories he util izes include, for example, Weber, the Indianist scholars Manga1am, Barth, Harriot t, Mayer, Bailey and Nicholas - and Marx. Saghir went to the Punjabi village in order to examine the diffusion of power and wealth which had suppos edly been brough t about by Pakis t an's laws of 1959 regarding land reform and Basic Democracies. He found such dif fusion virtually non-existent and says so flatly at the beginning of his thesis, contradicting the received wisdom of that date. Instead of permitting a diffusion of power through elections, landlords had put up their managers and front-men as candidates. In order to by-pass the land reforms , they had converted some land from tenant farms to farming of cash crops with wage labor, thus impoverishing sections of the peasants and artisans. Saghir took as his central theme the relation between the village's economic and political systems, making use of in sights from British social anthropology into factional competition in village politics. His main argument is, however, the Marxist one that political struc ture and social stratification are fundamentally determined by modes and relations of production, and he shows this convincingly, although in places r a trifle mechanically. This work is especially valuable in providing an early analysis of the real impact of land reform legislation in Pakistan, f along with a rare explication of the processes and relations of village production. In later articles Saghir deepens his understanding of the Punjabi village, gradually abandoning func tionalist approaches in favor of his own adaptations of Harxist analysis, and attacking head-on the more perni cious doctrines coming out of Western research in Third World countries. In "Should Pakistan Seek Modernization?"l, written in 1967, he shows that Western concepts of modernization are a euphe mism for the spread of capitalist rela tions and, more recently, of American dominance, which in Pakistan he found were perpetuating and indeed deepening the poverty of villagers. He shows that Punjabi village society is already "modern" in that social stratification is a matter of economic class more than of caste or kinship groups, political I behavior is largely motivated by econom ic considerations, and the baneful I influence of bureaucracy is pervasive. I The peasants, moreover, are fully , "rational" in Weber's sense. Their dis inclination for economic changes intro i duced by the landlords arises not from superstition or blind custom but from I prudent collective and individual se1f interest, since it is the landlords f and not the peasants who reap the profits from these changes. Thus in spite (or indeed, in part, because) of their I "modernization", the peasants remain poor, illiterate and largely apathetic. I These evils are in fact, Saghir argues, "a creation of the elites of the society", and "categorization of the villagers as traditional provides a rationale for their continued exploi tation." His critique of "modernization" in this paper and in "The Economics of Agricultural Production" (1968)2 inde pendently takes a similar course to that in the seminal work by Andre Gunder Frank in 1967. 3 Together, these articles explode much of the mythology of American "economic development and cul tural change" studies of the preceding decade. In 1968-69 Saghir moved from debunk ing current theories of development, and from an earlier tendency toward economic determinism, into concern with the contradictions inherent in social relations and with the sources of var ious kinds of revolt or revolution and their effects on social change. He read Harx, and also Mao Tse-tung, more extensively that year. His interest in 73 I BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org the historical roots of revolt in South Asia became focussed in research on the nineteenth century Thuggees. 4 Examin ing the social composition, modes of recruitment and operations of these multi-caste, egalitarian rebel commun ities, Saghir concluded that they were not outcaste criminal elements, as they had been depicted in the British literature, but religiously sanctioned guerrilla movements, armed against the rulers and profiteers of an unjust social order and working with the support of large sections of the common people. "Islam and Pakistani Peasants", written in 1970 5 , returns to the jabi village, but with a new perspective. Influenced by Eric Wolf's work on peasants as well as by Mao, Saghir now probes the conflicts of interest, obligation and emotional experience im posed on peasants by their relations to their kinsfolk and the local community, to landlords and bureaucrats, and to the literate urban society. He shows how, with the help of local religious leaders, the peasants try to handle and live with these contradictions be liefs and practices specific to village Islam. The "Little Tradition" of Red field and his associates comes to life in terms of particular conflicts, obligations, and privations suffered by the peasantry. For while examining major differences between the "Great Tradition" of the wealthy and the intellectuals and the Little Tradition of the peasants, Saghir sees that "the roots of such differences are to be found in their historical and material conditions of life." Islam as prac tised and believed by the peasants is thus not merely a product of parochial ization or a less systematized and less reflective filtering down of elements of the Great Tradition, nor is it solely an opiate of the masses or a prop for landlordism. It includes, on the one hand, a concept of the need to submit to a hard fate - a fate which is in fact imposed on the peasants by land lords and bureaucrats. On the other hand, however, the peasants believe that it is acceptable to fail in formal religious duties or to cheat or steal from the upper classes, provided that one is just and compassionate within the village community. Such a religious tradition which combines the contra dictory demands of the State and the landlords with those of the peasant household community, cannot be recon ciled with the Islam prevalent among the upper classes or the intellectuals who promulgate the Great Tradition. For these classes, whether consciously or un consciously, are exploiters. Their beliefs and practices therefore focus around other kinds of contradictions, such as the need to combine exploita tion with charity. In West Pakistani villages in 1965, Saghir found that Islam was above all a vision to which the peasant aspired but which exploi tation prevented him from attaining: a vision "of human dignity and pride, of social and economic justice, of a community of men based on honesty and love for one another." Saghir's last paper on the peasants, published in this issue, wrestles again with problems stemming from the chang ing character of their class structure. The strengths of this article include his effort to integrate the large numbers of artisans and other service groups of the Punjab's canal colony region into a unitary class structure with the peasants. Second, he recog nizes the growth of landless labor, umemployment, and impoverishment result ing from land reforms, new techniques of production, and cash crop farming. Third, he perceives the varying cultur al and psychological attributes of the rural classes and the signs of emerging class solidarity between poor peasants and impoverished artisans. Fourth, he explores further the contradictions inherent in modern relations among the classes, instanced by the insecurity of the middle peasant, who in good times seeks identification with the rich peasants, but in bad times tends to rebel. Finally, in this paper Saghir's own decolonization and increasingly revolutionary awareness appear in the meaning that "modernization" has 74 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org acquired for him. It is now no longer the spread of western economy and cul ture; rather, in Barrington Hoore' s : f words, "the process of modernizat ion... culminates ... with peasant revolutions that succeed." Consequently, whereas in his doctoral thesis Saghir still I ( thought that the village influentials (chiefly middle peasants) "could be more fully utilized in local develop i ment programs," now he looks to the poor peasants and the landless laborers I f as forces for revolutionary change. While he was writing this paper the massive carnage in BangIa Desh and the resist ance being organized against it I I increased Saghir's sense of urgency and his hopes for peasant revolutionary struggle. Over the past year, the political persecution to which Saghir was sub jected at Simon Fraser University, followed by the crisis in Pakistan, prevented him from returning to research in his own country.6 Instead, he turned part of his energy to broader Third World problems and to Canadian society, in a spate of journal and newspaper ar ticles. 7 Two are most noteworthy. One is a bri1lant demolition of western theories of Third World overpopulation, which demonstrates (to me, conclusively) that "population is not the cause of poverty, rather it is poverty and the irrational structuring of society which cause the problem of population. ,,8 The other article is an assault on racism, poverty, and imperialism in Canada and on the failure of Canadain social scientists to attack these conditions. 9 In these papers Saghir is angry yet incisive. His style gathers speed and color; powered by indignation against his own and others' suffering from racism and political persecution, he writes from both head and heart. The values that Saghir found among j the peasants of West Pakistan, and re ceived from his own family, guided him I in the many settings through which he moved or into which he was driven. Where 1 j ever he lived Saghir moved people by j his passionate humanity. When happy among friends or engaged in collective strug gle, he shed a joyous radiance; when provoked, a fiery anger. Although his main loyalty was pemaps always to Pakistan, he was an internationalist who rooted himself in each local situation, making the sufferings of the people his suffering, and their struggles for justice his own. Two recent examples illustrate con flicts induced in Saghir by struggles going on in his environment, and the honor with which he surmounted them. In September 1969, after being denied a renewal of his visa in the United States and after researching for a year in Canada without a teaching appointment, Saghir came to teach at Simon Fraser University. On the way, he heard that a second elder brother had died suddenly in Pakistan, leaving to Saghir and Eqbal the maintenance of a number of relatives. When he reached Simon Fraser, Saghir found a majority of students and faculty in his depart ment about to go on strike against a purge of radical teachers and the aboli tion of a democratic department con cerned with critical and experimental teaching. Some of his acquaintances were on both sides of the conflict and "compromise paths" were being talked of. After a brief inner struggle and consultation with his brother, Saghir chose to strike, risking his salary. and the chance to teach that he so much wanted. During the strike, he was sus pended from teaching along with seven other colleagues, and went through two years of harrassment and delayed dis missal proceedings. Finally, on June 23, 1971 he was arbitrarily fired, without any due process, and looked forward to a new appointment at Trent University in Peterborough. Although forbidden to teach, Saghir spent his last two years guiding and be friending students, researching on Pak istan, and busying himself with the I struggles of British Columbian workers, unemployed people, Quebecois, the anti war movement in Canada, and, most recently, I 75 , , i. BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org BangIa Desh. His last 'research' trip was '\:0 Quesnel, a small town in British Columbia, where a race-fight occurred between white and Sikh workers. Saghir investigated the dispute for the Georgia Straight, a Vancouver underground news paper, together with friends including Anne Roberts, his beloved companion and co-worker over the past five years. Yet "investigate" is not the word, for Saghir entered at once into the joys and fears of the Sikh community, revelled in their affection, and with difficulty tore himself away. In every city where he lived, he is mourned by dozens who loved him. A second and graver test of Saghir's integrity was BangIa Desh. Saghir was a West Pakistani who had grown up in a period of intense nationalism, and he was living precariously in North America. Many of his kin had moved from Bihar to East Bengal. As Urdu speakers of high status, they served the government in Islamabad. Saghir knew some of them to have been killed in disturbances that followed Yahya Khan's refusal to imple ment the election results in East Pakistan. Saghir also deeply admired the government of Olina, which, however, was continuing its support of Yahya Khan. Yet when the invasion came he immediately disregarded these complications, recog nized fascism, and opposed it. Instead of abdicating into passive observation from a distance, he exerted himself in the midst of his own troubles, leaf leting, speaking, writing, fund rais ing, and traveling, for the people of BangIa Desh. Saghir's life was closely linked with that of his elder brother Eqbal, who, with seven other defendants in the Harrisburg Conspiracy Case, faces trial on inane charges of conspiracy against the government of the United States. It is obvious to those who know him that these charges are persecution for Eqbal's legitimate and forthright oppo sition to the war in Indochina and his brillant analyses of American imperial ism. From their corrupting, co-optative situations in North American universi ties, both these brothers came forward and fulfilled the responsibilities of revolutionary intellectuals. Now Saghir has departed. Hard and bitter though his death is to many of us, we must carry on the struggles in which he was engaged. FOOTNOTES 1. Abridged in Pakistan Forum, Feb 1971, pp. 3-5. 2. Alberta Anthropologist, Edmonton, Winter 1968. 3. Andre Gunder Frank: "Sociology of Development and Underdevelopment of Sociology", Catalyst, Sunnner 1967, pp. 20-73. 4. "Thuggees: Rebels or Criminals?" (Incomplete and unpublished). 5. "Islam and Pakistani Peasants". Contributions ! Asian Studies, Vol. II, 1971, Ed. Aziz Ahmad. 6. During their second year of sus pension from teaching following a strike at Simon Fraser, Saghir and his colleagues were not only forbidden to teach but were also not permitted to apply for university research grants or to leave Vancouver for fieldwork. 7. "A Village in West Pakistan", in Peoples of South Asia, edited by Clarence Maloney, New York, (Rhinehart and Winston) ,; forthcoming; "The First General Elections in Pakistan" (unpublished); "Imperialism and Underdevelopment." Review article on Robert I. Rhodes, ed: Imperialism and Underdevelopment: a Reader, Pakistan Forum, Vol. 1, No.3, February-March 1971; "Crisis in Pakistan." Review article, on Tariq Ali's Pakistan: Military Rule E People's Power? , Monthly Review, September 1971; and a series of articles in the Georgia Straight, Vancouver: "Laos: the Unforgettable War", February 17-24, "Indochina: Revolution and Counter- ' revolution", March 17-24, "Pakistan: an other Vietnam or Quebec?" Harch 17-24, and "Pakistan Struggles On"; April 7-13, 1971. 8. "Some Further Reflections on the Problem of Population", forthcoming in Pakistan Forum. 9. "The Role of Radical Social Scien- , tists", paper read at the Canadian Learned: Societies meetings, St. John's Newfound- ' land, June 1971. 76 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org The Soalh Asian Revolaliona..y Polenlial by Kathleen Gough I , Socio-Economic Failures I When India, Pakistan and Ceylon j I gained home rule more than two decades ago, their leaders set forth certain goals for their futures. Among them were control of their own political and economic destinies, increased product ,. ivity and improvements in livelihood, education and health, mixed private and state-planned economies, some coop erative institutions of production and distribution, and movement toward socio-economic equality. Land reform and industrial development were central to these goals. All three nations were to be western-style party democracies with progressively broadening franchise in elections at national, provincial and local levels. By the late 1960's, it was clear I that these programs had failed or were failing. The three South Asian nations 1 had more, not less, foreign invest- l ment and foreign control of their econ omies than in the 1940's. All were heavily indebted to the United States, the Soviet Union, and various Eastern j and Western European powers. Some devel , opment had occurred in both agriculture f and industry. Despite rapidly growing populations, there had been modest increases in gross national products I , and per capita incomes. The social character of wealth and its ma1dis tri bution were, however, such that a num t ber of observers had concluded that the I living conditions of a substantial j I proportion of the people had deterior ated since independence. l In spite of land reforms and trade union struggles, incomes were more unequal and both ur ban and rural classes more polarized than in the 1940's. In most regions there were higher proportions of land less laborers, casual workers, and unem ployed than ever before. It was esti mated that in 1961, 38 percent of India's rural population and 54 percent of its urban population received fewer than the 2,250 food calories per capita per day which nutritionists regard as neces sary for heal th under Indian conditions. The per capita calorie intake was even worse in Pakistan, and (in spite of a much higher per capita income)only slightly better in Ceylon. At least five million Indian children died each year from lack of food. 2 Effects of Imperialism The root causes of these failures have been explained in a number of recent analyses of imperialism and of the economies of Third World nations,3 although there are of course important variations between the three South Asian countries. After they gained political indepen dence in the late 1940's, India, Pakistan and Ceylon tried to pursue paths of capitalist development, despite the de velopment of a state-sector in their economies and despite governmental rhe toric about "socialistic patterns". They did so with economies which were severely distorted and impoverished by over a hundred years of colonial ism and in which there were already large enclaves of foreign ownership.4 Choice of the capitalist path, and the fact that the governments were them selves drawn from the various classes of property owners, precluded effect ive planning of national resources for 77 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org the welfare of the majority. In all three countries the capital ist classes proved unable to solve their economic problems in the post-war period of monopoly capitalism and of technolog ical, financial and trade dominance by the industrial nations. Because of increasingly disadvantageous terms of trade, foreign exchange crises occur red which forced the South Asian govern ments to rely on loans from the indus trial nations. 5 The reception of "aid" in turn led to the acceptance of increas ed foreign ownership, especially of newly developing industries. The United States has led in the penetration of India's and Pakistan's economies through government loans over the past two decades, although British private invest ment is still larger, in toto, than is American, and other nations, especially West Germany and France, are subsidiary creditors. 6 In Ceylon, British and other sterling area firms continue to own the most private property, but West Germany has contributed the largest loans, with the United Kingdom, the United States, and Japan as close competitors. 7 India and Pakistan came to rely heavily on foreign aid during the 1950's, especially after a foreign exchange crisis in 1957 58, and became heavily dependent on foreign aid in 1961. The country has had a serious foreign exchange crisis since 1966 as a result of drastic falls in the export prices of tea and rubber, coupled with increases in the prices of imported rice, machinery and machine made goods. 8 The harmful effects of foreign aid and investment are illustrated in the articles by Ahmed and Ram in this issue. 9 Both cause a growing proportion of the receiving country's surplus wealth to be siphoned off to the donor countries, as private profits or as interest. As this process continues, more and more of the dependent country's foreign exchange earnings are used to service the foreign debt rather than to import needed capital equipment or consumer goods. lO When the dependent country approaches bankruptcy, it has to rely on short-term emergency loans rather than on long term develop ment loans. Emergency loans, as from the International Monetary Fund, require, " however, that the dependent country under-j go austerity measures which involve severe cut-backs in welfare programs. Because of its foreign exchange crisis, for example, the supposedly left-lean ing government of Ceylon, newly elected in 1970, had to resort to emergency borrowing from the International Monetary Fund. As a result, it was prevented from carrying through even modest programs for welfare and new employment. This formed the background for the growth of mass unrest during 1971. 11 The Ceylon government's resort to sudden, external military spending to put down revolt has increased its indebtedness, so that most of its programs involving hospitals, education and cheap transport are now endangered. 12 Even apart from such emer gency situations, moreover, the with holding of aid has several times been used to force the South Asian govern ments into economic and political poli cies they would not otherwise espouse. 13 Foreign aid and foreign investment give rise to a distorted structure of production which is harmful to the re ceiving nation. Although industrial development occurs, it is restricted and its character is distorted by the profit motives of capital owners in both donor and recipient countries. Be cause it is tied by foreign aid, the re ceiving country has to buy capital equip ment from the donor country which is of ten expensive and unsuited to its needs. Many factories are merely assembly p l a n t s ~ many cater to lUXUry wants rather than to welfare. The reception of aid means that the dependent count ry has to pay high prices for foreign technical ex perts and knowledge, while alarming num bers of its own educated citizens re main unemployed or abroad. 14 Counterpart funds deriving from the repayment of loans in the currency of the dependent country are used by the creditor nation to finance foreign enterprises, set up educational and research institutions, publish books, and disseminate propa ganda; all of which support private gain for the few, and which, altogether, amount to cultural, as well as political 78 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org and economic, imperialism. 15 i Until the mid-1960's, the heavy J importation of food grains through sales, } loans and grants by the United States and I other nations to all three South Asian nations staved off the need for serious land reform and kept agricultural pro duction and relations semi-stagnant. When I food surpluses from North America de I I clined in 1965, United States advisers recommended the new technology of the "green revolution" involving improved , seeds, fertilizers, and tractors, sup
plied by the industrial nations. Although ! unevenly distributed, these measures did I increase output. 16 They have, however, as Ram, Shivaraman and Ahmed point out, 1 increased landless labor and unemployment . ~ while widening the gaps among rural in comes, and therefore have stimulated agrarian unrest. 17 Growing dependence on imperialism enhances the growth of monopoly among in digenous capitalists, whose largest cor porations become increasingly linked with those of the advanced capitalist nations through collaborative agreements. 18 The concentration of capital ownership is accompanied by increas ed income gaps between large and small property owners, between higher and lower grades of salaried workers, and between all of these and most manual laborers; it is also accompanied by increase in urban unenr ployment. Class polarization, in the towns as in the countryside, shows up in statistical studies of changes in con sumer expenditures. In their study of Indian poverty, Dandekar and Rath con clude that between 1961-62 and 1967-68, per capita consumer expenditures among the bottom five percent of villagers slightly deteriorated while those of the res t of the bottom twenty percent virtually stagnated. Among town dwellers, partly as a result of the migration of rural unemployed to the cities, consumer expenditures deteriorated among the bot tom forty percent. By contrast, both in the towns and in the countryside, living conditions improved considerably among the top thirty percent of the people, with the increase in consumer expenditure being sharper, the closer one came to the top of the income scale. 19 Increasing amounts of military "aid" have had the most harmful effects on South Asia's people. India spends a third of its federal budget on military supplies. About one-third of Pakistan's foreign loans have been for military spending, as Ahmed notes. Ceylon's military budget was modest until recently, but suddenly shot up in spring, 1971, when the government imported large quan tities of weapons. 20 In South Asia as a whole, the empha sis on military aid has resulted from a number of factors: 1) The Soviet Union and the United States have competed for control of the region; both of them have therefore sold military supplies to both India and Pakistan. 2) China, faced with confrontation by both the Soviet Union and the United States via India, has maintained a diplomatic alliance with, and supplied economic and military aid to, Pakistan. 3) Specific inter-state rivalries and border wars have occurred between Pakistan and India and between India and China. These international conflicts are used by the governments of both India and Pakistan to deflect popu lar anger away from hardship and repres sion in their own countries, toward ex ternal "aggressors," as in the present war-scare between India and Pakistan. 4) The United States, the Soviet Union and lesser powers have aggressively com peted for markets for their military products in South Asia. 5) Recently, the Pakistani and Ceylonese governments have bought large quantities of additional weapons to put down internal revolts. As well as impoverishing the people, militarization adversely affects the class structure and quality of life even when it is not used directly for massacres. Within the ruling elite, military aid makes the military in creasingly the dominant partner vis a vis the bureaucracy and the bourgeoisie. As Ahmed points out, Pakistan's industrial bourgeoisie was initially so small and politically so weak that it proved un able to organize political parties effectively. Backed by the United States, 79 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org a dictatorship operating through the bureaucracy and the military carne to power in 1958, with a resulting loss of democratic freedoms. In India and Ceylon, political parties led by rival groups among the landlords and the bourgeoisie have persisted up to the present. In both countries, however, economic failures and social unrest have been met by increasing curtailment of democratic process and increasing resort to administrative fiat and recently, to military terror. Overall, in all three countries, foreign aid has fostered the growth of a reactionary neo-colonial elite of capitalist junior partners, bureaucrats and military men, who link the subordinate peoples of their own countries w;th the govern ments and corporations of their own nations. 2l Soviet foreign aid, especially important in India, was at first expected by many to help build a strong public sector and to combat the effects of private foreign investment. In fact, however, as Ram indicates, Soviet aid has provided an infrastructure for the development of monopoly capitalism and has exacerbated the harmful effects of western aid. Since 1965 the Soviet Union has exported very large quantities of weapons to both India and Pakistan, especially to India. More recently, the Soviet Union has begun to invest in privately owned Indian factories which use Soviet raw materials, to manufacture goods with cheap Indian labor, and to re-export them to the Soviet Union or to Third World countries that are industrially less advanced than India. Like western aid, Soviet aid seems in general to have been used to control certain Indian industries, to provide profits on the sale of capital goods to India, to use Indian labor cheaply, to make of India a base in order to capture its internal markets or those in other, less developed countries, and to enhance political control through combined economic and military loans. As Ahmed demonstrates, imperialist interference enhances disparities in development among regional and ethnic groups as well as among economic classes. That between West Pakistan and East Bengal is now the best documented, for recent events have highlighted the colonial status and nationalist aspira tions of BangIa Desh. There are, however, similar regional and ethnic disparities within West Pakistan, where Punjabi ruling and propertied groups dominate the economies of Sind, Baluchis tan and the North West Frontier Province. 23 In India, the past decade has seen the development of a similar industrial dominance in northern and western India, especially in Gujurat, Bombay and Maharashtra, where the largest monopoly corporations developed historically. By contrast, West Bengal's engineering and textile industries, once highly developed, have stagnated. In general the eastern Indian states of West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and Assam, like Kerala in the south, have corne to resemble sub-colonies which provide raw materials for export and for the industrially more favored Indian states. 24 Much of the industrial capital of West Bengal is also owned by groups in western India. Regional and ethnic disparities in employment and wealth create competitive struggles among the educated classes from different linguistic areas, castes and religions. Western social scientists usually concentrate their analyses on these forms of competition, seeing in them the perpetuation of "t raditional" birth status groups. Today's competition among the educated classes of regional and ethnic groups for jobs in the bureau cracy and the military, budgetary allo cations, educational institutions, industrial licences, and political power through the ballot box, is not, however, traditional, but is rather a feature of state capitalism and of the unequal relations that have developed within each nation. Beneath these ethnic struggles among bourgeois and petty bourgeois classes, more significant class struggles on the part of vast numbers of propertyless people are latent or have already burst forth. As Alavi and others point out for BangIa Desh, the educated middle class leaders of bourgeois regional parties skate on thin ice in their efforts to 80 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org escape internal colonial domination and at the same time to hold their own pro pertyless classes in subjection. 25 If, however, these educated people continue to be barred from access to what they regard as their legitimate share of power and wealth, many of them may even tually join the poor in struggles for the socialist transformation of their own regions. Rebel and Revolutionary MOvements Against this background, it is not surprising that spontaneous revolts and planned revolutionary movements should have arisen in the subcontinent during the late 1960's. In November-December, 1968, a popular outburst of students, workers and peasants swept both wings of Pakistan for five months and forced the resignation of President Ayub Khan. While no new organs of power representing the mass of propertyless people were forthcoming from this whirlwind, it did compel the promise of elections with universal franchise for the first time in the history of Pakistan. The far left, under the populist umbrella of t the National Awami Party, was weak in t Pakistan because of its support for ! China's policy of diplomatic alliance with the Pakistani dictatorship -- a support which began in 1963. After the rebellion, however, three revolutionary groups emerged in favor of East Bengali armed struggle against the West Pakistani dictatorship, for an autonomous, socialist East Bengal. These were the truncated National Awami Party led by Haul ana Bhashani, the Maoist East Bengal Communist Party, active in the Rajshahi, Chittagong .i and Pabna districts, and the Maoist Coordinating Committee for Communist I Revolutionaries in Dacca. A third Maoist i group, the East Pakistan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) received recognition from China. This group favored militant r struggle against landlords and bureau I crats, but opposed any nationalist struggle which might divide Pakistan. I In India, armed revolutionary struggle became publicized in May, 1967, with a peasant revolt in the Naxa1bari district of West Bengal. The revolt was led by local Communist cadres who subsequently broke away from or were expelled from the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which was then prominent in the state of West Bengal. Although the Naxalbari effort was crushed within a few months, by mid-l969 groups of revolutionary Communists, popularly called Naxa1ites, were organized in at least eight of India's seventeen states. Armed struggle which predated the Naxa1bari revolt was continuing in the hill district of Srikakulam in Andhra Pradesh, and sporadic guerrilla actions were occurring in other states. Some, although not all, of the Naxalite groups had combined in April, 1969, to form the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). The party had an avowedly Marxist program and received approval from the government of Olina. Although it was difficult to judge the significance of the several Maoist tendencies from North America, it seemeed likely that a revolutionary Communism which would draw heavily on Chinese theory and experience had come to India to stay. Even in those parts of India where there were no obvious symptoms of revolu tionary class struggle, things had changed drastically. The Congress Party, which had brought the country to political independence in 1947 and had governed it virtually single-handedly, lost heavily in the 1967 elections. Its majority in the Central Assembly was decreased and it lost control of eight of India's seventeen state governments. In general there was a sense of growing political polarization, accompanied by growing prominence of both far right- and far left-wing parties. The former, repre sented by the Hindi communalist Jan Sangh and the "free enterprise" Swatantra Party, led the governments in Orissa and Delhi. The latter, led numerically by the independent Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI-M, and supported by the pro-Moscow Communist Party and other groups, won in Kerala and Bengal. The communist movement had been strong among sections of the Indian workers and pea sants ever since independence in the heavily populated coastal regions of Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and 81 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org -- states having unusually high proportions of landless laborers and of both rural and urb an unemployed. It was also strong in certain tribal hill regions of Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. The political party picture as repre sented in election results did not, more over, fully reflect the growth of class struggle in India. One sign of this growth was the fact that whereas in the early 1960's village elections had tended to be fought between factions led by opposed groups of landlords, by the mid to late 1960's in many parts of the country they were being fought, under a variety of party banners, essentially between landed and land-poor classes. 26 Both of the communist parliamentary parties (CPI and CPI-M) condemned the "adventurism" of the Naxa1ites and, in West Bengal, were instrumental in their repression. By 1970, however, both parties were being pushed by the impatience. of the landless and the working classes into leading strikes, land-seizures, and other militant actions. In many parts of India one read con stantly of gheraos -- spontaneous encir clement by workers or peasants of people in authority (cabinet ministers, land lords, and plantation or factory mana gers) -- in order to compel them to ful fill some immediate demand. In Ceylon the main revolutionary group was the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (People's Liberation Front). It was or ganized clandestinely in 1966 by Rohan Wijeweera, a former student of Lumumba University in Moscow. Wijeweera and his comrades worked first in the pro-MOscow Communist Party and then in the small pro-Chinese Communist Party of Ceylon, but left both in the belief that neither could come to grips with present realities in Ceylon. The JVP leans towards a Maoist interpretation of Asian society in its belief that the peasantry form the main guerilla force, but has been called "Guevarist" because of its view that the urban working class cannot, at least at present, playa leading role in the revo lutionary struggle, and because of its heavy reliance on educated youth and on clandestine guerilla groups. The party supported "progressive" candidates during the May 1970 elections in Ceylon. A num ber of its leaders were, however, arrested by the pre-election United National Party government on trumped- up charges of plans to attack polling booths. After the elections, the party organized rallies of up to 15,000 people to secure th.e release of its leaders and to explain its policies. Under increasing repression by the new, United Front govern ment in summer, 1970, the JVP formed a front with the revolutionary Trotskyist organization of Bala Tampoe (the Lauka Sama Samaja Party -- Revolutionary) which has a following among rubber workers and in the Ceylon Mercantile Union. This front was also joined by the Young Social ist Front, a newly formed revolutionary trade union among the Tamil tea-workers. 27 In this new front the JVP, hitherto sup ported mainly by Sinhalese village pea sants, joined forces with revolutionary groups representing the two other major sectors of Ceylon's propertyless classes the urban proletariat and the plantation workers of Indian origin. Except among Tamils of Jaffna in northern Ceylon and among Roman Catholics, the Front gained wide support from pea sants, plantation workers and educated youth, especially of the lower ranking Sinhalese fishing and service castes. It procured large quantities of weapons, some of which were stored in universities. London newspapers reported that they were eventually to be used in an insurrection in which guerrillas would simultaneously occupy police, army, radio, electric and telecommunications stations. 28 Whether, as is charged by the Bandaranaike regime, the Front actually planned in advance to overthrow the government in mid-April on the Sinhalese and Tamil New Year days, or whether (as supporters of the Front out side Ceylon assert) no such immediate plan was in the offing, is to me. Repression During the past year, cataclysmic events have occurred in all three coun tries of the subcontinent. There are some similarities of pattern. In 1970-71 all 82 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org three nations held general elections. Parties were elected, with large majori ties, which seemed to many to reflect progressive if gradualist tendencies rather than far right or far left "extremism." In Ceylon a United Front of Mrs. Bandaranaike's Sri Lanka Free com Party, the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party, and the pro-Moscow Com munist Party swept the polls in May, 1970, defeating the supposedly 1IX)re con servative United National Party. In Pakistan, various splinter groups of the right-wing Muslim League were com pletely defeated in December, 1970, in West Pakistan by the social democratic People's Party and in East Pakistan by the Awami League. The latter (as Feroz Ahmed explains) represented chiefly Bengali middle class aspirations for educated employment and for escape from the colonial exploitation to which East Pakistan had been increasingly sub jected by the West Pakistani ruling elite. In India in March, 1971, Mrs. Indira Gandhi's New Congress Party won a landslide victory on the slogan of "Remove Poverty and the Privy Purses of Maharajas" (Le., the state-paid incomes of former princes). In most areas the new party trounced th.e more conservative coalition of the opposition Congress, Jan Sangh and Swatantra parties. In all three countries, however, im portant revolutionary groups boycotted the elections. 29 They did so either because of objections to the constitu f tional framework or because of their conviction that parliamentarism was , I played out and only revolutionary strug gle could materially change the lot of I , the common people. Those parliamentary , parties which were theoretically dedi cated to revolutionary change so moderated r their policies or so entangled themselves in electoral arrangements with bourgeois f f parties that they offered no very clear programatic alternatives. 30 This being so, the largest mass of voters appears to have opted for the seemingly more pro I gressive of the es tablished parties. Since that time, the ruling groups in Pakistan and Ceylon have carried out pre-emptive slaughter of those dissident J I I groups which threatened their own power. In Pakistan Yahya Khan rejected the elec tion results with their verdict of nation al dominance by the Awami League and of partial autonomy for East Pakistan. Backed by continuing United States military aid, West Pakistani forces invaded East Bengal (which contains a majority of Pakistan's population), massacred some 600,000 people -- Hindu and Muslim, peasant, worker and intellectual -- and drove almost ten million refugees into neigh boring West Bengal in India. Five thousand refugees died of cholera, and many tens of thousands, both in West and East Bengal, of famine. Unless massive international aid is forthcoming, half the refugee children now in India are expected to die of starvation. In West Pakistan, amid an economic crisis and labor unrest produced by the war, the government carried out mass arrests of trade union ists, students, political leaders, striking workers, intellectuals, and newspaper editors in every province. Numerous lead ers and members of the Kisan-Mazdoor (Peasant-Worker) Party in the North West Frontier Province, of the National Awami Party (pro-Moscow faction), and of the People's Party have been arrested. A total of about 800 arrests without trial was reported on September 15, and there have been public floggings of an unknown num ber of dissenters. 3l In Ceylon, the Bandaranaike government suddenly declared a national emergency on March 15, 1971. On slight provocation, or apparently even on trumped-up charges, the government carried out a massacre of youths suspected of membership in or sym pathy with the People's Liberation Front. Estimates of the numbers killed vary between 1500 and 10,000. Some 16,000 others were jailed. 32 During April, the three-party revolutionary front fought back vigorously, revealing wide popular support. Its guerrillas were estimated at 30,000 to 80,000, against initial C e ~ Ion government forces of about 18,000. 3 Western reporters stated that the insur rectionis ts almcst succeeded in over throwing the government on the night of AprilS. This may, however, have been an exaggeration designed to justify the government's mas,ive resort to external 83 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org military aid and to the killing of young people, some of whom were cap tured and then executed without trial. The goal of the government forces was evidently to uproot the front's infra structure before it could spread further. "We have learned too many lessons from Vietnam and Malaysia. We must destroy them completely," Lieutenant Colonel Cyril Ranatunga, a Sandhurst graduate, is reported to have said. A senior officer told reporters, "Once we are convinced prisoners are insurgents, we take them to the cemetary and dispose of them. "34 In this counterinsurgency oper ation the Ceylon government received military aid from Britain, the United States, the USSR, the United Arab Repub lic, Pakistan, Yugoslavia, and and in April, 1971, a $30 million interest-free loan from China. The North Korean embassy was accused by the government of helping the insur gents and was expelled, but no evidence was produced against members of the embassy staff. Youthful Trotskyists, "Guevaris ts" an d Mao is ts thus found themselves fighting a bourgeois govern ment which included Communists and Trot skyists in its cabinet and was aided by the U.S.A., the U.S.S.R. and China. Each of these three powers took the position that the rebels were, as a letter from Chou En-lai to Mrs. Bandaranaike put it, "a handful of persons" trying to create "a chaotic situation," aided by "foreign spies. "36 Repression in India has been less dramatic and more localized but nonethe less real. MOhan Ram describes in this issue the Indian government's deployment of troops against tribal peasants in Andhra Pradesh on March 1, 1971. In other states thousands of Naxalites or Naxalite supporters, and considerable numbers of the parliamentary CPI-M, have been arrest ed under emergency measures during the past few months, especially in West Ben gal. Hundreds have been shot in jails or in the streets. 37 While in Pakistan, therefore, the nation itself has been shattered as a legitimate moral entity, in India and Ceylon parliamentary process and the rule of law have been made a mockery This impression is reinforced by the Indian government's increasing tendency to suspend state legislatures on the pretext of breakdown of law and order, as it has done recently in Punjab and Bengal. Revolutionary Weaknesses Despite the sharpening of class struggle and the recent massacres, India, Pakistan and Ceylon lack strong and uni fied revolutionary socialist movements. Although they have recently waged heroic struggles, the revolutionary in India and Ceylon are still fragmented. In BangIa Desh an envading army has forced a national liberation struggle upon the people, but one for which its Marxist groups were unprepared in advance. Several reasons suggest themselves for the present weakness of the Left forces and for their failure to bring about a revolution in previous decades. First, the Marxist parties in these countries emerged several decades ago under the influence of the Russian revo lution. Given the failure of their earlier militant efforts, the older leaders in these parties have lost the elan neces sary to cope with a new revolutionary situation and their theories and methods tend to be outmoded. In the case of the pro-MOscow Communist parties there have also been ideological changes since the mid-1950's, so that these parties now actually eschew revolutionary struggle. Second, in spite of the long history of the Marxist parties, I suggest that objective conditions in the subcontinent have not been conducive to large scale revolutionary struggle until four to five years ago. It is true that South Asia has suffered the most abysmal poverty, marked periodically by devastating famines, ever since the British began to wreck and plunder its economy in the late eighteenth century. Since that time sporadic revolts by former rulers, or by peasants, tribespeople, religious groups or guerrilla movements have been quite common and the spirit of rebellion has never died. Significant communist-led peasant revolutionary struggles did, moreover, take place shortly hefore and 84 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org after independence, notably in East ! Bengal after the famine of World War II 1 and in Telegana under the uncertainties I of the change of power. 38 There was also a revolt in the Indian navy, and com 1 ) munist-led peasant uprisings occurred in Thanjavur, Kerala and other states. r These were, however, localized actions confined largely to particular tribal ~ 1 or low caste groups or to a rather narrow range of peasant classes. l The chief reason why nationwide 1 revolutionary struggle has not occurred in this century is, I suggest, that un like China or Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent was not subjected to comr petition between colonial powers nor to invasion by a new colonial power either before or during the second world war. Its economic and political structures therefore remained more stable. Having consolidated their rule over the whole sUbcontinent in the latter part of the nineteenth century, the British were able, despite uprisings, to maintain strong political and military control. After World War II when they could no longer sustain that control, they transferred political power to the in digenous bureaucratic and bourgeois classes without external interference. The partition of India and Pakistan did, of course, give rise to the deaths of up to a million people in Hindu-Muslim conflicts, but that slaughter and the religio-national hysteria attending it distracted attention from class struggle. The transfer of power to native rulers in the late 1940's raised hopes of new democratic freedoms, civil liber ties, economic development, and social welfare. To some extent these hopes were sustained through two decades of modest industrial and agricultural ex pansion and through the spread of cap italist relations, which gave rise to social mobility. In this connection it is important to notice that even during the 1960's, when incomes polarized and the condition of those at the bottom of the class structure deteriorated, that of at least sixty percent of both the urban and rural populations of India improved slightly, although very uneven ly with respect to class and income level. 39 This may partly explain why, despite growing rebellion in certain regions and classes, the bulk of India's people still seem willing to stay on the parliamentary road. Having failed to bring off revolu tions in earlier decades, the Communist Party of India and both the Communist Party and the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party in Ceylon became involved in parliamentary politics soon after independence. Their leaders are now innured to electoral maneuvering, to the detriment of revolutionary work. Yet large numbers of peasants and workers still owe allegiance to these parties, which did conduct militant struggles in the 'thirties and late 'forties and which at various times have made small gains on behalf of their followers through trade union activities. Cling ing to the parliamentary path, the lead ership of these parties currently puts a brake on revolutionary organization. As Ram argues for India, the policies of the socialist states have by no means consistently fostered revolutionary development. The Soviet Union discour aged the Communist Parties of South Asia from any course approaching revolu tion during World War II, and has played the same role through Cold War and peace ful coexistence policies since 1951. In July 1971 the Soviet Union formed a treaty of friendship with the Indian government. While deploring the massacre of East Bengalis, the Soviet Union of fers no support to the revolutionary Marxist groups that are helping to lead the national liberation struggle in BangIa Desh. Indeed, the Soviet Union does not even support the Awami League and the pro-Moscow Communist Party of East Bengal in demanding a separate nation of BangIa Desh. Like the United States it seeks only a restoration of civilian rule in East Bengal within the framework of a re-united Pakistan. (Since it signed the Indo-Soviet friend ship treaty, the government of India, too, has ceased to demand an independent BangIa Desh). For the past few years, the Soviet Union has provided massive military aid to the anti-Communist governments of both Pakistan and India. 85 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Although it has temporarily cut off military aid to Pakistan in the present crisis, it continues to supply weapons to India, and has supplied them to the Ceylon government during the recent purge of revolutionaries. China's policy, although in theory favorable to revolution, seems fully explicable only in terms of China's per ception of her own national interests. For while China has called for revolu tionary struggle in India, Burma and Indonesia since 1967, it has discouraged such struggle in Pakistan for the past eight years because of China's diplo matic alliances with Ayub Khan and later with Yahya Khan. 40 In March and April and again in June 1971, the Chinese government approved and even materially aided the massacres of revolutionaries and common people in Pakistan, and in April 1971, of those in Ceylon. 4l At present, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam appears to be the only social ist nation to have come out in open moral support of the freedom fighters of BangIa Desh.42 Finally, there have undoubtedly been subjective errors on the part of the various South Asian revolutionary groups. Mohan Ram has referred to some of them in his article in this issue and in his books. Two in particular seem central: historically, an over reliance on the theories and policies of foreign parties, whether Soviet, British, Chinese, or others; and in the past four years, the failure of the main Marxist parties to leave the parliamen tary path and assume responsibility for channeling revolt allDng the youth and poor. Class Structure A central problem in estimating revolutionary potential, and one to which all four essayists in this issue make reference, is the nature of the class structure. It is necessary to ask: what are the main classes? Which class domi nates the state apparatus? What is the character of the relations between class es? Which classes can be expected to support the revolution? and, who are ------, the main class enemies, whether inter nal or external to the country? These are complex questions to which no completely satisfactory answers seem available. First, it is noteworthy that in India, the communist movement receives strongest electoral support in states which have the poor est food supply and the highest propor tions of landless laborers - and in which both these conditions have been exacerbated in the past twenty years. These states are Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal, where between forty-five and eighty-nine percent of the people are estimated to lack the food calories necessary for adequate subsistence and where be tween thirty-four and thirty-seven per cent of the agricultural population were landless or nearly landless laborers in 1963-64. By contrast, the right-wing parties Jan Sangh and Swat antra are strongest in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh and Punjab. These are all states where much lower percen tages (between thirteen and twenty- six) of the people are estimated to re ceive inadequate food calories and where the percentage of landless or nearly landless laborers is as low as twelve to twenty-three percent of the agricul tural work force. 43 It is not argued that absolute poverty or landlessness "cause" support for communism, but it is suggested that revolutionary ideol ogy may be stronger and more widely accepted in states where the largest proportions of the people have suffered relative deprivation in food supply, living standards, and land holding over a period of years. Where smaller p r o p o ~ tions have suffered deprivation, right wing parties may gain support from people of middle rank who are afraid of losing their security or of being attacked by the poor. Again, it is not argued that revolu tionary movements will necessarily start among the poorest peasants and landless laborers. In fact, India's armed revolutionary movements in recent decades have tended to aPise in one of the types of circumstances specified by Eric Wolf as having high revolutionary 86 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org f i potential, namely, that in which an t ethnically distinct (in this case tri I bal) peasant people, especially one t living in a defensible mountain area, has been robbed of part of its land t through entry into the market economy and the modern state, but retains a cer f tain independence and tactical mobility 1 on its own terrain. 44 This has been the j J case among the tribal people in the hill regions of Bengal, Telengana, and t Kerala, where revolutionary upsurges * took place in the 1940' s and the late J 1960's, as well as in the case of the nationalist wars of the hill tribes of ; j \ Assam. Other categories of people among whom armed revolt has more recently arisen are educated but unemployed or underprivileged youth (Ceylon and India) and the slum populations of cities, especially Calcutta. Regardless of its t origins, however, it is argued that once an armed revolutionary movement 1 has gained strength it has large poten I tial support in areas having masses of I poor peasants and landless laborers, and that regions which are experiencing I increase in the proportions of these 'i classes are ones in which revolution ! ary ideologies are apt to take hold. 45 i In spite of differences between i ! them, all the present Communist par ties or revolutionary Communist commit I I tees of Pakistan and India (although :t not the JVP of Ceylon) see the economies f of South Asia as divided into two sec I tors. One, the larger sector, is still I seen as "feudal" or "semi-feudal" by virtue of its mainly pre-industrial technology, low level of capital invest ment in agriculture, and dependent and , exploitative relationships. The other J " (and smaller although growing) sector, the capitalist sector, involves modern industrial farming or other production through wage workers. .. I I It seems to me, however, that this Marxist "dual economy" thesis is little more satisfactory than a bourgeois dual economy approach has proven to be. Rather, f whether as tenants or wage workers, l South Asian peasants and workers seem for at least some decades to have been 1 drawn almost universally into the world economy of capitalist imperialism. 46 They have, however, been drawn into it as super-exploited people, as people whose surplus product goes not only directly to landlords, money lenders, merchants, industrialists, financiers and other local figures, or to their own government, but also indirectly to corporations and governments of the imperialist nations, in what Andre Gun der Frank has aptly called "the contri bution of the poor to the welfare of the rich." The expansion of capitalist relations for the South Asian peasant and worker has thus meant not increas ing prosperity, as has happened among the more fortunate farming and working classes of the industrial nations and as Indian Communist analysts seem to expect it to do, but increasing polar ization of class relations and incomes and, for large numbers of peasants, increased immiserization. I suggest that landlords, rich peasants, middle peasants, poor peas ants and landless laborers have exist ed in both pre-capitalist and capital ist South Asia, but that their propor tions and relations have undergone a series of complex changes in the c o l ~ n i a l and neo-colonial periods. Studies of these changes are needed for the differ ent regions of a kind carried out by Wertheim for Indonesia and by Wolf for Russia, China, Vietnam, Mexico, Alger ia, and Cuba. 47 In general, pre-capital ist relations seem to have been charac terized by a relatively self-sufficient village economy, hereditary tenancies of varying kinds for the different class es of peasants, legal bondage in serfdom for poor peasants, and (where they exist ed) slavery for landless laborers. Colonial and neo-colonial or "underdevel oped" capitalist relations have involved varying degrees of absorption into the commodity economy of world capitalism. Along with this has tended to come a reduction in the proportions of middle peasants, a kind of marketing of labor through contractual and often short term tenancies for poor peasants, and increasing numbers of "free" but impov erished and insecurely employed land less laborers. As Shivaraman and Saghir Ahmad point out in this issue, both land reform and the introduction of 87 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org modern techniques of agriculture have accelerated the growth of landless wage labor during the past two decades. The difference between the "dual economy" and the Its ingle, international economy" approaches has implications for the nature of the state and for revolutionary strategy. As Ram notes, all the Communist groups of India postulate a "two stage" revolution, al though they differ over the precise character of the stages, over which classes will bring the two stages to completion, and above allover how the stages are to be realized. The first stage involves getting rid of imperial ism and feudalism through one or another combination 0 f workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and non-monopoly natio"nal bourgeoisie. It culminates in the estab lishment of an independent economy and society led either jointly by the nation al bourgeoisie and the workers (the "national democracy" of the CPI) or dominated by the workers and peasants with the national bourgeoisie as either stable or vacillating allies (the "people's democracy" of the CPI-11 and the various Maoist groups). The second stage involves a socialist revolution in which, presumably, private ownership of the means of production will be abolished and the bourgeoisie as a class will cease to exist. These analyses all seem imperfect, partly because there is no dual economy and partly because the separation into two revolutionary stages seems mech anical. As Alavi has pointed out, under conditions of neo-colonialism, the imper ialists and the native landed classes are not allies against a nascent nation al industrial bourgeoisie, as they are, to some extent, in classical colonial societies. 48 The time for an independent capitalist, or even a "non-capitalist" (but non-socialist) stage is past that bus has been missed - since multi national corporations, chiefly although not exclusively emanating from the U.S.A., dominate the capitalist world's economy by virtue of their technological and financial superiority. In the post independence period these corporations, and the imperial governments that represent them, have penetrated the economies of each South Asian country to such an extent that they are fast reducing its industrial, merchant and financial bourgeoisie, its landlords, its bureaucracy and its military to the status of segments of a single neo colonized bourgeoisie. In spite of the complex rivalries between these seg ments and between the various imperial powers to whom they appeal for support, and in spite of certain limited and relative autonomy in relation to each other and in relation to the imperial ists, their leading groups are forced to band together with the imperialist bourgeoisie against the revolutionary forces of peasants and workers of their own countries. The main enemies of the revolution in these countries are there fore the governments and bourgeoisies of the imperial nations, while the immed iate enemies are all the large domestic property owners (merchant, landed, financial or industrial). The more the domestic property owners' interests are threatened, the stronger become their ties to the military and civil bureau cracies, which are recruited mainly from their midst. This does not mean that the revolu tionary forces must necessarily "fight the whole lot at once". Although they have proved able to organize localized class struggles by tribal people, low caste people, poor peasants, landless laborers and urban poor against their immediate oppressors, the South Asian revolutionary leaderships may not be able to mobilize the people en masse over large areas until the military has assumed political power in all three countries and until alien intervention has provided an external enemy. Such "external enemies" may come initially from linguistic groups located around the metropoles within each nation and be deployed against outlying groups of different ethnic origin in the more ex ploited hinterlands, as in BangIa Desh today. l ~ e rapidity with which the major industrial powers rushed military aid to Ceylon in the recent crisis sug gests, however, that "external enemies" will eventually be supplied from out side each nation by one or another of the super.powers or of their satellites. (Already, indeed, the counterinsurgency 88 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org f \ l operation in Ceylon has featured Rus , sian technicians and Gurkha soldiers from India.) After such invasions l f patriotic people from all sections of the indigenous propertied classes are likely to cross over to the side of the poor peasants, the landless laborers, , the revolutionary youth, and the working class, as happened in China and Indo f china. f Prospects t After a year of severe repression, the revolutionary groups of South Asia appear to be undergoing reassessment and regroupment. Widespread, coordinated guerrilla struggles seem to be tempor arily halted in India. Since early 1970 the CPI-ML has lost most of its organ ized support among peasants and has be come an urban terrorist movement concen trating on the assassination of police, landlords, money-lender, businessmen, and political enemies in the CPI-M in Calcutta and in smaller towns. 49 In recent months, however, the party split into two groups led respectively by the CPI-ML chairman, Charu Mazumdar, , and by Ashim Chatterjee, the leader of I the West Bengal-Orissa-Bihar Regional J i j Committee, with the latter opposing the Mazumdar tactic of small group assassinations of individual "cl ass enemies" and favoring a return to mass struggles to distribute land and crops and to fight police and para-military personnel in the countryside. In June 1971, moreover, Charu Mazumdar himself f directed the CPI-ML cadres to spread i out again from Calcutta into the country t , side. At least since April 1971, CPI ML cadres have been snatching hundreds of rifles from police and private citi ( zens throughout West Bengal, presumr ably in anticipation of larger strug J gles than those they have hitherto carried out with primitive weapons. On October 7, 1971, after a year of silence about the CPI-ML, Hsinhua approvingly cited its gun-snatching campaign, attacks on police, and land and crop distribution, while ignoring its urban terrorism, thereby reassert ing some support for the party while perhaps encouraging it to reunite and return to the villages. 50 If it does the latter, the CPI-ML and the Andhra Pradesh Revolutionary Communist Com mittee -- the most significant Maoist formation outside the CPI-ML -- may be able to effect a rapprochement. In Ceylon, large-scale revolution ary struggle has been temporarily crushed by the massive arrests and assassination of cadres and their sup porters. Gun-snatching, sabotage and occasional assassinations were, how ever, reported to be continuing in north central Ceylon in September 1971. 51 In BangIa Desh two centers of resistance to the West Pakistani in vasion and military dictatorship appear to be prominent. One of these is purely nationalist and is coordinated by non revolutionary and non-socialist leaders. This consists of the Awami League and its allies, the pro-Moscow National Awami League (Wali faction), the pro Moscow Communist Party, and the BangIa Desh National Congress representing East Bengali Hindus. The more left- wing and anti-imperialist National Awami Party (Bhashani faction) also, at least nominally, holds one of the eight seats in the coordinating com mittee of this Front. The Front has its administrative headquarters and provisional government in Calcutta, where the surviving Awami League lead ers fled in March, 1971. It has been arming and training guerrillas in India with the help of the Indian gov ernment, and in early November was re ported to have set up an administrative base in Dinajpur in northeastern BangIa Desh inside a liberated zone. 52 The other center of resistance is a revolutionary National Liberation Struggle Coordination Committee c o ~ posed of the National Awami Party of Bhashani, the Maoist Coordinating Committee of Communist Revolutionaries, located near Dacca, the Maoist East Bengal Communist Party, active in the Rajshahi, Chittagong and Pabna dis tricts, and several student, peasant and worker unions. Formed in April 89 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org 1971, the Committee called on June 1, 1971, for a united military struggle, along with the Awami League and all other resistance groups, to establish a "democratic social system, anti-imper ialist, anti-feudal and anti-monopoly capital in character." The Front's program includes the setting up of village administrative committees, the stoppage of taxes to the West Pakistan military government, the ending of usury and of the hoarding of food grains, the punishment of quislings, the lessening of exploitation by landlords of peas ants and landless laborers, the devel opment of small self-sufficient econ omic regions, and the training of guerrilla squads for sabotage and hit and-run attacks on the West Pakistani forces. 53 Resistance forces commanded by one or the other of these two fronts were estimated at between 50,000 and 100,000 guerrillas in mid October 1971, in addition to some 10,000 to 15,000 regular troops of the East Bengal regi ment and the East Pakistan Rifles. They were estimated to be fighting a West Pakistani force of about 80,000, and claimed to have killed about 20,000 West Pakistani military men. 54 A third, independent group is the Maoist East Pakistan Communist Party Marxist-Leninist (EPCP-ML) which cor responds to the CPI-ML of West Bengal and has the support of China. This party has been carrying on "anti-feudal" attacks against landlords and police; reports differ as to whether it is supporting the liberation struggle against West Pakistani forces. In spite of China's official support for, and aid to, the West Pakistani dicta torship, some sources recently reported that the EPCP-ML is now receiving weapons from China. 55 Relations between the traditionally anti-Communist, pro-Indian and pro Western Awami League and the National Liberation Coordination Committee are unclear at present. Unofficial reports from Calcutta state that Awami League leaders are trying to weed out the more radical youth from their guerrilla training programs, and fear the take over of the nationalist movement by socialist revolutionary forces. There is no doubt, moreover, that the Indira Gandhi government cannot look favourably upon the supply of weapons to East Bengali guerrillas of similar character to and having close ties with the Indian Naxalites. Inside BangIa Desh, Mukti Fouj (liberation force commandos) sup posedly under Awami League leadership are reported to be more radical and more concerned about the welfare of the common people than do the Awami League administrators. 56 In general, regard less of the fate of the Awami League, it seems likely that the liberation struggle may eventually pass under the leadership of socialist revolutionaries, and that it may be a protracted strug gle, spreading to engulf all of east ern India as well as Eas t Bengal. Mean while, the BangIa Desh liberation for ces are apparently disrupting communi cations and battering the invading army. Certain interesting new features characterize the revolutionary socialis t groups in South Asia. A large propor tion of their leaders and cadres are very young and highly educated. In Inaia and Ceylon they have to struggle against the parliamentary policies and even the physical attacks of established Marxist parties. At the same time, it is essential that the revolutionary forces should be, and likely that they will be, augmented soon by young cadres from these older parties, many of whom are disillusioned or impatient with parliamentary politics. The revolutionary groups are opposed by the Soviet Union. Some of them have also had to struggle without the sup port of China, and some of them have been opposed by China. Flexibility, a break with past South Asian Marxist groups, new align ments which cross-cut some of these groups and some ancient enmities within the Marxist fold, and independence of external socialist mentors, seem to be required of the South Asian revolution aries in the immediate future. A mili tant of the National Awami Party put the matter crisply to a reporter: "We don't worry whether China openly supports 90 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org us or not, whether Russia tries to mediate, or America tries to replace Yahya Khan. J We have to wage our own battle, and we are sure to win. "57 t f November 11, 1971 t Institute of Asian and Slavonic Studies University of British Columbia. I ! t Postscript In November, 1971, resistance forces in East Bengal won significant victor t ies over the West Pakistan army, and : by November 6th they were reported to t control a quarter of the territory and to be moving freely throughout East Bengal. 58 Border clashes between India ! I and the West Pakistani forces in East Bengal were intensifying. On November 11, U.S. military intelligence claimed that three Soviet merchant ships had left the Soviet Union the previous week with 5,000 tons of military equip j ment bound for India. 59 Ten Soviet planes with spare parts for weapons had already \ reached India on November 3. By Novem ber 8, Indian forces had crossed twice I * into Bang1a Desh in response to West Pakistani shelling of Indian border towns. 60 On November 8, U.S. State , ; Department spokesmen said that I 1 $3,600,000 worth of military aid to Yahya Khan would be cut off immediately. This statement was, however, unconvinc ( ing, since the U.S. had hitherto been continuing to send large quantities of military aid to Pakistan despite Con 1 gressional bans and State Department t dis claimers. 61 I i In the week beginning November 21, 1971, a large-scale invasion of East 1 Bengal took place from Indian terri t tory. It was unclear at the time how ( deeply involved either the Indian army or the Soviet Union was in the invasion, r although it seemed certain that Indian forces and Soviet supplies were being deployed in quantity. India claimed on November 26 to have carried out only two raids, from West Bengal, in response to round-the-clock shelling by West Pakistani forces of Indian border towns. West Pakistani authorities claimed on the same day that 10 Indian divisions totalling 180,000 to 200,000 men were fighting in East Bengal and that West Pakistani troops had already destroyed 20 Indian tanks. 62 Heavy fighting was occurring in widely distributed sec tors, especially in the Belonia bulge near the East Bengal/Indian border 70 miles northwest of Chittagong. Some (India claimed almost all) of the in vading forces were East Bengalis train ed and armed on Indian soil iy the Awami League, and now fighting under Awami League command. The Chinese government complained in the United Nations that the Soviet Union was en couraging Indian aggression against Pakistan. Already on November 7, Chi nese Acting Foreign Minister Chi Peng fei had promised that if Pakistan was subjected to foreign aggression, the Chinese government and people would "support the Pakistan government and people in their just struggle to defend their state sovereignty and national independence." At the same time, how ever, Chi Peng-fei urged a solution to the civil war in East Bengal and stres sed that China would like to see a negotiated settlement between India and Pakistan. 63 Some such settlement was at that time also being called for by the Soviet Union, the United States and Britain. India refused negotiations with Pakistan on the grounds that the war in East Bengal was an internal conflict between the Awami League and the West Pakistani government. Nonetheless, the Indian government warned that the con tinuing influx of 30,000 refugees a day from East Bengal, with no prospect of return, and the shelling of Indian territory, were becoming less and less tolerable. Present information does not permit a full interpretation of the war. It has, however, certain potential advan tages for the Indian government, the Awami League, and the West Pakistani dictatorship, as well as the Soviet Union. By invading in force with In dian troops and with Soviet help, the Awami League no doubt hopes to take over East Bengal before it is either subdued by the West Pakistani military, or liberated by guerrilla forces led in part by socialist revolutionaries who would eventually take East Bengal out 91 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org of the capitalist system and out of the control of the Awami League and the class es it represents. By backing an Awami League invasion, the Indian government hopes to set up in East Bengal a friend ly bourgeois regime under whose aegis the 10,000,000-odd refugees could return, trade (cut off since 1965) could be resumed, and the spectre of socialist revolution could be at least tempor arily exorcised from the region. The war also provides the Indian government with an excuse to impose martial law in West Bengal, if necessary to extend it throughout Eastern India, and to repress all left-wing dissidents in the name of patriotism. Indeed, by November 27 half of India's paramilitary Central Reserve Police have already been sent to West Bengal, and 10,000 alleged extre mists have been arrested under new laws permitting imprisonment without trial. 64 For the Soviet Union, an Awami League government in BangIa Desh, whether independent or only partially autono mous, presents opportunities for fur ther Soviet economic and military pene tration of South Asia and further weak ening of border regions hitherto friendly to China. For the West Pakistani dicta torship, the war may have hidden advan tages and may have been deliberately provoked in view of the West Pakistani military's recent heavy losses to the Mukti Bahini, and the economic chaos and social unrest in both wings of Pakistan that have resulted from the March, 1971 invasion. It would be psychologically intolerable and politically highly dan gerous if the West Pakistani elite lost East Bengal to the despised Bengali people, led by ill-armed guerrillas and a handful of socialist revolutionaries. If, however, the West Pakistani govern ment loses partial or even full control of BangIa Desh to a bourgeois government under an international settlement as a result of Soviet intervention and Indian invasion, the outcome will be less dan gerous to the interests of the West Pakistani rulers and bourgeoisie, and less damaging to their prestige in the eyes of their own supporters. The victims in this power play are the people of BangIa Desh, who now have an international war imposed on them in the wake of flood, slaughter and famine. A swift end to the war and a "political settlement" through great power intervention may put a temporary end to the killing, alleviate the famine, and provide a respite to the people. Whether under the Awami League or the West Pakistani government, however, East Bengal cannot escape the economic deterioration and social unrest that have already reached alarming propor tions in both East and West Bengal and are spreading throughout South Asia. There can be no quick answers and no reversion to "normal" -- only a long, hard struggle through which the South Asian people may at last gain control of their destiny. November 28, 1971. FOOTNOTES 1. Dandekar and Rath, "Poverty in India", Economic' and Political Weekly, Bomay, January 2, 1971, p. 38. For a contrast between the rising per capita income of Pakistan in 1958-68 and the fall in living standards of peasants and workers, see Tariq Ali, Pakistan: Military Rule of People's Power?, Jonathon Cape, London, 1970, p. 153. In Ceylon, although the per capita in come has been rising, the real wages of some sections of workers declined during the 1960's. Taking the average wage of workers in the tea and rubber industries as 100 in 1939, the index number of real wages rose in most years to reach 177 in 1956, but then fell gradually, to remain at 170 from 1964 to 1967. Taking the average wage index of the Colombo working class as 100 in 1939, the real wage index rose in most years to'reach 254 in 1960, but then fell to 233 during 1965 and 1966, rising again, however, to 24l'in 1967 (Ceylon Year Book, 1970, pp. 215-16). 2. Newsweek, June 17, 1963, re porting on the World Food Congress held in Washington, D.C., under the auspices of the United Nations. Quoted by Felix Greene, The Enemy, Random House, 1970, p. 150. For comparative figures on calorie-intake for India, Pakistan and 92 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org t ) Ceylon, see Gtmnar Myrdal, Asian Drama, , Vol. I, pp. 542-551, Pantheon, 1968. See also Dandekar and Rath, loco cit., { p. 29. 3. See especially Harry Magdoff, The Age of Imperialism, Monthly Review Press, New York, 1969, and Robert I. Rhodes, Imperialism and Underdevelop ment: ~ Reader, MOnthly Review Press, 1970. 4. Chiefly in export crop planta tions, coal mines, metallurgical works, jute factories, import and export firms, banking, and distributive networks sell ing imported consumer goods. To the pro fits from these must be added the "Home Charges" drawn from Indian revenues for British services, the interest on loans made to the Indian government for build ing railroads and telegraph systems, and the income from British trading and shipping firms, from which Indians were excluded. The total annual capital flow from undivided India to Britain in 1939 is estimated at about 200 million pounds sterling. See Michael Barratt Brown, After Imperialism, Heinemann, London, 1963, pp. 174-75; Sofia Melman, For eign Monopoly Capital in the Indian Economy, People's Publishing House, New Delhi, 1963, p. 42. , 5. For the loss of purchasing power experienced by Third World countries in general due to decline in the terms of trade between 1961 and 1966, as com pared with 1953-57, see Magdoff, ~ . cit., p. 158. About 12 billion dollars' worth of foreign aid from all sources was authorized for India's first three five year plans, and more than 8 billion utilized up to 1965. Pakistan has re 1 ceived about 6 billion dollars' worth f t of foreign aid. See MOhan Ram, Maoism in India, Vikas Publicat ions, Delhi, 1970, pp. 173-74, and Feroz Ahmed, this issue. 6. Michael Kidron points out that f official figures for foreign investment ; are lower than are estimates of foreign controlled assets. Kidron quotes an estimate for 1961 for India of about f Rs. 14,000 million (about U.S. $2 billion at 1971 rates of exchange) for total for eign controlled assets. This was slight ly more than two-fifths of the total in f the organized or large scale private I sector, or one-quarter of the modern I J sector as a whole (Michael Kidron, For eign Investment in India, Oxford Univer sity Press, 1965, p. 186). Taking into account the distribution of foreign cap ital in big industry, mining, planta tions, banking and big business, and its use to control large amounts of Indian capital, Bettelheim concludes: "Foreign capital can.be said to share the con trol of the Indian economy with domestic capital on what is very nearly a fifty fifty basis" (Charles Bettelheim, India Independent, MOnthly Review Press, 1968, p. 59). In 1961, 77 percent of the for eign private capital invested in India was British, but the proportion is de clining. British capital accounted for 28% of the value of new foreign capital issues sanctioned between April 1956 and December 1964; U.S. capital for 32%, West German for 8% and French for 6%. Kidron estimates that between 1948 and 1961 private foreign investment in India more than doubled; in that period for eign investors took out of the general currency reserve nearly three times as much as they contributed directly (Kidron, ~ . cit., p. 310). Total cap ital imports into Pakistan increased' by 100% between 1955 and 1965, and were expected to increase by another 100% between 1965 and 1970 (Tariq Ali, ~ . cit., p. 225). The increase in American private investment in both India and Pakistan in recent years is an adjunct of the United States' predominance in foreign loans to both countries. At the end of India's Third Plan (1965), out of a total of Rs. 58,000 million of foreign aid, the U. S. had provided Rs. 12,800 million excluding PL 480 loans, the USSR Rs. 4,800 million, the U.K. Rs. 3,300 million, West Germany Rs. 4,500 million, and Japan Rs. 1,400 million. There has since been a spectacular in crease in aid from the USSR, Rs. 6,000 million of supplementary aid having been granted in 1965 alone (Bettelheim, ~ . cit., p. 289). 7. During 1966-67, Ceylon received Rs. 42.3 million in project loans and Rs. 193.9 million in commodity loans (a total of Rs. 236.2 million). Of this total, the U.K. provided Rs. 56.5 million, Canada Rs. 13.2 million, the 93 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org U.S.A. Rs. 32.4 million, West Germany Rs. 70.6 million, Japan Rs. 31.3 mil lion, and India Rs. 10.1 million (Cey lon Year Book, 1970, p. 196). Ceylon paid out Rs. 109 million in 1969 as foreign investment income, and Rs. 142 million (about U.S. $10 million) in 1970 (Central Bank of Ceylon, Annual Report, 1970, p. 195). 8. In 1947 Ceylon earned $170 mil lion by exporting 287 million pounds of tea, but in 1970 total earnings were only $188 million with the export volume at 459 pounds. Thus between 1947 and 1970, the export volume of tea increased by 60% but the export value increased by only 10%. In the same period rubber export volume in creased by 95%; rubber export value, by 85%. In 1966 Ceylon's external re source gap of Rs. 541 million was the highest in the period 1952-66. There after, the external resource gap rose to Rs. 649 million in 1968 and Rs. 1,235 million in 1969. In 1970 the resource gap was Rs. 1,124 million (Central Bank of Ceylon, Annual Re port, 1970, pp. 11-20). - 9. See also especially Hamza Alavi and Amir Khusro, "Pakistan: the Bur den of U. S. Aid 1 ', in Robert 1. Rhodes, ... cit., pp. 62-78, and Hamza Alavi, "Imperialism, Old and New", Socialist Register," MOnthly Review Press, 1964, pp. 104-126. 10. By 1965, India owed her total prospective export earnings for the next six to seven years to repay for eign debts already incurred. By 1966, 26.9% of the value of India's exports and 15.7% of the value of Pakistan's exports was used to cover foreign debt service and profits on foreign invest ment (Magdoff, ~ . cit., p. 155). By 1970 more than 50% of Ceylon's new total receipts from foreign aid were required to cover her foreign debt ser vice (Central Bank of Ceylon, Annual Report, 1970, p. 196). 11. See Cheryl Payer, "The IMF and the Third World", Monthly Review, Sept. 1971, pp. 47-48. See also Daily Tele graph, London, "Ceylon Revolt Caused by Broken Promises", April 12. 12. B.H.S. Jayawardene, "Post MOr tem", Far Eastern Economic Review, July 94 10, 1971, and "Weighing the Pearl", Far Eastern Economic Review, July 17, 1971. 13. The United States, for exam ple, threatened to cut off food aid to India and Pakistan during their border war of 1965; the same threat was made to India in 1966 in order to force her to permit Standard Oil of Indiana to market fertilizers in India at its own rather than at government... controlled prices. In June 1962 Ceylon nationalized 63 gas stations owned by Esso Standard Eastern, Inc. and Caltex Ceylon, Ltd. United States aid was broken off in February 1963 and was not restarted until the United National Party govern ment came in in July 1965 and agreed to compensate the firms at acceptable rates (Magdoff, .2.. cit., p. 128). 14. Ceylon's total registered un employed citizens numbered 150,000 out of a population of 11.0 million in 1965. They numbered 500,000 in early 1970 and 700,000 in late 1970 out of a pop ulation of 12.3 million. In 1965 Cey lon had 10,723 university students; in 1967, 14,512. Educated unemployed youth have increased disproportionately to the unemployed in the population as a whole (Ceylon Year Books, 1965-70, passim). The Daily Telegraph reported on April 20, 1971 that 14,000 unemploy ed graduates were estimated to have joined the cause of the People's Liber ation Front. I am indebted to Michael Egan of the University of British Colum bia for drawing my attention to some of these figures. It is estimated that over 100,000 persons with scientific, engineering, or medical qualifications .are unemploy ed in India, while 30,000 more are abroad ("Magnitude of Brain Drain from India", Technical Manpower (Division for Scientific and Technical Personnel, CSIR) Vol. XIII, No.2, Feb. 1971, quoted by Kamalesh Ray, "Unemploy ment and the Brain Drain", Economic and Political Weekly, Sept. 25, 1971, p. 2059) . 15. See A. Sinha, U.S. Threat to India's Sovereignty, Book Club, Cal cutta 12, 1965, for a detailed account. 16. India's rice production increased BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org t ; I from 50 million tons in 1947 to 88.4 f million tons in 1964-65 and to 96 mil i lion tons in 1968-69 (Moh'an Ram, Maoism in India, 2.. cit., p. 182). Ceylon's 1 United National Party government decided t in 1965 to put 46% of its internal bud r get into growing food, because of the i J ruinous cost of importing rice since the price had risen on account of the war in Vietnam. Ceylon's paddy (unhusk ! ed rice) production rose from 36.3 million bushels in 1965 to 76.8 million I t I bushels in 1970. Even so, with rapidly decreasing imports and a growing popu lation, Ceylon's people consumed slight ly less rice per capita in 1970 than in 1965 (Central Bank of Ceylon, Annual Report, 1970, Table 3, Appendix). 17. For an excellent treatment, see Francine R. Frankel, "The Politics j of the Green Revolution: Shifting Pat i terns of Peasant Participation in India and Pakistan", prepared for the work shop, "A Widened Perspective of Modern izing' Agricul ture", Cornell University, June 2-4, 1971. See also Thomas B. Wiens, "Seeds of Revolution", Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars, April- July, 1970, pp. 104-108. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) M.P. and peasant organizer, A.K. Gopalan, recently char ged that 25% of agricultural laborers have been disemployed in areas where J the "green revolution" has been' intro
duced (Times of India, October 20, 19 71, p. 5). 18. See Mohan Ram, this issue, for I i India. In Pakistan, bolstered by for eign aid, 20 families own 66% of indus \ trial capital, 80% of banking, and 97% I # of insurance. Of the remaining 34% of industrial capital, IOOre than half is controlled by foreign firms. All of the "lucky 20" families corne from Wes t Pakis tan (Tariq Ali, .E.. cit., p. 152). i 19. Dandekar and Rath, loco cit., r p. 3B. 20. As a result, Ceylon's budget , deficit is now over Rs. 930 million, the highest since independence (Far Eastern Economic Review, August 28, 1971, pp. 15-16). \ 21. See Hassan N. Gardezi, "Neo Colonial Alliances and the Crisis of Pakistan", Pakistan Forum, December January 1971, pp. 3-6. 22. Mohan Ram, Maoism in India, pp. 175-178. 23. Hamza Alavi, "Bangla Desh and the Crisis of Pakistan", Socialist Monthly Review Press, forthcoming. 24. Surnanta Banerjee, "Cracks in the Government Structure", Economic and Political Weekly, January 2, 1971, p. lZ.. 25. Harnza Alavi, loco cit. 26. Hari P. in Local Level Politics in India". Paper presented at the Third Annual Confer ence of Punjab Studies, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penn., May 6-8, 1971; Kathleen Gough, "Commtmist Rural Councillors in Kerala", Journai of Asian and African Studies, July and October, 1968, Vol. 3, Nos. 3-4, pp. 181-202. 27. Part of the information on Ceylon given here is derived from an article by Jayasumana Obeysekara, "Revolutionary Tendencies in Ceylon", forthcoming in Imperialism and Revolu tion in South Asia, edited by Kathleen Gough-and Hari Sharma, Monthly Review Press. 28. See "Terror Raid Warning to Colombo", Daily Telegraph, April 13, 1971. 29. In India these included the Communist Party of India (Marxist Leninist) and various other Maoist groups; in Ceylon, the Trotskyist Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary), an offshoot of the parliamentary Lanka Sama Samaja Party; and in Pakistan the Bhashani-led National Awami Party, the independent Maoist East Bengal Commun ist Party, the pro-Peking East Pakistan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist), and the independent Maoist Coordinating Committee of Communist Revolutionaries. 30. These parties included, in Pakistan, the pro-Moscow National Awami Party (Wali faction); in India the pro Moscow Communist Party of India and the independent Communist Party of India (Marxist); and in Ceylon, the pro Moscow Communist Party and the Trotsky ist Lanka Sarna Samaja Party, which actually entered a United Front with ; the bourgeois Sri Lanka Freedom Party. 31. See Pakistan Forum, June-July 1971, p. 1, and "Bangladesh", Toronto, 95 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org September 15, 1971. 32. Fifteen hundred is the official government figure for those killed, and is generally admitted to be too low. For higher figures and for general accounts 0 f the repression and the up rising that followed it, see "Revolu tion Replaces Rhetoric", Economic and Political Weekly, May 22, 1971; "Sham bles of Bandaranaike Socialism", ibid., July 17, 1971; "Ceylon and East Bengal", Frontier (Calcutta independent Marxist weekly), May 15, 1971; "Ceylon: a Decisive Year", ibid., July 14, 1971; and Far Eastern Economic Review, Sept. 11, pp. 16-17. 33. Daily Telegraph, April 18, 1971. 34. The Times, London, April 19, 1971, p. 1 35. Daily Telegraph, April 13-18, 1971, passim. 36. Ceylon Daily News, May 27, 1971, reprinted in New Left Review, September October it oppos ed the JVP and the revolt, the pro Peking Communist Party of Ceylon came under suspicion and its leader, N. Sanmugathasan, was arrested. 37. See "Dialogue with Naxalites", Frontier, August 14, 1971, pp. 5-8; "CPM on Jail Killings", ibid., June 5, 1971, p. 16; ''Now the CPM's Turn", ibid., May 8, 1971, p. 15; "What goes on in jails", ibid., July 17, 1971, pp. 9-11; and "Shades of Indonesia", ibid., August 31, 1971, pp. 1-2. See also MOhan Ram, "Little Law, Less Order", Far Eastern Economic Review, July 10, 1971, p. 16. 38. See Hamza Alavi, "Peasants and Revolution", Socialist Register, MOn thly Review Press, 1965, pp. 241-277, for an account of these struggles. 39. Dandekar and Rath, loco cit., p. 38. 40. Tariq Ali, .2.. cit., pp. 138-148. 41. China is reported to have given an interest free loan of $100 million to Pakistan during the massacres. See Tariq Ali, "BangIa Desh: Results and Pros pects", New Left Review, No. 68, July August The Financial Times, May 14 and June 17, 1971; The New Yo rk Times, April 27, 1971; The Daily Tele graph, April 28, 1971; Far Eastern Econ omic Review, June 19, 1971. For the Chinese view that the disturbances in East Bengal result from Indian inter ference, see "What are Indian Expan sionists Trying To Do?", Peking Review, April 16, 1971. For China's aid to Ceylon, see Note 36. 42. The Consul General of the Demo cratic Republic of Vietnam reportedly extended the support of the DRV to the "BangIa People in their struggle for freedom against the occupation forces of West Pakistan" (Times of India), October 20, 1971, p. 6). - 43. Dandekar and Rath, loco cit., pp. 29, 30; India Votes, ed. by R. Chandidas, Ward Moorhouse, Leon Clark and Richard Fontera, Humanities Press, 1968, pp. 256-265. 44. Eric Wolf, Peasant Wars of the Twentieth Century, Harper and 1968, p. 293. 45. In Naxalbari, moreover, poor peasants and landless laborers actually led the struggle once it had been called for by the peasant convention. See Kanu Sanyal, "Report on the Peasant Movement in the Terai Region", Liberation, Cal cutta (CPI-ML monthly journal), Novem ber 1968. 46. See, e.g., Sulekh Chandra Gupta, "Some Aspects of Indian Agriculture as revealed in Recent Studies", and A.R. Desai, "Sociological Analysis of India", in Rural Sociology in India, Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1969, for supporting data and arguments. 47. W.F. Wertheim, Indonesian Society in Transition, W. Van Hoeve, Ltd. The Hague, 1959; Eric Wolf, cit. For India, A.R. Desai, . cit., is a pioneer ing work in that direction. 48. Hamza Alavi, "Imperialism, Old and New", Socialist Register, 1966. 49. "Urb an Guerrillas in Calcutta", Economic and Political Weekly, July 10, 1971, pp.1379-l382. 50. Mohan Ram, "Peking and Indian Marxists", Economic and Political Week October 30, 2234. For the impact of China's policy towards Pakis tan on Indian Maoists earlier this year, see Mohan Ram, "Polycentric Maoism", Economic and Political Weekly, June 26, 1971, pp. and Sumanta Baner jee, "Maoists: Doing without alina?" Economic and Political Weekly, July 3, 1971, pp. 1321-1322. 51. Far Eastern Economic Review, Sept. 4, 1971, pp. 16-17. 96 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org 1 52. Derek Ingram, "A Land Where Hope BULLETIN OF Dies", The Province, Vancouver, B. C. , November 4, 1971. 53. Part of the BangIa Desh National t Liberation Coordination Committee's program is printed in Sphulinga (liThe Spark"), BangIa Desh Association of Quebec, 3542, Lome Avenue, Apt. 5, Montreal 130, Canada. 54. Sydney H. Schanberg, "Guns Flow to the Border", New York Times, re printed in The P r o v i ~ Vancouver, B.C., October 13, 1971, p. 5. 55. See, e.g., David Lushak's re port in the Daily Telegraph, October 1, 1971. Lushak states that the weapons are believed to be carried "via the moun tain trails of Nepal and across the Sil iguri strip into BangIa Desh". 56. The Province, November 4, 1971, p. 5. 57. Far Eastern Economic Review, April 24 and May 15, 1971; Times of In dia, May 8, 1971. - 58. New York Times, November 6, 1971. -- 59. New York Times, November 12, 1971. 60. New York Times, November 8, 1971. 61. Senator Edward Kennedy has es timated U.S. military aid to West Pak istan at $9,000,000 since March 25, 1971; Senator Frank Church, at $35,000,000 (Intercontinental Press, November 22,1971, p. 1005). 62. The Province, Vancouver, B.C., November 27, 1971. 63. Information from Hsinhua, quot ed in Intercontinental Press, November 22, 1971, p. 1005. As a token of good will, the Chinese government entertained an Indian ping-pong team on November 5-8. 64. Fred Bridgland reporting from Calcutta in The Vancouver Sun, Vancouver, B.C., November 27, 1971. - CONCERNED ASIAN SCHOLARS One Year Two years c:::J Regular rate-$6. 00 $11. 00 c::J Student rate-$4.00 $7.00 CJ Foreign rate-$7.00 $12.00 [exc. Canada & Mexico] ----- o Foreign 2nd class air-$15.00 name city s tate/ count ry zip Send to: CCAS, 9 Sutter St., Rm.300 San Francisco, Ca. 94104 U.S.A. 97 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org JOURNAL of CONTEMPORARY ASIA A journal seriously concerned with the nature and modes of social change in contemporary Asia. In its pages we have published articles on both the theory of social change and interpretations of Asian political, social and economic problems. A most important additional function of the journal is the republishing of rare documents issuing from various liberation movements in the continent. Recent contributors to Vol. I, no. 4 include: Renato Constantino, Bruce McFarlane, Gabriel Kolko, E. L. Wheelwright, Vincent PoUard, Wayne O'Neil, Frederick Clairmonte, John Cowley, Jonathan Fast and Erich Jacoby. Annual Subscription Rates: Individual . .. US$8.00; Library/Institution ... $10.00 Government agencies . .. $12.00; citizens of the Third World in Residence . .. $6.00. Journal of Contemporary Asia, P. O. Box 49010, Stockholm 49, Sweden ______The China Quarterly_---- an international journal for the study of China JANUARY-MARCH 1972 ISSUE NO. 49 Fascism in Kuomintang China: The Blue Shirts Lloyd Eastman Kremlino1ogy and the Chinese Strategic Debate, 1965-66 Michael Yahuda Revolution in Retrospect: The Paris Commune through Chinese Eyes John Starr The Great Union of the Popular Nasses Mao Tsetung From the "Great Union of the Popular Masses" to the "Grand Alliance" Stuart Schram Communism and Ethnic Revolt: Some Notes on the Chuang Peasant Movement in Kwangsi, 1921-31 Diana Larry Book H('\il' ....... Quarl('rly Chrollid(' and [)ut:llnll'ntatioJl Editorial Office: 24 Fitzroy Square. London, W II' 5HJ Subscription A g c n t ~ : Research Publications Ltd Victoria Hall, East Greenwich, London, SEIO ORF Subscription Rates: 3 or U.S. $7.50 a year For fulltime students: 2 or U.S. $5.00 a year individual copies: 75p or U.S. $2.00 98 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I ChiDa, PakislaD, BaDgJadesh f by Edward Fried man The purpose of this essay is to ex plain the policy of China during the BangIa Desh crisis of 1971. To explain, however, is not to explain away. The goal is to define not to defend. There are those who would complain that even to engage in amoral thoughts lends credence to amoral acts. After all, in the slaughter of Bengalis by the West Pakistani army we witnessed an event said to have been condemned by the entire international community. Yet Chinese leaders are a bit suspicious of that dis interested ethical concern. While there is no doubt that millions upon millions of Bengalis, Indians and humanitarians everywhere were deeply outraged by the pitiless massacres, Chinese can ask, where was this humane sentiment a few years ago when hundreds of thousands of people of Chinese descent, of left-wing politics, and of random character were slaughtered in Indonesia? And even while the monstrous doings of the West Pakis tani military were generally condemned, the stirring up of anti-China sentiment by the military dictatorship in Thai land which could facilitate some future pogrom of Chinese there went by almost unnoticed -- though not by the Chinese. Virtually all governments focus pri marily on the problems thrown at them selves. They grant ever so swiftly the good conscience of their own cause. Yet neither of these general characteristics is needed to understand the sarcasm with which China's leaders greeted Mos cow's and New Delhi's claim to defend the cause of national self-determina , f , tion. Why, then, asked the Chinese, did I the Indian army suppress the Nagas' de sire for autonomy and occupy muslim Kashmir instead of carrying out the UN requested plebis cite there? The recent Soviet crushing of the popular govern- I ment of Czechoslovakia told where Mos cow stood on the question of self-deter mination. Prime Minister Gandhi's send ing of troops to help Bengla Desh also helped her Party crush opposition and impose its will in Indian Bengal, which was not a Congress Party stronghold. Did humane concern incite the Indian army to move? The refugee horror was all too real but its successful exploitation by the Indian government was just as real. It was an open secret at the time that most of the refugees (Hindis) did not wish to return to a muslim BangIa Desh. Would Mrs. Gandhi force them out? The morality of that act or of the Indian government's choice to buy arms while finding itself too poor to care for the homeless and helpless told the essence of the story for New Delhi. India had an opportunity to dismember and weaken its enemy Pak istan; the Indian government ordered its army to exploit that opportunity. In this world of violent deeds and hypocritical words, one is almost grate ful for the verbal restraint of the Amer ican government. While the American war in Indochina has generated millions of refugees as did the terror of the West Pakistani army in the East, the lang uage from Washington at least was vir tually free of self-righteousness on the matter of Bengali refugees. The immoral acts and facts indicate that it would be more than naive -- it would be fruitless -- to seek the ethical basis of policy during the BangIa Desh crisis of 1971. I Still, all general actions require shared good conscience. For the Mao Tse-tung/Chou Enlai ruling group inter- f i , BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org preted national morality as defined by opposition to imperialism. Foreign policy spokesmen in Peking have long insisted that their continued support for Pakis tan is part of China's basic anti-imper ialist orientation which includes help ing small and middle-sized countries achieve independence outside of the hegemonic orbits of the superpowers. This general policy is given symbolic form when China works for a Third World representative as Secretary-General at the United Nations and a practical form when China agrees to help Singapore break 8!Nay from the Far Eastern Freight Conference's oligopolistic prices. l Despite scarce resources, the Chi nese government has been extraordinarily generous to other peoples, especially in times of crisis. The Chinese made large donations to East Pakistan during the 1970 disaster. They gave more to the Rumanians than did the Russians after recent floods in Rumania. Only Japan gave more money than China to Peru after the earthquake/flood holocaust in the Andes. And most recently in 1971 the Chinese contributed more to disaster victims in Hong Kong than did the Brit ish government. Although there are no figures on the matter, relative to per capita income, China probably ranks at or near the top in world-wide relief of natural catastrophies. But do such good works contribute to progressive strug gles for national liberation? In the spring of 1971 when it seem ed that the World Bank was bringing in ordinate pressure to bear on the West Pakistani government, Peking offered the military rulers in Islamabad a large, interest-free loan to meet press ing needs. Ruling groups in China were committed to assist Pakistan's fourth five-year plan "within China's means and capacity to help make the economy of Pakistan self-reliant. "2 Spokesmen for the People's Republic of China explain 'Chinese policies such as outdoing the Soviet Union in aid to Third World countries and accepting special imports from countries with balance of payments problems (Ceylon, Malaysia, Peru and Chile) as meant to preclude the restor ation of world hegemony by the super powers.3 While these policies which disturb rulers in Washington and MOscow may stem in part from a value-based approach to the international political economy of the Mao group, they cannot, on their own, make for economic independence out side of the major power blocs. China is too poor. International economic constraints are too strong. The domes tic, social basis for sacrifice and struggle in the nations involved is too fragile. Even if Pakistan were united so that export earnings from jute in the East served all the people (actual ly the East served in many ways as an internally exploited colony of the West), West Pakistan's government is tied too tightly to international money sources to achieve genuine independence. Yet as Marxists -- in"deed as human beings -- the universalization of their valued historical experience is not an incidental matter. It defines their being and action. The Mao group is part of a Chinese nationalist tradition which projects onto the international world the Marxist notion that the relations of nations reflect the division of labor within a nation. States sUbstitute for classes, strata and the like. 4 China is thereby defined as a proletarian nation engaged in struggle with the imperialist nations. 5 Chinese foreign policy aims at united fronts and tacticql alliances which will weaken the imperialist coun tries. Chinese theoretical journals have offered an explanation of the structural dynamics which make it easier for China to befriend Prince Sihanouk' s Cambodia, the kingdom of Nepal and the right- wing military dictatorship of West Pakis tan while there is hostility towards the bourgeois democracy of India (at least during the era of America's liberal democratic hegemony in Asia). Going back at least as far as the middle and late 1950's, certain Chinese analysts con cluded that bourgeois, republican, i n dustrializing small- and middle-sized st ates were eas ily engul fed by the international trading economy dominated by the United States. Feudal, monarchical, 100 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I landed rulerships, on the other hand, t in opposing their natural domestic enemies were opposing the natural domes tic allies of America. Such rulers might seek a counter in a communist China. j The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Thus the phenomenon of so-called Tory Social t ism which had made for domestic coopera I , tion between aristocracy and urban poor in countries of Western Europe was repli cated at the international level. Tem porary alliances were possible between what were seen as fuedal and proletar ian nations. I The Russians denounce such arrange ments as betrayals of class analysis. They claim the only real purpose of such t , Chinese opportunism is to oppose the Soviet Union. The Russians claim that China's collab oration with emperors, shahs, princes and feudal militarists I I t helps undermine the revolutionary cause in the countries involved. Surely the Russians are right in questioning the identification of short-run maneuvers by the Chinese leadership with the long run goals of progressive emancipation. Obviously, the Chinese analysis is not persuasive to liberation movements in BangIa Desh and elsewhere that the People's Republic has backed a friendly government which barbarously suppressed groups on the left. Such emb at tIed people may even suspect that China is exporting counterrevolution. Even if a f Bengali were to grant some general val idity to the Mao-Chou approach, he ( could also insist that the general 1 approach need not decide a particular case, or that Peking had misread the actual relationship of short and long , run. The ultimate rationale of the pro tracted political war entered upon by I Peking rests on a profound pessimism about immediate revolutionary prospects and a particular projection from the conditions which facilitated the Bol shevik and Chinese revolutions. Those revolutions succeeded when imperialist powers had weakened themselves in 1 ; intra-imperialist wars. In general, the cause of revolutionary anti-imper ialism depends first and foremost not so much on what the people of the , ; f exp10i ted count ry can do as on wh at the forces of reaction and oppression can no longer do! The Chinese policy of aiding small- and medium-sized countries struggling for economic independence - even if it doesn't actually achieve that maximum goal -- still will serve to temper the terms of imperialist ex ploitation. A trend toward reducing super-exploitation by the super-powers will, in the long run, reduce the capa city of the super-powers to support counterrevolutionary ventures in the weaker countries and increase competition among imperialist countries, thereby reducing the resources available for other purposes. Liberation movements are most likely to grow and win where the forces of international counter revolutionary intervention become weak ened to the point that they become too weak to crush these movements. Hence, the Mao-Chou leadership can find that its policy of anti-imperialism best serves the long-run interest of the peoples of the world both for revolu tionary change and for socialist devel opment. 6 A detailed analysis of trends in the international political economy would be necessary to decide whether such an analysis shows more than the particulars underlying the truism that with Chinese ruling groups as with most people good conscience turns out to be in harmony with self-interest. And the interests involved may be not only of the global variety discussed so far but also - perhaps more important -- of the most parochial, personal and political sort. Ratiocination offered in ignorance of elite politics is fraught with danger. We just don't know whether the leader ship in Peking was so concerned with political struggles at home that it merely continued foreign politics - i.e., support of the government in Islamabad -- as usual. There simply may have been no time or energy for new analysis and new departures. In addition, it is possible that Chinese diplomats found political loyalty a safer course than critical insights or that loyal I I Party people near the top interpreted such inSights shrewdly and safely. That is, they told Mao what they believed he ; 101 ~ ' t BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org wanted to hear: that the difficulties in the East were the result of outside interference, that internal support for BangIa Desh was minimal, that the Islam ab ad government was popular, that the only issue that mattered was Russia's effort to forge another link in the encirclement of China. To be soft on the Soviets might mean a politically suicidal attitude of seeming to side with anti-Maoist elements. II China's words and deeds, whether approaChed from the grand theory of anti imperialism or the naked selfishness of careerist politics, invariably direct us to the role of the West Pakistan government in China's confrontation with the Soviet Union. Maoists tend to act on the solid military strategy of taking on only one major enemy at a time. Since the middle to late 1960's that enemy for China has been the Soviet Union. 7 Con sequently, the Pakistani government grew ever more important to China as a breach in Mos cow's iron Chain around China's periphery. In fact, in the decade beginning around 1962, when America, Russia and India all acted on an essentially anti China basis, the government in Islam abad served vital state interests of China. Only the air route through West Pakistan offered Chinese diplomacy a secure, swift air route to Africa and the Middle East. America had so success fully isolated China that except for the vulnerable route via MOscow, tech nicians, despatches, military personnel and the like could get to and from China only by Changing planes in West Pakis tan. It was by that route at the end of 1965 that China flew home needed gold to be used for life and death interna tional purchases in case the United St ates es calation in Indochina con tinued north into the People's Repub lic of China. Sharing Russia and India as Asian enemies, China and Pakistan each supported the state interests of the other on issues from Taiwan to Kashmir. For such support Pakistan was threatened and at times punished by Washington on a variety of matters such as loans and airport aid. One has to understand how isolated and endanger ed China was in the 1960's to begin to appreciate Peking's genuine gratitude for the support it received during that period from the government in West Pak istan. But beyond shared fundamental state interests and Peking's gratitude for Pakistan's help "in defiance of foreign pressure"8 at a time of China's isola tion and vulnerability lie fundamental matters of China's national security and territorial integrity. After all, gratitude is not a lasting basis of international relations. And by 1971 with China in the United Nations and negotiating contracts for airplane land ing rights in Canada and elsewhere, the isolation of China could no longer suf fice to support good relations between Peking and Islamabad. Even normal rela tions with India or BangIa Desh was possible if it could be separated from the over-riding issue of China's fear of the Soviet Union. People in secure countries suCh as the United States where the cry that "the Russians are coming" actually means "budget time is here" may find it close to impossible to empathize with the Chinese experience of insecurity vis \ a-vis the Russians. And there may indeed be room for skepticism. There may be a politics to the felt insecurity for their nation of the Mao group. That is, , their sensitivity to foreign dangers of an extreme variety permits them to point to a compelling need to imple ment their domestic preference for a society with decentralized regionally self-sufficient economies. Nonetheless, this does not necessarily cancel out the fact that the Russian rulers have in fact been looking toward the removal from power of the Mao group. During the last few years news reports from Moscow have told of a mili tarist faction urging a strike at China's nuclear installations, a marCh on China north of the Yellow River and the estab lishment in Peking of a Communist Party dictatorship favorable to unity with a socialist bloc headed by the Soviet Union. 102 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org The electrllYlng, up-to-Ihe-mlnute report on life In China today. CHiDI IIIIDE THE PEOPLES REPUBLIC bY the Committee of Concerned ISian SchOlars " '" CIN IT BE UNDERSTOOD? In summer, 1971, the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars toured China. This broad antiwar group, founded in 1968 by students, his torians, political scientists, and sociologists, is the first group of Asian specialists to visit mainland China in 22 years. Most members of the group speak fluent Chinese, each member representing the most current American knowledge on China. For one month, the CCAS group traveled throughout the republic. They visited cities, farms and factories. They talked with workers, students, farmers, children, government officials and soldiers. ~ What is China? Can it be understood? The authors give us the most NON
pointed and direct American analysis that we have had for the past FICTION $1.50 2decades. **** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *** * ** CHINA! is available, like INDOCHINA STORY, at a 40% discount on orders of 25 or more. Write or call Jon Livingston, Bay Area Institute, 9 Sutter St., San Francisco 94104. Payment should accompany orders . Publication of CHINA! is scheduled for March 1, so with prompt ordering would reach most locations in the U.S. in time for use in spring 72 courses. Cover price: $1.50 [for fastest delivery, call in orders: 415-986-5690.] GHlUIIiBIDE THE pmPLEI REPUBLIC 103 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Planners in Peking had to worry how this Russian interventionist group might use the BangIa Desh crisis of 1971. "Reli able information" was available to the American and West Pakistan governments that India would move on to war in the West as soon as it had won in the East. Backed by Russia, India was seen as out "to destroy Pakistan as a whole".9 And the Russians let it leak out that should China come to the aid of Pakistan, Russia would create a diversionary action in China's far western, oil and uranium province of Sinkiang. Thus, for the Chi nese, BangIa Desh was no isolated, dis tant, trouble spot. Rather as their analogies with Japan's rigging up of a puppet state of Manchukuo indicated, the very security of China was at stake. The possibility of a large military ex plosion seemed all to real. The Russian rulers appeared to threaten Chinese territory all around her borders and even within them. Mos cow has become the major military back er of India, which, according to Chi nese analysts, supplies and provides sanctuary for rebels in Tibet. lO Con cern for keeping Tibet and fear of threats to Tibet have been an integral part of Chinese nationalist politics since the early years of the twentieth century. It is probably a more emotion ally-rooted nationalist concern of China's ruling gruups than is the c1 aim to Taiwan. Whereas 19th century China kept Tibet as a buffer between two competing imperialisms, Czarist Rus sia and British India, China today must worry about what she sees as the suc cessors to these forces: social imper ialist Russia and its partner expansion ist India. The Chinese cannot help but be aware of the high-ranking Indian officers who feel betrayed by America's 1962 refusal to support Indian mili tary proposals to bomb Tibet and join with South Korea and Taiwan in attack ing China mainland. These officers see China in Tibet as an inherent threat to India. With Pakistan no longer a military concern, with O1.ina preoccu pied with Russia, the Indian military could seize the opportunity to carry their struggle into Tibet to win secur ity for India and revenge for themselves. 104 Official Chinese statements about readi ness to defend the People's Republic on the Tibetan front along with other fronts gave witness to the Chinese anxiety over this threatening prospect. Only the governments of West Pakis tan and, at times, the United States, may share this Chinese desire to prevent the development of a Russian-oriented Tibet. Although some people may find the Chinese fear for Tibet too far-fetch ed given the limited resources of the Indian army, the vulgar comparison made by the O1.inese of India's alleged crea tion of Bengali refugees in 1971 with India's similar creation of Tibetan refugees in 1959 points to a different story. The Han O1.inese may not be sure of the loyalty of the Tibetans to the People's Republic. When the United Na tions General Assembly voted against the Indian invasion of East Pakistan commentators in explaining the vote for one Pakistan noted that they hadn't realized before that the problem of ethnic, regional and lingual divisions was so acute in so many countries. China is one of those countries. North of Tibet in Sinkiang the Soviet Union has collaborated with Tur kes tani rebels dedicated to detaching that area from O1.ina. The USSR has beamed radio broadcasts to Sinkiang ur ging the people to rebel. There are also reports of a 50,000 man liberation army waiting in Russia. If Bengali refugees could return armed and trained by India to fight the West Pakistan army and the Soviet Union labelled this a matter of security, what would prevent Moscow from similar "aggression, division and subversion" in Sinkiang? The Chinese government concluded, "We must forever maintain high vigilance against .. [an] enemy who may seek every opportunity to attack.. "11 An old analysis of the danger to Sinkiang as seen by an anal yst from Chiang Kai-shek's side may make clearer the palpable reality of this Chinese fear that the Russians might well try to sever Sinkiang. SecpetZY3 but intensiveZY3 the Soviets have stepped up their ef forts to sever Sinkiang from China. BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org j 1 t I ~ In this monograph which Harrison E. Salisbury has called a "remarkable memoir,"* a Soviet observer-participant helps fill a sig nificant gap in our information about this crucial period in Chinese history. Vishnyakova Akimova recreates the world of the Soviet advisor in China in the mid-twenties and both identifies and gives human dimensions to many ofthe figures who served there. *The New York Times Book Review, September 1971 I l ; Harvard East Asian Monographs, 40 $4.50, paper j r j ! I Harvard University Press Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 Two Years in Revolutionary China, 1925-1927 byV.V. Vishnyakova-Akimova THE YENAN WAY IN REVOLUTION ARY CHINAMark Seidell The Yenan Way in Revolutionary China by Mark Selden The Chinese Communist Party was the first revolutionary party ever to come to power after a prolonged people's war. In this study, Mr. Selden focuses on a single base area of the Communist resistance move ment. Its center, Yenan, was the party's wartiine capital and the name became synonymous with the entire movement. The principles of the Yenan Way, the party's wartime program, embody all the major features that have defined China's subsequent revolutionary course. Based on a wealth ofpreviously untapped materials, this work directly challenges prevailing interpretations of peasant nationalism and the rise of the Chinese CommUlust movement. Harvard East Asian Series, 62 $10.00 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Like the Czarist they have designs to occupy that pro vince which reporledZy has a uran ium deposit of more than 12 bil lion far exceeding that in any western country or Russia. They know weU that whoever contro ls the uranium-rich Sinkiang will eventually be in a position to compete for the mastery of the world... In the first few years . .. [Chinese] had to swallow their in dignation over Russia's aggressive acts in Sinkiang because they need ed Russian support. But after the Mao-Khrushchev ideological dis pute and their rivalry for leader ship of the Communist bloc came into the open, their clashes in Sinkiang became more and more vio lent. Soviet Russia apparently tries to use Stalin's methods to investi gate coups in Ili for the estab lishment of the "East Turkestan Repub lic" and to create border in cidents. Peiping has to strengthen its border defenses and thus comes into head-on confrontation with the invading Soviet force. Although Mbscow and Peiping have sent troop reinforcements to their frontier (The Chinese Communists have dr(JJ;)n a 25 kilometer wide, 500 kilometer long military zone on the border of SinkiangJ, the Chinese Communists have no inten tion of altering the existing border line with Russia, are nei ther prepared nor have the strength to take back lost lands. 12 East of Sinkiang in Mongolia, only a few hundred miles from China's cap ital of Peking sits a recently arrived Russian army equipped with offensive ground-to-ground missiles. Moscow has not shared Peking's deep concern about Japanese expansion into Korea. In fact the Chinese have reported that there is sufficient mutual understanding be tween Japan and the USSR for the Soviets to move troops away from Japan and over to China's sensitive Manchurian border. With Russian arms ranging from China's northeast to her southwest and with the Russian navy anchoring to the south, the Soviet Union's long term project (a "monstrous plan", Huang Hua called it) of forward encirclement of China was succeeding. 13 A BangIa Desh depen dent on an India militarily allied to the Soviet Union continues this threat ening process. That is, in a crisis, the stated preferences for non-alignment by the leaders of BangIa Desh must give way to powerful politico-military reali ties, to more leverage for the Soviet Union in a continuing encirclement along China's borders. III There is little that the Mao Tse tung group fears more than this kind of hostile forward encirclement. Based on his critique of the Red Army's 1934 defeat by Chiang Kai-shek's fifth ex termination campaign, which encircled and wiped out a nine million strong Kiangsi base area, Mao has continually insisted on taking risks against for ward thrusting encirclement while it is still only a potential encirclement. Mao has acted on this strategic initiative, on this notion of active defense, against the Japanese in the early 1940's, against MacArthur in Korea in 1950, in the Que moy area in 1954-1955 and 1958, and against the Russians in Manchuria in 1969. As the destruction of the Kiangsi Soviet showed, to lose in a world not defined by the genteel bounds and bonds of civil society can be an ultimate dis aster. If a strengthened and emboldened major enemy may destroy you, then for Maoists the first question is not, who, potentially, are my friends, but who, actually are my enemies. Faced with ul timately frightening prospects, China has considered the south Asian peninsula a tertiary priority except in the matter of military encirclement by an armed enemy. China's military might is small in comparison to that of the Soviet Union or the United States. The two super powers have threatened China with nuclear blackmail, but not merely nuclear black mail. There have been powerful factions in both Moscow and Washington willing to use that nuclear weaponry. According to US government sources, Washington BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org threatened Peking with retaliation if <l1ina acted on behalf of Pakistan in its 1965 war with India and China, according to former US Assistant Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs William Bundy, then abjectly backed off. Most observers slight the threat of nuclear catastro phe in their understanding of China's foreign policies. Yet, this was not the first time China backed off before a nuclear threat by the USA on a less than ultimately vital ussue. In the 1950's and into the 1960's I Peking's goal was to mollify Nehru so as to be free to deal with the American I 1 J danger to China's east and southeast. By the late 1960's, the question put to the Mao group was how to prevent the situation from further benefitting the I J Soviet Union. The objective reality was threatening enough that we do not have to remind ourselves of the natural right of all governments to exaggerate the evil intentions of the national enemy. Strat egists in Peking had to worry that a Russian success against Pakistan might embolden Russian hawks to pursue further action against China. Interventionists in the Soviet Union out for a showdown with the Mao group might become enamour ed with the possibilities of stepping I up pressure against China and urge India on to wilder, more reckless moves. I f What was China to do? Caution was called for. But appeasement might only I
i be taken as a sign of weakness, a sign that further enemy action would succeed. Everything in the Maoist experience spoke against passivity. Yet ruling groups in China found themselves making policy within grooves forged by interna t tional economic forces, distant politi cal struggles and super-power military activities, all of which were beyond r China's powers to control. Everything t in the Maoist heritage spoke against ! such paralysis. Everything spoke for f initiative and risk before the major enemy could choose the time, place and nature of the combat. So far we are for I tunate that matters stopped where they I did. It is even possible that the Nixon Administration played a role in getting the Russians to restrain India for the moment. But in the potential for further t t anti-China action of Moscow and its friends lies dangerous dynamite of a genuinely earth-shaking character. This all must seem insane to people genuinely hypnotized by the plight of millions of innocent Bengalis, to people for whom inner Asia is a figment of the imagination, for people so sick of the hypocritical rationales of warmakers that they can't even listen to discus sions of military strategy which seem to justify more armed initiatives, more killing. Naturally, a Bengali need not be moved at all by the predicament called Russian anti-Maoist power which confronts Peking. Bengalis shot down by Chinese (or American) weapons need find neither justice nor succor in the Chi nese standpoint. BangIa Desh meets the Soviet Union as a friend. China is con fronted by the USSR as a major, armed enemy. Consequently, the view from the precipice in Peking encompasses dan gerous vistas and difficult priorities very different from those perceived from the plains of BangIa Desh. FOOTNOTES 1. South China Morning Post (Hong Kong), 20 Oct. 1971; Hong Kong St andard, 22 Oct. 1971; Wen hui pao (Hong Kong), 22 Oct. 1971; sources provided by Loren Fessler. 2. New China News Agency, 14 Nov. 1970. 3. Hung-ch'i(Red Flag), 1971, #6, p. 5; New York Times, 7 Nov. 1971, p. l 8 , ~ i n a Expected to Champion Under deve loped Lands of U. S " 4. The analysis outlined in this and the next paragraph is developed in detail in my forthcoming book, Chinese Foreign Policy in the Era of Mao Tse tung. 5. For an argument which suggests that this nationalistic Maoist analysis can be derived and developed from dilem nas inherent in Marxism, see R.N. Berki, "On Marxian Thought and the Problem of International Relations," World Politics, 24.1 (Oct. 1971), p. 80-105. 6. Although the Chinese do not make this additional point, they could well argue that since America grew mighty on the two world wars, while its present 107 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org economic crisis predated and indeed limited the intervention in Indochina, then for the world as a whole, new anti imperialist revolutions can be nurtured on conditions other than world war. Or, just as logically, they can find that only another war among imperialist com petitors can free the forces of revolu tion. In that case, there is little for China to do but concentrate on securing and advancing the revolution at home, which is what Mao has done. 7. Russian analysts of Chinese for eign policy find that "The idea that the war danger emanates 'from the north', that is, from the Soviet Union, is con stantly being dinned into the heads of the [Chinese] people. In other words, it is an attempt to picture the Soviet Union as 'Enemy Number One', as a na tional menace to China". "This is a long-range policy anti-Sovietism as a foundation of China's international state policy". (N. Kapchenko, "Books on the Foreign Policy of the Chinese People's Republic," International Af fairs, 1971 #9, p. 100). Mao is said to have told the CPC Central Committee that the Soviet Union "represents a greater threat to China than the weary paper tiger of American imperialism". (John Gittings in Far Eastern Economic Re view, 30 Jan:-T969, p. 175). 8. New China News Agency, Peking, 21 May 1971. 9. New York Times, 16 Dec. 1971, p. 17 and 18 Dec. 1971, p. 13; New China News Agency, Peking, 17 Dec. 1971. 10. CIA-related organizations used to fulfill that function. The coopera tion of the US Pentagon and India's Ministry of Defense in everything from Advanced Research Project Agency activ ities in the Himalayas to helping Tibet an rebels remains an untold story. In 1967 at the height of the American in tervention in Indochina against alleged Maoist aggression by proxy, Chester Bowles "in briefing a dubious Joint Chiefs of Staff on U.S. interests in India... suddenly jerked them up stiff. He asked the brass if they ever thought where else the manpower was to come from if there ever was an honest to goodness land war with Communist China." (Herald Tribune, 15 Jan. 1968). 108 In mid-1964 the Panchen Lama reportedly was removed from power in Tibet and accused of colluding with foreign enemies on be half of rebellion. "As relations [between China and] the Soviet Union went from bad to worse, 'war preparation' increased in pitch and intensity since 1965 [but espe cially since 1967 or 1968]. For the first time, the Chinese in Tibet began to openly point out Russia as a major threat." By 1970 with military airfields under hasty construction, with regular black-outs and exercises in civil defense, with Tibetans being recruited by the thousands into the People's Liberation Army and Chinese pro paganda "telling the people that the third world war was immiment," even Tibetan re fugees in India granted that these frantic Chinese moves "reflect genuine fear of external aggression." As Peking trans ferred certain of its nuclear establish ment back into Tibet and with Moscow broadcasting to Tibetans about ruthless Han Chinese suppression, the Chinese fear fully pressed ahead with defense prepara tions. Tibetan Review (Darjee1ing), 15 March 1970, p. 4; 15 April 1970, p. 2; 1 June 1970, pp. 3, 5-9; 1 July 1970, pp. 3,6; 15 September 1970, p. 2. Cf.: R. Vaidyanath, "The Soviet View of the Tibetan Situation," International Studies, 10.4 (April 1969): 602-606 for a pre liminary exploration of Russian involve ment with the explosive situation in Tibet. Chinese foreign policy statements seldom express fear. On the contrary, in an attempt to persuade a potential aggressor that an attack would be self-defeating, Chinese policy statements tend to insist that China is tough, prepared, optimistic, fearful of nothing. 11. New China News Agency, Peking 17 December 1971. 12. Ou-yang Wu-wei, "Sino-Soviet Border Problems," Issues and Studies, 1 (Oct. 1964), pp. 28, 30-. 13. New York Times, 17 Jan. 1966, Vice President Humphrey's comments fol lowing discussions in the Soviet Union; New York Times, 20 December 1971. BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org The 0.1. Move..eal ia Asia by Richard DeCamp I J I J i I
I I I I i The War against Vietnam has done much to America. It has weakened the economy. It has aggravated social tensions. And it has opened the way for large num bers of Americans to see the racism, the imperialism and the genocide that is so pervasive and yet so deeply bur ied in American history. By fighting so successfully, the Vietnamese people have helped Americans make a space for revol utionary thought and revolutionary pol itics in America. While it is true that the American left has been largely un able to take advantage of the widespread discontent that the War has created, there has been a significant erosion in the effectiveness of many American insti tutions. Central among these institutions is the military. When the values and interests of a ruling class are serious ly challenged, its political power does come out 0 f the barrel of a gun; and so the fading effectiveness of the Ameri can military is of the deepest concern to America's "leaders." And effectiveness of the American military, especially the Army, has erod ed rapidly in the last few years. Today men are reprimanded or perhaps lose a stripe for actions that in other wars would have caused them to be shot. In Vietnam, men frequently refuse to follow orders when those orders seem irrational or unnecessarily dangerous. Officers are frequently as afraid of their own men as they are of the enemy. And with reason. In Vietnam itself, this erosion of the Army's ability to wage war is not an organized movement and is probably not often informed by a developed polit ical consciousness. Rather it is a gut reaction to an intolerable situation. Building on the GI' s gut reaction against the War is a GI movement with projects at many U.S. military bases throughout the globe. As Gabriel Kolko has pointed out, the a n t i ~ a r movement must deprive the government of those institutional resources to which we have access which it needS for the maintenance of this war.. I think that the only really large scale promising area of action for the anti-war movement today is the GI: the a;pmy and the morale factor .. I think that the GI's are the people who most of all have got to see this war solved because their lives are on the line. .. , especially in the Far East where the GI movement, ironically enough, is the least funded, the least capable of dealing with the problems of anti-war activity and paid even far less attention to.l In Asia the GI movement is poor, but it is very much alive. It is the product of a very real internationalism in which the GI's who stand up to say no to the military are encouraged and materially supported by Japanese, Okinawan, Fili pino and Chinese a n t i ~ a r activists, as well as American civilians. In August 1969, American GI's sta tioned at Misawa Air Base (a major base located in northern Japan) began publi cation of Hair, Japan's first GI news paper. In the first editorial, the GI's wrote: This is definitely an unofficial publication.. . The purpose of our paper is to project the "truth" as seen through the eyes, hearts, and mindS of the ''war baby" gen eration. We are of varied ethnic 109 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org and economic backgrounds. .. The white world must end its suppres sion, both economic and political, of the Third World's unconquerable SP1.>ri t of freedom. One month later, on MOratorium Day, some GI's at Misawa expressed their solidar ity with Third World people in an on base vigil to demand an end to the war in Indochina. In February 1970, a group of dissi dent marines stationed at Iwakuni Marine Air Station (a major staging base for U. S. operations in Vietnam which is located in southern Japan) began publ,i cation of Semper Fi. Reflecting the sen timent of the GI's at Misawa, the marines entered their reasons for joining the struggle. To the Indochinese people, they wrote: "We GI! s wish to make it clear to the world that this shameful, unjust war does not have our support." To the Japanese, they wrote: ''We support the Japanese people in their just struggle against the U.S. military occupation of their homeland.. [We don't wish to be] in Japan carrying out an expansion ist U.S. foreign policy." And to each other, they wrote:"The U. S. military es tabl ishment, that's t rong fo rce in defense of freedom, f offers precious little freedom to those unlucky enough to find themselves under its near absolute authority." The War, the U.S. military presence in Japan, and an oppressive military establishment. Just how widespread the feelings among GI's stationed in Japan in the spring of 1970 were on these is sues is difficult to know, but there is plenty of reason to believe that these rumblings of discontent were reaching an unprecedented scale. Beheiren's Struggle In the 1960 struggle against renew al of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, Japan's "New Left" emerged as a force to be reckoned with. Since then, Japan ese workers and students have struggled vigorously against the treaty itself and against the development of what they call llO the "Arrrpo [Security Treaty] system" the system of economic and military cooperation through which a resurgent Japanese capitalism has allied itself with U.S. imperialism to jointly domi nate East and Southeast Asia. As Amer icaI s involvement in Vietnam escalated, so did the protests of the Japanese people. They saw their government aid ing in AmericaI s slaughter of another Asian people and demanded that the U.S. bases in Japan be removed. One group in particular took up the struggle against the war in Viet nam. That was Beheiren (the Citizens Alliance for Peace in Vietnam), found ed on April 24, 1965, just after L.B.J. began the bombing of North Vietnam. Beheiren demanded that all U.S. forces get out of Vietnam, and in its early y,ears, it sought to act concretely on that demand by aiding American soldiers who wanted to desert. In 1965, it found ed the Japan Technical Committee to Aid War Deserters (JATEC), which by 1968 had gained international attention for its work aiding four American sailors, deserters from the aircraft carrier Intrepid, to make their escape from Ja pan to Sweden. Since its founding, JATEC has help ed many American deserters. When neces sary it continues to do so today. But the difficulty of this form of struggle (the underground route from Japan to Sweden was infiltrated by the military and cut off) and the opportunities pre sented by the growing willingness of American GI's to struggle within the military itself moved the Japanese to alter the direction of their activity. In the words of Takahashi Taketomi, coordinator for JATEC: the main direction of our activ ity began to alter in the autumn of 1969; by spring 1970 decisive changes were evident. The initial expression of our anti-war con sciousness, manifested by protect ing and hiding deserters and ar ranging for their escape from Ja pan, developed into more active and aggressive involvement. [Today] BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org most of the activists who belong to JATEC are directly engaged in organizing GI's in American bases aU over Japan. In line with this change in empha sis, the name of JATEC was changed to the Japan Technical Committee to Aid Anti-War GI's. In January 1971 a JATEC center was established in Tokyo to coor dinate Japanese support activities for the GI movement throughout Japan. At the same time good relationships were estab lished with American activists working in the GI movement through the Pacific Counseling Service. Today the two groups share the Tokyo office, and both Japan ese and American work actively at most projects. 2 Iwakuni On July 4, 1970, some 30 marines confined to the Iwakuni Marine Air Station's "Correctional Custody Cen ter" (known to GI's as "the slam") kicked off an uprising in protest against oppressive brig conditions and the "kangaroo-court" nature of military justice. Six marines occupied the deten tion house and destroyed the library, washroom, and dormitory. They then broke out of the building and were joined by other prisoners as they took control of the brig compound, lit fires with gaso line-soaked rags, and painted peace signs on the sides of buildings. They held out against overwhelming odds until 6: 30 AM on Sunday, July 5--a total of 14 hours. Later, a Marine Corps spokesman "could think of no cause" for the uprising. The brig uprising had been preceded by other signs of discontent, most not ably a meeting held on February 5 be tween 40 marines (30 blacks and 10 whites) and the new base commander, Brig. Gen. Johnson. Johnson had been sent to Iwakuni specifically to deal with the growing tension among GI's there. To do so he had established the "Human Rela tions Commit tee," which sponsored this meeting between the General and his men. At the meeting the GI's made six de mands: 1) an end to racism off base, 2) an end to racism in the Provost Mar shall's Office, 3) an end to military censorship of books relating to black consciousness as expressed by the base library's refusal to acquire certain books, 4) freedom of dress, 5) an end to racism in the military justice sys tem, and 6) an end to the brass' hos tility toward black unity. The general's attitude was a mixture of paternalism and a rather weak liberalism: What I have to have. to recom mend to Col. Quinn to put some place off [limits in the] town is a consistent I would say several and by several I mean 3-5 that can be documented. Now when I say do aumente d I don't mean that you're gonna tell me that some one else told you. It's gotta be straight foward from the guy him self 'oouse in dealing with these problems I find there's a fantas tic amount of hearsay and when it comes right down to.. hang on a secondwhen it comes right down to. why don't you take your dark glasses off. You know you're gonna go blind if you wear dark glasses inside all the time. That's one of the things I lear-ned when I was in the al l-weather business .. I got to have facts .. In response to the general's refusal to confront the racism of the whole sys tem, the brothers finally pointed out: ... you refuse to see how... these incidences are connected with each other. You look at each incident as as an individual situation and should be solved in this squad I mean in his own squadron. But all of 'em are connected to gether in a certain way. 3 As might have been expected, the general refused to make that connection and no real change came out of the meet ing itself. What did happen was that the GI participants came to realize fully that the General was unable to even understand their demands, much less take effective action to achieve them. Soon thereafter the "HlUllan Relations Commit tee" collapsed, and Iwakuni GI' s took more direct action to combat the racism and oppression laid down on them by the 111 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org brass. As the movement at Iwakuni grew in early 1970, the brass began to take ser ious notice. They struck back with such familiar actions as punitive transfers, redbaiting and intimidation. They charg ed that anyone connected with GI news papers ''was courting charges of mutiny and sedition." Between April and June of 1970, the more active GI's at Iwakuni were shipped out. They included one GI who had planned anti-war love-ins and four who had been active in the publi cation of Semper Fi. One of these men, sent first to Okinawa and then to Viet nam, said of the brass' actions: "The military brass seems to think that by transferring us, it will halt GI move ment activities. It's wrong." He was right. The Iwakuni brass tried and failed to stop GI's from associat ing with anti-war Japanese. On April 19, in one attempt to separate GI's from Japanese activists, the brass suspend ed liberty for Iwakuni GI' s because of a Japanese demonstration in Iwakuni. In response, one GI said: The broaBS figuroed that the GI's would blame the foro the loss of thus droiving a wedge between the seY'Vicemen and the Japanese anti-waro move ment. But the Generoal is finding that m:Jroe and moroe of 'his' men aPe becoming theiro own men . .. Support for the movement grew. In the fall of 1970, Japanese and American civ ilians came to the defense of Norm Ewing. Norm was revolted by the barbarism of the U.S. actions he had witnessed in Vietnam. He registered his dissent by going AWOL in April, 1970, shortly af ter being shipped to Iwakuni from Viet nam. He found refuge with sympathetic Japanese civilians who shared his anti war feelings. On June 11, he was arrest ed by U. S. military police outside the Iwakuni base in direct violation of the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, which does not empower M.P. 's to make off-base arrests. Nonetheless Norm was confined to the Iwakuni brig and charged with desertion. After the July 4 brig up rising, he was accused with 13 others of "inciting to riot." Norm's trial was unprecedented for a U.S. military courtmartial in Asia. His supporters packed the courtroom during the proceedings which began on November 13, four months after his ar rest. Japanese took the witness stand in his defense. And his defense counsel consisted not only of the usual military lawyer, but also an American movement lawyer, two American civilians who acted as legal assistants, and a Japanese law yer. Such support was unheard of in mili tary courts in Asia which normally try their victims with neither publicity nor independent legal help. Norm pled guilty to violations of existing military law, but stated that such violations are necessary in these times when the law serves injustice and aggression. The defense based its case on the illegality of his arrest as a violation of the Security Treaty and was able to have the desertion charge re duced to one of AWOL. But the military still controlled the jury, and on Decem ber 9, Norm was sentenced to 9 months in prison and a bad conduct discharge. Okinawa Okinawa is a special case in the U.S. military occupation of Asia. Only in Indochina is the reality of American imperialism more pervasive and destruc tive. Conquered in June 1945, after one of the bloodiest battles of World War II, Okinawa has been ruled directly by the U.S. military ever since. Until 1952, land for military bases was simply seiz ed from the Okinawan people without cere mony and without compensation. The U.S. military has made massive changes in Okinawan life. Before the war, Okinawans were a farming people, but by 1969 the U. S. had established 117 bases on Okinawa, bases which occupy 44% of the arable land. The result has been Okinawan economic dependence on the bases. But this dependence, far from being gratefully accepted as military 112 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I J I I j I t J i I 1 propagandists assert, has been bitterly resisted by the Okinawan people, whose strongest desire is to be left alone by all military forces, Japanese as well as American. Since the onset of major U.S. involve ment in Vietnam, Okinawa has become a key base for the prosecution of the war. Countless bombing raids have taken off from the island, and many of the GI's there are Vietnam veterans. Like most Americans, but perhaps even more in tensely because of their military exper ience, young GI's on Okinawa oppose the war and instinctively see through Nixon's rationalizations about ''wind ing it down." Black GI's on Okinawa have been influenced by Martin Luther King, the Black Panther Party and other political groups within the black commun ity. Their political consciousness is often very high. In October 1970, a very together group of black GI' s began to pub Ush Demand For Freedom at Kadena Air Base. Like other GI papers the Demand stres sed the petty oppressions inflicted upon GI's by the brass. But it also in cluded a remarkable dialogue between black GI's and some Okinawan members of Zengunro, the base workers' union. In the past there had generally been deep hostility between GI's and Okinawans. The Okinawans tend to see GI's as their immediate oppressors, while the GI's frequently have racist attitudes towards Asians whose anti-military struggle they don't understand. The Demand's dia logue began to move against this mutual misunderstanding. One common area of understanding grew out of mutual exper ience of racism. Just as there have been segregated toilets in the South, the legal office at Kadena has separate toi lets for "women" (writ ten only in Eng lish) and "cleaning women" (written in English and Japanese). The rap end ed with a call to solidarity: Did you know that this OkinCMan that you have so frequently re lated to as being a ' g o o k ~ ' which is the same as being called a 'nigger' in your so-caUed country~ is your brother? Yes he is your brother whether you have opened your mind up to this fact or not .. He's a victim of the same racism, faaism and capitalism that oppres ses us. :the OkinCMan people must struggle as blaok people in Baby lon must struggle for self-deter mination. Now is the time to seek your brother; brothers are alike.. This call for solidarity was ex pressed concretely in a riot on December 20, 1970, in Koza city. The riot was touched off when an American motorist hit and injured an Okinawan. M.P.'s sent the American on his way without even checking on the condition of the vic tim (not an infrequent occurence on Oki nawa). Then, in the most intense rioting to flare up since the U.S. occupation began, 10,000 Okinawans took to the streets and overturned and burned over 80 American automobiles. They refrained, however, from attacking black GI's. Five hundred Okinawans managed to fight their way through the gates into Kadena Air Base. In response to the incident, 30 black Glls on base issued a statement calling the riot perfectly justifiable- a "beautiful" action. This past spring, Dave Poplin, a GI stationed on Okinawa,J made some sensa tional revelations about the Okinawan operations of the 7th Psychological Unit. In the summer of 1970, Dave had refused an order to write a leaflet which, as part of a contingency plan, would be dropped on North Korea to explain the necessity of using nuclear weapons there. He then applied for a Conscientious Objector discharge; but, harrassed by the brass, he was forced to go AWOL. On April 10, 1971, he called a press confer ence during which he exposed the opera tions of his unit, operations which in cluded the distribution of leaflets concealed inside toys and transistor radios and, for Laos, a soap which when used reveals messages listing actions people might take to "protect freedom." The next day Dave brought formal charges for committing war crimes against three superior officers. On April 14, Dave was courtmartialed on the AWOL charge and received a rela 113 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org tively light sentence. But less than a week later he was back in the stockade on new charges. On May 4, he went on a hunger strike charging that the military had violated his constitutional rights. Eleven days later he was the victim of a knifing while he slept in his cell. His attacker was not found. In June, Dave was court-martialed again, and now he's back in the U.S. and out of the military . The military fights back, and many politically conscious GI's have now been discharged or transferred. But many thousands of discontented and in creasingly aware GI' s remain, and the brass finds it ever more difficult ~ o keep them in check. One example of the growing discontent came last July in a riot at the Futenma Marine Corps Air Station. It began when black mar ines insisted on defending themselves against a white vigilante group, the KKK. The next day, after another racist incident, 400 marines, both black and white, tore up the base. They now stress that it wasn't a race riot, and since the riot blacks and whites have worked together to press their grievances. Misawa At Misawa Air Base in northern Japan, growing Japanese support for GI's found expression in a new way. On July 15, 1970, with the support of Beheiren, five Japanese students and ex-students opened the Owl, Asia's first GI move ment coffee house. It stands a block away from the main gate of what is now a joint U.S. Air Force and Japan Self Defense Force base, a symbol of Japan's growing partnership with U.S. imperial ism in Asia. Anti-war GI's gained strong support at the Owl. They revived Hair, the underground base paper, which had been forced to suspend publication in 1969 after the brass had shipped out its editors. In May, in coordination with the Spring Anti-war Offensive activities throughout Japan and the U. S., GI' s who were beginning to see the Air Force not as a "Force for Freedom" but as an instrument of U.S. imperialism launched 114 several actions at Misawa. On May 2, 30 GI's and some dependents wore arm bands imprinted with Peace and Power symbols as they walked around base, individually and in groups in a demon stration of protest against the war, racism and repression. Leaflets describ ed the NLF's latest peace proposal, Spring Offensive activities in the U.S. and Japan, and the People's Peace Trea ty; and posters depicting victims of U.S. fire-power in Vietnam with the statement "Vietnamese Have Children Too!" appeared on the base and in the town area surrounding the main gate of the base. Two weeks later on May 15, which was "Armed Farces Day", about the same number of GI's, again wearing armbands, joined Japanese civilians in demonstrat ing their revulsion towards the military. GI's and civilians again passed out anti war leaflets. One GI, wearing a peace armband, walked by the "dignitaries" reviewing stand during flight demonstra tions by U. S. Air Force F4D Phantoms and flashed the generals a peace sign. From the base commander on down, the word was passed to apprehend the man. He was quickly taken to the Provost Marshall's office, where the Air Police took his jacket away (it was imprinted with a peace sign and the words "All Power to the People") and then released him. Later about 20 GI's (mostly black) and an equal number of Japanese civilians gathered spontaneously on base to sing and rap with each other. It was a sharp contrast to the grim display of war machines and simulated combat demonstra tions. Korea, the Philippines and Hong Kong In Korea, the Philippines and Hong Kong, organizers are constantly harras sed and are often unable to make solid contact with Asian support groups, but the movement among GI' s continues to be active. In Seoul, on May 17, 1971, 30 GI's held a three-hour sit-in in front of the Foreign Exchange Bank and the Chosan Hotel. This was the first anti-war demonstration by GI's in Korea. Korean police busted the demonstrators and turned them over to M.P.'s, but so BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org far no charges have been brought agains t them. In the Philippines, GI's publish the Whig, edited by Tom Paine and Sam Adams. Filipinos, often at great personal risk, have supported the printing and distri bution of the Whig, and the GI move ment has brought Filipinos and Ameri cans into a common struggle against the U.S. military presence in Asia. Of all the GI papers in Asia, the Whig has probably been the most effective at muckraking. Last year it exposed the operations of the Red Patches, an offi cially encouraged gang of NCO's who were known to beat up Filipino civilians whom the brass at Clark Air Force Base found obnoxious. The follow-up to this story in the Filipino press shook both the U.S. military and the Philippine gove rumen t . While Hong Kong has no U.S. mili tary bases, it did have until recently an extensive R &R (rest and recreation) program for GI's from Vietnam, and it continues as a port of call for the 7th Fleet. American and European activists in Hong Kong have sought to make con tact with these GI's despite the fact that they are usually in Hong Kong for no trore than five days. One major pro ject was a guidebook to Hong Kong, inter spersed with sections on GI rights, GI counseling and the invasion of Cambodia. Later, when Newsreel films on the war and the Panthers became available, many GI's came to see the films and rap about the war. When they left, many took anti war literature back to Vietnam. Because most GI's on R & R in Hong Kong have come straight from the battle zone and will return to it again in several days, their consciousness of the war and its horrors is intense. There were five GI suicides from drug overdose between spring 1970 and summer 1971. All occurred on the eve of departure back to Vietnam, and all were quickly hushed up by British and American authorities. There were also frequent racial inci dents, and the blacks' main hangout was placed off limits. Several times racial slurs against black GI's at the airport sparked spontaneous mass refusals to return to Vietnam, and on two occasions British troops and colonial police had to be called out to deal with the re s is ting GI' s . 4 Yokota The newest GI organizing project in Asia is located at Yokota Air Force Base in the suburbs of Tokyo. Yokota is a major logistical center serving Korea and Vietnam. For several years Japanese activists, spearheaded by JATEC and Beheiren, have mounted demon strations against the Yokota base. On June 13, 1971, several thousand Japan ese demonstrated outside Yokota, once again with the aim of stopping, if only for a short time, the U.S. war machine. At the rally in Fussa Park, many repre sentatives of Japanese anti-war groups spoke. Also one GI. In a short and moving statement, he declared that all GI's are political prisoners and appeal ed to those present to help free the GI's at Yokota. In the demonstration that followed at least five GI's marched, two of them carrying an anti-war sign. Hundreds of others gave peace and power signs from alongside the road. Because joining even non-violent demonstrations in a foreign country is an offense in the U.S. military, the two GI's who were identified as actually marching (they were the ones who carried the sign) were court-martialed. Their Air Force lawyer argued that the regulation was uncon stitutional; and though his motions for dismissal were routinely denied, the two GI's may ultimately win their case on appeal. In the meantime, they were taken off their jobs (which was fine with them), and each was fined $100. Soon after the June 13th demonstra tion, GI's at Yokota put out the first issue of their paper, The First Amend men t. In mid-Jul y several hundred GI' s c;me to Fussa Park for an anti-war rock festival. Several GI bands and one Japanese band played. One GI folksinger played songs from Barbara Dane's Viet nam Song Book. Shortly thereafter his 115 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org commander presented him with a pile of photos and reports that all showed that yes, ~ d e e d , he had done it, and told him that if he did it again lots of bad things would happen. The festival organ izers rapped about the People's Peace Treaty and several GI's signed it as well as a large peace flag which was to be presented to the crew of a visiting Chinese ship. Working with GI's in Asia For activist American civilians in Asia, working with GI' s is exciting and rewarding. Right where the war is being fought, one sees the military breaking down. GI's are directly oppressed by the military -- both by bu11shit regulations and by the fact that it is they who must do the killing and the dying in Indo china. They know that they want out of the whole military machine and they re spond to leaflets and GI newspapers with real enthusiasm. This is not to say that there are not difficulties. Perhaps the most immediate problem is fear. GI's are sub ject to constant harrassment from their superiors. Incredible things are ille gal; carrying an umbrella while in uni form is one. This petty harrassment is one of the military's greatest weakness es because it generates so much discon tent that morale and work performance are very low. Many "lifers" (career NCO's) seem far more interested in the length of a man's hair than in his abil ity on the job. Nonetheless, this harrassment does serve a purpose. Many GI's are basic ally escapist rather than activist. They simply try to adjust to the fact that two, three or four years of their lives will be totally meaning1ess. 5 They tum off their minds for the eight hours a day that they're on the job. Many have very expensive toys such as motor cycles and stereos. When off duty, they retreat into their music and try only to "get over." They feel that protes t and activism can only lead to more hassles and so they avoid it. Then too, GI's are aware that po1it ical activism can bring down some heavy shit. Dave Poplin was the victim of a terzorist attack - probably with the collusion of his prison guards. GI's who demonstrate or organize are fre quently court-martialed, and military stockades just ain't where it's at. Finally, GI' s know that organizing pzo jects are under constant surveillance and that anyone who visits them is likely to find his name in the files of the OSI (Office of Special Investiga tions). Like all Americans, they don't like this kind of political spying, and many have exaggerated fears of its effect on their future. One very intelligent GI came to the Yokota project to talk about China with Marilyn Young of CCAS and other GI's. A very nice guy, but we never found out who he was. He was afraid to give his name. Drugs are related to the fear and escapism that GI's feel. As everyone knows by now, GI' s in Asia use a lot of dope. This form of cultural rebellion does reduce the efficiency of the mili tary; stoned GI' s aren't very good work ers. The drug culture, when it doesn't involve heroin, can be a basis for sol idarity among young, anti-military GI's- both black and white. They feel unity in opposition to the older lifers and the brass who try to suppress them and their culture. As an oppressed group within the military, "first termers" (GI's who are serving their first and usually only tour of duty in the mili tary) have developed a poorly articulat ed but real ideology which is anti military, anti-establishment, pro-peace, pro-sharing and also pro-dope. However, the dope culture frequently has undermined the GI movement. It is difficult to defend GI organizers who get busted on dope charges. More impor tant, heavy users, though they are usual ly in rebellion against the military, tend to be wary of the GI movement be cause they know that any political in volvement will further intensify the already heavy pressure from the OSI. MOreover, dope is not appreciated by most Asians. For many it is associated with the oppression of imperialism, not with liberation from it. Above all, dope 116 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org is escapist. It helps people to "get over." It isn't struggle-oriented. On balance, dope use among GI's is far more harmful than helpful. But its use is almos t universal among young GI' s, and only the most dedicated would give it up to be more effective in the move ment. One last problem should be mention ed. GI's in Asia frequently have racist and sexist attitudes towards both Asians and each other. Like all Americans, they are the products of a sexist and a racist society. Many of their attitudes can be traced to the racism and sexism of military training and of military life. Blacks and whites in the military carry with them all of the problems of American life, problems which are inten sified by the pressures of the military. With Asians, language is an enormous barrier, and most GI's have contact only with those Asians who serve the military in bars and stereo stores. Clearly one of the primary tasks of the GI movement in Asia is to fight the racism and sexism of GI's. This is a difficult task because GI' s are them selves so exploited by the brass that they often want only to relieve their own hurt. But it can be done. At the Yokota Rock Festival, a beautiful Japanese man named Jun rapped to many GI's. After it was allover, one of them connuented that it was the first time in nearly two years in Japan that he had really rapped with a Japanese man. One of the beautiful things about the GI movement in Asia is the long hard work of htmdreds of Asian men and women. Many of the GI projects were founded and are largely staffed by Asians. All receive extensive support from Asians. And this kind of support from their Asian brothers and sisters enables many GI's to realize for the first time that the u.s. military is oppressing not just them but most of the people of the world. The Future Despite the difficulties and frus t rations, working with GI' s is one of the most exciting and important things that an American can do in Asia. For GI's are part of the actual striking force of u.s. imperialism in Asia and elsewhere. Today the Marines and the Army are particularly weak links in America's military chain, and support for these very rebellious GI's must continue. But the burden of the War is moving to the Air Force. Air Force people are sometimes hard to organize. They are frequently middle class. They're not subject to the intense repression Marines suffer. They tend to be very good at "getting over." But they are beginning to see what the Air Force is doing to them and to others. They're angry and getting angrier. As the Air...;. men who publish Helping Hand put it: GI's in the Ar>rny and in the Marine Corps have organized into anti-war groups. They have demanded deaent treatment and they have said that they won't fight anymore. The result is that aonditions have im proved for them and most of the ground troops in Vietnam are being puUed out. Powero to our brothel'S in the Marine Co rps and AT'I71Y! But how about us? Now that almost the entire burden of the war is about to be isn't it about time that we organize? The GI movement in As ia keeps on trucking. Projects are active with leaf lets, newspapers, festivals and demon strations. In November, folk singer Barbara Dane is coming to Asia. In December, Jane Fonda's FTA show will be there. It should be an active year. Projects need people, if only to leaf let or to come out and rap. They also need books, films, money and of course people prepared to take on organizing responsibilities. New projects need to be started to get the word to GI's who still remain relatively untouched by the activity around them. 6 As George Jackson said: "It's always been my contention that if we could raise the hard left military and political cadre in fascist America, that cadre would come from 117 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org either the prisons or the dissident elements within the Armed Forces." Right on! FOOTNOTES 1. Liberation, Spring, 1971, pp. 89-90. 2. PCS and JATEC both have offices at: Ishii Building, 6-44 Kagurazaka, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan. An excellent source of information on the GI move ment both in Asia and the U.S. is News, a monthly newsletter available for $3/year from Camp News; 2801 N. Sheffield; Chicago, Ill. 60657. 3. A taped transcript of the meeting was smuggled out by GI participants. It is reproduced in full in Ampo, Report From the Japanese New Left, No.6. For those who don't know Ampo, it is probab ly the best English language source on the movement, GI and otherwise, in Japan. It's available for $6/year from Ampo; P.O. Box 5250; Tokyo International, Japan. 4. The section on Hong Kong is based on information provided by Frank Keh1. 5. Comments on the meaninglessness of GI life of course refer only to those GI's who live and work in the relative safety of Japan. For many GI's, espec ially for those in Indochina, the War is not only a matter of boredom (though it is that) but also a matter of life or death. 6. Currently there are projects in Japan at Misawa, Yokota, Iwakuni and on Okinawa. Especially desireable would be new projects at Sasebo Navy Base in Kyushu and at Yokosuka Navy Base near Yokohama. There is plenty of room for more work in Okinawa, and there are also many smaller bases where people could work in Japan. There is also work being done in Hong Kong and the Philippines. More help is needed. In Korea, Taiwan and Southeast Asia, there are lots of GI's, but there is also heavy repres sion. Still, it may be possible to do some work there. CCAS people have worked in a small way with GI's in Asia and a lot more could do so. People who want to should contact the Pacific Counseling Service (PCS) office in Tokyo. VIET,NAM CALENDAR T,... LA.." OM. 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GLAD DAY PRESS Stewart Avenue Ithaca, New York 14850 118 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org 1 l I I VielDaDiese So.rces OD VielDam. ! I by David Marr I In trying to understand Vietnam and the Vietnamese people, Western readers have been dependent for the most part on only a handful of Western writers and journalists--a1most none of whom have bothered to master the Vietnamese language. Actually, for many years this seemed not to discomfort either writers or readers. Among Americans in particular it might be said that a silent pact existed between specialist and audience, whereby the Vietnamese were to be regarded conveniently as objects, as ahistorica1, depersonalized creatures who merited discussion only because the United States had become "invo1ved" in the same rice paddies, rivers, and mountain tops. While the Pentagon Papers have shown us the sublime arrogance and ethnocentricity of govern ment policy-makers, it should not be forgotten that most Americans share the same basic outlook. Such is no longer the case, we may at least hope. American specialists are learning the language. More important, they are turning away from research that serves only the neo-co1onia1 inter ests of the U.S. Government (Rand, ARPA, AID, SEADAG, SIU, etc) towards research that interprets the whole range of Vietnamese experience to the public at large. Hence the emphasis for the moment is on history and culture, although it should be admitted that there is still no book in English on the literature of Vietnam. Nor have any of the new special ists paid much attention yet to getting good translations published. If the recent stirring reception for The Prison Diary of Ho Chi Minh (Aileen Palmer, trans. , Bantam paperback) is any indication, then readers have a real desire to find out what the Vietnamese have said, and are saying, about their country. Of course it helps to start with Uncle Ho, as the Vietnamese call him, but it is worth remembering that his Diary was available in Chinese and Vietnamese for decades with nary a hint of outside interest. Several diaries by others, a few novels, scores of essays, and hundreds of poems deserve equal attention, and Ho Chi Minh would be the first to encourage us on. Meanwhile, there is plenty to be said for Vietnamese speaking to us directly in English. The Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Viet nam both publish regularly in English. Although what they print may never get the splash treatment of a Bantam paper back, American university libraries in the past few years have at least decided that it is not treasonous to acquire and shelve these materials. Others can purchase titles from China Books and Periodicals (2929 Twenty-fourth Street, San Francisco, California 94110) or can brave petty FBI harassment and obtain them directly from DAZIMINA, 19 Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi, Democratic Republic of Viet-Nam. One extremely valuable series comes out under the general title of Vietnamese Studies, with twenty-eight soft-bound volumes to date. Some of the best vol umes have treated: DRV developments in education (Vol. 5) and public health (Vol. 25); the epic poem Kim Van Kieu (Vol. 4); the history of traditional (Vol. 21) and modern (Vol. 24) Vietnam; women's liberation (Vol. 10); and the role of literary creation in the South Viet namese liberation struggle (Vol. 14). Even more accessible are the week ly issues of Viet Nam Courier (VNe) , published by the DRV, and South Viet Nam 119 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org the opium trail HEROIN and IMPERIALISM A 64-page oapsule history/pamphlet on the story of opium and heroin in Amerioa and its oonneotion to the war in Indoohina. Chapters on "Addiotion in Amerioa" "Drug ging the Ghetto" "Whi te Kids and Junk" "The New Aoti on Army" "China: The Foreign Mud" "SE Asia: The Opium Trai l" "Kioking it: Methadone, Therapy, or Revolution" THE OPIUM TRAIL was the result of a CCAS collective research-and-writing project, including: Pat Haseltine, Jerry Meldon, Charles Knight, Mark Selden, Rod Aya, Henry Norr, Mara, Jim Morrell, and Tod McKie. Price: 2 5 ~ Order from: New England Free Press, 791 Tremont St., Boston, Ma. 02118 phone 617/536-9219. Postage: For orders, add the fol lowing: 20% on orders $2 and under, 5% on orders over $2. BULK ORDERS (for re-sale): There is a 1/8 disoount on aU bulk orders, and the prioe inoluaes postage. Ask also for NEFF list of available literature. Areas in olude: China, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Imperialism, Female Liberation, Racism, Africa, and the Economy. NEW ENGLAND FREE PRESS 120 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I \ in Struggle (SVNIS), normally published thrice monthly by the PRG. The following bibliography, covering roughly the period Feb ruary, 1970 to June, 1971, is meant to make it easier on a topical basis to find particularly good articles from these two periodicals. I have generally excluded week-to-week reporting here, not because it is but because it can be tracked down accord ing to date by anyone familiar with events as put forth in the Western press. I have also stressed historical, literary and cultural items to compensate for the fact that Western writers, as men tioned before, have long'ignored these crucial aspects of Viet-Nam's existence as a nation and a people. I. Pre-colonial History and Culture 1. Pham Huy Thong, "The Archaeolog ical Battle," VNC 20 Apr. 70. Impression istic account of recent research efforts. 2. Chu Quang Tru, "The Vietnamese Man through Ancient Plastic Arts," VNC 2 Nov. 70. Especially good portion on pictures to be found in dinh (communal houses) . 3. Mai Thi Tu, "The Temple of Litera ture," VNC 11 Jan. 71. Discussion of Confucian Van Mieu outs ide Hanoi. 4. "Le Huu Trac, alias Hai Thuong Lan Ong," VNC 28 Dec. 70. Famous 18th century physician and writer on med icine. 5. Vu Dinh Lien, "Cao Ba Quat: Poet and Revolutionary," VNC 22 Mar. 71. Life and work of a major 19th century Viet namese poet. II. Anticolonial Activities (to 1954) 1. Phan Trong Binh, "Our First Politi cal Seminar," VNC 9 Feb. 70. Reference to August 1925 training sessions conduct ed by Ho Chi Minh. 2. Nguyen Ai Quoc (Ho Chi Minh), "The Revolutionary Path" (1926); "Appeal to the Nation" (Feb. 1930); "Appeal from Abroad" (1941); VNC 9 Feb. 70. Trans lated excerpts. 3. Party Documents: 1930, 1951, 1960, , VNC 2 Feb. 70. 4. Nguyen Thi Thap, "The Nam Ky Uprising 30 Years Ago," VNC 23 Nov. 70. November 1940 ferment in Co chinchina. 5. Vu Can, "Pilgrimage to the hamlet of the Spring," VNC 17 May 71. Inter esting and revealing vignette on Pac Bo hamlet Cao Bang province, near where Ho Chi Minh maintained a cave head quarters in 1941-42. 6. Tran Huy Lieu, "Receiving Emperor Bao Dai' s Sword and Seal SVNIS 20 Aug. 70. First-person narrative of Aug ust 1945 in Hue, by the man who was Viet Minh Minister of Information at the time, and later foremost historian of the DRV. 7. Cu Huy Can, "The Last Moments of a Dynasty," VNC 7 Sep. 70. First-person narrative of August 1945 in 8. Vo Nguyen Giap, "Those Unforgettable Days," VNC 24 Aug. 70 and 31 Aug. 70. Reminiscenses on August-September 1945, by an internationally known participant. 9. Party Documents, "Appeal for General Insurrection" and "Resolution of the National Convention of the Indochinese Communist Party," 14-15 August 1945, VNC 24 Aug. 70. 10. "From August Revolution to Dien Bien Phu Victory: Chronology of Events (1945-1954) ," VNC 3 Aug. 70. 11. Nguyen Huu Tho, "First U.S. Set backs in Viet-Nam," VNC 16 Mar. 70. Well known NLF and PRG leader discusses 19 March 1960 demonstrations against U. S. ships in Saigon harbor. III. Anti-U.S. Resistance A. Critiques of U.S. policy 1. Nguyen Xuan Lai; "u. S. Neo colonialism in South Viet Nam: the Econ omic Weapon," VNC 15 June 70. 2. "U. S. Neo-colonialism in South Viet Nam: Repression, a Fundamental Policy," VNC 29 June 70. 3. Huu Ngoc, "U. S. Neo-colonial ism in South Viet Nam," VNC 6 July 70 and 13 July 70. 4. Nguyen Khac Vien, "Peace and Independence," VNC 19 0 ct. 70 and 26 Oct. 70. Succinct, well-written attack on Nixon's Indochina policy. 121 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org 5. "Japanese Economic Designs in Southeast Asia and Viet Nam," VNC 30 Nov. 70 and 7 Dec. 70. 6. Thanh Hong, "Helicopter and Armour tactics foiled in all Indo chinese battlefields," SVNIS 20 Mar. 71. 7. Nien Nguyen, "Seven economic measures to serve the war efforts," SVNIS 10 May 71. Denunciation of US/Saigon economic Vietnamization poli cies. B. Historical Events 1. "Socialist Construction and Anti U.S. Resistance: Chronology of Events, 1954-1970," VNC 10 Aug. 70. 2. Mr. Thi (alias Cuu), "Tra Bong: one of the first uprisings," VNC 15 Feb. 71. 1950 struggle by Cor minority in Quang Ngai against Diem regime. 3. "The Radlay Rise Up," SVNIS 15 Feb. 70. Mbntagnard struggle. 4. "A Decade of Successful Strug gle (1960-1970)," VNC 14 Dec. 70 and 21 Dec. 70. Chronology of South Viet Nam resis tance. 5. Nguyen Thi Le, "In Blazing Saigon," SVNIS 1 Feb. 70. Anti-tank squad in District 6 during Tet '68 offensive. 6. Vu Duong, "The Girl Ammunition Carrier from H u ~ , " SVNIS 1 Jan. 71. Poem on Tet '68 offensive in H u ~ . 7. Ho Nguyen, "A Girl Student in H u ~ , " SVNIS 20 Dec. 70. Pharmacy student returns from Saigon to join Tet '68 struggle. 8. "On the H u ~ Massacre of 1968," SVNIS 1 Nov. 70. g. Le Van Hao, "Twenty Years Ago," VNC 16 Mar. 70. A well-known H u ~ University professor's transition to participation in the NLF. 10. M.P., "For an Everlasting Spring," SVNIS 20 Jan. 71. Five year retrospective. 11. "1970 Chronology," VNC 1 Feb. 71. Day-by-day listing of events. 12. Nguyen Thi Dinh, "South Viet namese Women's ten years of fruitful fight," SVNIS 10 Mar. 71. The author, a lady in her mid-forties, is deputy commander-in-chief of the South Viet Nam People's Liberation Forces. 13. "U.S.-Saigon Incursion in Southern Laos," VNC 12 Apr. 71. Detailed 122 discussion of the entire February March 1971 invasion and rout. c. Poems and Short Stories 1. Giang Nam, "Crossing a Village at Night," SVNIS 10 Feb. 71. Brief narrative poem written in 1962. 2. To Huu, "Following in Uncle's Footsteps," VNC 25 May 70. Reference to Ho Chi Minh. 3. Ha Duong, "A Moving Story," SVNIS 20 July 70. Human interest, on generational continuity of resist ance. 4. To Nhuan Vy, "Stars," SVNIS 2 Sep. 70. Romance between two cadres near Hue. 5. Giang Nam, "All the Nation off to the Front," SVNIS 10 Sep. 70. Short poem filled with North-South imagery . 6. Ha Duong, "Ny fellow Girl Vil lager," SVNIS 10 Dec. 70. Story of local resistance in Da Nang area. 7. Nguyen Thi, IISpring," SVNIS 20 Apr. 71 and 1 Hay 71. Short story on three young women guerillas in Tet '68. 8. To Huu, "Welcome Spring '71," VNC 8 Feb. 71. Resume of contemporary situation by Viet-Nam's most famous living poet. 9. Nguyen Khoa Diem, "Sixteen Years of Tears and Hopes," SVNIS 1 Feb. 71. A poem on continuity of resist ance. 10. Vu Van Bao, "The Bamboo Valley," SVNIS 1 Apr. 71. Highland folk tales in the midst of liberation struggle. D. Topical 1. Pham Thanh Van, "Recollections about the Tet '69 in Paris," SVNIS 1 Feb. 70. Cultural evening with overseas Vietnamese community. 2. "Viet Nam's Fighting Women," SVNIS 1 Mar. 70. Entire issue devoted to this subject. 3. "Two Attitudes," SVNIS 15 Har. 70. American doctor POW versus NLF doctor regarding proper treatment of U.S. paws. 4. "Saigon, Yesterday and Today," VNC 27 July 70. 5. Ly Phuong Lien, "To a U. S. Friend," BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org SVNIS 2 Sep. 70. Letter to a lady with 1. "Women's present Rights and St at us a son, who someday will visit Vietnam in DRVN," VNC 2 Mar. 70. Includes per in peace. centages of women in various jobs and 6. Tam Duong, "u Minh, Steel Ram part of the Brass Wall," SVNIS 20 Nov. 70. Brief description of furthest south resistance area. 7. Editors, "The Urban University Youth in South Viet Nam is Indomitable," SVNIS 10 Jan. 71. Several other articles in this issue on same subject. 8. Phong Hien, "Saigon literary life," VNC 19 Apr. 71. Critique of nihilistic and erotic tendencies. I 9. Tran Thanh, "The people from Ho village," SVNIS 20 May 71. Village in Long An province to the south of Saigon named after Ho Chi Minh. 10. Truong Dinh Hung, "Story of an I Air Force hero," VNC 7 June 71. Inter view with a 35 year-old squadron leader, credited with downing six American jets. 11. Tam Duong, "The wonderful 'Suong ba la' ," SVNIS 15 June 71. Brief introduction to the infinite uses of the small Vietnamese sampan. 12. Minh Phuong, "A Village Head woman," SVNIS 1 June 71. Interview with PRG chairwoman in P.T. village, Thua Thien province. IV. Life in the Democratic Republic of. Viet-Nam A. Science and Technology 1. "Initial Development of Biologic Sciences," VNC 18 Jan. 71. 2. "A Nascent Science-Geology," VNC 15 Mar. 71. Emphasis on prospect ing, mapmaking, and postwar development. 3. Nguyen Khanh Toan, "Social Sciences in Viet Nam," VNC 9 Nov. 70 and 16 Nov. 70. Very informative resume. , 4. "Development of Libraries," VNC 19 Oct. 70. Facts on library expansion in DRV. I 5. Phan Cuong, "New transplanting technique: a far-reaching improvement," VNC 5 Apr. 71. Labor-saving and increased yields through scientific experimentation. 6. Vu Can, "With Hanoi Pediatricians," I VNC 31 May 71. ; B. Administration and Economics I job levels. 2. Duong Cong Hoat, "National Minorities heading towards Socialism," VNC 10 May 71. Includes population I figures for various mountain regions. J 3. Vu Can, "Ten Peoples in the same School," VNC 10 May 71. Describes Tay Bac Autonomous Zone training school for ethnic minority elementary school teachers. 4. Nguyen Xuan Lai, "Stages and Problems of Industrialization," VNC 23 Nov. 70 and 30 Nov. 70. 5. Nguyen Khac Vien, "Renovation of Agriculture," VNC 21 Sep. 70. 6. Nguyen Yem, "Hanoi's Market gar dening," VNe 19 Apr. 71. Vegetable crops for the capital. 7. "Thai Thuy Bamboo," VNC 3 May 71. Encouraging handicraft produc tion in Thai Binh province. 8. Minh Hoang, "Industry harnessed to Agriculture," VNC 17 May 71. Illus trates the continuing priority attention given to agricultural production. 9. Vu Quy Vy, "The Food Plant and Vegetable Institute," VNC 21 June 71. Agronomy research. I I C. Village-Level Activities 1. Vu Can, "A School-Cooperative in Hoa Binh," VNC 29 June 70. Highland minority educational venture. 2. Nguyen Khac Vien, "The Old I Banyan," VNC 31 Aug. 70. Sensitive story of an old and new village life. 3. Pham Cuong, "A Short History of a Village," VNC 7 Dec. 70 and 14 Dec. 70. Nam Hong village, north of Hanoi. 4. Vu Can, "A Village Health Ser vice," VNC 4 Jan. 71. Cam Binh village, Ha Tinh province. 5. Chu Tan, "Gifts for Tet," VNC 25 Jan. 71. Short story about diligent but human coop leader. 6. Tran Minh Tan, "As a Party mem ber ," VNC 8 Feb. 71. Female coop cadre, working especially to raise better hogs. 7. Nguyen Yem, "The Co Bi Supply and Marketing Cooperative," VNC 15 Feb. 71. Services three agricultural coops for local and regional trade. 123 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org 8. Vu Can, "Phu Nhung, the first Meo village in low-lying land," VNC 22 Feb. 71. Movement to settle semi nomadic mountain people of DRV. 9. Phuong Anh, "Together with Ba Trai Women," VNC 8 Har. 71. Villagers of the Muong ethnic minority. D. Art and Culture 1. "The Vietnamese Theatre," VNC 25 May 70. 2. Hai Vi, "The Evolution of Viet namese Theatre," VNC 31 Aug. 70. 3. Phan Trong Quang, "A Cinema buH t in the crucible of two Resistance Wars," VNC 7 Sep. 70. 4. "A New Look on Life," VNC 28 Dec. 70. Painting in the DRV. 5. "Singing and Dancing in War Time," VNC 1 Mar. 71. Description of artists and music of 1970 Festival. 6. Truc Quynh, "Stage Reminiscences," VNC 24 May 71. Warm, first-person ac count of twenty-five years as an actress in the DRV. V. Contact with Socialist Countries 1. Huynh Van Ly, "In the Footsteps of Lenin," SVNIS 10 Apr. 70. Personal ac count of feelings toward Lenin and Russian people. 2. Special Issue on Lenin, VNC 13 Apr. 70. Includes listing of Lenin's works pub lished in DRV and Ho Chi Minh interview on this subject in July 1969. 3. Phan Huu, "China, Fighting Viet Nam's Great Rear Base," SVNIS 1 Nov. 70. VI. Events in Laos and Cambodia 1. "Facts and Events in Laos from 1962 to 1970," VNC 20 July 70. 2. Huu Tho, " On River Banks and }foun tain Tops," VNC 4 Jan. 71. Excerpts from Vietnamese journalist's diary of trip to Laos liberated areas. 3. "Angkor, A Witness and a Symbol," VNC 25 May 70. 4. "Kasang Responds .. ," VNC 1 June 70. Cambodian village in March up heaval. 5. "A Puppet officer's diary found at the foot of a rubber tree in Cambodia," VNC 21 Sep. 70. Excerpts from Saigon officer's diary. 6. Chann Luon, "A New Life at Phum Tho Muong," SVNIS 10 Nov. 70. Cambodia reporter's account of anti-Lon Nol activities at village level. 7. Editors, "Lam Son 719 Operatiom," SVNIS 10 Apr. 71. This entire issue reviews the failure of the U.S./Saigon invasion of Southern Laos. 8. Kham Thanh, "In a Southern Laos Liberated Area," VNC 31 May 71. medical for Indochina----1 The President is bringing US soldiers home from Indochina. But the United States Airforce, the bombers, the heli copters, and the air support troops, remain to wage war as fiercely as ever. The Nixon Administration is reducing casualties to politically "tolerable" levels, while continuing to pursue a military victory in Indochina. But nothing has changed for the people of Southeast Asia on whom the high explo sive bombs, the napalm, and the anti personnel weapons continue to fall. For the first an American organi zation has been formed to send medical aid to the victims of us intervention in Indochina. Funds are now being col lected to buy 1. medical supplies--anti malarial etc. 2. medical as requested by medical textbooks and journals for North Vietnam and for the liberated zones of South I Laos, and Cambodia. We need your help. IPlease send donations and enquiries to: I I MEDICAL AID COMMITTEE FOR INDOCHINA I i 474 Centre St reet Newton, Mass. 02158 [*Medical Aid for Indochina, Inc. consist of concerned physicians, healthcare work ers, and other groups and individuals.] 124 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org I I COMMITTEE OF CONCERNED ASIAN SCHOLARS LOCAL OFFICES OR CONTACT PEOPLE ANTIOCH: Marilyn McCullagh, History Dept., Antioch College, Yellow Springs, OH 45387 ARIZONA: Quinton Priest, 734 N. Sixth ave., Tucson, AZ 85721 AUSTRALIA/N.Z.: CASAN Secretariat, 1/6 MOorehouse St., O'Connor, ACT 2601 Australia BERKELEY: CCAS, 2168 Shattuck #316, Berkeley, CA 94704 BOSTON: Boston CCAS, 146 Sixth ST. , Cambridge, MA 02139 CHICAGO: John Berthrong, 5757 University Ave., Chicago, IL 60637 COLUMBIA: Frank Baldwin, 906 Int'l Affairs, Columbia U, New York, N.Y. 10027 CONNECTICUT: Herman Mast, History Dept, U Conn. , Storrs, CT 06268 CORNELL: George Hildebrand, 914 Highland Rd., Ithaca, N.Y. 14850 DARTMOUTH: Jonathan Mirsky, East Asian Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755 DUKE: Alan Tharpe, 212 Northwood Circle, Durham, NC 27701 DRURY: Katsu and John Young, 635 E. Calhoun #104, Springfield, MO 65802 FRANCE: Annick Levy, Centre de Documentation, 43 rue Cuvier, Paris 5e, France GERMANY: Gerion Sievernich, Ostasiatisches Seminar, 1 Berlin 33, Podbielskiallee 42 HAWAII: Oliver Lee, Political Science Dpt, UH, Honolulu, HI 96822 HONG KONG: Ric Pfeffer, Universities Service Center, 155 Argyle St, Hong Kong INDIANA: Philip West, History Dept, IU, Bloomington, IN 47401 INDIANA STATE: Jordan Paper, History Dept, ISU, Terre Haute, In 47809 ITALY: Tiziano Terzani, Istitute di storia contempore, Via San Gallo 10, Firenze KANSAS: Norman Hastings, RD 3, Box 10, Lawrence, KS 66044 LONDON: Stephan Feuchtwang, c/o AREAS, 22 Chepstow Crescent, London Wll MICHIGAN: CCAS, 104 Lane Hall, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48104 MINNESOTA: Ted Farmer, History Dept, UMN, Minneapolis, MN 55455 MONTREAL: S.J. Noumoff, East Asian Centre, 1005 Sherbrooke W, MACALESTER: Jerry Fisher, History Dept., Macalester College, St. Paul, MN 55101 NO. ILLINOIS U.: Russ Smith, 3129 Lincolnshire, DeKalb, IL 60115 OAKLAND U: Richard Tucker, History Dept, Oakland U, Rochester, MI 48063 OREGON: Joe Esherick, History Dept, U of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 PRINCETON: Michael McGrath, East Asian Studies, Princeton U, Princeton, N.J. 08540 SANTA BARBARA: Colin R. Tong, Box 12510 UCSB, Sta. Barbara, CA 93107 ST. LOUIS: Dave Wilson, 4371 Westminster, St. Louis, MO 63130 STANFORD: CASS, Bldg. 600T, Stanford, CA 94305 SO. ILLINOIS U: Doug Allen, Philosophy Dept, SIU, Carbondale, IL 62901 TEXAS: Gordon Bennett, Government Dept, UT, Austin, TX 78712 TORONTO: Janet Salaff, Sociology Dept, 563 Spadina Ave, Toronto 179, Ont. TOKYO: Doug Sparks, c/o I. Sugita, 3-34-9 Kita-Senzoku, Ota-ku, Tokyo 145 WINDSOR: David Wurfel, Pol. Sce. Dept, U of Windsor, Windsor, Ontario, Canada WISCONSIN: Edward Friedman, Pol. Sce. Dept, U of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706 YALE: Larry Lifschultz, 173 1/2 Mansfield St, New Haven, CT 06511 U PACIFIC: Jere Chapman, 1228 Fitch Way, Sacramento, CA 95825 U WASHINGTON: CCAS, 419 Thompson Hall, U of Wash, Seattle, WA 98185 C.C.A.S. National Coordinators: Cindy Fredrick [Boston], Sandy Sturdevant [Chicago] Molly Coye [Stanford]--all will change at the CCAS meeting in New York in March. 125 l I I ! I f I BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org CODIDIaDicalioDS November 19, 1971 To the Editor: Recent history recalls a long- past experience of my own. I was a rif le platoon leader in the 1st Marine Divis ion during the Okinawa campaign and then during the first four months of the occupation of North China. Let me first concede my bias. I'm sure there's nothing quite as interest ing to me as my own experiences (and very possibly nothing as boring to every one else), particularly since these in cidents were watershed experiences for me that changed the patterns of my life in somewhat the same way as dropping "the bomb" changed Eatherly's. I was, as I say, 3rd Platoon Leader, "K" Company, 3rd Bat tal ion ,7th Marines, 1st Marine Division. We landed at Taku Bar, as I recall, September 22, 1945, and proceeded inland to Tientsin. En route from Okinawa we had received written orders detailing our mission which included disarming the Japanese and working, in that connection, with the Chinese Nationalist Army and the "Troops for the Preservation of Peace, Order and Prosperity in the Greater East Asian Co-prosperity Sphere" - the pup pets. After a few days in Tientsin we moved on to Tangshan and took over the specific mission of protecting both the rail line north to Mukden and Har bin and the Kailan Mining Association coal mines. It quickly developed there was more. In addition to working with the Chinese Nationalists and the puppets, new verbal 126 orders called not for disarming but for exercising the closest cooperation with the Japanese. I was present when a pri vate telephone line was installed be tween 3rd Battalion Headquarters and the Japanese "prisoner compound." This "com pound" was "guarded" by a single Marine sentry and the Japanese kept their wea pons - undoubtedly the most bizarre prisoner arrangement of recent memory. There was a clear understanding that if we got into trouble (with the Commun ists, who else?) they would help us and vice versa. Along about this time there was a big surrender ceremony in Tien tsin. The Japanese stacked their rifles and the officers, with flourish, pomp and ceremony, drew their swords and threw them on a pile. Later, toward evening and after the newsreel camera men had gone home, the men picked up their rifles and the officers their swords and returned to duty. I was involved personally in one incident, highly traumatic to me in retrospect, and less personally in a second incident. The first took place between Han Ku and Pei Tang. The key mission of our battalion was to pro tect the rail line - over which Chiang was rushing troops to take over from the Russians in Manchuria. Obviously, the danger spots were the bridges and there were three in our battalion area. Each rifle company took responsibility for one of these bridges and rotated rifle platoons in their guard. One day in November (I don't know exactly which) we left Tangshan for bridge duty via the railroad, proceeding southwesterly in the direction of Tien tsin. The "L" company platoon got off at its bridge in Lu Tai, my platoon got BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org off at our bridge in Han Ku, and the "I" company platoon continued on toward Pei Tang. Perhaps a mile further on there was an explosion and the train was derailed, North China being as flat as it is, we could see the entire show quite clearly although we were out of walkie-talkie range. I commandeered a train, piled aboard with two squads of the platoon and hurried down. We found that nobody had been hurt but the locomotive was derailed. A few minutes after we arrived the puppet troops showed up and close behind them the Japan ese materialized out of somewhere. While we could not speak each other's language the Japanese officer made plain the way things like this were handled. Conse quently, we drew ourselves up on the rail way embankment -- our platoon and the "I" company platoon in the middle, Japanese on the left and puppets on the right. There was a mud-hut village less than one hundred yards away (I never knew the name if indeed it had one) and for perhaps ten or twelve long minutes we fired rifles and machine guns into that village. Nobody checked casualties or damage but we had made plain who was in charge. The second incident involved our battalion Headquarters Company. General Peck of the 1st Marine Division was riding a train in our own area when an explosion and derailment took place. He called for an air strike on the nearest village, but when there was some difficulty about this he called out our 81 millimeter mortar platoon and delivered a 60-round pattern. When we arrived in Tientsin on September 22, an estimated million Chinese welcomed us as comrades-in-arms. In the four-month period before I left (reassignment was handled individually on the basis of "points"), Marines had become so hated that strict orders called for them to leave post areas in groups no smaller than three. Why am I writing this letter? What do I want from you? Given the bias I spoke about earlier, I'm convinced that in cidents like these (and I'm sure there must have been hundreds of them) are t important enough to be publicized. They give a vital additional dimension to . "the American Experience in Otina," which j I have never seen reported. Very truly yours, Edward J. Bloch (Mr. Bloch is the International Repre sentative of the United Electrical, Radio and Communications Workers Union.) November 19, 1971 To the editor: When I offer 6 pages of comment in your last issue and inspire 52 pages of rejoinder, I am uncertain whether to feel richly rewarded or, on the other hand, overkilled. Two general questions come to mind: 1) Don't establishments emerge in most nations, societies, or social groups? Can they really be eliminated or avoided? Isn't the real test whether they are to the needs of the time and whether they succeed in recruiting talent, maximizing mobility, and doing jobs that need doing? Naturally, their performance can usually be criticized. Certainly it should be scrutinized. 2) Shouldn't 75 pages of the Bulletin produce something more than criticism ,'of past efforts at organization? The future will probably fault us for having done too little too late. Now is the time for new efforts, new forms of organization by a new generation for new purposes. The question whether or not Otinese studies in the U.S.A. are subordinated to the U.S. Government can be checked by each reader of the Bulletin for himself. I for one am not convinced that they are. I still think our main needs are less organiza tional than intellectual, to understand ourselves better and to understand the Chinese better and all try to live in peace. The Bulletin can be of real help to us and should be used as constructively as possible. Sincerely, John K. Fairbank 127 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org Conl..ibalo... Eqbal Ahmad is a Fellow of the Adlai Stevenson Institute in Chicago. He is presently on trial, along with Philip Berrigan and six others, for allegedly conspiring to interfere with the Selective Service System, and for various other offenses connected with his opposition to the war in Indochina. Eqba1 Ahmad has contributed to many maga zines and anthologies and is an editor of Africasia and of Pakistan Forum. His Revo lution and Reaction in the Third World will be published by Pantheon in 1972. He is presently editing a book on the Pakistan crisis for Harper and Row. Saghir Ahmad was a sociologist and anthropologist at Simon Fraser University in British, Columbia until his recent death, and published a number of articles on West Pakistani sociology. His book, Class and Power in a Punjabi Village, and his collected essays on Asian decolonization are being edited for publication. Feroz Ahmed teaches sociology at Algoma College, Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, and edits Pakistan Forum. He is co-author with Eqbal Ahmad and others of East Bengal: Roots of the Genocide, Glad Day Press, Ithaca, N.Y. 14850, 1971. Father Daniel BerPigan is a Catholic priest, poet, author, and militant anti-war activist. He is currently in jail in Springfield, Missouri, for destroying U.S. Army draft records with napalm in protest against the war in Indochina in the Baltimore suburb of Catonsville. Daniel Berrigan is the author of No Bars to Manhood, Bantam Books, 1971, and, along with Philip Berrigan, is the subject of The Berrigans, edited by William VanEtten Casey, S.J., and Philip Nobile, Avon Books, 1971. is a free lance journalist in Madras, and a frequent contributor to The Radical Review, 8 Madnava1li Street, Madras 28, India. Kathleen Gough is a research scholar at the Institute of Asian and Slavonic Studies, University of British Columbia. She has contributed to many journals and books on Indian sociology and is a co-author with David Schneider of Matrilineal Kinship, University of California Press, 1961. With Hari Sharma she is editing Imperialism and Revolution in South Asia, to be published by M:mth1y Review Press in 1972. MOhan Ram is a free lance journalist in New Delhi and was a university professor until 1961. He is the author of Indian Communism: Split Within Split (1969) . and Maoism India (1971) both published by Vikas Publications, Delhi, India. Ed0aPd FPiedman teaches in the political science department at the University of Wisconsin and is co-editor with Mark Selden of America's Asia. David MaPr teaches at Cornell and is currently managing the Indochina Resource Center in Washington, D.C. DeCamp, presently at the University of Washington, spent last year in Japan at various GI organizing projects. Contributors to the last issue, Summer-Fall 1971, included: Chung-wu Kung is a gradu ate student in Chinese history at Harvard. WilUam Pomeroy fought with the Hukbalahap until his capture in the late 1940s. He is the author of The Forest. Ben Kerkvliet is in the political science department at the University of Hawaii. John K. is professor of history at Harvard and is the author of The United States and China and many other books and articles. Moss Roberts is professor o'f Chinese at New YOI'lk University and has headed the research efforts into the modern China field begun by CCAS. David HoPOWitz is editor of Ramparts and author of Empire and Revolution I and Scholars and U. S. Intelligence" [Ramparts, February 1972]. ' I 128 BCAS. All rights reserved. For non-commercial use only. www.bcasnet.org