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Vol. 1: No. 20 AUGUST 24, 1968 PRICE 35 PAISE

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COMMENTS 2 MUST we continue to be afraid of the big bad wolf? Now that the- RETURN OF THE WEST? fate of the foreign aid bill has been finally sealed, we can hardly G. P. DESHPANDE 4- expect more than $150 million from the Americans for the current finan- VIEW FROM DELHI cial year. Prospects for the future are wrapped in a hundred uncertainties. RAT RACE AGAIN? FROM A POLITICAL CORRES- What then are the compulsions that we decide to remain loyal to the PONDENT 5 degrading conditions under which American economic aid is provided? "DIVIDE KASHMIR" Even for the small amount the U.S" Congress has sanctioned, we shall have J. S. CHOPRA 6 to offer a guarantee that we are not going to behave like bad boys, and HUMPTY-DUMPTY shall stay.away from trade with Cuba and North Vietnam-and China. FROM A CORRESPONDENT 7 MEA CULPA POLITICS The only countries which, on their own, have brought about genuine M. R. 8 socialist revolutions since the end of the War and have shown to the world CALCUTTA DIARY that self-reliance works, continue to remain taboo to us. GYAN KAPUR .. .. 9 The Cubans,' despite official Indian cussedness, have behaved magni- FISHERMEN QF THE SUNDER- ficently towards us. Since the export of services is not yet covered by BANS ASH1M MUKHOPADHYAY 11 the American embargo, several of our engineers have been to Cuba, are THE PRESS participating in a number of construction jobs there, and remitting foreign THE BLACKED-OUTSTRIKE 12 exchange home. The authorities in Havana could easily have sent them BOOK REVIEW ,out; despite their non-indispensability, our engineers stay. The authori- THE CHINESE LOOKING GLASS ties in Hanoi too could have packed off the Indians from the International K. N. RAMACHANDRAN 14 PLATITUDES AND THEIR Control Commission following our capitulation Ito the Americans on the PEDLARS issue of trade; they have not done anything of the sort either. Meanwhile, S. MAJUMDAR 15 the world is changing its hues, more things are happening on heaven and EDUCATIONAL GO-AS-YOU- earth than are written in Lyndon B. Johnson's p'hilosophy. There is stilI LIKE C. R. 17 time for us to veer away from the mistakes of the. past; the current year LETTERS 18 could have provided as good an opportunity for doing so as any other. The Americans are tom asunder by de~ internal strife; whatever our financial obligations to them in the past, the current trickle of aid is some- thing we can very well dispense with. Irrespective of how the Presidential Editor: Samar Sen election goes, there is bound to be an abatement in the interest of the USA in India. The umbrella proffered by the Russians is also now P.RINTED AT MODERN INDIA PRESS, 7, RAJA SUBODH MUUICK SQUARE, suddenly semi-withdrawn. The chapter of ,non-aligned blackmailing,is CALcUTTA-13 AND PUBLISHED WEEKLY ended. Whether it recognises this or not, New Delhi is therefore in des- BY SAMAR SEN FROM 61, MOTT LANE, CALCUTTA-13 perate need of cultivating new friends. A beginning has to be made FRONTIER

'Somewhere, and this beginning could A new Consul General, the proxi- the pace in the arms race. To their as well be in terms of our trying to mity of whose views to the Prime sin'gle-track mind that appears to be re-establish bridges with some of those Minister's is gen~rally taken for gran- the only follow-up measure India can nations ~ho have successfully with- ted, has just been despatched to Hanoi. take after the Soviet decision to sup- stood American expansionism as well This could indicate several things, in- ply arms to Pakistan. In his uninhi- as Soviet cajolings in the more recent cluding the one that New Delhi-or bited zeal the Congress President period. at least a corner of it-is once more blurted out the truth in Calcutta; he Mrs Indira Gandhi is taking a 'trip thinking in terms of a line of commu- said the annual defence expenditure next month to Latin America. How nication with China. After all that may exceed the current level of does she define her geography, what has happened in recent years, this feel- Rs, 1,000 crores and the people 'are the contours of Latin America on ing of way, if any, is bound to be a should be ready to put up with the her map? Will she dare to stop by tortuous process, and with more downs consequent hardship. The leaders in Cuba, or merely content herself by than ups in the beginning. Some trade have taken upon themselves the res- junketing around the vassal States of could, in this cont.ext, be the ideal ponsibility for creatin-g the climate in which additional budgetary demands the USA? There is a vast unexplored breaker of ice. But do we have the for defence may appear unavoidable. field of trade possibilities between conviction of our courage in this ~ It is now for Mr Morarji Desai to India and the Latin American nations. matter? For simultaneously with But without an appreciation of the decide when he will come forward talk of an attempted detr,nte with with his proposals. Whether there is mystique of the new Latin America China, rumours are afloat of some even trade will falter. It would be a deeper game will be known in due other bureaucrats from another corner altogether futile for Mrs Gandhi to course; but there is no doubt that the of New Delhi trying to send some coal assume that working a modus vivendi American reaction to the Congress with spent-out army juntas will have to, of all places, Taiwan. There are concert will be watched with keen in- any durable meaning at all in that also atte~pts to further the tensions terest in the South Block. In its turbulent part of the world. with Pakistan.' . foolish obstinacy the Government· is determined to cling to a policy that has failed miserably; the crutches have to be provided at any cost. Mistaken Priority In an altogether different context the Prime Minister's offer of a no-war A news agency has gone into rap~ commit aggression on India. The 'Pact with Pakistan could have had tures over the annual ritual at the leaders have not failed the spokesman; some chance of acceptance. The offer Red Fort on Independence Day. As taking their cue dutifully they have was first made by Jawaharlal Nehru thirtyone guns boomed in salute, it warned the country against the aggres- more than a decade ago to open a dia- reported mawkishly, flocks of pigeons sive designs of Pakistan and the pri- logue betweeq the two countries. Con- winged their way from the niches of vations that are in store for the peo- ditions have changed vastly in both the fort in the clear ~y as if to carry ple. Unencumbered as he is by any since then, and the parrotry of succes- across India's message of peace. To governmental office, Mr Nijalingappa sive Prime Ministers reveals only the the less fanciful it would seem that the could exceed his brief; he threw in cerebral bankruptcy of the Govern- doves of the Red Fort were scared by China also and described both coun- ment.· For one thing, a no-war pact the thundering of guns; so must have tries as inimical to India .. may be a redundance now, for there . been the doves of peace by the spee- The chorus has a purpose. This is are the Nehru-Ayub communique of 'Ches of Congress leaders in different not the lfirst time that the Congress 1960 and, what is more. important, . parts of the country on the day. Un- is trying to blame its failure on ano- the Tashkent Declaration in which able to give the country anything t9 ther; nor, unfortunately, is it going to both countries have pledged them- rejoice over, they tried to give it be the last. Inefficient governments selves to resolving their disputes 'Something to hate; they were in search need scapegoats now and again, and through peaceful means. If these of a magnificent obsession of a differ- nothing suits them better if some for- have not stopped the arms race, there ent kind. It would indeed be strange eign government is handy. The device is no reason why a third will. Call if the common burden of the speeches has been overworked here and else- it by any name, one pact can be vio- of the Prime Minister in Delhi, of the where, and with each repetition, pub- lated as ooolly as another. The Sino- Defence Minister at Amritsar, and of lic concern at threats to national secu- Indian agreement on Tibet, which the Congress President in Calcutta was rity has diminished. Emergency loses made "panch asheel" a vogue word in fortuitous. The tone of these spee- its substance if it becomes chronic; international relations, has not pre- ches was set by a Defence Ministry it may then serve other purposes but vented a tragic confrontation, nOr has spokesman two days earlier, accusing not its main. Maybe, the Congress the Bandung declaration put an end Pakistan of building up her war poten- leaders also know this; but they need to conflicts between countries of Asia tial and preparing for an excuse to· a plea, however enfeebled, to accelerate and Africa. What is necessary is a

2 AUGUST 24, 1968 FRONTIER. change of attitudes reflected in ac- to stand in a queue; to single it out rican who had been "missing in action tions. In the absence of that, a no- for immediate compliance will create since 1965" was killed while he was war pact will soon be reduced to ano- fresh difficulties not only in Our rela- leading a Vietcong guerilla band. ther pretext for flinging invectives tions with Pakistan but also internally. No praise is perhaps too much for across the border. Moreover, if India For a11 our secularism there are ele- the courageous Americans whose makes a no-war pact a precondition ments in the country looking for op- voice of conscience could not be drow- for standirig out of the arms race, portunities to spend their anger at ned by the. thundering jet bombers, Pakistan will never agree to it. In Pakistan on the minorities here. Any whose class-solidarity could not be the present state of relation between friction may provide them with an oc- shaken by repression. Yet the hero- the two countries it is in Pakistan's in- casion for dastardliness. Already' ism of the American who laid down terest to keep India in jitters so that there is a long catalogue, and the his life 'fighting the army of his own we may have a quick journey to eco- Government has to be careful that it country seems matchless. He did not nomic ruin. A no-war pact will have does not add one more. flee the war, he did not sink into an irresponsible world of dope, neither did he commit suicide. He fought like a soldier, a soldier for humanity. The Other America His internationalism is in the tradi- tion of Christopher Caudwell, Norman A correspondent writes : thrown into prison. While Mr Bethune and Che Guevara. The other As someone said, a nation which Johnson flew to Fort Bragg to bid bon America is bound to triumph over ~nslaves other people cannot itself be voyage to the colonial army, young Johnson's America. free. While the rapacious policy of America smuggled out blood and the rulers of America has spelled money for the Vietnamese comrades. misery, death and destruction to the Black militants led courageous de- Third World, the American :people monstrations calling for the destruc- Liberation? themselves suffer no less. Ten million tion of US imperialism, the common Americans (on official admission) enemy of the starving children in As we go to press, AIR reports suffer from malnutrition and .disease, Harlem and the napalmed kids of Hue. that Russian and other Warsaw Pact millions of others thrown out of em- Americans like Helga Herz and H. troops have moved into Czechoslova- ployment flock to the slums of the Morrison laid down their iives in pro- kia, at the "request", according to 'Great Society'. The black record of test against the imperialist policy of Moscow, of ~'some Czech leaders". American policy over the years has their· country. Air Force Captain (Didn't the Russians intervene in moreover smeared the American peo- Dale Noyd preferred prison cell to the Hungary at the request of Janos ple. Thanks to the CIA, napalm, murderer's cockpit. Kadar ?). 'lazy dog' and civilised weapons Even on the battlefield of Vietnam It is becoming clear that close of germ warfare the word 'American' conscientious Am~ricans have crossed proximity to the Americans has has become the most hated in the over to the Vietcong. Mckinlynolan, corrupted the .one-time Bolsheviks world, second if only to 'nazi'. In a black American of the US 1st who now ape the cynical American this justified anger one often tends to Infantry Division, who marched into indifference to the rights of other forget the existence of th~ other Ame- a liberated area southwest of Saigon nations. The Russian action is so rica outside the military-industrial in February this year, issued a call to brazen that it is bewildering. What complex-the America where human all black American troops fi~ting in . does the Kremlin apprehend? Mili~ conscience can neither be purchased Vietnam to follow suit. All this, tary insecurity? Of course, it is a nor intimidated. however, was 'patent Communist fact that Bonn was looking forward 'to While B-52s rained death over the propaganda' until the startling report future moves by Dubcek, but this pos- green valleys of Vietnam thousands of early this month. The US mili- es no military threat to Russia-she Americans demonstrated their soli- tary command had .to admit that is now strong beyond words and Mr darity with the Vietcong on the streets some Americans, white ones at that, Johnson is so busy in Vietnam that of Los Angeles and New York. The have been fighting with the Vietcong it can hardly be the time to cook up demonstrators were brutally belabour- forces against the army of the mother- a conspiracy against the Warsaw Pact ed by the cops, draft-dodgers were land. On August 2 New York Times Powers. As for any stepped-up reported that some Americans have trade between· Prague and Bonn, CORRECTIONS been operating with Vietcong units in aren't the Russian themselves offering In "Wrong Thinking on France" the Phu Bai area. One of these 'rene- to open up Siberia to the Japanese? (August 17) line 4 in para 1 should gade' Americans was punished by the The Russian move, it seems, has read "the factually erroneous" etc, Marine Corporal Perry Gordon who more to do with the internal politics not "actually". On page 13, col 2, pumped a whole magazine of 20 bul- of the Kremlin than with ideology or line 14, read 1848 instead of 1948. lets into him. This unnamed Ame- security.

AUGUST 24, 1968 3 its bit for Africa. I went to Africa But then in most world capitals one Return Of The West;? with a rather vague consciousness of hears the same argument. Of course the African personality. Even that there are some projects like the Tan- G. P. DESHPANDE consciousness was a strange amalgam zam Railway which China has under- of all kinds of notions. It semed to taken to construct which cannot con- HE immigration officer at the me that Tanzania gave it a certain ceivably be completed without outside T Dar es Salaam Airport did not shape. Or was it an effect of certain assistance. But surely the number of seem very friendly. It was nearly\ three slogans and manifestos? such pTojects cannot be very high. in the morning. The officer looked at Slogans and manifestos are very Yet nearly forty percent' or more of my travel documents with sleepy eyes much there. Everybody in Dar Es the investment in development pro- and asked me about my address in Salaam seems to be talking of the jects is 'financed by foreign grants. If Dar. I had filled in a form where I Arusha Declaration-;PTobably the this percentage is fairly accurate, then had given my address as "care Indian most revered document in' Tanzania Tanzanians have a big problem to High Commission" and the purpose of today. All political thinking in Tan- thrash out. Maybe the Arusha Decla- the visit as "study". These entries, it zania seems to revolve round it. It is ration is a first step in that direction. seems, were not self-explanatory. So indeed a grand statement of Tanzanian We may have to wait and see. he started his questioning. Nearly Socialism and driving force of TAND. ten hours of travel and a long wait at It has made Tanzanians proud of Men And Land the Nairobi Airport for a connection having a theory of development of Men and land are the two main to Dar had sapped all my energies. their own. Like Mao's quotations in resources of Tanzania. A very vigo- His probably legitimate enquiries irri- China, the Arusha Declaration is quot- rous programme of mobilising them tated me. Finally he asked me what ed in and: out of context in today's has been put into action. Many would happen if the Indian High Tanzania. President Nyerere and the State farms have been set up. The Commission did not accept me. I Arusha Declaration set the theme of Government partakes in the capital ex- answered with an air of annoyance Tanzania's progress, or so most penditure and mechanisation. Around that I wQuld then take the first plane Tanzanians say. the State farms many satellite projects back to India. A smile appeared on What is the Arusha Declaration? have been launched with a view to his well-set face. He stamped my It is not entirely free of cliches. which employing people from the more passport and le,t me pass. I was in the leadership in the underdeveloped backward areas. The minimum wage Dar es Salaam. world is neVer tired of repeating. It is 150 shillings per month. The en- Dar is a neat city and a quiet city, has customary references to self-reli- tire development strategy has three as quiet as the Indian Ocean. A few ance and foreign aid and so on. The tiers-village, district and region. Un- tall buildings in the centre of the city Declaration, Mr Babu of the 1964 fortunately it was not possible for me stand out among the beautiful cottages Zanzibar jRevolution fame said, rejects to go to the interior and see for my- and small one-storey houses. A the idea that foreign aid can finance the self the changing face of rural Tanza- few minutes' drive from the centre Tanzanian development fully. Almost nia. However it was a great relief to of the city and: you are in the midst everybody now seems to reject the know that in these days of pragmatism of cottages and villas overlooking the idea, at least in theory, but nobody ex- and plan hQlidays there are SOme ocean and the rather modest harbour. cept the Chinese leadership seems to lands where socialism is still respect- A friend with whom I stayed, in fact, be serious enough to carry this theore- able. lived right in the centre of the city. tical rejection into practice. Moreover, More than socialism it is Tanzania's Yet after six in the evening the only to say. that foreign aid cannot 'finance foreign policy that has attracted noise in or around his flat was made Tanzania's development fully is in rea- world-wide attention. It is based on by us. Occasionally a car drove past lity to state that some foreign aid (and nop-alignment. (which isn't, these but otherwise evenings descended up- in Tanzania's case a very big quantum days? Even we call ourselves on us with an unusual gentleness and indeed) will continue to come in. So non-aligned !) President Nyerere peace-the peace of clear blue skies where are we? We are precisely has very ably summed it up in his and the green-blue Indian Ocean. An where we should not be, that is, at the famous statement. "We shall not ideal weather and idyllic atmosphere doors of the West generally and the allow anyone to choose any of our to settle down over a scotch and soda. U.S. particularly, with the World BanJ< friends Or enemies for us." Any dis- However, this is only a part of the and the IMF thrown in. Out of the cussion on foreign policy in Dar to- story. Dar does impress you as a 70,672,754 shillings (Tanzanian) of day begins with this quotable quote. peaceful seaside resort with lovely foreign aid grants that are outstanding Undoubtedly, this principle does part- beaches. But that is not all. It also as on December 31, 1967, 30,597,950 ly explain why Tanzania today enjoys impresses you with the confidence it shillings are due to the United States. considerable latitude in her relations exudes. As you talk to the Tanza': It is possible to argue, as indeed many with other countries. This also ex- nians you get an impression of a do, that the present state of Tanza- 'plains why Tanzania of all the coun- young con'fident country trying to do nia's economy makes this inevitable. tries of Africa can and does so much

4 AUGUST 24, 1968 for the lib ration movements in mongering. The only slogan, if it View from Delhi Africa. It is no accident that the could be termed so, was that if the headquarters of the African Liberation Africans and the Asians got together Committee is located in Dar. they could work miracles. What he Rat Race Again ? It must be remembereQ here that in did not add was that they rarely do. Africa the post-colonial era has not In any case, the cooperation between FROM A POLITICAL yet fully begun. Colonialism is still Tanzania and China seems to be pro- very much there. Some of it is bla- gressing well. Chinese agreement to CORRESPONDENT tant, as in the case of Portuguese colo- build the Tanzam Railway has earned nies, but most of it is very subtle, as her considerable goodwill. This am- THE unrest among the Central in the case of Malawi. Malawi has an bitious project involving an expendi- Government employees and the African President, a flag, a seat in the ture of anything between £ 100m and tension building up all over the coun- United Nations and all other para- £ 150m, if completed, will give Zam- try seems nobody's business. The phernalia that go with independence. bia an independent outlet to the sea. season's slogans, including an instant But otherwise it is difficult to see the Presently Zambians are forced to use one for the flood fury in Gujarat, have distinction between a Portuguese (or the rail link through Portuguese been duly rendered. The usual bogey for that matter any other) colony and Mozambique. The manner in which of the Sino-Pak threat (despite the an independent African State like 'expert' opinion about this rail project professions about a more flexible poli- Malawi which chooses to describe changed is amusing indeed. To start cy towards the neighbours) has been South Africa as a friend: in need and with, Tanzanians and Zambians were raised and it is the unseemly rat race therefore frieRd in deed. And Dr solemnly advised that the project was once again. Banda, the Malawian President, is not feasible. Later when China show- At the last meeting of the Congress not in a minority of one in playing ed an interest in the scheme the ex- Working Committee, Mr S. K. Patil is the imperialists' game. Other African perts had a second thought and they reported to have told the Prime Minis- statesmen, to be sure, have not been feIt that it was feasible but rather ex- ter that some Central Minist~rs w;;:re generous a-Ia-Banda to South Africa pensive and therefore inadvisable. behind the campaign in Parliament or Rhodesia. But there are many who All this exercise was clearly intended against Mr Morarji Desai. (The have played the game of the imperia- to perpetuate Zambia's dependence on father and son affair, that is). Mrs lists in some other way and have earn- Portugal for an outlet to the sea. Indira Gandhi wanted him to be more ed their kudos. Probably these states- When metropolitan Portugal was ready specific and name the Ministers but men follow the Swahili proverb, which to help why should anybody undertake Mr Patil would not. If Mr Patil's an official in the Tanzanian Foreign an independent project? The logic insinuation related to the campaign Ministry quoted in a different context, was clea~ but Zambians were not con- outside Parliament, it might not be al- "a ghost that knows you would not vinced. together unfounded. For Mr Morarji eat you up I" After all, who knows This doe~ not mean that the project Desai is known to have asked the the imperialist ghosts better than the is safe. It would not be surprising Prime Minister how she and some of Africans? Is that the reason why they if all possible effort is made to sabo- her Cabinet colleagues pampered cer- have come to trust them? Be that as tage it. Zambia's Preside!;)tDr Kaunda tain pajpers carrying on a "smear" it may, it is amazing how abject de- was in London recently requesting the campaign against him with exclusive pendence on and trust in the West British for assistance against Ian interviews. Mrs Gandhi had no have come to stay in Africa. Tanza- Smith's Rhodesia. This indicates answer. nia is one refreshing exception. It utter helplessness. There is no other According to 'the political grape- still is, anyway. explanation for President Kaunda's vine, the campaign against Mr Morarji If that were not so, President Nye- appeal to the Wilson Government. Desai in the tabloid papers (including rere would not have made his success- This helplessness might extract some the official organ of the CPI) was en- ful trip to Peking. Not in all cases 'price. Nobody in the Western hemi- gineered on behalf of the Prime have African statesmen's visits to sphere is happy about the agreement Minister to cut Mr Morarji Desai to Peking had the proverbial happy end- with China. There is danger there. size. It is not as if Mrs Gandhi is ing. But Nyerere's trip went off well In their enthusiasm for the Arusha in a position to drop Mr Desai and he returned on time to inaugurate Declaration or the President's dictum from the Cabinet. She just cannot the Friendship Textile Mill which on foreign policy, the Tanzanians do afford it. But putting the Deputy China has built in Dar es Salaam. not,seem to have lost sight of similar Prime Minister on the defensive has~ The inaugural was a COlOurfulaffair dangers. The return of the West is its own ~dval1tages when the power with a lot of African music. The very much a fact of life in Africa. It struggle at the Centre is acquiring a Chinese Charge looked serene and is to be seen how many African States new edge. Mr S. K. Patil has been hardly talked of revolution. There really resist it. Tanzania gave me the waiting in the wings, determined to were no quotations either. His speech impression that in a small way she enter the Lok Sabha via a by-election was remarkable for its lack of slogan- might. Will she ~ with the help of Mr Nijalingappa and AUGUST 24, ]968 FRONTIER there a signs of the Syndicate resur- Government cannot go back on its and the content nothing in their re- recting itself. promise to the Lok Sabha. Mr ckoning. The furore over the appointment of Madhu Limaye withdrew his private The mid-term elections in the Indo- Mr Nijalingappa's son-in-law as My- bill on the subject following a cate- Gangetic plain which amount to a sore's trade representative in London gorical assurance by Mr Ahmed that mini-general election, is expected to has provided the Prime Minister with the Government would see an official restore a new political balance and an occasion to get even with the Con- bill through to ban company donations give the Congress a new grip on the gress President. Mr Dinesh Singh to pa!rties. But Mr Patil is right situation. But to what avail? The and a crypto-communist Minister of when he says the party was never con- Congress itself is distintegrating when State have been very obliging to those sulted. Mrs Gandhi's disclosure that some of the parties of the left are who wanted processed information on the Cabinet had taken a unanimous striving for a detente with it. this subject. decision in favour of the bill and Mr August 18, 1968 Whatever the outcome of Monday's Kamarai was informed about it hardly discussion in Parliament on Mr Mor- meets Mr Patil's point. arji Desai's conduct, there is little It is most likely that the bill would "Divide I(ashmir" doubt his image is tarnished and he be referred to a select committee so has lost his claims to Prime Minister-- that the Government could amend it ]. S. CHOPRA ship for ever. This done, Mrs into a parody of its old self. Gandhi can go on her Latin American The Assam Reorganisation Bill may ASHMIR, the darling of the safari, leaving the country to take care not come at aU this session. Mr Nija- Y ~ Himalayas, is opeA for another of itself. .1 lin!:';appa has not had his round of invasion, but this time from within. talks with the Assam Congress lead- Some political and social leaders of 'Refer to Committee' ers. Nor is the 'Party united on the The Government survived the cen- Kashmir have struck with a demand course of action. One presumes Mr sure motion over the Soviet arms aid for the division of the State into three Morarii Desai's old obiections remain to Pakistan and did not have to face parts (States), on the basis of the despite his own discomfiture over the any challenge since. The Congress three prominent languages spoken in business adventures of his son. Parliamentary Party is divided on the Valley, Ladakh and Jammu. What 'should su1~prise one is the major policy issues and Mrs Gandhi In an off-the-record interview, a swiftness with which a low-level equi- knows the predictable expedient. If top dignitary of the State told this librium and stabilitv has been achiev- any piece of legislation proves con- correspondent that the division of ed. From the political pandemonium troversial, get it referred to a select Kashmir was inevitable. He excitedly that prevailed after the 1967 elections, committee where the provisions would argued about the virtues of the "divide this is a far cry. The COMress has be rendered innocuous. The Patents Kashmir" plan. been disintegrating. The SSP has Bill has been haunting Parliament for The champions of division are re- been disintegrating.. The CPI (M) over two years now. It has already ported to be holding talks with some has split wide qpen. The Fourth been to a select committee once. But neutral social and political leaders of Plan has not seen the light of the last week, under obvious foreign the State to canvass support for their day and the aid uncertainty persists. monopoly pressure, the Government plan. The demand for the division The gossamer-thin fraUness of the eco- had it referred to another select com- of Kashmir into three tiny States may nomy was revealed by the recession mittee. The bill for social control gather momentum very soon. The that is vet to lift fully. But politics on general insurance business was also ardent supporters of this demand are has settled to a low-level equilibrium sent to a select committee. . the Jana Sangh, the PSP, Bakshi's and nothing seems to take off. The The Congress Parliamentary Party National Conference and a considera- process of polarisation remains arrest- is split on t\VO crucial bills-the one ble section of Congressmen and Ple- ed. and' the political charlatan has his to ban company donations and one biscite FrontwaUahs. way. It looks as though the status for the reorganisation of Assam. The It will not be out of place to men- quo can never be altered. A medio- bill on company donations has already tion here that Dr Karan Singh, the cre leadership is adequate for the been introduced but Mrs Gandhi is Union Minister for Tourism, also sup- country because there is no effort at under attack from partymen because ports the demand. changing. the status quo. No wonder the party has not been consulted on The divisionwallahs are conferring the measure. Mr Fakhruddin Ali the editorial pontifications on Inde- among themselves to press the Union Ahmed has been humbled and most pendence Day-eve proceeded on the Government to divide Kashmir into people in a similar predicament would comfortable assumption that whatever the· three following parts: have quietly resigned.. Mr Patil and the fortunes of the Congress, the peo- 1. Jammu, Ranbir Singh Pura, Mr Atulya Ghosh, the two star fund- ple have passed the test. A very Poonch, Udhampur, Rajouri raisers of the Congress, attacked the doubtful thing that, because the de- etc., into a Dogra-speaking bill in the Working Committee. The mocratic forms seem to be everything State Or Jammu State. This

AUGUST 24, 1966 is supported by Dr Karan Singh. Hu~pty-Dumpty 2. The Valley consisting of Sri- nagar, Baramulla, Uri, Pahal- FROM A CORRESPONDENT gaum, Gulmarg etc., into a' .Kashmiri-speaking State. BHUTAN, says a news-item, is to It would appear that the Chogyal 3. Leh and Ladakh into a have a constitutional monarch of Sikkim is not very gallant where his Ladakhi-speaking State. under a draft constitution. It is fur- dealings with women are concerned , The top dignitary whom I inter- ther stated that the King, being keen One wonders if his two sons, now viewed is not related to any political that the people should have a greater studying at enormous expense to the party, but he said he would jUll}Pinto voice in the governance of their coun- Sikkim Government at the very Bri- the political fray to hasten the process try, is voluntarily p.repared to forego tish public school of Harrow (shades of disintegration. He told me, "Why some of his absolute powers and chan- of Jawaharlal Nehru I), will acquire can't they divide Kashmir on a linguis- ges are being introduced to serve the more gallantry in this direction accord- tic basis if they can divide Punjab?" interest of the country and the people Last year Mr Balraj Pud, the PSP ing to old British tradition. in the context of Ithe modern and leader, issued a statement to the press The manipulations of the Govern- changing world. in Jammu that he supported autonomy ment about the victorious Sikkim One should be grateful for small for Jammu within the framework of National Congress after the last elec- mercies. But what about Sikkim ? the State Constitution He claimed. tions have been laid bare by one of Sikkim has no written cOf.lstitution, that Mr Gulzarilal Nanda and Mr M. the Executive Councillors, who now no codified laws, and forces of C. Chagla had expressed sympathy for autocracy and absolutism rule the day. regrets the part he was called upon to this move. Immediately after Mr Whatever publicity to the contrary Iplay. The undemocratic behaviour Puri's statement, Mr Khanna, State the Ruler may acquire-or buy-the. towards the Sikkim National Cong- PSP Secretary, ran to the Press with fact remains that the Sikkimese peo- ress has revealed the true nature of a statement that Mr Pud's views ple are frustrated and unhappy. the Chogyals "welfare State". and demand were not proper and ran The men around the Ruler of Of course, the Chogyal now invites .• counter to the policy of the Praja Sikkim are not of proven integrity and foreign journalists to be Palace guests Socialist Party. dignity. Indeed, the Chogyal is sur- (the majority of the Indian Press re- Again dudng last year another lea- rounded by small-minded men with fusing to play ball), gives them red- der of Kashmir, Mr Prem Nath Bajaj, the cafetada mind-service to self. cal'pet treatment, and then introduces held a Press conference in Srinagar There is in this State art all-pervasive them to "political leaders", that is, and demanded a federal set-up for atmosphere of painful sycophancy, Sikkim officials. And, of course, they Kashmir. He was talking to the Press fear and frustration, repeat, parrot-like, the same old de- when he released his latest book, People in the outside world should mands, with the recent addition that Kashmir in Crucible. know that one small Lepcha woman "Indian troops must withdraw imme- Many eyebrows were raised in poli- has been suffedng in jail in Gangtok diately" .... all this des'pite the fact " tical circles in Delhi when this demand for almost two years (her Indian hus- was discussed. But none of the lea- band was unceremoniously thrown that the Chogyal happily goes about ders concerned are taking any con- over to the Indian side of the Rongpo in his uniform of an honorary M'ajor- crete steps to dissuade the division fel- bridge and externed from Sikkim after General in the Indian Army. The lows from their demand. The so- s'pending over a year in jail in Gang- Chogyal and his American Gyalmo called 'progressives' are accusing the tok. also). Her crime allegedly is spend a lot of time in propagating, to CIA and the so-called 'reactionaries' that, feeling aggrieved at her victimi- the numerous foreign journalists they are accusing Moscow-brand commu- sation by the' Sikkim administration, particularly seek to cultivate, their nists for the creation of this demand. she is reported to have stated in a hopes of becoming "Their Majesties". bazaar in Sikkim that the Chogyal Perhaps the Chogyal, occupied with FRONTIER is available at was not a Sikkimese but was a Tibe- projecting his own "image" as an DESABHIMANI BOOKSTALL tan, that he ~eliberately and grossly "enlightened Ruler", lives so much in . Main Road exploited the Lepcha adibasis of Sik- an ivory lower that he is indifferent kim, and that, therefore, the sooner to the maladministration in his State. Trivandrum-l he returned to his native Kharri- But has the Chogyai never heard of Minyak in Tibet, the better it would Humpty-Dumpty, who sat on a wa11, For FRONTIER contact be for all concerned. This was dub- SANYAL BROS. bed sedition, and so the painful case had a great fall, and all t.he King's horses, and all the lGng's men could 26, Main Road drags on,· thO'UgB: ~ l.cpcaasi Bas. l1.{) Jamshedpur-l adVoCate. .. .'_ '.. '.' .' .. " not put poor Hump y together again } 7 AtJGU~T Z4, 196&- Down South Far from taking the other parties mitment, seems to have fared better of the United Front for granted, Mr than the Left Communist-led Ministry Namboodiripad has been pampering in neighbouring Kerala. Politics in Mea CuIpa PoIitics them if only to make sure that the Madras or Kerala have degenerated front does not break up. There are into populism to pedestrianism. The M. R. in the United Front political nondes- immature Annadurai leadership has in cripts led by freebooters and adven- no way been found wanting compared MR E.M.S. Namboodiripad's con- turers in the form of microscopic par- with the political maturity of Mr Nam- fession of guilt at Jaipur and the ties. The Muslim League, a very boodirip ad. Madras is at least a admonition he got from the Politburo, strategic component of the front, is a better administered State, relatively, carefully published for mass consump· peculiar political phenomenon. The than Kerala. But the Congress in tion, are supposed to improve the CPI (M) thought that the League's Madras has been able to engineer party's image in Kerala and keep following could be politically assimi- some kind of a phoney mass upsurge the belligerent ultras at bay. But how lated if the party was roped into the against the Ministry, all under the glib does this square up with the Polit- front and given a share of power. patter of not being interested in top- buro's anxiety to ensure trapproche- Even the League leadership feared pling the DMK Ministry. ment between Mr Namboodiripad and this possibility at one stage. But not his sparring partner in the CPI, only have the Marxist Communists Protest March Mr T. V. Thomas, before they go to failed to assimilate any section of the What is the signi'ficance of the Con- Moscow next month on an important League's more amorphous following, gress-led agitation which took the form mission ? the League is emerging stronger by of a march on August 1, followed by The proximity of the West Bengal securing the positive support of the clashes and then a mammoth, silent mid-term elections and the Politburo's hitherto uncommitted Muslim. Iprotest march led by the Congress total loss of nerve at the remote pos- The Muslim League has the biggest top-brass? Mr C. Subramaniam has sibility of a break with the CPI on the stake in the continuance of the United said that, whatever some of the Cong- eve of the polls has prompted: this new Front Ministry because its leadership, ress leaders might say, it was not his solicitude for Mr Thomas and other essentially the trading class, has stood party's intention to topple the Minis- components of the United Front whom to gain most from the Government's try. The cacopbonic Congress voices Mr Namboodiripad is now charged food policy which is one of deliberate in the State suggest one thing-the with having taken for granted. appeasement of the hoarder and the party leadership is divided and con- Every situation needs a scapegoat profiteer. No wonder the rich land- fused over its immediate objective. It and Mr Namboodiripad offered him- lord-cum-blackmarketeer is now the cannot think of an issue on which it self as one. For it is not as if the proud card-holding member of the can rally the people against the Minis- jaded all-India leadership of the party CPI(M). The Muslim League has try. Mt Kamaraj, to retain his hold would have liked Mr Namboodiripad found itself a new role-of an umpire over the party, had to rig up an agita- to force a confrontation with the between the two warring communist tion and when it resulted in a gene- Centre. Even if Mr Namboodiripad parties so that the balance in maintain- ral DMK retaliation against the Cong- had wanted a confrontation, the Polit- ed and the Ministry continues. The gress with the help of the police ma- buro would have pulled him up for his Muslim League indeed is grateful to chinery, the agitation naturally took "ad'vetlturism." Until the other day the CPI(M) for giving the Muslims a on the colour of a mass upsurge. To the party's partidpation in some mi- share of political power-and more, in be sure, the Centre is in no mood to nistry, be it West Bengal or Kerala, the form of unfettered opportunity to oblige Mr Kamaraj by dismissing the was the best guarantee against a ban exploit the food shortage in the State DMK Ministry even if a law and order on the party. But now it is a vastly to make quick money. Can Mr Nam- situation were to develop in the State. changed situation. With the extre- boodiripad ever contemplate State The DMK is content to survive in mists expelled, there is no chance of trading in food in KeraIa-and there- office, the way of all non-Congress the party being banned. Its main by alienate the support of the Muslim ministries to -date. The Congress fear is the possibility of being denied League? leadership in the State knows it has no power in West Bengal at the mid-term It is beyond one what exactly the reasonable chance of coming back to elections. The CPI (M) is closer to Politburo expects of the 'Party's unit -power. But yet the agitation was rig- the CPI as it is today and hence the in Kerala. - The United Front there ged up over nothing new in particu- surreptitious pressure on the Kerala has operated on the basis of the prin- lar. The Congress leadership cannot unit to pull together with the "revi- ciple' of the least common multiple summon the courage to charge the sionists" at least until February. and not of the greatest common- mea- DMK with betraying the people on the Meantime, the extremist threat to Mr sure. Hindi issue by acquiescing in it with ~ Namboodiripad's position is expected As the record: goes, the DMK Mi- the Centre. Language is the only issue to prevail with him to seek truce with nistry in Madr~s1 given'_to no inhibi- on which Mr Kamaraj can launch a the J~PI,. - - - tion of ideology and'1acking any, com- _ crash campaign to put the DMK on

8 FRONTIER the defence. This ruled out far o.bvi- to. rally these neo.-Cangressmen against poratian is baund to affect ane's wri- o.USreasans, Mr Kamaraj has to. find a the party's aId guard led by Mr C. ting, whatever the topic, if it is dane rale far himself, even within the Cang- Subramaniam. With the agitatio.n in Calcutta. Such is the Dverpowering gress Party. launched, Mr Subramaniam and his might af its uncleared garbage and the With Mr C. Subramaniam beco.ming incipient fo.llawing have been drawn stench thereof. the Pradesh Cangress president, the into. the vartex as it were. But the Newsprupers in Calcutta still run- nea-Cangressmen af Black Shirt ari- DMK leadership has came to. terms ning disPlayed a phatagraph af the gin who. awe allegience to. Mr Kama- with the Centre directly and the antics Deputy Mayor, Mr Shiv Kumar raj have been o.n the run far same o.f the Cangress in the State are but Khanna, who. met his nemesis in the time naw. Mr Kamaraj has managed of a nuisance value at the mament. form of a missile thrawn by an un- known assailan,t fallowed by aperatian .• 'Tear the Clothes' later an. In the picture the paor Deputy Mayar has Calcutta Diary the laak af a martyr on his face but I for ane cauld nat muster up any CYAN KAPUR sympathy. Mr Khanna, of caurse, may have COME rains, the Pujas are never a little mare for his maney so. far as his awn reasans for feeling as he does. far behind in Bengal. In spite clothing and luxury ar semi-luxury He has been left here to. face the ap- af the flaads and the attendant miser- items are cancerned. But Calcutta position music while the Mayar, Mr ies in the districts and also. in and has been the traders' Mecca since ages Gabinda Dey, is away in the States, araund Calcutta, already thaughts are and the pattern cannat be changed. having a free haliday plus red-carpet turning tawards the alillU al respite So. was it under the Cangress, so. was treatment. The hanaur af beirlg fro.m care which samehaw the large it under the United Front and so. has Deputy, he may feel, is not enaugh majarity af the peaple manage to. it been under Gaverno.r, Sri Dharma to set aff all the abuses he has had to. wrest from the ecano.mic jungle that Vira. And so. it shall be, the traders' listen to. from the appositiDn. Physi- is West Bengal taday. favaurite Gad Hanumanji willing, cal assault added to that cauld have Recessio.n o.r nat, this year is nat under the next government. been far lesser martals than Cangress likely to.be much different fram o.thers - Thus while the econamic tendency demi-gads the last straw and in any and traders will make quite a pretty is fo.r a fall in prices, an the faod o.ther country a civic figure so. treated paisa. Hawever, there are signs that frant !prices have started rising wauld have gracefully retired fram the the weight af the recessian is making dangerously again. Vegetables have fray. But nat so. Mr Khanna. the price structure sag in parts in been aut of the cammon man's reach Which makes me think that there is spite af gavernment and o.ther effarts for a long time, eggs are much dearer same sart af pattern behind this mess to. prap it up. There have been pre- and now prices af pulses and mustard af August 12 in the Carparatian puja sales of clath and ather gao.ds, oil have started rising steeply. Ac- meeting. I for ane am not maved by with prices cut as much as 20% o.n cording to. the peculiar reactions of talk af violence in the mauths af Can- the standard prices and it was nat Indian markets under the thumbs af gress and like-minded leaders nar by a gimmick o.f first marking up; prices unscrupulaus traders, a slight revisian fervent denials by leftists. Coming as and then annauncing a cut. A ready- in the prices af vanaspati, the camman they all do. from classes who. have to-wear garment dealer is o.ffering man's ersatz ghee, has been follawed never handled a 'fire-arm, their ideas variaus enticements such as ball- by a steep rise of about Re. 1 per af vialence have gat divarced fram paint pens, lemon sets etc. on pur- kilo.. Trust the trading cammunity to. reality. A large number of them are chases ranging fram Rs. 10 to. Rs. 30. see that if the co.mman man gains a also. physically cawards, flinching from In transistars, of course, the battam little on the luxury swings, he loses any sudden pain. Thus it is passible seems to. have fallen out o.f the market more an the necessities raundabauts. far a Dr P. C. Ghash to. accuse un- quite same time back, with the result If. >(. armed UF supporters of vialence that what ane buys naw is mo.re than A friend who. is a regular reader while igno.ring palice firing ar other likely to. be cheaper next manth. Well- of these calumns was samewhat an- blaady attacks an practically unarmed knawn manufacturers have started nayed at the fact that the Calcutta students. cutting each ather dawn and apparent- Carparatian frequently lfinds a place. In the stran e times that we live ly the present game is to. bring o.ut That he is also. a Carparatian em- in, it is so.metimes evening rather than the same model with a slight o.utward plDyee may have gat samething to. do. marning which shaws the day. What- change and sell it at a lawer price, with his feelings, but ultimately he has ever the Carporatian precedent, de- thus saving 'face.' , CDme rDund to. the idea that in any cency and demacratic practice de- All tald, therefare, the puja shop~ writing on Calcutta the CarpDratian is manded that the Deputy Mayar per, if he is nat stampeded into. mak- baund to. abtrude. Actually, unless shauld have gracefully vacated the ing a rush jab af it, is likely to. get ane is very thick-skinned, the Car- Chair when the no-cal1'fidence matian

AUGUST 24, 1968 FRONTIER against him came up and whoever this may serve the Opposition also. fied doctor can be allowed to take occupied the Chair should allow the Face~ with a total collapse of the Cor- into his hands the life and death of a sponsors of the move to have their say. poration machinery, even Governor patient anywhere in India, why However, nothing of the sort was Shri Dharma Vira may be forced to shouldn't any lawyer be allowed to done and in the circumstances the supersede the virtually defunct civic plead for his client wherever he might question arises: Did or didn't the authority, one of the steps which the be?' Deputy Mayor know what would be last UF Government should have In any case this movemeni of the the reaction of the opposition mem- taken but could never bring itself to advocates is at best a storm in the bers? To think that he did not do. All in all, therefore, the events legal tea cup. The common people would be allowing him less than the of August 12 may not turn out to be are nowhere in the picture. It was, minimum intelligence that any Deputy so bad and the UCC councillors may therefore, all the more surprising to Mayor of Calcutta can be expected do well to earn the citizens' sympathy find the UF convener, Mr Sudhin to possess. That he should have act- by not making any demands for re- Kumar, coming out with a statement ed as he did make the whole thing suming sittings of the Corporation. in support of the advocates when the suspicious though it is difficult tp Let it lie and, pious hope, die in Front has been silent on many issues prove anything. peace. over which the people have been more Given the atmosphere in the Cor- concerned. ,poration it is immaterial to say who threw the lfirst brick but even there, according to reports, this doubtful That foreign trained people should honour seems to have gone to the get preference in an independent Red tapism is as old as the prover- Congress side. Apparently the change country over those locally educated is, bial hills but admirers of Gandhian from words to physical assault of a of course, a shame and the advocates economics would be pleased to know mild type was triggered off by a Con- of Calcutta High Court campaigning that Bapuji had his own ways of Exe- gress member throwing a chair (or against discrimination in the appoint- cutive Development, though not with rather The Chair about which was ment of judges do have a good brief. this label of the new-fangled science all the trouble) into the midst of Op- But then this is one of the facts of or art of management. position councillors. Indian life. Preference for the foreign According to legend, which may After provocation had produced the trained or educated man is much more have more truth in it than usual in desired result, the deputy leader of marked in other walks of life-in en- such things, Gandhiji's disciple, Shri the Congress Municipal Association, gineering, medicine, commerce and Satish Das Gupta, decided to start at Mr Nandalal Banerjee, who initially accountancy, to take a few. Some of Sodepur his own ashram on the model opposed 'Mr Khanna's vacating the those fighting for 'equality' may not be of Gandhiji's. Everything went on fine Chair came out with a statement ac- averse to sending their sons to get according to the scheme till the morn- cusing the communist members of foreign training to become a little ing of the first day. Early 1before 'goondaism,' a word which has be- more equal. When this is the state dawn broke Shri Das Gupta found an come rather stale but still comes as a of affairs in our country, to fight insurmountable snag. According to handy weapon in the hands of the against discrinlination in the sphere of the routine of Gandhiji's ashram, the Congress. The general public to law alone might appear to the British inmates were required to rub them- whom Mr Banerjee has appealed for educated barristers rather an unkind selves with til oil and then take their 'serious thinking over the matter,' cut. After all, our entire law leans bath. But to his horror Shri Das couldn't care one way or the other. heavily on the British model and they Gupta found that there was no til Finally, Mr Banerjee has held out the may think-if we with our British oil in the rural area which Sodepur threat, by way of an appeal to the background are not best suited to in- was about 35 years back, nor was it Deputy Mayor, not to hold any fur- terpret it, who is? Up to a point likely to be available easily in suffici- ther meetings of the Corporation un- they are right also. ent quantity. Unable to solve the less apologies are tendered. Which The movement of the advocates is problem, he threw off a telegram to would suit the Congress perfectly as one more instance of the forms of headquarters : "Til oil not available. meetings have become too inconveni- struggle of the common people being Wire instructions." ent for them. There is the added adopted by sections of the privileged Among the many virtues of Gan- advantage 01\ the oppqrtunity to blame classes. The advocates who are so dhiji was the habit of attending mail the Opposition for ihegation of de- keen on removing so-called discrimi- persolVllly. Back came the proII1!Pt mocracy.' nation as comp.ared to their barrister reply: "Use mustard oil. Letter fol- With the threatened indefinite strike friends, would sing a different tune lows". In his letter Gandhiji explain- of 33,000 Corporation employees not if their own privileged position were ed that he did not think there was any far off, this may be the only way out to be chall.enged, for example, by 'Particular virtue in til as compared to for the Congress administration of making all courts open to practice by mustard oil. It just so happened that Calcutta Corporation. Paradoxically, all lawyers all over India. If a quali- til oil was generally' used in Gujrat as

10 AUGUST 24, 1968 FRONTIER

mustard oil was in Bengal. As such Congress party, who. would, if they fish trade in the Sunderbans is under it would be in the lfitness of things to had their way, kill all initiative at the the control of a class of people known use mustard oil in an ashram in local level and impose a dead uni- as "aratdars." The lfishermen in this Bengal according to the prevailing formity all over India. Too many area, as anywhere else in India, are custom and habits of the people. business executives also. fumble in in- very poor and heavily indebted to. the The story mayor may not be true numerable offices when called upon fish merchants, who have placed a but it has lessons fOr all bureaucrats to decide minor issues on a par with well-knit trap allover the So.uth 24- and political bosses, most of all of the the til or mustard oil problem. Parganas to get the former into it. The most important centres af fish trade in the Sunderbans Fishermen Of The Sunderbans where the 'aratdars' have their "gaddi" are: Falta, Diamond Har- baur, Kakdwip, Namkhana, Fraser- ASHIM MUKHOPADHYAY gunj, Raidighi, Port Canning, Kali- nagar, Hasnabad, Itindaghat. UNLIKE the sharecroppers and ers cause water-logging and increase Before the fishing season starts agricultural labourers, the fish- the breadth of the rivers and creeks headmen of different groups take loans ing caste communities in West Bengal and thus make the area inaccessible, from these "aratdars" for paying their seldom get any recognition Or import- the fishermen retire to the north. The men for buying the necessary provi- ance. It is true that the tillers of the total number of resident fishermen sions, repairing the boats and fishing soil pass their days in poverty and in Sunderbans proper will not ex- gears. In return for this, they have to humiliation and their material condi- ceed six hundred. Others corne for hand (;>verthe entire catch to the "arat- tion is steadily declining; still the fishing only during the fishing season dars", who decide the prices. If the story of their sufferings is in some and return with the beginning af the fishermen fail to catch sufficient quan- ways brought to light. But with the monsoon. tities of fish, supply to the "arats" or fishermen the case is entirely different. From November to March, the. assembling centres also declines. The Although they are directly connected Sunderbans remains more or less "aratdars" thus get a good oppartunity with the producing activities of hospitable; as vagaries of nature are to buy off the poor fishermcm and de- society, students of sociology do not nat too frequent then, the mand high interest against the loans think seriously about them, nor do lfishermen migrate to that area in large given to them. These unscrupulous the newspapers. The entire body of numbers. They belong to the North merchants are aware of the poverty of lfishermen are under a darker cloud. 24-Parganas (specially the Barasat re- the fishermen and so know that, what- Hence a study af their material con- gion), Hooghly, Midnapare and How- ever the humiliation and exploitation, dition is most essential. rah districts. Their tatal number during these poor people will consider them In this article an attempt has been this time varies from five thousand to their last resort. Even when the catch made to reveal the misery of the Sun- six thousand. These lfishermen are di- is sufficient the fishermen's gain does derban fishermen-and this area is vided into small groups; the head af not come up to satisfaction, far they the most ideal place for ruthless and each group is called "Saindar" or have already sold their trading rights naked exploitation of the starving "Sangar", under whom work ten to fif- to the "aratdars" and p.romised to ac- masses. teen men; their number is, however, cept the price fixed by them. There is The real fishermen in this area not lfixed and may increase or dec- a well-known proverb in the Sunder- belong to three scheduled castes: rease depending on the solvency of the bans-"Go to the lfish merchant and Jaliakaibarta, Jhalomalo and Tiyar. headman. The number and variety of mortgage yourself". Besides them, some of the sub-castes boats and gears are also. determined All this is about the condition of of the Bagdis, Pods and Nuniyas are by the same factor. Throughout the the people connected with estuarine also engaged in 'fishing bu.t unlike the fishing season these groups catch lfish fishing. Those who work in "bheris", first three castes they often switch over in many known and unknown rivers, that is, the fish-farmers, are in no bet- to other professions for livelihood. being so busy with their work; that the ter position. In their everyday life they In the remote corners of the Sun- maximum time they can snatch for stumble from one crisis to another. derbans where tigers, wild boars, cro- a short nap hardly exceeds three The number of 'fish-farms in 24- codiles and snakes silently wait for haurs on the average. . Parganas is : Basirhat sub-division : their prey, where cyclones, floods and ~a lfinances these groups ? A hint 60 ; Barasat sub-division : 26 ; Alipur sudden subsidence of land are frequent about the answer has already been sub-division : 49 ; Diamond-Harbour but unpredictahle, these fishermen are given: the headmen. But in reality sub-division : 16. seen riding tiny boats on vast rivers, very few headmen can bear the res- Several hundred fishermen rear fish their fate hovering between life and ponsibility of financing the operatians in these farms but they are ill-paid. death. for lfivelong months. Their "good old Even the wage of the agricultural la- During the rains, when heavy show- days" have gone for ever. Today the bourers increases during the sowing

AUGUST 24, 1968 II and harvesting seasans, but the men ~The Press in !fishfarms have no. privileges. Snakes and leeches are their camman faes but it is the farmer that they fear most. The Black~ed-Out Strike In arder to.escape starvatian the fisher- \ men aften martgage the arnaments af their wamenfolk to. the farmer; mart- COMMENTATOR gaging af cattle and lands (very few af them possess land) is also. fre- IN the midst of canflicting reports, ted by ane side ar anather; it appears quent, and they seldom get these the newspaper strike has entered that same reparters are more canver- things ~ack. its faurth week. Many af these re- sant with distant happenings than with Ignarance and illiteracy are great ports, which may be nathing mare what is taking place in their immediate handicaps and the first step taward the than rumaurs, are encauraged by the circle. The anly piece af news that improvement af the material conditian tatal black-aut af news af the strike in has nat been cantradicted: is that re- af the !fishingcaste cammunities shauld the papers that are caming aut. The presentatives of employers and em- be expansion af educatian. The tab e silence af the newspapers is under- playees met separately the Unian below shaws the extent af illiteracy standable, thaugh same af them would Harne "Minister, Mr Chavan. What amang the three principal fishing nat agree that all newspapers belang he has to. do. with the dispute is nat castes of the Sunderbans. to. the same flack. But far more diffi- clear; perhaps it is the JJreragative cult to. understand is the attitude af af the Harne Minister to. have a !finger Caste Tatal Educa- All India Radio.. A" countrywide in every pie. Papulatian tianal strike af newspapers is nat aI} every- In the meantime, the dispute bet- level day accurrence. Never befare had so ween Patriot and the Indian and East- Primary, many newspapers been on strike far ern Newspapers Saciety, the arganisa- ar so. many days in the cauntry; but AIR tion of newspaper proprietars, has ac- Juniar refuses to see the differenc~ and treats centuated over the support extended Basic . the strike as any other. If it is a reflectian of the Gavernment's policy Jaliakaibarta 12,000 292 af strict neutrality in the dispute, AIR Jhalamala 5,761 183 may be reminded that it claims nat" Tiyar 16,096 185 to. be a p~apaganda vehicle of the Government. Mareaver, silence does A large-scale literacy campaign not always denate neutrality; in same will make the fishing castes cases, it may mean partisanship. Many aware af the causes of their misery and af AIR's listeners are interested in the the means to. 'fight it aut. Special strike; after all newspaper readers and schoals shauld be established far their radio. listeners belang to. the same children. The curriculum must have class, and many af thase who. tune in a fishing bias, far instance, bays their radias daily may like to. knaw shauld learn the elementary principles when they can expect to. get their af navigatian, carpentry, net-making, newspapers. repairing af fishing tackle and also. A report has appeared that the nan- extraction af lfish oils. They should striking employees af The Hindustan be provided with boaks and the re- Times, the faremast English daily af quired statianery free af cost. Ana- New Delhi, have been laid aff. The ther important subject will be the decisian affects the paper's sister arganisatian and management af Hindi daily, Hindustan, also.. The ca-aperative sacieties. At least, papers are awned: by the Birlas, and ane hundred new farms shauld be the report has set aff a speculation created in the Sunderbans and placed that if the strike continues far a few under the direct supervisian af ca- days more, similar drastic measures aperative sacieties camprising the lacal may be taken by other emplayers also.. !fishingcastes. The prafit can be equ- Almast simultaneausly with the step FRONTIER is available from ally distributed among them. Farma- reports appeared of resumptian af S. P. CHATTERJEE negatiatians at New Delhi. One paper tion af co-aperative societies is mast Steel Market important; these can go. a great way went to. the extent of farecasting that in putting an end to the manapaly af a settlement was in sight. But most Statesman Office the fish merchants. of these reports have been contradic- Durgapur-4

12 AUGUST 24, 1968 FRONTIER

by the paper to the "legitimate de- tic advertisement revenue. These ad tion that the no-war pact offer was mands" of the striking employees of vertisements are cornered because the made by Prime Minister Nehru and bigger newspapers. Taking exception Government has not tbe courage to there was no response from Pakistan. to a front-page announcement in the refuse them newsprint or costly equip- For diplomatic reasons the Russian paper expressing categorically the ment whenever they press for them. leaders may "affect" not to know that management's sympathy with the em- The result is that they can claim big Pakistan has been showing scant res- ployees of other member-newspapers circulation in urban areas and there·- pect for"the provisions of the Tashkent who are on strike the president of the fore "influence". Had the Govern- Declaration, while India has been lENS has told Patriot in a letter that ment the capacity to understand that unilaterally honouring them; but the the announcement is "reprehensible" next to credit the most powerful wea- CPI has no valid reason for assuming in that it runs counter to all tenets of pon that these business houses have ignorance. The rulers of Pakistan behaviour expected of responsible grabbed is the Press, it would have will come down heavily on those who members of the Society. The Society accepted long ago the price-page sche- may dare to start a campaign in favour will have to consider what action it dule and limited by law the propor- of a no-war pact between the two should take; but before doing so, it tion of space that should be occupied countries. In the opinion of the would: like to have the paper's com- in a newspaper by advertisement. paper, the CPI (M) has taken a "more ments. Accordingly, the lENS pre- These advertisements, apart from balanced" view of the situation. The sident has inquired about the circums- earning money from others, help the resolution passed by the Party's Cen- tances and reasons for the publication tycoons who run the papers by in- tral Committee at Jaipur is, in parts, of the notice in the paper. creasing expenditure in their own in- in accord with the views expressed by In reply, the managing dire-ctor of dustries, such expenditure reducing the Prime Minister. The party, how- Patriot has strongly objected to the their tax liability. It is a two-way ever, was not wholly cOlfTectwhen it "intemperate" language used by the confidence-trick on the taxpayer and said that the decision of the Soviet lENS president in his letter and de- the Government. The managements, Union to supply arms to Pakistan has manded that "suitable apology" be the workers concerned, and the Gov- exposed the utter failure of our made for' suggesting that the announce- ernment know very well that the "in- foreign policy. It may be safely pre- ment was reprehensible and did not dustrialist-owned advertisement sheets" sumed that the Government of India conform to tenets of responsible be- can afford to implement the wage has not the slightest intention of re- haviour. . The management of the board awards twice over if they want garding any country as a permanent ~p'aperhad already informed the secre- to. This state of affairs will conti- enemy. But in demanding that India tary of the lENS that the policy adop- nue as long as important individuals should give up her hostility towards ted by the society president "under in office want to make use of this en- China by taking initiative for creating pressure from a group of monopolist tirely corrupt section of the Indian a climate conducive to negotiations and newspapers" in regard to the' wage Press for their own glorification or settlement of our disputes with China, board awards was "entirely unreaso- for 'running down rivals when neces- the CPI (M) Central Committee nable". The paper has published the sary, and it will come to an end only has been swayed more by predilections "impertinent threat" of the lENS pre- when journalists and press workers than by reason. In all likelihood , sident to take action against the paper achieve enough unity and determina- any initiative taken by New Delhi for as no apDlogy, as demanded by it, had tion to demand a total take-over by creating a climate conducive to peace- been tendered till August 11. themselves of newspapers and treat ful negotiations will pass unnoticed in Commenting on the controversy them not as "industries" but as means Peking. It will not be so easy to Patriot says in an editorial that extor- of information and education of the wean away Pakistan ifrom Peking's tion is common to all industries' that people. .•.. embrace Or China from Pakistan's have grown up since independence; embrace. but it is nowhere more open and more Soviet Anns insistent than in what is called the In separate editorials Amrita Bazar Socialists National Herald is ~ceptical abOut newspaper industry. A handful of Patrika has discussed t,l:1eviews ex- the third force the PSP is keen on usurer-capitalists who managed to pressed by the two communist parties organising to consolidate socialist collar a number of industries are now on the Soviet arms supply to Pakistan. farces in the country. The paper in total control of what are called The paper says that the CPI, a party says' diat to spearhead a new ~ove- the national newspapers. The s e with· known leanings towards Mos- ment Or an alliance; its sponsors must men by judicious application of cow, has adopted a policy resolution be organisationally strong, ideological- cajolery and blackmail are able which makes no .difference between ly staunch, and at the same' tIme ac- ~ to influence individuals' in power. India and Pakistan. The party has' commodating arid tactful: It is doubt- Their main weapon for the s e called for a campaign ..both in India ful if the PSP can claim these virtues. campaigns is the newspapers they con- and Pakistan in favour of a' "no-war Consolidation of socialist forces is a I trol. These papers are today pheno.. pact" between ;the .two countries, but 'ttecessity-but .the manner in which the'· menally rich because of their fantas- there is ndt even a hint h.t jts' 'resQtq-~ 13 AUGPSTM, 1968 PSP is trying to attain this objective Book Re"iew stand what the Chinese think of the is hardly encouraging. It is good that rest of the world in general, and of the Jana Sangh is kept out of the the West in particular. In short proposed coalition, for the Par~y does Through A Splintered Bloodworth's book is the latest in the not believe in socialism. It IS easy line of the continuing encounter be- to understand why the Congress is ex- Glass tween China and the West. And pre- cluded from the scheme. But it is diffi- sumably, it may not be the last in t~e series, because today's encounter IS cult to understand why the Bharatiya K. N. RAMACHANDRAN Kranti Dal has been approached be- on a different plane and is likely to cause the party is an organisation of continue for a long time to come. HEN that great globe-trotter For contemporary China has offered ex-Congressmen whos~ "Gand~ism" W Marco Polo, after seventeen is nothing but opportumsI?' . EVlde~t- . a formidable trans-national anti-thesis years of stay in China, returned to to the value systems and ways of life ly the PSP is interested .m Im~rovmg Europe and narrated his Jl~easant .but its prospects in the' ,:ommg D?ld-term prevalent in other parts of the w~rld. surprising findings of the MIddle King- But .... A crucial but. The AchIlles elections in UP and BIhar and It hopes dom, many in Europe thought he was to gain a few seats by e~tering i~to heel of Bloodworth's analysis is his either a liar or a runaway from a refusal to see the qualitative difference a poll alliance with certam parttes. looney-bin. Two centuries later, The defeat of communal and reaction- between the old Middle Kingdom and Marco Polo's lfindings came to be Communist China and to presume the ary forces should be the goal .of all accep~ed because knowledge of China' socialist parties. But nowhere m the existence of a solid core of classical in the Western world had increas.ed by Chinese ~radition, although in a diff- world at any stage of. its history. have then. Few centuries later, during the 1'Togressive forces tnumphed SImply erent form, in the contemporary Chine- Age of Reason, the Fre~ch p~iloso- se policies and programmes. by putting up the pretence. o~ a ifight. pher, Montesquieu, sang m praIse of In socialist countries SOCIalIsm has The "looking in" part of the au- the Chinese system of government, and thor's story is studded with already been established after a struggle by culture on the basis of fresh informa- peasants, worker.s and intellectuals. In well-known observations: The con- tion. India such organised strength or con- cept of harmony in Confucian philo- Since then many professional travel- so,p'hy, the relentless leg~lism of .Han fidence is lacking, and: many who lers, diplomats adventurers and jour~ preach socialism and preten~ to work Fei, the merits and dements of Chmese nalists have bravely attempted to read bureaucracy, the machinations of con- for it are not sincere or perSIstent en- the seemingly un:perturbed Chinese ough in their approach. The P~P's cubines and eunuchs, the paradoxes of ' face in order to cull the secrets of that Taoist thought, the peasant rebellions search for unity may come to nothmg. ancient civilization. This search for Reactionary forces will thrive so long and their heroes, the pragmatism of China's "essence" has all along been the Chinese mind-all those conven- as socialist forces lie dormant and re- a strenuous although an intellectually main divided. This is the challenge tional themes are there. rewarding, task, strewn with innumer- But he has his unconventional before the PSP as well as other. par- able pitfalls and hazards, like,. for ties of socialism. points too. When the author describes, example, the complex system of Ideo- for exam:p>le,how the autocracy of the grams that constitute the Chinese la~- imperial governments in traditional guage erecting a formidable wall m China was often thwarted by the local A. I. E. the ':'ay of communication betwee.n bodies which acted as built-in checks the outsider and the Chinese. Denms against the abuse of power during the Mis, ASSOCIATED INDIAN ENTERPRISES Bloodworth, the Far Eastern Corres- best periods of Chinese history, one PRIVATE LTD pondent of Observer, is the most re- may say that he is making a good cent in this line of seekers and the point. However, his analysis of the Are result is a slick book. ¥o Chinese mind, as reflected in the com- LEYLAND MAIN DEALERS The author's perceptivity seems to [plex Chinese language, is f3lr from for have been honed by his privilege of convincing. No one will dispute the having a Chinese wife. However, in author's view regarding the difficulties WEST BENGAL and BIHAR the final analysis, his responses, per- involved in acquiring a meaningful CALCUTTA, SILIGURI, PATNA, haps inevitably, are that of a typical. knowledge of the Chinese language. RANCRI, MUZAFFARPUR Western observer trying to compre- But he believes that the Chinese lan- hend China's heritage and to under- guage, which has in turn conditioned 225C Acharya Jagadish the Chinese mind, is an obstacle to Bose Road, The Chinese Looking Glass free enquiry. if that is the case, one :ay Dennis Bloodworth. Calcutta·20 may ask why the Koreans and the Seeker and .W'ad:>'u.r~ Pcp: 379. Japanese who belong to the same lan- . ./ PQee !6 $hiJ.ling$. . guage family are not characterized· as

14 ~ttG1J&T 24, 1968 "shrink-think" people? It may be Chinese society and to understand its Platitudes And Their said that linguistic \pyrotechnics are compulsions and stimuli. Hence it is not a major tool for understanding the not a "sympathetic psychologist" (as P~dlars mind of a people. moodworth believes), but a political Chinese View of Others mathematician who can decode better Let us now come to what the au- what the Chinese convey. S. 1rAJUMDER

I thor has to say on the Chinese view The present Chinese Government's of others and his interpretations to "anger" against the West need not NE has to begin with some explain that behaviour. He is in full be interp'feted as a reflection of tradi- O remarks which might seem to be agreement with Matteo Ricci, that tional Chinese arrogance, as Blood- platitudes themselves. But one Jesuit priest who wrote nearly lfive worth does. One has to go for differ- should not be ashamed, knowing well hundred years ago that the Chinese ent terms of reference. A string of that platitudes may be uttered with believe that anyone living beyond the formidable U.S. military bases extend- intent either to rub certain things in, pale of Chinese civilization is a be- ing from Okinawa to Bangkok is un- or to disembarrass one's soul of the nighted barbarian. This may be true doubtedly a matter of great specifically edifying impulse. The , of traditional China, but what is the concern to Communist China, and its intent of the present article being the relevance of this view to an explana- vituperative attacks on "U.S. Imperi- former, one can begin with a few plati- tion of the behaviour of the present- alism" is to be understood in this con- tudes about platitudes. day Communist Government which de- text. Thus to look for a parallel be- A .platitude is a truth afflicted with rives its sustenance from an entirely tween traditional China's concern the disease of triteness-itself th~ different set of values? Bloodworth about the barbarians on the fringe of price of an intemperate airing of the again finds the' continuity of tradi- the empire and Communist China's truth through long years. There ~ay tional attitudes i'1 contemporary China. concern about the United States may be certain truths which never grow He believes that the old concept of be an intelligent intellectual exercise, trite' or stale with age. But there are a Celestial Empire surrounded by bar- but it is Clflittle consequence. Equal- good many for which youth is the barians has been replaced by the ly untenable is the author's argument indispensable condition of vitality. Maoist concept of genuine revolution- that the Sino-Soviet rift could be ex- Such, no doubt, are the truths that ary China surrounded by revisionists, plained in psychological terms as come to be in their proper element reactionaries, and imperialists-the Mao's "refusal to kow-tow to a only in social circulation. They may modern barbarians. The arrogant northern barbarian". (P. 338) . retain their 'usefulness' till the end of ,. statements of the old mandarins are The author also finds the weight of eternity, but as 'ideas' their period of compared to the revolutionary state- t,raditional Chinese attitudes in Mao's glory is certainly short-lived. Every ments emanating from today's Peking. vision of the contemporary world. age has to create its own ideas, at any Only the expressions have changed, Mao's division of the world into ple- rate, to give new meanings to old but the content is the same, the author bian East and patrician West is a glo~ ones. For instance, so innocent a slo- seems to say. bal projection of traditional Chinese gan as 'universal suflrage' once car- Wouldn't it be more fruitful if one peasant leaders' division of the Chinese ried revolutionary significance; to- .• tries to break the shell of violwt or society into that of "haves" and "have- day the dead hand of harmlessness has revolutionary statements from Peking, nots", Bloodworth asserts. struck it down, it is no longer fed by and attempt to grasp the kernel of It is to be IPointed out that Mao's revolutionary cinders. The truth con- the issues involved? Such a course vision is based on some of the reali- nected with the phrase has become a would perhaps present a coherent ties of the current world situation. platitude, just as the truths connected structure of rationally thought-out What he has emphasized is the revo- with "woman's emancipation" and policies of a young but potentially lutionary potentialities of the under- many similar phrases have become strong modern nation, a State striving fed South and the apathetic attitude so. to achieve its goal of attaining a right- to revolution of the privileged North. From platitudes we come to their ful place in the contemporary world. It may be true that Mao has derived pedlars. It is not difficult to understand If one is to rely solely on the traditional his general principles from "the 'p,arti- why 'People turn to peddling this par- thought processes of China, as Blood- cular experience" -the Chinese Revo- ticular variety of merchandise. A worth does, and use it as a looking lution-but this is no evidence to violent itch to prove oneself public- glass to perceive present-day China, prove the continuity of Chinese tradi- spirited, coupled with a certain defici- one is often likely to see only distorted tion in modern China, as 'Bloodworth ency in intellectual power, produces images. This is not to debunk the would like us to believe. a state of restlessness that finds satis- importance of Chinese traditions and Written in a flamboyant and vivaci- faction in this trade as in nothing else. their influence on the "Sinification of ous style, the book is a sort of amuse- If one fails to realise this, one Marxism" but only to point out that gueule, a diverting tome for an after- will never understand the 'pro- it is not the primary' yardstick to mea- dinner fare. It is not a product of gressives' or 'intellectuals' (as they sure the dimensions of contemporary sound scholarship. are oftener called with some unction.

AUGUST 24, 196a FRONTIER

Actually, the two expres§.ions have specious plea, advanced by our intel- to the absolute necessity of mounting come to mean much the same thing lectuals in season and out of season, a more vigorous campaign in the cause here, a 'conservative intellectual' being that, here in India, the scient~fic out- of the 'true' scientific outlook and for some obscure reason considered a look has yet to settle its accounts with against the false sciences prevailing contradiction in terms.) Obviously the Hindu outlook. Yes, it has; but in here? Just the other way about. For, a iprerequisite to an understanding of India the scientific outlook has not the universal acceptance of a truth them is the examination of a sample broken its shins by colliding against even asa hypocritical gesture, effec- of their merchandise. either the Hindu church or Hindu tively sterilises its power to do either Liberals and Marxists alike, our spiritual doctrines. The Hindu church geod or evil, thereby reducing it to intellectuals profess allegiance to the is of course a non-existent quantity: permanent banality. In Plato's words, 'secular way of life', the 'scienti1fic our ancestors were too discreet to its knowkdge becomes as the know- outlook' and some sort of ill-defined leave religion in the uncertain hands ledge of one's finger, neither stimu- 'internationalism'. Each of these slo- of an external institution like the lating one's intellect, nor causing in gans carries a certain truth which had church; they Sl!>ppliedit with a rock- one's imagination that state of tension its revolutionary significance in its day like base by incorporating it ,in all which is the father of all creative and the 'usefulness' of these truths has acts of life not excluding such ques- social activity. Thus, quite apart from not become totally exhausted. But tionably religious functions as digestion the fact that our intellectuals have their revoluti0!1ary elan has worn out: and sanitation. As for Hindu scrip- failed to furnish any meaning to their in other words, they no longer admit tural doctrines, they are mostly empi- slogans-the 'scientific outlook' 'the of being made causes. Take 'scienti'fic rically neutral, and Hindus ip. general 'secular way of life' and so forth- outlook'. never set much store by them, any- the slogans themselves must be "Social evils originate in supersti- way. One has to admit, though it is viewed as having reached the tion-the. scientific outlook is the rather pathetic to do so, that in India state of ultimate futility. To cure"-this statement was certainly the scientific outlook has to fight such clinch the argument it need only revolutionary in the age commencing unexciting enemies as Hindu metabo- be added that on the plane of philo- with Galileo and ending in Darwin. lism and Hin'du sanitation. If there be sophic issues, our Marxists rub ami- It was revolutionary in the social one enemy a shade more respectable, able shoulders with our liberals, both sense, because the scientific outlook it is the almanac, the panjika as we . protesting by the same worn-out slo- originating with the former and cli- call it. But even the institution of gans, 'finding fault with one another maxed by the latter clashed violently astrology, universal as it is, is hardly only on the plane of practical politics. with the powerful institution of the as universal as the church or the Intellectual power is a thing which is church. In so far as people's intellec-' gospel. No wonder that the scientific certainly very hard to come by, but tual stock consisted to a large extent outlook should come to grief in 'fight- the spectacle of the total intellectual of religious doctrines, the statement ing such unworthy enemies. . nullity displayed by our intellectuals, was revolutionary in the intellectual There is actually no fight at all, the is something which has few parallels sense as well. But the church has sting out of the scienti1ficoutlook being in the modern world. been effectively suppressed; and few removed by the simple trick of non- But enough of fault-ifinding. A people today profess to believe doc- resistance. Our intellectuals may not writer who criticises an existing cli- trines that admit of empirical refuta- relish being told that their crusading mate of opinion is under some sort tion. The revolution has achieved its :posture is absolutely gratuitous, but of obligation, intellectual if not moral, aims; one might even say it has ex- such, alas! is the case. However unsci- to attempt to create an alternative one. ceeded them, because nowadays peo- entinc or anti-scientific Hindu ways The modesty of the :present writer ple have been discarding not only may be, they have never attempted tells him to disclaim any competence such truths as are empirically refut- to hold their own by opposing science. for any such Herculean undertaking. able, but even such as are empirically Not even astrology in India has But one really cannot stop short of neutral. All this moreover with so waged war against science; it has pointing out one or two questions, little effort of will or spirit that any simply made it ineffectual by non- which, if not indicating any short-cut present=-day suggestion of martyrdom resistance-to be exact by claiming to to the millennium, at least promise in the cause of the scient~fic outlook constitute a science on its own. Such some honest intellectual effort: the -has become thoroughly ridiculous. are the adversaries the science of question of an Indian ideology, for Actually the boot has shifted to the Newton and Einstein is up against in example. Of 'course what is meant is a other leg, and someone opposing sci- this land. secular ideology, so no one need ence is a far likelier candidate for All this may be true, but one may squirm or go into convulsions, future martyrdom than any descendant intel1pose: Does this view of things For the matter of that, this author of Galileo. justify the assertion that the preaching is not going to propose a new ideo- of the scient~fic outlook by our intel- logy either. If one ignores the possi- Hinduism lectuals has become mere platitu,de- bility of Hindu communalism mallag- One is not unfamiliar with the mongering? Does it not rather point ing to become the dominant Indian

16 AUGUST 24, 1968 FRONTIER

the Association was, a few months It should be known by now that these capital). You changed it to "whose ago, a lecturer at Taki Government days the owners of an academic estab- number is legion." If you refer to the College. We also noticed the face of lishment do not differ qualitatively gaspel of St, Mark, Chapter V. 9, you a very prominent member of the Asso- from their counterparts in an indus- will find "My name i~ Legion : for we ciation in the photo published in trial establishment. An employer is are many." ]ugantar. We, therefore, take it for an employer. And the employers at The Concise Oxford Dictionary has granted that the Association has ex- Belur are better equipped to exploit the following phrase : "their name is tended its moral support to the great more thoroughly by virtue of the reli- L, they are numberless, see Mark J social movement. We assume that there gio-academic milieu. The teachers V. 9". Do you really think that you-'" is none to quote the conduct rules and should also know that an employee is improved upon my English ? accuse the Principal of violating the an employee is an employee. What L. K. BANERJI rules by leading the movement. But is more, an employee in the academic Varanasi. will it be too much to request the As- establishment is worse off as he is yet sociation to find out the truth about to develop the militancy which his Student Indiscipline the unjust victimization of a young counterpart inl the industrial establish- man? Will the members of the As- ment reveals. We live to learn, but I am surprised at the logic of sociation continue to eat mutton chops we must also learn to live ; and the Mr P. C. Dutta in his letter 'Student at the ABT A hall and forget that teachers can live only by giving a Indiscipline' (August 10) wherein there m:e signs of educational terror good lesson to the authorities as they something approaching an axiological in at least some parts of the State of do in the factories. conviction seems to have informed all West Bengal? AMRITAVA BANERJEE his generalizations of doubtful or con- -Calcutta. troversial validity. His argument to take 'the early political activities of Since the jpublication (August 3) the students' for a symptom and not Letters in your weekly of the article "Sadhus for a cause has boomeranged on Mr and Teachers" the situation has Dutta. His argument by symptoma- Sadhus And Teachers worsened at Belur College. The tology places him under the logical colleges authorities have extended the and pathological necessity of declaring I refer to the article by your corres- so-called summer vacation up to 'indiscipline' as the disease. Afte~ pondent (August 3). The facts, I am August 31 but the college secretary making such a diagnosis, should Mr afraid, though revealing, are yet to says there is no certainty that the col- Dutta have the face to denounce those disturb the 'quiet' Indian. A reckless lege will reopen on September 2; he who condemn 'political activity' ? 'BeatIe' may come to his senses and has advised the guardians to seek Secondly, by blaming neither the find that some Yogi's meditation is all transfer of their wards to other col- teacher nor the students Mr Dutta hoax. But that is not yet possible for leges. Even after a month since the wants in his own way to keep his con- the average Indian, who, though quite submission of the memorantJum by science free from any commitment to conscious of his mundane living, is the WBCUT A, which was immediate- either side and fullfils his stint by too religious to get disillusioned about ly sent to the college authorities by merely describing a circle which is vi- the sadhus. Some sadhus can afford the Vice-Chancellor, there has been cious without ever attempting any- high living and plain thinking because no response. "fhe Syndicate of Cal- where in his letter to get at the root their disciples go in for plain living cutta University on August 9 adopted of the cause of student indiscipline, and no thinking. These dealers in the a resolution requesting the college though he, in his turn, attempts to re- law of karma and the theory of trans- authorities to reopen the college im- fute and confuse others who attempt migration of the soul are managing no mediately. But the plight of the stu- to do so. meagre living ; with America as their dents and the guardians, the request Finally, the remedial 'explosion' in latest customer they have emerged as of even the Syndicate - nothing which his letter ends serves to cata- the new religious elite. can change tie stubborn attitude of pult his readers into a place where It is time Indians got rid of their the authorities. good-intentioned but unpractical uto- obsession with sadhus in general and AHINDRA KUMAR CHAKRABARTTY pians are found spending their time in those of the Ramakrishna ordcr in Bagula, Nadia sentimental appeals to feelings and p,articular. There can be no question blusters and fulminations, in in- as to the genuineness of the Vidya- "Legion" veighing against and uncorking the mandira teachers' demands. And as vials of wrah upon 'the present intole- one who served the Vidyamandira as Regarding my letter in Frontier rable conditions' without caring for the a whole-time lecturer for more than (August 10, under the caption "Bor- aetiology of these 'intolerable condi- two years, I can well understand the ing", I wonder what made you change tions'. plight of my erstwhile colleagues. a well-known phrase in the last line R. N. DEBBARMA Their plight should be an eye-opener. -"whose name is Legion" (L being Bansdroni, 24-Parganas.

18 AUGUST 24, 1968 Regd. C 2026 Frontier A\.Jgust 24, 1968 , ••• India's poverty is paradoxical. Here, too many people toil to wrest a living from the earth, but the earth yields far too little. Embarrassed by the richness of resources and the poverty of means to exploit them, India produces not enough food to feed all of its population. Only large-scale mechanized farming coupled with intensive rural electrification can get the country perma- nently out of this rut. Rural electrification on a wide scale can bring power to our farmers and help them grow more food, and attain a new prosperity. GEC have been playing a key role in making the country's rural electrification programme a success. GEC's vast reservoir of technical know-how and resources are directed to improve continually all GEC equipment that are essential to cope with the increasing problems of power distribution and utilisation in rural areas. During these years, GEChave been called, many times, to participate in the vital nation-building projects that are helping to change the face of rural India-projects that include the Bhakra Nangal and the Hirakud Dams. GEC have also played a leading role in successfully implementing the programme of village electrification .. GEC have supplied a large number of transformers, motors, switchgear end pumpsets to help make the; 'Grow More Food' campaign a success. In all these developments one factor remains unchanged-the GEC quality. Installed at India's farms, GEe Quality products are helping to bring the country closer to agricultural self-sufficiency and farm prosperity. No wonder, they have become the most trusted weapons in the country's fight against hunger.

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Kalpana.GEc.atI FRONTIER

ideology in the near future, the pre- out in actual fact to be a repudiati~n fighting for dominance in India is a sent rather contused confrontation of anything Indian, for, his intermin- question one should like to leave open. between liberalism and Marxism in able quibbling with the two words Meanwhile it seems to be one of this country may be viewed as fore- notwithstanding, he has really never those issues the exploration of which shadowmg _a possible clearer shape of cared to define the specifically Indian promises an exercise, perhaps more things to come. Meanwhile the worst element in his creed. One suspects exacting, but certainly more exhilar- casualty of this contusion would seem that none exists. ating than our intellectuals' intermin- to be that ultimate Indian substra- Whether any such element can ever able gush about the scientific outlook, tum, upon which every Indian reform- be grafted into the body of either of the secular way of life and many more er Or revolutionary would naturally be the two ':progressive' ideologies now similar cant.' expected to build his dream castle, pOl1telynamed 'the India of the future', That substratum alas I does not exist. Educational Go-As-You-I-Jike Lenin 1 should like to make my meaning C. ;R. clear by quoting an extract from Maxim Gorky's reminiscences of that UPPOSING that all the readers and the Students' Federation earned a revolutionary internationalist, Vladi- I Sof Frontier are also readers of surprising victory over ,those who mir Ilyich Lenin: morning dailies, we take it for granted thought it proper ,to identify their in- "I more than once noticed in him that they have recently seen a. photo terests with those of the authority. this traIt-this pride in Russia, Russi- Or read about a group of girls doing Last year, Barasat Government Col- an literature, Russian art. Sometimes social work at Barasat Railway Sta- lege had a turbulent election and the this feature a:ppeared to me strangely tion. Only a few days ago, the stu- nominees of the S F were mercilessly foreign to Lenm's nature, even naIve, dents of the Government College of kept out of the union. Champion- but then I learned to hear in it the Barasat led by their Principal started boxers were employed to smash the echo of his deep-seated, joyful love a movement called "Anti-ticketless heads of young intellectuals. The for the working people. Trayel Movement.' Loudspeakers de- table was completely turned this year .•• "In Capri, while watching how the corated every corner of the suburban and the great social movement which fishermen carefully disentangled the junction station and banners were un- enjoyed the active co-operation of the nets, torn· and messed up by a shark furled. Students entered every com- Railways and the Press proved ludi- he observed, 'our men work more partment and forced every passenger crous. quickly.' When I cast some coubt on to show his ticket. Girls mercilessly Taki is not far away from Barasat this remark, he said with a touch of attacked other girls. Genuine passen- and there· is a Government College vexation, 'H'm,' H'm. Don't you gers were harassed and genuine ticket- too. The physicial. instructor of the thmk you are forgetting Russia, living less travellers laughed and sang- college, a young man of 23 Or 24, was on this hump?' Monkey donkey elephant cow .... asked to vacate his post for taking It seems that our own intellectuals Newspapers reported that the Prin- part in a :political m 0 vern e n t. ,.. inhabit a 'hump' a good deal narrower cipal delivered a fine speech on the The young man had the misfor- in dimensions than Capri. To say that occasion. He took the trouble of re- tune of standing near Hasanabad they do not share Vladimir Ilyich's minding students all over the country police station when the local peo- pride in the native land, the native that India is losing Rs. 2 lakhs every ple were showing their anger at the literature and the native arts, would year because students do not purchase formation of the Ghosh Ministry. His be a gross· understatement of the tickets. head was smashed and he was arrest- fact-the most stupendous fact about All these took place on a Thursday. ed. He was put into Basirhat jail. post-independence India-that our On Friday, Jugantar wrote an edito- In their order relinquishing the intelligentsia is ashamed to call its soul rial on the revolutionar performance post, the Government did not state its own. The Indian Marxist even of the students of a government col- that he was a political offender. The views the Iproletariat as 'proletariat lege and stated that the Principal had Government took the trouble of in- rightly co-operated with the Railways I in the abstract', any word of discri- forming him that he would not be ~ minatory appreciation of the Indian in the atter's bid for punishing those allowed to work further because he who do not ~rouble themselves by pur- proletariat striking him as the vilest of was not a nominee of the Public Ser- chasing tickets when they travel. On vice Commission. A strange order blasphemies. As for the Indian liberal, Saturday, Amrita Bazar Patrika wrote indeed, because he had been working ~ he of course has no use for even an a similar editorial urging students to there for years together. abstract appreciation of any section rally round the Princip,al of Barasat We know that there is a Govern- of the Indian community. His avowed Government College. On the same ment College Teachers' Association. repudiation of anything Hindu turns day the college had its yearly election We also know that the Secretary of

AUGUST 24, 1968 I~ A Survey of Friendship·

Landrtlarks of Indo-G.erman Cooperiltion

•••• 204 Capital a 'technical Assistance Projects 00 350 Joint Ventures and Collaborations dl 7 Max Mueller"Shavans Cultural Centre :t- 3 Technical Training Institutes • 21 Lecturers at Indian Universities ·t 92Volunteers (German Volunteer Service) • 3 Agricultural Projects 8 Television Studio New Delhi E:3 German Academic Exchange SelVlce (DAA.O.) {IQ. Indian Institute of Technology Madras

India and Germany-Partners in Progress