24 August 2007

In Memory of Hardial Bains (1939-1997)

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the death of Hardial Bains who was the founder and national leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) (CPC-ML) and the president of the People’s Front of Canada. During his lifetime, Hardial Bains was also the architect of many other organizations to advance the causes of democracy, socialism and communism. Two of the organizations, the Indian Progressive Study Group (IPSG) and the Association of Indian Progressive Study Groups (AIPSG), were founded under his leadership in 1968 and 1990 respectively to defend and support the struggles of the Indian people against state terrorism and for the realization of their rights in a genuinely democratic state. Charcha, the discussion forum of the AIPSG, marks this solemn occasion with a pledge to march on the same path of uniting people behind the aim of a progressive and democratic India in the changing international conditions where an imperial India has entered the world stage.

Hardial Bain’s life and work are a testimony to his intense conviction in the ability of human beings to change this world through their conscious and organized action. Early in his political life, he had drawn the conclusion that “understanding requires the conscious participation of the individual, an act of finding out.” This guiding principle acquired the center stage in his lifelong work to organize people dissatisfied with the status quo to create a humane and just society, one where the rights of the individual, the collective and the society will be harmonized. His last work addressed the “human factor-social consciousness” as the missing ingredient that can bring an end to the world where everything is organized to defend the rights of property and property owners and to create a new world where everything will be organized to defend the rights of human beings by building a new social, political and economic order. This task, to organize people with a social consciousness to transform the society by relying on their own forces, remains to be realized. The path pioneered by Hardial Bains remains the path to transform the current world order from benefiting a minority of wealthy individuals to one benefitting the majority of the world’s peoples.

The past ten years have seen the rise of a multipolar world, challenging the dream of the US to create a unipolar international order around the medieval notion of “might is right”. This multipolar world has not repudiated the thesis of “might is right”, rather it has set the stage for a contest amongst the “mighty” to test who is the “mightiest” of them all. Lesser powers like India, who always had ambitions of becoming a big power, have used this as their opportunity to build up military, economic and political institutions internally and fashion alliances internationally to emerge on the winning side after such a contest. This scenario not only negates the people but in fact tramples on their rights to take control of their lives and their country. Hardial Bains’ teaching on the need to create the “human factor-social consciousness” is the surest way to avert the catastrophe that the “big” and the “little” powers are preparing for on the backs of the world’s people. AIPSG and IPSG’s have important role to play in organizing the conscious movement to oppose India’s imperialist machinations abroad and support people’s struggles for national and social rights in India.

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