FOREWORD

The present draft document has been finalized by Joint CC of the erstwhile CPI (ML)[PW] and the MCCI in September 2004 after extensive discussions. Five draft documents were prepared after intense discussions in a series of bilateral meetings held between the high-level delegations of the two erstwhile parties between February 2003 and September 2004.

The Joint CC meeting deeply studied these five draft documents, freely exchanged the rich experiences acquired through the revolutionary practice during the past three decades and more, and arrived at a common understanding on several vexed questions confronting the Indian revolution in the backdrop of the international developments. The present document – Strategy & Tactics – is the synthesis of all the positive points in the documents of the two erstwhile parties, as well as their experiences in the course of waging the people’s war, fighting against revisionism, and right and left opportunist trends in the Indian and international communist movement, and building a stable and consistent revolutionary movement in various parts of our country.

We are placing the present document before the entire rank and file of our new Unified Party for immediate guidance and implementation. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that this is a draft for the forthcoming Congress of the Unified Party. Hence, it has to be enriched further by the participation of all the Party members and suggesting amendments where necessary.

Thus, it should become an effective weapon in the hands of the Party for solving the fundamental problems of the Indian revolution and to advance it towards victory.

Central Committee (P) 21-9-2004 Communist Party of India (Maoist)

Introduction

The aim of Strategy and Tactics will always be to successfully complete a given stage of any revolution based on the programme related to that stage. It is important to bear in mind the guidelines given by Com. Stalin that theory should guide the Programme; Programme should guide the Strategy; and Strategy should guide the Tactics. The strategy can be correctly worked out only by basing itself on the data provided by, and the conclusions drawn from, the theory and programme of MLM. The Strategy and Tactics of the Indian Revolution should be formulated by creatively applying the universal truth of Marxism-Leninism Maoism to the concrete conditions prevailing in our country. This means that the Strategy and Tactics should be evolved by basing on an objective class analysis of the Indian society; the character of the Indian State; the Fundamental contradictions and the Principal contradiction; and by taking into account the specific characteristics, the special features as well as the peculiarities of the Indian situation.

The strategy of the Indian Revolution in the present stage should thus serve to fulfill the New Democratic programme by successfully completing the New Democratic Revolution. The tactics that are to be formulated in every twist and turn of the movement in the various regions at various times should be subordinated to the strategy and to serve to effectively implement the above strategy. Such is the dialectical relationship between the Programme, Strategy and Tactics of the Indian Revolution. Regarding Strategy and Tactics Comrade Stalin stated as follows:

“Strategy: is the determination of the direction of the main blow of the proletariat at a given stage of the revolution, the elaborating of the corresponding plan for the disposition of the revolutionary forces (main and secondary reserves), the fight carry out this plan throughout the given stage of the revolution.

“Tactics: Tactics are the determination of the line of conduct of the proletariat in the comparatively short period of the flow or ebb of the movement, of the rise or decline of the revolution, the fight to carry out this line by means of replacing old forms of struggle and organisation by new ones, by combining these forms etc. “Tactics deal with the forms of struggle and forms of organisation of the proletariat with their change and combinations. During a given stage of the revolution tactics may change several times, depending on the flow or ebb, the rise or decline, of the revolution.” (Problems of Leninism – pages 80, 82, 84)

However, the above definition of strategy by Com. Stalin should not be followed mechanically in a doctrinaire manner but apply it to the concrete conditions of our country in which our revolution is taking place.

We must also keep in mind the caution given by the Communist party of China in this regard: “Stalin put forward a formula that in different revolutionary periods, the main blow should be so directed as to isolate the middle-of-the-road social and political forces of the time. This formula of Stalin’s should be treated according to circumstances and from a critical, Marxist point of view. In certain circumstances it may be correct to isolate the middle forces, but it is not correct to isolate them under all circumstances.” (On the Historical Experience of the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, April 5, 1956) Thus a policy of “developing the progressive forces, winning over the middle- of-the-roaders, and isolating the die-hards” for the purpose of defeating the main enemies will have to be adopted in the concrete conditions of our country.

Regarding strategy, comrade Mao said: ‘Strategy is the study of the laws of a war situation as a whole’. He further explained, ‘the task of the science of strategy is to study those laws for directing a war that govern a war situation as a whole, the task of the science of campaigns and the science of tactics is to study those laws for directing a war that govern a partial situation’. Regarding the importance of the science of strategy comrade Mao further stated, ‘an understanding of the whole facilitates the handling of the part and because the part is subordinate to whole. ‘The view that strategic victory is determined by tactical successes alone is wrong because it overlooks the fact that victory or defeat in a war is far and foremost a question of whether the situation as a whole and its various stages is properly taken into account. If there are serious defects or mistakes in taking the situation as a whole and the various stages into account, the war is sure to be lost.’

The above quotation, though deals with military strategy and tactics, gives us a lucid and dialectical understanding about the concept and interrelationship between strategy and tactics. We learn from the experiences of the Russian and Chinese revolutions that we have to formulate both the political and military strategy in order to carry out any revolution to victory. In the Chinese revolution the CPC under the leadership of Mao worked out the political and military strategy by first making a concrete class analysis of the Chinese society, an assessment of character of the Chinese society and state, and the stage of revolution.

Political Strategy:

The political strategy for the Indian democratic revolution arises from the concrete class analysis of the present-day Indian society. It is the task of political strategy to distinguish real friends from real enemies of the proletariat in the present stage of the Indian Revolution. It identifies the targets that have to be overthrown and motive forces that have to be united in order to successfully complete the revolution. To distinguish real friends from real enemies, we must make a general analysis of various classes in Indian society from the point of view of their respective socio-economic status and their respective political attitudes towards the revolution. At present new democratic stage of the Indian Revolution the targets to be overthrown are imperialism, feudalism and comprador bureaucrat capitalism.

The basic motive force of this revolution is the proletariat, the peasantry, especially the landless and poor peasants, are the main motive forces and the firmest ally of the proletariat, the urban petty bourgeoisie is a reliable ally, and the national bourgeoisie is an ally in certain periods and to a certain extent. Thus the political strategy of the Indian democratic revolution is to unite, under the leadership of the proletariat, all the above motive forces which constitute the vast majority – almost nine-tenths – of the Indian population to overthrow the three heavy mountains that are weighing down the backs of the Indian people and keeping the country in a semi-colonial semi-feudal, state.

In the present stage, where no imperialist power is resorting to direct aggression on our country or when our country has not been reduced to the status of neo-colony of any single imperialist power, it is the contradiction between feudalism and broad masses of the people at present that is the principal contradiction. Agrarian revolutionary programme and area-wise seizure of power remain primary during the entire period. But f the principal contradiction changes to that between imperialism and the Indian people, accordingly a specific programme to unite all the anti-imperialist forces will have to be drawn up as part of the general programme of the New Democratic Revolution.

Whereas the Strategy of the Indian Revolution remains the same throughout the country, the uneven economic, political, social and cultural development in the country the fighting zeal and the level of consciousness of the people and the ebb and flow of the movement underscore the need for different tactics, which are obviously subordinate to strategy, to be pursued in different region at any given time. The intensity of class struggle in various regions and the uneven economic, political, social and cultural development should be concretely analysed in the respective areas and basing on that analysis, tactics (i.e., forms of struggle and forms of organisation) should be formulated.

Along with these different tactics for different regions, common political tactical slogans for the entire country should also be formulated from time to time to mobilise the entire people of the country on specific issues.

Military Strategy:

The military strategy has to be formulated basing on the specific characteristics of the revolutionary war in India. These characteristics determine the military strategy to be one of protracted people’s war, as enunciated by comrade Mao-of establishing revolutionary base areas first in the countryside where the enemy is relatively weak and then to gradually encircle and capture the cities which are the bastions of the enemy forces.

The strategy and tactics of the revolution in any country cannot be worked out in isolation from the overall international situation. One has to take into account the actual situation both in the world at large and in the given country prevailing at a given point of time in order to formulate the strategy and tactics correctly. This is because in the imperialist epoch the revolution in every country is an integral part of the world proletarian revolution.

CHAPTER-1

Indian Revolution in the continuous Process of World Revolution

The history of social development throughout the world since the emergence of class divided society is the history of class struggles itself. In the process of social development the revolutionary struggles of the peoples of different countries proceed through different stages and these struggles will have their peculiar characteristics too; but they are always subordinate to the general laws of development of the history. The motion of development of world history through class struggle is towards the very establishment of a society without class and without exploitation, towards socialism and communism.

The revolutionary movement of the Indian people is also advancing through different stages; it has got its own peculiarities too. But it remains within the general laws of development towards socialism and communism. The world-historic objective of the international proletariat and its vanguard, the Communist Parties of the whole world, is in full conformity with the laws of development of history. The historic goal of the working class of India, as well as of the whole world, is to establish socialism and communism in the world as a whole. The Great October revolution was nothing but an inevitable outcome of the revolutionary struggles of the international proletariat and the people and the Great Chinese Revolution was the continuation of that process.

The Indian Revolution too is an inseparable part of the revolutionary struggles of the international proletariat and the people. Hence without “the correct class analysis of the objective conditions of the whole world and of world politics and economics, that is, the correct class analysis on the basis of Marxism-Leninism of the fundamental contradictions of the contemporary world and their mutual relations and influences“, it is impossible to make a correct appraisal of the international situation and of the internal situation of India, it is impossible to formulate the general line determining the main direction of the revolutionary struggles of the working class and the people of all countries or to realise its significance, and it is also impossible to determine in conformity therewith, the correct strategy and tactics of the Indian revolution.

The concrete objective condition of India and the question of the Indian revolution should be judged only in the light of the international situation and the revolutionary struggles of the people of the whole world. In a nutshell, the objective condition of the present day world is manifest in the fundamental contradictions of the present-day world and their interrelations and inter-influences. These fundamental contradictions are:

a) The contradiction between imperialism and oppressed nations and people;

b) The contradiction between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie in the capitalist countries.

c) The contradiction between the various imperialist powers.

The concrete situation of today’s world has been clearly revealed on the basis of the above-mentioned fundamental contradictions of the present day world and in their mutual relation and influences. Another fundamental contradiction-the contradiction between the socialist camp and the imperialist camp-that had characterised the world for almost six decades from the Great October Revolution, went out of existence at present with the restoration of capitalism in the last Socialist Base of the world proletariat, People’s Republic of China, after the demise of Com. Mao in 1976.

However, the struggle between socialism and capitalism will continue to exist through out the era of imperialism and proletarian revolution. Today it is manifested chiefly in the ideological, political and cultural spheres and as a struggle between the two contending classes – the proletariat, representing the forces of socialism, and the bourgeoisie, representing capitalism. The victory of revolutions in one or a few countries and the re-emergence of a socialist camp will once again bring the fourth fundamental contradiction into existence. The contradiction between imperialism and oppressed nations and people is the principal contradiction in the present-day world. The countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America are the storm-centres of the world revolution dealing deadly blows against imperialism.

The end of direct colonial rule in the aftermath of the Second World War due to the relative weakening of imperialism and the growing national liberation struggles world-wide, had compelled the imperialists to switch over to new methods of rule and control and exploitation of the former colonies i.e. neo-colonialism, and in this respect they depend on their indigenous agents, selected and trained by them. This neo-colonialism is the more sinister and more pernicious form of colonialism and has extended its stranglehold over the countries of entire Asia, Africa and Latin America. This is an important development that should be taken into consideration when analysing the situation in these countries. India, a vast country inhabited by 105 crores of people, rich and abundant in natural wealth, is one of the strongest bases of imperialism. And that is why the progress and success of the new democratic revolution of India, directed against imperialism, CBB and feudalism, will not only liberate the Indian people from the ruthless exploitation and oppression of imperialism but will also elevate to a new stage the struggle of the people of the whole world for independence, democracy, socialism and peace.

The success of the new democratic revolution of India and the establishment of a people’s democratic state in India will play an important role in accelerating the world proletarian revolution and will signify an important historical advancement towards the establishment of a new world free of imperialism, capitalism and the exploitation of man by man.

CHAPTER-2

Character of the present-day Indian Society

The contemporary Indian society is semi-colonial and semi-feudal under neo-colonial form of indirect rule, exploitation, and control. This fact derives from an objective study of the development of the Indian socio-economic and political system ever since the colonial period to the present day. When the British colonialists conquered India in the second half of the 18th century, capitalism was beginning to develop in the womb of feudal society in our country. The British colonialists arrested the independent development of capitalism and the Indian society was transformed from feudal to colonial and semi-feudal.

In 1947 the colonial and semi-feudal society was transformed into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal society. Ever since then, just as in other countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America, in India too, the imperialists have adopted a new form of colonial exploitation, control and rule i.e. neo-colonial form of indirect rule instead of the old form of direct colonial rule. For this, the imperialists depend on the ‘Indian’ compradors who have been nurtured by them since their very inception in the colonial period. Why do we call India semi-colonial? After the British colonialists were compelled to give up their direct rule over our country, the power was transferred to their compradors-the big bourgeoisie and big landlords, on condition that the imperialist capital and their interests are protected.

Several imperialist powers took the place of British imperialism in oppressing and exploiting our country. It is these imperialist powers that actually control the politics, economy and culture and decide almost all the vital policies of the ruling classes of India under the sign-board of formal independence that is fake in essence. Thus, as no single imperialist power is in a position to exercise its control and rule over the country as a whole, India is not a neo-colony but continues to be a semi-colony under the indirect rule, exploitation and control of various imperialist powers. Hence we call India as a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country under neo-colonial form of indirect rule, exploitation and control.

Thus after the so-called independence, the imperialist exploitation of the Indian people has not only remained uninterrupted but has also tremendously increased in the past years. In accordance with their neo-colonial policies, methods and tactics throughout the world, the imperialists have, in collaboration with the ‘Indian’ comprador capitalists, invested capital amounting to thousands of cores of rupees in various industries of the private sector, state sector and trapped the entire Indian economy in their financial web through so-called ‘aid’ and ‘loan’. By appointing their so-called advisers and experts, the imperialists have tightened their stranglehold over the various government departments. In reality, this bureaucrat capital is in the control of imperialism and their instrument of increasing the profits of the imperialists and their Indian compradors. With the help of their Indian compradors, the imperialists are preserving India as the market for their commodities, source of cheap capital export, and are plundering India’s wealth and sucking its blood and retarding its development. In a nutshell, the Indian economy is a semi-colonial one of the neo-colonial form.

The exploitation and control of imperialism, particularly U.S. imperialism, are not confined to the sphere of economy alone; with the help of the weapon of neo-colonialism they have established their own influence, exploitation and control over military policies through various means, such as, military “aid and co-operation”, employment of “advisers”, etc., and are strengthening their positions day by day through various kinds of military pacts. All these are going on under the various signboards of the “national defence”, the “defence of the country”, etc., etc. This army is being used not only to suppress the revolutionary movements and national liberation struggles in India but also in other countries.

Creation of Bangladesh, forced annexation of Sikkim, interfering in the internal affairs of the neighbouring courtiers, sending army to Sri Lanka and Maldives etc. are the examples of the expansionist activities of Indian State backed by the super powers during the decade of 1970s and 80s. Today it is pursuing the policies of intervention, blackmail, meddling and subversion in the affairs of Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka etc., with the same backing of the various imperialist powers, particularly the US superpower. The imperialists have thus established their influence, exploitation and control over the Indian economics, politics, foreign policy, military policy, state and governmental policies, culture, that is, on every aspect of the social life. In reality at present India is nothing but a semi-colony of the neo-colonial type and India is one of the chief fortresses of the international counter-revolution too.

The contradiction between imperialism and the great masses of the Indian people remains as one of the fundamental contradictions of the present day Indian society. Why do we call India semi-feudal? Unlike in the West, where capitalism developed by overthrowing feudalism, in India, the British colonialism protected feudalism and used it as its social prop. Introduction of capitalist relations by the British imperialist rulers without basically altering the feudal stranglehold over the vast masses of the peasantry had resulted in semi-feudal production relations. The semi-feudal production relations continued even after the end of direct colonial rule. The imperialists used both the comprador bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism as their social props for their neo-colonial control and exploitation.

Due to this alliance between these three main enemies of the Indian people land reforms have not altered the basic structure of agrarian class relations; and usurious and mercantile exploitation of the vast masses in the countryside continues unhindered even after more than half-a-century of so-called independence. Land concentration in the hands of a few landlords and kulaks on the one hand, poor and landless peasantry of the rural population on the other, continues to characterise the rural scene. As a result, the number of landless agricultural labourers is swelling by leaps and bounds. Due to dearth of jobs, they are obliged to do inhuman labour like bonded servants of the landlords and plantation owners. Duo to want of jobs most of them are compelled to live most wretched life, millions of people die or illness caused by starvation and half-starvation. Another dreadful aspect of the feudal exploitation in India is the usury exploitation that extracts enormous sums of interest from the peasantry.

Besides private usurers, various banks and financial companies too exploit the peasantry. Thus rural indebtedness has been increasing by leaps and bounds. Ruthless exploitation by unscrupulous traders is squeezing the vast peasant masses while selling the agricultural produce and buying the agricultural inputs from the market. Servitude and personal subordination of the poor and landless peasant masses, who constitute the overwhelming majority of the peasantry, to the feudal forces in innumerable forms, is perpetuated through ideological institutions and through the coercive arm of the State and even private armies. The life of the peasant masses is shattered continuously by the exploitation and oppression by the gangs of local tyrants, the evil gentry, intermediaries, the police, the courts and by a long hierarchy of government officials-all of whom act as loyal agents of imperialism, feudalism, and comprador bureaucrat capitalism, and by the feudal dictum of various kinds.

All these have made the life of the peasant intolerable. The feudal oppression is not in the countryside alone nor is it confined to the peasant masses. In addition, the semi-feudal mode of production itself oppresses the vast masses of the country through the state machinery and through the ideological, cultural and other super-structural aspects. So it can be doubtlessly be said that not only the peasantry but the vast masses of the population of the country have contradiction with feudalism. The feudal exploitation and oppression is hindering not only the development of agrarian economy but also the path of the industrial development of India. Feudalism is one of the main obstacles on the way to the economic and social development of India. Feudalism versus the broad masses of the people is one of the fundamental contradictions in India.

Major Contradictions in Indian Society

From the above understanding of the contemporary Indian society we find that there are four major contradictions in the present day Indian Society. These are:

1. The contradiction between imperialism and the Indian people;

2. The contradiction between feudalism and the broad masses;

3. The contradiction between capital and labour;

4. The internal contradictions among the ruling classes;

Out of these four major contradictions the first two are the fundamental contradictions in the present day Indian society. Again, out of these two fundamental contradictions feudalism vs. the broad masses of the people is the principal contradiction at present. The New Democratic Revolution in India has to pass through more than one phase and in any of the phases, one of these fundamental contradictions becomes the principal contradiction. However, the principal contradiction cannot remain unchanged throughout the entire process of the New Democratic Revolution; rather the principal contradiction and the non-principal one among the two fundamental contradictions are bound to change their positions with the changes in the phases of the revolution.

As the existence and development of the principal contradiction and the struggles emerging there from play a decisive role in the existence and development of other contradictions and the struggles emerging out of those contradictions, so, at any stage of development of the revolution, it is very important to correctly determine which of the contradictions is the principal one and who are the main enemies at that particular stage, so that maximum emphasis can be given on organizing and developing the struggles emerging out of the principal contradiction and all the struggles of the people can be spearheaded against the principal enemies at that stage. The other two major contradictions also have a bearing on the Strategy and Tactics of the Indian Revolution.

Class character of the Indian State

From a concrete class analysis of the Indian society and state we find that, under the signboard of the so-called Republic and the Parliamentary democracy, India is nothing but a semi-colonial and semi-feudal state under neo-colonial form of indirect rule, exploitation and control. It is the armed forces, judiciary, prisons, bureaucracy, etc. of the state machinery that execute the actual business of the state and the principal organ of this state machinery is its armed forces. . The present Indian state machinery is the instrument of class repression, class exploitation and class rule of the comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie and big landlords who subserve the imperialists.

Thus the state machinery protects the interests of the imperialists, the CBB and the feudal forces; renders them armed protection; and oppresses the working class, the peasantry and other toiling masses. The Indian State is the joint dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie-big landlord classes who serve imperialism; it ensures democracy for this tiny section of the society while exercises dictatorship over the vast masses of the Indian people. Like any other exploiting State, the Indian State too acts as an instrument for the distribution of the surplus produced by the toiling masses among the various sections of the reactionary ruling classes and the imperialists who are the three main enemies of the Indian people. It clears the way for the uninterrupted and unhindered exploitation of the resources of India by the imperialists and by the big bourgeoisie-big landlord classes. It also acts as an instrument to resolve the contradictions among the ruling classes that inevitably occur while distribution of the surplus.

Targets of the Indian Revolution

The targets in the present people’s democratic stage of the Indian Revolution:

1. Imperialism

2. Comprador bureaucrat capitalism, and

3.Feudalism.

Imperialism plunders the country’s land, labour, raw materials, and other natural resources. It earns super-profits through ruthless exploitation by various means. It subjugates the entire economy, polity, military and culture of India; destroys indigenous industry particularly the small and medium industries, throws out millions of workers into the streets and hinders the free and independent development of the national economy.

Comprador bureaucrat capitalism collaborates with imperialism and allies itself with feudalism. It destroys the small and medium industries, oppresses not only the working class, peasantry and other toiling masses but also the national bourgeoisie. Feudalism acts as fetter on the development of the productive forces by holding down the vast majority of the Indian people under backward relations of production. Economically, it keeps the overwhelming majority of the people in dire poverty and destitution, and depresses their purchasing power. It thereby, restricts the growth of the home market, retards industrial development and leads to massive unemployment and stagnation of the economy. Politically, it suppresses the democratic rights of the masses and in some places, even creates a ‘state within a state’ i.e. a parallel landlord raj in the rural areas with their own private armies or with the support of state-hired armed mercenaries. It keeps the peasantry in perpetual subjugation and bondage. These three big mountains that are weighing down the backs of the Indian people should be smashed in order to build the new democratic society.

CHAPTER-3

Class Analysis of the Indian Society

Now let us analyse the various classes of present-day Indian society.

Landlord Class

Those persons who own considerable tracts of land and instruments of production, do not engage in labour themselves, or do so only to a very small extent and live by exploiting the peasants and the labourers (bonded attached and different degrees of unfairness and other wage-labourers), are called landlords. They lease out part or whole of their lands to peasants at exorbitant rates.

Extortion of sharecroppers, robbing them of at least 50% of their produce is one of their forms of exploitation. In addition they may engage themselves as usurers, merchants, hoarders, quarry owners, contractors, agro-based traders, or in other business activity. Land being the basis of their exploitation, they enmesh impoverished peasants in various forms of bondage and extract as much surplus as possible from them, which is a modified form of feudal rent. A section of the landlords possess modern instruments of production, employ agricultural labourers, supervise cultivation, produce for market and reinvest a portion of the surplus in agriculture.

This section of the landlords represents capitalism in agriculture. But this capitalism is a distorted one. It helps perpetuate feudal values, retards free and independent development of economy to further deepen imperialist exploitation and opposes democracy and the country’s interest. Many landlords, like most of the erstwhile princes, are also comprador industrialists. The landlords enjoy immense social and political power in the countryside. They grab the lion’s share of the institutional loans, modern inputs and other infrastructure facilities supplied by the government. Some landlords maintain private armies and also hire anti-socials, dacoits etc., to ruthlessly oppress the rural masses.

Besides, they extract huge amounts as extortion money from contractors and traders. Generally they belong to the upper castes, represent the most backward culture, practice patriarchy to oppress women folk; use the obnoxious caste system to oppress dalits and other backward castes. By acting as a fetter on the development of the productive forces, they are the main social base for imperialist control over India. A section of landlords also belong to the upper layers of the backward castes and has emerged newly. They serve as a social base of various caste based political parties. Those who collect land rent on behalf of landlords, administer the properties of landlords and whose income mainly depends upon exploitation of the peasant by the landlords and also whose lifestyle is that of upper-middle class peasant, should be treated as landlords. They are the enemies of the peasantry and Indian people as a whole.

Comprador Bureaucrat Bourgeoisie

In India, within the colonial system itself, the colonial capital has developed to a great extent. After the transfer of power by imperialism to the big bourgeoisie and big landlords the capitalism that is being developed in India by imperialism and comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie is not independent national capitalism but comprador bureaucrat capitalism that is tied up with imperialism and feudalism has become comprador, feudal, state monopoly capitalism. Such is the economic base of the reactionary ruling classes of India. This bureaucrat capitalism is developing on a semi-feudal base. Closely tied up with, and serving the interests of imperialist capital, this comprador bureaucrat capital monopolises the economic lifelines of the whole country and is a hurdle for the development of independent Indian economy.

It protects the semi-feudal production relations in India. This comprador bureaucrat capital oppresses not only the workers and peasants but also the urban petty bourgeoisie, and it injures the national bourgeoisie. The CBB, in its six-decades of rule, has amassed an enormous amount of wealth by using state power. It has prepared ample material conditions for the new democratic revolution. This comprador bureaucrat capital of India is an instrument of increasing the profits of the imperialists and the Compradors.

The comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie class or the big bourgeois class of India that had emerged within the colonial system has a long history of existence. It was born and brought up under the patronage of British imperialism and has been organically linked to feudalism from the very beginning. It had emerged from the class of comprador merchants, feudal lords, brokers and big usurers, and hence has been comprador in character right from its birth. It began to invest in industries in collaboration with British imperialism in the beginning and with other imperialist powers particularly after so-called independence in 1947.

This had become transformed into comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie (CBB) after assuming state power along with the big landlord class, who are subservient to imperialism. The comprador big bourgeoisie is a class that serves the capitalists of imperialist countries and is nurtured by them. Countless ties link it closely with the feudal forces in the countryside. Com. Mao further says, “The comprador bourgeoisie is always a running dog of imperialism and a target of the revolution.” (‘Some Experiences in our Party’s history’) Serving imperialism is its principal character and fulfilling its own interests, and not the development of capitalism in the interests of the Indian people and the country is its non-principal aspect.

Or in other words, subservience to imperialism is principal while maneuverability or bargaining is non-principal. The imperialist powers have made the feudal landlord class as well as the comprador class the main social props for their control and exploitation of India. The Indian comprador bureaucrat bourgeoisie class and the big landlord class are the main instruments of imperialist exploitation of India. Together, imperialism, comprador bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism dominate over the entire social and economic life of the whole country. The Indian state is a joint dictatorship of the big bourgeoisie, big landlord classes led by the CBB who are subservient to imperialism.

Being subservient to imperialism, the CBB’s rapacious role is not confined to India alone. It has its eyes on the neighbouring countries of South Asia too and quite often intervenes in their political affairs. Backed by imperialist powers, India is playing an expansionist role, which is a great menace to the neighbouring countries of India. Through this aggressive expansionist role, the CBB of India, while serving the imperialists principally, has its own interests also in the region in looting these countries of their capital, market, raw materials etc. Its expansionist character is derived from the fact that in exploiting India, British colonialism also used our country as a platform for its domination of the Indian Ocean region. Hence, the Indian comprador bourgeoisie, from the early days of its inception, was a loyal and trusted comprador and served as a middleman for the British not only in India but also in several countries of Africa and Asia that came under British rule. In the period of globalisation, liberalization and privatization, which was initiated in 1985 and took a major leap in 1991, the policy of nationalization of the earlier period began to be reversed and vast chunks of the public sector are being sold to the TNCs and comprador big bourgeoisie at throw away prices.

With the major leap in the penetration of foreign capital, which is continuing space, vast sectors of the economy have fallen into their direct control. Though the alliance between the comprador big bourgeoisie, statecapital and foreign capital continues, their relative proportions in the enterprises are changing; state capital is being reduced while that of a section of the comprador big bourgeoisie is increasing along with that of foreign capital. The comprador bureaucrat bourgeoisie stands as one of the major stumbling blocks for our country’s progress. Hence the targets to be overthrown in the new democratic revolution are: imperialism, comprador bureaucrat capitalism and feudalism.

To sum up, the growth of the CBB in our country after 1947 cannot be seen in separation from imperialism. Its survival and growth is completely dependent on imperialism. The so-called state sector or nationalized sector or the public sector is part and parcel of the comprador bureaucrat capital and is wholly subservient to imperialism. Politically, the comprador bureaucrat bourgeoisie sells the country’s interests to imperialism and maintains the semi-feudal relations through its alliance with the landlord class. Due to the phenomenal growth of the public sector and state machinery after the transfer of power in 1947, a small upper stratum of bureaucrats and politicians of ruling class parties have acquired crores of rupees by embezzling state funds through kickbacks and commissions in nefarious business deals and various other unscrupulous means by virtue of their position of power at various levels. Though they don’t exist as a distinct class, these parasitic sections are part of the bureaucrat bourgeoisie. Those intellectuals and professionals who are in the direct service of the comprador bureaucrat bourgeoisie and imperialism and who justify the latter’s exploitation of the Indian people should be considered as belonging to this class.

Motive Forces of the Indian Revolution

1. Proletariat

The proletariat is a class that is dispossessed of all means of production and is compelled to sell its labour power to the capitalist owners of the means of production. It is the most concentrated class in present-day Indian society and has a heroic history of revolutionary class struggle including anti-imperialist struggle. The strength of the Indian proletariat in the organised sectors, both in public and private sectors, is about 2.6 crores.

The number of wage earners working in small-scale industries, construction work and as contract and casual labour comes to about four crores. Together their number is roughly around seven crores. The industrial proletariat of India has all the main characteristics that the proletariat all over the world has, such as being associated with, and concentrated in the developed capitalist economic system, having organisational discipline, lacking means of production etc., Indian proletariat is being subjected to oppression by imperialists, comprador bureaucratic bourgeoisie and big landlord classes.

As the majority of the Indian proletariat comes from poor peasant classes, they have natural bonds with the peasant population. The proletariat and peasant classes have strong mutual influences and relations. Apart from the industrial proletariat, there is also a sizeable rural proletariat. These farm workers mainly work in large plantations and farms like coffee, tea, cocoa, coconut, mango, rubber, areca nut, sugar, fruit and vegetables. They have no means of production of their own and live by selling their labour power to the big pro-capitalist landlords, the comprador bourgeoisie and the imperialists who own plantations. There is also a small section in the working class, comprising of trade union bureaucrats who get various bribes from the employers.

This section is the labour lieutenants of capital and represents the bourgeois ideology within the working class. Though this section, in general opposes the working class struggles, in the period of crisis, some of them may change their role and take part in the working class movements. The basic motive force in the New Democratic Revolution is the proletariat. But it cannot win victory by solely depending on its own strength. For achieving victory, this class has to give its leadership to all classes, especially the peasantry, and other strata of people that can participate in the revolution. The proletariat plays the role of leadership in the revolution.

2. Landless and poor peasants

Generally the landless peasants, including the agricultural labourers (rural proletariat), do not have land and agricultural tools of their own. They live by either totally or mainly selling their labour power. Some among the poor peasants own lands nominally or rent in small plots of land. Similarly some have meager agricultural tools. In addition to paying land rent and interest, they sell their own labour power and hence they are exploited in all these forms. They constitute 65-70% of the rural population. Of all classes that are existing in Indian society, the poor and landless peasants are the basic motive forces and are the firmest ally of the proletariat.

3. The Semi-Proletariat

The major component of the semi-proletariat is the huge mass of poor peasants. Those who own some simple implements like the small handicraftsmen, carpenters, masons, mechanics and the like also form part of the semi-proletariat. There are also those who earn their living working as hawkers, hamalis, rickshaw pullers, autorickshaw drivers, temporary rural construction workers, house servants and engaged in many other similar jobs, earning daily wages. Fishermen also form part of semi-proletariat. They are continuously becoming part of the proletariat.Those semi-proletarians are an important motive force of the New Democratic Revolution.

4. Middle Peasant

Most of the middle peasants have their own lands. Some others take land on lease in addition to theirs. Generally they own sufficient agricultural tools. The entire income of the middle peasant, or most of it, is derived from their own labour. Generally the middle peasant does not exploit others and also does not sell their labour power and is subjected to exploitation by feudalism, imperialism and comprador bureaucratic capitalism. Some middle peasants exploit to a small extent but it is not their main income. Some of them (well-to-do middle peasants) have surplus land and hire labour occasionally.

Some even lend small sums of money at interest. Oppressed by feudalism, imperialism and comprador bureaucrat capitalism, the middle peasant will take an active role in the anti-feudal as well as anti-imperialist struggles. Hence, the middle class peasantry as a whole is a reliable ally of the proletariat. The positive or negative attitude of the middle peasants is one of the factors determining victory or defeat in the revolution, and this is especially true after the agrarian revolution when they become the majority of the rural population. They are important motive forces in the revolution. The middle peasantry can be considered as rural petty-bourgeoisie. They constitute roughly 20-25% of the rural population.

5. Rich Peasant

Rich peasants constitute 10-15% of the rural population. They possess considerable amounts of land. Some own only part of their land and lease in the remainder. Some others have no land of their own and lease in all their lands. The holding operated by them is a surplus – producing one. They generally own better instruments of production. They generally engage in labour themselves and in this sense form part of the peasantry but at the same time they always rely on exploitation for the part or even the major of their income. In general if the income of a peasant through exploitation is more than 50%, they should be classified as rich peasants.

Though they adopt more or less all the existing forms of semi-feudal exploitation, their main form of exploitation is by hiring agricultural labour. They may rent out their land, may lend money or engage in trade, commerce, small business, etc. The procapitalist rich peasants use modern technology, engage in intensive cultivation, lease in land to expand scale of production and produce for the market. The growth of capitalist relations in agriculture in some pockets and the increasing reliance of the rich peasants on the market for purchasing agricultural inputs as well as for selling the produce, is bringing them into increasing conflict with imperialism and the comprador big bourgeoisie who control the market and hence they are being drawn more and more into the anti-imperialist struggles of the peasant masses. But, by virtue of their class status, they tend to compromise in face of mounting state repression. Generally they remain neutral in the agrarian revolutionary struggle. As a class, they can be considered as vacillating allies of the revolution. A section of rich peasantry comes with us, another section remains neutral and a small section joins the enemies.

6. Petty Bourgeoisie

The petty-bourgeoisie includes the handicraftsmen i.e., those engaged in small scale production, small traders, the lower levels of intellectuals such as students, primary and secondary school teachers, college lecturers, office clerks, non-gazetted officials, engineers, doctors, lawyers, and those employed in various other professions who have largely middle-class incomes that are derived mainly from their own manual or mental labour. The petty-bourgeois class consists of three sections though they broadly belong to the same economic strata. The first section consists of the relatively better-off i.e., those whose yearly earnings allow them to have some surplus over and above their consumption needs; the second section consists of those who in the main are economically self-supporting; and third section consists of those whose standards of living are continually declining and who find it difficult to make both ends meet.

The first section always aspires to go up the social ladder, is closer to the national bourgeoisie, has a lot of faith on liberal bourgeois propaganda and is suspicious of the revolution. This section which is a minority among the petty bourgeoisie constitutes its right wing. The second section which is very numerous and makes up more than one-half of the Indian petty-bourgeoisie, never opposes the revolution but only hesitates to join it as it harbours doubts regarding the ultimate victory of the revolution.

The third section, equally numerous, whose living standards are fast declining, come out openly in support of the revolution and play an active role. Although these three sections differ in their attitude to the revolution in normal times, in times of war and acute crisis when the revolutionary movement is advancing towards victory, the entire petty-bourgeoisie class including even the right wing, sails with the revolutionary tide.

This is because of its very class position in society i.e., its position as a class oppressed by feudalism, imperialism and comprador bureaucrat capitalism with more and more of its members facing social insecurity and becoming pauperised and being driven to the ranks of the proletariat or the unemployed with the deepening of the economic crisis. Hence as a class, this section of the petty bourgeoisie constitutes one of the motive forces of revolution and is a reliable ally of the proletariat.

Various sections of the petty-Bourgeoisie

(i) Intellectuals and Students:

These do not constitute as a separate class or stratum in the society. Seen from the point of view of their family, living conditions and their political outlook, the majority among them may be treated as petty-bourgeoisie. Their number in India has been considerably increasing in the past few decades. The majority among them are oppressed by imperialism, feudalism and comprador bureaucrat capitalism and live in a constant fear of unemployment and social insecurity that they might be forced to abandon their studies and such other fears.

Hence they tend towards revolution. Having bourgeois education and scientific knowledge and keen political outlook to some extent, they frequently stand in the forefront in the present stage of the revolution or act as a bridge between the people. It was first of all among intellectuals, students and youth that Marxism-Leninism in India had extensively spread and found acceptance.

(ii) Petty Tradesmen:

Generally the small business men who engage one or two workers or self-manage their small shops without engaging anyone. They live in constant fear that they will become bankrupt due to the exploitation by imperialism, big bourgeoisie and moneylenders.

(iii) Artisans:

They are very numerous, possess their own means of production and are themselves engaged in production. Their condition is similar to that of middle class peasantry.

(iv) Professionals:

These are doctors, lawyers and such other engaged in various professions who derive their income more through their own labour, whether manual or mental, than by exploiting others, Those professionals who derive their income more through exploiting others than through their own labour are considered as part of the national bourgeoisie. These sections of petty bourgeoisie are reliable motive forces in the revolution. Their weakness is that some of them are easily influenced by the bourgeoisie and hence we must carry on revolutionary propaganda and constant organisational work among them.

7. National Bourgeoisie

The national bourgeoisie in India consists in general of the middle and small bourgeoisie. This is a class with dual character which arises out of its economic position. The national bourgeoisie is a class which is politically very weak and vacillating. On the one hand it is oppressed by imperialism and comprador bureaucrat capitalism and fettered by feudalism. Hence it has a contradiction with all these three enemies of the people’s democratic revolution in India. It has neither a share in state power nor any control over the state funds. It has comparatively few ties, with imperialism. Its market is continuously being gobbled up by the imperialist-comprador bureaucrat bourgeoisie combine, its growth is being restricted and sections of it are even liquidated due to the ever-growing onslaught of imperialism.

Hence it constitutes one of the revolutionary forces in the present stage of the Indian revolution. But on the other hand, it is inconsistent and lacks the courage to oppose imperialism and feudalism thoroughly because it is economically and politically flabby, depends on the state for licenses, raw materials and finance, still has some economic ties with imperialism and feudalism, and is scared of the working class revolution.

It also aspires for establishing a state under its control and to become the big bourgeoisie. It exploits labour and derives its income primarily from this exploitation. It follows from the dual character of the national bourgeoisie that, at certain times and to a certain extent, it can take part in the revolution against imperialism and the Indian ruling classes, but that at other times, there is the danger of its tailing behind the comprador bureaucrat bourgeoisie and taking part in counter-revolution.

The right wing of this class has reactionary political tendencies, spreads illusions about imperialism and opposes the people’s democratic revolution. We must unmask these sections before the people and liberate the masses from their reactionary influences. But at the same time, the majority of the national bourgeoisie either remains neutral or participates in the revolution.

The targets of the New Democratic Revolution are only the imperialism, the comprador bureaucrat bourgeoisie and landlord class. Even after country-wide victory of the revolution, it will be necessary to permit the existence for a period, a capitalist sector of the economy represented by the small and middle bourgeoisie without, of course, allowing them to control the economic lifeline of the country. In general the party adopts the policy of protection to the small and middle bourgeoisie wherever the state power of New Democracy extends.

8. The Lumpen-proletariat

This stratum of the Indian society are those who are deprived of all opportunities to participate in social production. This is due to the existence of a vast army of rural and urban unemployed which numbers over ten crores in the country and which is ever-increasing on account of the semi-colonial and semi-feudal conditions prevailing in India. The increasing in unemployment is leading to the increase in the lumpen proletariat.

Petty thieves, robbers, criminals, goondas, beggar, vagrants, pimps and prostitutes and all those who are forced to make illegitimate means to make a living constitute the lumpen proletariat. They are mainly found in the slums of cities and towns. Many of them migrate to cities from the villages in search of living, but deprived of jobs due to the ever-intensifying crisis in the Indian economy, they end up as criminals and antisocial gangs. The ruling classes often utilize them as strikebreakers, disrupters or as mercenaries. Some of them are recruited by the ruling classes into counter-revolutionary militias and into the reactionary armed forces. Due to their position in class society lumpen proletariat develops hatred towards it.

Hence they respond to the slogan of smashing the existing socioeconomic structure. But these people lack constructive qualities and are given to destruction rather than construction. Hence it has some potential to be remoulded and employed in the service of the revolution. But extreme caution is necessary recruiting them into the party as they often become the source of roving rebel and anarchist tendencies in the revolutionary movement and have an aversion for discipline.

CHAPTER-4 Two Stages of the Indian Revolution

The semi-colonial and semi-feudal character of the Indian society points out that the first task of the Indian revolution is to transform the semi-colonial, semi-feudal society into an independent, self-reliant, democratic society by solving the two fundamental contradictions of the present indian society, and then to build a socialist society so as to advance towards realising the Communist society. Hence the Indian revolution has to be carried out in two stages: the new democratic stage and the socialist stage. This is because, in India, bourgeois democratic revolution has not been completed as in the West.

The first stage of the Indian revolution can be victoriously completed only under the leadership of the proletariat. In the present era, no other class or party, except the working class and a genuine communist party as its vanguard, can lead the New Democratic Revolution to its final victory. This is due to the fact that in the present era, and particularly after the Great October Revolution, no bourgeoisie of any country is in a position to carry out a thorough-going national democratic revolution out of fear of the working class continuing the revolution to its consummation to socialism.

Hence the bourgeoisie compromises with imperialism and lacks the will to wage a thoroughgoing revolution against feudalism by mobilising the peasantry. It stands opposed to the oppressed masses. Hence, to lead the peasantry towards the New Democratic Revolution is the most important task of working class leadership. The working class of India cannot emancipate itself without uniting with the peasantry who constitute the overwhelming majority of the population in semi-colonial and semi-feudal India and who are being exploited and oppressed for ages.

It is only by organizing and leading the peasantry in the agrarian revolution and national democratic revolution that the working class can give leadership to the revolution, can open wide the path of their own liberation from wage-slavery by liberating the peasantry from the exploitation, plunder and depression of imperialism an their running dogs – the feudal lords and the comprador capitalists. And it is in this way that they can lead the revolution and it is this path of socialism which alone can emancipate the working class from the system of wage-slavery.

The chief tasks of the first stage of the revolution in India are to overthrow the three main enemies of the Indian people-imperialism (and the comprador bureaucrat capitalism that is generated by imperialism) and feudalism in order to establish a new democratic India. The national and democratic revolution, directed against the main enemies of the revolution – imperialism and their lackeys the big bourgeoisie and feudalism, though are the two different kinds of basic tasks in the entire process of Indian revolution or the People’s Democratic Revolution, one cannot be separated from the other.

As the imperialist and their comprador lackeys, the Indian big bourgeoisie, are the main supporters and protectors of feudalism, the struggle for the overthrow of imperialism and the struggle to uproot feudalism are interrelated to each other. Judging conversely, as the Indian society is mainly dependent on feudalism, protected under the wings of imperialism and their comprador lackeys – the comprador capitalists, so the struggle to uproot this moribund feudalism and the struggle to annihilate imperialism and the comprador bureaucrat capitalism generated by it, are inseparable from each other.

So, the two fundamental tasks of the national revolution and the democratic revolution are at once distinct and interwoven. It is wrong to regard the national revolution and the democratic revolution as two entirely different stages of the revolution. The main content of the new democratic revolution is the agrarian revolution. The task of the second stage is to establish a socialist society by carrying forward the revolution to its consummation. The first stage is the pre-condition for the second. Only by fulfilling the tasks of the People’s Democratic Revolution in India we can lay the basis for the Socialist Revolution. People’s democracy is an inseparable part of Socialism, an inseparable part of the world socialist revolution. It is wrong to forget the inseparable relationship between People’s Democracy and Socialism. It is equally wrong and harmful to confuse the two stages and to think of reaching Socialism in a single leap. No intervening stage of bourgeois dictatorship will come between the stages of New Democracy and Socialism.

CHAPTER-5

Basic Tasks of People’s Democracy

The aim of the New Democratic Revolution is to smash the semi-colonial, semi-feudal politics, economics and culture and to establish new democratic politics, economics and culture. Only by way of accomplishing this goal, the doors for the all-embracing development of the Indian society can be opened, the poverty and misery of the people can be redressed, and the political, economic, and cultural basis for a socialist society be laid down. The struggle for people’s democracy is the struggle of all the ant-imperialist and anti-feudal politics, economics and culture against the counter-revolutionary semi-colonial, semi-feudal politics, economics and culture.

The struggle for people’s democracy is the struggle of all the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal people on the basis of worker-peasant alliance under the leadership of the working class exerted through its vanguard, the Communist Party, against imperialism, CBB and feudalism. This is a struggle between revolution and counter-revolution.

The People’s Democratic Politics

The central task of the NDR is to establish the people’s democratic state by overthrowing the present semi-colonial, semi-feudal state machinery through armed struggle. The people’s democratic state means the state of the democratic dictatorship of the all the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal forces, on the basis of worker-peasant alliance, under the leadership of the proletariat, and is a particular embryonic form of the dictatorship of the proletariat.

The people’s democratic state ensures all types of freedom, rights and democracy for the vast masses of the toiling masses, and also try to ensure the participation of the vast masses of the people in the day-to-day administrative work by adopting appropriate methods, defends the people’s interests at all times, while at the same time it exercises dictatorship over the reactionary forces-imperialists, comprador big bourgeoisie, big landlords and all their hangers-on who constitute a small minority.

To build up a united front of the people i.e. a united front for armed struggle, under the leadership of the working class, exercised through the Communist Party, against imperialism, the CBB and feudalism, and to establish the people’s democratic dictatorship under working class leadership is the central task of the New Democratic Revolution. This will forge close international unity.

People’s Democratic Economy

The main task of people’s democratic economy is to pave the way for the economic and social development of the country and to lay the basis for socialist economy by overthrowing the semi-colonial and semi-feudal economy. It is the economy of a society that is in transition from capitalism to socialism under the people’s democratic dictatorship led by the proletariat.

All the industries, banks and other enterprises of the imperialists and the CBB will be expropriated and turned over to the New Democratic State; all the land of the landlords will be expropriated and distributed to the poor and landless peasants; the exploitation of the peasantry by the usurers/moneylenders and traders/merchants will be put to an end thereby releasing the initiative and the potentialities of the peasantry.

Voluntary co-operatives will be set up and state trading will control the life of the country’s economy. Capitalist production that has no control over public life i.e. of national capital will be allowed but will be under state restriction and regulation. However, it is the people’s democratic State that will play the principal role in industry and commerce and will control the economic lifelines of the country. This will facilitate not only the building of the people’s democratic economy, but also pave the way for the socialist economy. In this connection the rich experiences of socialist china under the leadership of comrade Mao will be taken as the guide.

To overthrow the moribund feudalism and to accomplish the agrarian revolution, to expropriate the imperialist and comprador-bureaucrat capital and transform them into the property of the new democratic state, and thus, to open wide the path of the progress and development of the Indian economy and society by establishing the control and authority of the people’s democratic state over the economy of the country-such is the essence of the New Democratic Economy. The development of the people’s democratic economy will lay the basis for the socialist economy.

People’s Democratic Culture

The task at the present stage of the revolution in the cultural front is the establishment of new democratic culture i.e., a scientific, democratic and mass culture, by uprooting the semi-colonial, semi-feudal culture along with the modern revisionist ideology. The people’s democratic culture is an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal culture. It is an heir to all the secular, genuine democratic, and scientific aspects of the rich cultural heritage of the oppressed masses that are passed on by history. It is impossible to arm the people ideologically, make them conscious and organise them for the people’s war without the widest propaganda of people’s democratic culture based on Maoism.

As Mao said: “In overthrowing a political power the first and regular task is to work in on the ideological front and to create public opinion.” To overthrow the exploiting classes and their state machinery, the first and foremost task throughout the course of the new democratic revolution is to wage ideological struggle and create public opinion in favour of agrarian revolutionary war and the protracted people’s war. Mao says, revisionism is the main danger. Modern revisionism is one of the chief enemies of MLM and the people’s democratic ideology and revolution. the anti-imperialist anti-feudal revolutionary culture of the people cannot be established without fighting against modern revisionism. in this respect MLM is the strongest weapon in the fight against modern revisionism.

Besides, in India, feudal thinking is deep-rooted and is manifested in many ways, particularly in casteist, biases against religious minorities, religious narrow mindedness, communalism, untouchability, patriarchy, and numerous other forms. The Party must educate the masses against all such anti-democratic values and cultures and replace them with those based on equality, self-respect, secularism, dignity of labour and a proletarian class view-point. For the success of the Indian revolution the anti-imperialist and antifeudal cultural front has to be organised and constantly strengthened. The people’s democratic culture will be an inseparable part of the general anti-imperialist, anti-feudal revolutionary people’s democratic front.

One of the tasks of this cultural front is to educate the workers, peasants and the toiling masses about the anti-imperialist and anti-feudal agrarian revolutionary struggle and the protracted people’s war. The people’s democratic state will take up the task of wiping out the imperialist and feudal culture from all spheres of social science like economics, politics, philosophy, military science, history, literature etc., and in their place, establish the people’s democratic culture.

CHAPTER-6 The Central Task of the Revolution – Seizure of Political Power Through Protracted People’s War

As comrade Mao said: “The seizure of power by armed force, the settlement of the issue by war, is the central task and highest form of revolution. But while the principle remains the same (for all countries), its application by the Party of the proletariat finds expression in various ways according to the varying conditions.” The above principle is equally applicable to the Indian Revolution too. The Central task of the Indian revolution also is the seizure of political power. To accomplish this Central task, the Indian people will have to be organized in the people’s army and will have to wipe out the armed forces of the counterrevolutionary Indian state through war and will have to establish, in its place, their own state – the People’s Democratic State and will have to establish their own political authority.

The very act of establishment of the state machinery of the people by destroying, through war, the present autocratic state machinery – the army, the police, and the bureaucracy of the reactionary ruling classes – is the Central task of the People’s Democratic Revolution of India. It is absolutely indispensable for the Party of the proletariat in India to study the experiences of the world socialist revolution particularly the experiences of the two great proletarian revolutions of Russia and China. The application of the above principle of conducting the revolutionary war followed two different paths in the two countries depending on the special characteristics specific to their respective countries.

The revolution in Russia took the form of a country-wide armed insurrection for the seizure of political power, while in China the path traversed by the revolutionary war was the path of protracted people’s war. Whatever the forms assumed by the revolutionary wars in various countries, the content remains the same i.e., the seizure of power by armed force. Protracted People’s War is our Path In order to guide the revolutionary war in India, it is necessary for us to grasp the experiences and the theoretical summing ups of these revolutionary wars made by comrade Lenin, Stalin and Mao. And particularly it is necessary for us to grasp the essence of Mao’s contribution on military science. Generalising the experiences of the proletarian revolutions in the era of imperialism, we can broadly categorise the revolutionary wars in the various countries in the world into two types according to the character of their respective socio-economic-political systems.

If it is a capitalist country where bourgeois democratic rights prevail, the Party of the proletariat prepares the working class and its allies through open, legal struggles – parliamentary, trade union, general strikes, political agitation and such other activities, in order to organise a country-wide armed insurrection at an hour of revolutionary crisis, seizing power first in key cities and then extending it throughout the country, at the same time strengthens appropriate secret party apparatus and combines secret, illegal and semi-legal activities with open and legal activities in accordance with concrete conditions. Thus the Path followed by the Russian Revolution is: Inflict decisive smashing blow, at a hurricane speed, first, on the urban center which is the well-fortified, consolidated and well-organized controlling center of the state power of the enemy, crush the heart of the enemy’s state machinery. Establish the Centre of power of the revolutionary state in the urban area. Then spread the revolution rapidly to the countryside – march forward by smashing the enemy’s state machinery in the countryside.

Capturing the urban area first, though war of strategically quick decision, establish revolutionary authority in the urban area, and thereafter, capturing the villages and establishing the revolutionary authority in the state power of the whole country through insurrection and establishing the revolutionary political authority of the people – such is the general Path followed by the Great October Revolution in Russia.

If, on the other hand, the country is ruled directly or indirectly by some foreign imperialist power or powers and is semi-feudal where there is no independence and democratic rights for the people, the Party of the proletariat from the very beginning arouses and mobilizes the people for armed struggle, relies on the peasantry – the main force of the revolution – makes backward rural areas its main centre of work, builds a people’s army and people’s militia; establishes dependable, strong and self-sufficient base areas or liberated areas in the vast countryside, constantly expands them in the course of protracted people’s war, (in such a situation the cities under the control of the enemy will look like small islands in the ocean of the vast rural liberated areas); encircles and finally captures cities by way of decisively smashing the state power of the reactionaries and establishing the state system and political authority of the people throughout the country-such is the Path traversed by the Chinese Revolution to win world-shaking victory in 1949.

And the history of the revolutions in colonial, semi-colonial, semi-feudal countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America have shown that this Path is applicable to all such countries also. In all these countries the main form of struggle is armed struggle and the main form of organisation is the army, but other forms of mass struggles and mass organisations are also indispensable. Before the outbreak of a war all organisation and struggle are in preparation for the war and will serve it directly or indirectly after war breaks out. The path followed by the Chinese revolution is also applicable in semi-colonial, semi-feudal India due to basic similarities in the conditions between India and pre-revolutionary China. It is the principal characteristics of the objective conditions of India that determine the Path of the Indian Revolution as the path of protracted people’s war.

The principal characteristics of India’s revolutionary War

1. India is a vast semi-colonial and semi-feudal country with uneven political, economic and social development, with favourable terrain for guerrilla warfare, that has witnessed a long period of armed struggle by the peasantry and also now witnessing the ongoing agrarian revolutionary guerilla struggle in which the peasantry is playing a heroic role.

2. Our enemy is big and powerful having centralized state machinery and a well-equipped modern army.

3. The Communist Party, the guerilla army and the agrarian revolutionary movement in India are still weak.

4. Our country is a prison-house of nationalities where some nationalities are engaged in bitter struggles against the Indian state to achieve their right to self-determination. Since it is the above principal characteristics that determine the line for guiding India’s revolutionary war as well as many of its strategic and tactical principles, let us analyse these characteristics more deeply.

1. Uneven economic and political development and the semi-colonial, semi-feudal character of Indian Society is the most important characteristic that basically determines our political strategy and tactics as well as our military strategy and tactics. The unevenness in the economic and political development of India is quite glaring. On the one hand, there is a distorted capitalist economy that is being increasingly integrated into the imperialist world economy. The capitalist economy has given birth to a huge industrial proletariat and other wage earners in non- industrial establishments running to around seven crores.

This ensures that the proletariat of India is strong enough both in numbers and organization to lead the Indian revolution if it is imbued with the ideology of Marxism- Leninism-Maoism. On the one hand, the capitalist economy coexists with, and stands on, a preponderant semi-feudal base. Although capitalist relations are penetrating the feudal setup in the Indian countryside and are partially remoulding it to suit the needs of imperialism, it is impossible (given the collusion between feudalism, comprador bureaucrat capitalism and imperialism) to bring a radical structural change in the semi-feudal base and its super structure.

Consequently, the vast majority of India’s population still lives in the countryside and the vast majority of them languish under semi-feudal conditions of existence. The vast majority of the peasantry is in urgent need of the agrarian revolution to change the miserable, wretched semi-feudal conditions of existence. This circumstance derives from the fact that the democratic revolution in India remains unfinished and that the land question remains unresolved. Hence the content of the new democratic revolution remains the peasant war for land and political power-a factor that can be effectively utilized by the Party to rouse and organize the vast peasant masses into the People’s Army.

Hence the proletariat finds its principal ally in the peasantry and can lead them to victory in the agrarian revolutionary war if proper Strategy and Tactics are pursued. It is possible to establish strong mass base among the peasantry and mobilise them into class struggles in the form of armed struggle for the seizure of land and establishment of people’s authority in place of feudal authority. Several areas in the country have seen an upsurge of the peasantry against the semi-feudal exploitation and semi-feudal production relations, particularly since the great Naxalbari struggle.

In the past decades the agrarian revolutionary war has spread to several strategic regions in our country and has created the condition for an unending flow of armed peasant militants and cadres into the revolutionary movement. The unevenness of development in India indicates that it is not possible to stage a simultaneous revolution (i.e., an armed insurrection) throughout the country and that the line of area wise seizure of power through the strategy of protracted people’s war has to be adopted basing on the relatively backward and strategic areas of the countryside.

This means revolutionary war has to begin in those regions that are relatively more backward and where the social contradictions are sharp. The strength of the armed forces of the reactionaries is quite inadequate in the vast countryside of India and the inadequacy of the transport and communication system and other infrastructure makes it inconvenient for the quick movement of the enemy forces. The people’s armed forces – the people’s army and the people’s militia, on the other hand, can advance and retreat easily, according to the needs of the struggle, in the vast countryside, that is, there is enough room for their manoeuvre in face of a big military offensive by the enemy’s armed forces.

Thus the vastness of the countryside, the inadequacy of the transport and communication system and the isolation of the remote countryside from the military centers, and above all, the inadequacy of the reactionary armed forces in comparison to the vastness of the country and the population, if all these are taken into consideration, the military strength of the reactionaries is relatively weak in the countryside compared to that in the cities, and hence, from the military point of view, the vast countryside is the most advantageous for the revolutionary people’s army to strike at the enemy.

Hence, we can transform the vast tracts of the countryside into red resistance areas, guerilla zones, guerrilla bases and liberated areas by making use of the favourable terrain which is abundant in some regions of the Indian countryside. Liberated areas can also be established in the plains when the domestic and international situation becomes more favourable and the people’s army becomes powerful i.e., when the revolutionary war is at a high peak. The semi-colonial nature of Indian society also breeds conflicts and rivalries among the various imperialist powers for their domination and control over India.

This is bound to generate acute conflicts and rivalries among the Indian ruling classes. Such an unstable political situation can be utilised by the Party of the proletariat to hasten the pace of building guerrilla zones and liberated areas and thereby advance towards completing the New Democratic Revolution. Thus while the first characteristic incontrovertibly proves that protracted people’s war, and not armed insurrection, is the path to be followed by the revolutionary war in India, we must analyse the other characteristics to understand how protracted people’s war in India could be waged.

2. The second principal characteristic-the enemy is big and powerful with a centralized state machinery and a well-equipped, well-trained modern army, Paramilitary and other forces-makes it imperative for the Party of the proletariat to take extreme caution from the very beginning in conducting the revolutionary war. This factor underscores the need to wage our revolutionary war from the weakest links of enemy rule – the vast tracts of the backward Indian countryside.

It also warns us against engaging in strategically decisive battles with the enemy’s armed forces for a long time, and to use the tactics of guerrilla warfare and preservation of our forces while destroying the enemy’s forces bit by bit through guerrilla methods of warfare, to accumulate strength by extending and deepening the armed struggle over ever-wider areas and to make the best use of the favourable terrain in the strategic regions in the countryside.

It should, however, be noted that the enemy is superior only from the tactical point of view. In the strategic sense, enemy’s armed forces are only paper-tigers. Their interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of the broad masses and hence cannot get any cooperation from the people. Their morale and combat capacity are quite low primarily because of their mercenary nature; and the contradiction between officers and soldiers also contributes to it considerably. Moreover, since the vast majority of them are peasants in uniform, the influence of the agrarian revolutionary war will have a deep impact on them.

3. The third principal characteristic-the weakness of the Communist Party, the people’s guerilla army, and the revolutionary movement in the country at the present juncture- has a profound influence on the nature of the revolutionary war in India. It shows that the people’s guerrilla army that is built in the course of anti-feudal struggles and advancing the agrarian revolutionary guerilla struggles, has to accumulate strength over a period of time before being transformed into the PLA and prior to the transformation of guerrilla zones into liberated areas.

It also warns us that we should not expose our forces to the enemy; should accumulate our forces considerably before entering into decisive engagements with the enemy’s forces and should build a strong, stable, underground party mechanism from the very beginning. Thus from the sharp contrast of the weakness of the Party, the guerilla army and the revolutionary movement as a whole with the strength of the enemy’s armed forces, arises the strategy and tactics of our people’s armed forces and the Party. However, this weakness relates to the present situation only. The conditions for overcoming this weakness are relatively developing. Already people are getting mobilised in various parts of the country into armed agrarian revolutionary struggles under the leadership of the Communist Party, which is growing in strength day by day.

People’s guerrilla army is getting expanded and people’s war is spreading to new areas. Since our agrarian revolution is a just one, and since it defends the interests of the majority of the people, the support of the people is increasing day by day. The inferiority in arms and other things can be made up by relying on the mobilization of the vast masses as correctly observed by Mao: “The mobilization of the common people throughout the country will create a vast sea in which to drown the enemy, create the conditions that will make up for our inferiority in arms and other things, and create the prerequisites for overcoming every difficulty in the war………To wish for victory and yet neglect political mobilization is like wishing to “go south by driving the chariot north”, and the result would inevitably be to forfeit victory.”

Hence, by adopting appropriate and correct strategy and tactics, as the war is drawn out, the enemy’s disadvantages and our advantages will both grow, and inevitably, the degree of the strength and weaknesses of ours and that of the enemy will continue to change, and changes will continue to occur in the position of relative superiority and inferiority too of both the sides, And, in this way, the military power of the people will continuously and definitely attain supremacy over the military power of the enemy and will finally decisive defeat on the military power of the enemy.

To sum up, at the initial stage, that is, up to a certain stage of development of the people’s war, the military strength of ours is liable to remain weaker than that of the enemy. But this strength of the enemy and the weakness of the people are never absolute, they are relative, they are temporary. By way of relying on the vast rural areas and on the poor peasantry, by way of strictly pursuing the class line and mass line and the principles of guerrilla struggle and the protracted people’s war, in words and in deeds, as shown by Com. Mao, the military strength of the people can gradually and definitely overwhelm that of the enemy as the revolutionary war draws out and can finally inflict decisive defeat on the armed forces of the enemy.

However strong the forces of the enemy may be and however weak the people’s forces may be at the beginning of the revolutionary war, through the realization and creative application of the total teachings of the flexible strategy and tactics of the guerrilla war and the Protracted People’s War, it is possible to build up a new type of army, that is the red army, and to establish one after another-advanced base areas in the backward rural areas, and it is entirely possible to carry forward the revolution towards its final victory by gradually consolidating and expanding the people’s army and the base areas through struggles. Beginning with the great Chinese Revolution, the very historical experiences of the revolutionary wars of countries like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, etc., bear testimony to the above truth.

4. The fourth principal characteristic – the irreconcilable contradiction between the various nationalities and the Indian ruling classes leading to incessant armed confrontation – contributes greatly to weaken the enemy and helps the advance of the revolutionary movement. This circumstance arises from the fact that the unfinished democratic revolution in India has left the national question unresolved and it is the Party of the proletariat that should take up the historic task of solving this problem from a class perspective.

A large part of the remote countryside, most advantageous for the establishment of red liberated areas form the geographical and military point of view, are being inhabited mainly by the discontented and agitated nationalities and tribes, who are engaged in a bitter armed confrontation with the Indian state. Hence, it becomes imperative for the enemy’s armed forces to be deployed in large numbers in ever-wider areas to contain the armed struggles waged by the various nationalities. Lakhs of enemy’s armed troops have been deployed since long in Kashmir and the North Eastern states alone.

More and more nationalities may come into armed confrontation with the reactionary Indian state that is keeping them in a state of subjugation and oppression and denying them their right to self-determination. As a considerable part of the enemy’s armed forces will inevitably be engaged against the growing tide of struggles by the various nationalities, it will be difficult for the Indian ruling classes to mobilise all their armed forces against our revolutionary war. If our Party can lay down the correct basis to win over the nationalities and tribes through our policy of guaranteeing self-determination for the nationalities and political autonomy for the tribes and forge a powerful united front against the common enemy (i.e. imperialism, CBB and feudalism) with these forces we can spread the flames of armed struggle to almost all the strategic regions in the country.

Needless to say, this will be a great positive factor for the rapid advance of the people’s war by developing the people’s guerrilla army into the PLA, establishing several base areas and then advancing towards countrywide victory. The above four principal characteristics determine the line for guiding India’s revolutionary war as well as many of its strategic and tactical principles. It follows from the first and fourth characteristics that it is possible for our Party and People’s army to grow and defeat the enemy.

However, it also follows from the second and third characteristics that it is impossible for our Party and our People’s army to grow very rapidly or defeat our enemy quickly. Hence the revolutionary war in India will be of protracted nature. However, the revolutionary situation can become even more favourable for the rapid advance of the people’s war due to several factors such as: further intensification of the imperialist crisis; a war with the neighbouring countries or on a world scale; intensification of the internal contradictions among the Indian ruling classes that may lead to an even more severe political crisis and instability and thereby forcing the enemy to divert his armed forces and economic resources to deal with the growing mass revolts; possibilities for the emergence of revolts among the police, Paramilitary forces as well as the army, and so on.

Some people argue that in India it is impossible to establish liberated areas, to build the red army and to carry out protracted people’s war because there is relatively more industrial development, capitalist relations in agriculture and better transport and communication facilities, and because the Indian government has a strong centralised administrative system with a very big modern army when compared to pre-revolutionary China.

These arguments are wrong. However strong the enemy’s military power may be and however weak the people’s military power, by basing ourselves on the vast backward countryside-the weakest position of the enemy-and relying on the vast masses of the peasantry, eager for agrarian revolution, and creatively following the flexible strategy and tactics of guerrilla struggle and the protracted people’s war, – as a full meal is eaten up mouthful by mouthful, exactly in the same way, – by applying the best part of our army (a force few times stronger than that of the enemy) against different single parts of the enemy forces and following the policy and tactics of sudden attack and annihilation, it is absolutely possible to defeat the enemy forces and achieve victory for the people in single battles.

It is thus possible to increase the people’s armed forces, attain supremacy over the enemy’s forces and defeat the enemy decisively. While taking into account factors favourable to the enemy, we must, in the course of carrying out the protracted people’s war, take many more precautions and we should establish liberated areas by developing guerrilla zones keeping in mind that it is not possible to build liberated areas in quick succession. We will have to mobilise people into class struggle more skillfully and cautiously based on class line and mass line.

We must remember that the only positive factor that the enemy has (even that is temporary) is the superior strength of the state machinery, particularly the mercenary armed forces. On the other hand, all other factors are on the side of the revolutionary Party and the people’s guerilla army-the principal among these being the just cause of our war, our historic responsibility of solving the land question and the nationality question that are the aspiration of the overwhelming proportion of the country’s population, the ever-increasing crisis and contradictions within the ruling classes, and the fact that we are waging not the old type of conventional war but a people’s war by mobilizing the people on a massive scale both militarily and politically.

Thus the factors favourable to the enemy cannot change the protracted nature of the Indian revolutionary war which ensues from the principal characteristics of our country, as well as from the lessons drawn from the Chinese and Russian revolutions,ans mainly from the Chinese Revolution. Not only India, but every country has, in addition to the general characteristics, its own specific characteristics and its own peculiarities.

We must also remember that the revolution will suffer losses if we fail to take into account the specific characteristics and peculiarities while formulating the guiding principles of our revolutionary path. However, we have to keep in mind that these specific characteristics and peculiarities cannot alter the general characteristics of revolutionary war or the revolutionary path determined by those characteristics.

Strategic Stages

That the “protracted people’s war” will pass through three strategic stages is a general principle (the experience of revolutions of China, Vietnam and other countries proved this). They are: Stage of Strategic Defensive; (II) Stage of Strategic Stalemate; and (III) Stage of Strategic Offensive. Basically our protracted people’s war will also follow this general principle. The experience of past victorious revolutions of other countries reveals the fact that in a protracted people’s war, the first stage will last longer. The stage of strategic stalemate and the stage of strategic offensive, which follow it, will end in a comparatively shorter time. However, changing into the second and third stages mainly depends on domestic and international situation.

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTIONS – OUR STAND

According to Marxism-Leninism, the participation or boycott of election are forms of struggle and related to tactics. But after the emergence of Khrushchov revisionism, when the parliamentary path and participation in election has become the strategy of the modern revisionists, then in the backdrop of this aspect, we cannot leave this question merely a question of tactics only. So it is wrong to say, like all other tactics this tactic too, can be utilised only if it suits the concrete conditions of the country in general and serves the revolutionary strategy, i.e., the seizure of power through protracted people’s war.

In the concrete conditions of semi-colonial, semi-feudal India where bourgeois democratic revolution too has not been completed and uneven social, economic and political conditions exist, the objective conditions permit the proletarian party to initiate and sustain armed struggle in the vast countryside. In the name of preparation for armed struggle, participation in election will only sabotage the revolutionary movement.

No peaceful period of preparation for revolution is required in India, unlike in the capitalist countries where the bourgeois democratic revolutions were completed and armed insurrection is the path of revolution. Hence, generally speaking, in the conditions prevailing in our country, participation in election neither helps in developing revolutionary class struggle, nor in enhancing democratic consciousness among the people. Rather it will only foster constitutional illusions and legalist trends among the Party ranks and the masses at large.

Some say that the revolutionary party must participate in parliament and assemblies citing three reasons:

1) that there is no high tide of revolution;

2) that the subjective forces are weak at present to initiate and advance armed struggle and

3) that people have illusions in the parliamentary system.

All these arguments are baseless and have no relation whatsoever to the concrete ground realities in India. Firstly the question of ebb and flow as explained by comrade Lenin applies to countries pursuing insurrectionary tactics where periods of ebb are used for preparation for revolution and periods of tide are used for armed insurrection or uprising. In India, a revolutionary situation is existing and the path of revolution is that of protracted people’s war, participation in parliament has no relation to ebb and tide of revolution and armed struggle can be initiated and area wise seizure of power can be achieved in the countryside.

Secondly, participation in parliament does not help in developing the subjective forces. Rather it will only drive them into legalism and divert them from the arduous and painstaking task of building a secret party, intensifying revolutionary class struggle and advancing armed struggle against the state. Moreover, the experiences of participating in election for the last 50 years amply prove this fact that, most of those who participated in parliamentary election under any argument, have either turned into apologists of parliamentarism and become die-hard revisionists or only increased illusions on the parliamentary system.

The argument that the Indian people have illusions in the parliamentary institutions and hence one must participate to dispel these illusions is even more obnoxious and dangerous. The parliamentary institutions and system in India are discredited to a large extent in the eyes of the people and participation in these will only create or increase the illusions among the people. There is no objective basis in India for exposing the parliamentary system from within. It can be best done by direct propaganda and organising the people against the parliamentary and election system on the basis of the election boycott slogan.

It is only by promoting alternative institutions of people’s power in the course of the intensification of ongoing agrarian revolutionary guerilla struggle that it will be possible to enhance people’s consciousness and to wipe out their illusions, whatever they may have, about the present parliamentary system. Further, it is necessary for this purpose to propagate extensively and concretely to boycott the patliamentary election and, at the same time, about the alternative organs of people’s power.

The tactic of participation in election undermines the task of building and developing revolutionary armed struggle. Moreover, historical experience in India until now has only proved that most of those who participated in election either became revisionist or diverted revolutionary armed struggle into legal and peaceful channels. The various Marxist-Leninist groups in our country that pursue the tactic of participation in parliamentary elections are getting bogged down more and more in the right opportunist mire, while some have already abandoned armed struggle and become revisionists. Hence we can conclude th