All India Peoples' Literary Forum - Declaration.
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Art and literature reflect our joys, sorrows, hardships, anger, feelings and opinions. They are not the creations of a few talented individuals as some people assume, but a product of toil, creative work and struggle waged by crores of human beings for life. They are most effective tools to mirror social realities, influence the consciousness of people, sharpen their thinking and move them into action.
Since ages, the art and literature had been either breathing life into dying social forces or lending support and strength to the new and progressive social forces. The art and literature taking the side of dying social forces enjoyed all the patronage from the then rulers. Yet, they gradually lost ground and ultimately rejected by the people owing to their reactionary nature. On the other side, the progressive art and literature encountered many odds. But they had grown in strength as they stood by the new progressive social forces and enjoyed the affection, admiration and support of the people.
Today, imperialism dominates the world through its policies of so called liberalisation, globalisation and domination. The imperialists in general and US imperialism in particular are engaged in loot, plunder and control of economic, natural and human resources in an all out manner and on a global scale. They are blatantly violating the rights of nations, interfering in their affairs, resorting to threats, armed invasions to impose their domination over the world and in the name of fighting terrorism, restoring democracies and protecting peace and security in the world. They are grooming and spreading most retrogressive and reactionary ideologies, racist, chauvinist, communal, anarchist and criminal forces and tendencies and activities in their attempt to divide, divert, and suppress the people struggling for liberation, democracy, peace and socialism.
The end of colonial rule did not open up the conditions for an all round development of progressive literature and art in our country. The semi- colonial, semi- feudal social conditions continued to persist and distort every aspect of life. These conditions offered a fertile soil for the imperialists to transplant the poisonous weeds of their decadent ideas and culture in the minds of people and thus perpetuate their plunder and oppression in India. On their part, the forces representing semi- feudal economic and social relations found a powerful prop in this imperialist culture to keep themselves alive and hold back the development of democratic forces and culture.
Imperialism has reduced all human activity pursuit of marginal utility. It commercialised and dehumanised the noblest human values and intimate human relations. Most of the life is commodified. The peoples minds are being moulded and controlled to suit the needs of imperialist loot and oppression. Today the education, research, media, literature, art and culture are under the attack of imperialist culture. The tendencies like slavishly eulogizing and imitating western culture; infatuation for English, denigration of ones own Mother tongue, addiction to consumerism, atomic individualism; fancy for the degenerated cultural mode of US, selfish, casual, irresponsible attitudes towards problem of life and society; drug addiction, pub and porno culture, treating women as objects of gratification, vulgarisation in advertising, cinema and media; hedonism, spreading religious hatred, particularly against Muslims in the name of war between religions and civilisation are being nurtured and spread in India. All there are nothing but a part of imperialist culture. In this process. The minds of our people are being polluted and poisoned with a view to culturally disarm the people and social forces. The imperialists are funding countless agencies (NGOs included) using thousand and one methods and ideologies like Post Modernism to wage open and hidden attacks to confuse, shatter confidence, fragmentize and dismantle progressive ideals, scientific ideologies, democratic and national aspirations,the peoples movements and their leaderships. The Indian rulers who are committed to serve imperialism are extending all their services to them.
Feudalism is historically an outdated social system in the world. However in the absence of thorough going democratic reforms in India, our people continue to suffer from feudal exploitation and oppression. They continue to be enshackled by the feudal culture in old and new forms. The caste system continues in India with all its ugly features like untouchability, caste discrimination and oppression. Atrocities continue unabatedly against dalits, adivasis and women. The ruling classes, with their upper caste chauvinism are perpetuating caste divisions among the people. Patriarchal system continue to condemn the women folk to inequality, discrimination and oppression. Refusing to see the productive labour as the real source of knowledge, creativity and skills all blind beliefs are being spread in the name of spiritualism. Unscientific and irrational ideas, beliefs, customs, traditions and practices are sustained through religious, educational and cultural activities and in the name of respecting ancient culture and heritage. The ruling classes are competing to use the individual beliefs to enhance innocence, backwardness and feelings of insecurity among the people, build a divine industry and keep the people perpetually diverted from their problems. All these are only a part of the feudal culture.
Thus the decadent imperialist culture and retrogressive feudal culture separately as well as in collusion continue to distort and hold back the progress of democratic, national, and progressive forces and culture in our country.
Our people have a rich heritage of resisting the imperialist and feudal culture. Since 1936, the progressive forces in our country have been carrying on organized efforts to develop a progressive literary movement. These efforts had created an immense and valuable wealth of literature. They provided a proper orientation to understand that the real and inexhaustible source and roots for the literary and artistic creations lie nowhere but in the society, life struggles of workers. other oppressed and toiling people. They also taught the writers and artists how to study and analyse the social life, contradictions and struggles between the dying and new social forces and develop literary and artistic creations which can be most effective in giving impetus and strength to the new social forces. In its long journey, the progressive literary movement had touched highest peaks, faced ups and downs and also suffered various deviations. On the whole, it made glorious contributions and added rich experiences to the treasure house of literary movement which are most valuable for the present movement.
Today the Peoples Literary Movement represents the aspirations, urges and struggles of workers, peasants, middle classes and other oppressed people for social and cultural changes in our society. It is faced with the challenge of liberating our people from the shackles of decadent imperialist culture and retrogressive feudal culture and paving the way for a democratic, independent, secular and prosperous India. Experience shows that a new democratic society alone can guarantee such conditions and clear the road for our people to advance towards a society free from inequality, exploitation, oppression and war. Hence :
1. We commit ourselves to develop the literary and cultural movement in our country guided by the social objective of ending the imperialist and feudal exploitation and oppression in our country.
2. We declare ourselves as the inheritors of all humanist and progressive literature, art and culture developed by the oppressed and toiling masses of people in India as well as the world in he course of their struggle for democracy, liberation, socialism and peace.
3. We own the democratic and patriotic values that are reflected in the Indian culture, art and literature in the past taking inspiration from the First War of Independence in 1857 and even earlier, various struggles and uprising including Telangana, Naxalbari and all the struggles of peasants, workers, adivasis, women, students, youth, dalits, minorities and middle classes all through the history of our great country.
4. We own the contribution various nationalities of our country to the wealth of progressive, democratic culture, art and literature. We respect their distinctive features and forms and strive to enrich further their anti-feudal and anti-imperialist content.
5. We oppose religious fanaticism, fundamentalism, inequality and discrimination, secular and scientific culture, and use the literary and art forms to strengthen the unity of oppressed and ethnicities.
6. We are of the view that any given language is a wonderful product of collective and productive labour of entire people inhabiting a common geographical area. It is breath and soul of people and every nationality. It embodies the saga of their lives, their struggles, their victories and failures, hopes and sorrows. It is a vehicle of their culture, history and intellectual attainment.
Mother tongue is the best and effective means of communication and medium of acquiring knowledge and skills. Imposing English disregarding the spoken dialects of people is a cultural crime against the broad masses of people. We demand the mother tongue be made the medium of instruction at all levels of education and in the conduct of administration so that common people can have the access to knowledge and affairs of the country.
We recognise equality of all languages. We are opposed to littling other languages. We are recognise one's right learn any language of his/ her choice including English, but not at the expense of mother tongue.
With hundreds of rich and varied languages and dialects India look like a beautiful garden of flowers.. The ruling classes are doing everything to erect hurdles on the way of an all round development of Indian languages. They are using the presence of many languages in India to weaken unity, rouse the feelings of inequality and antagonisms among the toiling and oppressed people of different nationalities.We help all languages to blossom freely and in an allround manner and strengthen unity and bondage among the oppressed and toiling people of all nationalities on the basis of equality of all languages and in the course of their common struggle against feudalism and imperialism in the country.
7. We have great literature both ancient and modern in all languages of our vast country which has creatively reflected and recorded the life and struggles of our people. We consider it as our task to feed on their great traditions and use them to serve the needs of progressive social changes in our country today. Other creative art forms of expression, namely dance, music, theatre, graphic arts, etc also need to be equally cultivated and enriched. Innumerable rich and varied folk art forms developed by the peoples artistes are a great source to develop new art forms to serve the needs of present day peoples' struggles. These popular art forms have great potential to motivate the vast illiterate and exploited masses to achieve fundamental changes in the present society. We are committed to develop and widely use them.
8. We avail the experiences of life and struggles of the oppressed and toiling people. We stand by them in their sufferings, joys and struggles. We utilise every opportunity to integrate ourselves with them, study closely, feel and analyse their sufferings, aspirations and struggles and use the same as the content of our literary and artistic creations. We believe that ultimately it is the people who are the builders of their own life and future.
9. We reach out to the people with our artistic and literary creations and integrate with them totally to add strength and momentum to the struggle of people to end the present opressive system.
10. We declare to make serious efforts with renewed vigour to rally and unite wider sections of writers and artistes into an All India Peoples' Literary and Cultural Movement.
11. We extend our solidarity to the struggles of toiling and oppressed people in various countries of the world for democracy, independence and for a society free from exploitation, oppression and war. We oppose the acts of intervention, bullying, armed invasions and war indulged in by the imperialists in general and US imperialists in particular to impose their plunderous and oppressive control and domination over the economic, natural and human resources of other countries across the world.
This we declare, will be the befitting response to the ever intensifying cultural onslaughts of imperialism and the frenzied attempts of other forces of reaction to hold back the progressive march of Indian people.
Artists and Writers for the Peoples Culture Unite! Unite!!
Long live Peoples' Culture!
Glory to Peoples' Movements!
LONG LIVE THE PEOPLES' LITERARY AND CULTURAL MOVEMENT.
{Improved and finalised in the light of discussions held on the basis of a draft in the All India Meet of Peoples Literary Forum held in Kolkata, West Bengal.}
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….............................................................................................
Art and literature reflect our joys, sorrows, hardships, anger, feelings and opinions. They are not the creations of a few talented individuals as some people assume, but a product of toil, creative work and struggle waged by crores of human beings for life. They are most effective tools to mirror social realities, influence the consciousness of people, sharpen their thinking and move them into action.
Since ages, the art and literature had been either breathing life into dying social forces or lending support and strength to the new and progressive social forces. The art and literature taking the side of dying social forces enjoyed all the patronage from the then rulers. Yet, they gradually lost ground and ultimately rejected by the people owing to their reactionary nature. On the other side, the progressive art and literature encountered many odds. But they had grown in strength as they stood by the new progressive social forces and enjoyed the affection, admiration and support of the people.
Today, imperialism dominates the world through its policies of so called liberalisation, globalisation and domination. The imperialists in general and US imperialism in particular are engaged in loot, plunder and control of economic, natural and human resources in an all out manner and on a global scale. They are blatantly violating the rights of nations, interfering in their affairs, resorting to threats, armed invasions to impose their domination over the world and in the name of fighting terrorism, restoring democracies and protecting peace and security in the world. They are grooming and spreading most retrogressive and reactionary ideologies, racist, chauvinist, communal, anarchist and criminal forces and tendencies and activities in their attempt to divide, divert, and suppress the people struggling for liberation, democracy, peace and socialism.
The end of colonial rule did not open up the conditions for an all round development of progressive literature and art in our country. The semi- colonial, semi- feudal social conditions continued to persist and distort every aspect of life. These conditions offered a fertile soil for the imperialists to transplant the poisonous weeds of their decadent ideas and culture in the minds of people and thus perpetuate their plunder and oppression in India. On their part, the forces representing semi- feudal economic and social relations found a powerful prop in this imperialist culture to keep themselves alive and hold back the development of democratic forces and culture.
Imperialism has reduced all human activity pursuit of marginal utility. It commercialised and dehumanised the noblest human values and intimate human relations. Most of the life is commodified. The peoples minds are being moulded and controlled to suit the needs of imperialist loot and oppression. Today the education, research, media, literature, art and culture are under the attack of imperialist culture. The tendencies like slavishly eulogizing and imitating western culture; infatuation for English, denigration of ones own Mother tongue, addiction to consumerism, atomic individualism; fancy for the degenerated cultural mode of US, selfish, casual, irresponsible attitudes towards problem of life and society; drug addiction, pub and porno culture, treating women as objects of gratification, vulgarisation in advertising, cinema and media; hedonism, spreading religious hatred, particularly against Muslims in the name of war between religions and civilisation are being nurtured and spread in India. All there are nothing but a part of imperialist culture. In this process. The minds of our people are being polluted and poisoned with a view to culturally disarm the people and social forces. The imperialists are funding countless agencies (NGOs included) using thousand and one methods and ideologies like Post Modernism to wage open and hidden attacks to confuse, shatter confidence, fragmentize and dismantle progressive ideals, scientific ideologies, democratic and national aspirations,the peoples movements and their leaderships. The Indian rulers who are committed to serve imperialism are extending all their services to them.
Feudalism is historically an outdated social system in the world. However in the absence of thorough going democratic reforms in India, our people continue to suffer from feudal exploitation and oppression. They continue to be enshackled by the feudal culture in old and new forms. The caste system continues in India with all its ugly features like untouchability, caste discrimination and oppression. Atrocities continue unabatedly against dalits, adivasis and women. The ruling classes, with their upper caste chauvinism are perpetuating caste divisions among the people. Patriarchal system continue to condemn the women folk to inequality, discrimination and oppression. Refusing to see the productive labour as the real source of knowledge, creativity and skills all blind beliefs are being spread in the name of spiritualism. Unscientific and irrational ideas, beliefs, customs, traditions and practices are sustained through religious, educational and cultural activities and in the name of respecting ancient culture and heritage. The ruling classes are competing to use the individual beliefs to enhance innocence, backwardness and feelings of insecurity among the people, build a divine industry and keep the people perpetually diverted from their problems. All these are only a part of the feudal culture.
Thus the decadent imperialist culture and retrogressive feudal culture separately as well as in collusion continue to distort and hold back the progress of democratic, national, and progressive forces and culture in our country.
Our people have a rich heritage of resisting the imperialist and feudal culture. Since 1936, the progressive forces in our country have been carrying on organized efforts to develop a progressive literary movement. These efforts had created an immense and valuable wealth of literature. They provided a proper orientation to understand that the real and inexhaustible source and roots for the literary and artistic creations lie nowhere but in the society, life struggles of workers. other oppressed and toiling people. They also taught the writers and artists how to study and analyse the social life, contradictions and struggles between the dying and new social forces and develop literary and artistic creations which can be most effective in giving impetus and strength to the new social forces. In its long journey, the progressive literary movement had touched highest peaks, faced ups and downs and also suffered various deviations. On the whole, it made glorious contributions and added rich experiences to the treasure house of literary movement which are most valuable for the present movement.
Today the Peoples Literary Movement represents the aspirations, urges and struggles of workers, peasants, middle classes and other oppressed people for social and cultural changes in our society. It is faced with the challenge of liberating our people from the shackles of decadent imperialist culture and retrogressive feudal culture and paving the way for a democratic, independent, secular and prosperous India. Experience shows that a new democratic society alone can guarantee such conditions and clear the road for our people to advance towards a society free from inequality, exploitation, oppression and war. Hence :
1. We commit ourselves to develop the literary and cultural movement in our country guided by the social objective of ending the imperialist and feudal exploitation and oppression in our country.
2. We declare ourselves as the inheritors of all humanist and progressive literature, art and culture developed by the oppressed and toiling masses of people in India as well as the world in he course of their struggle for democracy, liberation, socialism and peace.
3. We own the democratic and patriotic values that are reflected in the Indian culture, art and literature in the past taking inspiration from the First War of Independence in 1857 and even earlier, various struggles and uprising including Telangana, Naxalbari and all the struggles of peasants, workers, adivasis, women, students, youth, dalits, minorities and middle classes all through the history of our great country.
4. We own the contribution various nationalities of our country to the wealth of progressive, democratic culture, art and literature. We respect their distinctive features and forms and strive to enrich further their anti-feudal and anti-imperialist content.
5. We oppose religious fanaticism, fundamentalism, inequality and discrimination, secular and scientific culture, and use the literary and art forms to strengthen the unity of oppressed and ethnicities.
6. We are of the view that any given language is a wonderful product of collective and productive labour of entire people inhabiting a common geographical area. It is breath and soul of people and every nationality. It embodies the saga of their lives, their struggles, their victories and failures, hopes and sorrows. It is a vehicle of their culture, history and intellectual attainment.
Mother tongue is the best and effective means of communication and medium of acquiring knowledge and skills. Imposing English disregarding the spoken dialects of people is a cultural crime against the broad masses of people. We demand the mother tongue be made the medium of instruction at all levels of education and in the conduct of administration so that common people can have the access to knowledge and affairs of the country.
We recognise equality of all languages. We are opposed to littling other languages. We are recognise one's right learn any language of his/ her choice including English, but not at the expense of mother tongue.
With hundreds of rich and varied languages and dialects India look like a beautiful garden of flowers.. The ruling classes are doing everything to erect hurdles on the way of an all round development of Indian languages. They are using the presence of many languages in India to weaken unity, rouse the feelings of inequality and antagonisms among the toiling and oppressed people of different nationalities.We help all languages to blossom freely and in an allround manner and strengthen unity and bondage among the oppressed and toiling people of all nationalities on the basis of equality of all languages and in the course of their common struggle against feudalism and imperialism in the country.
7. We have great literature both ancient and modern in all languages of our vast country which has creatively reflected and recorded the life and struggles of our people. We consider it as our task to feed on their great traditions and use them to serve the needs of progressive social changes in our country today. Other creative art forms of expression, namely dance, music, theatre, graphic arts, etc also need to be equally cultivated and enriched. Innumerable rich and varied folk art forms developed by the peoples artistes are a great source to develop new art forms to serve the needs of present day peoples' struggles. These popular art forms have great potential to motivate the vast illiterate and exploited masses to achieve fundamental changes in the present society. We are committed to develop and widely use them.
8. We avail the experiences of life and struggles of the oppressed and toiling people. We stand by them in their sufferings, joys and struggles. We utilise every opportunity to integrate ourselves with them, study closely, feel and analyse their sufferings, aspirations and struggles and use the same as the content of our literary and artistic creations. We believe that ultimately it is the people who are the builders of their own life and future.
9. We reach out to the people with our artistic and literary creations and integrate with them totally to add strength and momentum to the struggle of people to end the present opressive system.
10. We declare to make serious efforts with renewed vigour to rally and unite wider sections of writers and artistes into an All India Peoples' Literary and Cultural Movement.
11. We extend our solidarity to the struggles of toiling and oppressed people in various countries of the world for democracy, independence and for a society free from exploitation, oppression and war. We oppose the acts of intervention, bullying, armed invasions and war indulged in by the imperialists in general and US imperialists in particular to impose their plunderous and oppressive control and domination over the economic, natural and human resources of other countries across the world.
This we declare, will be the befitting response to the ever intensifying cultural onslaughts of imperialism and the frenzied attempts of other forces of reaction to hold back the progressive march of Indian people.
Artists and Writers for the Peoples Culture Unite! Unite!!
Long live Peoples' Culture!
Glory to Peoples' Movements!
LONG LIVE THE PEOPLES' LITERARY AND CULTURAL MOVEMENT.
{Improved and finalised in the light of discussions held on the basis of a draft in the All India Meet of Peoples Literary Forum held in Kolkata, West Bengal.}
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