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From Fourth International, Vol.6 No.7, July 1945, p.218.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
The recent renewal by the British colonial despots of their 1942 Cripps Mission offer is a patent fraud, just as the original offer was. Less known in this country is the role played by the Indian bourgeoisie in paving the way for this deception of the Indian masses. Elsewhere in this issue we publish the slashing article Ministry-Makers and ‘Leftist’ Fakers by an Indian Trotskyist. Below is the text of editorials on the same subject from the January-March issue of Permanent Revolution, theoretical organ of the Bolshevik-Leninist Party of India (BLPI), Indian section of the Fourth International.
A revolutionary party which uses correctly the weapon of Marxist analysis is able not only to see the general trend of future developments but often also to foretell them with remarkable accuracy. We wish to draw attention to two specific prognoses of the BLPI the correctness of which events are confirming in a remarkable manner.
In our Notes to the April-December 1944 issue of Permanent Revolution we maintained that the Viceroy’s December speech in Calcutta represented a change in the attitude of the British government to the question of settlement with Congress. Whereas earlier, “the British government was not prepared to enter into any kind of negotiation with Congress” (cf. Viceroy’s reply to Gandhi’s Gelder interview), in December the Viceroy laid down the basic terms on which he was prepared to settle with Congress. Wavell’s visit to London and the impending release of the Congress leaders demonstrate that our reading was correct. But this is not all. We proceeded to ask the question, “Why has Whitehall thus ‘relented’ at this particular juncture?” And we answered:
“Unless some sop is thrown to British public opinion the labor leadership’s control of the leftward moving masses on behalf of the reactionary Churchill government may well be threatened. And unless some dramatic step is taken to rehabilitate Britain’s position internationally, his prestige may well sink so low as to affect adversely his maneuvers in the diplomatic field.”
Today in almost verbatim confirmation of this, Reuter’s report of April 4th in connection with the Wavell-Amery talks declares that:
“It is acknowledged, however, that Whitehall entertains acute anxiety on two points: First as to the possible effect on the Tory Party’s electoral future, and secondly, as to the ultimate effect upon the British position in the East in the eyes of the Americans if the failure to deal adequately with the Indian political demands results in a failure to mobilize Indian resources for war against Japan.”
And today, we repeat again as we have done in the past, that the settlement that is coming will be a surrender-settlement. Why? For two reasons. On the one hand, an imperialist Britain (which will have to more than double her prewar exports if she is to return after the war to her prewar economic level), simply cannot afford to grant any real concessions to India, her largest single field of colonial exploitation. And secondly, the Congress bourgeoisie, having failed in August 1942 in their bid for a greater share of power, are today seeking not even for real concessions, but only for a face-saving formula.
* * *
On this question the political resolution passed at the September 1944 conference of the BLPI declared that since the coming settlement would involve Congress support of the war and participation in suppression of the masses,
“It is impossible for the Congress Socialist Party if it is to remain true to its August tradition to support such a policy; and it is extremely doubtful that the Congress High Command will in such event, tolerate its functioning as an organized opposition within the Congress fold. The CSP will thereby be forced to a choice – and choice can only lead to the political demise of the CSP as a distinctive organization, for it will have either to surrender to the reactionary Congress Right Wing or to leave Congress altogether.”
Today, even before the arrival of the settlement, we see signs of this development. For a number of prominent CSP leaders including Meterally, Masani, and Kamaladevi have reached the decision that the CSP should be disbanded and its program abandoned in favor of that of the Congress. The decision certainly is logical. For, these leaders have completely succumbed to the Right Wing, which has today assumed full control of whatever Congress activities are proceeding in the country. In fact, there is nothing today to distinguish the CSP leadership from the Right Wing. They are enthusiastic over the constructive program, unreservedly support the Gandhian leadership which is moving to an ignominious settlement, and are prepared to support the imperialist war when the settlement comes.
But what of the CSP rank and file? The situation is becoming increasingly difficult for the more honest of them. We have already mentioned the case of the Hindustan Mazdoor Sevak Saugh, into which they are being dragooned. [Hindustan Mazdoor Sevak Saugh – Society for the Service of Indian Labor – is an organization in process of formation with the blessing of Gandhi and under the patronage and control of Right Wing Congress leaders. Its ostensible purpose is to ameliorate the condition of the workers through the formation of trade unions. Its real purpose is to bring the working class under the influence of the nationalist bourgeoisie.] Congress labor policy is increasingly revealing itself not as one of helping the workers or organize themselves in their own independent class organizations but as one of starting what are in effect company unions to bring the workers under the influence of the bourgeoisie. Gandhi’s opposition to independent Kisan Sabhas [peasant organizations] (as revealed in his discussion with Ranga) and the decision to build Kisan organizations only as a part of the Congress, is an effort to stem the struggle of the peasants by tying them to the bourgeois and pro-Zamindar [pro-landlord] Congress. The time is fast approaching when it will become impossible for honest left elements in the Congress to do labor or Kisan work under the discipline of Congress. Thus in the very field of day to day practical activity there will be demonstrated to them what an application of Marxist theory would have brought them long ago – that Congress is the party of the bourgeoisie. How many of them will be bold enough to draw the further conclusion that the need is to build independently the revolutionary party of the proletariat?
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