Naxalites should lay down their arms and challenge the ruling class to abide by the Constitution
NB: This is the third piece I have written concerning the 50th anniversary of Naxalbari. It appeared today (June 5,2017) in the Indian Express website. The first appeared in CatchNews and was entitled Annihilation. The second, entitled Yesterday
once more - 50 years after Naxalbari, was published in Outlook. Here is a post about a trip to Naxalbari in 2015 that I made in the company of my old and dear comrades. Also relevant is the text of an open letter which I wrote in December 1971, protesting against the stand taken by China and the CPI (ML) on the Bangladesh crisis - DS
The inheritors of Naxalism should challenge the ruling class to abide by the Constitution
We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn - Mary Catherine Bateson
Age catches up with everyone, and it’s been no different for ageing hippies and the Beatles generation. For some of us however, the half-century since Naxalbari has been the marker of a lifetime. Retired Naxals are unlikely to reach the centenary; so it was inevitable that we would be asked to write op-ed pieces for the media. As it happened, the Maoists killed 25 CRPF personnel in late April - a bloody anniversary in a violent history. Whatever happened to official conflict resolution? And to the red flag that Charu Mazumdar had prophesied would fly over Red Fort by 1975?
The inheritors of Naxalism should challenge the ruling class to abide by the Constitution
We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn - Mary Catherine Bateson
Age catches up with everyone, and it’s been no different for ageing hippies and the Beatles generation. For some of us however, the half-century since Naxalbari has been the marker of a lifetime. Retired Naxals are unlikely to reach the centenary; so it was inevitable that we would be asked to write op-ed pieces for the media. As it happened, the Maoists killed 25 CRPF personnel in late April - a bloody anniversary in a violent history. Whatever happened to official conflict resolution? And to the red flag that Charu Mazumdar had prophesied would fly over Red Fort by 1975?
I’ve
heard the phrase peace process from childhood
- with reference to the Sino-Indian conflict, Vietnam, the Cold War, Biafra,
Egypt-Israel, Palestine, India-Pakistan, Iran-Iraq, Yugoslavia etc. All were -
or still are - embroiled in a ‘peace process.’ Not to mention the never-ending Hindu-Muslim
peace process. Then there was Naxalbari. Thereby hangs a story which I have
related elsewhere, so will not recount here. But to begin on a tangent -
radical wisdom was that everything is political. We used to say everything has
a class character. I gradually learned otherwise. Truth does not have a
class character; nor do love, laughter, grief and conscience. If they are rendered political they
cease being what they are; and we would already be in an Orwellian
universe. Air and water and grass are neither Hindu nor Muslim, neither
proletarian nor bourgeois. But yes, extremist ideologies are fast becoming the
opiate of choice for desperate people. If ‘the centre cannot hold’, it is
because truth is fragile and of no use to anyone except in distorted bits and
pieces. We refuse to stand on our own two feet. What sense may we make of this
situation?
Bright future etc. The Russian existentialist Nicolai Berdayev (exiled in
1922) said of communism that “what is most terrible in it is the mixture of truth and falsehood."
We might rephrase this as the interplay of sociology and utopia. But this is a
feature of ideology as such, not just its communist version. Ideologies combine
carefully selected verifiable elements with dreams and promises. Their
sociological features pertain to real socio-economic problems and conflicts.
The utopian feature assures us of a dream-like solution to those problems; a
promise made by a vanguard which will lead us to the glorious new dawn.
There is a further dimension, the impulse towards geopolitical
reality. Historically this was expressed in projects such as the Crusades,
dar-ul-Islam, Lebensraum etc. or even the American Century, now drawing to a
close. The New Medina, Khalistan and Hindu Rashtra fall in the same category,
as does Isis, the latest manifestation of Islamic utopia. A century ago, the
Bolshevik regime declared itself an armed camp of the world proletariat. The
People’s Republic of China in its earlier phase saw itself as the red base for
world revolution. In each of these cases we see a fragment of world spirit
aspiring to unity, a part of humanity declaring itself the whole. These are dreams
wherein the dreamer believes himself to be awake in contrast to ordinary
mortals who are asleep. And in each the impulse to violent assertion is
paramount, because only via murderous passion can such movements gain momentum.
Eternal drum-beat Militarism is the secret of eternal warfare, to which
capitalism has accommodated itself. There’s money to be made in conflict, ask
any arms dealer, or foreign ministry. This is the ground shared by enemies,
upon which every victory is a defeat for humanity. But what if there is inertia to violent
conflict, fuelled by psychological, ideological and economic factors? As in the
impulse to revenge, doctrinal cussedness, combined with material benefit to
some major decision-makers? What if the peace process is a chimera?
Militarism has a long tradition in India, evidenced most clearly in the
activities of revolutionary terrorist groups such as Anusilan and Jugantar. Communal
ideologies too, were obsessed with civil war. In November 1947 an AICC
resolution warned that ‘the activities of
the Muslim National Guards, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the Akali
Volunteers and such other organizations… represent an endeavour to bring into
being private armies, (and) must be regarded as a menace to the hard-won
freedom of the country.’ The proliferation of private armies after
1947 has proven the foresight of this warning. These formations include the
Sunlight Sena, Khalistani groups, the Ranvir Sena, the Bajrang Dal, ULFA and
jehadi groups in Kashmir and elsewhere.
All paramilitaries enjoy some degree of protection by legal
parties. In the early 1980’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi saw fit to encourage extremist
activists in Punjab (Bhindranwale) as did her successor in Sri Lanka (the LTTE).
The carnage that followed her assassination in November 1984 opened the
floodgates of state-sponsored hooliganism and the blatant subversion of
justice. In Chhattisgarh, the BJP and Congress jointly supported the vigilante
Salwa Judum to terrorise those who dared resist the takeover of mineral-rich
lands by corporates. Despite a Supreme Court order in 2011 disbanding it, this
state-supported vigilante force continues under a different name. Such is the
respect for law shown by our political leaders.
The paramilitary RSS has forged a far more sophisticated
method of overthrowing the Indian Constitution than the Maoists. This method is
based on V. D. Savarkar’s directive of 1942, asking Hindutva cadre to
infiltrate the organs of state. But it relies more upon ideological conviction
than organizational affiliation. During the Babri Masjid demolition campaign, a
retired DGP joined the VHP and called for India’s Muslims to be stripped of
voting rights. This campaign cost the lives of some 1500 citizens in 1990 and
3000 in 1992. In the year 2000 retired CBI Director extolled the Bajrang Dal’s activities
at its annual function. The Modi regime has afforded impunity to vigilantism in
the garb of ‘love jihad’, ‘Bharat Mata’ and cow protection. Criminal cases related
to terror attacks have been soft-pedaled where they involve RSS cadre.
Interference with criminal justice has been attested to by the prosecutor
Rohini Salian; and includes the Malegaon and Samjhauta cases. The Hindutva
lobby has used official clout to unleash captive mobs, hate-speech, push RSS cadre
into state institutions and suborn the security forces. The latter practice was
noted by the Union Home Ministry in its February 1948 order banning the RSS
after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.
Elephant in the
drawing room It is time for the establishment to shift its gaze
briefly from the stock-market and ask itself what it objects to in Naxalite
activity. Is it lawlessness and contempt for the Constitution? But does
Naxalism hold a monopoly on lawlessness? Every mainstream party carries a
burden in this regard. Not just the Congress and BJP/RSS, powerful state
parties too are culpable. The CPI (M) dispatched a vigilante force to Nandigram
on two occasions in 2007. Killer gangs of the CPI (M) and the RSS operate in
Kerala. Isn’t there a problem when people in authority misuse formal power to
promote violence? The appearance on April 10, 2016 of Gujarat ex-DIG Vanzara,
accused of engineering a fake encounter, on a podium with RSS leader Mohan
Bhagwat signals something sinister – the relentless
effort by the RSS to abolish the distinction between legal and illegal violence.
Those who want Maoist violence to stop must tell us what
happens to their conscience in the face of the RSS’s contempt for the rule of
law. The Sangh defends itself by flaunting its patriotism. But Naxalites are nationalists
– they see themselves as political inheritors of Bhagat Singh. When the Home
Minister denounces the Sukma incident as cold-blooded murder, he needs to be reminded
that that his political allies have been murdering people on some pretext or
other on a regular basis. Was not the murder of Pehlu Khan cold-blooded? Did
not the NHRC indict the Chhatisgarh police in January for sexual violence
against Adivasis? Did not RSS affiliates attack a police station in UP on April
23 and beat up policemen, even entering the residence of an IPS officer on one
occasion? Does anyone believe that ‘the law will take its own course’ in these
matters? We are on the verge of becoming an entirely lawless state, and who,
pray, is responsible for this?
Undoubtedly there are police officers, magistrates and
judges committed to constitutional norms. But it is clear that the Modi government and the RSS are interested in securing an ideological bias within
the criminal justice system. Why are murder trials involving Hindutva activists
collapsing? Why was Judge Jyotsna Yagnik (who convicted Maya Kodnani and Babu
Bajrangi) threatened and her protection withdrawn? Why was Rohini Salian asked
to go slow on the Malegaon prosecutions? Why is the ruling party sponsoring an
assault on judicial independence? Do we want the government of India to fall
under the dictatorship of an ideology?
The Sangh Parivar and its supporters should understand
this simple truth: the ideological corruption of justice will destroy India’s
reputation as a law-governed democracy. Whatever the stock-brokers, contractors
and corporate managers might think of this, the erosion of this reputation will
drive India’s laboring classes and ordinary citizens toward desperation; and
generate future insurgencies. Violence is an outcome of humiliation, not of
poverty. Those dreaming of Hindu Rashtra should study the ongoing disaster in the
Nizam-i-Mustafa next door. Akhand Bharat and Hindu Rashtra are mutually
exclusive ideals – if you get one, forget the other. If you love India, call
off your hooligans and practice the non-violence that you preach to Naxalites.
Naxalism Naxalite insurgency in India is propelled by three
factors – the brutal injustice experienced by the rural poor; the vested
interest of a powerful section of the establishment; and the utopian ideology
of Maoist intelligentsia, compounded by the criminalization and logistical
inertia of their military machine. The three work in tandem. Each is well
documented - we need only recapitulate the 1986 Arwal massacre, the activities
of the Ranvir Sena and Salwa Judum; the thousands of tribals in prison, the
numerous allegations of unpunished molestation. The scale of the humiliation
undergone by the working population has to be acknowledged in order to understand
insurgency. The Naxalite project will never succeed, but neither will
insurgency disappear. Indian justice is a manufactory for insurgents. A major
factor is that many powerful persons want it to continue. Thus, as recently as
December 2014, a retiring DG of the CRPF stated that the continuation of Naxalite
violence was beneficial for some state governments covetous of central
funds. This has been corroborated by observers within the state apparatus.
However, people want the chance to get on with their
lives –they want justice, but not at the cost of perpetual conflict. The
comrades may well dream of going down in a heroic flame, but have no right to
impose that dream upon others. Insurgent violence leads only to trauma and the
desire for revenge. Dreams of liberation get smothered in cruelty; warfare mutates
into a self-propelling automaton. The numbers of ordinary persons killed by
Maoists is legion, but we may simply recall the names of tribal policemen Francis
Induwar and Lucas Tete, tribal rights activist comrade Kenduka Arjun, NREGA
activist Niyamat Ansari and journalist Nemichand Jain, all murdered between
2009 and 2013. Those interested can pursue the details of these unfortunates.
And the deliberate derailment of the Jnaneswari Express in May 2010 that resulted
in over 140 deaths was a crime that no ideology could possibly justify. Was it
collateral damage? When communist actions become amenable to the Pentagon’s
terminology, we can see militarism for what it is – a doctrine for sociopaths
and a pathway to criminalisation.
Regardless of the ethics of the Maoist leadership, normal
persons can understand why it is the height of irresponsibility to perform
actions whose repercussions you know in advance: lifelong sorrow for families
of the dead; repression upon the civilian population; a handle for the
government to attack journalists and lawyers; onslaughts on democratic
organisations struggling for popular causes; and steady erosion of
constitutional governance. Some commanders like Sabyasachi Panda (arrested in
2014), had realized the futile nature of Naxalite warfare. The point now is
whether the cadre can use their experiences to distinguish between a struggle
for social democracy and a suicidal waste of lives.
Lost opportunities Decades of ‘people’s war’ and the history of Indian
communism have much to teach us. What is the record as regards human rights,
resistance to communal politics and the preservation of democracy? Is it not
clear that a section of the Indian ruling class wants to destroy democracy? Are
the comrades sure that there is no difference between constitutional democracy
and a state under siege by the RSS? India does not need a violent revolution to
overthrow the constitution, but a mass satyagraha to defend it. And that
requires a much greater mental and physical effort than organizing a vigilante
force.
Communists could have made such an effort in other
contexts. Consider what might have happened in 1971 if the communists had made
amends for the disastrous Adhikari resolution of 1942 (that supported the
Muslim League), by initiating a
reassessment of the anti-democratic partition of 1947. The CPI (ML) could have launched
a debate free of the hateful views of communalists, both Muslim and Hindu. But
the leadership was incapable of upsetting Chairman Mao. Dreamers of a
classless society found it too utopian to question the partition of India. Thus
Naxalites became the only Indian party to support Yahya Khan, a bloody tyrant
hated by his own people. Ultra-left communists turned out to be moral and mental zombies.
In 1990, if left-wing groups had set aside their
differences in order to defend the Babri Masjid, they could have prevented the
terrible atrocities unleashed by the communalists. Till this day Indian
communism has produced no thoroughgoing analysis of communalism, the most
grievous political issue for over a century. And, barring honourable examples
(especially from Punjab during the period of Khalistani terrorism), the Naxalite movement has been
reluctant to confront communalists.
Can Naxalites
start afresh? Democracy is a necessity for the workers movement - it is
the ruling class for whom democratic institutions are a nuisance. The proper
functioning of these institutions requires that people be able to exercise
their basic rights without fear. Relief from violence would be a major gain for
oppressed sections of society. Forcing the Indian rulers to implement the constitution
is a major task that will require mass movements on an unprecedented scale; and
statesmanship of a high order. Those who claim to work for the exploited
classes must know that society desperately needs relief from violence. If Maoists
had the courage to cast aside their futile dogma they could regain a decisive
position in national politics.
The inheritors of Naxalism should lay down their arms and
challenge the ruling class to adhere to the Constitution, reform the criminal
justice system, root out corruption; punish the instigators of communal and
caste massacres; disband militias including the armed wings of the RSS; repeal
the SEZ Act; pass the Women’s Reservation Bill and develop the forest and
tribal areas for the benefit of the people rather than corporate interests. Such
a challenge, accompanied by an unconditional promise to stop the violence, will
electrify the political situation. It will place them in a responsible political
position; and save the lives of thousands of ordinary people. Too much blood
has been shed. Violence is predictable, comrades. Fifty years after Naxalbari,
do something unpredictable. It will bring smiles to millions of faces.
Speak the truth
Stop the killing
Also see:
25 CRPF personnel killed in Maoist attack / Some states want Maoism to continue: CRPF chief
Amit Shah and the Toxic Consequences of ‘Clean Chit’ Jurisprudence by Indira Jaising // Yogi Adityanath decides not to sanction the prosecution of Yogi Adityanath
Glory Days, or remembering how Indians love(d) China
In Naxalbari, forty-eight years later25 CRPF personnel killed in Maoist attack / Some states want Maoism to continue: CRPF chief
Amit Shah and the Toxic Consequences of ‘Clean Chit’ Jurisprudence by Indira Jaising // Yogi Adityanath decides not to sanction the prosecution of Yogi Adityanath
Permanent spring: Maoism and the Philosophy of Insurrection (Seminar # 607)
Prajapati encounter case: Gujarat Police inspector Ashish Pandya reinstated in service
Gujarat reinstates another suspended cop after securing bail in Prajapati encounter case
DG Vanzara's letter - Times of India (2013)
Sumana Ramanan - clips of controversial Modi speeches made just after Gujarat riots (2014)
Gujarat reinstates another suspended cop after securing bail in Prajapati encounter case
DG Vanzara's letter - Times of India (2013)
Sumana Ramanan - clips of controversial Modi speeches made just after Gujarat riots (2014)
A letter to Jaitley: Why do students get jailed but RSS leaders who issue vile threats walk freely?