THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY February 20, 1965 Village Politics in —I Kathleen Gough The arrest of 800 Leftist Communists at the end of 1964, 150 of them from Kerala, raises such questions as who supports the Leftists, why, and how political parties operate in Kerala*s villages. I shall discuss these questions with reference to a village in central Kerala, using comparative data from a second village in the northern part of the State. My first acquaintance with these villages was in 1948 and 1949. 1 returned to restudy them between April and September 1964, It is not suggested that these villages are typical of Kerala communities. Both, for example, contain a majority of Leftist Communist supporters, and both form wards within Leftist-dominated panchayats. (1 do not know what proportion of Kerala's 922 panchayats are dominated by the Leftists, but probably rather less than a third, judging by estimates received from district party offices). In both villages only one other party, the , has an active organization, In both, the S S P and the Rightist Communists each, in 1964, had only one or two supporters; in the northern village, some half dozen Muslim families supported the Muslim League. Kerala's smaller parties, such as the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the Christian Karshaka Thozhilali Party, are more locally based and in these villages had no supporters at all. Situated in the midland farming areas, the two villages can also afford no insight into politics on the large tea and rubber estates to the east, the coastal fishing or coir or cashew-nut processing communities, or the bigger ports. Finally, this paper offers no analysis of political parties as state-wide institutions, but only of some of their operations at the level of village and panchayat What is hoped, however, is that the study may provide general insights into how and why villagers of different castes and classes, in the farming and suburban areas, support the Congress or the Communist Parties; how the inter- party conflict is pursued through local institutions, and what factors hold it in check. [ The Congress and Communist Parties polled respectively 34.5 per cent and 36.7 per cent of the vote in 1960 (K P Bhagat; "The Kerala Mid-term Election of 1960," p 147). Both are now split. The Leftist Com­ munists appear to lead a much larger proportion of rural supporters than the Rightists. The Party had not yet seceded from the Congress Party at the time of my study.] ALAKKARA lies four miles from are landless agricultural labourers, in frequent bus services to the town. In P Ambalapuram, a town and district contrast to Palakkara's 24 per cent. both, more of the children are in capital in central Kerala. Its popula­ About 88 per cent of the men have school tion has increased from 1289 to 1932 more or less traditional rural occupa­ between 1949 and 1964, largely through tions, Parambur's population has in­ Regarding private wealth, the real natural increase, but partly as a creased less than Palakkara's in the wages of landless day labourers — the result of the construction, in 1958, of past fifteen years — namely, from poorest stratum of the employed — a block of government offices in an 1,320 to 1,510. Its economy has also have no doubt somewhat increased. Yet adjacent village. This event brought changed less, although there has been there is if anything more insecurity of several new families of government expansion of cashewnut farming on employment than formerly in this class. servants and uprooted landless labou­ formerly waste lands, Many families still suffer acutely for two to three months during the mon­ rers to live in Palakkara. The increase "As Bad as Ever" has made the village very crowded, soon, and some of the less fortunate while the entry of a few rather weal­ When I asked middle-aged people are almost destitute most of the time. thy families has raised the price of in both villages, "Do you feel better Demands and expectations in this group land. About 60 per cent of men in or worse off now than when I saw you have risen enormously, and there are Palakkara work in Ambalapuram or in 1949?" the most characterstie perpetual complaints against employers. neighbouring towns; less than half did answer was a laugh and "As bad as At the opposite end of the scale, so in 1949. Their work ranges ever" There were, in fact, modest im­ Palakkara's "upper class" consists of through a great variety of wage or provements in both villages' public- some 26 families of small landlords, of salary occupations. property and services. Palakkara has owner-cultivators possessing more than electric street lights, better country five acres of land, of higher ranking Parambur, the second village, lies in roads, a radio house, reading room, government clerks, and of small busi­ a rural area in the foothills of the children's playground, and some minor nessmen (a spinning-mill owner, a Western Ghats in North Malabar, irrigation developments. Parambur jewel-cutting shop owner, and a lorry- sixteen miles east of a coastal town has several new roads, replacing moun­ owner) — employing more than a which is also the district capital. tain footpaths — one of the first dozen workers. Seventeen of these There is wet paddy farming in the things I was told is that it is now families are indigenous" to the village. valleys, as in Palakkara, but the bulk possible to get a jeep from the main Most of them have improved their of cultivation is of hillside gardens of road to the largest paddy-flat, and that wealth since 1949 through a fortunate cashewnuts, coconuts, arecanuts and two have been down there, one, the combination of farming with white- pepper, About 63 per cent of the men Block Development Officer's, and the collar jobs. Palakkara's only indige­ I have used pseudonyms for all other, a Congress Party speaker's. nous landlord is a Namboodiri Brah­ proper nouns except the names of Parambur also has a small reading man whose forebears were village famous leaders, to protect the room and a large co-operative society headmen. The family contains no edu­ identity of my informants. building. Both villages have more cated urban workers, and has been

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364 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY February 20. 1965

obliged to sell some gardens since ing, and a half dozen workers in a Protestants. Much of the modern 1949. Its members still own about 60 metal parts factory whose Communist capitalist enterprise of Southern acres. In spite of lower rents and union has secured substantial wage Kerala has been carried out by Chris­ higher labour costs, the head has been increases. The rest complain of low tians, but Christians span the class able to hold on to a modest affluence wages, high prices, loss or subdivision structure and include almost every by personally farming a portion of the of land plots, unemployment of some occupation- estate. members, heavy indebtedness, poor Palakkara contains 94 households Increased Wealth food and frequent illness, and inability of Nayars and allied high castes. In Among the half dozen bigger land­ to maintain the most modest middle traditional parlance they are the lords of neighbouring villages, the im­ class standing in spite of hard work "good" or "clean" castes, and the pression I received was one of increas­ and thrift. For such people, the pic­ Nayars proper have been the dominant ed rather than of decreased wealth, ture is further darkened by a sense caste in this village. The bulk of In 1949, for example, a wealthy Nam- of loss of morale and of local co-ope­ Nayars descend from seven ancient boodiri family of an adjacent village ration, of growth of corruption and matrilineages, whose ancestors owned owned 600 acres of coconut gardens of cut-throat competition for land, some land and leased more from the and wet paddy land. They were oblig­ jobs, influence and education. They Namboodiri Brahman landlord and ed by the Communist Agrarian Rela­ feel that they have been left behind head of the village. Today, only aboui tions Bill of 1959 to sell 150 acres to by the few fortunate rich, yet are a dozen Nayar families retain paddy tenants. The rest has been parcelled threatened by the unskilled manual fields or more than a single garden, out among relatives and brings a rich labourers, who, under Communist in­ the majority being clerks, mill-hands livelihood, most it is now being farm­ fluence, grow ever bolder in their de­ or urban service workers. Corres­ ed with hired labour rather than mands. An elementary school teacher pondingly, more than three-quarters of through tenants. The family's wealth summed up the position when he said. Palakkara's wet land and almost half has been further increased by profes­ "Seventeen years ago we had troubles its dry land is now owned by absentee- sional employment, and by investment but we told you it was a transition land lords, chiefly Christian merchants in shop buildings and rental houses in period. At least we had hope. Now or Nayar or Brahman professional men the town. we do not know what lies ahead - of the town. Similarly, Parambur's one very we are looking into darkness.'' Palakkara's 51 Christian households wealthy landowning joint family, of Castes and Religious Groups rank socially, and in some contexts Nayar caste, has retained or increased rituaily, between the Nayars and the its wealth through a combination of The two villages encompass the main ethnic groups of Kerala. We Iravas. Their ancestors moved to subdivision of the property to maxi­ Palakkara from a nearby Christian mize holdings under the land laws, of may divide these into five broad cate­ gories. Among Hindus, the Nayars village eighty years ago, and they personal farming of large acreages, of were never fully integrated into its professional employment, and of inten­ and their congeners (including the small castes of Namboodiri Brahmans traditional social life. Unlike the sive cultivation of plantation crops aristocratic Syrian Christians and such as cashewnuts, which are excmpr and Temple Servants) have traditional- ly been a landed aristocracy of gov­ the older Catholic families of Ambala- from land-ceilings. The net effect in puram, Palakkara's Christians are both areas is that while landlords are ernment servants and religious specialists, about 19 per cent of the believed to have once been Harijans deeply concerned about threats to and Iravas who were converted to their estates from future land laws, people, Below them come the Iravas and a number of allied castes (25 per Catholicism within the past two hund­ few have suffered so far from the red years. Only three of Palakkara's ceilings imposed either by the Com­ cent), occupied as tenant farmers, landless labourers, artisans, or in the present day Christians have wealth munist Agrarian Relations Act or by and high school education, and they the subsequent, and much more mode­ coir and cashewnut industries. With the mobility of wealth that market have arrived since the government rate, Land Reform Act of the Congress offices were built in 1958. The rest government of April 1964. relations have brought to Kerala, some Iravas have become merchants, land­ are tenant farmers, brokers, or semi* It is in the middle ranks in both lords or small industrialists, while skilled manual workers in the town. villages that economic deprivation is many Nayars are now wage earners. most bitterly lamented. These ranks Irava and Harijan Groups At the bottom of the caste scale fall include small owner-cultivators having The 115 households of the "Irava the Hanjans, some 9 per cent of the less than five acres, tenant faimers, group'' were once tenant; cultivators people. They are landless labourers in village craftsmen and other village and village servants under the Brah­ villages or on the tea and rubber servants, petty brokers of cash mans and Nayars. I have included plantations. crops or livestock, and individual among them the small service castes keepers of small grocery stores or of Muslims, concentrated in North who rank close to the Iravas, such as tea shops, Palakkara's "middle class" Kerala or Malabar, form 20 per cent Smiths, Astrologers, Masons, Barbers also includes lower ranking clerical of the people. They have progressed and Washermen. Some retain their workers, "peons", and workers in less rapidly than Hindus or Christians traditional occupations; others trade, restaurants or in industries. While in education, and include, as well as or fill town jobs of the same type as there is minor variation, in only a few rich merchants, many poor and prelite- the Christians. Some half dozen have special cases has the livelihood of rate labouring families in the ports completed high school and now hold these families substantially improved and inland bazaars. clerical posts. since 1949. Among the latter are, for Christians form 24 per cent of the The Harijans of Palakkara, finally, example, a half dozen enterprising car­ people. They are divided into Roman comprise 33 households of the Vettu- penters and masons who have gained Catholics (about 90 per cent) and van and Parayan castes. Once agri­ wealth from the new government build­ several sects of Syrian Christians and cultural serfs, hereditarily bound to

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Nayar and Brahman households, they stream with logs to the port, returning independent enterprise. Under SNDP are today mainly coolies or landless with trade goods. In the past five influence the Iravas paid monthly dues labourers. Most of the younger child­ years timber transport has been taken to their statewide association, attended ren are in elementary school, but none over by lorries. Parambur's Muslims its temple in a nearby village, and has attended high school are therefore very poor and insecurely employed its Irava priest to perform employed. They pick up day jobs as Sanskrit life-crisis rites. They had The Irava and Harijan groups tradi­ cooties for Nayar farmers or Muslim ceased to take part in animal sacrifice tionally comprised the polluting castes. merchants across the river, or peddle or other "low caste" ceremonies at the There was wide social distance be­ dried fish between coast and interior. village temple festival. The Iravas tween all of them and the Nayars. had, in fact, partly abstracted them­ Within this category, however, the How the Parties Came selves from Palakkara's traditional Iravas and their congeners were When I came to Palakkara in 1948, caste system — both economically, sharply separated from the Harijans — there was only limited franchise and through wage work, and also morally a fact today reflected in the govern­ political parties had not galvanized through the SNDP. They did not, ment classification of the Irava group social life. Cochin and Travancore, as however, attack Nayar dominance as "Backward Classes" but not as native states, had played less part in head on, but lived in a kind of quiet, Harijans. In Palakkara the social dis­ the Independence struggle than had back-to-back relationship with the tance between Iravas and Christians Malabar, and its excitement had scarce­ Nayars, fulfilling their tasks and has always been much less than be­ ly penetrated the village. A few keeping social contacts to a minimum. tween either of them and, on the one Nayars belonged to the Cochin Praja While few could vote, Iravas tacitly hand, the Nayars, or on the other hand, Mandal, or States Congress Party, but supported Irava candidates who were the Harijans. most were cold to the Congress Party recommended by the SNDP and Simpler Caste Structure because it had recently opened temples who ran as Congressmen or Indepen­ Parambur's caste structure is simp- to the lower castes. In these latter dents. The Christians, similarly, were ler. There are no Christians, and castes four youth, the only ones to deeply involved in their parish church only one house of Harijans. The vast have passed through Primary School, in the next village and supported only bulk of the village falls into either supported the Indian Socialist Party. church-approved Christian candidates, the Nayar group (53 houses) or the They were a Carpenter, two Astrologers who at that date ran chiefly as Inde­ Irava group with 132. As in Palak­ and a Washerman. Starting out as pendents. kara, the Nayars have been the domi­ Congressmen after Independence, they nant caste of small landowners and had become disgusted with what they Party Tactics regarded as Congress corruption, its tenant cultivators, leasing some lands In 1948, Palakkara's Harijans had favouring of wealthy and high caste from a leading family. A hundred no interest in political parties. All supporters, and its failure to control years ago, the leading Nayars were a were pre-literate and worked only the prices of food. Parambur matrilineage, formerly vil­ within the village. Engaged in rela­ lage headmen under the local Rajas. About six youths, Nayars and Iravas, tions with small owner-cultivators, With the mobility of wealth brought supported the Communists. They work­ they had never been contracted by about by export crop farming in the ed in a textile mill and belonged to the Communist peasant unions which late nineteenth century, the local the AITUC union, were rebellious on the larger estates, were in this headman's lineage lost most of its against caste restrictions, and in town turbulent period attacking the piivi- land to a bigger landlord lineage of a demonstrations, marched proudly be­ leges — and the granaries — of village five miles away. This lineage hind the flag. They set in low caste wealthy landlords. made wealth in the timber trade and teashops, played cards in the road, "ate up" the surrounding villages. and tested the Temple Entry Act by Just beyond the southern boundary Today one of its branches occupies a bathing together in the village temple of Palakkara lived a strange young large house on a hill-top overlooking tank. Most Nayars, especially women, man called "Communist Narnboodiri- Parambur, and the lineage as a whole condemned them as crazy and sinful, pad". Aged 25, he was the younger owns much of the village land. The shaking their heads over the super­ son of a landlord house in a neigh­ local Nayar households, of lower social natural dangers to the village of youth bouring village. As a boy he had status, own small plots or lease gardens who transgressed religious laws. When served as priest in one of Palakkara's from the landlords, or in some cases a slimy, noxious weed appeared in the temples. At 13 he ran away because work as coolies. The majority of the tank in the dry season, Nayar women his father would not allow him to Iravas are landless agricultural coolies stayed away and blamed it on the attend high school and learn English. or very small tenant farmers. In both deity's wrath against the Communists. Visvanathan joined and worked tor Nayar and Irava castes, a few men the Congress youth movement, lived in are cash crop merchants, shop-keepers, Most of the Iravas were accepting the Congress Party office, ate in the school teachers, hand-loom weavers, of the Communists, but disinterested. houses of Christian, Muslim or Hindu bus-drivers, postmen or constables. For the past ten years, Palakkara Ira­ party workers, and somehow puiled vas had belonged to the Sri Narayana himself through high school. At 19 Finally, on the eastern boundary of Guru movement (S N D P), a famous he quarreled with the Congress Party the village, near the river bank, live caste association based on the creed because, he said, local leaders were 25 households of Muslim, culturally "One God, one caste, one religion." absconding with its funds. He was and economically affiliated to the The SNDP required monogamy of inspired by a speech by A K Gopalan, small Muslim bazaar town across the Iravas, Sanskritisation of their religi­ the Communist peasant-organizer, fol­ river. Sixteen years ago Parambur's ous rites, repudiation of caste inequa­ lowed him on a demonstration, was Muslims were 'timber coolies" for lities, and a kind of Protestant (and arrested, and soon joined the Com­ Muslim merchants. They swam down­ indeed capitalist) ethic of thrift and munist Party. "I came to know that 367 February 20, 1965 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY February 20, 1965 only thus could we stop the inequali­ ists have steadily increased their became burned into the memories of ties." He was instructed in Marxism support; by 1963, only 337 Palakkara villagers as one of bitter class struggle by a local Namboodiri leader, who people voted for the Congress candi­ between the landlords and the Com- seems to have stood to him as a guru. date, and 513, for the Communist. munist-led tenantry. Following party policy, 'Visvanathan The parties came to Parambur in a When I reached Parambur in mid- later joined the British army and different way. There, as in Palakkara, 1948 the main battles were over. Most fought in the Burma campaign, but half a dozen educated and prosperous Communist Party members were in jail was court-marshalled and imprisoned Nayars (teachers, landlords and owner- or underground. I was however, for organizing strikes in protest against cultivators) joined the Congress Party well aware that most tenants secretly British officers' superior conditions. during the Independence movement on supported the C P I Parambur, like Returning to Kerala, he formed trades nationalist ideological grounds. The Palakkara, had its budding Communist unions among factory and plantation difference from Palakkara was that leader, Parameswaran, a Nayar youth workers. In 1948 he married (within Parambur lay in a region dominated of 27. But whereas Visvanathan look­ the caste but without dowry), obtained by very large landowners. Its tenants ed for his following to urban factory a share of, family property, and settled were swept up in the peasant unions workers and rubber plantation workers on the edge of Palakkara. 1 saw him of the mid-1930's. These unions of several miles away, Parameswaran's only twice, for he was usually under­ were led by A K Gopalan and other was already established in his village. ground or in prison. He had almost eminent mass leaders, then of the After 1951, party units developed in no contact with Palakkara people. Congress Left. They agitated against Parambur much as in Palakkara. In Most thought him mad, and he thought the landlords for lower rents, fixity 1953 the village became a ward of a them hopelessly backward. of tenure, and the abolition of feudal larger panchayat, first of three and When I returned to Palakkara in levies. They also attacked the land­ later of eight villages. From the first, 1964, I found more than half the lords' right to administer village justice the panchayat elected a Communist village supporting the Leftist Com­ and to impose beatings and fines. dominated board. In December 1963, munists. Visvanathan is now Presi­ The unions were extremely active the Communists further increased their dent of the local panchayat board. In until World War II, and in vote, securing seven seats out of eight, his party he is prominent on the dis­ Parambur mobilized 200 Nayar and Parameswaran has been the ward- trict committee. Palakkara is now Irava tenants. Their activism seems member for Parambur since 1953. In considered a hot-bed of Communist to have been related to the 1963, 490 people voted for him, and influence in the mainly working class growth of export crop farming, the 227 for the Congress candidate. neighbourhoods which surround Am- consequent monetization of tenancy Party Units in the Villages balapuram. and labour relations, the increasing gap Political Consciousness in wealth between the great landlords The structure and activities of village units of the Congress and Communist The change to widespread political and their masses of impoverished parties in some ways resemble each consciousness came in Palakkara with tenants and labourers, and, therefore, other. This is natural, as both partici­ the introduction of universal franchise the labourers' increasing resentment pate in the electoral system. In each and the entry to the village of units against the old-style levies in kind and party, village units are responsible to of the Congress and Communist parties against the landlord's paternalistic higher committees of the party which at the end of 1951. Political interest "justice". Village members of the tend to parallel the main administrative much increased when, in 1953, Palak­ karshaka sangams almost all became divisions of the state and nation. kara became one of seven wards in a Communist supporters when their Thus, Congress Party members of a newly organized panchayat, whose organizers left the Congress and joined ward, which is usually coterminous board members were for the first time the C P I in 1939. From about 1942- with a village, elect delegates to a elected through universal franchise. 6, sangam activism subsided, partly committee of the mandal, which is Four of the wards elected Communists; because the war-boom brought gains usually coterminous with the pancha­ three of them, Congressmen. Palak­ to the cultivators, and partly because the CPI ceased its most militant yat. Mandal committee members elect kara elected as ward member Gopalan, delegates to committees of the district, a young Nayar ex-constable who was forms of agitation while collaborating with the Allied war effort. The san- state and nation. The Communist Party by that time one of three Communist is similarly constituted, except that Party members in Palakkara. Pancha­ gams were revived in 1946 and reach­ ed the peak of their militancy in 1948. the C P seldom has an independent yat elections were not held again until unit at the level of the village or December 1963; the elected board Following CPI national policy, they harvested crops for the benefit of the panchayat-ward. Its smallest unit is a was suspended during the Chinese branch, which (as in the case of Palak­ Emergency and its functions carried tenants, ransacked granaries, and way­ laid grain lorries to distribute food to kara and Parambur) is often drawn out by a government Panchayat Ins­ from a whole panchayat. Branch pector. In 1963 the panchayat elected the landless. Parambur itself actually had rather little violent "trouble". The members elect delegates to committees a new board of eight members, six of of the district, state and nation. them Communists or Independents local landlord, an Independent M L A with CP support, Two additional of understanding and high character, When we look into matters, impor­ nominated members, representing wo­ adopted the enlightened policy of tant differences emerge. An obvious men and Harijans, were Leftist Com­ freely distributing stocks of grain to one is that in each village, the Con­ munist supporters. Palakkara's Gopa- his tenants. But in some neighbouring gress Party has a large number of en­ villages there were bloody encounters lan was re-elected, and Visvanathan rolled members — 76 in Palakkara and between tenants and police, arrests, for the first time became panchayat 99 in Parambur — but a relatively and two famous cases of martyrdom president in his role as ward-member small number of firm supporters. The of Communist leaders. The period from the next village. The Commun­ CPI, by contrast, has only two or 369 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY February 20, 1965 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY February 20, 1965

three party members in each village, busy arguing to maintain close contact In Parambur about 100 anubhavis— but a large number of followers. There with the villages, they simply stopped small tenant farmers—belong to the are several reasons for this. One is paying dues. All were, however, peasant union which dates back to that the CPI has apparently, in Leftist supporters after the split had the 1930's. They pay dues to the most periods, restricted its member­ occurred, and said that they would union, elect their own officers, and ship to a small organization of trained probably try to rejoin after its policy attend meetings at which they evaluate and proven Marxists, appropriate to a became clarified. and criticize the achievements of revolutionary party with secret activi­ As a party permanently devoted to Communist Party members of the ties. Party members told me that this parliamentary democracy, the Congress panchayat board. Palakkara formed a was necessary because most ordinary has enrolled as many members as pos­ similar peasant union of 40 members men, engaged in everyday relationships, sible. It was said to have about 15 for the first time in 1963, during the could not be trusted to be loyal to lakhs in Kerala. In both villages al­ panchayat election drive. In both vil­ the party if they got into difficulties. most all were primary or "Four-anna" lages, however, the events surround­ Party members must be ready to members. Only the ward-presidents ing the Left/Right split had so ab­ suffer hardships and observe strict and one or two others were "active sorbed the energies of party members codes of conduct which tend to set members" who had fulfilled the crite­ that they allowed their sangam work them apart from others. Even in the rion of paying Rs 10 to the party or to lapse, and the peasant unions were past decade of parliamentary participa­ of enrolling 50 primary members. temporarily inactive. When I left in tion, demonstrations against Congress In fact, primary members in the September, Leftist party members policies have often landed them in Congress Party are in some respects were beginning to reorganize the ten­ prison. Many were there for brief comparable to a category of villagers ants to demand their legal rights un­ periods during my stay, after organiz­ called "Communist anubhavis" (sup­ der the new Congress Land Reform ing demonstrations during the food porters), a phrase heard on everyone's Act, and to prepare them to argue for crisis. Party members who drink lips. A Communist anubhavi is one these rights before the government heavily, steal, gamble or otherwise who is not afraid to publicize his constituted land tribunals. create public trouble, or who criticize Communist allegiance. He is close to Peasant Unions party leaders or policies to outsiders, the local party unit, canvasses in elec­ Peasant unions are naturally the are subject to temporary or perma­ tions, and takes part in public demons­ most prominent kinds in villages. nent suspension. There are similar trations. If suitably qualified, an anu­ In Palakkara, however, about thirty rules of conduct for Congress members, bhavi may run for office in the pan- men belong to one or another AITUC but my impression was that they are chayat with CPI backing — three or industrial union. By contrast, villag­ less strictly observed. The risks and four had done so, and won, in both ers' support for Congress unions was discipline required of C P members the panchayats where I worked. I had very weak. The Congress Party does cause some men to abstain from join­ the impression that Communist Pru- have its kisan unions, but I was told ing who would readily be accepted. bhavis work harder for the party than they are insignificant in Kerala and A Nayar factory worker who had sup­ do Congress primary members. Many that, after the C P I, only the P S P ported the CPI for 17 years told me, of the latter pay their 4 annas and has any strength in peasant organiza­ for example, that Gopalan often urged then remain in a kind of sleeping tions. The Congress Party also, of him to join it. He refused because, partnership, attending party meetings course, runs unions in almost ail in­ he said, "The party takes the whole only when required to vote for the dustries and on the tea and rubber man/' He was also afraid of endanger­ active members who enrolled them. plantations. In Palakkara, about six ing the educational chances of his The fact that locally prominent men men and an equal number of women younger brother, who held a govern­ wish to have a large number of per­ belonged to recently organized Con­ ment scholarship. sonal supporters who will vote them gress unions, in a local undershirt Party Membership on to the mandal or some higher Con- factory for women and in a newly From 1957-9, during the period of gress committee seems, indeed, to be started spinning mill. Both of these Communist rule, efforts were made to the main reason why so many primary factories refused admission to known widen the party membership and to members are enrolled. Several Con­ CPI supporters, so that to date the create a "popular" democratic party. gress district secretaries with whom I CPI had been unable to establish CPI membership in Kerala is said to talked admitted this openly, and I unions there. Unionism was in gener­ have reached 60,000. After 1959 it noticed that two automatically referred al, however, a much more lively in­ dropped again to about 25,000 — peo­ to primary members as "bogus mem­ terest of Communists than of Con­ ple say, because "bogus members'' bers". It will be interesting to see gress members. who merely wanted favours from the whether the new ruling of June, 1964, Within each village, the two parties government changed sides when it fell, which forbids primary members to tend to carry out the same range of and because the party grew weaker vote for Congress office-bearers above formal and informal activities, but as a result of the ever-widening Right/ the level of the Community Develop­ with different emphases and goals. Left division. When the split finally ment Block, will affect enrollment in Most of these differences spring from came, in April 1964, the Leftists ap­ villages. Perhaps not, for village pri­ the contrast between the Congress as pear to have carried off a large majo­ mary membership seems to be already a democratic party which has tried rity of Kerala C P members, although mainly relevant to the election of to "absorb" the traditional power they had only a minority in the leader­ "small big men" at the panchayat structure and gain maximum consen­ ship. In both Palakkara and Parambur level, rather than to elections to the sus while only gradually changing the two or three members had tacitly left district or state committees. status quo, and the C P I whose vil­ the party during the Left/Right dis­ Communist anubhavis are also often lage members (in spite of a decade of pute. Because the leadership was too members of Communist labour unions. parliamentarism) have retained the 371 February 20, 1*85 THE ECONOMIC WEEKLY

outlook of Marxist revolutionaries. Examples of mere favouritism are the panchayat; and that after the death In each village both party units of fact that in Parambur, in the C P of Pandit Nehru, the Palakkara Con­ course carry on the political tasks of period, the panchayat board saw to gress party unit gave a mourning fund-raising and propaganda through it that Communist supporting landless feast, prepared in the Congress office, public speeches and door-to-door can­ labourers were the first to receive gifts to the villagers as a whole. The Com­ vassing. These activities are intensi­ of free housing from the government. munists, by contrast, are proud that in fied just before an election, and tend Similarly, in both villages co-operative both villages, their agitations have to lapse in between. On the whole, sociteies have given jobs as clerks and wrug higher wages and fixity of C P canvassing appeals to the class fair-price shop managers to supporters tenure out of the landlords, and have interests of the propertyless and the of the party whose members happen to lowered the house-taxes of people of desire for radical changes leading to dominate the co-operative society's low incomes, and raised those of greater economic and social equality: board. The Communist panchayat middle incomes. Congress canvassing, to self interest boards have in both villages also given and to the desire for public welfare contracts to build roads and irrigation Benefits for the Poorest of a more traditional kind. C P I can­ works to Communist-supporting con­ By virtue of their control of the vassers rely much more on rousing tractors and labourers, panchayat board, the Communists public speeches, demonstrations of The difference is that in the case have, of course, brought certain "be­ protest, organization for militant of the Congress Party, my evidence nefits" to each village with the aid of struggles, and solidarity with charis­ suggests that only propertied persons government funds. But these again matic leaders who have conducted are likely to join and support it for have tended to be heavily biased in such struggles- Congress workers rely the sake of either class interests or favour of the poorest sections of the more on quiet appeals to the vested ideological conviction, whereas pro­ villagers. Examples would be a new interests of those who own properly, pertyless people (as well as many of road in the Harijan quarter, or a new however little, and for the rest, on the propertied) join or support the tank for the low caste washerwomen, personal influence and friendship and party in the first place to gain good while the high caste tanks went un- on favours, monetary or otherwise, to personal relations with, or favours renovated—benefits which in them­ potential party supporters. It is true, from, party leaders. Communist sup­ selves made it necessary to "conduct however, that this contrast has to do porters usually become so because struggles" against the privileged be­ not only with ideology but with they believe in the party's policies fore they could be achieved. whether or not the Congress is already and in the benefit it may bring to Similarly, when communist members in power, for the 1960 "liberation their class, whereas personal favours do undertake private philanthropy struggle'' against the Communists did come to them as secondary rewards. they tend to do it for the lowest and involve large and vociferous demons­ Instances to the contrary are, of poorest (their own followers), whereas trations of an unusual kind. course, available. Thus the managers the philanthropies of Congressmen of two large firms in Ambalapuram— Political Favours usually end by benefiting the upper a textile store and a transport com­ Moreover I do not mean merely to and middle ranks of the villagers. The pany—are said to have switched to echo the Communist allegation that clinic, for example, must charge fees the C P I during 1957-59 to gain con­ the Congress gains its supporters to cover its expenses. These, although tracts from municipal and state gov­ through bribery, corruption and small, are prohibitive for the poorer ernments, and then to have reverted general appeals to self interest, while people. Congress members in the vil­ to the Congress after 1959. In general, the Communists gain theirs through lage raised funds to build a reading however, in the neighbourhood of room in the Nayar area, which is — idealistic dedication to the working these villages, it is assumed that pro­ classes. It is more complicated than quite naturally—attended only by lite­ perty-owners, and those who have rate people, mainly from that area. that. C P supporters, like Congress, special relations with them, will sup­ do gain personal favours from party By contrast, the Communist ward port the Congress, and the rest of the member runs a drama club which is members and did so especially during propertyless, the Communists. the period of C P rule. Occasionally located in a mixed street of Iravas such favours involve acts which are, Other activities of the parties show and Christians, and is patronized by strictly speaking, illegal Most often the same kinds of surface similarities, mainly preliterate Iravas, Harijans, they are a matter of favouritism in with underlying differences which and a few Communist-supporting the use of personal influence and the stem from their different ideologies Christians and Nayars. distribution of scarce resources which and class-bases. Both parties stress (To be Concluded) party members control. An example that in addition to political canvas­ of the former would be the fact that sing it is their members' duty un­ in Palakkara, with the recent over­ selfishly to "serve" the public. But crowding many landless families Congressmen tend to see their duty have encroached on government waste­ in terms of voluntary philanthropy or land by the roadside and built small bringing "help and benefits" to the huts there. Leaders in both parties village; Communists, in terms of "con­ have provided legal aid, and tried to ducting struggles" against the wealthy, influence employees of the village or of forcing benefits out of the gov­ land-office and the district revenue ernment on behalf of the poor. Thus department, to make such claims in Palakkara, Congressmen were "stick" on behalf of their own fol­ proud that wealthy, urban members lowers, but to have followers of v;hat of their party had recently built a each calls the "anti-party" evicted. clinic within the boundaries of the

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