“Towards Struggle”

“Towards Struggle” *

BY Prof. N. SRINIVASAN, M.A.
(Andhra University, Waltair)

I

The inclusion of Jaya Prakash Narain in the Working Committee of the Indian National Congress by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is a significant event. It is a recognition of the growing importance of the left political forces in the country. It is also proof of the catholicity of the Congress, which admits all interests in the country to be represented in it and serves as a forum for the different shades of opinion that are to be found. Since the thirties there has been a marked growth of left political elements. Workers and peasants have become more politically conscious. This is, in no small measure, due to Jawaharlal Nehru who has been emphasizing in his speeches and writing the economic and international aspects of the freedom struggle more than the political. As a result, the Congress itself has developed an economic policy Gandhiji’s constructive programme and the National Planning Committee of the Congress illustrates this trend. The growth of the Congress Socialist Party and the Communist Party from almost insignificance to a considerable stature is also explained by the new outlook. That these new political forces will influence our future is obvious. What will be the nature of the influence? How would they affect our permanent political institutions and economic life? These are questions of the utmost importance and over shadow even such vital questions as the political freedom of the country and its relations with Britain. What is involved in the aspirations of these parties is nothing less than the substance of our freedom and the concrete content our independence.

Jaya Prakash Narain is the creator of the Congress Socialist Party. His career since he left College in answer to Gandhiji’s call to non-co-operation in 1921 is a remarkable one. Educated in the United States in half a dozen Universities, paying his way by work in farms and fields and graduating from Ohio, he returned to India in 1928 to become the Secretary of the Congress in its Labour Department and then to enter the national struggle in the thirties. After his release from prison he organised the Congress Socialist Party. He has been a frank critic of the Congress from within.

His organization of the 1942 events, after his escape from prison, to enforce the ‘Quit India’ policy of the Congress has made him one of the best known figures in the country today. An attempt will be made in what follows to summarize Jaya Prakash’s views of the future of India and of the present task of the national movement.

II

Jaya Prakash Narain’s approach to our problems is secular and socialist. The aim of the Party, which he has built up is two-fold: “the complete independence of India in the sense of separation from the British Empire and the establishment of a socialist society.” The first aim is the same as that of Congress. The second is its own Socialism is the only means for the economic freedom of the masses. The poverty and misery of the peasant and worker is explained by the existence of private property in the means of production and exchange. The problem should be attacked in its roots. This means the ending of the regime of private property. Political freedom alone has no meaning. The aims set forth in the Program of the Party are:
1. Transfer of all power to the producing masses.
2. Development of the economic life of the country to be planned and controlled by the State.
3. Socialization of key and principal industries (e.g., Steel, Cotton, Jute, Railways, Shipping, Plantations, Mines, Banks, Insurance and Public Utilities with a view to the progressive socialization of the means of production, distribution and exchange.
4. State monopoly of foreign trade.
5. Organization of co-operatives for production, distribution and credit in the unsocialized sector of economic life.
6. Elimination of princes, land-lords and all other classes of exploiters without compensation.
7. Redistribution of land to the peasants.
8. Encouragement and promotion of collective and co-operative farming by the State.
9. Liquidation of debts owing by the peasants and workers.
10. Recognition of the right to work or maintenance by the State.
11. “To every one according to his needs and from every one according to his capacity,” to be the basis ultimately of production and distribution of economic goods.
12. Adult franchise on a functional basis.
13. No support or discrimination between religions by the State, and no recognition of any distinction based on caste or community.
14. No discrimination between the sexes by the State.
15. Repudiation of the so-called Public Debt of India.

These ends cannot be achieved without power. No party in the world can establish socialism without the machinery of the State in its hands. The Party must capture power and keep it, to be able to embark on the task. Organization is the key to the problem–the organization of workers, peasants, and students. “Mass sanctions” should be forged and overwhelming popular support obtained for the Party.

There is hardly anything in all this that is not to be found in the programmes of socialist parties in Europe. From the point of view of the Congress Socialist Party the chief need would appear to be the winning of the Congress to the acceptance of this platform. It is hardly possible that the Party would succeed without substantial modifications in its programme. The programme as set out and the speeches and manifestoes in its favour here presented, are too general and hardly seem to take account of the difficulties in this way. A great deal more study and planning would have to precede the undertaking of any planned economic development by the State in India. If planned development is to succeed it must both be slower than here suggested and must attempt to maintain the goodwill of all the classes in the State. Its aims also should be more fully sketched. What, for instance, is the place of defence in the plan in a world that is not organized for peace? These are some of the issues which will have to be faced by the socialist planner of the future. No quick acceptance of the programme of the socialists by the Congress or the country is to be expected.

III

The differences of the Congress Socialist Party from the Congress on the immediate programme are the more important. These have become very marked. Jaya Prakash Narain has been consistently opposed to constitutional action, as, for instance, the working of the constitution. Such action, in his view, is irreconcilable with the maintenance of the revolutionary character of the national movement. For this reason Jaya Prakash opposed the working of the constitution of 1935 and now opposes the acceptance or the Cabinet Mission’s Proposals. Freedom can never be won through conferences discussions and diplomatic finesse. Freedom has to be achieved through revolution, peaceful or violent. Any plan of the British will divide us and postpone the day of freedom. A final struggle for freedom is unavoidable.

The Constituent Assembly of the Proposals is not a sovereign body, free to pursue whatever courses it deems necessary. It cannot, for instance, declare India a free republic and enforce its decision; it cannot set up a Provisional Government and force the Viceroy and the British Army to quit India. “It would be a grave folly to suppose that, in the existing circumstances and the present correlation of forces, it would ever be possible for the proposed Constituent Assembly to take any of these steps and achieve any of these objectives.” On the contrary, the Constituent Assembly, aware of its limitations, is more likely “to make compromise after compromise producing in the end neither freedom, nor democracy nor national unity.” The acceptance of the Proposals will let loose many forces of disintegration and bring to the fore both class and economic struggles.

This makes the divergence of the policy of the Congress Socialist Party from that of the Congress almost complete. The question arises: Can it function within the framework of the Congress? Jaya Prakash thinks that it should; it should prepare it for the inevitable struggle, and resurrect it from the parliamentary debris into which its leaders have led it. The struggle which Jaya Prakash visualises is best stated in his own words:

“The picture I have in view is this: first, atomization and dislocation of imperialism by such means as are most efficient; second, simultaneous building up of units of free government in both town and country and protection of these from attack–these local and regional swaraj governments, ultimately coalescing to form the free Republic of India. This pattern will naturally include any form of non-co-operation with the British power. It includes the struggle of the Congress Ministries from within the administrative system. It includes a total industrial strike. It includes the taking over of zemindari lands by the peasants. It includes a movement of the people of the States against the tyranny of the Princes. The outstanding feature that would distinguish this struggle from those gone before, including the rebellion of 1942, would be, to my mind, the emergence of responsible local and regional authorities, and the carrying out of the further tasks by these authorities themselves.”

The preparation for the struggle consists in the forging of mass sanctions. It consists first in “the psychological preparation of the masses for a struggle.” Secondly, it is the “building up organizations of the masses, such as peasant and labour unions, volunteer corps, students and youth organizations, village republics, weavers’ co-operatives and myriad other organizations which should help in different ways to develop the collective strength and consciousness of the people.” The Congress should also be strengthened. These are the immediate steps to be taken and for this he exhorts the Congress Socialists to organize. The details of the programme are very much like the constructive programme of Gandhiji.

It is unlikely that any large group of people in this country would agree with Jaya Prakash Narain in his belief that a struggle for power with the British is inevitable. The transition to political freedom might well be smooth as in the case of the British Dominions. The formation of the Interim Government would seem to bear out the determination of Britain’s. Socialist Government to help in the process of Indian self-government. It is difficult to see how, if a revolutionary struggle becomes inevitable, non-co-operation at this stage will help it. The forging of mass sanctions should be easier with the control of the government than without it. A revolution such as Jaya Prakash visualises must mean a great deal of blood-shed. Is there not a means of peaceful revolution, social and political, as Gandhiji has advocated?

But in the tasks of reconstruction much of what Jaya Prakash urges will be necessary. The time for agitation is past; the time for organization has come. We must organize the people for self-government. We must build up national unity. We must achieve communal harmony by approaching the masses straight and ceasing to fight about places in legislatures and jobs, and emphasizing economic problems. We must revitalise our villages by organizing co-operative enterprises, better sanitation and education. None of these tasks can be done by a Government alone. They need the active work of the political parties and of the people. In emphasizing this, and in chalking out a concrete scheme of work for the young men of the country, Jaya Prakash Narain has shown a way that the country must follow if it would build its house of freedom on sure foundations.

* Towards Struggle – Selected Manifestoes, Speeches and Writings–by Jaya Pakash Narain, Padma Publications, Bombay, 1946.