People's Democracy

12th Safdar Hashmi Memorial Lecture

Wage War Against Imperialism

Arjun Ghosh

THE historic role of the Left in today’s world is to wage an unceasing war against imperialism. This was the point of view expressed by eminent historian Professor Irfan Habib while he was delivering the 12th Safdar Hashmi Memorial Lecture.

The programme was organised by the Jana Natya Manch at the deputy speaker’s hall, Constitution Club on November 22. Eminent economist Professor Prabhat Patnaik presided over the occasion. The title of Professor Irfan Habib’s lecture was “India, Today’s World and Imperialism”.

Professor Patnaik described Comrade Safdar Hashmi as a revolutionary and that all his activity, both creative and organisational were motivated by the revolutionary cause. The Safdar Hashmi Memorial Lectures have always been occasions to take a closer look on our world and the tasks that face the Left.

At the beginning of his lecture Professor Irfan Habib pointed out the historic significance of the mandate of the last Lok Sabha elections. In an election result which was unexpected to both the media and a vast section of the intelligentsia of our country, the people of India had spoken up. It was not only a mandate in favour of protecting the integrity and the secular fabric of India, but also one which sought to protect national independence.

On the basis of the mandate it can be said that the BJP-led NDA government was an anti‑people government. But today we cannot say with any conviction that the new Congress-led UPA government is any less anti-people. Other than the issue of communalism this government has not paid even lip-service to distinguish itself from the BJP-NDA government. No alternative economic policies have been announced.

On the matter of foreign policy too the new government continues to tow the pro‑imperialist tone of the NDA. The defence minister called for closer ties with Israel. The foreign minister was only too eager to send Indian soldiers to Iraq. The letter written by Manmohan Singh to the re-elected George Bush is so subservient that it seems as if it was drafted by the US foreign office!

Is this attitude an aberration or is it systematic? In the post-Independence period the Indian big business was weak and needed state support. Capitalists like G D Birla sought Soviet support for structuring the five year plan! Though the ensuing policies were not ‘socialist’ they were in favour of the people of India. The support of the Soviet Union played a positive role in the strengthening of the Indian economy.

With the fall of the Soviet Union and an increase in their own strength there was a shift in the position of the big business. In the name of liberalisation and globalisation they called for the auctioning of the public sector and increased intervention of foreign direct investment. The period of liberalisation has led to increased impoverishment of the Indian people.

To understand the shift in position of the Indian ruling classes we need to study the dynamics of imperialism and its effect on our polity. In doing so we would be following the steps taken by Dadabhai Naroji and R C Dutt a century ago when they analysed the British colonial economy.

Leading Marxist theoreticians had formulated that capitalism cannot exist without imperialism. They called for an alliance between the working class and the people of the colonised or third world countries. A severe struggle was waged across the world between imperialism and the forces of socialism and national liberation. The Indian ruling classes too took anti-imperialist position on the issues of Korea, the Suez Canal and Palestine. In those days we felt proud of our sovereignty.

Imperialism exports all forms of low-productive economic activities to the third world and accumulates all high-productive economic activities within its own domain. This leads to an ‘unequal exchange’ and an impoverishment of the third world. In the process a transfer of capital takes place which makes the US economy dependent on the strength of the dollar as the world currency of exchange. This dependence is more deeply felt in America’s dependence on oil and explains US interests in the middle-east.

While the middle-eastern countries account for 65 per cent of the world’s oil reserves, the US accounts for 25 per cent of the world’s oil consumption. So the US economy is heavily dependent on oil. For the US the middle-east therefore, assumes a strategic importance which can be matched only by that of Indo-China and East Asia in the 1960s and 70s. With an increasingly weakening dollar against the euro the US seeks to exercise military control over the middle-east. Hence, the call for ‘regime change’ and the recent spate of imperialist wars.

In this context Manmohan Singh’s expression of support for George Bush is an act of concern. It shows a grave disregard for the parliamentary resolution condemning the US aggression on Iraq. This government continues to tow the imperialist policies on all foreign policy issues.

It is because of this pro-imperialist orientation that the UPA government is unable to make any changes in its internal policies. All calls for restrictions on FDI, cap on petrol prices, control pro-World Bank activities of the Planning Commission, new employment generating schemes have fallen on deaf ears. Therefore, we must bring the issues of foreign policy to the fore-front.

Among all these the election of 62 Left MPs to the parliament calls for increased responsibility of the Left. We must revive the legacy of the independence struggle. We must raise these issues in the parliament. The UPA is taking the Left for granted. More importantly, they are taking the people of India for granted. They are taking the poor of India for granted.

At the end of the programme Ashok Tiwari expressed the vote of thanks.