BY Prof. N. SRINIVASAN, M.A.
(Andhra University, Waltair)
The inclusion of Jaya Prakash Narain in the Working
Committee of the Indian National Congress by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is a
significant event. It is a recognition of the growing importance of the left
political forces in the country. It is also proof of the catholicity of the
Congress, which admits all interests in the country to be represented in it and
serves as a forum for the different shades of opinion that are to be found.
Since the thirties there has been a marked growth of left political elements.
Workers and peasants have become more politically conscious. This is, in no
small measure, due to Jawaharlal Nehru who has been emphasizing in his speeches
and writing the economic and international aspects of the freedom struggle more
than the political. As a result, the Congress itself has developed an economic
policy Gandhiji’s constructive programme and the National Planning Committee of
the Congress illustrates this trend. The growth of the Congress Socialist Party
and the Communist Party from almost insignificance to a considerable stature is
also explained by the new outlook. That these new political forces will
influence our future is obvious. What will be the nature of the influence? How
would they affect our permanent political institutions and economic life? These
are questions of the utmost importance and over shadow even such vital
questions as the political freedom of the country and its relations with
Britain. What is involved in the aspirations of these parties is nothing less
than the substance of our freedom and the concrete content our independence.
Jaya Prakash Narain is the creator of the Congress
Socialist Party. His career since he left College in answer to Gandhiji’s call
to non-co-operation in 1921 is a remarkable one. Educated in the United States
in half a dozen Universities, paying his way by work in farms and fields and
graduating from Ohio, he returned to India in 1928 to become the Secretary of the
Congress in its Labour Department and then to enter the national struggle in
the thirties. After his release from prison he organised the Congress Socialist
Party. He has been a frank critic of the Congress from within.
His organization of the 1942 events, after his
escape from prison, to enforce the ‘Quit India’ policy of the Congress has made
him one of the best known figures in the country today. An attempt will be made
in what follows to summarize Jaya Prakash’s views of the future of India and of
the present task of the national movement.
Jaya Prakash Narain’s approach to our problems is
secular and socialist. The aim of the Party, which he has built up is two-fold:
“the complete independence of India in the sense of separation from the British
Empire and the establishment of a socialist society.” The first aim is the same
as that of Congress. The second is its own Socialism is the only means for the
economic freedom of the masses. The poverty and misery of the peasant and
worker is explained by the existence of private property in the means of
production and exchange. The problem should be attacked in its roots. This
means the ending of the regime of private property. Political freedom alone has
no meaning. The aims set forth in the Program of the Party are:
1. Transfer of all power to the producing masses.
2. Development of the economic life of the country to be planned and
controlled by the State.
3. Socialization of key and principal industries (e.g., Steel, Cotton,
Jute, Railways, Shipping, Plantations, Mines, Banks, Insurance and Public
Utilities with a view to the progressive socialization of the means of
production, distribution and exchange.
4. State monopoly of foreign trade.
5. Organization of co-operatives for production, distribution and credit
in the unsocialized sector of economic life.
6. Elimination of princes, land-lords and all other classes of
exploiters without compensation.
7. Redistribution of land to the peasants.
8. Encouragement and promotion of collective and co-operative farming by
the State.
9. Liquidation of debts owing by the peasants and workers.
10. Recognition of the right to work or maintenance by the State.
11. “To every one according to his needs and from every one according to
his capacity,” to be the basis ultimately of production and distribution of
economic goods.
12. Adult franchise on a functional basis.
13. No support or discrimination between religions by the State, and no
recognition of any distinction based on caste or community.
14. No discrimination between the sexes by the State.
15. Repudiation of the so-called Public Debt of India.
These ends cannot be achieved without power. No
party in the world can establish socialism without the machinery of the State
in its hands. The Party must capture power and keep it, to be able to embark on
the task. Organization is the key to the problem–the organization of workers,
peasants, and students. “Mass sanctions” should be forged and overwhelming
popular support obtained for the Party.
There is hardly anything in all this that is not to
be found in the programmes of socialist parties in Europe. From the point of
view of the Congress Socialist Party the chief need would appear to be the
winning of the Congress to the acceptance of this platform. It is hardly possible
that the Party would succeed without substantial modifications in its
programme. The programme as set out and the speeches and manifestoes in its
favour here presented, are too general and hardly seem to take account of the
difficulties in this way. A great deal more study and planning would have to
precede the undertaking of any planned economic development by the State in
India. If planned development is to succeed it must both be slower than here
suggested and must attempt to maintain the goodwill of all the classes in the
State. Its aims also should be more fully sketched. What, for instance, is the
place of defence in the plan in a world that is not organized for peace? These
are some of the issues which will have to be faced by the socialist planner of
the future. No quick acceptance of the programme of the socialists by the
Congress or the country is to be expected.
The differences of the Congress Socialist Party
from the Congress on the immediate programme are the more important. These have
become very marked. Jaya Prakash Narain has been consistently opposed to
constitutional action, as, for instance, the working of the constitution. Such
action, in his view, is irreconcilable with the maintenance of the
revolutionary character of the national movement. For this reason Jaya Prakash
opposed the working of the constitution of 1935 and now opposes the acceptance
or the Cabinet Mission’s Proposals. Freedom can never be won through
conferences discussions and diplomatic finesse. Freedom has to be achieved
through revolution, peaceful or violent. Any plan of the British will divide us
and postpone the day of freedom. A final struggle for freedom is unavoidable.
The Constituent Assembly of the Proposals is not a
sovereign body, free to pursue whatever courses it deems necessary. It cannot,
for instance, declare India a free republic and enforce its decision; it cannot
set up a Provisional Government and force the Viceroy and the British Army to
quit India. “It would be a grave folly to suppose that, in the existing
circumstances and the present correlation of forces, it would ever be possible
for the proposed Constituent Assembly to take any of these steps and achieve
any of these objectives.” On the contrary, the Constituent Assembly, aware of
its limitations, is more likely “to make compromise after compromise producing
in the end neither freedom, nor democracy nor national unity.” The acceptance
of the Proposals will let loose many forces of disintegration and bring to the
fore both class and economic struggles.
This makes the divergence of the policy of the
Congress Socialist Party from that of the Congress almost complete. The
question arises: Can it function within the framework of the Congress? Jaya
Prakash thinks that it should; it should prepare it for the inevitable
struggle, and resurrect it from the parliamentary debris into which its leaders
have led it. The struggle which Jaya Prakash visualises is best stated in his
own words:
“The picture I have in view is this: first,
atomization and dislocation of imperialism by such means as are most efficient;
second, simultaneous building up of units of free government in both town and
country and protection of these from attack–these local and regional swaraj
governments, ultimately coalescing to form the free Republic of India. This
pattern will naturally include any form of non-co-operation with the British
power. It includes the struggle of the Congress Ministries from within the
administrative system. It includes a total industrial strike. It includes the
taking over of zemindari lands by the peasants. It includes a movement of the
people of the States against the tyranny of the Princes. The outstanding
feature that would distinguish this struggle from those gone before, including
the rebellion of 1942, would be, to my mind, the emergence of responsible local
and regional authorities, and the carrying out of the further tasks by these
authorities themselves.”
The preparation for the struggle consists in the
forging of mass sanctions. It consists first in “the psychological preparation
of the masses for a struggle.” Secondly, it is the “building up organizations
of the masses, such as peasant and labour unions, volunteer corps, students and
youth organizations, village republics, weavers’ co-operatives and myriad other
organizations which should help in different ways to develop the collective
strength and consciousness of the people.” The Congress should also be
strengthened. These are the immediate steps to be taken and for this he exhorts
the Congress Socialists to organize. The details of the programme are very much
like the constructive programme of Gandhiji.
It is unlikely that any large group of people in
this country would agree with Jaya Prakash Narain in his belief that a struggle
for power with the British is inevitable. The transition to political freedom
might well be smooth as in the case of the British Dominions. The formation of
the Interim Government would seem to bear out the determination of Britain’s.
Socialist Government to help in the process of Indian self-government. It is
difficult to see how, if a revolutionary struggle becomes inevitable,
non-co-operation at this stage will help it. The forging of mass sanctions
should be easier with the control of the government than without it. A
revolution such as Jaya Prakash visualises must mean a great deal of
blood-shed. Is there not a means of peaceful revolution, social and political,
as Gandhiji has advocated?
But in the tasks of reconstruction much of what
Jaya Prakash urges will be necessary. The time for agitation is past; the time
for organization has come. We must organize the people for self-government. We
must build up national unity. We must achieve communal harmony by approaching
the masses straight and ceasing to fight about places in legislatures and jobs,
and emphasizing economic problems. We must revitalise our villages by
organizing co-operative enterprises, better sanitation and education. None of
these tasks can be done by a Government alone. They need the active work of the
political parties and of the people. In emphasizing this, and in chalking out a
concrete scheme of work for the young men of the country, Jaya Prakash Narain
has shown a way that the country must follow if it would build its house of
freedom on sure foundations.
* Towards Struggle – Selected Manifestoes, Speeches and
Writings–by Jaya Pakash Narain, Padma Publications, Bombay, 1946.