People's Democracy
(Weekly Organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)
No. 37
September 16, 2012
|
Vol. XXXVI
No. 37 September 16, 2012 |
Marching
on Socialist Path is the Real
Tribute We Can Pay to Sundarayya B V Raghavulu THERE
have been many prominent political leaders in Andhra
Pradesh but Sundarayya
stood above all of them. Despite being a Communist
leader, he is equally
respected by all sections of the people irrespective
of their political
leanings. That is the reason why lakhs of people paid
homage and participated
in Sundarayya’s last journey on May 19, 1985 A
person’s worth cannot be measured by the number of
years he lived or the high
posts he held or by the massive amounts of money he
accumulated. The yardstick
is how far has that person’s work contributed to
changing the society for the
better and whether there is something in his work that
can be emulated by
future generations. Sundarayya dedicated his entire
life for the cause of people,
society and Communist movement. Many
aspects of his life are worth emulating even today. Sundarayya’s
life of struggle began with his revolt in 1930 against
the feudal practices prevalent
in his village. He displayed deep hatred for the
feudal customs and practices.
He stood with dalits and other backward castes in the
fight for equality. He
removed from his name ‘Reddy’ which denotes the caste
to which his family
belonged. He organised all-caste common inter-dining
in his village. He fought
for the rights of dalits to draw water from the common
well in the village. He
ran a groceries shop for dalits. He facilitated inter
caste marriages. He
always stood for equal treatment of women. In
spite of the work of that generation, even today the
remnants of feudalism are
strongly entrenched in society mainly due to the
weakness in our freedom
struggle and the compromising nature of ruling classes
post independence. Like
the British who used caste and religion for their
‘Divide and Rule’ policy, the
present day neo-liberal rulers are also using
identities like caste, religion,
sect, region etc to further their exploitation and to
maintain their hegemony. We
cannot prevent the divisive tendencies of identity
politics without constantly
waging struggle against the existing remnants of
feudalism. If the Communist
movement compromises with the remnants of feudalism,
the people’s movement not
only cannot go forward, but will be weakened greatly.
One cannot be a Communist
if one does not fight against such feudal remnants
like caste oppression,
communalism, patriarchy etc. That is why the kind of
hatred shown by Sundarayya
against these feudal practices, the kind of spirited,
committed struggle he put
up against them is the need of the hour. Sundarayya
was a relentless fighter in the cause of people. He
was in the forefront of
important struggles led by the Communist movement.
First is the heroic
Telangana Peasant Armed Struggle, which stands out as
the foremost struggle
during the freedom movement. Ten thousand village
militia members and 2000
regular guerillas fought against Nizam razakars
at first and against 50 thousand strong army of union
government later. Over
4000 comrades were martyred in this heroic struggle
conducted from 1946 to
1952. Ten thousand activists were sent to jails and 50
thousand people were detained
in police camps. All these extraordinary sacrifices
did not go in vain. It
resulted in dethroning of the feudal Nizam government
and merger of The
second struggle is the 1934 historic Peasant
Protection Yatra held in coastal
Andhra Pradesh under the guidance of Sundarayya. As
Party secretary, Sundarayya
played a key role in this struggle also. Hundreds of
cadre conducted the ten-month
long padayatra
from Ichapuram to When we
talk of Sundarayya, we mainly remember him as a leader
of struggles. But he was
also a great parliamentarian. He was elected to Rajya
Sabha in 1952. He acted
as the leader of opposition for three years, upto1955.
After being elected to
Andhra Assembly in 1955, he functioned as the leader
of opposition in the state
assembly for 12 years, till 1967. He was in state
assembly again from 1978 to
1983. Sundarayya
was unique to the parliament even in those days. He
went to parliament on
cycle, with files tied to the carriage at the back.
When he was a member of the
state legislature, he not only used to go to the
Assembly on cycle, but when
needed, even to the chief minister’s house too, which
astonished everyone. ROLE MODEL
With
his 20 years of personal experience in parliament and
assembly, he clearly understood
the role and limitations of the parliamentary
activities in Indian
revolutionary movement. He stood as a role model of
how a Communist
parliamentarian should be. He showed by practice how a
people’s representative
can lead a simple life. How a Communist
parliamentarian must undertake thorough
study before making comments, make sharp but
responsible criticism, make
alternative and constructive suggestions, reflect
outside people’s struggles
inside the house. He showed by example how not to fall
prey to parliamentary
allurements. Today, when even some people’s
representatives from Communist
parties are also falling prey to the inducements of
bourgeois parliamentary
system, there is a greater need to take Sundarayya’s
parliamentary life as a
role model. Sundarayya
believed that social service activities are as
important as people’s struggles
in advancing the revolutionary movement. Sudarayya
always emphasised the
necessity of providing healthcare to the poor by
communists. As a young boy, Sundarayya
trained himself in first-aid methods, and provided
basic health care in his
village. He encouraged his brother Dr Ramachandra
Reddy to set up People’s
Hospital in 1953 and continued to guide it until his
death. Today that hospital
is being run as a model people’s hospital by a Party
trust. This 250-bed
hospital with 40 doctors and 250 staff is providing
yeoman services to the poor
and middle classes. Over two and half lakh people
avail out- patient services
in a year. Over
250 doctors, who were
trained in this hospital over the years, have started
hospitals in all parts of
the state and are rendering affordable healthcare to
people and are helping the
people’s movements in various ways. In
1971, when the prices of essential food grains sharply
increased, apart from
agitating for control of rising prices, in order to
expose the government’s
failure and to provide some relief to people, the
Communist Party ran shops in
which rice was sold at one rupee per kg. In Gannavaram
area, which was represented
by Sundarayya in the state assembly, Party activists
ran these cheap ration
shops in 39 villages for three months. Later, this was
replicated across the
state. The activists bought paddy from farmers and
after processing in rice
mills, sold it to the poor. They proved that it is
indeed possible to sell rice
at Rs 1 per kg even after all expenses are taken into
account. This programme
brought tremendous pressure on the government to take
measures against black
marketeers. He was
always in the forefront in organising relief
activities during natural
calamities. Around 10,000 persons perished due to
severe cyclone in Diviseema
region of The
point to be noted is that Sundarayya felt that these
were not just
service-oriented activities. They were also a means to
rouse the consciousness
of the masses against the policies of ruling classes.
He felt it was a wrong
trend within the revolutionary movement to view this
activity as unimportant. We can
learn a lot from Sundarayya on how to keep our links
live with people when our
Party is politically isolated. During 1942 Quit India
movement, our Party was
politically isolated in Andhra Pradesh. There was
massive disinformation
campaign that Communists were betrayers. Those days it
became difficult even to
hold public meetings. In such a situation, the special
effort made by the Party
was successful in defeating the ruling class attempts
to alienate the people
from us. Notable in this effort was the removal of
silt from Bandaru irrigation
canal that had affected nearly Six lakh acres of
arable land. For 20 days in
May 1944, around 4000 leaders and cadres of the Party
successfully completed
the work on a war footing. Sundarayya carried earth
loads on his head. The
photograph of Sundarayya supervising the work leaning
on his cycle at the canal
site remains a symbol of that great effort even today.
The people appreciated
this effort of the Party by saying only Communists can
accomplish such tasks. When faced
with unfavourable circumstances, Sundarayya was always
in the forefront of
safeguarding the Party and people’s movements with
courage, determination and
confidence even at a time when many others succumbed
to confusion and loss of
confidence. Two particular occasions in this context
can be cited. Some within
the Party developed cold feet and left the movement
following the severe
repression unleashed by the Indian Union Army to crush
the Telangana armed
struggle. But Sundarayya played a great role by
remaining with the armed squads
and gradually withdrawing the struggle. He took great
care to see that the
Party and the cadre were safeguarded during this
process. After withdrawal of
the armed struggle, from underground itself,
Sundarayya went to console the
families of martyrs. The kind of effort he put in for
a decade after withdrawal
of the armed struggle to get the cases against
underground cadre removed, to
get those in jails released or to help the martyrs’
families is, in one word,
amazing. There
was a severe disappointment within the Party after the
electoral losses
suffered in Andhra region in the 1955 elections. While
the Party won 41 seats
with 21 percentage of votes in 1952, it only got 15
seats with 31percentage of
votes in 1955. Instead of recognising the importance
of the increase of vote
percentage, a part of the leadership became
despondent. Steeped in debts, the
Party was not even in a position to maintain
whole-timer cadre. The main
leadership, utterly demoralised and unable to face
this situation, gave a call
to the cadres to give up fulltime Party work and to
take up other occupations
for their livelihood. Sundarayya strongly opposed this
attitude and gave
confidence to the cadre by mobilising funds and
helping their sustenance during
that difficult period. EXCEPTIONAL
ORGANISER
It is a
well-known fact that Sundarayya was an exceptional
organiser. Even in his
formative years, his talent for organisation was
evident. At a young age of 20
years, he toured the entire Andhra region and formed
many communist branches
and groups. In 1935 when he was only 22, he prepared
the ground for Communist
movement in Kerala by touring around the state and
holding discussions with
important leaders of the freedom movement. That is why
he is renowned as the builder
of Indian Communist movement in I got
an opportunity to observe him directly after 1976 when
he chose Andhra Pradesh
as his main place of work. Sundarayya’s organisational
effort during this
period helped in putting the Party back on rails and
take it forward. The Party
in the state was weakened due to 1964 split, the 1967
Naxalite disruption, the
divisive movements of separate Telangana and Andhra in
1969 and 1973 respectively.
Because of these disruptions, the Party faced acute
dearth of trained and
committed cadre. To surmount this handicap,
immediately after the Emergency in
1977, by conducting classes in five places across our
state for 2800 cadre who
worked fearlessly during Emergency, he gave a fillip
to the growth of the Party.
Separate classes were held for agricultural labour
front cadre for ten days
each at two different locations. To improve the work
of branch secretaries at
the village and factory level, three 7-day schools
were conducted for them in OPPOSED
SUCCUMBING TO
SPONTANEITY Sundarayya
was opposed to the trend of succumbing to spontaneity,
be it by individuals as
Communists or collectively by Party committees. His
work method was to chalk
out a plan as per concrete conditions and work
according to it. He used to
stress the importance of this method particularly for
functioning of committees.
Sundarayya never believed that the Communist movement
can go forward because of
individuals, no matter how talented they were. He was
of the opinion that the
Party as a whole must act as ‘organiser par
excellence’. If committees
themselves act as effective organisers, then the
weaknesses of individuals can
be overcome and the movement can move ahead. Sundarayya
gave a lot of importance to imparting political
education to those who participated
in the struggles and movements. At the beginning of
the Communist movement in
the state, Sundarayya organised a one month long
political school under the
aegis of Congress Socialist Party in Kothapatnam in
1937. The next year,
another month long school was organised in
Manthenavari Palem. Students of
these two schools later on became famous as Communist
Party cadres and leaders.
His emphasis on political training through schools
continued up to his death,
as explained earlier with regard to Andhra Pradesh. In
the present situation of
depoliticisation of people, especially youth and
students, penetration of ideas
of identity, market fundamentalism into the minds of
vast sections of the
society, to equip our cadres and leaders much more
importance is to be given to
political education than was given in the days of
Sundarayya. The
attention and affection he showed towards cadre was
well known. Many persons
came into the Communist movement after being inspired
by him. He used to pay
great attention for training the cadre and educating
them. He used to render
necessary help to the cadre after observing their
economic, health and family
conditions. Recognising
the importance
of the student front in providing cadre for the
revolutionary movement, he took
keen interest in developing the student movement and
great care in nurturing
the cadre coming from this section. The amount of
attention paid by Sundarayya
on students is much more needed now. After the onset
of neo liberalism and the
collapse of socialism in some countries, the flow of
new cadre from the student
front had appreciably slowed down. To reverse the
present trend, we need to
follow Sundarayya’s foot steps in paying much more
attention in attracting,
educating, deploying the cadre from the students. Sundarayya
always emphasised that a proper cadre policy is
essential for a Communist Party
and without that it cannot continue as a revolutionary
party. When the cadre
system of the Party was sought to be demolished by a
wrong trend in AP in 1955,
Sundarayya fought against it and worked for retaining
the cadre. He prepared a
Cadre policy in 1977, covering aspects in a detailed
manner such as who can be
taken as whole timers, their wages etc. Even today
that policy is guiding the
Party in these aspects. We are today trying to expand
and strengthen the Party
across the country, to spread into new sectors of
activity and new sections of
people. That is possible only when we have a proper
Cadre policy. We have to
learn a lot in this respect from Sundarayya. Sundarayya
used to patiently try to correct the mistakes and
wrong trends in cadre while
utilising their capacities. But at the same time, he
used to act very sternly
against those who violated Party discipline and acted
against the line of the
Party. He did not hesitate to suggest removal of
prominent leaders of the Party
in Andhra Pradesh when they violated discipline and
acted as though they were
above Party. Even when he differed severely with the
decisions of the Party, he
would implement them without any hesitation. The way
he worked as one among us
in the state movement from 1978 even after working as
the all CONCRETE STUDY
Sundarayya
used concrete study and vast knowledge as a tool for
advancing the movement. He
thoroughly studied land relations in 1936 and prepared
a report to help develop
the Kisan movement. He authored a book on ‘Land
question’ in 1977 after
conducting an intensive survey in the villages of Kaja
and Ananthavaram in Sundarayya
was one of the top leaders who played an important
role in applying
Marxism-Leninism to the concrete conditions of the
country and charting out an
independent line for the Marxist Party. Sundarayya
never hesitated, or
compromised in opposing what he thought was
ideologically wrong. He exhibited
equal firmness while combating revisionist or
extremist trends within the Party.
Sundarayya never had a good opinion about those who
did not take a stand this
way or that way in ideological struggles and preferred
to remain neutral for a
long time. He did not like when many comrades adopted
such a position during
the Naxalite disruption in Andhra Pradesh. He felt
such attitude has greatly
harmed the movement. He hated opportunism, sycophancy,
boastfulness and
cowardice. He used to say that it is understandable if
comrades reveal secrets
unable to bear the police torture. But it is
inexcusable if they spill secrets just
in fear of police or after meekly
surrendering. No one
could intimidate Sundarayya. When S A Dange
threw a challenge in the
national council meeting of the Party in 1957, keeping
Sundarayya in mind, saying
that some leaders are campaigning against Khrushchev
accusing him of adapting a
revisionist path; if they have guts they must say it
here. Sundarayya
immediately got up and without any hesitation or fear
asserted that Khrushchev
was indeed following a revisionist path! Another
instance of his fearlessness
was evident when he, in a Congress public meeting in
1935, challenged Tanguturi
Prakasam, a big nationalist leader then, for telling
lies about Till
his last breath, Sundarayya spent every second, every
paisa and all his
energies for the sake of people and people’s movement.
He led a very simple
life. He underwent family planning operation not to
have children because he
felt he could not devote time for their upbringing as
his life and time would
be spent on movements. The
importance of the values practiced by Sundarayya and
his lifestyle is much more
important today at a time when the neo-liberal
ideology is on the offensive.
Consumerism and individualism has spread all over.
Pompousness, extravagance
have become benchmarks of greatness and prestige.
Corruption, cheating, subterfuge,
demagogy etc have become acts of brilliance and
dynamism. Repression, exploitation,
loot of public wealth have become acceptable avenues
of amassing wealth. On the
other hand, cooperation, solidarity, benevolence,
tolerance, caring etc are
being perceived as traits of the incompetent. Today,
man and nature are also
seen as tools for profit. It is becoming increasingly
clear how such values and
thoughts are pushing the society, the future of
humankind and the stability of
nature to the brink of disaster. How they are
spreading a feeling of
disappointment and helplessness among the people is
also evident today. Unable
to understand the roots of this dire situation, people
are falling prey to the
influences of fundamentalist, sectarian and divisive
forces. It is
not possible to strengthen the Communist movement
without weakening the hegemony
of these reactionary values on the people. Communist
Party will not be able to
inspire anyone if it compromises and adjusts with
neo-liberal values and
lifestyles in the name of objective conditions, or
citing the reverses to
Socialist project, or in the name of Socialism not
achievable in the immediate
future. Sundarayya’s life unveils before us a path of
uncompromising struggle
against feudal bourgeois values and in favor of
Socialist values. If one
imagines how a Socialist human being would be, we can
easily say he or she
would be like Sundarayya. His life shows how a
Socialist human being can
organically grow even in the womb of a capitalist
society. But, if only a few persons’
lives are like this, it would be insufficient.
Communist Party itself must grow
as a seedling embodying the values of Socialism within
the womb of capitalism.
Only then can we unveil the vision of a new society
before the youth and
people. Only then can we enthuse and inspire future
generations. Marching
on that path only is the real tribute we can pay to
Sundarayya.
