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Traditions and Institutions ofthe'Saontals: Translated intoBengali by B. Hansdah (Census1.951) •

Sambad Bhaskar 1955-56,Bengali Pe.riodicals.

Sambad prabhakm' 1855-56, BengaliPeriodicals.

OCToBER H~ 1972

The Lessons Of Birbhum,FROM A CORRESPONDENT

A document is circulating in :B1r- could rewI'D to their homes with thehhum, issued 10 the name of help of the police. A very large

the 'West Bengal-Bihar Bordel"RegJon number of revolutionary workers gotCommittee of the CPI (ML). It arrested. Those who were not, hadspates that revolutionary cadres, £01- to leave their areas of operation. Inlowing Cham Mazumdar's slogan of short the movement suffered a totalsolving problems through the cam- setback.paign of annihilating class enemies, The report that .•Charu Mazumdar '"~arried out about 200 annihilations in placed alt the Party Congress on theBirbhum and the neighbouring areas question of anmihilations had for itsand collected about 200 guns and a main theme "dass struggle,-that is,few rifles. In most of the Ithanas, the annihilation of class enemies".. Thisrevolutionary cadres depended to meant that nothing else was consider.varying extents on poor peasant and ed as class struggle. Every problemlandless labour guerillas. It was would be soh'ed through this cam-possible in all to' have about 30 paign; a new man would be born ipoor peasants and landless labourers there wo.uld be a new consciousnessas orga.nisers. In some areas, when and new faith among the poor pea-the guerillas took ,over Ithe pro- sants and landless labourers; ruralpert.y of the class enemies, they earn· areas wou'd )be lib$"ated, new :reded the active support of the gllneral spots would appear on the map ofrun of poor peasants and landless the cou>ntryand eventuaHy condi.labourers. In these areas the people ,tions would become ripe for a coun-spont1aneously ttqok initiatives at trywide mass uprising. The peasantsthe time of police and military re. . with new consciousness and newpression. But not having any well- faith would snatch arms' from theworked-out action plan for attacking enemy and would provide the armedthe police and military, instead of defence of the revolutionary power.involving the people in the struggle Annihilation of class enemies was re.for robbing the jotedars of their 50- garded as a higher form of class strug-cial and economic- power, the revo- gle amI the beginning of guerillalutionaries went ahead, following the warfare.Party Congress line, with the pro- This line was adopted unanimous-gramme of annihilation. As a result ly in the Party Congress and thethe peasant masses could not De party journals began Ito 'highlightactivised. This isolation of the cadres activities in different areas accordingfacilitated the attack of the armed to the number of annihilations car·"orces @f the government. About-50 ried out. This became the sol~ cri-revolutionaries got killed; mOst of tllriol1. In Birbhum, as in other re-the guns and rifles were recovered by gions, litde discrimination was madethe police.- ':fhe jotedars and money- between the big, small and mediumlenders who had left their villages, among the jotedars. Anybody who--:-'

trict Records: Midnapur, 1763-74, 4 vols, Calcutta 1914-26.

R. Carstairs:, Harma's Village, Pok-huria 1935.

'Man in India (PerioQ.ical') ,(Rebel.lion Number 1945): W. J. Cul-shaw and W. G. Archer: 'TheSantal Rebellion'.

Mare Ha.prarli Ko Reak Katha': The

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bl;1cksmiths (mainly Hindus) startedmaking guns for the Santhals at onestage. St111the rebel' .ons faiJed,because they did not grow out of' any'POflitical 'and ideological conscious.ness. Tribal 01' semi-tribal solidarity,narrow community-consciousness,,spontaneity and a vague S1ense 01social justJice, could not hold therebels together and keep up theirmilitant morale for long. Aftertheir defeat, they were fragmentedinto roving groups of bandits. AI.though all of them were not banditsof the classical Robin Hood type,'~who' took from the rich to give totale poor and never killed but inself-defence or jU,st revenge", there

••were many who conformed to theRobin Hood stereotype. They areall dead and forgotten now, but theirmemories live in the qallads, songsand anecdotes of our village people,as a part of' our rural folklore.

References:E. .J. Hobsbawm: Social Bandits and, Primitive Rebels: Studies in

Archaic Forms of Social Move-ments in the 19th and 20th Cen-turies: Illinois 1959.

St~phen Fuchs : Rebellious Prophets:A Study of Messianic Movementsin Indian Religions: Asia P. H-1965.

J. C. Price: The Chum' Rebellion of1799,. Only 30 copies of thisreport were printed. "I' have thehonour to submit in original anote which has been drawn upby 'Mr Price, the Settlement Offi-cer of Midnapur, from the oldrecords of that district, regard.ing certain occurrences' in 11799,and to recommend that thirtycopies may be printed" --:;Let1terfrom Commissioner of the Burd.wan Division to the Secretary,Government of Bengal, dated the14th July, 1874.

K. K. Datta: The Santal Insurrec-tion of 1855-57, Calcutta 1940.

E. G. Man: Sonthalia and the Son.thals, London 1867.

J. C. .lha: The Bhumij Revolt (1832-33); Delhi 1967. •

W. K. Firminger (ed): Bengal Dis-

J

i!Pproach, that would consist. in thearmed squads meting out punish.ment (which may involve annihihFt.ions) according to the desires of thelocal peasant masses which are to beknown on thoroughgoing investi-gations--all these things beinga means ojf entry among the pea-sant masses, so that such stepsshould be immediatel¥, followed bythe formation of the party unit and'the revolutionary peasant committee.

The Main Task In all cases however the central focusWhat ought to be the main task of of all the activities should be on the ,..

the party in the village? Obviously, elimination of the landlord class as aorganising peasants for the revolu- class (which is not to be understoodtion. The Party units should be as their physical liquidaltion).. If thisformed, co posed of vanguard ele- is not done, pf One follows the partfments of the poor and landless pea- line of mere annihilation of class ene·sants. These units should carry out mies, the revolutionary cadres would'the work of educating the peasantry be isolated from the peasant masses.with Mao Tse-tung thought-organise This is what happened'in Srikakulam,them for revolution. They should this is what happened in Midnapore,form revolutionary peasant commit- this is also the experience in Bir.tees led by poor and landless pea- bhum.sant.s. Simultaneously the party units In the Party Congress report thereshould 'form armed squads composed is nO line laid down about confronta-of peasant youths which will in tion with armed forces. J/Il~irbhumcourse of time provide the basis for in many areas the poor peasant andIthe formation of gueriUa units. landless labourer populatiop expect-The reason. for not calling these eel such armed confrontations. Butsquads "gueri'l1a units" is that it has except lor a few stich cases, no linebeen seen th3lt such units take time waS adopted in a general way aboutto acquire the character and the com- confroOlt~ngthe armed forces. Thepetenee that a guerilla unit should_~uns and rifles that had been seizedhave. This leads to overestimation of ",nerenot put to any use based onthe armed struggle of the paflty. After any systematic programme. The linethis stage is over the peasant com- that was given by the party wasmilJtee under the leadership of the to spread the annihilation campaignParty unit should take steps for start. far and wide with a view to defeatingi.ng struggle against the jotedars that the enemy strategy of "encirclementwould be aimed at taking away 'from and repression". Even after redthem their social and economic pow- areas were established in Srikakulam,er. The slogan should be to make Cham Mazumdar did not ask ~or .athe peasant commi>tteethe ultimate concentration of all' the forces againstauthority in all village-level matters. the repressive armed f01'cesolf the

This of course 'tvould invite attacks State, did not give direction ~or thefrom the class enemies and the State adoption of a military programme.apparatus. It would then be the task In his aflticle, "GueriIla warfare"of the armed squads to thwart and Charu Maoumdar did /IlQt give thedde3Jt these attacks (lindit is through slightest idea about what the armedthis practice that they would gain in forces of the State cou~d do to, thestrength. Depending on differences revolutionaries, and how the latterin the circumstances and the level of could fight back. In Birbhum it waspolitical consciouSonessamong the seen that the armed forces of thepeopJe, there would be an alternative State, instead IOf being weakened,

15

The lesson that is to be drawn is:tIhle.Line 10£ equating cla&s *rug~ewith annihilation of class enemies isbut a lin~ of terrorism, not of pea-sant revolutionary war. There hasalways been, there would always be,annihilation of class enemies in anylevolutionary struggle, but annihila-tion of class enemies cannot be ac-ceptable as the main political lineol <.tnycommunist party.

OCTOBER J4., 1972

expressed any differences about theannihilation programme was imme-diately branded as revisionist.

In thost' areas where the line wasapplied to the' letter, a very smallnumber of yC'1.ths frO\t, the poorand landless peasantry came to theIfore for taking active pirt in theannihilation programme. Among therest' there were various reactions ob-servable. pne of the typical reac-tions was to say, "Not bad. Let thisbegin. We shall join later". A'second whold say, "The rich wouldremain rich, the poor poor. Therewould never be power in the hands0lf the peasantry". About annihila-tions, some said, "Well served. Theywill now be taught a lesson". An.other section -said, "Could they beeliminated by this method? Whatthen is the good?" The peasant,did not accept the line that the annI-hilations were meant to liquidate thesocial and economic power of thejotedars. They did not take if astheir own fight. They wok itl as aline of action of the Party. Thanksto the initiative df the handful ofactivist'S from among the _peasantry,a large number of peasants gave shel-ler and food. But when the enemyreturned they said, "You better goelsewhere for your fight". The rela-tion betv•.een guerillas and the pea-sants never took the form of fish inwater. In certain other areas therevlolutionary workers unconsciou~ly

t.... deviated from Cham Mazumdar'sline and did not confine themselvesto the annihilation programme. Inthese areas, along with annihilations,the guerillas carried out such activi-ties as expropriation 0:£ the jotedars,burninlJ of documents, liquidationof scripts, forcejful occupation oflaond,fixation of minimum wage ratesetc. Itturned OUltthaI! in these areasthe peasant masses became relativelyacth'e; they identified themselvesSIOmewhatmore with ;.the 'strugg'leand even in some cases simultaneous-1y C0rl fron ted the armed forces.However thJese aCtivities could nJ>tbe carried \'ery far because the PaPtydid not have any line in the matter.

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(Let us recall the example of clandes-tine trade union activity in Chinabetween 1928-1948). It is also ne-cessary to criticise the emphasis thathas been laid on the Party being aparty of the poor peasant and land-less labourers, and on the al~egcdhold of revisionism on the WOl kingclass. The industrial working ehsshas to become the vanguard ct,1 therevolution and for that the Partyhas to work primarily among the vastmajority of the truly pauperisedworking class, leaving aside the rela-tively affluent sections of a class thatprovides Ithe basis for the operationsof the revisionist trade unions.Guerilla warfare is admissible inurban areas only when there wouldbe a mass upsurge of the workingclass and toili.ng peoples, as it was 1ll

1966 !for some time in Durgapur. Inall other situaJtions~that should beregarded as adventm'ism.

11

On Base AreasThe question of base area comes

from the recogni,tion of the unevendevelopment <>;fthe semi-feudal semi-colonial countfies. But for this un-even development, the que:;tion thatwould itave been relevant is that ofarmed.. uprising on a countrywidescale. In a recent document of theState Committee of West Bengal ithas been stated that there is no1much uneve,nness of development inthe country. It is this understandingthat has led ItO the line of scatteredguerilla fights and iCis this that gaverise to the idea of quick victory, c1the country being liberated in 1975.However, base areas are necessaryand indispensable as refuse in theface <:if white terror. Charu Mazoum-dar has rightly ohserved, the neces-sary precondhilln for the establish-ment of base areas is the 'fotmatlionof revolutionary committees hc:.tdc<lby poor peasants and landless labour-ers and under their guidance i!1vohe-ment of the entire peasa\1lt masses instruggle~. But i,t appeared frOjD hiswriting~ that he considered any rural,area siUitajjle for becQllling a base_area. But that it is not even think-

(OCTOBER 14, 1972

responsibility in the matter does notexhaust i,tself in just giving the callfor such movements. The Party'sduty is to organise them.

In certain areas df Birbhum pea-sant masses wanted to go forwardwith the struggle over harvests butaccording to the directions of ChantMazl.!mdar they were told that theparty or the guerillas had nothing todo about the matter. But last Octo-ber a call was given to launch suchmovements all over WeSlt Bengal-but as there was no preparation andas the Party did not take any res-ponsibility ~or organising the move-ment, the slogan remained just aslogan. .

The question of the working classand struggle in urban areas is onethat in practice the Party has neglect-ed most, SO that the movementhas remained isolated from the vastindustrial working class of the coun-try. It appeared from Charu Mazum-dar's wri,tings that the only task ofthe working class front was to orga-njse guerilla units among them tocarry out the campaign of annihila-tion. Following that lea<! the Cal-cutta Commi ttee adopted the pro-gramme of annihilating businessmen,usur€rs, blackmarketeers, etc. From

Mau Movements there -on began a spate 0;£ anmhila-In one article Chaw Mazumdar tions of so-called class enemies in all

wrote ,that open mass organisation urban areas; and there was left nowork was an obstacle <to the genesis difference in nature between the mo-and spread of guerilla warfare. In velUent in urban and rural areas.an inner-party document it has been No distinction was drawn betweenclaimed that this line had been ac- ,the various small and big left parties ..claimed as correct by Peking Radio. As a }'esul,t, from ordinary workersIt is however not true that Peking of such parties to major leaders be-Radio ev-er made any reference to_ became targets of the annihilationthis article and it was irresponsible programme and the.ge activities wereto involve the' Chinese party in this hailed in the pages of Deshabratifashion. It was arising~ out of this and Liberatiol1. Some party work-erroneous line that Charu Mazumdar ers gOt so enthusiastic that they an-criticised those workers who partici- nou,nced such a programme as one ofpated in a struggle over the paddy annihilatinf; any voter.harvests. The Committee thinks that the

There is nO question about it that party re{.Juires to get involved in allguerilla warfare will necessarily have kinds (~ working class struggles withto be linked with mass movements~ a view to making them more mili ..Of course such movements will not tant, to organise armed resistance tohave anything ,to do with bourgeo+s all repression and if necessary tolegalistic movements and the party's organise clandestine trade unions.

selected one ai"ea alter another andcleared them up: In Birbhumwherever the cadres took courage tochallenge the police and the military,they got ,the enthusiastk SlUpportof the people. The' lesson _ 01- Bir-bbum in this respect would seem tobe that ChaUJ Mazumdu was wrongtQ think that the new man would beborn through. annihljJ3Ition of clasS!enemies; hJs slogan that "one who...has not made his hand red with thebrood of the enemy is not a commu-

~t" was also ~ron:g. The newman is born' in the fire f)·f classstruggle in which one acts accordi.ngto Marxism-Leninism and Mao Tse-tung thought. It is _also not truethat guerilla warfare can sta11t onlythrough the process of annihilationof class enemies. I't can start in In.anyother ways. Comrade Babulal whogave his l~e in an armed encounterwith the police-did he not contri-bute to the beginning of guerillawarfare?

It is true that lately CharuMazumdar himself 'criticised the lineoif annihilation as "mili·tant .eeono-mism". But this criticism was mademost casually without any adequateanalysis or investi.gation.

Economic Planning In China

able to have base areas in the proxi.mity of cities should be clear fromthe !act that even after five years ofthe beginning of armed 8tmggle inthe Naxalbari area it has not beenpossible to form any red bases any-where. Some such areas did existfor brief periods but they were allsmashed up by the enemy. The ut-most that there has been may Lccalled guerilla lones. There wassome success only in the Sriicakl1lamarea but the reason why even thatfailed is primarily the absence of anypolitical and military programme J"e-garding base areas and the liberationarmy. It would Jippear that onewould have to pUt greater emphasis011 remote areas and take ·fresh ac..COlNltof the conditions of terraUl.

There has not been any people'sarmy; there have only been somegroups of guerillas. E"en in thisrespect there hetsbeen a great deal Oifexaggeration, Quite ~ten one hasdescribed as guerillas people who

, have not even left Itheir homes andcome under the discipline of anyunit, just by virtue of their having beenmembers df strictly temporary groupsthat were formed for carrying outannihilations.

Charu Mazumdar was of coursequite right that the people's libera-tion army has to be mainly composed01 peasants. Butt his line that inevery case the command of a guerillaunit has to be a poor or landlesspeasant appears to be mistaken. Itis mechanistiC to think that if thecommanders are of peasant class

ON a tour in the Spring of 1972 I wasprivileged to be given some infor-

mation about eeonom'icmanagement inChina: These notes recount what Iwas able to make out about the fram-in~ of an annual plan of productionand distribution.

OCTOBER 14, 19i2

background that would by itse1,fbring ab9ut leadership of that class.It is Ithe_revolutionary peasant com-mittees that would give leadership tothe peasants' struggles. For thisreason Ithe party -units have- to becomposed-of poor and landless pea-sa~s and the peasant committeeshave to be under the leadership ofsuch peasants and this makes irrele-vant,the question 0:£ leadership of thearmy commanders. It has been theexperience in Birbhum that as moreand more peasants join the struggle,there develops an increasing urgeamong the youths from working classand petty bourgeois backgrounds tojoin with them. While the libera-tion army has necessarily to be com- .posed mainly of peasants, these ele-ments could also be included in theranks of the army, while strengthen-ing the work of political educationwithin ·the army. It was seen inBirbh!lm that these non.peasant ele-ments were quite capable of fighting;if they were properly trealted itshoufd have been-possible to' for~quite a strong army in Birbhum.But this human resource was allowe<Ito go waste because o! the line thatthe army must be composed exclu-sively Otf peasants.

The undivided Central Commit-·tee of the Panty has never met evenonce since the meeting th31ttookplace immediately after the PaJ1tyCongress in 1970. In reply to theState Committee Of Bihar, CharuMaz.umdargave the explanation (andthis wasrepeated in a West Bengal State

JOAN ROBIN£ON

AdministrationThere are several phrases always

used in connection with the systemofeconomic planning-"Two initiatives,of the top and of the bottom"; "Fromthe bottom' up and from the topdown"; and "Leaving leeway". The

Committee document) 'that thisdone on grou.nds of security. Butproblem of security will alwaysthere with every revolutionary movement in any country. That nmeant, tha·t ought not to mean,stoppage .of functioning of the atral Committee. At least five mbers of .the Central Committee ba:been expelled for their differenwith Charu Mazumdar withoutmeeting taking place. The atmos..:phere lor inner-panty stl'ugglebeen totally vitiated by the at titof branding any difference wCharu Mazumdar as revisionisThe documents issued by the BiState Committee. and by the WBengal-Bihar-Orissa Border Regior,Committee were condemned withtheir ~eing even discussed:i.nCentral Committee. This madener-party discussion impossibleendangered the very existence ofParty.

The Party suffers lrom extremdogmatism, rigidity a~d left devia~ion. T~ese get expressed in regar~lUg as equally reactionary allother left parties, falling to explothe contradictions within the rulingclass, failing to work on the contra••.dictions between different regioocomponents of the armed forceswell as the contradictions betweenofficer class.and the lower ranks, •not recognising. the existence of-anational bourgeoisie. AIl 4this boils:down ,to antagonisms with.a1I ana;::alliance with none.

last means allowing room forments as work proceeds.

The most important link in th~chain of administration is the Province.As well as the old historical Provinces.there are three cities and three Auto-nomousRegionslincludingTibet).which