Communist
18th January 2010, 05:44
Caveat Lector:
Posted as historical footnote only.
==============================
Jyoti Basu obituary
Veteran communist politician who nearly became
prime minister of India
Derek Brown
The Guardian
17 January 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/17/jyoti-basu-obituary
Jyoti Basu, who has died aged 95, was one of the last
Indian politicians whose careers started before the end
of British rule. He was a stalwart of the much-fractured
communist movement, but his devout socialism was
tempered by pragmatism and an unerring political
instinct. He was chief minister of his beloved West
Bengal state for more than 23 continuous years - longer
by far than any other chief minister of any Indian
state.
That remarkable tenure was made possible by Basu's
towering popularity, the result of seven decades of
public and political service, most of it in Kolkata (or
Calcutta, as it was known for most of his long life). He
could have gone to the very top, as India's first
communist prime minister in the mid-1990s, but his
chance evaporated when his Communist Party of India
(Marxist) (CPM) decided to boycott the United Front
coalition, which went on to rule under HD Deve Gowda of
the Janata Dal. Basu thought the boycott a calamitous
mistake, but true to style he remained steadfastly loyal
to his party.
Jyoti Kiran Basu (the middle name was quickly dropped)
was born into a well-to-do Hindu family. His father, a
respectable doctor, was later horrified by Jyoti's
choice of a political career, and even more by his
choice of party. But the boy's early years were
comfortably uneventful. He was educated in private
schools and graduated from Presidency College, Kolkata,
before sailing to Britain in 1935 to study law.
There, he became fascinated by leftist theory and
practice. He attended lectures by Harold Laski, and got
involved with the Communist Party of Great Britain. He
wanted to join the party, but was dissuaded by its
general secretary Harry Pollitt, who knew the young
Indian could get into hot water if he returned to the
British Raj as a known communist. Still, there was
plenty of political work to do in London: Basu agitated
for independence, and acted as a fixer for visiting
dignatories, including Jawaharlal Nehru, arranging for
them to meet leaders of the Labour party and the wider
socialist movement.
Having qualified as a barrister at the Middle Temple,
Basu returned to Kolkata in 1940. Almost immediately, he
plunged into politics, becoming an organiser for the
Communist Party of India (CPI), with the task of
spreading the word among railway workers. It is a
measure of his industry and effectiveness that he soon
became general secretary of the rail workers' union.
In the meantime, British rule in the subcontinent was
passing none too peacefully to its close. Basu, briefly
imprisoned in 1945, was elected to the Bengal
legislative assembly in 1946, the year before
independence and partition, and immediately became
leader of the communist opposition to the ruling
Congress party. In the rough and tumble of West Bengal
politics, Basu was an astute tactician, but he remained
an essentially provincial politician with little
prospect of advancement.
That changed in 1964, when the CPI underwent a dramatic
split. It is often represented as a schism between
nationalists who staunchly supported India in the brief
but disastrous border war with China in 1962, and those
who believed that it had been a war between socialism
and capitalism. In reality it was a left-right split,
with Basu in the former camp. He became chief of the CPM
in West Bengal. At the last count there were at least 15
communist parties in India, ranging from mild left to
raving revolutionary, but only the CPI and the CPM
really count electorally.
Under Basu, the CPM built a formidable, some would say
ruthless, state apparatus. It was denied victory in the
state elections of 1972, which were shamelessly rigged
by the even more ruthless Congress machine, but was
swept to power in 1977.
Over the following 23 years, Basu achieved much, and
failed quite often too. He brought reform to a largely
feudal landscape, and his redistribution of land-wealth
made him electorally invincible. Even better, he brought
stability to a previously chaotic state. But rural
reform was paralleled by urban stagnation. Kolkata
remains the most lovable of Indian cities, but communist
rule has denied it the new prosperity visible in other
centres such as Delhi and Mumbai (Bombay). Nowhere is
the stultifying effect of the regime more evident than
in the Writers' Building, a relic not just of the Raj
but of the East India Company, where legions of clerks,
peons and other penpushers juggle endlessly with
crumbling heaps of forms, dockets, chits and files, to
no apparent purpose.
Basu remained an idol to the working class and rural
peasantry, but in the end became a symbol of the statism
which is so despised by today's MBA-brandishing classes.
Had he become prime minister in 1996, he might well have
restored prestige to that much-damaged office, through
his honesty and other old-fashioned virtues. On the
other hand, his instinct for hands-on control might have
brought India's modern boom to a shuddering halt.
A steadfastly private man, Basu married twice. His first
wife died after only 16 months of marriage. He had a
long and happy second marriage with Kamal who
predeceased him. They both doted on their son Chandan,
who survives him.
Jyoti Basu, politician, born 8 July 1914; died 17
January 2010
==============================
historical footnote only
==============================
Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.
Posted as historical footnote only.
==============================
Jyoti Basu obituary
Veteran communist politician who nearly became
prime minister of India
Derek Brown
The Guardian
17 January 2010
http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2010/jan/17/jyoti-basu-obituary
Jyoti Basu, who has died aged 95, was one of the last
Indian politicians whose careers started before the end
of British rule. He was a stalwart of the much-fractured
communist movement, but his devout socialism was
tempered by pragmatism and an unerring political
instinct. He was chief minister of his beloved West
Bengal state for more than 23 continuous years - longer
by far than any other chief minister of any Indian
state.
That remarkable tenure was made possible by Basu's
towering popularity, the result of seven decades of
public and political service, most of it in Kolkata (or
Calcutta, as it was known for most of his long life). He
could have gone to the very top, as India's first
communist prime minister in the mid-1990s, but his
chance evaporated when his Communist Party of India
(Marxist) (CPM) decided to boycott the United Front
coalition, which went on to rule under HD Deve Gowda of
the Janata Dal. Basu thought the boycott a calamitous
mistake, but true to style he remained steadfastly loyal
to his party.
Jyoti Kiran Basu (the middle name was quickly dropped)
was born into a well-to-do Hindu family. His father, a
respectable doctor, was later horrified by Jyoti's
choice of a political career, and even more by his
choice of party. But the boy's early years were
comfortably uneventful. He was educated in private
schools and graduated from Presidency College, Kolkata,
before sailing to Britain in 1935 to study law.
There, he became fascinated by leftist theory and
practice. He attended lectures by Harold Laski, and got
involved with the Communist Party of Great Britain. He
wanted to join the party, but was dissuaded by its
general secretary Harry Pollitt, who knew the young
Indian could get into hot water if he returned to the
British Raj as a known communist. Still, there was
plenty of political work to do in London: Basu agitated
for independence, and acted as a fixer for visiting
dignatories, including Jawaharlal Nehru, arranging for
them to meet leaders of the Labour party and the wider
socialist movement.
Having qualified as a barrister at the Middle Temple,
Basu returned to Kolkata in 1940. Almost immediately, he
plunged into politics, becoming an organiser for the
Communist Party of India (CPI), with the task of
spreading the word among railway workers. It is a
measure of his industry and effectiveness that he soon
became general secretary of the rail workers' union.
In the meantime, British rule in the subcontinent was
passing none too peacefully to its close. Basu, briefly
imprisoned in 1945, was elected to the Bengal
legislative assembly in 1946, the year before
independence and partition, and immediately became
leader of the communist opposition to the ruling
Congress party. In the rough and tumble of West Bengal
politics, Basu was an astute tactician, but he remained
an essentially provincial politician with little
prospect of advancement.
That changed in 1964, when the CPI underwent a dramatic
split. It is often represented as a schism between
nationalists who staunchly supported India in the brief
but disastrous border war with China in 1962, and those
who believed that it had been a war between socialism
and capitalism. In reality it was a left-right split,
with Basu in the former camp. He became chief of the CPM
in West Bengal. At the last count there were at least 15
communist parties in India, ranging from mild left to
raving revolutionary, but only the CPI and the CPM
really count electorally.
Under Basu, the CPM built a formidable, some would say
ruthless, state apparatus. It was denied victory in the
state elections of 1972, which were shamelessly rigged
by the even more ruthless Congress machine, but was
swept to power in 1977.
Over the following 23 years, Basu achieved much, and
failed quite often too. He brought reform to a largely
feudal landscape, and his redistribution of land-wealth
made him electorally invincible. Even better, he brought
stability to a previously chaotic state. But rural
reform was paralleled by urban stagnation. Kolkata
remains the most lovable of Indian cities, but communist
rule has denied it the new prosperity visible in other
centres such as Delhi and Mumbai (Bombay). Nowhere is
the stultifying effect of the regime more evident than
in the Writers' Building, a relic not just of the Raj
but of the East India Company, where legions of clerks,
peons and other penpushers juggle endlessly with
crumbling heaps of forms, dockets, chits and files, to
no apparent purpose.
Basu remained an idol to the working class and rural
peasantry, but in the end became a symbol of the statism
which is so despised by today's MBA-brandishing classes.
Had he become prime minister in 1996, he might well have
restored prestige to that much-damaged office, through
his honesty and other old-fashioned virtues. On the
other hand, his instinct for hands-on control might have
brought India's modern boom to a shuddering halt.
A steadfastly private man, Basu married twice. His first
wife died after only 16 months of marriage. He had a
long and happy second marriage with Kamal who
predeceased him. They both doted on their son Chandan,
who survives him.
Jyoti Basu, politician, born 8 July 1914; died 17
January 2010
==============================
historical footnote only
==============================
Portside aims to provide material of interest
to people on the left that will help them to
interpret the world and to change it.