Therefore , he had warned that the bourgeoisie will come to a ‘ wretched deal ’ and that they are incapable of gaining a ‘ decisive victory ’, rather ‘ they do not even want a decisive victory ’. ‘ They stand in too great need of Tsarism , with its bureaucratic police and military forces for use against the proletariat and the peasantry , to want it to be destroyed ’. ( Lenin – ‘ Selected Works ’ - page 81 ).
For this reason , ‘ the bourgeoisie will inevitably turn toward counterrevolution , towards the autocracy , against the revolution , and against the people as soon as its narrow , selfish interests are met , as soon as it recoils from consistent democracy ’. ( Page - 115 ).
‘ That is why the bourgeoisie is incapable of carrying through the Bourgeoisie Revolution to its consummation ’. ( Page - 116 ).
This brilliant thesis of Lenin , of the bourgeoisie betraying itself , has been so characteristically proved by the Indian bourgeoisie and its political arm , the Indian National Congress , that the Commander of its General Staff , the ‘ Mahatma ’ and his associates proved themselves to be the greatest and surest friend of imperialism , feudalism and the big bourgeoisie . It is no wonder that Gunner Myrdal in his ‘ Asian Drama ’ remarks that , ‘ the British had good reason to be grateful for Gandhi ’ s policy of non-violence ’ ( Page - 143 ), since ‘ After independence , the close relations with the former metropolitan countries were preserved and in some respects intensified ’. ( Page - 125 ).” Indian Bourgeoisie ’ s Despicable Betrayal :
How did this transfer of power take place between the colonial administration and the Indian bourgeoisie ? What were the factors that led to this ‘ peaceful transfer ’? What were the factors that led the British to be grateful to Gandhi and his associates ? What is the significance of this transfer of power to the Indian masses ? These are some of the questions that will have to be gone into by us to understand the actual essence of our independence .
14
The end of the Second World War , instead of mitigating the general crisis of Capitalism , intensified all its features at the end of the War . The smashing of Fascism , the historic role played by the Soviet Union under the leadership of Stalin in forcing defeat on Fascism , and the impending victory of the advancing Chinese Revolution under the leadership of Mao Tse Tung and the Chinese Communist Party provided the decisive impulse which set in motion a movement of emancipation from colonial rule all over South Asia and beyond it into West Asia and Africa . The decline in power and prestige of the victorious imperialist states especially of Britain and France , and the rise of the proletarian state , the Soviet Union , as an international force to be reckoned with , immensely advanced the revolutionary potentialities of the liberation movements in all colonies .
It was under such a historical setup , that the post-Second World War situation witnessed a mounting mass upsurge of millions of people in India , militant demonstrations in protest against the trial of INA soldiers ; the glorious revolt of the ranks of the Royal Indian Navy , which forged the militant unity of all classes , casts , and communities ; the open rumblings of the revolt of the Army and the Air Force ; all these revealed the growing maturity of the liberation movement in India . The proletariat was on its feet all over the country and immense political strikes were the order of the day . The mass of the people in the Indian princely states was on the march , especially the peasants against feudal exploitation . Thus , for the first time in India , the movement swept forward not only among the civilian population but also among the armed forces .
The British authorities were unnerved , and the Indian bourgeoisie leadership was flabbergasted . The twins met to disrupt and destroy the unity of mass of the people and the armed forces , which was developing into an explosive force to sweep away the hundred-year away imperialism and age-old feudal serfdom . It was the signal of a new era in India . It revealed the disintegration of British authority at the very basis and in the machinery of its power . The Indian bourgeoisie fearful of the consequences of this unforeseen popular upheaval hastened towards betrayal .
On 21 st February 1946 , when the Indian soldiers refused to fire on the revolting Navy , British troops were called in and Admiral Godfrey broadcast his ultimatum that the ‘ overwhelming force at the disposal of the Government will be used to the utmost ,.... even if it means the destruction of the Navy ’, Vallabhai Patel , the strong man of the Congress , denounced the Naval ratings and endorsed the remarks of the Commander-in-Chief that there ‘ ought to be discipline in the Navy ’. Maulana Azad , the Congress President during this period of the final betrayal of the liberation struggle , declared that ‘ strikes , hartals and defiance of the authority of the day are out of place ’. And Mahatma Gandhi struck the last nail when he condemned the Hindu- Muslim unity of this great uprising and the universal militant support of the masses as an ‘ unholy alliance ’. ‘ That would have delivered India over to the rabble . I would not want to live up to 125 years to witness that consummation . I would rather perish in the flames ’. A revealing statement indeed , betraying and expressing the fear of the upper classes of the growing revolutionary actions of various sections of the masses .
It is clear that the bourgeoisie did not want a decisive victory against imperialism . It is also clear that the bourgeoisie is incapable of carrying through the Democratic , anti-imperialist Revolution to its consummation . They are in too great a need of bureaucratic administration , its police and military forces built up by British Imperialism in the course of its rule of 100 years and more , for use against the ‘ rabble ’ - the proletariat and the peasantry . They certainly did not want this machine to be destroyed .
Thus the ball of despicable compromise with imperialism was set in motion . The final betrayal was the order of the day .
Class Struggle