Sita Ram Goel - Genesis And Growth Of Nehruism: Volume I: Commitment to Communism

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Foreword by Philip Spratt 3

First Preface 6

II . 7

III . 13

IV . 16

V . 20

VI . 21

VII . 21

Second Preface 23

II . 25

III . 30

IV . 35

In Search of a Culprit 36

A Pilgrim to the Soviet Paradise 42

Historian With Communist Glasses 49

An Indefatigable Soviet Enthusiast 56

An Incurable Soviet-Addict 63

An Apologist for Soviet Sins 70

A Persistent Pro-Soviet Speaker 76

A Devoted Disciple of Stalin 83

A Fellow-Traveller of Soviet Foreign Policy-1 92

A Fellow-Traveller of Soviet Foreign Policy-2 100

A Fellow-Traveller of Soviet Foreign Policy-3 108

A Fellow-Traveller of Soviet Foreign Policy-4 116

A Fellow-Traveller of Soviet Foreign Policy-5 124

A Fellow-Traveller of Soviet Foreign Policy-6 132

A Fellow-Traveller of Soviet Foreign Policy-7 140

A Fellow-Traveller of Soviet Foreign Policy-8 151

A Promoter of the Communist Party 159

Postscript (1993). 167

Sappers and Miners of Communism 175

II.182

Choosing Between Usa and Ussr 188

II .190

III .193

IV .196

Why is there so much puzzlement about the politics of Jawaharlal Nehru? As Goel reminds us, and every newspaper reader can recall, he himself frequently says that he agrees in principle with the Communists. Why is he not taken at his word?

We do not take him at his word, because he says and does many other things, and so we do not realise how closely the relevant parts of his policy accord with this particular avowal. When I read the articles in this book, I was quite surprised. He is a very much more faithful Communist than I had realised.

But the principal reason why we do not fully accept his own statements that he is a Communist is that our image of the Communist is so different. We think of the Communist as a man with no interests ourside politics, a fanatic working furiously for the cause, an offensive, truculent person, or if he has to indulge in camouflage, a wily deceiver, and at all times a docile follower of the party line. That is not a false picture, but there are many whom it does not fit. Many Communists are also ambitious; many have a liking for the fleshpots; some have serious interests outside politics, though their theory assures them that there is nothing outside politics; no doubt there are some who do not accept the more abstract parts of the Communist theory, as there are certainly many who ignore it; and there are some, even within the party, who are not slavish followers of the party line.

Nehru is a Communist in this broader sense. He accepts increasing governmental power, socialisation and mechanisation, as both inevitable and desirable. He is strongly attached to the existing Communist governments, and when they clash with other governments he almost invariably supports them. He is in a sense aware of the dark side of Communism as it has existed up to now, but he neutralises this awareness by the Communist procedure of considering history in block-stages. The bourgeois era is thus made responsible for all the unpleasant things that have happened in the past few centuries, and the facts that some bourgeois systems have outgrown many of the old evils, and that it appears possible to achieve a bourgeois world system which would be much preferable to the Communist world system, are ignored. The Marxian scheme of block-stages does not contemplate such facts.

Here, it is true, Nehru may deviate somewhat from the orthodox Communist position. The bourgeois world system was sketched by Woodrow Wilson. It provides for substantially independent nations, running their internal affairs in their own way, under a very limited world authority, like the League or the U.N. The Communists insist on substantial uniformity, through a Communist Party monopoly of power, in the internal affairs of all nationas, and until the rise of polycentrism they contemplated a highly centralised world government. Wisdom may be dawning on them now, but we do not yet know how far they will go.

In this controversy Nehru no doubt stands with the revisionists, but that is a matter

of little immediate importance. On the questions that arise now, though he looks so different he is a Communist in practice. The figure in world politics who most resembles him is Castro. Castro got into power on false pretences, i.e. as a liberator, not as a Communist, but within a year or so he had liquidated his opponents and built up the Communists so far that he was able to drop the mask. Nehru got into power on the same false pretences, i.e. as a liberator, not as a Communist, and he has proceeded in the same direction, but far more cautiously. Castro succeed Batista; Nehru succeeded Gandhi on the one hand, and the legalistic British regime on the other. The two legacies between them have cramped his Communist style. Nehru has sometimes sighed for a cadre such as Mao Tse-tung built up during the Long March. With such a cadre he might not have lagged so far behind Castro. But such a cadre, while it might have enabled him to enforce Communism, would not have made it any more congenial to India. Communism is the policy of a small group of intellectuals, who are building a governing machine with a vested interest in Communism, but it remains wholly alien to this conservative, religious, individualistic, property-conscious, peasant-minded country. Just as in Russia and China, Communism can be forced upon India only by a usurper regime.

When I have argued in this way, people object that Nehru has made no attempt to impose the Communist policy in regard to religion, education, freedom of opinion, personal liberty, and so on. The Gandhian legacy has been too strong; if he had tried he would have been overthrown. But through a series of constitutional amendments, he has systematically cut down the right to property, which most theorists regard as a necessary bulwark, in the long run, of the other freedoms. As for civil, religious and intellectual liberty, the Communists always profess to respect them. They are fully provided for in the Soviet constitution. Stalin himself claimed to recognise the necessity for discussion and the clash of opinions. But in practice Communists concentrate all power in the hands of the government, leaving no countervailing force to balance it. Consequently, the libertarian provisions of their constitution cannot be enforced. They are totally ignored in practice, and it is more than anyones life is worth to protest. Nehrus attitude in this matter is, therefore, in accordance with the abstract theory of Communism. What he would have done if he had enjoyed total power is anyones guess.