Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 22:24:12 -0700
From: IPSG <ipsg-AT-maestro.com>
To: Indian Progressive Study Group <ipsg-AT-maestro.com>
Subject: India's 50th Anniversary - Ending the Legacy of Division


Status:   

INDIA'S 50TH ANNIVERSARY: ENDING THE LEGACY OF DIVISION

The year 1997 marks the 50th anniversary of the independence of
India (and most of South Asia) from colonial rule. It also marks
the 50th anniversary of the "mother of all divisions" inflicted
on the peoples of India and South Asia.

The unity of the people of any country is the single most
important factor for their collective well-being and advancement.
As such, the legacy of divisions in South Asia has played a
significant role in the numerous disasters heaped upon its
peoples in these past fifty years.

Today, as Indians sum-up and evaluate the developments that have
occured since 1947, it is only painfully evident that the
numerous possibilities that were given rise to by independence
have not been realised in substantial measure.  Besides the
serious under-development, poverty, massacres and wars, the
legacy of the divisions of 1947 and since then has been a
complete negation of the peoples of South Asia, both
internationally and nationally.  Starting with the partition and
the division of Punjab and Bengal, every conceivable difference
amongst the people has been inflamed to divide them further, so
that they do not develop a common identity and pursue common
aims, either as a society or even as a collective.

These divisions have continued unabated since 1947, sanctioned
and intensified by the economic and political institutions left
behind by the colonialists.  These institutions have since become
anachronistic both in Europe and in India - and have entered into
a period of chronic crisis.  To tide over this enduring crisis,
India's rulers have introduced new divisions alongside the old
ones.

Fifty years later, India is at a turning point: there is the
possiblity for the people to take charge and create a new
political and economic paradigm favouring their collective
interests.  There is also the possibility that the present ruling
circles, in their pursuit of narrow aims and in their
desperation, will plunge the divided people of India into the
most tragic chapter of our history yet.

On January 24, 1947, on the eve of partition, Sir Norman P.A.
Smith, Director of the Intelligence Bureau of the Indian
goverment wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Wavell as follows:

 "From the British angle, the game so far has been well
  played.Both the Congress and the League have been brought
  into the Central Government.  The Indian problem has been
  thereby placed into its appropriate plane of communalism.
  An opportunity for orderly evacuation (by Britain) now
  presents itself.  The fullest advantage must be taken of
  our present breathing space.  Secretary of State's control
  over civil officers should be abrogated at the earliest
  possible moment. ...gesture of this kind will help to keep
  the problem on its correct communal plane....Grave communal
  disorder must not disturb us into action which would
  reintroduce anti-British agitation.  The former is a
  natural, if ghastly, process tending in its own way to the
  solution of the Indian problem."

(Quoted by J. N. Dixit in Anatomy of a Flawed Inheritance: Indo-
Pak Relations 1970-1994).

Clearly, the British had prepared their game plan, and the
solution to their "Indian problem" transpired according to this.
Tragically, the people of India could not avert the outcome that
befell them.

Today, we are living through a period of preparation for a much
worse tragedy - if the people permit it.  Fortunately, the
outcome is not yet written in stone.  This time, people can and
must turn the situation around in their favour.

Of immediate concern is that atop the smoldering old divisions,
intense new divisions have been introduced that call for a
collective repudiation.

Lately, the rulers of India have decided that it is the interests
of India's "consumers" that are of paramount importance.  In
doing so, and in promoting the economic policies of
liberalisation and privatisation, an estimated 250 million
"consumers" have come to represent India.  The remaining 700
million have-nots have apparently ceased to exist in this
discourse.  The Indian economy, by definition, must be geared
towards meeting the needs and the well-being of all its people.
This division based on "consumption power" is self-serving and
pernicious.  Its promotion and the accompanying policy measures
must be rejected in the interests of all the people of India,
including the "consumer" minority.  The middle-strata, to which
these "consumers" belong, must take the lead and demand that the
economy must serve all and not just a few.

Today, the United Front, the Congress(I) and the BJP are
institutionalizing the division of the Indian polity between
secular and communal.  The conception of a divisible polity is
the basis of a system of  hierarchical rights and an arbitrary
privilege distribution system.  It is the basis of negating
universal rights because the modern notion of a polity requires
the recognition of equal rights and duties for all members of
society.  Such divisions of the polity into minority and
majority, with privileges based on these considerations parallel
the preparation of the "communal plane" that the British had
accomplished before 1947.  Secular or religious, every individual
of India is part of its single polity and anyone who promotes the
interests of one section to the detriment of the other must be
rejected for lacking a vision for a modern India.

A most important recognition of our times is that the people of
India are the victims of divisions and not the cause.  More
importantly, they are the ones who can and must overcome these
divisions to open the path for India's progress.  The work that
lies ahead is to enable people to overcome their marginalization
and participate in the political life of society beyond the role
of "voting cattle" and to help build their unity and identity for
a common purpose.

The fiftieth anniversary year is an opportune time for sobre
reflection on a most important question: what effect have these
divisions of the people and of the political forces in India had
on the great cause of the emancipation of the Indian people?
India's women feel oppressed, its peasants feel oppressed, its
workers feel oppressed, its youth see a bleak future, its tribals
and dalits can stand their oppression no more, its nationalities
feel oppressed, its minorities feel oppressed, and even its
majority feels oppressed.  If this is the result of these
divisions, it forewarns us to make a complete break with that
past and unite to build a common program to overcome these ills.

The unity of the people begins with the individuals and
organizations who are working to put the interests of its people
at the centre of all developments.  In modern times, these
interests appear in the form of societal, collective and
individual interests.  Objectively, individuals and organizations
are striving (both spontaneously as well as in a planned manner)
to take control of their social and natural environment.

A major obstacle to building the unity of the people is the
sectarian and narrow aims that the ruling circles incite,
promote, finance and reward as an integral part of maintaining
their stranglehold on wealth and power.  It is not a minor
problem to overcome these entrapments.

On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of India's
independence from Britain, the AIPSG is organizing a
conference to highlight some of these questions.

This question of unity has also had crucial bearing on the
history of the various peoples movements of the past fifty years
that have sought to tackle the problems of rights and political
power.  In order to contribute to the summation of the struggles
of the last five decades, a part of the conference will be
devoted to a discussion of the problem of the unity among
political forces and activists.

The AIPSG invites anyone wishing to participate in the conference
or present papers to contact us immediately.


Association of Indian Progressive Study Groups
Earl Hall, Columbia University
New York, NY 10027

Email: ipsg-AT-maestro.com






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