MARCH 8, 1975 PRICE: 50 PAISE

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: Samar SenMODERN INDIA Puss,DR MULLICK SQUAllE,

AND PUBLISHED WEEKLYPuBLICATIONS (P) Vro.

nOlL 61. MoTI' UNIt.CALctmA-13

: 243202-

TO THE RICH, WITH LOVE. .

MR C. Subramaniam has done it. And far more daringly than his prede-cessor. Mr Y. B. Cllavan, ever attempted to do. His budget has met

cally point by point the demands of big business. He has agreed to virtually. practically point by point the demands of big business. He has agreed to virtuallyclamouring for a long time. He has extended the facilities under tax holidays.raised ehe concessions under initial depreciation allowance and widened thespan and coverage of the development rebate. He has withdrawn deprecia-tion in respect of imported cars acquired after February 28, 1975 and at thesame time has allowed full depreciation for indigenous cars, irrespective oftheir costs. A more novel gift for the makers of Indian cars is difficult toimagine. But. if; we are not mistaken. it was Mr Subr3maniam who haddescribed the Ambassador cars as tin-boxes and Hindustan Motors as a junk-shop when he was serving a stint as the Minister for Industrial Developmentsome years ago. Mr Subramaniam will make India safe for the capitalists.

It would be wrong to say however that the Finance Minister has notthought 01 the ~omm(ln man. He has, insofar as it is necessary to serve hispurpose. The common man in India is perhaps the most docile creature onearth. Every year the budget keeps on adding to his burden. Still. whenit comes to accepting more burden, he is full of grace. Mr Subramaniam hasaccordingly put another load of >Rs 288crol'es on his shoulder as die firstinstalment. More 'will come itS tIle year p;·ogresses.· Almo£t everything thatthe middle c1a?ses and the poor consume has been brought under additionaltaxation. And even those items which h~ve been left uncovered by the taxnet will also now be many times dearer. if only in sympathy. But the pur-chasing power of the fixed income group remains fixed, indeed is being reduced'becaus.e of the price rise. Even the payment of dearness allowance has becomean issue of intense study and imputed importance. The longer it is delayed,the better it is for the Government. .Yes. a, few sops have been thrown atthe. middle cl~ss like the increased income-tax rebate on account of providentfund deductions and life insurance prelJiiums. But the few bucks that it may"-:,-save fr~m all this wo~ld be more than swept away by the burgeoning bill onother necessities. With the elections not very far off. Mr Subramaniam ap-

. parently 'has tamed his socialist fervour which, so has been our impression,boils in the heart of many of our distinguished leaders. He for one at leasthas not mistaken which side of the bread i~ buttered.

ifhe

loutim?

mt CPIthe Codenied

.I rights.upportmay gaty refu

as

, 5 an inveterate anti-com-r Jyoti Basu has not be-t an ardent admirer ofiefMinister; the past hasotten by either, Only afor political survival has;together; .they have rea-long and rapid stridet'oeradc" path t~at th~

'ng, using its Congress andas stilts. may soont a situation inwill'be no Congres~(O)(M) even to fight betweenIt is the Congress party'sof murder and mayhem as

of policy ~hat has lhl) ~impossible combinati~n.

. 'on parties should not bemusionthat Mr Ray willdemands voiced at 'the

10 concede will amount toThere lis not much time10 plan his electioneeringthat the Congress may

fely ensdflnc.ed In oflic.e.decline in the personal

~he 'PJ\ime M)~ister theto depend more heavilymethods of 1972 to win

What the opposition part-forwardto is not a returnDormsof conduct on the

Government but furtherpeople's 'rights, Theto be w~ested f\'hm theudant governmedt, Ob-

cannotbe done by passingWhether the oppositionprepared to undertake a5 programme than mere-

whetherthey will be able'ted when a mass move-its inexorable course are

S AGENCY,

The Confronfation statistical bulldozer New Delhi IS 'un-leashing almost daily on a still largely

A.P,M. scePhticallcitizenshdiPb· h'

T e ingering e ate on t e eXIstenceof a recession in rhe' Indian economy

• HIS year began with a convinced exposes yet again the peculiar relation-.• statement from 'the citadel of ship existing between the Government

Indian entrepreneurship, the Federation and business in this country. The lat-of Indian Chambers of Commerce and. ter criticises the former on policy mattersIndus)~ (FICCO. tha~ "indust~y' lhad only to an extent; as if an agreement onalready come under the "cloud of re- this far and no farther has to be honour-cessionary forces", There was a quick ed. Of course, the essentiaIly gentle-rebuttal from the Government side. by manly approach both sides adopt owe&no less a person than the Prime Minis- its origin to the wider class relationshipter herself. The private sector's cries of the two. But, they fight mainly onof anguish, simulated or genuine, have ideological grounds at least to a pointsince then been smoot'hered quickly by and iliis aspect makes such engagementstout denials and increasingly rosy all the more interesting. Indian busi-picturisations of the economy in the. ness has a very valid reason to be eter-first two months of 1975. nally grateful to the' Government be-At times it looked as if private cause it is the latter which has madeenterprisewaIlahs had finally suc~umbed it possible for both industry and tradeto New Delhi's spirited defence of the to operate in a virtually competition-lessg'enreally messy manner in which Mrs market. It has. been long acknowledged'Gandhi's Government has so far tackled that no capitalist country has ever pro-the economic and financial problems. vided the extent of protection iliat

Now, after the lull in the private sec- India has extended to her private sec-tor's hesitant attempts to build up an. tor. This situation has of course ledinformed public opinion critical of 'the to two developments now equally welladntinistra,tion of ecdnomic and 'allied known: the average rate of growth ofissue~, comes a sign of renewed activity. profit in all these years has been enor-The Tata Engineeri~g and Locomotive mous (this as something which evenCo. Ltd. (TEtCO) has started issuing gov.ernment statistics cannot, or do not,a two-page questionnaire to various in- hide) and the constant absence of com-

. dustrial units, containing queries on petition has rendered Indian trade andthe recipients' production performances, ~ndustry almost -totally incapable of.market trends, approximate sales, etc. . facing rivalry, 'in world markets. AfterThe choice of units which have already' all, what has been India's ac'hievementreceived the questionnaire is wide and in export ? For every bit of foreigntherefore, significant; apparently, an exchange that an Indian exporter earns,attempt is being made to undertak'e as scores of domestic buyers have to paycomprehensive a survey as feasible for through their noses in order to subsi-

"a. privatte organisation."\ The questionn- dise the export which has actually beenaire intends to assess the actual state done at a loss. The export subsidyof affairs in the industrial sector of the comes from the effectively covered homeeconomy as being experienced 'by the market and this is something that maylarge, medium anld small-scale units. not be uncompr.ehending even to aIt seems unlikely that file TELCO as Youth Congressman.an individual company would be in- All this comes out nn the open when-teres ted in this sort of survey, for it is. ever a confrontation develops betweencertainly wider in scope than a modest the Government and business in this.attempt at charting demand projections - '<:.ountry. Recently, gOViernment spo... -,,-fori one's products. One probability is lkesmen have been uncommonly harshthat the Tatas, and stretching- the infer- in replying to the private sector's talesence further, the Swatantra Party, are of woe. This might indicate a growinginterested in the outcome of t'he survey, unwillingness to pamper a spoilt childpossibly to be used as a tool against the to an extent made unnecessary by the

bo\mty already bestowed 'ln it. Butthere is reason to' suspect that this deve-lopment is confined t~ fewer peoplethan t'he Government of the day com-prises.

CIO$est Affinity.

The first quarter of 1975 perhaps>witnessed the closest ideological affinitybetween :Government and business in-independent India. The paradox of aprivate sector making hay while theec01lomy as ;awhole suffers has neverbeen more apparent. True, 1974 hasbeen a bad year for the industrial sec-tor, but the trading sector has reapeda harvest of uncommon size. And whenthe close relationship, . and often theidentification of, between the two sec-tors is rememb'ered, it may be appre-ciated that the Iloss or relaltively les~profits in one has been more than com-pensated by huge profits in the other.Almost all big business houses are in-volved in the sugar industry; it is cOm-m;on knowledge that the gover~mentpolicy pursued since 1973 in respect of'this industry. has. enabled these 'houses.to profit on a scale Which is quite truth-fulIy unprecedented. New Delhi has'kept on rea'ssuring (the' private sectorpaper industry, 80% of which is con-trolled by five houses, that it would notbe taken over. One Central Ministryhas till now successfully prevented ano-ther Ministry from initiating a retentionprice policy in respect of new cementunits which the older units, alI ownedby large houses, oppose vehementlybecause it would disturb their: profitmaking in relation: to the new on~.Most foreign-owned large-profitabilitycompanies are branching out. into high-profitability, low-risk fields through theexcellent loophole of the obligation tocomply with the Foreign Exchange Re-gulation Act. .....The Minister of Statedealing with petroleum and pharmaceu--ticals had to make it very clear to who-ever was interested that the Government

~ . was still far from com~itting a' sac-rilege like planning to take over theforeign drug companies. In short, theprivate sector ~as every reason to re-main grateful to such an astonishinglyunderstanding Government.

4

FRONTIER

This essentially intimate telationshipis sometimes overshadowed by tempo-rary conflicts, 'like the one concerningrecession. Whtn these c'onRicts can alsobe .developed into political materials,the private sector's tenacity to pursuethem becomes noticeable. It is pro-bably this that is happening in the caseof the TELCO questionnarie.

Interview with, Mohammad Toaha

LASSE BERG

L.B. : How would you describe thepresent situation in Bangladesh? .

M.T.: Ther.e has .been a gradualtransformation in the attitude of the com-mon people in respect of t'his Govern-ment. The Government headed bySheikh Mujibur Rahman played all thetricks in the past and successfully hood-winked the people in respect of their.economIc and various otherprobnlems. It is well known thatSheikh Mujibur Ra'hman, while he agi-iated on the' six-point programme, pro-mised the people t'hat he would feedthem. Rice would be sold at Rs. 20 takaper maund and wheat at 10 taka. Nowthe people are experienrin&. quite differ-·ent conditions. The Government is nowtotally Isolated 'from the people. Thatis the whole position.

1.B. : So what should be done tochange this situation?

M.T.: Personally I believe, and myassociates also.. believe, in certain prin-c.iples. Revolutionary change is a task otthe people. It d~pends on the people and.if they can be organised a successful'revolutionary change can be . effected.The precondition for that is the unityof the left and patriotic forces. This iswhat we generally think. A revolution-ary change is inevitable, nobody cancheck it.. The temper of the people isalso changing on that line~ There is stilla vacuum in the leadership of the leftmovement, so to say. So unity of tbeleft forces and other patriotic sectionsof the people can create conditions where-

in we can go ahead andlutional'Y change in our c

L.B. : How 9l\ouldcome. about?

M.T.: As I have alread,ithe revolution is the task ofWhen millions of people willyou can expect a revolutiootherwise, no. It is not jushandful of people with adetermination and couragenough. The main taskforward the revolutionarypends on leadership, but Iebe connected with the masthe real force of the revolfighting mass struggles, massheaded by a revolutionarynised on the basis of MarxiMao thought can lead theour.. expected goal. That't'hink, there is no alternative.

L.B.: What do you thInkrole of various foreign COUD

is a revolutionary developmladesh? Do you foreseeintervention in such a case)

M.T.: Perhaps this quhave been widely discussediatext of the whole so-calledstruggle. We are of the dthat the war of 1971 was coIy arranged by interestedpowers in collaboration within our country. 'J1he agentsat the top of the Govern!'ally they will never welcomeaary change in our country.a statement (in which) wetain observations in respectof the imperialist powers,larly the USA, Soviet RussiaThese three foreign powersterested in any good of thi!Any change for the better forcan be achieved only througktional'Y cl\1ange.

In the creation of Banthe super-powers had thei~was internationally consp'however doesn't mean thatwant their right of self-dDuring this long period

FRONTIER

M.T.: As -I h~ve althe revolution is the task 0When millions of peopleyou can expect a revolu'otherwise, no. It is not jhandful of people with adetermination and couragenough. The main taskforward the revolutionarypends on leadership, but Ibe connected with the rnthe real force of the revfighting mass struggles, rnaheaded by a r~volutionarynised on the, basi's of Mar .Mao thought can lead theou,\ expected goal.· Thatt'hink, there is no altemati

L.B.: What do you thirole of various foreign cis a revolutionary developmla~esh? Do -you foreseeintervention in such a case

M.T.: Perhaps this quhave. been widely discussedtext of the whole so-callstruggle. We are of the -that the war of 1971 was cIy arranged by interestedpowers in collaboration within our. country. The agenat the top of the Govern!ally they will never welcomeary change in our country.a statement (in which) wetain observations in ~espectof the imperialist powers,I<!-rlythe USA, Soviet RussiaThese three foreign powersterested in any good of thOAny <;hcmgefor the better forcan be achieved only througtional'}' c'hange.

In the creation of Banthe super-powers had theirwas internationally consp'however doesn't Ulean thatwant their right of self-dDuring this long period

in we can go ahead andlutionary change in our

L.B.: Howcome, about?

LASSE BERG

Interview with, Mohammad'Toaha

This ~s~entiaUy intimate relationshipis sometimes overshadowed by tempo-rary conflicts, 'like the one concerningrecession. Wh~n these conflicts can 'alsobe. 'developed into political materials.the private sector's tenacity to pursuethem pecomes' noticeable: It is pro-bably this that is happening in the caseof the TELCO questionnarie. .

bO\lnty already bestowed 'Q..nit. Butther.e is reason to' suspect that this deve-lopment is confined t~ fewer . ~eopleth~n t'he Government of ,the day com-prises.

Closest Affinity.,

The first quarter of 1975 perhaps'witnessed the closest ideological affinitybetween :Government and business in'independent India. The paradox 'of aprivate sector making hay while theecOllomy as ;awJiole suffers has neverbeen more apparent. True, 1974 hasbeen a bad year for the industrial sec·tor, but the trading sector has reapeda harvest of uncommon size. And whenthe close relationship,' and, often t'heidentification of, between the t~o sec- L.B.: How would you describe thetots is rememoered, it may be 'appre- present situation in Bangladesh? 'dated that the Iloss or relaltively les$ M.T. : Theroe has been a gradualprofits in one has been more than com. tral).sformation in the attitude of thecom-pensated by huge profits in the other. mon people in respect of t'his Govern-Almost all big business houses are in. ment. The Government headed byvolved in the sugar industry; it is com- Sheikh Mujibur Rahman played all them(on knowledge that the gover~ment tricks in the past and successfully hood-policy pursued' since 1973 in respect of' winked the people in respect of their.this industry ,has. enabled these 'houses. economic and various otherto profit on. a scale Which is quite truth- probnlems. It is well known tnatfully unprecedented. New Delhi 'has Sheikh Mujibur Ra'hman, while he agi-'kept on rea'ssuring jthe- private sector tated on the 'six-point programme, pro-paper industry, 80% of which is con- mlsed the people fuat he would feedtrolled' by five houses, that it would not them, Rice wo'uld be sold at Rs. 20 takabe taken over. One Central Ministry . pel' maund and wheat at 10 taka. Nowhas till now successfully prevented ano. the people are experienring. quite differ-'ther Ministry from initiating a retention ent conditions. The Gov,ernment is nowprice policy in respect of new cement totally isola~ed 'from the people. Thatunits which the older units, all owned is the whole po'sition.·by large houses, oppose . vehemently .L.B.:' So what should bel done tobecause it would disturb thei profit change this situation?

_ making in relation to the new one.§. M.T.,: Personally I believe, and myMost foreign-owned large-profitability associates also.. believe. in certain prin-companies are branc'hing out, il}to high,. c.iples. Revohitiollary change is a task otprofitability, low-risk fields through the the people. It depends on the people andexcellent loophole of the obligation to if they can be organised a successful'comply with the Foreign Exchange Re· ,revolutionary change can be . effected.gulation Act. "The Minister of State The precondition for that is the unitydealing with petroleum and pharmaceu- of the left and patriotic forces. This is.ticals had to make it very clear to who- what we generally think. A revolution·ever was interested that the Government ary change is inevitable, nobody can

'or- .- was .'still far from com~itting a' sac- check it.. The temper of the people isrilege like planning to take ove'r the also changing on that line~ There is stillforeign ,drug companies. In short. the a vacuum in the leadership of the leftprivate sector has every reason to· re- movement, so to say. So unity of themain grateful to such an astonishingly . left .forces and other patriotic sectionsunderstanding Government. of the people can create conditions where-

\

4

democraticmovement deve-d the temper and will of

d ccordingly they formu-itica\ line. The Marxist-of this country was in a

in putting forward a reale question of the nationalakistan. Pakistan was car·twoslabs of territory with

nationalities. The ·birtl-.didnot lead to any solutional question. So the Mar~revolutionariesmoved withey tried to study the will• 01) that basis when itthat this regionally separat"haveits full right of seces-

arxists-Leninistsput fo)'-amme before the peopl!::

Iter of fact, this scared theers and their collaboratingnational question definite·

e been solved by the people'entificmethod, on the basis. t·Leninistprinciple of na-termination. Before the'ves and particularly 1heists could take concretenising the people on this

demandand also on generali sues, they were forestal-

rialist powers and theirujib's six.point programme

uent movement was no·productof this conspiracy

rightof national self·deter·the people of this wing asf the other parts of Pakis-pIewanted their democra-

national self·determination.liberationfrom the clutchesexploitersand their inter-

KUMAR DEKA,

FRONTIER

nal collaborating classes, particularly the we have seen it with our own eyes.feudal class in the villages. Before that - During those nine months of so-calleddesire could be given a proper shape the liberation struggle they organised severalenemies of the people backed by the armed bands i~ India. One is the Mujibimperialist powers sabotaged the whole Bahini which was trained by'a Major Gene-'movement. Now people {are \,realisiJig ral of the· Indian Army. They were orga-

. what is what. .You have already seen nised' only to kill the genuine left forces.the change thal has taken place in the They entered Bangladesh after Decem-course of these three y~ars. Three years ber 16 and started killing the left pro-before when Mujib agitated people took gressive forces. In certain districts evenhim to be the real deliverer. Today the whole villages were surrounded by thepicture is otherwise,. , Mujib Bahini people backed by the

L.B.: 75% of the development bud- Indian Army and then they looted every·get in Bangladesh is at ,present financed thing, they killed whomsoever they cameby foreign aid. What is your opinion across, a reign of terror was let looseon the effect of foreign aid in Bangia- throughout the area.desh? After this emigre Government was

M.T.: You see, it has destroyed our flown into the country and placed at thewhole economy. so to say. A nation can helm of affairs, they organised one afterbuild itself up only by observing cer· another several killer gangs. There istain principles. Number one: it must the Red Guards in Bengali, it is called the.have the courage to stand on its own Lal Bahini; there is another, the Greenfeet. Foreign assistance may be .neces· Guards, Shabuj Bahini. In the villagessary but 'l1: is not the main thing. parti· these Green Guards are organised tocularly in a poor country like ours with repress the peasants. These volunteer70 million .people. Here so much corps have established concentrationmanp.ower is wasted. We can build up camps and torture chambers. They gocertain sectors of our economy only by out at night. catcrJ1 hold of the people,labour-intensive method's. We be- take them to 'the torture chamber; killinglieve our country can be build is the final stage. Several torture cham-up only by using our own re- _ bers have been established throughoutsources first. Foreign assistance may be the conntry in different areas. Every-needed in the sphere of technical know· where Awami League MPs are the tophow etc. bosses. You might have hea_rd about the

L.B.: What form does repr,ession take so-calle'd Special Team, they have gotin this country? police squads for killing and some of

M.T.: Perhaps foreigners:' do not the important officers in the police de-know the types of repression that go on partment having direct links. with thehere. When the Awam~ Leaguers in Prime Minister, Home Minister etc get1971 started their so-called liberation the directives and they go on, with theirmovement they consciously took certain plan. Mujib the other day decried secretmeasures just to curb the genuine free- killings, but who are the secret killers?dom fighters. A secret circular was issu- They organise the secret killer gangs.ed by the central office of the Awami. Rataliatory measures are there no doubt:League that the leftists must be treated but thes.e retaliations are notas enemies. So they organised repres-sion in the urban areas, with the hooligansand thieves in the villages; they called For Frontier contactit volunteer corps. Si~ce the beginningof the so-called liberation movement NAVODY A PU,BLISHERS,launched by the Awami League theystarted killing and repressing the left Vi'-jayawada-2,progressives. A secret circular, we aretold, signed by the government in exilein India, said the leftists should be dis- Eluru Road,armed and killed. The aut'henticity ofthis document cannot be denied because Andhra Pradesh.

5

·done by the political,ly organised, con-scious revolutionaries. Last year apolice' report came out in our press.Mujib says that 3000 Awami Leaguepeople have been killed. But perhapshe didnY care to go through the newsitem Pllblished in his own newspaper.It was an interview with one of the top-ranking police officers of Dacca. Thepolice officer said that "till this time,.from our records We get over 15,000 kil-led". Unofficial records would sayperhaps 20,000. T'hat gentlemanregretted that he could not take anysteps against the;e killings because ofintervention from influential politicalcircles. So killing is a day-to-day affairorganised by the ruling party at_ variouslevels. They let loose this Frankenstein~smonster and at times' they couldn't controlit. so their own men were killed.. FiveMPs were killed, at least three were kIl-led due to their own factional quarrels.

Mujib the 'other day in his spee<;h onDecember 16 discovered two enemiesonly-not imperialism, -not feudalism-smugglers c.re Awami Leaguers, every-smu'gglers are the enmies of the people,we know. But Who are the' smugglers?Smugglers aTe Awami Leaguers, every-where.

So repression and killing are the gene-ral political line of this regime. Ano-ther interesting thing about our recenteconomic crisis and the Government'sway to fight it: the Government hasordered procurement of the surplus pad-dy of the big producers. What actuallyis taking place?' Yesterday I receiveda report from one area. The local MP,who everywhere is the main person en-trusted with the task of procuring sur-plus paddy, virtually snatched awayeverytning !hat the poor and· middle pea-

For Frontier' contact

People's Book House

Cowasji Patel Street,

Meher House,

Fort, Bombay

(iI

sants are producing. One jotedar, big M.T.: At this stage tIle·tandlord, owning several hund~eds ob enemy is social imperialismaDacres of land gave only eight maunds of expansionism. You know in tpaddy to the governm:ent procurement of South East Asia India hubody. That local MP has made sev,eral unique position. The Indianlakhs of takas.' is a very cunnihg and shrewd

L.B. : How would you compare the bourgeoisie and it has been allpresent situation with that during the collabor!lting with imperialism..rule of Yahya Khan in regard to repres- collaborating with imperialism.sion? ' fhe super-powers ip this part

M.T.: Qualitatively this repression is of think it advantageous to 'utilista clifferent kind from fhat of Yahya Khan. in their aggressive designs. TheYahya Khan's repression was the result big bourgeoisie and the Go,of an illegal revolt against an established collaborated with the two supegovernment. We fought against Yahya in various fields. India hadKhan\ repression, in the face of foreign development in the private secaggression we fought. we fought _both. the help of American moneyaDdways, we fought Yahya Khan's army, we public sector with ~cviet roubfought against Indian aggression, also. India has that peculiar advanRepression during the time of Yahya Khan bargaining strength of gainingwas the product of certain people going • camps.. Because the Indian bigagainsl: an established government. This geoisie 'has been all throughis a different situation. Yahya Khan did rating with imperialism in thisnot destroy the industries, Yahya Khan's any freedom movement, anyarmy in the"initial stage were killing no movement or struggle will bedoubt, but after some time the killing by the super-powers through Inwas stopped. The main target -of Yahya dia is their base here.Khan's repression were the rebels.' But L.B.: Do' you see the revolnow the type of repression going on in process in Bangladesh as a veBangladesh under the regime. is not a term ,affair ? IWhen will .repression against rebels, it is re- be governed by a revolutionarypreslsion ag.ainst the people, peace-lov- ment?ing people who fant to survive as hu- M.T.: 'Since the revolution inman beings, who want to make thc' it has been the general featurecountry free from the clutches of impe- 'volutionary struggle everywhererialism. Our, country is still con- revolutionary struggle can ac'hietrolled by social-imperialism and Indian. victory just by a stroke. It hasexpansionism. On every important offi.. bl' a protracted war of liberaticial in the Bangladesh Army once told do not visu3.lise a quick endone of our friends that "you see the' And we are making our peopleMarxist-Leninist party .have been all cious along this line.through 'writing about this Rakkhi Ba~ L.B.: How many political phini, we have b,een reading their papers do you thinK there are jn BangIaand now I am convinced that it is 1000/0 M.T.: It would be approlj:imatean Indian contingent". Sp this Rakkhi J 0,000.Bahini is being used for repressing the.people. These hijackers are AwamiLeaguers, the looters are Awami Lea- For Frontier contactguers, the ·repressors are Awami Lea-guers. This is just nn organised affairof a set of people who qre out to loot BANI PRAKASH,the people .in any way they can.

L.B.: How would you assess the re- Panbazar,lations between different foreign powersin Bangladesh like the U.S., the Soviet Gauhati-l,Union, India? Which do you see as ~h.e

,main enemy? Assam.

Sill

excelexists

countryin the]n peO'tains-

e far d

abridged.

to Build A'ogle Party"

lIent revoluti9nary situationin the world as well as in. A new upsurge has be-revolutionarystruggle of thepIe against the fOl).r bign upsurge ~ich promises

deeper and higher than anyntry and people have wit-since 1947. All the basics of the Indian societygreatly aggravatled. The

ruling c1aStSeshalve spliteachother's throats.tive feature of the presentation is that .there existn and disarray in the ranksmunist revolutidnaries. Asthis division, the reactionaryisionistforces in the coun-'ng their level best to divertes of the people from the

ltvolution. The ~eactionaryt h,s left no one in doubt

strive for causing divisionbroad masses of the peopleabout further splits and

the vanguard i.e., amongunist revolutionaries. Theoice at our split.

encouraging that an over-majorityof cadres of the re:-,roups are fed up with thep regimes and an irresisti-achievingunity in a single

overtaken them. !However,prejudices and sectarianismplacehandicaps and prevent-unity from taking ,concretepe. Often' minor difller-can very well be resol~ediramework of' a sing~eis! party, are exaggerat-empts at unification get

Thissituation :must end. Ifbe a revolution, there haslutionaryparty.

tion ineature",hereac'hievIt has

,beratioend

: people

Th~ CPI (ML) and the Andhra Pr~-desh Revol'utionary ICommunist Party'have been seriously striving for bring-ing about unifi,cation and consolidationin the ranks of the communist tevolu-<tionanes under -the banner of a singleMarxist-Leninist party ever since 197,2.Their efforts took a concrete shape whentogether they issued ~ joint appeal.

After 'prolonged and thoro11gh dis-cussions the represenbtives of the cpr(ML) and the ,APRCP - have reached~greement on t the following majorpoints of programme. tactics and partybuilding.

Ours is 'a semi-colonial, semi-feudalcountry in which several imperialis~ 'powers contend. the principal being t!leSoviet social-imperialism and U.S. im-perialism.

The Indian Revolution in the presentstage is anti-imperialist .. , It is New De-mocratic Revolution in nature.

'The four ':'lajor enemies of the Indianpeople are (i) Soviet social imperial-ism, (ii) U.S. irpperialism, (iii) feu-dalism and j(iv) comprador-bureaucra-tic capitalism.

AlIia!lce 'of the fo~r classes i.e., theworking class, peasantry, the urbanpetty bourgeoisie and the national. bour-geoisie, has to be forged fOj leadingthe Iljew demociatic revolution. Theworking class is the leader of this unitedfront and the worker-pea'sant allianceis the co~e Of· t'he united front. Theworking class labs~lutely relies on thelandless and poor peasants, firmly

unites with the middle peasants and theurban petty bourgeoisie, seeks to wirtIle rich peasants and the' nationalbourgeoisie and directs the main edgeaf iits lattack aga'inst imperialism, feu-dalism and C:omprador.1bureaucrati~capitalism.

The working class is conscious thalthe rich peasantry and' the nationalbdurgeoisie lare vacillating and waver-ing allies of the new democratic revo-lution.

There are four basic contradictiomin the present Indian society.' They are.

(1) Contradiction between feudalismand the broad masses, of the people.

(ii) Contradiction between social-im-perialism and imperialism on the one

. hand and the nat-ion on the o\11er,

(iii) Contradiction between the work-ing 'class and the bourgeoisie, and

(iv) lnter-imp.erialist (including so-cial-imperialism) contradictions and theinner contradictions in the ruling classeswhich are led by big landlOl:ds and bigbourgeoisie.

Out of all these basic contradictions,the principai contradiction at the pre-sent phase is the one between feudalismand the broad masses of the people.

.The axis of the new democratic re-volution is the agrarian revolution.

The programme of new democraticrevolution recognises the right of na·tions to' self-determination.

The socialist r'evolution can be achiev-ed only after completing the new de-mocratic revolution.

Party and the Tactical LineThe working class wants the party to

rely on the peasants, establish base areasin the countryside in protacted armedstruggle a~d use th~ countryside to en-cirCle and finally capture the cities.

The working class and the peoplemust forge th~ee magic weapons with-out which victory in revolution is im-possible-·a Marxist-Leninist party, apeople's army and a revolutionary unit-ed front. It is the party that commandsthe army and it is the party that leadsthe united front.

Al! the struggles of the people against. economic, p_oliti~al, cultural and mili-

tary policies of the reactionary Stateare revolutionary struggles 'and the re-volutionaries must initiate, conduct andlead these struggles. The broad massesof the people can be organised for revo-lution only through complementing thearmed· struggle ,by :mass struggfe. Itis reformism to confine struggles of thepeople to ecoJlomic and partial demandsonly ·and it is adventurism to ignore orboycott the mass struggles of the peopie on economic and partial demandson the pretext of conducting politicalstruggles. Marxist-Leninists strive ~Q

forge 'a united_ front of all democratic'-classes from the very beginning of theiractivities and they strive to developthe united front in course of sharp classstruggles of the people against theiroppressors .

l\1arxist-Leninists must resolutely op-

The Otherpose parliamentary cretinism and indi~vidual terrorism as they obst;uct thedevelopment of people's war and ISO~late them from the people. ' .

Marxist~Leninists must take the coun·tryside as the centre of gravity whilenot abandoning work in the towns andcities.

While working in tbe cduntrysidefor building the base areas and thepeople's army, they must give toppriority to concentrating on the moun~taineous and forest regions and theriver valleys in a planned manner. Thepeople in the plain areas and adja~cent to such zones should also be or~ganised.

While working in "the coun.tryside andthe urban' areas effoi'ts must begin tobuild the people's army. The partymust comma~d the gun and the gunmust never command the party. l'heexperience of the Chine5e ,CqrnmunistParty, other fraternal parties and' alsoour own experience teach us that apeople's army is built in course of politi~cally arousing the broad masses of thepeople. in course of mobilising them forrealis~tion of their economic and politi~cal demands, in course of fierce classbattles a inst their exploiters and bydrawing countLess militants fromthe working class, fhe peasantry andthe urban intelligentsia. Our experi~ence teaches Jurther ':that attempt tobuild a people's army by killing indis-criminaltel;y lanl:llords ~nd otlher ex~ploiters' in a conspiratorial manner,through a campaign of annihilation ofclass ~nemies" alienates the fightersfrom politics, people and party andcauses disaster. It is only a terroristband that we get and not a people'sarmy out of the theory and practice ofindividual terrorism. The party mustintegrate with the landless and pom'.peasants and firmly unite with the middlepea9ants, it must politically arousebroad masses of the peasantry on thebasis of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tungThougt; it must arm peasant massesand disarm the landlords it must fOfmvillage defence corps and armed gueril.la squads from among the peasantry.Et mu~t form revolutionary peasantcommittees and develop them as organsof people's rule. It must lead the pea·

sant maSSes to seize landlord's land andother properties for distribution amongthe peasants as it is the key issue of

'the agrarian revolution, and it mustpunish the despotic landlords, usurers,local bullies and corrupt officials. Andin course of carrying out the above T HE pleasure principle adomentioned task's it m.ust recruit and capitalist cine or sutrain innumerable militants born out of cinema does not exist in the'class struggles and make them good ma', The ci~ema of thesoldiers and commanders of the peo~ as Octavo Getino and FernandlpIe's army and lead them to attack and say in Towards A Third Cinsmash the armed forces of the enemy the same time one of desfollowing the strategy and t'he tactics com)~ruction, destruction of .of people's war formulated by Comrade that neo-colonialism has creatMao Tse-tung. and construction of a throbb

The working class which leads tile reality which recaptures truthnew democratic revolution,' while fight- its expressions. The restiutioning class battles on economic and politi. to their real place and meacal issues, on national and internation- eminently subversive fact bothal issues will act as the inspirer and ne~olonial situation and in

• unifier of other revolutionary classes by sumer societies. "In the folaunching solidarity mass actions in rng ambiguity or pseudo.objsupport of their struggle, specially ,the newspapers, literature etc. andstruggles 'of the peasantry. tive freedom of the people's

Special attenton will be given to ot- tions to provide their own iganising the working class employed in cease to exist, giving way tothe strategic industries. triction, when it is a questiOll

They must utilise the contradictions vision and radio. The eventtin t'he camp of their enemies. at' a given 1968 in France are quite explitime and unite all the forces point".that can be united and 'develop re~' Details of different aspeclavolutionary· struggles' of the people in ~ther cinema are difficult tothe country while retaining their inde- but impact has significanceforpendence and initiative. World cinema. Though aParty Building compal1ed to bourgeois cinema,

The Marxist- Leninists must unite m ing momentum and strengtha single party that takes Marxism- reel. a U.S. film group. the CiLeninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought as its of the Italian student movetheoretical guide and adhere to prole· films made by the Etf, s Gentarian internationalism. Cinema Francois, and those of

The party is 'to be built by ~!Vlng and Japanese studen~ movemeDtop priority to work in the countryside continuation and deepening ofwhile giving proper importance to work of a Joris Iven or a Chrisin the towns and cities also. Many film makers, particularly

Th~ party must master various forms American countries, want to .of struggle and organisation and style conventional form of makingof work. It must shive \ to combine films. Speculation is not diffet11e legal with illegal, open with secret, praxis. On the other hand s:mass organi:4atidn .~ith armed organi- and praxis can be synthesi<ed.sati~n and mass struggle with armed not only an art form; it isstruggle. meant for the metamorphosis'0

The party must adhere to mass line sciousness of the audience whQ.i.e., it must pursue' the style "From the

. cipates in the action. The smasses to the masses" in all its adi ,;-ties. It must combat tailism' and com- raised barricades on !he Aren

(Cpntinued E>~ page 14) Julio in Montivideo after the

FRONTIER

B. Films dealing with .local 'politi-cal issues: Some issues require imme~diate attention-

C. Anti~establishme~t films border-ing on reformism which never questionthe cause but merely portra.y events andnever speak of different mode~ of re-presentation.

2. Till Victory.Here, except in Godard's films, commu-nication is simple and direct and thedirector goes straight to the problems ofthe affected countr)'\

I. Nagisha Oshima: 'Night and Fogover' Japan' . (film dealing withthe fight between President Ame-ricans and Japanese students).

2. Noriaki Tsuchimato: 'Minamata'(deals with the pollution affect-ing a minority community inJapan).

These films are instruments of politi-cal agitatic;m and the director dialecti-cally unit,es impersonal observation andpersonal participation. In these film itis not belieV'r.d that the masses are'mute',

1. Louin deVietnam'.

Sister'.4. Jean Luc Godard:

D. Films dealing with political sub~jects and the film maker raises issuesthat exploitation ~n neo-<colonialist so-cieties is the root of aU trouble e.g.Jeorge' Sanjines (1) 'Ukamau'; (2)

. (2) 'Blood of Condor'; (3) 'Knight ofSt Juan'. Here the camera acts as arifle and through this medium the dir-ector e:(plains the Qbjectiv~ cortditionsin consonanoe with subjective realityand .film makers like Amberto R.~eso('The Cry of the People') and Remun~

do Glaucher ('Mexico-the Foreign Re-volution') directly call for active parti-cipation~n .esistank:e struggle. Anti-imperialist struggle in different cOl,mtriesof the Third World is the order of theday . and the importance of suchfilms needs np tlaboralte J rec.ounting.The Otkr Cinema i.e. third cinema, inthe opinion of Octovio Getina and Fer-nando Solanas, "is the cinema that re-cognises in that struggle t~e most gigan.

cmema. The SO-Called political filmsavoid real subjectivity.

A protest film shoulp 'be compelling.disturbing and bitter and the'dialec.ticale1em.ents of the film will nOll portray,interpret, symbolise or allegorise butenquire. A protest film being a madeof investigation, is made with the 'unityof coneent and form, the unity of r.evo-lutionary political content and the

,highest possible perfection of artlsiicforms'. Content canno't be sacrificed in

, the name of form~elevation is also im-portant in the branch of a.rt. So aprotest film is an- instrument of investi-gation of the world and amidst thebackdrop of class1struggFe il1usions in

-the realist cinema serve the ~urpose ofcontradictiom;, lik,e Jean Luc Godard'sfilms. Films of suffering should bespectacular and didactic and should notdeal dnly with horrid sentimentalitywhich evaporates like the spirit of cam~phor. It should not deal only witheffect but with the cause of suflierings,of 'the cry. Personal exercise with forms(like the personal essays of Chris Mar-ker) can ~e called author's cinema. Aprotest film (some call it earnest cinemaor cinema engage) "should distract itsspectators from realities, but unless arevolution is desired, (which means no~thing less than coinciding' with and em~bodying collective fantasies) it wiII nevertake place. A revolutionary cinema which,has to operate at different levels-fantasy,ideology, scier/cfe and articulation ofthese levels, which involve diff..er~ent modes of discourse and differentp.ositions of the subject, is a coimpIi~cated matter.

It is not easy to categorise differenttypes of films falling within the pur~view ~f Other Cinema. However, anattempt is being made.

A. Films dealing with liberation mo-vem~nts and anti-imperialist stJruggle:,Sonte films based on documentary Ire-portage style: e.g.

I. Pontecarvo: 'Ba'ttle of Algiers','Quemada'.

2. Joris £va'ns-(ai) rrIne SpaiIlishEarth'

(b) 'The Four Hundred Million'(c) 'The Seventeenth Parallel:

The Treatening Sky'3. Nagisha Oshima: 'Dear Summer

Gustan Los Estomtes (Mario) those who demonstra'ted and

lnternationale' in Merida andafter the showing of La "ora

Homos,marked the beginning of aand difficult road being travel-e consumersocieties by the mas-

elicsof the revolutionary cinemathat events should not be pain~

ibly,what is wanted is "expan-f the inner reality of the eventcommittedfilm-maker should potthe event superficially from an.e standpoin!t, rather he shouldartistic unfoldment of the con-ere content is not a subsidjary

. As Prof. J. S. Saxena asserts:motidn picture's content -is nole thing as its subject matter bute movie-maker sees in his sub-Iter. The content as the moviesees it and the viewer compre-t, becomesan independent force,ra emotion or movement of fe~l-ich is always flowing hack an:1. g the movie-makers' basic as-n and values. The cortll~nt of6Imsis a subsidiary element, a. e embellishment of the surfacessubject matter for it never in-, diffusesor disrupts the experi-

throughits specific images andre specific words. Whatever M

bject matter, the visual contentIndianfilms i; avowdly reaction-"Adventuresof Film Watching").

ihe other hand, revolutionary formfrom the correct handling ofThe subject 'matter of a poli-is not clear to all of us. In a

iticalcinema, facts of the clas;are trea~ed with absolute ob-and the film is rich in content

reet in orientation. But thee required for a correlation ofIy and subjectivity is rigorousto dispelillusions about 50-calledfilms,particularly in our coun~lawsof cinematic imagination

er than ordinary laws -becauseands,which the cin~ma makes

more rjg~rous than in otherThe greater the charge of thethe stricter, the deeper the dis'ofnormalcy,the sturdier the ba'Se

references to solid compara-Thi~ i, the cli"lectic,s of the

mean!t bothld inl formo-obje:. a dopI-e'slwn inEay to 0

~uestioneventts

e explic

tic cultural, scientific and' artistic ma-festation of our time. the, great possibi-lity of constructing a liberated person-ality with each people as the startingpoint,~-in a word, -the d~colonisationof culture". -

Ousmane Sembene, maker of 'Man-dabi', himself a protagonist of Marxism-Leninism, speaks of a cinema ·at thesame time sp'ectacular and didactic.What he wants is a series of militantAfrican films to promote the cause oftruly indigenous Afric1a.n cinema. o,ne,'that can serve as a political tool inAfrica's struggle to fre~ itself from co-lonialism and neo-colonialism.. The best. example of this, category of

.films is 'La Hora de Los Homps' (TheHour of the Furnaces) made in 1966by Solanars' and Octavio Getina,of Argentina. It can be'. call-ed a period of piece of political filmshowing in three parts a series of politi-cal events, t~e history, origin in otherwords or the 'c'bron-ide .of Peronism','chronicle of the resistance' and the actof inciting violence for liberation. Thefilm has be'en shown in factories andthe audienc~s have been harassed by thepolice. Hence underground screening,was arranged at different places. In thewords of Salanas and Getino 'Beyond ,itsspecific qualities. the film is intended asa provocative element, and an act to-wards liberation. The special featureof the film is that before the screeningtexts are distributed 'eproducing GeneralSan Martin's or~r of lsi9 exhortingthe people to fight for liberation. Re-volutionary marches are heard. In theintervals. a speaker wi1\ guide. A slo-gan underlines th; nature of the situa-tion. "Every spectator is a coward ora traitor".'

The film directly exhorts the audiencenot' to be ~ passive onlooker but ,to acttowards liberation. The conditions as

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Kanpur.

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dbcribed in the first part of the filmIare engendered by imperialist oppressionand dependence: the violence actingagainst the p~ople is ,daily very wellcamouflaged and has no need to mani-fest itself in explicit forms. Its conse-quences are hunger, illiteracy, alienation,uhe djestruction of authentic nationalvalues.

E. Protest films m~de in allegoricalor surrealist form~ e.g. "Them-rock' is another kind of anti-establish-ment film made in surrealist style. Herethe form dominates over content.Hence it is not easy for the audiencesto undr~rstand the gossammer substancesof the surrealist presentatiori. Some ofthese ,films which can be called a 'pro-gressive wing of the .establishmentcinema" or anti-con~~ntional cinema, arenot made to help ,~ake revolution. but Ithey are intended to make profit or servepersonal gratification. ' Here \eftism is akind of product which can be market-ed easily-where no Marxist film makeris y:et in existence. The~ films are ge-nerlal1Y nnancedl arid ~rized \by .semi-govemm'ent' or government institutions,and the bias of the authoritil:S towardsthis kind of pseud.o-political film is notshrouded in mystery. John Mathewscomments: "What of Solanas' PiCrsona!.achievement? Obviously he is in dangerof being s~a1\owed by tJ:le patronage ofWestern intellectuals-as happert',ed tohis unfortunate predecessor, GlauberRocha. La Hora de Los Homos wastreated in Paris with all the tendernessgiven to a specious orchid in a hothouse.It was displayed for the gratification ofthe' discriminating in a chic Parisian filmstudio".

F. Films on Marxism. and other po-litical subjects and achieving a form thatquestion the mode of r~presentation.From the standpoint of representation-Jean Luc Godard's 'Vent d' Est'. 'Briti~hSounds' and 'Pravda' are quite differentfrom IGlauber' Rlocha'~ {'Black God'-'White Devi\'. 'Land in a Trance'. WhileRocha b~lieves in spontaneity, mysticismand anguish of the individual. Go-.dard~s approach in making political/ihns is quite differen~. He wants toapproach the 'audience politically. Go-dard scrupulously avoids rush of emo-tions. Film makers from:Latin Am:e-

nca, particularly Glauber Rochaon different modes of distributionduction and .exhibition of militantcal films. On the other hard Gstruggling hard in ihe mattrr offection of form and content. Theof 'La Chinoj~.e', 'Wind from thefirmly proclaims that the cameratheoreticai rille and the rille is a prcamera. Fl'Om his 'Week End' heswicthed over to counter-cinemaval~es are diametrically oppositetobourgeois cinema. Godard wasto break with Hollywood cinemato set up his counter cinema and, foralone, he is the most important diworking today. Nevertheless, therepeople who think that there are csions in his strategy, which blunt itseven tend to nullify it: his conoVier the series of terms. fictioncation / ideology / lies / deceptionIsion/representation etc.

The movement for the Other Cinecounter-cinema must be vigorouslyched through production and distnof militant . films in different ceThe people in the Third World are'in condition's of acute struggle aghellish life. t'here is no democracyfreedom for the millions. 'Phe possifor the continuity of a revolutiocinema rests upon the strengtheningrigorously underground base struet

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riennale-New Delhi

International Sanction

The artists, in a technological society,is trying to say he is free and can' doas he chooses. . This is partly becausehe feels insecure as a fringe element;'and the capitaJist with his Gargantuanstomach can gobble up all protest artincluging 'Cuemica', This is the mea-sure of ,the artist's insecurity and he ismade to feel through subtle pressure thathe is at 111e mercy of forces that arelarger than him. Moreover, there is' thepressure of becoming backdated and thes!hadow of technology, which forces theartists to use ever newer industrial tech-niques, bllt the net result as far as aes-thetics goes is very little. A lot of it

obsolescence. Much of this so-c\illed artwas dehumanised and smelt of de~avand incoherence, but about five per ce~tof the work one felt that it was the realthing. .

Today, beca\4se of the shrinking ofthe world and the network of mass me-dia, it is quite easy tor an artist to reacha very large public and conversely he'is liable to be bullied by internationaltrends. Secondly, as the standards ofjudgment are loose, a charlatan may·quite easily pass of as an artist, and con-spiracy of the dealer-critic-publicityjunta' might create confusion. Gujralsells at a higher price than Jamini Ray,therefore Cujral is a better artist thanJarnini Ray -- one might get awaywith such silly syllogisms; On the otherhand, one could also learn humility atthis triemiale. A bad artist does not' be-come a best seller intentionally. A goodartist cannot become a best seller by

, intention,ally choosing to do certain thingstha~ he thinks the public likes. Becausehis insincerity will be evident. Imme-diately. Shanti D~ve attracts peoplewho have money but no soul because heis sincere and works 'hard to he con-~incing. His award-1winning 'ShankarDhaj' (300X 17 cm) has a lot of flour- 'ish but appears like a longwinded speech;It is as saccharine like and antiseptic as

,Delhi city. One thinks that Mr Am-bedkar, the Indian juror, failed to do his

,duty by allowing the foreign jury togive this one a prize. Perhaps he hada hand in it too!

the wall space' given to aritsts living, inDelhi compared to other Indian citieswas just amazing and members of thetriennale committee thought it was betterto keep t4e Gir lions happy than be wor-ried by the Royal Bengal figers of theSunder bans or the mysterious sea mons-ters of the Arabian Sea. A Madvir!lrekh was given more space than BijonChaudhury and Rabin Mandol together.Only posterity will judge how ridiculous

. they were.' Thi~ is one example and onecould teU many many, more.

One could feel tha't in Delhi the artistswere favoured outcastes supported byblack money and upper-middle-classWestemised people and the Delhi artistswere happy to know th!lt t1hey wereproducers of goods for the luxury mar-ket. The gal~ery \ owners ~nd ditic$ganged up to build an image of one ar-tist and to demolish' that of ano,ther.The Dhoomi Mal Gallery handed' out in-vitation cards ~t the l~iennaie to honour·Shanti pave and it was clearly statedlhatit 'i~vites you for drinks', T4ere ar~intelligent critics in Delhi like Jaya Ap-paswamy, Mr Krishnan of The Statesmanand the delightful Mr Keshav Mallickbut there- was one who went about likea self-important cock in his shorts andadd to this Rabindra Bhavan and theNational Ga'llery of Modem Art and youhave a complete picture. Some are goodpoliticians and have vested interests,.others play the game of diplomacy and'still others are like prostitutes. Thosewho, have sensitive souls like. KeshavMallick suffer. In fact I saw the violent'reactions of two or three commissionersand as we 'had the same reaction wecould communicate. One began to que5-tion such myths as the sacredness of t!le.~rtist's persona~ity. The ,meaning ofart could cross national frontiers butsome art could be meaningful in a cer-tain cultural context but meaningless ina cross-cultural situation. Much was 'ap- .plied technological methods rather thanworks of art, they were produced for

. mass entertainment and like and furni-ture designing one could see the built-in

ThirdTriennale at New Delhideclared open on February

uld continue up to March 21lit Kala Galleries Rabindra

andthe Bahalpur House annexeverynear. The critics and

called a day earlier. 'Phereementof unreality in the wholee-the foreign artists, com-, dignitaries, the press, critics,ers, the TV people and theirunterparts. Delhi' is hauntedtre of unreality, insulated aga-, and one almost had the

ibat one was inside a capsuleawaytoward some planet. Old ....

its riots and curfew but not \pie reached this isolated shore.

seemed oblivious of India.manylanguages but there was

of the tower of babel. Alto-dozen countries participated,

internationaljury consisting ofWheeler(USA) . Walter Zani-) and V. R. Ambedkar (I~dia)a gold medal each with cashP. Luminkangas (Finland),(France), Kozo Mio (Japan),ver (F. R. of Germany), D.

Kop(Holland) and Shanti Dave

would.agree with the jury whO'erhaps,it would be wiser' tothe awards .. and institute

and funds to provide knbw-Dewachievements all over thePersonally, I think it wouldto abolis'hthe Triennale alto-canalisethe money to needy

ed artists, in various centresFor after all the arty crowd

Delhiis very small and to givensivetoy worth Rs ,8 or 10

beide the point.and rumours were in the air.had been rejected were ha-

w in the AIFACS galleriestalkingto them one could feelwouldforgive 1he selectors ifI\'a~exhibited next time. Onetheprotesters of the last trf-wonover by diplomacy, and

11

lJS exercIse III styles rather than lan-guage.

Let us take certain examples. TheAustralian artist, Ewa Pac'hucka, sculptsfigures with string and crochet hook buther exact copying of the human figurehas something very vulgar. On theother hal1d we remember the Australianexhibition in Calcutta a few years agowhere one could feel man and natureand the, nudity of both. Michael Tayloris sensiti"e but nearer to American ac-tion painting than anything else. Sur-prisingly this is the first time I havebeen bowled over by American art.Louise Nevelson was an assistant tothe Mexican ''painter Diego Rivera. Shehas a very persona) idiom and u~es hox-ed assemblage to form a sort of woodenscreen for a wall, A single uniformcolour is used-black this time--andwooden shapes which ,are not ;shap'~s,in isolation but in relation to each othel.Her acquatint and college graphics workon smooth wbstract shapes in juxtaposi-tion, ,and this wordless poetry h1lJSsome-thing that affects the inside. By compari-son Satish Gujral;'s sculpture lookssham, because the social reality thatmade Nevelson's work possible is not therein Gujrars case. Hence the hollownessin spite of the mature technique. Yet,it is interesting to note that they wereboth trained by' Mexican artiss.

Apart from America, possibly Japanhad the most interesting t'hings on view.The selectors were careful to show howthe artists of the present time view hu-man beings. On the whole the Japaneseseem to- be very restrained and the ten-sion of modern life is camouflaged.]. 'Watanabe shows human beings ashaving inflated agos which make themact as monsters. Surrealist in, contentbut expressionistic in approach. he hasvery dry humour. T.' Oshima is surreal-istic too but there is an intensity in hisaristocratic, poetry where trees assumehuman character arid a girl flies 'a but-terfly instead of kite, but the imageryis literary rather thall pictorial. Kozo

,Mio pursues photo-realism to the extrenlepoint and uses a spraygu~ and acrylicand the effect almost collides with pho-tography. The face of a woman isviewed from front and side and this isjuxtaposed with butterfly, or it is view-

12

ed upside ,down from the forehead tothe chin and a piece of folded cloth i~arranged in a manner so that it seemsto be flying out of the canvas. Techni-que-wise he is brilliant but the firstimpact seems to wear off. It shows usa' technological society at its zenithwhen creativity becomes routine and,~oulless in the process.

F. Boyd and L. Evans' techni<1ue isnear to that of Kozo Mio, but the Britishpair seem to be influenced more by pho-tography than the Japanese are; asthere is no stylisation involved but onlyselection, one wDnders whether thesetwo artists' joint venture could be calledpainting. However, 'Story' creates amood with a sandy sea-shore taking uph lot of space in the foreground and adistant sea with almost invisible bathersand a beautiful sky. On the foregroundone sees a man coming out of a pale whitecar. There is subtle drama but' is itpainting? Howard Hodgkin is more ofa real painter than these other two (re-cently H. H. had 'a one-man show ofserigraphs at the Academy of Fine Arts).Hodgkin's point of departure is Ferdi-nand Leger in some ways but he is ca-pable of walking out on his own. Hereduces everything to the bare essentialsand communicates with suggestions andhis almost monastic austerity has power.

The Federal Republic of Germany hasalso photo-realism and spray-gun pictureswhich had olie dominant colour-white-and reminded one of asylums and hos-pitals. G. Richter, Krieg or Willikenstake us for a walk ·with photographicopticai illusion but cannot move us.France showed us a revival of surrealism

.with another name. Of the three artistswe see none seems to have a frenchname and only J. J. Brown was bornin France but he has a peculiar .non-French name. This section has somequite powerful works but pictorially spea-king one experiences nothing new. Atilaand H. Weiss !have intensity of visionbut they hardly break new ground.

If this exhibition is any indicatcll.,then one could say without any hesita-tion that probably industrial technique,'surrealism and fantasy dominate the artof man today.

(To be continued)

RamleelaBy A DRAMA CRlTlC

A DVERTISING rates being wh, are, it is not possible for

theatre group to seek publicitythe medium of newspapers. AssuIt a number of excellent plays aout in the coid and often run toempty houses. This was the fathe play Ramleela staged bytheatre unit from Uttarpara. at thedemy of Fine Arts on FebruaWritten by Dipak Sen and direcAlokesh Bandopadhyay, the playinto action effortlessly and did DOt

low our interest to slacken for aunguarded moment. A jatra paby a lecherous ex-tout is scoutingfor female talent when a rich zawho happens to be on the spot, sthat the local prostitute, Belarani,be given the role of Sita in theRamleela a~ modern audiences Iup sex and she would help to makeshow a c.ommercial success. Thetitute, however, is not willing torise her life any further and rcsiidea that she. as Sita. should lendappeal to her role and give the athe sort of titillation it looks for.local zamindar and the leaderjatra exert constant pressure oagirl. One day villagers flock fromtant areas to see the jatra, theplayers rebel against the roles ion them and begin fo .speak of therealities of their own broken, imshed lives. which rouses the passivtic audience as no Ramleela couldhope to do. While all this goes onurban intellectuals arrive on theand explain to the aggrieved pIand villagers that from now onmust portray their ordinary crisis-'lives in plays and jatras and nthrough the perfunctory and mcal motions of typical jatra playepicting scenes from the ancientAll this has an electrifying impactthe zamindar with his fond drcaa sex-charged jatra and vast haudiences stand~ condef'1ncd anddejected beforf> the public.

essure onlock fromtra, theroles im

ak of th)ken, im:hc passieela could

play was very intelligently devisedmed a powerful crusade againstd of vulgar, obscene a.nd effeteich has now taken Calcutta by

andis now, quite t'he rage in someclass and upper-middle cl(!.ss cir-t is also a plea for, making com-people more conscious of theirand of What needs amputation inrrupt society. Lately, there haveany plays with a similar messageision but unfoltunately most of. her peddled slogans and becamepolitical tracts without any art-ect or downright poster dr~as.e have the ingredients of a ma-ay and the message which is soput across is well integrated withcture of the play itself, so thatnot feel that V:e are b~ing gote actors enjoyed their roles ire-sly and gave a v.ery scintillatinganee. One would like to singleparticular Bela, Kedar; Kshituin for thei,r excellent acting.and Dibakar as the two urbanuals, lacked conviction andself-consciouslydead-earnest sortrmance. Bela's having to ex-

waythe nature of her professionone she meets was a little re-and could, perhaps. be. cut oute us to take her at her face

Thelighting and stage sets needent. There was abundant out-

humourin the right places' andess of speec'h and clarity of

theplaywright is to be congra-

Book Re"iewSOCIAL DEVELOPMENT IN INDIA:

PROGRAMMES AND PROBLEMSBy Kailash ChandraRama Krishna & Sons, New DelhiPrice not stated.

ONCE a protege of the Governmentof India, both as an administrator

and as a social worker, but now ditchedby it. Mr Chandra has not just made .a virtue of necessity in getting his ownback on the Government. He is rightin pointing out that its performance inthe field of social welfare le/lJves much.to be desired. Planning in India hadan auspicious beginning. but in thesubsequent period a curious twist inthe planners' attitude played the deuce.with the spirit of participation of thepeople. Thwarted and unfulfilled expecta-tions left the people estranged. Resistanct"ernment has only exposed itself. It is 24years now since it' resorted to five year.plans. But in spite of that the .countryhas gone to t'he dogs. and now when thefifth plan is virtually a non-starter andthe country observes a plan-holiday.the timeliness of the book is unques-tionable. '

The Government has fallen back on.one first principle .after t. another."Community Development" has beensupplanted by "Minimum Needs', ~ndthe rulers of India have wished thesenoble ideas to work miracles. But ifwishes were horses. beggars would ride.Implementation of thesje projects ortheir operational part has been largelyneglected. The planners, social scien-tists. and social workers in India lookaskance at one another and any con-certed effort towards progress remainsa far cry. .

For Mr Chandra the virus of declinelies in extreme politicisation. and hethinks depoliticisation is the panacea for.all social evils. He makes a distinctionbetween participation and commitment(as if there is anything intrinsicallybad in commitment of any kind). Thebook is full of other naivetes. Mr'.Chandra tlhinks the only cure of theeconomic malaise is greater relianceon voluntary endeavour, that mysteriousmaid-of-all~wo~. and 11'r taIls for a

greater leverage for voluntary' organisa-toins in this respect. He wouldhave clipped the wings of bureaucracy.He makes a point of crying down every.Government enterprise and of flatteringall voluntary \endeavour to tne s~ies.He has discarded GNP and per capitaincome as yardsticks of progress, buthis attitude to -the National Programme.for lY1inimum Needs is just ;this sideidolatry. However. left alone to indi-cate his preferences as to the MinimumNeeds Programme and such voluntaryefforts as Youth Against Famine, MrChandra can make only' a Hobson'schOIce. For. his allergy to an amelio-rative service programme organised bythe Government is endemic to IndianinteWectuals. Criticis,h1 I of any socialwelfare programme is .an· ~nteHectual.commonplace in India. and Mr Chandrais so much of a prey to this tendencythat he cannot see that both the 'Na-tional Programme for Minimum Needs"and' Youth Against Famine" remain-ed pious wishes, and while extollingone, one could not safely cry the otherdown.

Mr Chandra's prescription of a So-cial Sector of Private Enterprises isnon-descript. Economically speaking il\-is a half-way house between laissezfaire and mixed economY.1 foliticall}speaking it gets u~ nowhere. . It ~ isneither indiviidualism 'inor collecti~lsrri ..It is at best a jumble.

The ~ook abounds in quaint ~deas.The Gandhian scheme of basic educa-tion was abandoned by 'Indian politi-cians though they paid lip service to it.But the Chinese 'system, 1\1r Chandraassumes, was inspired by it, and . thecredit for its giving expected 1;esult goesto Gandhi.

The book is a watered down versionof India's economic and social ills. anathough !WI' Chandra has uttered feWhome truths that could not very well bepalatable to the Government. the endproduct is muddled.

Amartya Mukhopadhyay

13

mandism in its style of working. It is highly regrettable that 'YOll shouldThe party must adhere to the prin~ have published an article witn the above

.cipLes 'of democratic centralism in 'its title in your columns. Within any j)r~functioning. It must strictly adhere to ganisation there are petty squabbles be-the four disciplines: individual is sub- - tween different sections of !employees.ordinate t~ the unit; lower committees 'The article reflects the squabble interestsare subordinate to the higher commit- of some sections of the professionaltees. minority is subordinate to the worl<ers of the Indian Statistical Insti-majority and all the party members Me tute. Many of the views expressed in'subordinate to t'he Central Committee, the article about the conditions withinThe party must not permit establish- that organisation before and after thement of personal regimes. It must func~ death of Professor P. C. Mahalanobis.tion on the 'basis of the "committee whether the organisation was holdingsystem" and the "method of leader- aloft some academic ideals all theseship" laid down by Comrade Mao Tse- days and whether they were sacrificedtung. Factions are incompatible with all at one stroke by a recent sym-the party. posium held in t'he organisation-des~

In view of the common understand- cribed by the cheap sensational titleing ·between the two parties on all the "Murder of Mahalanobis"- are mat-major points of programme. tactics ters on which there will be differences

, and party building we have decided of -opinion among those who belong to.. ," . _ the orgart1sation or who know about its

to umte mto a smgle party I.e. Commu- affairs. But many a reader like myselfnist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). regard Frontier as a political journal.

We. believe. this approach will be a journal that looks at social., economic

I . d b II th . . t I and political problems' of the countrywe come y a e commums revo U· ., •: . . from the viewpomt of the mterests of--'honanes m our country. and they too the masses. The internal squabbles of

will come forward to unite in the CPI the Indian Statistical Institute are in no(ML) without further delay. way of any interest to t'he masses of the

. country or even to what is called theSatyanarain Singh educated public. It has interest only

General Secreary CPI (ML) for a tiny section, of that privilegedPaila Vasudeva Rao group of professional people who. one

C~I (ML) and all. ~arn a good living 'at the costP. Ramanarsia~ of t'he ma~ses as employees of the white

Secretary Andhra Pradesh elephants whic:h are the research insti.Revolutionary Communist Party tutions in this country. So why should

Chandra Puna Reddy Frontier go out of its way to give' pro -Leader. Member. APRCP minence to such opinions?

Ashok RudraNew Del'hi

'T:

Unity(Continued from p. 8)

I

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The En~lish Book Shop,

33, Sector 22,y

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14

Letter$

Murder of Mahalanobis

Trouble in Delhi .The Indira Govl'rnment's trigger~

happy policemen and the anti-socialsin their anxiety to grab power every-where took a toll of at least nine lives.of the minorities in the Jama Masjidarea. In the Home Consultative Com-mittee meet I hammerp.d the issue andthe Government had no reply to put

forward,The anger of the

government's conduct was to.that a Minister. Janab S. N. ~to run away and hide in awhere he was locked up fromto give people the impression thatwas nobody inside.

That Sunday while people werening in search of shelter. thewere after their blood in the Jamajid and teargas was used and thefired indiscriminately and the silasted at least two hours. It wast>d that t'he police even climbedroof~tops and fired. resulting in aon:the-spot deaths. There werewhen the police broke into residhouses. haras'sed and molestedin the Gali Garia area. Manyseriously injured and some of themin hospital. In many areasshop! were burnt by policementhere were even cases wherewere burnt to death. The policenot allow extinguis'hing of fire ins'hops. This' happened right undernose of the GoveItnment at Delhi.

It is stated that the Sahi ImamJama Masjid~ ISy.ed A'bduHa Bukwho inherited the Imamship. was son the ruling Congress asd condethe Indira Govdrnment 'Which wato take away his Imamship. TheBoard is controlled by governmentminated 'member~. Being a relibody it should b.e really indepen

IThere were serious allegations allthe country tliat Congressmen,and Ministers like Janab S. N,Janab T. Hossain etc. have turnedWakf Board into an arena of pol'There were numerous cases ofappropriation and malpractices.

The Imam stated at a public meethat S. N. K'han. Minister. had thed him saying that he would shoot~nd the Imam accepted the challe

Our minority brethren shol1ld knthe real character of Mrs Gandhiher government. The time haswhen they have to fight within th~stream of the country and root outgood tlie exploitation, repressionmisery of all of us.

Jyotirmay Basu,Cale

were, the• Jamad the:he situ.t wasmbed