150th years since First War of Independence Intensify Struggle Against Compradors of Imperialism Indian Ruling Classes

This year falls the 150th anniversary of India’s First War of Independence. It also marks the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Plassey (23 June 1757).

The armed struggle of the people waged in the major part of India against British colonial rule has already got recognition as the First War of Independence against colonial rule of the people of the country. It has come to be recognized as a revolt of the people in place of a mutiny (i.e. revolt by sepoys). The British themselves were forced in 1857 to acknowledge a ‘national revolt’ by Indians, but eventually the history written by the victors trapped it into the narrow confines of a ‘sepoy mutiny’. It was necessary for the colonial rulers to wipe out even the memory of this War of Independence from the hearts and minds of the enslaved people. Subsequently, the intellectuals who studied at Oxford and Cambridge and afterwards intellectuals of the same Oxbridge tradition continued to see and show the events of 1857 through the eyes of British colonialists.

The war of 1857-59 was the biggest revolt in European colonies. It had uprooted British colonial rule from a large part of India. Not only did this war shake the roots of British  imperialist rule but also caused panic in the European colonial powers. For the European powers, based on colonial exploitation and loot, it was necessary to distort the facts about this war and to spew poison against it. So was it necessary for the ‘intellectuals’ nurtured by colonial rule to discredit the proud saga of this war of independence. Whatever was taught under colonial rule about this War of Independence and whatever continues to be taught post 1947 under semi colonial rule, aims only to crush and maim the anti imperialist aspirations of the Indian people.

The propagated perception about 1857 is that it was a mutiny by Hindu and Muslim sepoys against the British practice of putting the fat of cows and pigs on cartridges. This propaganda was definitely used to aid the struggle. But had this been the main reason, how would the Hindu and Muslim sepoys have continued to use these very cartridges in the fight against the British Army? It is an uncontested fact that the Hindu and Muslim sepoys fought the British army with these very cartridges, and that they put up heroic fights. The British judges themselves cited this fact during the cases against these freedom fighters. But the colonial rulers and their Oxbridge servitors registered this myth in the textbooks. The motive was and is clear. It was to falsely establish that the Indians were incapable of fighting against colonial rule and they had committed this ‘mistake’ swayed away by religious sentiments.

The other widespread and deceptive propaganda about the War of 1857 is that this was merely a revolt by old feudal rulers whose riyasats were being annexed by the British. But the events of 1857 themselves belie this proposition. On 10th May 1857, the sepoys in Meerut uprooted British rule and marched to Delhi. At that time no feudal ruler was fighting the British militarily. The overthrow of British rule by the sepoys definitely encouraged those feudal kings who opposed colonial rule over India. This is also significant, that after being uprooted from major parts of the country, British colonialists tried to woo many ‘rebel’ kings to join their side; these rejected their offers and jumped into the struggle for independence. Oxbridge-bred intellectuals are unable to digest this fact that major section of the people took to struggle against colonial rule. The reality however is that the war of 1857 was a war by the people in which feudals opposing colonial rule also took part.

Not a Sepoy Revolt alone

The third fallacious position has been of characterizing 1857 merely as a ‘sepoy mutiny’. This falsehood divorces the war of independence of 1857-59 from the peasant struggles ongoing in the country for several years before 1857. Between 1853 and 1857 armed struggles of the peasantry and including struggles by Adivasis were on against colonial rule in large parts of the country. Sepoys anyway were peasants in uniform. To see a Chinese wall between the peasant struggles and revolt of sepoys is wrong. We are quoting just one example here, which clearly shows the understanding of the freedom fighters; “A special feature of the revolt of 1857 was that the rebels were interested in destroying the survey records of the villages which contained records of the duration of ownership and descriptions of the rights.” (Edwards, Collector of Badaun)

In the course of the War of independence of 1857-59, the Indian sepoys gave crushing defeats to the British forces at many places. By this is established the lie of the premise that the Indians could not take on the British army. Bankim Chandra in his Anand Math and also several Oxbridge intellectuals have tried to keep alive this falsehood.

British Repression

This fact is clear from history that the people participated in a big way in the War of Independence of 1857-59. but the outrages heaped by the British colonialists on the masses have remained imprisoned in the subterrans of history. More than 20 lakh Indians were killed and lakhs died due to famines and illnesses due to war. Rape of Indian women was resorted to on a large scale. Symbols of British barbaric repression were established in village after village, town after town. The entire native industry was destroyed, lands were confiscated. The British looted property worth millions and these were loaded onto thousands of ships and transported to England.

Between 1757 to 1857 the British unleashed barbaric exploitation over the major part of the Indian subcontinent; infact this would be better termed as unbridled loot. The keenest edge of this loot was borne by the peasantry who came forward in struggles against colonial rule. Their rebellions laid the foundations of 1857-59. The War of Independence of 1857-59 was the last ‘independent’ act on the political stage of the country of those feudal powers who were not ready to accept subjugation by British colonialists. They saw a chance to achieve independence in the war of independence launched by the sepoys on the foundations of the peasant revolts. Where this was the last ‘independent’ act of the feudal forces, it was the first ‘independent’ act of the peasant masses in widespread parts of India. The main force of the War of Independence of 1857-59 was the peasantry. Bahadur Shah Zafar had not prepared the peasants and sepoys for the revolt; rather the peasants and sepoys prepared Bahadur Shah to take the leadership of the War.

An unprecedented unity between Hindus and Muslims against foreign colonial rule was seen in the War of Independence of 1857-59, and this was based on the equal interests of the people against colonial loot. Whenever the struggle against imperialist exploitation intensified in the country, unity was established between various communities, between Hindus and Muslims. Along with, whichever organizations decided to fight imperialist exploitation, tried to establish the unity of the people especially of Hindus and Muslims the two big communities and they adopted 1857 as a symbol of the same. Savarkar is a good example of this. In 1907 he wrote about India’s First War of Independence. Later, after surrendering before colonial rulers during his jail tenure, he became an enemy of Hindu-Muslim unity. There have been continual conspiracies to give a communal colour to the War of 1857 and there have also been attempts to portray it as a ‘jihad’ by Muslim feudal forces although the presence of large numbers of Hindus in the rebels exposes that such attempts are wrongly inspired. British historian William Dalerymple’s recent attempt related to the history of 1857 should be seen in the context   of the current anti Muslim campaign of US-British imperialism.

Indians were defeated in the War of 1857-59 and British rule was established over the entire country. There has been discussion on the various aspects of our weaknesses in the War of Independence. The leadership of the War of Independence was in the hands of feudal forces who were in a state of disunity after the decline of Mughal rule. In the struggle between feudal forces after the decline of the Mughal empire, the Marathas emerged as a major force, but the defeat in the III rd battle of Panipat greatly weakened them. The English used the mutual fights between the feudal forces to expand their own rule. The feudal class was a declining force and was not capable of leading the War of Independence. The capitalist class developing in the womb of feudal society was very weak, and the industrial working class was not there at all on the scene. The widespread revolt of the masses, whose main force was the peasantry, was afflicted with weakness of leadership.

Confinement to the northern part of India is described as one more weakness of the War of Independence. To some extent this is true. The war of independence was strongest in North India, but the flames of this War spread as for as North West, current Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Wars against British colonial rule in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka in the South took place from the last decades of the 18th century to early 19th century. In 1845-46 the British fought the Lahore durbar in Punjab in which many feudal kingdoms of North India supported the British. Many feudal kingdoms supported the British even during the war of independence of 1857. Among them were Scindias, Holkar, the Nawab of Rampur, King of Patiala etc. In  Nepal the Ranas, who had killed a part of the ruling elite, captured power and became puppets of the British. The then ruler, Jang Bahadur Rana, arrested many leaders of this War for Independence and showed his loyalty to the British. It should also be borne in mind that this was the ‘first’ war fought by the people of India.

The widespread caste system in the feudal society of India became another weakness of the War of Independence, as it held a large part of society in the fetter of caste exploitation. Actually the caste system was and is a big hindrance in the building of a anti colonial nation (society)-state. The upper castes were a majority in the army and the feudal forces were committed to maintain the caste specific privileges. Even then, the militants from dalits and backward castes contributed in this war for independence. The feats of many of such women and men are remarkable. Everyone knows that the British colonial collaborated with feudal rulers and maintained that instrument of exploitation of surplus labour – the inhuman caste system. Democratic revolution in India would have played a big role in weakening the caste system but the capitalist class of that time was very weak. The British colonial rulers ruthlessness crushed the forces of democratic revolution. The main weight of the exploitation-oppression fell on the peasant masses, the big section of which were dalits and backward castes. Even today, the task of completing democratic revolution lies before us, which can be completed only by a successful new democratic revolution led by the working class and having worker-peasant alliance as its basis. Only new democratic revolution can lay the foundation for ending caste oppression and the caste system from the country.

The 150 anniversary of 1857 is not important for us only because it marks a proud period of our history when we took up weapons to end colonial rule. It is most important for us because the classes the British nurtured after crushing the War of Independence of 1857, the classes they developed, those classes are in power today and are the enemies of new democratic revolution. Those same feudal kingdoms, which had supported the British in 1857 and participated in the loot of the people and the country, are today part of the ruling elite. That feudal class which the British created through permanent settlements, are part of the state. That capitalist class who were compradors for British industries and were junior partners of British capital i.e. India’s comprador big capitalists, are part of the power structure. These comprador big capitalists and big landlords are the ruling classes in the current semi-colonial semi feudal system based on loot and exploitation of the people and the country, and they are responsible for the current poverty, deprivation and difficulties of our people.

A section of intellectuals, similar to those whom the British prepared through the education system of Macaulay, serves these ruling classes who are dependent on imperialism. The earlier bread looked down upon the country and people and sang praises of the colonial rulers. They did not look at the weaknesses of Indian society from the point of view of removing them, but rather of justifying the colonial rule. Today these ‘intellectual’ servitors are singing praises of the new economic policies which are increasing imperialist loot, and are terming the loot of the country and the exploitation of the people as ‘development.’ Posts in the Govt. institutions and departments, foreign travels on the invitations of foreign universities and institutions, convening of NGOs conducted by imperialist capital or associating with them, place in the media under monopoly of imperialist capital or comprador big capitalists – these are the incentives for which they pawn their intellectual capacities. This much democratization is there that such intellectual servitors come from all sections of society.

In 1947 the British colonialists transferred power to those comprador classes who stood by them in 1857 or those the British eventually developed. An investigation into those who were awarded with Rai Bahadur, Khan Bahadur and Sardar Bahadur for treachery with the War of Independence between 1857-1860, would be an exposure of a big section of today’s ruling classes. The political representatives of these, the Congress and Muslim league, had no objection to the representatives of feudals in the then Central Vidhan Sabhas, nor did they raise the demand that such people should be elected by the people of the stat. Along with the British colonialists these comprador classes and their parties drowned the country in a communal holocaust. They were not the inheritors of the anti imperialist legacy of 1857.

When Prime Minister of India Manmohan Singh, in that very Britain whose rule set new records in loot and plunder, held the 200 years of colonial rule as positive for our country and when this raised no debate in the Parliament of India where there are good numbers of pseudo leftists and pseudo patriots, does the character of the ruling classes of India not get exposed? The rightist, centrist and ‘leftist’ sections of the ruling classes are all one on serving imperialist capital. It is not accidental that no attention has been paid to the condition of those families who lands were seized by British rulers in 1857.

Here forces who continued to struggle for freedom of the country from colonial rule and to give sacrifices for the same are the real inheritors of the First War of Independence of 1857 (a name given by Karl Marx). Today its real inheritors are the communist revolutionaries who are fighting against imperialism, comprador capitalists and feudals and are giving sacrifices in this struggle. The real homage to the martyrs of 1857 is to intensify the struggle against imperialism and its comprador classes.

Assemble at Meerut on 10th May 2007 in memory of the war of independence of 1857 and pay homage to the anti imperialist martyrs of the anti-colonial war.

(Translated from Pratirodh Ka Swar (Hindi) January 2007, Vol. 21, No. 1)