Chapter V
THE MAJOR AHD MEDIUM PARTIES.
THBIR FORM. COSTEHT AWD NATURE
The preceding chapttri wherein the historical background of the parties has been briefly discussed, serres not more than a usual aid in faailiarislng with their broad features, but the factors that contribute more to the determination of their nature are their form and content* The form is broadly composed of two elements, the organisation and structure and the elements that constitute the content, are
ideology, object, leadership, membership and finance*
1. The Fora of Parties
The instrument that gives a formal Tiew of the organisa tion of parties is the party constitution.^ The party
There were many bottlenecks that blocked the way in getting it* Several parties did not have a written consti tution and many of those who claimed to possess one, could not offer a copy nor could they make it arailable in their respective offices. Generally» the Indian parties granted exceptions, start with a chosen name and at some later date, some workable organisational bases are mutually discussed and agreed upon by the founders in order to put them on the saddle but such bases are seldom incorporated in an instru ment like the constitution* The Purusharathi Panchayat alone among the existing minor parties could furnish the writer with a copy of its constitution but that too was in manuscript covering half the space of an Inland Letter Foxm* The INOC of Madras told that their constitution was based on the INC's but they in Continued on next page. 34d constitution is not always a sacred dociiment as generally the constitution of a country is; nor is it a guarantee of various interests and rights, or a check against the power from becwaing arbitrary by prescribing precise limitations as the latter does. Broadly speaking, the party constitution is an attempt at systematising and implementing the workable hypotheses and practical formulas that are so essential to the assembly, operation and expansion of an organisational machinery. The nature of the constitution will, therefore in short, depend upon the selection of the type of machinery.
Footnote continued from previous page. practice had to discuss with the writer the main features of it as they did neither draft out nor formally adopt one. The only distinction between the IMG constitution and of the INOC Is that the latter has only one class of members instead of the three provided for by the former. Similarly, discussion had to be held with the 9(arxist Forward Bloc, a splinter group of the FB(M) closely collaborating with the CPI, the RRP, the Muslim League, the Nam Tamil Party, the IKK and the Sadharantantri Dal who all alike had first boasted of the existence of a constitution but were unable to produce one inspite of the promises given. The RCPI (Tagore) which has comparatively a better literature standard, made a frank admission that a copy of the constitution was not available with them. The BPI failed in their search to trace out a transcript of their constitution. And therefore in the case of these two also, the nature of their constitution was a matter of oral investigation. The president of the Jharkhand Party told that they had a constitution exactly on the lines of the constitution of the Congress but could not elaborate further. A constitution has not been finalised so far by the RWPI. More startling was the confession of the BJS, one of the four all-India parties recognised by the Election Commission, that they did not have an English copy of their constitution. The party structure cannot therefore be chiselled in these cases with as much ease as could be possible in the case of the parties whose written constitu tions could be brought within reach- 349
It might be unrealistic to classify or divide party constitutions as there can hardly be a uniform principle towards this end since each party normally follows a consti tutional pattern of its own. The party constitution varies from party to party, from country to country, takes its shape according to the designs of the makers of the party, and there are no classical standards to which it should conform and there is no hard and fast rule how It ought to be. It is a private document in which the principles and the order of internal management of the party are formally set forth. It provides of course, certain ingredients to invoke public interest which certainly do not rise beyond an inspiring
Invitation unto itself. There, indeed, could be searched out in the party constitution rudiments of a covenant executed by the original party members, wanting in contractual sanctity and in means of enforcibility but with possibilities of revision in future and with the promise of a commonwealth, to use Hobbeslan words. In practice, there is no fundamental sanctity or inviolability attached to it as in the case of a state constitution. It Is no supreme document to the party because there is no unsurpassable coercion behind it to maintain its supremacy. The party itself does not expect that it should be more than a smooth workable basis, an even track to run its wheels, an ascending line of communication to apprise, a descending channel for the rapid conveyance of its orders from 350 , the top, and a convenient measure to exert the maximum supervision in implementing the orders passed.
But there can be seen certain elemental likenesses, some proximities of traits with their roots in the philosophical or ideological allegiance of parties between different party constitutions. These similarities are perceptible between the constitutions of parties belonging to the three traditional divisions, the right, the left and the centre. The right party constitution is more or less autocratic in nature, whereas the centre party constitution Is a blending of liberty at the base with authority at the sunamit; it is usually liberal. The left constitution is of two categories based upon the two conventional left sub groups, the socialist left and the communist left, of which the socialist left constitution is of idealistic pattern and is theoretically sound and well-founded but the conmuhist left constitution is patently authoritarian, hence it has the maximum workability with minimum difficulty*
However, as the class character and content of the Indian parties except for their label are confusingly mixed up with castes and have yet to form distinctly in overwhelming majority of the cases, it would be premature to treat their constitutions in the traditional three way. Further almost every Indian party constitution is of multi-class, multi caste character. The Maz*xian constitution which in the west is noted largely for its mono-class character, in India, 351 is essentially a peasants, working class, bourgeoisie constitution with ample provision for the rich to have an elbow-room under vigilance and restrictions. But the elemental likenesses and proximities of traits are demonstrably present In a different way in constitutions of the Indian pax*ties irrespective of the groups to which the parties belong, and they are largely in the internal structure and distribution of power within* Thus the position and authority of the president of a tribal party might exceed those of the general secretary of a Marxian party, although the former might claim to be democratic. Functional deviation from constitutional dictation is common with parties every where, but in India, the distance between the letter of the constitution and its actual working seems to be far greater than in anywhere else. The nature of the party organisation in many cases is therefore, clouded or vitiated by the inconsistency prevailing between the constitutional precepts and constitutional practices. It is curious that certain political parties like the SCF (RPI) have solved the puzzle of building up the middle and top party organs without constituting the basic units for which provisions are made in their constitutions. The RSS adopted a formal constitution only when it was made obligatory on its part in 194^ by the 2 Union Government.
------* ------"In October Qolwalkar, the leader of the RSS Organisation was told that the Government of India would have no objection to the functioning of this organisation provided
Continued on next page. 352
Marxian parties, the SUC and the DV have their consti- t tution still in the draft form and hence there is nothing mandatory in them. Thus many party constitutions are mere blue prints to serve certain irreducible basic requirements in political formality and means to satiate the methodological approaches of the external elements and therefore, unless they are viewed from their actual organisational structure, they will present a picture different from what they are. The Congress Organisation. There lie at the foundation of any organisational structure scattered but indirectly interconnected tiny organisms, the life bearers of the
structure, each one is commonly called the primary unit or the basic element. The existence and expansion of an
organisation are dependent upon the sensitivity and right augmentation of the basic elements, the time to time condition of which will relatively tell upon the organisation as a whole; when they are mercurial, the organisation is enlivened and when they go inert, the organisation becomes dormant or dead. The basic elements vary from party to party in their name and nature and mode of function. The primary unit of a party is the bottom-most part of its
Footnote continued from previous page. it adopted a wxdtten and published constitution... After some discussion with his advisers, Golwalkar forwax*ded to the Government of India in March 1949, a draft constitution of the Sangh." (Review of the Activities of the Ministry of Home Affairs for the year 1949, New Delhi, The Manager, Government of India Press, 1950, P«34«) 353 structure and it operates In the lowest and smallest division of party-jurisdiction. The first peculiarity that engages the attention in the Congress constitution, is that the basic unit Is not properly arranged and accommodated therein but conmittees subordinate to the District Congress Committee (DCCJ and above and below the Mandal Congress Committee (MCC) are left to be determined by the Pradesh Congress Committee 3 (PCC) concerned.** First of all this discretion and liberty left with the PCCs has not been universally applied as to bring about uniform basic units all over the country with the result that the basic unit of the Congress organisation, if at all really functioning* is known by different names and for different functions in various tenrltorial divisions. Secondly the basic units claimed to be existing In the
Congress territorial divisions, are normally confined to the lower levels of the administrative divisions of the respective states within which the territorial divisions fall, and are therefore unlike in size, unequal in scope and activities too. However, it could be ascertained to an appreciable length that at the village level, not in all states the Congress has any formal body to serve as primary unit. In fact, many of those basic units said to be "live", are
^ Constitution of the Indian National Congress, New Delhi, the AlCC 1957, Article II (vii). a I s o Article IV idilch states "The PCC may constitute Committees subordinate to the DCCs and above and/or below the MCC in the manner laid down in the constitution of the PCC.” 354 largely fictitious bodies created by persons Interested In getting themselres elected to higher and higher positions in the organisation* A basic unit should be of a standard size, uniform in function and could be found alike in all places a party operates. This drives to the alternative, so far as the Congress is concerned, to treat the MCC as the basic unit and the exiguous divisions noticed as its incoherant fractions supplementary to it in their function. The MCC consists of four classes of members; elected, co-opted special and ex officio and covers "an area having a population of round about 20,000".^ It is the only party organ to which a primary member can vote but his vote determines only half the size of the Committee since the remaining half is 5 normally filled in from extra-electoral sources.
Next above the MCC is the General Assembly of the MCC ifhlch is composed of "the primary members enrolled within the area of a Mandal".^ The General Assembly which is considered to be the iimaedlate superior body to the Mandal Committee is not so in actual practice, for the very composition of the MCC is against any self-assertion of the former. In between the MCC and the DCC in many places there
Constitution of the Indian National Congress, Article IX A.
^ Article IX Ail). 6 A rticle X. 355 is the Taluk Committee or an equiTalent body formed by the
PCC in accordance with the authority conferred by the
7 Constitution* The DCC is another mixed composition having as many as seven channels of mraibership of which there is but one elective that too not direct but patently indirect. The remaining are special, co-opted and ex-officio as in the case of the MCC. Representation on the PCC too is effected identically, only one out of the five ways of u filling it being indirect election. There is provision for nineteen PCCs, one for each of the nineteen organisational or territorial divisions^^ of India who are entitled to send one-eighth^^ of their meabership to the next higher body, the iUl-India Congress Coamittee (AlCC) by indirect election.
There az'e seven other ways of giving representation on the
AlCC which are as in the ease of the lower bodies, outside the purview of election. The highest and most powerful body of the Congress, is the Working Committee consisting of "the president of the Congress and twenty members Including a treasurer and one or more general secretaries who shall be appointed by the
^ Article IKviiJ and Article XV. ^ Article II A(a). 9 Article XII A(a). Article Ill(a). Article XIV A(a). 356
12 president".... "ordinarily"... from amongst the members of the AlCC"^^ and if a non-member appointed, his continuance shall be subject to his election to the AICC "within six months of his appointment".^^ The powers of the Working Committee with regard to the Congress organisation are unlimited. It can "constitute a new pradesh; abolish an existing pradesh; merge any two existing pradeshes into one, or assign to a pradesh, a district or a portion or portions of a district from any other pradesh."^^ It reserves the "power to give representa tion in such manner as it thinks proper"^^ to areas outside the jurisdiction of any PCC.. It receives the annual reports
12 At the AlCC session in Poona in June, I960, progressive elements in the Congress pressed for a constitutional reform in that they demanded that the Uorking Committee should be composed of members elected by the AICC, which was met with a strong opposition from the conservative quarters. Nehru, thereupon, brought a ccmpromise solution that one third of the Working Committee should be filled in by election but he was voted out> as the Congress chiefs from the states who wanted to perpetuate the hierarchy pressurised their followers to conform. But Nehru did not leave the issue at that. Subsequently at a meeting at New Delhi, he persuaded the Working Committee to accept his suggestion and finally the AICC at its session on October 29t I960 passed an official amendment to the constitution providing for the election of one third members of the Working Committee. Constitution of the Indian National Congress, Article XX(a). Idem. Article III(c). Article Ill(d). 357 of the work done by the pradesh organisations^*^ and can suspend the PCCs for functional deriatlon from the constitu- 1 d tlon* It submits the progranme of work for the Congress session,to the Subjects Caanittee which is none other than the AlCC itself. It is "the final authority in all matters regarding interpretation and application of the provisions of” 21 the constitution and thus it can make and 22 unmake the constitution* It frames rules, issues 23 instructions, superintends, directs and controls the PCC 2JL and subordinate committees, takes disciplinary action 25 against any indlTldual or iewmiittee except the AICC, and relaxes provisions of the constitution concerning membership, voters and candidates.It appoints auditors to examine all records, papers and account books of all Congress
Committees, and organisations^^ and also the AlCC accounts.
Constitution of the Indian National Congress, Article XII D(c). Article III F. Article XVI(a). 20 Idem. Article ZX(c). Article 11(f)(i). Article IX(f)(ii). Article XX(f)(ill). Article XX(f)(iv). Article IX(f)(v). Article XX(e). 35«
It controls the Congress finance and administers the Congress 2d properties through Board of Trustees appointed by it. It sets up sub-coflmittees and from within Itself the Parliamentary 29 Board which together with flYS members electedect by the aICC, 30 constitutes the Central Election Committee. The Working C(»Bfflittee thus possessing enormous powers is not responsible to the Annual Congress but only to the 31 AICC from which its members are chosen* To expect that the AICC can enforce responsibility of the Working Committee is as Tain as to expect that a horse can compel its rider to be its vehicle. The members of the Working Committee are the top leaders of the Congress in the AICC whose support is inevitable to the rest of the AICC members to remain in their respective positions. The AICC is a boat which is propelled in the party waters by the oarage of the Working Committee. The Annual Congress Session is itself reduced to an audience to witness the performance of the members of
the Working Committee in which the president of the Congress takes the lead to deliver his address often written by someone else behind more powerful than him or according to 32 his tastes and distastes. The Congress Session has a
2B Constitution of the Indian National Congress, Article 11(1). Article X X m . Article XXVII(a). Article 11(c). See leadership, vide p. 359
Halted scope and has a very few powers. It is in the first
Instance to "consider resolutions recommended for adoption by the Subjects Committee”^^ (i.e. AlCC), but these resolu tions themselves mostly are prepared by the Working Commlttee^^ taking into consideration the resolutions recommended by the
PCCs (in reality the leaders) and views of prominent AlCC membersI who if not already members of the Working Committee, are generally guided and inspired by such members to give such views. Sven a motion from the delegates is not allowed in the Session "unless it has been previously discussed at a meeting of the Subjects Committee, and has received the support of at least a third of the members then present"^^ and a minimum of "40 delegates have, before the commencement of the day's sitting, requested the president" for his permission for its introduction* Both these are normally impossible unless such a motion is indirectly sponsored or is supported by the policy makers of the Congress who are the Working Committee themselves. The only other power of the Congress Session worthy of mention is the power to amend the constitution which itself is vested in the AlCC in non session times and can be invoked at the desire of the Working
Constitution of the Indian National Congress, Article XVII(c)(i). Article XVI(a). Article XVII(c)(ii). Idem. 360
yi Committee. Thus if the iAforklng Coamittee has turned the AlCC into a horse, its unbreakable spell has converted the Congress Session into a cart behind the horse.
The Congress organisation is made with intention of accommodating the party elders and their aides. The ex presidents of the DCC are automatically members of the DCC and so are the ex-presidents of the PCC and the AlCC in their respectiye bodies. The members or office bearers of the superior committees take their seats in the immediately next subordinate bodies as almost a matter of right if they are residents in the Jurisdiction of such bodies. The DCC members who live within the area of the MCC enter with authority in the Committee, and so do the monbers of the ^CC in the DCC, and of the AlCC in the PCC. The presidents of the lower committees get into the next higher committees, and there exists ample proYision for accommodating the old guards and special interests who stand by the Congress. Election, more especially direct election, the granite in the build of any democratic organisation, is perfunctorily treated or progressively curtailed to find place for party elders. The primary moiiber has no participation in any function except in the election to fill up half the membership of the MCC. He comes if convened, in the General Assembly
37 Constitution of the Indian National Congress, Article XXX. THE ORGANISATION
THE CONGRESS
_ — -— ■ i " ~ „ T A L U K O R T A L U K OR OTHER o t h e r C O M M lT T tE COMMITTEE 1 ^ , ^ -
M. C C. M. C. C. M. C . C. M. C . C.
GENERA L G EN ER A L GE NE KAL G E NE RAL BOPY OF BODV OF BOPY OF BODY OF M C. C. M. C . C. M . C . C M. C. C. 361 of the MCC not to exchange or establish his Tlews but to take dictations and orders from his seniors who are generally obsessed with the perrersity of the old.
In the Congress organisation, the channel of authority runs from above down> Power is heavily concentrated at the top and an innocuous portion is skimpingly distributed to the various constituents. Above all obscurity and vagueness the two outstanding features of the Congress constitution, enable the Working Committee as the final authority and the sole interpreter to reduce the document to a ball of clay in the hands of the potter. Horizontally interconnected at the base, the Congress organisation takes itself vertically up and ends in a single office of a single leader behind him cloaked the real power of the Congress.
The Socialist Organisation. Indicative of the important characteristic of a socialist party organisation as evinced by the branch, "a socialist invention" tiered up into the
Constituency Branch,the District or City Branch^^ and the Provincial Branch,the PSP Constitution lays
Maurice Duverger, Political Parties, op.cit., p.24- 39 Constitution and Rules, Praja Socialist Party, New Delhi, the PSP, 1956, Article XI. UO Article XII. Article X. 362 proportionate stress on the basic unit and clearly delineates its territoiT and function.
The primary unit of the party comprising of "all the individual members enrolled in its area or belonging to the industrial establishments concemed"^^ is of three kinds, the Ward Unit, the Local Unit and the Industrial Unit.^^ "The
Local and Ward Units are the smallest territorial organisations of the party". All the members within the territorial jurisdiction of the primary unit together constitute the General Body of the unit^^ which elects its own Ward or Local Committee including a secretary. Franchise right of the members is not extinct with the election of the primary unit committee; they elect directly representatives to the next above organ, the Constituency Council who from amongst them selves elect a Constituency Executive. The territorial division above the Constituency is the District but a city with a population of three lakhs or more is given the status of a District.The District or City Council is composed of one-fifth of the elected members of every constituency council within its territorial Jurisdiction and as the
Constitution and Rules, Praja Socialist Party, New Delhi, the PSP, 1956, Article V 3(bh 43 Article V 1(f). ^ Article V 3(a). 45 Article XIII 1. ^ Article XIII 3. Article V 1(c). 363
Constituency Council does, it elects an executlTe of its owi.^^ All the various Distxdct and City Councils noraally of a state will form into the ProTincial Conference^^ which from within creates two other bodies, the ^»rovincial 50 51 Council and the Provincial Executive^ by election*
Constitutionally the supreme organ of the party from which all authority emanates is the National Conference composed 52 of delegates elected by members* Thus indirect election is strictly restricted to the Distrtct or City Council. The
National Conference like its provincial counterpart, forms the National General Council, delegates from each province electing a fifth of them into it,^^ and the National
Sxecutive whose members are elected by the delegates 54 individually exercising their franchise.
There exists no fundamental disagreement or difference between the constitution of the PSP and that of the Socialist
Party; they conform to each other in great part even in letters and are one and the same except for two variations.
The Socialist Party constitution has done away with the
^ Constitution and Rules, Praja Socialist Party, Article XII 1 and 3- Article Kb). Article I 3(a). Article X 2(c). Article VI 2. Article VII 1(a). Article VI 5(c). 364 organs that c(»ie in between the Executive and the Conference
at the proTlncial level and at the national level, namely the Provincial Council and National General Council and
established in these two spheres parity in the number of bodies with the district and constituency. Bvidently the
Provincial Council and the National General Council are
superfluous and they are expected only to meet at least once between the two respective Conferences. They are vague creations having no definite duties assigned and the constitution itself is silent over their functions and their purpose save to say with regard to the National General
Council that it "shall have the power to take decisions
regarding policy, progranmie and organisation of the party,
provided that they are not inconsistent with those of the
National Conference".Inferentially, they might be to
serve as a substitute for the Conferences in emergencies and
to give place or prominence to the surplus or second line
leadership at the intermediate levels of the party who could
not be absorbed into the Executives.
The second vaz*iation lies in disciplinary action and disciplinary bodies of the two parties. In the PSP, disciplinaz*y cases falling within the provincial Jurisdiction are dealt by the Provincial BXecutive^^ and extra-provincial
Constitution and Rules* Praja Socialist Party, Article VII 2. Article X 4 e (ii). 365 casts are exclusivtly dealt by the National Executive who from amongst thenselves elect a Tribunal of three nembers to entertain and decide disciplinary appeals.Evidently hurt by his and his colleagues expulsion from the PSP which according to him was an absolute misuse of powers on the part of the National Executive, Lohla, while framing his party's constitution has taken out the disciplinary powers from the Provincial and National Executives and vested respectively In two independent bodies, the State Disciplinary Committee and the Control Commission of which the former will be elected directly by the State Conference^^ and latter by the 39 National Conference. Besides being the central disciplinary body, the Control Commission will as its CPI counterpart, be the appellate tz*ibunal to hear appeals against the decisions 60 of the State Disciplinary Committee. Perhaps more respect to the disciplinary principles of democracy has been shown by the Socialist Party In the constitutional provisions that
**under no circumstances shall an elected body be dissolved except by a vote of non-confidence by the electing body"^^
57 Constitution and Rules, Praja Socialist Party, ^ Article VIII(e). 53 Socialist Party Constitution. Hyderabad, The Socialist Party 1956 - Article X 5(d). Article VIII 6(d). 60 Article XV 1. Article XV d. 366 and that "arrangements for holding a proper meeting to record the verdict of confidence or non-confidence shall be made by the Control C<»imlsslon or the State Disciplinary Committee concerned.The Socialist Party also made minor changes In the name of the bodies functioning at different organisa tional heights. For example, the word ’executive' found In the PSP organisation from constituency level to the National level has been uniformly substituted by the term 'committee* and so also the term ’province* with ’state*. Leaving these distinctions, both the constitutions hold forth the under lying principles of social democratic organisation, its suppleness and forthrightness.
The socialist organisation recognises the need of m decentralisation of power and grants the widest possible autonoay to the lower units* It affords the maximum opportu nity to an ordinary member to associate with the activities of the party and links him directly with the highest and the most powerful organ of the party - the National Conference. It approves the mechanism of election as the surest and fairest means to reflect the will of the members and adopts it invariably fron the base to the sunmit. It places so much emphasis on the vote of the members that even the National Executive have to seek their mandate in advance in order to fully participate in the National Conference.The supreme
Socialist Party Constitution, Article XV 8. 63 Constitution and Rules, Praja Socialist Party, Article VI 4* Socialist Party Constitution, Article VIII 4*
367
power of the party Including the power of amending the
constitution and framing of policy and progranne, is lodged in the National Conference directly elected by the party members but this power is not all-penrading but confined to
specifically enumerated itois of fundamental impoz*tance to the party. Notwithstanding the admirable democratic character of the socialist organisation) the party oligarchy remains unchanged both at the provincial and central lerels. It has also been in many places riddled and deformed due to the dictatorial or autocratic tendencies fostered by many of its conformist leaders who in their haste to exert their personal supremacy* arrogated to themselves extra-constitutional powers. Still another factor which denotes the distance
between the formal letter of the constitution and its actual
working* is the want of trained leaders and the non-developnent
of democratic mind at the base which in fact* enable the
oligarchy to remain firm on the saddle. The Marxian Organisation* The serious ideological incompatibility that keeps apart one Marxian party from another* however has not interfered with their organisational and structural principles* and therefore all of them maintain identical organisations but for a slight variation in the names of bodies at different levels. The following similarities are conspicuous. Bvery Marxian constitution speaks in no uncertain terms 368
that the party organisation is based upon the principle of 6L democratic centralisa the implications of which are too
well known to students of politics.
The organisation of all Marxian parties invariably begins with the cell and ends in the central conmittee. Almost
every Marxian party constitution is incorporated with a
charter of rights and duties of mimbers which in effect is
all of duty and few of rights* In general» the party
organisation is primarily aimed at building up effective
__ "The main principle on which the structure and organisation of the party is based, is called democratic centralism." The Constitution of the CPI (Pre-Amritsar) 1954, Article VI, Section 1. "The structure of the Party is based on and its internal life is guided by the principle of democratic centralism." (Constitution of the CPI (Post-Amritsar), New Delhi, the CPI, 195B, Article XIV 1.) "The Pazty shall fxinction on the organisational principle of democratic centralism." (Constitution of the RSP, Article 4-} "The Party shall bt built on the principle of democratic centralism.." (Constitution of the RCPI Article 3<) "The organisational structure of the party is based upon democratic central.lsm." (Draft Constitution of the Socialist Unity Centre of India, Article 20.) "The All India Forward Bloc is a Socialist Party.... built on the structure of democratic centralism." (The Constitution of the All India Forward Bloc, Article III.) ".... Democratic centralism is the main principle of organisation of a revolutionary body." (Draft Constitution of the Democratic Vanguard. Notes:- C(d) (Published in The Vanguard, Monthly Organ of the DV, June 1955, Vol.I, No.2, pp.20-29.) The Constitution of the RWPI will be based on the Leninist principle of democratic centralism. (Marxist Unity for Socialism in India, Statement of policy of the RWPI, op.clt., p.4*) 369 cadres for the ultimate reTolutlon as a final bid to set up a workers* state or toilers' democracy* The prototype of all these Marxian organisations is the Conmunist Party constitution* Until April 195^, the CPI was following the constitution as amended by its Third Congress at Madura in December 1953 - January 1954 but assessing the unworkability experienced in a changed India, it has switched on to a new constitution which was adopted at its Amritsar Extraordinary Congress in Aprtl 195^i* The whole organisation of the CPI is built according to the blueprint contained in the pre-Amritsar constitution and therefore it would be erroneous to riew it from the post-Amritsar constitution alone without giring due emphasis to the former. The pre- Amzdtsar constitution becomes all the more important, considering the known strategy of revolutionary politicians of shifting from document to document in times of political exigencies for preserving the organisation to which they owe allegiance. The pre-Amritsar constitution in compliance with the directive contained in the resolution passed by the Third
International (1924) accepts the cell as the basic unit of the party which "is formed of three or more party members working in a factory, mill, department, plantation, unit or an institution. Party members who cannot be in factory cells
etc., are organised in street, locality, chawl, bustee, ward or village cells."The cell is the living link between
65 The Constitution of the CPI (Pre-Amz*itsar) Article VII Section 1. 370 the nasses of workers, peasants and other citizens within its area or sphere, and the leading committee of the party.
The various cells of a locality or a town are grouped into the local or town conference which elects a local or town committee* ComprehensiTe of all the bodies below within its
Juz*isdiction, comes above the District Conference which 6d constitutes the Distz*ict Committee by ballot* The District
Conferences of a Province elect delegates to form the
Provincial Party Confez*ence which also has an elected 69 executive called the Provincial Committee* "The supreme 70 authority in the CPI is the All-India Party Congress" but "representation quotas at the Congress and the method of 71 election are decided by the Central Committee" which isI 72 elected by the All-India Party Congress by a majority vote. The Communist Party Central Committee has no equivalent in any other party organisation; it has vast unlimited powers in relation to the pax*ty* "The Central Committee, is the highest authority of the party,” ... "represents the party as a whole and has the right to take decision with full
^ The Constitution of the CPI (Pre-Amritsar) Article VII Section 2. Article VIII Section 2* ^ Idem* Article IX Section 1. Article I Section 1 * Idem* Article X Section 2Id). 371 authority on any problem facing the party between two Party 73 Congresses.” It "leads the whole work of the party .... and under exceptional circumstances is empowered to reconstitute itself and other committees.It creates the Politbureau and a general secretary from amongst its 75 76 members, enforces the constitution and strictest 77 discipline" with relentless firmness. Thus from the cell to the Central Committee linked vertically up the organisation of the CPI is a massive hierarchic one, systematically controlled and vigilantly supervised. All the power of the party is concentrated in a small camera committee called the Politbureau and freely wielded by a single person, the general secretary in the name of the Central Conmiittee. Internal autonomy of different constituent bodies or inner party democracy within each party organ as understood in representative democracy, is wanting in the CPI organisation* Elections in the lower bodies are in fact selections by the higher bodies which mean nomination by the Central Committee. Not only that, but an elected cell secretary is to be confirmed by the local 7 g *7Q committee' whose secretary by the District Committee and
73 The Constitution of the CPI (Pre-Amritsar) Article X Section 4* 74 Idem. lb Article X Section 76 Article X Section 4* 77 Article XII Section 1. 7d Article VIT Section 3* 79 Article VIII Section 3. 372
80 on* Conflmiatlon is a lethal w«apon the sharpness of which nobody in the party dares to test* So, election is not an ultimate Terdict but a formal acceptance of the irrevocable choice of the superior authority. Internal democracy is the S3rnonym for eternal supervision in the CPI. The Conferences at various levels in the party such as Local, T(^n, District, Provincial etc., are supposed to be the highest bodies in their respective spheres but they are to be held normally only once in two years during which period their Executive
Committees assume their evez*y function and power. When a conference whose sise, strength, and mode of composition itself are determined from above, is in session, the Cdnmittee
superior to it sends special representatives understandably to watch and direct the proceedings. It is obligatory on the part of every subordinate body to send periodical reports on its working to the next superior organ which is another way of control and supervision especially of ascer taining how far the lower committees keep in line with the party policy and in what manner they have acted upon the directives and instructions issued by the Central Committee. The power concentration in the Central Committee is so enormous that there is nothing which it cannot do and undo with the party. The conceptually supreme authority of the party, the All-India party Congress, Is nothing more than an underdog of the Central CMnittee. Who should and who should not be In the Party Congress and the door through THE ORGANISATION OF THE CPI 373 which th«y should come Int are decided exclusively by the do Central Committee* It is not incumbent upon the Central Committee to call a Congress of the pazty if it Is impossi- ble, the sole judge of which is the Central Committee itself. If the Central Committee thus grapples the entire form of the party, it equally gags the mouth inside the party. "Inner-party discussion, even when allowed under.... conditions, must be conducted under the strong leadership 62 of the Central Committee....” Hence all power in the CPI is accumulated at the top and all obedience is at the bottom. What descends within the CPI is command and what ascends is allegiance and implicit obedience. So, it might not be wholly eirroneous to state that the democratic centralism of the CPI is centralised within the Central Committee. Pyramidically organised, hierarchically arranged, the entire party is a monolithic structure reinforced with regimentation of mind and indoctrination of intellect. Thus the CPI organisation contained in the pre-Amritsar constitution is an exact version of its international exemplar. The post-Amritsar constitution is however no radical departure. It is at best an att«npt at outwardly making
do The Constitution of the CPI (Pre-Amritsar) Az*tlcle X Section 1. Article X Section 1 Mote. A rticle X III(c ) Note. 374 the party more broad-based, a makeweight to maintain the equillbrixim of emphasis between classes and masses without compromising with the communist principles and without changing the underlying stmcture of the party. Perhaps no other party takes so much care and attention in organising the basic units as the CPI does. The cell with all its vitality and efficacy has of late, incurred much displeasure of the detached common man and has become an object of his despise due to its over-smartness and over-doings. It appears that it Is to save the organisation from the unpopularity thus caused and simultaneously to favourably influence the psychology of the cotamon man, the CPI in its new organisational structure, has changed its primary unit from cell to branch. The branch Is broader than the cell both in function and in size but it Is In actuality, a cell enlarged in every respect. Like a cell, it **is organised on the basis of village, panchayat, municipal ward, street, mohalla, industry, individual factory, occupation and institutions." It carries out all the duties the cell hitherto discharged without any dimunltlon and undertakes additional responsibilities much in the same line such as sales of party literature and collection of membership dues which all in the past were
Constitution of the CPI (Post-Amritsar), Article XXVI 7. 84 Article XXVI 8(d). 85 Article XXVI 8(e). 375 a portion of the work unspecifically entrusted to the cell itself by the party. Hence the CPI*s basic unit remains as it was except for its expansion which is a need of the party caused by the pressure of circunstances and change of strategy. An innoration has been introduced into the organisation by the creation of three councils namely, the District CouncilI in between the District Conmittee and the District Conference, the Provincial or State Council between the two existing provincial bodies and the National Council in place of the Central Committee. These councils have no original or inherent powers but they have in them powers transferred from the bodies on either side. Thus to cite an instance, the authority of the District Coaniittee to be the highest body between two District Conferences and the power of the District Conference to elect the District C(MBmittee alike have been transferred to the District Council. Similar transferred powers are given to the Provincial Council and National Council. But transference of power and creation of new bodies however do not materially vary the structure of the organisation unless radical change in the distribution of power is made. In whichever organ concentration of power takes place, irrespective of the place given to it in the party ladder, it automatically becomes the dominant body within the party and whoever is having unquestionable control of this body, that particular 376 person will dictatorlally rule the party. By introducing a new organ like the National Council, the CPI Supreme Command has been successftil in smoothly taking out certain important powers of the All-India Party Congress and vesting them in the old guards of the party. It thereby has solved the problem of dangers that might arise as a result of the party’s recent mass emphasis which is likely to bring eventually in the Party Congress some inexperienced hands inadequately educated in Marxism-Leninism who may have a bent to oppose the official leadership and official policies believing mistakenly or otherwise in the supremacy given to that body by the provisions of the constitution. As a rule they are not to be "misutilised" so within the party. In creating the National Council almost thrice larger than the Central Committee, the CPI has also found a place to accommodate its greying but hitherto unrewarded workers who could not be elevated evidently owing to the in-expansion of the party oligarchy. The National Council is at once an abridged All-India Party Congress and an enlarged Central
Committee. It is an abridged Congress because it has inherited most of the essential powers of the Congress such as, election of the Central Committee and election of the d7 Audit Commission and has taken into itself prominent of
S6 Constitution of the CPI (Post-Amritsar) Article XVII 4. Article XVII 5. 377 the seniormost menibers of the party who until now used to sit in the All-India Party Congress as delegates* It is an enlarged Central Committee because it has admitted into itself many party veterans who could not earlier be absorbed into the central leadership in view of its inelasticity and it also has acquired practically all the important powers and functions of the Central Committee like convening the dd rtQ Party Congress, enforcing the party constitution, ' 90 representing the party as a whole and filling up the 91 vacancy in the Central Executive Committee. Thus by having a compact, hence handy body like the National Council, the CPI leadership has combined the source of power and use of power in one - a combination which any organisation of its kind may prefer to have. The emergence of the National Council elevated the Central Committee to the position of the Politbureau with a slight modification in its name, the Central Executive
Committee, or expressed in another way the name of the
Politbureau has been changed to Central Executive Committee which has the power to set up such party bodies as necessary to handle its work. The Central Secretariat of the party
Constitution of the CPI (Post-Amritsar) Article IV 1(a). B9 Article XVII 2. 90 Article XVII 3- 91 Article XVII 6. After E.M.S.Namboodiripad has taken over general secretaryship of the party in early 1962, a chairman’s post has been created. He has only presiding and perhaps also advisory functions- 37d which was formerly a Tague and a shadowy creation has been expanded and constitutionalised to be an inner cabinet intended chiefly for co-ordination and direction of party activities and party administration. Ostensibly the constitution of new bodies has only increased the concentra tion of power and lengthened and sharpened the vertex of the organisational pyramid. There has been of course, some apparent decentralisation and diminution of the central authority and formal introduc tion of elements of federal principles in the post-iimritsar constitution. The National Council which occupies the place of the Central Committee is no more able to reconstitute itself or co-opt members, nor can it overrule the verdicts of the Central Control Commission, the appellate body in disciplinary matters, although it is still the final deciding authority when the Central Executive Committee stays the implementation of the decisions of the Control
Commission. Disciplinary powers formerly concentrated in the central organs like the Central Committee and the
Control Commission have been split up and a part is now vested in new bodies like State or Provincial Control Commission whose decisions however are only "ordinarily final". Top state or provincial organs alone have now the power to reconstitute lower committees and they ^ e also gi ven the authority of supervision in inner-party debates on issues or questions of local or state importance. But THE ORGANISATION 3 7 % ' OF THE CPI (POST-AMRITSAR)
CENT R A L EXEC UTIVE COMMI TTEE
CEN T«A L CEN TRAU CONTROL COMMI SSION SECRETARIAT
NATIONAL COUNCIL
ALL-INDIA PARTY
CONGRESS
ST A T E E X ECUTIVE c o m m i t t e e
DISTRICT STA TE JI EXETC UTIVE CONFERENCE c o m m i t t e e
DISTRIcr PARTY CONFERENCE
LOCAL CONFE RENCE
PAPTY BRANCH
g e n e r a l body OF J PARTV BRANCH 379 intelligibly enough, these reforms are of an adjustmental nature and even in the totality of their effect they do not seen to cause anything more than a superficial variation in the CPI organisation which remains more solidly monolithic than ever on the foundation of democratic centralism.
The rest of the organisations of the Marxian parties, as has been mentioned above, are modelled on the CPI's. None theless, there are certain minor changes in the names of bodies at different levels and in the designations of office bearers and their powers and also a few additional creations of new offices. For instance, the RCPI has no all-powerful general secretary but only a secretary who works as the agency for co-ordination and implementation. The FB has, in addition to the general secretary, a chairman's office too, a rare practice in Marxian organisation. The RCPI again has a presidium or president to preside over and conduct deliberations in the Party Conference. Insignificant as such inconsistencies are, they do not in any way alter either the organisational principles or the organisational structure of the Marxian parties. Given ]»r s b £1ckx on page 3^0 is a table showing the parallel bodies of the various non-communist Marxian parties functioning at different corresponding levels which reveals to an extent their organisational and structural identity.
3^1
The Religlo-folltlcal Parties
The Hindu Mahaaabha Organisation. If the Congress constitution seeks to create an elders* organisation, the
Hindu Mahasabha constitution tends to set up an old man’s abode almost on the same lines. The basic unit of the QO Hindu Mahasabha Is town or Ylllage Hindu Sabha which for the sake of convenience may be called the primary Hindu Sabha. Towns with larger membership can have Branch Sabhas in which case the Town Sabha "shall consist of representatives 93 of (the) Branch Sabhas*” **One twentieth of the members .94 of Town and Village Sabhas in a district shall constitute”' the immediate supexlor body, the District Hindu Sabha. From the various District Hindu Sabhas of a province, in propor tion to their primary membership, representatives are chosen to the next above body, the Provlncieil Hindu Sabha but it has been provided that every district, Irrespective of its membershlp-strength, must have at least one representative 95 on the Provincial Sabha. The Provincial Hindu Sabha has the power to co-opt not more than 20 members in addition to 96 the members taken from the District Sabhas. The All-India
92 Aim, Objects and Rules, Akhll Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, Article 5(a). 93 Article 6. 9k Article 6(B). 95 Article 6(C)(1). 96 Article 6(0(11). 3d2
Committ^ee of the Hindu iMahasabha which has a miscellaneous compositionI comes next above the ProYincial Hindu Sabhas* Its functions are inter alia "to lay down general policy and pass resolutions on current topics which may be placed 97 before It by the Working Committee,"^ and "to exercise all the powers and duties of the Mahasabha including amendments 9d of the Constitution." The chief executive body of the
Hindu Mahasabha is the Working Committee which is composed of the president, other office bearers and 25 representatives elected by the All-India Committee, and five members nominated 99 by the president* Finally there is the Annual Mahasabha Session for which delegates are sent from all the provinces "in proportion of 1 to every 50 primary members enrolled 100 during the year." Also there are in it special and
ex-officio delegates. Thus there is a close similarity between the Congress and the Hindu Mahasabha organisations. Like the Congress the Hindu Mahasabha too gives prominence to elders and
veterans and gives no room for election to predominate the organisational set-up. Bven the presidential election is
settled on the basis of the recommendation of the majority
97 Aim, Objects and Rules, Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, Article 12(b). 98 Article 12(d). 99 Article 6(E). 100 Article 20(a). 3d3 of the Provincial Sabhas and the Reception Committee’s 101 balanced exercise of discretion and influence. a s in the Congress the Working Committee is the dominating body, a syhod of the supremes, a college of cardinals within the party church. But the Mahasabha elders are handicapped by the dormancy of the organisation in exercising their powers N and asserting their authority. It is doubtful whether any where In India the primary unit of the Mahasabha Is at work especially at the village level. Conferences and Sessions are usually held at wakeful intervals of the languishing Mahasabha leaders and not often in conformity with the constitution which is conspicuous for its lack of clarity and order of sequence and for a number of lacunae. The result is that the emaciated horse of organisation is slipped out of the saddle of the constitution.
The RSS Organisation. The RSS as mentioned before did not want to adhere to a constitution until the Union
Government made it a condition for lifting the ban imposed.
They wanted to continue ftinctioning in their own way with the discipline and attachment prevailing In the ancient
*gurulailas'. Therefore the improbability of implementing a constitution especially the one adopted under duress, so far as the Inner party relations are concerned, cannot
101 Aim, Objects and Rules, Akhll Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, Article 19- 3^4
however be ruled out. Nevertheless as can be seen from the
constitution the organisation of the RSS is much nearer to that of the Hindu Mahasabha or the Congress. The RSS chief M.S.Golwalkar himself has said that "it follows broadly the 102 constitution of the INC.” However, in practice the RSS
organisation is akin to that of any well-knit, well-
disciplined Marxian party. The RSS for the pux^pose of its
organisation has divided the countxy into various provinces
and a province as follows-
Province (Prant) t
Provincial Centres Division (Prantiya Kendra) (Vibhag)
Cities District (Nagar) (Jila) (Places with a population I of 1,00,000 and over) I Tehsil
Towns Mandals (Shahar) (Groups of villages)
Villages (Gram)
102 Guruji - the Indomitable, A Collection of the so far Unpublished Historic Letters between Sri Guruji and the Government, Bangalore, RSS Kamatak, 1956, p.19> The RSS Constitution, Delhi, Bharat Mudranalaya, (Tear ?) Article iJ. 3d5
Vh&t exactly Is the basic unit of the RSS and what are the initial requisites to its fomation, the RSS Constitution
appears to be eyaslTe. It is uncertain whether the RSS has accepted the Yillage as its smallest territorial unit* The primary unit of the Sangh however could be ascertained as a Karyakari Mandal (Executive Council) either in a Town^^^ with a population of 5000 or more, or in a group of villages with more or less the same sise of population* Every intermediate unit between the Town Karyakari Mandal and the
Provincial Karyakari Mandal in succession is also titled as a Karyakari Mandal with the name of the territorial unit it represents so as to distinguish one from another. Thus there are six Intermediate Karyakari Mandals, the Town, the
City, the Tehsil, the District, the Division and the Provincial Centre. Bach of these of Karyakari Mandals including the primary Karyakari Mandals has a Sanghachalak (President) who is annually appointed by the Prant- Sanghachalak (Provincial President) in consultation with 105 the Prant-Pracharak (Provincial Organiser). The Sanghachalak will then font a Karyakari Mandal in his territorial jurisdiction consisting of himself, a Pracharak (Organiser), a Kaz*yavaha (Secretary), one Bauddhlk Shikshan Pramukh (Chief of Intellectual Instruction), one Sharirik Shikshan Pramukh (Chief of Physical Instruction) and a
The RSS C Nidhi Pramukh (Treasurer) ”Karyakarl f'fandals will be the highest executive authorities in their respective units, 107 responsible to the immediately superior Karyakari Mandal..." "District, cities and the Provincial Centre will send for every fifty Swayamsevaks entitled to vote, one such 10B Swayamsevak as delegate to the Prantiya Pratinidhi Sabha" (Provincial Representative Conference) which has a mixed composition* The delegates to the Prantiya Pratinidhi Sabha 109 elect the Prant Sanghachalak (Provincial President) who forms the Prantiya Karyakari Mandal. The body next above the Prantiya Pratinidhi Sabha is the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (All-India Representative Conference) to which "the elected members of a Prantiya Pratinidhi Sabha shall elect from amongst themselves one-eighth of their 110 number as representatives”. . These elected members of the Akhil Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha, elect a Sarkaryavaha (general secretary)^^^ who forms the Kendriya Karyakari 112 Mandal (Central Executive Council) which "is the highest executive authority of the Sangh".^^^ Above all these. 106 The RSS Constitution, Article Id. 107 Article ia(c). 10a Article 19(a). 109 Article 16(b). 110 Article 15(a). 111 Article 13(a). 112 Article H(a). 113 Article H(c)(i). 3S7 there Is the Sar Sanghachalak (Supreme President) which Is an office by succession; the successor Is nominated by the Supreme President-in-office before his death. The RSS thus gives an extremely narrow scope for election and there is not a single general meeting below the Provincial Conference for moobers to come together and to enter into defflocratic exchanges. Each Karyakari Mandal is responsible only to its immediate superior Karyakari Mandal and not to the Swayamsevaks of the area in which it is constituted. The Karyakari Mandals are bodies of control rather than representative committees. Each Karya kari Mandal is constituted by a single person called the Sanghachalak under the directions of his superiors. The Sanghachalaks except the Provincial, are appointed and not elected. The Provincial Sanghachalak himself is in reality nominated from above and there is no occasion for the delegates to exercise their franchise since there has not been a single contest to any office so far in the RSS organisation. The general secretary who according to the constitution is to be elected by the "elected members of the Akhll Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha", is invariably a personal choice of the Sar Sanghachalak and he never forms his Kend^rtya Karyakari Mandal unless every member to be taken in Is named by the Sar Sanghachalak. More than the Karyakari Mandals, it is the Pracharaks (Organisers) of the Sangh who dominate the organisation. 3dd They are a special group of meny trained and disciplined, of a rigorous catholic order, appointed by the highest authority and directly connected to it. "Pracharak shall be full-time workers selected from amongst those devoted workers of high integrityy whose mission is to serve the society through the Sangh and who of their own free will, dedicate themselves to the cause.They are ordained to be members of Karyakaxd Mandais working in their Juris diction and are solely in charge of all undeveloped party units. Furthermore, the organisational expansion of the Sangh is their work and democracy seldom plays any role in it. The chief of the RSS, the Sar Sanghachalak, comes to the position by virtue of his innate qualities the preciousness of which is detected only by his nominator. He is transcendent, more or less a gift of Providence and equal to none in the Sangh. He does not want to subordinate the Sangh but the Sangh subordinates itself to him in its own interest. Hierarchic, authoritarian, cast in the mould of the doctrine of obedience, the RSS organisation is girded up with the steels of Pracharaks and pillared strongly by the Karyakari Mandals. It is a rule of the elders in which the 114 The RSS Constitution, Article 17la)(i). 339 infallibility of a supposedly gifted intellect and not the usefulness of collective intelligence is recognised. Brected on the concept of unselfish and benevolent auto cracy as never failing, the RSS organisation forecloses any possibility of thinking otherwise. The BJS organisation* A wearisome imitation of the Congress organisation, the Jana Sangh organisation too lays the same stress on the masses of people, yet cautiously keeps them afar from sharing any power with the leadership at any level. Its basic unit like that of the Congress, is constituted with the object of leading the voters to the booths and not to entrust them with an amount of power. In organising the primary unity whether it be in a village or group of villages or in a town, it is the population of the electors, that determines the territorial jurisdiction of the unit. The Sthanlya Saniti (Local Committee) as the basic unit is called, is the only body where the ordinary member directly participates. Above it comes, in order, the Mandal Samiti (Constituency Committee), the Jlla Samiti (District Committee), the Pradeshik Pratinidhi Sabha (Provincial Representative Conference), the Pradeshik Karya Samiti (Provincial Working Committee) and the Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha (all-India Representative Conference) and lastly the Bharatiya Karya Samiti (All-India Working Committee).^^^ 115 Bharatiya Jana Sangh ka Samvidhan iConstitution of the BJS), Article 4> 390 The Pradeshik Karya Samitl is a body parallel to the PCC SxecutlTe In the Congress* To organise and conduct elections, the constitution as that of the Congress, prorides for two organs, the Prade^ik Sansadiya Adhikaran (Provincial Parliamentary Board) and the Kendriya Sansadiya Adhikaran (Central Parliamentary Board) appointed respectively by the Pradeshik Karya Seniti and the Bharatiya Karya Samiti.^^^ The Jana Sangh*s equivalent of the Annual Congress session is the Sarvadeshik Adhiveshan (All-'India Congress) which is convened by the Bharatiya Karya Samiti. Besides, one or more sessions of the Pradesh Sammelan (Provincial Session) can be called by the Pradeshik Karya .^amiti.^^^ Thus in the Jana Sangh organisation which corresponds in every step to the Congress's, the Wox4cing Committee is the highest and most powerful body which as in the Congress springs at the will of the president from its national body, the Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabhat an organ parallel to the AlCC* The Jana Sangh Bharatiya Karya Samiti like its Congress counterpart, is responsible only to the Bharatiya . 118 Pratinidhi Sabha and has a wide range of powers including 119 power to amend the constitution under special circumstances* Authority in the Jana Sangh is centralised. 116 Bharatiya Jana Sangh ka Samvidhan (Constitution of the BJS), Article 15* 117 Rules Tinder the Constitution 4(a). 118 Article 14(3)* 119 Article 20(2). 391 In Committee elections except of the lowest, special consideration takes precedence over democratic franchise. The principle of autonomy Is overlooked and even the Pradeshlk Kairya Samltl has to work according to the 1 ?Q Instructions Issued from above. True to Its centralisa tion, the organisational set-up Is made from above. Thus co-ordination of lower bodies and combination of Mandal Samltls Into Jlla Samltls are done by Pradeshlk Sabhas which are constituted so combining the vazdous Jlla Samltls 121 by the central organ of the party. In the matter of election of the Pradhan (president), the Jana Sangh goes a step more than the Congress In denying Inner-party democracy and excluding the rank and file from partaking directly or indirectly* The names of presidential candidates are proposed by the Pradeshlk Karya Samltls at 122 the instance of the Pradhan Mantri (general secretary) who himself thereafter takes steps to eliminate the unwanted 123 by seeking consent of candidates and giving time to withdraw from contest. The last part of the procedure is to call upon the members of the Bharatiya Pratlnidhi Sabha to vote for the final contestants and he who secured the largest number of votes is declared elected. It is much too 120 Constitution of the BJS, Article 11(b). 121 Article 5(3)* 122 Article 16(1). 123 Article 16(2). . THE ORGANISATION OF 2 4 THE ORGANISATION OF 392 difficult for the Px^dvshik Karya Samitls functioning under I the instructions of|the Kiaratiya Karya Samiti, to have an opinion in choosing a president) other than the one the latter maintains. let if any oversteps with the suggestion of a name in difference to the wishes of the Bharatiya Karya Samiti "seeking of consent” and **time for withdrawal" will be effective weapons against such transgression* Voting of the Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha becomes necessary only if there is an opponent to the official candidate and if such a situation arises it can easily be overcome as the indulgence of the Bharatiya Pratinidhi Sabha is a safe acquisition of the Bharatiya Karya Samiti* The whole presidential election from initiation to finallsatlon is thus reduced to a mere executive business. •Although b o m in democratic India» the Jana Sangh does not infuse anything distinguishably progressive or spectacularly democratic into its organisation. Rigid belief in centralisation of authority* conservative notions of direction and traditional trust in authoritarian control, patent characteristics of the Congress and the Hindu Maha- sabha, are visible equally or more in the Jana Sangh organisa tion* Built on the blue-prlnts of the Congress and Jana Sangh the RRP organisation starting with its village or Town Committees and rising with its interjacent Mandal and 393 Pi*ovincial Committees, hoireYer does not culminate in its national general body, the All-India Rama Rajya Parishad and its national executlT«t the Working Committee but unlike its Jana Sangh and Congress parallels it goes further up to seek its stmmit in the Sarrocha Committee (All-Supreme Committee) which is a close preserve of the divines* There is nothing to compare it with; it is a godly trust of cardinals presided over by a pure one, a master, believed to be an incarnation. They are on a mission to this world; they are the custodians and the only true interpreters of the Sastras which are pronouncements of God. The Sarvocha Comiittee keeps a vigilant eye over the RRP organisation from foot to head, issues edicts and decrees, holds the lamp of wisdom and guidance, adjudicates upon disputes, inflicts corrective punishments, controls and overrules the Working Committee and above all closely supervises whether the organisation is running according to the interpretations of the Sastras given by it. The Committee members are divinely commissioned; their words are ipsissima verba of the omniscient, and the nescient organisation below shoxild act in conformity with them. Defiance of their authority is crime in law, an act of serious indiscipline in the organisation, wickedness in morality and a sin in spirituality that its expiation necessitates a thousand rebirths as mute animals. Thus, 394 the Sarvocha Committee seems to be engaged in enslaYenent of mind to superstitious horrors and instilment of imaginary fears for the preservation of its pseudo-infallibility. The Sanrocha Conmittee creates itself, reconstitutes itself and fills Tacancies within by presidential nomination* There is no power to remove it and none inside ventures to risk the displeasure of it* Tempered in fascist ego, the RRP organisation is founded upon a variety of myths and strives to propagate those myths for the subjugation of reason to passion and superstitions. Its authoritarianism is a different brand, the brand that Hitler admired welded with the brand that the medieval Roman Catholicism sought to Justify in its crusade against science. The Akali Dal and Muslim League organisation. The Akali Dal too has a Congress type organisation, perhaps more centralised in practice and more oligarchic or autocratic in nature and fortified with religious spirit and fervour. The Muslim League operates within the renovated autocratic organisational structure of its defunct predecessor. The Organisation of Other Parties. The parties of various other groups have broadly borrowed their organisation from one or more of the important parties. The DK has no formal constitution and the whole members of its executive 1 ?ii. including the general secretary are a personal choice of 124 From the cited interview with S.Guruswami. 395 its leader and hold their offices during his pleasure. The leader who is the pemanent president of the Kashakam, is irremoTable and none can challenge his authority except at his own peril. The set up of the DMK conforms to that of the CPI. With a hierarchy of canmittees and conferences comnencing from the Tillage, the Nam Tamil lyakkam follows an organisational course combining Marxist compactness with Congress centralisation* In the Princely group, both the Ganatantra Parishad and the Bihar State Janata Party are akin to the Congress in their organisations and there might be claimed in the Parishad's, a degree of democratic liberalisation, and in the Janata Party's, some elements of basic democracy. The organisational pyramid of the SCF (RPT) has no exclusive features of its own. It begins with the Village Committee and goes up with the Taluk, District and State Committees and ends in the Central Executive Committee in the much too familiar way, and provides the same room in the same manner for seating an oligarchy as in the Congress. The BV is organised on military hierarchical lines with a General Officer Commanding at the top. The anarchic Sadharantantrl Dal is averse to the acceptance of any formal organisational structure and whenever necessary it convenes a committee or council for deliberating upon general line of policy or specific points* In a vast country of diversities like India none of the 396 parties except the Socialists, has the will and Imagination to base its organisation on federal principles. None again but to some length the Socialists, grants and respects autonomy of provincial organisation and upholds the paramount doctrine that "the collective membership is sovereign"• Insplte of the large number of parties, poverty of originality in their organisational structure is widespread and many parties like their "Congress origin" have taken to the "Congress model" organisation whether suited or unsuited to their needs* S<»e have chosen the Congress model on the mistaken notion that it eventually would enable them to become mass parties and in that they have failed to realise that it is not the organisational structure that has enabled the Congress to reach its gigantic sixe, but the mass urges of its age, the favourable political winds of the time in a political field free from competition and filled with the flow of nationalism. An authoritarian structure has a wider acceptance than a democratic set-up and therefore it Is concentration of power that Is more aimed at than deconcentratlon. Scramble to 125 Section 7, Rules and Constitution, the Australian Labour Party, New South Wales Branch, quoted Louise Overacker, the Australian Party System, New Haven, lale University Press, 1952, p.d4. 397 accuniilate larger and larger authority at the centre to the Increasing exclusion of the man and his unit at the base is the sickness that narred the health of many a party organisation* 2. The Content of Parties Party Ideology. But a great factor that influences a party in selecting an organisational pattern suited to itself is one that comes from within, the ideology the party professes. Ideology is the religion of the party, and organisation is its church. Ideology furnishes the party with an end, an urge and inspiration to go towards that end, and organisation is the neans to achieve it. The type of organisation a party prefers depends normally on the nature of the ideology it embraces because organisation is the need of ideology. A rigid and dogmatically concluding ideology like an intolerant unitary religion, will seek an organisation equally rigid and highly disciplined, for it has to ensure the unquestioned faith of its followers and to exact their blind obedience lest it may lose the end it promises and then falsify itself. The Marxian parties inrariably everywhere have a totalitarian structure. A composite ideology does not normally attempt at subjugation of the intellectual and mental faculties of Its followersi 39d it wants on the other hand, their conviction throiigh liberal and free analyses and discussion* It is soft, supple, absorbing, assimilative, and would choose an abode flexible and federal in nature. For these reasons, socialist organisa tion tends to be composite, less disciplined and decentralised. Ideology evolved for retrogressive ends quite often happens to be confusing, and perhaps unscientific too. It may be nebulous and it clings for its logic to traditionalism and myths of antiquity* Its urge is to go backward, to the heaven of the pristine past* Its heroes and heroism stand far behind and it therefore needs an authoritarian organisa tion to goad its adherents to the holy grave to which they and their ancestors missed a pilgrimage. Authoritarian or autocratic organisation however is no exclusive preference of reactionary ideologies; it may be adopted also by parties whose ideology is amorphous, vague and lacking in the fanatical power of binding all together. Definitions of ideology are manifold. In simple sense it is a set of ideas systematically enunciated to create faith and provoke action for the attainment of some parti cular end but in this context "ideology means a system of ideas about life, society, and government which, through long processes of propaganda and usage, tend to become the characteristic belief or do^a of a particular group, party, or nationality.... An ideology contains all the necessary 399 Ingredients of a successful political appeal. It specifically consists of: (1) a statement of the objective, purposes, and premises of the movement; (2) a body of criticism and condemnation of the existing structure which the movement is attacking and seeking to change; (3) a body of defense doctrine which serves as a Justification of the movement and its objective; ik) a body of belief dealing with policies, tactics, and practical operation of the movement; and (3) the myths of the movement."126 The Gandhian Group. What then is the Congress ideology? The usual answer is Gandhiai* And what is Gandhism? What Congress had been doing prior to the arrival of Gandhi? And with what it has been engaged subsequent to his death? Does Gandhism mean asceticism in politics fringed with his economic notions, spiritualistic searches, and thoughts on social morality? Does it mean that Gandhi as an individual has scientifically arrived at some original conclusions like Marx and entrusted to the Congress to faithfully follow and sealously propagate? Congress theoreticians themselves are in conflict with one another. Congress general secretary, Sadiq All, in his effort to explain the ideology appears to have made it indistinguishable from party programme.^ T o 126 Joseph S.Roucek, George B.De Huszar and Associates, Introduction to Political Science, New York, Thomas I. Crowell Co., 1950, p.424* 127 Sadiq All. The Congress Ideology and Programme, Continued on next page- 400 him "the ideology is not Bade up of maxims culled from college text books."1 If it is not culled from books, it must come in books conforming itself to certain theoretical standards and ascez*taining its practical applicability. He differs from this point too. "The Congress Ideology must not be inter preted as any rigid and unalterable system of ideas whose acceptance was obligatory on all Congressmen.But interpretation is subsequent to intelligibility and for this he would not disagree with his brother theoretician Shriman Narayan "that the greatest factor which is at the root of 130 our weakness is the lack of ideological clarity." Gandhism as a methodology of action in political Footnote continued from previous page. New Delhi, the AICC, 195^, pp.1-U. Actually what he discusses in these pages is the evolu tion of the Congress programme and some aspects of its objective realisation. It is hardly possible to agree with Ali*s contention that the preamble of the Constitution and the bill of rights incorporated in the Constitution are "neat and convincing" (Ibid. p»10) expression of the Congress ideology. They are, in fact» programmatic goals or objective aims achieved, or may at the most be, two ideological ends and not Ideology as such. Ibid., p.6. Ibid., p.3- Shriman Narayan, A Plea for Ideological Clarity, New Delhi, the AICC, 1957? p.1. Sadiq All, The Congress Ideology and Programm, op.cit., p.11 confirms that "with the formation of other political parties in the country, the need for the Congress to clarify and elaborate its ideology became more and more insistent." 402 was and has been always at a distance. It was never adopted as a formal ideology by the Congress nor was It possible for the party to do so. The Congress Is not the outcome of an ideology as Communists, of Marxism. The founding Liberals were believers in gradualism, moderation and constitutionalism. They came in conflict with the extremists advocating mass action and militancy. Schism soon separated both for ever ushering in the Gandhian era. "Gandhi did not proceed from any specific political ideology"^^^ but. "absorbed .. all that was valuable in the thought and experience of the Congress till his time 136 and made his own additions and enrichments." But all those at the helm of the Congress who accepted his leadership were not subscribers to his philosophy. Nehru whom he has chosen as his political successor "came to India full of 137 communistic and Marxian ideas", and then, he in the words of Gandhi himself, became "undoubtedly an extremist thinking far ahead of his surroundings." Sardar Patel was just the opposite. He did not believe that It was impossible to purge Joan V.Bondurant, Conquest of Violence, (The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict), Bombay, Oxford University Press, 195V, p.189. 136 Sadiq All, The Congress Ideology and Programme, op.cit., p.3* Pattabhi Sitaramayya, The History of the Indian National Congress, op.cit., Vol.II, p.11. Ibid., p.9- 401 conflicts needs no recognition and in this respect it is not an original creation but largely a judicious adoption from religion and history. Among its chief ingredients, tnith and non-violence is a Buddhist precept, passive resistance is the weapon wielded by Deak and his followers in Hungary, non-co-operation and civil disobedience are the methods used by the Sinn Feiners of Ireland 132 and the concept of Ramarajya is an epic notion. The Congress however had to part with it on coming to power but even during those hard days of struggle for political emancipation of India when Gandhi's influence was at its highest point, the Congress lagged behind his standard of non-violence^and his ideals, and failed to rise equal to his expectation even in regard to 134 its own membership. As an approach to life, as a socio-political philosophy, Gandhism is a mass of sayings, views, opinions, maxims, dicta, outcomes of discourses and aphorisms from which the Congress _ "Some years later Hungary succeeded by a different method of fighting under another great leader DeaK. It is interesting to note that Deak's methods were those of passive resistance." (Jawaharlal Nehru, GUmpses of World History, op.cit., p.505.) 132^ "They preached "direct action", as opposed to parliamentary action, by means of a kind of non-co-operation with the British Government." (Ibid., p.5^1.) G.N.Dhawan, The Political Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, Bombay, The Popular Book Depot, 1946, p.lj^i. Ib id ., p .161. /f03 capitalism of Its hideousness. Altogether different was Subhas who propounded a synthesis of Marxism and the useful aspect of the philosophy of Indian life. There were also Inside the Congress, communists, socialists, conformists and conventionalists. Gandhi was successful In impressing his personality upon those of the top who surrounded him Including Nehru but failed to convince fully even his political successor of the efficacy of all his contributions. With Patel*s passing away, starts the Mehru era of the Congress but Nehru shifted from socialism to "socialistic pattern of society" which Is an aim and not an Ideology. Not only that It Is no Ideology but "neither the word ’socialistic* nor the later word ’socialist' has any taint or tint of western concepts of 140 socialism." The appellation ’socialistic' or 'socialist' serves only to describe the content of a pattern that the Congress is evolving, after due deliberation and in its own way. 141 139 Pattabhl Sltaramayya, The History of the Indian National Congress, op.cit.. Vol.IT, p.32. Handbook for Congressmen, New Delhi, Central Publicity Committee, INC, 1957, p»2. Idem. 404 U.N.Dhebar, treats the whole concept of socialist pattern as one of peaceful democratic socialism or pacific Fabianism but avoids reference to either.A third official Congress interpretation of the term is a tacit acceptance of social democracy. It says: "Such a social structure can provide an alternative to the acquisitive economy of private 143 capitalism and the regimentation of a totalitarian state." Uncertainty of its own mind and the conflict within between the traditionalists and the modernists have led the Congress ♦ to conceal what really is meant by the term with the result that "even the Avadi resolution on the socialist pattern of society is gradually losing its appeal for want of clarity 144 and effective implementation* Congress, it seems, has no systematised ideology. Its leaders, the most powerful among them particularly, gave it from time to time, new ideological looks more as a matter of policy or as an action programme than as a question of faith. Such contributions are individually isolated and distinctly discernible not as to their implications but for the personality of their originators, and collectively are a misty 142 U.N.Dhebar, Towards A Socialist Co-operative Commonwealth, New Delhi, the AICC, 1957, pp.14-19. H 3 Socialistic Pattern" (In terms of the Congress Resolutions) New Delhi, the AlCC, 1956, p.2. Shriman Narayan, A Plea for Ideological Clarity, op.cit., p.2. 405 mass of heterogeneous philosophical vagaries many of which are inherently contradictory and impossible to implement. Congress adopted the system of parliamentary government more because it was pulled to that end by the national urge developed as a result of the long association with Britain and by the enlightened public opinion educated in representa tive democracy than due to any ideological appeal. The Congress is far away from a well-defined monistic ideology and also not anywhere near an intelligible pluralism. "Indeed, the composite character of the party and the predisposition of its prominent leadership to reject dogma, have made the development of a systematic ideology both unnecessary and uncongenial. The Socialist Group. Mo party suffers so much as the PSP from ideological incompatibility or ideological anomaly. "The old Socialist Party had started, it will be remembered, under a strong Influence of Leninist Marxism.They believed in, and acted in conformity with the Marxist revolu tionary creed during the British days but gradually with the dawn of freedom they like M.N.Roy, the vanquished genius. Margaret W.Fisher and Joan V.Bondurant, Indian Approaches to a Socialist Society, Berkeley, Institute of International Studies, Tinlverslty of California, 1956, p.3* 146 Jayaprakash Narayan, Gandhism and Socialism, (The Times of India, Bombay, December 27, 1953). U06 were inwardly inclined to agree that ”in countries where the working class is not an important social factor, socialism is bound to be a movement without roots in the soil.... Therefore even for the negative purpose of stemming the tide of communism, .... socialism, .... a lost cause in Europe.... because of the very logic of its doctrines, .... in Asia, 1 L.7 is bound to be a broken reed." To the socialists, faith in socialism even from the beginning was not fundamental and final. They believed during the Gandhian age that no struggle would have a nation-wide character and attract the attention of the world unless Gandhi associated himself with 1 /lB it. Hence to them from the start itself, Gandhian personality and power overweighed Mairxian concepts and their workabilities; in short to them in a way Gandhi was the author of their Marxism. As Gandhi passed away in the new national situation in India and the unprecedented popular confidence won by the Labour Party in England had given an impetus to their inclination that revolutionary socialism was a religion to be renounced and the attainment of power was to be sought in British model democratic socialism. Accordingly in Patna in 1949 they formally adopted socialism through peaceful means 1 L.7 M.N.Roy, Socialism, (The Times of India, Bombay, April 12, 1953). 1 L.& Acharya Narendra Deva, Socialism and the National Revolution, Bombay, Padma Publications, 1946, p.133* k07 as their aim. With the coining in of Kripalani’s KMPF and Ruikar’s FB(S), the PSP adumbrated three ideological trends. "One is that of the old Socialist Party, the other of Gandhism 149 from the KMPP and the third of Netaji from the Forward Bloc." All that was common between the three, was the aim of social justice although each had a different substance to attribute to the term and divised different process for delivering it. But "the position of the PSP was rendered more difficult by the fact that the party in power also professes the ideal of social justice."^The party was taken by surprise when in 1955 the Congress declared socialist pattern of society as its goal and then it plunged into an ideological confusion. It has not abandoned the theoretical values of revolu tionary Marxism which it preached in its younger days; it has not parted with socialism because it is a fascinating term which has tremendous popular appeal especially to the young. It equally clings to Gandhism because its leadership has personal affinity for the creed and it goes to adore social democracy taking with it all the other Ideological creeds which it can neither digest nor reconcile. The fault appears to be in the leadership and not in the party. PSP has become a stage for Its leaders’ kaleidoscopic H 9 Jayaprakash Narayan, Gandhism and Socialism, op.cit. 150 M.N.Roy, Praja Socialist Party in Dilem-na, (The Times of India, Bombay, July 19, 1953)* 4oa ideological displays and the party suffers on account of that. The socialist leaders were young and not matured politicians when they had taken to Marxism. As they advanced in age and gained experience, they found Marxism could not any longer be an ideal partner, but they could not desert it as well because it was a question of gratitude; it was the instrument that widened their vision and elevated their intellectual plane. Jayaprakash Narayan, the doyan among the living socialists was at first a convinced communist; he then became a socialist, next a Gandhlan and now a crowned visionary of an imaginary ideal world of abstract doctrines. Another veteran socialist who is no more, Acharya Narendra Deva, was wedded to Maraism but strangely enough, he tried to live a Gandhlan life. Still different is Asoka Mehta, who renouncing his revolutionary tenets has returned to social democracy which he wants to outline as suited to American democratic concepts. Never before was Kripalanl a socialist. A leading Gandhlan, he left the Congress not because he wanted to leave but his life inside the Congress was made "miserable" by his adversaries. He still remains a Gandhlan unsophisticated and unmoved by socialist wranglings.^The ^51 Kripalanl resigned from the PSP In September 1960 on account of his sharp differences with the rest of the PSP leaders. The PSP led abortive Central Government employees strike, the party's language policy as manifested by its support to the direct action of the Akall Dal for achieving *Punjabl Suba’ and its role in the linguistic riots in Continued on next page. 409 only PSP leader in the South with a personal following, Pattom Thanu Filial, is known for his conformism and authoritarianism. Thus an ideological buffer space divides the PSP leaders from one another and keeps them in their respective places. One is sceptical of the efficacy of another’s ideology and every one of them individually feels that his ideology is scientific. They twist their ideologies according to the turn of events and change of mind and do not care to dwell on the new while still holding on the old. The result is chaos in the organisation's thinking and behaviour, a culmination of which was the split of Lohia himself. If there is lack of ideological clarity in the Congress, there is ideological crisis in the PSP. The Lohia Socialists are di-sinclined to call their socialism by any particular epithet for according to them ’’socialism is socialism and does not become any more socialist if it calls itself democratic or revolutionary or scientific or by any other name or all of them".... "Socialism shall never tnily distinguish itself from other creeds by collecting one or another adjective and tenet; it shall only do so Footnote continued from previous page. Assam, its casteist susceptibilities, and parochial passions, were severely criticised by Kripalanl who also widely dis agreed with the party in respect of its economic programme giving overemphasis to big mechanised and centralised industry. 410 through the fullness of its doctrine and all its tenets and the activity arising out of them." ' To the Lohia group "Gandhism and Marxism arc ... curiously anaemic doctrines."^ But strangely, these pure socialists themselves have adopted Gandhian methodology while being Marxian intellectuals reassessing the value of Owenism and Fabianism in the changed context. With a leadership rapidly disintegrating due to personal feuds and mutual disrespect, the Lohia Socialists have so far been unsuccessful in fertilising the content of their socialism to make it clearly discernible. They labour to vindicate this conduct on the ground that "assimilation of different trends and tendencies relevant to the alms of socialism" Is necessary for the "construction of an integrated, 154 logically consistent doctrine." The Marxian Group. In a monistic religion like Marxism, there is little scope for divergent schools of thought and strictly so, there is actually no divergence between the various Marxist parties in India as regards their religion. All accept Marxism-Leninism with all its implications. The differences between the Marxian parties, particularly between the CPI and the rest, are therefore not one of religion as ^52 Dr.Rammanohar Lohia Presidential Address, Socialist Party Foundation Conference, op.clt., p.4* ^53 Ibid., p.5- Madhu Limaye, Evolution of Socialist Policy, Hyderabad, Navahlnd Publications, 1952, p.33. M l such but mostly one of church and form of worship. Largely in the nature of errors both theoretical and tactical on the part of the CPI, these differences have created an ideological void between the CPI and the non- communist Marxian parties and led to such theological contro versies as each side to brand the other pseudo-Marxian. According to the non-communist Marxian parties the ideological failures of the CPI resulting from the strategic follies are numerous. "From 1926 to 1934 the CPI followed an ultra left policy so characteristic of the petty bourgeoisie, ... pursued a sectarian policy, ... kept itself isolated from the struggling people, thereby helped the reactionary, .... and ... gave opportunity to the compromising national bourgeoisie to have its leadership fimly established over the anti- imperialist forces fighting for national independence."^ "To rectify this mistake, the party... from 1932 onward ... pursued the line of right reformism ... and thus for all 156 intents and purposes bade a good-bye to Leninist teachings..." It then advocated unity of the Congress and Muslim League leaderships as the only means of national liberation and "betrayed people’s cause at the altar of the class interests Sibdas Ghosh, Communist Party of India X-Rayed, Calcutta, the SUC, 1955, p*15. Idem. 412 of the national reformist bourgeois leadership then leading 157 the movement." "The CPI .... in tune with Muslim League leadership, accepted religion as the sole determinant of a nation and advocated the much condemned two nation theory of 153 Hindu nation and Muslim nation In India." "When the war broke out in 1939 ... the CPI at first denounced the war as an imperialist war since Fascist Germany happened to be in 159 alliance with the Soviet Union" but "the CPI executed a veritable volte-face ... when Soviet Union was attacked by 160 the Nazi forces" and "characterised the war ... as a 1b1 people's war", and stepped so low as to "co-operate with British imperialism and betray the cause of national move- ment."4. 157 Sibdas Ghosh, Communist Party of India X-Rayed, Calcutta, the SUC, 1955» p.l6. Idem. "We communists say: Let us get back to the India as it was before the British conquered us and on lines along which we were ourselves growing." (P.C.Joshi, For the Final Bid For Power (Freedom Programme of Indian Communists), Bombay, People’s Publishing House, 1946(?), p.89.) "We are the only non-Muslim organisation that has voluntarily accepted and poptilarlsed the demand of the Muslim peoples to be sovereign in their own Muslim majority home lands." CP.C.Joshi, For the Final Bid For Power (Freedom Programme of Indian Communists), op.cit., p.96.) 159 Marxist Unity for Socialism in India, Statement of Policy of the RWPI, op.cit., p.12. Idem. Idem. 162 The National and International Situation, Calcutta, the SUC, 1943, p.68. 413 "During the 1942 mass struggle which demonstrated tremendous revolutionary possibilities, the CPI played the most treacherous role of an imperialist fifth column", "kept themselves aloof from it and wrongly and tactlessly l criticised the movement," 16 and as designed in the liaison arrangement made with the GID Department, exposed nationalist 165 workers to the police. "In the post-war period, the Stalinist CPI trimmed its sail to the wind of post-war Stalinism. It championed the "Mew Democracy", the new name of the old class-collaboration 166 and gave unequivocal support to the Nehru Government." "In 194^» the CPI High Command wrongly thought that the time had come to initiate social revolution. But when they found that the people were against them, reaction set in the rank of the CPI and they ultimately .... held that the 167 revolution cannot be injected." Since 1952, the CPI has taken a swing to constitutionalism Marxist Unity for Socialism in India, op.clt., p.12. 164 The National and International Situation, op.clt., p.66. Soli Batliwala, Facts Versus Forgery (Traitorous Role Played by the Communist Party Exposed), Bombay, National Youth Publication, 1946, pp.13-14. 166 Saumyendranath Tagore, Tactics and Strategy of Revolution, Calcutta, Ganabani Publishing House, 194^» p.1^7. 1 67 On to Socialist Revolution (Statement of Policy and Programme of All-India Forward Bloc adopted at Nagpur Confer ence, May 1955J, Calcutta, Nobin Saraswati Press, 1955, p.46. 414 and parliamentarianlsm with the strategical expectation that it will be "in a position to defeat the reactionary forces opposed to the popular interests, to capture a stable majority in Parliament and transform the latter from an organ of bourgeois-democracy into a genuine instrument of the people’s 1 will." This is nothing but deviationism to the right and departure from revolutionary creed. In view of all these, they conclude, ”the CPI party-machine... cannot be used for any other purpose than misleading the masses by mechanical carrying out of dictates from the top" and "distorting and 169 vulgarising the elementary principles of Marxism..." Then there are other ideological battles based on the contributions of Stalin and his political enemy Trotsky upon whom the official Communists all over the world are taught to look as an apostate and renegade who has done the most heinous crime to international communism. The RCPI refuses to fall a prey to this "false propaganda" which it knows as being derived from Stalin’s personal malice and spite, and recognises that "Trotsky certainly had done a great service 170 to revolutionary communism" ... and "in the face of the N.S.Khrushchev quoted. Political Report (Adopted at the 3rd All-India Congress of the BPI, Calcutta, the BPI, 1953, p.13. Socialism - the Goal of the Epoch, Draft Manifesto of the Democratic Vanguard, op.cit., p.?9« 170 Saumyendranath Tagore, Permanent Revolution, Calcutta, Ganavanl Publishing House, Second Edition, 194B» p.44* ■•St dlabolieal Mehintry of Tilifieatloii and f r r o r of Stalineeraey* ht k t ^ tho banaor of rorolutioiiary eoammini 171 flying in bost traditions of Narx a ^ Lsnin*” Poignantly •tton^ it satirisos that "StalinisM in India^^^ ap«s all ths •pportnnisB and uti^rovolvtioBiaa of international StalinisM.*^^^ Tho B8F too tMaics incli in tho saao lint and idontifiss Indiiui ooammiss with «ndil«tod Stalinisa. Tho BVPI moro openly donoimess Stalinisa with bittor sareasa as tho ono which "proBotod diffor«itiatiofi botwoon tho priTilogos of tho buroaueraoy and tho aassos and traaplod on tho lattor's 174 dsaooratic rights*, and soalovsly upholds that ”tho only rovolutionary idMlogy today in this world (is) Trotskyisa i.o. eonteaporary Harxisa.*'^^^ Tho FB also dotaehes itself froa Stalinisa and wants to bo "guided by the elassie l^neiples of Lenin - aightiost of woapons in tho arsenal of Mandsa, equipped with the revolutionary teehniq:ae, and 176 •titttogy of tho s^^ugglo of Notaji* ’ «ihoa the CPI dabbed T------I,--..isi'- r- -i'------I.-— ...... ' Sana^sad^p«aath T a g m » Fwaaaont levolntion, op»eit., p.44. Apparently the CPI. 8aiaqr«iidrtiUith Tagoro, Post-War Vorld and India, Calcutta, GanaTanl PUblishLig Bottso« 1947, P«40. Anand l^a]ura» last Xiupopoaa Crisis of Stalinisa, Calotttta, the Coaawnist League, 1957, p*2. Marxist Unity for Sooialisa in India, Stateaent of P^iey of the BWPI, op«oit<»i P*13« On to Socialist Ksfilationv Stateaent of Policy and Prograaae of the All'-India Forward Bloc, op.oit., p.20. 414 a a fifth and a "traltor”.^^^ Anothsr eauaa at th« raa% «f th« diffarances is in tha aaeaptanea af Nanclaai>I*«iiiiiaB» Tha 8PI w i U taka into aaaoimt tha traditions and past of India aa a condition praeadant and w i U altar Marxia»-ItaniiiiaB to suit Indian conditions - a procaaa which tha eo«nmiats tani raaetionary rafoniiSB oa ona eontaxt and daviatioaiaB in anothar. For tha PHP tha ^jiasas eonealTad in tha Marxian thaory tantaaount to castas in raXation to India* and tharafora it will intarprat and apply Narxiaa in ta m a of caataa which tha arch- priaats of co— luniaa would staraly raaiat at laast in Tiaw of thair own positions. To tha FVP easta is still tha higgast siagla «ipl6iting and opprassifa ittstltvtion as tha vppar eastaa continua to ba tha vcpl^tars and tha lower and tha lowaat* tha axploitad in rarftng dasraas* Intarsaeting again ara saaa national factors. Oandhi to tha coanranists is a ^raactionary” "hailad froa tha Bania 179 easta which angagad in trada and vMury” and Oandhisa is tha "broad utilisation of rallg^ms prajadicas* tha propaganda of Hiivla dogpui on tha absolvta sabordination of 177 Nadhu LiiMaya, CooHnmist Party: Facts and Fiction* •p«cit*, p«42. ^ Ibid., p.UB. A.S.R*RaBan» SoTiat Bna^^opadia Dabs Gandhiaa R^iglras and Raactionary» itha Tisaa of India, Boabay, Janwary 9, 1955). M 7 the "lower" to the "higher", also the dogma about the "sinfulness" of attempts to change by force the order allegedly established by the will of God, and recognition of the caste system". Supplementing to this is E.M.Sankaran Namboodlripad, a front-rank communist theoretician who seeks to establish Gandhian idealism as antl-'thetical to Marxian 1^1 philosophic materialism and Gandhi as the "undisputed 1d2 1 ^3 leader"... "the friend, philosopher and guide" of the bourgeoisie. He gets an indirect or implied support in his conclusions from Hiren Mxikerjee, a leading spokesman and intellectual of the CPI. But not all the non-communist Marxians agree with these analyses; the BPI hails Gandhi as the head of a "lofty mission" and a martyr who sacrificed his life "for the fulfilment of the noble cause of maintaln- 1^5 ing peace and harmony among his people..." The RSP recognises the fact that "its ability to appreciate the deeper mass content and humanism of Gandhian ideas gave it the insight simultaneously to rediscover for Itself the ------rgn------A.S.R.Raman, Soviet Encyclopedia Dubs Gandhism Religious and Reactionary, op.cit. 131 E.M.S.Namboodlripad, The Mahatma and the Ism, New Delhi, People's Publishing House, 1953, p.116. 182 Ibid., p.llB. Ibid., p.119. Hiren Mukerjee, Gandhiji - A Study, Calcutta, National Book Agency, 1953. Political Report Adopted at the Third All-India Congress of the Bolshevik Party of India, op.cit., p.5* idmtleal inspiration of hwM»tei inherent in lUrxiaB.*' In diMietrie eppeeition t« tldlh the SVC with «ore critical v«h«Mnce than the CPI, holds that "QandhiSa* in which is hidden a *Faseist skeleton” t the std>li«atic transforaation •f botirseeis elass instinct srigittated^lunoagh the process of s]mthesis between the senses of bourgeois noral Talnes and anti-wox4cing class fear eoa^ex of revolvtion of Gandhi!^ Thus in lAdia a variety of facts and factors atteapts to vndo the aonisa in Nancisai» widens the gulf between the irarious Naxxian parties, aainly between the CPI and ths non- coonnnist Marxians* The ideological clefts and clashes increasing aaong ^he Marxian parties are indeed the inevitable onteoae of their. aj^rosches and are by no aeans anything phenomenally strmnge. The CPI is an vnerrlng adherent of the conmnist elMrsh of Noieow and scni^oasly follows the pronouncements and dicress of ths Xrimiin hierarchy. Religion is abstract; the ^wrch is eonertte* Religion is embodied in the ehnrch and the chtur^ shapes the religion for its ■embers* The CPI cannot have therefore an independent approach to the religion exeept throng the channels of the ehnrch. To the OPX what the church says is religion and the Tridib Knmar Chandhnrif Qandhiji and the RcTolutien- ary Socialist Party, the Call (RSP organ), Delhi, January 1S^9, p.19. Social Democracy aad ftiiidhism Oiomasked, Calcntta, the SOC, 1954, p.4^. ndici Th« non-eeaamist Naniaiis t«lM a poritanieal T i m that th« ^mreh, its proiiQaneMi«fit «r4 its aetioii avst e o Q f o n to •Tory canon of i^iglon and rdigibn wiat ba abova tha ahareh. This tiair raealvas its stroacast andorsaaant froa tha SlIC and tha ST 1^0 too ara wadda4 to Nanciaa-LMiniaa- Stalinisa as has baan tha CPI* Tha ohnrcht tha nen<->eoaanniat Narxiana waait to foUoir tha raligion b«t tha eaaawiiata want tha ralifion to falloir tha ahnrtii* Thia puritanisa and thia eatholieisa hai^a baan tha aaatraX thaaa of graat part of tha idaologieal aehisi now axisting batwaa^ tha Narxiana and tha eaanimiats* and othar diffarantas ara ail eonaaq^antial to tha sttbsidiarf ^vastions arising tharafroa. Tha two grait atridaa tha 6 PI has eama n e a d with its Nadnra Confaran^ in 1 9 H and e a i ^ ^ M with tha Aa^ €enfar Thaaa indaid l a M ^o a qaastion fhat Wfflas stndants of pelitlea aa to insiUTaetionary Kariciaa ean raaain idla within tha daliaata parliaaantary fraaa^ork without baing datxlaantal to thf l ^ tar. l*N.S>llaiA>oodiriFad, howavar, praaanta tha pollit of Tiaw that Narxiaa in prineipla ia not oppoaad to parliaaan^ry daaoaraex and that in tha poat-war world» aituaticm haa baeoaa amiganial to tha working elaaa to aaiia to powar throng pavliiaaBtar/ aaana dafaating^ia attaipt of tha bonrgaoisia t# ftavant it, by tha powar of tha 420 united aassM ltd by th« class* And *w« eonsidsr,* 1$g From a Istttr datsd Martli 1959 addressed to the writer by S.M*S«famboodlripad wkila lie was the ehief Minister of Kerala. The rplevant portion of the ^estionnaire «ub- ■itted by the writer to Naaboodlrlpad and his eoabined answer to it are as follows:*^ Row will you reeoneile ICancisB with parliaaentary deaoeraey? Do you find it piMoiblt to bring about a ftision between parliaaentary deuoeraey and ^ e Marxian eoneei»ts? Do you find it diffieult or feel any eoapunetion to aet upon the parliaaentary praetieabilities frou the back> ground of Narxi^ dynanies? The eoaing of the eoonuoists to power in Kerala dMonstrates the failure of the Naradjn theory. Do you agi^e with this view? In the light of the eoommist victory in Kerala and the post'Aaritsar line a ^ ^ e d by the CPI, how far it would be correct to conclude that you have r m u n c e d reTolution through araed insurrections as a penuinent aeasure in preference to ballot boxes? So you consider araed revolution and the ballot box are coaplMientary to each other or aatl*thetical7 How will you rMct if resistance is offered by the bouvgeois i ^ n yfu beHeve in paiiiaM^tary devocracyt Is your adoption of pariiaaeatary deaocyacy a aeans to an end or an owl In itself? ”... .You assuMe that Narxisa is in principle 'opposed to parliaaentax7 deB6exmoy« This is not S0| as can be seen froa the writings of the founders and teachers of Narxisa. As a aatter of f<^» Marx and Ingels in their days had Tisualised the establishaent of socialist society througji parliaaentary aeans in such a tountry as Great Britain, toii aay also find in the great po^ettics undertaken by Karx and Ingels against the Anarchlm* headed by Bakunin that tlH^ valued parliaaentary deaoenaty* ^ e question posed by t h M and later by L m i n wast Row far will the bourgeoisie allow parliaaentary deaocracy M used by the working class in m writM Ajoy Ohosh^ >hf ^QfX g t m m X ••eretarj, **that la tht pr*s«nt hist«rle|d th» possibilitx •zlsts • f parties and s^elalin seeuring a ■ajorlty in tlia piarXliMlii^ lu^ th« raalstanca of 1<9- fMetioA by fM a s mt acis Mite-** Sapportiag Ra«beodiripad and Ohesh is no Isss a JMCiiii %lian B.T.Ranadivot tbs ehisf ar«ldtset of e6«wnnist;:'iii^dbig» in India. **It is not Footaeto eentian^ fktiii pM i f K * paga. its stncsis for ths of sociidist society? It is on this ^sstion tiWlr a dsbata took plaos bstwssn» say, Lsnin and Eastsky* 't|p» k«ld tbs ▼!«» that, in ths •posh of ittpsrialiaa* thii tpMniii^sis w i n do its ntaost to prsYsnt ths ssains W S# i E W llw wsrfciag class thronsh parliaBsntary asins ani it is a dscsption of ths worli^ class Hiwii that thsy can do so. RswsTsrt in ^hs ps^-Se|^ 11^*4 Mar ysajrs, ths sitnation has bssoas’ so faTm 9i| | # .iH class that any effort, nhtch .tM b oiil|i'i|i^ f i l l ''bs takfog to prsTsnt %hs salting. of-.j^he tiitw through the nsans of parlisMMir diiM^B p B ir b» dafsafd'-by ths mitsd po^s Isd by tiis .worur Thmim thfrsfors, no contradiction batws«i. il% .^|i#:4^^ o f . Marxian dynamics* and the iMi^Hwar UssoXntion of ottr party.* Waaboodiripad is tma»Ultfv l^sslf dsclarsd in 1d72: ”Ws know that a jM ^ I vl^0i0'0iiit be paid to ths institutions, CttstoBSt and tr a d i^ ^ i wrtiQS lands. And we do not deny that there are certain svch as ths Vnitsd States and Bngland, in w^t^ th i iMiiEM nay hops to sscors their ends by psacsful lUHiiis^ Zf 2 lilntaks nst, Holland bslongs to the sane categiry*^ 9 it th« 9M*tions snYis«St only Nances thsory and ifiot U li ettw n ees. Irsn considsring that his words arc si^pi^l^snW ^ hi# thsory, they only snggest as to how initnmsits sdt diHMtfncy conld be nssd to snthrone liuncisn and on ths ^estion haw hafnonions fusion can bs brraght about between parliaasntarianisa and Marxisa without dsstroying ths f«nasr, Niun is auts. Haaboodiripad hiasslf doss not look bsyond capturiag power and hs avoids a ll questions that ps^in to fiikv^. Ajoy Ohoipih, Aaritsai^ Gttngrsas ^f ths Coaaunist Party, Hew Oelhii the CFI, 19SI* P*2^ 4?2 correct to say," endorses Ranadive, "that the policy adopted at Amritsar is not in consonance with Marxism-Leninism. The existing Parliament can enable the party to effect radical 190 changes if backed up by mass pressure." So stereotyped are the answers of the CPI leaders that there is no loophole for contradiction. However Ranadive is little more elucidative. Neither does adoption of parliamentary democracy mean renunciation of revolijtion nor does revolution necessarily presupposes a bloody civil war to pass through. The CPI has not renounced revolution; if an internecine civil war can 191 be avoided, that is all what we mean. What does then peaceful method signify? Let Ajoy Ghosh say. "Peaceful methods for us are neither a creed nor a 192 tactic. It is a policy - a seriously meant policy". Verily a serious policy formally set forth in the report to the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU in 19$6 marking a shift in the strategy of international communism for capturing power in non-communist countries. "The winning of a stable parliamentary majority," says the report, "backed by a mass revolutionary movement of the proletariat and of all the working people could create for the working class of a number 190 From the cited interview with B.T.Ranadive. Idem. Ajoy Ghosh, Amritsar Congress of the Communist Party, op.cit., p.?. 423 of capitalist and former colonial countries the conditions needed to secure fundamental social changes.” In such an event parliament will be transformed "Into a genuine Instru ment of peoples* will”, "an organ of genuine democracy"• And that spells the end of parliamentary democracy. Neither Hamboodlrlpad nor Ranadlve nor Ghosh has spoken anything of their own but only repeated what Is contained In the report with the mandate given by the report. Here exactly the religion follows the church. "A seriously meant policy" Is not an Iron pillar to the CPI; it Is but a column of wax. The CPI's Marxism has not therefore sought a fusion with parllamentarlanlsm to bring about a transformation in the party's ideological content and theological outlook. On the other hand it seeks to establish a transitional friendship with parllamentarlanlsm as a means to herald its own triumph and to ensure the tragedy of the latter. Ideologic6illy the CPI remains as cold blooded, as firm as it has been taught to be by the church to which it belongs. The Rellglo-Polltical Group. There is hardly anything that can be called a systematic ideology with the parties of the Hindu bent. They bring to light some ideas and ideals which were said to have been accepted and adored in the Statement on the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of Soviet Union, Calcutta, the SUC, P-17- 194 Idem. 424 ancient India and conceive a future state in India as Impregnated In them. The lines of thinking of the Hindu Mahasabha, the RSS and the BJS are parallel but of the latter two are also supplementary to each other. A militarily strong undivided India on Hindu religious foundation with a liberal econcwny, a social system not altogether different from the present and a monolithic political set-up constitute the ideological goal of the Hindu Mahasabha. The RSS and the BJS jointly stand for a Hindu social order i.e. the vamashrama, 195 being "the best order for achieving human happiness", with "at its helm men who live in the knowledge of Brahma",and a state on Hindu concepts wherein the economic power will be set apart from political power. They affirm in relation to their idea of nationhood that "in Hindustan, the land of the Hindus, lives 197 and should live the Hindu Nation..." As regards the form of government the RSS conceives "our scheme of government 19d has always been federal, with the village as its basic unit.” However in practice its preference is for the opposite, the 195 ' Shri Guruji, the Man and His Mission, op.cit., p.50. The fourfold division of Hindu society. Ibid., p.54. 197 M.S.Golwalkar, We or Our Nationhood Defined, Hagpur Bharat Prakashan, (fourth edition), 1947, p»52. 19^ Shri Guruji, the Man and His Mission, op.cit., p.56. 425 "unitary form of government"In line with the RSS Jana Sangh also "considers a unitary form of government more appropriate than the federal one."^^^ The RSS seeks to achieve its ideological ends by "infusing a strong national sentiment and a proper national conception in the society and rousing ?01 the heart of every individual to their pure ideal..." and the Jana Sangh by the creation of powerful consciousness of one country, one people, one culture, one nation and one ideal. ?02 The ideological springs of both the RSS and the Jana Sangh flow toward and end in the sea of Dharmarajya. While the RSS and the BJS foster the idea of a Dharma- rajya, the RRP prepares ideological basis for a Ramarajya which it equates with Dharmarajya. "The term Ramarajya does not necessarily connote only the rule of Lord Rama or his lineal descendants and the term Dharmarajya that of Yudhishthira. It stands to mean the rule of all the noble 203 kings such as Chanakya, Vikramaditya, Bhoja and others." 199 Shri Guruji, the Man and His Mission, op.cit., p.7 203 The Election Manifesto of the All-India Rama Rajya Parishad, Delhi, the RRP, 1951, p.9. 426 Ramarajya is an ideal administrative state dreamed pQl by .... Gandhi^ is another import. Yet, with all its implications revealed the concept of Ramarajya remains clogged and clouded in the minds of the RR? leaders whose writings and other contributions amplify that Ramarajya is a return to the Brahminism of the time of Manu and Pushyamitra Sanga, the perpetuation of the caste system as divinely ordained, the legalisation of untouchability and its more rigorous observances, and the exploitation of the productive class by the unproductive in the name of God by virtue of their superior birth. In a resurgent India such idealisation of Ramarajya might not have much appreciation. The leaders of the RRP decline to accord validity to the fact that Ramarajya as embodied in Ramayana itself was not a reality attained, but a great attempt at limiting the monarchy checking of its absolutory tendencies by pious and subtle methods and of cutting an effective balance between the power of the king thus regulated and the freedom of the people so obtained. The spirit behind the ideological trends of the RSS and the Jana Sangh to rejuvenate or Invigorate the Hindu society loses much of its convincing power as the ultimate purpose they seek to serve, the vamashrama social order in N.Maraslmha Murty, Indian Administration (The Administrative Policy of Rama Rajya Parlshad), Rajamundiry, Self, 1954, p.2. wan an archaic model Hindu monolithic state, appears to be reactionary to a large section of the Hindu society and also to progressive intellectuals. None of the parties of the Hindu bent can be said to have any fully evolved ideology. They reflect the various trends in the Hindu thought especially in the emanation of Hindu social ideas at different stages and periods and they move to shape them without assessing their practical values. As has been told already, presiding over the eighth all- India Akali conference in March 1951i Sardar Hukan Singh said that the Akali Dal had emerged as a real people’s party wedded to the ideals of "secular democracy".A puzzling revelation, it was but piece of demagogy pure and simple for if it were so, the Akali Dal would have ceased to be what it has been ever since. As a matter of fact, the Sikhs do not seem to have accepted even the secular conception on which 206 is based the Indian Constitution. A militant community stands firm within an inspiring religion and united under autocratic leadership, the Akali Dal may adopt or abandon any political doctrine or ideology as will be dictated by self-interest from time to time. 2^5 Vide Chapter IV, p. 296 Sardar Sant Singh, Akali Problem, (Critical Analysis of the Present Akali Agitation), New Delhi, Self, (year ?;, p.9. 42d Islamic socialism, a via-media socialism,that balances the private ownership and state capitalism, is the adopted ideology of the Muslim League. It is not possible to throw any light on it as the League itself has yet to understand its substance and semantics. The Secessionist Group* Marxism on the economic front. Buddhism in the social plane and racialism in the political sphere are the main ingredients in the ideology of the secessionist parties. In accepting Marxism just as the i'aiP, the parties treat the class concept as caste concept in so far as it is applicable to India, in leaning to Buddhism they draw inspiration to create a casteless society founded upon basic human equality and gather the equipments necessary to wage a crusade against superstition and irrationalism and in choosing recialism they seek justification for the creation of an independent Southern state and uphold the superiority of Dravidian race as against the Aryan, knowing that races in India are actually a myth imported by Anglo-Germanic scholars and that they now signify simply the various language groups of this country. The Kazhakams are of the view that the two-fold division of the European society upon which the superstructure of Marxism has been erected, is non-existent in India and if 207' From the cited interview with C.H.Mohammed Koya. 429 Marxism Is to be made applicable here, the existing social divisions have to be taken into consideration. Caste, in spite of the relaxations made by the impact of the British rule, is still a cruel and dominant exploiting socio- politico-economic institution affording the upper castes opportunities and justification to oppress and exploit the lower. A workers world in India if really is to take shape, the exploited lower castes should rule and the exploiting upper castes must be ruled. Economic power and political power unless captured and combined by the oppressed and under-privileged communities, social reconstruction by abolishing the caste cannot be undertaken. An egalitarian society cannot be achieved in India by equitable distribution of wealth alone, but for the emergence of which social power ensuring mobility within society must be controlled by the combination of the political and economic powers. Only in this circumstance social vices like untouchablllty could be eradicated. Marx, in the opinion of the Kazhakams, himself would have restated his theory in terms of Indian conditions if he were alive today and to study the peculiar social structure of this country. Hindu religion as practised widely, is a religion which professes and propagates Inequality. It stands to preserve the old social order by subjugating the mass mind to superstitious fears and to "absurd theories” like the theory 430 of Karma. Since the masses have a craving for spiritual side of life, a scientific religion like Buddhism if encouraged, might be of use to release their minds from the fetters of imaginary fears and illusory dogmas and provide them with a rational view of life free from the existing hate and prejudices spread out for the purpose of exploitation by setting man against man* That the theories of racial superiority, the Kashakams are intelligent enough to know, are disproved time and again by socio-anthropological experts Including of the United Nations. Nevertheless, if the "Aryans of the North" are bent on creating an "inflated superiority" for themselves, then the Kazhakams apart from insisting upon the superiority of the Dravidian culture and civilisation, will assert that they were the fathers of world civilisation and culture of 20d which the so-called Aryanism was only "a tiny off-shoot". ^ Many modem historians are of the opinion that there was no Aryan invasion in India. The Sanskrit term Arya was ortginally applied to one who had taken to the life regulated by the four-staged system, Brahmacharya Icelebacyj, Grihasthashrama (household), Vanaprastha (retirement) and Sanyasa (renouncement in search for God) and endowed with a fourfold object, Dharma (Duty), nrtha (Wealth), Kama (Enjoy ment) and Moksha (Salvation). In later ages, the word was used indiscriminately in all cases of men who were noble, intellectually brilliant, spiritually great or culturally supreme. In the Buddhist period, the term had become synonimous to Buddhist word *Arha*. In the royal household, the queens Continued on next page 431 The myth of racialism will thus be met by the myth of super- raclalism. In the three phased ideology of the Kazhakams, Buddhism has only a very limited role. The Kazhakams value its egalitarian and rational content as being extremely useful in their war against caste, superstition and other mental contusion caused by the onslaught of the Hindu hierarchy and its "perverted laws and customs". Unless the Kazhakams work Footnote continued from previous page. used to address the king Arya or Aryaputra. Not the word alone, but Sanskrit itself was not any foreign import but a language of necessity, a technical language, carefully constructed in India to meet the expressions of intellectual, moral and spiritual expansion which had taken place in India peculiarly as usual to her. Isolated from the broad masses. The language of the masses was *Prakritam' (Prakrit) meaning raw or unrefined or uncultured, out of which was processed *Samskritam* (Sanskrit) the refined or the cultured. Even believing that the Aryans brought some culture into India, the discovery of Siva in the posture of Nataraja (cosmic dancer) in the Indus Valley, the system of Yoga, the practice of Tapas and the vast literature connected with Siva and his noble and austere life, his own treating Parvati as half of him (better-half) indisputably go to show that ’Aryanism’ as conceived today, was in existence 2000 years earlier to the supposed invasion of the so-called Aryans. It was in that Max ^ller used the word Arya as being the name of a race but as a result of the controversy it created subsequently. Max Muller in issued a clari fication that he used the worxi in a linguistic context; i.e. to group some languages found to be of a common origin and not with any racial connotation at all. However it was too late, and truth became stranger than fiction. Since then the word has done various wrongs to mankind the worst of all being from Hitler. The whole aim of the Anglo-Germanic historians in leading an Aryan invasion to India was to minimise the importance of India’s contributions to world civilisation and culture. The voliimlnous Vedas which deal with a wide variety of subjects and topics do not make even a line of mention as to indicate that they had an origin external to this country. 432 out a saner synthesis of the three, the possibilities of an ideological revulsion are not few. The Other Groups* The other parties, except the BV and the Sadharantantri Oal, are not wedded to any particular political creed but they have some proximity to certain political principles or political doctrines. The Ganatantra Parishad and the Bihar State Janata Party pursue the liberal traditions as visualised in the Benthamite maxim "greatest happiness of the greatest number". The SCF (RPI) realises the value of social justice as enunciated by the utilitarians and welcomes the principles of a socialist society as conceived by social democracy. The Jharkhand Party dwells on the doctrines of liberal economy and pure democracy. Democratic socialism as suited to the tribal communities, is the Ideological approach of the ETTTT. The BV introduces a school of thought called Subhasism which is "a system that would be a synthesis of the systems 209 in vogue in different parts of the world". It is an attempt to "transform our whole life and to create a new 210 world and better world for ourselves and for humanity". It will "strike the golden mean between the demands of spirit and of matter, of the soul and of the body... and thereby Ideology : Subhasism, Calcutta, the BV, (Year ?), p .10. 210 Ibid., p.23. 433 211 progress slmuitaneotisly on both fronts". It is ’’that form of socialism which India will evolve", having in it, "....something new and original.... which will be of 212 benefit to the whole world". In short it is a synthetic ideology in which the good points in socialisn, nationalism and spiritualism will find harmonious fusion without impairing the values of any. The ideological trend within the *>adharantantri Dal discloses that it follows the anarchism of Michael Bakunin and Prince Peter Kropotkin. Ideology is the life that works In the rationale of a party. It is a unifying force but at times it also tends to be a disuniting factor. Ob.ject of Parties. The point at which the ideology Is driven to, often marks the object of the party. It is towards the attainment of the object the organisation of the party Is directed. The state and conditions of the object are therefore largely bound up with the state and conditions of the ideology. However not always object is exclusively a finished product of Ideological process. Certain ends engendered from particular urges can as well provide a party with an object. Such object may vary with the variation of ?1 1 Ideology : Subhasisra, the BV, op.clt., p.13* Ibid., p.9. The principal title of this booklet, its publishers, etc. are not known as the cover Is missing. 434 the urges from which It comes. It is thus, "Pooma Swaraj" (full self-rule) of the Congress has given way to a "socialist co-operative commonwealth". For some parties, the end that emanates from particular urges, is more important than their ideological objective in which case the latter becomes primal only on realising or relinquishing the former. This remains more obvious with the secessionist and tribal parties. PARTIES a nd t h e i r OBJECTS Parties Objects Gandhian Group INC The well-being and advancement of the people of India and the establishment in India, by peaceful and legitimate means, of a socialist co-operative commonwealth based on equality of opportunity and of political, economic and social • rights and aiming at world peace and fellowship. 213 Socialist Group PSP "The achievement, by peaceful revolution, of a democratic socialist society free from 04 1 social, political and economic exploitation." 213 Constitution of the Indian National Congress, Article I. Constitution and Rules, the Praja Socialist Party, Article 2. I 435 Parties Objects Socialist Party National: To establish a socialist society through democratic and peaceful revolution. International: To eradicate Inequality among nations and to establish a socialist world and a World Parliament.^ Marxian Group CPI The achievement of power by the working people, the establishment of people’s democracy led by the working class, based on the alliance of the working class and peasantry and the ? *1 6 realisation of socialism and communism. RSP To abolish all exploitation of man by man, to put a complete end to the division of society into classes, to put an end to the rule of the capitalist class and other vested Interests, to establish a socialist organisa tion of society on the basis of the dictatorship of the proletariat and achieve victory of 217 socialism in all countries. 21 5 Socialist Party Constitution, Article 2. 216 Constitution of the CPI (post-Amritsarj, Preamble, pp.1-2.•2. 217 Constitution of the RSP, Article 2. 436 Parties Objects FB The attainment of socialism in India and the establishment of the union of socialist republics of India leading to a classless society. RCPI To organise and lead the revolutionary movement of the Indian proletariat, in accord ance with the principles of revolutionary Marxism and in the light of the experiences of the international proletarian struggles, and rally the vast masses of the landless, poor and middle peasantry and the urban petty- bourgeoisie, under the banner of proletarian leadership, in order to replace the bourgeois- feudal social order by the socialist social order. 219 BPI The establishment of a people*s democratic government of the workers, peasants and the middle classes, by replacing the reactionary 220 Congress regime through class and mass struggles. 216 The Constitution of the All India Forward Bloc, Article;le :2. 219 Constitution of the RCPI, Article 2. Political Report, Adopted at the Third All-India Congress of the BPI, op.cit., pp.45-47* 437 Parties Objects DV The attainment of socialist revolution in India.T 221 sue To work for the unity of all bonafide socialist forces and to pave the rise of a really effective party of the Indian working class on the basis of (the) theory and practice of Marxism-Leninism...- in order to .... accomplish the supreme task of the social revolution .... as speedily as the objective 272 conditions of the country would permit. PWP To establish a workers* and peasants’ state based on economic and social equality in which there will be a classless society free 223 from exploitation of man by man. RWPI To mobilise "all exploited classes of Indian society for the establishment of a dictatorship 224 of the proletariat and the ushering in of socialism." 221 Draft Constitution of the Democratic Vanguard (Published in the Vanguard - Monthly organ of the DV - June 1955i pp.20-29) Section A. ooo Platform of Action, the STIC, op.cit., p.9 Durusta Ghatanecha Masuda (Draft of the Revised Constitution), the PWP, p.1. 224 Fourth International, (Theoretical organ of the International Executive Committee of the Fourth International), W.Holland, Autumn 195ti, P»53* 433 Parties Objects Rellglo-Polltlcal Group Hindu Mahasabha To establish a really democratic Hindu state In Bharat, based on the culture and tradition of Hindu Rashtra (Hindu Nation) and to re-establish Akhand Bharat (Undivided India) 225 by all constitutional means. RSS To weld together the diverse groups within the Hindu Saraaj and to revitalise and rejuvenate the same on the basis of its Dharma and Sanskrltl, that It may achieve an all-sided development of the Bharatvarsha.226 BJS The rebuilding of Bharat on the basis of Bharatiya *3anskriti* and ’Maryada* as a political, social and economic democracy granting equality of opportunity and liberty of individual so as to make her a prosperous, powerful and united nation progressive, modem and enlightened, able to withstand the aggressive designs of others and pull her weight in the 225 Aim, Objects and Rules, Akhll Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, Article 2. 226 The RSS Constitution, Article 3* 439 Parties Objects council of nations for the establishment of 227 world peace. RRP The attainment of an undivided India for establishment of the Ramarajya based upon the ancient Sastras, the code of Manu in particular, in which there will be rigorous re-enforcement of caste system, universal observance of untouchablllty for the economic prosperity, moral reconstruction and spiritual elevation of one and all. Akall Dal To create and preserve among the Sikhs, separate national consciousness and to strive to promote their religious, educational social 229 230 and economic life and to propagate SlKhism. 227 Manifesto and Programme of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, op.clt., p.3* 22d Summarised from the talks with RRP leaders and also from the descriptions given in the Election Manifesto of the RRP (1951-52) and N.Naraslmha Murty, Indian Administration, op.clt. Shlromani Akall Dal Di Bantar Te Nlyam - Constitu tion and rules of the Shlromani Akall Dal - Article 1(1). Ibid., Article I(il). 440 Parties Objects Muslim League To serve and safeguard the integrity, honour and prestige of the Indian Union, to establish cordial relations and harmony between Muslims and other communities in India and to preserve the rights and interests of the Muslims 231 and other minorities. Princely Group Ganatantra ' Parishad The establishment of a co-operative commonwealth of the people where there will be freedom of initiative and enterprise without scope of exploitation and where gross inequalities of wealth will be eliminated without recourse 232 to state capitalism. Bihar State Janata To establish by peaceful means a state in Party which there will be equal opportunity and equal rights to all for political, social and 233 economic development. From the cited interview with C.H.Mohamed Koya. India At a Glance, op*cit., p.l63- Bihar Rajya Janata Party Ka Vldhan (Constitution of the Bihar State Janata Party), Article I. U 1 Parties Objects Secessionist Group DK The attainment of an Independent sovereign republic of Tamil Nad. DMK The realisation of a sovereign Independent 'casteless, classless socialist republic of Dravldanad, comprising of the four Southern linguistic states, namely Tamllnad, Andhra, Kamatak and Kerala, wherein each federating state will have fullest autonomy and the right to secede. Nam Tamil lyakkam To revive the pristine glory of Tamil Nad, to unite the scattered sons of Tamil, to strive to establish a Tamil state,Independent and sovereign, combining with Madras the Tamil pockets In Kerala, rvamatak and Andhra, Pondicherry and Karlkal, and Tamil majority areas of Ceylon^^^ and to promote the Tamil language. 234 Amalppu Vldhlkal (Constitution), Nam Tamil lyakkam, Madras, 195^5, Article 2. 235 Ibid., p.11. 236 Ibid., Article 2. U 2 Parties Objects Denominational Group SCF (RPI) To realise the aims and objects set out in the preamble of the Constitution of India, namely "Justice, Liberty, Equality and Frater- nity".^^^ Extremist Group BV To set before itself primarily, and the youth of Bengal in general, the vital need for devotion to "Deraos-Duty-Disclpline" with "Unity- Faith-Sacrifice”, to awaken the public conscience (Gana-Vivek), for purity of motive and purity of action, for national integrity and 238 socialist reconstruction- Tribal Group Jharkhand Party The establishment of Jharkhand state comprising of tribal districts of Bihar and adjoining tribal areas of Madhya Pradesh, 239 Orissa and West Bengal purely on economic basis. Constitution of the Republican Party of India, Article II 1(1). Constitution of the Bengal Volunteers, Article 3U). From an interview with Jalpal Singh, MP, President JharkhandParty, in New Delhi on January 16, 1959- 443 Parties Objects BITTT The realisation of an autonomous tribal federation consisting of the tribal areas of Assam, Manipur and Tripura within the Indian « Union. Anarchist Group Sadharantantri Dal To strive to attain a Sadharantantra (anarchist state) where there will be no Shashan (government) and no Chooshan (exploita tion) and in which all powery social, economic ?40 and political will be transferred to the people. Party Leadership. The party organisation in line with the ideological dictates, is taken towards its objects by the leadership of the party with the help of its membership. The form and character of leadership vary with the structure, ideology and object of the party. But in almost every party the actual leadership is different from formal leadership. The actual leadership implies the real-power-controlling-unit of men, a small selected camera group at the apex of the organisational pyramid, generally hidden behind the formal 240 pj-Qfl, cited interview with S.Mukhopadhyay. 444 leadership. Where this camera group Is present, the formal leadership becomes a.shadow of It or serves a facade to it. Tn certain parties the men who form the camera group, inter nationally known as the inner circle, are united in or attached to a superman, a super-president who Is normally placed above all, even above the party, by virtue of his supposedly exceptional qualities. He has been described by Max lixeber with a proverbial appeal, as the 'charismatic leader' and 'charisma' as that "quality of an individual personality by virtue of which he Is set apart from ordinary men and treated as endowed with supernatural, superhuman, or at least specifically exceptional powers or qualities. These are such as are not accessible to the oirdinary persons, but are regarded as of divine origin or as exemplary, and on the 241 basis of them the individual concerned is treated as a leader." The Gandhlan Group. The Congress leadership which was "quite homogeneous"^^^ during the days of the Liberals who were "effectively wedded to the values of the west" from 1920 onwards marks the presence of a charismatic super- president. Since the withdrawal of the Liberals from its Max Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organisation, op.clt., p.329. Richard L.Park and Irene Tinker, Leadership and Political Institutions in India, (Contributions) Madras, Oxford University Press, 1960, p.1?0. Ibid., p.174- The designation is not the writer's creation. It is Nehru who called Gandhi as the permanent super-president of the Congress. (Vide N.V.Rajkumar, Indian Political Parties, op.clt., p.43-) 445 ranks, the Congress Party has been the victim of Its own superman concept or to use Max Weber's phraseology, of "charismatic domination". It could be said well, since 1920 until 1946 Gandhi was virtually in control of the Congress. Behind him was a camera group consisting of Sardar Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru, and a few living and dead leaders often divided in their approach or occasionally diverging in their views. During this period of 26 years, though hardly once Gandhi was president, he was in fact the maker of all other presidents. The only challenge Gandhi had to encounter was from Bengal, more precisely, from C.R.Das and Subhas Chandra Bose, both men of extraordinary calibre. He, not only with the help of the camera group defeated their opposition but got them eliminated from the scene. With Independence in view, Sardar Patel started gaining control of the organisation. He first brought the camera group under his control and then created a majority for himself in the Working Committee. He agreed with Gandhi’s super-presidential status and recognised Nehru's popularity, only to lead the Congress in the lines of his choice. He forced the opposing Kripalani to resign the Congress presidency in November 1947 but allowed Gandhians like Dr. Rajendra Prasad and Pattabhl Sitaramayya to hold the post. The death of Gandhi in January 1948, enabled the Sardar to move his elbow with an unprecedented ease. 446 He In 1950 got Purushottamdas Tandon elected president against the wishes of i^ehni, vanquishing K.ripalanl who came to oppose. N e h m was conscious of the Sardar*s insuperable organising ability and he quite often preferred silence in organisational matters. With Sardar’s death on December 15» 1950, Nehru got a ground free of competition. The Congress had gone through a process of *de-Patelisation'. He dethroned Tandon with "so brazen a display of expediency” and made himself the president. Thus Nehru united in him, the presidentship of the party, the prime ministership of the Government, the leadership of Parliament and the mastership of the camera group - a concentration of power too tremendous for a party which professes to be democratic. In 19i>5> Nehm discovered, calm, Indulgent and relatively unimportant a man in U.N.Dhebar to be the Congress president The Congress leadership is presumed to be with the Working Committee synonymously referred to as the Congress High Command, a term which by its connotation far exceeds the constitutional priclncts. The High Command, a sensible coinage, may be within or without the Working Committee or may be partly within or partly without according to the The Times of India, Bombay, September 10, 1951. In 1959 Dhebar gave up the presidency in favour of Nehru*s daughter Indira Gandhi. In I960, it was again by Nehru’c choice Sanjlva Reddi became the president. U 7 location of the camera group, l/uhen the super-president is out of the Working Committee, the camera group is with him outside to seek his wishes in order that the Working Committee will do the necessary formalities to carry out them. So the camera group which actucilly is the High Command, is the super-cabinet of the super-president but in relation to the latter its function in the main is advisory. "Democratic principles demand that leadership at all levels be elective, that it be frequently renewed, collective In character, weak 247 in authority." But it is just the other way at the highest levels of the Congress. The super-president of the Congress is the American party boss and the English Conservative Party leader combined in one, the only one in the party with a gift of prophecy, rare insight, intuition and captivating intellectual power. If so, what is the position of leadership at the descending levels? It is on the whole riddled with impurities^^^ and O I O Maurice Duverger, Political Parties, op.cit., p.134» "I have been president of theCongress and I know from personal experience that there is a lot of impurity in the Congress and even some of the biggest Congressmen are a party to it." (Jawaharlal Hehru, The Times of India, Bombay, January 21, 1955*) "I was president of the Congress for two years and I am tired of the malpractices in the organisation indulged in by leading Congressmen." ...."Many people had now come into the Congress not for love of the Congress ideology but for the fact that coming to (the) Congress was profitable." (The Bombay Chronicle, January 21, 1955.) 2/. w bosslsra ^ and "continually engaged in petty wrangles to fulfil petty ambitions and achieve personal gains.It is known a fact that Kamaraja ’Jadar in Madras, Pratap Singh Kairon in the Punjab, Dr.K.H.Katju in the new Madhya Pradesh, and C.B.Gupta in U.P. are not too good democrats in their respective regional organisations. So were the late Pandit Ravi Sankar Shukla in the old Madhya Pradesh and B.C.Roy in Bengal. Honest men like Naba Krishna Chowdhary of Orissa are generally relegated to the background and men of inte grity like C.Kesavan of Kerala, voluntarily retired from the Congress. Opposition within the organisation to Nadar normally finds it hard to function. Democracy in many states notably in the Punjab and Kerala, has suffered a set back and the Congress organisation in many parts of the country has gone demoralised on account of the wrong regional leadership. Men wanting in character, indulging in acts of moral turpitude, have taken positions in the lower bodies of the organisation and even at the state level. "Undesirable individuals", confesses B.Gopala Reddl, "came into the organisation and got themselves elected to the District or Nehru today asked Congressmen to curb the growing tendency of 'bosslsm* among their party's regional units. ... Nehru ... defined the party ’boss* as a "person who catpures leadership by ways and means not desirable." (The Times of India, Bombay, January 2?, 1955-) ?50 Jawaharlal Nehru, The Times of India, Bombay, August 21, 195^. 449 251 Pradesh Congress Committees.” In Kerala a wrestler, who used to terrorise his locality was the PCC president for a considerably long time and thereby the Congress had suffered in Its prestige. In many districts, cities and towns moneyed goonda heads have captured the leadership. The Congress finds it difficult to cleanse itself of them for they by their very nature and capacity, have become part of its strength, strategy and tactics more notably in elections. The question of new blood is a problem that concerns all parties. The infusion of young blood is to guard the organisation against senility. The Congress leadership on the whole is senile; the average age of its leaders is somewhere between 60-65* Congress is one of those parties which have no youngmen between 25-40 in any positions of top leadership. Its national leadership is above 70, state leadership varies from 50-75 and leadership below, from if5-d0. With its varying features at different levels the Congress leadership presents a picture of its own in political hegemony. Nevertheless, tradition and achievement alike enabled the Congress to retain within its fold the country's national leadership to its best advantage. The Socialist Group. The socialist leadership is mostly comprised of men who had reason to leave the Congress. May The Times of India, Bombay, June 7, 195^* 450 be due to the divergence in the Ideological allegiance the responsibility that la to be maintained in relation to the party is lacking in it- It is, first of all, a leadership which still fosters dual loyalty both to the Congress and its own party and hence seems to be reconciled with the policies and programme of the Congress. It has disarmed itself in front of the powerful personalities of the Congress for whom it still cherishes warm feelings and in doing so, it has more or less failed in its responsibility both as an opposition and an alternative to the Congress. In the post- Independence years the socialist leadership was confined to a limited number of youngmen, not over a dozen, and it was non-commltted either to the right or to the left, and thereby it lost the sympathy and trust of such "genuine left forces” who arrayed at the call of Subhas Rose to consolidate the left against the Congress right. With the arrival of independence, its position within the Congress became vulnerable and it was swept out of the party by the mighty waves of Sardar Patel's poweir-polltlcs. The socialist leaders accused Patel with neglect of duty for not discovering the plot of Gandhi's assassination beforehand and "of friendliness 252 to coirenunal forces" but these tactics by which "they hoped to break Patel's power and to make their own advancement to Richard L.Park and Irene Tinker, Leadership and Political Institutions in India, op.cit*, p.199. 451 power possible", ?53 boomeranged and in the end "it was the socialists who were discredited". Out of the Congress, the socialist leaders diverging in their ideological ontlook, and differing in their organisational policies, overestimated their capabilities and popular support and fought the first general elections only to be disillusioned, mithin a few months after the electoral reverses, the disillusioned socialist leadership sought a fusion with equally disillusioned leadership of the KMFP, which Instead of helping consolida tion, in fact, started pulling the party to opposite directions. Multiplicity since then marked the voice of the party, a period of indiscipline and confusion set in. Jayaprakash Narayan's conversion to Sarvodaya, Aruna Asaf Ali’s severance in preference to communism, Harendra Deva's demise, Lohia group’s expulsion and above all Sucheta Kripalani*s desertion, have led to a considerable dwindling of the central leadership which in turn indirectly contributed to the augmentation of bureaucratic tendencies and oligarchic rigidities within. Jayaprakash Narayan who renounced politics, meanwhile re-emerged as somewhat of a charismatic leader of the party with advisory functions. Increased centralisation and authoritarian control created conflicts between the leaders 253 Richard L.Park and Irene Tinker, Leadership and Political Institutions in India, op.cit., p.199* Idem. 452 at various levels, and oblivious of or over-stepping democratic proprieties they also indulged in mutual recrimina tions. The Lohia-Thanu Pillai tussle over the question of the latter resigning his chief-ministership ended only with the actual break-up of the party. "Inconsistencies and indecisiveness are still apparent among the leaders over certain matters of ideology, 255 parliamentary strategy, and programme." "The inability to agree on a settled parliamentary strategy threatens the .250 remaining vestiges of the socialist leadership's unity. "Indiscipline also persists." 257 "An authoritarianiriar tendency 25a continues to assert itself at crucial moments." Predominantly middle-aged, the socialist leadership has at its apex a few men above 60. The socialist leadership is younger than that of the Congress, not because of the socialist infusion of young blood but because it consists of men purged out of the elders' Congress, whose youth was producing effervescence obnoxious to the old inside. No doubt the leadership of the PSP has numerous short comings, but insplte of them it is yet the best one the Party Richard L.Park and Irene Tinker, Leadership and Political Institutions in India, op.cit., p.204. ^56 Ibid., p.205. 257 Ib id ., p.2U6. Idem. 453 can have in the existing situation, and it is more national conscious than class conscious. This is in a way attributable to the fact that the is ceased to be solely a working class party and turned to be by and large middle class in character. The party still lags behind in finding proper second line and bottom level leadership and this seriously blocks Its expansion and programmatic execution. It has also suffered a drain of younger elements from its leadership with the departure of Lohia and his supporters in 1955* The militancy with which the Lohia Socialist leadership severed itself from the PSP has not enabled it so far to make any conceivable impression in the political sphere. Factionalism has adversely affected its strength and prestige in Andhra and Madras with the split of P.V.G.Raju and S.C.C.Anthony Pillai. The Marxian Group. The broad feature of the Marxian leadership is the autocracy of a single leader assisted by a powerful oligarchy in principle elected on "democratic centralism". Every leader from bottom to the top in a cadre party, is linked by the chain of obedience and individually loyal to the leader at the vertex and all together collectively owe allegiance to the oligarchy he heads. The oligarchy when directed by the boss, is omnipotent towards the organs below and the boss dominates the oligarchy by making it feel his ubiquity and creating around him a myth of infallibility or 454 exceptional superiority. But such a myth has not so far haloed any CPI leader and the CPI oligarchy is not yet reduced to an appendage to the man at the summit. Confirmative of this, there prevail within the post-war CPI leadership, two powerful trends of opinion which cleave it on the question of policy in inner party discussions. *Dange-Namboodiripad' takes a nationalist view of communism and foresees its achievement through parliamentary means and peaceful manipulations, whereas *Ranadive-Joshi* subscribes still for insurrectionary communism inspite of the failure of the Calcutta thesis and consequent confessions over it. Incidentally or coincidentally these two trends are respectively linked up with the right and left strategies of world communism. It cannot however be said that the CPI oligarchy is entirely independent. It has to take notice of the "general OCQ experiences of the USSR which are of valid importance" to it and has to go by the Comintern line in matters of strategy, tactics, ideological evaluation and so forth. Whatever the extra-territorial relation and allegiance, the CPI has a team of leaders of integrity, and intellectual competency, that can match any best in the political world. Agile and alert the leadership is noted for its self- discipline and for the enforcement of discipline. There is 259 To a written question ”In what sense the CPI has allied with the USSR and the Peoples Republic of China” this answer was given by B.T.Ranadlve In the cited interview. 455 no mercy for habitual drunkards, moral degenerates, betrayers of party confidence, and thOvSe guilty of financial Irregu- larlty.T 260 The CPI has much young blood In its ranks. The age groups given below, of the delegates attended the Palghat Party Congress In May 1^56 and the Amritsar Party Congress in April 195B show that 77 to B2 per cent of the CPI leader ship is quite young and falls within the age group of 25-45* TABLE No.VI 261 Age groups of the CPI delegates Palghat Congress Amritsar Congress May 1956 April 195tf Age groups Ho. of delegates No. of delegates Below 25 2 1 25-35 136 15d 36-45 191 210 46-55 60 90 Above 55 13 15 There are hardly 15 leaders who are above 55* It proves The Constitution of the CPI (pre-Amritsar), Article XII Section 3* Figures transcribed from the CPI Central Office records with their kind permission in January 1959 and arranged in order. 456 that even the oldest in the leadership are still away from actual senility. The CPI gives particular and careful attention to the training of leadership at all levels of the organisation. About a fourth of its present leadership especially at the intermediate and lower levels, is drawn from youths who have undergone rigorous training- The present leadership is by no means adequate to meet the needs of the party which has yet to build up a number of cadres to cope with the existing political situation and to face the future with confidence. The non-communist Marxian parties follow the pattern of the CPI leadership. They have a few men at the apex who generally manage the entire party affairs with the help of the rank and file.- At the levels below, organisational bodies are fewer and therefore their leadership is largely concentrated in the central bodies. This top heaviness often exceeds the parties' enduring capacity and at times goes to topple the party mechanisms. Attempt at personalisation of the parties are apparent on the part of some of their top leaders, who are generally their founders, permanent incumbents for leadership. In all, the non-communist Marxian leadership, a great part of which although young, remains far behind the optimum and tends to be more nomadic than settled. The Religlo-Polltical Group. The problem of the Hindu 457 Mahasabha is not about the kind and content of leadership but how to have an effective leadership. From the beginning, it is neither the membership nor the organisation that nourished the Mahasabha but the fame and personality of its leaders most of whom were brought from outside. This continued dependency is perhaps one of the reasons for its prolonging debility. Consciousness of the cause of its ills, does not however force the Mahasabha to seek curative remedies. It has failed to train up a sound second-line leadership; it is a party which has never so far produced a top leader from within its own membership. After the death of Lala Lajpat Rai and the retirement of Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya, the Mahasabha was slumbering deep till the indomitable V.D. Savarkar tapped and woke it up. The spirit rekindled by Savarkar again was lost with his withdrawal but somehow, it was enlivened for a time by Syama Prasad Mookerjee and N.C. Chatterjee. A period of gloom in the Mahasabha leadership was again set in and perhaps still continues, fk* Unless the Mahasabha creates within itself such conditions as necessary to evolve a leadership pattern of its own the problem may remain long without proper solution. The RSS and the RRP believe that leadership is divinely ordained, a rare right inherited through superior birth and superior knowledge and alienable only to a successor of the same order. While this being their fundamental concept, 45a the former wants the leadership to dwell at the highest point, as a never-failing concentric force resting upon the citadel-strength of a reinforced hierarchy composed of ranks who have successfully undergone an intense training, physical, mental and intellectual and withstood a rigid and rigorous test. The ranks of the R3S are not built in a day. They are the turn out of a carefully drawn up, astutely planned training scheme taking years to process the raw materials into finished products. The selection of raw hand is done by experts in the line, at a very tender age from normally the high levels of the social ladder and his reliability is tested and ascertained by regular interrogation of his family background, faith, motto and appeal. A period of probation is then prescribed to assess his suitability before admission is given. On successful termination of probation pratijna (oath) is administered and admission granted. He is now declared a trainee. Through ShaririK (physical training), Chareha (discussion) and Bauddhik (intellectual and moral instruction) he completes his training and if he passes out with distinction or convinces his superiors of his intrinsic and extrinsic worth, he is selected to the Officers Training Corps (O.T.G.) where he not only should develop his qualities for leadership but should prove his ability to obey as well ?6? Also spelt pratidnya. 459 as to command. Such are the men who occupy the various levels of the leadership of the RSS and strengthen the hands of the Sar Sanghachalak. The RSS has no scarcity of youngmen. About 50-60 per cent of its leadership consists of full- blooded youth. Young although this leadership in large part, it is of a different kind. None of its members can ascend to the highest point of the hierarchy by the exercise of its will. It has no definite powers, nor can it hope to share any power with the summit. Governed by the doctrine of obedience, it is but an exceptionally efficient executive agency whose understanding of command does not rise above mere performance of work allotted. It takes a supei*natural view of things and looks upon the Guru (the Sar Sanghachalak) as the fountain head of true knowledge and inspiration and power and piously submits to the idea that perfect self-subordination to him Is the greatest duty it must do in aiding him in accomplishing his task, and the only means to dispel the darkness that encircles it. Indeed, the RSS Guru is a super-charismatic leader. The RRP leadership upholds its divine right but lacks the bed of rock to repose, as the RSS has. Senile, and cynic it is largely confined to the top. Frustration has so overtaken it that from action and expansion it has retired 460 to a world of spite and stagnation from where It seeks to Invoke the Heavenly wrath upon the heathen population (sudras, asuras and untouchables) for their annihilation and the divine blessings upon Itself for the peaceful and automatic delivery of power Into Its hands. On the whole under the charismatic domination of the RSS leader, the BJS oligarchy is composed mostly of RSS ranks. The RSS has three functions to perform towards the Jana Sangh with regard to its leadership. It must serve the recruiting and training ground; it has to ensure quality and allegiance and must maintain necessary reserves. A few recruitments are made from extra-RSS sources to the superior cadres of the Jana Sangh but these are meticulously done from among men of like mind and like views. The supreme command of the Jana Sangh has been In the hands of the leading RSS men and even Syama Prasad Mookerjee its principal founder, a non-RSS national figure, used to consult the RSS chief Golwalkai* on policies and actions and get his prior consent to all executions of decisions. The Jana Sangh*s Bharatiya Karya Samiti works under the imperceptible lead of the RSS Kendriya Karyakarl Mandal, and point of dis agreement if any arises, is invariably referred to the RSS chief whose verdict thereon shall be final and binding. This inter-relation is vital to both the RSS and the BJS because it is this relation that places at the disposal of the latter the forces and resources of the former 461 necessary for its working and It Is equally this relation that helps the former to thrive silently In the political field and to protect its political Interests. There is absolutely no fear on the part of the RSS that at any time the Jana Sangh leadership would become self-assertive for such an eventuality is unlikely to arise so long as the Jana Sangh remains its political front. The Secessionist Group* The pattern of leadership the Kazhakams have adopted, is Marxian. There are ostensibly certain differences between the leaderships of the two Kazhakams; whereas the DMK is apparently at pains to cloak the rigour of its centralisation by the widest accept ance of election, the DK does not seek such devices to disguise its tnie nature. The supreme leadership of the DK creates Itself and then proceeds to create the subordinate leadership. The supreme leadership is vested for a life-term in a single individual - the party president, who has unlimited powers over the entire party and entire leadership. The virtuous point is that it has the intellectual honesty to call a spade a spade, but the leadership of the DWK though no less absolute, is by and large deceptive elusive and truculent. The EWK being a creation of the younger generation, has plenty of youngmen in its ranks. About eighty per cent of its leadership is below forty. It is further a leadership 46? that heads the renaissance and reformation of Tamil Nad and being so, It has a stupendous mass appeal and mass support. The DK Is comparatively of older generation and Its leadership is much more aged than the most aged of the DMK. The major as well as the most powerful part of Its leadership is above 55 and the top-most above 70. The middle and lower leadership of the DMK Is uniformly distHbuted In its strongholds in Tamil Nad but shows a tendency to concentrate more in towns and cities than In villages, '’’he leadership at such levels of the DK on the contrary, Is morp among the peasants and agricultural workers. Highly centralised, absolute in nature, the leadership of the Kazhakams marks a turn of its own In the Indian politics. The Other Parties and Groups. The Muslim League, the Akall Dal, the SCF (RPT), the Jharkhand Party and the filTU have identical leaderships, restricted in nature as their membership, which are acquired or bestowed on by the popula rity, personality and status the leaders have in their respective communities. Elected in principle, they enjoy continuity of office and the autocratic right of nominating their own successors. The leadership of the Ganatantra Parlshad and Bihar State Janata Party is in practice mono polised, of the Bengal Volunteers regimental, and of the Sadharantantri Dal indeed Informal and decentralised in principle but in actuality, confined to a few of its founders. 463 There are some features which are common to all leaderships Irrespective of their party affiliations, the growing authoritarianism, the aversion to election, the camera group of the leader, the struggle for personalisation of their parties, the democratic professions and autocratic behaviours. Charismatic leadership overriding the democratic concepts dominates a number of parties, the Congress, the RSS, the BJS, the DK, the Jharkhand Party and to some extent even the PSP. Inside the DMK, C.N.Annadural is fast becoming charismatic. All leadership of parties as Duverger has pointed 263 out "tends naturally to assume oligarchic form". Inconstancies and idiosyncrasies of the leaders the socialist leaders in particular, their capricious approaches to principles and faiths have done substantial damage to their own political reputation and prestige as well as of their parties some of which otherwise would have risen more in public esteem or have offered a stronger opposition to the Congress. Two Andhra leaders N.G.Ranga and P.V.G.Raju alone have changed five parties each with the short span of ten years. Clamour for infusion of new blood is although heard often in almost every party, only the CPI, the RSS and the DMK are seen to have taken care to train up younger leadership. But how far they will be protected against Maurice Duverger, Political Parties, op.clt., p. 151 if64 senility In future, Is a matter for the future. Almost in all parties except the CPI, the RSS-BJS and the DK, parliamentary leadership Is preponderant over party leader ship and the parties themselves Inclined to recognise the importance of the first. Membership of Parties. Strictly speaking from the theoretical point of view, In every party leadership precedes membership. Just as the agents of the promoters of a joint stock company make effort to find OMt share holders, so go the active workers of a party Instructed by their leaders after Initial enrolment of members. The agaits of the promoters of a company stop at the target number beyond which they do not proceed, but an active worker is not bound by any such limitation. He seeks to recruit as many members as possible and endeavours to strengthen the position and influence of his leaders. This is normally the case with all parties except the cadre parties^^^ admission The term ‘cadre party' does not signify the cadre parties of the 19th century described by Maurice Duverger (Political Parties, op.city, pp.63-67) as a caucus party or a party of notabilities without formal recruitment of members. In India never have such parties existed. The Justice Party and the Swaraj Party are the only two to draw a remote comparison but they were far from the cadre party of Duverger*s description in many respects. The Marxian parties of India which in Duverger*s words would be less definite mass parties, (Political Parties, op.clt., p.6?) style themselves as cadre parties. They say their parties are structural ised on cadres and they ascribe their difficulties and hindrances often to the lack of sufficient Continued on next page. 465 to which Is not so easy as in mass parties. The whole aim of the cadre parties is to build up proper trained cadres and so, they are more concerned with the suitability of material to assess which applicants for membership have to pass through a severe test. The mass parties have no such cadre building. Their effort is to enlarge the party by unrestricted mass enrolment of members subject only to certain flexible conditions and formalities. The cadre parties have qualitative approach to membership while the mass parties have quantitative. The conditions for membership vary with the kind of parties and class of membership but a minimum prescribed age limit, filling up of a regular application form, taking oath or signing of a declaration, payment of an annual subscription and a minimum prescribed participation in party work, are commonly found Included in the conditions of membership of all parties. The classes or categories of Footnote continued from previous page. trained cadres for class and mass action. None of these parties has ever defined exactly what a cadre is, although they Incessantly emphasise the Importance of it. From the talks the writer has had with them it could be understood that cadres are well-trained and thoroughly dependable party workers of various organisational levels, despatched into the masses and classes to expand and strengthen the party organisation among them in such a way that it will be always kept fit and alert for action at any moment. *Cadre* is also found used as that device or frame-work which enables to group quickly the rank and file around the leaders at any time when the party is to be moved into action. 466 membership are ordinarily based on the degree of participa tion of the members in party work. The amount of right and privileges, the members enjoy within the party, decreases or Increases with the class to which they belong. The TNG has three categories of members; they are the primary, the active and the associate. The exact nature and duties of the third are nowhere stated. An associate member Is a non-voting member participating In the delibera tion. But such members are very rare and are creations of either expediency or exigency. The special condition binding on the primary member Is that he should "not be a member of any other political party, communal or other, 266 which has a separate membership, constitution and programme." From an active member the constitution demands many virtues and purity; that he should be "a habitual wearer of hand- spun and hand-woven khadl", that he should be a 268 teetotaller, that he should "not observe or recognise 269 untouchablllty In any shape or form", that he must "believe in equality of opportunity and status for all", 270 265 Constitution of the Indian National Congress, Article VIIT. 266 Article IV(a)(1). 267 Article TV(b)(ll). 268 Article TV(bi(lll). 269 Article IV(b)(lv). 270 Article IV(b)(v). 467 271 that he must be "believer In inter-communal unity" and that he should devote ”regularly a part of his time to some form of national, community or social service... . or to some 7 1 7 constructive activity-...” All these contain elements of compulsion, however good the ends they seek to serve. Imposing khadi upon every member when ^Cadillac’ is not denied to him, only goes to prove, apart from the particles of regimentation it envelops, that it is an anomaly rather than an ideal. When unsocial elements and men of mean morals and low integrity are seen in every level of the organisation, proclamation of such lofty principles may not secure conviction. It will be difficult even for a habitually credulous or gullible man to believe that at least a tenth of the Congress active membership is consisting of teetotallers, men cleansed of the evil of untouchabllity and champions of social equality and communal harmony. In some mass parties, therefore, the inclusion of the conditions of membership especially those blended with the aroma of idealism, Is to cater the needs of the propaganda continuously carried on for their expansion and stability. The socialists, on the contrary, despite the mass 271 Constitution of the Indian National Congress, Article IV(b)(vi). 272 Article IV(b)lvii). 46a character of their party, are not Calvinists of morals. Their maxim is that the highest virtues of membership should be crystallised in basic honesty. The special rule that regulates the membership of the socialists is plain and simple and common to both the PS? and the Socialist Party. The PSP categorises its members into, members and active members and admits as member any one who ”is not a member of any other political or communal organisation whose 273 membership is Inconsistent with that of the party." Of an active member it demands that he should not "observe 0*71 caste and communal distinctions". Following the example of the British Labour Party, the Socialist Party has adopted two classes of members, the individual and the affiliated. The individual member of the party has to satisfy the same conditions that are to be fulfilled by the member as well as the active member of the PSP, whereas as an affiliated member who is a member of the affiliated organisation like trade union, peasant union etc., is free from any direct shackles but his organisation has 275 to accept "the objects, policy and programme of the party". In addition to these two classes, the Socialist Party has, Constitution and Rules, the Praja Socialist Party, Article III 2. 27L Article III 3. Socialist Party Constitution, Article III 2. 469 like the PSP, active members who as their PSP counterparts, have to perform certain duties such as enrolment of new party members and devoting a minimum prescribed hours in a week for party work. By layi.ng down the minimum conditions for membership, the socialists have been successful much more than the Congress in bringing their members nearer to .the compliance of those conditions and thus helping the party fundamentals to remain on their roots. TJnderstandably enough, the socialists too through the process of flexibility of admission seek to improve the mass character of their membership. The Marxians however are a group in themselves. They are not Interested in mass membership but a membership which can move the masses. It implies that an indiscriminate admission which leads to frequent indisciplined and irreligious trends, will not be allowed under any circumstances, but a stiff selective method will invariably be followed to take in the recruits who will be trained in such a way as to carry the masses with the party. The procedure of admission is very rigid and almost the same in all Marxian parties including the CPI. The application for membership of the CPI must be sponsored by two full members of the party of a prescribed years of standing who know the applicant intimately well, and be submitted to the lowest party organ in his locality which will forward the same with its recommendation to the next higher committee for confirmation. 470 A severe perscrutation of the antecedents of the candidate Is done at all levels. If the sponsorship Is confirmed, the applicant is taken as a candidate-metnber and put on probation ordinarily for a period of six months which may or may not be extended. "The purpose of the period of candidature is to provide the candidate-member with elementary party education as well as to ensure observation by the party organisation of the candldate-member's political qualities 276 and sense of discipline in the course of his or her work." "By the end of the period of candidature, the Party Branch or Party Committee concerned shall discuss whether the candidate-member is qualified to be admitted to full member- 277 ship" and in the end if they are convinced of his fitness, he is granted full membership. With all their differences and mutual recriminiatlons on various questions, all the Marxian parties show complete agreement on the procedure of membership and adhere tenaciously to this line of admission. Some have created distinction in naming the classes of members as if to assert their separate indivi duality. The OPT haa^only two classes of members, the candidate-member and the member in place of which the FB has the general member and the active member, the RCPT, the The Constitution of the Communist Party of India (pre-Amr1tsarJ, Article TIT Section 3(c). 277 The Constitution of the Communist Party of India (post-Amritsar), Article IV(8). 471 probationer and the member, the PWP, the sympathiser and the member, the RSF, the primary member and the general member, and the SUC, the candidate-member and the full member. Over and above the two classes, the RSP and the SUC have one additional class of members which the former terms the active member and the latter, the staff member. These active or staff members are dedicated full-timers and are entitled to be elected to any office. The purpose of such a stiff and stem approach to membership and the gruelling test of selection, is to meet squarely the purpose of the parties - revolution and dictatorship. It is not for the mass content but for the content to mobilise the masses that the Marxian parties strive hard. In other words, they aim at raising a member ship to attain mass solidarity and not that leads to mass fluidity. If the mass parties and the cadre parties have diverging approaches to membership, there is seen a third approach in a number of parties who irrespective of the groups to which they belong, could be rightly reclassified on that basis as limited or restricted parties. The Hindu Mahasabha, the RSS, the Muslim League, the Akali Dal, the DK, the Ham Tamil lyakkam, the SCF (RPT), the Jharkhand Party and the EITU are of this category, for their membership is restricted exclusively to members of the communities they respectively represent. This limitation comes in two ways; either when it is self-imposed or when it is Imposed 472 by other conraunltles In the nature of a political boycott. The latter happens due to various reasons such as animus, fear or contempt germinating from a party's position as a whole Yls-a-v1s other communities* It Is animus or fear that reduces the BJS and the RRF to the level of limited parties although they are unlimited in nature. The 3CF (RPI) now open to all, fails to attract members from communities other than scheduled castes because of the social prejudices that stand against it. In the case of the Jharkhand Party, more than fear and prejudice it is the tribal dislike of non-tribals that comes in the way of the latter*s admission. The Hindu Mahasabha is open only to those who follow any religion of indigenous origin which means every one except a Parsee, Christian or Muslim can join its membership. The RSS Is strictly restricted to Hindus and it does not discriminate between caste and caste so far as admission is concerned but its procedure for granting membership is exactly on the lines or even more rigorous than that of the Marxian parties. The Muslim League and the Akall Dal, as evident from the names, are confined to Muslims and Sikhs respectively. Anyone belonging to the South but a Brahmin may become a member of the DK. Full-blooded Tamils alone will be allowed to be members of the Nam Tamil Party. Only members of a recognised Scheduled Tribe inhabiting Assam, West Bengal, Manipur or Tripura can join the EITTI. Although 473 restricted, some of these parties are conspicuous for their mass character because of the numerical strength of their communities. The SCF (RPI), the EITU and the Jharkhand Party count their membership in terms of the population of their communities. And that is the final limit of their Intake of masses. All the limitations of the membership are not on one basis. ’T’he Hindu Mahasabha, the RSS, the Akali Dal and the Muslim League seek their ground in religion, the SCF (RPI) in the down-trodden denominations, the Jharkhand Party and the EITU in tribes, the DK, in non-Brahmin communities and the Nam Tamils, in language. Ordinarily the restricted parties, the Mam Tamils and the Akali Dal for instance, have two categories of membership. The W4K too has only one category of membership which is open to all who subscribe to its object, Ideology and programme but admission is strictly regulated more or less on the Marxian party lines to eliminate the misfits. The (ianatantra Parishad and the Bihar State Janata Party are liberal in their conditions of membership and tend to be mass parties in the areas of their existence. A militant group, the BV accepts the principle of recommendation for allotting full membership. An exception to all is the Sadharantantri Dal. It has no formal enrolment of members, no membership fee and no prescribed form of application. Some regular work towards the attainment of its objective. 474 Is the only condition to be observed for obtaining its membership. Given below Is a table showing the classes of members of different parties and the membership fee for each class: TABLE No. VII Party HKMBI^ISHIP and MEMBaRSHIP fee Class of members Annual membership fee Parties 1 2 3 1 2 3 IHC Primary Active Associate 0.?5 1.00 I.N.D.C. Ordinary 0.25 PSP Active 0.50 1. 00* Socialist Indivi Afflliat- 0.50 1.00** 0.06 Party dual ed CPI Candidate Member 1.00 1.00 ESP Primary Gene rail Active 1.00 1.00 1.00 FB General Active 0.25 1.00 RCPI Proba Member tioner BPI Auxiliary Active 0.25 2.00 sue Candidate Full Staff PWP Sympa Membe r 1.00 3.00 thiser RWPI Candi 12.00 12.00 date Hindu Primary 0.50 Mahasabha Continued on next page 475 Class of members Annual membership fee Parties 1 2 3 1 2 3 BJS Member - 0.25 —— RRP Membe r - 0.25 - - The Akali Primary General 0.12^ - - Dal Muslim Member - 0.12 - - League OK « - 0.25 - - DMK r» - 0.50 -- Ham Tamils Ordinary Effective 0.25 1.00 - Janata It Active 0.12 1.00 - Party SCF (RPI) n - 0.25 -- BV Associate Member 0.25 -- Jharkand Ordinary Ordinary 0.25 1.00 - Party (Rural) (Industrial) Sadharan- Member Mil tantri Dal ♦ 1 day*s1 average income in addition to membership fee. ♦♦He can contribute any amount but not less than Re.1.00. ♦♦♦ To be fixed by the Central Committee. Unemployed member only Rs.3»00. . ^ Biennial. Although its concept and conditions vary from party to party, membership is the sole means of raising the siae and strength of the human material of a party which is generally U76 measured In terras of its numbers. The membership figures prove the individual strength of parties but are not a dependable means to assess their relative strength. This is more so between the mass parties and cadre parties. A mass party with a large membership is not always and invartably superior in strength to a cadre party which has a small membership. On the contrary, instances are not rare to prove the other way. In Kerala, for example, when the communists have come to power in 1957, the state branch of 279 the CPI had only 25,000 members whereas the provincial Congress membership figure was then roughly over 1,50,000. This again shows the qualitative approach to membership of the cadre parties and further confirms that relative strength of two parties as between the two armies, is much dependent upon the quality of their members and the quality of the weapons with which they are equipped. The membership figures of the parties are defective in many respects. Although their constitutions make it obliga- tory upon them to maintain the membership register up-to-date they have taken little or no pain to discharge such obliga tions. None of the parties has adopted any scientific method to work out or compute the annual membership figures and none is found taking proper interest to record the yearly variations 27S From an interview with C.Unni Raja, Member of the State Committee and Member of the National Council of the CPI, in Trivandrum on February 24i 1959. 477 therein. Unscientific calculation based on presumptive data, is generally resorted to by many. There is hardly a figure of total members without being attached to a word of uncertainty or approximation. To illustrate, the DV has given its membership as below a thousand which normally means above 900 but it also can be constznied as any figure below thousand. The DK estimates its total membership as between 4 lakhs and 5 lakhs. The PJC which has a vast organised administrative machinery all over the country. Itself cotild 279 not complete its membership totals in 1954, 1956, 1957 and 195^* Restricted parties like the SCF (RPI) and the Jharkhand do not formally resort to recruitment of members, but instead they consider grown-up members of their communi ties as their own members. For them payment of subscription is not normally a condition for granting membership. Even the available figures are in several cases, undependable. The problem of bogus membership is continuing in the Congress which even during the age of Gandhi used to 2 jjQ disfigure membership registers by false entries. "One of the causes," admits B.Gopala Reddi, "for the weakening of 2d1 the Congress is the manipulation of primary membership" 279 pj-om membership table fumished by the Congress, under their No.G 35/254 dated December 3, 195^. prto G.N.Dhawan, The Political Philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, op.cit., p.l6l. 2di The Times of India, Bombay, June 7, 195^. 478 for the personal aggrandisement of the District and Frovlnclal Congress leaders. This practice is not only with the Congress but is seen equally with the smaller parties aspiring to gain gradation amongst their equals. Thus, the Marxist Forward Bloc one of the recent factions of the FB (M) which itself is a fraction of the old All-India Forward Bloc, claimed a membership of 3»72,000 a deliberately inflated or grossly exaggerated figure to establish a false self and to hit at the morale of its enemy. Granted such manipulations and fraud are an indigenous legerdemain, the depressing indifference to the maintenance of membership up-to-date, is 2^3 commonly found in parties of the west also. An outstanding characteristic of the Congress membership is its fluctuations. In 1952, the Congress had a primary membership of 38,04,516 and an active membership of 2,9ii,B77. In the following year, they fell to 62,90,290 and 82,776 In May 1961 Mohanlal Saksena M.P., and a former Union Minister resigned from the U.P.Congress in protest to the appalling increase of bogus members in the party. In a letter addressed to the members of the UPCC he said: "Bogus members in the U.P.Congress numbered several lakhs and are said to outnumber the bonafide members and nobody seems to bother about this dangerous development." (The Times of India, Bombay, May 18, 1961.) "Parties do not always publish their membership figures; the figures that are available are not always based upon sound methods* ... Some paz*tles do not make available any figures for the total number of members: in some cases they themselves do not know them because of their slackness in keeping records-(Maurice Duverger, Political Parties, op.cit., p.79). 479 respectively. A marked decline was again noticed In 1954 when the corresponding figures were 31,60,063 and 40,6^9, but suddenly a boom followed in 1955 raising the primary membership to 75,<^2,473 and active membership to 73,172. In the year succeeding, the figures descended to 29,36,434 and 42,226 and 11 out of the 21 PCCs failed to furnish their membership. In 1957 prosperity again set in, bringing up the primary membership to 3^»6ii,341 and active membership to 57,119 and by the end of the year they reached 45,09,614 and 63,015 respectively.The Congress membership, which varies with every passing year, stood highest in 1952, and higher in 1957 than in 1954 and 1956. Evidently men who were seeking election and greedy of offices, might have boosted up the membership by means fair or foul in these two years as they were the years of general elections. Both the PSP and the Socialist Party memberships registered a continuous decline since 1956. If with the secession of Lohia and his group the PSP lost a substantial portion of its membership to the new Socialist Party, the latter too suffered heavy losses of membership with the split of Anthony Plllai group in Madras and PVG Raju group in Andhra. The PSP metnbership which was 2,80,325 in 1956 234 Report of the General Secretaries, Indian National Congress, January 1953 - December 1953, New Delhi, AICC, 1959, p. 51. 235 Janata (PSP Weekly), Bombay, December 9, 1956, p.3. 4^0 was reduced to 1,41,651 in the subsequent year. In Bihar, U.P., Maharashtra and Kerala, PSP has a larger follow ing than in other places. The Socialist Party had in 1956, the year of its inception, 3>40,000 members but on account of the fact that the affiliated membership was not renewed in the ensuing year, the total had come down to 1 ,50,000 in 1957. After-the Meenit Conspiracy in 1929, the biggest ever fall in the CPI membership was during 194^-50, the period when the famous Calcutta thesis of B.T.Ranadive was under operation. At the time of the adoption of the thesis, the CPI had 90,000 members but as the working of the thesis went on, the figure began to fall and when the complete failure of the thesis was in sight in 1950, the figure stood 20,000. From 1951, the CPI membership is on steady increase. In 1954, at its Madura Congress the CPI membership was 65,000 which rose to 1,00,000 in 1956 by the time of its Palghat Congress. Between 1956-1953, an increase of 125 per cent was registered and when the ;unritsar Congress was 2^6 General Secretary’s Report, Praja Socialist Party, Fourth National Conference, Poona, May 195^, P-7. From a letter dated July 1, 195B of G.Murahari, general secretary, the Socialist Party addressed to the writer. Dr.G.Adhikari in a letter dated March 12, 195^i addressed to the writer states that it was over 1 lakh. 2d9 M.R.Masani, the Communist Party of India, op.cit., p .100. 290 held In 195^ there were 2,25*000 members on the rolls of the party. Within the limited relaxation the CPI membership is rapidly swelling up. In U.P. where until 1952 the CPI had practically no foothold, by 1956 it mustered a membership 291 strength of 5>000 which became 15»000 by the end of 195^* Similarly, in Andhra Pradesh the CPI membership had gone up 7 9 7 to 55»000 in from 20,000 in the previous years. Almost within an year, the party membership in Kerala rose from 25,000 in 1957 to 5^,000 in 195B and in West Bengal 293 from 10,000 to 24,000. Thus Andhra, West Bengal and Kerala together supply 1,37,000 members to the party's 2,25»000 strong membership. The RSS membership constantly rising like that of the CPI, had to undergo a period of trial once, and had to suffer heavy damage at the same time when the CPI was losing fast its membership. In 1940 at the time when Hedgewar died there were 1,00,000 members on the RSS rolls. The membership 290 From a letter of the CPI Central Office dated November 4, 195B addressed to the writer. But a report of the Times of India says 2,29,500. (The Times of India, Bcmibay, April 13» 195 293 The Times of India, Bombay, January 31, 195^* was seen quadrupled by the end of 1946 and in December ^9k7t the RSS claimed that 51000,000 Hindus were supporting 295 its cause. But the aftermath of Gandhi's death caused to diminish the membership at a rapid rate and it came in 1949 down to where it was left by Hedgewar in 1940. Since 1950, the RSS membership began to swell and by 1955 according to 296 one estimate, it stood between 55-oO lakhs, which included supporters of the Sangh as well. No accurate figure however is available and in 195^ the RSS itself roughly 297 worked it out as ”over half a million" including all those who were connected with the RSS work, programme and routine. Concerted efforts are on the way to raise actual membership to "the 1947 level". The membership of the rest of the parties remains or is claimed to be remaining stationary with slight fall or rise from time to time. But a variation in the membership of the 299 BJS was noticed when it dwindled from 6,00,000 in 1957 S.Natarajan, Indian Parties and Politics, op.cit., p.20. J.A.Curran Jr., Militant Hinduism in Indian Politics - A Study of the RSS, op.cit., p.IS. 296 Govind Sahai, RSS-Ideology, Technique and Propaganda, Delhi, Naya Hindustan Press, New Delhi, the AlCC, 195&» p-23. From a letter dated November 13, 195^^ of Bknath Ranade, general secretary of the RSS addressed to the writer. The Times of India, Bombay, February I6, 1959. The Times of India Directory and Year Book, 195^-59, p .1124. 4^3 to 2,17,000 In 195^ end, a figure recorded and given under the hand of the general secretary of the party. The member ship of the PWP showed an appreciable upward trend when It rose from 5,000 In 1957 to 10,tX)0 In 195^. The table below gives the membership figures of the various major and medium parties and a few surviving minor parties during l95«i-59» TABLE No.VIII MEMB3R3HIP OF PARTIES Total Approximate Party membership (idl classes]1 INC 45,77,629 i DNC 3,00,000 INDC 5,00,000 ♦ PSP 1,41,651 Socialist Party 1,50,000 CPI 2,25,000 ESP 21,000 ♦ FB 90,000 RCPI (Tagore) 5,000 ♦ RCPI (Das Gupta) 3,000 ♦ BPI 7,000 =(» DV 1,000 ♦ sue 6,667 PWP 10,000 ♦ RWPI 500 if KSP ll956)5i 9do Hindu Mahasabha 3,00,000 n- RSS 5,00,000 BJS 2,17,000 * RRP 5,00,000 * Akall Dal (1956)?i 4,00,000 i Muslim League 6,00,000 4 Continued on next page 4^4 Total Approximate Party membership (All classes) UK 5,00,000 ♦ DMK 2,50,000 4 Nam Tamil lyakkam 20,000 ♦ Ganatantra Parishad 10,00,000 ** Janata Party 9,05,000 ** MJP 1,50,000 ♦♦ Loke Sevak Sangha 3,500 Purusharthi Panchayat 6,000 BV 8,000 ♦ Sadharantantrl Dal 1,000 ♦ * Figures recorded by and given under the hand of party leaders or party officials. Figures conwnunicated by letters by party leaders or party officials. 4 Figures taken from other published sources such as party secretary's report, Newspapers, etc. % 195^-59 figures are not available. It is not the number of members nor the number of trained members alone that keeps a party alive and active but the quantity of young blood in its thinking apparatus and working machinery. This can be assessed only on the 300 l6,000 sympathisers and supporters also. 435 301 basis of the age groups of the members which unfortunately remain Invariably with all the parties at a speculative level rather than on scientific foundation. Even the speculative standard Is not uniform and therefore one age group or one set of age groups applicable to one party Is not applicable to another. The age of admission to membership almost every party fixes at and opportunity Is given for adolescents between 14 and Id to partake In junior wings of the party so as to make recruitment at the age of 18 possible. The Youth Congress of the Congress Party, the Samajvadl luvak Sabha (Socialist Youth Congress) of the PSF, the Young Communists of the CPI, the Young Marxist League of the Forward Bloc, and the Komsomol of the SUC are such junior wings organised to serve as recruiting grounds for the parties but so far as their contributions are concerned research ends and debate begins. Membership at the age of IB, except for some Marxist and restricted parties, is a desire than a realisation. The Congress gets members at lB either through enrolment engineered by self-interest or through accident but never as a matter of routine. The largest number of the Congress 301 It was never a matter of concern of the parties nor had it ever in the past engaged their attention until it was enquired into. The Congress which should set an example to other parties in this matter, itself was the biggest defaulter. Sadiq All In a letter dated April 1/3, 1V59 addressed to the writer says: "l*e have never calculated our primary membership in terms of age groups.” 1^6 members may fall between the age 45 and 60 and a good minority, between 6U and 75- Within 35 and 1».5, there might be not more than 15 per cent of the total membership and about 5 per cent might be of the age group 30-35* The number of members below 30 will Indeed be negligible. Majority of the Socialists are middle-aged. The bulk of the PSP membership Is of the age group 35-55» about 25 per cent Is between 2U-35 and the rest Is above 55* There are more younger elements In the Lohla Socialist Party than in the PSP and nearly 70 per cent of its membership would fall between 25-40 and the rest will be above the age 40. The age groups of the remaining parties, as available 302 from them, are as in the table below: TABLE No.IX AGE GROUPS OF PaRTY MEMBERS Total Parties Age groups Percentage percentage CPT 20-30 50 31-45 35 100 Above 45 15 RSP 21-35 75 Above 35 25 100 Continued on next page These age-groups were furnished by the interviewed party leaders and they as far as the writer's probe could yield result, were worked out largely on data believably, presumptive. Therefore it cannot be said that these have the required measure of statistical accuracy. 1^7 Parties Age gix)ups Percentage Total percentage Forward Bloc ia-25 25 26-35 50 100 Above 35 25 RCPI (Tagore) 25-40 do Above 40 20 100 RCPT (Das Gupta) 16-20 10 21-30 60 31-50 25 Above 50 5 100 BPI ia-25 30 26-40 40 Above 40 30 100 DV ia-20 15 21-50 ao Above 50 5 100 sue ia-25 60 26-35 35 Above 35 5 100 PWP ia-25 25 26-35 50 36-45 5 Above 45 20 100 RWPI ia-25 50 26-45 45 Above 45 5 100 BJS 13-25 10 26-45 70 Above 45 20 100 DK ia-25 5 26-45 25 46-65 60 Above 65 10 100 IMK 20-30 50 31-40 30 Above 40 20 100 Continued on next page Age groups Percentage Total Parties percentage Nam Tamil lyakkam 18-35 75 36-50 25 100 BV 15-20 50 21-30 30 Above 30 20 100 Sadharantantrl 18-30 60 Dal 31-50 40 100 A few parties are unable to give any age groups of their members but that does not in any way conceal the fact that the parties in opposition are having more youth than the party in power. Membership determines the mass content and mass character of the party. The mass parties, the cadre parties and the limited parties are all interested in augmenting the mass strength but the achievement even of the INC is not upto the mark as compared to the well established parties of the west. The Conservative Party of the U.K. 303 had 2,800,000 members on the register in 1954 while in the same year the Congress had 31|60,063. Taken the area and population of both the countries into consideration, the Congress membership falls relatively far short of the R.T.McKenaie, British Political Parties, op.cit.. p.241 439 Conservative figure. Party Finance. Every power of a party, organisational, structural, of leadership or of membership, ultimately turns to be derived from and resting upon economic power. But party finances are always and everywhere a close guarded secret. As Max Weber has very rightly observed, "for reasons which are readily understandable the subject of party finances, though one of the most Important aspects of the party system, is the most difficult to secure adequate information about.In the annual or biennial general conferences of some parties, of the Congress and the PS? in particular, a balance sheet is distributed together with the general secretaries’ report, but that has no bearing on tnith and* does not reveal anything more than tallying some figures on either side. Parties do not Intend that the balance sheet they present should be anything more than an arithmetical aggregation abluent to the eyes of their sceptic members while using it as an Instrument to mislead others who might pry into its parlour. Actually, in none of the conferences debate is either initiated or invited on the accounts so produced, and such evasion militates against their genuineness and adds further to the mystery that enshrouds the whole question of finance. Secrecy and mystification of party finances have become a matter of Max Weber, The Theory of Social and Economic Organisation, op.cit., p.37^« 490 self-existence for parties everywhere and in England even after the Maxwell Fyfe Committee appointed by the Conserva tive Party to enquire into itself, has "warned of the dangers 305 of the party’s policy of secrecy in financial matters", the veil is only thickened. The overt sources of finance for all Indifnparties are similar. They are the following: (1) Subscription and contribution frt>m members. (2) Donation from sympathisers and interested elements. (3) Income from sales of party literature and party journals. ’ (if) Time to time collections from public. (5) Levy on the salaries of party MPs and party MLAs, where parties have legislative strength. (6) Political funds of trade unions, if any, under the control of parties. No party however is willing to disclose the exact amount it annually receives on each account and those figures given were found to be so distorted as only to suit themisleading tendencies of parties in their financial affairs. Over and above the aforementioned sources, certain parties receive income from particular sources. The Congress thus has a limited income from its properties, the Socialist Party gets a sum annually from affiliated organisations as affiliation fees, the BPI collects a fair amount by way of R.T.McKenzie, British Political Parties, op.cit., p .594* 491 levy on peasant bodies and student organisations and the DMK raises a good lot of money by following an American practice 306 of charging a small fee for political meetings, by enacting dramas and by staging performances. The CPI in Kerala since 1953 has a dramatic troupe of recognised histrionic talents which fetches substantially to the coffers of the party. A large membership will not however ensure a huge sum by way of subscription and contribution unless there is an effective method of realising them. In this respect, among all the parties, the CPT alone has an efficient machinery which collects party dues with uniform swiftness, everjn^fhere, at every time. The income of the Congress to be derived from membership dues exceeds the CPI's, but collection is irregular and many times vicarious, and the number of defaulters often stands more than the number of members who make payments or on whose behalf payments are made. Subscription source gives a fairly big amount to the PSP and the Socialist Party also, but it is obviously small as compared to what the Congress and the CPI get from the same source. Membership subscription is a sure channel of income to the Jana Sangh and the Df4K, and to the other parties it fetches hardly for a hard existence although some of them 306 Hugh A.Bone, American Politics and the Party System, op.clt., p.629. 492 maintain ready records of extensive membership. Cash alone Is not always the collection. The Jharkhand Party receives a share of agricultural produce In the form of a sheaf or a basket of corn or other like commodities and so does the Forward Bloc. The RSS which has no formal subscription, has however no scarcity of finance. An Inspiring collection In the form of voluntairy offering In devotional mood termed Dakshlna (a reverential reward In expression of gratitudei at the foot of the Sangh flag staff on the Guru Poumlma day by fifty to sixty lakhs of members and sympathisers all over India, brings into the RSS treasury at least a like amount of rupees in steady flux every year. 307 "Big business is actively helping the Tories," the Republicans and the Democrats of the U.S.A., "obtain large sums from business groups of all types"^^^ and no wonder In this country that the Congress has been the most fortunate amongst the parties to be lavishly patronised by the capitalist class. Soundly enough, economic power and political power are interdependent and therefore they search for each other. Many well known indigenous business houses notably the Blrlas have been the financiers of the Congress since 307 The Labour Party Hand Book, (Facts and Figures for Socialists 1951) quoted by R.T.McKenzie, British Political Parties, op.cit., p.597* Hugh A.Bone, American Politics and the Party System, op.cit., p.627- 493 very long, but the extent to which help Is given Is difficult 309 to determine. "....A party which I nourished with ray blood", that was how Ramkrishna Dalmia, the multi-millionaire Indian business magnate spoke of the Congress when he recalled the 310 "genert>us contributions" he made to tt. In the recent times, a number of joint stock companies altered their Memoranda of Association with the permission of the appropriate courts of law to make it lawful for them to contribute to the funds of political parties. Such permission in 1957 was granted by the Calcutta High Court to the Indian Iron and Steel Company^^^ and the Bombay High 312 Court to the Tata Iron and Steel Company, but the Courts did not fall to criticise the morals of such moves. In September 195^, Bhupeah Gupta told in Parliament that "in 1957 the Tata Iron and Steel Company had donated Rs.10,30,000 to the Congress out of which Rs.6 lakhs went to the AlCC, Rs.3,30,000 to the Bihar PCC and Rs.1 lakh to the Orissa PCC. The Indian Iron and Steel Company had donated Rs.2.5 lakhs to the West Bengal Congress." 313 He also said that a sum of The Times of India, Bombay, October 25, 195<^. Idem. 311 Civil Liberties Bulletin, March 1957, p.iv, 2^6. The Times of India, Bombay, June 22, 1957* The Times of India, Bombay, September 13, 195^. 494 Rs.20,500 was donated to the Assam PCC by a motor comi In 1957 T.T.Krlshnamachari^^^ and In 195^ Lai Bahadur by turn, spiritedly defended in Parliament such donaf" but did not deny the fact of accepting them. It has ( to light as a result of the Vivian Bose Board of Bnqu: set up for the purpose of enquiring into the Mundhra 1 Concerns, that Haridas Mundhra, a shady business baroi donated in 1957 alone Rs.H lakhs to the U.P.Congress Rs.1 lakh to the "Central Congress Party in Calcutta. However, the Congress is not only the pampered b the capitalists. The psychology of every party witho exception, la in favour of accepting donations from t moneyed class. The CPI "the vanguard of the working is being helped by "middle type industrialists", 316 the CPSU gives a portion of the profit of the sale pr of the communist publications from Moscow, to the CPI fraternal donation. The CPSU also supplies to the Cf year, either free of charge or believably for a toker many thousands of thin as well as bulky communist boc it distributes to its sales agencies in various parts The Times of India, Bombay, May 25, 1957* Reports of the Vivian Bose Enquiry, The Tin India, Bombay, June 1, 1959* In the cited interview, B.T.Ranadive told i CPI was being helped by middle type industrialists bi had not contributed large sums. He also said that tl leaders were entertained for a dinner at Amritsar by industrialists. 495 country to be sold at temptingly low prices.This adds doubtlessly a good deal to the CPI treasury, a section of this rich is generous to the RSS and the Jana Sangh but in case of other parties capitalist elements show little or no regard, as they have neither to preserve nor to promote any interest with them. Primarily meant for propaganda purposes and for educating party members, party publications, though priced ordinarily very low, find fewer buyers. A punch in the party purse, they by themselves are no money earners but are indispensable for party work and at times enable parties to earn money. The highest income from party literature sales goes to the CPI. A considerable amount of profit from party publications series, as a rule, should come from party journals, which however is not the case with the parties except the CPI and the RSS whose well-established newspapers and other journals, mostly in regional languages, aid them to enrich their fiscs. The Congress has no organised party press but much money is transferred into its hands through journals owned ^ ^ In answer to a supplementary question, B.T.Ranadive has told that the CPI gets the books on payment in which they have never been in arrears and reasoned that it is because under socialism productivity of labour increases, the books cotild be sold so cheap. But it is not possible for any serious student of economics like Ranadive, to deny that prices of commodities are relative and when a pair of shoe is sold in Russia for about Rs.250, a 400 page-book printed on excellent art paper and got up exquisitely, cannot be sold for a nominal price in India. 496 by its members which, irrespective of their value of publicity, are favoured liberally by the governments In the matter of advertisement. Government advertisements also occupy a large portion of the allotted space in occasional party publications like symposiums, souvenire and similar special issues. To the rest of the parties, journals are no dependable means of income and in many cases they are a source of financial worries necessarily to be sustained for party decorum and party solidarity. The only notable exception is the DMK many of whose leaders are concurrently editors of periodicals all of which have fairly wide circulation. Collection from the public is quite often resorted to by parties as an irmnediate and sure method of raising funds for party needs. Here also the Congress and the C?I are in a position of vantage. Uncommitted urban and disinterested rural people are off and on, approached with the vexed question of pecuniary assistance and they reluctantly part with a fraction of their earning to fatten the party purse. The public collection of the Congress, since independence may run into many millions. The CPI in its public collection drive raised Rs.6,00,000 from Andhra and Kerala alone in • equal proportion in 1953-59. The Bengal Marxians* main means of sustenance Is In the pocket of small business communities such as petty traders and shop-keepers, of white collar workers and the self-respecting lower middle classes living in the City of Calcutta. Had it not been for this easy 497 money at least some of the Marxians, if not all, would have been starved into ruin- Parties which are represented in legislatures make it obligatory on their representatives to contribute a fixed percentage of their salaries towards the party finance. The levy as it is called, is different for different parties and as based upon the size of remuneration, MPs pay more than MLAs. Prevarication into which the Congress and some other leading parties indulged, rendered a relative study of various levies and the determination of their exact amount far from easy and those figures furnished by apparently willing parties are somewhat dubious. Parties take into consideration the variations in MLAs' salaries from state to state, and the need of the MLAs and the MPs arises with their status and position, while fixing the levy. The CPI generally takes the entire salary of its MLas leaving to them hardly any sum between Rupees 60-70 as will be fixed by the concerned State Coiwnittees at the directions of the Central Committee. For instance, now in the Punjab, a CPI MLA is allowed only upto Rupees 70 and in Bihar 60. The minimum monthly levy on an MP's salary is Rupees 200 and the maximum Is Rupees 3^0, The RSP which hardly has a few legislators, levies an MP Rupees 150 per mensem and leaves the question of levy on MLAs to Its Provincial Committees. The legislators of the FB have to part with ten per cent of their emoluments which as compared to the rest is a mild levy. The STIC leaves Rupees 100 in the hands of its MLAs and adjusts the remainder as party income. As much as 50 per cent of the legislator's salary, is taken by the Marxist Forward Bloc but the PWP has the smallest levy, Rupees 10 on an MLA and $0 on an MP. Section 16 of the Indian Trade Unions Act 1926 makes it lawful for the labour unions to contribute to a separate fund for promotion of their civic and political interests, but since in India trade unions are by and large controlled by political parties and the party leader is generally the labour leader, the political fund of the trade unions is diverted for electoral battles and other party activities in the name of labour. The principal beneficiaries are the Congress, the PSP, the CPI, and the non-communist Marxians who respectively control the four leading labour federations of this country, the Indian National Trade Union Congress (INTUC), the Hind Mazdoor Sabha (HMS), the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) and the United Trade Union Congress (UTUC). The BJS and the DMK are the only other two parties which started striving to penetrate into the labour front. The BJS has set up a separate labour federation called the Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) though response from labour is very poor. In the USA though "circumvented by individual contributions", labour organisations are "forbidden to _ Hugh A.Bone, American Politics and the Party System, op.cit., p.637- 499 make either contributions or expenditures in connection with 319 elections" by the Taft-Hartley Act of 1947, but in India no such prohibition can work, so far as the party leader remains the labour leader who has legislative sanction to raise and utilise special fund for political activities. Besides these sources, parties in India always welcome 320 321 *fat cats' and 'angels* but the American practice of extending invitation to persons holding jobs, to attend the 3?2 Jefferson, Jackson and Lincoln Day dinners "for a price 323 ranging from ^ b to ^ 100 per plate", is not followed probably due to different social set-up here. Otherwise for a 'day' in this land of gods and heroes, there is no scarcity. On the whole, parties no where can survive on internal resources alone. "The largest proportion of the contributions comes from people and groups with a direct financial interest 324 in the outcome" of elections. The British Labour Party Dayton David McKean, Party and Pressure Politics, op.clt., p.352. 320 ^ "fat cat" known also as "an ideal candidate from the point of view of party finance, is the wealthy man who can, not only carry his own campaign but who can also make substantial contributions to the party campaign fund." (Dayton David McKean, Party and Pressure Politics, op.cit., p.345.) 321 Wealthy friends or relatives who will contribute. (Dayton David McKean, op.clt., p.34d.) 322 Dayton David McKean, op.cit., p.350. 323 Hugh A.Bone, op.cit., p.629. Dayton David McKean, op.cit., p.34^* 500 which honestly depended for long on "an annual affiliation fee of five pence (10 cents) per member",itself "found in 1945, however that affiliation dues and voluntary workers could not meet the expenses.«..and the party turned to raising large sums from voluntary contributions. Contribution by companies to political parties is a matter of grave concern to all democracies. In the United States, "Congress and the legislatures in three fourths of the states have prohibited contributions from corporations 327 to national and state campaigns" but an interdiction on business firms altogether from contributing to parties is not imposed. As such contributions in India have come in the judicial and public eyes as "the most sinister principle 326 fraught with grave dangers" that "may grow apace and may 329 ultimately overwhelm and throttle democracy in this country" Haushir Bharucha brought a private bill in the House of the People to restrain firms from contributing to political 330 parties but was rejected. Another attempt was made by Hugh A.Bone, op.cit., p.629. 326 Idem. 327 Dayton David McKean, op.cit., p.352. Justice P.B.Mookerji, Calcutta High Court, Civil Liberties Bulletin, March 1957i p.iv:25S. 329 Chief Justice M.C.Chagla, Bombay High Court. The Times of India, Bombay, June 22, 1957. The Times of India, Bombay, May 3, 195B. 501 a communist member Bhupesh Gupta, in .the Council of States331 332 but was given up later. On the expenditure side too, no two Indian parties differ. The major part of the money is spent on election. Office expenses, salaries and allowances of party officers and party workers, propaganda and publicity, party literature, and various other miscellaneous items such as telephone, postage etc., take only a small fraction compared to the gigantic financial requirements of the election campaign. The election expenditure of a party where it has a competent opponent, is dependent upon the number of seats it actually wishes to contest and the scale of preparation and propaganda it plans to undertake for the fight. A general election would cost the Congress to the tune of Rupees 7 to B crores, the PSP H to 14 crores and the CPI 1 to 1^ crores. Certainly, even if the entire membership is prompt in paying the party dues, that ensures only very small part of the money needed and the rest has to be sought from extra party sources to find out which it is improper to make means of research meaner. The Federal and state corrupt practices The Times of India, Bombay, September 13, 195B. 33? The Times of India, Bombay, December 6, 195S» In November i960. Parliament has amended the Company’s Act to legalise contributions by companies to political parties and fixed the ceiling of such contributions as Rs.25,000 or 5 per cent of the profit whichever is more. The opposition, of course opposed the measure with all emphasis at its command but in vain. 502 acts, in the U.S.A. make it obligatory on party committees to file with the clerk of the House of Representatives or a state officer in similar capacity as the case may be, statement of their receipts and expenditure. This opens an opportunity to know something nearer to truth about their financial conditions, however manipulated the figures might be. The Hatch Act there, further puts a ceiling upon the expenditure. Parties in India are under no such legislative obligation. The Representation of the People Act 1951» makes it incumbent upon individual candidate "to keep a separate and correct account of all expenditure in connection with 333 the election incurred" and fixes the maximum amount that a candidate can spend in election, but it is not required by any law that he should reveal the source of his receipts. Parties have no locus standi in law and are not bound to show either side of their accounts. The result is that the biggest single expenditure channel of the parties tends to be more and more cryptic. Second to the election, is the expenditure for the maintenance of regular party offices and a trained permanent party civil service, for the training, deployment, and keeping in reserve of field workers and for the payment of salary and allowances to party workers and party officers. The Representation of the People Act, 1951, No.ILIIT of 1951, Chapter VIII, Section 77. 503 Situated In cities, party central offices are on the whole clumsy little rooms, ill-equipped, disorderly, irregularly functioning and poorly staffed, and often remain closed. Sometimes the residential address of the party leader serves the purpose of an office or a comer of a dilapidated or shaky building accommodates one. The exceptions are of course, the offices of the Congress, the CPI, the RSS, the BJS and the Hindu Mahasabha but in the matter of an ideal location the OPT excels all the rest. None it appears, has either the resources for or come to realise the need of proper administrative departmentalisation and setting up a permanent party civil service which are so well done by the major and even many minor parties of the west. However, some notable progress in these lines have been made by the Congress and the CPI. But, again on all these various accounts, expenditure like a woman in purdah never shows its face to the public. An essential item of expenditure which if disclosed, would have been a pointer to the internal monetary level, is the pay and allowances to the full time and part-time workers but parties were alike reluctant in giving it out. "We have’’ says Sadiq All, "some workers in the PCCs and AlCC offices as also in the offices of the DCCs who are paid some kind of stipend; otherwise most of our workers are voluntai*y workers.This only shows, the Congress wants 334 Sadiq All in a letter dated April l/3, 1959 addressed to the writer. 504 others to believe that common knowledge conceding Its workers emoluments Is concocted. Remuneration to the workers of the CPI ranges from Rs.^O to 30, but higher wages are never let out In the Interest of the party. The Tagoreite RCPT gives subsistence and shelter to the workers who lack means for them whereas the Das Gupta RCPI claims to have 300 paid full-timers each of whose monthly salary Is fixed at Rs.50 though this amount Is not always paid In full. To the married workers, the BPI pays Rs.70 a month and to the unmarried full-timers Rs»50. The FB and the SDC like the RCPT, give normally free boarding and lodging to their full time workers. In big cities, the RViPI pays a wage of Rs.25 and In other centres only Rs.15* The PWP claims to have one full-time worker on a monthly allowance of Rs.50 In every district in Maharashtra. All these in fact, reflect only partial truth. Party workers particularly at the lower levels. If not well off at home, are parasites living upon the time to time collection of money and materials from the local population, and their central offices hardly send any cash to meet their necessities except when they are specially deputed in which case they are paid according to the status they enjoy within their parties. Both sides of the party finance continue to be wanting in the essential principles of accounting and morals of monetary standards necessarily to be maintained by political organisations in their relations with the public. Democratic 505 principles make It Imperative that the financial aspect of any lawful organisation must be free from unwanted secrecy, must be clothed not In mystery but In legitimacy, and Its honourablllty must be proved by absolute accountability on the part of those who deal with it. But parties refuse to be honest and franK, and although they wish to thrive on the fatness of the free meat or flourish on vicarious generosity or spendthriftness, they desire to conceal Its source more than they want to hide the paleness from poverty. The result Is that If party :nembershlp Is Inflated to keep up false prestige, party finance remains Insulated to fringe a pretentious honour. The Nature of Parties. Every aspect of the parties discussed hereinbefore tends to contribute to the deter mination of their nature. Party and parliamentary democracy are a single Indivisible existence the preservation, promotion and sublimation of which depend entirely on the former. But not all parties help develop parliamentary democracy. As there are various species of democracy, so there are manifold kinds of parties of diverse tastes, beliefs and behavloiirs. It Is only by ascertaining their nature, parties conducive to parliamentary democracy could be discriminated from the non- conducive ones. From the form and content If nature Is to be determined, it will be seen that the socialists are nearer to democratic principles than all the other parties. The Congress is 506 democratic only In Its political faith and in other respects it tends to be authoritarian and less than democratic. Faith is a question of fundamental importance which exerts great influences on the behavioural pattern and this may be the reason why the Congress still goes with democracy while it seems to be anti-thetical in content. The Marxian parties are the very repudiation of parlia mentary democracy; any talk of parliamentarian!sm to them is ill-conceived reformism, anti-Marxian and anti-revolutionary. They believe firmly in unadulterated Marxisn, in the inevitable ness of class war, in the certainty of a final world revolution sweeping all the enemies of the working class into utter annihilation, and proudly identify themselves as a part of the world communist movement. They leave no opportunity to surmise that they have renounced the weapon of revolution in preference to ballot boxes. Elections and participation in parliamentary activities are means to gain time and to penetrate into the mass fronts to prepare for revolution as a sure and final bid to capture power. Fnistration or not, the leaders and the rank and file Interviewed, were expressive of their inexorable conviction that power through the exercise of franchise was a wlld-goose-chase. "Even if such an • occasion arises" emphasised Slbdas Ghosh "the bourgeois will never permit us to rule but he will move instantaneously the army and the police, his instruments of oppression, to crush the working class from coming to power." True, the 507 frequent use of the emergency provisions of the Constitution in an off-handed manner and the distortion the Constitution itself had to undergo through a series of amendments in quick succession to suit the ways of the ruling party, vindicate their fear that even the possibility of a Marxian party assuming power might perhaps become a national emergency for the party in power to set the Constitution at 335 naught and start suppression- The Marxians await the end of the millennium to see the working class with the active collaboration of the peasantry, building up an invincible force of insurrection and putting itself firmly on the saddle of power thwarting the resistance of the bourgeoisie. Some Marxians like the RSP and the RCPI and also the FB which alone has not considered itself a part of the world communist movement, go with the idea of preparing for a revolution while endeavouring to achieve power by peaceful means of which suffrage is only one. They will not hesitate to use force but the gravity and the nature of such force will depend upon the gravity and nature of resistance which will be offered by the bourgeoisie. The CPI also has taken almost the same attitude which is denounced as "reformist" by the doctrinaire Marxians. The The dismissal of the Communist Ministry in Kerala while it enjoyed the confidence of the legislature holds further justification for their stand. 508 fact Is that consciously or unconsciously, not only the denounced but the denouncers themselves have become reformist at least temporarily, on account of the political situation in the country subsequent to national Independence. But "reformism" has not in the least modified their attitude to parliamentarianlsm which as ever, remains the highest form a bourgeois politics to be fought and supplanted with toilers' democracy by the working class. Spoken openly of its affections to parliamentary democracy, the CPI is the only Marxian. It is again the only Marxian promising and progressing and therefore to be reckoned with. From Madura in 1954 to Amritsar in 195^, the CPI*s parliamentarianlsm is a gradual, coolly thought out, careful change-over. It in the own words of the CPI, as mentioned elsewhere before, is a "seriously meant policy" and no faith. Essentially therefore, the CPI’s adherence to parliamentary democracy betrays the absence of the vitals of durability and stands to corroborate that it is the most recent of the many turns of the strategy the party has been continuing since almost its inception in this country. "Until after the Second World War the *left* and the ’right' strategies were.... the only ones pursued by international communism. Both found application during the early 1V20's. Then the 'left' strategy was in effect throughout the late twenties and early thirties. It was replaced about 1935 509 I by the ’right’ strategy, which remained In use until 1947, interrupted only by a return to the ’left’ strategy during the period between the conclusion of the Stalin-Hitler Pact 336 in August 1939 and the Nazi invasion of Russia in June 1941* To add to these emerged from China, the centre strategy with the victory of communism in 1949 there. Since 1928 as directed by the Sixth Comintern Congress the CPI had been pursuing the left strategy which it abandoned for the right to counteract the evils of Fascism, in faithful compliance 337 with the decision of the Seventh Comintern Congress in 1935* A swing to the left was taken when Stalin-Hitler ’non aggression’ Pact was concluded in August 1939 but the CPI at once leaped to the right again as the Nazis struck their first blow on the USSR in June 1941* The CPI in 1947, drifted back from the right to the left in accordance with 33d the anti-imperialist line laid down by Andrei Zhdanov in the formation conference of the Cominform in Poland in September 1949. The left strategy employed under the cold blooded leadership of Ranadive having failed, the CPI came John H.Kautsky, Moscow and the Communist Party of India, (A Study in the Post-war Evolution of International Communist Strategy), Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York, John Wiley and Sons, 1956, p.B. Ibid., p.16. Tridib Chaudhuri, The Swing Back, A Critical Survey of the Devious Zig-Zags of the CPI Political Line (1947-50) Calcutta, the RSP (the Kranti Press) 1950, pp.1-10. 510 out "In penitent ’self critical* humility owning up all 1 sorts of ’left’ deviationist mistakes and crimes including 339 Trotskyism” and condemned its adopter Ranadive "as the initiator, executor and dogged defender of the Trotsky-Tito type of left-sectarian political line.”^^^ Now the right and the left the CPI had given up, and under the new leadership of C.Rajeshwar Rao, the Telengana fame, shifted to the centre strategy which John KautsKy char strategy.Every strategy of the communists has two edges, the soft and the sharp or the peaceful and the violent and Rajeshwar Rao, the insurrectionary specialist of the CFI used the latter edge only to follow the left revolutionary expert Ranadive surrendering the leadership in October 1951 to Ajoy Ghosh who by now became the champion of the ’peaceful centre'. The death of Marshal Stalin in 1953 led to a reassessment and renovation of the Soviet communist policies both at home and abroad which together with the visit of India in 1955 by Marshal N.A.Bulganin and N.S. 339 Chaudhuri, The Swing Back, A Critical Survey of the Devious Zig-Zags of the CPI Political line, op.cit., p.30. M.R.Masanl, The Communist Party of India, op.cit., pp.104-105. John H.Kautsky, Moscow and the Communist Party of India, op.cit., p.9 and pp.104-117« As this strategy has the characteristics of both the right and the left strategies it is fit to call it centre strategy. 511 3^-2 Khrushchev following the appreciation of India’s friendly foreign policy, caused a rethinking in the Kremlin in regard to the line of action to be pursued in India by the CPI. Meanwhile the party itself had come to this realisation: "....The situation in India is different. We have no army to start with; it has to be created. The transport system in India is far more developed than in China enabling the government to swiftly concentrate big forces against partisan areas* And above all, the geographical position of India is such that we cannot expect to have a friendly neighbouring state which can serve as a firm and powerful rear." All the three strategies having been tried in vain in the resurgent India, altogether a new strategy that could work harmoniously with new India’s genius and further befriend India’s foreign policy, had to be evolved. Parliamentarianism was worth a trial, official sanction to which was given in The CPI themselves assess the value of the visit as follows; "....The visit of f^ehru... to the USSR, the visit of N.A.Bulganin and U.S.Khrushchev to India - these were no ordinary events. They struck heavy blows against the lies and slanders by which the imperialists had sought to poison the mind of our people. They showed to India who are her frtends and who her enemies. They symbolised the coming together of more than half of mankind for a common purpose - defence of peace. They proved that differences in political and social systems constitute no barrier to the establishment of fraternal relations between countries." (V.B.Kamik, Indian Communist Party Documents, 1930-1956, Bombay, The Democratic Research Service, 1957, pp.228-229-i Communist Conspiracy at Madurai, Bombay, the Popular B o o k Depot for the Democratic Research Service, 1954, p.37. 512 the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU In But it was conditional and peaceful centre itself was not abandoned. ”In the event of the ruling classes resorting to violence against people, the possibility of non-peaceful transition to socialism should be borne in mind. Leninism teaches, and experience confirms, that the ruling classes never relinquish power voluntarily." Parliamentarianism, is not an independent strategy; the ballot-box strategy as it may be rightly called, is an additional one, formed to supplement, strengthen and broaden the now hidden peaceful centre. Ajoy Ghosh himself proclaims; "This thesis of peaceful transition to socialism is a big weapon in our hands. It enables us to heal the split in the % socialist movement. It enables us to forge links with socialists who sincerely desire socialism but abhor civil war. It enables us to fight the propaganda of the bourgeoisie. It enables us to bring to the forefront the 345 enormous significance of the struggle for democracy." And this is all what is meant by parliamentarlnism to the CPI whose leaders enunciate a new theory that their coming Declaration of Twelve Communist and Workers' Parties of Socialist Countries and Struggle against Revisionism, Jullunder, Punjab Book Centre, 1953 (?), p.l6. V.B.Kamik, Indian Communist Party Documents, 1930-1956, op.cit., p.335* 513 to power at any time In future through the ballot-box strategy would be tantamount to a revolution, so great a revolution, that people would not attempt to undo it by unseating them thereafter for the people know that it is their own revolution they longed years for. The logic is easily comprehensible; even so, the CPI would tolerate opposition unlike in the USSR and in the Eastern European countries where according to the CPI leaders, opposition is not tolerated because in these countries communism triumphed through blood-baths of violent revolutions in which those who otherwise would have functioned in the opposition were eliminated as a result of their own folly of offering resistance against the invincible revolutionary elements. The recent upheavals in Eastern Europe are the results of inner-party or domestic quarrels engineered by imperialist stooges to subvert the proletarian democracy and were not expressions of the will of the people to establish healthy democratic opposition. But even taking the CPI’s toleration at its face value, it does not require a desceming mind to realise that freedom to function as an opposition as quite different from freedom to replace and rule if voted to power which is bound to be denied "as people would not give up the revolution". And that ia the sad end of parliamentary democracy. It can therefore be safely concluded, that parliamentarlanism to 514 the CPI is not a faith, not a reconciliation nor a truth realised denoting a favourable transformation of mind, but it is a great potent weapon added to its strategical armoury, the experimental use of which if failed to achieve the desired results, the CPI knows how to condemn it, make amends for its adoption and shift instantly to a new one or revert back to an old. There is hardly anything impressive with them to call the rellglo-polltlcal parties democratic. It is yet obscure what type of a government they would prefer to have, if they are to come to power. However, one thing is certain that it V Is wrong to characterise them outrightly communal parties simply because they profess to favour a particular religion or a particular religious group. In India, the word ’communal1sm', due to the constant sinister propaganda of some parties in furtherance of their own interest, comes to mean something so Intolerably sordid and abject that it has become derogatory and not decorative to refer to a party ’communal’. Parties openly stuck up with religious labels such as Christian Socialist Parties and Christian Democratic Parties, are too common in the continental countries but they are considered to be as much national as any democratic parties operating side by side with them. Religion is not only a most powerful influencing factor in politics but it shapes and sizes politics of almost every country. It is absurd to conclude that political parties 515 are a distinct growth in themselves immune to religious impacts. In fact those who claim to be secular, are as much conscious of their weaknesses without it as are those who candidly admit their susceptibility. Even in France where religion has ostensibly ceased to propel the motivations of life, the parties of today with a single exception of some Republican Socialists, are stemmed from the struggle 3L6 between the clericals and the non-Catholics. All the religio-political parties appear to be alike averse to parliamentary democracy as it is understood today. The parties of Hindu bent, the RSS especially, are accused alike by the Congress, socialists and the communists, of being anti-democratic and Fascist. Among the various students who made critical examination of the RSS, Govind Sahai in particular, compares it with the Black Shirts of Italy and the Brown Shirts of Spain and brands its chief "the RSS Fuehrer". The mental disposition of Sahai as a Congressman refracted his historical vision and so detracted his scientific curiosity as to misplace certain relevant facts which ultimately resulted in accusations based on acrimonious Roger H.Soltau, French Parties and Politics, London, Oxford University Press, 1922, pp.27-43* Govind Sahai, RSS-Ideology, Technique and Propaganda, op.cit., pp.B-14 . 516 foundation. True it Is that the parties of Hindu bent have, many things in common with Fascism, such as the belief O I Q "in holiness and In heroism", in "keen patriotism as a manifestation of nationalism"and in ”a benignant state whose task it shall be to direct and uphold the activities of the individual"and the belief that the state "is a 352 spiritual and moral fact in itself", "that religion is... one of the deepest manifestations of the spirit of man"^^^ which must be "respected...defended and protected",^^^ that "the stratification of social classes is immutable and For instance he says, (op.cit., pp.20-21), about the RSS flag: "The history of this Bhagwa is that when Shivajl approached Guru Ramdas for a ’dhwaja', Quruji is said to have given his bhagwa-coloured ’phagua’ (loin-cloth) to Shivajl which since then became the dhwaja of Shivajl and his followers"..."To call it the flag of the Hindu Rashtra is nothing but malicious distortion of Indian history." But Sardesai, a recognised authority on Maratha History, holds the contrary. "The orange coloured flag, it must be noted, was not newly introduced at the behest of Ramdas. It was the Hindu national flag long before in use, habitually carried about by Maratha bands." (Govind Sakharam Sardesai, New History of the Marathas, Vol.I, Shivajl and His Line, 1600-1707, Bombay Phoenix Publications, 1946, p.213.) Benito Mussolini, The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism, London, The Hogarth Press, 1934, p.13* Giuseppe Prezzolini, Fascism, London, Methuen and Co., 1926, p.103. Idem. Benito Mussolini, The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism, op.cit., p.21. Ib id ., p .25. Idem. 517 divinely ordained"^^^ and "that some men are b o m to rule and the others to be ruled. The Fascist repudiation of democracy and disrespect for social and economic equalities are also remotely acknowledged by the parties who Insplte of all these similitudes, are governed by many moral limitations and canons of ethics which are diametrically opposed to and despised by Fascism. If democracy to the Hindu Mahasabha Is the rule of a militant Hindu majority, to the Jana Sangh it Is the rule of an authoritarian Hindu society headed by equally authoritarian Hindu hierarchy. Quite different is the RRP which stands for monarchic rule in a Brahmnic social order with all its oppressive features, which might be at best a negation of democracy and not an altogether acceptance of Fascism. Severed from the BJS, the RSS stands quite afar. Even accepting the term communal party of course, divorced from its stigma for a moment "it Is not a communal party in the same sense as the Jana Sangh, the Hindu Mahasabha or the RRP. It is a communal force as yet uncommitted as to the 357 means by which it will seek political power." Then it is Afya Khatun, Fascism, The Japanese Brand, Allahabad, Kltabistan, 1944* p*13* Ibid., p.U- Richard L.Park and Irene Tinker, Leadership and Political Institutions in India, op.cit., p.215* 5ia too early to forecast its politiccil affiliation and the type of government it might seek to create, as these could naturally undergo changes as time passes on* As things stand today, none of the parties of the Hindu bent by belief adds anything concrete to the solidarity of parliamentary democracy. They cling to traditionalism with an urge for retrogression. Democracy has much less to expect from the Muslim League and the Akali Dal than from a party of the Hindu bent. It is difficult to visualise anything positive in the secessionist parties to trust that they have democratic sensitivity. Of the three existing secessionist parties, the EMK alone, has a measure of internal democracy based upon democratic centralism as practised by the Marxian parties, which only reaffirms its digression from parliamentary democracy. The liberal democratic faith traceable in the Princely group parties and in the Jharkhand Party of the Tribal group, and the social democratic appeal found in the SCF (RPI) of the Denominational group and in the EITU have been made parochial in scope by their isolated life, monopolised leadership and the ego-centric issues with which they are concerned. Parliamentary democracy has a neutral base in the RV and in the Sadharantantri Dal since they have as little to confute as to confonn. 519 The nature of the parties reveals that to rampart democracy and democratic institutions in this country, there are hardly a few parties of which those in opposition are at present very poor in material strength and little promising* The viability of parliamentary democracy is in the dependability of parties replete with its blood and spirit. Attempt to possess power and attempt to dispossess power alone will regulate the use of power which means the onus of parliamentary democracy is as much if not more, upon the parties function ing outside, as it is on party or parties working within the government.* Strangely enough, in India, this onus of opposition has so far been discharged better by parties who are alien to parliamentary democracy than who are akin to it. It is shared equally or more in some cases by also those who are vocal about parliamentary democracy than who are factually supporting it. Thus the CPI has earned a record of parliamentary vigilance and has "taken the pride of place Q C d as the leading element in the opposition”, with its limited numerical strength within the legislatures, while the votaries of democracy like the Socialists continue to remain satisfied with isolated languishing and idle prattling. Like the CPI, the £MK in Madras, the Ganatantra Parishad in Orfssa, the Jharkhand Party and the Janata Party in Bihar 358 A.K.Qopalan and Hiren Mukerjee, Communists in Parliament, Mew Delhi, the CPI, 1957, p.4* 520 and the FB in West Bengali have played a role which actually has helped them to disguise their real nature and present altogether a different picture of themselves. The trend for the present is not unhealthy but in the long run if gained momentum, in the absence of a well-grown party with genuine faith in parliamentarianism, it may have unpredictable negative consequences which will imperil democracy and democratic institutions in this country.