To compete with the RSS and Sangh Parivar in case of patriotism; many of the so-called leftists may have forgotten that India is not a country at all, only a state (in no way can India be described as a country), and this freedom is the freedom of the state, the state of India with the swastika on its forehead. Stuck in the maze of patriotism, many of today’s leftist nominees are busy proving their loyalty to the state. The Communists at that time repeatedly mentioned that the independence of 1947 was, in fact, a deception with the countrymen, and even later.
“So far, we have been taking a reformist path. We dovetailed with bourgeois interests. We could not take an independent stance in the movement on the issue of freedom. As a result, the reactionary forces of Congress and Muslim League through a forged alliance ushered in a so-called Independence. This is not real independence; it is false! Just as in a postwar situation, there is still grounds for revolution. That is why we must continue our struggle against the bourgeoisie. Strikes, mass rallies, demonstrations, and armed struggles must be used to challenge this false sense of freedom.” – B.T. Ranadive, Marshall Windmiller (1994), Communism in India.
But the current cycle of time has come to a point where the majority of the Left is practically promoting 1947’s freedom. Yes, it is true that the nominal freedom and constitutional rights as the people were destined for, today the blow to them is at an extreme level. And here lies the question. To what extent have these “written” rights been exercised in the state paradigm in which “independent” India has been governed to this day, and was this not an obvious consequence of that independence of India? The human rights achieved and kept only by disgracing the lie about independence. Think about whether ridiculing such an important question (are we really free?) as a joke justifies.
Those who were able to identify India’s belligerent imperialist tendencies and take an anti-war stand during the Indo-China border clashes in the 1960s left the undivided Communist party immediately after that. We all know that history.
I just thought that taking such a stand against nationalism at a time when the whole country is on fire with nationalism in just 17 years of independence is one of the most caring stands in the history of the communist movement in the world.
The Communist Party till then had only the experience of running the government in a single term in the whole country (under the Chief Ministry of Nambudripad in Kerala); its strength, its workforce (quantitatively) was far smaller than it is today. In fact, it became clear to the revolutionary section of the undivided party at the time that the newly formed socialist-novice Mao’s China was being pinched by the slaves of imperialist Congress Government.
The reactionary half-Congress dangers, however, felt comfortable in the opposite position. Anyway, it was all about history. I am talking about courage and push. How much courage they were able to show, even with a little strength in the bosom of newly independent India, which was ignited by the fire of nationalism, the next day they could have to go into exile for the rest of their lives just for that stand.
Yet they were reckless. This reckless thought came from their political wisdom, which was based on Marxism-Leninism, on the correct analysis of the material form of the class struggle, on the deep confidence in the partisan struggle, and above all on the understanding of the real pulse of the people.
Then history, those who took the anti-war stand and exposed the intention of destroying the socialist China of India to the people, their organisation grew and they could not be stopped even after the party split. Those who took the pro-Congress and pro-state nationalist lines at that time, both history and the people rejected them, threw them out.
It hurts today. The communists have money and workforce all over the country; there is an example of playing an important role in the parliament or the assembly. But even then they are hosting the national flag and showing the “Red Salute” to prove their “patriotism” even if they are not in a constitutional position.
The “freedom” that they were the first to reveal was a class of freedom. The perseverance and determination to say “yeh azadi jhuthi hai” seems to have fallen asleep in the closed pages of history, it has become difficult to wake us up.
The truth is that courage or courage, dhak in Bengali, all this does not come from money, nor does it come from the workforce. Otherwise, how could Fidel have set a historical precedent of revolution with only 72 people. Courage comes only from the line, from vision; from the ideology and through the proper implementation of that ideology in the analysis of the real situation of the country and the world. History is teaching us that.