The New Wave is a Socialist newsletter reporting on issues of the working class, revolutionary politics, and world affairs
May 2023
www.litci.org/en
Contents :
1) Foreword
2) Atale of two floods : India and Pakistan
3) The condition of women in India
4) Understanding the language movement in Bangladesh
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5) On the protests by government workers pg 15
6) Report on the protests on 5th April
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It is after a long hiatus that we have published the new edition of the New Wave newsletter. Our return comes at a very critical period in Indian politics. Today, the country is under the grip of a reactionary right wing regime, led by Narendra Modi, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The onslaught of proletarianization, neo-liberalism and attacks on democracy, that the previous Congress led government began, appears to be brought to a culmination point with the BJP. Soon after this new government came to power, we witnessed attacks on democratic institutions, and hard won victories, like the changed Land Acquisition laws, which the BJP government tried to alter, to make it easier to acquire land for corporations. Not long after that, we witnessed a rise in hate crimes against muslims, with lynchings and beatings of muslims becoming more frequent. Attacks on minorities, and a rise of bigotry marked the first years of the BJP government, this went along with attacks on the public sector, and a push towards privatization, which had already begun in the previous government.
The march of reaction seemed unstoppable, but at the same time, we have witnessed every time that the BJP government makes an attack, the people rise up to challenge it. This happened in 2019 over the Citizenship Amendment Act, and again over the Farm laws, and now happening over the Labour Codes. The BJP has not had a free hand, though the forces of reaction have been winning, and in the balance, are stronger today than before. The collective energy which was witnessed in the
last years of the Congress government, which saw mass mobilizations like the anti-corruption agitation, the protests against rape, the general strikes, and the strikes in Manesar’s auto industries, while temporarily ebbed, has not gone away. This is proven by the mammoth farmer’s protests which succeeded in forcing the government to withdraw the farm bills.
The struggle between the forces of reaction and revolution, are not new, but are part of the history of class struggle in India, and these acquire sharpest expression where democratic rights are concerned. Where the questions of land and democratic rights are concerned, we see the biggest mobilizations and the hardest fights, and so we see them today just as we saw them in the decades leading up to independence, and beyond. For this edition, we cover both the present struggles as well as struggles of the past, from the language movement in Bangladesh to the protest action by workers and farmers in Delhi on 5th April. In this age of climate change induced disasters, we have written about the effects of climate change in South Asia, comparing the floods in Pakistan and India, the death and destruction being caused by capitalist policies of both countries, and carbon emissions, largely by the richest countries of the world.
This is the first of many monthly issues to come, and we hope to keep covering issues and write. We appreciate your feedback, do write back to us.
Last year Pakistan was witness to the worst flooding in it’s recent history, with over a tenth of the country submerged under water, and over 1700 people killed. In addition, millions of people were displaced and tens of billions were lost on account of damage caused by the flooding. These floods came only two years after the costliest standalone disaster in 2020 when most of South Asia suffered flooding during monsoon, at a time when the region was already in the grips of the Covid-19 pandemic. The floods in Pakistan were a body blow to the already faltering economy of the beleaguered South Asian nation, which had been suffering for years due to the war in Afghanistan and gross economic mismanagement by its corrupt ruling class.
However, the case of Pakistan is not an isolated case. Pakistan, like most of the world, and especially the peripheral semi-colonial countries of the world, have been the worst sufferers of climate crisis, despite having done little to contribute to causing the problem. The story is not different in Bangladesh, Nepal, or Sri Lanka. India has emerged as one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gasses, being the fourth largest source of the same, yet contributing to around 4% of total historical carbon emissions worldwide. It too has
been ravaged by climate change induced disasters, having lost hundreds of people during the 2020 South Asian floods, suffering increasing droughts and losing land along the coastline.
Pakistan has been considered as one of the most vulnerable regions in the world to warming temperatures. It’s position in South Asia, means it would be affected by the warming of the Indian Ocean and Arabian sea. The Indian Ocean is experiencing one of the fastest rise in surface temperatures which in turn contributes to more intense rainfalls during the monsoon season, and greater frequency of cyclones and extreme weather phenomenon. This is directly linked with global warming caused by carbon emissions. About half of Pakistan is arid, and like most arid climates, is experiencing faster increases in surface temperature than most places in the world. Add to this, the effect of extreme weather phenomenon, and we have a recipe for disasters, making Pakistan one of the most vulnerable countries in the world. The situation has been made worse by rampant deforestation, particularly in Balochistan, whose forests have been destroyed
to provide timber and fuel. Pakistan stands today as one of the most deforested nations in the world, having only 6% forest cover.
Despite this, Pakistan’s own contribution to global warming is miniscule, adding less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Pakistan’s contribution is dwarfed by neighboring India which has the fourth highest greenhouse gas emissions in the world. Where the two are matched, is in the ruling government’s apathy towards the issue, and by extension, it’s complete disregard of the people who inevitably become the victims of climate disasters, this is revealed most tellingly in the scale of the death and destruction from the floods last year. The numbers alone reveal the staggering scale of the disaster. Sindh has been the worst affected district suffering over 800 deaths, including dozens of children. In addition to this, millions of hectares of farmland, and thousands of cattle have been lost, crippling the rural population which relies heavily on agriculture. Balochistan, another hilly and largely arid country, with little past history of flooding, has also suffered tremendously, with over four hundred deaths. The destruction of livelihoods of it’s largely rural population is just as staggering, with half a million cattle gone, and millions of hectares of farmland destroyed. Punjab lost 1.8 million acres of farmland, and 233 people dead, while Khyber Pakhutnkhwa lost 309 people, and over half a million people displaced. With the two most important states of Pakistan (Punjab and Sindh) it’s economy has been crippled, and it appears today on the brink of economic collapse. One of the main causes of these floods, is Pakistan’s unsustainable canal system, which relies on embankments and dykes which funnel water in land and connect the river systems of the Punjab. Much of the existing system was built in the 20th century under the British Raj, with a view to increase production of cash crops. Lands were allotted based on who were more loyal to the colonial regime, creating a system of entrenched rural elites, which still hold sway over Pakistan. The elites had control over the most fertile patches of the irrigation system, which they have used and
abused to their benefit, leaving poorer farmers and agro-pastoralists to make do with less fertile land. During the floods, they took steps to make sure flood waters would be directed away from their lands, and to the lands of the poorer farmers. The destruction to the embankments that was necessary for this, only exacerbated the impact of the flood.
The narrative in Pakistan, is not different from the rest of South Asia, and indeed most developing nations of the world that these countries cannot be asked to do their part to fight climate change because they contribute little to it. Some take it further, stating that it is necessary for ‘developing countries’ to freely adopt unsustainable development models which add to global warming and pollution, in order to ‘catch up’ with the rest of the advanced world. This is false! Being victims of climate change induced disasters is one of the key symptoms of capitalist and imperialist exploitation. We cannot fight against this, without fighting against the capitalist system as well !
In recent years, India has emerged as one of the major emitters of greenhouse gasses, ranking third in terms of total emissions. In 2019 India emitted 2,310 million metric tonnes of greenhouse gasses, ranking third in the world after China (9,877 mmt) and the USA(4,745 mmt).
Despite having legislations designed to protect the environment and curb pollution, India has seen an almost runaway increase in emissions and global warming. The key to understand this paradox lays in the political system of India, and institutionalized corruption. The Indian bourgeoisie always seeks to ruthlessly maximize it’s profits, for which it is more than willing to destroy the environment. Against this, the people (primarily the peasantry and working class with petty bourgeois leadership) resist through environmental movements and activism. The government sometimes concedes, but ensures that
behind the scenes regulations are either poorly enforced, or outright thrown away.
One can see a brazen example of this in the present BJP government’s loosening of environmental regulations to favour infrastructure and energy projects by the Adani Group, one of the largest and richest Indian industrial conglomerates. In one example of cronyism, the Modi government legalized a massive Special Economic Zone project by the Adani group, which had earlier been declared illegal by the Gujarat High Court for not getting proper environmental clearance. This was done within two months of Modi winning the national elections, environmental clearances which had previously been denied were suddenly allowed. Adani’s land grabbing and polluting practices are well documented (Dossier on Adani group’s environmental and social record), despite this the government which is hand in gloves with the conglomerate will take no steps to curb them.
Adani is one company that profits greatly from a pro-fossil fuel energy policy. Despite rising pollution and warming temperatures causing havoc with every heatwave, monsoon flood, that has become a regular feature of life in South Asia, the government of the big capitalists care first and foremost with the profit of the billionaires whose wealth only keeps increasing with passing time. Never mind the fact that hundreds of Indians die from calamitous floods, droughts and heat waves. Never mind the millions of livelihoods lost from these extreme weather events, or the thousands of avoidable deaths caused by rising pollution, and shortened lifespans.
During the 2020 floods in India, up to $86 billion was lost due to property damage caused by flooding, primarily in Eastern and Southern India. The most affected were the rural poor and working people of the region, who have to face disasters with little to no safety net. Two and a half million people were displaced in Eastern India during the cyclone Amphan, while a similar number were displaced in Bangladesh during the
same time. The vulnerable North Eastern state of Assam which suffers floods every year, saw a quarter of all villages being inundated during the monsoon flood in 2020. A large portion of neighboring Bangladesh was submerged as well. The cyclone was the largest and most intense to strike at Bay of Bengal coastline, and part of a trend of more intense and frequent extreme weather event, caused by rising ocean surface temperatures, something linked directly to climate change caused by global warming.
India is uniquely positioned among South Asian nations, which is both a victim of climate change, and one of the major polluters which causes climate change. One of the most telling examples of this, is the consequence of India’s exploitation of the riverine resources of the Himalayan range. This includes building dams and barrages to harness hydro-electric power, with dire consequences to those living downstream and in the immediate vicinity of the construction zone of these dams. India and China are both locked in a scramble to exploit the Himalayas in this way, with China exploiting the Tibetan plateau, while India exploits the regions of the Southern Himalayas from Kashmir, through Nepal and Bhutan, to the North Eastern states of India. As a result of dam projects, often constructed without taking the will of those living near it, thousands get displaced, like in the case of the Tehri Dam project which destroyed the historic town of Tehri. The effects down river are often chaotic, with rivers drying up in the summers, or flooding uncontrollably during the monsoons. In Bangladesh, farmers in the North West and Western provinces face the effects of drying up of rivers on account of the interruption of the natural flow of water due to the Farakka barrage.
Environmental movements in India, especially in the urban sphere, are largely led by the petty bourgeois and intelligentsia. The masses are either apathetic to it, or oblivious to the root causes of their own suffering caused by environmental
degradation due to capitalism. The movements are often ad hoc and limited in their scope, and do not raise the awareness of the working class, nor is there a mass element to it. Examples of mass movements like the chipko movement, which succeeded in mobilizing the peasantry in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh and forcing the government to delay the construction of the Tehri dam, and stopping government backed logging activity. These victories, though important and encouraging, are temporary. Ultimately, the seat of the movement, Tehri, was submerged by the Tehri dam.
It is important, while respecting the struggle, to acknowledge it’s limitations. It is equally important to acknowledge what lies at the root of the disasters caused by the wanton exploitation of nature. The capitalist system will always prioritize the accumulation of wealth and profit, over sustainability and environmental protection. The link between capitalism and environmental damage is becoming clearer with every passing day to the point it is almost unavoidable to speak of climate change, without criticizing capitalism. This is no different in India than it is anywhere else, where the bourgeoisie runs things. The limits of apolitical environmental movements, led by NGOs, civil society, and ad hoc mobilizations, is that it does not question capitalism. It does not challenge capitalism.
As the world looks at a disastrous tipping point where runaway global warming would become irreversible, we must be ready to expropriate capitalism fully. This requires a socialist revolution.
The Socialist revolution would have an immediate impact by simply overturning the political power of the bourgeoisie and installing the democracy of the working class, through the dictatorship of the proletariat. This would end the unscientific and brazen exploitation of nature, done without any democratic consent or will of the people affected by deforestation, infrastructure projects, and
reckless dam building. There would never be another example of Tehri’s destruction under the rule of the working class.
The transition to socialism, would require the fullest nationalization of the commanding heights of the economy, this includes the nationalization of mines, energy companies, and vital infrastructure. Shutting down polluting industries, moving them, or simply cleaning them up where possible, would be the order of the day. Under a socialist planned economy, the shift away from fossil fuels wouldn’t just be a platitude to repeat at conferences and meetings, to be forgotten the next day. This would be the target of every five year plan, to shift away from thermal power to wind and solar energy, or even hydro-electric energy, powered by dams built on a more scientific basis, with water flow and public interest in mind. The Socialist revolution would mobilize hitherto untapped forces of the working class and it’s peasant allies, directing collective energy in transforming not just the social and political order, but the environment itself, to cleaning the pollution that plagues our cities, prematurely killing thousands.
Capitalism in South Asia works to privilege the elite with the money and ability to withstand the effects of climate change and avoid pollution, while leaving the rest of the masses to suffer. Many of these comforts are themselves the cause of pollution, be it car centric urban planning, or excessive consumption of electricity. Hidden behind the statistic of per capita carbon pollution, is the fact that most of this is caused by the elite, who control the vast numbers of factories and polluting industry that contribute the most to climate change, and cause climate disasters.
The Socialist revolution would put an end to the power of the bourgeoisie, and distribute the resources of the nation equitably. The inequality which saw the land, lives and livelihoods of the poorest peasants in Pakistan be swept away in the floods, would be ended. Measures would be undertaken to ensure protection and preparedness for all, while the expropriated wealth of the rich
would be used to rebuild the lost livelihoods of the many.
To achieve this, is not an easy task, but the road ahead is simple. The crisis of the present age is first and foremost a crisis of revolutionary leadership. To secure the Socialist revolution, we need the revolutionary party. In South Asia, we had a revolutionary party, the Bolshevik Leninist Party of India, Burma and Ceylon. Now is the time to bring it back !
DOWN WITH CAPITALISM ! DOWN WITH IMPERIALISM !
NATIONALIZE THE MINES !
NATIONALIZE THE ADANIS AND AMBANIS !
EXPROPRIATE THE OLIGARCHS !
LONG LIVE SOCIALISM ! LONG LIVE THE REVOLUTION !
On the 8th of March, the word celebrates International women’s day. A day steeped in socialist history, and deeply connected with the struggle of the working class. Despite the best efforts of bourgeois propagandists, they cannot erase this history. While bourgeois governments may commemorate this day across the world to celebrate it’s triumphs, and project the successes
of women in terms of individual achievements of capitalist ‘leaders’, the vast majority of women toil and suffer under patriarchal oppression. India is no different. India, like much of the developed world, particularly in Asia and Africa suffers doubly, as the weight of capitalist inequality and exploitation combines with the burdens of pre-
capitalist social relations, be it caste, or religious extremism.
There are two aspects to the oppression of women in India, one which is overt and violent, the other is structural and systematic. These two are deeply interwoven with one another, and integrated. The patriarchal social order in India is rooted in precapitalist social relations, but finds expression under capitalist property relations as well.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2011, there were more than 228,650 reported incidents of crime against women, while in 2021, there were 4,28,278 reported incidents, an 87% increase.
Of the women living in India, 7.5% live in West Bengal where 12.7% of the total reported crime against women occurs.[4] Andhra Pradesh is home to 7.3% of India's female population and accounts for 11.5% of the total reported crimes against women.
65% of Indian men believe women should tolerate violence in order to keep the family together, and women sometimes deserve to be beaten. In January 2011, the International Men and Gender Equality Survey Questionnaire reported that 24% of Indian men had committed sexual violence at some point during their lives.
Exact statistics on the extent case occurrences are very difficult to obtain, as a large number of cases go unreported. This is due in large part to the threat of ridicule or shame on the part of the potential reporter, as well as an immense pressure not to damage the family's honour. For similar reasons, law enforcement officers are more motivated to accept offers of bribery from the family of the accused, or perhaps in fear of more grave consequences, such as Honour killings. The hesitation of law enforcement in incidents of rape are especially critical, as many cases simply go unreported, or do not get acted on. Indian society puts suspicion on the woman rather than the man in cases of sexual crimes, and talk of ‘she should have dressed differently’ can be frequently heard in cases of sexual crimes. India reported nearly
32000 instances of rape in 2022, and these do not account for instances which go unreported.
In a seminal article in 1991, Indian economist and Nobel laureate Amartya Sen brought the world’s attention to the problem of India’s “missing women.” At the time Sen was writing, the sex ratio in India (the number of women per 1,000 men) was a low 927. According to Sen, this equated to around 37 million females missing from the Indian population, caused by a deepening crisis of gender inequality that had led to the widespread practice of sex selective abortions, female infanticide and neglect of girl-children. Much of this occurs as a direct result of female infanticide, the act of killing a girl child at infancy, due to preference for male babies.
In addition to these, one must account for the crime of rape, violence by throwing acid, dowry deaths, and honour killings (which in turn are deeply tied in to caste hierarchies), gives a larger picture for the extent of physical violence committed against women. However, systemic discrimination is far more endemic and pervasive. India ranks 135 out of 146 countries in the annual Global Gender Gap Report, behind most of South Asia, and only slightly ahead of Pakistan. Women on average are paid less than men, and fall behind men in property ownership. For instance till 2015, Hindu women for instance, were denied equal inheritance rights with men. Women also fall behind in education with Indian women having a literacy rate of about 65% compared to about 82% for males. The ratio becomes even more skewed when one takes into account school enrolment where 62% of women received no schooling at all, compared to 31% for men.
The patriarchal system present in India ensures not only that they are disadvantaged in the fields of education, property ownership, and economic participation. It also ensures that women are made into a sexual minority, with men outnumbering women. India’s skewed sex ratio only makes the situation worse for women. The situation makes things particularly bad for women workers.
In recent years, the plight of women ASHA workers has come to light. During the COVID-19 pandemic they served as frontline first responders and served key roles in the dissemination of medical care to the most down trodden and marginalized groups of people. However, most state governments have treated them with disdain, and benefitted from their hard work, without adequate payment, and in some cases no payment. The struggle of the Delhi ASHA workers who have been illegally terminated for demanding their just pay and compensation for services rendered during the pandemic, is just one example. It is also an example of a fight back against this exploitation. (See : https://litci.org/en/stand-insolidarity-with-asha-workers/ ) It is not the only one of it’s case.
In December of 2021, two thousand women workers struck work to protest against conditions of food at the factory after several workers suffered from food poisoning. According to reports and investigations following the protests, the workers stayed in crowded, windowless hostels, with 20-40 workers in rooms fit for 10, that lack proper ventilation as well as access to water or sanitation, including toilets with no running water. Workers are also provided low quality, unhygienic food, including vegetables and weevil-infested rice, prepared in rat-infested outdoor kitchens. One worker reported that despite women showing photos of worms in their food to the supervisor, no action was taken. She also explained that workers had access to water for only one-and-a-half hours before their shift. The protests resulted in the company conceding to the workers, improvements were made to the condition of food in the canteen. This was a small but important victory for women workers in India. Another example of women workers fighting against exploitative conditions comes from the garment sector, an industry notorious for it’s exploitative practices and use of women workers, simply with the expectation that they can be exploited and controlled more easily. In November of 2020, eight hundred garment workers in the state of Andhra Pradesh went on strike to protest over low wages, harassment and exploitative
conditions. The workers who were employed in Indian Designs Exports Private Ltd in Parigi mandal near Hindupur town in Andhra Pradesh’s Anantapur district boycotted their work and launched an indefinite strike demanding an increase in minimum wages as they were being paid as low as Rs 6,000 per month as their wages, as well as against the harassment and exploitation by the bosses.
These struggles aren’t disconnected or ad hoc, but are reflective of the systematic discrimination women face in India. Inequality is intrinsic to the capitalist system, and part of this, is the greater exploitation of a set group of people, whether it be a minority (either religious, or ethnic or any other), or women. Throughout history, women’s labour have been used in the most exploitative industries, from mining to textiles, and they have always had to bear worse conditions with worse pay than their male counterparts. Outside the factory and mines, women are expected to work for free to maintain the worker, either in the role of the wife, or as domestic work, which is widespread throughout Asia and especially so in India. The work pays little, and exposes women domestic workers to all manner of exploitation. A report by the National Statistics Office stated that 92% of women engaged in unpaid domestic work. It is telling that only 22% of women participated in employment compared to 71% for men.
As much as the situation may seem bleak there is hope for the future. The condition of women in India and indeed South Asia have been improving. Struggles to extend women’s education, universal suffrage and equal pay, have resulted in voting rights for women, access to education, and property rights, which ensure a more level playing field.
Female literacy has only increased since independence, and the increasing participation of women in the workplace, has led to class consciousness emerging among them. The struggle is far from over, and though the capitalist media may tout the achievements of past struggles, we must look to the present and beyond.
There is no denying about the scale and intensity of violence against women, there is no denying the very stark reality of discrimination against women. All of these exist, with much of their precapitalist social baggage intact. Be it female infanticide resulting on full blown gendercide of women, or the practice of honour killings which link the oppression of women to caste, the oppression of women in India is impossible to understand without taking this into account. The nature of oppression of women in India lays bare the limits of Indian capitalism.
The fact that the capitalist system tolerates this, must be understood in context. The craving for greater women’s participation in the workforce, though representative of a progress beyond unpaid
domestic work and feudal oppression, serves the interests of capital, by providing a large source of exploitable labour. The maintenance of old forms of oppression help in the marginalization of women, and thereby make it easier for the capitalists to exploit, as well as ensuring a crucial function is served in the form of maintaining the worker himself (through paid and unpaid domestic work).
When we understand the link between capitalism and the oppression of women, our road ahead becomes clear. The fight against patriarchy can go ahead to a limited extent by the bourgeoisie, but to truly emancipate the Indian woman, we require the overthrow of the capitalist system itself.
On the 21st February 1954, Bengalis in what used to be East Pakistan (modern Bangladesh), came out in protest. Their agenda was to oppose the removal of Bengali from the list of approved
languages within Pakistan, by the Pakistan Public Service Commission. Seven years before this, the Commission removed Bengali from approved subjects, Currency notes as well as Stamps. Preparations were made by the education Minister
Fazlur Rahman, to make urdu the only official language of the Dominion of Pakistan. The reaction was almost immediate, with public outrage spreading through East Pakistan. In December 8th 1947, students of the Dhaka University came out in large numbers to protest the move which would see Bengalis being robbed of their cultural and linguistic rights. Over seven years, the language movement grew in strength, and culminated on the day of the 21st of February 1954 when a group of students agitating against this institutionalized discrimination against Bengali, surrounded the legislative assembly at Dhaka, and a few broke through the gates. Harsh policing measures and the implementation of a ban on assembly under section 144 of the criminal procedure code (the same law exists in India as well), failed to intimidate the students out on protest. The three students who broke through the barricades, were shot and killed by the police, and have since become martyrs. In memory of their sacrifice the 21st of February has been commemorated as the international languages day. The students then could not have known, that their agitation and sacrifice was but the beginning of a series of events which would culminate in the creation of a new nation, and bring Pakistan near complete collapse. The Bangladesh liberation war, thus started as a war for self-determination over linguistic rights.
The Pakistan movement in earnest only really began with the Lahore resolution of 1940, which converted the movement for the greater representation of of British India’s muslim minority, into a movement for separate statehood based on religious identity. The reason why support for the movement grew is multi-faceted, and owes much to the social fabric of Bengal at the time, and colonial policy which saw the destruction of traditional native industries and the rise of British domination over the sub-continent. Bengal was the richest region of South Asia under the Mughals. It was the largest agricultural producer of the empire, the center of it’s silk textile industry, and a center of bullion trade with China. These factors helped make Bengal the richest region of the Mughal Empire, which at it’s
peak held a quarter of the world’s GDP and stood as the richest nation in the world. Much of the textile economy and trade was in the hands of muslims of Bengal, which contributed to the community’s relative prosperity. The decline of Bengal began with the decline of the Mughal Empire itself, and later invasions by the Maratha Empire in the middle of the 18th century. These invasions helped create conditions by which the British would subsequently extend it’s power over Bengal, following the battle of Plassey in 1757.
The effects of British rule were catastrophic for the traditional industry of Bengal. Dhaka which was the economic center of Bengal, saw a massive fall in it’s population as the East India Company took measures to alter the economy of Bengal towards agricultural and raw materials export from industry.
The famous textile industry of Bengal was destroyed, and Dhaka was ruined, agriculture was massively disrupted which contributed to the famine in 1760, which saw nearly a third of Bengal’s population dying. Revolts broke out from among the peasantry and religious sects, as the first anti-colonial uprisings. However, these failed to uproot British rule, or substantially alter the systems implemented by them. Eventually, this drain of wealth from Bengal had the effect of impoverishing Bengal’s muslim population, while on the other hand, the British built up Calcutta and a small Hindu Bengali elite as comprador intermediaries for their rule, with upper caste hindus dominating new professions and bureaucratic positions within Company Rule. The beginning of discontent can be found here, where muslims continued to fall behind, and a section of upper caste wealthy hindus carved out a privileged niche for themselves.
The British promulgated permanent settlement act and changes to the zamindari system, had entrenched these new social relations in the region, which festered resentment at the local level. In other parts of india, the decisive shift in the social and cultural fabric was brought about as a result of the sepoy rebellion, and the subsequent destruction of traditional social and political structures. Whatever remained of Indian muslim’s
standing and position in Northern India was wrecked, Delhi which had been the cultural capital of India and a center of Indo-Islamic culture, was utterly destroyed. The new India that the British would go on to create had at it’s corner stone a policy of divide and rule, made to ensure that Hindu-muslim unity would never arise and become a serious force to threaten British rule, as had happened in the 1857 rebellion.
To this effect, the British supported the emerging elite of Dhaka who fed off discontent among the muslim peasantry and agrarian classes, to create a movement based on muslim identity. This would find expression in the Muslim League. The beginnings of the movement would find its roots in the first partition of Bengal under the Governorship of Lord Curzon, ostensibly for the better administration of the province (which at the time included modern day states of Bihar and Orissa), into an Eastern and Western half. The Eastern half of Bengal would have a muslim majority and it’s capital at Dhaka, while the Western half would have a Hindu majority with it’s capital at Calcutta. This had an immediate reaction from the Hindu elite who had been at the forefront of a growing national movement in the country. The movement against the partition of Bengal saw the rise of nationalist organizations like the Anushilan Samity and Jugantar Dal, who used tactics of terror and boycott of foreign goods under the slogan of ‘swadeshi’ to rally opinion against the partition. The movement succeeded in annulling the partition of Bengal into East and West, but Bihar and Orissa were separated from the Bengal province. The movement also saw the first major division between Hindu and Muslim Bengali populations over the question of partition. This was in fact the beginning of what would culminate in the partition of India itself.
Over the next four decades, the movement for muslim representation and identity grew in strength, along with the Indian independence movement, eventually coming to a position where it could challenge the mainstream of the Congress party. The Muslim League would emerge as the primary representative of indian muslims while the Congress would corner the majority support of Hindus. In this however, the muslims of the sub-
continent were not unanimous, as opinion remained divided as seen by the 1946 elections to the constituent assembly. The Muslim League did not win Sindh, the North West Frontier Provinces, and had a split verdict in the Punjab. Only in Bengal did the Muslim League manage to win a decisive mandate. The conditions were put in place for the partition riots to happen, and they began with the great Calcutta killings in 1946. This would put a final nail in the coffin of an emerging revolutionary upsurge in India in the aftermath of world war 2, the red fort trials and the naval mutiny. The communal killings diverted collective social energy away from class struggle to inter-communal conflict. The bourgeois leadership of the Muslim League, centered in Bombay, Dhaka and Lahore, and the Congress Party, who had the support of mostly Hindu capitalist houses based in Calcutta, Bombay and the landed elite in North India, had led the country to one of the bloodiest episodes in the twentieth century Indian history.
Pakistan would be created from the muslim majority provinces of British India, while the Republic of India would be created from the Hindu majority provinces. However, even in this geo-politics and economic interests would distort the boundaries, ensuring some muslim majority regions fell into India and Hindu or Buddhist regions falling to Pakistan. The fate of North Eastern India with it’s distinct culture and religious fabric would also be affected, and most of the region except for the Chittagong hill tracts and Sylhet, falling to india. The new Pakistan was born crippled, and moth eaten, with an Eastern and Western half separated by 1600 miles of Indian territory. Furthermore, while India had the most industrialized regions, Pakistan had only Karachi, Lahore and Dhaka to build itself with, all three of which lost out because of partition, and the subsequent population transfers. The only winner in this equation was arguably the capitalists of Bombay, who had no equal competitor left, save for Calcutta, which was already reeling under the negative effects of World War 2, the Bengal famine, and now the partition.
It was soon apparent that the promise of social and economic advancement that had won over the majority of muslim peasantry in Bengal, would not be fulfilled within the framework of Pakistan. Firstly, because the state itself was born impoverished, and the subsequent few years would make it clear that within South Asia, india would emerge as the regional hegemon, forcing the new ruling class of Pakistan to scramble to secure it’s survival. In this, it had to face two enemies, first the overwhelming external enemy in the form of India and secondly, it’s internal class enemy. Political and economic power in Pakistan was concentrated in the hands of land owning elite in Punjab, and the new muslim bourgeoisie centered around Lahore, and Karachi. Aside from this, was the economic center of Dhaka, and the Bengali muslim petty bourgeois and bourgeoisie, who wished to be seen as equal to their west Pakistani counterparts.
These groups had in common, a desire to consolidate power and ensure the working class and peasantry remained under their domination. The abolition of the zamindari system in East Pakistan was a very correct and progressive step, and was replicated on the Indian side of the border, all within the decade of the fifties, but this did not serve to ultimately free the peasantry from exploitation, rather it simply changed the exploiters, from the old Hindu elite who benefited from British rule to the new elite who exploited the peasantry and working class of Bengal. For East Pakistan, these new rulers were based in West Pakistan. Under these circumstances, the Pakistani bourgeoisie was compelled by historical fate towards adopting authoritarianism and militarism to secure itself. The nascent democracy of Pakistan was doomed to dictatorship, within a few years of it’s formation.
One of the expressions of this contradiction was the language policy of Pakistan. The choice of imposing urdu as the only national language of Pakistan wasn’t just a case of linguistic chauvinism, (though this also played a part) but a reaction of the ruling class of Pakistan, and chiefly the land owning elite of Punjab, to compromising with it’s political supremacy. No doubt, this angered the people of Bengal, and not just the
bourgeoisie either, but every section whom it would materially impact to have a foreign, alien language imposed on them. Bengali as the main medium of communication was familiar to everyone, while Urdu was something distant. To have to learn urdu to understand legal documents, government documents, and to use it in daily life, for most Bengalis who would have no means to learn the language, would simply lead to further disadvantaging, as an oppression of the cultural and linguistic rights of the Bengali people.
Protests began as soon as the law was passed, and continued for years. The language agitation coincided with several other agitations, like the uprising of santhals in Rajshahi district under the leadership of Ila Mitra, and the tebhaga movement for rights of sharecroppers which led to the abolition of zamindari. The language movement was the largest and most widespread of these. Efforts by the Pakistani state to divide the population with communal riots throughout 1950 failed to stem the tide protest. Eventually in 1956, the Muslim League lost the provincial elections in East Bengal, and a united front led by the Awami League and A.K Fazlul Haque would form the government. This signalled to the federal government that they had to concede on this matter. Bengali was eventually recognized as one of the official languages of Pakistan, but any goodwill that may have existed between Bengalis and the people of West Pakistan was gone.
Over the course of the so-called miracle decade under Ayub Khan’s presidency, when Pakistan tilted heavily towards market economics and the USA, the exploitation and inequality between East and West Pakistan only increased. The one unit scheme of the newly amended constitution in 1956 was meant to foster unity between the two wings of Pakistan, but only served to further alienate them from one another, and saw a sustained drain of wealth from East Pakistan into the pockets of the West Pakistan based industrial and land owning elite. The truth of the miracle decade of Pakistan was that it was funded by the exploitation of East Pakistan, which was at once a provider of cheap raw material as well as a captive market for finished goods produced from West Pakistan factories.
There was no alternative for the Pakistani capitalists but to exploit the East in this manner. While India’s capitalists had the vast market provided by a largely intact peninsular India, the Gangetic plains, and most of the Eastern India, their counterparts in Pakistan only had East Bengal and Punjab, both of which were sections of a larger state from which they broke off. The material pressure was inescapable. However, the more the Pakistani bourgeoisie exploited their half of Bengal, the more it angered it’s people and pushed it towards independence. Thus the seeds of secession were sown, and this was an inescapable result of the character of the Pakistani state. The fundamental contradiction which drove the creation of Pakistan remained unanswered in the new state of Pakistan.
The struggle for granting linguistic rights of the people of East Pakistan culminated in a victory. The Pakistani government was forced to concede on the point of including Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. The 1954 elections brought about the defeat of the Muslim League in the province of East Bengal, and compelled the federal government to give official recognition to the Bengali language as a state language. The constituent assembly met that year to finalize a new constitution which was in part, expressive of the ambitions of the people of East Bengal. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Muhammad Ali Bogra, a new federal constitution was created which gave Bengali it’s due place as a national language, and prepared a federal scheme where East Pakistan could have some degree of autonomy. However, the new constitution also established Pakistan as an Islamic republic, and created the conditions for greater discrimination against it’s remainingHindus.
The new constitution would remain in effect till 1962, and the new coalition government would remain in power till 1958, when General Ayub Khan seized power in a military coup. The military coup to overthrow a democratically elected government that expressed the aspirations of the people of East Bengal, would permanently
strain relationship between the two halves of Pakistan and hasten the march towards full outbreak of war. However, the recognition of Bengali as a national language could not be reversed. This was a victory of mobilized masses, who won this after seven years of hard struggle, despite some of the harshest crackdown from a reactionary government.
Yet, this was only the beginning of the story of Bangladesh’s long march to independence, which would not be achieved till another fifteen years, in 1971.
The contradictions of Pakistan that were exposed during the language movement, still lay embedded in it today. At the core is contradiction between the ruling landed elite based in Punjab and the Pakistani bourgeoisie based off Karachi on the one hand, and the workers and peasants on the other hand. The crippled nature of Pakistan’s births forced it to enrich itself in the hopes of equalling it’s next door rival and existential threat, India, by exploiting it’s periphery more aggressively. The discrimination against Bengalis, Balochis, and even the Pashtuns of the frontier province, must be seen in this context. It’s slide into dictatorship was an inevitability when faced with such internal and external pressures. At the same time, the use of religion as a means to shield itself from the ire of the masses, presenting an easy distraction in the form of creating the image of a belligerent India, becomes more and more apparent, the greater the pressures the ruling classes face.
At the same time, the adoption of the 1956 constitution and the declaration of Pakistan as an Islamic Republic, exposed the contradictions present within the Awami League leadership. As the party of the Bengali muslim petty bourgeois and bourgeoisie, it was effectively replicating some of the qualities of it’s forbearer the Muslim League. The problems would only become more apparent after Bangladesh’s independence, when it too slid into dictatorship under the BAKSAL regime, with Prime Minister Mujibar Rahman at it’s head. Bangladesh would eventually become another Islamic Republic, under a military
dictatorship. The peasants of East Bengal would find another new set of oppressors to fight.
The question of language is critical in the context of South Asia, where myriad languages are spoken, and each represent an important part of the cultural and material life of it’s people. It is important to note, that while the language movement was reaching a climax in Pakistan, movements for establishing states on linguistic basis were gaining ground in India. The Visalandhra movement (greater Andhra movement), and the Samyuk Maharashtra andolan (movement for united Maharashtra) both sought to create states on the basis of language.
These movements succeeded on the backs of the power of mobilized peasant and workers masses, for whom the issue wasn’t just a matter of identity, but their material well being. The government was adamant about suppressing the Maharashtra movement, with Prime Minister Nehru staunchly opposing the creation of linguistic states, preferring instead to establish the hegemony of Hindi over India, something that many non-hindi speaking states still fear today. Over a hundred demonstrators were killed during the agitation for the creation of a united Marathi speaking state, but repression failed and the mobilised masses won.
On the 14th of march 1.7 million government workers in the state of Maharashtra began protests with threats to go on strike. Their agenda, was to reverse the new pension scheme. The strike was called off after an in-principle approval was given by the state government to extend monetary
benefits of the old scheme to the new pension scheme.
At the same time, tens of thousands of government workers in the state of West Bengal have been on protest, and on the 10th of march,
struck work throughout the state. The protests are still raging, with the matter having gone to the high court, and a direction given to the government to sit down and come to a settlement with the protesting workers.
The same month, state electricity department workers in the state of Uttar Pradesh struck work as well. On the 17th of March, about a hundred thousand government employees of the electricity department struck work. One of the key issues, was changes to the pension scheme, and irregularity of promotions and pending salaries. The strike was withdrawn after 3000 workers termination was reversed, and 22 workers who were jailed under essential services maintenance Act (ESMA) had the charges withdrawn.
These protests are symptoms of rising anger against the government, and the imposition of austerity measures, which have destroyed the job security granted by government employment. From Maharashtra to West Bengal, though the agendas differ, the dynamics are the same.
While the specific grievances in each of these cases, may be different, the underlying causes are essentially the same, and the effect is national in scale. On the one hand, we have a government which has been diluting labour laws, and diluting protections which were previously seen in generally more secure government work. At the same time, the Indian economy is experiencing inflation in essential commodities, that directly affect the income and living standards of most of the working people.
The combination of factors leads to insecure jobs, and lesser savings. In West Bengal, workers protested over the payment of pending Dearness Allowance, while in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, the key issue was pensions and salaries. The pension is one of the only secure means of sustenance after retirement, and it is one area where various state governments have been implementing austerity measures. The reaction is obvious, with government employees marching on the streets in protest.
As was visible from protests in West Bengal, there was widespread sympathy for the striking government workers, not only raising issues that affect all working people, but also in attacking the hated TMC government in West Bengal. This did not stop the government from trying to crack down on the protest and strike action, relying on the police or even imposing Essential Services Maintenance Act. These efforts in West Bengal were mirrored in Maharashtra, where counter protests were attempted to be organized in defense of the new pension scheme.
Despite these, the governments in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh had to concede to the protesting workers, while the government in West Bengal was forced to sit to negotiate.
The position of the government employee :
The term government employee and government worker broadly encompasses both lower level bureaucrats as well as those employed in certain government enterprises. The workers in Uttar Pradesh for instance, were those employed in the electricity department, while the government employees who struck work in West Bengal, can be described as part of the bureaucracy, not employed in productive work.
Regardless of this situation, these protests highlight the discontent among the people. In so far as these protests have challenged the worsening conditions of work, and in so far as they have challenged government’s austerity measures, these protests are progressive in character and deserve our broad support.
At the same time, we must understand the limits of the protests, while raising the issues of pensions, salaries and pending dues, there were no visible efforts to raise the question of contractorization of the workforce. Government jobs are one of the most secure areas for employment in India, when we are witnessing increasing unemployment, and especially youth unemployment. With government jobs also come benefits like assured pensions and better pay, these are areas where the present goverments, both at the central (federal) and state
level are focusing their attacks, to reduce these benefits, and turn the workforce increasingly towards contract based work.
Solidarity with contract labour and with nongovernment workers would have also strengthened the protest and added a wider dimension. This is especially possible when the Labour Codes were also attacked.
The government workers protests come at a time, when we have witnessed the farmer’s protests, and numerous strike actions by workers both in the public and private sector. There is a general mood of dissent in the country, especially so in the aftermath of the unpopular laws like the Labour Codes, and the farm laws (which have since been withdrawn). The grievances are many and varied, and while each issue might seem different, the underlying causes all come back to a crisis in capitalism.
India is a developing capitalist economy, experiencing proletarianization and primitive capitalist accumulation. This means, any crisis it faces, would be responded to with greater efforts to expand capital into the countryside, this comes with attacks on agriculture (like the farm laws), big infrastructure push (which often comes at the cost of rural land ownership) and increasing the exploitation of the workforce. The previous Congress led government in India had initiated this, but the present right wing BJP government is pushing it more aggressively, on all fronts.
The government workers protests are a reaction against worsening conditions of work, and imposed austerity measures, in the name of ‘fiscal
responsibility’ and ‘freeing up funds for development’. These are just euphemisms, for supporting policies which favour the big capitalists in place of the workers. While most working people have to bear the brunt of inflation and job insecurity, the rich will have the full freedom to grow richer.
The answer to these attacks, are building links, building solidarity, between workers and farmers, and within different sections of the working class, and even between sections of the lower bureaucracy who are making common cause with the workers. This united front, led by militant revolutionary leadership, can do more than just force the government to give concessions, but force them to a full retreat, and change the system itself !
We have seen with the farmers protests, that the Modi government is not unstoppable or invincible, they were forced to take back the farm laws after months of militant agitation. It is just as possible with the new pension scheme and four labour codes !
SUPPORT THE GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES !
REVOKE WITH THE LABOUR CODES !
On the 5th ofApril a massive protest was organized on Delhi’s historical Ramlila ground, the site of many protest marches and political gatherings. The protest action was called by workers unions from across the country, and joined in by organization of farmers. The agenda was to oppose the Modi government’s neo-liberal reform drive, which has at it’s center, the rampant privatization of public enterprises, and cracking down on the rights of workers to organize and protest.
The Labour Codes which were bulldozed through in parliament during the covid pandemic, alongside the now repealed farm laws, consolidate all labour laws in the country into four labour codes. These are oriented to depriving the workers of the right to organize and strike.
It is important to remember, that both the farm laws and the labour codes were passed in the same session of parliament. The farm laws have been repealed, but the Labour Codes are still in force, though the rules are yet to be framed. The reaction
to these laws was almost immediate, with a national strike organized by farmers and workers, that saw both these forces come together in one of the largest strike actions in history.
This was the beginning of the current wave of solidarity between workers and farmers in struggle. The current protests are another milestone in this movement.
The protest action was built around the following demands :
DEMANDS:
» Ensure Minimum wages @Rs.26,000 pm and Pension @Rs.10,000 to all workers including the scheme workers; No contractorisation of work; ScrapAgnipath Scheme
» Legally ensure MSP @ C2+50%for all farm produce with guaranteed procurement
» One time loan waiver by the central government to all poor and middle peasants and agricultural workers; pension to all of them above 60 years
» Scrap the four Labour Codes and Electricity Amendment Bill 2022
» Job security and guarantee for all; Expand MGNREGAand increase workdays to 200 with minimum wages @Rs.600 per day; Pay all pending wages; Enact a National Urban Employment GuaranteeAct
» Stop Privatisation of PSUs and Public Services; Scrap National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP)
»Arrest Price Rise, Withdraw GST on food items and essentials; Reduce the central excise duty on petrol/diesel/kerosene/cooking gas substantially; Withdraw the increase in price of cooking gas forthwith
» Universalise the Public Distribution System (PDS) and expand its scope to include 14 essential items; Ensure food and income support to all Nontaxpayer families
» Stringent implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA); withdraw the amendments to Forest (Conservation)Act and Rules that allow the union government to permit clearance of a forest without even informing the residents.
» Stop repression of the marginalised sections and ensure social justice
» Ensure universal and quality Health and Education for all; Scrap New Education Policy (NEP) 2020
» Ensure Housing to all
» Tax the Super Rich; Enhance Corporate Tax; Introduce Wealth Tax
Over the last two decades of neo-liberal economic policy, there has been a greater push into the hinterland and the countryside. Farming today is
almost entirely on a capitalist basis, and trade in farm goods is monopolized by a handful of agro traders, big companies, who control various markets in the country. Competition and ever decreasing average size of farm land, has created a situation where farming has become increasingly untenable. This has fuelled an exodus from farming and the countryside, as more and more rural farmers are looking for work in the cities, or as workers in factories and workshops.At the same time, we have a situation where rural workers see their numbers grow. The process of proletarianization, has forced workers and farmers to come together like never before. The current moment becomes all the more significant, because of this.
The solidarity between workers and farmers, which had once been an ideal, is being forced by material conditions faced by both. The political conditions are equally clear, with the government using the pandemic as a cover to attack both workers and farmers in the same session. There is no better evidence to point to, and say that workers and farmers have the same enemy.
Despite the importance of this movement, and the size of the protest that took place in Delhi, those living outside the city, and away from the site of the protest, may not even know it happened. This was because of a media blackout. None of the major mainstream Indian news channels covered the protest action, and one had to rely only on newsclickin or a few other youtube sources to even know such a large scale protest action occurred. The only major international media that noticed the protest wasAl Jazeera, that made a short coverage of the protests. The media blackout is the first tactic of the bourgeoisie, which has near complete control of the news media infrastructure in the country. The censorship of the media helps in containing protests to a region or to a narrow limit, preventing the wider masses from learning about the issues raised by it and discussing on it.
As effective as this tactic is, it is also limited. If a protest is too large to ignore, or so impactful that
the impact on daily life becomes unavoidable, the mainstream media cannot help but be forced to cover it. Usually, they do so with a combination of lies and half truths at the service of the government. The coverage during the farmers protest in 2021 highlighted this perfectly, where an effort was made by many mainstream media houses to connect the farmer’s protests to the Khalistan movement. Once lies and blackouts fail, the next tool in the bourgeosie’s arsenal is repression, relying on the police, and when that too fails, comes the tactic of stalling, in the hopes that the protest simply loses steam and dies down. In case of the 5th April protests, we never reached this stage, because the bourgeoisie was content with simply blacking out the protest march. To contain it was enough.
The protest was initially planned as part of a general strike, which included several demands including a universalized public food distribution system, a living wage, and an end to the Labour Codes. If compared with previous national strike actions, we can see these demands represent a qualitatively improvement in perspective, and a greater militancy.
We cannot limit our perspective to the 5th of april and the events of the day, to judge the momentum which is building up. The unity of farmers and workers has been building up over years, with workers unions and farm unions combining their powers to protest against the right wing government of Narendra Modi, and his policies. The current wave can be said to start with the strike action immediately after the passage of the Labour Codes and farm laws, in 2021. That happened in the height of the COVID pandemic.
We must also ask, how is it that the workers in protest, have failed to accomplish what the farmers protests achieved, the repealing of the three farm laws. The protests, invvolved tens of thousands of people on the march, and on the
Contact
build up to it, ten million households were contacted by labour organizers. However, this failed to translate into the militant action that characterized the farmers protests. During those protests, the highways leading into Delhi were blocked, and the city was nearly put to siege. Nothing remotely similar happened on the 5th of April, though the expectation of the same was there.
There have been 23 national strikes conducted by the large trade union bodies in India, led primarily by the Communist Party linked CITU. The present protest was also led by CITU. These have not dented the ruling government’s resolve to push through an agenda of privatization, increased taxation, and anti-worker policies. It is not that workers are not capable of militant action, the actions of the DelhiAnganwadi workers prove otherwise, but the limitation is on the leadership, which is cautious in heading towards more militant action. In case of the 5th April protests, the strike action was called off, here there is a difference with the farmer’s protests.
Despite the weaknesses and failings, the protest represents something very significant and deep in the development of the political and class consciousness of the Indian working class and peasantry. The unity of these two forces form the bulwark of a revolutionary union, which with the right leadership can overthrow the capitalist establishment itself. The groundwork of this alliance is being built up, and the material conditions to allow it, is becoming even more favourable with every passing day.
It is necessary that we position ourselves in support of the workers and farmers on the march, even as we remain critical of their leadership.