First Published: In Toilers' Front, July
1947.
Digital Version: Provided by the
Revolutionary Communist Party of
India, April 2020.
The “Leftist” protagonists of the transference of power to the Indian bourgeoisie advance the following arguments in justification of their rank betrayal of the masses.
They say: “If at the present moment before the transference of power, we give the Indian bourgeoisie a fight, the British imperialists will then make it an excuse for not quitting India. Therefore, we must now keep quiet and see that the power is transferred to the Indian bourgeoisie as quickly as possible, and then work for the mass revolution.”
This argument which is a mixture of ignorance and fraud has, unfortunately, fooled a lot of people who sincerely want British imperialism to quit India. They get scared with the prospect of British imperialism lingering on the shores of India on the pretext of quelling anarchy and disorder.
Willful distortion and confusion being rampant, it will be fruitful to examine this counter-revolutionary canard, this purposeful falsehood spread by the Leftists about the transference of power.
First, British imperialism needs no excuse to stay in India. It is there and it will be there in the so-called independent India. It will be in Pakistan, it will be in Hindusthan and also in various Rajasthans that the “sincere and honest” (according to Gandhiji) British imperialists will create in India before they leave. The too obvious political domination will vanish, but the economic exploitation of India by British imperialism will continue, as both the British and the Indian bourgeoisie have agreed to a plan of collaboration for the joint exploitation of the masses of India.
Secondly, British imperialism is not relinquishing its political hold on India out of love, it is doing so; being compelled by the pressures of world forces which are totally beyond its control. British imperialism realises it well that unless it relinquishes political power, it will not be able to win over the Indian bourgeoisie for economic collaboration. Therefore, those who raise the bogey of British imperialism, not leaving India because of mass unrest, are not only not Leftists, but are pure and simple agents of the Indian bourgeoisie. Their whole game is to see that the Indian bourgeoisie peacefully takes over power from the hands of the British imperialists. In this respect the Hindusthani Socialists are serving the Indian bourgeoisie with exemplary loyalty.
Dr. Rammanohar Lohia advised the “Freedom Group” in Bombay that “all support should be given to the Congress so that it could be strong enough to take the charge of affairs from the British when the power was transferred.”
The meaning is too obvious to need clarification. And Mr. Jayaprakash Narayan, the Gandhi-backed “Socialist”, even today when his party has changed its nomenclature from Congress Socialist Party to Socialist Party (of course, it is nothing but a political trickery) has made the following wise remark on June 27. He said, “At such time only, the existence of a strong Socialist Party within the Congress might save the masses of India.”
“At such time” surely refers to this present period of transference of power from the hands of the British imperialists to the hands of the Indian bourgeoisie.
So, a Socialist Party within the Congress, the party of the bourgeoisie, will save the masses of India!
Were we wrong when we said that the change in the name of the Congress Socialist Party to the Socialist Party is just a political chicanery?
The masses are fast moving away from the Congress which has already started its anti-mass drive with fury. The name, Congress Socialist, sounds ugly and inimical to the ears of the masses. Therefore, the name has been changed to fool them but the essence of “Congress Socialism” remains just the same as before.
These Socialists whose sole object in life is to see the peaceful transference of power to the Indian bourgeoisie, are busy spreading confusion everywhere, so that the masses may hesitate to prepare for capture of power and under the cover of this confusion, the Indian bourgeoisie may comfortably settle down in power.
These counter-revolutionary Socialists are the most dangerous hurdle that the masses of India will have to tackle before they can come to a death-grip with the Indian bourgeoisie.