On Celebrating the 77th ‘Independence Day’
Let it be Observed as Struggle Against Fascism !
As arrangements are in full gear to celebrate the 77th ‘Independence Day’ on August 15, 2023, it certainly marks a significant milestone. For, in view of the madding pace at which corporatisation and saffronisation take place under the neofascist Modi regime, the forthcoming 2024 General Election will be critical, since it will be decisive as to how the 78th Independence Day will be celebrated.
Of course, while August 15 serves as a reminder of the formal end of British imperialist rule over Indian sub-continent, it was not the end of imperialist capital’s control over India. The so called ‘decolonisation’ and formal independence gave way to the postwar neocolonial phase of imperialism which being more ‘pernicious and sinister’ compared to the colonial phase, such that policy decisions in Afro-Asian-Latin American countries including India continued as per the diktats of neocolonial- neoliberal centres. It’s outcome has been horrific levels of wealth concentration, inequality, unemployment, poverty and corruption with its concomitant cultural degradation.
A best illustration of India’s continuing external dependence on US-led postwar imperialism is the latest information on the depreciating rupee itself. The record depreciation of Indian rupee below 83 mark against US $ and the biggest drain arising from underpricing of labour and resources on the eve of India’ s 77th Independence Day celebration marks its continuing neocolonial dependence and the fragility of its material basis.
While growing number of billionaires as junior partners of global MNCs having links with foreign tax havens flourish on the one hand, as pointed out by concerned statisticians and scholars, the largest number of people with multi-dimensional poverty inhabits India. Meanwhile, Indian state displaying itself as the big brother in South Asia continues to serve as the strategic junior partner of US imperialism in latter’s Indo-Pacific geopolitics.
Certainly, August 15 is the occasion for all patriotic Indians and democratic forces to pay tribute to the freedom fighters and martyrs who fought for country’s freedom from colonial oppression and liberation of the workers and all oppressed. However, as we know, India is notorious for its caste system, history’s most inhuman social institution, the ideological basis of which is Manusmriti that considers vast majority of Indians including Dalits and women as subhuman.
It was this that prompted Dr Ambedkar, Chairman of the Constitution Drafting Committee, to note that ‘social tyranny’ is thousand-fold oppressive than ‘political tyranny’. As such, over the years, the formal independence that India gained was used by the Brahmanical upper caste and billionaire class, through the regime at their disposal, to suppress and exploit the oppressed castes and the toiling millions. And crossing Indian borders, now caste has become capable even to transmigrate to Silicon Valley, the so called citadel of world’s frontier technologies.
As Ambedkar said, “democracy and self-government in India cannot be real unless freedom has become the assured possession of all…” According to him, the ‘nation’ was no ready-made thing to celebrate. Rather, it must be painstakingly built by identifying and demolishing the concrete foundations of inequality and oppression. Contrast this attitude with that of the RSS, which proposed Manusmriti as Indian Constitution at its drafting stage, and BJP, for which criticism on India’s political economy and critique of caste-ridden Indian society are anathema. Those who are questioning the majoritarian, divisive and discriminatory policies of the regime targeting religious minorities and ethnic groups that lead to horrors in Manipur and Haryana and elsewhere are branded as traitors and anti-nationals.
In this critical situation, on the occasion of the Independence Day celebrations, it is the solemn task of all of us, the people of India, to unite for defeating the corporate-fascist forces, and to strive forward for fulfilling the aspirations of the martyrs and freedom-fighters who laid their lives for a democratic society free from exploitation and oppression.
P J James
General Secretary
CPI (ML) Red Star
New Delhi
14th August 2023
