Politics of West Bengal
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Politics in West Bengal is dominated by the following major political parties, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Indian National Congress (also known as Congress(I)) and the Trinamool Congress. All three are leading a regional bloc of parties, the CPI(M) heads the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress has emerged as the main component of the National Democratic Alliance in the state. The Congress(I) generally head informal alliances of various minor parties that align ahead of elections.
In 1977 the Left Front won the state assembly elections, and since then the state is ruled by communists and other left groups. The West Bengal state government hold the Indian record of period of governance. The last election won by the Left Front was the 2006 state assembly election.
Until 2001, Jyoti Basu was the Chief Minister of the state. After his resignation, due to heath reasons, Buddhadev Bhattacharya is the Chief Minister of West Bengal.
Major political parties of West Bengal
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Email this story Left Govt must resign: MamataTimes Now.tv - 21 hours ago Questions about Chief Minister of West Bengal Buddhadeb Bhattacharya's political future are once again being raised following the latest rout of the ruling ... CPM's last fort falls Daily Pioneer Congress-TC wins Siliguri civic polls after 27 years Business Standard CPM, Trinamool fight over Bengal trainLivemint - - 15 hours ago ... a veteran Marxist member of Parliament has sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention against changing the name of a train in West Bengal. ... Rlys to purchase land directly from ownersTimes of India - - Sep 16, 2009 But for Banerjee, who is totally focused on the West Bengal elections due in 2011, the priority is to fend off the charge that railways is "displacing" ... Mamata dismisses UP land acquisition reports Times of India Greenfield world class railway stations soon Times of India Jumbos enjoy a day off at a wildlife sanctuary in West BengalDailyIndia.com - 3 hours ago ... used by the forest officials to supervise the area, enjoyed a royal treat at the Jaldapara Sanctuary in Jalpaiguri district of West Bengal. ... Catwalk, of & by the govtCalcutta Telegraph - 12 hours ago At Writers' Buildings on Thursday, state textiles minister Manabendra Mukherjee and former CPM MP and now West Bengal Khadi and Village Industries ... State FMs agree on 2-tier GSTTimes of India - Sep 16, 2009 There will be two rates, one standard rate and the other a lower rate for essential commodities," the empowered group chairman and West Bengal FM Asim ... States agree on two-tier GST Economic Times The best vs the good Business Standard WILL TO CHANGECalcutta Telegraph - Sep 16, 2009 The desire for change continues to define the current spell of politics in West Bengal. The results of the civic polls in Siliguri show that the people in ... Verdict makes signal stronger for Left Front Business Standard Opposition creating chaos in Bengal with US help: Biman Press Trust of India West Bengal scraps IT township projectTimes of India - Sep 7, 2009 KOLKATA: Within a year of Tata Motors pulling out of Singur and DLF from Dankuni, there is a shocker on the IT front in West Bengal. ... IT hub scrapping sad day for West Bengal: Infosys Economic Times West Bengal scraps Infosys, Wipro projects IBNLive.com Bengal in grasp, Mamata now eyes rest of countryExpressindia.com - - Sep 13, 2009 New Delhi ALong with her aggressive campaign to oust the Left government in West Bengal, Railway Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee is ... |
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Between 1988 and 1990, as the Cold War was winding down, pro-democracy protests broke out in several parts of the world — from China and Burma to Eastern Europe. The protests helped spread political freedoms in Eastern Europe and inspired popular movements elsewhere that overturned dictatorships in countries as disparate as Indonesia, South Korea, Taiwan and Chile. After the Soviet disintegration, even Russia emerged as a credible candidate for democratic reform.
The overthrow of a number of totalitarian or autocratic regimes did shift the global balance of power in favour of the forces of democracy. But not all the pro-democracy movements were successful. And the subsequent "colour revolutions" only instilled greater caution among the surviving authoritarian regimes, prompting them to set up countermeasures to foreign-inspired democratisation initiatives.
Two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the spread of democracy unmistakably has stalled. Democracy may have become the norm in much of Europe, but in the world's largest and most densely populated continent, Asia, only a small minority of states are true democracies, despite the eastward movement of global power and influence. The strategy to use market forces to open up tightly centralised political systems hasn't worked in multiple cases in Asia — the pivot of global strategic change.
Political homogeneity may be as inharmonious with economic advance as the parallel pursuit of market capitalism and political autocracy. But where authoritarianism is deeply entrenched, a marketplace of goods and services simply does not allow a marketplace of political ideas.
In fact, one such model distinctly has emerged stronger. China is now the world's largest and oldest autocracy, with leadership there now preparing to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. To help glorify the communist revolution, the leadership has planned a mammoth military parade — the largest ever — along with a repeat of some of the Beijing Olympics glitz at the October 1 anniversary. Those Olympic-style celebrations will serve as a double reminder: China has not only weathered the international democratisation push, but also has emerged as a potential peer rival to America. Today there is talk of even a US-China diarchy — a G-2 — ruling the world.
China's spectacular rise as a global power in just one generation under authoritarian rule represents the first direct challenge to liberal democracy since the rise of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Through its remarkable success story, China advertises that authoritarianism is a more rapid and smoother way to prosperity and stability than the tumult of electoral politics. Freedom advocates in existing autocracies may be inspired and energised by the international success stories of democratic transition. But the regimes that employ brute power and censorship to subdue dissidence clearly draw encouragement from the China model.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/opinion/comments-analysis/Rise-of-authoritarian-capitalism/articleshow/5024653.cms
American Academia and the Survival of Marxist Ideas charges academics in the United States, especially in the humanities and social sciences, with assimilating models based on Marxism. Dario Fernandez-Morera questions research and theory in the academy, and provides access to critiques of Marxist assumptions and policy implications from a wide range of eastern European authors. Unfortunately, his methodologies cannot support his political contentions, which range beyond his areas of expertise, and expose severe contradictions in his own work.
Fernandez-Morera critiques what he calls materialist discourse in the first two sections of the book, outlining key accommodations to Marxism. He critiques progressive academic models as essentially materialist and naively Marxist, having "built-in provisions allowing any sophisticated academician to dissolve all ... contradictions between theory and empirical data" (p. 10). He broadly charges U.S. progressives with axiomatic flexibility and conflates all such models with "collectivist assumptions" and the politicization of society toward Marxism, fascism and national socialism. Connecting a wide range of theorists to "political correctness, masquerading as multiculturalism.," he asserts the "hegemony of the collective" and attacks "socially constructed" knowledge (including interdisciplinary area studies). He concludes that the "Usually unstated thesis of PC (sic) in America is also the collectivist Marxist approach" (p. 39).
Overall, his evidence or theoretical rationale for any widespread acceptance of Marxist ideas in the academy in weak By drawing on opinion-editorial newspaper columns, or in one case, another scholar's analysis of the publication history of a single humanities journal, he conflates all references to models of educational and/or social change with Marxism. Out of curiosity for what he accepts as evidence, I measured column inches in the 1996 Social Science Citation Index. Citations of Marx and Marxism (48 inches) when compared to Talcott Parsons (a conservative sociologist with 36 column inches of citations) hardly prove the hegemony of Marxist ideas.
Fernandez-Morera describes non-functionalist models of society (he uses the code words of"non-individualist feminism" to reflect "women's studies") by avoiding their wide range of theories, and merely deriding their existence. He consistently places concepts and approaches from many perspectives in quotation marks (a strategy he states is offensive in the treatment of truth). He quotes from progressive scholars, but never provides a named identity, except in footnote form. He entitles scholars and groups with dripping sarcasm, as a "leading feminist philosopher of science" (but never by name, as in Sandra Harding's work), or "the equally courageous national leadership made up of all progressive academicians." In contrast, he exhaustively cites by name anti-Marxist writers from eastern Europe. These citations should be of interest to scholars in historical and contemporary debates over Marxism. But his strategies highlight the struggles of voice and identity raised by other scholars. Fernandez-Morera belittles those who use words instead of data, but himself uses the verbal politics of identity throughout.
The notion that science can be a political construction is particularly offensive, and he derides sociologists of knowledge for putting "truth" in quotes and "shackl(ing science) with correct politics." In contradiction to his allegiance to some form of science, Fernandez-Morera relies on anecdotal evidence or random pieces of evidence without identifying a consistent strategy for developing a proof of his own contentions. He cites a few social science course outlines to support his claim of ubiquitous liberal bias. On innate intelligence, he presents a random series of "facts", and then neatly asserts that research which challenges his conclusions simply illustrate collectivist thought which "virtually monopolize(s) materialist discourse".
In two following sections on Marxist Approaches to Ethics, he lambasts the pursuit of socioeconomic equality through education. He identifies affirmative action solely as a barricade to the "idea that superiority or excellence exist as objective facts of human life ..." and to "keep these superior people down" (p. 69). He draws parallels between communism and affirmative action and equates egalitarianism
The political and economic philosophy of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in which the concept of class struggle plays a central role in understanding society's allegedly inevitable development from bourgeois oppression under capitalism to a socialist and ultimately classless society.Forgotten Past now!
Political, social, and economic theories of Karl Marx. Applied Marxism, in an economy, results in either a communist economy or a heavily socialist economy.But Bengali Marxists Post Modern run Blind on the super Highway of Marxist Capitalism resultant in Authoritarian Capitalism!
Thus, they lick the Dust!Mind you, Part of Soviet education is the use of the folktale with a message. This message includes forming attitudes toward foreigners. Among the foreigners so depicted are capitalists and businessmen. For fruitful negotiations with the Soviets, it will pay to know how they view their Western counterparts.
Capitalism fosters large-scale economic and social development but produces conditions which hamper its development (See Marxist geography). Through systematic impoverishment of the masses, it creates a proletariat of exploited industrial workers who sell their labour as a marketable commodity. It is suggested that the proletariat will eventually rebel to emancipate mankind as a whole. This rebellion will put an end to all class distinction and all forms of exploitation. The sense of depersonalization and powerlessness felt by the working class will cease as the means of production become common property.
A majority of the respondents said the packages had spurred firms to raise their activities.
"Going ahead, India will see an improvement in its growth performance," Ficci's business confidence survey for the first quarter of 2009-10 said. The business confidence index for the April-June period moved up to 67.2 from 64.1 in the last quarter of 2008-09 (January-March).
However, the poor progress and spread of monsoon this year could put a damper on economic growth, the chamber found on the flip side.
On expectations about the overall economic conditions, the survey said, "We see that close to 73 per cent of the companies feel that things will improve in the coming six months."
Performances are likely to improve in the near term, with major segments posting good growth in the first quarter of this fiscal and global recession showing signs of easing.
Four out of five respondents felt that the stimulus measures were having a tangible effect on the country's economic performance.
In the first quarter of this fiscal, India's GDP grew 6.1 per cent even after the global financial meltdown.
In the survey, 372 companies participated from sectors such as textiles, cement, steel, leather, chemicals and fertilisers, oil and gas, auto and machinery.
You wait ages for an interesting meeting on Marxism to come along, then two show up at once. The credit crunch seems to have injected a new vigour into ideas that many thought buried back in the 20th century. Whilst Gordon Brown and others members of the political and financial elite are talking about reviving Keynesianism, there's also been a more muted, but potentially more encouraging, renewal of interest in the ideas of Marxism to help understand the contemporary situation.
One sign of this has been two meetings held to promote the publication of a 'luckily' timed new edition of the Communist Manifesto. David Harvey, a professor at the University of New York and prominent Marxist theorist, the author of the introduction of the new edition, spoke at both, managing to attract some well known proponents of Marxism to the panels, and a surprisingly large and young audience, for both events. At the first debate at LSE, Harvey was joined by Leo Panich, a professor at York University, Ontario, and Meghnad Desai, Emeritus Professor at LSE, and possibly the only self-professed Marxist member of the House of Lords. The second, at the ICA, had Harvey in conversation with Frank Furedi, professor of sociology at the University of Kent, chaired by Seamus Milne, the Guardian journalist.
Harvey's introduction at both debates was fairly similar. Comparing the New York fiscal crisis of the 1970s with the current crisis, he maintained the current crunch wasn't the 'end of neoliberalism' as many had claimed, but in fact fully consistent with it. The real nature of neoliberalism as a 'class project' to cement the power of the bourgeoisie is being continued by the financial domination over the state that the 'bailout' represents, along with the massive centralisation of wealth and tendency towards monopolisation that is accompanying the downturn. He suggested the capitalist class might face a 'crisis of legitimation' to go with their economic one, as their talk about the free market bringing liberty and riches for all increasingly comes into conflict with the reality of having to impose austerity on the working class.
Meghnad Desai took a slightly different tack, arguing that whilst the works of Marx are relevant, traditional 'Marxism' may not be. He said that Marx understood that crises aren't some kind of defect of the capitalist system, but an inherent part of its operation. He also examined how ideology changes as capitalism develops, suggesting that social democracy and Keynesianism are just as capitalist ideologies as neoliberalism. He also defended the continuing progressive elements of capitalism, suggesting that the neoliberalism of the 1980s and 90s did more for third world development than aid programmes, by allowing capital to move to more profitable sites of production in India and China. He reminded the audience that western consumption had been underwritten by third world surpluses in recent years. He argued that capitalism's democratising tendencies – 'capital respects no borders' – would be seen in coming years, as trade rules, for so long dominated by the G7, would be redesigned to benefit the emerging economies. He finished by suggesting two tasks for those looking towards Marxism at the current conjuncture; to understand the incomplete nature of Marx's critique of capitalism and aim to advance and develop it, and to understand why capitalism holds enduring appeal to many, particularly in China and India.
Panich began by asking two questions: does the aspiration for thoroughgoing social change expressed by Marxism still exist; and if so, are the analytical tools provided by Marxist thinking still capable of theorising and expressing that aspiration? He took a look at the state of the contemporary left in the US, who have a tendency to either advocate the most unrealistic populist demands, or only push for small reformist concessions. Their inability to come up with a coherent and persuasive response is evocative of isolation from the working class; making radical demands in the abstract, without a base of support, (such as Michael Moore's proposal that Wall Street not be bailed out), is unconvincing. Panich argued that 'state vs market' dichotomy that many on the left believed in was wrong, and that a Marxist interpretation of the state could understand why. He suggested that we had to understand the development and failure of working class parties in the 20th century, and begin to rebuild the democratic solidarity that had created them the first time around.
Two days later, Furedi's response to Harvey's assessment of the situation was, like Desai, to suggest a reassessment of some elements of what is generally understood to be the Marxist politics. Furedi argued that whilst much of Marx's critique of the economic operation of capitalism was very pertinent at the moment - the tendency of the rate profit to fall, overproduction, etc., - other factors had made it more an historical document than something of immediate relevance. Furedi argued the Manifesto underestimated the ability of capitalism to restructure itself, overestimated the political maturity of the working class, and, understandably, did not anticipate the 20th century experience of fascism, Stalinism and capitalist restructuring, which effectively destroyed the political independence of the proletariat as a class. He suggested that much of what passes for 'anti-capitalist' politics nowadays is pale shadow of its former incarnations – Marx's politics was more than the redistributionism that so often passes for left wing thinking nowadays, and that much of society had given up on the modernist project altogether.
The audience contributions at both debates covered a plethora of issues ranging from whether China and India would become imperialist powers, despite their colonial experience, to the role of business schools in articulating capitalist thinking.
Time Magazine with Keynes on the front cover, December 31, 1965
At the LSE event, some of the questions focused on the usefulness of Marxism, with accusations that it is an 'economic determinist' philosophy. Harvey defended Marx, describing the multifaceted and subtle understanding of how the various 'moments' of social existence – nature, the economy, politics, ideology, religion – all impacted and changed each other as society advanced. Other questions challenged Desai, suggesting that he had an overly passive view of the situation, and that the working class needed to organise to combat the recession. He defended himself, suggesting that Marx's concept of a socialist society was to be achieved by developing through capitalism and transcending it. 'We tried socialism within capitalism, which was European social democracy, which didn't work, we tried socialism outside of capitalism, in the USSR, which was barbaric. Socialism will come through developing beyond capitalism.' He accused many Westerners of becoming disillusioned with the developmental side of capitalism just as it was beginning to produce results for the third world.
On the Thursday, I asked Harvey if he was overestimating the inclination of the working class to spontaneously organise – why would a recession lead to activity rather than passivity? And to Furedi, I asked what the implications of his diagnosis were – should we, like Desai had advocated two nights earlier, just sit back passively and let capitalism play itself out? Other questioners perused a similar line, one suggesting that previous defeats for the working class movement, such as that in 1848, had been catastrophic, but militants had picked themselves up to try again. Why couldn't we do the same even despite the experiences of the 20th Century?
Harvey agreed there is no linear relationship between recession and radicalism, as the individualised response of criminality had been one outcome of previous recessions; however he said that Furedi's focus on the depoliticised western working class ignored forces 'on the periphery' who were still militant, such as the south American left led by Hugo Chavez, and the recent overthrow of the Nepalese monarchy by a coalition led by Maoists. Furedi spoke of his experience as a child during the 1956 Hungarian revolution; how a passive and defeated people had very rapidly rediscovered their ability to make history, through the right ideas being available at the right time. However he warned that contemporary radicalism, which more resembled the 'reactionary socialism' critiqued by Marx in the Communist manifesto, was not going to provide any way out of the current depoliticised impasse.
All in all, these question and argumentative discussions represented a real step up from the usual one dimensional agit-prop that characterises many left wing meetings. Whilst I by no means agreed with all (or any) of the speakers, their attempt to really get to grips with the current situation was refreshing. Furedi and Desai's realism seemed most convincing to me – they looked at the world as it is, complete with a depoliticised working class and a shift in power to the east - not how they would have liked it to be (a common fault on the left).
But the problem of what we can actually do with these insights remains. Desai's idea that we can sit back and wait for capitalism to exhaust itself might have a reassuring feeling of historical inevitability about it, but is an essentially passive stance. Capitalism's continued development is by no means assured – in fact, until the 1990s, it was largely impossible for the capitalist system to bring real economic development to anywhere outside of the old 'big powers' of the G7. And the idea of the development of human society as a predetermined linear process separate from political intervention (common amongst many Marxists in the early 20th century) was blown away in 1917 by Lenin's seizure of power in semi-feudal Russia.
Furedi's idea of the historical defeat of working class consciousness has its potential problems too. Whilst the fact that 'there is no alternative' to the market, at least in any real sense, is a pretty much objective fact, and the collective solidarity of the old working class is long gone, the course that we take from that realisation is by no means fixed. Do we attempt to create afresh an understanding of the limited nature of the capitalist system in the group of people (the working class) with the means and motive to overthrow it? Or do we, as Furedi has suggested elsewhere, 'defend capitalism from its small-minded opponents' (1), as they present a greater threat to the broader project of human emancipation than capitalism itself, at least in the short term? I'd contend that those enemies of progress may prove less of a daunting obstacle if we confront what drives and sustains them, and what ultimately they are complicit in – the irrational nature of our current society.
Although clearly much work needs to be done, these meetings were an encouraging starting point for understanding just that irrational basis for our current economic difficulties, and perhaps for beginning to change them.
(1) Furedi F, Capitalism after the 'credit crunch': what is it good for?, spiked 30 November, 2008
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5872/
NEW. Watch live television from Ghana plus the latest Ghanaian movies plus OBE TV.
MEMO
The year 1989 marked a dramatic watershed in the history of communism and in ideological history generally. Commencing in April with student-led 'democracy movement' demonstration in Tiananmen Square in Beijing and culminating in November in the fall of the Berlin Wall, the division of Europe into capitalist West and communist East, according to Heywood (2003), was brought to an end. "By 1991 the Soviet Union, the model of orthodox communism, had ceased to exist. Where communist regimes continue, as in China, Cuba, Vietnam, North Korea and elsewhere, they have either blended political Stanlinism with market-oriented reform (most clearly in the case of China) or suffered increasing isolation- as in the case of North Korea," Heywood argues.
So there is a growing concern not only within the Convention Peoples Party (CPP) functionaries and sympathizers but also among most Ghanaian traditionalists and the academia in general, over the burning question over whether or not Dr Kwame Nkrumah- a perceived sympathizer of these nations, was a communist agitator and/or social democrat. And if no to communism, whether or not the ruling National Democratic Congress under the leadership of President J.E.A. Mills, could be labelled as one of the Nkrumahist families. The research, as it shall be shown here, raises many complexities and calls for honest and critical consideration of all relevant issues being advanced, hence a review of the 22 January1966 speech delivered by the Osagyefo at the formal inauguration of the Volta River Project- barely a month before he was deposed in a coup.
The Problem
Learned Comrades, you recently requested for a research on "what if Dr Nkrumah were to be alive and president of Republic of Ghana today" so as to be able to distinguish Convention Peoples Party from the National Democratic Congress. We file in abridge the speech on the inauguration of Akosombo Dam that might be of interest to the New CPP.
In our earlier work- A Death of Nkrumahism: Why CPP Is A Broken Home, we revealed that there are two products of Nkrumahism- the Nkrumahists who enjoy the fruits of capitalism and all its associated socio-economic and political innovation but disdain its related ideological hardships and economic biases- unfairness and imbalances in the distribution of global wealth and justice. We may call them the "anti-imperialists, internationalists or say, devout Pan-Africanists. Then are those who attempt to profess that all that Nkrumahism means or stood for- are that "Independence Now" against the "arms-twisting matemeho of Independence in the shortest possible time" of yesteryears. Indeed there could be a "third force" that enjoys the trappings of both- Die Neue Mitte?
Although the ideological pathways of both the New CPP and NDC appear conflicting and unclear, application of the often bored such ancient political rhetoric and terminologies as imperialism, colonialism, bourgeoisies, proletarianism, Marxism and Leninism by its so-called die-hards or self-righteous stalwarts and crusaders, calls for the definition and consideration in passing communism and social democracy. Social democracy, according to Andrew Heywood (ibid), is a moderate or reformist brand of socialism that favours a balance between the market and the state, rather than the abolition of capitalism. Communism is a belief in the principle of the common ownership of wealth; and as Heywood puts it, broadly refers to movements or regimes that are based on Marxist principles. In the opinion of Marx, a social revolution is qualitative change in the structure of society; which involves a change in the mode of production and the system of ownership. This is in the context of state socialism, which as Heywood describes it, acting in theory, seeks to control and direct economic life in the interest of the people.
Thus to the communist, the self or person is constituted through the community in the sense that there are no 'unencumbered selves'. Thus individuals, in the words of Heywood (ibid), are shaped by communities to which they belong and that owe them a debt of respect and consideration. For example, whereas the left-wing communitarianism holds that community demands unrestricted freedom and social equality, centrists communitarianism- such as social democracy/British Tory, holds that community is grounded in an acknowledgement of reciprocal rights and responsibilities. At the same length, the right-wing communitarianism- as in the case of the new right, believe that community requires respect for authority and established values. It is arguable but perhaps undeniable fact that with its so-called "Central Committee" (CC)), communism is often associated with authoritarianism- a belief that strong central authority- here absolute obedience to its principle, imposed from above, is either desirable or necessary.
Obviously, this is vast in contrast to capitalism, an economic system in which wealth, in the words of Heywood, is owned by private individuals or business and goods are produced for exchange, according to the dictates of the market. This is often cited as privatization… the transfer of state assets from public to private sector reflecting a contraction of the state's responsibilities… The brutal form of privatization without human-centred approach, in our judgement, could be inimical to a developing country like Ghana, where the tax base appears weak, porous and generous to affluent owners of capital in the production of goods and services at the expense of the vast majority of ordinary citizens. The Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah is seen as great egalitarian- one with a strong desire in the promotion of equality at all levels of human endeavours. Egalitarianism is sometimes seen as the belief that equality is the primary political value.
Yet Heywood submits that equality, the principle that human beings are of identical worth or are entitled to be treated in the same way; can have widely differing imports. Notwithstanding the principle of democracy- the rule by the people; that implies both popular participation and the veiled assumption that government acts in the public interest, the saga of ex-gratia, the sale of tractors to politicians at generous terms and the current news report dashing cars and cash to political serial callers, could yes, raise objectionable definition to political ideologies, at least, where Ghana is our preference. Both the Osagyefo and Rawlings share the basic principle of a "revolution- defined as a fundamental and irreversible change, often a brief but dramatic period of upheaval; and systematic change in the name of proletariat. A term often used by the Marxist to mean a class that subsists through the sale of its labour power? Strictly speaking, the rhetoric term as Heywood rightly puts it, is not equivalent to the working class (manual workers).
With these complexities, we suggesed and indeed concluded that the ability of the New CPP to cart a vicious political path of 21st century will go a long way of tracing and yes, overreach the true treasures of Kwame Nkrumah, who held so much for Ghana and the World but how could they do it? Unlike the known remote route(s): guerrilla/military uprising or Positive Action, associated with the believers of "classless society"- today, there seem to be shared assumption that all Nkrumahists are social democrats- in that they wish to achieve political power through the ballot-box, where the Will of the people, is exercised. Yet the ideological principle of CPP is confused if not utterly misinterpreted.
For most 'Latter Days Nkrumahists' and indeed the so-called remnants of Young Pioneer, Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah is/was an anti-imperialist "Black Messiah". Imperialism is defined by Heywood (ibid) as the extension of control by one country over another, whether by overt political means or through economic domination. To them, this could be evil only where the imposing nation is/was a western country. Sitting in comfort and freedom in their western-designed mansions and innovations, they glue themselves to their sofas and browse through various webpages and indeed combing through different newspapers of their choice, they scorn everything about free market- the principle or policy of unfettered market competition, free from government interference. Yet, these self-acclaimed Nkrumahists talks of freedom (or liberty)- the ability to think or act as one wishes, that is often associated to every individual, a social group or a nation?
Reasoning like most orthodox Christians still awaiting for the coming of the "True Messiah", they appear to be motivated by the dictatorship of the proletariat, the term that Marx used to denote the transitionary phase between the collapse of capitalism and the establishment of full communism, characterized by the establishment of a temporary proletarian state in Ghana and, to the larger extent, the whole land mass of Africa. This is wrong and runs counter to the true political consciousness of the Man Kwame Nkrumah whom they profess to be their saviour. Indeed in his final official speech delivered while inaugurating the Volta River Project (22 January1966), President Nkrumah hinted that Ghana is a small but very dynamic independent African state which was trying to reconstruct its economy and to build a new, free, and equal society. And to do this, he said we must attain control of our own economic and political destinies if we were to be able to create higher living standards for our people and free them from the legacies and hazards of a colonial past and from the encroachments of neocolonialism.
Yet Dr Nkrumah underlined the world of contradictions which he explained as something that somehow, help keep our world going. So, the Osagyefo who described Edgar Kaiser, President Eisenhower, and President Kennedy as genuinely interested in the Akosombo Dam because they saw behind the cold figures and the rigid calculations, that the Volta River Project was not only an economically viable project, but also an opportunity for the United States to make a purposeful capital investment in a developing country, advised: "In such a world we certainly need great friends. The United States is a capitalist country. In fact, it is the leading capitalist power in the world today. Like Britain in the heyday of its imperial power, the United States is, and rightly so, adopting a conception of dual mandate in its relations with the developing world. This dual mandate, if properly applied, could enable the United States to increase its own prosperity and at the same time assist in increasing the prosperity of the developing countries."
The Political Observation and Application
We are commenting on an impasse of the 1960s, an era marked by heightened cold war ideological tensions that centred on the hearts and minds of the world populations- specifically, between the US and Soviets, not forgetting its peripheries and satellite states such as East Germany in Europe, China in the Asia and Cuba, in the Americas. The Osagyefo was undoubtedly, a trusted friend to all of them, yet he cannot, arguably, be described as communist but loosely defined, as a social democratic, although he saw himself as Nkrumahist and in the period under consideration, ruled out active multi-party democracy. The final shift in the meaning of social democracy, according to Heywood (ibid), occurred by the mid-twentieth century, and resulted from the tendency among parties not only to adopt parliamentary strategies, but also to revise their socialist goals. Thus, western social democrats at that point no longer sought to abolish capitalism but rather to reform or 'harmonise it. They therefore came to stand for a broad balance between the market economy, on the one hand, and state intervention, on the other.
Thus Dr Kwame Nkrumah was himself not an enemy to capitalist economy and the fruits that mutual co-operation of nations might bring to its people, although he sometimes appeared to have had his reservations about them. Otherwise he would not have made reference to the late President Kennedy and President Eisenhower and Edgar Kaiser, who he described as friend and whose faith and enthusiasm for the Volta Project ((according to the Osagyefo who once said at Ghana's independence declaration that Africa, is ready to fight its own battles)), provided the spark that brought the Volta Dam to life when the prospects for its continuation were at their lowest ebb and that it was a pity that Edgar's father, Henry Kaiser, who had been a lower of strength and inspiration to Edgar and the Osagyefo himself throughout their efforts on the Dam, cannot be with them on that day.
"By this inauguration ceremony, our great and dynamic party, the Convention People's Party, has kept faith with the people. In our party election manifesto in 1951, we made a promise that we would do everything possible to bring the Volta River Project into being. From that time, this scheme has been one of our greatest dreams. My faith in it never faltered, in spite of the disappointments and frustrations created by the difficult and intricate financial negotiations involved. I have on a previous occasion told the story of my meeting with Edgar Kaiser in New York in 1958, which proved to be an important watershed in the story of this scheme. I cannot minimize the part played by Chad Calhoun as an intermediary between me and Edgar. My meeting with Edgar Kaiser illustrates the way in which individuals of faith and goodwill can contribute to close relations between peoples and nations, between governments and governments." According to Pan-African Campaigner Kwame Nkrumah, it was on this common ground of our mutual respect and common advantage that our two countries-Ghana and the United States of America-made the contact from which grew this project. "The result of this contact is living proof that nations and people can cooperate and coexist peacefully with mutual advantage to themselves despite differences of economic and political opinions," he said. Judging from the Ghanaian history and culture, there is little evidence to suggest whether Ghana could have been transformed to communist state that we Saw OR SEE around the world. There appears to be strong evidence that Nkrumah would not have supported the "brutal form of capitalism or could have succeeded in driving the African into communist federations- the powers that be would have yes, opposed it. And the Osagyefo, who in his own words, believed in the collaboration of states for a better world as JusticeGhana sees it below, couldn't have pushed it through with force of arms.
"The Volta River Project was a concrete symbol of the type of international cooperation which can, to quote my friend Edgar Kaiser, help to "forge world peace." It is perhaps the greatest tragedy of today's world that billions of dollars, rubles, and pounds should be spent every year on military armaments and on wars. If the money wasted on wars and war preparations were invested in projects like the one spread out before us, these enormous capital funds could revolutionize the economies not only of the developing world, but also of the developed countries. It would in fact eliminate what is the major threat to world peace, namely the ever-widening gap between the developed and the developing nations. Unless this gap is closed, no peace effort of any kind can save mankind from ruin and ultimate destruction," Nkrumah said on 22 January1966. Perhaps this is one of the most honest texts worth considering alongside the entrenched scripts in Nkrumahists' Torah such as: Class Struggle in Africa (1970); The Struggle Continues (1973); I Speak of Freedom (1973) and the Revolutionary Path (1973)? Thus the current crops of Nkrumahists are trapped in citations that offer little or no hope to Nkrumahism.
CPP At Crossroads?
Yes, in sum, permit us to conclude that save the ongoing political and ideological takeover and acquisition, there seems to be no available political or academic work(s) to be attributed to Professor Mills on Nkrumahism. Yes, Rawlingsism and Nkrumahism share some sort of "personal and political similarities"- at least on power and national wealth distribution. The political complication here is that the Ghanaian had been confused over the difference between CPP and NDC when summoned to give their political verdict. And since it could hardly be impossible for any political party in Ghana today to survive two political terms, such a political collaboration might be a suicidal for CPP. At least not where it is being forced on throats to concede that P(NDC)- that mortgaged strategic monuments and legacies, and whose sole founder had said that Nkrumah achieved nothing for Ghana but national flag and anthem, is one of the Nkrumahist parties? A Death and yes, Changing Faces Of Nkrumahism, one might argue.
Reflections
We are yet to witness a day in the Kingdom of Great Britain, where political power, will slipped from the grips of Labour to the Liberal Democrats rather than the Conservatives. Perhaps the greatest enemy to the survival of the New CPP and Nkrumahism, Nelson Mandela (once accused communist) who birth day attracts inter-continental personalities such as the Queen of England, might have thought, is not the perceived (neo)colonialist imperialist west but rather the inability of the New CPP, to alter some of its conflicting historical accounts and verses in his holy books that hold it not only to perpetual slavery and subjugation but also put its credibility and autonomy, in doubt. They have a choice.
http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/artikel.php?ID=168763
15 September 2009 :: J.E. Robertson
Capitalism is "survival of the fittest"… capitalism is rooted in the idea of merit; everyone should be compensated according to his or her contribution (to the common good?)… capitalism is about the movement of capital; the more it moves, the richer everyone gets… capitalism is an upgraded feudalism, where the capitalist is an overseer of an abstract terrain made up of investments, not of arable lands… capitalism is democracy; the free spirit of an open society requires capitalism to support the liberties of individual citizens, and protect against government overreach… capitalism is virtue… or, capitalism is the absence of virtue…
These are just a few commonly held ideas, not all compatible with one another or with reality as we know it. Depending on point of view, we find ourselves favoring or opposing some aspect of something we call capitalism, with sometimes radical swings in the underlying reasoning of our political philosophy — we being Americans, generally. And across the world, the same questions come up time and again: one nation's democratic marketplace, rising tide that lifts all boats, is seen from a poorer nation as an upgraded feudalism, a new age of empire.
What about pragmatism? Capitalism is the best way we know, the idea goes, to achieve the best results for the largest number of people, so it is a pragmatist ethic. Or… capitalism is an efficient, "organic" model of wealth distribution: the market distributes wealth "efficiently", because individual players in a free market make all their own interested choices about where they should send their capital in order to extract the benefits, the goods and services, they seek or require.
This is perhaps the truest statement about the potential virtues of capitalism, or what are widely accepted to be virtues any capitalist system should aim to embody. But, in practice, a system that privileges capital over cause often does so by giving special privileges to those who hold the capital, not to those who seek it, or who are laboring intensely in the harshest conditions to earn a share of it.
Capitalism is the enemy of communism: this idea is almost universally held, but actually, it refers to one of the biggest grey areas in the history of social philosophy. As a matter of social ethics, communism cannot really emerge in its Marxist form, as a philosophical approach to economics, unless it emerges within a capitalist society. Marx specifically says so: communism is not suited to old-style agrarian societies, because only the industrial societies, where democracy and capitalism have taken root, have the kind of civil structures able to reward the actions of collective bargaining organizations.
Hence the violent tendencies of many Marxist factions around the world: even in the US, there was violence during the heyday of 19th-century unionizing, but in the US, a dynamic, open democracy allowed for collective bargaining to achieve nearly all of the major socialist innovations the world has seen (the weekend, the paid vacation, the 40-hour work-week, over-time pay, the end to child labor).
Does this make the US a socialist or a Marxist country? No. It means that in the capitalist system, underpinned by the most experienced modern democratic system, the United States found efficient ways to achieve major social-policy goals of Marxist philosophy, without undermining or uprooting the capitalist system. Several European nations have now followed that example and gone further (Sweden is a commonly used example), but they remain democratic, capitalist societies.
Michael Moore has argued that capitalism is "legalized greed", a view held by both critics and proponents, rooted in the idea that the most pragmatic approach to economics is to let vice have its purpose, and let self-interest power the mill. This idea is partly about social darwinism, partly about a near cynical approach to human freedom, or if you're Michael Moore, it's about the reasons why capitalism needs to be curtailed by democratically determined regulations.
Moore argues that what we now call capitalism needs to be cast aside in exchange for a different kind of market system in which democratic processes allow the citizenry to guide the hand of economic influence. But whether one agrees that capitalism is legalized greed or an organic model of resource allocation, it remains true that it is only as virtuous as those who apply it to the circumstances of human experience.
Capitalism, the same as any -ism, is not a hard-and-fast, unchanging object or species; it is a conceptual realm whose qualities vary as applied. It is what we make of it and only as virtuous or democratic as we shape it to be. Because capitalism, as a tendency, as a philosophical urge, operates among and across the lived realities of a society, it is only as democratic as its interrelationship with those realities.
Capitalism that fosters and cooperates with, protects and serves democratic processes and principles can be democratic in both purpose and in practice, but capitalism that interferes with, obstructs, undermines and abuses democratic processes and principles tends to be undemocratic in both its purpose and its practice.
It is a false choice that would have us choose between capitalism and morality, or between the service of profit and allegiance to the liberties and worth of individual human beings as a socio-economic priority. It is a false choice that asks us to choose between naked laissez-faire capitalism, unfettered by any social conscience and the crushing political bind of a planned economy in which no one is allowed to seek personal gain.
Capitalism is about privileging the flow of capital through society. It works better when those who do not have access to capital are able to come in contact with it, acquire some of it, and capitalize on their own merits, expanding their economic reach. That cycle must, however, be both persistent and pervasive. The freedom to seek personal gain and to innovate must share space with the need to ensure that human dignity is not eroded and free people subject to strategies of indenture.
The pastoral letter on a Catholic approach to economics, Economic Justice for All, makes clear that it is not only unnecessary, but unreasonable, to hand over the navigation of our economic policy to purely profit-driven considerations that ignore ethical accountability, erode community bonds and disrupt the human quality of human existence within our society.
In the preface to the 2006 edition of the pastoral letter, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops writes that:
… the measure of our economy is not only what it produces, but also how it touches human life, whether it protects or undermines the dignity of the human person, and how it promotes the common good.
In order to support and expand on that idea, they then offered five principles that must inspire the direction of major economic policy choices:
- The economy exists to serve the human person, not the other way around.
- Economic life should be shaped by moral principles and ethical norms.
- Economic choices should be measured by whether they enhance or threaten human life, human dignity and human rights.
- A fundamental concern must be support for the family and the well-being of children.
- The moral measure of any economy is how the weakest are faring.
How the weakest are faring… a great and successful market economy must find a way to protect against starvation, deprivation, homelessness, and lack of access to quality medical attention when needed. Indeed, an economy in which the human person is made subservient to the imperatives of an economic machinery of resource allocation is totalitarian and not democratic, though one can imagine plenty of examples where something called 'capitalism' has this effect.
To protect the human rights and the human dignity of the individual, a democratic society must establish meaningful checks on the unfettered application of raw power through accumulated wealth. A social conscience must be part of a democratic society's application of capitalism as an economic paradigm, or the primal urges of the marketplace will allow for distortions of the economic landscape, the rise of monolithic power structures, the blocking of dynamic resource flows, and the erosion of democratic freedoms and quality of life.
For this very reason, the American system has been a brilliant example of a free, democratic society, in which capitalism has fought its fight, but major achievements in the history and advancement of social justice have come, through democratic processes and the free assembly —Constitutionally guaranteed— of free people, demanding that capital not sideline the citizen.
Capitalism is not democracy, though the two can be mutually nourishing. And capitalism is not unfettered economic aggression. It is not imperialism, though it can be used to effect a kind of imperial control of resources and social patterns. It is not an ethos, not a way of measuring whether we are good or bad, right or wrong.
Capitalism is an idea, a way of looking at the priorities of a society, and the diffusion of power throughout a political system. It is a conceptual realm, in which pirates and villains compete with saints and public servants, where control competes with creativity, where concentration of wealth competes with discovery and the opening of new terrain.
The capitalist imperative is not to amass the most wealth imaginable, but to effect the most practical outcome for the most dynamic society possible. This will always be to the benefit of those with the most access to capital, even if their actual wealth is not as high as it might be in a less democratic setting.
In order to achieve that most dynamic society possible, however, virtually nothing is as vital as ensuring that the human individual, at all levels and across the entire range of that society, be as empowered, as capable, as free and as worldly a being as possible. Any one human individual that lacks the skills, the agility, the rights or the freedom, to choose a better, more dynamic and broadly beneficial path, slows the entire process of adaptation and makes the whole system more sluggish, less dynamic, less able.
This is where capitalism and democracy have their most vibrant and nourishing interaction, in their potential to adequately shape the dynamics of markets —for resource distribution, pricing, quality of the human contribution and reach of human mobility— in such a way that the human individual becomes society's greatest asset, both economically of high value and socio-politically of primary worth and reliability.
No amount of stripping away of individual rights or the terrains of individual liberty will make a capitalist system more vibrant. On the contrary, such measures help to foster the concentration of wealth, but those concentrations have a sclerotic effect on the economy broadly and tend to pressure democratic systems in such a way that they must over-react or give way.
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Against the Good Nukes / Bad Nukes Fallacy
The inevitably Marxist zoo XV: King George Soros
By Michael Moriarty
web posted August 24, 2009
The "Rainbow Elite" of Tom Wolfe's "Radical Chic" has been a power base ultimately consolidated by the Bush/Clinton/Bush/Obama volleyball game with the White House.
Had Hillary Clinton won the election in 2008, a Bush/Clinton/Bush/Clinton ownership of the Oval office would have looked … uh … "fishy" … and we all know how important it is for the bipartisan Progressive Movement to root out anything that looks "fishy".
The sudden arrival of "The One" seems to have saved the Progressive Day and its 100 year-old game plan.
Cartoon by Robert Minor in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in 1911. Karl Marx surrounded by an appreciative audience of Wall Street financiers: John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, John D. Ryan of National City Bank and Morgan partner George W. Perkins. Immediately behind Marx is Teddy Roosevelt, leader of the Progressive Party. |
This 1911 cartoon featuring Karl Marx being fawned upon by Wall Street moguls, this Capitalist/Communist love affair, this agreement to share a totalitarian power over the "Collective" … hmmm … it is all coming true, largely thanks to George Soros and Saul Alinsky.
Alinsky, the Marxist, gave Barack Obama the formula for Revolutionary "Change" that a number of Obama's best friends "can believe in". George Soros, perhaps Obama's best friend, gave the Presidential candidate all the money and influence he would need in order to defeat even "the most influential man in the world", Bill Clinton. Plus, of course, Bill's wife, Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton.
We're not talking sky's-the-limit poker but end-of-the-universe power games.
The Progressive Club's formula, used by both the Clintons and the Bushes, has never been so fully articulated and boldly put into action than by the Soros/Alinsky prodigy, Barack Obama.
Recently the increasingly Cheshire cat expression upon the face of George Soros and his sphinx-like silence about what is going to happen to the economy – an outcome he is sure of but unwilling to share – well … look at that cartoon again!
Karl Marx's Gang of Capitalists!
Replace the "Perkins" figure with Jeffrey Immelt, the head of General Electric … and therefore ruler of its subsidiary, NBC … and then replace Marx with Barack Obama … and, well, all that's missing are the intellectual and monetary powers above the gathering, the Red-winged angels of Saul Alinsky and George Soros.
The best-laid plans of both King George and George Soros are now facing similar Tea Parties!
Who will come out on top? George Soros or George Washington?
If we pull back the veil from the Progressive Movement, we are obliged to see its totalitarian aims.
The Progressives and their hidden, long-term eugenics strategies, begun by the Supreme Court's revolting opinions in the Buck v Bell and Roe v Wade decisions, are the ultimate products of a turn of the century Liberalism that became infected with the Victorian Francis Galton's dream of a Super Human Race. Fin-de-siècle Vienna and that city's broiling intellectual and artistic explosions captured much of this growing nightmare.
Vienna's cross-breeding of Liberalism with racial supremacy theories, matched by Wall Street's clandestine admiration for Marx's totalitarian grip upon the "intelligentsia" … out of this a wealthy and American Radical Chic created the euphemism of "Progressive".
Hitler's horrific inhumanity in 1940's Europe forced the intellectual supremacists, or "enlightened despots" as Voltaire would have labeled them had he been alive at the time, to go underground. To call themselves Liberal was safe … but it was only half the story.
America's elbow-rubbing with supremacists of any kind created its own secret elite … and that "Radical Chic" is now "Progressive".
George Soros admits to having been partly raised by Nazi's in Hungary. His ability, as a teenager, to somehow accommodate his Jewish roots with his errands for the Third Reich … hmmm … such a genius – and I believe it would take genius to rationalize a genocidal contradiction in terms - such complexity is required in order to succeed simultaneously as a Marxist and the most successful Capitalist in the Free Market. He is renowned for almost "breaking the Bank of England".
If you examine the cartoon one more time, the God of Marxist Capitalism sitting above Wall Street is George Soros.
King George of the Marxist, English-speaking world!!
A recent Hotair blog "tip", based upon a bloomberg.com article, has revealed a … well … uh … gee … rather convenient pair of economic events involving first a George Soros "repositioning" of Brazilian oil stock … and then, surprise/surprise, a $2 billion Obama/taxpayer's loan to Brazil's off-shore drilling plans which, of course, insure a gold rush boom for the same oil company in which Soros had just "repositioned" his shares, an Obama/Soros investment in an offshore drilling practice that Obama has forbidden to Alaska.
"Fishy?"
Naw! It's something that has existed, as the cartoon shows you, since 1911.
Progressive Marxist-Capitalism!!
For readers still trying to figure that oxymoron out, first read Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism. It's the gentleman's introduction to the inevitable snake pits of American Progressivism.
After one hundred years of designing the Progressive, thousand-year plan for the entire human race, what began as a necessarily subtle intrigue has now blossomed into trillion dollar games with American taxpayers' money, plans to federalize the entire American healthcare system and a Progressive lobbyist's zoo that has transformed itself into an environmentalist's blackmail scheme.
The Progressive game plan is based entirely upon a scientific philosophy that has not only removed the human race from any survival priorities but actually reduced it to an "enemies list", concentrated, at least for this seminal moment, upon old people.
Thinking the unthinkable?
Yes, and the Progressives, in their foreign affairs meetings where nothing is or can be "attributable", have been thinking the unthinkable for so long, it no longer seems … to them, at any rate … to be unthinkable.
It is now: "What must be done!"
Sound familiar? 
Michael Moriarty is a Golden Globe and Emmy Award-winning actor who starred in the landmark television series Law and Order from 1990 to 1994. His recent film and TV credits include The Yellow Wallpaper, 12 Hours to Live, Santa Baby and Deadly Skies.
http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0809/0809marxistzoop15.htm
By Ethiopian Patriotic Movement
Part I - Ethiopian Patriotic Movement
We all recognize and appreciate the sacrifices being paid by our people in Ethiopia in their pursuit of democracy and the rule of law. But, without a vibrant and a greater number of Ethiopian civil societies actively struggling for their civil rights, the opposition parties will be nowhere near Menelik's palace. The preponderance of a silent majority especially overseas is a serious problem. Yet, the Ethiopian Diaspora is a hidden treasure with enormous human and financial capital. When we leverage such huge human and financial resources, act and speak with one voice, then we will be a force to reckon with.The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) derives its power from the fragmentation and weakness of the opposition. The focus of the opposition is win-lose competition, yet it is time for win-win collaboration among the opposition parties to save Ethiopia first from the oppression and misrule of the TPLF. To effectively challenge the regime, opposition parties should break with the traditional factional politics because it is insane to do more of the same and expect different results. The opposition will need the harmonious and symbiotic relation with civil society to liberate Ethiopia from the ruthless and repressive regime. Therefore, it is time for the global Ethiopian civil society to reframe our direction and organize our own institution of an Ethiopian Patriotic Movement that is empowered with financial muscle and can mobilize Ethiopians in the Diaspora community to be active participants in the struggle. Some in Ethiopia tried class politics under the Dergue and then ethnic politics under TPLF; it is now time for national politics (popular patriotism) where we put love of country before party.
The Ethiopian Patriotic Movement needs to launch a capacity building initiative by (a) embracing the Citizens' Charter that expresses our shared vision of Etyopiawinet and the Ethiopian agenda, and (b) establishing an Ethiopian Democracy Fund and use their "power of the purse" to demand of opposition parties to focus on our common ground and speak with one voice. Short of unity, the global Diaspora community must stipulate that there can be no financial, diplomatic, and political support for those that pursue individual agenda.
The destiny of Ethiopia is too important to be left only to the politicians. It is now imperative that we unleash the power of the masses by initiating the Ethiopian Patriotic Movement that will enable all members of the Ethiopian civil society globally to be actively involved in the process of liberating Ethiopia from TPLF tyranny. We have been watching things happen for too long. It is time for us to make things happen by being strong social activists. Democracy is not for spectators and bystanders. The initiation of an integrated resistance movement that transcends party politics should be particularly the responsibility of the Ethiopian Diaspora. In a broad-based grass-roots movement, everyone has the opportunity to contribute to our just and common cause for genuine democracy. All existing civil society organizations (CSOs) need to revitalize their operations by embracing the Ethiopian Patriotic Movement's integrative strategy to transform or elevate the struggle from a reactive to a proactive mode.
The power that TPLF acquired by force can only be relinquished to another yet stronger social force. The Ethiopian Patriotic Movement is the right instrument to mobilize Ethiopians in the Diaspora and wake up the sleeping giant. Ethiopia's history is best exemplified by unity in diversity. We are fortunate that we have a glorious past such as a multi-ethnic nation state, recognized as the cradle of humanity with our own Ge'ez alphabet and the Victory of Adwa, but the challenge of the day is to make our own glory. We have a choice to be indifferent or make a difference.
We can do nothing to erase the wrongs of the past, but we should certainly do everything now to build our future together. We should do everything to reverse the outrageous and destructive trend that is consuming our nation. Power concedes nothing without demand. Democracy is taken, not given. Finally, we need to (a) recognize how the tactical party politics and the strategic movement politics feed and strengthen each other and (b) take the necessary initiatives to strengthen their symbiotic relationship.
Part II – The Roadmap for Democratic Change in Ethiopia
The reality in Ethiopia requires the need for a collaborative effort by the Ethiopian civil society to be organized as an Ethiopian patriotic movement and the opposition parties to be united as an alliance for change in Ethiopia and accelerate the change process from the Current State (where the country is) through a Transition State to the Desired State (where the country should be).
The Current State
The status quo of despotism under the Tigray People's Liberation Front is not acceptable because the regime is a personification of our common enemies of tyranny, poverty, disease, war, and corruption. Under the guise of a "coalition" government dubbed EPRDF, the Tigray People's Liberation Front has demonstrated its anti-Ethiopia and anti-democracy stance in numerous shameful ways. TPLF separated Eritrea from its motherland, landlocked Ethiopia, waged a senseless war with Eritrea that took the lives of over 70,000 innocent people, ceded land to the Sudan, redrew Ethiopian internal boundaries and inflamed inter-ethnic animosity, sliced and diced Ethiopia into Bantustans, and massacred 424 Anuaks of Gambella. All these are treasonous and heinous crimes against the state.
Furthermore, TPLF stole elections from the people as it unashamedly did on May 15, 2005, murdered 193 unarmed pro-democracy protesters, and incarcerated opposition party leaders and thousands of their supporters with wild accusations of treason and genocide. The May 15 elections were, for the people of Ethiopia, a referendum on Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's regime and a vote of no confidence on his ethnic-apartheid policy. TPLF is an illegitimate regime misruling Ethiopia as a one-party state. But a single party state that does not rule by the consent of the people but rules by force of arms and intimidation is a negation of democracy.
Meles Zenawi's regime continues to harass opposition leaders, suppress basic human rights, and practices extrajudicial killings, arbitrary imprisonment, and torture of peaceful political opponents. The Prime Minister has been a polarizing figure using elaborate network of spies all over the country to intimidate and control society. He banned NGOs that annoy him, passed a new catchall law that could make peaceful opposition liable to a charge of inciting terrorism, and has much blood on his hands as he has committed democide (murder of citizens by government for political reasons).
The TPLF has operated very much like a mafia organization. Many of the top leaders are connected by blood or marriage. The Endowment Fund For the Rehabilitation of Tigray (EFFORT) controls the Ethiopian economy. EFFORT controls the parasitic parastatals and the "GONGOS" (governmental non-governmental organizations) that pose as legitimate civil society development organizations, but are in effect agents of the regime. TPLF has stifled private initiatives by monopolizing land ownership, major businesses, telecommunications, the media, even fertilizer import and distribution, and allowing incompetent party functionaries to run the bureaucracy; yet under Ethiopian law no political party is supposed to own businesses. Moreover, the ruling group controls over $20 billion in official development assistance that Ethiopia has received in the last eighteen years. Yet, there is very little to show for all that money, as Ethiopia still remains the poorest of the poor nations of the world.
Continued polarization and paralysis of the opposition parties is not acceptable either. They must cease their factional politics. A party is a part of a whole that is attempting to serve the purpose of the whole, whereas a faction is a part only to itself and serves the interests of its narrowly defined group only. Because of factional politics, Kinijit, EPRP, and UDJ imploded to the delight of the incumbent regime and the disappointment of the electorate. Opposition parties ought to know that they would serve their party best, by serving their country first. Until opposition parties are big enough to admit their mistakes and wise enough to correct them, and until they replace their "my way or the highway" attitude with willingness to compromise, all our dreams for change in Ethiopia will remain illusive.
The Transition State
Meles Zenawi and his regime have no history of compromise, of give-and-take, and live-and-let-live. They have over thirty-year history of destroying anyone who stood in their way. Rigidity and violence go back to the roots of the ruling party's Marxist guerilla days, as do its notorious and long-entrenched authoritarian practices. They have been incapable of transforming themselves from a guerilla movement to a governing political party. But efforts need to be made to break the current impasse between the regime and the opposition parties by providing a roadmap for a peaceful transitional arrangement.
Our goal is to bring about change in Ethiopia by peaceful means if we can, by force if we must. It is a foregone conclusion that Meles Zenawi will burn all bridges that he may have with the opposition and that a showdown will be inevitable. In that event, the dossier on Meles Zenawi's horrendous blunders and crimes against humanity will be released to the International Criminal Court and "yehizb maebel" will be unleashed. While we shall continue the various modes of peaceful struggle, in the event our peaceful efforts fail, we the citizens not only reserve the right but also the duty to overthrow an unjust government that does not derive its just powers from the consent of the governed. We will rise in solidarity with our people to exercise our natural right to self-preservation--our just cause. As Thomas Aquinas said, "Resistance to a tyrant is obedience to the laws of God."
Ethiopia is plagued by deep political, economic, and social problems that are threatening its very survival. The country is facing an alarming ecological degradation that is putting the future of Ethiopia and its people in jeopardy. The 2010 elections will be the defining moment. Because another fraudulent election will sink it into deeper crisis, efforts to prevent that from happening should start immediately. To that end, opposition parties should resubmit their demands for building democratic institutions and create a level playing field for a transparent, free and fair election. In the spirit of justice and reconciliation, opposition parties should seek the collaboration of Ethiopian legislators to try to pass such a resolution in Parliament and also enlist the support of the international community for the fulfillment of the following:
- The legal system must be able to operate independently without any coercion from the TPLF.
- All forms of state-owned media should be free and available to all political parties.
- The electoral law must be improved. The National Election Board that is currently a partisan instrument of the ruling party needs to be restructured and be able to operate independently.
- All political prisoners should be released.
- Opposition party offices that had been closed should be opened. The opposition's right to public assembly should be respected.
- Harassing and intimidating opposition party members and supporters must be stopped.
- Ensure the police and armed forces do not get involved in politics and take sides.
- Allow election observers to ensure that the election process meets international standards.
- Set up an Interim Government of National Unity that will administer the country for a specific period of time (between eighteen months and two years) in accordance with the Citizens' Charter.
- Release political prisoners, and declare general amnesty for exiles and facilitate their re-integration.
- Call a Constitutional Convention to draft a new YeEtyopia Reisse-Heg (Ethiopian Constitution) to replace the TPLF's Hege-Mengist and present it to the citizens for a referendum.
- Reorganize the national defense forces to be neutral to party politics and pledge to protect and defend the new constitution.
- Draw up electoral laws and ensure that free, fair, and democratic elections are held where political parties compete for the new institutions of government and abide by the decisions of the electorate.
- Hand over political power to the leadership of the democratically elected new governing party or coalition.
On the side of the Ethiopian civil society, a steering committee of CSOs needs to organize the Ethiopian Patriotic Movement and collaborate with the united opposition parties to bring about change in Ethiopia. Here are four essential elements for social transformation:
1. VISION
The Citizens' Charter is a clear alternative to TPLF's regressive and divisive state-sponsored ethnic politics. The Charter reflects a vision of our desired future state. Public education of the Charter as well as party programs of the opposition is essential. Since TPLF has denied the people of Ethiopia their right to bring about a change of government through a democratic process, our struggle has now become saving Ethiopia from further destruction.
2. ORGANIZATION
In preparation to launch a save Ethiopia campaign, Ethiopian civil society and opposition parties need to reorganize themselves for greater effectiveness. Since improvements take place project by project, establishing project teams and building collaborative teamwork will be essential. There is also need to focus on priority projects that will be both attainable and highly rewarding. Convene an All-Party Conference of opposition parties and civic organizations to be engaged in a joint problem solving initiative and also debate, refine, and adopt the Citizens' Charter. Forge an alliance for change in Ethiopia based on the unifying platform of the Charter. Develop and execute strategic and operational plans, including projects on lobbying, civil disobedience, mass protests, etc.
3. LEADERSHIP
The leadership of the united opposition parties and civil society need to steer their organizations toward the vital strategic priorities that support their vision and mission. The leaders must remove impeding forces and replace them with propelling forces. They must serve as coaches and facilitators and marshal the efforts of thousands of Ethiopians to "stretch" their goals and close the strategic performance gap to achieve their vision. They must strive to derive energy from the active participation of women and the youth.
4. FINANCE
Devise a funding strategy to achieve these goals. Given the enormity of the task required to save Ethiopia, providing the necessary financial resources is imperative. Here is how we can raise our first million dollars with a "B.A.D." idea. If 2,740 people pay $365 per person as their contribution on a Buck-A-Day basis, our seed money will amount to $1,000,100. In their struggle for freedom from fear and want, our compatriots back home are being incarcerated and others are sacrificing their lives. Our share of a dollar-a-day is but a small price to pay. Moreover, we are not heartless or powerless; and self-reliance is a must. Additional voluntary contributions and other forms of fundraising should of course be pursued. To illustrate the potential we have, take the example of 50,000 Ethiopians who travel for pleasure to Ethiopia every Christmas season and spend at least $3,000 per person amounting to $150 million.
The leaders of TPLF are driven by the hate politics of ethnocentrism. Our driving force is the love of our country. Love will triumph over hate. But nobody will do for us what we should do for ourselves. If we continue to blame TPLF for everything wrong in Ethiopia, we are not taking responsibility for failing to prevent them from destroying Ethiopia.
The Desired State
Visioning is about crafting a compelling image of the future. We the Ethiopian Diaspora must optimize our human capital by creating the right kind of an enabling environment for our people to help Ethiopia accomplish what the immigrants of USA and American-Born-Chinese returnees have achieved for their respective countries. Ethiopia has a potential of becoming the pride of Africa once again.
We need to initiate a national dialogue to debate what kind of government Ethiopia ought to have post-TPLF. To build a vibrant civil society, we need to practice participatory democracy to promote competition of ideas by debating national issues such as:
- Should Ethiopia have a Presidential System like the U.S. or Parliamentary Democracy like the U.K.? (In the U.K., they don't elect a Prime Minister; they elect a Party. In the U.S., a President can be removed from office during the 4-year term only by impeachment whereas in the U.K. a Prime Minister can be removed by a vote of no confidence anytime during a term of office.)
- Federal State or Unitary State?
- Unicameral or Bicameral Legislature?
- Should Ethiopia adopt Liberal Democracy or Social Democracy or Ethiopian Democracy to replace TPLF's Revolutionary Democracy?
- What should be the best tax policy of Ethiopia?
- What should we do to improve our land, water resources and the environment?
- Others?
The main cause of Ethiopia's poverty is the absence of the enabling environment of democracy that could have made development possible. With a population of over 82 million people, Ethiopia is the second most populous country in Africa. A founding member of the United Nations, Ethiopia is the seat of the African Union and the UN Economic Commission for Africa. Ethiopia is one of the oldest countries in the world with a recorded history of over three thousand years, and the only country in black Africa with its own Ge'ez alphabet and rich literature. Ethiopia is a source of the Blue Nile and is endowed with many rivers and extensive fertile land. Ethiopians take great pride in the fact that their country has never been colonized. How come then a country with such positive attributes and a great potential for being the pride of Africa, is yet one of the poorest countries in the world? The answer is obvious--tyranny, not democracy, is on the march in Ethiopia. Nevertheless, Ethiopia's best days with unlimited possibilities are ahead of us because her destiny rests securely in the hands of her patriotic Ethiopians who will replace the rule of a tyrant with the rule of law. We shall soon proclaim, proud to be an Ethiopian!
Economists point out that there is a cause and effect relationship between democracy and development. Ethiopia and Africa will remain basket cases as long as governments are corrupt and are not held accountable for their misbehavior either by their own people or by the international community. If Ethiopia is to dig itself out of the current political and economic quagmire, there is no substitute for democracy and good governance. Furthermore, trading stability for democracy has not worked.
Regrettably, some in the international community not only seem to ignore the massacres and incarcerations of the past 18 years but also unwittingly condone the country's race to the bottom by suggesting that Meles Zenawi is an improvement over his predecessor (a reverse benchmarking), by portraying him as one of the "new breeds" of African democratic leaders.The greatest gift industrialized countries can offer Ethiopia or Africa is not money or more charity. If they really mean business, what they should first offer is a firm commitment to help the people in their struggle for political empowerment. The Western world will have a stronger and more reliable ally with a leadership in Ethiopia whose legitimacy derives from the ballot rather than the bullet.
With over 5 million HIV/AIDS victims, over 14 million exposed to "murder by famine," and a significant portion of Ethiopia's youth either unemployed or underemployed, our country has never been in worse neglect than under Meles Zenawi's regime. An impoverished Ethiopia under Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's tyrannical rule could become a breeding ground for terrorism. The damages Meles Zenawi has done with regard to his ethnocentrism, the Constitution, land policy, Eritrea, the Afars, and the Nile are very troubling. With more than 40 inter-ethnic conflicts fanned by TPLF during the past 18 years, hundreds of thousands have been displaced and tens of thousands killed. If we are outraged by TPLF's atrocities, and if we truly love Ethiopia, then there is no better opportunity than this time to prove our love for our country by doing what it takes to rid Ethiopia of its tormentor. If there is a will, there is a way. There are three reasons to join a movement, namely, self interest, solidarity with a cause, and concern for others. Volunteer in any capacity of your interest and let us pledge to leave Ethiopia better than we found it. Let us take Personal Responsibility in Defending Ethiopia. May God bless our work!
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
We, the citizens of Ethiopia, bound by our common humanity, history, and shared values, proud in defending our culture, liberty and territorial integrity, pledge ourselves as one people, regardless of ethnicity, language or religion, to build a secular republic that is a truly democratic open society based on freedom, justice, equality, and respect for individual human rights, property rights, and the rule of law, so as to achieve lasting peace, ethnic and religious harmony, with prosperity and progress for all of our people.
The Declaration of Principles represents the Ethiopian Dream and encapsulates the Citizens' Charter.
"LET US SAVE ETHIOPIA" is a call to action for the Ethiopian civil society to be organized as an Ethiopian patriotic movement and for the opposition parties to be united as an alliance for change in Ethiopia. 09-09-09 Please direct your feedback to hagerwedad©yahoo.com.
| Nifty back, investors get their options right 18 Sep 2009, 1234 hrs IST, ET Bureau | |||
Two years hence, the index has revisited 5000, after almost 15 months, but this time the action in equity futures is rather moderate compared to the later half of 2007.
This is because many retail participants, who were active in 2007, have given the recent rally a miss and trading interest has shifted to options, mainly Nifty. The average daily open interest, which is the total number of contracts that are yet to be closed, in stock and index options since early March, when the rally started, stood at 29-crore units. In the past six months of 2007, the total open interest in options was 21 crore.
The aggregate daily open interest in index and stock futures in the second half of 2007 was 173-crore units. Since March this year, the open interest in the futures segment is roughly 116 crore. But, for the improved activity in stock futures of late, led by a rally in mid- and small-cap stocks, the open interest in futures would have been much lower.
"Though markets have more than doubled in the past six months, volatility has always been on the higher side. Traders recognised that options were a better product to deal with in such a situation," said Vijay Kanchan, V-P, derivatives at Dolat Capital.
Also, the transaction costs, including taxes and brokerages, in futures are more than double the expenses in options, Mr Kanchan said. A larger portion of the retail investors, who contribute a sizeable chunk to the futures and options volumes, have shied away from using equity derivatives, mainly futures, to bet on recent upsides.
This is because many of them are yet to recover from the losses and agony they had incurred in early 2008, when their bets turned awry after stock markets went into a tailspin. In futures, the prospect of upsides are unlimited, while the risk of losses is also equal. In comparison, a buyer of options faces a limited risk of losses, while unlimited gains.
"It is a healthy sign for the market that investors are slowly moving the options as seen in most developed markets," said a derivatives head of a foreign brokerage. "Lower futures activity reduces systemic risks in times of a downsides because of the possibility of unlimited losses," he added.
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- http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Niftys-Nice-Investors-get-their-options-right/articleshow/5024700.cms
| Catwalk, of & by the govt Fashion show finale for handloom fair | |
| OUR BUREAU | |
What does a government struggling to organise land for industry and votes for elections do? It organises a fashion show, instead. On a day when the chief minister nearly lost his chair (at a press conference to announce new plots for Infosys and Wipro), two of his so-called young guns were busy booking a front-row seat for a ramp romp to promote "the traditional khadi and handloom industry of the state". At Writers' Buildings on Thursday, state textiles minister Manabendra Mukherjee and former CPM MP and now West Bengal Khadi and Village Industries Commission chairman Mohd Salim unveiled the September 19 fashion show at Milan Mela. "It will be a first-of-its-kind show," crowed Mukherjee, before spelling out what there would be — "six top female and four top male models" from Mumbai and Calcutta, and Tollywood actress "Locket Chatterjee as showstopper" — and what there wouldn't be — "Vasundhara Raje" on the ramp (she had walked for the Rajasthan Khadi and Gramodyog Board in Jaipur) or a "wardrobe malfunction". The two-hour show, to be organised in collaboration with the West Bengal Khadi & Village Industries Board and supported by the likes of Tantuja and Manjusa, will mark the closing of Banglar Taanter Haat on Saturday, the fair that Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had visited straight from the airport after arriving from Siliguri on Saturday. If models will be seen sashaying down the ramp in "traditional and diversified khadi and handloom", Locket is set to strike a pose in a kantha sari with khadi weave. "I received a call from Mohd Salim asking me to be the showstopper for a fashion event. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to wear, but it'll have a khadi focus," she told Metro. Prosenjit was flashed like a trump card by M/S Mukherjee and Salim on Thursday as "the distinguished guest'' at the fashion event. "Yes, Manab Mukherjee called me and asked if I could drop by at the fashion show. I haven't confirmed yet, but I will go if I am free," the Tollywood star told Metro. No "distinguished guest" is likely to turn up if he goes through the invitation letter sent out by the West Bengal Khadi & Village Industries Board. Sample this (we reproduce this ad verbatim): "The fashion show would contain cat walk and demonstration by different expert group of models, both male female..." The director duo of the "cat walk", however, are not to be denied their two minutes of glam glory. "Our products must reach a big and discerning clientele," stressed Mukherjee. His event manager partner Salim got into the act with a not-so-veiled reference to the popular Kolkata Fashion Week held last week with the likes of Ritu Kumar and Manish Malhotra as designers and Giselle Monteiro and Neil Nitin Mukesh as showstoppers. "Ours will be a different show, away from the plush corridors and banquet halls of hotels. It will be in a haat." But why must the government get into the greenroom act of organising a fashion show? Mukherjee said: "It is the need of the hour to diversify the use of these textiles." And, maybe, to diversify the skill sets of CPM leaders. Yes, minister? |
| 'Super clean' Mollah faces flak | |
| BISWAJIT ROY | |
Calcutta, Sept. 17: The CPM today told Abdur Rezzak Mollah not to send the "wrong message" to the masses with his critical statements on the party, but he faced no flak on the Vedic Village controversy. State CPM secretary Biman Bose reportedly told the land and land reforms minister at a closed-door state committee meeting that "no minister can speak on a matter that involves other departments or the policy decisions of the government as a whole. It must be dealt with by the chief minister alone". Sources said the CPM state secretariat had decided to censure Mollah for "exceeding his brief" as a minister and "violating party discipline" by publicly mocking the party and the government. But the secretariat wanted the state committee to pull up Mollah first. Mollah has been conveyed that he should not proclaim to be "super clean" and publicly call for "rectification at all levels (of the party) starting from the top". These words from the land minister seem to have riled the leaders the most. Among those who spoke out against him were Amitava Nandi, Tarit Topdar and Tarun Roy. "Who gave him the right to insinuate us? Does he consider him above the party?" a member asked. Mollah kept mum. Sources said Mollah was also criticised for not going after Trinamul Congress chief Mamata Banerjee, who had favoured the direct purchase model that was used to acquire the Vedic Village land. He chose to criticise the party instead, a source said. "The leadership wants us to speak in one voice when the party is facing a bad time," said a committee member. Two days ago, Mollah said a "communist party doesn't have place for promoters, dealers or contractors. If some of them are in the party or associated with it, they should be caught by the scruff of their necks and thrown out". Asked why he was not giving his views to the party in writing, the minister whose department handed over vested land to the Vedic promoters, said he had been warning the party since 1993 "but the party didn't listen". A member said: "We did not refer to the deal with Vedic Village as this is under investigation. But he cannot claim to be super clean." Earlier, asked about a report that he had resigned, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said: "I can't reply to bogus questions." |
| Finally, a CMO on table | ||
| OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT | ||
Calcutta, Sept. 15: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee will have a Chief Minister's Office (CMO), nine years after a proposal to seek expert help was mooted and in the slog overs of what looks like a tumultuous run-up to the Assembly polls. The CMO, more or less on the lines of the Prime Minister's Office, is expected to induct experts on health, education, labour and industry and tap them for inputs to make governance "fast and effective", a source at Writers' Buildings said. However, some officials said the move could turn out to be a case of "too little, too late" with Assembly elections 20 months away and a resurgent Opposition snapping at the heels of the government. It need not have been so. In 2000, when Bhattacharjee was sworn in chief minister, a plan was mooted to bring in IAS officer Ashoke Bose as the key hand in his secretariat, but it did not move beyond the conception stage. During Jyoti Basu's first term as chief minister, CPM ideologue Satyabrata Sen had been made economic adviser. The source said it would take about a month to formalise the likely composition of the CMO and the names of experts. The chief minister wants competent persons outside the government, besides serving officials, the source added. This is an area where pitfalls could lurk if the party is unable to resist the familiar temptation to pack such set-ups with its faithful, disregarding merit. Explaining the reasons for setting up the CMO, an official at Bhattacharjee's secretariat said today: "The chief minister is preoccupied with lots of work different in nature. He needs inputs on the government's functioning and background material at short notice. For this, a separate set-up is necessary. It will be a sort of replica of the PMO but smaller in size. With the CMO, the chief minister will have to depend less on other departments." A CPM leader said such a formal set-up would also help streamline work involving ministers from allies, some of whom sit on files now. "With a CMO, departments held by allies will be forced to send papers asked for as everything will be official. A minister may ignore a verbal directive by the CM, but will find it difficult not to respond to the CMO's written request," he said. The proposal for the CMO, already cleared by the finance and law departments, will be placed before the cabinet on September 23. After the cabinet approval, the proposal will be sent to the governor. The chief minister's secretariat is now made of 90-odd personnel and overseen by principal secretary Subes Das. According to an official, the chief minister had come up with the idea of the CMO after discussions with the chief secretary and the principal secretary. | ||
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| CPM north fort falls in Trinamul foray | ||
| OUR BUREAU | ||
Sept. 15: The winds of change blowing across south Bengal have roared into the north, smashing the 28-year-old Left redoubt in Siliguri and extending its losing streak as the Assembly elections draw closer. The Trinamul-Congress combine today captured the Siliguri Municipal Corporation (SMC) — a feat that prompted Mamata Banerjee to speak of the "last nail" in the Left coffin and the CPM to lament the inability of "development" to stem the slide. The victory enabled the Opposition to dislodge the Left from the civic body for the first time since 1981 when the front formed the board of the Siliguri Municipality. The Left continued to be in power from 1994, too, when the municipality was upgraded to a municipal corporation. The dent that became evident was so deep that the Left tally dived from 36 last time to 17 now. (See chart) "People want paribartan (change) and what was reflected in the Lok Sabha elections found a similar reflection in the results of the SMC elections as well," said Trinamul leader Partha Chatterjee, who had camped in Siliguri for several days. "The people now want the Left to go and us to take over." The CPM's Siliguri strongman, Asok Bhattacharya, who won the last Assembly elections from his pocket borough with the largest margin in the state, conceded as much today. He said: "The slogan of paribartan overtook our slogan of development that has taken place in Siliguri. Stability and development, it seems, have given ground to change." In defeat and despondence, development became almost a dirty word. "It's now clear that development cannot ensure everything. There was enough development in Siliguri," CPM state secretary Biman Bose said. In Delhi, Mamata was looking ahead. "We have been winning every election, so the indication is clear enough… I don't think the government should stay even for a day. It's a great victory. If they have lajja, ghrina, bhoy (shame, hatred and fear), they will move and let people work," she said.
The stirrings of change were palpable in Siliguri in June itself during an election to a body equivalent to a zilla parishad when the Congress opened its account and snatched three of the seven seats from the CPM. But in the SMC polls, the Congress-Trinamul alliance threw up far better results despite the hitch between the two parties over seat sharing for the Sealdah and Bowbazar Assembly bypolls. Alluding to this unity, Congress leader and Union minister Salman Khursheed said in Calcutta: "It is this unity between the Congress and Trinamul that will see these parties to victory in the 2011 Assembly polls." But the most significant gain from this election has been for Trinamul, which for the first time made its presence felt decisively in north Bengal. Trinamul will almost be an equal partner by winning 14 of the 23 seats that it contested in the SMC polls, one less than that of the Congress. The victory in the CPM bastion has come through without another familiar factor: Mamata did not campaign for the polls even once. In contrast, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had campaigned there. CPM leaders said though they had expected the Opposition to make inroads, they did not think the Congress-Trinamul combine would win the polls. The CPM was seeking solace in the Lok Sabha poll statistics that showed the party had led in almost all 47 wards of the SMC. But the optimism seems to have been misplaced because of the absence of a decisive factor: the Gorkhaland plank. In the Lok Sabha polls, Gorkhaland was the overriding issue for the people of Siliguri. "They thought that their best bet against the formation of Gorkhaland was voting for the CPM, especially since the Congress candidate, Dawa Narbula, has been soft on the issue," an analyst said. "But for the civic polls, Gorkhaland was no longer an issue and paribartan became the rallying point." |
Another red bastion falls: Left loses Siliguri civic poll after 28 yrs!
As in south Bengal, the hammer and sickle was blown away in the winds of change sweeping Siliguri -- Bengal's second most important
It's a stunning blow to the Left that comes after the humiliating rout in Lok Sabha elections and ahead of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation election next year. Siliguri municipality is the second biggest in the state, after Kolkata.
The Congress-Trinamool Congress alliance won 29 wards on Tuesday, gaining a clear majority to form the board. One ward went to Trinamool-supported Independent candidate Ranjan Shill Sharma. The Left managed just 17 -- down from the 36 it had won in 2004. The victory, that clearly boosts Trinamool's prospects in the 2011 assembly polls, sparked celebrations on the streets, with thousands showering green gulal and bursting firecrackers.
Many local CPM heavyweights bit the dust -- including deputy mayor of the Left-run board, Dilip Ray, the wife of former mayor Bikash Ghosh, Nandita, and urban development minister Asok Bhattacharya's lieutenant Jayanta Moulik.
Moulik lost to Nantu Pal, a former CPM strongman who fought on a Congress ticket. CPM managed to retain Asok Bhattacharya's ward 20, but that hardly brought any cheer to the Left camp.
Siliguri results once again exposed the Left's isolation from the poor. Front candidates lost in their traditional strongholds -- refugee slums in the added areas (wards 31 to 36) of Saktigarh, railway colonies around NJP railway station and some minority-dominated areas, such as Ward 5 near Ganjagoli. The Left did comparatively better in middle-class areas, such as Pradhannagar, and the Nepali settlements in wards 41 to 46.
"People of Siliguri have given their verdict against CPM's misrule,'' said Trinamool leader and newly elected councillor from ward 17 Gautam Deb. "We have to live up to the people's expectations,'' said Congress MLA and Pradesh Congress vice-president D P Roy.
The crumbling red fort in Siliguri is a continuation of the anti-Left juggernaut that started rolling with the 2008 panchayat elections and is likely to gather momentum during the civic polls in Kolkata and the districts.
Left leaders were not prepared for the reverses in Siliguri. "People wanted change,'' Asok Bhattacharya later reasoned. "They were guided by a political zeal for change rather than development issues. We have to accept the defeat. We will play a very constructive role as the opposition party,'' he told reporters.
The loss could put a question mark on Bhattacharya's prospects in the 2011 Assembly elections because the Left has been facing large-scale desertion from its ranks after the Lok Sabha debacle. Hundreds have switched loyalties in North Bengal.
| Out of hat: IT rabbit - CM offers plots to Infy, Wipro but silent on price | ||
| OUR BUREAU | ||
Calcutta, Sept. 17: Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today tried to find a business solution to a political problem by offering 45 acres each to Infosys and Wipro in Rajarhat. The alacrity of the offer — 10 days after the controversial IT township project was shelved— may silence the CPM's allies and the Opposition for a while, but the solution worked out in haste is expected to do little to fix the chinks in Bengal's long-term business prospects. Bhattacharjee skirted questions on land price — the main hurdle. "The land is with Hidco and we will to have to change the land use pattern only. There is already a standard price for IT and housing projects in New Town. We won't decide the price unilaterally but negotiate with both the companies," Bhattacharjee said. Hidco — the same agency which will find the land now in Action Area III in Rajarhat's New Town — had demanded Rs 2.16 crore an acre in 2005, which the companies had refused to pay. Although Hidco chairman and housing minister Gautam Deb lowered the price to Rs 1.5 crore an acre — at which TCS scooped up 30 acres in Rajarhat — Infosys and Wipro were willing to pay only Rs 50-60 lakh an acre. In the intervening years, the land price has risen further. A private telecom company paid Rs 8 crore an acre last year for three acres. Earlier, a realtor coughed up Rs 4.60 crore an acre. Sources said Deb would find it difficult to scale down the price without an uproar, which has raised the possibility of the government subsidising the cash-rich IT companies and compensating Hidco. A source in the IT department, said that even if Deb agreed to bring down the price he would not quote below Rs 1.5 crore an acre — much lower than the going rate. "Any discounted deal at this juncture will not send the right signal to small and medium companies," said a city real estate developer. Infosys and Wipro were supposed to take 90 acres each in the aborted IT township project. But the halving of the area lends credence to suggestions that the IT companies did not need vast stretches of land. The haste with which the latest announcement was made also perplexed some as the IT giants do not have immediate plans to set up campuses in the state. An Infosys spokesperson said as much: "When the business environment looks up and if we receive an offer from the state government, we will relook our decision." Wipro, which already has a facility in the state, said: "We look forward to hearing from them officially on this matter." A government official termed the land announcement "a knee-jerk reaction to wriggle out of the controversy over the IT township". The chief minister appeared to justify the hurry by citing despondency among job aspirants in the state after the IT township was shelved. He said the two companies would create 16,000 jobs in two to three years. "We will be able to transfer the land right now. We already have an upcoming township there with the required social infrastructure…. The presence of these companies will increase the importance of the township," Bhattacharjee said. His reasoning, however, raises questions against the backdrop of the government's stated IT policy, drafted in 2003. Two targets were set in the policy document — Bengal would be among the top three IT destinations in the country by 2010 and account for over 15 to 20 per cent of IT exports. Six years have passed since the target was set, but the state is nowhere near attaining it. Last year, the state's contribution to the country's IT exports was only 4 per cent. "The government has to realise that this target cannot be met by laying out red carpets only for Infosys and Wipro…. Infosys has had a campus in Bhubaneswar for around 15 years but that hasn't made Orissa the country's hottest IT destination," said the CEO of a city-based IT company. "We need smaller companies as they are critical in generating volumes. To attract such companies, we need a conducive business environment," said the official. |
| Class of wise guys? Brainwash them | ||
| RASHEED KIDWAI | ||
Sept. 17: Oh Stephanians, forgive Shashi for he knows not what he has inflicted upon himself and you. A senior — and stentorian — minister has volunteered to take classes for public school products and Ivy League-like alumni who also happen to be his colleagues in the Manmohan Singh government so that they do not fall prey to indiscretions like cracking a joke on Twitter. Thought-provoking subjects are in the syllabus the minister has been drawing up since last night when the Congress decided it could not afford to be amused by junior foreign minister Shashi Tharoor's tweet on cattle class and holy cows. A sample: parliamentary etiquette, a brief history of the long life of the Congress, role models and probity in public life. The minister did not want to be named, perhaps worried that the humour police in the party may think it was a joke and do not take him seriously. "They (those prone to crack jokes) should be given a crash course in parliamentary etiquette, a brief history of the party, role models and probity in public life," the veteran minister told The Telegraph in all earnestness, adding that he would only be happy to take the responsibility of imparting the lessons upon himself. If the stern stalwarts of the Congress do pursue the offer with tenacity, the minister can be assured of a full house waiting to be exorcised of that cancerous influence called humour. Besides Tharoor, several Stephanians are now part of the central ministry. Age may have withered the wit of some of these Stephanians and custom may have staled the variety of a few others but there is a feeling in the Congress that an "educated elite" is responsible for striking at the root of the political correctness the party has been trying to affect for some time. The Stephanians and public school products bring an element of gentle backslapping, wisecracks and cafe culture to the hard-nosed politics of Delhi. Besides Tharoor, the league includes Vir Bhadra Singh, Salman Khursheed, Kapil Sibal, Jitin Prasada, R.P.N. Singh, Sachin Pilot and Jyotiraditya Scindia. The jokes that fly are always not meant to cut others to size. Sometimes it is deployed for self-deprecation, too. Khursheed, who has had a long history of getting defeated at the hustings, is known for saying it was in Stephen's that he learnt how to lose elections. "I lost my first election in Stephen's and after that I have lost many." Mani Shankar Aiyar, another alumnus who has lost a recent election, has such a reputation for demolishing egos that few tangle with him. Sample the repartee that must have struck Natwar Singh like a thunderbolt. (See chart above) Aiyar's acid is not reserved for politicians alone. When a fellow IFS officer from Tamil Nadu whom Aiyar couldn't stand got posted as India's ambassador to Cyprus, the response: "Oh him? Half a man posted to half a country." However, is such ribbing and repartee becoming an endangered species in the Congress as it worries itself sick about what the so-called aam aadmi would think? It appears so, judging by the reluctance to discuss such a harmless subject on record and the tendency to slip into grave matters such as public policy when asked about the need to pause once in a while and laugh at oneself. Nobody has anything against humour itself but the party of the common man feels that sharing jokes with the masses is a no-no. Many of Tharoor's political peers agree he was well within his rights to say what he did in the manner he did, but most of them stress equally firmly that he should not have gone public with it. As one Tharoor sympathiser - public school, suave, known for his wit and his yen for political gossip - put it: "As politicians, we all must realise the weight and the impact our public words have. We are all human and we all have our likes and dislikes and our ways of expressing them. The point is that the fact of being in the public space pl-a-c-es due restrictions on you. It is not merely about abiding by the disciplines of an organisation, it is also about how you are perceived in the public eye. To that extent, Tharoor appe-ars to have exceeded himself." Arun Jaitley of the BJP crisply agreed, without going into the rights and wrongs of Tharoor's tweet: "His inexperience of dealing with India is probably showing." Maybe, the minister preparing the course material should consult Jaitely, too. Is the "deepening democr-a-cy" in the Congress erecting a culture ceiling between the public school products and the others? Few will give a direct reply, preferring to replay the record of restraint in public. "We all love a good joke, and often you see flashes of it in Parliament or on the public stage, but there will always be lines people must respect, there is something called 'lok-laaj' and you must have the sense and talent to recognise what you can say privately or for private consumption and what you want to put out in public with your name attached to it," said a politician who proclaimed himself as the "very bright" Tharoor's friend. Others smelt conspiracies from which good old parties are never far off. "It (the campaign against Tharoor) is actually about UPA-II's failure to come up with great ideas in its first 100 days," said a minister. "It is just that 24 Akbar Road (the Congress party headquarters) is barren of ideas. The party is unable to provide any direction or inputs to the government. The party headquarters has earned a reputation as a breeding gr-ound for warring factions, intrigue and whispers," he said. In Britain, the land of iconoclastic humour where politicians are facing rough weather in the wake of an expenditure scandal, Tharoor will probably find some sympathy. Gary Flather, a Queen's Counsel well known in Indian circles since he is married to Shreela Flather, the first Asian woman to be elevated to the peerage, said: "People should not get too fussed about what Tharoor said. A sense of humour is extremely valuable." Perhaps in the highest traditions of Yes Minister, the epitome of poker-faced wit, the last word should be that of an official. Tharoor's officer on special duty, Jacob Joseph (not a bureaucrat, unlike Yes Minister's permanent secretary Sir Humphrey Appleby) tweeted today: "We are not a funny country. May be they should invite a cow to join the panel discussion on TV…." |
| Extra PG entrance marks for doctors' rural service | |
| G.S. MUDUR | |
New Delhi, Sept. 17: Medical graduates who practise in India's rural areas will receive extra marks in the national entrance test for postgraduate medical studies under a novel plan to entice doctors to villages, the government announced today. The health ministry said each year of rural service would give a medical graduate aspiring to pursue postgraduate medical courses 10 per cent extra marks in the entrance examination — up to a maximum of 30 per cent after three years' rural service. The graduate doctors would have to make themselves available for rural services after they complete their internship periods. Graduates who complete internships in 2010 are likely to be the first batch of doctors who can take up the rural service for extra marks, a senior health official said. About 33,000 students graduate as doctors each year, but the number of postgraduate seats is only about 13,000. "We want to encourage doctors to go to rural areas before they apply for the entrance examination," Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said, announcing recent initiatives in medical education and rural health. The national postgraduate entrance test is used to fill up half — about 6,500 seats — of the total capacity of postgraduate medical courses across the country. The rest of the seats are filled mostly through state-level exams. The plan caps a decade-long debate on ways to lure doctors into rural areas. Health officials had discussed the possibility of making a year of rural service mandatory for entrance to postgraduate medicine, but that idea has been abandoned. However, a senior doctor associated with postgraduate medical education in India said the mechanism through which medical graduates would be able to deliver rural service was still unclear. "Will they be accommodated in the government's primary health centres or can they work in private rural clinics — in such cases how will the government verify whether rural service has indeed been rendered?" asked the doctor. The government appears to have ignored time-tested and proven models of rural service that exist in some states. In Tamil Nadu, for instance, 50 per cent of postgraduate medical seats are reserved for government doctors who have served in rural areas. Azad said the ministry had also relaxed the land requirements for the establishment of new medical colleges across India. It has also the changed rules to increase postgraduate medical seats — after consultation with the Medical Council of India. The land required for medical colleges across India will now be 20 acres instead of 25 acres. In metropolitan cities, the requirement will be only 10 acres. The government will allow public-private partnership projects to upgrade district hospitals to medical colleges in northeastern states, hilly regions and in states where the number of colleges is still less than one per 5 million people. "We need more medical colleges and we need more specialists," Azad said. In a bid to bolster the postgraduate capacity, Azad said, the ministry will increase the number of postgraduate students from 13,000 to 18,000 by allowing eligible faculty in postgraduate institutions to accept two students instead of one. He said new educational institutions will increase the number of nurses by 22,000 and the number of paramedical staff by 15,000 each year. |
Inflation turns positive as food stays pricey
Inflationary pressures are beginning to build up with retail inflation already in double digits. With the comfort of negative inflation for the most widely-watched WPI also gone, economists expect the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to take steps to suck out excess liquidity from the system and even resort to selective credit control.
However, indications are that RBI is not likely to take any steps till there is more conviction about the economic recovery. At a conference in the Capital earlier this week, central bank governor Duvvuri Subbarao had said, "We will not exit from the expansionary monetary policy unless we are sure that recovery is secured... But soon after the recovery is secured, we have to unwind the accommodative monetary policy." RBI has already factored in inflation touching 5% by the year-end.
The central bank has cut interest rates six times between October 2008 and April 2009 and pumped in liquidity to boost the economy reeling under the worst global recession since the Great Depression.
Reverse repo—the rate at which RBI sucks out liquidity and repo—the rate at which RBI injects liquidity—are currently at 3.25% and 4.75%, respectively. These rates were at 6% and 9% when RBI started easing policy in response to the global financial crisis. There is close to Rs 1.5 lakh crore in the system, internal calculations by treasury benches at various banks show.
The government, too, does not seem unduly worried about the overall inflation though it is worked up about the sharp rally in prices of food articles. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told the media in New Delhi that inflationary pressures in the economy are expected, and the inflation figures released for the week ended September 5 are in line with expectations.
The Union Cabinet on Thursday extended the control imposed under the Essential Commodities Act, which makes de-hoarding operations more effective, by another year to October 2010 to address food price inflation.
According to Abheek Barua, chief economist at HDFC bank, the spike in food price inflation is triggered by inflationary expectations rather than supply-demand concern. The annual inflation for food articles has touched a decade high of 15.42%. "There is too much liquidity in the system now and the central bank is expected to go easy on open market operations to bring down liquidity. We are also expecting certain sector-specific credit control measures," Mr Barua added.
Cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar, who is closely monitoring the inflationary scenario in the country, told ET earlier this week that the selective credit control mechanism needs to be adopted to address inflationary pressures building up in certain segments of the market.
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| Berlin, Moscow & Bombay The Marxism that India inherited By STEPHEN SHERLOCK (This article first appeared in South Asia, June 1988, vol xxi no 1, pp.63-76.) ssherlock@hotmail.com Introduction Marxism has played a central role in Indian political thinking since the time of the foundation of an independent, if truncated, Indian "nation-state" in 1947. And indeed Marxist ideas became highly influential within the nationalist movement from the 1920s. This was not especially related to the role of the communist party or parties, whose electoral strength has been largely confined to one of two regions of the country (although their political and intellectual influence has often been far greater than their numerical size), but to the much wider sway held by Marxist thought amongst other political parties and institutions in post-independence India. Marxist-derived ideas were at the heart of the economic thinking of leading figures in Congress, most notably Jawaharlal Nehru. And the main opposition to these Congress leaders in the period before and after independence, first the Congress Socialists and later the Socialists, were profoundly influenced by a Marxist worldview. This intellectual predominance found expression in institutions such as the Planning Commission and in many universities. In prestigious institutions such as Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi, Marxism has been almost the dominant paradigm. But Marxism is many different things. Far from being a monolithic body of thought as is often implied by its supporters and detractors alike, it is an evolving tradition of many often competing streams articulated by people in the singular historical circumstances in which they find themselves. To paraphrase Marx himself, people make their own history, but they do so under circumstances inherited from the past. But Marx also observed that inheritances and traditions from "the dead generations [weigh] like a nightmare on the brain of the living".(1) Such a image seems, unfortunately, to be only too apt because India and Indians, in inheriting Marxism as one of the traditions of post-Enlightenment thought, mainly inherited a particular version of Marxism, albeit the dominant version. And that version of Marxism was dominant not because of its intellectual or philosophical force but because of the force of political circumstances. It was dominant because it was articulated and propagated by a powerful state, the Soviet Union, which appeared, at once, to provide an alternative model for economic development and to be the only force capable of resisting first Fascism and then US hegemony. The central theme of this paper is that this dominant or mainstream Marxism, Soviet Marxism, was a Marxism that had been transformed over the preceding decades of political conflict and debate. In the process, a philosophy motivated by a vision of human liberation through proletarian revolution had been transformed, metamorphosed, into an ideology to justify and legitimise an authoritarian regime. The ideology retained its capacity for inspiration mainly for the leaderships of various nationalist movements in the colonial world as a means of forcing imperial powers to grant independence and as an alternative path to economic advancement and industrialisation free from the influence of the capitalist world. From a view of social change whose historical actors were classes, Soviet Marxism was one where the agents of conflict and change were nations and nation-states. India inherited a translated and reformulated version of Marxism because events which occurred far from India and with little apparent significance to India. These events were political rather than philosophical, yet they critically determined how one of the key philosophical traditions of the twentieth century came to be represented in India and how they came to represent India. From Berlin to Bombay via Moscow The mainstream of the Marxist tradition before 1917, what might be called "classical Marxism" or perhaps even "Marxian Marxism", was focused on the possibilities for social change in the industrially advanced capitalist West. Given Marx's own German origins and the fact that the largest party which claimed allegiance to Marxism was the German Social-Democratic Party clearly placed Berlin as the symbolic home for this pre-Bolshevik Marxism. This was the Marxist tradition that argued that capitalism could only be transcended where the productive forces of society had reached such a level as to place the working class into the position of comprising the vast majority of society. This would thereby create the material circumstances for resolving the great contradiction of capitalist society - that it provided the productive capacity for abundance, but its exploitative social arrangements condemned humanity to immense inequality and alienation. The political project of Marxism, then, was to win the class struggle in the advanced capitalist world. Where did this leave the working class in the less developed regions of the world where the proletariat was not only not in the majority but where it was a tiny minority confined to those parts of the economy where capitalist production relations prevailed. There was little discussion in Marx's writings about the role that workers could play in the colonial world and in countries just beginning their integration into the capitalist economy. A crucial example of such a country was, of course, Russia, where capitalist relations of production existed only in certain enclaves of the economy and the political structures of Tsarism hindered the free and further development of capitalism. The Menshevik position was that in such circumstances the working class could only support the political struggle of the liberal bourgeoisie and that working class demands could not be placed on the agenda until such time as the Russian economy had developed to a level comparable with the industrial West. Lenin and the Bolsheviks, on the other hand, developed the argument that the Russian bourgeoisie was too weak to perform what could be its historic tasks and that it was not only possible, but necessary, for the working class to take the initiative and take independent political action to overthrow Tsarism. This would mean transcending or bypassing the stage of capitalist economic development under the rule of bourgeois democracy and moving directly on to the establishment of a state run by and for the working class - a state would protect an economic system controlled by labour in the cities and by the peasantry in the countryside. The key caveat, however, which is often written out of accounts of these debates, was that such a pivotal role for the working class in a backward country was seen as only a temporary one. A workers' state, the Bolsheviks argued, could not survive for long if it was isolated in a sea of hostile imperialist powers. The point of a working class seizing power in a backward country like Russia was that the country was the weak link in the chain of European capitalism and to break that link would open up the possibility of sparking revolution in the countries of the advanced capitalist West. Only revolution in these states, first of all in Germany, could ensure the survival of a beleaguered workers' state in backward Russia and help advance the process of economic development and strengthen the social and demographic position of the working class in Russia. In other words, while the locus of Marxism might shift temporarily to Petrograd and Moscow, the leading centres of a transcended capitalist world - an international workers' state - would be in Berlin, Paris, London, New York and so on. As events developed, of course, the centre of a revolutionary workers' movement did shift to Petrograd and then to Moscow and these cities became the centres which dominated the course of debate on Marxist theory and strategy. Ultimately, however, the Bolshevik project failed. There were indeed, as hoped in Moscow, revolutionary upheavals in Germany, Hungary and Italy, three empires collapsed and there was a wave of working class unrest from England, to India, to America and Australia. But, nevertheless, the upsurge waned, capitalism survived and the Bolshevik regime was left isolated in backward Russia. The result of the developments was to distort the development of Marxist thinking for decades afterwards. Because although the regime in Moscow was isolated and was almost toppled in civil war and foreign intervention, it did survive without the revolution spreading. But in the process of surviving, the Soviet regime destroyed the very features which a classical Marxist would have seen as crucial to identifying a workers' state along lines similar to Marx's analysis of the Paris Commune - most notably control of production by the producers and control of the state by organs controlled directly by working people. (2) Instead the Soviet regime was characterised by the harshest discipline and exploitation of labour, the expropriation of the peasants, the destruction of the soviets and trade unions as effective instruments and their replacement by dictatorial state forms. But all of this was carried out without a bourgeoisie as it was understood in Marx's writings – a class of private property owners with legal title as well as control over the means of production. Instead, in Stalinist Russia, the economy and the state were controlled by a bureaucratic party structure, without legal title but with effective control, claiming to act on the behalf of the working class and legitimising its actions in the language of Marxism. At the most basic level, the regime was legitimised by a claim that it represented "socialism in one country", a claim which to the internationalism of pre-1917 Marxism was a contradiction in terms. In the understanding of classical Marxism, capitalism was a world system and its overthrow could only be accomplished on an international scale. Despite the reconstituting of fundamental Marxian conceptions implicit in the doctrine of "socialism in one country", Moscow became established as a permanent rather than a transitory centre dominating debate on Marxist theory and strategy. Soviet Russia appeared to be the only bulwark against fascism and imperialism and the startling economic transformation of the country during a time when the West was mired in Depression was an inspiration to political movements across the world seeking social change. When Marxist ideas began to filter through the screens of British political control into the Indian subcontinent from the 1920s, the process of the transformation of mainstream Marxism was almost complete. For the young activists attracted to the fledgling Communist Party of India (CPI) in Bombay, Moscow was the unquestioned centre of Marxist thought and the Comintern, increasingly an instrument of Stalin's foreign policy, ensured that any questioning of the view from the Kremlin was expunged from communist parties internationally. The Marxist stream at which the CPI drank was, from the very beginning, the metamorphosed mainstream of Soviet Marxism. The only exception to the intellectual domination of Indian communists by Moscow was M.N Roy who, significantly, came under Marxist influence well before the rise of Stalin. As discussed below, Roy in fact conducted a major debate with Lenin over the political nature of national independence movements in the colonial world. The Inheritance of Soviet Marxism As a philosophy of practical politics whose adherents were keen to make an impact on the world around them, the dominance of Soviet Marxism in India had a critical affect on the political direction of the Left in India. The two key elements of the inheritance of Soviet Marxism were the ascendancy of nationalism and what might be called "developmentalism" or more precisely "state-centred developmentalism". Sanjay Seth, in his important study of the engagement between Marxism and nationalism in India observed that "the definition of what it meant to be a communist" in India became those who argued for "a necessary relation between the class struggle and the national struggle". (3) As he also points out, however, there was no theoretical imperative or logical necessity governing this conclusion. The reality was that most of the activists drawn to Marxism in India were fundamentally nationalists seeking a more militant inspiration to their nationalism than was provided by the Indian National Congress and who wanted to find a link between the economic demands of the workers and peasants and the fight for independence. The Comintern said that the link could be made by declaring, as distinct from theoretically or practically demonstrating, that independence could only be achieved through the workers' fight for socialism. Seth tends to argue as if the acceptance of this particular relationship between Marxism and nationalism can be understood in largely philosophical terms, when the ascendancy of nationalism in Soviet Marxism was the outcome of political expediency rather than the working out of contending philosophical notions. (4) On the first question - nationalism - there were a number of major debates within the Comintern during its earliest years of existence, from 1919 to 1922, about the nature and political role of nationalism in what were termed the colonies and semi-colonies. The example uppermost in the minds of the participants in the debate was India, particularly during the time of the first non-cooperation movement. Lenin argued that capitalism had passed into a new and final stage - that of imperialism - where a worldwide capitalist system had developed which depended on the "superprofits" to be gained in the colonies. He therefore concluded that the independence movements rising throughout Asia, led by the colonial middle class and bourgeoisie, were movements of oppressed nations attempting to throw off the yoke of oppressor nations in the West. (5) In arguing in this way Lenin made the first important introduction of non-class categories as key actors in Marxist political analysis. M.N. Roy, on the other hand, argued that to draw a parallel or analogy between the class struggle between labour and capital with that of oppressed versus oppressor nation was false and misleading. He made a case which pointed to the development of indigenous capitalism and hence of an indigenous capitalist class in India which British policies either allowed or, especially in the years after WWI, deliberately facilitated. He concluded that the nationalist movement of the Indian bourgeoisie was essentially a fraternal or internecine struggle between rival national bourgeoisie and not a struggle that could lead to the overthrow of capitalism. He therefore also concluded that the working class in India (and by implication, the working class in other colonies) should not be limited by political program of the nationalist movement but had to place its own class demands on the agenda. The working class should even, if circumstances allowed, actively work towards the overthrow of its "own" bourgeoisie and the establishment of a workers' state on the Russian model. The outcome of the debate was that Lenin's position was largely adopted, but was modified to note that any assessment of the nationalist movement in a particular country should take account of the relationship between the indigenous bourgeoisie and imperialism. This was a potentially crucial modification in that it suggested that nationalist movements were not necessarily progressive and depended for their anti-imperialist content on the nature and origin of the indigenous capitalist class - whether it was entirely dependent on imperial capital for its existence or whether it had a degree of autonomy giving a material interest in resisting imperialist power. Bourgeois nationalist movements were not necessarily forces that would weaken capitalism as a whole, but were to be assessed on a case by case basis. (6) It should be noted here that Roy's ideas were adopted as a "Supplementary Thesis on the Colonial Question" at the second Congress of the Comintern, affirming that were given a comparable status to the line in the official Thesis, even though they had been voted down by the Congress. This was in stark contrast to the way in which the views of colonial delegates were regarded (or disregarded) in subsequent Comintern Congresses in the 1920s when the Comintern had been taken over by the Stalinist dictatorship. Roy himself was expelled from the Comintern in 1926, the same year that Trotsky was exiled. Back in India, from the mid-1920s onwards the CPI followed every twist and turn of Stalin's Comintern as the needs of the survival of the his regime were translated into directives to change and rechange strategy, each change being justified in a post hoc theoretical re-formulation. The first line foisted on the CPI (and all other parties throughout the world affiliated to the Comintern) was that of the short but strategically disastrous ultra-Left period from 1928 to 1935 when all bourgeois nationalist movements in the colonies and social-democratic parties in the West were branded as agents of imperialism who were as equally dangerous to the working class as were the forces of fascism. The CPI thus isolated itself from the nationalist movement and from most elements in the labour movement. Then, from 1935, Stalin instituted the line of the Popular Front in which communist parties were directed to ally themselves closely with the liberal bourgeoisie in their own country and to play down independent working class organisation. The change was driven was Stalin's concern about the threat presented to the Soviet Union by the rise of Nazi Germany and Stalin's decision to seek rapprochement with the West, a possibility which could be enhanced if the threat of communist-inspired labour unrest was eliminated. In the colonies such as India this meant that the communists should all but dissolve themselves into the nationalist movement, regardless of its class character or anti-imperialist potential. The political consequences of the embrace of Soviet Marxism became particularly clear during WWII when the CPI first followed the Comintern line during the period of the Nazi-Soviet pact that the war was an inter-imperialist struggle in which all progressive organisations should refuse to participate, and then faithfully took up the contrary position after the invasion of the Soviet Union and called for support of the "people's war". The change of line provided the opportunity for the CPI to operate legally and to cooperate with the British war effort, but caused bitter alienation between itself and the mainstream of nationalist thought and was to taint the CPI with air of betrayal for years after the war. The Comintern itself was, of course, dissolved during the war as a gesture of conciliation to the Western allies, the ultimate gesture which indicated the extent of its degeneration from a coalition of anti-capitalist parties to a bureaucratic arm of the Soviet state. But beyond these more extreme examples of obeisance to Moscow, the phenomenon of close political direction from the Kremlin declined in the post-War period following Stalin's death, Krushchev's "secret speech" and the damage to Soviet standing following the invasion of Hungary in 1956. Yet with the gradual disappearance of overt political influence from Moscow, the stamp of nationalist thinking which emerged during the early days of the Comintern remains indelibly attached to the Left in India. Apparently dissident versions of Soviet Marxism, such as that emanating from Beijing in the 1960s, in fact had more in common with the Moscow version than seemed to be the case to many at the time. And on the critical issue of the role of the nation as an agent for political change, Maoism took the effective jettisoning of class categories to even further extremes. (7) Thus the Left in India has most of its life striven to appear more nationalist than the nationalists. At times the CPI claimed leadership of the nationalist movement, as during the ultra-Left periods from 1928 to 1935 and immediately after WWII, or saw the protection of the Soviet Union as the immediate priority, as after the Nazi invasion of 1941. But whatever the peculiarities of the time, the Left in general has held to the position that India is an oppressed nation and that the natural allies of the working class is the liberal or "progressive sections" of the "national bourgeoisie" and that the indigenous capitalist state defended the interests of the entire Indian nation against the depredation of imperialism.
"State Developmentalism" and the Problem of Differentiation The practical political effect of the nationalist orientation which pervades the Left and the labour movement has been that it has constantly been confronted with the problem of how to differentiate itself effectively from the party identified as the representative of the national bourgeoisie, the Congress Party. Congress was always able to identify itself as the leading party of Indian nationalism and the CPI left in a "me-too" role over what it saw as the key issue facing the country. While other Marxist-influenced currents such as the Socialists mounted a major challenge to the predominance of Congress in the pre and post-independence periods, their influenced had waned by the 1960s. The split in the CPI in the early 1960s has often been portrayed as a reflecting the split between Moscow and Peking, but was fundamentally over the question of how to analyse the place of Congress in social change in India and how to relate to the party politically. The problem of differentiation has been particularly acute concerning the other key inheritance of Soviet Marxism - state-centred developmentalism. One of the main points of inspiration provided by Soviet Marxism was that the Soviet Union itself seemed to demonstrate that there was an alternative way to bring about the development of the forces of production which did not involve the creation of a bourgeois ruling class or a surrender to international capital. Soviet Marxism was centred not on the project of transcending capitalism through class struggle, but on the project of using the state to mobilise the resources of an independent nation-state, behind autarchic economic barriers, in order to defend the new state's autonomy and to allow it to join the ranks of the economically developed and politically powerful states of the advanced world. The phrase "building socialism" in the Soviet Union or China was synonymous with building heavy industry and farming with tractors. It was this Marxism that Nehru found attractive. The model of the Soviet Union led to the state-directed planning and strict regulation on the movement of capital and technology in and out of India that has dominated the policies of the Indian state since independence. Marxism, presented in this way, with developmentalism virtually its central idea, was readily able to be co-opted and was indeed ideologically integrated into the edifice of the Indian state. Being thus co-opted Marxism was largely stripped of its oppositional possibilities and the Left was reduced to being a number of alternative parliamentary parties offering a political program which appeared not fundamentally different from that of Congress. At the height of Left influence in the 1960s and 1970s the CPI became the handmaiden of Indira Gandhi's campaign of empty populism. The CPM took office in West Bengal on a wave of working class unrest, but soon found itself locked into an enclave which limited rather than expanded its options for political activity. After a brief flirtation with using the office to facilitate class struggle by withdrawing police intervention in labour disputes, the CPM came to realise that to occupy even a relatively minor seat in the house of the bourgeois Indian state necessitated crushing more radical challenges to the status quo such as the Naxalites and discouraging independent initiative from labour organisations. (8) Thus the construction of India (and the rest of the developing world) which was implicit in the version of Marxism that India inherited was such that Marxism was absorbed into the mainstream of Indian political discourse. In the process, most of the potential for Marxism to provide inspiration and direction for organisations of the millions of working people in India being drawn into the capitalist economy, both in industry and agriculture, was also absorbed. Rather Marxism became one of the tools of the Indian state in its developmental project. (9) After the Fall: What's Left of Marxism? The collapse of the Soviet Union and the collapse of Soviet Marxism have thrown much of the Left in India into a confused and disoriented condition. The political practice of the communist parties in India has, at least since the 1950s, been little different from any social-democratic party in the world, but the example of the Soviet Union provided an inspiration for what communists were, in theory, fighting for. This ideological veneer was also very important for the cadre of the party in maintaining their sense of difference from the Congress and the Socialists and for sustaining the idea that the communists were the most principled fighters for state direction over the economy, even though planning was part of mainstream thinking in post-independence India. Economic liberalisation has presented the Left with a challenge in two senses: firstly because the economic restructuring with which it is associated has had major effects, both positive and negative, on the social groups which have been the Left's traditional constituency, and secondly in the sense that liberalisation has resulted from and facilitated the collapse of the post-independence economic nationalist consensus that India's path to development lay through a relative disengagement with the global capitalist economy. Economic nationalism, together with state planning and control of resource allocation, was seen as a progressive idea and the special ideological property of the Left. The institutionalisation of these ideas created a constituency of supporters amongst the state bureaucracy, the managers, administrators and workers of state-owned corporations, the owners of industries shielded against foreign competition and agriculturalists supported by subsidies and tax-free income. Some people amongst these groups were drawn to support Left parties. But unfortunately there does not seem to be any evidence of fundamental rethinking of the issues facing socialist and labour organisations in India today. Instead, on key issues such as ways to respond to the effects of economic liberalisation, there is little more than a repetition of the economic nationalist mantras of the past. One recent contributor to the Economic and Political Weekly, for example, argued that the nationalist movement: should be revived and led by the working class by boycotting foreign goods ... and preventing if required physically the entry of MNCs, the offspring of the old East India Co, now out to deindustrialise the country. (1) And although ideas of Third World solidarity have probably the least substance that they have ever had, there is still a school of thought which argues that: At no time was there a greater need for the concept of the nation state; and the need for the banding together of developing nations greater. (11) Even considerably more sophisticated analyses, when applied in practical political terms, frequently do little more than return by more complicated routes to old nationalist presumptions. Partha Chatterjee, for example, has attacked ideas of going "beyond nationalism" when rethinking the position of the Indian state in the world economy, arguing that it would "strengthen inequalities and defeat the struggle for democracy the world over". (12) At the same time, sections of the Left with a niche in the state machinery are increasingly adapting themselves to the most conventional of solutions to issues of economic development. The CPM in West Bengal, while rhetorically subscribing to anti-MNC positions in some forums, has been actively developing policies designed to welcome and facilitate the entry of international capital into the state. It is, of course, understandable that a government in its position would take such action, faced with the realities of the domestic and international economy. But it is also these realities which expose the ideological pretentions that the CPM has fundamentally different political priorities from other parliamentary parties. The nationalist starting-point for many Left organisations on questions such as nuclear disarmament has also left them open to accusations of being unable to develop a position which is significantly different from the chauvinism the Hindutva brigade. (13) A starting point for the reinvigoration of Indian Marxism would be a rediscovery of analyses based on the international class nature of capitalism as distinct from analyses which begin with a conception of oppressed and oppressor nations. This needs to be accompanied by a rediscovery of the politics of the movement rather than the politics of the state. The dominant tradition of the Indian Left has been fixated on attempts to influence the direction of the policies of the state, based on a view that the developmentalist state was in a position to free the mass of Indians from poverty, in contrast to the classical Marxist conception of revolutionary change as possible only by the action of workers themselves. Rather than persisting with increasingly quixotic and irrelevant efforts to lobby the state to somehow, by administrative fiat, prevent the continued integration of India into the world economy, a far more productive route (from the point of view of the empowerment of workers, both urban and rural) would be to attempt to organise those workers and peasants who are actually being drawn into the increasingly internationalised Indian capitalist economy. For example in Bombay, one the principal linkages between the Indian economy and global economy, the key reality confronting workers in their daily lives is not whether their employers are Indians or foreigners, but whether or not they are employed in the formal organised sector or, like increasing numbers of workers, are employed in the appalling conditions of the informal, unorganised sector. But so many Left trade unions have been focused on defending the interests of ever-diminishing numbers of workers in the declining sectors of the textile mills and on the small numbers employed by state-owned services and corporations, and have neglected the difficult work of organising in the ever-expanding informal and service industries which now dominate the Bombay labour market. (14) Conclusion: Translating the Translated The people of India began developing a mass movement for independence from the British empire at the same time as the ruling institutions of the advanced capitalist world were being shaken by the shocks of world war and an upsurge of unrest amongst working people which in places reached revolutionary proportions. These events brought the influence of Marxism into the forefront of radical and working class politics in India in a new and unprecedented way. The coming together of the anti-colonial and anti-capitalist movements and its interpretation from a Marxist perspective inevitably flowed through to the Indian political scene. The Indian independence movement, which was previously informed by ideas of liberalism and models such as the Irish independence movement, came under the influence of new philosophical and political traditions that sought to challenge and transcend bourgeois liberalism. But these new ideas had been developed in the context of an urban, industrial capitalist world and foresaw the overthrow of social oppression by a class of people which hardly existed in an economy and society such as India's. For Marxism to engage with Indian political affairs it had to be translated into a very different political environment from the one in which it was born. In fact, however, the process of that translation was well under way before Indians were in a position to participate in the debate. And critically, whereas the debate of early years had been lively and free-flowing (as the Roy-Lenin debate illustrated), by the time Marxism gained significant currency on the Indian political scene in the second half of the 1920s, the debate had become barren, rigid and dominated by the needs of a particular regime. Translating Marxism into India had become an exercise in translating the translated. The first stage of the transformation of classical Marxism into Soviet Marxism involved the reformulation of the "colonial question" into the "national question" and the emergence of the idea of "oppressed nation" as an analogous and equally important category to that of oppressed class. This change emerged in the context of efforts to assess the potential of colonial independence movements as weapons against international capitalism. As such the assessment was contingent and related to the immediate circumstances of harnessing these movements for the fight against capitalism and, where appropriate, developing a strategy for political action for the working class in colonial countries. This somewhat ad hoc adaptation of Marxism by an arguably false analogy between class and nation opened the path to the second stage of the transformation – the equation of Marxism with state-centred developmentalism. In post-revolutionary Russia, the slide from internationalism to "socialism in one country" was also an ad hoc attempt to deal with the isolation of the Bolshevik regime and to legitimise the efforts of the successor Stalinist state (after most of the Bolsheviks were killed or exiled) to build the industrial capacity necessary to survive economically and militarily. The apparent success of this effort meant that Marxism was now nationally-based and supported "progressive" or "anti-imperialist" nationalism and proclaimed that socialism was achieved when a state-owned industrial economy was built. This Marxism presented itself as an alternative path to modernity for the backward regions of the world and thus had great attraction for the nationalist intelligentsia and middle class in Asia and beyond. As the influence of both classical and Soviet Marxism waned amongst the working classes of the capitalist world from the 1920s and after WWII, so Soviet Marxism "succeeded" in places such as China, Vietnam and Cuba. Although Marx was hostile to the nation-state as an instrument of bourgeois rule and the existence of nationalism remained something of an anomaly in Marx's thought (15), the advocacy of nationalist struggles in the colonial world became virtually the key characteristic of Marxist movements during the twentieth century, at least within Soviet Marxism. Despite the pretensions to difference, the Soviet Marxist path to modernity was in fact one which was largely defined by capitalism – success meant national-state sovereignty and industrialisation. And eventually the differences were to be symbols of failure rather than success. Soviet-style economies were often able to establish the elements of a heavy industrial base but were uniformly incapable of making the transition to the mass consumer economy. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and its satellites, the surrender of economic control by the Chinese communists and penury amongst the remnants of the "Second World", Soviet Marxism stands bereft and discredited. The crisis for the Left and much of the labour movement in India today lies in the fact that the Marxism that India inherited was the metamorphosed ideology of Soviet Marxism. With the break-down of the virtual consensus in favour of economic nationalism and state-led development which prevailed in post-independence India and the uncritical embrace of neo-liberal ideas amongst much of the intelligentsia and the political leadership, the Left stands isolated and increasingly irrelevant as it clings, half-believing, to the certainties of the past. For the Left to regain a position as an oppositional force, an effective advocate for the people who are bearing the social costs of India's accelerating integration into the world economy, but who are potentially empowered by their transformation into wage-workers, it will need to re-examine many of the presumptions that have been its stock in trade for the last seventy years. Soviet Marxism may have been thoroughly discredited, but many of the other politically obscured traditions of Marxism have not only survived the transition but have been vindicated by the events of the 1990s. If the parties of the Left do not wish to be dissolved into liberalism and right-wing social democracy, a re-investigation of the traditions of classical Marxism could be a rewarding exercise. Notes 1. Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte, New York, 1975, p.15. 2. Civil War in France, Moscow, 1976. 3. Sanjay Seth, Marxist Theory and Nationalist Politics: The Case of Colonial India, New Delhi, 1995, p.139. 4. Seth, for example, notes in passing that the fact that the Comintern, in 1928, adopted a fundamental change of position on the relationship between the working class, the communist parties and the national movements in the colonies (a position duly adopted by the Communist Party of India) "had as much to if not more to do with factional struggles in the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and with Stalin's consolidation of his power as with any developments in capitalism." But he then glides over this critically important fact by dismissing it in the following sentence with the phrase: "Whatever the reason…" op. cit., p.133. Nevertheless, despite the rather idealist flavour of Seth's philosophical emphases in his concluding chapter, one can only endorse his conclusion that "an understanding of Marxism's failure re nationalism – not simply in failing to theorise it adequately, but in succumbing to it – requires, then Marxist studies of nationalism. …they must study nationalism historically, disregarding or at least bracketing the question of which nationalisms are progressive and which reactionary." op. cit., p.234. 5. V.I. Lenin, Imperialism: Highest Stage of Capitalism, Moscow, 1979. 6. Seth, op. cit., pp.58-70. 7. Brugger and Kelly coined the term "Eastern orthodox Marxism" to describe the state ideology of Maoist China. B.Brugger & D. Kelly, Chinese Marxism in the Post-Mao Era, Stanford, 1990, p.45. 8. For a fuller discussion of the CPM in West Bengal see S. Sherlock, "Resolving the Conflict?: The Uncertain Future of Trade Unionism in West Bengal", South Asian Issues, Indian Ocean Centre for Peace Studies, Perth, 1993 9. As Nigel Harris has observed, "the disappearance of the Communists into Indian nationalism" ensured that they had "quite unknowingly, done [their] work well in securing the stability of the new Indian order" after independence in 1947. Nigel Harris, National Liberation, London, 1990, p.198 10. Economic and Political Weekly, 5/4/97, p.721. 11. Arun Ghosh, "Capitalism, Nation State and Development in a Globalised World", Economic and Political Weekly, 5-11/4/97, p.686. 12. Partha Chatterjee, "Beyond the Nation? Or Within?", Economic and Political Weekly, 4-11/1/97, p.34. 13. See Praful Bidwai & Achin Vanaik, "An Open Letter to the Left", Economic and Political Weekly, 18/1/97, pp.71-74. 14. I have examined some of the issues confronting the labour movement in Bombay in my "Class Re-formation in Bombay: Has Organised Labour Risen to the Challenge" Economic and Political Weekly, Review of Labour, 28/12/96, L34-L38. 15. Seth, op. cit., p.12.
West BengalFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Coordinates: 22°34′11″N 88°22′11″E / 22.5697°N 88.3697°E / 22.5697; 88.3697 West Bengal (Bengali: পশ্চিমবঙ্গ Poshchim Bônggo, IPA: [poʃtʃim bɔŋɡo]) is a state in eastern India. With Bangladesh, which lies on its eastern border, the state forms the ethno-linguistic region of Bengal. To its northeast lie the states of Assam and Sikkim and the country Bhutan, and to its southwest, the state of Orissa. To the west it borders the states of Jharkhand and Bihar, and to the northwest, Nepal. The region that is now West Bengal was part of a number of empires and kingdoms during the past two millennia. The British East India Company cemented their hold on the region following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, and the city of Calcutta, now Kolkata, served for many years as the capital of British India. A hotbed of the Indian independence movement through the early 20th century, Bengal was divided in 1947 along religious lines into two separate entities, West Bengal—a state of India, and East Bengal, a part of the new nation of Pakistan. Following India's independence in 1947, West Bengal's economic and political systems were dominated for many decades by Marxism, Naxalite movements and trade unionism. An agriculture-dependent state, West Bengal occupies only 2.7% of the India's land area, though it supports over 7.8% of the Indian population, and is the most densely populated state in India.[1] West Bengal has been ruled by the CPI(M)-led Left Front for three decades, making it the world's longest-running democratically elected communist government. Since the late 1990s, the state has seen a resurgence in its economy after decades of stagnation.
[edit] HistoryMain article: History of Bengal See also: History of West Bengal Remnants of civilisation in the greater Bengal region date back 4,000 years,[2][3] when the region was settled by Dravidian, Tibeto-Burman and Austro-Asiatic peoples. The exact origin of the word Bangla or Bengal is unknown, though it is believed to be derived from the Dravidian-speaking tribe Bang that settled in the area around the year 1000 BC.[4] After the arrival of Indo-Aryans, the kingdom of Magadha was formed in 7th century BC, consisting of the Bihar and Bengal regions. It was one of the four main kingdoms of India at the time of Mahavira and the Buddha, and consisted of several Janapadas.[5] During the rule of Maurya dynasty, the Magadha Empire extended over nearly all of South Asia, including Afghanistan and parts of Persia under Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century BC. One of the earliest foreign references to Bengal is the mention of a land named Gangaridai by the Greeks around 100 BC. The word is speculated to have come from Gangahrd (Land with the Ganges in its heart) in reference to an area in Bengal.[6] Bengal had overseas trade relations with Java, Sumatra and Siam (modern day Thailand). According to Mahavamsa, Vijaya Singha, a Vanga prince, conquered Lanka (modern day Sri Lanka) in 544 BC and gave the name "Sinhala" to the country. Bengali people migrated to the Malay Archipelago and Siam (in modern Thailand), establishing their own colonies there.
From the 3rd to the 6th centuries AD, the kingdom of Magadha served as the seat of the Gupta Empire. The first recorded independent king of Bengal was Shashanka, reigning around early 7th century.[7] After a period of anarchy, the Buddhist Pala dynasty ruled the region for four hundred years, followed by a shorter reign of the Hindu Sena dynasty. Islam was introduced to Bengal in the twelfth century by Sufi missionaries. Subsequent Muslim conquests helped spread Islam throughout the region.[8] Bakhtiar Khilji, a Turkic general of the Slave dynasty of Delhi Sultanate, defeated Lakshman Sen of the Sena dynasty and conquered large parts of Bengal. Consequently, the region was ruled by dynasties of sultans and feudal lords under the Delhi Sultanate for the next few hundred years. In the sixteenth century, Mughal general Islam Khan conquered Bengal. However, administration by governors appointed by the court of the Mughal Empire gave way to semi-independence of the area under the Nawabs of Murshidabad, who nominally respected the sovereignty of the Mughals in Delhi.  European traders arrived late in the fifteenth century. Their influence grew until the British East India Company gained taxation rights in Bengal subah, or province, following the Battle of Plassey in 1757, when Siraj ud-Daulah, the last independent Nawab, was defeated by the British.[9] The Bengal Presidency was established by 1765, eventually including all British territories north of the Central Provinces (now Madhya Pradesh), from the mouths of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra to the Himalayas and the Punjab. The Bengal famine of 1770 claimed millions of lives.[10] Calcutta was named the capital of British India in 1772. The Bengal Renaissance and Brahmo Samaj socio-cultural reform movements had great impact on the cultural and economic life of Bengal. The failed Indian rebellion of 1857 started near Calcutta and resulted in transfer of authority to the British Crown, administered by the Viceroy of India.[11] Between 1905 and 1911, an abortive attempt was made to divide the province of Bengal into two zones.[12] Bengal suffered from the Great Bengal famine in 1943 that claimed 3 million lives.[13]  Subhash Chandra Bose is one of the most prominent freedom fighters from Bengal in the Indian independence movement against the British Raj. Bengal played a major role in the Indian independence movement, in which revolutionary groups such as Anushilan Samiti and Jugantar were dominant. Armed attempts against the British Raj from Bengal reached a climax when Subhash Chandra Bose led the Indian National Army from Southeast Asia against the British. When India gained independence in 1947, Bengal was partitioned along religious lines. The western part went to India (and was named West Bengal) while the eastern part joined Pakistan as a province called East Bengal (later renamed East Pakistan, giving rise to independent Bangladesh in 1971).[14] Both West and East Bengal suffered from large refugee influx during the partition in 1947, leading to the political unrests later on. In 1955, the former French enclave of Chandannagar, which had passed into Indian control after 1950, was integrated into West Bengal; portions of Bihar were subsequently merged with West Bengal. During the 1960s and 1980s, severe power shortages, strikes and a violent Marxist-Naxalite movement damaged much of the state's infrastructure, leading to a period of economic stagnation. The Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 resulted in the influx of millions of refugees to West Bengal, causing significant strains on its infrastructure.[15] The 1974 smallpox epidemic killed thousands. West Bengal politics underwent a major change when the Left Front won the 1977 assembly election, defeating the incumbent Indian National Congress. The Left Front, led by Communist Party of India (Marxist), has governed for the state for the subsequent three decades.[16] The state's economic recovery gathered momentum after economic reforms in India were introduced in the mid-1990s by the central government, aided by election of a new reformist Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya in 2000. As of 2007, armed activists have been organising minor terrorist attacks in some parts of the state,[17][18] while clashes with the administration are taking place at several sensitive places on the issue of industrial land acquisition.[19][20] [edit] Geography and climateMain article: Geography of West Bengal  Many areas remain flooded during the heavy rains brought by monsoon. West Bengal is on the eastern bottleneck of India, stretching from the Himalayas in the north to the Bay of Bengal in the south. The state has a total area of 88,752 square kilometres (34,267 sq mi).[21] The Darjeeling Himalayan hill region in the northern extreme of the state belongs to the eastern Himalaya. This region contains Sandakfu (3,636 metres/11,929 feet)—the highest peak of the state.[22] The narrow Terai region separates this region from the plains, which in turn transitions into the Ganges delta towards the south. The Rarh region intervenes between the Ganges delta in the east and the western plateau and high lands. A small coastal region is on the extreme south, while the Sundarbans mangrove forests form a remarkable geographical landmark at the Ganges delta.  National Highway 31A winds along the banks of the Teesta River near Kalimpong, in the Darjeeling Himalayan hill region. The Ganges is the main river, which divides in West Bengal. One branch enters Bangladesh as the Padma or Pôdda, while the other flows through West Bengal as the Bhagirathi River and Hooghly River. The Teesta, Torsa, Jaldhaka and Mahananda rivers are in the northern hilly region. The western plateau region has rivers such as the Damodar, Ajay and Kangsabati. The Ganges delta and the Sundarbans area have numerous rivers and creeks. Pollution of the Ganges from indiscriminate waste dumped into the river is a major problem.[23] At least nine districts in the state suffer from arsenic contamination of groundwater, and an estimated 8.7 million people drink water containing arsenic above the World Health Organisation recommended limit of 10 µg/L.[24] West Bengal's climate varies from tropical savannah in the southern portions to humid subtropical in the north. The main seasons are summer, rainy season, a short autumn, and winter. While the summer in the delta region is noted for excessive humidity, the western highlands experience a dry summer like northern India, with the highest day temperature ranging from 38 °C (100 °F) to 45 °C (113 °F).[25] At nights, a cool southerly breeze carries moisture from the Bay of Bengal. In early summer brief squalls and thunderstorms known as Kalbaisakhi, or Nor'westers, often occur.[26] Monsoons bring rain to the whole state from June to September. West Bengal receives the Bay of Bengal branch of the Indian ocean monsoon that moves in a northwest direction. Winter (December–January) is mild over the plains with average minimum temperatures of 15 °C (59 °F).[25] A cold and dry northern wind blows in the winter, substantially lowering the humidity level. However, the Darjeeling Himalayan Hill region experiences a harsh winter, with occasional snowfall at places. [edit] Flora and fauna
 Owing to the varying altitude from the Himalayas to the coastal plains, the flora and fauna of the state is diverse. Forests make up 14% of the geographical area of West Bengal, which is lower than the national average of 23%.[29][30] Protected forests cover 4% of the state area.[31] Part of the world's largest mangrove forest Sundarbans is located in southern West Bengal.[32] From a phytogeographic viewpoint, the southern part of West Bengal can be divided into two regions: the Gangetic plain and the littoral mangrove forests of the Sundarbans.[33] The alluvial soil of the Gangetic plain compounded with favorable rainfall make this region especially fertile.[33] Much of the vegetation of the western part of the state shares floristic similarities with the plants of the Chota Nagpur plateau in the adjoining state of Jharkhand.[33] The predominant commercial tree species is Shorea robusta, commonly known as Sal. The coastal region of Purba Medinipur exhibits coastal vegetation; the predominant tree is the Casuarina. The most valuable tree from the Sundarbans is the ubiquitous sundri (Heritiera fomes) from which the forest gets its name.[34] Vegetation in northern West Bengal is dictated by elevation and precipitation. For example, the foothills of the Himalayas, the Dooars, are densely wooded with Sal and other trees of the tropical evergreen type.[35] Above 1000 m, the forest type changes to subtropical. In Darjeeling, which is above 1500 m, common trees typifying the temperate forest are oaks, conifers, and rhododendrons.[35] The Sundarbans are noted for a reserve project conserving Bengal tigers. There are five national parks in the state[36] — Sundarbans National Park, Buxa Tiger Reserve, Gorumara National Park, Neora Valley National Park and Singalila National Park. Wildlife includes the Indian rhinoceros, Indian elephants, deer, bison, leopards, gaur, and crocodiles. The state is also rich in bird life. Migratory birds come to the state during the winter.[31] The high altitude forests like Singalila National Park shelter barking deer, red panda, chinkara, takin, serow, pangolin, minivet and Kalij pheasants. In addition to the Bengal tiger, the Sundarbans host many other endangered species like Gangetic dolphin, river terrapin, estuarine crocodile etc.[37] The mangrove forest also acts as a natural fish nursery, supporting coastal fishes along the Bay of Bengal.[37] [edit] Government and politicsMain article: Government of West Bengal See also: Chief Minister of West Bengal West Bengal is governed through a parliamentary system of representative democracy, a feature the state shares with other Indian states. Universal suffrage is granted to residents. There are two branches of government. The legislature, the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, consists of elected members and special office bearers such as the Speaker and Deputy Speaker, that are elected by the members. Assembly meetings are presided over by the Speaker or the Deputy Speaker in the Speaker's absence. The judiciary is composed of the Calcutta High Court and a system of lower courts. Executive authority is vested in the Council of Ministers headed by the Chief Minister, although the titular head of government is the Governor. The Governor is the head of state appointed by the President of India. The leader of the party or coalition with a majority in the Legislative Assembly is appointed as the Chief Minister by the Governor, and the Council of Ministers are appointed by the Governor on the advice of the Chief Minister. The Council of Ministers reports to the Legislative Assembly. The Assembly is unicameral with 295 Members of the Legislative Assembly, or MLAs,[38][39] including one nominated from the Anglo-Indian community. Terms of office run for 5 years, unless the Assembly is dissolved prior to the completion of the term. Auxiliary authorities known as panchayats, for which local body elections are regularly held, govern local affairs. The state contributes 42 seats to Lok Sabha and 16 seats to Rajya Sabha of the Indian Parliament.[40] The main players in the regional politics are the Left Front alliance (led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) or CPI(M)), the All India Trinamool Congress, the Indian National Congress, and other major parties. Following the West Bengal State Assembly Election in 2006, the Left Front coalition under Buddhadeb Bhattacharya of the CPI(M) was elected to power(getting 235 seats in the legislature). West Bengal has been ruled by the Left Front for the past 30 years, making it the world's longest-running democratically elected communist government.[16] [edit] SubdivisionsMain article: Districts of West Bengal There are 19 districts in West Bengal — Bankura, Bardhaman, Birbhum, Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, East Midnapore, Hooghly, Howrah, Jalpaiguri, Kolkata, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, North 24 Parganas, North Dinajpur, Purulia, South 24 Parganas, South Dinajpur and West Midnapore. Each district is governed by a district collector or district magistrate, appointed either by the Indian Administrative Service or the West Bengal Civil Service. Each district is subdivided into Sub-Divisions, governed by a sub-divisional magistrate, and again into Blocks. Blocks consists of panchayats (village councils) and town municipalities. The capital and largest city of the state is Kolkata — the third-largest urban agglomeration[41] and the fourth-largest city[42] in India. Siliguri is an economically important town, strategically located in the northeastern Siliguri Corridor (Chicken's Neck) of India. Asansol, Durgapur and Raniganj are cities in the western industrial belt. Other major cities and towns in West Bengal are Howrah, Haldia, Kharagpur, Burdwan, Darjeeling, Midnapore, Tamluk, Malda and Cooch Behar. [edit] EconomyMain article: Economy of West Bengal
Agriculture is the leading occupation in West Bengal. Rice is the state's principal food crop. Other food crops are pulses, oil seeds, wheat, tobacco, sugarcane and potatoes. Jute is the main cash crop of the region. Tea is also produced commercially; the region is well known for Darjeeling and other high quality teas.[44] However, the service sector is the largest contributor to the gross domestic product of the state, contributing 51% of the state domestic product compared to 27% from agriculture and 22% from industry.[45] State industries are localized in the Kolkata region and the mineral-rich western highlands. The Durgapur–Asansol colliery belt is home to a number of major steel plants.[44] Manufacturing industries playing an important economic role are engineering products, electronics, electrical equipment, cables, steel, leather, textiles, jewellery, frigates, automobiles, railway coaches, and wagons. A significant part of the state is economically backward, namely, large parts of six northern districts of Cooch Behar, Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Malda, North Dinajpur and South Dinajpur; three western districts of Purulia, Bankura, Birbhum; and the Sundarbans area.[1] Years after independence, West Bengal was still dependent on the central government for meeting its demands for food; food production remained stagnant and the Indian green revolution bypassed the state. However, there has been a significant spurt in food production since the 1980s, and the state now has a surplus of grains.[1] The state's share of total industrial output in India was 9.8% in 1980–81, declining to 5% by 1997–98. However, the service sector has grown at a rate higher than the national rate.[1] West Bengal has the third largest economy (2003–2004) in India, with a net state domestic product of US$ 21.5 billion.[45] During 2001–2002, the state's average SDP was more than 7.8% — outperforming the National GDP Growth.[46] The state has promoted foreign direct investment, which has mostly come in the software and electronics fields;[45] Kolkata is becoming a major hub for the Information technology (IT) industry. Owing to the boom in Kolkata's and the overall state's economy, West Bengal is now the third fastest growing economy in the country.[47] However, the rapid industrialisation process has given rise to debate over land acquisition for industry in this agrarian state.[48] NASSCOM–Gartner ranks West Bengal power infrastructure the best in the country.[49] West Bengals state domestic product (SDP) grew in 2004 with 12.7 % and in 2005 with 11.0 % .[50] [edit] TransportThe total length of surface road in West Bengal is over 92,023 km (57,180 mi);[51] national highways comprise 2,377 km (1,477 mi)[52] and state highways 2,393 km (1,487 mi). The road density of the state is 103.69 km per 100 km² (166.92 mi per 100 sq mi), higher than the national average of 74.7 km per 100 km² (120 mi per 100 sq mi).[53] Average speed on state highways varies between 40–50 km/h (25–31 mi/h); in villages and towns, speeds are as low as 20–25 km/h (12–16 mi/h) due to the substandard quality of road constructions and low maintenance. Total railway length is 3,825 km (2,377 mi).[54] Kolkata is the headquarters of two divisions of the Indian Railways—Eastern Railway and South Eastern Railway.[55] The Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) plies in the northern parts of the state. The Kolkata metro is the country's first underground railway.[56] The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, part of NFR, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.[57] The state's only international airport is Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport at Dum Dum, Kolkata. Bagdogra airport near Siliguri is another significant airport in the state and recently it has been upgraded to an international airport. Kolkata is a major river-port in eastern India. The Kolkata Port Trust manages both the Kolkata docks and the Haldia docks.[58] There is passenger service to Port Blair on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands and cargo ship service to ports in India and abroad, operated by the Shipping Corporation of India. Ferry is a principal mode of transport in the southern part of the state, especially in the Sundarbans area. Kolkata is the only city in India to have trams as a mode of transport and these are operated by the Calcutta Tramways Company.[59] Several government-owned organisations operate substandard bus services in the state, including the Calcutta State Transport Corporation, the North Bengal State Transport Corporation, the South Bengal State Transport Corporation, the West Bengal Surface Transport Corporation, and the Calcutta Tramways Company, thus leading to mismanagement. There are also private bus companies. The railway system is a nationalised service without any private investment. Hired forms of transport include metered taxis and auto rickshaws which often ply specific routes in cities. In most of the state, cycle rickshaws, and in Kolkata, hand-pulled rickshaws, are also used for short-distance travel. [edit] DemographicsMain article: Bengali people 
The vast majority of the 80,221,171 people of West Bengal[61] are Bengalis.[62] The Bihari minority is scattered throughout the state and communities of Sherpas and ethnic Tibetans can be found in regions bordering Sikkim. Darjeeling district has a large number of Gurkha people of Nepalese origin. West Bengal is home to indigenous tribal Adivasis such as Santals, Kol, Koch-Rajbongshi and Toto tribe. The official language is Bengali. Hindi and English are also used commonly. Nepali is spoken primarily in the Darjeeling district. Languages such as Rajbongshi, Santali and Ho are used in some parts of the state. Hinduism is the principal religion at 72% of the total population, while Muslims comprise 23%; Sikhism, Christianity and other religions make up the remainder.[63] West Bengal has a population density of 904 inhabitants per square kilometre (2,341.3/sq mi) making it the most densely populated state in India.[64] The state contributes 7.81% of India's population.[65] The state's 1991–2001 growth rate of 17.84% is lower than the national rate of 21.34%.[61] The gender ratio is 934 females per 1000 males.[61] The literacy rate is 69.22%.[61] Data of 1995–1999 showed the life expectancy in the state was 63.4 years, higher than the national value of 61.7 years.[66] About 72% of people live in rural areas. The proportion of people living below the poverty line in 1999–2000 was 31.85%.[1] Scheduled Castes and Tribes form 28.6% and 5.8% of the population respectively in rural areas, and 19.9% and 1.5% respectively in urban areas.[1] The crime rate in the state in 2004 was 82.6 per 100,000, which was half of the national average.[67] This is the fourth-lowest crime rate among the 32 states and union territories of India.[68] However, the state reported the highest rate of Special and Local Laws (SLL) crimes.[69] In reported crimes against women, the state showed a crime rate of 7.1 compared to the national rate of 14.1.[68] West Bengal was the first Indian state to constitute a Human Rights Commission of its own.[68] [edit] CultureSee also: Culture of West Bengal and Culture of Darjeeling  Swami Vivekananda is great spritual leader and idological motivator of West Bengal The Bengali language boasts a rich literary heritage, shared with neighboring Bangladesh. West Bengal has a long tradition in folk literature, evidenced by the Charyapada, Mangalkavya, Shreekrishna Kirtana, Thakurmar Jhuli, and stories related to Gopal Bhar. In the nineteenth and twentieth century, Bengali literature was modernized in the works of authors such as Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Michael Madhusudan Dutt, Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, Jibananda Das and Manik Bandyopadhyay.  Rabindranath Tagore is Asia's first Nobel laureate and composer of India's and Bangladesh's national anthem The Baul tradition is a unique heritage of Bengali folk music, which has also been influenced by regional music traditions.[70] Other folk music forms include Gombhira and Bhawaiya. Folk music in West Bengal is often accompanied by the ektara, a one-stringed instrument. West Bengal also has an heritage in North Indian classical music. "Rabindrasangeet", songs composed and set into tune by Rabindranath Tagore and "Nazrul geeti" (by Kazi Nazrul Islam) are popular.  Also prominent are other musical forms like Dwijendralal, Atulprasad and Rajanikanta's songs, and "adhunik" or modern music from films and other composers. From the early 1990s, there has been an emergence and popularisation of new genres of music, including fusions of Baul and Jazz by several Bangla bands, as well as the emergence of what has been called Jeebonmukhi Gaan (a modern genre based on realism). Bengali dance forms draw from folk traditions, especially those of the tribal groups, as well as the broader Indian dance traditions. Chau dance of Purulia is a rare form of mask dance.[71] Mainstream Hindi films are popular, as are films from the Bengali cinema industry, dubbed "Tollywood". Tollygunj in Kolkata is the location of Bengali movie studios and the name "Tollywood" (similar to Hollywood, USA) is derived from that name. The Bengali film industry is also known for art films or Indy films. Its long tradition of filmmaking has produced acclaimed directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Tapan Sinha and Ritwik Ghatak. Contemporary directors include Buddhadev Dasgupta, Goutam Ghose, Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh. Bengal had been the harbinger of modernism in fine arts. Abanindranath Tagore, called the father of Modern Indian Art had started the Bengal School of Art which was to create styles of art outside the European realist tradition which was taught in art colleges under the colonial administration of the British Government. The movement had many adherents like Gaganendranath Tagore, Ramkinkar Baij, Jamini Roy and Rabindranath Tagore. After Indian Independence, important groups like the Calcutta Group and the Society of Contemporary Artists were formed in bengal which dominated the art scene in India. Since 1990, Indian economy has been liberalized gradually which helped many Indian artists like Paresh Maity, Devajyoti Ray, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Kaushik Bannerjee, earn international reputation.[citation needed] Rice and fish are traditional favorite foods, leading to a saying in Bengali, machhe bhate bangali, that translates as "fish and rice make a Bengali".[72] Bengal's vast repertoire of fish-based dishes includes hilsa preparations, a favorite among Bengalis. Bengalis make distinctive sweetmeats from milk products, including Rôshogolla, Chômchôm, Kalojam and several kinds of Pithe. Popular street food includes Beguni, Kati roll, and phuchka.[73][74] Panta bhat (rice soaked overnight in water) is a traditional dish consumed in rural areas.  An Indian pilgrim, in Gangasagar fair in Diamond Harbour, West Bengal, India. Bengali women commonly wear the shaŗi , often distinctly designed according to local cultural customs. In urban areas, many women and men wear Western attire. Among men, western dressing has greater acceptance. Men also wear traditional costumes such as the panjabi with dhuti , often on cultural occasions. Durga Puja in October is the most popular festival in the West Bengal.[75] Pohela Baishakh (the Bengali New Year), Rathayatra, Dolyatra or Basanta-Utsab, Nobanno, Poush parbon (festival of Poush), Kalipuja, Saraswatipuja, Laxmipuja, Christmas, Eid ul-Fitr and Eid ul-Adha are other major festivals. Buddha Purnima, which marks the birth of Gautama Buddha, is one of the most important Hindu/Buddhist festivals while Christmas, called Bôŗodin (Great day) in Bengali is celebrated by the minority Christian population. West Bengal has been home to several famous religious teachers, including Sri Chaitanya, Sri Ramakrishna, Swami Vivekananda, and Paramahansa Yogananda. [edit] EducationMain article: Education in West Bengal West Bengal schools are run by the state government or by private organisations, including religious institutions. Instruction is mainly in English or Bengali, though Hindi and Urdu are also used. The secondary schools are affiliated with the Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE), the Central Board for Secondary Education (CBSE), or the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education. Under the 10+2+3 plan, after completing secondary school, students typically enroll for 2 years in a junior college, also known as pre-university, or in schools with a higher secondary facility affiliated with the West Bengal Council of Higher Secondary Education or any central board. Students choose from one of three streams, namely, liberal arts, commerce or science. Upon completing the required coursework, students may enroll in general or professional degree programs. West Bengal has eighteen universities.[76][77] The University of Calcutta, one of the oldest and largest public universities in India, has more than 200 affiliated colleges.[78] The Bengal Engineering & Science University and Jadavpur University are prestigious technical universities.[79] Visva-Bharati University at Santiniketan is a central university and an institution of national importance.[80] The state has higher education institutes of national importance including the Indian Statistical Institute, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (the first management institute in India of its kind) and the National Institute Of Technology, Durgapur (formerly Regional Engineering College, Durgapur). [edit] Media Anandabazar Patrika, a news daily published from Kolkata in Bengali. West Bengal had 505 published newspapers in 2005,[81] of which 389 were in Bengali.[81] Ananda Bazar Patrika, published from Kolkata with 1,234,122 daily copies, has the largest circulation for a single-edition, regional language newspaper in India.[81] Other major Bengali newspapers are Aajkaal, Bartaman, Sangbad Pratidin, Uttarbanga Sambad and Ganashakti. The Telegraph, The Statesman, Asian Age, Hindustan Times and The Times of India are some of the newspapers published in English. Vernacular newspapers such as those in Hindi, Gujarati, Oriya, Urdu, Punjabi and Nepali are also read by a select readership. Doordarshan is the state-owned television broadcaster. Multi system operators provide a mix of Bengali, Nepali, Hindi, English and international channels via cable. Bengali 24-hour television news channels include STAR Ananda, 24 Ghanta and Kolkata TV. All India Radio is a public radio station. Private FM stations are available only in cities like Kolkata, Siliguri and Asansol. BSNL, Reliance Infocomm, Tata Indicom, Vodafone Essar, Aircel and Airtel are available cellular phone operators. Broadband internet is available in select towns and cities and is provided by the state-run BSNL and by other private companies. Dial-up access is provided throughout the state by BSNL and other providers. [edit] Sports Eden Gardens in Kolkata Cricket and football (soccer) are popular sports in the state. Kolkata is one of the major centers for football in India[82] and houses top national clubs such as East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting Club. Indian sports such as Kho Kho and Kabaddi are also played. Calcutta Polo Club is considered as the oldest polo club of the world,[83] and the Royal Calcutta Golf Club is the oldest of its kind outside Great Britain.[84] West Bengal has several large stadiums—The Eden Gardens is one of only two 100,000-seat cricket amphitheaters in the world.[85] Salt Lake Stadium—a multi-use stadium—is the world's third highest-capacity football stadium.[86][87] Calcutta Cricket and Football Club is the second-oldest cricket club in the world.[88] National and international sports events are also held in Durgapur, Siliguri and Kharagpur.[89] Notable sports persons from West Bengal include former Indian national cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, Olympic tennis bronze medallist Leander Paes, chess grand master Dibyendu Barua. Sourav Ganguly is the most successful left hand batsman of India. With Sachin Tendulkar he formed the most successful One Day opening batting pair and he also has 11 363 runs in ODI.[90][91] [edit] See also
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