GOD Market, Evolution of God and Global Manusmriti Order of Exclusion!

Indian Holocaust My father`s Life and Time -Three hundred Seventy Eight

Palash Biswas
https://indianholocaustmyfatherslifeandtime.blogspot.com

Since the Phenomenon of Global Capitalism rooted in with Information Technology Boom and Space Mission, Post Modernism set in our Cultural roots.Renaissance followed by Industrial Revolution INVOKED the Sovereignty of Individual focused on Liberty and Liberation. Marxism denied God and Religion and Ideoliged the Concept of withering away of sate and Classless Exploitaionless Society. But the Global Capitalism known as Globalisation conceptualised as Post Modernism Invoked God and ensured Resurgence of Religion leading to God Market!In fact, the Global Order itself is a Global Expansion of Christianity, Zionism and Brahamincal Hindutva!They have killed Genres, Languages, Folk, Nationalities, Identities, Culture, Heritage, Rural, Indigenous and Aboriginal Landscape as well as Production system to achieve the Global agenda of Mass Destruction and Ethnic Cleansing of Excluded communities!

Information Technology and Sovereignty of Market, Science and Modern Life Style, disintegration of Society, Marriage and family should have Wiped out Religion if not the Marxist and Maoist Ideologies. It did not happen but the Global Phenomenon of Exclusion intermingled with Exclusion!God theory, Religion, Rituals and Communalism have been Proved as the Best Tools of Strategic marketing in Iconised and Branded Economy and society.Brahmins may temporarily give up their economic status, but never, ever will they give up their socio-cultural privileges. Because, they know that wealth will come and go — but social and cultural, as well as racial superiority is everlasting.

To understand the Global Phenomenon, AMBEDKARITE studies may be Helpful though Dr. Ambedkar Never did dismiss Religion but Converted himself as Buddhist as he was Fighting to ANNIHILATE the Caste which sustained Manusmriti Rule in Indian subcontinent. Ambedkarite Ideology goes beyond Social or Religious Prospective and Interprets, quite amusingly History with Materialistic Objectivity which has its roots in Charvak Philosophy rejecting the Brahaminical Vedic Social system and religion in ancient times. The Key Stone of Ambedkar Ideology roots in Buddhism and the bloodless Revolution of Gautam Buddha. Moreover,Dr. Ambedkar was the First Economist who did recognise the Nature Associated Aboriginal and Indigenous Communities as Working Class. He Highlighted the Discrimination based on EXCLUSION under Caste System,Manusmriti Order and Brahaminical system. But he dealt Capitalism with his writings for example Problem of Rupee, Revenue Management and human Resource Management. Moreover, Dr Ambedkar was the Man who as the Labour Minister under Raj did ensure Rights for Women as Worker and Human Being in the society as well as Economy. He was the Pioneer of Indian Trade Union Movement and Labour Rights! Unfortunately, Post Ambedkarite Movement deviated form the Line of Annihilation of Caste and Evolved CASTEOLOGY to invent favourable Equations and Chemistry of Powerful castes and communities to snatch Power or Share Power in the Brahaminical System sustaining the Manusmriti Rule.Deviating from Ambedkarite Economics, Post Ambedkarite Movement Missed the elements of Resistance against the Global Phenomenon in Ambedkarite Ideology!

This Deviation not only sustained the age Old caste system and caste based Discrimination, Racial Apartheid in India, but eventually it helped a lot in the Process of Resurgence of Brahaminical Vedic Religion and God.In fact, Globalisation has become the face of God Market! It is the Capitalist Evolution of God.

Excluded communities contributed to this Phenomenon most as Baba Ramdev leads Indian Brahamincal order of Saints affiliated to RSS!Goa, a cheap liquor destination, is shedding its image as a land of tipplers, claim NGOs which maintain that several people are skipping their glass of booze.

Alcoholics Anonymous, the liquor de-addiction support group, and Swami Ramdev's Patanjali Yog Samiti are counseling and persuading people to kick the bottle forever.

Book Summary of God Market, The: How Globalisation Is Making India More Hindu

As India's economy has liberalized, so too has it become Hinduized. Middle-class Indians are becoming actively religious as they are becoming prosperous. The last decade has seen the proliferation of powerful new god-men, a massive rise in temple rituals, the creation of new gods, and the increased demand for priests. Hinduism has entered public life as well with politicians regularly using pujas and yajnas in their campaigning. The state is enabling this Hinduization with the help of the private sector. From actively promoting religious tourism, to handing over higher education to private sector institutions, some of whom use religious trusts to run these institutions and impart 'value-based' education, to giving away land at highly subsidized rates to gurus and god-men, many of the privatization measures of the government are linked with the promotion of Hinduism. Why has this happened? What does it mean? And does this spell the death of Indian secularism? In this eye-opening book, Meera Nanda looks at the rise of popular Hinduism and uncovers, for the first time, the nexus between the state, temple and corporate India, and the ugly truth behind India's leap into globalization and economic reforms. She argues that india is creating its own, insidious form of fundamentalism, one that can lead the country into grave danger. Hard-hitting and controversial, full of fascinating facts, The God Market is essential reading for all citizens.

About the Author
Meera Nanda writes on science and religion. She is a philosopher of science with initial training in biology. She has received research fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the John Templeton Foundation, USA. She is a visiting fellow (2009–10) at the Jawaharlal Institute of Advanced Studies, JNU. She is the author of the award-winning book, Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodernism, Science, and Hindu Nationalism.

http://www.flipkart.com/book/god-market-meera-nanda-globalisation/8184000952

Renowned yoga guru Swami Ramdev and his disciples are making efforts to bring a difference in the lives of people by encouraging them to leave the habit.

"People can achieve freedom from diseases and addictions through yoga. From the time we started our classes in Goa, the liquor consumption has gone down tremendously," Ramdev told reporters during a recent visit to the state.

"We get boys as young as 19 years old who want to leave alcohol. We talk to them and get connected to the thought of leaving alcohol," Edmond C, a member of international NGO Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), said.

The NGO has around 66 active groups in the tourist state engaged in reaching out to the people addicted to alcohol.

"It's not an easy task. When we speak to the people, we usually go in a group of two or more. Many a time we are verbally abused and sent back," Edmond, who was an alcoholic earlier, said.

Edmond (67) is one of the most senior AA members and is associated with the NGO since 1982. He got to know about AA when he was in Mumbai.

The coastal state, touted as land of fun and fenny (local liquor) has around 9,000 licenced bars and an equal number of unlicensed outlets.

"It's not a difficult task to be an AA member. You need to be honest to yourself and be convinced that drinking habit will lead you nowhere," Edmond said.

The NGO offers no medical therapy. The detoxification is initiated through personal experience shared by former alcoholics.

"When someone patiently hears what others went through due to alcohol then he makes a conscious decision and effort not to touch the bottle," Edmond noted.

AA's campaign has got a shot in the arm with the Church, which wields considerable influence in Goa, extending support.

Caste-wise census a must over Dalit issue: HC

Chennai Madras High Court on Thursday issued a fresh direction to the Centre to conduct caste-wise census in the country.

Allowing a PIL by lawyer R Krishnamoorthy, a Division Bench yesterday directed the Census Commissioner to take all steps to hold caste-wise enumeration.

The bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Elipe Dharma Rao and Justice T S Sivagnanam said the relief sought by the petitioner had already been answered in the affirmative by the court in an earlier verdict on a writ petition.

In its October 2009 judgement, the court had noted that after 1931 there had never been any caste-wise enumeration or tabulation.

"When there cannot be any dispute that there is an increase in the population of Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe and Other Backward Classes manifold after 1931, the percentage of reservation fixed on the basis of population in 1931 has to be proportionately increased by conducting caste-wise census," it had then held.

SIT submits report in SC on Modi's role in Guj riots

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the alleged role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in post-Godhra killing of ex-Congress MP Ehasan Jafri submitted its report to the Supreme Court.

The SIT chief and former CBI Director R K Raghavan submitted the report in a sealed cover to the SC registry as directed by the apex court in its May 6 order.

The SIT had earlier sought time for submitting the report as it wanted to question VHP International president Praveen Togadia who was last week questioned by the SIT which had earlier questioned Modi and several other persons named in the complaint lodged by the slain MP's wife Zakia.

The apex court had on April 27, 2009, asked the SIT to look into the complaint of Zakia about the alleged role of Modi and others in Gulbarg Housing Society killing in which the former MP was burnt alive along with several others during the post Godhra 2002 communal riots in Gujarat.

Modi was earlier grilled by the apex court-appointed Special Investigation Team on his alleged role in the 2002 killing of Jafri as the deceased, according to the complaint, had made frantic calls for help to police and the Chief Minister.

The Gujarat government had in a subsequent affidavit in the apex court questioned the SIT's power to summon Modi for interrogation.

Earlier on May 6, the Supreme Court had restrained the trial court from pronouncing its judgement in 2002 post-Godhra communal riots cases but refused to stay the ongoing trial, as sought by certain NGOs and rights activists.

"The trial court shall proceed with the trial but no judgement shall be pronounced," a bench of Justices D K Jain, P Sathasivam and Aftab Alam had said.

The apex court also appointed A K Malhotra, a former DIG of CBI, to verify allegations of lapses in investigations being conducted by the SIT into 2002 Gujarat communal riots.

The Bench had passed the direction while dealing with the plea of the NGO Citizen for Justice and Peace of Teesta Setalvad and some rights activists who sought a stay of the trial and sought reconstitution of SIT for its alleged bias.

The apex court said Malhotra would verify the allegations after examining the reply filed by SIT on the issue.

Gujarat government has strongly opposed reconstitution of the SIT and stay of the trial which it said was almost on the verge of conclusion as almost all witnesses had been examined.

The apex court granted permission to SIT to take steps for replacement of two public prosecutors who had withdrawn from the case alleging non-cooperation from the probe agency and one of them also attributed bias to the trial judge.

The bench agreed to the suggestion of amicus curaie and senior counsel Harish Salve that the two new public prosectuors would be appointed through consensus after eliciting the views of the petitioners also.

The 10 cases being monitored by SIT on the earlier directions of the apex court are--Gulberg Society, Ode, Sardarpura, Narodao Gaon, Naroda Patya, Baranpura, Machipith, Tarsali, Pandarwada and Raghavapura.

1984 riots: Order on framing of charges on Saturday

A Delhi court is likely to pronounce tomorrow its order on CBI's plea to frame charges of murder and rioting against senior Congress leader Sajjan Kumar in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case.

Whether Kumar would walk free or face trial in the case would be decided by Additional Sessions Judge Sunita Gupta who had reserved the order on May four.

CBI had accused Kumar of provoking the people against the members of a particular community during the carnage that followed the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on October 31, 1984, leading to the killings of five persons in Delhi Cantonment area.

Kumar, on the other hand, had claimed the accounts of CBI witnesses were not reliable as they had changed their versions a number of times.

"There are contradictions between different statements and affidavits given by witness Jagdish Kaur. She did not name Sajjan Kumar either in her first statement before police on November 3, 1984, or before Justice Rangnath Mishra Commission and Jain-Banerjee committee that inquired into the riots," he had claimed.

The former Outer Delhi MP had also contended that the case against him could not stand as CBI re-registered it even though a Delhi court had given him a clean chit, accepting a cancellation report filed by Delhi Police.

The probe agency, however, had also sought framing of charges against Kumar for being involved in sedition saying he had incited people belonging to one community against another.

Besides Kumar, other accused in the case are Balwan Khokhar, Krishan Khokhar, Mahender Yadav, Captain Bhagmal and Girdhari Lal.

CBI had filed two chargesheets against Kumar and others on January 13 in the riots cases registered in 2005 on the recommendation of Justice G T Nanavati Commission which inquired into the sequence of events leading to the riots.

Govt should act against Hindu extremists: Left

The CPI on Friday asked the Centre to take stern action against Hindu extremist outfits allegedly involved in terror acts, claiming there was "enough evidence" against them.

"The Union Home Ministry should take note and act against them. There is enough evidence against these organisations like the Sri Ram Sene and others on their alleged involvement in terror acts," CPI National Secretary D Raja said here.

He said the government has been "more focussed" on tackling Leftwing extremism but "rightwing extremism is proving to be more dangerous to national unity and integrity"

Raja's statement came after the CPI(M) castigated the Centre for "lack of firmness" in dealing with Hindutva extremists and demanded a coordinated probe into the attacks in Malegaon, Hyderabad and Ajmer allegedly carried out by such outfits.

"The terrorist attacks in Malegaon, Hyderabad and Ajmer must be seen as the handiwork of a network of Hindutva extremist groups. They are a mirror image of their Muslim counterparts. What is required therefore is a coordinated investigation into all these attacks.

"It is inexplicable why cases involving the Hindutva terrorist attacks have not been handed over for investigation by the newly set up National Investigation Agency," barring the Goa blast case, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury had said.

Govt is soft on Hindutva: CPM

The CPI(M) Thursdaycastigated the central government for "lack of firmness" in dealing with Hindutva extremists and demanded a coordinated probe into the attacks in Malegaon, Hyderabad and Ajmer allegedly carried out by these outfits.

In an editorial in the forthcoming issue of party organ 'People's Democracy', he said the UPA government has shown "lack of clarity and firmness in dealing with Hindutva terror.

Hopefully, the latest revelations regarding the Ajmer and Hyderabad blasts will end this pusillanimous approach".

Observing that intelligence and security agencies have been "reluctant to recognise this reality", he said "they are fixated on terrorism emanating from Muslim extremism and its external links. Otherwise, the investigation into the horrific Samjhauta Express blast would not have reached a dead end. The target was the train to Pakistan filled with Muslims.

"Yet, stories were planted of extremist groups from Pakistan being responsible for this gruesome attack."

Noting that it was "no longer possible to deny that

Hindutva terrorism is a reality", he alleged that the police and investigating agencies "did not make serious efforts to probe further and establish the culprits and their links with the Hindutva organisations" in several cases.

He said the Hindu extremist outfits had targeted Muslims at places of worship in all the three places in Ajmer, Malegaon and Hyderabad.

Maintaining that "preconceived notions" in the security agencies about 'Muslim terrorism' was "glaringly evident" in the Mecca Masjid blast and Ajmer probes, he said scores of Muslim youth were rounded up and many of them beaten and tortured.

"The latest revelation should bring about a correction in the approach of the police and security agencies", he said.

Elements from within Hindutva outfits have taken to the path of terrorist violence motivated by fanatical hatred, as outfits like Abhinav Bharat and Sanathan Sanstha, allegedly involved in these incidents, continued to "expound a militaristic Hindutva spewing hatred against Muslims".

Wanted caste wars to finish fake marxists : Bengali Bhadralok took communism to fight Muslims

COM. AYYANKALI

Just as DV blasted Jyoti Basu, EMS, Varavara Rao and Prachanda, it is extremely important to expose the Bengali Brahmin, Kanu Sanyal, who died recently and also his fake Marxism-Leninism. Unmasking of such corrupt Brahmin marxists is absolutely essential.

In May 2007, Bengali journalist Avijit Ghosh asked founder of the CPI (ML), Kanu sanyal: "Did you meet Mao secretly in 1967?"

Source: http://blogs.timesof india.indiatimes.com/Addictions / entry/when-i-met-kanu-sanyal

Kanu Sanyal's answer was: "Yes. It was a 45-minute meeting. We went by road to Kathmandu. From there Chinese comrades took us by jeep to Peking. We stayed in Tibet too. We reached China on Sept. 30. The next day we saw them celebrate October 1 as National Day. I could see people weeping after seeing Mao. We met Mao, Chou En Lai and the commander in chief. Mao's advice was: whatever you learn in China, try to forget it. Go to your own country, try to understand the specific situation and carry the revolution forward."

But did Kanu Sanyal really study the specific situation in India as Mao directed? No. Never did Kanu Sanyal do that honestly in his lifetime. If he had done so, he would have understood the peculiar and complex dynamics of the caste system. Why did he fail in analysing the specific situation in India? Why did he fail to understand the social structure of India comprising the ascending order of reverence and descending degree of contempt? Even when he led Naxalbari struggle, why did he not notice the caste and ethnic patterns of Bahujan exploited landless and Brahminical landlords?

MECHANICAL MARXISM

Even after so much of grassroots level practical political experience, how did he fail to understand the basics like Brahminised OBC Yadavs kill Dalits? Or that in Khairlanji, it is the OBC Kunbis who killed a Dalit family? How is it that he managed to miss the caste struggle in all Marxist-Leninist parties? Is this due to sheer intellectual dishonesty or intellectual incompetence?

Or does it have much to do with the Brahminical way in which Kanu Sanyal was conditioned? Did his Brahminical conditioning destroy or subvert his efforts to study Indian reality? Did he deliberately ignore and hide this reality because he was a Brahmin? These are questions which every genuine marxist revolutionary should ask. When socialist Lohia could say that "Caste is Class" openly and when CPI's own Brahmin Chaturanan Mishra also said that if communists had understood caste, they would have captured power in India, why is it that other Brahmin communists never managed to officially formulate a "caste war" theory suited to the "specific situation of India" as Mao put it? What stopped Brahmin marxists from doing this?

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In The Evolution of God, Robert Wright takes us on a sweeping journey through history, unveiling a discovery of crucial importance to the present moment: there is a pattern in the evolution of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and a "hidden code" in their scriptures. Reading these scriptures in light of the circumstances surrounding their creation, Wright reveals the forces that have repeatedly moved the Abrahamic faiths away from belligerence and intolerance to a higher moral plane. And he shows how these forces could today let these faiths reassert their deep proclivity toward harmony and reconciliation. What's more, his analysis raises the prospect of a second kind of reconciliation: the reconciliation of science and religion.

Using the prisms of archaeology, theology, history, and evolutionary psychology, Wright repeatedly overturns conventional wisdom:

Contrary to the belief that Moses brought monotheism to the Middle East, ancient Israel was in fact polytheistic until after the Babylonian exile.
Jesus didn't really say, "Love your enemies," or extol the good Samaritan. These misquotes were inserted in scripture decades after the crucifixion.
Muhammad was neither a militant religious zealot nor a benign spiritual leader but a cool political pragmatist, at one point flirting with polytheism in an attempt to build his coalition.

Wright shows that, however mistaken our traditional ideas about God or gods, their evolution points to a transcendent prospect: that the religious quest is valid, and that a modern, scientific worldview leaves room for something that can meaningfully be called divine.

Vast in ambition and brilliant in execution, The Evolution of God will forever alter our understanding of God and where He came from—and where He and we are going next.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar: Economic Program-vision-central mission
           02Feb07
Following is a paper written by Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat. Admiral Vishnu Baghwat assumed charge of the Indian Navy, as the 15th Chief of Naval Staff, on 30 September 1996. Admiral Bhagwat has been a strong votary of Ambedkar & his Economic vision which has remained on the margins, as not much scholarship is available on that. This was a paper he presented in a seminar. Mr Vidyabhushan Rawat likes to share this with Atrocitynews readers. The views and opinion expressed are in individual capacity , Atrocitynews does not necessarily represents/endorce them in anyform. However Atrocitynews invites readers comments on this piece.

Dr Ambedkar descended the Indian skies like a meteor, lighting up the freedom movement with a viable economic vision and road map, charted a constitutional democracy which, as he often said, could take us to the revolutionary goal of equality , liberty and fraternity. This assessment is accepted by a large number of people. However, his economic ideology and mission have been buried in the sands of globalisation , privatization and 'reforms' by the ruling elite and even his self-proclaimed followers , who have joined hands in erecting stone and granite statues of the 'Revolutionary' whose thoughts not only sprang from the soil of the country but also its political ,economic and social realities ( It was buried even earlier by those who presented a confused and diffused ideology from various political platforms, and who buried his rational and scientific thinking )
.
        If we really, deeply study his core ideas , ideology if you like , his central mission is spelt out in his drafts to the Constitution Drafting Committee of which he was the Chairman ,1947-49 . Dr Ambedkar finally emerged as the main 'Architect' of this most vital document that lays down the framework of the Republic and its social , political and economic objectives , which is a manifesto of those who struggled for India's freedom against foreign capital , foreign rule and local dominant , economic and caste interests . The Constitution is above the Supreme Court , the Lok Sabha , the Prime Minister and the Executive and was intended to be its guiding star , its Dhruva tara. How much we have deviated from the Constitution's Directive , its soul the Directive Principles which are mandatory for any Government in office is an issue which is for all of us to assess. . If this is tested by the ground reality of the condition of the exploited classes , the denial of equality of opportunity , of education, of the very right to life , to work, and economic policies which have made the preamble of the Constitution a paper promise in the hands of the exploiting class who have arrogated to themselves a near total monopoly of resources , unprecedented and growing concentration of wealth that make a mockery of the direction 'for the common good'.

      First of all let us try to forge a common understanding of how 'Ambedkar thought' evolved ? Is it possible to flag mark Dr Ambedkar's tortuous yet blazing journey . Dr Ambedkar chose his own methodology to educate and inform himself . It is true that cataclysmic events took place in the journey of his life…the 1917 October Proletarian Revolution in Russia, which to begin with placed power in the hands of the workers and peasants , the toiling and hitherto exploited class . In my understanding , though he may not have explicitly stated so in his revolutionary call in Manmad in 1938 , that was the central idea of his declaration of the three principles at the workers conference to which we will come as we discuss further . Then came the 'Great Economic Depression' of 1929 , with its devastation , hunger and unemployment , which not only burnt and singed the people in the United States but also in Europe . The Capitalist classes across the industrialized countries speedily funded Fascist groups , to further disposses and divert the working class . This was spread through fear and propaganda , promising them the mirage of nationalism , discipline, conquests and full employment   , at the same time breaking their organizations , enslaving them in factories , mines and plants jointly owned by global 'finance capital' , including by American corporations and British capitalists , through the 1930s , as now brought to light , through the period of the Second World War ,via a commonly owned and set up Banking system, while the soldiers were killed and maimed as cannon fodder on military fronts all over the world in Europe , the Soviet Union , North Africa and Asia . Dr Ambedkar by now a champion of Dalit rights also clearly saw that Dalit emancipation could only be achieved through a broad united front of all the exploited classes . Dr Ambedkar had already defined a Dalit as 'one who struggles' ( for democratic rights ). His definition was, therefore, categorically inclusive of all individuals and groups who were naturally bonded , engaged in the common struggle, of the exploited classes.

    Dr Ambedkar had through his definitive works , beginning in 1917 with his outstanding doctoral dissertation at the Colombia University, the "National Dividend of India" , essentially on the transfer of wealth and surpluses from India to Imperial Britain , laid bare the huge colonial (looting ) enterprise on which Britain's industrialization was founded . There is another work , that of RC Dutt ,    covering this path breaking subject ; which dared to expose to bare bones , through facts , figures , official documents how Britain , later called 'Great Britain', established and executed the great parasitical enterprise , called British India . Dadabhai Naoroji whom Dr Ambedkar greatly respected also spoke and wrote on the rapacious transfer of surpluses from India to England .This thought process , bold and courageous in the extreme, shook those little social clubs who were petitioning the Sarkar for some concessions in entrance to the British Indian Army through the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst and the ICS quota for Indians . Historically , it was quite a coincidence that Gandhi's own experiences in South Africa of racial discrimination and apartheid , brought him to India and start transforming the Congress into a mass organization of peasants , workers and all the toiling masses within the limitations of the social setup in the country. Not content with his monumental work Dr Ambedkar finished writing his " Small Holdings in India and their Remedies in 1917." We cannot but infer that Mahatma Jyotiba Phule's "Kisan Che Kode" inspired him and stoked his passion to try and expose, and later struggle , by throwing in his lot with those classes subjected to extreme social , political and economic exploitation.

     Academically and to further consolidate his grasp of Public Finance was published in 1921, he worked on and published "Provincial Decentralisation of Imperial Finance in British India , the Problem of the Rupee ( the issues of Silver and Gold Standards ) in 1923 , the Evolution of Provincial Finance in British India 1925. Let us pause for a moment and reflect on the boundless energy , the diligence and perseverance , the prodigious output of the Man. No economist in India has produced such monumental , vital and relevant works as Bhimrao Ambedkar did in those nine years 1916-25. Undoubtedly these studies gave him an incomparable advantage over his contemporaries . He may have surpassed his contribution as a Law Minister after 1950 in the field of public finance if he had been Finance Minister ; but Finance Ministers in the existing system have to be conservatives not revolutionaries , who may upset the 'apple cart' !

      Dr Ambedkar had emerged as ,by far the most erudite and scholarly economist on the sub-continent. His alert , incisive and sensitive mind was now setting up his own compass for the struggles ahead as he walked tall in the thirties.    The Great Depression of 1929 –33 shook the whole world and its epicenter was in the United States and Europe , the foremost capitalist systems, where he had spent his period of study and observation    . Capitalism's exploitative chain had broken down and was engulfed by a serious crisis ; it was replaced by Fascism , i.e the rule by private Corporations in partnership with the ruling elite controlling the State apparatus. Dr Ambedkar was perceptive enough to grasp the significance of slave labour being used by the Corporations . While he had pre-occupations with the Round Table Conference, the Poona Pact , the Government of India Act 1935 , the provincial elections and Separate electorates ; he was deeply distressed by the exploitation , impoverishment, daily humiliation and denial of human rights to the exploited classes and the Dalits in the social mileu of the backward , feudal , arch conservative society that had evolved in the country of his birth . This evolution was not an accident . Michiavellian state craft in combination with parasitical economic production relations and a cruel , ritual order was used as a means to enslave the people who built India . Another economist in Ancient India had seen through it all – Chanakya who led a revolt of the slaves and helped install a Shudra dynasty , the Mauryas , which held sway over most of India until it was done out by a regrouping of the wealthy and the propertied , expropriating classes . The people who toiled in the fields to produce food, the bundkars who wove clothes and fabrics , the artisans who made tools with their hands , household items and the most exquisite articles with precious stones and alloy metals , the people who built homes , palaces and monuments, the leather workers who made shoes , saddles for the army cavalry and without whose services society would not exist and flourish , were all continuously being cheated , looted through expropriation of the surpluses that they created by their sweat, blood and sacrifices. The Manu Smriti , a fraudulent , adharmic manufacture of diseased minds of some elements of the priestly class who had prostituted themselves to the exploiting , ruling class to lay a spider's web of fear , intimidation and an unimaginably, cruel and despotic social order based on all that is ignoble , unjust and unequal , in direct opposition to the Dharma that many great minds, specially Gautam Buddha , and those who guided Indian society had laid down. The nectar of Dr Ambedkar's perceptions can be gauged by a better effort at understanding the essence of his writings and speeches , through his life and the stands he took, some necessarily with compromises, underpinned by his deep understanding of how the exploitative chain and the process of accumulation of surplus works and creates an overwhelming majority of serfs and slaves as an economic underclass leading a   dehumanizing animal like existence , outside the boundaries of the proper village or bustee and in slums and ghettoes in the cities and towns as outcastes , untouchables and sub humans or'unter-menschens'. Others , so called born into higher castes have also been forced into this large mass of labor, of unceasing toil , of carrying the load on their backs and pulling the 'thela', since then with the rise of modern capitalism.

   Dr Ambedkar had decided to carry out the struggle on two tracks ; to destroy the oppressive social order and to bring about an equitable , non –capitalist economic restructuring through mass awakening , reform and democratic movements , as he believed that real economic democracy was a means to transform a nation to a just order . He said 'the struggle for economic justice was as important as the struggle for social justice' . Why has this central idea and central mission of Dr Ambedkar's life been forgotten and his core ideas and philosophy on the struggle for economic justice , suppressed by various big leaders and movements in all corners of the country is a question of fundamental importance ? This needs to be urgently corrected if we have to move forward.

     We have seen how the Sanghis , who are essentially adherents of the Manu Smriti order, infiltrated and subverted the Congress Party , pre and post Independence , camouflage the core issue of economic justice while rationalizing 'social justice' to fool the people, assassinated Gandhi for opposing the domination of British finance capital in India which devastated the Indian economy . This class opposed the mild dose of reform for the Hindu society , the Hindu Code Bill and engineering riots and pogroms and spreading division and violence through their well-oiled Goebellsian propaganda machinery , all funded by the corporate class . What of ourselves why is it that we too have deviated from the central thread that runs through the mission of Dr Ambedkar's life ?

     As we have seen Dr Ambedkar through his logic , reasoning and scientific rationale , backed by a deep and real understanding of theoretical and applied economics, charted a path for all Indians, for the Dalits who he defined as ALL those engaged in the ' Struggle' for emancipation from the bondage of the exploitative order , through centuries of feudal and capitalist domination .

      It is no surprise , therefore, that he set his precepts into practise by mobilizing and leading the march for temple entry at Mahad , to be shortly followed by his stirring address at the Independent Labour Party Conference at Manmad in 1938. This was a continuity of the calls of TukaRam , Shahuji Maharaj , Jyoitaba Phule , only set in the contemporary context and sharply focussing on the struggle for economic justice that lay ahead . These ideas he later introduced in his draft submissions for the Constitution and the final form of the Constitution, of which he was the principal architect. ( Imagine if the Constitution of India had been drafted in 2004 ,and indeed the attempt to 'reform' the Constitution by the Sangh Parivar had succeeded in 1999-2000 , what kind of a Constitution would we have today ! )

     Manmad 1938, the GIP Railway Dalit Mazdoor Conference, ( caste discrimination was practiced in the railways and the textile mills , with the lower and lesser paid jobs going to the Dalits ; while clean and weaving jobs went to the 'other' workers ) , was a defining moment in Dalit struggle , an inflexion point, a turning point, that focuses both on the contemporary reality and a guiding star for the times ahead. Dr Ambedkar places before all, this foundation of his beliefs , convictions and the path that leads to the future , that the Dalits in a common united front to be forged with all the exploited classes , to achieve the goal of social and economic justice in an egalitarian society and real democracy thus :
1. The economic emancipation of the Dalits is as vital as the struggle for social justice ( To make the Dalits aware of the definition of the Subjugated class'; so that Dalit awareness is raised to a level whereby we join hands and march shoulder to shoulder with all other subjugated classes , to wage the struggle against the Ruling Class )
2. Brahmanism ( or the forces that negate and deny equality , liberty and the feelings of brotherhood, 'bhai-chara') and Capitalism are the two biggest enemies of the workers or toiling classes.
3. Karl Marx did not as a principle, say that there were only two classes, the owner and the worker, and that in India these two classes had evolved in their final form.
4. The spread of poisonous and vicious religious hatred in a casteist order in Indian society has resulted in workers and employees sometimes turning against each other , as opponents and enemies.

5. Trade Union Leaders while exhorting and giving spirited speeches against the Capitalists adopt double standards and remain silent on the issue of Brahmanism.
6. The Dalit wokers and labourers movement is not against the common workers movement . It also does not support the Capitalists . Their only request is that their independent identity be protected.

7. The movement of the Working class has deviated, from its main goal , and is solely concerned with trade unionism per se.
8. The General Strike is the weapon of last resort , it is not an end in itself to be used for attaining the end of competitive trade unionism – leadership.
9. In the struggle against capitalist owners the working class cannot be successful by resorting only to trade unionism. The workers have to seize and take the reins of political power in their hands.
10. Mazdoor Sanghatans which are politically directionless become tools in the hands of political parties that support the capitalist class.
11. Equality, liberty and fraternity must be the ideals of the working class.
12. Even after the end of British Rule , it would be wholly legitimate for the workers to struggle against the spider's web of the Landlords, Capitalists and the Baniya –Sahukar combine who will very much survive even after British Rule.
13. To wage a struggle to oppose the Imperialists does not mean that the class struggle against the internal structure of society has to be kept away on the shelf.
14. The Dalit class conflict in the interest of the Dalits must conjoin with the mainstream Mazdoor Andolan.
15. In normal situations Mazdoors will take the Constitutional path. However they should prepare and ready themselves to use other means , should the situation and circumstances so demand.
16. Dalit Mazdoor Sanghatan is in full co-operation and support of the All India Mazdoor Andolan; and it sees 'resevation' as complimenting and supplementing the Andolan.

Dr Ambedkar formed the Independent Labour Party on three fundamental / basic principles and these principles were:-
I. First : All the wealth , property and assets which are in this world are the result of / and have been created by the undying ,hard labour of the workers and the kisans. . Despite this , the worker and the kisans who toils with desperation in the field is naked and hungry. All these riches, property and the means of production have been arrogated by private property rights arbitrarily imposed by the profiteers, landlord class, capitalists and the rich class who have expropriated all this wealth by illegal / unjust loot, robbery and theft. This ( parasitical ) class has done nothing to earn this.

II. Second: Indian society is divided into the class ruled   over and the 'Ruling' class', whose interests mutually clash as a class conflict between the 'Ruler-Exploiter' and the 'Ruled –Exploted', is   fundamental, and this fact remains all encompassing.
III. The rights of workers and the toilers can   be defended , ( and will be secured ) only when the reins of 'Political power' will be in their own hands.

           If the 1920s were the decade of learning and education in Dr Ambedkar's life , the 1930s were a period of struggle ,agitation , deep sensitivity and commitment to the cause of the oppressed and the exploited of all classes and communities ; the decade of the 1940s demonstrated his ability for creativity and innovation of national level institutions and experimentation . Few equal his contribution in this decade which preceeds and transgresses India's Independence / partition ,the founding of the Republic and great hopes and aspirations to real democracy, however troubled they were in the predominant class structure in 1947.
        It was evident that the not so young Dr Ambedkar was burning the candle at both ends , unmindful of his health , all fired up with hopes and dreams.
         As Labour Member of the Viceroy's Council , 1942-45, he initiated programs to help increase the productivity of workers, by providing them education and skills , health care and maternity leave provisions for women workers, for example . Dr Ambedkar set up the Tripartite Labour Council in 1942, to safeguard social security measures to the workers , giving equal opportunity to the workers and employers to participate in formulating labour policy and strengthening the labour movement by introducing compulsory recognition of trade unions and worker organizations. Labour was placed in the Concurrent List. Chief and Labour Commisioners were appointed , so was a Labour Investigation Committee. Minimum Wages Act was his contribution. So were Employment Exchanges and importantly worker's 'Right to Strike'. Productivity and job security went together , unlike the Reformers and Globalists of today, bent on contract labour and its informalisation thru 'hire and fire' or 'Exit Policy'.

    Dr Ambedkar's vision and economic philosophy is best illustrated by his thrust to improve human capital and human resources. He established the Central Water Commision , the Central Electricity Authority , the Central Irrigation & Waterways Commision in 1944 which became the Central Waterways, Irrigation , Navigation Commision on the approval of Babasaheb in 1945 , and the Central Water , Power , Irrigation and Navigation Commission, the latter's integration to concurrently enhance employment opportunities , in 1948. The Central Water & Power Commission later bifurcated into the Central Electricity Authority and the Central Water Commission. Environment was a central concern. Downstream it gave birth to State Electricity Boards ( now sought to be unbundled and privatized ), the Regional and National Grids ( and Corporations ), the National Thermal Power Corporation a giant in the Power sector today , the Damodar Valley Corporation , work on both initiated in 1943-44. His initiative and contribution on the Multi-purpose Plan for Development of Orissa's rivers is noteworthy . Such was the energy and vision of a great 'Dalit' son of the soil.
      We now come to perhaps his greatest contribution to the Nation State, to the Republic and to his much dreamed concept of democracy .         Appointed Chairman of the Drafting committee of a Constitution for India , Dr Ambedkar found himself the only active member of the seven originally nominated . Extraordinary though , he was still subject to being over-ruled , specially in the interest of the dominant class as regards production and property relations .
     Dr Ambedkar clearly saw that unless the means of production were nationally owned by the state and agricultural lands too were nationalized and the property of the State there would be no real democracy . The village commons were in earlier times, not under the ownership of individuals / families . They were only scantified as private property, just over a hundred years ago by Wellesley's Permanent Settlement and the Zamindari system introduced to make it convenient to help collect revenues for the East India Company and later the Crown , which had destroyed the social and economic fabric of our villages, by an order of magnitude. The Dalits and the landless of whom the Dalits were a majority , had no hope in hell , so to say. For the call for 'Land to the tiller' did not cater for the interests of the Dalits as they were not even tillers or 'hissedars' and 'bataidars'.

      While presenting the main memorandum on 'State and Minorities' he clearly stated that " The main purpose behind the clause is to put an obligation on the State to plan the economic life of the people on lines which would lead to the highest pont of productivity without closing every avenue to private enterprise and also provide for the equitable distribution of wealth ." Dr Ambedkar was against monopoly in every form because he knew monopoly leads to exploitation…..it extracts work at low wages and creates artificial scarcities…..monopoly of capitalists cannot give justice to the exploited , poor classes." He wrote in 1956 in the RPI manifesto , "that any scheme of production must in the view of the RPI remain subject to one overriding consideration that there should be no exploitation of the working class." Dr Ambedkar made it clear that economic reforms by equalization of property must have precedence over every other kind of reform , noting that man is not just an economic creature ( the monster of caste also had to be killed ).
      To recapitulate , Dr Ambedkar's radical proposals for inclusion in the Constitution were :-
1. Consolidation of land holdings and tenancy legislation are worse than useless, as they cannot help the 60 million untouchables , who are just landless labourers ….only collective farms set out on the lines in the proposal can help them.
2. State Socialism is vital for the rapid industrialization of India. Private enterprise cannot do it and if it did it would produce those inequalities of wealth which private capitalism has produced in Europe.

3. Nationalisation of Insurance serves a double objective. Apart from greater security to people ,it also gives the State resources for financing its economic planning in the absence of which it would have to resort to borrowing from the money market at a high rate of interest .
   This plan , elaborated in clause 4, Artcle II of his Memorandum to the Constituent Assembly included recommendations that :-

1. Agriculture be a State industry.
2. Key and basic industries would be owned by the State.
3. A life insurance policy would be compulsory for every citizen.
4. The State shall acquire the subsisting ( existing ) rights in agriculture and private owners will be compensated for by transferable debentures. ( Nationalisation of land would simultaneously abolish caste , in Dr Ambedkar's view. )
5. The land acquired shall be divided into farms of standard size and let out equitably , and cultivated collectively . Finance or credit shall be provided by the State.
6. All this was without closing every avenue for private enterprise .
Dr Ambedkr's ardent desire was that the plan of State Socialism must become a part of the Constitution . He further cautioned that this essential condition for the success of a planned economy should not be liable to suspension , abrogation or abandonment by the Parliament or the Government ( and how prophetic he has turned out to be today ). Political democracy , he said rests on the principle that the State shall not delegate powers to private persons ( entities ) to govern others .
   Dr Ambedkar went on to write " Anyone who studies the working of the system of social economy based on private enterprise and pursuit of personal gain will realize how it undermines , if it does not actually violate , the last two premises on which democracy rests . How many have to relinquish their constitutional rights in order to gain their living ? How many have to subject themselves to be governed by private employers ?
   Ask those who are unemployed whether what are called Fundamental Rights are of any value to them . If a person who is unemployed is offered a choice between a job of some sort , with some sort of wages , with no fixed hours of labour and with an indirect restriction on joining a union and the exercise of his right to freedom of speech , association , religion etc can there be any doubt as to what his choice will be ? How can it be otherwise ? The fear of starvation , the fear of being compelled to take children away from school, the fear of having to bear the burden of public cost are factors too strong to permit a man to stand out for his fundamental rights . The unemployed are thus compelled to relinquish their fundamental rights for the sake of securing the privelege to work and to subsist….
    What about those who are employed ? Constitutional lawyers assume that the enactment of Fundamental Rights is enough to safeguard their liberty , and that nothing more is called for . They argue that where the state refrains from intervention in private affairs , economic and social , the residue is liberty. What is necessary is to make the residue as large as possible and state intervention as small as possible . It is true that that where the state refrains from intervention what remains is liberty . But this does not dispose of the matter ; one more question remains to be answered. To whom and for whom is this liberty ? Obviously, this liberty is liberty to the landlords to increase rents , to the capitalists to increase the hours of work and reduce the rate of wages . This must be so . It cannot be otherwise , for in an economic system employing armies of workers , producing goods in mass at regular intervals , someone must make rules, so that the workers will work and the wheels of industry run on . Liberty from the control of the state is another name for the dictatorship of the private employer." The Advisory Committee did not accept his proposals . Dr Ambedkar pressed repeatedly with the Chairman of the Constituent Assembly to incorporate his proposals in the Chapter on Fundamental Rights of the Constitution and not disallow them on 'technical grounds'. He argued that it was a matter in which the labouring classes in general and the scheduled castes in particular , are vitally concerned . That is the precise reason why it was not permitted in the justiciable part of the Constitution ..but relegated to the Directive Principles , now more honored in the breach than practise ( that is why the PS Appu Committee observed in its report on Land Reforms in 1972, that the hiatus between precept and practice, between policy pronouncements and actual execution has been the greatest in the domain of land reforms . )

       The Constitution remains our compass ; Dr Ambedkar's economic ideology the guidance document . The application , in steps and phases can only be implemented when the mazdoors in both the formal and the informal sector, kisans , landless workers , rural and urban men and women without livelihoods and entitlements, adivasis, artisans , bundkars, students , teachers , educated unemployed , technicians and engineers ,employed or unemployed , subscribe and dedicate themselves to a better future for all . Quite obviously the Dalits as a caste group are not sufficient in numbers to change the system, its core policies , priorities and its structure without joining with the other oppressed groups, communities and demonstrating an overwhelming democratic majority. Dr Ambedkar had emphasisied this again and again in all his writings and speeches. For this a United Front of all sections and elements who constitute the exploited majority must be forged as a federation with decentralization as its watchword . Then and only then will the Dalits advance forward to their goal of social and economic justice . Otherwise they must remain as they are confined to receiving a few crumbs from the top table, always at the mercy of the   Capitalist class and their ideology of Brahmanvad as defined by Dr Ambedkar.
      The program , policies and objectives will need the agreement of all. However there will be sufficient flexibility for local initiatives depending on the material and human resources , and the stage of development which have been reached in different locales , in the uneven matrix of social and economic indicators that we are confronted with , as long as they conform to the direction and goals of the movement .

Dr Ambedkar is honored as the Principal Architect of the Indian Constitution . The Fundamental Rights and the Directive Principles of State Policy are his special contribution . If the chapter on Fundamental Rights , particularly its cardinal articles on Equality before the Law , Equality of Opportunity and the Right to Life ( and Livelihood ) as interpreted by the Apex Court are indeed held sacred , then read with Articles 37, 38 and 39 of the Directive Principles they are the guiding spirit of the Constitution and immutable. Unfortunately those who take their oath of office by swearing to uphold the Constitution are the very same who are swimming with the tidal wave of Globalisation and 'Reforms' which violate in substance and spirit , the Constitution of India andx that threaten the very existence   people's livelihood and their peaceful existence in a democratic , equal order , with dignity and self-respect . The Directive Principles of State Policy, were held to be legally unenforceable at the time the Constitution was adopted in the name of " We the People.." . However Directive Principles of State Policy have a mandatory character, as the injunction to the State and , therefore, to the Judiciary , Legislative and the Executive is always " SHALL" and not a 'May'. The Founding Fathers and Dr Ambedkar can be presumed to know the difference in jurisprudence !!! What the Government , the Legislatures and the Judiciary in times today are doing are not only violating the " soul " of the Constitution , as many former Justices of the Apex Court have publicly expressed , but in fact may be effectively participating in a 'foreclosure' of the democratic process and the path to Democracy that Dr Ambedkar sincerely paved . The Western Capitalist system and the 'Reforms' " dictated by the Structural Adjustment Loan / Programs", which amount to a Recolonisation of India, are neither conducive to a democratic order nor compatible with a democracy for 1100 million ( growing to be 1800 million ) Indians. No foreign model , in its entirety , forced from above, or even legally upheld by the courts, can be a model to emulate.
       The most worrying and distressing aspect of all this is that 50 years after the passing away of Dr Ambedkar , the torch and the baton have not been carried forward.

        Debate and discussion are usually confined to issues such as Reservations and promotions in the public domain / services and now the latest 'red-herring' , reservations in the private sector ( including MNCs) which provide only 8.3 % jobs in the formal sector. (7000 MNCs provide only 28 million , low paid jobs in their world wide 'looting' operations) .

   The question of asserting the SC/ST rights in admissions to educational institutions at all levels , specially higher and technical courses , which are again being effectively denied, has been brilliantly exposed in the pioneering work done by Sarvashri Pradeep Gaikwad and Prof ( Dr ) Awani Patil in respect of Maharahtra . Privatisation of education , now state sponsored and subsidized from public funds , is making higher and technical education a right and privilege only for the 'Haves' or the exploiting classes ' which is more than just a fascist characteristic and , therefore, to be fought as Dr Ambedkar would have done , for Dalit rights ; shoulder to shoulder , together with all other 'deprived sections and classes'. The essence of Buddhism and Dhamma as Dr Ambedkar observed was socialist ( even the first communist idea ) and thus his dream of establishing an egalitarian society , with the help of Buddhism.
     However, after all this agitation , if those who benefit from reservations change or 'convert' or transform unto another class , an upper class , and stand with the exploiting class , directly or indirectly , then what is gained for the overwhelming majority who remain where they have always been , along with the others who have been marginalized by loot , robbery and theft , phrases which a person of such refined legal education as Dr Ambedkar used in Manmad and thereafter ? Dr Ambedkar expressing concern for the downtrodden , said in one of his lectures, "…ever since I began to understand the meaning of life , I have always followed one principle in life and that is to serve my 'untouchable' brethern . Wherever I may be and in whatsoever position I may be , I have always been thinking and working for the betterment of my bretheren . I have never given so much attention to any other problem . I must guard the interests of the untouchables ; that has been the aim of my life in the past and will continue to be in the future too ." In the context in which his life and work and economic philosophy /ideology should be faithfully understood , that is Bhimrao Ambedkar, the revolutionary who fought for political and economic democracy for the oppressed and exploited masses of the Indian people ; we have to ask ourselves just one question : Do we stand with Dr Ambedkar and the exploited or the upper and middle classes to which we have migrated ; and therefore betray the class where 99% of our people are enslaved ?
       Recently a Dalit Leader of education, learning and standing , told me that since 'Money' had overtaken free and fair elections the danger was not that he would be able to democratize the system but whether he would be corrupted and taken over himself.
      If Babasaheb is made unto granite , stone or marble then he too is in danger of becoming an 'idol' to be revered and worshipped on two days in the year. On the other hand , Dr Ambedkar , can be our daily inspiration "to educate , agitate and organize" as he himself exhorted so often . On a personal note , how so ever symbolic, if every Dalit can carry a pocket size card with the main articles of the Constitution, on his person in his own mother tongue, and discuss it in his habitat or cluster of Jhopdis and Jhuggis for five minutes every day, in the neighbourhood , what Babasaheb has as his message, then there is a fair chance that they may begin to question the self appointed Netaji(s) on what is to be done. Certainly not to break the homes and hearths of those who share his misery . Every one does not need higher education , though everyone who has the merit must have those doors open to him or her. Everyone , however , needs to be able to live with self respect and in dignity , in a society where he has the right to livelihood, equal education opportunities for his children and medical care if they fall sick as they are bound to with nothing in their stomachs , and suffering chronic mal- nourishment , as the large majority of his compatriots . If we continuously lower the poverty line then the number in the BPL will of course reduce in the Government's Annual Economic Surveys , the Central Statistical Organisation's books; and the National Sample Survey's figures.
The adherents of 'hard' Hindutva and 'soft' Hindutva are effectively Trojan horses of the recolonising forces . Hindutva is a mask for Brahmanvad . This Hindutva loudly propagandises 'rashtravad' while it goes about as a salesman and poster- boy for foreign capital and the MNCs ,banks and insurance ( brokers and commission agents of big foreign companies of the US and Europe , as Mahatma Gandhi described them ) . Hindutva has created its 'internal enemies' like the Nazi Party did in Germany . It assumes its sacredness by wearing the tilak on the forehead . This does not hide its destructive character and mentality , or wash its murderous, bloody hands . Like in the past Hindutva or Brahmanvad , is fronting the parasitical class. A Finance Minister had opened India to the multi-nationals on the dishonest plea 'that the nation has been living beyond its means –nation indeed , when a good majority of our people simply have no means to live and most others none to indulge in living beyond….' Another Finance Minister pleading with the Globalisers in London said " You came to India and stayed for 200 years . Now come prepared to invest and stay for another 200 years and there will be huge rewards ." How do the parties representing the expropriated classes , the 80 % majority gear up to the challenge ? The parties of the Dalits have 20 splinter groups in Maharashtra alone and the parties that claim to pursue forward looking economic programs are also split into 20 and more groupings on the all India level. This is not a mere accident. This may not be engineered by the new Brahmins , but it certainly enjoys their support . Dr Ambedkar always said 'we are Indians firstly and lastly. ' The challenge is before us and that is why it is so incumbent on those who are Ambedkarites to carry forward the central mission where Dr Ambedkar left off.
To conclude, Dhamma or Dharma enjoins another ideal . It says unequivocally that without Justice    for all , a King is no King ; and his Kingdom will perish and cease to exist. If that caution is not heeded, then someday the phoenix must rise !
Acknowledgements:
To Shrimati Niloufer Bhagwat , jurist , who introduced me to the real Dr Bhimrao Ambedkar whose socialist ideology was until some years ago also unknown to me.
To Shri Pradeep Gaikwad , Publisher & Editor Samta Prakashan, a dedicated Ambedkarite , who gave me his time and attention to make an enquiry into the truth of 'social and economic justice' , which Dr Ambedkar relentlessly pursued.
To Dr ML Kasare , distinguished Professor , whose book "Economic Philosophy of Dr BR Ambedkar" which I read recently further enlightened me in my understanding of the 'Man and his Ideas' .

To all three my grateful thanks . I accept responsibility for any errors in the paper , even though I believe that I have humbly attempted to highlight the revolutionary Ambedkar's outstanding ideas and his central mission , his total identification with the toiling masses of our country, to free themselves from bondage and slavery , and establish economic democracy.

Wanted caste wars to finish fake marxists : Bengali Bhadralok took communism to fight Muslims

COM. AYYANKALI

In May 2007, Bengali journalist Avijit Ghosh asked founder of the CPI (ML), Kanu sanyal: "Did you meet Mao secretly in 1967?"

Source: http://blogs.timesof india.indiatimes.com/Addictions / entry/when-i-met-kanu-sanyal

MECHANICAL MARXISM

BENGALI WANDERING BEGGARS

Is this because Brahmins are by nature mechanical and metaphysical in their approach, and incapable of materialist thinking?

The fact is it is much easier to become an atheist or communist politically — rather than give up casteism altogether in all its forms: socially and culturally. Several rich people are atheists. Naastik or atheist philosophy is followed by several Brahmins. But will they ever give up their socio-economic and cultural privileges voluntarily?

It is because these social privileges give them a distinct and unfair advantage. Similarly, upper caste status also gives both social, economic, sexual and psychological privileges. No Brahmin will give up his social and cultural privileges, even if he surrenders his entire property in typical Brahminical fake ascetic fashion — just like EMS. They renounce everything to conquer.

Bengali Brahmins are literally supposed to be wandering beggars — but in reality they are absentee landlords who always pretend to be "poor Brahmin" ascetics. In reality, these wandering Bengali Kulin Brahmins used to beg for land, and whenever they "beg", people have to part with their land to these de facto absentee Brahmin landlords. This is how Brahmins became Bengal's biggest landlords. So why did they keep on wandering? To "beg" for more land. Not only that, it was considered a "privilege" to give away young daughters to such wandering Kulin Brahmins, especially when they "beg" for it. Why? Because, in this birth itself, jati ascent will be made possible.

So these Brahmins used to literally wander throughout Bengal to acquire land and screw young girls, who would then be abandoned. These young girls used to perpetually await their aged Brahmin lords and masters who used to rarely visit them — only to screw them and impregnate them — and then abandon them again. Once these roving Brahmin stud bulls died, the girls were forced to commit sati.

SOMNATH CHATTERJI AS STUD BULL

It is from one such roving Brahmin stud bull family that our sacked CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee comes from. His father, N.C. Chatterjee, was a lawyer and a roving stud bull who was also a Hindu Mahasabha leader. In fact, Sushma Swaraj of the BJP even reminded him of this fact on the floor of the Lok Sabha telling: "Somnath, despite your father being in Hindu Mahasabha, how come you are in CPM and not with us in the BJP?" Sushma has still not understood that these Brahmins have merely changed their tactics.

They have dumped poor and ineffective traditional Brahminical Hindutva strategies to adopt the much more effective and sophisticated Marxist strategies. They keep on changing their strategies and tactics, without forgetting their caste interests and caste objectives. Ends justify the means.

M.N. ROY STUNTS

Brahmins like Somnath Chatterjee and that pioneer of communism in India — Manabendra Nath Roy (M. N. Roy) who was in the Comintern during Lenin's time and then became a so-called "radical humanist" revisionist, merely changed tactics to keep Brahminism alive. M.N. Roy was a Bhattacharya. Manabendra Roy was merely his assumed name and party name.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manabendra_Nath_Roy

Manabendra Nath Roy (Bengali), March 21,1887 – January 25, 1954), born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, popularly known as M. N. Roy, was a Bengali Indian revolutionary, internationally known political theorist and activist, founder of the communist parties in Mexico and India. He later denounced communism, as exponent of the philosophy of Radical Humanism. Oxford University Press, UK, has already published his works in four volumes and the fifth is in the press. After pursuing his search of arms through Asia, Naren reached Palo Alto, and changed his name to Manabendra Nath Roy to evade British intelligence.

COMMUNIST GARB HIDES RACISM

Brahmins may temporarily give up their economic status, but never, ever will they give up their socio-cultural privileges. Because, they know that wealth will come and go — but social and cultural, as well as racial superiority is everlasting.

Why a Brahminical scum like Somnath Chatterjee, Narendra Nath Bhattacharya as well as EMS and Nayanar take to communism?

Well, they found it a better tactic to mislead the majority Bahujan masses under an ambiguous "class struggle". Under "class struggle", they could also claim to be "poor Brahmins".

Caste nepotism could also go on — hidden under the "class" banner and marxist phraseology. But under "caste struggle" theory, their caste men will be targeted.

CONVERSION TO ISLAM

But there was that most important reason — due to their earlier exploitation, both in Kerala and Bengal, the majority Moolnivasi masses had resorted to conversion to Islam and Christianity to escape the Brahminical enslavement. To an extent, the masses succeeded breaking the socio-cultural Brahminical stranglehold.

ISLAM DEFEATED BRAHMINS

As a result, three-fourths of United Bengal including today's Bangladesh became Islamic. All these were Bahujans. The "Hindu" Brahmins became a minority in Bengal. Brahminical trick No.1 was to carve out a "Hindu majority" West Bengal by allying with the British for partition. Here they failed.

Trick No.2 was giving up typical Bengali Brahmin terrorism by the likes of Bagha Jatin Mukherjee as well as Aurobindo Ghosh and slowly adopting "marxism" — which was a much better way to fool the Moolnivasis who are still a majority even in "Hindu majority" West Bengal.

If communism had not existed the Bengali Brahmins would have actually invented it, because the old and discredited traditional Brahmin methods of exploitation would have never worked and the Bahujans would have seen through them easily.

BENGALI BRAHMIN LOVE FOR MARXISM

Further exploitation was possible only by adopting egalitarian marxism as a mask and then becoming the leaders of the Moolnivasis — to exploit them.

If earlier methods were adopted, even in a "Hindu majority" West Bengal, all the Bahujans might become Muslims — destroying their social and cultural hegemony.

This is the reason why Bengali Brahmins took to "Marxism" in a big way. Wearing this mask, they gradually destroyed Marxism and made it revisionist deliberately.

WHO IS KANU SANYAL

Kanu Sanyal was a Bengali Brahmin bank employee's son from Calcutta. In other words, a Bengali Brahmin urban petty bourgeoisie- turned revisionist.

What is his "revolutionary" pedigree and credentials:

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanu_Sanyal#cite_note-autogenerated1-0

Kanu Sanyal, (1932), is an Indian communist politician. He was one of the founding leaders of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) formed in 1969. He was one of the key leaders behind the abortive Naxalite insurrection attempt by radical communist to initiate an "Indian revolution" by violent means.

BRAHMINS BECOME REVOLUTIONARIES

Nonetheless, political analysts write that his political paradigm was based on the concept of Jugantar in opposition to the Anushilan paradigm implemented by the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Sanyal proposed that the Jugantar revolutionaries be a highly secretive and cabalistic group who would periodically surface to commit acts of terrorism such as political assassinations and armory raids.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jugantar

Jugantar or Yugantar (Bengali: Jugantor) (English meaning New Era or more literally Transition of an Epoch) was one of the two main secret revolutionary trends operating in Bengal for Indian independence. This association, like Anushilan Samiti started in the guise of a suburban fitness club. Several Jugantar members were arrested, hanged, or deported for life to the Cellular Jail in Andaman. Thanks to the amnesty after World War I, most of them were released and could give a new turn to their political career, mainly: (a) by joining Gandhi's Non-cooperation movement; (b) Deshbandhu's Swarajya alternative; (c) the Communist Party of India; (d) M.N. Roy's Radical Democratic Party; (e) Subhas Chandra Bose's Forward Bloc.

This extremist outfit was established by leaders like Aurobindo, his brother Barin Ghosh, Bhupendra- nath Datta, Raja Subodh Mallik in April 1906. Barin Ghosh was the main extremist leader. Along with 21 revolutionaries including Bagha Jatin, he started to collect arms and explosives and manufactured bombs. The headquarters of Jugantar was at 27-Kanai Dhar Lane, then 41-Champatola 1st Lane, Calcutta.

BANKIM CHANDRA, THE TOP TERRORIST

Jugantar had Hindu fundamentalist elements like Aurobindo Ghosh right from the very beginning, while Dr. K.B. Hedgewar was part of Anushilan Samiti.

Both Anushilan Samiti as well as Jugantar were Bengali Brahmin terrorist movements right from the beginning.

Even Veer Sawarkar learnt his weapons skills from Italy's Mazzini and other genuine progressive movements. Please remember that even CPI implemented the Anushilan Samiti paradigm.

Thus it was typical Kali-Durga worshipping Bengali Brahmin terrorist movement itself which simply changed colours and changed tactics to became the Brahminical Indian communist movement.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anushilan_Samiti)

ARMED STRUGGLE AGAINST MUSLIMS

Anushilan Samiti ("Self-Culture Association", meaning to follow the teachings of Bankim Chandra Chatterjee) was the principal secret revolutionary organisation operating in Bengal in the opening years of the 20th century.

This association, like its offshoot, the Jugantar, operated under the guise of suburban fitness club. The members were committed towards the path of armed revolution for independence of India from British rule. Calcutta and, later, Dhaka were the two major strongholds of the association.

This Anushilan Samiti was of ultra reactionary Bengali Brahmin orientation and was formed to follow arch racist Bankim Chandra Chatterjee teachings of armed struggle against Muslims, chanting Bande Mataram. Anushilan Samiti was formed by casteist Bengali Brahmins who hated British for banning their favourite sati and child marriage. The moderate Bengali Brahmin organisation was called Brahmo Samaj led by Raja Ram Mohan Roy — which collaborated with the British.

HEDGEWAR LAUNCHES R.S.S.

M.N. Roy was also part of Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar.

http://banglapedia.search. com.bd/HT/R_0243.htm

Guess who else was part of the Anushilan Samiti — none other than our very own friendly Brahmin RSS founder. Dr. K.B. Hedgewar.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K._ B._Hedgewar

Keshava Baliram Hedgewar (Marathi: April 1, 1889 – June 21, 1940) was the founder of the RSS. He founded the RSS in Nagpur in 1925, with the intention of promoting the concept of the Hindu nation. He drew upon influences from social and spiritual Hindu reformers such as Vivekananda, V.D. Savarkar and Aurobindo to develop the core philosophy of the RSS.

He went to Calcutta to do MBBS. After completion, he was drawn into Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar in Bengal. He was also a member of the Hindu Mahasabha till 1929. Hedgewar was imprisoned for sedition by the British in 1921 for a year and again in 1930 for nine months. After his spell in prison he instructed the RSS to remain aloof from political activities including the "Salt Satyagraha" (1930) and continue mainly as a social organisation.

COMMUNIST BRAHMINS MORE DANGEROUS

Casteist Brahmins simply differ on tactics and not on the real goal. Anushilan Samiti itself decided to change colours and tactics and simply became what came to be known as the "Revolutionary Socialist Party". However, the Bengali Bahujans had already adopted Islam.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revoluti onary_Socialist_Party _(India)

RSP is now a Marxist-Leninist political party. Founded on March 19, 1940, it has its roots in the Bengali Anushilan Samiti and the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army. The party got around 0.4% of the votes and three seats in the Lok Sabha elections 1999 and 2004. It is part of the state governments in West Bengal, Kerala, Tripura.

A major section of the Anushilan movement was attracted to marxism in the 30s. A minority section broke away and joined the CPI.

More "educated" and more sophisticated Brahmins realised that marxism had superior methodologies, strategies and tactics to fight the Bahujans.

This marxist mask would also make them the very leaders of the Moolnivasis to effectively mislead them and enslave them.

Kanu Sanyal was from the same old CPI generation which went on to form CPM and later CPI-ML also.

It is no wonder Kanu is supporting Nepal's Brahmin Prachanda.

HINDUS A MINORITY IN KERALA

Whether a Brahminical shudra Nair heads ISRO, or a Brahmin heads a so-called revolutionary party, he can never give up his Brahminical caste privileges and caste character.

In Kerala also, it was not Dalits who formed CPI or even ML parties. It was EMS, KNR and other Brahminical elites who continue to be humbugs.

Bahujans revolted against Brahminism and took to Christianity or Islam. That is how Hindus became a minority in Kerala. Today only the most foolish, politically illiterate Brahmins and upper castes support BJP-RSS. Brahminical elements were forced to wear "marxist" masks, because they lost their numerical superiority.

Caste consciousness is also based on family-based and social conditioning right from childhood. It is a culturally conditioned reflex. It bestows unjustifiable social, economic, cultural and even sexual privileges right from childhood. Severe psychological damage and brainwashing is done right in childhood itself and Brahminical classes are socialised in that reactionary pattern.

ONLY STUPID BRAHMINS JOIN R.S.S.

Such reactionary patterns become psychological crutches which they can never get rid off even when they are adults. And in any case, who wants to get rid of a superiority complex and a privilege? Voluntarily, it will never happen. Thus, Brahminical elements have to necessarily betray any revolution.

Who is the bigger threat? I think we must be terrified of the modernised, "communist" Brahmin who eats beef, and hates the RSS-BJP. These are the most politically sophisticated and cunning rascals who have realised the backwardness and crudeness of their earlier traditional right-wing methods. Only stupid Brahmins in RSS and BJP will stick to their Hindu fundamentalism.

BEWARE OF "SOCIALIST BRAHMINS"

The moment a Brahmin becomes politically sophisticated and realises the folly of his old ways, he will immediately hate those backward tactics and become "secular" — whether he is from ISRO or "Maoist" Party — or from the American NASA. They are using Marxist tactics and methodology to not only screw up marxism, but also to preserve their caste privileges based on racial superiority.

So, we need not fear the BJP-RSS morons. They are stupid museum pieces. But beware of the Vara Vara Raos and Prachandas and Kanu Sanyals. Dalit Voice calls them "Socialist Brahmins". These guys are the biggest danger to everything revolutionary.

We need not fear honest but stupid RSS-ABVP fellows who tell that they are against Bahujans and reservation quotas and even organise anti-Mandal agitations. But Kanu Sanyal, Vara Vara Rao and Prachanda will give genuine revolutionaries sleeping pills and shoot them dead at point blank range, by betraying them by raising revolutionary slogans.

Maoists actually are split on caste lines. Even then, they have not given up casteism and castiest discrimination. KNR, Kanu and Prachanda refuse to even discuss caste questions when they know the ground reality very well.

THROW OUT BRAHMINS IN COMMUNIST PARTY

They are certainly not fools. But they are deliberately doing this drama. It is simply in their caste interest to be red hot marxists.

Several Brahmins are not religious and several are atheists. Several eat beef also. But on caste, they will never compromise.

Upper castes and Dalit Bahujans can never function in any communist party. Therefore, throwing out the Brahmins from the communist movement is the only way.

Fortunately, the existing Brahminical MLM parties are failing. So a strictly Bahujan-led party can be gradually set up. Such a party's written constitution itself will openly state all these dangers and also reserve the right of membership strictly for Moolnivasi Bahujans only. No Brahminical element will be allowed to join the party or even be part of its front organisations or mass organisations.

It will state that Brahminical character itself is historically compradorial, revisionist, labour aristocratic and ultra-reactionary. There is no such thing as a Brahmin proletariat — but only a treacherous Brahmin labour aristocracy.

D.V. THEORY OF CASTE STRUGGLE

DV's "caste struggle" will be officially acknowledged as a distinct Indian phenomenon.

The fundamental questions will be caste and land.

There will be a thorough caste-based surveys on how land holding and caste status are congruent. Everything will be caste-based.

Marxism has to be rescued from vulgarisation by Brahminical ML parties which have simply reduced marxism to a crude" economic reductionism". Studies on the Indian superstructure with relation to caste will be taken up.

There will be no "casteless" or "caste blind" trade union under the name of "workers unity". If it is found that upper caste worker is exploiting lower caste worker, he will be thrashed and butchered mercilessly.

"Class struggle" in India will take the shape of "caste struggle" and caste consciousness will be duly acknowledged.

Concrete preparations to begin armed, bloody and most violent struggle in keeping up with present conditions will be made. (Read DSA books, How Marx Failed in Hindu India, Class-Caste Struggle, Dilemma of Class &Caste).

WANTED A NEW MARXIST PARTY

Will Brahmins be able to escape using Gujjars to fight Meenas, or will a future genuine Maoist party get both Meenas and Gujjars to butcher Brahminists?

To ensure that the real propertyless proletariat is victorious, a new type of party to coordinate all these caste struggles is necessary.

***********************

Brahmin worry over caste wars

COM. AYYANKALI

We must completely strip Brahminical Marxism naked. Forget Gaddar. We must do our duty even if the media is against us. We must not forget that even if an ant bites any elephant's eye or tiger's eye or snake's eye, that animal will surely stumble and fall down. Always aim to sting the enemy's eye even with whatever little strength we have. Because when the enemy stumbles, our Moolnivasis will surely notice at least this. The best example is your (the Editor's) own arrest. When you were arrested and taken to Chandigarh Jail (Aug.1986), the powerful enemy stumbled. So let the enemy attack.

Mao said if the enemy is attacking, then this is the proof that we are on the correct path. So we must continue to poke the enemy's eye non-stop. This is good for our people and bad for our enemies. You must never ever forget that Brahminical enemies are merely pretending ignoring us. Deep inside they are extremely worried — they are shitting in their pants and shivering. I am very confident that this country will definitely see a gigantic caste war. It is inevitable as sunrise and sunset.

Caste war has already started: caste war over water and daughter is already on. So where is the need to be pessimistic? Simply keep on poking the enemy's eye non-stop. Victory is ours. Iran will be attacked and World War-III will begin shortly. This will also certainly weaken Brahminism. Nuclear weapons will be available when the great depression begins. You may think I am bluffing or that I am mad. But I am telling you that victory will be ours.

http://www.dalitvoice.org/Templates/may2010/editorial.htm

Central Committee Communique Instead of using agencies such as the CBI to investigate economic crimes and cases of corruption, the ruling party is unscrupulously utilizing the CBI for its narrow political purposes. The brazen manner in which the CBI investigations have... Date: May. 7 2010 [More..]	Tripura TTADC Results In the elections held to the Tripura Tribal Autonomous District Council, the Left Front has won all 25 results declared so far. Elections were held for 27 seats and election to one seat was countermanded due to the death of a candidate. The... Date: May. 7 2010 [More..]
Successful Countrywide Hartal The call given by the thirteen parties for a countrywide hartal against price rise on April 27 has met with a big response in most parts of the country.The success of the hartal shows the anger and discontent among the people at the failure... Date: Apr. 27 2010 [More..]	Phone Tapping: Home Minister's Statement Unconvincing The statement by the Home Minister denying that any interception/tapping of phone calls of political leaders has taken place, is unconvincing. The government would find it expedient to deny the use of intelligence and security agencies for... Date: Apr. 26 2010 [More..]
On Phone Tapping To ensure that such illegal acts do not recur, the government should place in Parliament a clear set of guidelines prohibiting the use of the intelligence and security agencies for any form of surveillance of political leaders and their... Date: Apr. 24 2010 [More..]	Probe Conflict of Interest in IPL The involvement of Mr. Shashi Tharoor, Minister of State for External Affairs, in the Indian Premier League franchise for the Kochi team has raised a number of questions. It now transpires that a person associated with him has got 19 per cent... Date: Apr. 14 2010 [More..]
On Mass Picketing and Court Arrest Programme The Left parties congratulate the lakhs of people who participated in the mass picketing and court arrest programme all over the country. They were responding to the call of the Left parties on demands pertaining to price rise, land,... Date: Apr. 8 2010 [More..]	On Dantewada Massacre by Maoists The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the massacre of 76 CRPF and Chattisgarh policemen by the Maoists in the Dantewada district of Chattisgarh state. This brutal attack is a reminder that no state government can singly tackle the... Date: Apr. 7 2010 [More..]
Rejoinder to Home Minister The Home Minister would do well to study the Reports of his own Government more carefully in order to better his understanding of the prevailing socio-economic conditions of people in the country. Date: Mar. 28 2010 [More..]	Polit Bureau Communique The Polit Bureau demanded that the government rescind the increase in customs and excise duties for petrol and diesel. If this is not done, the Party will move a cut motion on the Finance Bill in this regard. The Party will hold consultations... Date: Mar. 26 2010 [More..]

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Theoretical Quarterly of the CPI(M)

Year	Title	Author	PDF
2009	On Lok Sabha Election Results	Prakash Karat	PDF
2009	Can A Divided Capitalism Reverse Its Decline?	C.P. Chandrasekar	PDF
2009	Global Financial Crisis & Developing World	Jayati Ghosh	PDF
2009	Thesis of the 18th KKE Congress-Extracts	Document	PDF
2009	Genesis of Intellectual Capital As Property	Amit Sengupta	PDF
2008	West Bengal LF Govt, Panchayats, Municipalities & Tasks	Document	PDF
2008	Kerala: Assurance to the People	Resolution	PDF
2008	Extracts From Tamilnadu Pol-Org Report	Document	PDF
2008	Extracts From Andhra Pradesh Report	Document	PDF
2008	Extracts From Rajasthan Report	Document	PDF
2008	KKE's Experience Since Early 1990s	Document	PDF
2008	19th Congress and the Changed Political Situation	Prakash Karat	PDF
2008	19th Congress Political-Organisational Report -- Part II	Document	PDF
2008	CPI(M) Note to 13th Finance Commission	Document	PDF
2008	Managing Multilingual India	Ayesha Kidwai	PDF
2008	Venezuela: Democracy, Socialism and Imperialism	James Petras	PDF
2008	Conflict in the Caucasus: A Turning Point in Post-Cold War Era	M K Bhadrakumar	PDF
2008	Global Financial Crisis: Lessons in Theory and Policy	Prasenjit Bose & Rohit	PDF
2008	Approach Paper on Restructuring of Centre-State Relations	Document	PDF
2007	Kerala	Ajoy Ghosh	PDF
2007	Industrialisation in West Bengal	Buddhadeb Bhattacharya	PDF
2007	Scientific Realism For Contemporary Marxist	T. Jayaraman	PDF
2007	Student Front: Policy & Tasks	CPI(M) Document	PDF
2007	Higher Education: Commodification & FDI	Vijender Sharma	PDF
2007	Agrarian Transition in West Bengal	Surjya Kanta Mishra	PDF
2007	South African Road to Socialism	SACP Document	PDF
2007	Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Struggle to Defend National Sovereignty	Prakash Karat	PDF
2007	Agrarian Crisis and the Way Out	S. Ramachandran Pillai	PDF
2007	Growth & Crisis In Contemporary Capitalism	C.P. Chandrasekar	PDF
2007	85 Years of the Japanese Communist Party	JCP Document	PDF
2006	Implications of the Indo-US Strategic Alliance	Prakash Karat	PDF
2006	Land Reforms in Venezuela	V.K. Ramachandran	PDF
2006	Necessity of Marxism	Prabhat Patnaik	PDF
2006	The WTO at Crossroads	Amit Sengupta	PDF
2006	Bhagat Singh: An Immortal Revolutionary	Ashok Dhawale	PDF
2006	Political Situation & The Party's Tasks	Prakash Karat	PDF
2006	The Poverty of Economic Philosophy	Prasenjit Bose	PDF
2006	Need to Amend the SEZ Act	Prasenjit Bose	PDF
2005	18th Congress of The CPI(M)	Prakash Karat	PDF
2005	Indo-US Agreement	Raghu	PDF
2005	Judiciary & Empowerment of People	Prabhat Patnaik	PDF
2005	'Maoism': An Exercise in Anarchism	Anil Biswas	PDF
2005	Rajasthan Peasant Struggles	Vikas Rawal	PDF
2004	50th Anniversary of Dien Bien Phu	Vo Nguyen Giap	PDF
2004	Implications of BJP Rule	Prakash Karat	PDF
2004	Kerala Style Decentralised Planning	Prabhat Patnaik	PDF
2004	US Imperial Designs	Aijaz Ahmed	PDF
2004	Agricultural Workers & Unfreedom	Vikas Rawal	PDF
2004	Pablo Neruda Turns 100	Vijay Prashad	PDF
2004	CMP In Higher Education	Thomas Joseph	PDF
2004	Federalism & The Political System in India	Prakash Karat	PDF
2004	Socialism In The Era of Globalisation	Sitaram Yechury	PDF
2004	The Country Will Defend Itself	Fidel Castro	PDF
2004	UPA Government's Economic Policy	Prabhat Patnaik	PDF
2003	Cancun WTO Meeting	Amit & Prabir	PDF
2003	Chinese Economy In 21st Century	Li Tieying	PDF
2003	War On Terror & World Economy	C.P Chandrsekhar	PDF
2003	Agrarian Sit. & Alternative Policies	S Ramachandran Pillai	PDF
2003	Casteist Organisations & Party	Kerala State Committee	PDF
2003	The Century of The Electron	Arjun Rao	PDF
2003	The Communist Party & Organisation	Anil Biswas	PDF
2002	17th Party Congress of the CPI(M)	Harkishan Singh Surjeet	PDF
2002	Extracts from 17th Congress Pol-Org Report	Document	PDF
2002	Israel-Palestine Conflict: Sharonism Rampant	Vijay Prashad	PDF
2002	Intervention Against Caste Oppression In TN	P. Sampath	PDF
2002	L.F Govt: Bastion of Left Democratic Forces	Prakash Karat	PDF
2002	An Assessment of the Bush Doctrine	Vijay Prashad	PDF
2002	CPI(M) Policy Document On Tribal Question		PDF
2002	Class Strugle & Caste Oppression	J. Bandyopadhyaya	PDF
2001	Impact of Globalisation & Liberalisation	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
2001	Power Sector Reforms in Andhra Pradesh	B.V. Raghavulu	PDF
2001	New Economy & Novel Forms of Struggle	P. Purkayastha	PDF
2001	J.D. Bernal: A Centenary Tribute	Arjun Patil	PDF
2001	Ten Years of Economic Liberalisation	Prabhat Patnaik	PDF
2001	Review of W.Bengal Assembly Elections	Document	PDF
2001	Deng Xiaoping Theory & Socialism's Destiny	Yang Chungui	PDF
2000	Programme Updated With Changing Times	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
2000	Shiv Sena: Semi-Fascism In Action	Ashok Dhawale	PDF
2000	Community of Democracies	Prakash Karat	PDF
2000	CPI(M) Programme: Basic Strategy Reiterated	Prakash Karat	PDF
2000	The Brown Out of the New Power Policy	Vivek Monterio	PDF
2000	Development & Crsis Under Capitalism	C.P. Chandrasekhar	PDF
1999	On Current International Situation	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1999	Economic Crisis And The Working Class	Sukomal Sen	PDF
1999	Yugoslavia: An Imperialist War	Tania & Page	PDF
1999	Military Strategy of US Imperialism	Prakash Karat	PDF
1999	Lessons of Chinese Revolution	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1999	Chinese & Indian Situations	P. Patnaik	PDF
1999	Road to Socialism In China	Sitaram Yechury	PDF
1999	CPC 78th Anniversary	Jiang Zemin	PDF
1998	Remembering EMS Namboodiripad	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1998	EMS: The Marxist Pathfinder	Prakash Karat	PDF
1998	EMS: In Literary & Cultural Arena	P. Govinda Pillai	PDF
1998	EMS On Decentralisation	Thomas Issac	PDF
1998	Book Review: Study of The Manifesto	P. Ramachandran	PDF
1998	Working Class & Communist Manifesto	Sukomal Sen	PDF
1998	Globalisation, National State & Class Struggle	Prakash Karat	PDF
1998	`Rolling' Back State capitalism	Kartik Rai	PDF
1998	150 Years of Manifesto	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1998	Agrarian Economy & Liberalisation	Utsa Patnaik	PDF
1998	Post-`Reform' Growth Trajectory	Prabhat Patnaik	PDF
1998	Socialism: A Viable Option	Jose Cabrera	PDF
1996	In Memory of Shapurji Saklatwala	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1996	Saklatvala & Fight Against Rascism		PDF
1996	Saklatvala From Capitalism to Communism		PDF
1996	Importance of Dutt Bradley Thesis	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1996	Marxism of the Era of Imperialism	EMS Namboodiripad	PDF
1995	Science, Society & Philosophy in India	EMS Namboodiripad	PDF
1995	Antonio Gramsci The Man & His Thoughts	EMS Namboodiripad	PDF
1995	75th Anniversary of Formation of CPI	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1995	On Communist Unity	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1995	CPI(M)'s Fifteenth Congress	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1993	100th Birth Anniversary of Mao Zedong	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1992	BJP: A Reactionary Response	Prakash Karat	PDF
1992	Communalism, Religion and Marxism	Sitaram Yechury	PDF
1990	Evolution of Our Tactics In Perspective	H.S. Surjeet	PDF
1986	Marxist Cultural Movement in India	EMS Namboodiripad	PDF
1986	Revolutionary Traditions of May Day	BT Ranadive	PDF
1986	Fifty Years of Peasant Movement	HS Surjeet	PDF
1985	Naxalism Today	Prakash Karat	PDF
1985	Developments In Sri Lanka	Ramdas	PDF
1985	Education & The Ruling Classes	Sitaram Yechury	PDF
1985	Marxism & The Individual	G Simirnov	PDF
1984	The Congress Socialist Party And The Communists	EMS Namboodiripad	PDF
1984	Marx And Trade Unions	BT Ranadive	PDF
1984	Bourgeois Parliamentary Democracy	Ramdas	PDF
1984	Action Groups/Voluntary Organisations	Prakash Karat	PDF

ublished Date	Title	PDF
Feb 2010	Report on Current Developments	PDF
Oct 2009	Report On Political Developments	PDF
Jan 2009	Report on Current Developments	PDF
Oct 2008	Report on Political Developments	PDF
Jun 2007	Report on Political Developments	PDF
Apr 2007	Report on Current Developments	PDF
Jan 2007	Report on Political Developments	PDF
Sep 2006	Report on Implementation of Organisational Tasks	PDF
Sep 2006	Report on Political Developments	PDF
Jun 2006	Report on Political Developments	PDF
Dec 2005	Report on Current Developments	PDF
Sep 2005	Report on Political Developments	PDF
Oct 2004	Report On Political & Current Issues	PDF
Aug 2004	Report on Political Developments	PDF
Jan 2004	Report On Current Developments	PDF
Sep 2003	Report on Political Developments	PDF
Jun 2003	Report On Political Developments	PDF
Mar 2003	Report On Political Developments	PDF
Nov 2002	Report on Current Developments	PDF
Sep 2002	Report on Political Developments	PDF
May 2002	Note on Political Developments	PDF
Aug 2001	Report On Political Developments	PDF
May 2001	Report On Political Developments	PDF
May 1999	Report on Current Political Developments	PDF

Statements Issued During 2010

Date	Title
May. 7 2010	Tripura TTADC Results
May. 7 2010	Central Committee Communique
Apr. 27 2010	Successful Countrywide Hartal
Apr. 26 2010	Phone Tapping: Home Minister's Statement Unconvincing
Apr. 24 2010	On Phone Tapping
Apr. 14 2010	Probe Conflict of Interest in IPL
Apr. 8 2010	On Mass Picketing and Court Arrest Programme
Apr. 7 2010	On Dantewada Massacre by Maoists
Mar. 28 2010	Rejoinder to Home Minister
Mar. 26 2010	Polit Bureau Communique
Mar. 20 2010	Stop Pussyfooting on Headley Case
Mar. 16 2010	Left Parties Appeal to All MPs
Mar. 13 2010	Scrap Nuclear Liability Bill
Mar. 12 2010	Jail Bharo on April 8
Mar. 11 2010	Left Rally in Delhi
Mar. 3 2010	Callous Justification of Petro Price Hike
Feb. 26 2010	Union Budget 2010
Feb. 24 2010	Rail Budget 2010: Total Gimmickry
Feb. 19 2010	Decontroling Prices of Fertilisers
Feb. 16 2010	Maoist Attack on Police Camp
Feb. 14 2010	Terror stike in Pune
Feb. 8 2010	March 12: Left Parties Rally
Feb. 6 2010	Central Committee Communique
Jan. 25 2010	Abducted CPI(M) Leader Released
Jan. 24 2010	Killing of CPI(M) Leader in Orissa
Jan. 22 2010	Fradulent Claims on Foodgrains Allocations
Jan. 18 2010	Prakash Karat's Tribute to Jyoti Basu
Jan. 17 2010	Homage to Jyoti Basu
Jan. 17 2010	Life Sketch Of Jyoti Basu
Jan. 15 2010	REVERSE POLICIES TO CONTROL PRICE-RISE
Jan. 12 2010	Condemn Killings in West Bengal

http://cpim.org/

Some Important Articles From The Marxist

{Theoretical Quarterly of the CPI(M)}

Year	Title	Author
1984	Congress Socialist Party & Communists	EMS Namboodiripad
1984	Marx & Trade Unions	BT Ranadive
1984	Bourgeois Parliamentary Democracy	Ramdas
1984	Action Groups/Voluntary Organisations	Prakash Karat
1985	Naxalism Today	Prakash Karat
1985	Developments In Sri Lanka	Ramdas
1985	Education & The Ruling Classes	Sitaram Yechury
1985	Marxism & The Individual	G Simirnov
1986	Marxist Cultural Movement in India	EMS Namboodiripad
1986	Revolutionary Traditions of May Day	BT Ranadive
1986	Fifty Years of Peasant Movement	HS Surjeet
1990	Evolution of Our Tactics In Perspective	H.S. Surjeet
1992	BJP: A Reactionary Response	Prakash Karat
1992	Communalism, Religion and Marxism	Sitaram Yechury
1993	100th Birth Anniversary of Mao Zedong	H.S. Surjeet
1995	Science, Society & Philosophy in India	EMS Namboodiripad
1995	Antonio Gramsci & His Times	EMS Namboodiripad
1995	75th Anniversary of Formation of CPI	H.S. Surjeet
1995	On Communist Unity	H.S. Surjeet
1995	CPI(M)'s Fifteenth Congress	H.S. Surjeet
1996	In Memory of Shapurji Saklatwala	H.S. Surjeet
1996	Saklatvala and Fight against Rascism
1996	Saklatvala From Capitalism to Communism
1996	Importance of Dutt Bradley Document	H.S. Surjeet
1996	Marxism of the Era of Imperialism	EMS Namboodiripad
1998	Remembering EMS Namboodiripad	H.S. Surjeet
1998	EMS: The Marxist Pathfinder	Prakash Karat
1998	EMS: In Literary & Cultural Arena	P. Govinda Pillai
1998	EMS On Decentralisation	Thomas Issac
1998	Book Review: Study of The Manifesto	P. Ramachandran
1998	Working Class & Communist Manifesto	Sukomal Sen
1998	Manifesto: Struggle Against Globalisation	Prakash Karat
1998	`Rolling' Back State capitalism	Kartik Rai
1998	150 Years of Manifesto	H.S. Surjeet
1998	Agrarian Economy & Liberalisation	Utsa Patnaik
1998	Post-`Reform' Growth Trajectory	Prabhat Patnaik
1998	Socialism: A Viable Option	Jose Cabrera
1999	On Current International Situation	H.S. Surjeet
1999	Economic Crisis And The Working Class	Sukomal Sen
1999	Yugoslavia: An Imperialist War	Tania Noctiummes Jean Pierre Page
1999	Military Strategy of US Imperialism	Prakash Karat
1999	Lessons of Chinese Revolution	H.S. Surjeet
1999	Difference Between Chinese & Indian Sit.	P. Patnaik
1999	Road to Socialism In China	Sitaram Yechury
1999	Jiang Zemin's Speech -- CPC 78 Anniversary
2000	Uneven Development & Capitalism	C.P Chandrasekar
2000	Intellectual Capital As Property	Amit Sengupta
2000	The Brown Out of the New Power Policy	Vivek Monteiro
2000	Community of Democracies	Prakash Karat
2000	Shiv Sena: Semi Fascism In Action	Ashok Dhawale
2000	Globalisation of Culture	Sukomal Sen
2000	CPI(M) Programme Updated	H.S. Surjeet
2000	CPI(M) Programme -- Strategy Reiterated	Prakash Karat
2001	Impact of Globalisation & Liberalisation	H.S. Surjeet
2001	Power Sector Reforms in Andhra Pradesh	B.V. Raghavulu
2001	New Economy & Novel Forms of Struggle	P. Purkayastha
2001	J.D. Bernal: A Centenary Tribute	Arjun Patil
2001	Ten Years of Economic Liberalisation	P. Patnaik
2001	Review of W.Bengal Assembly Elections
2001	Deng Xiaoping Theory & Socialism's Destiny	Yang Chungui
2002	17th Party Congress of the CPI(M)	H.S. Surjeet
2002	Extracts from 17th Congress Pol-Org Report
2002	Israel-Palestine Conflict: Sharonism Rampant	Vijay Prashad
2002	Intervention Against Caste Oppression In TN	P. Sampath
2002	L.F Govt: Bastion of Left Democratic Forces	Prakash Karat
2002	An Assessment of the Bush Doctrine	Vijay Prashad
2002	CPI(M) Policy Document On Tribal Question
2002	Class Strugle & Caste Oppression	J. Bandyopadhyaya
2003	Cancun WTO Meeting	Amit & Prabir
2003	Chinese Economy In 21st Century	Li Tieying
2003	War On Terror & World Economy	CP Chandrsekhar
2003	Agrarian Sit. & Alternative Policies	SR Pillai
2003	Casteist Organisations & Party	Kerala St. Comm
2003	The Century of The Electron	Arjun Rao
2003	The Communist Party & Organisation	Anil Biswas
2004	50th Anniversary of Dien Bien Phu	Vo Nguyen Giap
2004	Implications of BJP Rule	Prakash Karat
2004	Kerala Style Decentralised Planning	Prabhat Patnaik
2004	US Imperial Designs	Aijaz Ahmed
2004	Agricultural Workers & Unfreedom	Vikas Rawal
2004	Pablo Neruda Turns 100	Vijay Prashad
2004	CMP In Higher Education	Thomas Joseph
2004	Federalism & The Political System in India	Prakash Karat
2004	Socialism In The Era of Globalisation	Sitaram Yechury
2004	The Country Will Defend Itself	Fidel Castro
2004	UPA Government's Economic Policy	Prabhat Patnaik
2005	18th Congress of The CPI(M)	Prakash Karat
2005	Indo-US Agreement	Raghu
2005	Judiciary & Empowerment of People	Prabhat Patnaik
2005	*'Maoism': An Exercise in Anarchism*	Anil Biswas
*2005*	Rajasthan Peasant Struggles	Vikas Rawal
2006	UPA Government's Economic Policies	Prasenjit Bose
2006	Implications of the Indo-US Strategic Alliance	Prakash Karat
2006	Land Reforms in Venezuela	V.K. Ramachandran
2006	Necessity of Marxism	Prabhat Patnaik
2006	The WTO at Crossroads	Amit Sengupta
2006	Bhagat Singh: An Immortal Revolutionary	Ashok Dhawale
2006	Political Situation & The Party's Tasks	Prakash Karat
2006	Need to Amend the SEZ Act	Prasenjit Bose
2007	Kerala	Ajoy Ghosh
2007	Industrialisation in West Bengal	Buddhadeb Bhattacharya
2007	Scientific Realism For Contemporary Marxist	T. Jayaraman
2007	Student Front: Policy & Tasks	CPI(M) Document
2007	Higher Education: Commodification & FDI	Vijender Sharma
2007	Agrarian Transition in West Bengal	Surjya Kanta Mishra
2007	South African Road to Socialism	SACP Document
2007	Indo-US Nuclear Deal: Struggle to Defend National Sovereignty	Prakash Karat
2007	Agrarian Crisis and the Way Out	S. Ramachandran Pillai
2007	Growth & Crisis In Contemporary Capitalism	C.P. Chandrasekar
2007	85 Years of the Japanese Communist Party	JCP Document
2008	West Bengal LF Govt, Panchayats, Municipalities & Tasks	Document
2008	Kerala: Assurance to the People	Resolution
2008	Extracts From Tamilnadu Pol-Org Report	Document
2008	Extracts From Andhra Pradesh Report	Document
2008	Extracts From Rajasthan Report	Document
2008	KKE's Experience Since Early 1990s	Document
2008	19th Congress and the Changed Political Situation	Prakash Karat
2008	19th Congress Political-Organisational Report -- Part II	Document
2008	CPI(M) Note to 13th Finance Commission	Document
2008	Managing Multilingual India	Ayesha Kidwai
2008	Venezuela: Democracy, Socialism and Imperialism	James Petras
2008	Conflict in the Caucasus: A Turning Point in Post-Cold War Era	M K Bhadrakumar
2008	Global Financial Crisis: Lessons in Theory and Practice	Prasenjit Bose & Rohit
2008	Approach Paper on Restructuring of Centre-State Relations	Document
2009	On Lok Sabha Election Results	Prakash Karat

Market God

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"The Depression of 1933"?? -- Is a Depression a Moveable Famine?

Robert S. McElvaine | Posted 03.18.2010 | Business

The Free Market faithful have rewritten a great deal of history. But their most recent claim that Franklin Roosevelt started the Great Depression? That's just ludicrous.

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The Gone Old Party has long been the home of two species of fundamentalists: Fundamentalist Economus and Fundamentalist Religulous.

The alliance between the two has been uneasy, but victories have often been sufficient to paper over their differences.

John McCain is an eco-fundie, but not a religio-fundie. He has, however, sold his soul to the devil -- the religio-fundies -- in his desperate attempt to win the presidency.

For her part, Sarah Palin is both a religio-fundie and an eco-fundie.

But all that matters in this election is the economy, and, try as he might, Sen. McCain cannot escape from his lifelong adherence to economic fundamentalism: Thou shalt honor the Market thy God, and thou shalt have no other gods before It. It must be left to rule us without interference.

It is the economic fundamentalism that reigned in the 1920s and led to the Great Depression.

That same economic fundamentalism has been dominant in the presidency of George W. Bush and it has run the economy into the ground once again. And John McCain has genuflected before it religiously.

In 1960, a photo of an unsavory-looking Richard Nixon (I know, I know -- is there any other way he looked?) with the caption, "Would you buy a used car from this man?" was popular among Democrats.

The same type of photo of McCain works this year, with "used economic philosophy" replacing "used car."

All the Obama campaign people need to remember is a variant of the sign in the 1992 Clinton war room:

It's the Stupid Economics, Stupid! Remind Everyone of it!

Historian Robert S. McElvaine is Elizabeth Chisholm Professor of Arts & Letters at Millsaps College. His latest book is Grand Theft Jesus: The Hijacking of Religion in America

It's the Stupid Economics, Stupid!

Robert S. McElvaine | Posted 11.13.2008 | Politics

All that matters in this election is the economy, and, try as he might, McCain cannot escape from his lifelong adherence to economic fundamentalism.

Read Post

Introduction to "The God Market: How Globalization is making India more Hindu"

Written by Meera Nanda , Posted on 29 March 2009

Tags: Globalization, God, hindu, India, Market, Meera, Nanda

Update: The title of Meera Nanda's upcoming book will be "The God Market: How Globalization is making India more Hindu" and not "God and Globalization in India" as previously reported. The book will be published by Random House later this year. This post contains the full text of the introduction, except for the chapter outline and personal notes.

Introduction: God and Globalization in India

Meera Nanda

India had its own "why do they hate us?" moment after the city of Mumbai came under attack in late November 2008 by a bunch of gunmen with links to terrorist outfits based in Pakistan. Many in India answered the question much the same way George Bush famously explained the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the United States: Islamic terrorists hate us because we are good and they are evil; we are free and democratic and they hate freedom and democracy. Some took this rhetoric even further and argued that we are good, free and democratic because we are a Hindu nation, and the Islamists hate us because we are Hindus.

This us-them divide was further linked to globalization, a word that got bandied about a great deal in the aftermath of Mumbai attack. Pakistanis hate us, many argued in India, because we are winning in the global economy, while they are a bunch of sore losers bent upon dimming the bright glow of our economic miracle. The terror attacks were seen as a conspiracy meant to destroy the confidence of global investors, slow down or even reverse the outsourcing of IT and other jobs to India, and stop the foreign tourists from coming.

Not only is India seen as winning the globalization race on the economic front, but on the civilizational front as well. As Robert Kaplan, a well-known foreign policy expert wrote in The New York Times shortly after the Mumbai attacks, globalization has led Indians to rediscover their glorious Hindu civilization, supposedly the source of its "vibrantly free" democracy, while Muslims of India and Pakistan are re-discovering their Islamic culture which has only encouraged them to withdraw into "beards, skull-caps and burkas." This sentiment was echoed in India as well. As M.V. Kamath, a commentator well-known for his Hindu Right views wrote in The Organiser, while the "indestructible, incredible India, so cheerful and forgiving," is busy sending rockets to the moon, its "sick" Muslim neighbor and many Indian Muslims are bent upon isolating themselves by "wearing skull-caps.. forcing women to wear burkas and otherwise refusing to join the mainstream." In both cases, the excesses of the Taliban and allied extremists are being made to stand for all of Islam, while the accomplishments of India - but none of its failings — happily claimed for the glory of Hinduism.

In this narrative, India with its Hindu civilization is presented as the bright, forward-facing side of globalization, while Pakistan — and indeed, Islam itself - is made to stand for its dark, demonic and backward-facing underside. The world gets divided into two: the winners who have the right kind of civilizational resources to play and win in the global economy, and the rest who are deemed to be laggards, if not total losers.

India has joined this game of civilizational one-upmanship with great gusto. Out of the four BRIC countries that are projected to emerge as global economic powers by the middle of this century - Brazil, Russia, India and China - India is most aggressive about projecting its civilizational virtues in its quest for a Great Power status. Quite like the United States, India sees itself as the outpost of democratic capitalism, pluralism and religious tolerance in a world full of religious zealots and terrorists.

WHAT THIS BOOK IS ABOUT

This book questions this narrative that pits a virtuous, victorious and Hindu India against the evil designs of Islamic terrorists - or rather, to use the language of Hindu nationalists, the evil designs of all those who follow the "criminal Semitic creeds" including not just Islam, but Christianity as well. It is the thesis of this book that the growing liberalization and globalization of the Indian economy is not only compatible with, but is actually contributing to the growth of a virulent form of political Hinduism which is as wedded to the project of politicizing and universalizing a Hindu (or "Vedic") worldview, as the Islamists and Christian fundamentalists are to maximizing the influence of their own respective faith traditions. The "us" is not the virtuous opposite of "them," but rather a twin, who differs only in appearance and rhetoric, but not in ambitions and methods.

This book will show that underneath the rhetoric of free markets, democracy and secularism, India is undergoing a sea change in its political economy and political culture - a change that is being hastened and encouraged by the forces of globalization. We will examine the evidence for the emergence of what we will call the "state-temple-corporate complex" in India that is dissolving the pre-existing boundaries (such as they were) between the Hindu religious establishment, the machinery of the state in matters relating to education, the media, health etc. and the interests of big businesses and corporations, both Indian and multinational. (A note to the reader: since Hindus make up the vast majority of the people of India, it is Hinduism that will be sole focus of this book. Changes in the rest of the many religions of India will be acknowledged, but not investigated in any detail.)

Aided by this state-temple-corporate complex, a very ordinary, ritualistic - but very nationalistic — Hinduism is growing in the pores of the Indian society. Unlike most post-9/11 books that concentrate on the extremist or fundamentalist movements, this book focuses on the everyday Hinduism of ordinary Indians, especially those belonging to the new middle classes whose lifestyles, consumer tastes and aspirations are defined by the global consumer culture. The changing religious culture of the new middle-classes is important to understand for the simple reason they have been most receptive to global capitalism on the one hand, and to the siren songs of Hindu nationalism on the other.

This emphasis on everyday Hinduism stems from the fundamental assumption this book is based upon, namely, popular Hinduism is the soil in which the tree of Hindu nationalism is rooted, and Hindu gods, rituals and sacred texts are the nutrients that keep it growing. Hindu gods, myths and rituals by themselves have no necessary or inherent link to nationalism, or any -ism at all, including Hinduism itself, which some have argued is a modern invention. But they serve as readily available and dearly cherished cultural resources for mobilizing Hindu supremacist passions among the masses. As the national history, culture and destiny of India gets to be told and ritually enacted — over and over again, everyday — through the medium of Hindu gods and goddesses, the line between the worship of God and the worship of the nation is getting fainter by the day. India is not only witnessing a resurgence of popular religiosity, this religiosity is becoming indistinct from national and even civilizational self-glorification that openly demonizes Muslims and Christians and often verges on hubris. Backed by nuclear bombs and an ever-growing arsenal of sophisticated weapons, this hubris can spell disaster for the entire subcontinent.

The adoption of neo-liberal economic policies at home, and the growing linkages with corporate capital abroad, is aiding and abetting this fusion of faith with jingoism — this thesis lies at the heart of this book. In other words, Hindu nationalism does not exist in the realm of ideas alone, but is embedded in the dominant political-economic institutions of India Inc., the new India that dreams superpower dreams.

At the institutional level, popular Hinduism is riding on the coattails of the so-called "public-private partnerships" that are filling in the space vacated by the public sector as India comes under the sway of market reforms. The book will provide concrete evidence for the growing Hinduization of a whole variety of institutions run by the four-sided public-private collaboration we call the state-temple-corporate complex (or STCC for short). The four collaborators include: first and foremost, the elected representatives of the people along with the machinery of the government; two, the corporate sector, both Indian and foreign; three, the country's dominant religious sector, made up of a loose network of Hindu temples (some of them stupendously wealthy), their management committees with powerful government and business representatives on their boards and the many well-connected gurus, yogis and swamis; and last but not the least, the representatives of political Hinduism, or Hindutva, who maintain fraternal relations with the Hindu establishment on the one hand and with the corporate players on the other.

This four-sided collaboration, this book will show, is responsible for openly or covertly smuggling in a jingoistic and yet deeply superstitious and socially conservative Hindu agenda into private and government-aided institutions of higher learning. In addition, public money for tourism and infrastructure projects is flowing into promoting pilgrimage to Hindu temples and other holy places, renovating and even directly subsidizing the building of new temples, ashrams and priest-training schools.

So pervasive and so utterly taken-for-granted is this institutional support for propagating Hinduism in the guise of promoting "Indian culture," that even the formally secular agencies of the state openly indulge in it at tax-payers' expense — and hardly anyone asks any questions. If "they" have their fanatical mullahs, "we" have the eager cooperation of the four main pillars of society, backed by the enthusiastic consent of ordinary people.

At the ideological level, globalization is fuelling the dreams of making India an economic and spiritual superpower - a science and technology superstar and world guru (or jagat-guru) rolled in one. Elated by India's success in the global economy (such as it is), many players of the state-temple-corporate complex, along with influential opinion-makers in the media, have bought into the dreams of superpower-dom. A new self-image is being fashioned in which Indians are the Chosen People who have the "innate ability" to see and hear the Divine, and who are therefore endowed with superior reason and intelligence. This race of spiritual and intellectual giants, the myth goes, has long been besieged by dwarfs who believe in the Semitic conception of God which has been the source of all the evils in the world. The 21^st century is supposed to be the Indian century, when India will awaken to its destiny and take its "rightful place" as a great civilization and a great power. Elements of this new mythology have already seeped into the public sphere and can be easily identified in conversations with educated, middle-class Indians, in media commentaries and in the religious discourses of popular gurus.

This Chosen People-Great Power myth is not a pipedream, but has real world consequences. This cultural narcissism is very much on display in the eagerness with which India has joined the US-led "axis of the enlightened" nations against the "axis of evil" nations which are mostly Islamic and therefore assumed to be fundamentally unenlightened and violent.

This entire arc of development - starting from India's deepening links with the global economy, the increasing religiosity of the Hindu majority, the growing inter-penetration of popular Hinduism and the public sphere, all the way to Hinduism's purported superiority over "Semitic monotheistic" civilizations and the prospects of secularism under the conditions of globalization — is the subject of this book.

GLOBALIZATION AND RESURGENCE OF RELIGION

On the surface, our thesis strains plausibility. For a great many years, notable social theorists have been predicting a decline - if not the death - of organized religions, nation-states and nationalistic feelings in the global village interconnected by markets, the internet and communication satellites. We, on the other hand, are asserting not only that popular religiosity and nationalism are growing in India as the country is getting more integrated into the world markets, but that the two are merging into each other and stoking the flames of intolerance — and even terrorism — against non-Hindu minorities.

At first glance, it does seem counter-intuitive that a closer integration with the rest of the world should encourage the kind of burst of religiosity and nationalism that India is experiencing. Wasn't the global spread of free-markets and democracy supposed to "end history" by "replacing irrational desire of nations to be recognized as greater than others with a rational desire be recognized as equal"? That was certainly the gist of Francis Fukuyama's bestseller The End of History which caused a great stir when it was first published in 1992. The self-correcting logic of the global market was supposed to replace the interest-driven and often corruption-laden policies of individual nation-states, and eventually purge the world of nationalism itself. National identities were supposed to give way either to supra-national identities (like the European Union), or to gently transmute into a postmodern "pastiche sensibility" that values a variety of life-style choices borrowed from all over the world, with no special attachment to any one national culture. What is more, global markets were supposed to moderate and secularize traditional religions, turning them into gentle "prosperity religions" whose role, as Alan Wolfe, a well-known American sociologist of religion put it recently, is "not to question the modern world's riches but to bring them within the reach of everyone." A world-wide outbreak of liberal democracy, pluralism, respect for difference, secularism, prosperity and international peace - that was the original promise of globalization.

What is happening in India shows that market forces do not necessarily secularize societies, or to put it other words, modernization and development do not necessarily lessen the hold of religious beliefs and practices on the lives of individuals, culture and social institutions. Even the supposedly secularized "prosperity religions" can happily co-exist with - and actively encourage - religionization of national identities.

Indeed, India offers a good example of how globalization promotes not secularization, but rather de-secularization of society, and how new technologies and institutional arrangements provide new opportunities for traditional religions to modernize themselves and penetrate deeper into the pores of the society. Despite the rhetoric of Timeless and Eternal Truth, Hindu dharma, like all other religions, is constantly adapting to the changing society and in the process, influencing the direction of change. What is noteworthy about Hinduism's adaptation to India's growing integration into the global market economy is how the Hindu establishment has given its blessings to - and in turn, benefited handsomely from — a highly rapacious form of corporate capitalism, while feeding a sense of innate Hindu superiority over the rest of the world.

It is, of course, too soon to foreclose the possibility that the logic of the marketplace may yet help to moderate the Frankenstein of political Hinduism that the markets themselves are aiding and abetting. It clear that large-scale and violent self-assertion of religious identity (as over the issue of the Ram temple in Aydodhya), or massacre of innocents of the "wrong" religion (as in Godhara, Gujarat) is not good for the country's global image and foreign investments. Since no one knowingly kills the goose that lays golden eggs, Hindu extremist parties and their supporters among the upper-crust may well learn to moderate their rhetoric and actions in the interest of maintaining the image of India as a place of peace and harmony. So far, however, the chances of moderation do not look good: Hindu-led violence is not declining but only being outsourced to local dals and senas, the many armies of this or that god or goddess, whose activities do not get the kind of international media attention that the attacks on Mumbai received.

All said and done, India is like a tightrope walker these days: one false step can throw the entire country and its economy can fall in utter chaos. The ever growing merger of Hinduism and nationalist sentiments increases the possibility of just such a false step.

THREE PARADOXES

There are three paradoxes of the growing Hinduization of the Indian polity that this book seeks to explore in fuller details.

The first paradox is that the state-temple ties are deepening in a country that takes pride in its secular democracy where the state is supposed to have no official religion of its own. India with its Godless Constitution is indeed an exception in South Asia, a region made up entirely of faith-based nation-states, including Islamic sates like Pakistan and Bangladesh, Buddhist states like Sri Lanka and Bhutan, and until recently, a Hindu state like Nepal. This naturally makes one wonder why and how India's public sphere, including the agencies of the state, have come to be saturated with overtly Hindu symbols and rituals?

This book explains this paradox by focusing on the machinations of the state-temple-corporate complex that is filling the space left vacant as the state has begun to withdraw from its public-sector obligations.

In one sense, the existence of STCC is nothing new. The supposedly secular state of India has never shied away from celebrating Hindu religious symbols in the public sphere - all in the name of propagating "Indian culture." Merchants and business houses, too, have a long history, going back many centuries, of sponsoring temples and monasteries devoted to their own chosen God or gurus.

But the current neo-liberal economic regime, this book will argue, is bringing the state, the business/industrial elite and the religious establishment in a much closer relationship than ever before. As the Indian state is withdrawing from its public-sector obligations, it is actively seeking partnership with the private sector and the Hindu establishment to run schools, universities, hospitals, tourist facilities and other social services. As a result, public funds earmarked for creating public goods are increasingly being diverted into facilitating the work of these private charitable institutions which bear a distinctly Hindu traditionalist bias. This, in turn, is helping to "modernize" Hinduism: many of the newly minted, English-speaking and computer-savvy priests, astrologers, vastu shastris and yoga teachers who service the middle-classes' insatiable appetite for religious ritual, are products of this nexus between the sate, the corporate sector and the temples.

The second paradox that this book explores is apparent "liberalism," and the post-modernist eclecticism and hybridity of Hindu nationalism. The kind of political Hinduism that has become the new normal in India differs from the much-derided "Islamofascism," or the garden-variety Christian fundamentalism in the US in one significant detail: there are no equivalents of fatwa-issuing mullahs or Bible-thumping preachers among the more popular and influential figures of Hindu nationalists. Of course, Fatwa-like death threats, Taliban-style moral policing, terrorist attacks on Muslim and Christian communities, Vedic literalism in the guise of "Vedic science" and forced conversions all go on in India, but they are mostly outsourced to fringe and lumpen groups. The mainstream of political Hinduism, unlike the mainstream of political Islam, consistently presents its agenda in the liberal language of "real" secularism, democracy and tolerance, all of which are claimed to be Hinduism's gift to the world.

By and large, the modern-day preachers of Hinduism are far too sophisticated to resort to the far cruder methods of mullahs and Bible-thumping ministers. Like a virus that replicates itself by using the biological machinery of the host cell, Hindu nationalism installs itself in the minds and hearts of ordinary people by using their deeply-held religious beliefs, dearly-loved rituals and festivals, and fondly-remembered myths, hymns and songs. What is even more insidious is how modern Hinduism has learned to present its deeply unjust, hierarchical and mystical worldview as the epitome of "integral" humanism, democracy and science. This shallow but shiny gloss of liberal-sounding vocabulary is how modern Hinduism is sold to the IT-workers, financial-sector employees and other white-collar service providers who make up the bulk of the new middle-class.

This kind of pseudo-modern Hinduism thrives on a strikingly post-modernist style of thinking which draws wild and unwarranted equivalences and analogies between pre-modern and modern conceptions of liberal democracy, tolerance, science etc. This great interpretive flexibility and hybridity of Hinduism is routinely admired by intellectuals and ideologues alike as a source of India's purported tolerance and openness to modern ideas.

But this book will argue that this eclecticism has served not to liberalize or modernize, but to deepen the hold of Hindu religious culture on the secular aspects of Indian society, including education, government administration, business enterprises and even the judiciary. Hindu eclecticism excels in transferring the attitudes of reverence, faith and enthusiasm typical of religious experience to secular institutions and ideas. The rituals of Hindu puja, for example, are transferred to the Indian nation which is literally represented as a Hindu goddess, Bharat Mata. The attitude of reverence reserved for religious teachers is transferred to scientific teaching and learning to the point that laboratories are treated as temples and temples as "occult laboratories". The all-pervasive atman, or shakti of Hinduism becomes the "energy" of quantum physics and so on. Dominant ideas, ways of thinking and political projects give the appearance of being modern, but they retain the core of traditional Hindu worldview.

The third paradox has to do with the manufacture of consent for privatization and trickle-down economics. The results of the 2004 elections clearly showed that the majority of voters who did not share in the gains of the new economy were turned off by the hoopla about "India Shining" and threw out the Hindu-nationalist led government. In a country where more than 700 million people still live on less than two US dollars a day and where the majority is seeing a worsening of whatever little there was in the name of public services like schools and hospitals, it is not easy to convince the masses of the virtues of free markets.

This raises the following question which this book tries to answer: How are the economic policies which require dispossession of the poor but give them precious little in return being sold to the electorate? What, in other words, are the ideological legitimations for the new economy which can make it acceptable to even those who are not benefiting materially from it?

The answer lies in what this book calls "superpower swadeshi" (lit. one's own country, swa "one's own," and deshi, "country".) India has performed a linguistic sleight of hand straight out of Orwell's 1984: the Gandhian meaning of swadeshi as self-reliance and economic nationalism has been redefined as whatever will make India powerful on the world stage, or whatever will make India into a "superpower."

The idea of India as a superpower in science and technology, an economic powerhouse and at the same time, a great spiritual guru to the whole world mobilizes the patriotic and even religious passions of even those who are actually losing out in the rush to privatize. After the long history of colonial humiliation, there is a great hunger among ordinary Indians to be respected — and even feared — by the rest of the world. The promise of superpowerdom seems to satisfy this hunger.

This "dream" of becoming a superpower, this book will argue, not only sells market reforms, but also promotes Hindu chauvinism which is openly targeted at Muslim and Christian minorities. Hindu chauvinism is built into superpower swadeshi because Hinduism plays a huge role in defining and glorifying what is swadeshi. The idea that Hinduism is "innately" more spiritual, more rational (even innately more computer savvy!), and more liberal than other religions is quite deeply ingrained in the Indian psyche. The Hindu Right parties actively promote these ideas of Hindu superiority in their attempt to project India as the victor in the global clash of civilizations.

Overall, then, the aim is to look below the surface of the shiny but thin veneer of modernity represented by new shopping malls, fashion boutiques, car-dealerships, IT-parks and special economic zones cropping up all over the country. Underneath the gloss of globalization, there is a bubbling cauldron of faith, politics and big money creating a society with a deeply politicized religion and an equally religionized politics. In this society, age-old resentments against non-Hindu Indians, and age-old ambitions of dominating the outside world are finding a new, more self-confident - but potentially more dangerous - expression. It is this culture and its material foundations that this book has tried to describe.

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This post was written by:

Meera Nanda - who has written 7 posts on Nirmukta.

Is 'Hindu Atheism' Valid? A Rationalist Critique Of The 'Hindu' Identity's Usurpation Of Indian Culture

Written by Ajita Kamal , Posted on 28 November 2009

Tags: Christianity, Culture, group, hinduism, identity, India, Islam, label, philosophy

Many Indians intellectuals who don't believe in supernatural gods or powers fail to separate their non-belief from the 'Hindu' identity. The desire to belong to a dominant cultural group is so strong in us that these so-called 'Hindu Atheists' invent the most convoluted justifications for their acceptance of the Hindu label. But does it really make sense to call oneself a Hindu Atheist? What does one truly mean by the word Hindu in this context? The object of this article is to get rationalists and atheists from India who identify themselves as 'Culturally Hindu' to question this label with which they are associating themselves.

To make my position clear at the outset, I will state my fundamental claim below.

Fundamental Claim

Hinduism is a meaningless religious label. It is not an ancient philosophy that originated in India. In fact, the word Hindu is not even an Indian word. It is a superficial group identity that was concocted relatively late in the history of India. Rather than being the unified philosophy or way of thought that it masquerades to be, Hinduism is a semantic impediment to the natural evolution of cultural knowledge in India.

Introduction

"The tendency to turn human judgments into divine commands makes religion one of the most dangerous forces in the world."

Georgia Harkness

Religions have always benefited when the facts are ambiguous. One such religion-driven ambiguity is in the definition of the notion of religion itself. This is the first place to start any such discussion on religion.

From a scientific point of view, we can define religion as a sub-group within a culture, possessing certain specific traits. The most fundamental of these traits is the strong group identity that religion strives to instill in its followers. In this sense, religion can be observed as a set of memes. The evolution of a religion can be studied through the memetic evolution of individual religious ideas, including the central meme that holds the religion together- the group label. The most successful religions are those that have managed to extend the label of the religion over the entire cultural spectrum of a population. The religions that manage to do this have achieved a stranglehold over the cultural evolution of that group of people. This is the most powerful strategy that religious memes have at their disposal. The way a culture gets out from under the burden of repressive religious labels is by denying religious memes their hunger for co-opting the knowledge attained by rational discourse. That is, religion is designated a limited status, separate from factual aspects of the culture in which it exists. In most Western countries, the role of religion has been mostly designated to non-rational affairs. This removal of the repressive influence of religion from fact-based aspects of human culture has been the greatest achievement of reason. Unfortunately, In India the 'Hindu' meme has successfully prevented many rationalists from differentiating between the religious memes of the group label 'Hinduism' and the rest of Indian culture.

In my article Hinduism: Religion, Culture or Way of Life, I identify three qualities possessed by religions that define them: group identity, authoritarian organization, and the tendency to increase the ability for belief in conflicting ideas (followed by cherry-picking). In that article, I demonstrated how Hinduism is similar to Islam and Christianity in these respects- not surprising since Islam and Christianity provided the conditions for the development of institutionalized Hinduism. In the same article, I also point to how Hinduism is a religion in the same sense that all of Greek philosophy and mythology is one self-contained religion. That is to say that this idea of Hinduism is not really a religion. It is simply the cultural history of a group of people, Indians. Considering a rational standardized view of what does and what does not comprise a religion, there are two distinct faces that wear the mask of 'Hinduism'. One is religious, and the other is a lie. I intend on exposing the lie.

In this article we will see how what we label today as Hinduism was developed as a reaction to the threat of cultural irrelevance posed first by Islam and later by Christianity, and how this label has been packaged as a cultural competitor to these two 'super-religions'. Further, we will see how this meaningless and concocted label 'Hindu' may have served India well over the past centuries by keeping dangerous ideologies at bay, but may well have outlived its useful phase. Finally, we will see why it is necessary for us Indian rationalists to take a step back and evaluate the usefulness of the term 'Hindu' itself.

Note: I do not intend on discussing any actual theology here. If that is your area of interest, there are perhaps other venues more suitable for you. This article is concerned with the cultural and sociobiological impulses behind the development and evolution of the label 'Hinduism'. It is written as a work of critical examination of certain specific ideas from an academic perspective. No malice is directed towards any particular group of people. Similarly, commenters are encouraged to treat ideas with irreverent skepticism and people with respect and kindness.

The Usurpation of a National Identity by a Meaningless Label.

India has seen numerous belief systems come and go. The nature of cultural evolution in a relatively 'free-society' (the definition of this phrase can be debated) is that ideas challenge each other and compete for belief space when they are in natural conflict. The result is a progressive and self-correcting cultural framework within which civil society flourishes. Ancient India was no stranger to this cultural mechanism of innovation, introspection, elimination and growth. Thousands of ideologies, philosophies and schools of thought have been built up and torn down over the centuries. All of this co-existed with the thousands of deeply-rooted superstitions and mindless rituals that pervaded the land.

Despite this diversity of opinion and the competition for cultural success between different belief systems within India, the people who inhabited the sub-continent had much in common with each other. This is only natural. Many of the local cultures shared common ancestry. Even iron-age people traveled a bit, and eventually there was a continuous distribution of cultural traditions throughout India. The natural barriers that cut off the subcontinent from its neighbors also helped the societies that evolved in India to develop a distinct cultural flavor. Any visitor to the land would have been struck by how different the set of beliefs were from their own. This is exactly what happened when the travelers from the West and from the East laid their weary eyes on the people and cultures of ancient India. These visitors needed a word to describe the people who lived in this part of the world- to set them apart from themselves, and consequently from everyone else. The many words they came up with were lost in memetic dead-ends. Until one stuck.

The origins of the word 'Hindu' lie in the Persian word for the river Indus. The people who lived east of the Indus river (Sindu in Sanskrit) were called Hindus by the Persians. This is also similar to the Arabic term for Indians. Some sources credit Alexander, the Greek invader, as the source of the word Hindu, but there is little evidence for this claim. The term 'Hindu' entered India with the arrival of the Mughals. It was not in common use within the subcontinent until the 14^th century, long after many of the major texts of what is known today as Hinduism were composed. Islam, the religion of the Mughal invaders, poised itself as a sufficiently separate belief-system from the collective Paganism that the Mughals perceived in the local population. To the Muslims, all the local beliefs and practices of the inhabitants of the subcontinent comprised a primitive out-group. To the Indians, Islam was an alien ideology which was capable of replacing all local knowledge and culture with it's own self-contained narrative. Their response was the formation of a reactionary element against Islam from within the Indian community (this happened by cultural evolution over many generations, as well as by concerted efforts of individuals and groups). This part-organic, part-organized movement adopted the label conferred on it by this enemy. Hinduism was born.

In the more recent past the Christian colonialists continued to use the label 'Hindu' to denote the people of India. Often, they used this label on any Indian who was not White. The Hindu revival movement was born in the 19^th century, as a nationalistic response to British rule. This is the real origin of the modern phenomenon that we call Hinduism. Tapio Tamminen writes

"Hindu revivalists argued that the national identity could be recovered only by seeking the fundamental religious and cultural truths again. They idealized the past, and demanded a return to the older and purer forms of Hindu culture that had degenerated under foreign rule….
According to many leading revivalists, Hindu society had degenerated, because Hindus no longer followed 'dharma'. They claimed that India could not regenerate itself unless dharma was properly observed. For example Aurobindo Ghose emphasized that 'all great awakenings in India, all her periods of mightiest and most varied vigour have drawn their vitality from the fountainhead of some deep religious awakening' (Purani 1964: 81). Aurobindo Ghose and other revivalists shared the view that a good society can exist only when it is based on the correct principles of dharma.
The 'Dharma-karma' concept was adjusted for political purposes mainly by three persons: Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), Aurobindo Ghose (1872-1950) and Bal Gangadhar Tilak (1856-1920). They all legitimated their religious and political ideas by the 'Bhagavad Gita'. According to Aurobindo Ghose, the nation was a divine expression of God. That is why he could emphasize that 'nationalism is a religion that has come from God'. (Andersen and Damle 1987: 13-16).
According to Girilal Jain (1994: 45), there are three notable points in Swami Vivekananda's 'religion of patriotism': firstly his identification of Mother India with the supreme God, secondly his attempt to reintroduce the Kshatriya element in the Hindu psyche, and thirdly his conviction that India was destined to be a teacher of the human race in the spiritual reality."

Thus the entire early history of India had become synonymous with a religious ideology by the time India gained independence from Britain.

This etymology of the word 'Hindu' is the currently accepted version among scholars, but there have been attempts to present a more ancient indigenous origin for the term. Many such attempts have involved verses alleged to be Vedic that refer to Indians as Hindu, but none of these verses have been verified. These attempts show the extent to which people will go to defend a meaningless label, even to the point of manufacturing evidence to cover up the irrelevance of that label.

The Biology of Groups:

The biological reasons that drove the evolution of the label Hinduism can be studied using sociobiology. Briefly, the field of sociobiology is concerned with how human behavior (of individuals) evolved due to environmental pressures over the ages. In the case of group identity, the primary environmental pressure is the group- the society of humans. As people developed complex cultures, cultural group labels came to replace older forms of group identity such as kinship and tribe identity. In this context, group labels become an important determinant in the evolution of human behavior. This behavior is shaped by the interaction between primitive human instincts and the evolving language of identity.

Robin Allott writes:

"National, international, local and social history is largely the record of the consequences of groupism, a biologically necessary (no doubt) product of the evolution of the species. If groups are formed, group interests are bound to diverge and can result in Crusades, concentration camps, football hooliganism, Waco, city riots - or even sociology v evolutionary psychology. Groupism is a central aspect of human evolutionary psychology. Nations, societies, or states are ingroups on the largest scale, formed of multiple subsidiary ingroups and regarding other nations, societies or states as outgroups. Consideration of smaller groups can throw light on the cohesion of the largest groups. The obverse of the unity of the group is the potential for intergroup conflict. Social identity plays an important role in ingroup-outgroup relations, the distribution of resources, self-categorization, and expectations for behavior. It is an automatic redefinition of "self" in terms of shared group membership."

This tendency for group identity is the main reason why Hinduism came to be accepted as an all inclusive tradition in India. I have written about this here:

"The Hindu identity is in part a reaction to the collective out-group status assigned to the practices that were different from Islam and Christianity."

The sociobiological perspective is an objective scientific way of studying the evolution of complex cultural and behavioral trends, although its reach may be limited. In the case in question, this perspective offers unique insight into the development and perpetuation of the 'Hindu' label.

The Benefits of the Label:

The 'Hindu' identity has had a strong positive influence on Indian culture in one major respect. It has kept Islam and Christianity from spreading more than they already have on the subcontinent. An analysis of other cultures with animistic beliefs that were later invaded by Islamic or Christian cultures demonstrates how easily the 'super-religions' were established in these new pastures. The development of the 'Hindu' label has preserved, at least in part, many of the ancient philosophical treatises and art relics of our great culture. The so-called 'Pagan' cultures of Europe, Africa, South America and the Middle East were often decimated by Christianity and Islam.

However, the benefits conferred to Indian culture by adopting the label 'Hinduism' faded away with the end of British rule and the development of a secular constitution.

Think of a sapling that is planted in the ground. A tough wire mesh placed surrounding the young plant can protect it from grazing animals and bad weather. After the sapling grows into a young tree with a hardy constitution, it does not need the wire anymore. The same wire mesh can now choke the tree's growth and be its downfall. Hinduism is the wire mesh that is closing in around our growing Indian culture. The mesh is not necessary anymore for support and protection and is only a danger to the health of the tree. But the steel wire is embedded deep in the soft growing wood and needs to be cut out with care and determination.

The Two Faces of Hinduism:

From the very beginning Hinduism has maintained two completely different portfolios. On the one hand, it is an organized religion, like Islam and Christianity (again, I have explained why here ). On the other, the label of Hinduism deceptively and falsely encompasses all of Indian culture, except for the beliefs and practices of distinct major religions (and even among these, Buddhism and Jainism are considered branches of Hinduism by some). On one hand, ancient philosophical schools such as the atheistic Carvaka school which predates the label 'Hindu' by centuries, are falsely appropriated by Hinduism. On the other, you have Hindus insisting that there are certain core beliefs in Hinduism, beliefs that no atheist would associate with. The two faces of Hinduism are a reflection of the fact that the notion of Hinduism is a cobbled together nationalistic ideology that incorporates aspects of older religious traditions as well as non-religious cultural elements within it.

It is the interplay between these two-faces of Hinduism that is responsible for much of India's troubles. There is a semantic deception played by Hinduism that maintains a seemingly cohesive and self-contained image, one that disingenuously encompasses the two faces of the label 'Hindu'. This is a lie that is perpetuated to dissuade criticism and foster ignorance. It is this lie that we must expose if we wish to restore rational discourse to Indian thought. I propose a conscious restricting of the label 'Hindu' to only those aspects of Indian culture that are actually religious in nature. The rest must be embraced by rationalists as part of greater Indian culture.

Hinduism the Religion:

Dr. Prabhakar Kamath is writing a series of articles here on Nirmukta about the history of Hinduism. He begins with the ancient religion of Brahmanism and traces the evolution of the religious power structure over the centuries. His article Obsessive Compulsive Religion contains a brief description of part of the power struggle between ancient religious memes in India (edited here):

"The doctrine of the Gunas and Karma were literally the two gods of Brahmanism…. Over the next thousand years, Brahmanism became decadent due to its obsession with corrupted Yajnas known as Kamya Karma. The Dharma, which had been invented to bring stability to the ancient society itself, became the problem…Decadence of Brahmanism created tremendous turmoil in the society. A large section of Brahmanic society abandoned it and started various rationalist Dharmas such as Buddhism and Lokayata. During this time, Upanishadic rationalists, with the intent of overthrowing decadent Brahmanism, declared both the Gunas and Karma as evil, which one should transcend (BG: 2:45) or even slay (BG: 3:41, 43). They created a Super Man (Purushotthama, Brahman) to counter the force of the Gunas. They created a Super Weapon (Buddhiyoga, Yoga of Reason) to break the shackles of Karma. They said one could conquer these evil doctrines by taking refuge in Brahman, and by using Buddhiyoga as a weapon (BG: 2:39-53; 15:1-5). Brahmanism launched a counterrevolution and did everything within their powers to counter the Upanishadic revolution. They neutralized Brahman and Buddhiyoga by adding pro-Brahmanism shlokas in the Upanishads as well as the Bhagavad Gita. This necessitated creation of an even greater force to combat Brahmanism. This is how the real god of Hindus, Parameshwara, was invented. Parameshwara, the Great Lord, of the Bhagavathas, took the place of Brahman, and Bhakthiyoga became the weapon against the doctrines of the Gunas and Karma."

Dr Kamath places these events in context and provides more detail in his later articles (1,2). His focus in these articles is on the dominant religion of ancient India, Brahmanism. According to Dr. Kamath, it is the core principles of Brahmanism that evolved into the grander ideology of Hinduism. He says of Hinduism:

"…its practices are rooted in the antiquated belief system of Brahmanism, the prevalent religion of India three thousand years ago"

If you are interested in learning about the origin and evolutionary history of what is today considered the religion of Hinduism, Dr. Kamath's articles are an excellent resource.

The events involving the evolution of Brahmanism occurred BEFORE modern Hinduism was born. Today, it is impossible to separate ancient Indian religious sects from what is labeled as Hinduism. All sects, including those which predate the 'Hindu' label by thousands of years, are brought under the umbrella of 'Hinduism'. As discussed above, the impetus behind this amalgam was the relative in-group status that these local beliefs systems had in relation to Islam and Christianity. This tendency continues today, with Hindus at pains to distinguish Hinduism from the Semitic faiths. Meera Nanda in her book 'The God Market' writes about the 'theology of hatred' that factions of the Hindutva movement have constructed to target Islam and Christianity. She writes:

" To convert the diffused cultural majoritarianism of Hindus into a unified political majoritarianism which openly reduced non-Hindus to the status of second-class citizens has been the fond dream of the Hindu right. Towards that end, there are voices within the Hindutva camp that are openly fermenting hatred of Islam and Christianity"

In putting religion in it's place, we can yet concede that the co-opting of all the ancient Indian religious sects under the banner 'Hindu' is 'acceptable. After all, this is how religions evolve. However, since the meme 'Hinduism' is defined only in relation to the Semitic faiths, we rationalists must extricate ourselves from under this label. This is the only way we can objectively observe the inevitable clash of religious ideologies while being active participants in mitigating the harm done by them.

The Looting of Indian Philosophy (and art, science and everything else):

The successful marketing of Indian philosophy as 'Hindu Philosophy' is one of the most disgraceful accomplishments of modern Hinduism. In recent years the history of Indian philosophy has almost always been presented through the lens of Hinduism, to the extent that wikipedia lists the schools of Indian philosophy as 'Hindu Philosophy'. Interestingly, wikipedia also has a page on Indian philosophy, where it distinguishes between orthodox and non-orthodox schools.

It does not seem to matter that these schools labeled as 'Hindu philosophy' comprise the entire spectrum of the intellectual history of ancient India. They include the ideas of fervent atheists who were staunchly against superstition. Many of these atheists would have undoubtedly been aghast at the thought of being represented under the same banner as the true believers. At a time when their world was often limited to the cultures of ancient India, they stood as far apart as they could from the religious beliefs around them. It is certainly logical that were these scholars alive today they would reject the oppressive and meaningless label of Hinduism. Many of them were diametrically opposed to the idea of organized religion. Yet, their ideas are collectively delegated to the status of 'religion', only due to effective propaganda by those who subscribe to the 'Hindu' label. This idea that Indian philosophy is Hindu philosophy has become so entrenched in the modern language that the very beginning of naturalistic thought in India is attributed to Hinduism!

However, rejecting the idea that the Nastika schools are part of Hinduism is simple enough. After all, these schools reject the authority of the Vedas. Moreover, Buddhism and Jainism are sufficiently separate out-groups and so it is easy for Hindus to reject them as lying outside the 'Hindu' label. What about the Astika schools? Three of the six Astika schools do not deal with traditional religious questions at all.

From wikipedia:

Nyaya, the school of logic

Vaisheshika, the atomist school

Samkhya, the enumeration school

The truth is that the Vedas, like all philosophical works, were originally not created as part of one dogmatic religious group identity. They were developed by many people as part of the general cultural and philosophical thought at a time in history when religion was indistinguishable from the greater culture. The Vedic schools of thought have been wholly co-opted into the 'Hindu' label although they predate the label by thousands of years along with the Nastika schools and various other philosophical aspects of Indian culture.

In modern times, the term 'Hindu' has gained notoriety for stamping itself on any Indian tradition or accomplishment that has been influenced by Indian philosophy. Famous Indian rationalists have adopted the label 'Hindu', for example Amartya Sen and Periyar. Even some European thinkers have adopted the 'Hindu Atheist' label to express their affinity for Indian philosophy, without giving thought to the legitimacy of the label they are endorsing.

India today is (unfairly) not generally hailed as a country with a magnificent philosophical tradition. If you bring up ancient atheistic philosophy, most people think of Greek philosophy. In fact, few atheists are aware that the early Indian materialists almost certainly predated the Greek materialist philosophers by a century or two (India's enlightenment period was ahead of Greece's golden age of philosophy). Western philosophical traditions have consistently ignored Indian philosophy. Considering the present day domination by the West in the field of philosophy, it is understandable that most people are unaware of India's early contributions in the area. Most Westerners are accustomed to thinking of Indian philosophy as Hindu philosophy. This allows them to continue to present their biased Eurocentric timeline for a global history of philosophy, relegating the Indian achievements in this department to religion and not to Indian philosophy itself.

Hindus are content in having India's philosophical tradition being labeled internationally as 'Hindu Philosophy'. This is an outrage that we rationalists must be up-in-arms about. Other such major aspects of Indian culture that have been stolen by the Hindu label include 'The Hindu Calendar', which is a takeover of a product of ancient Indian astronomy that has been modified multiple times over many different historic periods, and 'Hindu Mathematics', which appropriates a field of ancient Indian knowledge that is responsible for giving the world the zero. Indian mathematics also gave the world what are mistakenly referred to as 'Arabic Numerals'. Today, instead of thinking of these achievements as the results of free expression and a spirit of exploration that prevailed in ancient India, we are taught to repeat the Hindu lies.

What's wrong with the 'Hindu' label?

The most general criticism of the 'Hindu' label applies to all religions. It is a critique of the nature of religious belief itself. We will forgo this discussion here and instead focus only on those aspects of the 'Hindu' label that are harmful to the culture and people of India.

The Hindu label provides cover to all those things that we rationalists are concerned with. It would take many pages to simply list all the regressive aspects of Indian culture for which the 'Hindu' label provides protection against criticism. The lack of criticism that results from this protection allows malignant beliefs to fester and erode Indian culture from within.

It is a commonly known fact that India is a land of superstition. The tackling of these superstitions is our number one agenda here on Nirmukta. Despite the long rationalist philosophical tradition in India, these superstitions continue to persist, and even flourish. New superstitions are invented every day and old ones rehashed in new contexts. A well-known social ill that plagues the country is the religious caste system. Primitive medical systems such as Ayurveda and Siddha are guarded from scientific analysis, and mass delusions such as astrology and numerology pervade every aspect of Indian culture. In effect, Indian culture is heavily polluted by these superstitious beliefs and practices. It continues to harbor these leeches that drain away humanity's brightest achievements in reason, thanks to the protection provided to these superstitions by the meaningless group-identity of 'Hinduism'.

Another important criticism of the 'Hindu' label is the propensity of this label to selectively reject ideas that it perceives as foreign, often when the foreign idea may actually be beneficial to the people. All religions are hypocritical in this regard. A religious label will tend to accept a foreign idea if it benefits from it. If, however, the idea is harmful to the religious label, it will be rejected as alien even if it benefits the culture and people that the religion preys upon. This is the duplicitous behavior that allows religious memes to survive in the age of reason. In the context of Hinduism, we see this behavior when it comes to the advances of science. Hinduism's war on science is more nuanced than that of the Semitic religions. It involves strategies that attempt to co-opt science into the religious texts, while disregarding scientific implications regarding the supernatural beliefs that form the core of its belief structure. Meera Nanda writes:

"The presumed scientificity of Hinduism is a source of much pride for modern Hindus as it sets their faith apart from that of the religions of the book which appear more dogmatic."

Of course, those who make such claims about the Hindu texts have no clue as to what science actually is. They mistake the knowledge gained from the scientific method as being science itself, and completely misrepresent the essence of this knowledge in order to co-opt it into their brand of mysticism.

On a national level, the most dangerous aspect of the 'Hindu' label is the politicization and commercialization of religion. This subject is covered in depth in Meera Nanda's latest book 'The God Market'. Dr. Nanda devotes an entire chapter to what she calls the 'State-Temple-Corporate Complex'. She writes:

"What may seem like a paradox, the resurgence of popular Hindusim is happening not against the grain of Indian secularism, but because of it. The Indian brand of secularism has allowed the state to maintain an intimate and nurturing relationship with the majority religion. As the neo-liberal state has entered into a partnership with the private sector, a cozy triangular relationship has emerged between the state, the corporate sector, and the Hindu establishment."

Dr. Nanda goes on to provide details in specific areas such as education and tourism where this relationship between religion, government and private enterprise has grown in recent years. This unwelcome influence of the 'Hindu' label must invoke strong reactions in all rational people. The soft brand of Indian secularism that Meera Nanda talks about must stop providing its tacit approval of the 'Hindu' label. This is the challenge that we have ahead of us.

The Irony of Hindu Rationalism

A common defense heard from apologists of Hinduism is that you can be an atheist/rationalist and yet culturally and philosophically be Hindu. All Hindus use this argument to deflect criticism of Hinduism coming from those rationalists who do not subscribe to the label. In fact, this sort of lumping together of atheism, reason and religion under the banner of 'Hinduism' has prompted many Hindus to attack any criticism of Hinduism as Christian or Islamic, without understanding the objective scientific perspective that lies outside of their myopic little world-view.

The 'Hinduism-is-not-just-a-religion' argument is also a common defense used by 'Hindu' intellectuals and even 'Hindu atheists'. It is this self-identification of Indian intellectuals with a meaningless religious label that inspires these folk to ignore or even defend the barbarism and superstition that exists within Indian culture. The most depressing thing for a rationalist is to live in a society where there is little cultural significance associated with her/his core beliefs- where everything of social value is tied to a repressive ideological label. It is even more depressing to see a rationalist actively choose to be represented by that label, simply because mimicking the sheep offers some temporary respite from the tribulations of living in such a culture.

Why do we see so many atheists and rationalists subscribing to the 'Hindu' label? The main reason is that the marketing of the label has been so complete that it often does not strike most folk to question the reach of the label. However, there may be other reasons. For one, many atheists and rationalists in India may feel an in-group affinity with the other proponents of the 'Hindu' label (as opposed to competing religious identities), even if these other proponents are utilizing the label for exactly the opposite purpose from the one that the rationalists endorse. Some Indian thinkers refer to themselves as Hindus because they have not really given much thought to the label. Others have given it thought and have decided that the personal benefits of identifying with the 'Hindu' label outweigh the satisfaction of opposing irrational ideologies of the kind perpetuated by religious memes. Most however, emerge into reason from their religious stupor and choose not to cut the umbilical cord that ties them with their families and friends. They accept the deceptive narrative Hinduism has pushed on them and think not to differentiate between such a label and the larger cultural context that enriches India.

An Alternative Narrative

An alternative cultural identity is essential if we are to move away from the religious labels that have dictated so much of Indian culture in recent years.

If we create awareness of the fact that all those ancient atheistic/rationalist philosophers that modern Hindus gather under their banner would probably have shuddered at the thought of sharing stage with those who form the core of the Hindu religion (or any religion for that matter), that few of them had probably even heard the word Hindu, that without the external pressure of Islam and Christianity Hindu revivalism would not have essentially invented a religion from the multiple sects, cultures, beliefs and philosophies that were found in India, then perhaps we can persuade some of the rational elements who have refrained from questioning the label 'Hindu' to start doing so. We can show how this sort of religious label restricts the natural process by which bad ideas are eliminated in culture- through discussion and social damnation. More importantly, we can provide rational 'Hindus' with an alternative narrative that is more real, in place of the meaningless in-group label by which they identify themselves.

The alternative to religion is reason. At first glance it is obvious that this rational alternative is more representative of the great cultural traditions and philosophical works of India than a meaningless label. Indian rationalists must reject such silly memes as 'Western medicine' and 'Western science' and embrace Nehru's vision of a country that embodies the spirit of inquiry. We must focus our ire on such primitive means of cultural domination as religious identities and strive to make India relevant in the international science community. After all, even those rationalists who have not shrugged off the 'Hindu' label will agree that the future of our country depends on the scientific education of its people. We must not hesitate to point out how the label of 'Hinduism' is a barrier to the advancement of India in the modern world.

We can still appreciate and gain immense pleasure from the practices and philosophies that are part of India's glorious past. These ideas may lie today within the grasp of institutionalized Hinduism, but we cannot allow this tyrannical label to deny us our heritage. Appreciation of Indian art and culture is our right just as much as it is to those who label themselves 'Hindus'. The rational inclusion of these aspects of our history into our lives can be a fulfilling experience. The fact that we reject the label 'Hindu' does not mean that we cannot participate in certain festivals and social rituals that are part of our culture. Ancient myths are fun from a cultural perspective. We can learn to enjoy them for what they are without assigning any factual significance to them. The art, architecture and culture inspired by the ancient Greek and Egyptian myths are just as powerful reminders of human achievement today as they were when those myths were believed as fact.

In abandoning the 'Hindu' label, we are keeping India from descending into a cultural black-hole. We are liberating Indian culture from the still sickness of ideology by embracing the freedom of thought that creates a dynamic and progressive society.

In a way, this is an issue of patriotism (of the rational and thoughtful kind). Indian culture is being hijacked by a label- an idea that is itself a reaction to Islam and Christianity. It is a label that keeps us from absorbing beneficial things from other cultures and ridding our culture of harmful ideas from within it. In essence, Hinduism retards healthy cultural growth. Hinduism is unpatriotic. This is the new paradigm that rationalists must endorse to break the spell of 'Hinduism' that is slowly choking India.

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Ajita Kamal - who has written 39 posts on Nirmukta.

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I published an article 'A Scientific View of the God Delusion and its Implications' online at Nirmukta in July 2009. The drafting of this article (started long ago) was spread over a few months, and I had completed the writing by June 2008. I had emailed it to a large number of my colleagues and friends, mostly scientists, inviting their reactions. I present here a summary of over one year of data collection regarding their responses. I list the responses in a decreasing order of frequency.

1. Stony silence. This was the most frequent response. Or: 'Oh, I just could not find time to read it fully.' I could notice a sense of embarrassment in some cases, perhaps because my article has the statement that, personally, as a scientist I should do nothing that insults the spirit of the scientific method. And they all know what the scientific method demands.

2. 'No matter what you say, there is a power up there.' I have already dealt with this attitude in great detail in my article.

3. 'There are things about life and the universe that I am incapable of understanding.' This reaction came from some of the very bright scientists, and was also an expression of their humility. I can understand that many of them strongly believe that science has only a limited domain of applicability, and that the God concept lies outside that domain. I do not agree with this, and the onus is on them to argue why they think so. They are scientists, and must argue why they think that the God hypothesis is a good hypothesis. They surely know what constitutes a good hypothesis.

4. 'I am a borderline case.' I think they are the people who have done very little reading of the rationalist literature. They have not heard of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Carl Sagan, Steven Weinberg, perhaps not even Bertrand Russell.

5. 'I am too busy to find time for such things.' I some cases I could sense the insinuation that, whereas they are busy doing worthwhile things, I have nothing better to do than rake up the God question!

6. 'Who am I to question the existence of God Almighty?' This is something remarkable (and very disturbing) that organized religion has been able to achieve. It not only makes statements which must not be questioned, or are falsifiable, it also instils at a very young age the fear of God. Of course, there is an immediate reward for those gentle 'souls' which accept this: They are labelled as people who are 'pious' and humble, and therefore 'noble'. Organized religion has a self-perpetuating feature.

7. 'What a refreshing worldview! Thank you very much!' Such a response was invariably from the younger age-group of Indian scientists.

8. Outright offence. I noticed that such people are mostly from a particular caste.

9. 'I am a rationalist, but I also care about the sensibilities of my wife.' There is an important question of parenthood here. They think that it would be difficult for them to instil moral values in their children in a 'Godless' home. Now this is a serious issue. The Brights' Net has taken a major initiative in this regard. Their October 2009 bulletin reads as follows:

'How well-grounded in current scientific knowledge is The Brights' Net's supposition that human morality has natural underpinnings (no recognition of any supernatural foundations)? The Brights' "Reality about Morality Project" was launched in 2006 to find out. Could we achieve authentication of this supposition by researchers in the field? The four assertions Brights drafted have been reviewed and shaped by seven noted scientists and ethical philosophers, and so we can now issue some scientifically defensible declarations. The statements, grounded in current scientific knowledge, can become a foundation for developing educational materials and media strategies. We want to build a broader understanding of morality first within the constituency. Then, with interested and knowledgeable Brights at hand, we can subsequently turn out attention to educating the general public. Look for a special emailed announcement on this topic in mid-October. By then, final statements and associated "substantiating studies" will have been posted on the website along with a panel-recommended listing of background readings. Any Brights wishing to become better versed in demonstrating that "morality is natural!" will surely be interested in those readings.'

While I look forward to what they are going to announce, I feel that we Indians should evolve our own answers to the question of morality vs. irreligion. I invite readers to come forward with their views.

10. Lastly I want to mention the response of Hindu scientists who said that they are least worried about any possible 'onslaught' from rationalism. They pointed out that the Hindu worldview has a place for rationalists also. They say that there are so many ways of 'realizing' God, and questioning his existence is one of them. This philosophy is so sure of itself that there is no doubt in the mind of the Hindu that every nonbeliever will end up being a believer! What do you think?

Nonresident Indians (NRIs) face a peculiar situation. They are worried about the morality of their children, particularly daughters, in the 'wicked West'. Most of them oppose any talk of rationalism, and are convinced that only a religious upbringing is good for the welfare of their children. Readers may like to comment on this.

Another question is regarding the mental state of a person who has, say, recently lost a loved one, or who is suffering from a life-threatening disease at a young age. Where can such an atheist go for a support system? Pantheism ('sexed-up atheism') or 'religious naturalism' provides some answers.

Albert Einstein

A scientist's job is to explore and investigate Nature and discover its secrets. In 1998, Richard Dawkins published a book: Unweaving the Rainbow: Science, Delusion and the Appetite for Wonder. I am certain that most scientists are not even aware of this book, which is a pity. In this book Dawkins faces and answers the question: Did Newton 'unweave the rainbow' by reducing it to its prismatic colours, as Keats contended? Did he, in other words, diminish beauty? Dawkins' answer is: 'Newton's unweaving of the rainbow led on to spectroscopy, which has proved the key to much of what we know today about the cosmos. And the heart of any poet worthy of the title Romantic could not fail to leap up if he beheld the universe of Einstein, Hubble and hawking. We read its nature through Fraunhofer lines - 'Barcodes of the stars' - and their shifts along the spectrum. The image of barcodes carries us on to the very different, but equally intriguing realm of sound (Barcodes on the Air); and then DNA fingerprinting (Barcodes of the Bar), which offers the opportunity to reflect on other aspects of the role of science in society.' Mysteries do not lose their poetry because they are solved: the solution often is more beautiful than the puzzle, uncovering deeper mysteries.

Richard Dawkins

Carl Sagan was another eminent scientist (an astronomer of great standing) who brought out the same aspect of the scientific worldview. He pointed out that the actual grandeur of the cosmos is far greater than that visualized by any religion.

Carl Sagan

Why is it that most Indian scientists subscribe to the 'conspiracy of silence'? Why is it that for many of them a scientific career is just another way of earning a livelihood? They do science in 'office' or laboratory, and then go home and forget that they are scientists. Why?

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Vinod K. Wadhawan - who has written 19 posts on Nirmukta.

http://nirmukta.com/2009/10/09/scientists-and-god-the-indian-scenario/

Meera Nanda

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Meera Nanda
Occupation	Writer, Academic
Nationality	Indian

Official website

Meera Nanda is an Indian writer, historian and philosopher of science and was a visiting fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi during 2009. She is a John Templeton Foundation Fellow in Religion and Science (2005-2007)^[1]^[2], with a Ph.D. from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an initial training in biology^[3]^[4]. In January 2009, she was made a Fellow at the Jawaharlal Nehru Institute for Advanced Study, in the Jawaharlal Nehru University for research in Science, Post-Modernism and Culture^[5].

She has authored several works on religion, most notably Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and the Hindu Nationalism in India (2004) ^[6], and her 2010 book The God Market which examines how India is experiencing a rising tide of popular Hinduism, including Government of India financing of Hinduism despite the nation's secular characteristic. The book was also reviewed by William Dalrymple in Outlook Magazine^[7]^[8].

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[edit] Works

Ayurveda Today : A Critical Look, with C. Viswanathan. Penguin. ISBN 0143065122.
Postmodernism And Religious Fundamentalism: A Scientific Rebuttal To Hindu Science. Pub: Navayana. 2000. ISBN 8189059025.
Breaking the Spell of Dharma and Other Essays. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective. 2002. ISBN 8188394092.
Prophets Facing Backward: Postmodern Critiques of Science and the Hindu Nationalism in India. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 2004. ISBN 8178240904. Excerpts
Wrongs of the Religious Right: Reflections on secularism, science and Hindutva. New Delhi: Three Essays Collective, 2005. ISBN 8188789305
The God Market. Random House, 2010. ISBN 8184000952.

[edit] Further reading

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Meera Nanda website

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Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meera_Nanda"

Party Programme

I. Introduction

II. Socialism In the Contemporary World

III. Independence & After

IV. Foreign Policy

V. State Structure & Democracy

VI. People's Democracy & Its Programme

VII. Building the People's Democratic Front

VIII. Building the Communist Party

Introduction

1.1 The Communist Party inherited the progressive, anti-imperialist and revolutionary traditions of the Indian people. Since its formation in 1920, by a small group of determined anti-imperialist fighters inspired by the October Socialist Revolution in Russia, the Party had set before itself the goal of fighting for complete independence and basic social transformation. The Party pledged to work for the establishment of a socialist society in India, free from class exploitation and social oppression.

1.2 True to the cause of proletarian internationalism, the Party consistently supported the national liberation movements against the imperialist order and the struggles for democracy and socialism the world over, which were major features of the twentieth century. The Party adopted the principles of Marxism-Leninism as the guide to action for winning national independence, to attain the objective of socialism and to advance towards the ultimate goal of communism. The Communists were the first in the country to raise the demand for complete independence and put forward a resolution for this in the Ahmedabad session of the Indian National Congress in 1921.

1.3 The Communists, while demanding complete independence, also stressed the need for giving a radical content to the slogan of swaraj through a definite programme for social and economic change by including such vital questions as abolition of landlordism, end to feudal domination and elimination of caste oppression.

1.4 The Communists while participating in the freedom struggle, from the outset, devoted their energies to the task of organising workers in trade unions, peasants in the Kisan Sabha, students in their unions and other sections in their respective mass organisations. It was due to these efforts that national organisations like the All India Kisan Sabha and the All India Students Federation were founded and the All India Trade Union Congress strengthened. The Communists took the initiative in founding progressive, cultural and literary organisations like the Progressive Writers' Association and the Indian People's Theatre Association.

1.5 The British rulers were determined to stamp out communism in India. They unleashed brutal repression on the fledgling Communist groups and banned communist literature to prevent the spread of revolutionary ideas. They conducted a series of conspiracy cases against the young leadership of the communist movement -- Peshawar (1922); Kanpur (1924) and Meerut (1929). The Party was declared illegal soon after its formation in the 1920s and had to work in conditions of illegality for over two decades. Inspite of severe repression, the Party made steady progress in mobilising people for complete independence and for fundamental social change.

1.6 The militant and consistent anti-imperialist stand of the Communist Party attracted the various revolutionary currents and fighters to join the Party. Among them were the Ghadar heroes of Punjab, the colleagues of Bhagat Singh, the revolutionaries of Bengal, the militant working class fighters of Bombay and Madras presidencies, and the radical anti-imperialist Congressmen from Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and other parts of the country. Thus the Party was enriched by the entry of the best fighters from all over the country. The Communist Party while working in close cooperation with the independence movement led by the Indian National Congress and later the Congress Socialist Party, consistently worked for building and strengthening itself as an independent party of the proletariat.

1.7 The post Second World War period saw the powerful anti-imperialist and anti-feudal upsurge of the Indian people. The Communist Party was in the forefront leading this upsurge in various parts of the country. Such significant struggles were those of Tebhaga, Punnapra Vayalar, North Malabar, the Warli adivasis, Tripura tribal people and above all the historic Telangana peasants' armed struggle. The Communist Party also played a leading role in the people's movements for responsible government in many princely states. The Party played an active role in organising and supporting the liberation struggles in the French and Portuguese enclaves of Pondicherry and Goa. The wave of struggles by workers, peasants and students and the demand for release of INA prisoners saw a new peak in the Naval Mutiny of 1946. In the international background of the defeat of fascism and the mounting tide of national liberation movements, faced with this popular upheaval, British imperialism and the leaders of the major bourgeois parties -- the Congress and the Muslim League -- struck a compromise. As a result, the country was partitioned and India and Pakistan as independent states under the leadership of the bourgeois-landlord classes came into existence. The fact that the national movement was under the leadership of the bourgeoisie helped this compromise. Thus, the stage of general national united front chiefly directed against foreign imperialist rule came to an end.

1.8 The Communist Party continued to face repression even after the country achieved independence. The fierce attacks by the Congress rulers between 1948 and 1952, particularly in Telangana, and the repeated bouts of repression, especially the period of semi-fascist terror in West Bengal, and later in Tripura, and the murderous attacks against the Party cadres in Kerala and in different parts of the country could not deter the Party from carrying forward the revolutionary movement. The Party was in the forefront of the struggle to defend the unity of the people when threats arose to national unity in the form of disruptive separatist movements. Hundreds of courageous Party activists sacrificed their lives in the struggle against the separatist and divisive forces in Punjab, Tripura, Assam, West Bengal and Kashmir.

1.9 The Communist movement has thus played a progressive role in Indian politics since its inception. With its mass base, popular appeal and its alternative policies to the bourgeois-landlord regime, the Communist movement is a significant force in the country's political and social life. The first Communist ministry in Kerala formed in 1957 and later the succession of CPI(M) and Left-led governments in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura showed the way by striving to implement pro-people policies. These governments implemented land reforms within the existing framework, decentralised powers and revitalised the panchayat system, ensured democratic rights for the working people and strengthened the democratic forces in the country struggling for alternative policies. In the course of arduous struggles, the Party registered substantial achievements. As a Party committed to self-critical analysis of its successes and failures, the Party consistently strives to learn from its mistakes and improve its capacity to apply Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions of our society.

1.10 The Communist Party of India (Marxist) was formed after a prolonged struggle against revisionism. It adopted the Party programme in 1964 and subsequently defended the strategy and tactics based on this understanding from both revisionism and dogmatism. The last decade of the twentieth century witnessed major reverses for the Soviet Union and other socialist countries and the world communist movement. This has necessitated a reappraisal of the international developments and the experiences of the movement. Major changes and developments have taken place in our country during the half-century after independence. The CPI(M) has reviewed these developments and experiences since 1964 to update its programme.

1.11 The CPI(M) presents before the Indian people the strategic objective to be achieved by the revolutionary forces in the present stage of the revolutionary movement. The Party sets out a programme which will guide the workers, peasants, all sections of the working people and the progressive, democratic forces in their fight against the ruling classes to achieve People's Democracy as a step towards the goal of a socialist society.

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Socialism in the Contemporary World

2.1 The twentieth century was marked by momentous changes in the world. It has been a century of struggle against imperialism. The century was witness to great revolutionary events, beginning with the October Socialist Revolution of 1917. The victory over fascism in the Second World War in which the Soviet Union played a decisive role, was a major event. The historic Chinese revolution, the success of the revolutionary forces in Vietnam, Korea and Cuba and the formation of the socialist states in Eastern Europe were a product of the titanic clash between imperialism and socialism. This was also a century of national liberation movements leading to the political independence of the colonies. These victories marked a new epoch in world history as was projected by the theory of Marxism-Leninism. The revolutionary events of the century and the major developments in science and technology opened up grand prospects for the advance of humanity on a scale never envisioned before.

2.2 The countries which adopted the socialist system blazed a new path. With the creation of the Soviet Union, for the first time in human history, the working people could live in a society free from class exploitation. Rapid industrialisation, elimination of feudal vestiges and all round progress in the fields of economy, culture and science led to a new life for the vast mass of the people and the empowerment of the working people. The eradication of poverty and illiteracy, the elimination of unemployment, the vast network of social security in the fields of health, education, housing and big strides in science and technology -- these were the path-breaking achievements of the socialist countries. Such remarkable progress was registered in societies where capitalism had not yet developed significantly and were relatively backward. Socialism had to be built in the difficult circumstances of overcoming socio-economic backwardness and countering the aggression, subversion and threats of imperialism. The achievements registered in the Soviet Union had their effect on the capitalist countries as well. The ruling classes were forced to introduce and extend social security for their own citizens under the concept of a welfare State.

2.3 However, in the course of building socialism on an uncharted path, the Soviet Union and other socialist countries in Eastern Europe committed serious mistakes. Such mistakes flowed from the improper understanding of the protracted nature of building socialism; the wrong notion of the role of the party and the State; the failure to effect timely changes in the economy and its management; the failure to deepen socialist democracy in the party, State and society; the growth of bureaucratism; and the erosion of ideological consciousness. These facilitated the sustained efforts of imperialism at subverting socialism. These distortions do not negate the validity of Marxism-Leninism, rather they represent the deviations from revolutionary theory and practice. The dismantling of the Soviet Union and other socialist countries and the setbacks suffered in Eastern Europe resulted in a new situation. At the end of the 20th century the forces of socialism had to once again face the challenge posed by an emboldened imperialism. The CPI(M) is confident that notwithstanding the setbacks, the communist movement and the revolutionary forces will learn from the mistakes, regroup and meet the challenge of countering the offensive of imperialism and the reactionary forces.

2.4 Despite the twists and turns, successes and reverses, the developments of the twentieth century, particularly since 1917 reflect the profound impact of socialism and the people's struggles in the evolution of human progress. The revolutionary transformations have brought about qualitative leaps in history and left an indelible imprint on modern civilisation. The process of social emancipation and socialist transformation will be a protracted and complex one. History has shown that the transformation from capitalism to socialism is not a one-stroke transformation but a prolonged period of intense struggle of classes even after acquiring State power.

2.5 World capitalism is incapable of solving the basic problems affecting humanity. The tremendous growth of productive forces utilising the scientific and technological advances has resulted in growth taking place in the advanced capitalist countries without increasing employment and sharply accentuating income and wealth disparities. It has led to intensified exploitation of the workers by expropriating increased rate of surplus value. The advances in science and technology are utilised to perpetuate concentration of wealth and assets in the hands of a few individuals and multinational corporations. Imperialism has proved to be a predatory and destructive system. In the twentieth century it plunged humanity into two barbaric world wars claiming millions of lives. The armaments industry has become an integral part of the advanced capitalist economies, which serves to keep the aggregate demand afloat. The neo-liberal prescriptions advocating the withdrawal of the State have led to savage cuts in social security and welfare benefits for the working class and the ordinary citizens. Jobless growth, casualisation of labour, and growing disparities in incomes and wealth are a marked feature. The volatility of the financial system, the stagnant and low rates of growth in the advanced capitalist countries and the growing irrationality and wastage in the use of resources are all symptoms of the in-built crisis in the capitalist system. The rapacious drive for profits by the multinational corporations and the extravagant consumption of the rich countries have devastated the environment and is seriously threatening the world's ecology in general and that of the third world in particular. The fundamental contradiction inherent in capitalism between the ever-growing socialisation of production and the increasingly private appropriation of the surplus has become more acute.

2.6 The concentration and internationalisation of finance capital has reached unprecedented heights in the current phase of capitalism. Globally mobile finance capital is assaulting the sovereignty of nations, seeking unimpeded access to their economies in pursuit of super profits. The imperialist order in the service of this speculative finance capital breaks down all barriers for its free flow and imposes the terms favourable to such capital in every part of the globe. The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation are the instruments to perpetuate this unjust post-colonial global order. The new hegemony of speculative finance capital results in sluggish growth in the advanced capitalist countries. For the third world it spells a vicious cycle of intensified exploitation and growing debt. The terms of trade, industrial and agricultural production, technology flows, and the services sector in the lesser-developed capitalist countries are all forced to dovetail the interests of imperialist capital. The imperialist system has divided the world into two: the rich advanced capitalist countries and the developing countries where live the vast mass of humanity. The gap between the rich and poor countries began to sharply widen in the last two decades of the twentieth century. With the onset of the imperialist driven globalisation it has grown further.

2.7 With the dismantling of the Soviet Union, imperialism which was pursuing a neo-colonial strategy since the end of the old style colonialism, has stepped up its efforts for global domination. US imperialism is using its economic, political and military power aggressively to establish its hegemony. The imperialist driven globalisation is sought to be buttressed by the expansion of NATO and military intervention around the world to impose the imperialist order. The socialist countries China, Vietnam, Cuba, Korea and Laos, faced with adverse conditions created by the change in the correlation of forces are steadfastly committed to the cause of socialism. Imperialism actively seeks to subvert the existing socialist countries and wages a relentless war in the ideological, economic and political spheres against them. Utilising the global communications revolution, imperialism with its control over the international media, aggressively seeks to discredit and suppress anti-capitalist ideas and socialism.

2.8 Despite the fact that the international correlation of forces favour imperialism at the end of the twentieth century and capitalism continues to develop productive forces with the application of new scientific and technological advances, it remains a crisis-ridden system apart from being a system of oppression, exploitation and injustice. The only system, which is an alternative to capitalism, is socialism. The central social contradiction therefore remains that between imperialism and socialism for the epoch. The contradiction between the imperialist countries and the third world countries rapidly intensifies under the neo-liberal global offensive and it is coming to the forefront. Given the uneven development under capitalism, the contradictions between imperialist countries continue to exist. The contradiction between labour and capital aggravates with the current features of capitalism as noted above. All these contradictions continue to intensify and exert their influence on world events.

2.9 The working class and its parties have to equip themselves ideologically, politically and organisationally to wage a relentless struggle against imperialism and its exploitative order. The unity of the Left, democratic and progressive forces around the world must be forged to fight against imperialism and defeat the ruling classes who seek to sustain and perpetuate the present unjust global order. As a Party based on proletarian internationalism, the CPI(M) is committed to fight against imperialist hegemony and expresses solidarity with all the forces in the world who are fighting against the imperialist-driven economic order of globalisation and for peace, democracy and socialism.

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III

Independence and After

3.1 The broad masses of the Indian people had enthusiastically participated in the freedom struggle and made it a success. They were fired by patriotism and they looked forward to a free India and a new life for the people. They expected an end to the miserable conditions of poverty and exploitation. Independence for them meant land, food, fair wages, housing, education, health care and employment. Freedom meant emancipation from social evils like casteism and communal hatred and the fulfillment of the cultural needs of the people in a democratic setting.

3.2 The national movement for independence succeeded because of the mass participation of the working class, the peasantry, the middle classes, the intelligentsia, women, students and youth. But the leadership remained in the hands of the bourgeoisie. The big bourgeoisie which headed the new State, refused to complete the basic tasks of the democratic revolution. The path to the regeneration of Indian society lay in breaking the shackles on the productive forces. Parasitic landlordism had to be abolished and land distributed to the agricultural workers and poor peasants. The development of industry freed from the stifling domination of foreign capital, would have laid the base for an advanced industrial nation with a self-reliant economy. Afraid of the possible outcome that might follow a thorough going implementation of the tasks of the democratic revolution, the big bourgeoisie forged an alliance with the landlords and compromised with imperialism. The Congress rulers' policies reflected this bourgeois-landlord alliance. The nature of the capitalist path in the following decades was determined by this character of the ruling classes.

3.3 India is endowed with enormous natural resources necessary for the all-round development of the country, with abundance of cultivable land, irrigation potential, favourable conditions in various regions for a vast variety of crops, immense mineral wealth, as also vast potential for power generation. India's huge manpower strength and the scientific, technical, managerial and intellectual skills of the Indian people constitute a reservoir of great potentialities. Instead of developing these potentialities, the big bourgeoisie which acquired State power embarked upon a type of capitalist development suited to serve its own narrow interests.

3.4 After independence the dual character of the bourgeoisie manifested itself through conflicts and collusion with imperialism. The big bourgeoisie which acquired the leadership of the State adopted a particular type of capitalist development. It compromised with imperialism and maintained its alliance with landlordism. It utilised its hold over the State to strengthen its position by attacking the people on the one hand and seeking to resolve the conflicts and contradictions with imperialism and landlordism by pressure, bargain and compromise on the other. In this process, it has forged strong links with foreign monopolists and is sharing power with the landlords. With liberalisation, the big bourgeoisie is the strongest advocate of opening up the economy to foreign capital and forging strong links with international finance capital; it is the prime mover behind the demand to privatise the public sector and the economy as a whole.

3.5 In the early years after independence, failing to get a fair deal from the Western countries, the Indian bourgeoisie turned to the Soviet Union for assistance. They adopted a path of building capitalism which was State sponsored capitalism. They began using the existence of the two blocs -- imperialist and socialist -- as a useful bargaining counter to strengthen their position. Economic planning was resorted to as a part of the capitalist path. The budgetary and general economic policies were determined primarily from the point of view of favouring a narrow stratum of the exploiting classes. The public sector was developed in heavy industries and infrastructure as the private sector was not in a position to provide the required resources for such huge projects. The building of these public undertakings helped therefore to a certain extent to industrialise the economy and to overcome the abject dependence on the imperialist monopolies.

3.6 Economic planning in an under-developed country like India backed by the State power in the hands of the bourgeoisie, certainly gave capitalist economic development a definite tempo and direction by facilitating more expedient utilisation of the resources available under the limitations of the policies of the government. The most outstanding feature of these plans is to be seen in the industrial expansion, particularly in the setting up of certain heavy and machine-building industries in the State/public sector. These gains were possible because of the steady support from the socialist countries, mainly the Soviet Union. The State sector was expanded by the nationalisation of the financial sector like banks and insurance and the oil and coal industries.

3.7 Certain other policy measures, though in a half-hearted manner, were also adopted for industrialisation. There was emphasis on research and development, adoption of a new Patents Act, regulation on entry of foreign products and capital in our market and protection to small-scale industries. In the conditions prevailing in India, all these measures helped to overcome, to a certain extent, economic backwardness and the abject dependence on the imperialist powers, and in laying the technical base for industrialisation.

3.8 Alongside the development of the public sector and State intervention through limited planning, the policies pursued by successive governments saw the increasing concentration of wealth and the rapid growth of monopolies. Under the leadership of the big bourgeoisie, the State sector itself became an instrument for building capitalism. The bulk of the credit from the public financial institutions was cornered by the big bourgeoisie. The budgetary and taxation policies of successive governments were designed to transfer resources from the people to a narrow stratum of the bourgeois-landlord classes. The large-scale evasion of taxes spawned huge amounts of black money and was a method to promote the private accumulation of capital. The common people, workers, peasants and the middle class were put to ruthless exploitation in the name of financing the plans for capitalist development. In the absence of basic land reforms the domestic market remain limited and domestic industry could not grow and expand without reliance on foreign capital. The huge external and internal borrowings financed this form of State capitalism. The growth of monopolies and increasing penetration of foreign finance capital became a marked feature of this path.

3.9 The specific path of capitalist development adopted by the ruling classes from the fifties was bound to be crisis-ridden and reached a stalemate. The big bourgeoisie's compromise with landlordism led to the domestic market not being expanded as the purchasing power of the peasantry could not grow sufficiently. Increasing reliance on borrowings, both external and internal, to finance industrialisation and the expenditure of the State led to a serious crisis both in the external balance of payments and the fiscal deficits. The financial crisis finally led to the Congress government accepting the IMF-World Bank conditionalities. The Indian big bourgeoisie sought to meet this crisis by increasing collaboration with foreign finance capital and opening up the economy.

3.10 The big bourgeoisie, which earlier favoured State intervention to build infrastructure for capitalist development due to its weak capital base, accumulated sufficient capital over the decades and fattened itself on State assisted development and subsidies. By mid-eighties the big bourgeoisie was prepared to enter the core sector reserved for the State, take over the public sector and expand to new areas in collaboration with foreign capital. This accompanied by the crisis in the State sponsored capitalist path formed the internal base for liberalisation. Externally, the collapse of the Soviet Union hastened the process of shift in policies and the acceptance of the IMF and World Bank dictates.

3.11 The pressure to open up and liberalise the economy brought about a shift in the economic policies from the mid- eighties during the Rajiv Gandhi regime. Import liberalisation and growing short-term borrowings led to huge fiscal deficits. This along with the changed international scene led to a situation where the Congress government in 1991 accepted the IMF-World Bank conditionalities for getting a structural adjustment loan. The policies of liberalisation were pushed further forward by the BJP when it came to power. The liberalisation and structural adjustment policies pursued by successive governments since 1991 have led to the opening up of the economy to foreign capital, the process of dismantling the public sector and liberalisation of imports. The areas of operation so long reserved for the State/public sector have been opened up to foreign and Indian monopoly capital. With a view to liquidating the public sector, the shares of public sector units are disinvested and sold out cheaply to private monopolies. Through reduction of import duties, indigenous products are displaced by foreign goods resulting in large-scale closures and throwing out tens of thousands of workers from their jobs. International finance capital has exerted relentless pressure for opening up the financial sector. The privatisation process in the banking industry and the opening up of the insurance sector have been given priority. The signing of the GATT agreement in 1994 led to India having to accept the WTO regime. Changes in the Patents Act and the opening up of the services sector, serve the interests of imperialist capital. All these developments have led to the erosion of economic sovereignty.

3.12 The path of liberalisation and privatisation has enormously benefited the big bourgeoisie. Its ranks have been expanded by the entry of new business houses. The assets of the top 22 monopoly houses shot up from Rs. 312.63 crores in 1957 to Rs. 1,58,004.72 crores in 1997 which is a five hundred-fold increase. Under liberalisation, major concessions have been given to the big business houses and the affluent sections by the reduction in the rates of income tax and the abolition of other taxes such as wealth tax. Such policies have enormously enriched the affluent classes and expanded the market for luxury goods for their consumption. To meet this demand, goods are produced domestically in collaboration with foreign capital, or, are imported. The indiscriminate entry of foreign capital is affecting vital sectors of domestic industry. Multinational companies are buying up Indian companies. Even though some sections of the non-big bourgeoisie appear willing to collaborate with foreign capital, large sections of the medium and small capitalists are badly hit by liberalisation.

3.13 The period of liberalisation has seen an increase of both external and internal debt. A major share of revenue expenditure is spent for making interest payments alone. Public investment and expenditure have been going down which have affected developmental activities and poverty alleviation schemes. Liberalisation has seen a sharp growth in social, economic and regional inequalities. Those below the poverty line even according to official statistics have registered an increase, especially in the rural areas. The continuing rise in the prices of essential commodities, particularly food items, has hit the poor the hardest especially in the background of the curtailment of the public distribution system. The cutbacks in social sector expenditure in education, health, employment and welfare schemes have a disastrous effect on the working people.

3.14 The working class has borne the brunt of the heavy burdens imposed by the capitalists and the government. The real wages of the workers do not rise because of the ever-increasing prices. With the crisis in the industrial sphere becoming endemic, the workers face the onslaught of closures and retrenchment. The labour laws supposed to safeguard the rights of the workers are defective and even these are not enforced; violation of laws by the employers is the norm. The recognition of trade unions by secret ballot and the right of collective bargaining are denied. The offensive of liberalisation and privatisation has rendered lakhs of workers jobless without any social security to fall back upon. The deregulation of the labour market is demanded as part of the policy of liberalisation. Benefits and rights earned by workers through prolonged struggles are sought to be curtailed. Permanent jobs are being converted to contract or casual jobs. Working women get less wages and are the first to be retrenched. Child labour has increased and working children are subjected to the worst forms of exploitation. Outside the organised sector millions of workers get no protection from the labour laws and are deprived of even the minimum wages set by the government. The plight of the labouring men and women in the huge unorganised sector is one of drudgery. They work for a pittance for long hours, often in hazardous conditions with no social security. It is the unremitting labour and the exploitation of the working class which has provided the profits for the bourgeoisie, the big contractors and the multinational corporations.

3.15 The agrarian question continues to be the foremost national question before the people of India. Its resolution requires revolutionary change, including radical and thoroughgoing agrarian reforms that target abolition of landlordism, moneylender-merchant exploitation and caste and gender oppression in the countryside. The bankruptcy of the bourgeois-landlord rule in India is nowhere more evident than in its failure to address, much less solve, the agrarian question in a progressive, democratic way.

3.16 After independence, instead of abolishing landlordism, the Congress rulers adopted agrarian policies to transform the semi-feudal landlords into capitalist landlords and develop a stratum of rich peasants. The legislative measures for abolishing the old statutory landlordism permitted them to get huge compensation and retain big amounts of land. Implementation of tenancy laws, which provided for the right of resumption of land under the pretext of self-cultivation led to the eviction of millions of tenants. Land ceiling laws provided sufficient loopholes to maintain large holdings intact. Millions of acres of surplus land were neither taken over, nor distributed to the agricultural workers and poor peasants. The record of the Congress party is one of monumental betrayal of the historic opportunity for rural transformation. Land reforms under the existing laws have been implemented only in West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura by the Left-led governments headed by the CPI(M).

3.17 The agrarian policies of the Congress governments and their successors were designed to benefit the landlords and rich peasants in the allocation of funds for investment and government loans. Bank and cooperative credits were cornered by these sections. From the late sixties, the application of technology, introduction of high-yielding seeds in new varieties of wheat and rice and chemical inputs enhanced the productivity of foodgrains and other non-food crops. This growth in agriculture was accompanied by widening inequalities. Though India produced more foodgrains and was capable of achieving self-sufficiency in food, millions remained deprived of sufficient food and prey to hunger and malnutrition.

3.18 In agrarian relations, the major trend has been the development of capitalist relations in the countryside which is characterised by: The proletarianisation of large sections of the rural working masses and a huge increase in the number of agricultural workers as a proportion of the rural population; the accelerated differentiation of the peasantry; production for the market; the large-scale eviction of tenants holding traditional leases; and increased levels of re-investment of capital in agriculture and agriculture-related activity by the rural rich, particularly landlords, laying the basis for the reproduction of capital on a scale that did not hitherto exist.

3.19 If the development of capitalist relations in agriculture is clearly the major all India trend, it is equally evident that agrarian relations are marked by greater regional and sub-regional diversity and by unevenness in the development of capitalist relations of production and exchange. There are regions of the country where capitalism in agriculture has advanced and where commercial agriculture and cash transactions dominate the rural economy; there are regions where old forms of landlordism and tenancy and archaic forms of labour service, servitude and bondage still play an important part in agrarian relations. And all over the country, caste divisions, caste oppression, the worst forms of gender oppression and the exploitation of the poor by usurers and merchant capital continue unabated. Capitalist development in Indian agriculture is not based on a resolute destruction of older forms, but has been superimposed on a swamp of pre-capitalist production relations and forms of social organisation. The development of the "modern" does not preclude the continued existence of the archaic: India is a vast and living example of the rule that capitalism penetrates agriculture and rural society in a myriad ways.

3.20 Five decades after independence, owing to the bourgeois-landlord agrarian policies, 70 per cent of the peasantry comprises poor peasants and agricultural workers whose lack of productive assets, low incomes and wretched conditions of life characterise mass poverty. The monumental scale of rural poverty in India has no parallel among the nations of the world. Even according to official data, more than 285 million people in rural India were below the poverty line fifty years after independence. Poverty, however, has many dimensions. It is not confined to income destitution. For the masses it manifests itself in a multitude of ways. The rural poor have little or no access to land and other means of production. Concentration of land and inequality in ownership continues without major change. This is accompanied by a similar concentration of irrigation water resources largely in the hands of the rural rich. The peasantry and agricultural workers have no access to credit at reasonable rates and they are deep in debt at usurious rates of interest. Low wages and wage discrimination against women is a prominent feature. The average number of days of employment available to agricultural workers is less than 180 days a year. More than 50 per cent of the rural population is undernourished, the rates of rural literacy are abysmally low and the rural poor live in unhygienic conditions in poor housing with no drinking water and health facilities.

3.21 Most of the rural areas have seen the rise of a powerful nexus of landlords-rich peasants-contractors-big traders who constitute the rural rich. They dominate the panchayati raj institutions, co-operative societies, rural banks and credit agencies except in the Left-dominated states, and control the rural leadership of the bourgeois-landlord parties. The surplus extracted by these sections are ploughed into money-lending, speculative activities, real estate development and also to establish agro-based industries. The dominant class in the rural areas utilise caste affiliations to mobilise support and resort to violence to terrorise the rural poor into submission. Even after 50 years of the promulgation of the Constitution, no government has adopted a central legislation to guarantee minimum wages and improved living conditions and social security for the agricultural workers, due to the opposition of the landlords.

3.22 With rapid commercialisation of the rural economy, the market for foodgrains and agricultural commodities has grown enormously. The grip of the monopoly trading concerns over agricultural produce has tightened. With liberalisation, the MNCs which operate in the world market with advanced technologies at their command have a greater and direct control over the prices of agricultural commodities. The intensification of the exploitation of peasants through unequal exchange and violent fluctuations of prices has become a permanent feature. As a result, the peasant is fleeced both as a seller of agricultural produce and as a buyer of industrial inputs.

3.23 The liberalisation policies which followed the exhaustion of the State-sponsored capitalist development have led to the agricultural and rural development policies taking a dangerous and reactionary turn in the last decade of the twentieth century. These policies include decline in public investment in agriculture, in irrigation and other infrastructural work; credit from the formal sector has also sharply declined which hits the poor rural households the most. Schemes for rural employment and poverty alleviation have been cut back. The policy thrust towards export-oriented agriculture has led to changing land use and cropping patterns to meet the demands of the imperialist countries. De-emphasising foodgrain production and undermining India's self-sufficiency in food production is a direct threat to sovereignty. Under the WTO regime, all quantitative restrictions on the imports of agricultural commodities have been removed which seriously affects the livelihood of farmers. Pressure is being mounted for the dilution of land ceiling laws by the states and for leasing out lands to Indian big business and foreign agri-business. MNCs are entering the sphere of agricultural production in the seeds, dairy and other sectors. Under pressure from the WTO and the MNCs, policies, which surrender India's independence in respect of its biological resources and relinquish the rights of farmers and genuine plant breeders, are being pursued. The State sponsored agricultural research and extension systems are being weakened.

3.24 The development of capitalism in agriculture under State sponsorship has led to a sharp division between the rural rich comprising the landlords, capitalist farmers, rich peasants and their allies and the mass of the peasantry mainly agricultural workers, poor peasants and the artisans. The subsequent policies of liberalisation in agriculture have further increased the burden on the rural poor. It is this exploitative order which is responsible for mass poverty. Without breaking the land monopoly and ending the debt burden of the poor peasants and agricultural workers, the basis for the economic and social transformation of the country cannot be laid.

3.25 The imperialist driven globalisation and the policies of liberalisation adopted by the Indian ruling classes have heightened the imperialist penetration in all spheres of our country. The opening up of the economy to the multinational corporations and imperialist finance capital has been the basis for the penetration and influencing of all spheres of Indian society. The bureaucracy, the educational system, the media and the cultural spheres are being subjected to imperialist penetration.

3.26 With the changed correlation of forces in the world as a result of the setback to socialism, the growth of fundamentalist, reactionary and ethnic based chauvinism has its impact on India too. Imperialism seeks to exploit the growth of such forces for weakening the unity of the country so that its hold and influence can be strengthened. The growth of a powerful international media controlled by transnational corporations enables imperialism to directly intervene and influence social and cultural life. The purveying of consumerist, egoist and decadent values through the transnational media has a direct impact on our society. The media in India controlled by the big bourgeoisie and other commercial interests systematically spread the same values. The development of healthy, democratic and secular values requires the combatting of such retrogressive trends.

3.27 The Constitution of the Republic of India which was adopted in 1950 had laid down a set of directive principles to be followed by the State. These include: adequate means of livelihood for every citizen and the right to work; an economic system which does not result in the concentration of wealth; right to education and provision of free and compulsory education for children; living wage for workers and equal pay for equal work for men and women. None of these principles have been realised in practice. The glaring gap between the Constitutional precepts and the practice of the bourgeois rulers is a scathing indictment of the bourgeois-landlord system instituted after independence.

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Foreign Policy

4.1 The foreign policy of any State and its government, in the final analysis, is nothing but the projection of its internal policy and it reflects, in the main, the interests of the class or classes that head the government and the State in question. The foreign policy of the Government of India naturally reflects the dual character of our bourgeoisie, of opposition to as well as compromise and collaboration with imperialism. An overview of the evolution of foreign policy over the last five decades exhibits this duality. In the initial phase upto the mid-fifties, the Indian government followed a timid policy of appeasing Britain and the other imperialist powers. However, from the mid-fifties, a new orientation began. In a world which was sharply divided between the imperialist and socialist blocs, the possibilities of steering clear from joining the imperialist alliance opened up. The foreign policy changed in favour of non-alignment, against military blocs and for peace and support for the national liberation struggles of the colonial peoples.

4.2 This policy resulted in friendly relations with the Soviet Union and the socialist countries. However, the border conflict with China in 1962 saw a phase of collaboration with the US and the western powers when India sought their military assistance. After this period, foreign policy once again assumed an anti-imperialist orientation. The support to the liberation struggle in Bangladesh in 1971 and the treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union marked a new stage. India played an active role in the international arena in the seventies in support of the national liberation movements and for world peace.

4.3 In the context of external policy, the contradictions between the Indian bourgeoisie and imperialism manifested on the Kashmir issue and the US strategic design to use Pakistan as a base for its operations. As a leading country among the newly independent nations, the Indian bourgeoisie pioneered the policy of non-alignment, which by and large served the country's interests well. However, given the class character of the ruling classes, this policy was subject to vacillations. Contradictions between the domestic policies favouring foreign capital and an independent foreign policy were ever-present.

4.4 With the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the adoption of economic policies of liberalisation domestically, foreign policy in the last decade of the 20th century entered a new phase. The process of reversing the long held position of non-alignment and anti-imperialist foreign policy was begun during the Narasimha Rao government. The turn away from self-reliance and recourse to foreign capital and liberalisation helped imperialism to further pressurise India which was manifested in several foreign policy positions. In the nineties, the Indian government signed a military cooperation pact with the USA for military training and joint exercises. With the BJP-led government coming to power in 1998, the pro-imperialist trend has got strengthened. The BJP regime has brought about a major shift by advocating a policy of becoming a junior partner of the United States. It has abandoned many of the long-held non-aligned positions in order to accommodate the global designs of the US. The danger to foreign policy is real as the United States has long term plans to draw India into a strategic alliance to subserve its global designs against China and Russia. A consistent foreign policy based on non-alignment and anti-imperialism which would serve the real interests of the Indian people, cannot be guaranteed with the big bourgeoisie leading the State and pursuing pro-imperialist economic policies.

4.5 The decision of the BJP-led government to go in for nuclear weaponisation after the tests in Pokhran in May, 1998 marked a dangerous new phase in India's external and nuclear policies. It has created the situation for a nuclear arms race in the sub-continent with Pakistan responding to India's nuclear tests. The jingoistic nuclear policy has undermined the long-standing policy of non-alignment and peace. It has made India more vulnerable to imperialist pressures headed by US imperialism.

4.6 A major struggle lies ahead for the Left and democratic forces to fight back the pro-imperialist direction in foreign policy and ensure that foreign policy regains its non-aligned basis and orientation to ward off imperialist pressures. Only such a policy will help India to retain its independent role in world affairs and protect economic independence.

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State Structure and Democracy

5.1 The present Indian State is the organ of the class rule of the bourgeoisie and landlords led by the big bourgeoisie, who are increasingly collaborating with foreign finance capital in pursuit of the capitalist path of development. This class character essentially determines the role and function of State in the life of the country.

5.2 Although the State structure is federal in name, most powers and resources are concentrated in the hands of the Central government. Though the big bourgeoisie initially resisted the demand for formation of states on the basis of commonality of language, the intense pressure of mass movements and agitations compelled it to agree to the formation of linguistic states. A fresh attack on the principle of linguistic states was mounted by the BJP-led government, which advocates smaller states based on administrative convenience. This will further weaken the federal structure. The repeated use by the Centre of the inherently anti-democratic provisions of Article 356 of the Constitution to dismiss elected state governments and dissolve the elected state assemblies has been a major instrument for subverting the federal system and attacking the autonomy of states. The constituent states enjoy little power, which makes them dependent on the Central government, restricting their development.

5.3 It is natural that in such a situation, the contradictions between the central government and the states have grown. Underlying these contradictions often lies the deeper contradiction between the big bourgeoisie on the one hand and the majority of the people including the bourgeoisie and landlords of this or that state on the other. This contradiction gets constantly aggravated due to the accentuation of uneven economic development under capitalism. A political manifestation of this is the emergence of regional political parties, which reflect the linguistic-nationality sentiments of the people of these states and generally represent the bourgeois-landlord classes of the region.

5.4 The problems of national unity have been aggravated due to the bourgeois-landlord policies pursued after independence. The north eastern region of the country which is home to a large number of minority nationalities and ethnic groups has suffered the most from the uneven development and regional imbalances fostered by capitalist development. This has provided fertile ground for the growth of extremist elements who advocate separatism and are utilised by imperialist agencies. The violent activities of the extremists and the ethnic strife hamper developmental work and democratic activities.

5.5 Jammu and Kashmir was provided with a special status and autonomy under article 370 of the constitution. Over the decades the provisions for autonomy were drastically curtailed and the alienation of the people in the state grew. This has been utilised by the separatist forces who are backed by Pakistan. Imperialism headed by the USA, uses this dispute to pressurise India and increase its intervention in the region. The problems of the North eastern region as also Kashmir, exemplify the failure of the bourgeois-landlord classes to address the vital issue of national unity in a democratic manner.

5.6 The Adivasi and tribal people who constitute seven crores of the population, are victims of brutal capitalist and semi-feudal exploitation. Their lands are alienated from them, the right to forests denied and they are a source of cheap and bonded labour for the contractors and landlords. In some states there are compact areas inhabited by tribal people who have their own distinct languages and culture. The tribal people have been roused to new consciousness to defend their rights for advancement while preserving their identity and culture. Due to the threat to their identity and very existence and the callous policies of the bourgeois-landlord rulers, separatist tendencies have grown among some sections of the tribal people. Regional autonomy for protecting their rights in the areas which are contiguous and where they are in a majority is a democratic and just demand. The capitalist-landlord-contractor nexus constantly seeks to disrupt their traditional solidarity with some concessions to their leadership, denies their legitimate rights and suppresses them with brutal force.

5.7 The secular principle is enshrined in the Constitution and the values of secular democracy are proclaimed by the big bourgeois leadership of the State. However, the practice of secularism by the bourgeoisie has been flawed. They try to distort the whole concept of secularism. They would have the people believe that instead of complete separation of religion and politics, secularism means freedom for all religious faiths to equally interfere in the affairs of the State and political life. Instead of firmly combating the anti-secular trends, the bourgeoisie often gives concessions and strengthens them. The threat to the secular foundations has become menacing with the rise of the communal and fascistic RSS-led combine and its assuming power at the Centre. Systematic efforts are on to communalise the institutions of the State, the administration, the educational system and the media. The growth of majority communalism will strengthen the forces of minority communalism and endanger national unity. The support of sections of the big bourgeoisie for the BJP and its communal platform is fraught with serious consequences for democracy and secularism in the country.

5.8 Our Party is, therefore, committed to wage an uncompromising struggle for the consistent implementation of the principles of secularism. Even the slightest departure from that principle should be exposed and fought. While defending the right of every religious community -- whether it is the majority or the minorities -- as well as those who have no faith in any religion to believe in and practice any religion or none at all, the Party should fight against all forms of intrusion of religion in the economic, political and administrative life of the nation and uphold secular and democratic values in culture, education and society. The danger of fascist trends gaining ground, based on religious communalism must be firmly fought at all levels.

5.9 In conditions of capitalist exploitation the guaranteed rights to the minorities provided in the Constitution are also not implemented. There is the lack of equal opportunities and discrimination against the Muslim minorities both in the economic and social sphere. Communal riots and violent attacks against the Muslims have become a permanent feature. The RSS and its outfits constantly instigate hatred against the minorities and they target the Christian community also. This fosters alienation and insecurity among the minorities, which breeds fundamentalist trends and weakens the secular foundations. Minority communalism isolates the minorities and hampers the common movement of all oppressed sections. Defence of minority rights is a crucial aspect of the struggle to strengthen democracy and secularism.

5.10 The bourgeois-landlord system has also failed to put an end to caste oppression. The worst sufferers are the scheduled castes. The dalits are subject to untouchability and other forms of discrimination despite these being declared unlawful. The growing consciousness among the dalits for emancipation is sought to be met with brutal oppression and atrocities. The assertion by the dalits has a democratic content reflecting the aspirations of the most oppressed sections of society. The backward castes have also asserted their rights in a caste-ridden society.

5.11 At the same time a purely caste appeal which seeks to perpetuate caste divisions for the narrow aim of consolidating vote banks and detaching these downtrodden sections from the common democratic movement has also been at work. Many caste leaders and certain leaders of bourgeois political parties seek to utilise the polarisation on caste lines for narrow electoral gains and are hostile to building up the common movement of the oppressed sections of all castes. They ignore the basic class issues of land, wages and fight against landlordism, which is the basis for overthrowing the old social order.

5.12 The problem of caste oppression and discrimination has a long history and is deeply rooted in the pre-capitalist social system. The society under capitalist development has compromised with the existing caste system. The Indian bourgeoisie itself fosters caste prejudices. Working class unity presupposes unity against the caste system and the oppression of dalits, since the vast majority of the dalit population are part of the labouring classes. To fight for the abolition of the caste system and all forms of social oppression through a social reform movement is an important part of the democratic revolution. The fight against caste oppression is interlinked with the struggle against class exploitation.

5.13 With India's independence the women of India, equal participants in the freedom struggle, had hoped for emancipation from the shackles of centuries old feudal and gender oppression. But leave alone advance, five decades of bourgeois-landlord rule have perpetuated patriarchy in every sphere. Women are exploited at different levels, as women, as workers and as citizens. The process of liberalisation has brought in its wake newer forms of gender exploitation, in both the economic and social spheres, leading to increased violence against women. Economic independence and an independent role in social and political life are basic conditions for the advance of women. Resistance against this unequal status and the women's movement for equality are part of the movement for social emancipation.

5.14 Fifty years of bourgeois-landlord rule have corroded all the institutions of State power. The administrative system being based on a highly centralised bureaucracy reflecting the growth of capitalist development, power is concentrated at the top and exercised through privileged bureaucrats who are divorced from the masses and who obediently serve the interests of the exploiting classes. The enormous growth of the bureaucracy, its strong links with the ruling classes and the rampant corruption of the bureaucracy are factors weakening the democratic structure of society.

5.15 The judiciary is weighted against the workers, peasants and other sections of the working people. Though formally, both the rich and the poor are equal in principle, the system of justice in essence, serves the interests of the exploiting classes and upholds their class rule. Even the bourgeois democratic principle of separation of judiciary from the executive is not fully adhered to and the judiciary is subjected to the influence and control of the latter. Instances of judgements, which uphold democratic principles and fundamental rights under the Constitution, are subverted by the ruling classes. In the absence of any effective mechanism to ensure accountability of the judges, certain corrupt practices are also reported within sections of the judiciary which undermine the faith of the people.

5.16 The structure of the armed forces in independent India still bears the traces of the colonial legacy. While it is expected to defend the borders of the country, the ruling classes tend to rely more and more on the armed forces and the para-military forces when its class interests come into open conflict with the interests of the exploited masses. The soldiers in the armed forces hail from the peasantry and the working people and they have to perform arduous duties. The ruling classes keep the rank and file of these forces insulated from the people and deprived of democratic rights. The police forces are used as instruments of repression against popular movements. They have become prey to political manipulation and corruption and in many places are part of the exploitative mechanism against the poor.

5.17 The bourgeoisie and its landlord allies are a small minority in the whole country compared to the working class, the peasantry and the middle classes, over whom they rule and whom they exploit by virtue of their ownership of land, capital and all means of production. Capitalist State power and its governments even when elected by a majority vote in the parliamentary system of democracy, represent in their political and economic essence the power of the minority.

5.18 The Constitution of the Republic of India provides for a parliament elected on the basis of adult franchise and confers certain fundamental rights on the people. Many of these rights are misinterpreted, distorted and even violated by the authorities of the State. When it comes to the struggle of the workers, peasants and other sections of the democratic masses, the fundamental rights virtually cease to apply for them. Freedom of assembly is denied to whole areas and regions embracing lakhs of people by putting them under prohibitory orders even for months and years. The violence of the State organs becomes practically savage against the workers, peasants and other democratic masses, when they act in defence of their political and economic rights and demands. Draconian legislations providing for detention without trial have become quite common. Similarly, the provisions of national emergency provided for in the Constitution are misused and ordinances promulgated to suppress democratic struggles. The internal Emergency declared in 1975 was the most severe threat to democracy.

5.19 Under pressure of the democratic movement, the government was forced to legislate steps for decentralisation of administration to the panchayats and local bodies. The Left-led governments of West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura took important steps to ensure decentralisation of powers and devolution of powers to the three-tier panchayat system. But except in the Left-led states, panchayati raj institutions are being used not to expand democracy but to perpetuate the power of landlords, moneylenders and contractors in the countryside.

5.20 The cultural development of the Indian people has been stunted by decades of bourgeois-landlord rule. Pernicious customs and values are perpetuated in the name of tradition and religion, which are degrading to women and the oppressed castes. What is progressive and healthy in the cultural heritage is sought to be denigrated by the communal ideologies. The bourgeois culture retains much of the obscurantist and casteist values. The State displays a callous disregard even for literacy, leave alone providing for the cultural well being of the people. Freedom of press, assembly and propaganda, is made full use of by exploiting classes and by imperialist agencies who dominate the print and electronic media, the radio and television networks. The working people cannot compete with their vast resources and are thus disabled in the exercise of these rights formally given to everyone.

5.21 The degeneration in the instruments of the bourgeois-landlord State has taken place in the background of the enormous growth of black money which has pervaded society and the phenomenal growth of corruption. The liberalisation process increased large-scale corruption at the highest levels. Holders of public office, top bureaucrats and bourgeois politicians are part of a corrupt nexus which subverts the law and facilitates loot of public funds. This makes a mockery of democracy and the rights of citizens. The enormous growth of money power in elections, the criminalisation of politics, rigging and capture of booths constitute a serious threat to the parliamentary democratic system.

5.22 However, universal adult franchise and parliament and state legislatures can serve as instruments of the people in their struggle for democracy, for defence of their interests. When there have been attacks on parliamentary democracy, such as the internal emergency, the people have opposed such authoritarian measures. Although a form of class rule of the bourgeoisie, India's present parliamentary system also embodies an advance for the people. It affords certain opportunities for them to defend their interests, intervene in the affairs of the State to a certain extent and mobilise them to carry forward the struggle for democracy and social progress.

5.23 The threat to the parliamentary system and to democracy comes not from the working people and the parties which represent their interests. The threat comes from the exploiting classes. It is they who undermine the parliamentary system both from within and without by making it an instrument to defend their narrow interests. When the people begin to use parliamentary institutions for advancing their cause and then move away from the influence of the big bourgeoisie and landlords, these classes do not hesitate to trample underfoot parliamentary democracy as has been done many times in the dismissal of elected state governments by the Centre. The semi-fascist terror in West Bengal and Tripura and the naked violation of all constitutional provisions in these states provide vivid examples of the vicious extent to which the ruling classes can go. The talk of adopting a Presidential form of government and truncating parliamentary democracy are authoritarian symptoms which have grown with the regime of liberalisation and the increasing pressure of international finance capital. It is of utmost importance that parliamentary and democratic institutions are defended in the interests of the people against such threats and that such institutions are skillfully utilised in combination with extra parliamentary activities.

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People's Democracy and its Programme

6.1 Experience shows that there is no hope of emancipation of the people from backwardness, poverty, hunger, unemployment and exploitation under the present bourgeois-landlord rule. The big bourgeoisie since independence has been continuously in State power and has been utilising that State power to strengthen its class position at the expense of the mass of the people on the one hand and compromising and bargaining with imperialism and landlordism on the other. Unlike in the advanced capitalist countries where capitalism grew on the ashes of pre-capitalist society, which was destroyed by the rising bourgeoisie, capitalism in India was super-imposed on pre-capitalist society. Neither the British colonialists during their rule nor the Indian bourgeoisie assuming power after independence attempted to smash it, which was one of the most important preconditions for the free development of capitalism. The present Indian society, therefore, is a peculiar combination of monopoly capitalist domination with caste, communal and tribal institutions. It has thus fallen on the working class and its party to unite all the progressive forces interested in destroying the pre-capitalist society and to consolidate the revolutionary forces within it so as to facilitate the completion of the democratic revolution and prepare the ground for the transition to socialism.

6.2 The Communist Party of India (Marxist) firmly adheres to its aim of building socialism and communism. This, it is evident, cannot be achieved under the present State and bourgeois-landlord government led by the big bourgeoisie. The establishment of a genuine socialist society is only possible under proletarian statehood. While adhering to the aim of building socialism in our country, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), taking into consideration the degree of economic development, the political ideological maturity of the working class and its organisation, places before the people as the immediate objective, the establishment of people's democracy based on the coalition of all genuine anti-feudal, anti-monopoly and anti-imperialist forces led by the working class on the basis of a firm worker-peasant alliance. This demands first and foremost the replacement of the present bourgeois-landlord State by a State of people's democracy. This alone can complete the unfinished democratic task of the Indian revolution and pave the way for putting the country on the road to socialism.

The tasks and programme which the peoples' democratic government will carry out are:

6. 3 In the sphere of State structure: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) works for the preservation and promotion of the unity of the Indian Union on the basis of real equality and autonomy for the different nationalities that inhabit the country and to develop a federal democratic State structure as outlined below:

i) The people are sovereign. All organs of State power shall be answerable to the people. The supreme authority in exercising State power shall be the people's representatives elected on the basis of adult franchise and the principle of proportional representation and subject to recall. At the all-India Centre, there shall be two Houses -- House of the Peoples and House of the States. Adequate representation to women will be ensured.

ii) All states in the Indian Union shall have real autonomy and equal powers. The tribal areas or the areas where population is specific in ethnic composition and is distinguished by specific social and cultural conditions will have regional autonomy within the state concerned and shall receive full assistance for their development.

iii) There shall not be upper Houses at the states level. Nor shall there be Governors for the States appointed from above. All administrative services shall be under the direct control of the respective States or local authorities. States shall treat all Indian citizens alike, and there shall not be any discrimination on the ground of caste, sex, religion, community and nationality.

iv) Equality of all national languages in parliament and Central Administration shall be recognised. Members of Parliament will have the right to speak in their own national language and simultaneous translation will have to be provided in all other languages. All Acts, government orders and resolutions shall be made available in all national languages. The use of Hindi as the sole official language to the exclusion of all other languages shall not be made obligatory. It is only by providing equality to the various languages that it can be made acceptable as the language of communication throughout the country. Till then, the present arrangement of the use of Hindi and English will continue. The right of the people to receive instruction in their mother tongue in educational institutions upto the highest level shall be ensured. The use of the language of the particular linguistic state as the language of administration in all its public and State institutions shall also be ensured. Provision for the use of the language of the minority or, minorities or, of a region where necessary in addition to the language of the state shall be made. The Urdu language and its script shall be protected.

v) The people's democratic government will take measures to consolidate the unity of India by fostering and promoting mutual cooperation between the constituent states and between the peoples of different states in the economic, political and cultural spheres. The diversity of nationalities, languages and cultures will be respected and policies adopted to strengthen unity in diversity. It will pay special attention and render financial and other assistance to economically backward and weaker states, regions and areas with a view to helping them rapidly overcome their backwardness.

vi) The peoples' democratic State, in the field of local administration, shall ensure a wide network of local bodies from village upward directly elected by the people and vested with adequate power and responsibilities and provided with adequate finances. All efforts shall be made to involve the people in the active functioning of the local bodies.

vii) The people's democratic State shall strive to infuse in all our social and political institutions the spirit of democracy. It extends democratic forms of initiative and control over every aspect of national life. A key role in this will be played by the political parties, trade unions, peasant and agricultural workers' associations, and other class and mass organisations of the working people. The government will take steps to make the legislative and executive machinery of the country continuously responsive to the democratic wishes of the people, and will ensure that the masses and their organisations are drawn into active participation in the administration and work of the State. It will work for the elimination of bureaucratic practices in the State and administration.

viii) The people's democratic State will unearth black money; eradicate corruption, punish economic crimes and corrupt practices by public servants.

ix) Democratic changes will be introduced in the matter of administering justice. Prompt and fair justice shall be ensured. Free legal aid and consultation will be provided for the needy people in order to make legal redress easily available to such persons.

x) The people's democratic government will infuse the members of the armed forces with the spirit of patriotism, democracy and service to the people. It will provide them good living standards, conditions of service, cultural facilities and education for their children. It will encourage all able-bodied persons to undergo military training and be imbued with the spirit of national independence and its defence.

xi) Full civil liberties shall be guaranteed. Inviolability of persons and domicile and no detention of persons without trial, unhampered freedom of conscience, religious belief and worship, speech, press, assembly, strike, the right to form political parties and associations, freedom of movement and occupation, right to dissent shall be ensured.

xii) Right to work as a fundamental right of every citizen shall be guaranteed; equal rights of all citizens and equal pay for equal work irrespective of religion, caste, sex, race and nationality shall be ensured. Wide disparities in salaries and incomes will be reduced step by step.

xiii) Abolition of social oppression of one caste by another and untouchability and all forms of social discrimination shall be punished by law. Special facilities for scheduled castes, tribes, and other backward classes shall be provided in the matter of service and other educational amenities.

xiv) Removal of social inequalities and discrimination against women, equal rights with men in such matters as inheritance of property including land, enforcement of protective social, economic and family laws based on equal rights of women in all communities, admission to professions and services will be ensured. Suitable support systems in childcare and domestic work will be part of the thrust to democratise family structures.

xv) The secular character of the State shall be guaranteed. Interference by religious institutions, in the affairs of the State and political life of the country shall be prohibited. Religious minorities shall be given protection and any discrimination against them will be forbidden.

xvi) Public educational system shall be developed to provide comprehensive and scientific education at all levels. Free and compulsory education upto the secondary stage and the secular character of education shall be guaranteed. Higher education and vocational education will be modernised and updated. Development of science and technology will be promoted through a whole range of R&D institutions. A comprehensive sports policy to foster sports activities shall be adopted.

xvii) A wide network of health, medical and maternity services shall be established free of cost; nurseries and creches for children; rest-homes and recreation centres for working people and old-age pension shall be guaranteed. The People's Democratic Government will promote a non-coercive population policy to create awareness for family planning among both men and women.

xviii) Comprehensive steps will be taken to protect the environment. Development programmes will take into account the necessity to sustain the ecological balance. The country's bio-diversity and biological resources will be protected from imperialist exploitation.

xix) The right of disabled persons to lead lives as full citizens, integrated in society shall be ensured. The right to a dignified life for elderly persons shall be taken serious care of by the State. On the whole, the social rights, considered as fundamental rights, constitute a basic principle of People's Democracy.

xx) The people's democratic State and government will foster the creative talents of our people for developing a new progressive people's culture which is democratic and secular in outlook. It shall take necessary measures to nurture and develop literature, art and culture to enrich the material and cultural life of the people. It will help people get rid of caste, gender bias and communal prejudices and ideas of subservience and superstition. It will promote a scientific outlook and help each linguistic-nationality including the tribal people to develop their distinct language, culture and way of life in harmony with the common aspirations of the democratic peoples of the country as a whole. It will also imbue the people with feelings of fraternity with peoples of other countries and to discard ideas of racial and national hatred.

xxi) The media will be developed with emphasis on a public broadcasting system for the electronic media. Concentration of media assets in private hands and foreign ownership of Indian media assets will not be allowed. Democratic control and accountability will be ensured.

6.4 In the field of Agriculture and the Peasantry

India has an agriculture-based economy with over 70 percent of the people living in the rural areas. Hence, development of agriculture and raising the living standards of the peasantry is the key to the comprehensive development of the economy.

To achieve this objective, the People's Democratic government will:

1. Abolish landlordism by implementing radical land reforms and give land free of cost to the agricultural labourers and poor peasants. 2. Cancel debts of poor peasants, agricultural workers and small artisans to moneylenders and landlords. 3. Develop a State-led marketing system to protect the peasantry from big traders and MNCs and sharp fluctuation in prices. Ensure long term and cheap credit for the peasants, artisans and agricultural workers and fair prices for agricultural produce. 4. Maximise irrigation and power facilities and their proper and equitable utilisation; promote indigenous research and development in the agricultural sector; assist the peasants to improve methods of farming by the use of better seeds and modern technology for increasing productivity. 5. Ensure adequate wages, social security measures and living conditions for agricultural workers. 6. Promote cooperatives of peasants and artisans on a voluntary basis for farming and other services. 7. A comprehensive public distribution system to supply foodgrains and other essential commodities cheaply to the people shall be introduced.

6.5 India is a huge country with different levels of economic development and varying social, economic patterns. Hence the rapid growth of productive forces necessary for the development of the economy and the steady improvement of the people's living conditions will require that the people's democratic government play a decisive role through public ownership in the key sectors of the economy and the State performing a regulatory and guiding role in other sectors. The people's democratic economy will be a multi-structural one with various forms of ownership, with the public sector having a dominating position. In view of the big changes in the world economy, the country will firmly strive to strengthen its self-reliant basis while making use of advanced technology from abroad.

6.6 In the field of Industry and Labour: Our industry suffers not only from the low purchasing power of the peasantry but also from the stranglehold of monopoly houses and the increasing penetration of foreign capital and the various forms of domination by the imperialist agencies in almost all spheres of production. Concentration of assets in the hands of monopoly concerns distorts economic development and breeds wide-scale disparities. Dependence on foreign capital and the dictates of international finance capital facilitates exploitation and a distorted form of development which will not meet the needs of the people. In the field of industry, therefore, the people's democratic government will:

1. Take steps to eliminate Indian and foreign monopolies in different sectors of industry, finance, trade and services through suitable measures including State take-over of their assets. 2. Strengthen public sector industries through modernisation, democratisation, freeing from bureaucratic controls and corruption, fixing strict accountability, ensuring workers participation in management and making it competitive so that it can occupy commanding position in the economy. 3. Allow foreign direct investment in selected sectors for acquiring advanced technology and upgrading productive capacities. Regulate finance capital flows in the interests of the overall economy. 4. Assist the small and medium industries by providing them credit, raw materials at reasonable prices and by helping them in regard to marketing facilities. 5. Regulate and co-ordinate various sectors of the economy and the market in order to achieve balanced and planned economic development of the country. Regulate foreign trade. 6. Improve radically the living standards of workers by: a) fixing a living wage, b) progressive reduction of working hours; c) social insurance against every kind of disability and unemployment; d) provision of housing for workers; e) recognition of trade unions by secret ballot and their rights of collective bargaining as well as right to strike; and f) abolition of child labour. 7. Provide maximum relief from taxation to workers, peasants and artisans; introduce graded tax in agriculture, industry and trade; and effectively implement a price policy in the interest of the common people.

6.7 In the sphere of foreign policy: In order to ensure that India plays its rightful role in the preservation of world peace, against imperialist hegemony and democratisation of international relations, the people's democratic government will:

1. Develop relations with all countries on the basis of friendship and cooperation. Strengthen the solidarity and ties between all developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. Promote South-South cooperation and revitalise the non-aligned movement to counter the domination of the imperialist countries. 2. Develop friendly relations and cooperation with the socialist countries and all peace-loving States; support to all struggles against imperialism, for democracy and socialism. 3. Work for eradicating the threat of nuclear war; work for universal nuclear disarmament; elimination of all types of weapons of mass destruction -- nuclear, chemical and biological-- and prohibition of their testing and manufacture; demand the abolition of all foreign military bases; promote international cooperation for the preservation of the environment and protection of the ecological balance. 4. Make special and concerted efforts to peacefully settle existing differences and disputes and strengthen friendly relations with India's neighbours -- Pakistan, China, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Burma. Promote South Asian cooperation.

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VII

Building the People's Democratic Front

7.1 For the complete and thoroughgoing fulfillment of the basic tasks of the Indian revolution, in the present stage it is absolutely essential to replace the present bourgeois-landlord State headed by the big bourgeoisie by a State of people's democracy led by the working class.

7.2 The nature of our revolution in the present stage of its development is essentially anti-feudal, anti-imperialist, anti-monopoly and democratic. The stage of our revolution also determines the role of the different classes in the struggle to achieve it. In the present era, the proletariat will have to lead the democratic revolution as a necessary step in its forward march to the achievement of socialism. It is not the old type of bourgeois democratic revolution, but a new type of people's democratic revolution organised and led by the working class.

7.3 The first and foremost task of the people's democratic revolution is to carry out radical agrarian reform in the interests of the peasantry so as to sweep away all the remnants of feudal and semi-feudal fetters on our productive forces of agriculture as well as industries. This will have to be supplemented by sweeping measures of reforming the social system through which such remnants of pre-capitalist society as the caste and other social systems keep the villages tied to age-old backwardness. This task is inextricably bound up with the completion of the agrarian revolution which, in fact, is the axis of the people's democratic revolution. The second urgent task is to free the economic, political and social life of our people from the disastrous influence of imperialism and domination by the MNCs and various agencies of international monopoly capital. With this is also related the task of breaking the power of monopoly capital.

7.4 However, these basic and fundamental tasks of the revolution in today's context cannot be carried out except in determined opposition to, and struggle against, the big bourgeoisie and its political representatives who occupy the leading position in the State. They are allied with landlordism in order to buttress their class domination. They are also utilising their State power to protect foreign monopoly capital and facilitate its further penetration. Further, with their policies of compromise and collaboration with foreign monopolists and alliance with big Indian landlordism, they are vigorously pursuing the path of capitalist development which in turn is immensely facilitating the growth of monopoly capital in our country. Hence the people's democratic revolution is not only in irreconcilable opposition to landlordism and foreign monopoly capitalism, but together with them it is opposed to the big bourgeoisie which is leading the State and is pursuing the policies of compromise and collaboration with foreign finance capital and alliance with landlordism.

7.5 The people's democratic front cannot successfully be built and the revolution cannot attain victory except under the leadership of the working class and its political party, the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Historically no other class in modern society except the working class is destined to play this role and the entire experience of our time amply demonstrates this truth.

7.6 The core and basis of the people's democratic front is the firm alliance of the working class and the peasantry. This alliance is the most important force in defending national independence, accomplishing far-reaching democratic transformations and ensuring all round social progress. The role of the other classes in carrying out the revolution crucially depends on the strength and stability of the worker-peasant alliance.

7.7 Due to the deep inroads of capitalism in agriculture, there is clear differentiation among the peasantry and different sections play different roles in the revolution. The agricultural labourers and poor peasants who constitute the overwhelming majority of the rural households are subjected to ruthless exploitation by the landlords and capitalists and will be basic allies of the working class. The middle peasantry, too, are the victims of the depredations of usurious capital, of feudal and capitalist landlords in the countryside and of the capitalist market controlled by MNCs and big bourgeoisie. Landlord domination in rural life so affects their social position in innumerable ways as to make them reliable allies in the people's democratic front.

7.8 The rich peasantry is an influential section of the peasantry. The bourgeois-landlord agrarian policies have undoubtedly benefited certain sections of them and they also gained under the rule of the post-independence regimes. They are inclined to join the capitalist-landlord class by virtue of their engaging agricultural labourers on hire for work in their farms. But, attacked by constant price fluctuations and subjected to ravages of the market under the grip of monopoly traders and MNCs they come up against the bourgeois-landlord government. At certain junctures, they can also be brought into the people's democratic front and play a role in the people's democratic revolution despite their vacillating character.

7.9 Both the urban and rural middle class suffers heavily under the capitalist-landlord rule. The large number of white-collar employees, teachers, professionals, engineers, doctors and new strata of intelligentsia constitute a significant and influential section. With the further development of capitalism and the policies of liberalisation, differentiation within the middle classes has deepened. An upper strata has benefitted and they do not share the outlook of the rest of the middle classes. However, the bulk of this section is plagued by ever rising prices of all necessities of life, the impact of mounting taxes imposed by the State, the acute problem of unemployment and lack of basic living facilities. These sections can and will be an ally in the people's democratic front and every attempt should be made to win them for the revolution. The role of the progressive intelligentsia in mobilising this strata for democratic causes is an important one.

7.10 The Indian bourgeoisie as a class, has its conflicts and contradictions with imperialism and also with the feudal and semi-feudal agrarian order. But the bigger and monopoly section, after attainment of independence seeks to utilise its hold over the State power to resolve these conflicts and contradictions by compromise, pressure and bargain. In that process it is sharing power with landlords. It is anti-people and anti-Communist in character and is firmly opposed to the people's democratic front and its revolutionary objectives.

7.11 The non-big bourgeoisie which is non-monopolistic faces unequal competition from the big bourgeoisie and the foreign multinationals in a number of ways. With the crisis of capitalism and unhindered entry of MNCs, the contradiction between them and foreign capital will intensify. The big bourgeoisie using its economic power and leading position in the State, attempts to solve its crisis at the expense of its weaker class brethren; these strata of bourgeoisie will be compelled to come into opposition with the State power and can find a place in the people's democratic front. But it should be borne in mind that they are still sharing power alongwith the big bourgeoisie and entertain high hopes of advancing further under the same regime. Notwithstanding its objectively progressive role, by virtue of its weaker class position vis-à-vis the Indian big bourgeoisie and imperialism, it is unstable and exhibits vacillations between the big bourgeoisie and foreign capital on the one hand and the people's democratic front on the other. Owing to its dual nature, its participation in the revolution even as an unstable ally depends on a number of concrete conditions, on changes in the correlation of class forces, on the sharpness of the contradiction between imperialism, landlordism and the people on the depth of the contradictions between the big bourgeois-led State and the remaining sections of the bourgeoisie.

7.12 Every effort must be made to win them to the democratic front by a diligent and concrete study of their problems. No opportunity should be lost by the working class to render them support in all their struggles against both the Indian monopolists and foreign imperialist competitors.

7.13 The working class and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), while not for a moment losing sight of their basic aim of building the people's democratic front to achieve people's democratic revolution and the fact that they have to inevitably come into clash with the present Indian State led by the big bourgeoisie, do take cognisance of the contradictions and conflicts that exist between the Indian bourgeoisie including the big bourgeoisie and imperialism. Opening up the Indian economy to the unbridled and free entry of MNCs and foreign finance capital will intensify this contradiction. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), while carefully studying this phenomenon, shall strive to utilise every such difference, fissure, conflict and contradiction to isolate the imperialists and strengthen the people's struggle for democratic advance. The working class will not hesitate to lend its unstinted support to the government on all issues of world peace and anti-imperialism which are in the genuine interests of the nation, on all economic and political issues of conflict with imperialism, and on all issues which involve questions of strengthening our sovereignty and independent foreign policy.

7.14 Reactionary and counter-revolutionary trends have existed even after independence. They make use of the backwardness of the people based on the immense influence of feudal ideology. In recent decades, making use of the growing discontent against the Congress leading to its steady decline, they are making serious efforts to fill the void left by the Congress Party. The Bharatiya Janata Party is a reactionary party with a divisive and communal platform, the reactionary content of which is based on hatred against other religions, intolerance and ultra-nationalist chauvinism. The BJP is no ordinary bourgeois party as the fascistic Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh guides and dominates it. When the BJP is in power, the RSS gets access to the instruments of State power and the State machinery. The Hindutva ideology promotes revivalism and rejects the composite culture of India with the objective of establishing a Hindu rashtra. The spread of such a communal outlook leads to the growth of minority fundamentalism. This has serious consequences for the secular basis of the polity and poses a serious danger to the Left and democratic movement. Besides, a substantial section of big business and landlords, imperialism headed by the USA, is lending all-out support to the BJP.

7.15 Basing itself on all these factors, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) keeps before itself the task of uniting with all the patriotic forces of the nation, i.e., those who are interested in sweeping away all the remnants of pre-capitalist society; in carrying out the agrarian revolution in a thorough manner and in the interests of the peasantry; in opposing unfettered entry of foreign capital; and in removing all obstacles in the path of a radical reconstruction of India's economy, social life and culture.

7.16 The struggle to realise the aims of the people's democratic revolution through the revolutionary unity of all patriotic and democratic forces with the worker-peasant alliance as its core, is a complicated and protracted one. It is to be waged in varying conditions in varying phases. Different classes, different strata within the same class, are bound to take different positions in these distinct phases of the development of the revolutionary movement. Only a strong Communist Party which develops the mass movements and utilises appropriate united front tactics to achieve the strategic objective can make use of these shifts and draw into its ranks these sections. Only such a party bringing within its fold the most sincere and self-sacrificing revolutionaries would be able to lead the mass of the people through the various twists and turns that are bound to take place in the course of the revolutionary movement.

7.17 The Party will obviously have to work out various interim slogans in order to meet the requirements of a rapidly changing political situation. Even while keeping before the people the task of dislodging the present ruling classes and establishing a new democratic State and government based on the firm alliance of the working class and the peasantry, the Party will utilise the opportunities that present themselves of bringing into existence governments pledged to carry out a programme of providing relief to the people and strive to project and implement alternative policies within the existing limitations. The formation of such governments will strengthen the revolutionary movement of the working people and thus help the process of building the people's democratic front. It, however, would not solve the economic and political problems of the nation in any fundamental manner. The Party, therefore, will continue to educate the mass of the people on the need for replacing the present bourgeois-landlord State and government headed by the big bourgeoisie even while utilising opportunities for forming such governments in the states or the Centre, depending on the concrete situation, and thus strengthen the mass movement.

7.18 The Communist Party of India (Marxist) strives to achieve the establishment of people's democracy and socialist transformation through peaceful means. By developing a powerful mass revolutionary movement, by combining parliamentary and extra parliamentary forms of struggle, the working class and its allies will try their utmost to overcome the resistance of the forces of reaction and to bring about these transformations through peaceful means. However, it needs always to be borne in mind that the ruling classes never relinquish their power voluntarily. They seek to defy the will of the people and seek to reverse it by lawlessness and violence. It is, therefore, necessary for the revolutionary forces to be vigilant and so orient their work that they can face up to all contingencies, to any twist and turn in the political life of the country.

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VIII

Building of the Communist Party

8.1 The Communist Party of India (Marxist) places its revolutionary programme before the people of India to establish people's democracy. A people's democratic revolution will open the way for the advance to socialism and an exploitation free society. Such a revolution to emancipate the Indian people has to be led by the working class in alliance with the peasantry. In order to achieve this goal, the Communist Party as the vanguard of the working class has to lead militant struggles against imperialism, monopoly capitalism and landlordism. By concretely applying the principles of Marxism-Leninism to the conditions prevailing in our country, the Party has to conduct prolonged struggles on all fronts – political, ideological, economic, social and cultural – till victory is attained.

8.2 It is an imperative task of the Communists to intensify the ideological struggle in the wake of the vigorous anti-Communist campaign conducted by imperialism headed by the United States of America following the setbacks to socialism. The Communists expose and fight anti-Communism which constitutes a principal ideological weapon of the ruling classes. The Communists wage a consistent struggle against feudal and bourgeois ideologies to free the people from their influences and heighten their political consciousness; to counter the propaganda of the protagonists of the imperialist-driven globalisation, liberalisation and free market economy.

8.3 Religious fundamentalism, obscurantism, communalism and casteism divide the people and retard their democratic consciousness. Along with bourgeois nationalism and chauvinism they are exploited by the reactionary forces who are abetted by imperialism to disrupt the growth of the democratic movement. The Communists must wage a determined struggle against these divisive ideas and forces.

8.4 It is essential to build a mass revolutionary party to wage the struggle on all fronts and to direct the revolutionary movement. Such a Party must constantly expand its base among the people by developing the mass movements and commensurately consolidate its influence politically and ideologically. This requires a strong, disciplined Party based on democratic centralism. To discharge its historic responsibility towards the working class and all sections of the working people, the Party must constantly educate and reeducate itself, renew its ideological-theoretical level and build up its organisational strength.

8.5 The establishment of a people's democratic government, the successful carrying out of these tasks and the leadership of the working class in the people's democratic State will ensure that the Indian revolution will not stop at the democratic stage but will pass over to the stage of effecting socialist transformation by developing the productive forces.

8.6 The Communist Party of India (Marxist) places this Programme before the people and sets forth the principal urgent tasks of the day in order that our people have a clear picture of the objective they are fighting for a democratic national advance. Our Party calls upon the working people, the working class, the peasantry, women, students, youth, the intelligentsia and the middle classes interested in a truly democratic development and in creating a prosperous life to unite in a people's democratic front for the fulfillment of these tasks and for attainment of the objective.

8.7 The Communist Party of India (Marxist) carries forward the fighting traditions of our people and all that is fine and valuable in our culture and civilisation. The CPI(M) combines patriotism with proletarian internationalism. In all its activities and struggles, the Party is guided by the scientific philosophy and principles of Marxism-Leninism which alone shows the correct way to complete emancipation. The Party unites in its ranks the most advanced, the most active and most selfless sons and daughters of the working people and ceaselessly strives to develop them as staunch Marxist-Leninists and proletarian internationalists. The Party devotes all its energies and resources to the task of uniting all patriotic and democratic forces in the struggle for a democratic course of development -- to the great task of building a mighty people's democratic front for the realisation of the Programme.

8.8 Imperialism, headed by the USA, is striving for world domination. India's economy, political system and even sovereignty are under threat. In such a situation, it becomes the major task of the working class and its Party to unite all anti-imperialist and progressive forces to squarely and boldly meet this offensive. We can discharge our revolutionary responsibility only by upholding proletarian internationalism, by forging the unity of purpose and action between the Communist forces around the world and drawing proper lessons from the experiences of the Communist movement in leading revolutionary struggles, in building socialism and analysing the reasons for the reverses suffered by socialism. The CPI(M) pledges to continue the fight against right revisionist and Left sectarian deviations. It shall carry forward the task of mobilising the Indian people in struggles to change the correlation of class forces to build the people's democratic front.

8.9 The Communist Party of India (Marxist) is confident that the people of our country, led by the working class and its revolutionary vanguard, guided by the teachings of Marxism-Leninism, will achieve this Programme. Our Party is confident that our great country, India, too will emerge as a victorious people's democracy and advance on the road to socialism.

* Adopted At the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of India held at Calcutta, October 31 to November 7, 1964 * Updated at the Special Conference of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) held at Thiruvananthapuram, October 20-23, 2000.