CHARU MAZUMDAR
This article, originally in Bengali, was written by Charu Majumdar only about five before his arrest.
The translation is ours.
We have suffered a setback after the armed struggle in our country reached a certain stage. It is our task now to preserve the Party. In order to preserve it we have to build the Party among the broad masses of workers and peasants. We shall be able to get over the setback and raise the struggle to a stage higher than before, if we can build a politically united party. I hope we shall be able to do this within a short time.
Chairman has said that there is still the possibility of a world war. Imperialism and social-imperialism are today enmeshed in various crises at home and abroad. Because of the political and economic crises, they are at their wits’ end. To capture each other’s market and expand their own they now resort to different underhand means and, as a result, the contradictions among them are becoming sharp. They seek to shift the burden of their own crises on to the underdeveloped and undeveloped countries. That is why those countries too are today assuming a role of opposition to the two superpowers — US imperialism and Soviet social-imperialism. In their vain efforts to escape from the crises they may start a world war. In the beginning we shall, indeed, have to face difficulty, if a world war begins. But that difficulty will not be there for long. A vast, widespread, revolutionary upsurge will bring our victory near.
Within a short time there will be a spontaneous outburst in our country and this will take the form of a national uprising. Our India is a vast country. The people of this country are groaning under exploitation and oppression. Gradually these two camps — the exploiters and the exploited — are moving towards a confrontation.
Discontent is smouldering among the exploited people. They will refuse to submit to oppression for a long time. There will be spontaneous outbursts of the people’s resentment in different places. When the resentment of the people of this vast country will explode, no reactionary government will be powerful enough to put it down. That is why the fall of the reactionary government is inevitable. So the reactionary Indira government has been trying to build up a strong Centre, for they can anticipate the future awaiting them. This vast country has many problems. Moreover, they have created another problem— ‘Bangladesh’. Tamil Nadu has already raised the demand for autonomy. The vast land between Bihar and Gujarat is inhabited by adivasis. There is no limit to the exploitation of the adivasi masses. The workers in the industrial areas of Maharashtra are victims of severe exploitation. Terrible is the exploitation of the peasantry of Mysore; the same is true of the other regions in the south. One cannot calculate and predict beforehand when the unrest among the oppressed people of our country will find its expression and in what form. Chairman has said that in the next 50 to 100 years there will occur many events which were inconceivable before. In our country, too, such events as cannot be conceived of beforehand will take place.
On the other hand, the heroic people of Vietnam are providing courage and inspiration to the people of the entire world. They are waging a struggle that has no parallel. If Vietnam is liberated, fire will blaze up throughout South-east Asia. With Vietnam as the central issue, the governments of Asian, African and Latin American countries, together with those of other countries, are clamouring against US imperialism. Besides, they have established relations with Socialist China, the great citadel of world revolution. In our country the Nagas and the Mizos were waging entirely national struggles to realize their demand for separate states, but they forged relations with China when they observed the struggle of the heroic people of Vietnam.
An upsurge is coming — a country-wide upsurge. We must keep this upsurge in view. Only then shall we have confidence in ourselves. In days before, we witnessed upsurge in one or two districts. The upsurge that is coming will spread over a far wider area and will attain a still higher stage than in the past. One should bear in mind that the advance of struggle is not evolutionary but revolutionary. Our country will not be liberated even by the year 2001, what to speak of 1975, if we take into consideration only the pace in which the struggle led by our Party is advancing. It is because the progress and development of struggle is revolutionary that the upsurge which occurred in a small area yesterday will not remain confined within that area and that the struggle will attain greater intensity and reach a higher stage in the coming days than before.
Is it possible for us to lead everywhere the coming upsurge? Certainly not. The struggle in those areas where it will be led by our Party’s conscious leadership will set an example to the struggles in other areas where there will be no such leadership. If, today, we can implement agrarian reforms in some areas, these may take place spontaneously in many other areas during the revolutionary upsurge. Our conscious leadership will bring about an armed revolutionary upsurge and through this armed revolutionary upsurge our leadership will gradually be established everywhere.
It is our duty today to carry forward the work of building the Party among the basic masses and set up a joint front with the broadest sections of the people on the basis of struggle. It is possible to build the broadest joint front against Congress rule. Today the “leftist” parties refuse to provide leadership to the common people in the struggle against the oppression the Congress perpetrates on them. The worker-peasant masses who are within the folds of those parties feel resentment against their leadership. We have to carry on efforts to unite with them on the basis of united struggle. Even those who once acted as our enemies will come forward in special circumstances to unite with us. We must have the largeness of mind to unite with such forces. Largeness of mind is a quality of the Communists. Today, it is the people’s interest that demands united struggle. It is the people’s interest that is the Party’s interest.
