People's Democracy

DYFI Holds School For Hindi Belt Cadres

Tikender Singh Panwar

THE Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) organised an all India Hindi school cum workshop in BTR Bhawan, New Delhi, on July 26-27. The two day school was conducted mainly on 4 topics, namely Casteism, Communalism and the Threat to the National Polity (by Jogendar Sharma) Necessity of Socialism (by Pushpender Grewal) Globalisation and Challenges before the Youth (by Hannan Mollah) and Organisation (by Tapas Sinha.)

Before the commencement of the classes, the DYFI flag was hoisted by its general secretary, Tapas Sinha. Subsequently, floral wreaths were placed at the martyrs column.

The class on caste and communalism highlighted the origin of caste and the necessity for the ruling classes to continue with their domination of the present system. The crux of Hindutva ideology is also based on caste. It was highlighted that the struggle for economic independence and that for social equality are to be linked together. The DYFI has to play an important role in it. The inhibition, which at times is seen in our comrades, is to be thrown away. The forces leading the casteist movements do not want their masses to look beyond the domains of caste and hence they never want it to be linked with the economic struggles. A formidable challenge must be launched by the DYFI. Similarly, on communalism, the speaker stated that it is a creation of the British imperialism. The British imperialists never wanted the countrymen to live united and hence adopted the policy of divide and rule, thereby hitting at the very basic fabric of our polity. Now the forces of communalism, led by the RSS and its cohorts, are making every effort to destroy this country of ours. Here also stress was laid over linking the economic struggle with the effort being made to thwart the communal forces.

The lecture on the necessity of socialism highlighted the reasons of the fall/debacle of socialism in eastern Europe and also the inevitability of triumph of socialism. It was stated that the march of history cannot stop at an exploitative stage. Though imperialism has succeeded temporarily, it cannot lead humanity out of the chaos.  The basic contradiction that would lead to the downfall of capitalism was also explained. For, in this system while production is collective, ownership is private. This contradiction shall give rise to  problems for the people who will ultimately overthrow capitalism.

In a very simple language, Hannan Mollah explained the challenges the youth are facing in wake of globalisation. He stated that there is nothing wrong with the term globalisation, except that this is globalisation of exploitation. Citing examples, he said that in Imperialism - The Highest Stage of Capitalism, Lenin had shown how capital would ruin national economies and form new colonies. But now the stage of neocolonialism does not require even a huge army for subjugation, though an army is also used at times, for example in Iraq. It is the financial institutions which play a crucial part in ensuring imperialist domination. Exploitation is being spread both horizontally and vertically. Hannan Mollah detailed the effects of globalisation on trade, the democratic structure, education health, women, employment, and culture. He said that the de-industrialisation process has      begun in the country because of these policies.

The class on organisation was taken by Tapas Sinha, general secretary of the DYFI. He explained the role of organisation in the youth movement. Giving       concrete examples, stress was laid on the importance of membership. The units must be the priority of the organisation as they are not only the cells of the organisation but also a means for direct contact with the people. To make the class more lively and interactive, 4 groups were formed for discussion on different topics, namely, a) membership, b) unit, c) campaign and movement, and) fund.

Later the group leaders presented their report before the delegates which was finally summarised by the general secretary. The credentials committee chaired by Kushal Bhardwaj presented the credentials report. In all, 104 delegates participated in the school, out of which 13 were young women. Generally, the delegates were state leaders, with just 20 district level leaders participating. The youngest delegate was Premika Tigga from Jharkhand who was 20 years of age.

Later in the evening, to improve speech making ability of the participants a practice session was held in which names were picked up through chits and the concerned persons were asked to speak for about 4 minutes on a particular topic.