Mohit Sen--some moments from history

 

Excerpts from

A Traveller And The Road—

The Journey Of An Indian Communist

By Mohit Sen

"CPI's first blunder"

We were all Communists at a difficult time for the Communist Party. This was the period in the party's history when it opposed the Quit India movement, when it characterised the war as a people's war, participating in which was the best way for India to fight for its freedom. In theory, this didn't mean that the fight for our own freedom should be postponed so that the freedom of the Soviet Union could be preserved and for which the latter's alliance with British Imperialism was indispensable. In theory, the people's war line could be presented as a line of struggle for freedom superior to that of the Quit India movement.... In practice, it was the Quit India movement that was opposed. Subhas Chandra Bose was shown in cartoons as the pet dog of the Japanese, Jayaprakash, Aruna Asaf Ali and others were assailed as being the fifth column of the Japanese.... Bose's strategy of uniting with the enemy of our enemy was not just criticised but his patriotism itself questioned and assailed.... By the mid-1950s the CPI, however, came to the conclusion that its people's war line was erroneous and its abuse of Subhas Chandra Bose, Jayaprakash and other leaders was thoroughly wrong. As for the Soviet Union needing the CPI's support, Stalin is reported to have told the CPI delegation in 1950 that his country could have done without it and the CPI should have looked after itself. There is no doubt, however, that the CPI did what it did because of its belief that priority had to be given to support to the Soviet Union for the sake of Communism and Indian freedom even if it meant swimming against the national current.

"Gandhi blessed armed brigade"

Gandhi's presence in Calcutta and his fast did help to control passions. But with all due reverence, I would like to add that it did not do as much as official mythology makes out. The killers and their supporters had tired after it became clear that it was a drawn battle and that the new national secular state would not hesitate to act against the rioters and killers irrespective of their community.... Many stories have been told of armed gangs laying down their weapons before Gandhi. Professor Nirmal Kumar Bose, one of the pioneering anthropologists of our country, was his personal secretary at the time of the Calcutta killings. He later compiled a selection of the Mahatma's writings that still remains indispensable reading for those who wish to understand the great man. We met in 1969 at the Gandhi Centenary Seminar organised by the Institute of Advanced Studies in Simla. In the course of his address to the seminar, he told the story of a group of armed youth who came to where Mahatma Gandhi was staying to seek his blessings not by laying down arms but for using them against the mobs of looters, rapists and killers no matter which community they belonged to. They were all Hindus. Professor Bose was pleading with them to allow Gandhi to rest and not give him more pain than what he was already suffering when the great man himself came out to ask what the matter was. On being told what the youth wanted, he startled Professor Bose by blessing the young men and asking them to be as true to their vow as he was trying to be to his.

"Communist sympathies with China during war"

An influential section of the CPI leadership headed by Sundarayya did not accept that the Chinese Party was wrong. Sundarayya came armed with maps and archival material to prove that the territorial claims of China had a valid basis. He, of course, also harped on the theme that the Chinese Communists would never commit aggression while the bourgeois Indian government could do so to curry favour with the imperialists. Whatever be the consequences, the CPI as a Communist Party should stand with the Chinese Communists as this was its proletarian internationalist duty.In any event there was no question of lining up behind Nehru who headed a reactionary government that the CPI had always opposed and was pledged to overthrow. There should be no surrender to revisionist bourgeois nationalism as represented by Dange. He was supported among others by B.T. Ranadive, M. Basavapunnaiah, Promode Dasgupta, Harkishen Singh Surjeet, C.H. Kanaran and some others.

"And after"

...In the meantime, the press conference had begun and E.M.S. was asked whether he thought the Chinese had committed aggression. He said the Chinese had entered territory they thought was theirs and hence there was no question of aggression as far as they were concerned. At the same time, the Indians were defending territory they considered theirs and so they were not committing aggression either. Just then Dange walked in and sarcastically asked, 'And what is your opinion about the territory in question?' Even as E.M.S. fumbled for a reply, Dange stated that the Chinese had attacked India, occupied Indian territory and that the Communists supported Nehru's call to the nation to defend itself and repel the Chinese forces. He said the Chinese Communists had violated all the norms of proletarian internationalism, acted chauvinistically and broken its pledge to the world Communist movement that it would never cross the McMahon Line. His statement created a sensation but it was much more than that. The CPI had at long last taken a stand in support of the nation. The disastrous error of opposing the 1942 Quit India struggle on the ground that the defence of the Soviet Union had to be given prior and paramount importance was compensated for to a considerable extent. It's not that Communists were, or are not, patriotic. They have fought, suffered and sacrificed for the people of India and would do so again. But they often separated the people from the nation and even pitted the former against the latter.... Nehru argued at some length about the failure of the Left, especially the Communists, to properly understand India and to speak in a language that would be understood by the common people. By language he meant that which was in tune with the traditions and idiom of the people. This came in the way of their progress. Of course, he said, this did not apply to everybody of the Left, including the Communists, but was largely true. It also did not mean that the Left and the Communists had not made significant contributions to the national movement....

"When Nehru died CPI didn't care"

When Nehru died, I was in Hyderabad. Walking through the streets in different parts of the city, I could sense the spontaneous and tangible grief of the people. There was also a sense of bewilderment, of not knowing how exactly to express this grief and what to do about it. Even then I remember being shocked and saddened at the lack of feeling among the CPI leaders.... They had gathered to discuss the statement that the party should issue on the occasion. In the middle of the discussion, it was decided that what should be done was to leave the matter to the central leadership. And that was all. This was the attitude towards one of the greatest leaders of modern India and a person who had been a good friend not only of many Communist leaders but of the Communist movement as well. It was dogmatism and alienation from national feeling at its worst.

"Sanjay didn't run her life but..."

The person who stood by her (Mrs Gandhi) most firmly and called upon her to rise to the occasion on behalf of the nation was Sanjay Gandhi. He did much that was reprehensible and his instincts and outlook were not democratic and even fascistic. But he was an ardent nationalist, secularist and a firm believer in action.He also knew that his mother remaining in power was indispensable for India. His positive role at that crucial moment cannot be underestimated..... What was extraordinary was the latitude that Indira Gandhi gave him. Part of it can be explained by his strong attachment to her and the unfailing resoluteness that he had displayed at the point of extreme political and personal crisis for her just prior to the imposition of the Emergency. There was, however, something more than that. It is not true that he ran her life and credence should never have been given to the stories that he slapped her and abused her and that she was afraid of him. She pulled him up when necessary and took her own decisions as always. She trusted him, however, to the point of a kind of blind faith and refused to believe most of the negative reports about him that reached her. There was, additionally, a crowd of sycophants who only sang his praises and gave her false and exaggerated reports about how popular he was with the poor. The reality was that he was contemptuous of those who made up the so-called higher and middle classes from which most of the politicians, civilians and media persons came. He preferred the company not of the poor but the lumpens and the nouveau riche who jumped to his every command. He enjoyed humiliating those whom he could bully, notable among whom was Khushwant Singh but he was not the solitary example. Those who resisted him, he ruthlessly sought to destroy but did not always succeed...because of Indira Gandhi coming in the way.