coercion and violence alone. Thedemand for autonomy comes up pe-riodically in one region or anothernot because the Government yieldedin the past to such demands elsewherebut because peqple in that region re-fuse to be treated any longer as infe-rior citizens. As long as Mr Desai isunable to bring this home to hispartymen and persuade them to mendtheir ways, demands for autonomywill continue to haunt the Centre.

The Government is deluding itselfif it thinks that the hill people will re-gard the proposed sub-State as auto-nomous. At a time when, in spite ofthe Constitution, the federal characterof the Rt;public is collapsing fast andthe autonomy of States is being curtlyinfringed by an overbearing Centre, asub-State cannot expect to have anyfreedom of action. Ev,en under thescheme as it is, it will suffer from toomany constraints. The pompous namenotwithstanding, the Government ofthe new State will be nothing but aglorified local body; the additional.powers granted!,to it are marginal, andthere will be too many authoritiesaround to watch how these ;powersare exercised. The sub-State will notbe born with the best of relations withthe Government of Assam whose con-stant endeavour will be to make thingsdifficult for the hill leaders. For thisit will have built-in constitutional pre-texts, including law and! order. Theexclusion of law and order from thetransferred subjects will enable the'Congress Government- of Assam topolice the new Government and makea mockery of autonomy. A Statewithin a State is an absurdity, a per-version of language which takes innone but professional cheer-leaders.The fraud is being played on the hillpeople on the specious plea thatAssam is a border State' and the needsof defence are sUtPreme. This assum-es that the hill people are less alertthan the people of the iplains over thecountry's security. The collective in-sinuation, just because the hill peoplehave demanded a se;parate State oftheir own, of course within the IndianUnion, shows up an attitude which isalienating them from the people ofthe !plains and may push them into

2

FRONTIER

positions which are not their intentionto take. The reorganisation schememay, if at all, bring a temporary res-pite, but rhe problem of Assam re-mains unresolved. Time will onlymake it more intractable.

Cricket

What was this silly incident overBasil D'Oliveira? If the Governmentof the country-and a governmentwhich has, or at least had once upona time, socialist pretensions-can re-fuse entry to coloured peo,ple holdingvalid passports issued by itself, whyshould the MCC's original non-inclu-sion of D'Oliveira into the team visit-ing South Africa scandalise anybodyat all ? The United Kingdom, let it beadmitted, is by now a ,puny littlecountry, with the prejudices, jealousiesand pettymindedness characterisingsuch a country. It has one of theslowest rates of growth among the'Western nations; apart from the Beat-les, Twiggy and the mini-skirt, its soleinternational achievement in recent'years has been its victory in the WorldCu.p for football last year. Merelybecause people continue to use theirlanguage in different parts of theworld, we have no business to shoreup our illusions about the racists. Inpart, the illusion has been carefullynurtured by the Oxbridge crowd whostill man our civil service and theindustrial establishment. But Blimeysare just Blimeys. It is only because theclaptrap of the Commonwealth helpsthem to squeeze some economic bene-fits at our expense that occasionalnoises are made regarding how badthe South African and Southern Rho-desian regimes are. These noises arefor the sake of record. The Britishethos is more faithfully reflected inthe ravings of an Enoch Powell or aDuncan Sandys: rid the island of thewogs, and let Britannia rule--even ifit be a rule over the skimpy backyard.

The decisioin on D'Oliveira wa~nothing out of the ordinary;what else did the whiners andprotesters expect? There is abasic inferiority complex at workhere, feeding the notion .that because,

the British have a skin whiterthe liberalism of most of themwhiter. The notion is a myth.of the socialist basis of theGovernment is equally besi,p,oint. One can quoteLenin and Rosa Luxemburgcontext, but that will benecessary. It' is the fated by the outlying colonial tewhich enabled the West Euto indulge in the occasionaltime of socialism. With thethe calculus assumes an esbread-and-butter dimension.it was a great socialist, Guywho had hatched the 1956 Suwith the British and the Israbehalf of France; the offensive'geria too was conducted undirection of regimes with imdomestic credentials concerningist beliefs. Nearer home, even\K. Patil-and Mr Morarjiassert their devotion to socialism.you know how to d(;fine thesocialism and skulduggery canco-exist together.

Over D'Oliveira, the Britishor may not still have a case tower but the righteous indignatian assortment of Indians was jmuch fatuity. The matrimonialmns in this country's newsread about the same as they didor forty years ago; the marketof a would-be bride continuesa function of the ,pigmentationskin. Before straying into cfields around the world, some 0shouting gentiemen should firstthe innumerable issues of doapartheid. Or else shut up.

American Trends

It may be difficult to see GWallace in the White House bhas already changed the pr~-elescene in the U.S. in a mannerdisturbs not only the two maindates for the Presidency but alsotions of the American ,publiclingering illusions about the coucommitment to liberal values. Bthere, after all, that differenceween him and his two respectab

SEPTEMBER 21,

True, he does not have theirpretensions; he does not <,wnto care if he is looked upon as; and he certainly makes noto culture, perhaps not even to. "We gonna show 'em inber that the average Americanand tired of all these overedu-ivory-tower folks with pointedlookin' down their noses at youe . . .. When I'm President not. e of Federal money will beto bus any student anywhere ..

if any demonstrator ever laysin front of my car, it will be

lastcar he'll ever lay down inof."voicefrom Alabama may shockAmericans who like to believeeir country is, in fact, differentuldbe different under RichardOr Hubert Horatio Humphrey.

t Nixon been as much a reac-in domestic affairs as in

policy? And is Humphreyof any other persuasion? Wal-

makes no bones about what hedo to demonstrators in the; when the Mayor of Chicago

most the same, Humphrey ask-"Is there any wonder that thehad to take action?" It is not

Wallace who would subordinateing to what he regards as

and order"; both Nixon andhrey have already made thismain theme. Sensing a ground-of right reaction against the voi-

dissent and protest-whetherletnamor on civil rights-bothepublican and Democratic can-

are promising the electorate-and-order society". Perha,ps asuccessor to Johnson's Great

e quiet Americans, the silent'cans, who have not been theters, who have not been thers-their voice is welling upthe country today. The great

'ty of Americans are angry." Sod Nixon in a recent speech,satisfy these angry hawks and

, he would put down all the pro-and shouting. Humphrey wassanctimonious. He said heappeal to the "basic goodness"ericans, who-in his view-

196~

FRONTIER

were free from bitterness, hate or ra-cial jprejudice. And, to appeal tothis tolerant and kindly people, hiselection campaigners. have planned adrive aimed at "the 45-year old whiteman in the suburbs". No !plan toend the Vietnam war, no pledge toend segregation or Negro poverty, buta simple assurance that the narrow-minded, prejudice-filled members ofAmerica's unSiPeakables suburban so-ciety would not be bothered by shouts,protests, or even any uncomfortablequestions. To ensure better "lawand order" he ~ould probably in-crease the sUPiplyof guns to whitehomes and individuals. Wallace, atleast, is less hYiPocritical. He wouldsimply order the police to shoot downNegroes and Vietnam protesters.

The Mysterious Bolivian

Che's body could not be broughtto Cuba. But this failure was morethan compensated by the publicationof his Bolivian diary, whose photo-copy was smuggled out of the handsof the Bolivian Government. Foronce the CIA seemed outmanoeuvredby the Castroist intelligence agency.This, however, IPIT0vedthe beginningof a high drama. Following the re-lease of the diary from Havana, MrAntonio Arguedas, Bolivian Minister01 the Intenor and mtelll en chief,e to Chile, resulting in a mini-crisis

for the Bolivian Government. A stateof siege was declared in La Paz.

In a speech delivered! on July 24Fidel Castro declared that it w~s in-deed Mr Arguedas "who made it pos-sible for photocopies of Che's diary toreach the. hands of persons connectedwith the National Liberation Army ofBolivia. He did this completely dis-interestedly as he was outraged by theway in which th{i Bolivian regime hadtreated Che, cravenly murdering him

_after he had been wounded in combatand taken prisoner, and was in dis-agreement with the general policv ofthe regime that tyrannises Bolivia,blindly obedient to Yankee imperia-lism. And not onlv this, but at tre-ynendous risk to his life, the former

Minister of die Interior of the Govern-ment of Bolivia maintained an atti-tude of co-operation over a period ofmany months with the revolutionarymovement in Bolivia." Fidel furtheralleged that the CIA was trying byevery possible means to get Arguedasback to Bolivia. "To send! him backto Bolivia would be to hand him overto Barrientos' and CIA's gunmen tomurder him .... Even if the Chileanauthorities grant his request for asy-lum in the country or give him permi-ssion to go to another country we donot doubt that the CIA will do every-thing in its power to eliminate himphysically because of its 'Panic stem-ming from former Minister Arguedas'knowledge of its activities." For thesaftey of Arguedas' life Fidel gener-ousl offered him as lum in Cu a.

But after making some hush-hushtrips to London and New York Argue-das finally chose to land at La Pazinstead of at Havana, ~eningthereby a new act of the drama Im-mediately upon his arrival he eld aPress conference at the airport andmade a detailed confession about hisconnection with the CIA. Mr Argue-das, an ex-communist sympathizer, wasan under-secretary of the Governmentafter. the 1964 coup in which GeneralBarientos came to power as head ofthe military junta. "My term", he con-tinued, "was uneventful until January1965 when an air attache at the U.S.Embassy approached me. His namewas Col Edward Fox. What he toldme was this: That I was regarded asa communist infiltrator into the Boli-vian Government and that unless Iresigned, all American aid to thiscountry would be cut immediately. Ihad no choice and resigned. But about30 days later Fox told me that if I wasinterested in regaining my post heknew a very influential man who mightbe able to help. He introduced meto Larry Sternfield, an embassy atta-che who at the time was chief of theCIA here. Sternfield told me that Imight be reinstated if I would con-sent to go to Lima for an interroga-tion. I accepted. I flew to Lima,where I was interrogated: for four daysat a CIA apartment. That was Feb-ruary or March 1965. They had an

3

FROM A POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT

Return Of The DIR ?

electric apparatus in thc apartment andmeasured everything-there were elec-.trodes attached to my chest, my handand my head. It was a series of ra-pid-Jfire questions in which I was per-mitted only yes or no answers." Afterthat, Mr Arguedas said, he was trickedinto drinking a drugged Coca-Colawhich changed his "state of mind"and left him 'weak". "All at oncethey began serious questions againand I felt as if my whole life was be-ing pumped out of me." After theend! of the interrogation Arguedas wasreinstated in his post "with the com-,plete support of the CIA".

(t..rguedas startled the reporters byadmitting that his flight to Chile wasalso made at the bidding of the CIA)

(e.nd throughout his journey he wasescorted by another CIA agent) He

falso confessed to having passed variouskinds of misinformation at the instruc-lOn 0 teA to political figures and

the Press. The misinformation, liesaid, had to do with the death ofGuevara, French financial credits inBolivia and many other matters.

Arguedas however, ,raised morequestions than he answered. Whydid the CIA make him flee Boli-via and return after a month? Whywas he allowed to "reveal" about CIAactivities in marathon Press conferen-ces? Arguedas' confessions werebroadcast verbatim by radio stationsthroughout Bolivia and a completetransc6pt was published in the localnewspapers. How to explain thesoftness of the Bolivian Government

,.,which seems to SipmeArguedas a courtmartial and will try him instead in theBolivian Congress ? Has Bolivia slip-;ped out of the grip of the CIA? Orwas Arguedas' latest performance theresult of another bout of druggedCoca-Cola? In the Kafkaesque worldof the CIA the difference between in-formation and misinformation indeedgets blurred.

Strike

At the time of going to press, it isnot clear how the situation relating tothe token strike of Central Govern-

4

FRONTIER

ment employees will develop. NJrChavan is resolved to break themorale of the employees by a nakedshow of force. If it be a fact thatthe leadership was not prepared forsuch ruthless measures, he may suc-ceed tel11jporarily. But the temper ofthe demonstrators in Calcutta in the

View from Delhi

~_. ....,.MR Chavan's strong-man image

has never been in doubt. Atleast not after he had wielded thesledge-hammer of a 40,000-memberpolice force to swat the fly of a strag-gling student march of 20 on Parlia-ment House in November 1966. Thatwas his real debut as Home Ministerat the Centre. After that, in ;prepa-ration for the exit of the draconianDIR, Mr Chavan was busy arminghimself with special powers under theUnlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.(We must be grateful that the Actleaves uniawful thoughts alone, untilit is amended through an ordinance!)

We owe last week's series of ordi-nances and regulations to break theonG-day token strike of CentralGovernment employees to Mr Cha-van's strongmanshijp, or perhaps asudden awareness of a need torefurbish his strong-man image.Of late, the feeling that the Centreis losing grip on things has beengrowing. If nothing else, the HomeMinister has been helpless inthe face of communal riots Or thedepredations of the Shiv Sena in hisown city. The entire Indo-Gangeticplain is under President's Rule andMr Chavan is helpless in the face ofpolice .excesses in' Uttar Pradesh.There has been an alarming rise inthe reports of such excesses after theState came under President's Rule.

The Cabinet was Siplit on the ordi-nances to ban the \P'l'oposedSeptember19 token strike. Mr Morarji Desaiwanted it while some did not. Ulti-

Jast two or three days has shoMr Chavan will not be able tohis own way all the time. Tperience of quite a number ofcessful strikes in different fieldspast few months, however, ca drastic revaluation of tactistrategy and changes in leader

mately it was left to the Hometry to deal with the situationdeveloped. The implication ofdecision was clear because Mrhas always believed in stronmethods and could be dependedto Ismash the strike. The G

'ment has been impervious to therest building in the countrythought the Central GovernmentIployees movement was smashever with the 'fiasco of the gstrike called on March 9, 1960is not so much the orie-day st'Government fears now. Nor evpossibility of its developing .general strike. The political imtions of the strike must have unMrs Gandhi and her colleagues.body seriously believes that theernment couId be brought downgh such a strike. But a strikebe the beginning of a challengemight take a iPolitical form. IfCentre does not prove it isstrong, it would be laying itselfto new attacks.

The strike in a way is forcingakind of confrontation betweelO~positi011 :parties and theIn a city like Delhi, whereGovernment employees live, theSangh could not dissociate itselfthe strike move. Other non-CoIparties are already in it. Thein Madras cannot keep off.

But what is shocking is totallysis of the political parties amiCentre's offensive in the form ofnances. Where is the move

SEPTEMBER 2J,

s has shownbe able totime. The

umber of unrent fielrls inwever, calls

of tacticsin leadership

~ Home Misituation a:ation ofIse Mr Chan strong-lepended uThe Gov

IUS to thecountry.

vernmentsmashed

f the gen9, 1960.lay strikeNor evening intotical imprave unneeagues.lat the Gdown thestrike co

llenge wrm. Ifit is re; itself 0

ere

I il? Where is the poIiticallea-that could have taken the10 something like a Bharat

which, according to Mr Dange,thingmore than a total general

I The Centre is lucky that Par-t is not in session, is there anytee that the iPolitical leadershipleftwould have given the move-a direction ?alllikelihood, the September 19willbe smashed and immedia-

ilierewill be the "I-told-you-so"iploring the adventurism of the

Government employees. But~ there any other way a move-~ built in this country ?

Atulya Ghosh and his friend'sderive immense satisfaction atcourtesy to which they subjec-e Prime Minister in Calcutta.

the two-day Congress Working'!tee meeting here ended in afor the Syndicate. Mr Atulyawho had asked for a special

g to discuss the Government'sonCzechoslovakia gave in tame-even joined the semantic hair-gon "deplore" and "condemn".tulyaGhosh is believed to have

that "deplore" is a strongerthan "condemn". With Mr S.'I away in Europe, the Working'ttee meeting did not witnesswdown that was expected. Theate (the Prime Minister saysisn't one in her party) is notimmediate showdown as evidentMrPatil's call by proxy for col-leadership at the Centre, whichy para.phrased means inclusion

MrPatil in the Cabinet. TheMinister does no~ awear un-

perturbed over anything on thefront. She is set to leave on aof some Latin American coun-

of them fascist regimes withIndia should have no rapport, g Mr Chavan to deal withg that might develop: in the

of the September 19 strike.week's Indo-Soviet exercise atgat-Firyubin level was aimed

'eying some of the lost Soviet, in the country. The Soviet

been trying to make it known

FRONTIER

that India would get all the economicaid and defence equipment it wantsand that since all arms sale to Pakistanwill be on a commercial basis, whatPakistau can buy carinot exceed sixper cent of the volume of Soviet com-mitment to India. As a result of thedialogue there might even be a tacitunderstanding that the Soviet Unionwill not press India to sign the nuclearnon,proliferation treaty.

During the talks, both the sidesfound themselves agreeing completelyon their assessment of the Chinese"threat" to South-East Asia. If MrsGandhi's recent statement that therecannot be a dialogue with China be-cause the cultural revolution atmos-phere was hardly conducive to sucha dialogue, her glib talk of a flexiblepolicy towards neighbours is someth-ing of a joke. What would happenif some day the Soviet Union andChina got close, has not worried MrsGandhi yet because the Soviets wouldhave us believe that nothing of thekind would happen.

On the eve of the talks, an All IndiaRadio broadcast devoted seven out often minutes to an attack on the Sovietrole in Czechoslovakia and Sovietdiplomats were red in the face, TheExternal Affairs Minis~ry rushed toone of the dailies with an apologeticexplanation that the Czech issue wouldnot be raised in the form indicated byAIR during the talks. That was thesubstance of the explanation offered.The Government's effort was to con-vince the Soviet delegation that- Indianreaction to the Czech episode wasvery strong and Mrs Gandhi hasbeen desisting from condemning theSoviet Union at great risk to her posi-tion in the party. It is now known brcertain that before the Indian deleg~-tion decided to abstain from votingon the U. N,resolution, there was ahurried dialogue with the Soviet dele-gation. The Government's leveragewith the Soviets on ecotlomic aid is alittle higher as a result. The wagondeal has gone through, at last, accord-ing to Mr Poonacha.

September 15, 1968

Frontier

Special Number

Next Week

Poverty of NationsJoan Robinson

Peking Prague, MoscowK. N. Ramchandran

Translations bySatyajit Ray

France : A Beginning

The Cubans : Monitor

A Chinese Envoy :G. P. Deshpande

u. S. In Asia:Dick Crooth

What's the use ofwriting in English?

Anirudha Gupta

Russell's AutobiographyAshok Rudra

Shikar Tales:Hiran Kumar Sanyal

Bengali Cinema :K. S. Ray

And other articles andr~gular features

5

Down South

Politics-Kamaraj StyleM. R.

MADRAS has had a weirdlyuncommon brand of Congress

\politicking these 25 years with MrKamaraj atop the party. But with theuncrowned king decrowned, the myththat the Congress in Madras hasnever known factionalism is dissolvinglike a mist. Congressmen, farthestfrom power and sidelined, perhapsfor ever, are slugging it out on thestreets. Yet the imbecile fringe ofthe pseudo-left in the country (whichof course includes the CPI) sees in a;played-out Kamaraj a passionatelycommitted socialist whom the vilevested interests are out to ambush.The Congress in Madras can be no dif-ferent qualitatively from what it is inthe rest of the country. Yet MrKamaraj has been wearing a fakehalo around him.

The C. Subramaniam group whichis trying to call the Kamaraj blufffinds itself confronting the nOIlides-cript political free-booters of doubtfulpedigree whom the former CongressPresident has gathered around himself.Obviously, Mr C. Subramaniam knowsthere is no chance of toWling theDMK Ministry and even the Centreis now reconciled to this reality. Any"Operation Topple" engineered fromNew Delhi will acquire the colour of avindictive war against a State standingup to the Hindi blackmail. The Cen-tre would rather let the DMK conti-nue for another reason too. TheCongress just cannot re,place theDMK. But the motley crowd aroundMr Kamaraj is at the toppling gameSo much so, when Mr C. Subrama-niam declared that during the absenl,;tJof Mr C. N. Annadurai in the UnitedStates for treatment there would beno political agitation against the DMKMinistry, the Kamaraj faction justcould not stomach it. This self-im-posed moratorium on agitations hasa comic opera touch to it but it sumsup a political reality in the State.The Congress is keen on putting up a

imporcomminth.

la's ftial fort is Keexporte

is n(dhra PI

milliO!css b

ket tharala's a

foreignntry shlte Gove

agains'rid, it 10desh sh

its rics in I't AndhlI plant

for riculd be glconsuml

t the waJith ar

ee to fOtins this lught in 1

positionmonths.

Ie to keeps is 75,0ous? N.a slick :Kment in Jn 75,000domestic

The Uuctant to t

surrende.ckmarketeg to the 1The CPI's

ctural refsupposed 1

which ment between

. If a fewt a confrol

basic issnts, it will. istry mig]hen the bal

eve of there will beuse the VOtl

~EPTEMBER 21,

some degree or the other.morandum to the Prime Mi .some Congressmen of Madcharging Mr Kamaraj with psionist activity would strengvalidity of this inference.

The relevance of the CanMadras politics is itself in dououtdo the DMK and take ansecessionist position to iPressuCentre on the Hindi issue iscourse left to it. There is nopolitical slogan left at this stato embarrass the DMK. Mrhas rallied around him elementshad hitherto belonged to te seist movements in the State.then, as long as the 'ConMadras State is the componentall-India .party, how can itany sense of direction neeachieve its goal ?

The Congress isciled to making itsfelt and nothing more. Itchance of toppling the Minisless it leads a secessionist ill

embarrassing both the Centrethe DMK Ministry. Short ofmanoeuvrability is limited. Sotics in Madras has reached thedead end.

KeralaIn neighbouring Kerala, the

is bizarre. Mr E. M. S. NamiPad, past master in draftingnative documents or inner-paIlJcussion, is busy getting a termcialists to hammer out an aIlefourth plan with which he waulfront the Centre. His antistance, like that of the DMKMinister's, aggregates to mereticking and nothing more. Thefor greater autonomy for the Sfor a permanent finance COmto go into the sharing of resojust slogan-mongering andmore.

The United Front Ministry'sin Kerala has been depressin~yThe gimmicks are wearingKerala is not ;prepared to pay ifarmers by way of procurementfor rice. Time was when theleaders used to talk gliblyState's right to arrange for ill

good show in the coming elections tothe Madras Corporation. The civicelections might well turn out to be adecisive test of the Congress claimthat it is acquiring a new mass basein the State amidst growing pOlPulardisenehantment with the DMK regime.Any political agitation at this stage,taking advantage of Mr Annadurai'sabsence, might well recoil on theCongress. Mr Annadurai's ruthlesslieutenant, Mr M. Karunanidhi, mightget tough with the Congress on theeve of the ~orporation electionsscheduled for October. So theCongress faction led by Mr C. Sub-ramaniam is ;playing it cool while theKamaraj faction is getting desperate.

There is little doubt that the DMKis losing hold over students whosW€1Pt the party into power on theHindi issue. The main reason is theDMK's betrayal on Hindi. There isno attem,pt to force the issue and thestalemate continues. No wonder lastmonth the DMK candidate was de-feated in the crucial contest for thepresidentship of the Pachaiayappa'sCollege Union. This college has beenthe DMK stronghold since 1952 andhas given the DMK many of its leadersincluding Mr Annadurai himself.The victory of a Congress-backed can-didate here does not vindicate theCongress claim that it is acquiring ahold among the students. The Pa-chaiyappa's college verdict is just ananti-power vote, a romantic protest ofthe kind witnessed earlier in the yearin Kerala where the Communists werelosing out to the Congress in the col-lege and school elections.

The new myth that is being builtaround Mr Kamaraj is that he is thenew leader of the younger generation.It is true that Mr Kamaraj has beentaking a line approximating to thatof the secessionists when he is inTamiland and professing supra-nation-alism outside. To an extent, Mr Kama-raj could provide the alternative focusto the DMK which has quietly jetti-soned its secessionist plank to becomea respectable ;parliamentary party.The lesson is simple : any party aspir-ing for a mass base-be it the Cong-ress, the DMK Or the CPI(M)-hasto accf1l)t the secessionist slogan to

, - (6

ANIRUDHA GUPTA

Re"isiting East Africa-II

l1anzania : China : Arusha

portsif the Centre did not meetmitment of 75,000 tonnes a

The argument was that's farm produce earned subs-foreign exchange for lndia.

IS Kerala's produce is allowed tooctedwhile Andhra's rice sur-isnot. In a normal year, if

Pradesh has a rice surplus of'lion tonnes, it should in all

be allowed to sell it on thet that fetches it the most. If's argument is that a part ofreignexchange it earns for the

should be set aside and theGovernmentbe left free to buyagainst this anywhere in theit logically follows that Andhrah should be free enough toits rice surplus to anybody itin India and abroad. Pray,AndhraPradesh import a wholeplantfor VisakhalP'atnam in re-lorrice which the United Statesbeglad to grab at a fancy pricensumptionin South Vietnam sO

thewar could be kept going ?th an estimated shortfall 'ofto four million tonnes of food-thiskharif season and with thet in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala's

positionwould turn critical in amonths, The Centre may not betokeep its commitment. "Happi-is 75,000 tonnes of rice. Ridi-

? No, Sir I" reads the copyslickKerala Government adver-t in the national Press. But

75,000 tonnes would not do ifmesticproduction is not moppedThe United Front Ministry is

t to touch the rich peasant andurrenderedthe rice trade to thearketeers who generally be-

tothe Muslim League.CPI's theoreticians see in theral reforms Mr Namboodiripadposedto be planning a hopeful

whichmight lead to a rapproche-betweenthe two communist par-I! a few structural reforms with-a confrontation with the Centre

ic issues is all that the CPI, it will no doubt get them.. Thetry might linger on, listless, butthe balance-sheet is drawn one of the next general elections,willbe very little in it to en-the voter.

1998

IT was Tanzania's Saba Saba Day'io.In tront of TANU's head office a

milling crowd hissed, laughed, sway-ed and swelled in number as the daygrew warmer. Suddenly the uhurudrums began playing and the crowdcleared a space in its middle for thedancers. The sound of drums racedfaster, the bodies moved, arched andwriggled in a wild bond of tIhythm asthe crowd waved and cheered madly.

At the meeting some Swede andChinese delegates were present. Theywere given a big hand of welcome bythe crowd. On the previous day theChinese had opened the FriendshipTextile Mill, which was constructedtwo 'months ahead of schedule andwhich, it was said, would produc~ 90million square yards of cloth for Tan-zania each year. The Chinese exhi-bited a replica of the mill and itsvarious products in the industrial ex-hibition. Curiously, there was noportrait of Mao overshadowing thepavilion and, more curiously, in hisspeech at the opening ceremony ofthe mill, the Chinese Charge d'Affaires,Mr Po Ping, did not for once refer tothe "invincible thoughts of Mao".Instead he dwelt on two basic themes;!first, that China built the mill "as anaid to a country to developself-reliance" and, second, that "'ra-cists" and "imperialists" should knowthat it was possible for the world'scoloured underdogs to unite and helpeach other. This was a refreshinglydifferent note from Chnia's usualvaunt and, perhaps, the one Africanscould understand better.

Indeed, it seems that China hasabandoned its earlier -policy of drag-ging Africa into a series of "revo-lutionary wars". Apart from the factthat this policy stretched to the limitChina's resources, it antagonised anumber of African governments. Be-

>I< 7th July the day TanganyikaNational Union (TANU) was born,

sides, it .suffered serious reverses inGhana, the Congo, Burundi and Gui-nea. Ever since, the Chinese seemto be concentrating their efforts in afew selected areas where they havealready a foothold. In Zanzibar Chi-nese !presence is formidable and thenumber of Chinese experts, techniciansand doctors in mainland: Tanzaniais growing. Further, by offer-ing to bund: the 1600-mile railway line between Dar-es-Sa-laam and Zambia's Copperbelt, theChinese have earned the gratitude oftwo African governments. This offerseems to have two diplomatic aims-first, to show Zambians and Tanza-nians that they can depend on Chinawhen the West or Russia fails to meettheir expectations and, second, byproviding an alternative route to thesea, make Zambia less dependent onBritain, Rhodesia and the Portuguesed~endencies. Thus, while keepingits "anti-West" image intact, Chinahopes to win over a vacillating AfricanGovernment to its side. Curiously,this policy is not very different fromthat of the Soviets who !also believe,that by providing strategic aid andassistance to the underdeveloped coun-tries it is possible to launch them onthe path of "non-capitalism".'

Liberation MovementsThe concentration of Chinese diplo-

matic activity on Africa's easterncoast and in Central Africa may haveanother purpose. By maintainingfriendly relations with Tanzania,China can influence various liberationmovements in Southero Africa whichhave their headquarters either inDar-es-Salaam or Lusaka. Quite ob-viously, a number of freedom-fighterslook up to China for active supportin their struggles. On the other hand,it is possible that China considersSouthern Africa strategically moreimportant than other parts of Africaas it would be here that the future of

7

African independence, pan-Africanismand socialism would lfinally be decid-ed. This shows a gradual shift ofChina's attention from the North tothe South. Prior to 1964 China wasactive in West Africa; then its centreof interest shifted to the Congo untilthe rout of Congolese rebels in 1965and, since then it has come to be con-centrated all along the border of theZambesi river.

It is true that China's growing tieswith Tanzania have created apprehen-sions in many dijplomatic circles andin Dar--es-Salaam one often hears thatTanzania is becoming a "satellite" ofChina. This is scurrilous propagandaand Tanzanians resent it most.

In this connection it is worthwhileto note how Julius Nyerere interpretshis country's growing relations withChina. During his recent tour ofChina, he consistently emphasized twopoints. First, that Sino-Tanzanianfriendship should not be misunder-stood by other nations and, second,that this friendship did not depriveTanzania of its right to exercise inde-

For

SOOTHING RELIEFfrom

CHES, PAINSand

COLDS & COUGHSUse

AM~fa!~~JA"for over 75 years

8

FRONTlER

pendent judgment in world affairs.Thus, while agreeing that on the non-proliferation treaty both China and'fanzania took a similar stand, hepointed out to Chou En-Iai, "MrPrime Minister, your country is a nu-clear power, mine is not. For thetime being we happen to hold similarviews on this particular matter. Ofcourse this does not mean that Chinaand Tanzania will always adopt thesame policies, and will always have thesame iP'Iiorities of action."

Perhaps Nyerere believes that bytaking such postures the West will notmisunderstand him or, perhaps, hewants to make it clear to the Chinesethat he is not willing to depend toomuch on them. Whatever may be thereasons, it is true that Tanzaniansknow they cannot adopt an extremeanti-West position because it will per-haps create more difficulties for themthan they can manage. Besides, theexample of Ghana is too fresh in theirmind-if Nkrumah's strongly organiz-ed regime could fall as a result of themachinations of subversive forces-external or internal-what guaranteeis there that such forces would notwork against Tanzania? It is easy,as one TAND leader said, to arousepublic anger against the politicians, forthe African people still do not knowwhat is good Or bad for them. Thisis a basic element in African !politicswhich the ex-metropolitan Powershave consistently exploited. How easyit is to start a rumour which turns in-to a riot, to build contact men amongpoliticians through devious channelsand, then, to pull the strings to over-throw a government. It is true that theprocess takes time to mature; butwhat is worth noting here is the factthat whereas it has been possible formoderate African governments to sta-bilise power with Western support,those radical nationalist regimes whichtried to diversify their external, rela-tions without the approval of the Westfaced constantly the threat of politicalinstability. This may show thestrength of the world capitalist systemor, conversely, the weakness of theworld socialist system (is there any?),but what is clear to Tanzania's leadersis that they should try simultaneously

to make their country less don either West or East, capisocialists. It is in this cantheir stress on self-reliancemeaningful. The philosophythe Arusha Declaration may bsummed up as follows :

(a) "It is stupid to rely onas the major instrudevelopment when weonly too well that ouris poor."

(b) It is equally foolishthat "we shall rid ourspoverty through foreigncial assistance."

(c) It is true "we needinvestment" but "howdepend upon gifts, 10investments ... withodangering our indepen

(d) It is a mistake to thOdevelopment beginsdustrialization which,'leads to the neglect of-the mainstay of thenomy.

(e) The emphasis thereforeshift from foreign aidreliance ; from townsages ... " it would beappropriate for us totime in the villages sho .people how to bring avelopment through thefforts, ·rather than goingmany long and exjourneys abroad in scdevelopment money."

(£) All this involves a totalin outlook: applicationtelligence to work;ness to make sacrificcodes of behaviour .private and public life.

The declaration therefore iscut-and-dried formula for Taneconomic progress, it is not evmadly aimed at capitalists and finvestors (although it led to nazation of all banks and keytries), but it reflects Nyerere'sganxiety to build a new leadeboth party and government.kind of leaders should Tanhave? Should leaders occuranks, dictate and govern peaplmake hay while the sun s

SEPTEMBER 21,

WHEN tbe First Congress of tbeSecond International was beld

in Paris in 1889 it demonstrated tbat·Marxism bad become tbe dominantideology of tbe international !proletari-at. However, tbis was the period ofrapidly developing monqpoly capitalismand imperialism. This created a newIphenomenon-the growth of a subs-tantial section of skilled and white-collar workers. These changed condi-tions profoundly affected the working-class movement, which were soon re-flected in the growth of revisionism i~all the social democratic parties led byBernstein, Jaures, Millerand etc.

The development of revisionismcame to a head when in France Miller-and joined a bourgeois coalition minis-try under a bourgeois constitution in1898 against the background of theDreyfus Affair. Marxists had partici-iPated in tbe elections as a part of theirdemocratic struggle and sent their re-presentatives to parliament. They con-sidered these elections and parliamentsas <platforms and as weapons in thehands of the working class to inten-sify theik struggle against their classenemy. \l!,ut a socialist joining a bour-geois coalition government was a diff-erent thing a1together~it meant re-nunciation of class strugg~ In addi-tion, the Millerand ~ase was particu-larly objectionable to workers and allprogressives since one of the leadingmembers of the Cabinet was GeneralGallifot, the princilPal butcher of theCommunards of 1871.

Immediately after MilJerand's entryinto the "united front" Ministry, theGovernment employed its police toshoot down the colonial workers inMartinique as well as the mC!:tropolitanworkers at Chalons (d. Naxalbari) .Millerand's policy of the bourge(;iscoalition ministry was strongly sup-ported by Jean Jaures, leader of oneof the ifiveFrench socialist parties, allof which were affiliated to the SecondInternational. Another socialist leader ,[]

theybe loud-mouthed radicalsn houses or conduct privateto become a newly richIt is this vital question thattriesto answer. It de'fines thatshould serve and not lord it

e people. It is not that capita-plaitsonly the material condi-

itsvaluesinvade even the minds. To check this from happen-

declaration compels leadersrnment and TAND to declaresanal assets; to cut down

alaries and to stop enjoyingthan one source of income.arevery important steps, stepsNkrumah intended to take inous "Dawn Broadcast", buthe failed to. And these deci-avegiven a new dimension to'a's politics. There are peopleearby Arusha, there are othersonderif the ideological debategonetoo far. Who will know?'11decide? PerhaJPs the peopleslowwondering way-by ques-the integrity of their leaders,andingthat the letter and spiritshabe observed in full.aps I have not been able tothe impact of tbe declarationzaniansociety-tbe creation ofte in wbicb even ordinary menomencan participate in tbe

debate that concerns theThis is reflected in tbe beatedon tbe floor of the National

bly; in university discussions,meetingsand local conferencesrulingparty. Popular partici-in a one-party democracy basremaineda myth in Africa ; but

Tanzania will prove different,one has taken sincere steps to

o gripswith tbe manifold prob-of post-independence Africa.myword", said one MP, "Tan-

has not said tbe last word on." I heartily agreed witb

Truly, the journey has just be-

be continued in' October) .

TIER is available fromCHATTERJEEMarketan Office

pur-4

Marxism And Parlia-mentarism-' I

ABDUL GAFAR

Jules Guesde, vehemently opposedMillerand's action. Milleranclism thusbrought about a serious crisis in thesocialist movement both nationally aswell as internationally and became thefirst serious international struggle bet-ween the Right and Left in the Se-cond International. It shook the orga-nisation and threatened to split themovement.

/Naturally, when the Sixtb ~ong-ress of the Second International heldits session in Paris in 1900 the Mille-rand case occupied the centre ofattention. The Congress becamedivided into three groups.

The first resolution, put forward byGuesde, condemned Millerandism inprinciple and demanded that theCongress "allows the proletariat to

. take part in bourgeois elections 'onlyin the form of winning seats on its ownstrength and on the basis of the classstruggle, and it forbids any :participa-tion whatever of socialists in bour-geois governments, towards whichsocialists must take up an attitude ofunbending opposition". Guesde's re-solution was strongly supported byVaillant, an old veteran of the ParisCommune. Another supporter ofthis position was Rosa Luxemburgwho said : "In bourgeois society socialdemocracy, by its very nature, has toplay the p'3rt of an opposition party,it can only come forward as thegoverning party on tbe ruins of thebourgeois State."

As opposed to this resolution.Jaures put forward the Rightist pointof view and stressed it also. as a matterof principle. He claimed that by Mil-lerand's action the socialists hadsaved the Republic from the hands ofthe Royalist reactionaries.. Further,that. by such actions socialists can in-troduce progressive measures andthus gradually transform the wholesociety. "Such a socialist participa-tion in capitalist governments," as-serted Jaures, "is the beginning ofthe socialist revolution."

"Rubber" ResolutionKautsky, who uptil then had gene-

rally taken a stand with the Leftagainst Right opportunism, now tookup a centrist position and in a resolu-

9

tion, which became known as a rubberresolution, he said' that the questionwas not of any principle, but of tac-tics: "The Congress does not haveto decide upon this question"; itshould be left to the decision of theindividual parties.

After thus leaving the door wideopen for all kinds of opportunistic man-oeuvres, Kautsky valiantly proceededto fight the imaginary enemies withradical phrases and said that a social-ist who "becomes a minister inde-pendently of his party, or wheneverhe ceases to be the delegate of thatparty" is a traitor and in such a casehe must resign.

The Left bitterly attacked Kautsky's"rubber" resolution, but the votingwas so manipulated (each countryhad two votes) that it was passed by29 to 9. Lenz, the historian of theSecond International, remarks: "Thiswas the first great defeat for the re-volutionary wing of the Internationa1."

Millerand refused' to resign fromthe bourgeois Cabinet and was even-tually eX!pelled from his party, butfor many years he continued to servethe capitalists as a traitor to the work-ing-class cause.

After the Russian Revolution andthe founding of the Communist Inter-national one of the main tasks beforethe communists was to bring aboutunity among the shattered ranks of theworking class. At the Third Comin-tern Congress in 1921 Lenin formula-ted the United Front policy-an im-rportant policy which was to cover awhole period in the internationalworking-class movement. This unitedfront tactic inevitably brought thequestion of the possibility of an ulti-mate united front government to theforefront. At the 4th CominternCongress in 1922 under the guid-ance of Lenin himself, various formsof popular governments were discuss-ed. The resolution formulated thequestion in the following manner:

"The Communist Internationalmust anticipate the following possibi-lities :

" 1. A Liberal workers' govern-ment, such as existed in Australia andlikely to be formed in Great Britainin the near future.

"2. A social democratic workers'government (Germany).

"3. A workers' and !peasants'government-such possibilities existin the Balkans, in Czechoslovakia etc.

4. "A workers' government inwhich communists (participate.

"5. A real proletarian workers'government, which the CommunistParty alone can embody in a pureform."

Correct RelationshipThe resolutoin further laid down

what should be the relationship of thecommunist parties with such govern-ments:

"The first two types are not revolu-tionary workers' governments, but dis-guised coalitions between the bourge-ois and anti-revolutionary groups.Such workers' governments are tole-rated, at critical moments, by theweakened bourgeoisie, in order todupe the workers as to the true classcharacter of the State, or with the aidof corrupt leaders, to divert the revo-lutionary onslaught of the proletariatand to gain time. The communistscannot take part in such governments.

-On the contrary, they must ruthlesslyexpose their true character to themasses."

Regarding the third and fourth cate-gories, the resolution pointed out thatthey are not proletarian dictatorships,but may be the starting point for thestruggle for such dictatorship. "Onlythe 'workers' government consisting ofcommunists can be the true embodi-ment of the dictatorship of the prole-tariat. "

Since the passing of this resolutionby the 4th Comintern Congress 45years ago much water has flown underthe bridges. Revisionism, which wasfought so .lIard by Lenin as the mainenemy within the working class, hasreappeared in the Marxist movementagain. Initiated and led by Khrush-chevite revisionist leadership of theSoviet Union, the !parliamentary illu-sion of peaceful transition to socialismis being urged again, with disastrousresults to the international workingclass movement.

(To be continue,d in October).

GYAN KAPUR

BARRING unseasonal rainshould spoil the coming

tivities over which last yeara time the threat of defectilllthen Chief Minister, Mr Akherjee, leading to his war·'rations to meet the expecof the people. Events later1lIly proved to be worse thanIdes of November are aagain and the days of thedays may be the last that theof Calcutta and perhaps Wwill enjoy in the atmospheleuneasy tJruce. After thecome the election carrwaignswing-if the elections arered. A-lready there have bedeaths, alleged to be poli'ders. Judging by the terrorlet loose by the CongreMinistry of Dr P. C. Ghoshshould the Congress by anywin, that would be an 0

for settling old scores. SUP win, we can take it thatwill be left unturned by theteresfs to reduce it to impoteis the time, therefore, to takelook at the role of the leftiststion to religion in generalPujas in !particular.

The plain fact is that mostrevolutionaries funk it whenlto fighting religiosity and itsious manifestations. I haveheard from someMarxists that there need nOlsarily be any contradictionreligion and Marxism. As aare given the astonishnig searnest communists, Right,something else, going in forthethread for their sons, gettingto chanting of mantras, arran':riages with proper attentionniceties of caste, taking panthe family religious ceremonies.is a fantastic situation possibleOur country where much thatfor strong feeling and can'only mimicry. The parrot

ry

[n no: Puja

hungon of<\joyike pre:ed wron actfears..proach·Puja hle citi~st Be~re ofPujas~n innot deen viol:ical m. that:ss-baclast y

ly cha?portbould. no stvested:nce.:e a g~sinrand

'st ofit comult'

ve eso-c

ot nebetw

result~ctacleLeft,

be sac

'on behind its voice whether itspraise or abuse.e who believe in revolution

fight all manifestations of reli-But unfortunately that requires

I change in our life which fewprepared to make. This leads toge situations of which the role-minded young men and womenPujas in Calcutta and West Ben-

k the best example.eady the Puja pandals are going

allover Calcutta. From what Iin spite of the economic reces-unemployment and what not,

Pujas this year are not going tos lavish and wasteful than they

Iy are. One thing, however, isorthy this year. There is nonet feverish, familiar activity fortion of subscriptions. In fact,

T this year I have not been ap-hed by even one club for money

advertisement in the so-callednirs. I am quite happy to beed but apparently the money'on as far as the Pujas this yearconcerned is quite easy and then has something to do with the

. g elections.e connection between electionsyoung men's clubs and organiza-in Calcutta and elsewhere inBengal is long and intimate.candidate has to depend on

organizations and they extractprice. The influx of a large

ber of young revolutionaries intoclubs has hardly had any worth-influence on their character.

e, on the other hand, the IPre-g traditions of the clubs have

erted what little ideology theseg men and a few women had be-. The total collections made bythe clubs in West Bengal on ac-t of different pujas will certainlyinto several crores. Out of thisy one decimal point is spent onworthwhile object.am all for the festival side of the. But when so-called revolution-enter the sphere something cliffe-r-

isexpected and not just blind con-'sm in the name of gradualness.is not the language of revolution.ve watched with anger busteeren being driven away from en-

FRONTIER

tering a function organized by a clubwhere practically every second leaderwas a leftist.

The reason for all this is not farto see. Ritual, where it has beenhanded down from generation to gene-,ration, has supreme power and isstronger than dry intelligenceSo far Our [evolution arieshave failed to appreciate thenecessity of building UJP concreteimages before the people. There arenumerous clubs in Calcutta with theirown bands. In spite of leftists beingin these clubs, the only activitiy of thebands is to parade with the immersionprocessions of puja deities. On occa-sions of Durga Puja, Kali Puja orSaraswati Puja, I have seen many ofthe young revolutionaries workinghard to organize and lead the proces-sions, with bands playing. What apity that a similar procession cannotbe arranged on May Day with a fewbands and fireworks or on the occa-sion of the October Revolutio~ or tocelebrate any victory over the Cong-ress. But it is useless to blame theseyoung people. The failure lies else-where, at the top .

~ ~The more I think of it, the more I

am coming to have the opinion thatthe cry for nationalization, given thepresent objective conditions in ourcountry, is doing more harm than goodexcept in a limited sense insofar asthe employees. themselves are con-cerned and even then not always. Tohave an existing Or a new industryin the public sector as it is called andget it adlninistered by dyed-in-the-wool bureaucrats is not my idea ofnationalization. In the event whensuch large undertakings of nationalimportance are handed over to bureau-crats who do not believe in nationa-lisation, the result is a form of Statecapitalism where the administratorsconsider it at best their paternal pro-perty, to be disposed off as they thinkbest. The net result of nationalizationin most such cases is to paint a pic-ture of inefficiency and thus decry so-cialism.

Take Haringhata Milk Supply inCalcutta. Its inefficiency is monu-mental. While it is perpetually short

of milk, only a few years back it wentin for advertising in a big way announ-cing grandiose plans for 31Ppointmentof stockists for its 'Camiss' Butter andGhee. A good deal of money wasspent in this and in printing tins butfate overtook the officials very soon.After that came the famous now-on-now-off scheme of meeting the de-mand by controlling the use ofchhana. The failure of all the effortsis, of course, due to the usual snag.The schemes are drawn by officialswho have divorced themselves fromall meaningful contact with the gene-ral run of people and do not knowwhat they are doing and how it willaffect the people for whom they aredoing it.

The current scheme of removing allcattle from Calcutta by October 15would have been praiseworthy but forthe fact that it suffers from all theusual pitfalls of bureaucrat hatchedschemes. It will be wonderful if itdoes not raise more problems than itsolves.

The whole scheme as announcedseems to be based on some peculiarassumptions. First, there seems inthe official mind no harm in shiftingthe cattle to any other area so long asit is not in Calcutta and Howrah.Obviously, such removal will be onlyinside the Calcutta Metropolitanarea, creating fresh health and sanita-tion problems in areas which are stillless able to meet the threat. Alreadythere are big concentrations of khatalsin areas like Rishra disrupting theusual sanita:ry arrangements and if theremoval is effected, the whole areaaround Calcutta will face the same'PToblem from the influx or cattle. Wemay take it that few of these cattlewill go to Haringhata. If the Govern-ment could not induce the gowalas togo there so long, removal of cattleoutside Calcutta is not going to dothe trick. But then there are thecourts to step in. Or 1P0litics. Last timewhen the UP Minister struck an infor-mal agreement with the khatals for sup-ply of milk, Congress volunteers wentabout asking them not to sUlPply themilk. "Why lose?" they were told. "Itis your tpilk. You do what you like."Already one of the- Ghoshes who pla-

11

gue West Bengal palitics has spakenin favaur 'Ofthe gowalas.

Secandly, from the Milk Cammis-sianer's admissian, it is more thanlikely that the whale scheme will col-lapse thraugh the sheer inability ofthe Haringhata Scheme ta cope withthe wark. Already it has been an-naunced that the capacity of the bat-tling plant is down by 'One third andsupply 'Of battled milk has been res-tricted. It is alsa feared that it mighttake about a month ta restare thebottling capacity ta narmal. Abautincrease in capacity there is nat award. Abaut the speed 'Ofrepairs 'Ofthings needed by the peaple, the Cal-cutta State Transpart is a fair exam-ple with its broken dawn buses ador-ning the' streets. A bus I saw strand-ed recently at abaut 8 in the mamingwas still there at 6 in the evening withthe driver and canductar keepingwatch. It cauld nat even be tawedback to the garage in 14 haurs. ButI am tald this is nathing unusual.Sametimes drivers and canductarshave ta sleep the night thraugh intheir vehicles. So much far natiana-lisatian under unwilling hands.

Lastly, while threatening ta stapthe usual saurce 'Of supply fram kha-tals, the bureaucratic 'Order says thatanyone wha takes even a quarterlitre milk fram Haringhata alreadywill nat be entitled ta get any furtherquantity. As if !people were refus-ing ta take milk fram Haringhata sofar and not the ather way raund!

All tald, supply 'Ofmilk in Calcuttais gaing ta be in sameth~ng 'Ofa messbefare long unless a miracle happens'Or the caurts step in ta maintain thestatus qua. Even if everything gaesaccarding to Gavernment plans, onething is certain. With 'Our peculiargenius ta get araund the law, largenumbers 'Of families will be faund tohave overnight acquired 'One 'Or twa

For FRONTIER readers inWest India can contact

S. D. CHANDAVARKAR10, Kanara HouseMogal Lane. MahimRombay-16

12

caws 'Or buffalaes 'Of which the real'Owners will be the gawalas.

:to :to

It may be the streak 'Of mischiev-ousness in me, but three bits 'Of newscaused me almast unallayed pleasure.If we recall the events 'Of yester-year it is 'Only reasonable ta feelhappy when 'Onefinds same indicatiansthat Frankenstein's monster .is atlast turning an its master. The ille-gal attacks an demacracy and thepeaple are apparently having a chaineffect naw.

It was really delightful ta learnthat in a particular palice statian therewere twa OC's and similarly therewere twa wakf cammissianers in theWest Bengal Gavernment. We cannaw laak farward ta the time whenwe shall have twa Gavernors. Theattack an the Additianal DistrictMagistrate and the abartive 'One anthe District Magistrate in the AlipareCaurt, I would have been inclined tatreat as sheer entertainment. Whaare we ta pass opinians when a hus-band and wife fight? After all, lastyear when the palice and their hiredgoandas gaing by the name of plain-clathes palicemen were beating upinnacent citizens, the Magistracy didnat interfere. Sa, if the palice takeit in their heads to knack down theADM or the DM it is their affair andwe can 'Only stand an the sidelinesand enjay the spart. But things arenever perfect. And' in this case therewere all the paor clyrks and 'Otherswha bore the brunt o~ the policemen'sattack. All I can da is to 'Offerthemth~ consalatian that they have sufferedin a nable cause. Because 'Of themperhaps our magistrates might realizethat the palice are beginning ta cansi-der themselves ta be a law unta them-selves.

:to :to

The junior ta a well known lawyerhad been sent ta the Capital to fightaut a case 'Ofmuch importance, theseniar being unwell. All cancernedawaited eagerly news of the caurt's

. decisian which came at last. Thetelegram read, "Justice has triumph-ed." Without a mament's hesitatianthe seniar wired back, "Appeal imme-diately."

. ,

The Press

Autonomy With'Autonomy

COMMENTATOR

AFTER vaci1l~ting for neyears the Gavernment of

has at last announced its dec"garding the rearganisation ofThe nan-vialent direct actionment launched by the All-PaLeader's Canference a daymight have hastened the anment, for it shawed that the h'pIe were salidly behind thefar an autanamaus State. Butthey have been pramised isState within Assam, a newwhich is expected ta receivectianal sanctian in the winter'Of Parliament. The plan falls'Ofwhat the hill leaders had binised before the general electiit remains ta be seen if it is gbe further watered dawn in theing manths. Evidently, theCangress and the Gavernment~have been able to bully theinta refusing the hill peaple thetance 'Oftheir demand. Thea "resistance mavement' by theCangress under the leadershipChief Minister, Mr B. P.has warked, and the Centre hastically revised its earlier reorgan''plan which incurred the wrathAssam Cangress leaders. Thetre's capitulatian has been soand camplete tha~ it seems thatthing was pre-arranged; that anisatian scheme acceptable toleaders would be leaked out, thAssam Cangress would veheappase it, and that the Centrethen annaunce an anaemicwhich wauld nat affect theempire in Assam. The reactionhill p'eaple was left aut of calin this arrangement; perhapswere taken far granted. Buthave become sullen while theCangress is jubilating. Themay have salved same internal

SEPTEMBER 21,

I~

ing a scheme which reconciles thestatehaad of Assam with autanamyfar the peaple 'Of the hill areas. Themain merit of the scheme lies in theca-ardination devised between theState of Assam and the autanamausState. It is a warkable scheme, andif it succeeds, as it will with sufficientcooperatian, it will be a tribute to thepolitical genius 'Of the Indian peapleand an example 'Of their cap;:tcity tadevise apprO[Priate schemes to meettheir 'just aspiratians". As the m~stcampasite 'Of the States 'Of IndIa,Assam has had prablems with naparallel, and, while all legitima~eclaims ta autonomy shauld be conSI-dered there need be na fear abautwhat 'might happen in ather States ifAssam were rearganised. It has notbeen a mere ethnic problem, linguis-tic problem, or ecanomic prablem:it is many problems in 'One. Therecauld be na doubt that the e stingset-up' 'Of the narth-eastern regian wasoutmaded. The map 'Of Assamas we have knawn it islargely a lP>foduct of British rule, .and adjustments were necessary tamake palitical unity a living thing andnot same deadweight that dependedmerely an the framework 'Of the Con-stitutian. The paper says that theGavernment's aim has been ta recan-cile the aspiratians and interests 'Ofthe peaple inhabiting the hills withthase 'Of the inhabitants of the plainswithin the framework 'Of the security'Of a sensitive barder region. Thescheme is alsa intended ta serve theneeds 'Of development which alane cangive substance ta security. If it iswar ked by all parties and sectians ina spirit of caaperatian and under-standing, it is bound ta succeed andprovide salutians to ather prablems.

13

StrikeThe Government 'Of India has at

last intervened in the newspaper dis-pute, placating the. ,praprietars. Abreakthraugh was passible only if 'One'Of the parties in the dispute hadresiled fram its earlier stand.Sa far as the newspap'er 'Owners arecancerned it was aut of the questian,far their capacity ta hold aut is un-limited. -The majority 'Of them~

RapturesNational Herald, which reserved

its judgment till the official announ-cement, has gone into raptures over"the excellent piece of work" done bythe Union Hame Ministry in devis-

PRON'tIER.

pousible for the present delicate situ a-Llon. It says that if the APHLC hasthought it necessary to start its directaction even before the announcementof the Government's decision, it is pre-sumably because of the suspicion thatNew Delhi might again succumb to thepressure of the Assam Congress. And,if lPast experience be any guide, thehill leaders can hardly be bla)1led forharbouring such misgivings. The sub-federation plan offered by Home Mi-nister Chavan in January last yearwith the tacit approval of Chief Minis-ter Chaliha ended in smoke because ofthe opposition of the Assam PradeshCongress Committee. The latter isnow bent u'P0n setting at naught eventhe Government of India's latest pro-.posal of a autonomous hill State with-III the framework of an integratedset-up for the whole of Assam. Pos-sibly no alternative was left to theAPHLC to launching direct action tocounter ~his pressure in order to keep .the extremists in its own ranks incheck. But there is a danger thatthough the hartal in Shillong was'P'eaceful, the movement may not re-main so for' long. And the extre-mists, whom the APHLC is seekingto keep under control, may ultimate-ly gain the upper hand. Nobody un-derestimates ,the political difficultiesof the Assam Congress which are noless acute than those of the APHLC.But it has to be clearly recognised, atthe same time, that chronic discontentin the highly strategic hill areas mightundermine the security and progressof the entire State. It is, however,obvious that neither the APCC northe APHLC is in a 'Position-in viewof the feelings already worked up inboth the plains and the hill areas-toadopt any public posture which mightbe inteJ.1preted as a climb-down. Ifthat be the case-which it really is-the best way out would be to leavethe decision to the Government ofIndia.

loring that "crude pressure tac-shouldhave been resorted to bysideson the eve of the proposedocement of New Delhi's decisionrganisation of Assam. AmritaPatrika has held the Govern-of India's "hesitant 'Policy" :res-

f the Congress but it has failede the problem 'Of Assam.t of the papers started com-gon the proposai for reorgani-ofAssam without waiting forofficial announcement. Takingcuefrom the attitude of theCongress they thought the planconcede to a large extent thedsof the hill people; they couldaginethat the final plan wouldthe position. Patriot, whichto this category, has taken theCongress to task for makinga fetish of Assam being a bor-te, It says that the proposal

iub-State that has now emergedIhich is reported to have won

ce from Mr Morarji Desai,liasopposed to the idea of re-.ation earlier, is a compromisewillnot damage Assam's basic'!y, The Assam Congress lea-ay have sound statistical or

arguments while setting theiragainst reorganisation. But a

~eycannot ignore is that the hill's leaders have popular support

~e very stability of the borderdepends on the hill people's as-os being met without doing in-

tothe vital interests of the nationwhole, Mr MorarJi Desai was atopposed to reorganisation be-he feared that it might encour-

separatistdemands in other Statestribal populations but he wasally persuaded that stability inborder State is also matter ofaunt importance. The Assamss leaders cannot fail to take

important factor into account.sub-Stateformula meets many ofbjections raised against earlierals of reorganisation. The hill

15 can be persuaded to acceptformula. The Assam leaders

realise that rejecting it willlead t'O instability which theyelves should be anxious to

ATOR

for nearlynment of Iits decisiontion of As:t action m

All-Partya day bethe annaat the hill1 the delte. Butsed is a

new mo:ceive conswinter ses

[an falls shad been1 election,it is gain

n in thethe As

'nment itly the Ce)ple the sThe threatby the Aslership ofP. Ch

Itre hasreorganisawrath of

Theen so q1S that chat a reoIe to theout, that

veheme:;entre woInic scb:he Canaction off calcula:rhapsI. But: the AsThe schternal p

do without the profits from their news-papers; ;perhaps they will not knoweven that they are earning less be-cause at the strike. They derivetheir economic pDwer from elsewhere;the newspapers only add to the poli:'tical power they enjey through theireconomic suzerainty. The weakerparty, as in all labour disputes, is theemployees, the majority ef whomhad not got their salaries for the lasttwo months. Even the salaries ferthe twenty two. days they had workedin July remain unpaid in many cases.

'1hc elIltP10yees had practicallyrcachcd the end of their tether, andvoices of criticism Df their all-Indialeaders were no longer muffled. Frus-tration was widespread, and it is clearthat the employees had net bargainedfor such a prolonged strife. The strikewas launched on the basis of certainassumptions all of which wentwrong; not the least of these was thatthe Government would exercise itsinfluence on the side of the employees.The Labour Minister who frequentlyrDared in Parliament in the beginningwas suddenly struck dumb bywho knews what. Had he not com-mended the "reasonable" attitude efthe employees and promised interven-tion should bipartite negotiations fail,the discussions weuld have perhapstaken a different turn. If the employ-ces' representatives took a rigid stand,as some are saying now, it was largelybecause they were assured that theGovernment was with them. NDtonly has not this support been extend-ed, but the Government seemed to.have decided to help in the prolonga-tion of the strike by agreeing to releaseadvance quotas of newsprint to thepapers that were publishing. This didprevent public clamour for a quicksettlement of the dispute. By its in-action the Government has harmednet the employees alone; it has alsoharmed itself for it has been prDvedthat the Government is Ipowerlessagainst the monoJ)olists who own thebigger newspapers. The damage couldhave been partially tft1Puiredif the Gov-ernment had kept its plighted wordand made the wage board recommen-dations for non-journalists statutDry.

14

Book Re~iew

Up and Down the LadderRAJINDER PAUL

SOME human beings have known itfor long that they are not children

of Ged or that their great-great-greatgrandfathers had begot them after be-ing kicked out from Eden. But veryfew wDuld like to settle down withthe fact that a step lower to us in the'process of evolution is the horriblelooking thing called chiI1liP'anzee. Eu-genists should devote some of theirgratuitous zeal to their neglected cou-sins.

Dr DespDnd Morris1 makes nobones about man's kinship to thechimpanzee. In fact, his mainthesis is to puncture whathe calls man's 'spiritual superior-ity', and make him understand hisbiolDgical lineage, his fortunate evolu-tion, so that in the process, by lookingat the basic behavioural traits ofother animals, he would be able tocurb and thus sublimate his unsocialdesires.

Dr Mor,ris begins his excellent (andentertaining) book with the most dir-ect statement: 'There are one hun-<¥ed and ninety-three living speciesof monkeys and apes. One hundredand ninety-two of them are coveredwith hair. The exct1Ption is a nakedape self-named Homo Sapiens. Thisunusual and highly successful s,peciesspends a great deal of time examininghis higher motives and an equalamount ef time s~udiously' ignoringbis fundamental ones. He is proudthat be bas tbe biggest brain of allthe primates but attempts to. concealthe fact that he also has tbe biggestpenis ... , I am a zoologist and thenaked ape is an animal. . in acquiringlofty new mDtives, be has lost none ofthe earthly old ones .. "

Dr Morris then goes on, in the chap-ters on Sex, Rearing, Fighting, Com-fert, to show the basic sameness ofhabits of the hairy and the naked ape.And with this kinship comes the re-velation that though we might bethinking ourselves evolved, the innate

animalism .has remained int'hunting nature' of the nakedlpite the family units, hasitself a little transformed. Heprogressed f.rom, let us say,grounds' to 'place of business'what the modern man showsin promoting his business isbut his unavoidable aggressivacquiring 'food' and 'territoageold animal imperatives.

The book is full of interes'lights, and is a tremendous reMy line in this particular writo link what Dr Morris, andKonrad Lorenz in his book,gression2, and more recently,Storr show in his book, Humanssion3•

Besides the innocuous little 'ment activities which we into evercome our inherited agness by lighting a cigarette ofthe specs or glancing at thewatch, we are capable, as weonly demonstrated recently, of'ing in mass extermination.we exonerate ourselves withphemistic excuse 'it's humanWe also tell ourselves and ourbours that we are rational,human beings, with a historyofizatien, and that our massivestructure of technology andmade wonders are a symbolrational achievements.

No. doubt, we have a lot toabout. But there~s a lot on theside of the cashbook, whichthat we have already overdra'reason' in nature. As Drsays in the Chapter, Ecce Homif an unbiased visitor were tohuman beings and occurrencess'migration of peoples, wars, andgreat historical events', 'henever gain the impression thatbehaviour was dictated by intel'still less by responsible morality',know man has not learned anfrom history, or the two ghastlyto be more particular. He .governed by his carnivorous iHis social organization is veryto that Qf rats, which are socipeaceful beings within their c1veritable devils toward all comAnd with the rising population,

SEPTEMBER 21,

j intact.laked a:pe,has only

I. He has; say, 'huusiness'.shows thr~ess is nogressivene'territory'ves.nteresting[ous revelaJar write-u, and what)ook, Oncently, AnHuman A

little dispwe indulg,ted aggresette of de,at the~, as wently, of in!ation. M; with the!lUman naand our njonal, thilistory ofmassive su;y andsymbol of

, lot to pea,ot on thewhich tells

overdrawnAs Dr Lacce Homo,were to dilrrences sulars, and s',ts', 'heion that hby intelligmorality',

earned' an10 ghastly

He i{Orous ins

is very siare social

their clan,all comm

opulation, d

t of deadlier weapons and the'ticalcaIIliPs, the analogy canered"to that of several hostile

ofrats on a ship almost devoid"Though,rats are more intelli-thatthey auomatically stoiP re-, g when they observe ,ove.r-g. And, again, even after ratsughtered on a whole scale,

asubstantialporion will be left. uethe race. With our brain-thehydrogen bomb, we have

properlyfixed our future.

'. RageMorrisputs it very cogently: 'It

that the most level-headed in-Is frequently become violent-essivewhen discussing the ur-

Deedto suppress aggression (re-r Spinoza, engaged in writingyon 'peace', flying into a rage

hefound his coffee two minutesThis is not surprising. 'Weput it middly, in a mess, and

~ a strong chance that we shallexterminated ourselves by thethecentury. Our only conso-

willhave to be that, as a species,ehad'an,exciting term of office'.dangersof self-exterminationre in man than in other ani-

owingto the peculiar aggressiveciesthat we have acquired asessarybye-products of sociocul-

evolution,ideological fixedness,us fanatitism, and the trial ofventiveskill at artificial weapons,theneed to have belief in ourof thinking. In fact, as Drsays, 'all the great dangers

ninghumanity with extinctionectconsequences of conception-ught and verbal speech.

drove him even outtheparadise in which he

follow his instinct with im-anddo or not do whatever he'. Knowledge springing fromtional thought robbed man ofurityprovided by his well-d instinct.. ' Like other evol-ercisesof the naked ape's brain,ilityto think is also a mixedg. And, iperhaps, for the same

Becket's Vladimir says in: 'Where are all these corpsesWemust have thought a little'.

FRONTIER

Though it is one of the greatest giftsof mankind, our instinct and animalinheritance have failed to cope withpure reason, and as we are experien-cing today with the toys of science,our instincts are having the better ofus in leading our fingers to the trig-ger and button. 'Prometheus wholearned to :preserve fire, used it toroast his brothers'.

Violence in today's society is thedirect product of the undeveloped fac-ulty of cool reasoning. Its ,suddeneruptions that we have seen in, let ussay, the death of Gandhi, Kennedy,or Luther King, have given man causeto reconsider his graph of evolution.Even as we overlook that those mur-ders were :political, we cannot forgetthe Kansas murders in cold blood orthe death of six ho;;pital nurses by aman who had listened' to someonementioning 'murder' a few minutesago. Just like that, for the heck ofit. In fact,' killing has be,come soeasy that the modem man, bored withsports, indulges in the pastimeof killing. I remember having beenhordlied by a recent film called TheTenth Victim set in the twenty-firstcentury, in which after the tenth suc-cessful victim the sportsman is entitl-ed to a gold medal. Modern litera-ture, ,particularly drama, which is byits very nature avant-garde, has givenan appropriate name to one of itstrends-The Theatre of Cruelty-which bases itself on the primitiveinstinots of man, as )propagated byArtaud. One is also aware of ClaudeVan Itallie's American Hurrah inwhich two life-size puppets indulge inseemingly aimless destruction ofmotel prOiperty or Feiffer's Little Mur-,derJ ,in which ,the ,guy just shootsfrom his home-window at people in thestreet, or the cruelty in Peter Brook'sstaging of Marat / Sade and his recentSeneca's Oedipus, Sor Marowitz Ham-let, and Edward Bond's Saved in whicha sick child is stoned to d'eath. Onecan go iprolonging the list. Thereare various other manifestations ofmodern forms of aggression, of courseon TV, in the cinema, in car-driving,in sexual perversion, in falling aparttrom the sobering influences of ex-tended families, and in the optimum

apotheosis of the self in every walk oflife.

The question that confronts us is:Are we going to survive our killingrinstincts? {Only the naked a;pekills his fellow-beings-no other spe-cies does so). Wnat is Our future?Do we really want to liye--or are wejust going to be victims of what dearFreud called the detah-wish?

Dr Lorenz is less pessimistic thanDr Morris, having, shall one say, lessof the journalistic streak in him, inproviding the last Chapter 'The Avo-wal of Optimism' in which .he says allis not lost. We egotistically want tooverlook the fact that our present stateis not the optimum stage of evolutionof the naked aJle. We may and per-haps we will wriggle out of our self-inflicted bogeys, dogmas and chaos.As it is, there are various ways toreduce the aggression: by expendingsuch force on innocuous objects (hit-ting empty cardboard boxes), by sub-limating it into creative channels, asalso by promoting personal relation-ship between individuals of opposedideologies.

Over-crowdingBut the greatelit incentive to ag-

gression, as one knows, comes fromover-orowding. We are breeding likehell. 'At the end of the seventeenthcentury the world' population of nakedapes was only 500 million. It is now.. 3000 million .. In 260 years' time.. there will be 400,000 million nakedapes crowding the face of the earth.This gives a !figure of 11,000 indivi-duals to every square mile of theentire land surface.. So family plan-ning (it has strange connotation inIndia), Mr S,torr puts it unambiguous-ly, must be effected' immediately if wemean to survive. He also mentionsother palliatives to lessen aggression-like the system of democracy whereyou have the prerogative to unleashonly 'the dogs of war' through themouth. One must also, as they arethinking of doing it in America, makedifficult the iPfocurement of fire-arms,killer's knife; and other such gadgets.And! oonsequently make the violence-provoking novels, TV shows, films,by mutua1 consent, into rarities. We

lj

16

If a wrong thing produces aresult we should think twicewe condemn the wrongdoer ouThe world as it is, between twowe need to accept the lesserAnd the Czechs, willy-nilly,have to accept it. Russia hasswallowed a bitter pill-war!disapprobation of her action

SEPTEMBER 21,

nist Party news,paper Rude p~port the idea of choice betwral independent political pa

The poll of 38,000 readers50% to 607'0 of the partyconsider that socialist dembe guaranteed through a illsystem."

The Statesman, JuneSo the situation went well

hand and the first task wasit under control. ThOse whothe Soviet Union for this detof socialist values in Czechare correct, but they forgetturmoil in Hungary was alsothe Soviet Union as a direct'destalinisation and the 20thof the CPSU, the mother ofrevisionism, and yet we sthe Soviet Union in that criti

The sovereignty of any CoParty is sacred, also the soof any country. But the SOy

of the socialist system is muchsacred, and whenever there is abetween the two, a communistchoose the latter. There is ative difference between rev'.and reversionism, though theis the cause and the latter theRevisionism is a disease but theis there that it can be cured if ptreated, but reversionism is deathindicates the end of a process.Soviet Union as a "revisionist"has fought reversionism in Cvakia we should at least utcheers for it, one for puttingmediate positive check, anohighlighting the whole issue ofsionism by provoking a new dethe issue, but the third shouldbereserved for the day when thecause will be removed throughideological treatment.

ARUN KUMARSindri, D

Czechoslovakia

Letters

(Free for Subscribers.)As the Press will beClosed during thePuja Holidays

the subsequent issueof Frontier

will appear onOctober 19

I. The Naked Ape by DesmondMorris; Jonathan Ca;pe. 30s.

2. On Aggre-ssion by Konrad Lo-renz; Bantam Books. $1.25.

3. Human Aggression by AntonyStorr; Allan Lane, The Penguin Press.25s.

must display qot only camouflage me-thods, but a genuine 'moral responsi-bility'. There's nothing bad Or oldfashioned about the word 'moral res-iPonsibility', as the new generations ofwriters and public bent on appropriat-ing all claims to irresponsibility wouldlet us believe. It is man's special giftand it can save several wars, manyunnecessary interventions and muchconfusion.

Dr Morris thinks 'if we don't re-cognise ourselves and our biologicalways, Our animal nature, if we do notimprove in quality rather than inquantity', 'our suppressed bIologicalurges will build UtP and till the dambursts and the whole of our elaborateexistence is swept away in the flood'.Shall we? After all, of all the 193species, only the naked ape has thegift of laughter.

When the Soviet intervention inCzechoslovakia should be taken asan unpleasant yet u.navoidable "posi-tive check" to the fast "witheringaway" of the socialist system andall progressive forces should resolute-ly suwort the action at this criticaljuncture, it is surprising that a maga-zine of Frontier's status -should bein competition with the reactionaryPress in condemning it as naked im-iPerialist aggression to divide the worldbetween the two super-Powers. Itappears that a section of our "pro-gressives" have been trying to equatethe Soviet Union and the USA asequally dangerous iIlljperialist Powers,and this intervention has suppliedthem the long awaited data to "prove"their thesis. Today the East Wind andWest Wind are blowing together-listen to the Voice of America andRadio Peking, and we have the uni-que orurortunity to observe the Penta-gon-Peking axis against Moscow.

Those who slander the Soviet movein Czechoslovakia supported the same

. in Hungary more than a decade ago.The Special Number In a broadcast on the development of

o ideological differences with Moscow,Of FrontIer Radio Peking said that the Commu-

°l' b S b nist Party of China had advised theWz, II e out on eptem er Soviet Union to intervene in Hungary

when the latter had been vacillating.24 or 250 Today the situation in Czechoslovakia

POOR is no less dangerous but only the atti-nce ne upee. tude to the Soviet Union has under-

gone a change, and to DiP'posetheSoviet Union in everything has be-come a part and parcel of the generalline of the communist movement forsome people. In Hungary it was onlythe assault of the small landholders'association with the heLp of outsideagents, but here the infiltration of theanti-socialist forces has taken placewithin the Communist Party itself,with the strength to stage a peacefultransition to capitalism, giving even anopen call for a "multi-party system".

"Prague, June 29: More than90% of non-communists polled in asurvey by the Czechoslovak Commu-

FRONTIER

<1'1"11"i.S'10I<1' ~?fT@j 11 ~~-

<!G'!'t 11 <!1~<:'I'm011<1""1,1)1)'1 11

~ 1800~

~~~~ma

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~~

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11 '!lb<\t~~b' 11

~ ~~ ~ ~Qlfu r<n<r \l~~~~ryn~~~-?fl:fmT \l ~ ~1~~I'i~~ ~ ~-"!T~ ~~?fT~m[ \l ~ IQ~ ~~'if ~ ~

.~ ~ \l '5f~ 'mn~~~ \l ~~ '8 l!l~ 0I1';<1~1<11'1

~ "1l<P \l 011<1/:>1<11'1'8 m~ ~"H1~ ~ \l 011<1""1<11'1 '8 ~ ~

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~ ~ ?;~ 'JfI'i1TG'! \l ~ m~ '8~111"1G~Go1"f'T ~ 'Ni~~ ~"'t 11~ ~ ~~'if ~ ~ iSl"!-~~ 11 'm<ll~ ~ns<1T ~ ?:'f<l't~DClfr?fTl:fmTII 'm<I'~Tq '8 T<FC'f<l~ '5f1mr-~9' ~ \l ~ '8 '5fT~

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:J"iG~';G:J'; I~ 11 ml:JK! <mT~ ~ ~i5<f 11 <fl"'l< m~ '{3 1'T~ ~ ~OIG"1·'1.

~ \l ~ '8 <!'Wf<m~ ~ ~@j,,!If[''f~rJ \l <fl01' ml;~'Sf ~ ~ ~~~-~ 11 ~l«~nl'f '8 mlf' ~~~ ~ ~ 11 'l!l~ <lW~]'

, ~~'if ~ If'IT;'>\5i'ff<!~i'\fT[?f1l:lffiL11 2fl1)l' '{3~~'8~~~

~\\

They did nat stap there. Mr Sun-daraiyya begged Nanda to. allaw themto. act as a legal party and functianapenly and made no. secret af theirapathy, if -not allergy, tawards armedstruggle (Sundaraiyya answers Nanda(People's Democracy September 19,1965). Mr E.M.S . .Nambaadi'ripad'went further and even abliterated thesuperficial differences with the Dan-geites an this. scare [vide page 74,The Programme explained - E.M.S.Nambaadiripad] .

I think Mr Sen Gupta will naw agreewith Lenin that when the ,praletariat'sright to. revalutian was saId far a messaf pattage-organisatians permittedby the present police law-the time isripe far beginning the building af a[evolutionary organisatian. "But itcan be begun anly aver the heads afthe aId leaders, the srranglers af re-valutianary energy, aver the heads afthe aId parJY, thraugh its destructian".

A student of Marxism

af the rapid change af the strengthbetween the farces af warld sacialismand im'perialism in favaur af sacial-ism, in view af the restricted passibi-lities (sic!) far the expart 0f counter-revalutian by the imperialist States,and in view af the ever ex.panding ideasaf sacialism gripping wider sectiansaf the people, it is expected that allthis wauld greatly restrain the rulingclasses fram resarting to. the adven-tures af violence, and in some caun-tries at least certain passibilities havearisen far such a peaceful Ipath to. beexplared and utilized by the commu-nists af thase countries. It is exact-ly an the basis af this new assessmentthat we have intraduced this new can-cept af peaceful transitian to. socialismin aur 'party pragramme. The far-mulatian af this cancept as well asthe general warning against the dan-ger of vialence usually unleashed bythe ruling classes, is exactly similar to.the ane put farth in the pragrammeaf the Dangeites. Then where daesthe questian af aur oppasitian to.. the"new arientatian" and same atherssupparting it arise? It is an autrightslander" (People's Democracy, Janu-ary 30, 1966).

"The Same Path"Chayan Sen Gupta's rejaindert 31) to. "Anather Reader's"

of August 10 reveals that heliving in a warld af dreams.CPM leaders speak far them-In his letter to. Mr Nand'a,

en Home Minister, Mr M.niah, a member af the palit-

bewailed that thaugh sectiantheir pragramme dealing with

th of transitian is almast theas sectians 99 and 112 af the'tes' pragramme adapted iny and thaugh "the same phras-ost akin passages are faund inthe pragrammes, Nanda chasead the base, slander that the

'ts" were advacating the pathence, I hape Mr Sen Gupta

ive me for quating at lengthasavpunniah's letter to. Nanda:e as Nanda states, that theren a new arientatian in thecommunist mavement, an this

and the same is incarporatedMoscow Declaratian af 1957,

oscowIStatement af 81 partiesand such ather dacuments.

theearlier rare and exceptianal'ties of the peaceful transitiansocialist revalutian, new addi-

possibilities af it in same caun-ve been visualized under therid canditians that are abtain-y. The rea sans given far thisare the following: In view'

apunishment she deserves. But'ty demands that while anes her actian, ane shauld natappreciate the salutary effectces, The Czech peaple, I be-

willaru>reciate it befare lang, of course, all af socialismbeen last there already. The

affairis also. very likely to. pra-seriousthinking far the earliertionof revisianism in ather so.-areas, including Russia. Cam-need also. be iPragmatic and ifreally so. they won~t decry the

matter as just "Praguematic". 4

AMITAVA BANERJICa1cutta-47.

1968 17

Mr Sumanta Banerjee's "Commu-nists and the Third World" (Septem-ber 7) is not convincing. We shalldeal mainly with his comment on AnnaLouise Strong. However, in passingwe cannot but note Mr Banerjees' im-plicit view that polemics are by andlarge antagonistic to action. Whentheory and practice do not move to-gether, terminology and polemics tendto become rigid. But Mr Banerjeeshould know that one of the distin-guishing characteristics of a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary movement is itsemphasis on • theoretical clarity andgras.p of existing conditions. .AnnaLouise Strong's criticisms fall into thiscategory and are not hairsplitting bya party which has bypassed the appli-cation of :principles in its active pro-paganda.

Anna Louise Strong never oriticisedthe :Peoples Revolutionary Party ofVietnam for trying to consolidate theFront in its fight against the U.S. Whatshe attempted to do was to point outcertain defects in the Front's recentlypublished Political Programme, whichshows a tendency towards revisionismand which might in the future create

18

trouble for the Front. She pointed outthat a communist party fighting a warof liberation against foreign aggression\must unde!rstand ·the dialectics andcontradictions of such a union so asto bring about the victory of socialismin that country. The slogan "twointo one" often raised by supportersof common fronts is a wrong one. Inany unity of opposites the forces main-tain their respective characteristicsand cannot form a union in the sensethat two become one, that is, theircontradiotion does not disappear informing their front.

In Vietnam today there are twotypes of contradictions: the first isbetween the foreign aggressor and thenational forces. The second is be-tweein various social classes withinVietnam itself. The fi·rst contradic-tion is the principal contradiction thatfaces a national liberation movementand here it is always possible to forgea common front against the invader.Nevertheless no party built on Marxist-Leninist tp'rincip1es can ignore thesecond contradiction, i.e., contradic-tion between opposite classes in socie-ty. Not only is the second contradictionvital for the establishment of socialismin the country but also, as victory be-comes certain on the battlefield, itis sure to become the primary one.The Political Programme of the NLFdoes ndt, however, show that it hasbeen able to awreciate these implica-tions (though it does include such aslogan as land to the tiJIer).

Therefore the only debatable pointin the whole issue is whether the timeis ripe or not for the Front to initiate'internal class struggle disregarding thelimited Programme of the Front. Here,no doubt, data can be gathered foreither viewpoint. But if the pro-nouncement of th'e North Vietnameserepresentative in Peking is any guide(he said in an interview that the NLFcontrols two-thirds of the total landin South Vietnam), then it wouldseem reasonable that this is the mo-ment to emphasise the second' contra-diction.

READERSCalcutta

While the commissionIiset up by the Governmenis investigating the wholeisecurity in foreign oil comBurmah-Shell managementolared its dedsion toclerks and 235 labour taftcutta.

The oil workers metMinister in Calcutta on Septea deputation and' asked for'Government ,action to stoptrenchment. But will theact? Will the Union Labourter repeat his helplessnessinof this direct threat fromtheoil monopolists which throwsployees out on the road, iimportance of a commisioned by the Government itself}

On the labour front wefindployers flouting the decisionernment-appointed bodiesanother. The newspa,peredeliberate act in flouting ~Board's decision has draggedpaper workmen into a coustrike. Will the Governmesi~ilar latitude to the foremonopolists ?

If the laws of the land dotect the workers from the onsltheir employers, the formerlittle choice but to comeoutously to establish their ownritheir own protection.

Since the Indian Oil Cocame in the market, the fomonopolists have been up a,The emergence of the JOe isa pretext by the foreign oil coto retrench 350 workmen.tion is made about computeand contract labour systemwat the root of this retrenchmentautomation government policy'roughly reactionary. Aboutthetract labour system, the governiPledged to bring legislation.bbody knows when it willcomewhat will be its fate.

S. S.Joint

Petroleum Workers'

ASS~

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10 GOVT. PLACE EAST,

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September 21,

YOUR GUARANTEE

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IlIAD! MARK~PERMlmO USfR-TH! OENfRII HECTllIC COIIl'l/IT(1I/tD1A MilAn 1I111Tl1l

THE GENERAL ELECTRIC COMPANY OF INDIA PRIYATE LIMITED.CALCUTTA' GAUHATI' BHUBANESHWAR • PATNA' KANPUR . NEW DELHICHANDIGARH . JAIPUR . BOMGAY . AHMEDABAD' NAGPUR . MADRAS

COIMBATORE . BANGALORE . SECUNDERABAD • ERNAKULAM.

India's poverty is paradoxical. Here, too many people toil to wrest a living from the earth, but the earthyields far too little. Embarrassed by the richness of resources and the poverty of means to exploit them,India produces. not enough food to feed all of its population.Only large-scale mechanized farming coupled with intensive rural electrification can get the country perma·nently out oflhis rut. Rural electrification on a wide scale can bring power to our farmers and help themgrow more food, and attain a new prosperity.GEC have been playing a key role in making the country's rural electrification programme a success. GEe'svast reservoir of technical know-how and resources are directed to improve continually all GEC equipmentthat are essential to cope with the increasing problems of ·power distribution and utilisation in rural areas.During these years. GEC have been called, many times, to participate in the vital nation-building projects thatare helping to change the face of rurallndia-.projects that iriclude the Bhakra Nangal and the Hirakud Dam••GEC have also played a leading role in successfully implementing the programme of village electrification.GEC have supplied a large number of transformers, motors, switchgear and pumpsets to help make the'Grow More Food' campaign a success.In all these developments one faetor remains unchanged-the GEC quality. Installed at India's farms, GEequality products are helping to bring the country closer to agricultural self-sufficiency and farm prosperity.No wonder, they have become the most trusted weapons in the country's fight against hunger.

Regd. C 2026