offend the Congress? The' anti-social' the left patties led by the CP(M The Play's The Thing elements who blocked the entrance to in Calcutta and ate said to have the theatre carried Chhatra Parishad and e'd not to "broaden' their Ide Attacks by Congress supporters <>n Youth Congress flags and manhandled movement (where is the movem theatre groups outside Calcutta have the PLT group did not make the slight- save their cadres from attacks by been frequent. though not publicised. est attempt to hide their political affi- fascist" forces. The July 20, police raid on a group call- liation. It is cne step forward, of coune, ed Silhoutte, which used to stage short It is time resolutions passed at such the CP(M) obsession that any' rn IS , and sharp open-air political plays ir\ protest meetings stopped urging the Chief turistic' action would lead to the 'd not· Curzon Park every Saturday, highlighted Minister or Governor or Prime Minister. being banned and t~e I rompts the threat to culture.. One young man or President to redress their gnevances would have to go a team died in the lathi-charge and stampede. and 'punish the guilty'. ground perforce. Now they have than seI About 33 people were arrested. The Chief Minister and . others are loped a touching concern for their of these Stage and )film artistes formed a birds of the same feather and are them- With such ipeople around, Mr main a July 20 Committee and several well" selves guilty of evil policeis. Why Dutt and Mr Mrinal Sen shouldn Obvio known actors and directors staged pro- make people believe that they are above too optimistic about any effective to be a test plays and recited poems in Curzon the pa~ty or government? It is with front. It would be better, perha Park on August 24. In between the their encouragement. indirect or direct. cultiv~te material succe~s, as the The soc Government brought a case against that the system operattes as it does to- does, than go in for the materialist the sen mies" ti Duswapner ,Nagar,i directed and pro- day. and it is a hell of a system. The pretation of history with all the petition-mongering. ,the angui~hed sur- sities it spells. duced by Mr Utpal Dutt. Mr Dutt was prise )at 'poliGe Iaction' a~e naive. to finding it difficult, it is said. to book posh put a charitqble interpretation on them. theatre houses in central and south Cal- A Red Herring The cynical might. however, think that. govern] cutta. So he decided to move north. some of the organisers of these meet- ried pe the home of Bengali theatre. and book- ings are keen to keep any confrontation Reports of searches by tax auth allowin ed the famous. ancient Star Theatre with the rulers on a non-antagonistic of big hauls of gold and jewellery either. for a show on August 26. All the 900 plane. It is this desire to be friends unaccounted money have become have c tickets were sold out in two hours. But with top men or women of the adminis- ring the past few days almost a f capital the Chhatra Parishad and the Youth tration that takes the sting out of their of the daily news bag like the prove But wl Congress went into loud action and did ministerial promises and stories of not allow Dutt and his troupe to per- opposition. in so It is true, as Mr Utpal Dutt pointed dais and corruption. The sudden bigger form. These two organisations of the out at the meeting, that resistance to burst of alertness shown by all still 1'0 Indian National Congress have now de-. the growing attacks on cultmie must guardians of law is certainly most cided to fight it out in Calcutta, not that tl come. BUt (t begs one obviousques anythiJ because they have dev~loped the be part of a general democratic move- What were they doing all not courage of convictions but because ment. But, alas. when one thinks of be years? Smuggling or minting bI they know 'tHat !the administra"; 'democratic movement'- in Wes't Bengal. of a 1 money is no new phenomenon. ButI tion, including the police. is behind one feels like taking to opium grown in how all this was allowed 'to pass right them. fJ'heir patrons would npt mind Turkey. the nose of the authorities and, wo such diversions from the internal splits In Cooch Behar ,there was big even with the connivance of the pol' Po festering the two organisations. trouble between the CRP and students. staff. The shady operators of such What's to be done? Stage and film Many government buildings went up have in the mean time developedall Th, people met at the Academy of Fine Arts in flames. Troops were called out, a cur- expertise and the contacts that e nothiI and passed a resolution or two. The few was imposed. The situation was ex- contn one moved by Mr Utpal Dutt described plosive. In separate clashes between smooth functioning of their busin The Ministet of State for Finance, what the attack on the Star Theatre. assO- the Youth Congress and the CP (M) and ciated with the name of Girish Ghosh, at Mathabhanga. one CP (M) leader K. R. Ganesh, himself has conceded fuse as an attack on Bengali culture. .l-le was stabbed to death. and another, a the smugglers have now set up Last made, however. a rather curious state- former MLA. is in a critical condition. powerful political contacts and have West ment-that he was not prepared to be- The We~t Bengal Government sent two developed a system of tapping the lieve that the raiders were conscious Ministers, both of whom had been re- phones of customs officials to secure politica.l workers-because any conscious turned from '~och Behar. and they telligence about raids. etc. It is ra political worker would know that such were in the funeral procession of the difficult to believe that the autho' OUl an !\Ltack was in violation of what they killed teacher. Our young men. it did not know what exactly was hap Cf! professed to believe and practise under seems, are taken in by these tricks of ing. Bu~ if there were any honest the Constitution. Did Mr Dutt, in his the stage. and they quietened down. cial-a faSt disappearing breed, th accustomed subtle way, want not to Following the Cooch Behat jncidents, -in these departments, he naturally

2 to keep his enthusiasm on leash into the news department of a Calcutta walk on the some sensitive toes. daily to get information about a staff re- Talking About a pretetence of an effort is being porter who wrote a story of how a young to undo all this, And Mr Ganesh girl was kidnapped from Ballygunje sta- Population-I f is thinking of leading a band of tion and raped by some local goondas who rahis before smugglers' residences had "links with the youth front of the ASOK MITRA e auspicious birthday of Mahatma Congress", They became furious when i on October 2. His sense of con- the newsmen present there refused to dis- HOW did they come to have the is certainly appreciable, if only it close the name of the reporter concerned. families they have? L has only ot border on the ridiculous. What Mr Mukherjee and his followers were one child, a son, M a daughter and C Is an all-powerful Minister to head reported to have threatened them of the two. both sons. of peaceful volunteers rather consequences if reports of a similar nature It's curious, said M. you who people send officials into the residences were published in the future. 'the pages (If your paper with at least se people and arrest 'them will re- The, other day a cor- one hilarious child a day, sometimes as. a classic enigma. respondent of the Times of India was ar- many as four, should have imposed such viouslythe searches etc are meant rested in Uttar Pradesh. He had en- rectitude upon yourself in real life. a kind of ploy to dupe the public. raged the police and bureaucrats with What on earth was the matter, L? socialistgovernment is so careful of his reports of atrocities against the Hari- My mother. who died the other day sensibilities of its ••capitalist ene- jans in U.P. particularly in Banda dis- at 90, bore eight children to my father, ••that it has virtually forfeited any trict. The police action has been re- L tumbled out. She brought them up city to do anything against them. peated. This time the editor and printer all, and after them their children. To thepublic just cannot be let into this of a local fortnightly were hounded out' the day of her death she was never . fact.A show has to be put uplthat the of Banda because they had printed two alone, always cared for, looking after emment, while penalising the sal'a- special issues criticising police atrocities in her turn all her grandchildren, either people and the working class is not in the district, One of the two brothers visiting them in their homes or asking 'ng the bigger sharks to go free of the editor was locked up in jail on a them over. She died happy, surround- er. If the reports of such searches murder charge, while the other was char- ed by all of us, never a cloud on. her u- e any message, it is this that the ged with criminally assaulting a seven- face, always wanted. We have only re italists too have not been spared. year-old girl. The printer of the jour- one, K and I. the son is growing up, al whoare those who have been netted nal was summoned to the police station now more in his own world than ours. so far? Only the small ones. The and asked to surrender the manuscript t" Id yet I must say we are blessed that .er capitalists and the bigger thieves of the article. This has become a routine he cares for us and we for him. I real- roam about with all the confidence practice. In another case in the same ly don't know what made us want only 1- t the government just canndt do district the owner of a local press was one child and no more and Ii 1. hing against them. And they could threatened arrest if he did not produce can't say that we don't feel lonely some- e be more correct. It is all a kind the original manuscript of another anti- times. Ever so often I have to take k a red herring. administration pamphlet. K out on long trips, like the marvellous e- When the Times of India man was held, one in the Andaman ,and Nioobar Is- el' with the wide publidty in the Press and lands I was telling you about. But I Police And The Press the large number of protests. the least wish I knew whether we wanted an- g the Government should have done, some other child. .Is people thought, was to punish the guilty We wanted two, said C, taking;, the e in India is gagged is officers involved. They did not understand words out of L's mouth. Two we e the major dailies are that the police in the same district would thought were decidedly more fun, and trolled by big busines~ houses. But not have dared to aq in this mannner although we didn't want to be over- l' at is new is the intense victimisation unless they were assured of the strong- fruif:ful imd multiply, we thought a harassment of journalists who re- est bacinkg. With increasing resort to lone 'child would make problems, .for e to toe the line of the ruling party. police aid to help it rule, the Congress himself and for us. He would want t week,the Youth Congress leader and has given the police licence to do as company which we might not be able at BengalMinister, Mr Subrata Mukher- they like. to give always, and ayas are not the , made a forced entry with his aides Nor is this restricted to Uttar Pradesh. best company to have all the time. We From Ahmedabad. Gujarat, it is report- wanted to be happy and we thought we r sole a?;ent in Ban?;ladesh ed that 25 journalists who had gone to could bring up two, and yet M could ALANTIKA BAI G H A R see the Governor were badly manhand- do what she wanted to do outside of led by the police. The journalists had home. So there you are We don't for Ban?;labazar gone to protest against the police investi- a moment regret what we have had, .} ~ation of one of their colleagues. but perhaps it's too late now to have. 7. 1974 FRONTIER another and we are not sure we wanted terjected. The number of children one I thought every first pe a third. A third would probably tie should have is one's own problem and world was a Chinese quipped us down more than we would wish. one bears one's own cross in this Do stop fooling L, snap You would laugh if I told you of my matter. It depends on so many things: xious to develop his point. Y, reasons, put in M.. My parents had the land, one's family business, one's ber Hemingway saying 'in four children, exactly half of L's. My 'work' 'thoughts of old age-whatever begins a rottenness'. The co elder sister was seven years ahead of you may say old age pension or social way of reckoning, leaving m' ,me, 'my younger four years in front, security is no substitute at all for breath- of the argument in this spaces then I and then my brother came eight ing one's last surrounded by one's rela- of ours, is to compute the Gr years later. ThatJ wa,s good 'spacing, tions and grandchildren-and even when as the difference between the I always thought, and we were all fair- one has no property to bequeath one and the Death Rate per year. ly settled in life before my father was still thinks of an heir who will look after metric rates of growth, here is sixtyfive (he lived up to 88). He was one's widow. It's not so easy to leave chart which illustrates how m brought up in the Bengal positivist tra- entirely to providence the woman one it takes a population to double dition and had a horror of looking for has loved all his life. One's country rates of growth per year: hdp. I married in 1940 and .oud figures last in Ithis kind of reckoning .. daughter came on the eve of the Bengal L's eyes lighted up at this point. You Growth rate famine of 1943. The famine and the know what they thought about sex in per year Japanese war were a traumatic experi- Victorian England, he said, dirty .but o ence and when we thought of another necessary, although the Queen herself O.~ child the Communal Riots of 1946 were was a full blooded and ardent sort and 1.0 upon us and then Independence in found the Prince Consort wanting some- 1.5 August 1947. Bliss was it in those days times. Her private journals, as you 2.0 to be alive and working for one's own must have read, were largely destroyed 2.5 government (L & C beamed wistfully) by Ithe scandalised progeny. England 3.0 and we thought a second child could. in those days was steadily losing her 3.5 wait. As we thought it was time around brave sons, for the Queen and Empaiah 1950 the Pakistan devaluation came, in the deserts of Africa and the man- Before you talk about the followed by the riots and a second surge grove swamps of Malay. Although sex why don't 'you, M, Itell ~s s of inflation that did not abate. By 1956 was dirty, it was to a person like Lady. what happened in the past? PUt we thought it was too late, and in the Hillingham necessary. Responsibility so Like most countries in the mealntime the daughter had grown up weighed her down! And ,so in her own began, India's population was so well after our heart that we didn't words, she would close her eyes, open stationary, or grew at a snail' want another. her legs and think of England. But I if at all, for close on four c We have all given our own private do not think people would close their W. H. Moreland attempted an reasons, but what were our public rea- legs merely on the thought of India and of India's population at lthe . sons? L tumbled out again. .Didn't we the desperate year of 2001. Akbar. The celebrated Fifth R have any thought for the country, You are so irreverent and destructive, the Permanent Settlement and about India's teeming millions, of which L. chimed in the other two. Let's have mate of Francis Buchanan Gyan Chand had already made a by. some coffee on the Foundation and around the first decade of the n' word, about her possible food problem then get on with the job to see whether century hinted at populations that and her limi~s 'of growth. ' Were we 2001 will be jolly or, as you say, des- not much larger than in Akbar's so wrapped up in our own debit and perate. In short, for about four centuri credit that India didn't enter at all in certainly many more even pr our reckoning? What would be tbe The Prospect as of Present the number of births in India, ta point then of our writing a book on the I don't believe in jingoism, said C, rough decades with the smooth, consequences of rapid population growth? after the coffee things had been clear- less equalled the number of dea Whom would we convert and how? And ed, but it fills me with some pride that other words, the crude birth rate why would they be converted, unless, almost every sixth person in the world about the same as the crude death they had turned philistines already like today is an Indian. Pundits say that until about 1921 over large s us? the world's population in mid-1973 was time. There was practically little One could see L was already figuring roughly 3,860 million and India's was and the age structure. too, was out sic!esplitJting cartoons in his mind. about 600. China has about 800 mil- constant over time. India had, I have often wondered whether one lion, which makes every fifth person in demographer would say, a sta really cares a damn, or even gives half the world a Chinese, but it's possible population. It had also what a thought, for the world, or his country that the proportion would be slightly called a precariously stable po in taking decisions on this thing, C in- higher. with a combination of what one FRONTIER

I have been thinking of falling back to person nl levelsof fertility and cons- precarious but what one would call the Aundh Road in Poona, but maybe, uipped L, of morlality. This led to a ,stably stable. in another ten or fifteen years' time, that snapped growingat a very low cons- . Up to 1921, therefore, India had a is, long before I suppose I die, Bombay nt. You of growth. And because of precariously stable and stationary popu- will be upon us there, too. 'in the ncy of the factors of growth, lation with little absolut~ growth or Had India's growth rate of the decade 'he comm Itrucluredid not undergo any change in its are structure. The year 1921-31 obtained in 1973,. C resumed, ng mlgra 1921 was the watershed or as a Census it would have taken 63 years again to spaceship, do you mean by the age struc- Commissioner said, the Great Divide. In- double the population 9f 600 million. the Gro' liked L. dia's population began to accelerate after 1921 and the gap between births and Had it been that of the decade 1941-51 ~n the Bi the ralio that persons in a cer- deaths began to widen. What is more, it would still have taken about 55 years group,say 5-9, 10-14, 15- the gap between births and deaths be- to double. But now we seem to be in 9 or any other grouping that gan to accelerate after 1951 with ea<;h a tearing hurry to get there by 200 I. d Ihink of, bear to the total decade until 1971. This is what demo- I don't see, interposed M, why you al a given time, continued graphers call the demographic gap in should sound so funeral. C. Humankind ~ar: I slableor stationary population the period of demographic transition be- has not exhausted all its ingenuity or re- . s remain practically constant tween a precariously stable population silence just yet. Would you really like n 10 each other, also in res- and, hopefully for us, a stably stable to get back to 1921 after all? In which each se~. But should either population. Let us have a look at the way did India profit by four centuries 'Iy rale or mortality rate begin figures: of stationary population? I-suggest you e over time, then the age stmc- reflect on it for a moment. With prac- ld also begin to change with Population Percentage tically zero population growth over such tape, what demographers call a Year of India decade variation a long time, Indians were far poorer, whichwould slrike at the sfabie 1901 238,396,000 famished, less prosperous and in every nary character of the popu- 1911 252,093,000 + 5.75 way far worse off than they are today, 1921 251,321 ,000 - 0.31 in spite of your prospect of doubling I what you meant by a ·'preca- 1931 278,977,000 +11.00. in 28 years. Don't you think, if India liable population' a little while 318,661 ,000 +14.22 tries hard enough, she can keep much out the 1941 edL. 361 ,088,000 +13.31 ahead all the time of the problems that ell ~s so 1951 youfor noticing the adverb, L, 439,235,000 +21.51 her population growth can create? Why pasn put 1961 on 10 say. I used it with a 547,950.000 +24.7.4 should you then choose to be such a in the wo 1971 I and ralher primitive situation dismal prophet? I don't really think A stable population can be I believe I could now come back to my that the situation calls Ifor tearing of Iy slable and stably stable. It argument about possible rates of growth hair and gnashing of teeth, as you seem precariousso long as both the and the time it would take India to dou- to suggest. rate and mortatity Irate lare ble her present population, said C. As I do really think you are begging the hould one of them suffer from you can see it took India apout 63 years question, M, came C's unruffled voice. Ind usually it i'3 mortality that to double her population from 1901. And And I would not like you to feel frigh- lufferfrom assault first, the stabi- now in 1974 with a population of over tened either by the prospect we are just ea way. Then perhaps things 600 million it will) take, unless the grow- discussing, as the testiness in your voice :tohappen and fertility begins to the rate declines, thalt is, something hap- suggests.. We shall :pJl,esently discuss Then over a span of time both pens dramatically to her birth rate, re- our 50ciar and economic choices, and and mortality play hide and ducing the gap between it and the death they must be quite a few, not all of them each other with different rates rate, which is already low and still de- equally frightening or desperate. You e and so the difference be- clining, India will have about 1200 mil- must remember that in 1921 or at any

them keeps I '~uctuating, some~ lion of population just at the turn of tht earlier point of time we were never mas- . e violently, over decades in century, that is, around 2001. ters of our destiny as we are today. But nce of which the age structure This seems to make sense in terms of, now after 1947 and in the year 1973 we ugh a variety of pinches and say. my city, Bombay, said L. I have have a different situation where we have like Ihe peristalsis of food in been living in Botnbay since 1947 and tasted the fruits of economic and social tines. When public health and the city used to be so spacious and full growth and yet they might elude us if care at last manage to peg of elbowroom then. And now with each we are not careful. We have just heard at a steady low level and fer- year that passes you have a physical L wail about Bombay. I certainly agree declines,due to a complex of sense of being overwhelmed by masses of with you that we need to exert far more economicand cultural factors, people land getting suffocated in their on achieving economic and social growth figure, then a second stage steam. And yet I can't think of getting than on reducing population growth. Bu! emergeswhich is no longer away from the city, although latterly let me briefly go over the prospects ~£ FRONTIER

population 'growth :and its implications Go ahead, C, I really talked out of the radio and clippings of first, if you will put up with it for a turn, M looked apologetic. newspapers) . liule while. (To be continued) The future of Urdu tied up with the Urdu langu literature, which unfortunately, The Pre~s tified with the minority comm day. That is why they suffer. Problems Of Urdu Journalism

PATRAKAR

,. HE Maharashtra Government rece~t~ Sometime back the Hindi Pratap and Urdu Pratap carried the translation of_ i£ ly arrested five prominent Urdu INLAND journalists under the DIR and instituted an interview with the late Guru Golwal~ cases against them for publication of kar published in The Statesman. The a report-18 months ago! authorities picked up ,the Urdu news~ Six months Rs. The story for which the prosecutions paper and a case was launched against were launched referred to a Red Cross its editor for spreading communal hat~ On6 year Rs. report on the ill-treatment and torture red. In a similar anomaly Quami Awaz of Pakistani POWs in India. The re- was prosecuted while its sister publica- Three years Rs. port was first' published in an English tion, National Herald was nQt. daily on December 24, 1972. No action Nida-e-Millat has been prosecuted for Five years has been taken againslt that paper, nor reproducing an old speech of the late By Surface Mail is any contemplated. Maulana Azad! All through the last 18 months, there No wonder, Urdu newspapers are was not even a hint to any of the jour- sore with the Government for its step- All coun tries nalislts concerned that the Government motherly treatment. Among the news- intended to prosecute them or even papers prosecuted under Section' 153A Fore1ign AJR MAIl, RAT that it considered the. report offensive. IPC (promoting \enmity between sec- On June 14 last the Govemmen:t tions of society) 85 per cent are Urdu (One Year) discovered, all of a sudden, that the papers. That most of the prosecutions news was likely to ."bring the govern- are malicious \is .prov;ed by the fad~ America ment established by law in India into that in 90 per cent of the cases Urdu hatred, contempt or disaffection in the papers have been acquitted. ' Europe 15 sense of loyalty against the government". Urdu newspapers and periodicals, which enjoy wider circulation than any Using the all-powerful DIR it arrested Mr The Netherlands Ghulam Ahmed, editor of Hindustan, Mr other language newspaper group except Shakeel Ahmed editor of Aaj, Mr Rashid,1 Hindi, face economic and financial pro~ Asia 13 editor of Urdu Repor\ter, Mr Shehriar blems 'biesldes political discrimlnNandikar considers Shahi Sambad as brothers, used for their own greedy ad- f the stratification of feudalism. a propaganda play and nothing va'n,cement. But the decadent feudal venproclaimed, to Schiller's I more, it can congratulate itself on a satis- pe;'iod of Farrukhsiyar has little 'sem- 9thSymphony, that "all men fying result. It has attacked the atro- blance with today's Indian scene which n," he expressed the demo- cious political and economic situation of is a crucible of feudalism, capitalism nist the country today in no roundabout 'yay. . . ents of all classes opposed and imperialism. The situation today is wntes, .. m. Imprisonment without trial, killing withm far more complex, with reactionary forces jails, loss of freedom of opinion, hoard- universalityof human nature" passing as Jproge~sive. '. The ' Moghul ing and profiteering encouraged or con-. time, however, has become' period, referred to in the play,. was a doned by the Administration, staggeringly gest that ary concept. It denies the comparatively simple time-a time of high prices, food scarcity - all these .er than Ie and would make of capi- feud between the king and the aristo- becoming more and more rampant and crats, a result of which was the misery en somet proletarian alike, "brothers," oser? Or we, the middle class people who, inci- of the masses. By this fallacy of Balzac ch it more bluntly, it is the phi-. dentally, go and enjoy the theatre, are p((rallels, the contemporaneity of the ~ great F of class collabora\tionism. all helplessly observing the deterioration play loses wholly :its political tension. like so many eunuchs. That is the And because of this parallei we are for these reasons that Marxist- message of Shahi Sambadand at a time forced into a daustrophobic sitUation. mg have always understood that when theatre-people are being killed and In the play we see a man, who has proletariat inherits the great harassed in so many ways by the police sympathy for the masses and who has legaciesof the past, it accepts and their chamchas, the message needs been empowered to do something for. to be conveyed. It is all the more com- the masses by an eccentric ruler, going cy in a critical fashion, ever mendable becau:~e Nan.dikar seems to into the same conspiratorial work and of its class character. be corning out of its infatuation with getting defeated. Defeated of course he expectsthat the revisionists foreign plays and psychological claptrap .. will be, not only because he belongs to wail China on this matter, if The only pity is that the people respon- a period of history when he was defeat- sible for the construction of the play do ed, but more because he is no bettet otherreason than the obviously not show capabilities of produci~g sharp than his scheming rivals in his method . t one that they believe they language as they have done before. of work. There is little to choose be- Ie nstrate their own respectability Without a bite in the language, the tween this leader and the scheming bourgeoisassociates while de- satire loses much of its impact; . The nobles and therefore the play generates songs are flat, the tunes are cliche-rid- no tension. His yellings when he pro- these ludicrous Chinese "mad- urgeoisie, den, the lights are gimmicky. And be': nounced the death sentence on fiv!' a dying But there is a deeper reason,. cause of the faulty construction, there hoarders, appear more hysteric than re- , •which Ie e abandonmentof class struggle is nN much scope of acting. The wo- volutionary because the audience was .he man tip nismmust manifest itself in the men in the play are particularly irritat- told earlier that these five had just been rder to cr ing, not because they lack acting talents picked up by the nobles as scapegoats phere as well. ues to pIa but because they have been thrown into and do not at all r.epresent the hoarders 'lists like tbi is what the great Beethoven roles which are no roles at all. 'The and therefore the death sentence would played a is really all about. only redeeming actor in the whole play not mean the collapse of the hoarding e, are like is the fellow 'who with an endearing system. If Nandikar intends to repre- Silberin Guardian, New York). smirk was all along a pleasure to watch sent the mass leader in the playas sym- and his choric comments were' not as bolic of the working class leadership to- totally flat as the rest of the play. day, the message of the play may ac- But all this, if one tends to treat the quire a more serious significance: there playas an ephemeral propaganda play. is reason however to believe that Nan- If, however, Nandikar means it as some-' dikar has no ssuch intention and gives thing more, it has to be said that the no indication either.. tOn tHe whot'e ~t, play suffers from gross intellectual Nandikar has succeeded in evoking the Iln1~tat;~ons. !Primari~y (because of a gruesome and nauseating Moghul deca- fallacy of parallels. The scene is cast dence; but the point of the play is its around 1712-1719 A.D., when one of contemporaneity, which is unfortunately the later and lesser Moghuh, ElTlperor not there. that it would alone mobilise Alauddin Music Circle arm the people, organise the build the army, establish the By OUR MUSIC CRITIC spread politics, fight revision' the party and to cap all, create A private concert under the auspices p.'oducedan aesthetic p.easur~. The Man. Preposterously enough, of the recently organised Alauddin Music alap gradually \Infolded itself lin the munist came to be defined it. Circle was held on August 25, at the re- grand dhrupadi style, The tan compo- said, he was ndt a communist sidence of Dr M. Chakraborty. Mr Robin sitions were deftly executed producing not dipped his hands in the b Ghosh, a disciple of the late Alauddin various shades and colour: I Sajhagiri the -class enemy), Khan, presented Sajhagiri, an obsolete is a scholastic raga! and it was very So much is indisputable. Muc raga of the Marwa scale which is obtain- l"upably explored by Mr Ghosh. unsaid, as the right to criticiseit ed combining Purvi and Purya having He chose for his second number 'the right of the Party as a whole. for its dominan:t and subdominant the ,,,mantic nocturnal raga Malgunja. The dividual, however, 'big', nor any major 'third iand seventh respectively. combination was in trital but the ela- of individuals, nor any group of It takes both varieties of the fourth and boration was rather overdone. Capa- (ML) can arrogate to himselfor sillith. b!~ ll.ccompanimennt on the tabala was the right to review the past. S Mr Ghosh initiated his elaboration with provided by Mr Swapan Choudhury. rogance would amount to self-' alap in the first tetrachord and the major ness and seH-boasting, of claim' Earlier Mr Vishnupada Das, a folk seventh of !the lower octave. On the self or itself as the 'only one', the descent from the upper tetrachord when singer of Bangladesh, sang some SOl1g~ successors to the CPI(ML)', the he was sustained on the major fourth it of North Bengal. upholders of the corredt line may lead to saying that C.M. villain of the place or that C.M A' Step In The Right Di~ection correct. nger. By turning out tons of docum is no producing a pl~thora of progr vie", KRANTI KUMAR AND OTHER COMRADES the concerned have done great di cial-i to the cause of unity of 'the Party arty HE 17th June 1974 meeting of "the I some others out. . Indeed, the leadership heaps of documents mushrooming ays t . organising comrades of two dif- tried all along to keep the CPI (ML) day have done enough mischiefby ap 01 ferenlt CPI (ML) factions working in insulated from alI other revolutionary fusing the mind of the commonm II CO! different distric'ts of West Benbal", which groups. This erroneous 'trend has the understanding of the cadre. riend discussed "the problems of unification to be rectified. cause of the unity of the party Wf> of the Party and of other revolution-' .The Eighh or the First Congress of be best served if the concerned e Jl ary forces in the present situation", was the Party was as much a victory over from dumping in the public their artic a step in the right direction. We broad- righi opportunism as it was a surrender sarily subjective stuff and coolly ollow ly agree with its formulations and we to left-sectarianism. The erroneous collectedly await or act for the un' ided call upon all genuine Marxist-Leninists, line. of annihilation as the "highest form the party. This is said without mg a especially the different CPI (ML) grou{Js, of class struggle and the beginning of dice to the principled struggle b be ta to heed to the call for unity and act. guerilla warfare", came to be political- lines going on all through. The friend The positive contribu,tions in the con- ly theorised as "the only way. to mobi- . sence of a united party, i.e., its p Th, text of the Indian revolution rendered lise the people", out of the non-political. existence only in groups and indivi it sh( by the CPI (ML) are inexorable facts of non-or.ganisational but purely .military tends to anarchy and indiscipline (PIC history. principle, "Gu.erilla aetion alone can the roost. Even responsible comra aboul To deny this is to deny reality, re- mobilise the people .... etc... ". advo- jail forget their limitations, igno!le. wait. write and twist history. But it is also cated by Lin Piao alt a time when the volutionary norms and practice and to ta a fact that from the very inception of Chinese revolution went adventuristic by ly resist the temptation of rolling ving the CPI (ML) and even before, the resorting to positional and mobile war- their tons of documents, only to a it ne leadership had [turned its back against fare, abandoning Mao Tse-tung's strategy the prevailing confusion outside. this many revolutionary groups, slammed the and tactics of guerilla warfare. Later free-for-all attitude must immediate be a door on some and squeezed yet on, 'the 'annihilation line' was so much put ~n end to for unity's sake. Why blown out of proportion and so much The talI claims of different CPI 'II 'f. Kranti Kumar, long under detention, dogmatised as to be blindly believed in groups, each claiming itself as the was a member of the Politbureau of as the cure for alI ills-the panacea. !true successor to the CPI (ML), the Central Committee of the CPI (ML) It was believed that it would solve all in the way of unity. Liquidation' -May 1970 Party Congress. the problems of 'the Indian revolution; alI hues are actiye all around. Ju FRONTIER

he main danger. A species about unification. Should you ndt wait once belong~'1g to the CPI (ML) , but ws up its hands. 'tears and for the outcome of your call followed now showing themselves off as Lin Piaoists, in a show of frustration to by action? Are you not giving rise to It is a pious hope that all groups includ- that there is no more any a misgiving that yet another cenhe is ing Ithose with antagonistic stances will ,that the party is in a shambles, about to sprout. from your combined positively respond to the unity call . . es a fresh beginning right group, at some point of time whenever A call for unity should not merely be leh. Another variety of liqui- you would feel it righ't to say that the a call in the air. Concrete action should makesconspiratorial soundings leaders did not do anything about uni- follow it. A call should not be allowed g the armed revolution and fication? to go abstract or idealistic. the party. This betrayer- We on our part, of course, under- es the one-time declaraltion of stand your zeal, earnestness and genuine- Some Suggestions Minhfor dissolving the party. ness. To begin with, there must be a mim- ys. rather suppresses, the fact It is high time the party was united. It mum basis; i.e.. an area of maximum .e.I best interests of his country's is only a unified CPI (ML) with a proper agreement, a common plane to which , Ho Chi Minh only changed stance of uniting with other revolution- different groups can be made to converge. of the party to 'the Wilfkers' ary groups and forces that can lead the By whatever name you call it-this meet- sent the whole organisation Indian revolution. We would like to re- ing of the different groups for the purpose d, thus saving the whole party. call that there was the 'Open Letter' of achieving a new unity of the CPHML) you have Lin Piaoists. This signed by the Six Comrades in jail, which --it is not a co-ordination committee up has the betrayer, the career- for the first time called for the unity of to organise a new party from scratch. the double-dealer as its inspirer. the different groups. What basis can there be other than be no common ground with You have rightly recalled Comrade the "Spring Thunder Over India" p for any purpose, let alone for Ashim Chatterjee's statement regarding article?-- Add to this the fraternal sug- the evaluation of Comrade Charu Mazum- gestions by the CPC. The 'Open Letter' revisionism remains the main dar and the need for unity. But you carried a pruned version of the frater- We should never lose sight of did not, for whatever reason, mention na,l suggestions. ,The fralter'n.al sug- minimiseits danger. at any time the 'Open Letter' even as referred to by gestions are none other than the of itsbeing headed by the Soviet him in his statement, exhorting com- rich experien~es o'f the great Chinese perialism. While salvaging the rades to heed its call for unity. (It is revolution. A complete version of thl' m left-sectarianism there is al- reliably learnt that only a synopsis of fraternal suggestions along with t)1e dangerof receding again intoithe the 'open letter' as just a news item 'Spring Thunder Over India' article rightopportunism. We should at was contemplated by the signatories. But should be the main props of the unity be vigilant about this danger. by a lapse, either intentional or uninten- efforts. Criticism tional. the text originally meant for With lthe 'inviof.abIe, 'incontrovert;ible I eDdorsegenerally the decisions of cadres only was made public. It was basis for dialogue ready at hand, meet 17 meeting; and urge on the any way a serious lapse and a grave the different groups and individuals once t comrades to take concrete error). belonging to the CPI (ML) and prepare action on what they had de- For principled unity. at least a mini- them for a dialogue across the table on tht' meeting. But before think· mum basis is necessary for (the different that basis. Take your own time ,to about the concrete steps to groups of the CPI(ML) to rally round. draw as large a number of the Central , we should like to put in some Will the fact of their once belonging to Committee members of the CPI (ML) as criticism. the CPI (ML) which led !the armed strug- possible to the common table, for 'the ; pre meetingheld, "At fthe same time, gle provide enough basis Jor bringing purpose. Let them search for further :lividua be clearly stated. that if the about the unity of the Party? Is it not areas of agreement and develop them le ru/' ) leaders do not do anything a reality that the different CPI (ML) into carrying out step by s'tep what you nrades '5. the cadres are not bound to groups have taken strong' and separate decided at the June 17 meeting. notle the CPI(ML) cadres will have postures, supported by their respective Let all comrades involved in and res- nd ha the entire responsibility of revi- documents of programme, ~actical line, ponsible for this unity effort remember ling Party". Is it not a threat? Is and self-critical report? Is it nOt also Comrade Mao's teaching : ) add ry to say this just now? Does a reality that each of them claims to "Practise Marxism, not revisionism; Ie. unity efforts? Let first things be the 'only one' and ai that 'the only unite, and don't split; be open and iately to first; and last things last. correct one' and its document to be the above board. and don't intrigue and umethat the CPI (ML) leaders 'only basis around which others should conspire" . do anything about this? In rally for any unity? Well, in this con- It should also be remembered: . not doing anything will be text, will a mere call for uni'ty or a calf "Everything in the world is divided liliy after some time. So, first for giving up such claims suffice for into two. and the same is true of the r concrete action in bringing achieving unity? There are groups, -Party. The str.uggle within the Party

11 FRONTIER

between unity and split will con:tinue as al Committee led and controlled by act by saying that the play p which long as there is class struggle in society Ashim CHatterjee and Santosh Rana ideology of the CPI(M) and e. Re . and the struggle between the two lines which was rejected by the rank and file In other words, as the attack the OF within the Party. Outside !the party on this qU,estion. So, how Ido they selves said·-the attack was a k of r{ there are other parties. Inside it there expect Comrade Saumya and- other re- democratic right of free expr a publi, are groupings. This has always been volutionary leaders to treat their CC as This incident shows that this police so." (IX Issue of Red Flag, 1973). the revolutionary centre and come un- pie ;overnment, while not . behind der their banner? Unity cannot be forg- the propagation of obscene and del'S exl ed with people who touched the blood- ed plays and films, goes aga d not g tings , Letter stain~d hands ·of Sohan Pal and com- sort of publicity which is an pany in the jail while breaking their ment. We request the people draw 1 fast.F undamental unit;y is Ithe unit} test against such attacks on d e strike, On Unification of revolutionaries at the grass-roots, not rights. uld bri at the tower of intellectual 'heroes'. 'ke the Being a cadre of the CPI (ML) I can- And it IS cadres who are the decisive \led. 1 not remain silent when some crucial .force. as whet questions are being raised and debated. A Cadre of Howrah District ishan " The question of unity is not so simple r the f( as Sri San'tosh Rana and others make it ring BE appear. The unity of ~evolutionaries Doe8 Not Click o a sta and the unity of counter or sham revo- HUD ger-Strike A call for dharna, gherao ant ovel'sy lutionaries is not identical. A real com- We have decided to Igo on an :n- chas on August 21 in Mahal'ash tanding, munist party has to pass through the definite hunger-strike from August 26 giv~ by the Sangharsh Samiti .1 strike bitter struggle between two lines and in protest against jail repressIOn on us ed of the CPM, CPI, SP, Lal N ~y the ( it is quite in keeping with ,the laws of as political prisoners. We are launch- Jana Sangh and trade union ers fearE development that 'Plekhanovs rise an~ ing this struggle on

12 FRONTIER

which had been affected by the police. Had the left parties given a Then he proceeds with great aplomb. Repression was let loose and call for a bandh until the dissolution of to demonstrate his grasp of sociology. opposition leadership did not the Naik Ministry the situation in Ma- But he cannot distinguish between of resisting it all out. A speaker harashtra would have been different;' structure and content and goes on to JlUblicmeeting was picked up by the entire Indian people were watching say that Salim Mirza's family is totally lice from the platform itself and the events in Bombay with interest. feudal. for remnants of feudalism still ind bars under DIR and yet the Battles are fought to win. In the serious adhere to his struc~ure ( has \he ever exhorted the workers to be calm attempt to win you may lose, but it does heard of a Hindu joint family?). That Dotget provoked. At the various not matter, 'the point is whether you S"'!':\m Mirza 'has no landed pro~erty gs arranged by these left parties tried to fight well. seriously and fear- and that he is a businessman appear to w up a programme to intensify lessly. But the programme announced be completely irrelevant issues to the le, the controversy was about who by the Sangharsh Samiti is a tame affair Film-goer. bring out in the street through a and if it flops o~e should not wonder. He has no idea about the meanings the sections of industry they con- P. T. Bhagwat of the numerous· terms which he uses . In other words. the controversy Sion, Bombay so glibly in his letter. His concern for whether the CPI, CPM and Lal the lack of political consciousness among would bring cotton workers out the 'different classes of the .Muslim e followers of Fernandes would Harassment 'society' is really touching. The knit- BEST and the municipal services ing of his pontifical brows as he rebukes standstill first. Even if this con- We are surprised to learn that the "Frontier" for being too indulgent to- y had ended in a common under- police raided on June 24 the house of wards the Muslims is hilariously funny. 'og, were they interested in a gene- Mr Abdul Matin, an active member of Of course, he assures the Muslims of ike until the deadlock was solved the Legal Aid Committee and also act- his critical·' ~ympathy. We feel very e Central Government? The lead- ing as the Secretary of the Dr O. N. relieved by his' assurance. ared that once these key industries Kotnis Memorial Committee. West Bengal, It is not very hard 'to understand the on strike they would lose their which 'promotes the cause of India-China motivations of our Film-goer. His atti- over the workers of the industries friendship. The police took away the tude unequivocally places ~im in that control. because the authorities youngest brdther of Mr Matin, a twelve- category of bigots who consider all declare the strike illegal. They year-old student of Class VIII, to the local 'minority communities, particularly the therefore prepared to undertake police station, without assigning any Muslims, to be inferior and who are day's token strike in .sympathy reason whatsoever. They also took away prepared to be condescending and big- the railway workers. They still some valuable books and two watches brotherly towards these people provided illusions that some haphazard de- and some ornaments. they do not try to assert themselves and trations and token 'bandhs and The Committee records its strong pro- are properly gra'teful. These are the os can solve political pro- test against such illegal and undemo- people who shout so much about se- s. It is because the opposition cratic actions of the police. cularism and democracy. rs ignore the revolutionary aspect Amar Prasad Chakraborty Sincerity. honesty, objectivity and rking class struggles that the peo- President, Legal Aid Committee s~ch other human qualities are becom- at large have no confidence in them, Calcutta ing extinct very fast. The authorities h men want to resist the hard- and their henchmen frown upon these under the capitalist system. and woe to him who dares to oppose. ce again we saw the bankruptcy Garm Hava them. But some men are foolish in- the line which the left parties under- deed. They continue to show honeslty to clear up the political ~ess and The letter about Garm Hava (August in their artistic creations. So. they are consequent demoralisation of the 24) by a certain Film-goer presents immedia1tely besieged by the vultures . As soon as the 18 MLAs who a rich mixture of nonsense, ignorance praying .upon our s'truggling and op- . ally prevented the Maharashtra and illi ~concealed ic.ommuna' feeling,. pressed national culture. Hence, the emmentfrom conducting the Assem- nOt to speak of jargon-mongering. The attacks on "Garm Hava". Hence, the proceedingson August 5 were sus- logic, or rather the lack of it, of his ar- letter from our Film-goer. , there should have been a bandh gument against the film is truly as- Balai OuUa gheraos and dharnas on August 6, tounding. To start with, he suggests CalcuHa se the public was in a mood then, that it is quite unnecessary to talk about . g as it was from a critical scar- the sufferings of the Muslims in India; For Frontier contact of keroseneand food. But the 18 indeed, to do so indicates partisan feel- POPULAR BOOK STALL, choseto figh't singly with a few lings. Why? Because the Hindus in ai Pratikar Mahilas who no Pakistan had to suffer more, What Near Bank of India, showed courage in resisting the objectivity ? Bhadra FRONTIER

Sonar BangIa ruption. nepotism and bribery are ram- enticing advertisements to I pant in every sphere of life. into a wasteful spending From the building up of a Sonar Pramatha Sengupta these excrescences step from BangIa when Mr Siddhartha Ray took Calcutta and decadent society which the oath as Chief Minister in March vent fresh gimmicks to re 1972 to the setting up of the Wanchoo City With Many Faces turnished image. The poor hi Commission in July 1974 is the long. lutely no place in all this. weary way along which Mr Ray has Calcutta today is a city with many Two worlds exist side by side ploded on. We are now reminded of faces. Utpal Dutt in his late~t play cutta-:a ',glittering one built what was promised to the people. End Dushswapner Nagari explored the con- blood, sweat and tears of the the rule of th'e barbarians-was the tours of one such face-a sad and an- a hand-to-mouth, lack-Iustee battle cry of the present ministers. The guished record of police terrorism and one which gives much more charges they had levelled against the shoddy power politics. .Calcutta also can ever hope to receive. second UF MinistI1Y (1969-70) ~ave offers a strange contrast between ex- enough, Leftist movements h boomeranged. Law and order? News- treme affluence on the one h~nd and begun and ended. campaigns papers. in spite of the newsprint cut, abysmal poverty on the other; in the underdog started and then a are crowded with stories of bloodshed, last few years the city has been inun- and all the while the staunchless murder. rape and arson. The number dated by boutiques, beauty parlours, of poverty bleeds inexorably. of unemployed youths is increasing by fashionable te~tile shops. sleazy bars and seems to be able to make a leaps and bounds. Frustration and dis- restaurants. Skyscrapers rise hideously, the complacence of the rich a content are growing. Essential com- from street corners, obliterating the fatalistic despair of the down modities, including foodstuff, are rarest skyline. Air-conditioned imported cars Calcutta is destined to be a city01 in the market or available at black- lend 'the city a false meritricious charm. mares for a long time to come. market prices. The rich are getting High priced women's magazines 'flood Samir M richer and the people are starving. Cor- the book stalls offering a rich fare of

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Defend Prisoners

The Legal Aid Committee has been me Court. Sixty miscellaneous appeals functioning since August 1972 to help were filed before various courts. thousands of political prisoners living During the past two years the com- in sub-human conditions in different jails mittee has participated in various demo- in India. Most of them being poor peo- cratic movements to demand the release ple and peasants are not able to de- of all political prisoners and protect the fend themselves against the large number civic and democratic rights of the people of charges (sometimes as high as 60) at large. framed against them. If anyone was The committee knows that very little. granted bailor acquitted, he or she would could be done so far and that our efforts be tagged onto other cases and rearrested. barely touch the fringe of the vast prob- The Legal Aid Committee tried to lem. The committee appeals to progres- stand by the side of the victims irres-. sive a'nd d_emocratic people and organi- pective of their ideology. sations to set ,up support groups in their The task was not easy. Getting in-. respective neighbourhoods in order Ito formation and instructions from the provide continuous help to the committee. prisoners, organising legal defence in It invites criticism of its work various courts, acute financial and and suggestions. It appeals to all con- numerous other problems, specially in cerned to come forward and help it fin- a regime of police terror, stood in our ancially, organisationally and by com- way. But a large number ~f friends, municating information about those sympathisers, and democratic-minded still languishing in jail. people/ and organisations cooperated Cheques drawn in favour of Bina with us to' tackle the problems. Banerjee may be sent to either of the Up to June 1974 nearly 2,000 politi- addresses given below Money orders, cal prisoners from different jails sought cash and communications to the office legal help from the committee. (2):- One hundred and forty bail and ha- beas corpus petitions were moved I. Bina Banerjee, for detenus and bail was granted in 56. Account No. 10816 cases. Twenty-one were released. The United Bank of' India,. Sealdah. rest are pending hearing. Branch, 28, Acharya Prafulla Chan- One hundred and forty bail petitions dra Roy Road, Calcutta-9. were moved for undertrial prisoners; bail 2. Jayasree Rana, Secretary, ILegal was granted in 20 cases. Aid Committee, 9, Old Post Office Sixty-six Sessions cases were attend- Street, (First Floor), Calcutta-I. ed; 46 were acquitted. Eleven are pen- Office h~urs: 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. ding trial. The' rest were convicted. Monday to Friday Twenty-eight appeal cases were filed Sd/ Amar Prasad Chakravarty before the High Court in conne~tion with President, Legal Aid Committee death sentence and life imprisonment; Sd/- Jayasree Rana, Secretary, two appeals were filed before the Supre- Legal Aid Committee.