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From: Regi P George <george_regi@yahoo.com> Date: Tue Oct 5, 2004 Subject: Remembering the First OppositionLeader of Indian Parliament appearing in people's democracy of October 03, 2004 http://pd.cpim.org/2004/1003/10032004_akg-prakash.htm A K Gopalan: From Satygrahi To Revolutionary Manini Chatterjee A K GOPALAN, a foremost mass leader of the communist movement in the country, was also a dedicated soldier in India??s freedom struggle against British rule. His transformation from a satyagrahi to a revolutionary is a fascinating story and in a microcosm reveals, as few individual experiences can, the strengths and weaknesses of the Mahatma Gandhi-led national movement. It shows how the movement galvanised and politicised a whole section of idealistic youth in the fight against imperialism but stopped short of taking up the demands of the mass of exploited workers and peasants ?? leading men of action and compassion like AKG to embrace revolutionary Marxism. Thus it was that A K Gopalan who spent many a year in British jails fighting for the country??s freedom, was still behind bars on August 15, 1947, this time at the behest of free India??s Congress rulers. A K Gopalan, or AKG as he is universally known, was born on October 1, 1904 in a reasonably well-to-do Nair family in North Malabar. His father and brother, both of whom were active in the community and took an interest in social reform and education, influenced AKG??s nascent interest in public life from an early age. Though he did not complete his formal education, he started out life as a primary school teacher, a job he enjoyed and was good at. He taught for seven years even as he was increasingly drawn to the national movement whose main activity at that time was propagation of khadi and boycott of foreign goods. PERIOD OF FERMENT And then came a period of national ferment. The year was 1930. The Congress had adopted a resolution demanding full independence a year ago. There was a deep crisis in the world capitalist economy. The Indian middle class was being drawn into the mass struggle. Gandhi embarked on his famous Dandi march, electrifying Congress workers all over the country. In Kerala, a jatha was taken out from Calicut to Payyannoor under the leadership of K Kelappan. Receptions were organised all along the route. AKG organised such a mass ovation at a place called Chovva. The jatha was a thrilling experience, the speeches truly inspiring. It proved a turning point in his life. In his autobiography In The Cause Of The People,AKG wrote: ???I could not sleep that night, for a conflict between two streams of thought fought itself through my mind. My conscience asked me to forsake everything and join the struggle. This meant bidding farewell to my people and incurring the strong displeasure of my dear father and members of my family. My mother and family would suffer and be deprived of luxuries and comforts. Possibly they would have to live in dependence on others and bear their ill- treatment. I might lose my job and suffer a variety of hardships. On the other hand, I would have the satisfaction that I had fought for the freedom of the people who shuddered under the weight of oppression and who indulged in self-annihilation, loot, robbery and murder out of any inability to sustain themselves. I would be a proud son of mother India who had taken up cudgels to fight for her freedom. Such was the gist of my thought.??? The freedom fighter in him won. He resigned his job, left his family and went secretly from Calicut to Cannanore to offer Satyagraha. He was arrested and jailed the same day ?? the first of innumerable jail terms. He was shifted from Cannanore jail to Vellore jail, from B class prisoner to A class, and saw firsthand how ??? it was a comfortable life for one section and misery for the other.??? He instinctively reacted against this class division but a full understanding was to crystallise later. Following the Gandhi-Irwin pact in 1932 the satyagrahis were released from jail to a hero??s welcome. Out of jail, AKG devoted himself to the Congress movement ?? travelling miles upon miles to distant villages, picketing taverns and shops selling imported cloth, and addressing hundreds of small and large meetings to draw the common people into the movement. It was a hard life. The Congress had no organisation and little funds. There was not even money to pay for bus fare. AKG recalls walking 25-30 miles every day and going without food for days on end while spreading the message of freedom and hoisting the national flag in far flung hamlets. As he notes in his autobiography: ??? For want of a change of clothes to wear, I wore the same clothes for 10 or 15 days at a time. Ignorant of our hardship, the fashionable rich used to say, ???These fellows are dirty. You can smell the stench when they come close.?? This was indeed true. But it was not our fault. It was the stench of the sorry state of our country. ???Until the Congress became a people??s organisation and until we were accepted by the general public as friends, such hardships were unavoidable.??? TEMPLE ENTRY AGITATION Though relentlessly active in the picketing activities that marked the Gandhian satyagraha of that time, AKG was beginning to question the efficacy of the method which inspired middle class youth in their thousands but left the poor unmoved. It was at this time that the Congress decided to start a struggle against untouchability and other social evils. At the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) meeting, Kelappan moved a resolution on starting a temple entry satyagraha. Some Congressmen argued that it would divert attention away from the political struggle. But AKG fully backed the resolution and ???was happy that a struggle against die-hard conservatism was in the offing.??? He was elected captain of the satyagraha volunteers. He led a march of harijans on a public road at a place called Kandoth near Payyannoor. Till then, harijans were not allowed to walk on that road because it was near a temple. As he led the procession, a mob of men and women rushed forward and brutally beat up AKG till he was unconscious. He recalls: ???This was the first physical attack I had faced in my political life. But there was the satisfaction that the ??? Kandoth assault??? found a prominent place in news coverage. It was the best propaganda for the Guruvayoor temple entry satyagraha. The incident opened the eyes of the public. District Board authorities came to inspect the place. They put up a board that all had the right to use the road.??? AKG then plunged into the Guruvayoor temple entry satyagraha, leading a group of volunteers on foot all the way from Cannanore to Guruvayoor. They addressed hundreds of public meetings en route, and for the first time the poorest of the poor, the harijan youth, were drawn into a Congress-led agitation. Volunteers from all over Kerala set up camps at the temple gates and the satyagraha had a huge impact throughout India. But the temple owners remained unmoved. In the meantime, the British authorities were unnerved by the rapid spread of the national movement and in January 1932 decided to crack down. Congress leaders throughout the country were arrested and among them was AKG. He was sentenced to six months rigorous imprisonment. TORTURED IN JAIL This second term in jail was very different. The authorities were far more brutal, and the prisoners were routinely beaten and kicked. But it was also a time when AKG met many revolutionaries and debated many political issues including the implications of the Russian revolution. AKG was considered ???the cause of all the trouble??? in Cannanore jail and was soon transferred to Cuddalore jail where he was first put among the insane prisoners. He recalls: ???I was in tears the moment I saw the place and thoroughly shaken up. Yes, I was a mad man to officialdom. It may be madness in the eyes of imperialists to work for the independence of the country of one??s birth. There are many types of madness. I am proud to say that I am a ???political lunatic.?? It is my wish that this madness does not disappear as long as oppression remains in the world.??? After going on hunger strike which lasted six days, he was finally shifted to another room. The six months in jail with its unspeakable brutalities left him physically broken. But not in spirit. He impatiently brushed aside the advice that he must rest. As he wrote later, ???Rest! I could not even think of it. As a dedicated campaigner for freedom how could I think of rest when the entire land was echoing with the sound of lathicharges, when thousands of people were entering the battle arena and when a determined struggle was in progress???? And he returned full fledged to agitation ?? defying the police, organising village conferences, addressing meetings, and resuming his duties as satyagraha captain at Guruvayoor. When the satyagraha started flagging, Kelappan began a fast to force the opening of the temple. It was to have a nationwide impact, and AKG was among those who crisscrossed Kerala, covering 1000 miles on foot, to propagate temple entry. Kelappan, however, at Gandhiji??s request called off the fast on the tenth day. It was not long before AKG was arrested for the third time and sent yet again to Cannanore jail. The jail records had him down as a ???dangerous prisoner??? and he was soon moved to Bellary jail as a C class political prisoner. The conditions were barbaric. He was physically chained, made to pound flour and kept in solitary confinement. To protest against this unbearable treatment, AKG went on fast and was force-fed through the nose. Finally, he was transferred to Vellore as a B class prisoner. He was released at the end of 1933. TO WARDS SOCIALISM It was in Vellore jail that AKG began to lose heart in Gandhian satyagraha and ahimsa as a means towards a genuine liberation. These thoughts became a conviction when he came out jail and saw the civil disobedience movement slowly fizzle out. In AKG?? s own words: ???Why is that struggles waged for two and a quarter years with remarkable courage, intelligence and magnificent self-dedication were a failure? ??¦According to leaders like Babu Rajendra Prasad, the people were ready for sacrifice ?? to go to jail, to under go brutality and hardship ?? but were not ready to suffer financial loss. That was why the struggle did not succeed. According to them, the struggle failed as the government realised this and confiscated property and imposed heavy fines ?? this frightened away some. However, most of the people of India do not have wealth to hoard or lose. It is they who should be in the forefront of the freedom struggle. Their only assets are their bodies; they have nothing to lose so they are ready for sacrifice. They do not suffer in the freedom struggle even a percentage of their suffering in daily life. Why then did they not participate in the struggle fully???? There were many others thinking along these lines and they were to form the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) in Kerala after 1934. The question that bothered them was the absence of workers and peasants in the national movement. Instead of poring into books for answers, AKG decided to study the living conditions of two peasant families. He realised that over the years, the landlords had deceitfully expropriated the land belonging to the poor peasant. ???Land to the tiller?? was not an abstract slogan but the essence of justice. His close study of the peasant families convinced him that workers and peasants, who had nothing to lose, were the only class which ???had the stamina and motivation necessary for the leadership of the freedom struggle and to undergo the attendant suffering. As it was, they suffered atrocities from capitalists and feudal landlords. There was no doubt in my mind that freedom would be impossible without these people in the forefront of the struggle.??? The CSP too concentrated on this class, particularly the industrial workers. AKG, naturally, took to this task with the fervour and passion that marked all his activities. He learned to form unions, organise strikes, and educate workers. These early socialists made mistakes ( ???we did not know how to conduct a strike,??? he candidly admits) but quickly learnt from them. AKG immersed himself wholly in the lives of the workers ?? eating their diet, speaking their dialect, sharing their miseries, and playing with their children, telling stories to their grannies. Over the next few years, AKG participated and led practically every strike that was to take place in Kerala. Cotton, coir, beedi, tile, soap, municipal service ?? there was not an industry where the socialists were not involved in organising the workers, and AKG was there everywhere. As he describes it: ???The moment a strike was known to have begun, I would rush there. When the strike ended, I moved to another place. To raise strike funds, to enroll volunteers, to detail work to them, to check up on it, to address public meetings, to intercept blacklegs going to work, to reason with them, to contact local people, to gain their help for the strike ?? this is what I was doing.??? DISILLUSIONED WITH CSP AKG, as others in the CSP, saw his work among peasants and workers as part of the struggle against British rule. The only way to secure real freedom was to involve this vast section of the Indian people, and the only way to involve them was to raise their demands, fight for their rights against the capitalists and feudal landlords as well as the foreign rulers. They took up other causes too. One of the most remarkable was the mass movement organised against hunger and unemployment, especially the unemployment facing educated youth. A massive jatha travelled all through Kerala and crossed over to Madras. AKG played a leading role. He was once again sentenced and his fourth term in prison was spent in Trichinapalli. For a while, he had left the CSP but on being released from jail, he rejoined the party and was active on all fronts including the successful struggle against the rulers of Travancore. In Kerala, the socialists dominated the Congress and their sustained propaganda and agitation work among the ordinary people made a big difference. According to AKG, ???The Congress Socialist Party can deservedly take pride that it was able to strengthen the Congress and turn it into a mass organisation.??? As a member of the AICC, AKG attended the Haripura and Tripuri sessions of the Indian National Congress. Following the Tripuri session, he worked for three months in Bombay where he spent a lot of time with leaders of the Communist Party of India, then headquartered in Bombay, and participated in workers rallies. ???This,??? he recalls, ???evoked in me a revulsion for the polices and programmes of the then leaders of the CSP. It also brought me closer to the Communist Party and strengthened my ties with its leaders???. When the Second World War broke out, AKG was abroad. He had gone to meet Malayali workers in Ceylon, Singapore, Malaya and Burma. He came back just in time attend the AICC session in Wardha. The session itself was disappointing; the role of the central CSP leaders even more so. Differences within the CSP with the advent of the war had intensified. The Marxists within their ranks felt stifled. Communists were thrown out of the party. And as a result, writes AKG, ???People like me who had risen from the ranks of the nationalist struggle and joined the CSP got closer to communism and the leaders remained with Gandhism. The socialist parties of Malabar, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and other places started functioning as units of the Communist Party.??? UNDERGROUND AND JAIL BREAK AKG returned to Malabar but since summons were pending against him, he was sent to work in Tamil Nadu. He worked in Trichinapalli among Southern Railway workers. He also organised secret meetings and study classes. It was a new life for him. In his autobiography, he notes, ???From being a satyagrahi, a socialist and a dedicated public worker always willing to court imprisonment I had to switch over to underground work. I was not at all used to secret work. I had till then always worked in the public eye.??? But in the Communist Party, he learnt the uses of underground work. ???To put us in jail away from the public eye was imperialism??s need; to avoid arrest and to work was ours??¦. I found the very act of working underground to be a struggle against imperialism.??? For over a year he remained underground till he was arrested on March 24, 1941 and sent to the detenue camp in Vellore jail. It was from here that AKG made his celebrated escape. It is ironic that AKG who had suffered the worst kind of brutalities in his numerous jail terms finally resorted to jailbreak to get out of the benumbing luxuries that were bestowed on first class prisoners. The luxuries included: ???Bread and coffee in the morning; at noon, full meals with ghee, curd and all; tea and tiffin at three o??clock; at seven in the evening, a full meal with meat; and finally a cup of milk at bed time. Each prisoner had a chair, an easy chair, a table, a shelf, a mattress, a pillow and four sheets. Every four or five prisoners had a servant (an ordinary prisoner) and linen. Weekly laundering, reading room, radio, tennis, volley ball, a bath twice daily, a feast on festive occasions, occasional dramatic performances, music concerts, made up our everyday living.??? AKG, however, did not care for any of these things. Hitler??s attack on USSR was changing the course of the war, and had led to fervent discussions among the Communists in India, both inside and outside jail. The freedom struggle was going through a decisive phase. AKG felt he must get out. On the night of September 25, 1941, AKG and a couple of others chiselled a hole through the wall of their cell and managed to escape. Life outside was very difficult but he finally managed to reach Kerala. Though many leaders including EMS were released from jail soon after, the police refused to withdraw charges against AKG. It was unsafe to remain in Kerala and so he went to North India, and did a variety of jobs in Kanpur while continuing with underground Communist Party work. He returned to Malabar when the 1946 elections were announced and was the Party??s candidate in Calicut. In face of the vicious anti-communist propaganda by the Congress at the time, he lost but within five years trounced the Congress and entered parliament in the first general elections held after independence. While the Congress was busy negotiating the transfer of power, there was an outbreak of mass struggles all across India in the post-war period. AKG was active in all the struggles in his region ?? the Punnapra-Vayalar struggle, the beedi workers strike, the peasant revolt in Chirakkal. The Prakasam ministry in Madras did its best to suppress the struggle in Malabar and arrested the leaders. AUGUST 15, 1947 On the occasion of Independence Day, the Madras government released all the political prisoners but AKG was not one of them. He was alone, inside jail, unable to celebrate the freedom he had so bravely fought for. His memoirs recall: ???On August 14, 1947 I was in solitary confinement in the big Cannanore jail. There were no other detenue prisoners. I could not sleep at night. Cries of ??? jai?? issued from all four corners of the jail. The echoes of slogans ???Mahatma Gandhi ki jai?? and ???Bharat Mata ki jai?? reverberated through the jail. The whole country was waiting for the celebration due after sunrise. How many among them had waited for years for this and fought for it and sacrificed their all in the struggle. I nurtured feeling of joy and sorrow. I was glad that the goal for which I had sacrificed all my youth and for which I was still undergoing imprisonment had been realised. But I was even now a prisoner, I had been imprisoned by Indians ?? by the Congress government, not by the British. Memories of the Congress from 1927 passed through my mind. I felt proud of the role I had played in the Congress movement in Kerala. A man who was secretary of the Kerala Congress and its president for some time and member of the AICC for a long time was celebrating August15 in jail!??? And yet celebrate he did. The next morning, he walked the length of the jail compound carrying a national flag that he had kept with him. The flag was hoisted from the roof where all the prisoners had gathered. AKG spoke to them of the meaning of freedom. And for the rest of his life, A K Gopalan remained true to the vision of his youth, fighting always and everywhere in the cause of the people. (INN) (Reprinted from the People??s Democracy A Titan Of The Communist Movement Prakash Karat OCTOBER 1, 2004 marks the birth centenary of A K Gopalan, a historical figure in the Indian Communist movement. There are a large number of Communist leaders who have made memorable contributions to the development of the Communist Party in India; most of them made immense sacrifices in the anti-imperialist struggle and the independence movement. But it is given only to a few to be remembered as a leader and builder of the Communist Party by having the unique capacity to be with the people and move them to take up the cause of the Party. A K Gopalan was one of them. Commemorating A K Gopalan??s life and work on the occasion of his birth centenary is a reaffirmation of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal roots of the mass movement which laid the basis of a mass Communist Party. AKG??s life exemplified both these powerful currents ?? his role in the freedom struggle and his extraordinary record in leading and building the peasant movement in Kerala and the country. For a new generation which is reared in ignorance of the significant role played by the early Communists in the freedom struggle, the life of AKG has to be popularised. The saga of a primary school teacher who plunged into the Gandhi-led national movement and with his fiery patriotism and growing socialist consciousness emerged steeled as a Communist has to be retold. At a time when the BJP and RSS peddle their pseudo-nationalism and pervert the very essence of patriotism, the path followed by AKG and thousands of other radical young nationalists has to be emblazoned. AKG has a special place in the hearts of the working people all over the country. For four decades he served the Communist Party with tremendous dedication. He was in the leadership of the Party continuously from the fifties, and from the formation of the CPI(M) till his death, he was a member of its Polit Bureau and the Central Committee. He was the president of the All India Kisan Sabha from 1952, and served in that post till 1977. He was the leader of the Communist group in Parliament for a period of 25 years, first of the united party and later the CPI(M). SPECIAL QUALITIES However, just listing this distinguished record cannot capture the special qualities of AKG. From an ordinary elementary school teacher, he rose to become one of the most beloved leaders of the peasants and workers due to his burning hatred of imperialism and injustice. His rapport with the working people was unique ?? transcending the barriers of language, religion and nationality. In Kerala, AKG was the most beloved leader of the masses, whether Hindu, Muslim or Christian. AKG??s five decades of political life spanned all the major political movements and upheavals in the country, from the 1930s to the 1970s. He participated in the jail-going satyagraha of 1930 and never looked back. He was the example of an ideal patriot. He spent ten years in jail under the British rule, out of the total sixteen years of his prison life. AKG??s life mirrors the major political currents of the times ?? the mass awakening under the Gandhian Congress programmes; the radicalisation represented by the Congress Socialist Party (of which he was one of the founders in Kerala); the journey to Communism made by the socialists, and the flowering of a proletarian internationalist. In Kerala, he occupies a unique position. Along with P Krishna Pillai and EMS, he constituted the troika, which fashioned the mass Left movement and the Communist Party in Kerala. Each of these leaders had their special qualities. In the case of AKG, his outstanding feature was a man of the people. His rapport with the people made him unique. AKG was a man of dauntless courage. He directed his righteous anger against caste tyranny and imperialist subjugation in his youth. He was beaten black and blue by the priests of Guruvayoor temple for daring to lead the temple entry movement for the untouchables and ringing the temple bell, violating the Brahmanic prohibition. He was unconscious for several days after the beating. His escape from Vellore jail in 1941 was a feat of physical daring and endurance which captured the imagination of the people. It symbolised his unyielding spirit which no imperialist jail could suppress. In the post-independence days, his historic hunger-strike at Amravathi to defend the poor Christian peasant interests moved even the staunch anti-Communist, Father Vadakkan, to join him in the struggle. AKG had that quality ?? by personal example and daring to break down all barriers. AKG was also the Communist leader who set the standards for Communists in parliamentary work. He remained in Parliament for an unbroken stretch of 25 years, but no parliamentary vice ever affected him and he remained scornful of the petty temptations of a softer life which parliamentary respectability afforded its members. By sheer dint of assiduous contact with the people and an unerring sense of seeing through bourgeois hypocrisy, he could put the government in the dock and command respect in Parliament. AKG was the quintessential man of action. But he did not turn into a mere pragmatic politician, because of his deep commitment to Marxism and strong bonds with the people. As soon as a report of a struggle reached him, he would reach the place and plunge into the struggle being waged by the people there. When the people of Gujarat fought for a separate linguistic state, he was there. When the peasants in Punjab fought against the betterment levy (tax), he joined them. There was no place in India, which he did not go to, to fight for the people??s cause. His last days were spent in relentlessly fighting the authoritarian Emergency regime. His indomitable opposition to the Emergency was expressed powerfully in his speech in Parliament on the imposition of the Emergency. If today??s young men and women, who aspire to be progressive and revolutionary, have to learn any lesson from AKG??s life, then the first thing that has to be learnt is that one cannot become a revolutionary without fighting caste oppression and the caste-system. AKG??s first significant social intervention was the participation in the Guruvayoor temple entry satyagraha for which he was badly beaten up. Just as EMS Namboodiripad, P Sundarayya and others who joined the freedom struggle, in the case of AKG too, the revolt against the caste-oppression and social tyranny was the elementary social consciousness which flowered into a higher socialist consciousness. Another important lesson from AKG??s life is that one cannot become a full-fledged Communist without having a Marxist outlook. It was AKG??s Marxist-Leninist convictions which enabled him at every twist and turn in the Communist movement to stand in defence of Marxism and its basic tenets. AKG did not require great theoretical study to identify revisionism as a danger for the movement or to uncompromisingly reject ultra-Left dogmatism. His unerring revolutionary instincts were nurtured by his unique ability to empathise with the working people and understand their thinking. AKG has left a precious heritage for all Communists and democrats. His total dedication and relentless struggle for the emancipation of the people, his deep humanity imbued with Marxism-Leninism, his total identification with the oppressed, particularly the peasantry, his affection for the cadres and younger generation of militants, his infectious sense of humour and courage in the face of adversity, a man beloved of the people and the Party ?? all these will serve as an exemplary ideal for all those who join the struggle for India??s liberation from class exploitation. In celebrating the centenary of AKG??s birth, we are paying tribute to the pioneering work done by beloved mass leader who helped shape the face of Indian Communism and made it a popular cause. The AKG birth centenary, just as the centenary celebrations of another great Communist revolutionary B T Ranadive, must be utilised to propagate the rich and historical legacy bequeathed by these leaders and to revitalise the ideological struggle to advance the cause of socialism. A Role Model For Communists And Patriots Sitaram Yechury DURING the period of the early seventies, when my political awakening brought me irreversibly towards Marxism and the CPI(M), Comrade A K Gopalan, fondly called by all as AKG was one of the supreme leaders of the Party and its voice in the Parliament. To most of us, it was AKG??s voice that conveyed what the CPI(M) stood for. His stirring speech in the Lok Sabha against the imposition of Emergency in 1975, was for many of us, the battle cry for the restoration of democracy. His sterling quality to be present in any corner of the country, where people were in the midst of struggles against any form of exploitation, stands out as a guide to all mass leaders. Much of AKG??s tremendous contributions to the freedom struggle and the Communist movement are well recorded and, hence, need no repetition. P Krishna Pillai, EMS Namboodiripad and AKG constituted the Communist trimoorti of Kerala. His pioneering role in the Gandhian Satyagraha movement; his transition from a Congressman through the Congress Socialist Party to a Communist; his championing of issues of social oppression; his heroic and dramatic escape from the Vellore jail are all experiences that continue to inspire even today. At the outset, I must confess that my personal interactions with Comrade AKG have been very few and far in between. This, however, never detracts from the fact that for various reasons, AKG was and remains a role model not only for Communists but for all Indian patriots. There are three specific issues that I would like to emphasise to establish why AKG continues to remain a role model for the present generation of patriotic Indian youth. The first was the manner in which he dealt with his own personal life??s contradictions. Many of us have passed through and continue to pass through similar situations when a choice has to be made between breaking the expectations of our families and our background and to plunge into struggles in the defence of people and the country. In his own words, he says that ???there was a conflict between two streams of thought???, the expectations of his family and of his middle class background and the uncontrollable urge to work for the freedom of the people, who ???shuddered under the weight of oppression???. Having made the choice in favour of the latter, AKG says: ???I would be a proud son of mother India who have taken up cudgels to fight for our freedom???. There are many of us who go through similar conflicts in our personal lives. AKG shows us the way to resolve these and live the only life we have with our ???heads held high???. Very few of our generation remember that at the time of independence, AKG was in jail arrested by the rulers of independent India. Of the total sixteen years he spent in jail, six were in independent India. He celebrated India??s independence in solitary confinement in the big Kannur jail after nearly two decades of uncompromising struggles for independence. As he says: ???A man who was secretary of the Kerala Congress and its president for some time and member of the AICC for a long time was celebrating August 15 in jail.??? On the occasion of Independence Day, the Madras government released all the political prisoners but AKG was not one of them. He was alone, inside jail, unable to celebrate the freedom he had so bravely fought for. And yet celebrate he did. The next morning, he walked the length of the jail compound carrying a national flag that he had kept with him. The flag was hoisted from the roof where all the prisoners had gathered. AKG spoke to them of the meaning of freedom. Here was a person who could have occupied legitimately any position of high office but chose instead to carry on the struggle on the basis of his uncompromising commitment to the Indian people. The message was clear ?? while political independence was a significant achievement, the task remains to carry forward the struggle towards the economic independence of all people which is possible only with the establishment of socialism. In today??s world, when politics has been reduced by bourgeois political parties to the status of a lucrative career associated with the spoils of office and brazen corruption, AKG??s life stands out as a shining inspiration to restore political morality. This is the second reason why he continues to remain a role model. Finally, AKG??s ability, both in perception and in practice, in combining the issues of social oppression with those of economic exploitation and leading the people into struggle has a significant relevance to the conditions we live in today. AKG??s leadership of the Guruvayoor temple entry satyagraha has many lessons for all of us today. Despite being seriously assaulted physically, AKG continued the struggle championing the right of the oppressed castes and dalits to be treated as human beings and allowed entry to the temple. In India, social oppression is one aspect of the class oppression while economic exploitation constitutes in other part of the same class oppression and exploitation. No revolutionary movement for the overthrow of the ruling classes is possible without the Communists addressing both these aspects of social oppression and economic exploitation. Bourgeois and ruling class politicians specialise in keeping the struggles against both these oppressions separated from each other. They, thus, create conditions where the exploited will rally behind the Red Flag in struggles but when it comes to political _expression or choice, the very same people may well choose to remain with their social grouping. The task of the Communists is to integrate both these aspects of class struggle while the ruling classes seek to keep them separately. This is increasingly relevant in today??s conditions when a large mass of people participate in the struggles under the banner of the Red Flag on issues of economic exploitation but when political choice has to be made, they tend to move with their social moorings and vote according to their social affiliations. Such an apparent contradiction comes because the confidence that the Red Flag generates in the struggles against economic exploitation does not resonate to the same extent in some parts of the country in the struggles against social oppression. AKG??s life and work teaches us that for the advance of the Communist movement in large tracts of modern India which is gripped by a social consciousness dominated by communalism and casteism, such an integration of the struggles against social oppression and economic exploitation have to be undertaken urgently. These are just but three aspects why, I think, that AKG continues to be a source of inspiration for the present generation of Indian youth, who are determined to safeguard our country and the people from the twin attacks of the communal forces and the economic policies of globalisation, liberalisation and privatisation. http://pd.cpim.org/2004/1003/10032004_akg-surjeet.htm Remembering Comrade AKG Harkishan Singh Surjeet On the 1st of October, 2004 A K Gopalan would have turned hundred had he been alive. Marking this birth centenary, the Party in the entire country and especially in Kerala is celebrating the occasion in a big way. I had been closely associated with AKG for over 40 years. We used to stay together at 4 Ashoka Road in New Delhi when AKG was the leader of the CPI(M) group in parliament. The bungalow was allotted in his name. I have very warm memories of our comradeship in those times. His wife and comrade, Susheela Gopalan, herself an outstanding communist, also used to stay there. He was an affectionate comrade, caring and enquiring about the well being of his comrades; he was a leader par excellence; he deeply felt for the poor and the underprivileged and they in turn identified with him; he was a colleague who respected the views of others even if he had reservations and differences; he was like a saint to many; he was one who lent an ear to anyone who approached him. To millions of ordinary people in Kerala, AKG, as he was popularly known, was an icon. These are some qualities that made Comrade AKG stand apart from the broad spectrum of political leadership in the country. One of the major and early political events with which AKG was associated with was the Temple entry movement at Guruvayur. Facing brutal repression AKG led batches of satyagrahis in 1931 demanding rights for the lower castes to enter the temple. This was a movement that challenged the social settings and had far reaching consequences. Distraught with the withdrawal of the Civil Disobedience Movement and disillusioned with the Congress, AKG was in the forefront founding the Congress Socialist Party in Kerala, with a view to link the struggle for national freedom with the struggle for social revolution. The success of the October Socialist Revolution had provided a big inspiration. His everlasting thirst for knowledge led him to study the theory of scientific socialism. It was during this period in 1938 that AKG alongwith P Krishna Pillai, EMS Namboodiripad and others formed the Communist Party in Kerala. In the forties, once when he was forced to go underground, I had taken him to Bhatinda in Punjab and entrusted him to the care of a family sympathetic to our movement. When he was elected to parliament, he marked himself out as a legislator of a different genre. He was a revolutionary parliamentarian who voiced the issues and demands of the people particularly the working class and the peasantry in parliament. The 25 years of his parliamentary life was marked by ruthless exposure of ministers and bureaucrats. Even his political opponents, despite their disagreements, would listen to AKG with rapt attention. That was the amount of respectability and acceptability that he commanded. Comrade AKG had a healthy practice of forthrightly placing one??s view. This was a trait that he observed till the very end of his life. Even when a divergent view was expressed he was always ready to listen to others and willing to accept the other view and correct his own when he was convinced. He learnt from the criticisms made against him. Neither did he hesitate in criticising the other??s view point. No streak of ego and the airs so familiar with many leaders touched him. As I said earlier, he was a people??s man, identifying himself with the people??s problems and always in their midst. Glancing through the papers every morning, whenever he saw news of a struggle of confrontation with the establishment going on, he would rush to the site, even without bothering to consult others. Whether it be the betterment levy struggle in Punjab or other such struggles anywhere in the country. His participation in such struggles are still recalled by people in the concerned areas. Such was the pain and affection that he felt for the people. This is a trait that is not visible today. P Krishna Pillai, EMS Namboodiripad and A K Gopalan constituted the three pillars of the Communist movement of Kerala. His pioneering role in the Guruvayur temple entry movement; his transition from a Congressman to a Communist; his championing of issues of social oppression etc. are all experiences that continue to inspire even today. AKG??s life is more than an inspiration. His life and work are a guide for future generations. Simple living, unflinching dedication to the cause of the people, spirit of self-sacrifice, always at the service of the people, ?? Comrade AKG stood wide apart from the broad spectrum of politicians in the country. He will continue to be adored and loved. |
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