Secular challenge

It is not surprising that the CPM has attributed the recent communal skirmishes in the country...

It is not surprising that the CPM has attributed the recent communal skirmishes in the country, especially the one in Gorakhpur in Uttar Pradesh to the 8220;gameplan of the BJP-RSS combine8221;. In a front page article called 8216;Diabolic RSS plan unfolds8217; in People8217;s Democracy, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat writes that 8220;all sorts of provocations are engineered for violence to be resorted to against the Muslim minorities8221;. According to him, one of the reasons for the violence 8212; in Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala, apart from UP 8212; is the Golwalkar birth centenary functions and Hindu Sammelans.

He also blames the 8216;secular forces8217; for not standing up to this 8220;danger8221;. In UP, he writes, 8220;The Samajwadi Party, the Congress and the BSP are engaged in mutual recriminations, with none of them targeting the BJP which is the main culprit.8221; The test of secular forces, he believes, are those who stand up to the 8220;communal gangsterism unleashed by Adityanath and his cohorts8221;. He says the time has come for the JDU, the JDS and the BJD to dissociate from the BJP-RSS.

1857 once more

In another article in People8217;s Democracy there is praise for Sangh Parivar icon, Veer Savarkar, for his analysis of the Revolt of 1857. In the second piece in the series on the revolt which the CPM weekly has been carrying, Biswamoy Pati writes that by the end of the 19th century the 1857 revolt had attracted and inspired the first generation of Indian nationalists. 8220;V.D. Savarkar, who was perhaps the first Indian to write about the revolt in 1909, called it 8216;The Indian War of Independence of 18578217;. His pro-nationalist stance made Savarkar reject the colonial assertion that linked the Revolt with the greased cartridges,8221; writes Pati in his article 8216;The Revolt and its historiography: An overview8217;. He says the link to the greased cartridges was disproved by Savarkar by pointing to the fact that it could attract such a wide group as Nana Sahib, the emperor of Delhi, Rani of Jhansi and Khan Bahadur Khan, and that the revolt continued even after orders were issued to withdraw the offending cartridges.

There is one criticism, though. 8220;The importance he Savarkar gave to religion illustrates the influence of the imperial writers on him8221;. As for the Congress, Pati says after its formation in 1885, it had 8220;denounced8221; the revolt given the background of its leaders 8220;who were pro-British in their thinking8221;. On the Marxist interpretation of the revolt, by M.N. Roy and Rajni Palme Dutt, Pati analyses Roy as being dismissive as he saw in it 8220;a struggle between the worn out feudal system and the newly produced commercial capitalism8221;. Dutt saw the revolt as a major peasant revolt 8220;fighting to turn back the tide of foreign domination8221;.

Case for industry

West Bengal CPM state secretary Biman Bose, writing against the backdrop of the recent upheaval in the state on securing land for industry, prepares the argument for land acquisition by saying that a 8220;new and fresh opportunity for industrialisation in Bengal has been created of late8221; boosted by its geographical location, the 8220;flourishing ports8221; of Kolkata and Haldia, and the prime minister8217;s Look East policy.

He suggests a united approach against the Right and the 8216;sectarian Left8217;. Asserting that employment opportunities will not grow without industrialisation because with land getting fragmented, and with families growing, income from agriculture would not be enough to support family members of those who had benefited from the redistribution of land. People are sensitive about their land and 8220;we must interact with the small and marginal farmers per se with a great degree of patience. This form of campaign alone will bear fruit and be effective,8221; says Basu while pointing to the success of Haldia Petrochemicals, Bakreswar Thermal Power project and the Salt Lake electronics project.

-Compiled by Ananda Majumdar