Path of Revolution

               

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1. Introduction
2. National and International Situation
3. The Tasks of Our Revolution
4. Our Country
5. Class Analysis of Indian Society
6. Building Party as Vanguard of Indian Proletariat
7. Mobilizing the Working Class as Leader of PDR
8. Agrarian Question, Agrarian Program and Revolutionary Peasant Movement
9. The Caste Question
10. Minority Question
11. The Question of Ecology and Nature
12. Mobilizing Women for Liberation
13. Tasks in the Cultural Front
14. Mobilizing Students and Youths for Revolution
15. Combating Fascism
16. The Nationality Question
17. Utilizing Parliamentary Forms of Struggle
18. Tactical and Strategic United Fronts
19. The Path of Indian Revolution
20. Conclusion

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1. Introduction

1.1 Whenever the discussion of the Path of Revolution came up in the Indian communist movement, from its very inception, the copy-paste method had a dominating place in it. For quite a long time the debate between the so-called Russian Path and Chinese Path remained prominent. However, the understanding that the path of revolution should be understood based on the concrete reality of our country also existed side by side. We uphold and strive to develop this concept in today’s perspective.

 

1.2 The task before Communist Parties around the world is to evaluate hitherto international and national experience and develop their Path of Revolution based on the concrete analysis of the concrete conditions of today. They should dare to throw out all shades of dogmatism and opportunism, and go forward with historical and dialectical materialist perspective, developing theoretical lines and practices based on Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung Thought and proletarian internationalism.

 

2. National and International Situation

2.1 Present international situation is marked by growing contradiction between rising Neo-Fascist forces all over the world and developing mass movements. The huge defeat of President Trump in the US appeared as a result of the fierce Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement which took place in more than two hundred cities of that country amidst the first phase of lockdown caused by the CORONA pandemic. Similar movements against anti-people restrictions imposed by the Fascist ruling governments in many countries of Europe can be seen. In Latin America, a bunch of countries very recently emerged where pro-people forces have come to power defeating the pro-Fascist political parties. In the main, if the consolidation of the Fascistic forces is one of the important phenomena of the present era, the emergence of renewed mass movements is another important phenomenon.

 

2.2 Internationalization of production coupled with unprecedented development of portfolio finance capital almost delinked with real economy is taking place under the rule of global monopoly capital and neoliberal imperialism today. Although the conflict among the imperialist forces is developing, however, at the same time global scale cooperation and collusion among the imperialists against the labour and rising mass movements has been seen. In this perspective international coordination among the Communist and pro-people forces is becoming extremely important.

 

2.3. The neo-Fascist takeover of India was started with Narendra Modi led BJP’s win in the general election of 2014. Since then, attacks on the masses including the peasantry, the working class, women, dalits and minorities have been increased by many folds. All the features of the erstwhile welfare state are going to be destroyed. All the institutions of the bourgeois democratic state are trying to be abolished or captured. The call of making India a “Hindu Rashtra” is not only revived but implemented with huge vigour. In the particular context of India, the “Hindu Rashtra” means Fascist India.

 

2.4. Keeping parity with the international situation, anti-Fascist mass movements are developing in many fields. A strong anti-NRC movement was developed in Delhi, Bengal, Maharashtra and in many other parts of the country which was followed by the most important and glorious movement was the peasant movement in India which forced the Narendra Modi government to go back and repeal the three draconian farm laws. The unprecedented unity among the large sections of peasants and farmers against the multinational corporations and their political representatives is absolutely a big event in recent India.

 

2.5 In the absence of a united revolutionary communist party in the country, the class struggle could not flourish in the desired direction. The politicisation of the working class in order to develop it as a class and building revolutionary peasant movements along with other important struggles in the country depend on how soon the party can be built.

 

3. The Task of Our Revolution

3.1 Describing the character and course of our revolution, the Party Program says “The resolution of the principal contradiction is inseparably linked up with the resolution of the other antagonistic contradictions. In the neo-fascist context, the anti-fascist people’s front led by the Communist Party composed of the working class, the peasantry, and all exploited and oppressed should be capable of tactically utilizing the contradiction among various sections of the ruling classes in its march towards capture of political power. It means combining the countrywide struggles of the working class with the revolutionary agrarian struggles, combining all other forms of struggle with it.” (4.13)

 

3.2. It is further stated that our revolution is an inseparable part of the world proletarian revolution. Therefore, the leader of our revolution is the working class organized and empowered by the great Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse Tung thought. After seizing the political power the working class and its party lead the revolution toward the socialist revolution and socialist construction crossing the boundary of the PDR/NDR. Therefore, for us the revolution means not only the seizure of power, but the entire course beginning from the preparation for seizure of power to the completion of the socialist construction. However, our present Path of Revolution document limits itself to discussing the general outline regarding the path of revolution up to the seizure of power only.

 

3.3 Our Party Program has further pointed out that caste struggle and gender struggle have been developing as two integral aspects of Indian class struggle from the very beginning. Therefore, the task of our revolution is to develop unity of the working class, peasantry and other revolutionary classes under the leadership of the working class and combining class struggles with caste struggles and gender struggles in order to snatch political power from the hands of the ruling classes and march forward towards socialist construction. With the snatching of political power from the ruling classes overthrowing the Manuist, Patriarchal state and the yolks of imperialism and corporate capital, the tasks of democratic revolution shall be completed and revolution shall immediately take socialist character.

 

4. Our Country.

4.1. Describing our country where we are leading the revolution, our Party Program says: “Our country India is one of the biggest countries in the world inhabited by around 1.4 billion people. It is a multinational, multi-ethnic, multilingual and multi-religious country coupled with deeply entrenched hierarchical caste system with vast diversities and complexities.” (3.1)

 

4.2. Unlike many other countries in the world, the vast areas of our country are not only geographically diverse but the history, culture and ethnic composition of different portions of the people are having different sources and different continuations. When the Vedic culture dominated almost the entire northern India, the Southern side and Eastern side were dominated by non-Vedic culture in the main. When the Dravidian lineage dominates in Southern India, the Turko-Iranian, Indo-Aryan, Scytho-Dravidian or Mongoloid lineage dominate in other parts of the country. The economic and other societal processes which were responsible for the origin of classes, class struggles, and their trajectories are also different.

 

4.3. Since the working class is the most modern class in our society therefore the working class and its vanguard party are only capable to bring out the common tune from the histories of struggles of the Indian people and to build unity among the divergent oppressed masses in order to lead the revolution which can obtain a national character. The working class and only the Communist Party is capable of utilizing divergent tactical methods which are suitable in their concerned politico-psychological and geographical atmosphere.

 

5. Class Analysis of Indian Society

5.1 On the class approach to the PDR, the Party Program states: (4.11). ”Politicisation and mobilization of the Indian working class and transforming it as leader of revolution is the primary task of the Communist Party in its march towards capturing of political power.  It begins with the building up of the People’s Democratic Front based on the worker-peasant alliance uniting with the middle classes and the national bourgeoisie which is a vacillating ally”.

 

5.2 India is a country where class division started with Varna-Caste division and the vast portion of Indian toiling masses are dalits who belong to the so called backward castes. The Communist movement in India could never evaluate this unique feature of Indian reality which prevented them to understand the interrelated nature of class struggle and caste struggle. This lack of understanding created hindrance to unite the toiling masses of the country which led to failure to establish the leadership of the working class, to mobilize the peasantry through agrarian revolution, to forge worker-peasant alliance, and thus to unite with the real friends to attack the real enemies.

 

5.3 The comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie is the leading class among the ruling classes. While the Indian big bourgeoisie and the bureaucratic class have contradictions with imperialism, which is often reflected in their maneuvers to utilize the inter-imperialist contradictions for their benefit, their collaboration with imperialism is basic as reflected in their collaboration with the neoliberal policies. Their making huge investments in other countries, or some of the heads of these corporate houses finding a place among the richest in the world, do not change the basic fact that they are continuing to collaborate with imperialism and to obstruct the independent development of productive forces in the country. So whether one calls it a junior partner of imperialism or dependent bourgeoisie, its basic character remains the same – it is a comprador class serving imperialist interests in the main, reaping big benefits in the bargain.

 

5.4 On the contrary, the stand taken by all those forces, who define it as an independent capitalist class and India as an independent capitalist country (which inevitably means another imperialist country in this era of imperialism) and the stage of revolution as socialist, has been proved inconsistent with the present reality, especially after the imposition of globalization and ‘neo-liberal’ policies. While the intensifying neo-colonization leading to increasing capitalist transformation of relations of production in the agrarian and all other sectors is a fact to be recognized, it is taking place under domination of imperialist agencies and MNCs, with even seeds production controlled by Monsanto-like MNCs. The two tasks of democratic revolution are putting an end to pre-capitalist relations and overthrowing imperialist domination. Under neo-colonial domination, the development of capitalist relations in agriculture is a growing trend at the all-India level, though there are diversities and unevenness to a large extent. The task of the Indian revolution is to overthrow imperialism, comprador bureaucratic capitalism and landlordism. These tasks are inter-related. That is why, in spite of fast and deep capitalist inroads in agriculture, the stage of revolution is still democratic, not socialist.

 

5.5 The big bureaucratic-bourgeois landlord class, agricultural corporate, the agricultural bourgeoisie and various sections of land owning mafias comprise a deadly force in the countryside. It is integrating the agricultural sector with imperialist economy, facilitating entry of imperialist capital and MNCs into every sphere of agriculture from production of seeds to procurement of produce and their marketing, and allying with the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie to perpetuate the neo-colonial plunder.

 

5.6 The national bourgeoisie is a vacillating ally of the Indian revolution. To retain their existence, they want to remain inter-twined with the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie increasingly, and collaborate with imperialism more than ever, especially after the imposition of neo-liberal policies. In spite of all this, their contradictions with imperialism shall be increasing with the increasing trend of monopolization in every field. With the development of the struggles of the working class and the peasantry, the possibility of the national bourgeoisie joining the revolutionary movement will increase.

 

5.7 The petty bourgeoisie, including the middle peasants, because of its size and class character is a significant class with the possibility of being a dependable ally of the revolution. The lower middle class which constitutes more than half of it, which may be called its left wing, is facing ever-intensifying misery under the globalization-liberalization-privatization regime, as a result of which large sections of it have fallen to the level of workers, having lost all property.

 

5.8 The landless, poor and middle peasants and agricultural workers, the real tillers of the land, constitute almost half of the population. They include the adivasis, dalits, and most backward and oppressed sections of society. Due to neo-liberal policies, massive changes have come about in the class structure of the agrarian sector. These new forms of class differentiation oblige us to make more intensive studies and the conclusions drawn from the same may be used to come up with more concrete/realistic slogans for revolutionary offensive.

 

5.9 India is a country with a large working class, without mobilizing and politicizing which as the leader of revolution, the completion of PDR and advancement to socialist revolution are impossible. Leave alone pre-revolutionary China, the working class in India is many times more numerous than it was in pre-revolutionary Russia or any other country where revolution has taken place. So the working class movement assumes far greater importance here. Under liberalization-privatization raj the population of the working class in the unorganized sector has enormously increased under the contract labour, and hire and fire systems. Even the modern industrial proletariat is coming under this category increasingly. Through closures, modernization, outsourcing, VRS etc. the number of workers and employees in organized sector is rapidly reduced. By increasing regular hours of work, cutting down wages, security of service, social security etc. workers in the organized sector are under constant attack. Though the comparatively better paid workers of the organized sector form the main force of most of the trade union centres today, more attention is to be given to unorganized workers who constitute 98% of the workers. The task is to mobilize and lead them to local, state-wide and country-wide struggles, re-creating an atmosphere favourable for working class struggles and upsurges.

 

 

6. Building Party as Vanguard of Indian Proletariat

 

6.1Without a revolutionary party no revolutionary movement is possible. However, no united revolutionary party exists in our country still, since the communist movement was disintegrated into many groups and parties in early 1970s. The concrete conditions in India compared to the situation in Russia, China and other countries when revolutions took place there are vastly different. Today party building is taking place when almost all parties built up under Comintern guidance have degenerated to capitalist path with bureaucratic organizational structures. Almost all the erstwhile socialist countries have degenerated to bureaucratic state capitalism or to open capitalist/imperialist countries. The PDR is taking place now when fascistic tendencies are growing all over the world and in our country as well.

 

6.2 Though the CPI (M), CPI like parties have totally degenerated to right opportunist positions and considerably weakened in that process, they are continuing to use the communist banner and confuse the left masses. The activities of CPI (Maoist) are also destroying the image of the communist movement. Under the social democratic influence, a section of the Marxist-Leninist forces has also already degenerated to parliamentary opportunism. Ideological struggle has to be intensified against both right opportunist and anarchist trends of all hues.

 

6.3 What is required is the building of a Bolshevik-model party surrounded by class and mass organizations and different people’s movements according to present conditions. In a country of around 140 crore of people including tens of millions of workers, landless-poor peasants and agricultural workers and other revolutionary sections, they can be successfully mobilized for countrywide campaigns and struggles only if the Leninist approach towards Bolshevik party building surrounded by class/mass organizations is developed according to present needs and studiously pursued. Concepts like ‘front’ organizations without a democratic program and mobilization of the masses are nothing but manifestations of sectarianism.

 

6.4 It should be a party with countrywide organization and political influence. The concept of ‘area wise seizure of political power’ and ‘base areas’, influence of localism etc. under the line of ‘protracted people’s war’ are presently used as cover for ‘self-satisfied’ opportunism, for keeping aloof from the masses and for continuing activities reduced to certain pockets of influence. Significant changes that have taken place in the concrete situation in recent decades, especially after the launching of neo-liberal offensive by imperialism and the native ruling classes call for a countrywide offensive by the revolutionary forces mobilizing tens of millions. So, political and organizational initiative should be taken for party building at all India level uniting all communist revolutionary forces that can be united.

 

6.5 The possibilities available today to launch vigorous ideological and political campaigns, to win over politically advanced sections and for party building should be fully utilized. Already there are numerous instances of spontaneous struggles in different regions against consequences of neo-liberal policies, corruption, increasing attacks on women, proposed nuclear plants, displacement for ‘development’ projects etc. Possibilities for countrywide mass upsurges cannot be overlooked in this situation after the anti-CAA movement, and the historic farmers’ movement which paralyzed the Delhi borders for an year. The Party should be able to provide leadership to the coming upsurges and political and organizational work should be taken up with this perspective. At the same time, building of party fractions among the working class, organizing fractions in sensitive areas including state apparatus and within the police, para-military and military, should be given importance.

 

6.6 The ideological-political education and training, which keep the party politically vigorous and organizationally active, should be given prime importance. Marxism is not a dogma, but a guide to action which should be continuously developed to cope with the changes taking place in the concrete conditions internationally and nationally. The party should be capable of taking up this challenge and prepare the whole organization for theoretical offensive consciously and continuously.

 

6.7 Democratic centralism should be organically practiced so that the democratic atmosphere for inner-party struggle always exists. It is easy to talk about the undesirability of individual authority and bureaucratic practices. But even after serious setbacks suffered by the ICM, no proper lessons are drawn from them so that the above negative factors can be combated and a lively democratic atmosphere maintained within the party and class/mass organizations. Replacement of committee system and collective functioning with individual authority, and democratic functioning with bureaucratic methods are petit-bourgeois influences in the party. Similarly, the existence of so many groups claiming to uphold Marxist-Leninist line even when in many cases there are no basic differences among their lines and the ‘theory of many centres’ are alien, petit-bourgeois trends, which should be vigorously fought.

 

7. Mobilizing Working Class as Leader of PDR

 

7.1 Marxism is the revolutionary ideology of the proletariat, the most advanced class engaged in the most developed, advanced and organized fields of production. The task of the Communist Party, as the vanguard of the proletariat, is to transform it from a ”class in itself” to a ”class for itself”, capable of leading the revolutionary transformation of society, by providing leadership to the people’s democratic revolution.

 

7.2 After the imposition of imperialist globalization in 1991, under the neo-liberal regime the working class is confronting ever intensifying challenges. Almost all democratic, wage and TU rights achieved through a century of bitter struggles are being snatched away. Contract labour system and ‘hire and fire’ are the rules of the day. What is witnessed, are extreme forms of wage slavery. The number of workers in the organized sectors is dwindling fast, with ‘labour aristocracy’ dominant among their leadership. Tens of millions of workers in the unorganized sectors, whose number is increasing day by day, are denied all democratic and trade union rights. Many draconian laws are imposed for it. Even struggles for economic demands, right to form unions, etc. are made extremely difficult. Along with de-unionization, de-politicization and dominance of caste based, communal, parochial feelings are increasing among the workers. The party committees have to be prepared to reverse the present situation.

7.3 While leadership of the major TU centres like BMS and INTUC are not opposing foreign investment and are actively involved in mortgaging the interests of the working class and the country to imperialist interests in the name of promoting ‘development’ under imperialist globalization, leaderships of TU centres like AITUC and CITU are satisfied with making a show of ritualistic opposition to imperialist globalization. There are NGO-led trade unions and their centres also. Some of the communist revolutionary cadres have reduced trade union work to fighting individual worker’s cases in labour courts. The TU centres led by them are also failing to forge unity and to launch active resistance against the increasing attacks on the working class, as well as to politicize them to take up political tasks. This is not a task which cannot be left to the TU centres and their committees. The Party should prepare a program for politicization of the workers and propagate it through extensive fraction work not only among the unions led by the party cadres, but also in the trade unions as a whole.

 

7.4 An important task of politicising the working class lies in organising it to stand and act in support of peasants’ struggles, all democratic movements and struggles of the oppressed sections of society. The working class should be encouraged to actively participate in the solidarity movements in support of the working class and oppressed peoples internationally.

7.5 In the present context when cross-border labour mobility is one of the important characters of modern capitalism India has a large section of overseas labour force. This force is an integral part of our working class. Therefore, organizing them is also an important task in front of the party.

 

8. Agrarian Question, Agrarian Program and Revolutionary Peasant Movement

 

8.1 When the transfer of power took place, India was a vast agrarian county with 80% of the people dependent on agriculture. The historic Telangana struggle, Tebhaga movement and other revolutionary agrarian movements against the dominating feudal, semi-feudal relations were sweeping across the country under the leadership of the Communist Party. The Congress government was utilizing a two-pronged drive to crush these struggles: promoting reformist Bhoodan movement of Vinobha Bhave, and launching brutal attacks to crush them. Soon under neo-colonial domination, faced with pressure from below and on the basis of advice of US imperialist experts, land reform was introduced, initiating the replacement of the feudal landlords with a new generation of landlords who were ready to embrace the Green Revolution launched under imperialist guidance. Conditions were created for the entry of capital, along with fertilizers, chemicals, new seeds and other inputs into the agrarian sector. Under colonialism, imperialism had used feudalism as its social base. But under neo-colonial domination capitalist relations were promoted in the agrarian sector giving rise to a new class of capitalist landlords. In this way imperialism started tightening its grip over the entire agricultural sector.

 

8.2 The land reforms introduced were not revolutionary land reforms from below based on “land to the tiller” but were imposed from above creating a new class of bourgeois landlords whereas the real tillers including the adivasis, dalits, and other oppressed sections continued to remain landless or own only small housing plots. The right to land for the women in most of the cases is denied although the right to land is also a democratic issue for all the concerned sections. Overall impact was further integration of the agrarian sector in to the imperialist capital-market system. With the introduction of neo-liberal policies, increasing number of poor, marginal and middle peasants are displaced from their land for major projects, number of farms and plantations have increased, concentration of lands with landlords and corporate forces has increased, agrarian sector is brought under increasing corporatization and capitalist relations have grown very fast.

 

8.3 The significance of the Naxalbari struggle was that it brought back the agrarian revolutionary struggle abandoned by the CPI leadership in the early 1950s to the Communist agenda. After the disintegration of the movement under left adventurist line, though a rectification was initiated by sections of CPI (ML), and significant mobilization of the poor and landless peasants and agricultural workers took place in Bihar and AP in the land struggles, there were no efforts to take up the study of the vast changes taking place in the agricultural sector under neo-colonization or to develop the agrarian struggles addressing the demands of the new class of farmers according to the concrete conditions.

 

8.4 Agrarian revolution means wiping out landlordism, including still surviving remnants of feudal and pre-capitalist land relations, and making revolutionary changes in the land relations based on land to the tiller slogan and establishing the collective ownership of the workers on plantations and farms, and developing the co-operativization and social control of agriculture. Agrarian revolution is a basic task during the phase of PDR/NDR to overthrow the reactionary class rule in the countryside according to the concrete situation of the society.  While the tasks of agrarian revolution is still relevant as the tens of millions of landless, poor peasants and agricultural workers want land, and as feudal remnants still exist in some regions, the vast changes that have taken place under Green Revolution infused policies demanded new studies to address the problems faced by the farmers in the context of neo-liberal offensive for corporatization of agriculture.

 

8.5 The Naxalbari uprising took place challenging the reformist path practiced by the CPI and the CPI(M) and once again bringing agrarian revolution back to the agenda. However the Farmers’ movement of 2020-21 shows that, as the capitalist relations have become dominant in the agricultural sector, developing the Revolutionary Farmers’ Movement against the Multinational and Big Farming Companies and the state policies which promote them had become the main task from the early years of Green Revolution. But for a long time the hangover of the sectarian line stunted the process of theoretical sum up of these movements, which in return dented the possibility to develop these struggles in higher stage. In spite of the weakness of the left movement, the new type of farmers’ movement gained strength in Punjab, Haryana, Western UP like areas giving rise to the historic farmers’ movement. Thus the peasant question has once again come up in new forms to the forefront of the political scene.

 

8.6 The tasks before the Party are: Firstly, take up the study of the vast changes that have taken place in the agricultural sector under more than six decades of neo-colonization, speeded up by the neo-liberal policies, and chalk out an agrarian program based on these. Secondly, organise the peasantry, especially the agricultural workers, landless and poor peasants – the most oppressed sections. Build up the peasant movement at state level and co-ordinate them at all India level. In line with the agrarian revolutionary program, form land struggle committees starting from village level with the initiative of agricultural workers and middle, poor and landless peasants’ organization to launch struggles with land to the tiller slogan, and organise movements for taking over plantations and farms.  These two tasks are inter-related, and make appropriate organizational arrangements for it. A thorough study on the land reform acts is also an important task in front of the party.

 

8.7 Immediate slogans against the growing control of the multinational and big farm companies over the inputs and outputs of agriculture, for MSP laws, for APMC laws and strict implementation of these laws along with other important issues like forced labour, usury, communal and caste and gender based oppression, for higher wages, for distribution of banjar land, against forest contractors etc. should be raised and struggles organized. While taking up campaigns and struggles for immediate demands, the link between immediate and basic demands should be established. These sections should be organised at the all India level to fight for their immediate demands as well as for the basic slogans. Similarly, relation with the numerous peasant movements against displacement should also be developed, participating in their struggles. Side by side, the party must take up multi-dimensional tasks related to the plantation industry.

 

9. The Caste Question

 

9.1 In spite of the efforts from the period of social renaissance movements for the annihilation of this social plague, in newer and newer forms the varna-caste based socio-economic and cultural structure of Indian society still persists, making life miserable for the oppressed castes. The mechanical understanding that once revolution takes place caste question will get weakened and disappear still dominate many of the so-called left forces. It may weaken, but will come back in new forms more fiercely as the caste division is not only a matter of super structure but an integral part of our economy. Fighting caste based oppression and campaigning for caste annihilation should be made an integral part of the agenda. Caste annihilation has to be taken up as integral part of class struggle.

 

9.2 The caste system has strengthened in new forms during the last six decades. It is incorporated in the ruling system through caste based parties serving ruling class interests, and through the creation of caste based vote banks. Along with these, identity politics and tribalism like reactionary ideologies are promoted by imperialist centers to channelize the struggles against oppression based on caste, race, tribal system etc. to harmless paths, to keep these downtrodden sections away from the revolutionary path. The weakness of the communist movement so far in developing uncompromising struggle against caste system also helped these efforts to institutionalize caste system and tribal oppression through various means by the imperialists and the ruling classes. In India casteist oppression was intensified by keeping dalits away from land ownership, reducing them to tillers without land and doing all menial jobs for upper caste sections. So backbone of the caste system can be broken through agrarian revolution, according to present concrete conditions in each region, which ensures land to the tillers on the one hand, and a separately taken-up caste annihilation movement on the other, in order to change the production relation. Campaigns should be taken up against various forms of caste based oppression on dalits and adivasis and other backward sections including untouchabiltiy, which is still prevalent in various forms. While fighting all caste based discrimination against dalits, inter-caste marriages should be promoted. The reservation based on caste should be defended and struggle against diluting it should be waged, as a democratic right of the socially backward and oppressed classes.

 

9.3 It is with this perspective the Party took the initiative along with other progressive forces to launch the Caste Annihilation Movement with a Program. The enthusiastic response it has received during the last several years shows the necessity to carry it forward vigorously.

 

9.4 But the understandings and activities of the caste abolition movement need to be strengthened both conceptually and in the field of practical action. For that, the caste system in India requires a unique understanding and analysis of the underlying social structure. Reducing the caste system to the human rights of Dalits and the issue of power/resource sharing is likely to limit the building of a broad mass front against the undemocratic caste system. It is a fact that the biggest victims of the caste system are the marginalized sections of the society at the bottom and their liberation struggles should be given priority. However, if the caste system is not assessed in its entirety and is considered a problem of Dalits only then the caste annihilation movement cannot be successful. In the caste system, which operates on the basis of hierarchical inequality, the caste system is maintained by the sense of privilege over the castes immediately below it, while all castes are victims of discrimination. This social structure is trained to discriminate against each other in the order of lower and upper castes, even among the Brahmin castes. A mass unity against the caste system will be possible only when all the people who live with self-inflicted insults and think that they have the opportunity to despise those who come below them, join themselves in the construction of an anti-caste democratic collective.

 

9.5 The privileged communities of the caste system must unite in the anti-caste struggle not only as a demand for the liberation of the Dalits but also in the consciousness that the caste system is something that does not treat them as equal human beings. On the other side of the criticism of caste, which focuses only on the historical experience of caste oppression of Dalits, what happened is that the caste historical experience of other backward/marginal groups was kept invisible.

 

9.6 Although Dalit is a political term, such a political consciousness does not exist in all lower caste communities. The Dalit community is also divided into many castes. That is why the Sangh Parivar is succeeding in conducting social organizations in a way that shatters the anti-caste collective work that is happening among the Dalits. The fact that the Sangh Parivar is able to keep the castes among the Dalits in their favor, indicates a more effective continuation of the anti-caste ideology is required within the lower castes.

 

10. Question of Muslims – Minority sections.

10.1 In the context of present Indian polity, it is undisputed fact that Muslims are targeted and declared as prime enemy of Hindutva which works as cultural ideological tool of the ruling State, followed by Christians and Communists. Indian Muslims have been undergoing various kinds of continuous oppression directly by the State utilizing all kinds of ruling machineries and systematically alienating them especially by legitimizing this oppression by the hegemony of Hindutva ideology. From Cow politics, demolition of Babri Masjid, CAA-NRC to present Bulldozer politics are just some examples. In addition to the physical aggression, Muslims are perpetually haunted culturally too, by abusing on their food, dress code and belief, severe than ever before, which caused deep insecurity feeling among Muslim population in the country. Along with majority community, the so-called secular democratic sections have equal responsibility for this alienation of Muslims in the country. We need to analyze majority – minority communal forces in this concrete situation.

 

10.2 Communalism in India has history since the Pre-Independence period itself. The newly emerged big landlord class and especially post 1947 Congress governments were advocates of soft Hindutva. They cannot keep away from the responsibility from demolition of Babri Masjid like severe offensive. However, the ascension of BJP rule as the political party of RSS, this trend gained further strength in many fold. Under present Modi rule, the Hindutva ideology is ruling throughout as a natural general conscience, among every mainstream sections. Anti-Muslim / Minority offensive are continued with physical atrocities by challenging constitution and democracy at one side and legitimizing it on other side. Here we need to re-analyze the conventional position of measuring both Majority and Minority communal forces are as two side of same coin.  Even when both majority and minority communal forces are two sides of same coin in essence, their power relations and cultural hegemony are determining their level and gravity of their works. It doesn’t mean to simplify strengthened Muslim/minority communal forces who acts as counter force to Hindutva communal forces, however, it is politically incorrect to generalize Hindutva forces and Muslim / minority communal forces are categorically generalized as similar. In fact, by doing so, it ultimately helps Hindutva forces themselves. Our party need to resist such kind of approach along with all other kinds of Islamophobic approaches.

 

10.3 Some organizations emerging from Muslim minority sections are trying to resist the insecurity and alienation of Muslim population in general, even though some of them having communal character, even their work style and responses are energizing Sangh Parivar agenda. Such kind of organizations are also need to be part of broadest possible Anti-Fascist Movements. At the same time, we also need to expose the anti-democratic characters, reactionary positions and fascistic approaches of such organizations. Ultimately, the struggle against Fascism is also the struggle for the democratization of the entire society. We need to develop our approach to these kinds of organization by this kind of unity and struggle.

 

 

 

11. The Question of Ecology and Nature

 

11.1 Marxism teaches that capital does not only exploit labour for capitalist accumulation, but also nature for it. The aggressive capital at present era under its development paradigm is destroying nature and ecology which endangers the fate of the human race. In this perspective our party considers the contradiction between capital and nature as the fifth major contradiction.

 

11.2 The ecological destruction and consequent ‘global warming’ is leading to many catastrophes like the one witnessed in Uttarakhand in 2013 and similar calamities in many other areas. The ever increasing manner in which the ecologically fragile Himalayan Ranges are opened for devastating neo-liberal development schemes is threatening the vast Himalayan and Terai regions of India, Nepal and Bhutan and the water availability for Bangladesh. Similarly the Western Ghats and Eastern Ghats regions in South India are also confronting ecological destruction by corporate, mining mafias, real estate barons etc. The Party has taken initiative for studies on Himalayan, Terai regions as well as to work actively in Save Western Ghats Movement. Similarly, at state level also studies are undertaken to advance struggles for environmental protection. In recent past our party has gone through many struggles, including Bhangar movement, where saving nature and ecology became one of the main issues.

 

11.3 The movement against nuclear arms and against the existing and proposed nuclear plants is also taken up joining hands with scientists and environmentalists. The struggles against open cast coal mining are also developing in many parts of the country.  To co-ordinate all these activities nationally and internationally, the Forum for Ecological Protection and Alternative Development (FEPAD) is also launched.

 

 

12. Mobilizing Women and LGBTQIA+ for Liberation

 

12.1 Marxism teaches us that “the first class antagonism which appears in history coincides with the development of antagonism between man and woman in monogamous marriage and the first class oppression with that of female sex by male. Monogamy was a great historical advance, but at the same time it inaugurated, along with slavery and private wealth that epoch lasting until today, in which the well-being and development of one group are attained by the misery and repression of the other”. As Mao Tse Tung pointed out after the first wave of Cultural Revolution in China, the seizure of political power in pre-revolutionary countries and socialist transformation in post-revolutionary societies shall face ever surmounting problems so long as effective ways for the liberation of these ‘first slaves’ remain elusive.

 

12.2 Therefore, the Communist Party should stand firmly in favour of Women’s Liberation Movement. It should establish the link between the women’s liberation and the liberation of labour from the yolks of patriarchal capitalist-imperialist system. A communist party shall cease to be a communist party and the communist movement shall cease to be the communist movement if it fails to do that. In spite of much advancement the erstwhile socialist countries displayed many limitations in this field. We should take lessons from those experiences also.

 

 

12.3 The condition of women in India like countries is much more backward compared to that in the imperialist countries. The resistance to bring forward even superficial changes like providing 33% reservation in the elected bodies ensures that it is still not implemented. The influence of Manu Smriti’s declaration that ‘women do not deserve independence’ is still dominant. The caste system and religions perpetuate women’s backwardness. The rule of capital and market system under neo-liberalism has intensified women’s miseries. Woman and their body are made commodities increasingly. The present family system, even after its transformation to the nuclear one, still remains basically male dominated and conservative. While dowry system and denial of equal right to family property is rampant, even decadent systems like child marriage, devadasi system etc. still continue in some areas. The growth of communal forces and religious fundamentalism sponsored by the neo-Fascist ruling system has worsened women’s condition. Under the influence of the neo-colonial culture, as more and more female fetus are destroyed before birth in Haryana, Punjab like states, number of women compared to men is dwindling in these areas. As a result, a new type of women trafficking is taking place to these areas, ‘married’ from other states to do household work and to produce children. Not only do women bear the brunt of oppressive patriarchal institutions, they are also subjected to shameless commodification. Though the neoliberal feminist movements have pockets of influence in urban areas, they do not address the real issues of the masses of women like relation between the stranglehold of private property in all fields and women’s enslavement.

 

12.4 In spite of the glorious role played by the Communist Party in particular and the Communist Movement in general, still possess many backward understandings regarding women’s role in Communist Movement. As a result in spite of sincere desire to bring them into the movement and Party, the efforts have largely failed. This failure in return has dented the efforts to develop the Communist Party not only physically but spiritually as well.

 

12.5 The situation calls for conscious efforts to organize women at different levels to take up the task of their liberation, involving ever larger number of women by developing comprehensive and correct understanding on women’s movement and women’s role in communist movement. The Party should take active steps to assist the development of a powerful women’s mass movement.

 

12.6 Without a strong fight against the patriarchal mindset in and outside the party the women’s liberation cannot be achieved. It is not enough to organise women to eliminate the patriarchy. We also have to fight against the male psyche prevailing in and outside of the party. The fight against the male psyche is to be spread from the streets to the fields, from the homes to the offices, from the kitchens to the bed rooms. The party will strive for transforming the women-centred domestic work in to community-centered including the evolution of community kitchens.

 

13. Tasks in the Cultural Front

 

13.1 For quite a long time the tasks of cultural front has been understood as to build performing troops like groups for singing revolutionary songs or performing revolutionary dramas etc. The glorious past of IPTA like organizations has been cherished while it was forgotten that the real tasks in this field are much larger. No class in history could rule over the people by force only, if, at the same time it fails to establish the dominance and hegemony of its culture over the masses. Therefore, the revolutionary forces must establish and uplift their cultural influence to the stage of cultural hegemony in order to make a successful social change. Otherwise revolution cannot become victorious, or if it becomes, it cannot be sustained. Performing art is one of the tools to do that. The hegemony of the ideology of private property and imperialist culture along with continuing influence of feudal culture, religion and caste system are utilized to subvert revolutionary advances in various fields and to serve the imperialist system. We must oppose the imposition of imperialist culture, at the same time reject the old conservative ideas and blind faith, and strive to develop socialist culture throughout the country. As revolutionaries it is our duty to establish alternative progressive and revolutionary culture.

 

13.2 We are putting forward the Path of Revolution to complete the tasks of PDR, to realize People’s Democracy and to advance towards socialist revolution in our country at a time when drastic changes in the socio-political-cultural fields have taken place, unlike the Russian situation during October Revolution, or the conditions in China and other countries when revolutions took place there. With the advent of neo-liberalism the imperialist powers put special emphasis in the field of culture in order to capture the human minds using modern innovations in technological fields with anti-human, anti-social, patriarchal, religious, reactionary mode of thinking, habits and way of life. It is undoubtedly true that the communist movement so far has failed to launch a successful counter-offensive in cultural field. The question of Cultural Revolution is either neglected or reduced to mere formal phrase mongering.

 

13.3 Though Naxalbari uprising triggered a new earthquake in the cultural field also, it was short-lived. Soon, similar to what happened in the economic and political fields, in the art, literature and cultural fields also the neo-colonial, imperialist onslaught intensified in newer forms. The table of these reactionary trends is very long including new imports in art, literature and cultural fields, commercialization of education and all welfare sectors, neo-colonial projects in the field of research, cultural projects of World Bank and many other new incarnations of religious fundamentalism, advocacy of caste system and racism in new forms, attacks on women’s liberation, black acts to curb art and literature etc. They are obstructing people’s upsurges in all fields. What is required is an all-out offensive to reverse this situation.

 

13.4 Though many efforts are made to take up revolutionary cultural activities opposing the counter-revolutionary trends, they are localized, not widespread or protracted. They remain superficial or confined to immediate slogans, do not go to basic ideological issues involved. There are many among the revolutionary ranks who do not recognize the significance of a revolutionary cultural offensive; of transforming human thoughts and culture as a continuous process, as a basic task to be taken up right from the beginning. So while developing revolutionary activities the emphasis to be given to the work in the cultural field should be underlined. The content of cultural movement should be seriously debated and developed. Forms of organizations to be built in the cultural field also should be developed. While this task should be taken up at state level and regional level providing all the emphasis it needs, vigorous efforts are called for to build an all India cultural movement taking up its theoretical and practical aspects seriously. The steps taken to launch the cultural offensive at all India level have led to the formation of an All India Coordination of cultural activists with this perspective. Both at state and central level the offensive should be carried forward to serve the revolutionary transformation of society.

 

14. Mobilizing Students and Youths for Revolution

 

14.1Without active participation of the youths and the students no social and political movement can be successful. History teaches us if they are not mobilized in revolutionary politics the Fascist forces always drag them especially the most oppressed section of the youths for developing reactionary mass movements. The youth in our country have a glorious history of actively participating in the social renaissance movement, in the independence struggle and later in the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal struggles led by the Communist Party and other progressive movements. The role of Ashfaqullah Khan and Bhagat Singh and other revolutionary youth who challenged the colonial forces still inspire the youth. But with the transfer of power in 1947 and with the emergence of revisionist tendencies in the Communist Party, the youth started getting frustrated and influenced by retrogressive ideologies and the revisionists misled the youth, causing them to get disenchanted and disillusioned, turning them towards reaction. Many joined reformist and even reactionary forces. When the Naxalbari uprising created a revolutionary upheaval, once again thousands of youth joined the revolutionary movement. But influence of sectarian tendencies once again caused setback to this upsurge. The communist revolutionary movement failed to mobilize the youth into a countrywide organization with a revolutionary program. Though there were spurts of progressive activism during and after the internal emergency period, these were short-lived. At all India level the participation of the youth in the left movement went on decreasing.

 

14.2 In the meantime under increasing neo-colonization, especially after the imposition of neo-liberal policies, the challenges faced by the youths and students have intensified. The commercialization of education system and the neo-liberal syllabi are taking a large section of students undergoing higher education away from social realities. The commercialization has transformed higher education as an elite sector reserved for mostly the upper caste, upper class students. Unemployment and under-employment have become rampant. Even the already employed have started losing employment. At the same time vested interests are promoting imperialist culture, drug addiction and criminalization among them to prevent the frustrated youth from joining progressive movements. As a result, large sections of youth are influenced by retrogressive thinking and recruited in large numbers by communal, casteist and chauvinist forces on the one hand, and by the ruling classes as their storm troopers and in mafia gangs on the other.

 

14.3 However, in the new millennium with the rise of mass movements throughout the country once again increasing number of students and youths are coming in revolutionary movements. Starting from many struggles against displacement to the recent peasant movements including movements against the Saffron neo-Fascist forces like anti-NRC movements and in others a good number of students participated. In many electoral struggles also the participation of student, youths are evident. The task of the party is to politicize this whole lot of the young fighting people in the direction of revolution and collective struggle.

 

15. Combating Fascism

 

15.1. The ascendance to power of the BJP government today is distinctly different from the NDA coming to power in 1998. Under the backdrop of acute general crisis of capitalism this time it is an ascendance of Corporate-Saffron Fascist rule as a part of global upsurge of neo-Fascism.  The slogan of establishing the Hindurashtra actually means to establish the Fascist India. The dangers involved in this extreme rightist turn of Indian politics should be seen in the present international scenario when the US-led imperialists have succeeded to replace class struggle and national liberation movements against imperialist domination with ‘clash of civilizations’ in vast regions, promoting religious fundamentalism of all hues, and even Sunni-Shia conflicts in West Asia.

 

15.2 Developing correct strategy and tactical steps according to the new situation is a challenging factor in front of the Communist Movement as it is the qualitatively new situation which calls for newer and higher understanding on the ongoing class struggle. Since the Communist Movement is not strong enough to resist the neo-Fascist rule and neo-Fascist development in our country the Communist Party must be able to utilize wisely the contradiction between the Fascist section of the ruling class and the non-Fascist one.  At the same time the long pending responsibility to develop the Revolutionary Left Alternative before the people must be taken in hand without wasting time.  Developing broadest possible anti-Fascist unity on the one hand, and developing revolutionary alternative on the other are twofold task of the communist movement in India at present situation.

 

16. The Nationality Question

 

16.1 On the resolution of the nationality question, the Party Program states: “Ensure right of self-determination for all nationalities up to secession. The People’s Republic shall strive to unite people of various nationalities not by force, but by their voluntary consent. Settle the Jammu and Kashmir and Northeast questions by withdrawing army from there forthwith and through political means ensuring the right of self-determination.” India is a multi-national country, where even for the reorganization of the provinces which were constituted under British rule and by the princely states on linguistic basis bloody struggles had to be waged by the people in the 1950s. During the last five decades consecutive central governments have taken away many of the Constitutional rights of the states, propagating chauvinistic slogans like ”national integration’ or Akhandvada.

 

16.2 British colonialists who had forcefully ‘united’ the princely states into a colony for facilitating their plunder had pursued ‘divide and rule’ policy utilizing religious, caste, racist ideologies and the feudal forces. The unity achieved during the anti-colonial struggles are now subverted by the ruling classes after transfer of power. Fighting against this, the Communist Party should struggle for unity of all nationalities based on their right of self-determination up to secession.

 

16.3 With the development of capitalist mode of production, especially after imposition of imperialist globalization which speeded up the entry of FDIs, FIIs, MNCs etc. and strengthened the capital- market raj, uneven development, pushing up or pushing down various regions in the ladder of ‘development’ is becoming a stark reality. Instead of opposing the imperialist dictated ‘development’ policies implemented by the central and state governments responsible for it, different ruling class parties as well as comprador and petit-bourgeois classes are raising demands for statehood to these backward regions. In spite of the negative experience of these already formed small states where living conditions of the vast masses have not undergone any positive changes, demands for new states are continuously raised.

 

16.4 As Marxism teaches, the nationality question and the various movements emerging directly or indirectly linked with it are bourgeois questions. As many of the demands for new states are raised to divert people from the cardinal issues confronting them, the Communist Party should seriously guard against becoming a tail of these movements. At the same time, an approach of unity and struggle should be pursued, in order to win over the masses of people influenced by these struggles, with the perspective that along with demand for new states the basic issues of the people also must be raised.

 

17. Utilizing Parliamentary Forms of Struggle

 

17.1 Elections to provincial and central legislative assemblies were introduced from the colonial days in India. After the transfer of power, under the Constitution adopted in 1950, the parliamentary system was adopted at all levels. Today, elections to Lok Sabha to Panchayat level and even to co-operative societies and various other institutions are held regularly, drawing an ever increasing number of people. Even in pre-revolutionary Russia, experience in participation in the elections was partial and limited. In China and other countries where revolution took place, there were no experiences of utilizing parliamentary system as a form of struggle to develop class struggle. Still drawing from the experience of Second International and of the Communist parties in West European countries, Lenin had pointed out the need to struggle against parliamentary cretinism on the one hand, and the politics of boycotting elections as a strategic line on the other.

 

17.2 There is a revolutionary way and a reformist way of participating in elections. The CPI and the CPIM have over long decades demonstrated the latter. They have not utilized their governments to advance the class struggle, but rather to impose reactionary ruling class policies on the people. Revolutionary transformation of society has long ceased to be part of their election agenda. Taking a wrong lesson from this, the CPI(ML) adopted ‘boycott of election’ as a strategic line after its formation and, later, though many sections of the communist revolutionaries abandoned this line, the Maoist trend continues to practice it. If the CPI-CPIM’s reformist way of participating in elections has exposed its ideological bankruptcy and entrenched it in right opportunist positions, the boycott experience, on the other extreme, has proved totally negative. Even after giving the boycott call, the CPI (Maoist) has adopted opportunist tactics like supporting some of the ruling party candidates clandestinely, or openly, as of late. In very few places has it succeeded to ‘enforce’ its call for boycott. The methods it resorts to enforce boycott only alienate it further from the masses. In recent years the polling percentage in almost all parts of the country has been quite high. In the concrete situation in our country parliamentary struggle is one of the important forms of struggle. Giving primary importance to extra-parliamentary struggles, we must take up parliamentary struggle with due importance. For the development of extra-parliamentary struggles, it is extremely important to properly use the platforms of parliament and assemblies.

 

17.3 India is a country of more than 130 crores of people with the bourgeois parliamentary system well entrenched in every nook and corner for many decades at all levels. The Communist Party should utilize the bourgeois parliamentary system along with all other forms of struggle to develop class struggle in all fields, to unleash mighty people’s upsurges so that it can advance towards the revolutionary seizure of political power and put into practice people’s democracy.

 

18. Tactical and Strategic United Fronts

 

18.1 While the party always took efforts to develop United Fronts at different levels, the present neo-Fascist context in our country calls for developing this tactic with renewed vigor. In order to take up the numerous issues confronting the people, issue based joint activities have to be taken up uniting like-minded forces. These joint activities are possible in the working class field, in the agrarian front and in all mass movements uniting with other trade unions or TU centres to struggle for workers’ problems, in the agrarian front uniting with other like-minded forces. A broad-based, democratic approach should be developed to take up issues through these joint fronts or forums. Though these are based on issues and may continue only for a brief period, they help to highlight various people’s issues. Such joint activities will help the Party and class/mass organizations to spread out their activities to more areas also.

 

18.2 Experience shows that under slightest provocation the state machinery imposes black laws and uses terror tactics against the people. Democratic rights are taken away. Even peaceful mass movements are brutally suppressed. Functioning of party and class and mass organizations are obstructed. Against such day to day developments united democratic and civil right movements should be developed according to concrete conditions.

 

18.3 Advancing a step forward from these issue-based joint activities, as these struggles and the strength of the class/mass organizations further increase, possibilities for formation of political platforms for united front at state or country levels, lasting for a longer period, to take up more basic issues can be developed. Possibilities shall emerge to build intermediate level fronts, which shall help the development of class struggle. Every such possibility should be fully utilized.

 

18.4 In the present situation as the Modi government is intensifying the imposition of neo-Fascist neo-liberal policies combining with its Manuist or Manuvadi ideologies it is an urgent task to develop the Democratic People’s Forum or reorganize it as a broader forum of struggling left and democratic forces to take up state level and all India level movements mobilizing the masses. The party will have to take immediate initiative for it at state and all India levels.

 

18.5 For overthrowing the Indian state of the comprador bureaucratic bourgeois-landlord classes serving imperialism and to create conditions for establishing people’s democratic power, protracted efforts should be made according to concrete situation and level of development of people’s struggles by the Party to build up the strategic united front based on worker-peasant alliance and uniting with all genuine anti-imperialist, patriotic, democratic classes and sections.

 

19. The Path of Indian Revolution

 

19.1 India is a very vast country of 1.3 billion people. It has extreme diversities and unevenness. Therefore, a combination of all means and methods of struggle is extremely necessary. Our Party Programme says: “Upholding the path of revolutionary mass line, and utilizing all forms of struggle and organizations, the party should take initiative to mobilize the working class and all revolutionary classes and sections for a massive countrywide people’s uprising to overthrow the India state and to seize political power.”

 

19.2 While CPI CPIM like Social-Democratic Parties have abandoned the idea of revolution as a whole and completely drowned in parliamentary cretinism in one hand, the CPI (Maoist) like formations are advocating the path of “area wise seizure of power”. We reject both of these understandings as far as the path is concerned. However, it does not mean that we reject the possibility of seizing of local power in opportune moment. We strongly feel a combination of many different tactics is necessary and quite natural in a vast and diverse country like India. The understanding of establishing the “area wise seizure of power” as a line came from the false and erroneous concept that a pan-India revolutionary struggle is not natural in a country like India. However, many pan-India struggles including the present farmers’ movement show that pan-India revolutionary movements can be developed and must be developed to overthrow the Indian state. However, under the situation of countrywide upsurge the insurrection may take place or it also cannot be ruled out that the seizure of political power is first consolidated in a region and thereafter the whole country will be liberated.

 

19.3 The communist movement has weakened so much during the last few decades that even if the difficult but obligatory task of uniting all the Marxist-Leninist forces who advocate mass line and who have apparent identity of views on many issues is achieved, the Marxist-Leninist Party will not be strong enough to take up the gigantic task of completing PDR in a vast country like India. There is almost the same condition all over the world. These challenges have to be boldly faced and the subjective forces of revolution have to be strengthened, in which building up a powerful Bolshevik model party with all India influence is the most cardinal task. The Party has to build up a revolutionary people’s alternative challenging the ruling class alternatives, which are basically united in serving the existing ruling system. The Party has to utilize all forms of struggle effectively, with the perspective of seizure of political power, to complete the tasks of the People’s Democratic Revolution.

19.4 The great Telangana Struggle of 1946-51, in continuation to other anti-feudal struggles in different parts of the country, the naval revolt and Punappra-Vayalar uprising and numerous working class struggles of these years were the largest and most advanced revolutionary upsurges in the country. Telangana struggle taught how revolutionary agrarian struggles focusing on land to the tiller slogan led by the Communist Party and with the landless, poor peasants and agricultural workers at the helm, along with middle peasants and other sections of the peasantry, can lead toward the formation of village committees, organization of volunteer squads, development of resistance to landlords-police-goonda violence, and to the beginning of armed struggle against the reactionary state. The great Naxalbari uprising led to revolutionary uprising of landless, poor peasants and agricultural workers, including adivasis, dalits and other oppressed sections, in Midnapore, Mushahari, Lakhimpur-Kheri and Srikakulam. Though these struggles spread to the plains of AP and Bihar later, due to the domination of the sectarian line the movement could not be carried forward. The cardinal problem before the revolutionary movement was, and is, that while assimilating the revolutionary experience of all these struggles, how to develop a Path of Revolution conforming to the present conditions when it is under neo-colonial domination.

 

19.5 The ICM has the glorious history of the victory of October Revolution in Russia, the victories of revolutions in East European countries during 1944-45 with the defeat of fascist forces, the victory of the great Chinese Revolution in 1949. The Marxist-Leninist forces should take appropriate lessons from these revolutions as well as from their setbacks. But taking their experiences does not mean mechanically copying the experience of any of them or pursuing an eclectic mixture of their experiences. Taking experience from them means studying their experience, taking lessons from them and applying them according to the conditions in our country. The history of the ICM shows that in all these countries where revolution took place, there was no mechanical application of the path of other revolutions, and each revolution took its own course according to conditions of each country. The theory and practice of Indian revolution should be developed entirely based on the present conditions of India, assimilating whatever experiences can be taken from all hitherto revolutions.

 

18.6 Presently, though Indian revolution is in the People’s Democratic stage, what happened in the post-revolutionary situation in the erstwhile socialist countries, especially in Soviet Union and China, has to be evaluated and its lessons taken. For example, the experience in areas like party building, in developing the concept of democratic centralism, in developing appropriate methods for inner-party struggle, in guarding against emergence of bureaucratic tendencies, in organically developing concepts of building mass line and class/mass organizations, in avoiding the mistakes of mechanically de-linking the class struggle in economic base from that in the superstructure, in avoiding, for example in India’s context, the de-linking of anti-caste like movements from class struggle, in correctly dealing with the contradictions among the people, and in drawing appropriate lessons from the Cultural Revolution, etc have to be given cognizance.

 

20. Conclusion

 

20.1 The Path of Indian Revolution is put forward by our Party when the objective situation at the international level is once again becoming favourable for advancement of the revolutionary forces, and anti-imperialist resistance struggles are taking place around the world. In India, a very vast country with extreme diversities and unevenness, in spite of ten decades of Communist activities with a history of many historic struggles involving tens of millions of people, presently the strength of our Party is still not considerable. The challenge posed by right opportunist and anarchist trends is still very serious. Though Naxalbari uprising once again brought back PDR to the forefront of the people’s agenda, the Marxist-Leninist movement during the last four decades has not made any significant advances in this direction yet.

20.2 Fighting against all alien trends, the CPI (ML) Red Star is putting forward the Path of Indian Revolution according to present conditions. It stresses the great significance of building a communist party based on the Bolshevik model, surrounded by class/mass organizations at all India level, utilization of all forms of struggle to develop class struggle, and an advance towards the capture of political power starting from mass upsurges to mass uprisings and countrywide insurrections. Victory of the PDR is possible by developing the path of Indian revolution according to the different conditions of the neo-colonial phase of imperialist onslaught, assimilating the experience of all hitherto revolutionary struggles at the international level and in our country.