An esteemed friend writes: “I find you are a brilliant,
Communist”. The adjective is flattering,
but the remark is not. It was candidly an expression of misgiving, the more
deadly on account of the general setting of friendliness in which it is placed.
Many others have spoken and written to the same effect.
* * *
I do not regard being a Communist as so dreadful a thing as
the critics are convinced it is. But what is not true has to be denied, and the
denial need not convey disapprobation of what is denied. Approbation or
disapprobation cannot be compartmentalized without injury to truth. Good and
bad are frequently found to merge into each other intangibly. The boundaries of
the one are gateways to the other—as when the impulse to penitence which is the
ordained way to soul-searching and reformation of character, comes as the
after-effect of a wrong done; or a lapse from grace occurs through overmuch of
pleased complacency over one’s own attainments of perfection. There are
patriots even among the derided police. Fierce
hedonists lurk among Satyagrahis. What is advertised as unparalleled sacrifice
in country’s service may turn out to be the choicest of investments in a rich
dividend-paying business. Revered saints can be undiscovered sinners as much as
condemned sinners may be unsuspected saints. This is a world of unfathomable
contradictions. It behoves people, therefore, to beware of judgments that
consist in the application of labels to others and allowing the labels to
dictate to their judgments.
* * *
Journalists have their favourite hobby horses which they
sometimes ride to death the same as so many others in other professions. But
membership of a party is fatal to independent thought which is the source of
true influence in writing. Partymen are bound hand and foot by discipline which
is only another name for unquestioning obedience to directions from leaders
holding the field for the time being; whereas the questioning of all things,
taking nothing as final, is the very means by which the work of the journalist
is saved from falling into a rut and kept fresh from day to day. He should know
how to see the soul of good in things evil and discern the evil in
over-advertised things popularized as prodigiously good. For the persecuted he
should have sympathy; and for the pampered and the deified, a little of
unbending detachment and the faculty of keeping the head cool against stampedes
and mob frenzies.
* * *
It is not necessary to be Communist to demand a fair deal for
them as a party, as for all parties. Anti-Communists must know that it is no
easy thing to be a Communist. The power of property is exercised against them
in innumerable ways involving not only persecution but also organized
besmirching of reputation and character through a vast and efficient
capitalist-directed machinery of publicity and propaganda. In a world in which
comfort and prosperity depend on money and capitalist favour, it is not
surprising that hirelings should arise everywhere to break up the meetings of
Communists, burn their presses and even kill their workers. The grit needed to
stand up to the anti-Communist racket is a valuable asset of independence,
although so many of the forces formally pledged to independence are found
arrayed against it.
* * *
Attack causes defensive barricades to be set up by the
attacked party. It is not easy to carry on normal business with the besieged
defenders behind the barricades. Under the strain of the attacks of the
anti-Communists, most Communists are beginning to have closed minds. It is not
easy to talk to them without getting irritated over this or that manifestation
of a closed mind. As a class, the Communists are touogh, hard-working
non-moneyminded, tenacious, able in planning and skilful in execution and far
more capable of team work than any other Indian political group. Anti-Communism
is making them bitter, ruthless and hard, and forcing them into a vengeful
mood, regarding not only the capitalists but all dependents of capitalists
forced into their political support for one reason or other, as enemies
entitled to no quarter. In dealings with agricultural labourers, factory
workers and the like, Communists are models of efficient service, whose methods
are being assiduously copied by the most pronounced of their detractors. But
towards other classes, their general attitude is as towards a set of exploiters.
* * *
What with anti-Communism and the reactions of anti-Communism,
public life is filled with hatreds, and in some areas even families are divided
into warring camps. For the moment it is the Communists that are getting trounced
everywhere. The might of the Congress appears invincible, nursed as it is with
the affection of people bestowed on great names in the nation’s history like
Gandhi, Das, Tilak, Nehru. Yet younger leaders are cropping up in Communist
ranks who are quickly ousting the established Congress veterans in the hopes
and trust of millions of have-nots getting rudely disillusioned with local
Congress leaders. In Andhra, for example, P. Sundarayya is sure before long to
take Prakasam’s place in popularity though defeated in the elections now.
Communists will blossom into a powerful party in the legislature when adult
suffrage replaces the present restricted franchise.
* * *
I am for the minimizing of interparty strife for the sake of
the national good; for the elimination of anti-Communism; for tolerance to
parties irrespective of approval, as a primary lesson in the exercise of the
universally claimed right of independence. It is a sad outlook for the freedom
to come if people divided in creeds cannot be on speaking terms or get on with
work that concerns all.—(April 13, 1946) S
A K A
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