We can Rekindle the Vanishing Dreams.
(this article is
from ‘CLASS STRUGGLE’ monthly organ of CPI(ML) Central
Committee)
As we enter into 71
st year of transfer of power, many questions stare at us demanding
answers. Are we able, as a
nation, to heal the wounds of communal partition of Indian
subcontinent? Has the partition attenuated communal frictions as we
were told? Are we able to shed the fetters of imperialism that kept
out motherland enslaved for more than two centuries? When will we
grow into a true democratic state that gives every one voice, for a
society that discards communal, caste and religious prejudice and
discrimination, for an economy that lifts our masses of people out of
poverty and imbues them with scientific temper? Are we really free?
For our generation,
which was born, grew and aged with “independence”, are being
haunted by these questions:
what we have supposed to achieve and what we have actually achieved.
We fought three wars
with our brethren (Don’t call them neighbors). The result: we, on
both sides of the divide,
became client states that are continuously buying armaments and
squandering our precious
resources. This is what precisely the imperialist powers wanted. That
is why the partition defied the logic of geography, history and
culture of the subcontinent.
The partition,
instead of attenuating communal frictions, promoted communalism and
religious fundamentalism
further on both sides of the divide. While Pakistan declared itself
as a Muslim state, India proclaimed itself as a secular state, but,
in reality, acted as a Hindu state. This is what the ruling classes
of both the countries wanted: to maintain status quo in the economic
and political life of people and society by deflecting the growing
anger of people against the ruthless colonial plunder and rule as
reflected in the waves of mass militant strikes, anti- British
mobilizations in the working class centers of Kolkata and Mumbai and
the historic mutiny of Royal Indian Navy sailors.
The reactionary
ruling classes of the sub- continent connived with the British Raj in
its nefarious game of “divide
and rule” and got ‘independence’ as a reward from their
colonial masters. They have inherited and mastered the skill of using
the same card against their people.
These are not the
birth pangs for the emergence of a free nation. They are designed to
stay to shape or deform the future
of the subcontinent. The evidence is there for all to see.
The western media
boasts of India’s rise as the third largest economy for its
capacity to provide cheap labor power
for the world capitalism to exploit. It is so not only of the
industrial labor, but also the
intellectual labor as our professionals are made to provide services
at the cheaper rates. This enriched a tiny stratum. India now has
world’s third largest number of billionaires, while three-quarters
of its 1.3 billion people struggle to survive in abject poverty.
While Indian doctors
are able to provide world class medical services to those who can
afford its costs -
euphemistically called as medial tourism – 321 newborn infants are
dying every year for want of medical attention even for easily
preventable diseases. There are many Gorakhpur's dotting the landscape
of this country.
There is a
phenomenal growth of IITs, IIMs and centers of higher education, but
the quality of education they impart is questionable in the sense of
its suitability to the existing Indian conditions. Many of these
graduates from these premier institutions are leaving India and are
easily adjusting to entirely new conditions of work and life though
they were uprooted from their social milieu.
Through the transfer
of power, the British colonial power cleared the way for the
imperialist financial capital to come into India and occupy
commanding heights in all the sectors of the economy. The drain of
our natural, financial and human resources reached to gigantic proportions. The
country left with no other resources to build itself and serve the
interests of people than roaming the capitals of international
finance with begging bowl. Our ruling classes became so servile the
Donald Trump could order them to spend their surplus in trade with US
to meet the expenses of US imperialism’s war of aggression on
Afghanistan.
The unbroken chains
of feudalism, the mainstay of economic, political and cultural
backwardness of Indian society, are sprouting the seeds of casteism
and communalism, which the ruling classes are using to divide and
oppress the people. The feudal relations are sought to be changed by
the extermination of peasant masses by taking away their land by
forceful means and by economic levers. This is what we are witnessing
today throughout the rural India – the mass suicides by peasants, large
scale migrations, growing class tensions that are leading to physical
attacks on dalits, uprooting of adivasis from their habitat and so
on.
This has led to
stagnation in all fronts. On the economic front unemployment and
poverty are so rampant that the PM Modi shirked from the
responsibility of providing jobs to the youth by calling them to
become job givers rather than job seekers. On the political front the
system failed to provide even a semblance of democracy and magical
solutions are being show-cased for the problems faced by the people.
On the cultural front, all the fetters that hinder the progress –
obscurantism, fanaticism and god men along with decadent capitalist
culture based individual first – are being revived and promoted
through the modern means of communication.
Our youth in the
past used to take pride whenever they heard of leaders of the
national movement over the radio. They now prefer to switch over TV
channel to an idiotic reality show. The political leadership that
boasts about the demographic dividend, meaning predominantly younger
population, utterly fail to ignite imagination and initiative among
the youth. Their rule over the country had vanished the dreams
of the youth – those who took part in the national movement to the
present day.
This is not a
pessimist depiction. The light is shining at the end of tunnel. We
can rekindle the vanishing dreams through the ongoing struggles of
adivasis, dalits and peasantry for land, of the working class for
improvement in their working and living conditions and of the youth
and women for better future. It is the people of these toiling and
oppressed classes that are going to change the destiny of this
country through their struggles for building as new society that is
free from exploitation and oppression.
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