“First War of independence–1857 and Today’s Challenges”.

A convention on this topic was held at Faiz-e-Aam Inter College Auditorium at Meerut on 10th May this year. Addressing it, Com. Yatendra Kumar, General Secretary of CPI(ML)-New Democracy said that it was in 1857 that the Indian people came closest to uprooting colonial rule from the country. This war had begun on 25th February 1857 at Berhampur; on 31st March Mangal Pandey fired on two English officers at Barrackpur near Kolkata, and no Indian soldier came forward to arrest him. On 8th April he was hanged to death – in April anti-British revolts broke out in various places including Meerut. On 9th May 1857, Indian soldiers were sent to prison at Meerut. On 10th May, the soldiers assembled at Parade Ground in Meerut and blew the bugle for the war of Independence. The fire spread to Assam in the East, to Maharashtra in the West, to Peshawar in the North and to Hyderabad in the South. The hold on Delhi was maintained till the 20th of September 1857. Briefly recalling this sequence, Com. Yatendra Kumar said that the importance of the War of 1857 will continue for all fighters for genuine freedom of this country.

The Convention was organized by the Janwadi Adhikar Manch to mark the anniversary of the First War of Independence which began from Meerut. Progressive intellectuals, political activists, students and working class leaders participated in the Convention. Com. Yatendra Kumar was the main speaker, and in his speech he knitted the various lessons of that war into the tasks of today. Other speakers included Dr. Umesh Tyagi (General Secretary of UP Teachers Sangh), Dr. R.P. Juyal (Reader of Economics at N.A.S. College), Com. Ashish Mittal (Secretary, AIKMS), Com. Saifuddin (Member, National Committee of IFTU) and Dr. Gaur (retired Principal of M.U. College). Dr. Gulam Ahmed (Principal, Faiz-e-Aam Inter College) presided over the Convention and Com. Subhash Tyagi conducted the proceedings.

During his speech, Com. Yatendra Kumar recounted how stories of killings of British officers, their wives and children, by the patriotic soldiers were propagated throughout Europe in 1857 to prove how barbaric and cruel Indians were. But the brutal repression unleashed by the Brithsh, with tortures inflicted on individuals and large-scale hanging of Indians from trees along the main routes, was all justified in the name of necessity of maintaining law and order. Drawing a parallel, he said that in the same manner today when people fight for their democratic rights, they are labelled ‘rioters’ and ‘barbarians’, but the entire gamut of repression of people by army and police is justified in the name of maintaining peace.

Detailing the political aspect of the War of 1857, he said that Indians sustained their hold on the cities for six months, but the struggle continued in the villages till a year and a half later. Even after recapturing the cities the British continued to face attacks in the villages by the soldiers and the peasants for a long period. The fighters for independence kept alive the battle by taking recourse to mobile warfare in the rural areas, and posed a serious challenge to British rule by conducting it with efficiency. These lessons of 1857 are very relevant today because the fact is that even today the key to India’s independence lies in rural struggles. All anti-imperialist freedom struggles of Indian people have had this similarity and all adopted the strategy of armed struggle in the villages.

Referring to the events of 1947, he asked what sort of ‘freedom’ this was after attaining which the Nehru Govt.’s first resolution was that the Govt. would protect British assets in India? During that period itself, Nehru Govt. extended refuelling facilities to French planes at Kolkata, though people of Vietnam were fighting for independence against France; similarly the Indian Govt. sent a team of doctors with the American army which was repressing the freedom struggle of the Korean people. After 1947, neither was the capital of the British in India taken over, nor did their dominance on our political situation end. He asked those who hold that India became independent in 1947, who passed the pro-imperialist ‘New’ Economic Policies (NEP) in 1991? Were these policies, through which the penetration of multinationals into India has increased so much, not passed by the Parliament of this country?

Referring to the defeat of the War of 1857, Com. Yatendra Kumar said that it is a war we still have to win, and it must be remembered that without securing freedom, no country can ensure justice for its people.

Referring to the formal independence of 1947, he said that the then British Prime Minister Clement Atelle had himself stated in the British Parliament that the British had to quit India because Indians were not ready to shed the blood of their brothers for food alone, and also because since a considerable area of the world was under the red flag, there was increasing danger of India too taking that road due to the rising struggles of the people. The struggle of Nehru, Gandhi, Patel or Jinnah did not figure in either of the reasons.

Discussing the defeat of the War of 1857, Com. Yatendra Kumar pointed out that the British did not achieve victory by themselves. They were assisted by some traitorous feudal kings like the Scindia family of Gwalior, and the kings of Nepal, Patiala and Kashmir. Even today imperialism is sustained by the social base of semi-feudalism, and the struggle of the people for freedom from imperialism and from feudalism are closely linked.

The War of 1857 was really a battle fought by the peasants. Narrating the deteriorating situation of the peasantry under British rule, Com. Yatendra Kumar said that earlier the tax on the peasants was based on the crop yield, but the British based the tax on land holding. Those who could not pay the tax had to borrow from usurers/moneylenders. Quoting the Govt.’s figures for Madras Presidency in 1857, he said that the number of peasants arrested for not being able to pay tax was more than the total number of other prisoners in the jails there.

Citing the repression on peasants for tax collection today as also the mounting debts of the peasantry, he said that today the big industrial houses have a debt of Rs. 60, 000 crores on which they are not even paying interest, and about which the RBI says that since the debtors are ‘respectable’ citizens their names should not even be disclosed. But common peasants are even beaten or arrested for debts of five to ten thousand rupees, as though they have no prestige in this country. He emphasized that India cannot gain independence without freedom of the peasantry and the importance of the War of 1857 as a peasants’ revolt will remain in the struggle for independence of India. The big feudals today are party to imperialist loot and if the big landlords and big capitalists of India do not support imperialism, it cannot maintain its stranglehold.

Citing the unity of the people against the colonial rulers in the War of 1857, Com. Yatendra Kumar pointed out that the majority of the soldiers were Hindus and when they rebelled at Meerut, they marched to Delhi and declared the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar as their king. The War of 1857 is a symbol of the unity of Hindus and Muslims he said, and reiterated that the Hindus and Muslims will have to fight unitedly. Those who conspire to divide the people communally, may be anything but they cannot be patriots, he asserted.

Condemning the attacks on Muslims and Christians by the Sangh Parivar, he said the latter are traitors; they used to term patriots like Chandrashekar Azad and Bhagat Singh as confused, and today are engaged in dividing the nation in order to serve imperialism. He stated that nations are made by territory and not by religion. After 1857, it was the British who taught these people the policy of divide and rule. Referring to the economic devastation resulting from the NEP, he asked of the BJP whether it could assert that as a result of NEP only Muslims are being rendered jobless?

Citing the increasing cultural onslaught of imperialism, he said that today it is considered relevant to ask the name of Clinton’s dog in examinations of GK, while the names of Bhagat Singh, Mangal Pandey and patriots are considered irrelevant by the ruling classes. Reading of western classics is stressed over reading Premchand, and all these are part of the cultural onslaught of imperialism.

Commenting on the parliamentary facade he said that there was no scope in 1857 of putting up a pretence of opposing imperialism, as the opposition parties are currently doing, because there was a direct battle between those colonizing India and those fighting to free it. Then it was just not possible to stage today’s scenario where no less than four PMs, the main opposition party, even many organizations linked to the ruling party and the revisionists CPI and CPI(M) — all are ostensibly opposing WTO and yet the Govt. is brazenly continuing implementation of pro-imperialist policies. This is only possible because there is consensus on these policies between the ruling party and the opposers, irrespective of what either may verbalize.

Addressing the gathering, Dr. Umesh Tyagi said that privatization of health and education sectors is increasing the gulf between the haves and have-nots. He said that if we dream of a literate India we must oppose privatization of education and fight for equal opportunities for education for all. He condemned the primary school education programme of the UP Govt. and said thus World Bank sponsored policies are doing no good for our people.

Dr. R.P. Juyal attacked the Govt. for the growing unemployment. He said since the onset of NEP, the rate of rise of employment has decreased from 2.39% per year to 1% per year, while the number of those seeking jobs is rising by 2.5%.

IFTU National Committee member Com. Saifuddin said that when in 1990 people wanted to install Mangal Pandey’s statue at Barrackpore, they had to struggle for this against the CPI(M) Govt. of West Bengal. He said no programmes are held in West Bengal in memory of the War of 1857, because the CPI(M) Govt. is still debating whether the War of 1857 was a battle for independence or a revolt.

AIKMS Secretary Com. Ashish Mittal mentioned the peasant revolts before and after 1857 and said that today’s struggles should be directed towards demanding that India quit WTO.

Dr. Gaur expressed his appreciation for the organization of such a convention, and said that such discussions are very important in the course of fighting for people’s rights.

In his Presidential address Dr. Gulam Ahmed pointed out that those who secured the titles of Rai Bahadur, Khan Bahadur and Sardar Bahadur were actually sycophants of the British colonizers. He said that we should note that the War of 1857 was an organized struggle and paid homage to its patriotic martyrs.

Com. Prabhat moved the vote of thanks at the end of the programme. Virendu Abodh and Amarnath Madhur enriched the proceedings with presentation of poems written by them, while Com. Ram Naresh sang a ragini.