ON PRINCIPAL CONTRADICTION.
Aravind Sinha.
Aravind Sinha.
At the time of unity talks KNRamachandran said that the concept of principal contradiction is not needed because it creates lot of confusion leading to serious problems in developing party work. This is what happened after 1970 CPI (ML) All India Party congress. At that time, the principal contradiction was declared as between feudalism and broad masses of the Indian people i.e. landlords vs. the peasantry. This created one-sidedness on the one hand, and anarchist tactical practice on the other. Likewise the question of path of Indian Revolution led to effort for mechanical copying of the Chinese Revolution. The main slogan became in those days “Chinese path is our path”. This led to serious mistakes and anarchist practice. So, it is better not to clinch the issue of Principal Contradiction and Path of Indian revolution at the present stage of our movement. This may be decided later on after some more experience and deeper studies on these important matters. But we emphatically put forward our suggestion to decide on these important issues in a given time frame through a Special Party Conference as these issues are crucial to give a correct orientation to our work. Finally, this suggestion was accepted.
Com.Mao studied and developed the philosophy and method of Dialectical Materialism and explained these complex concepts in his famous articles “on Practice” and “On contradiction”. There he explains that there are many contradictions in a society at any given time, but, only one of them is the Principal contradiction. The development of this contradiction has profound impact on all other contradictions existing in society. One aspect of the principal contradiction is dominant at any particular time and is the Principal aspect of the Principal Contradiction. By carefully analyzing these contradictions in a country and their relative position and strength, one may understand the existing situation as well as future dynamics of society. Applying the principle of dialectical materialism in understanding human society Marx said that the history of mankind is history of class struggles. So if you want to understand the society you have to understand the class nature of society, which is the ruling class (the most powerful among social classes), and which class/ classes are exploited by the ruling class/classes. One has to analyze the relative position and strength of different existing contradictions in the society and which contradiction plays the most decisive role. But developing such an understanding one can understand the nature and character of the society. And by locating the principal contradiction one will be able to understand which are the principal target and the principal enemy of the people. Which forces will be pitted from amongst the people to fight against the enemy of the people?
Mao developed this concept of principal contradiction and applied it to the concrete conditions of the Chinese society. Before aggression on China by Japanese imperialists, Mao characterized the principal contradiction in china as the alliance between imperialism, comprador bureaucratic capitalism and feudalism on the one hand, the broad masses of Chinese people on the other. So the target of revolution was imperialism, feudalism and comprador bourgeoisie. But when Japan occupied large parts of China and tried to convert china into the colony of Japan, at that time, Mao said that in the changed situation the nature of principal contradiction had changed, i.e. the principal contradiction has become Japanese Imperialists vs. the Chinese nation and the stage of revolution had change from New Democratic Revolution into a National revolution had changed from New Democratic Revolution into a National Revolution for national Liberation from the clutches of Japanese Imperialists.
This change in the situation resulting into a change in the nature of principal contradiction brought about change in United Front tactics of the Communist Party. Before Japanese aggression, the target of Chinese Revolution was entire imperialist camp and their Chinese compradors. But Japanese aggression CPC adopted the policy of forging united front with those sections of the comprador ruling classes who were opposed to Japanese aggression and occupation. This section of the ruling classes of china were allied to the western Imperialists like England, America, France etc. Due to the pressure from Chinese people and the patriotic sections of Kuomintang Party and the army it had to change its stand. Chiang Kai sheik did not want an alliance with the Chinese communist Party. A rebellion started against his leadership which compelled him to respond positively towards the proposal for an anti-Japanese National United Front put forward by the Chinese Communist Party. This gave a big impetus to the struggle against Japanese aggression. CPC and the Red Army under its leadership became the main vanguard against foreign occupation. Due to this, the support base of the CPC expanded throughout China.
This change in the situation resulting into a change in the nature of principal contradiction brought about change in United Front tactics of the Communist Party. Before Japanese aggression, the target of Chinese Revolution was entire imperialist camp and their Chinese compradors. But Japanese aggression CPC adopted the policy of forging united front with those sections of the comprador ruling classes who were opposed to Japanese aggression and occupation. This section of the ruling classes of china were allied to the western Imperialists like England, America, France etc. Due to the pressure from Chinese people and the patriotic sections of Kuomintang Party and the army it had to change its stand. Chiang Kai sheik did not want an alliance with the Chinese communist Party. A rebellion started against his leadership which compelled him to respond positively towards the proposal for an anti-Japanese National United Front put forward by the Chinese Communist Party. This gave a big impetus to the struggle against Japanese aggression. CPC and the Red Army under its leadership became the main vanguard against foreign occupation. Due to this, the support base of the CPC expanded throughout China.
When the Second World War began, the allied forces i.e. Great Britain, France; USA etc came into direct confrontation with Japan as Japan was a part of axis powers led by Fascist Hitler. This conflict ultimately culminated into nuclear attack on Japan by the USA in 1945. Atom Bombs were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima resulting into surrender by Japan before Allied Forces. After this the nature of contradiction again changed in China. CPC under Mao again noted that fight against comprador ruling classes had become principle again. Chiang Kai Sheik engineered many conspiracies against CPC and the Red Army with the support of American and British Imperialists. In this situation CPC broke alliance with Kuomintang and civil war started again. Within four years an extremely bloody civil war started and Chinese people defeated reactionary forces under the leadership of Kuomintang which had backing of most powerful of the imperialist forces, the US Imperialism. In this way by successful application of the theory of dialectics and the concept of Principal contradiction CPC under Mao’s leadership successfully accomplished Chinese Revolution in 1949.
In our document, Character of Indian State and Society, we have discussed about the nature of our state and society in detail. We have characterized India as a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country where the people are exploited and oppressed by imperialism, feudalism and comprador bureaucratic capitalism. The broad masses of people comprising mainly workers, peasants and petty bourgeoisie face exploitation and oppression in every walk of life. The national bourgeoisie also faces to some extent exploitation and oppression due to the system dominated by imperialism, feudalism and comprador bourgeoisie. Even after 60 years of end of the British rule in India common working people find it extremely difficult to survive and lead a life with human dignity. A commission setup by the Central Govt. a couple of years back under the chairmanship of famous economist and planning commission member Dr.Arjun Sen Gupta to study the condition of unorganized sector of the working people found that 77% of people in our country are compelled to live with an income of Rs.20, or less per day per person.
One may imagine how pitiable would be the condition of these people in the unorganized sector. It is on record that nearly 2 lacks peasants committed suicide during the last 16 years of Liberalization, globalization and Privatization regimes. Millions of workers in the organized sector were thrown out of their jobs because of retrenchment and closure of the Industries. Lacks of small and medium enterprises were closed during this period of Globalization India. The rate of creation of jobs in the permanent sector has been decreasing over the years. Unemployment and Underemployment has increased manifolds. Security of jobs has become a thing of the past. Most of the jobs are of contractual nature in the Industrial regimes which following the out sourcing mantra coming from the imperialist countries. The condition of the tribes has deteriorated considerably and their existence is being threatened by giant multinational corporations and India big business in mining and metallurgical fields. In Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand hundreds of MOUs have been signed by these giant companies and the state governments. Mittals, Jindals, Tata, Posco, DeBeers etc. have signed contracts for large scale mining and production. The tribes inhabiting there for thousands of years are being compelled to go out of their villages and fields and hand over the area to these multinational sharks. But it is being resisted and opposed by large sections of the people including the tribes, the workers, urban middle classes and progressive intelligentsia of the country, spontaneous and organized mass movements can be witnessed in Kalinga nagar in the Puri district, Singhbhum, Ranchi, Santhal Parganas and many other parts of Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Big protest march being organized in cities like Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Raipur, Delhi, Mumbai etc. to oppose SEZs and eviction of tribes and other peasantry. Nandigram and Singur successfully resisted in the move of multinational and corporate houses backed by the State Govt. The exploitation by imperialist powers in our country is facilitated and promoted by Indian big bourgeoisie and big landlords and respective govt. at the centre and the states.
One may imagine how pitiable would be the condition of these people in the unorganized sector. It is on record that nearly 2 lacks peasants committed suicide during the last 16 years of Liberalization, globalization and Privatization regimes. Millions of workers in the organized sector were thrown out of their jobs because of retrenchment and closure of the Industries. Lacks of small and medium enterprises were closed during this period of Globalization India. The rate of creation of jobs in the permanent sector has been decreasing over the years. Unemployment and Underemployment has increased manifolds. Security of jobs has become a thing of the past. Most of the jobs are of contractual nature in the Industrial regimes which following the out sourcing mantra coming from the imperialist countries. The condition of the tribes has deteriorated considerably and their existence is being threatened by giant multinational corporations and India big business in mining and metallurgical fields. In Orissa, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand hundreds of MOUs have been signed by these giant companies and the state governments. Mittals, Jindals, Tata, Posco, DeBeers etc. have signed contracts for large scale mining and production. The tribes inhabiting there for thousands of years are being compelled to go out of their villages and fields and hand over the area to these multinational sharks. But it is being resisted and opposed by large sections of the people including the tribes, the workers, urban middle classes and progressive intelligentsia of the country, spontaneous and organized mass movements can be witnessed in Kalinga nagar in the Puri district, Singhbhum, Ranchi, Santhal Parganas and many other parts of Chhattisgarh and Orissa. Big protest march being organized in cities like Kolkata, Bhubaneswar, Ranchi, Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Raipur, Delhi, Mumbai etc. to oppose SEZs and eviction of tribes and other peasantry. Nandigram and Singur successfully resisted in the move of multinational and corporate houses backed by the State Govt. The exploitation by imperialist powers in our country is facilitated and promoted by Indian big bourgeoisie and big landlords and respective govt. at the centre and the states.
The condition in the agrarian sector is even more alarming. Millions of peasant families have gone bankrupt. Rising cost of seed, fertilizer and power coupled with non-remunerative price of farm products and vagaries of weather has created this alarming situation of the agrarian sector. Recurring droughts and floods and absence of any insurance and/or any other social security has rendered the peasantry bankrupt. Peasant indebtedness in the hands of private money lenders at very high interest rates has deepened their exploitation leading to destitution. Fertilizer is being imported due to closure of large number of fertilizer factories by the government.
The MNC are selling their seeds and fertilizers at very high cost. Nearly 80 % of farming land does not have assured irrigation facility. The cumulative outcome of all these factors is that agriculture contributes only 20% of the GDP of our country today. On the other hand, 60% of the populace is dependent upon the farm sector for its survival. These factors are sufficient to explain the pauperization of the peasantry and large scale migration of the agrarian populace towards developed urban and industrial centers. Due to large scale corruption, funds earmarked for the welfare of the village community hardly reaches to them. A small section of middle men and bureaucrats are fattened by plundering of the development and welfare fund earmarked for the rural areas have become contractors and middlemen to deal with the development and welfare funds provisioned by the government. This class has benefited and enriched at the cost of vast rural masses. 60 years of development in general and 16 years of development under Globalization in particular has created a situation where India has the largest number of Billionaires in Asia (53) on the one hand and maximum number of poor and starved people in any single country on the other.
In the present Parliament 300MPs are crorepatis and 3 are billionaires. The Parliament has turned into a club of the rich. Hardly anything meaningful in the interest of the common is ever seriously discussed and debated there. Ministers, MPs and legislative assemblies have become commission agents of big corporate houses and MNCs. In this way we see that in our country the present social, economic and political system serves the interest of comprador big bourgeoisie, big land lords and imperialist powers at the cost of brutal exploitation of the working population i.e. the workers, the peasants and different petty bourgeois classes (intelligentsia and other middle-classes).
This situation makes it clear that the principal contradiction in our country is the alliance of imperialism, feudalism and comprador big bourgeoisie on the one hand vs. the broad masses of the Indian people on the other. This alliance was found during the British rule in India. Indian big bourgeoisie and big land lords served the British colonial interest and received a part of the booty from the imperialist masters.
In 1947, the British imperialism was forced to get out of India due to surging and busting movements of Indian people in different part of the country. To avoid revolutionary takeover of power by the Indian people, British colonialists entered in to agreement with bourgeoisies and landlord classes of India to hand over power at the expense of common Indian people. This is how transfer of power took place in 1947.
Thus, India changed from a colonial and semi-feudal country into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country. The Principal contradiction changed from being British imperialism vs. the broad masses of Indian people into alliance of Imperialism, Feudalism and Comprador Bureaucratic Capitalism vs. broad Masses of Indian people.
In the present Parliament 300MPs are crorepatis and 3 are billionaires. The Parliament has turned into a club of the rich. Hardly anything meaningful in the interest of the common is ever seriously discussed and debated there. Ministers, MPs and legislative assemblies have become commission agents of big corporate houses and MNCs. In this way we see that in our country the present social, economic and political system serves the interest of comprador big bourgeoisie, big land lords and imperialist powers at the cost of brutal exploitation of the working population i.e. the workers, the peasants and different petty bourgeois classes (intelligentsia and other middle-classes).
This situation makes it clear that the principal contradiction in our country is the alliance of imperialism, feudalism and comprador big bourgeoisie on the one hand vs. the broad masses of the Indian people on the other. This alliance was found during the British rule in India. Indian big bourgeoisie and big land lords served the British colonial interest and received a part of the booty from the imperialist masters.
In 1947, the British imperialism was forced to get out of India due to surging and busting movements of Indian people in different part of the country. To avoid revolutionary takeover of power by the Indian people, British colonialists entered in to agreement with bourgeoisies and landlord classes of India to hand over power at the expense of common Indian people. This is how transfer of power took place in 1947.
Thus, India changed from a colonial and semi-feudal country into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country. The Principal contradiction changed from being British imperialism vs. the broad masses of Indian people into alliance of Imperialism, Feudalism and Comprador Bureaucratic Capitalism vs. broad Masses of Indian people.
2nd September 2011.
==========================================================================
