Patriotic Indians are a Reserve of the Democratic Movement of the Indian People
Speech by the representative of the AIPSG at the 2006 Ghadri Mela in Toronto, Canada
October 22, 2006
Dear friends,
It is my honor to bring the greetings of my organization to all of you who have gathered here today to celebrate the patriotic traditions and honor the lives and works of the martyrs of the ghadar movement of colonial and postcolonial India.
When one speaks of the works of Ghadarites like Lala Hardial or martyrs like Shahid Udam Singh to whose memory today's function is dedicated, these works shine and take legendary dimensions within the context of the anticolonial struggles of the Indian people against British raj. It is the anticolonial movement of the Indian people that produced patriotic personalities like the founder of the Hindustani Ghadar Party in North America in 1913 or the young Udam Singh who avenged the massacre in Jalianawalabagh. Such patriotic personalities nourished the anticolonial movement by addressing to the tasks of that movement and in turn were nourished by it. The anticolonial movement was the biggest democratic movement of its time. The democratic movement of the Indian people is like the mother that nourishes the democratic personalities that personify the content the democratic struggle of that time. The content of the democratic movement changes as new tasks emerge to the forefront with time and in today's conditions, the tasks of the democratic movement are not the same as those during the anticolonial struggle. Yet, there is a democratic movement today and just as in the past, today's patriotic Indians, whether inside or outside India, are the standard bearers of the democratic movement of our time. The participants in this year's ghadri mela are the standard bearers of the democratic movement of our time both in India and in Canada.
What is the essence of the democratic movement of our time? This is not an academic question but a question that arises from the way we live, work and struggle. The world is passing through a very retrogressive phase when the ruling and powerful of this world have made common cause to turn the clock back on all social rights, national rights and even civil rights which are essentially individual rights. Naturally the democratic movement of our time is connected with the resistance movement against this retrogression. Today's cultural program captures our struggle against the retrogressive and decadent culture being imposed on our families and youth and is a magnificent manifestation of our movement for collective rights to develop our language and culture, especially our progressive culture.
The democratic movement against colonialism neither began nor ended with the slogan to end colonial rule - ending British rule became the converging point of many democratic struggles of the time at a certain stage in the evolution of the anticolonial movement. The advanced consciousness of the democratic movement in the fist half of the 20th century centered on questions of what will replace the colonial state and economy, what will secure the national rights to all the nations of India what will end the institutionalized casteist and communal divisions that propped the colonial system. Ghadrites espoused such consciousness and martyrs like Bhagat Singh organized around such consciousness. The inspiration our martyrs evoke in us today is because of the democratic movement they were associated with. That democratic movement carries on under new conditions, at a new time and with new blood. The consciousness of that movement is what defines the work of the patriotic Indians of today.
As we live through the nightmare of the neoliberal globalization and militarism, it is hard not to draw some conclusions about the main currents of our time. The main contradiction of our time - the contradiction between the rights of human beings and their political economic strivings vs. the rights of wealth and its political economic strivings, in other words between socialism and between capitalism. This contradiction had come to a head within the bipolar division of the 70's and 80's. The world reached a turning point when the bipolar division itself became the factor flaming the struggle for rights of human beings, bringing to the center-stage the social-political-economic strivings of the people. In the immediate aftermath for the cold war, the capitalist and imperialist powers used the transition period to disorient the people as if their rights had been won and peace and prosperity were around the corner. Even such sound ideopolitical forces of the Cold War period like the Party of Labor of Albania could not find their bearing under these conditions. Without the conscious factor playing its necessary role, the struggles of the people against the new onslaught of capital, but they also diverged in every direction.
We know how militarism has come to occupy the center-stage of the post cold war world and how Indian capitalists have become one of the most bellicose of the 21st century powers, building their military might and creating an India-centric cult advancing slogans like resurgent India, India shinning, vision 2020, and what not! What has this done to the democratic movement in India? It has put tremendous pressure on many of the movements to adapt the attitude of "defense of Mother India". You see political forces in India who were identified with the democratic movements of the people in the past adopting new slogans like "enlightened self-interest" to defend the India-centric attitude of the Indian capital. You see a serious fragmentation of the people's forces at a time when the forces of capital have launched new assault on the rights of the workers and peasants through privatization of all sectors economy including defense sector on the one end and agrarian sector on the other. The point to grasp is that the big capital of India has worked out its line of march in this period. This is the consciousness of the movement the retrogressive forces are leading. The question is what is the consciousness of the movement that the progressive and patriotic forces must associate with.
For us, the Indian expatriates living and working abroad, these questions are very urgent to deal in course of addressing the problems we face in Canada. The big capital of India is appealing not only to those expatriates who see opportunity to align with Indian capital and grow their wealth within the liberalised Indian economy and India's position in the new world order but also to the patriotic sentiments of the expatriate Indians suggesting that finally India is countering Eurocentrism with Indo-centric values and all expatriates must rally around this "shining India" to affirm their identity in this world. It is a struggle emerging in front of us - a struggle to win the hearts and minds of the all the expatriates and for the democratic minds of the entire world against this agenda of the Indian big capital on the backs of the Indian people. We have the duty to ensure that this struggle is won in favor of the democratic movement in India and not the movement of Indian capital with its shinning India slogan and militarist policy.
The democratic movements in India are many - I can list movements like the worker's resistance to privatization and liberalization, farmer's resistance to WTO mandated capitalist modernization of agriculture, resistance to army and police occupation of the North East and elsewhere, resistance to war preparations, resistance to Narmada dam project or the land grab from tribals. There is also the nascent democratic movement of the people of India which is a conscious and organized movement to turn the situation around in favor of the people, enabling them to affirm their rights and achieve their social-political-economic emancipation. I want to speak about this movement for a specific reason. At this age in India, it is not possible for any democratic movement of the people to succeed if this movement is not a conscious and organized movement - this is the conclusion of the pre- and post-colonial world experience. The world capital is very experienced in financing and corrupting the spontaneous movements through many mechanisms. Every day we see exposures of how the world capital channels funds and "advice" to certain civil society organisms, journalists, agent provocateurs besides working directly through agencies like the police, certain partisan political, communal other divisive forces. They have ample experience in dissipating many fighting organization of the people or rendering them harmless to the interest of capital in myriad ways and letting loose their military machine to cause bloodshed. Only a conscious and organized movement with its goals consistent with the historical requirement of the people to affirm human dignity in the contemporary conditions can turn the situation around by defeating the machinations of capital.
For us, the expatriate Indians, it is of utmost urgency that we channelize our patriotic sentiments to defend and nourish such a conscious and organized democratic movement of the Indian people. Today this movement is not a broad movement that captures headlines in world media. It is a nascent movement working to win over the people to the aim of making the people decision makers - the highest expression of their right to control their lives individually and collectively. Today the decision makers are the minority of the people who control capital. This may not seem obvious because there is a system of elections to seek legitimacy for those who sit in ruler's positions and work through a parliamentary system to put the neoliberal anti-people policies in place. No one can deny that the people at large, the overwhelming majority of working people in the cities and countryside do not make decisions for themselves or the country. The movement for creating an alternate political system out of the current political system is the democratic movement of our time. Our struggle is against everything that strengthens the current political-economic system to enable the big capitalist houses of India to wield more control over every resource of India for private gains and renders people to the position of an accessory for big capital to make more money and grow.
As you know the Indian capital is recruiting Indian expatriates feverishly to invest in India, to run for political office in India and to become the defenders of Indian policies in foreign countries. What you do not see clearly the organization of Indians actively organizing in support of the movement of the Indian people to create a new political process in India to make people decision-makers. You see people organized abroad to support social movements, to spread education and literacy, to provide help for irrigation and healthcare to the underprivileged, to support mass agitations such as Narmda Bachao or the struggles for civil rights. These are manifestations of the patriotic bond we have to our motherland. What is missing is the convergence of this support around the movement for a new political process. It is not fortuitous because this convergence has not taken place in India. It will not be inaccurate to say that, as the convergence takes place in India, the work of the patriotic Indians will also converge. However this does not mean that we wait outside for something to happen in India. We are integral part of the force that is charged with the historical task of creating that convergence in a conscious and organized manner. We create this convergence here by appealing to all Indians to lend their support for the conscious movement for an alternate political process. That is the task of our times.
Friends, Uddam Singh, Mewa Singh, Lala Hardial and others inspire us today to live as dignified Indians in an adopted land by creating the framework of how one's own struggle in the new homeland is intimately connected with the struggles of the people that we have left behind within the conditions of world retrogression and threat of war. It is one struggle for affirming our human quality - to live and work to the best of our ability without exploitation and harassment, in peace and in a culturally uplifting environment. As we create that environment here through our daily struggles in Canada, we also give expression to our sentiments and feelings that we cherish the same for our brothers and sisters in India through events like this Mela. Let us make a bold pledge to build that movement - the democratic movement for people's empowerment amongst Indian expatriates abroad and support the same movement in India while creating support of the peoples of the world for this striving of the Indian people. Thank you.
full article...
October 22, 2006
Dear friends,
It is my honor to bring the greetings of my organization to all of you who have gathered here today to celebrate the patriotic traditions and honor the lives and works of the martyrs of the ghadar movement of colonial and postcolonial India.
When one speaks of the works of Ghadarites like Lala Hardial or martyrs like Shahid Udam Singh to whose memory today's function is dedicated, these works shine and take legendary dimensions within the context of the anticolonial struggles of the Indian people against British raj. It is the anticolonial movement of the Indian people that produced patriotic personalities like the founder of the Hindustani Ghadar Party in North America in 1913 or the young Udam Singh who avenged the massacre in Jalianawalabagh. Such patriotic personalities nourished the anticolonial movement by addressing to the tasks of that movement and in turn were nourished by it. The anticolonial movement was the biggest democratic movement of its time. The democratic movement of the Indian people is like the mother that nourishes the democratic personalities that personify the content the democratic struggle of that time. The content of the democratic movement changes as new tasks emerge to the forefront with time and in today's conditions, the tasks of the democratic movement are not the same as those during the anticolonial struggle. Yet, there is a democratic movement today and just as in the past, today's patriotic Indians, whether inside or outside India, are the standard bearers of the democratic movement of our time. The participants in this year's ghadri mela are the standard bearers of the democratic movement of our time both in India and in Canada.
What is the essence of the democratic movement of our time? This is not an academic question but a question that arises from the way we live, work and struggle. The world is passing through a very retrogressive phase when the ruling and powerful of this world have made common cause to turn the clock back on all social rights, national rights and even civil rights which are essentially individual rights. Naturally the democratic movement of our time is connected with the resistance movement against this retrogression. Today's cultural program captures our struggle against the retrogressive and decadent culture being imposed on our families and youth and is a magnificent manifestation of our movement for collective rights to develop our language and culture, especially our progressive culture.
The democratic movement against colonialism neither began nor ended with the slogan to end colonial rule - ending British rule became the converging point of many democratic struggles of the time at a certain stage in the evolution of the anticolonial movement. The advanced consciousness of the democratic movement in the fist half of the 20th century centered on questions of what will replace the colonial state and economy, what will secure the national rights to all the nations of India what will end the institutionalized casteist and communal divisions that propped the colonial system. Ghadrites espoused such consciousness and martyrs like Bhagat Singh organized around such consciousness. The inspiration our martyrs evoke in us today is because of the democratic movement they were associated with. That democratic movement carries on under new conditions, at a new time and with new blood. The consciousness of that movement is what defines the work of the patriotic Indians of today.
As we live through the nightmare of the neoliberal globalization and militarism, it is hard not to draw some conclusions about the main currents of our time. The main contradiction of our time - the contradiction between the rights of human beings and their political economic strivings vs. the rights of wealth and its political economic strivings, in other words between socialism and between capitalism. This contradiction had come to a head within the bipolar division of the 70's and 80's. The world reached a turning point when the bipolar division itself became the factor flaming the struggle for rights of human beings, bringing to the center-stage the social-political-economic strivings of the people. In the immediate aftermath for the cold war, the capitalist and imperialist powers used the transition period to disorient the people as if their rights had been won and peace and prosperity were around the corner. Even such sound ideopolitical forces of the Cold War period like the Party of Labor of Albania could not find their bearing under these conditions. Without the conscious factor playing its necessary role, the struggles of the people against the new onslaught of capital, but they also diverged in every direction.
We know how militarism has come to occupy the center-stage of the post cold war world and how Indian capitalists have become one of the most bellicose of the 21st century powers, building their military might and creating an India-centric cult advancing slogans like resurgent India, India shinning, vision 2020, and what not! What has this done to the democratic movement in India? It has put tremendous pressure on many of the movements to adapt the attitude of "defense of Mother India". You see political forces in India who were identified with the democratic movements of the people in the past adopting new slogans like "enlightened self-interest" to defend the India-centric attitude of the Indian capital. You see a serious fragmentation of the people's forces at a time when the forces of capital have launched new assault on the rights of the workers and peasants through privatization of all sectors economy including defense sector on the one end and agrarian sector on the other. The point to grasp is that the big capital of India has worked out its line of march in this period. This is the consciousness of the movement the retrogressive forces are leading. The question is what is the consciousness of the movement that the progressive and patriotic forces must associate with.
For us, the Indian expatriates living and working abroad, these questions are very urgent to deal in course of addressing the problems we face in Canada. The big capital of India is appealing not only to those expatriates who see opportunity to align with Indian capital and grow their wealth within the liberalised Indian economy and India's position in the new world order but also to the patriotic sentiments of the expatriate Indians suggesting that finally India is countering Eurocentrism with Indo-centric values and all expatriates must rally around this "shining India" to affirm their identity in this world. It is a struggle emerging in front of us - a struggle to win the hearts and minds of the all the expatriates and for the democratic minds of the entire world against this agenda of the Indian big capital on the backs of the Indian people. We have the duty to ensure that this struggle is won in favor of the democratic movement in India and not the movement of Indian capital with its shinning India slogan and militarist policy.
The democratic movements in India are many - I can list movements like the worker's resistance to privatization and liberalization, farmer's resistance to WTO mandated capitalist modernization of agriculture, resistance to army and police occupation of the North East and elsewhere, resistance to war preparations, resistance to Narmada dam project or the land grab from tribals. There is also the nascent democratic movement of the people of India which is a conscious and organized movement to turn the situation around in favor of the people, enabling them to affirm their rights and achieve their social-political-economic emancipation. I want to speak about this movement for a specific reason. At this age in India, it is not possible for any democratic movement of the people to succeed if this movement is not a conscious and organized movement - this is the conclusion of the pre- and post-colonial world experience. The world capital is very experienced in financing and corrupting the spontaneous movements through many mechanisms. Every day we see exposures of how the world capital channels funds and "advice" to certain civil society organisms, journalists, agent provocateurs besides working directly through agencies like the police, certain partisan political, communal other divisive forces. They have ample experience in dissipating many fighting organization of the people or rendering them harmless to the interest of capital in myriad ways and letting loose their military machine to cause bloodshed. Only a conscious and organized movement with its goals consistent with the historical requirement of the people to affirm human dignity in the contemporary conditions can turn the situation around by defeating the machinations of capital.
For us, the expatriate Indians, it is of utmost urgency that we channelize our patriotic sentiments to defend and nourish such a conscious and organized democratic movement of the Indian people. Today this movement is not a broad movement that captures headlines in world media. It is a nascent movement working to win over the people to the aim of making the people decision makers - the highest expression of their right to control their lives individually and collectively. Today the decision makers are the minority of the people who control capital. This may not seem obvious because there is a system of elections to seek legitimacy for those who sit in ruler's positions and work through a parliamentary system to put the neoliberal anti-people policies in place. No one can deny that the people at large, the overwhelming majority of working people in the cities and countryside do not make decisions for themselves or the country. The movement for creating an alternate political system out of the current political system is the democratic movement of our time. Our struggle is against everything that strengthens the current political-economic system to enable the big capitalist houses of India to wield more control over every resource of India for private gains and renders people to the position of an accessory for big capital to make more money and grow.
As you know the Indian capital is recruiting Indian expatriates feverishly to invest in India, to run for political office in India and to become the defenders of Indian policies in foreign countries. What you do not see clearly the organization of Indians actively organizing in support of the movement of the Indian people to create a new political process in India to make people decision-makers. You see people organized abroad to support social movements, to spread education and literacy, to provide help for irrigation and healthcare to the underprivileged, to support mass agitations such as Narmda Bachao or the struggles for civil rights. These are manifestations of the patriotic bond we have to our motherland. What is missing is the convergence of this support around the movement for a new political process. It is not fortuitous because this convergence has not taken place in India. It will not be inaccurate to say that, as the convergence takes place in India, the work of the patriotic Indians will also converge. However this does not mean that we wait outside for something to happen in India. We are integral part of the force that is charged with the historical task of creating that convergence in a conscious and organized manner. We create this convergence here by appealing to all Indians to lend their support for the conscious movement for an alternate political process. That is the task of our times.
Friends, Uddam Singh, Mewa Singh, Lala Hardial and others inspire us today to live as dignified Indians in an adopted land by creating the framework of how one's own struggle in the new homeland is intimately connected with the struggles of the people that we have left behind within the conditions of world retrogression and threat of war. It is one struggle for affirming our human quality - to live and work to the best of our ability without exploitation and harassment, in peace and in a culturally uplifting environment. As we create that environment here through our daily struggles in Canada, we also give expression to our sentiments and feelings that we cherish the same for our brothers and sisters in India through events like this Mela. Let us make a bold pledge to build that movement - the democratic movement for people's empowerment amongst Indian expatriates abroad and support the same movement in India while creating support of the peoples of the world for this striving of the Indian people. Thank you.
full article...
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