FRON IEIl

of ~Lag(;product·ion.. :\luch reducedin acting ability as die troupe is, hecan yet get the very best oub of itwith his able direction. The seN,combine realism with symbolic over-tones. In one scene this is donemost effectively with swastika-paint!-ed flags hangi,ng in an ominousarray. The dec<?rand going -on inthe court-scenes combine burlesq ueand realIsm with Brechtian effect,but poverty of language and charac-teriza1ion makes the two long scenesof trial extremely dull. It is inthese scenes that! the drama getsbogged in cliche and 'triviality. Theintroduction of the main characterslike dummies with their heads andlimbs projecting through holes is anadaptation from Brecht. Such gim-micks including the mimes do notset the to e of the play with a melo-dramatic conclusionl, The openingsong and dialogues are irrelevant.The choice of recorded music is,however excellent and the costumesare designed with propriety. TapasSen's lighting creates some uperbeffects as in the projectil''Il of Hit-ler's shadow. But with all tlhis, canUtpal Dutt recapture his old glory?

A Significant Painter

SANDIP SARKAR

DILIP Kundu, a painter in hislate 'twenties (born, 1943),

has compelled critics to recognise himas one of the most powerful paintersof Calcutta today. He belongs tothe group of artists who call them-selves Calcutta Painters. DK hasexhibited his paintings in group showssince 1962, not only in Calcutta, butalso in other major cities of India.StJrangely enough, {his is his fir tone-man how.

Besides paiming DK teaches artin the Deaf and Dumb School and thismay be a key to understanding hispaintings. As a teacher he has towatcl] his students grapple with theproblem of expressing their experienceand feeling without the pelp of-

16

words. DK has 'oeen forcl>d intothe world of pure colours free of thecorrupt influence of sound.

Significantly enough, in the firstsolo exhibition, DK depicts man's soul(~ymbolised as a bird in twenty-fivepaintings and drawings) in a vastempty space. He has used acrylicemulsion and synthetic enamel paintsto give a transparent, almost dream-like dimension to his paintings. Inthis semi.Jfigurative wor1)dJ,grey andoccasional black intensify the 'brightcolours and emphasise joy even insuffering. DK's paintings are sym-phonies o~ passion. Yet: everytfhingseems to be under control. Tonesare in harmony of juxtaposition.Colours are contrasted. Nothing isconfused. There is a definite sequ-ence of lines used' in every composi-tion Although very ubjective DKhas been a'ble to restrain his emO-tions. Especially 14. 24, 25 are likemirrors that throw back the image tothe viewer.

DK's paintings are social commentsof a dlifIerent order. Social restric-tions have paraly ed man in such away that he now finds himseU unableto communicate the nnances of hifeelings. and emotions.

LeUers

Peking And CP(ML)Mr Arani Ghosh's (December 2)

arguments ~re too weak to justify his doubts.

First, he ought to ihave known 'oetter when he wrote that "Oharu Mazumdar was always the Chairman" of tthe CPI (ML) . In fact, the Party had no Chairman and Cham Mazurn-dar was elected General Secretary when the Party was formed in 1969, and again, at the first meeting of the Central Committee held immediately after the Party Congress in May 1970.

Second, it should not cause sur-prise if leaders of tihe Chinese Com-munist Party pointed out that Lin's observation-"Guerilla warfare is .the only way to mobilize and apply the whole strength of tibe people against ,the

enemy"-wa related only to principlesof warfare. One may refer to the fol-lowing passages in Lin Piao's "LongLive the Victory of People;s .War".: '"In tthe enemy-occupied cities and vil-lages, we combined legal with illegalstruggle, united the basic masses andall patriots ... " etc. (Chapter 3) and"The main form of struggle was warand the majn form of organization wasthe army whiCh was under tJhe abso-lute leadership of the Chinese Com·munist Party, while all the otther formsof organization yand struggle led byour Party were co-ordinated, directlyor indirectly, with the war." (Chap-ter 4). These will show that tiheParty leadership's interpretation ofLin s above observation on guerillawarfare-the interpretation that gueril-la warfare is the only form of strug-gle or that "guerilla war is tthe onlytactic of the peasants' revolutionarystruggle"--iwas :wholly. wrong.

Moreover, guerilla war is a form ofpeople's war an'd can be waged onlywith the active belp and co-operationof the people. What the Party leader-hip called guerilla war was actually

secret anniliilation of individual car-ried out by groups of militants secretfrom the people and sel;ret even fromthe Party units not sufficiently accus-tomed to \mderground work. Natur-ally, there is a fundamental <lifferencebetween individual terror practised bysecret groups and the revolutionaryviolence of an 'aroused people, "oet-ween ",the \b-attJe of annihilation ofclass elemies" as understood by theParty and guerilla warfare as conceiv-ed by Lenin or Mao Tse-tung.

Thirdly, the "alleged letter" fromSanyal and others dealt only with the"valuable fTaternal suggestions" fromthe Chinese Communist Party aOJdtherefusal of the Party leadership to 'bene-fit from those sugge tions and correctits left-adventurist deviations. It refer-red to the abnormal situation withinthe Party and tibe breaking up of theParty into different groups and fac-tions without naming their leaders andsuggests th~ way of building a newunity-. The purpose of the letter wasnot to offer an appraisal of tbe na-tional Or !he international situation,

JANUARY 6, 1973

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17L"

Party has alway's'mentioned tlhe neces-sity of building the united front. Atone phaSe the Party leadership oelie-ved that "tbe battle of annihilation ofclass enemies could solve all our prob-lems", including the problem of 'oull-ding the' unite-d fr<:>nt. If 'ultra-leftist activities' had ~ fact come to avirtual stop", what is the tactical lineadopted to implement tlhe "moreopen-ended united front Istrategy"~WilI the Party work through mass or-ganizations ;anlCLparticipate !in mass

movements and try to rally the peoplearound bouh economic land politicalslogans to implement the "more open-ended united front strategy" with aview to accompliSibing the People'sDemocratic Revolution? Or, willthe underground Party remain with-drawn within its own shell, as oefore~Indeed, a fitorm of people's struggleswill soon P.:lreakout in this country.If the Party could carry out demo-cratic land reforms, Le., if it couldlabolish feudalism, in some parts ofthe country, tlhat would surely createa tremendous upsurge. But that pre-supposes the creation of base areas.Except in base areas, the agrarianrevolution cannot 'be carried out. Thequestion is, how can base areas becreated? Previously, the Party lea-dership believed !!bat only "the battleof annihilation of class enemies"could create base areas. If the class-annihilation-line bas been abandoned,what is going to replace it? Thesequestions may seem too much of thisearth, earthy, and laclcing in a dream-like quality, but mere wishing themaway will serve no purpose. Thesequestions can only be answered if theexperiences of the struggles of tlhepast year.> are summed up in thelight of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tse-tung Thought. It will not serve thecause of revolution if the science ofMarxism-Leninism-Mao TsetungTbou~t is treated as a cult of bhakti.Chairman Mao said: "The troublesthat have befallen our nation are ex-tremely serious, and only a scientificapproach and a spirit of responsibilitycan lead it on to the road of libera-tion. There is 'but one trutlb, andthe que tion of whether or not one

met at Visakihapatnam during theirtrial in July this year and were report-ed to have sent out the joint letter.Will it be a revelation for Mr Ghoshthat revolutionaries "languishing injail under ihe strictest surveillance allround" have successfulIy ma·intainedcontact with their organizations out-side not only now but also in the past?Does he not know that an article sentby Kanu Sanyal from jail was publish-ed by the CPI(ML) in 1971?

It is known to many that a Partyrepresentative, one of the most trustedcomrades of Charu Mazumdar, visi-ted Peking and brought back from theChinese Communist Party "most valu-able fraternal suggestions in respectof 'our liberation struggle in In'diain the month of November 1970", asstated in the "alleged letter". It isalso known to many that the abovePatry representative, who made thereport to Charu Mazumdar, remaineda firm adherent of Charu Mazumdar'sline and tried to implement it faith-fully till ibis arrest by the police.Perahps one may remember that intheir published document on the natio-nal questions Asim Chatterjee and histBssociates (Bengal-Bihar-Orissa Bor-der Regionitl Committee) demandeda circulation of ttbis criticism. It willbe seen from the published replies ofChBnl MazumicLar fcmd the WestBengal State Committee that they didnot deny the existence of the CPC'scriticism but #pat ..they preferredsilence on this question. If the"suggestions" contained in the "alle-ged letter" were not offered by theCPC., then what were the CPC'sactual suggestions? Besides the Ben-gal-Bilhar-Orissa Border RegioualCommil1ltee, the West Bengal-BiharBorder Regional Committee and amember of the Central Committee ofthe Party are known to have deman-ded circulation of the Party represen-tative's report but there was no res-ponse from Charu Mazumdar.

Mr Glhosh has said that "by theearly part of this year Charu Mazum-dar was himself advocating a more,0pM-e~~d ( united front tStrjategy".What he pleans by "open-ended uni-ted front strategy" i not clear. The

JAN VARY 6, 1973

'Banglades;h and so on."Mr Arani Ghosh declares that "from

the middle of 197\ 'the ultra-leftist.,..~ activities' had in fact come to a vir-

tual stop" out does not explain whathe means by "ultra-leftist activities".Do these mean "t.he battle of annihi-lation of class enemies" around whichthe entire tactical line of the Partywas built at a particular stage andwhich receIved approval at the PartyCongress? If !>o,when did lihe Partyrepudiate that line and withdraw theParty Congress documents and otherwritings that initiated. and upheld thatline? On t1he contrary, the Ifeportsand review from different State Com-mittee and Regional Commi ttes,published in the July \97 I-January\972 issue of Uberation (that cameout in March J972), strongly upheldtheannihilation-o~lass-enemies lineand "ultra-leftist activities". Mr AraniGhosh's tatement i not justified byfacts.

One should understand the differ-ence between paying tribute to a re-volutionary and supporting his wrongline. Perhaps Mr Arani Ghosh is notaware that Chowdhari Tejeswara Rooand other "eminent" leaders of Andhraissued a pamplilet in the name of theSrikakularu District Committee of theParty about two years ago blamingthe Party-line and tlhe Central leader-ship for the setback in Srikakulam.Reference tg this difference was madeby the present Andhra StateCommittee in its review published inJuly 1971-January 1972 issue ofLiberation. The "alleged Jetter" shouldnot be a surprise to Mr Ghosh if heremembers that the leadership of allimportant areas of peasant struggle-Srikakulam, Muslhahari, Monghyr,Lakhimpur-Kheri, Midnapur-Bahara-gora, Birbhum aIlld Naxa!bari, if theletter is treated as authentic-has re-belled against the Party-line, eaQb inits own way and at different times.

Fourthly, Mr Ghosh argues that thesix leaders could not have sent out theletter from prison wi!!bout compromis-ing their "proven integrity". It maybe recalled that these leaders, whoare all implicated in a case broughtby the Andhra police against them,

.J UARY 6, 1973

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Indian citizens and bears proof ofhigh-handed interference of the po-lice with the administration of jus-tlice and freedom of legal profes-sion.

PROMODE SEN GUPTA

Secretary, Association for theProteotion of Democratic Rights

Mistake

Harassing LawyersOn behalf of the Association for

the Protection of Democratic Rights,I trongly condemn the police forharassing and threatening Sri Indl'a-jjt Roy Chaudhl~r'i, dvocate, QnJlybecause he has moved bail on behalfof Sarbasri Samen Bose and SantoshRana. (Ref: Frontier, 23-12.72) .Such police action goes against thefundamental constit)utional right of

Mr Phani Bhusan Ghosh's letter(December 23) has brought to mnotice a serious printing mistake inmy letter published on November 25.I had writ!ten in my letter "commu-nalism stems the tide of a people'srevolution". This sentence waSprinted as: "communalism stemsfrom the tide of a people's revolu-u.on"j TIii complietely alter themeaning of the sentence.

TARULATA DOLEYSibsagar, As am

lSmt Indira GandhiPrime Minister of India] , afdarjang ,RoadTew Delhi-ll

Yours faithfully(R, P. Sinha)

P.S.: Kindly ask your party mem-bers and supporters ( aba Congre s)not to give false evidence nor toprocure fal e witnesses for the police,which they ~re nOw doing energeti-cally, ~illCalcu:rta anet otther ~pa!litsof WeSlt Bengal. They are evenPI10'curi'l1g approvel·5- who did nottake part' in the crime.

duce false evidence in Court ca esagainst person whom they do notIil<e.

And the persons falsely implicatedare practically helpless in Courts be-cause they have not enough meansto defend themselve' properly inpl'olonged trials.

Slate help in this ,'espect is worseIhkn useless.

Ca1cuHa21.12-72

AJOY RoyCalcutta

False CasesJ

Madam,Re: False C{lSeS 111 IVest Bengal

Law COl/ris.On the eve 1)( yOllr departure to

Calcutta Lo attend COlIgres Session,1 beg to draw your kind attentionto the agonie of the familie (spe-cially of parents) o( the YOllngsterswbo have been fal ely implicated 111

Court cases in 'Vest Bengal.There are many .lainal Abedins

in We t Bengal (i( nOt throughoutIndia) 'who do not hesi-tate t() ad-

FRONTIER

has-arrived at it depebds not on sub-jectlive boasting but on objectivepractice. The only yardstick of truthis the revolutionary practice of mil-lions of people." (On NewDemocracy) .

,Wrong politics ("ebe .ultra-leftistactivities", to qubte Mr Ghosh) haveshattered the Party into groups andfactions: correct politics alone canrebuild the Party, strengthen it andunite tlhe different revolutionary for-ces, and on the basis of tbis new unitythe Party can link itself with tbeinnumerable struggles of the people,lead and co-ordinate them in a vaststruggle, tlbe main form of which willbe armed struggle. Under the leader-ship of such a Party-armed w'thMarxism-Mao Tsetung Thought anddisciplined, linked; closely with tlhemasses, able to integrate theory withpractice and rea,dy to make self-criticism when mistakes occur-roepeople of our country will accomplish'the People's Democratic Revolutionand march towards socialism. Thegroup of revolutionaries that cancorrectly sum up the experiences ofpast struggle, make concrete analysisof 1lhe concrete conditions in thiscountry, and [provilde 1lhe correctpoUtical line in today's \ confusedsituation, will surely be able to re-build tbe Party and unify andstrengthen it.

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18