I thank you for the detailed and important report on the Party meeting on the lessons of the historic 1915 Ghadar uprising for the communist movement today, which took place on February 21, 2015 in Delhi.
I thank you for the detailed and important report on the Party meeting on the lessons of the historic 1915 Ghadar uprising for the communist movement today, which took place on February 21, 2015 in Delhi.
The organization of such meetings enriches the life blood of the party and enriches the revolutionary movement. If there is an important lesson to be drawn from the experience of the 20th century, it is that there must be a continuous study of the theory of development of society along with revolutionary practice. These must go hand in hand, first of all to ensure the victory of the revolution and further to prevent the possibility of counter-revolution. This work has to go on now, in the era of capitalist encirclement and in the era of socialist revolution as well. The study of history becomes part and parcel of revolutionary theory and practice. That said, it then becomes our duty to study the history of important and landmark events in own country and milieu, and derive from this the essence of revolutionary struggle of yesteryear in order to orient the work for today. In the case at hand, this is the great 1915 uprising, led at that time many Indians from several sections of the society, as well as Indian people who have lived and worked abroad and were filled with revolutionary zeal for the liberation of their motherland. The centenary commemoration of that event which was in the middle of World War I, is at a time when the world is being pushed towards a possible World War III by the present day imperialist powers, which continue to be driven by their thirst for world domination and conquest. During his address, Com. Prakash Rao pointed out that during the 1915 events, there were competing trends in the communist camps, one championed by Lenin, whose summary was that imperialism was the highest state of capitalism, and hence must be combated by all the working peoples of the world, while the opposing camp was one that spoke about the defence of the motherland, and capitulated to the bourgeois line and sent working peoples to their deaths at each other’s hands.
The thesis of the organizers of the 1915 uprising happened to agree with that of Lenin, and the reaction of the British rulers was to impose draconian and fascistic laws to eventually perforce destroy the uprising and drag India into a period of fascist violence. Such being the case, it is important today to understand where India stands, who the rulers are, what their methods of rule are, and how they continue to perpetuate the system that oppresses the millions. Life experience shows that the overthrow of this system can only be facilitated if there is a professional party that will be able to lead the revolution and lead to the emancipation of the people. Crucial to this also is the deliberation on what constitutes a modern human life, and how there can be constituional guarantees of these pre-conditions. The present day Constitution stands are a negation of all these, as it is the instrument of the oppression, and has to be replaced by a new one that provides these guarantees in deed, and not in words. At this time, when we remember the martyrs of that uprising and all others of the past, we must remind ourselves that there will be many more in the future and we are ones who will be the trailblazers. Let the work of the party stand as a testimonial to these efforts.
Sincerely,
B. Ananthanarayan, Bengaluru