People's Democracy

 WEST BENGAL

 JLS For Movement Against Imperialism, Communalism

 B Prasant

THE sixth West Bengal state conference of the Janvadi Lekhak Sangh (JLS) has called for a united movement statewide to thwart the imperialist conspiracies and throw back the communalist ploys, and to condemn and fight religious fundamentalism of every sort. The crucial slogan of the day is for unity, integrity and amity.

The JLS state conference was held at the Krishnapada Ghosh Memorial Hall in Surjya Sen Street. In his address to the conference, Left Front chairman and CPI(M) Polit Bureau member Biman Basu said in Bengal, there lived in peace and harmony hundreds of thousands of people speaking Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and other languages. Kolkata is a kind of mini India. Indeed, the percentage of non-Bengali speaking people is very high in the metropolis. In order to reach out to them, what is imperative is to learn their languages. Knowledge of Bengali alone would not suffice. This was a lesson learnt while becoming involved with the literacy movement, said Basu. He also said the JLS too has to shoulder the responsibility to communicate to the variegated groups of people in Bengal the message about the reasons why a dysfunctional national economy and crisis-ridden polity confronted the citizens of today.

More than 250 Hindi and Urdu writers and poets took part in this JLS conference. Noted economist and former finance minister of the Left Front government of Bengal, Dr Ashok Mitra, inaugurated the conference. In his address, Dr Mitra said that without the practice of linguistics and the usage of the language as a tool, literature could not be produced. Every citizen, said the speaker, must evince active interest in the ongoing development of Hindi literature in the state and the country.

Dr Mitra referred to the works of Munshi Premchand who encouraged people through his writings to take part in the struggle to fight the British imperialism and change the existing and exploitative social order. Dr Mitra concluded with the rousing call that if one were committed to the cause of the people, one must never betray the Red Flag, keeping it aloft all the time.

In his address, former youth leader and minority welfare minister of the state Left Front government, Mohammad Salim, noted that weaknesses continued to persist in the task of building up consistent struggles and movements in the areas where mazdoors lived in the state, as well in the urban bustees. Salim said that while it was true that the Sangh Parivar was actrive in spreading the poisonous message of religious fundamentalism in the Hindi-speaking areras, it would never do to presume that the Hindi-speaking people were being swayed by communal propaganda. However, Salim said, in order to properly counter the communal onslaught, specific and organised programmes must be undertaken. In this drive, the JLS must play a special role, the former youth leader added. In circumstances where imperialist powers kept on orchestrating attacks on the mind and intellect of the people by using the powerful tools of information technology, the Left and democratic counterswell must comprise paintings and poetry, the electronic media too must be used, and all these would supplement such weapons of mass struggle as marches, jathas, and rallies.

In his address, CITU leader Chitabrata Majumdar spoke about the attacks on the working class and other toiling people by the imperialists and their sidelings, and flayed the BJP-led union government for compromising the economic and political sovereignty of the nation by bowing to every wish of the US administration. He dwelt on the evil effects of gobalisation and urged upon the writers and artistes to use their creative efforts in order to make the common people aware about this.

Author and critic Shiv Kumar Mishra said the danger emenating from every kind of religious fundamentalism needed to to be resisted and fought against at the grass roots level. "We must not merely write, we must also ensure that the writing reaches out to the masses and touches them," said Mishra.

The secretarial report at the JLS conference was placed by Arun Maheswari who was re-elected state secretary of the organisation. The condolence resolution was moved by the outgoing president Bimal Verma. 

The state conference elected a 75-member state committee and a 35-member executive committee. The new state president of the JLS is Salik Lakhnavi. Chandrakala Pandey is the working president. Vice presidents are Sambhu Nath, Shamim Anwar, Shri Harsh, Gopal Prasad, Dr Mohan and Sarla Maheswari. Assistant secretaries are: Ram Ahlad Chaudhuri, Shivdutt Lahiri, Mahesh Jaiswal, Shahnaz Nabi and Dhruvdeo Paswan. Rekha Singh Buxi is the treasurer.