অহমিয়া বিচ্ছিন্নতাবাদের কিছু ইতিহাস: জ্যোতির্ময় হাজরা

https://www.facebook.com/jyotirmoy.hazra.71/posts/3430706833667434

১৫/০১/২০২০

অসম আন্দোলনের ঐতিহাসিক পরম্পরা নিয়ে কিছু জেনে নিতে হয় পড়াশুনা করতে হবে নইলে প্রবীণ কোনও অসমীয়া অস্মিতার কাছে যেতে হবে । অসমে NRC চালুর দাবী উঠেছিল ১৯৪৮ এ স্বাধীনতার পরপরই । বস্তুতঃ এ দাবী উঠেছিলো ১৯০৫ এর বঙ্গভঙ্গ এর সময় থেকেই যখন মুসলিম প্রধান অধুনা পূর্ববঙ্গের সঙ্গে সে সময় অসম কে যুক্ত করে প্রদেশ তৈরি হয়েছিলো । ১৯১১ তে সেই বঙ্গভঙ্গ রদ হওয়ার পর অসমবাসি ঠিকই করে নিয়েছিলো , অসম অস্মিতার স্বার্থে বাঙ্গালী ও মুসলিম প্রভাব তারা দূর করবে । এরই সঙ্গে পুরোনো অসম ভেঙ্গে স্বাধীনতার পর যখন অন্যান্য জনজাতিকে মুক্তি দিয়ে সেভেন সিশ্টার্স হয় তখন থেকেই অসমবাসি নিজেদের স্বাতন্ত্র্যের পথ খুঁজতে থাকে । ১৯৫৫ এর নাগরিকত্বের আইন তৈরির সময়ও এই দাবী অসম বাসির ছিলো যে তাদের নাগরিক পঞ্জিতে পরিবারের শুধুমাত্র জন্ম ও মৃত্যু লিপিবদ্ধ হবে , কোনও নতুন পরিবার এর বাইরে আসবে না । অসমের NRC র সঙ্গে সাম্প্রতিক NRC আলোচনার এটাই পার্থ্যক্য । অসমের ক্ষেত্রে বলা হয়েছিলো updation . সব রাজনৈতিক দলই এটা জানে , সেজন্যই তাঁরা বলেন অসমের এক পৃথক প্রেক্ষাপট আছে । এর ভিত্তিবর্ষ, তাদের দাবী ছিলো ১৯৫০ । তাদের আন্দোলনের বর্শামুখ ছিলো , বিশেষতঃ ষাটের দশকে বাঙালি ও মুসলমান । এর পিছনে অবাঙালি উত্তরভারতের ব্যবসায়ীদের মদত ছিলো প্রকাশ্য । উত্তরপূর্বের ব্রিটিশ পূর্ব কাল থেকে ব্যবসা , চাকরি ইত্যাদিতে দখল ছিলো বাংলা ভাষী হিন্দুদের । সেই দখল কে বেদখল করার জন্য উত্তর ভারতের ব্যবসায়ীরা এক যৌক্তিক আন্দোলনের আগুনে ঘী ঢেলে গেলেন । বাংলা ভাষার জন্য প্রাণ দান প্রথম ঘ্টেছে অসমে । অসমীয়া দের হাতে বাঙালি উত্পীড়নের যা ঘ্ট্ণা ঘ্টেছে তা ঘ্টেছে পূর্ব পাকিস্তানে নিগৃহীত বাঙালি দের সঙ্গে সমান তালে । কিন্তু চাড্ডি বা বিজেপিরা তাদের উত্তরভারতীয় ব্যবসায়ী বন্ধুদের স্বার্থে ততোটাই চুপ করে থাকে যতোটা গলা চড়ায় পূর্ব পাকিস্তান বা বাংলাদেশের সম্পর্কে ।
আসু' র হাতে প্রায় ৫৪ জন সিপিআইএম কর্মী এই ভাষা আন্দোলনের পর্যাযে প্রাণ দিয়েছে কারণ এরা দাবী করেছিলো ভিত্তিবর্ষ ১৯৫০ এর বদলে ১৯৭১ করা হোক ।
১৯৮৫ এর রাজীব চুক্তির ফলে ভিত্তিবর্ষ ১৯৭১ তে সরে আসার কারণে প্রায় ৬০ লাখ অসমীয়া উদ্বাস্তু আবার ঘরছাড়া হতে বাঁচে । ক্ষিপ্ত আসু কুকুরের গলায় জ্যোতিবাবুর নামে প্লাকার্ড ঝোলায ।

সুতরাং সিপিআইএম এর খুঁত না খুঁজে অসমের NRC আন্দোলনের প্রেক্ষাপট জানুন । অসমে যখন সিপিআইএম কে বাঙ্গালীদের পার্টি বলে খুন করা হচ্ছে , বাড়ী পোড়ানো হচ্ছে তখন সেই সব বিপ্লবীরা চুপ মেরে ছিলো আজ যারা গলার শিরা তুলছে , শিলচরের বিমানবন্দরে নাটক করছে ।

১৯৮৪ এর কংগ্রেসি এম পি মমতা ।
১৯৮৫ এ রাজীব চুক্তি ।
২০০৩ এ বাজপেয়ী সরকারের মন্ত্রী মমতা যখন NRC র বর্তমান প্রয়োগ বিধি তৈরি হয় ।
২০০৫ এ কাগজ ছুঁড়ে প্রকারান্তরে NRC র দাবিকে জোরদার করে মমতা ।
আর এখন ? ?
এবার আপনিই বলুন ॥

Aztec Civilisation wonders

From the FB timeline of Sangram Chakravarti:

Most people think that the Spaniards came to teach the Indians culture, architecture, traditions, music, art, etc., but how true is all this?

Next we will see it:

* HYGIENE If the Aztecs had conquered Spain and not the other way around, they would have taught the Spaniards, to bathe TWICE A DAY, and not once a week.

* MEDICINE The Aztec herbalist at that time was the most advanced in the world, the indigenous "savages" had their medical school, where there were different branches: internal medicine (Tlamatepatli), surgeon (texoxotla), hematologist (tezoc-tezoani), et cetera, they knew the causes of diseases, epidemics and how to cure them, knew how to use suppositories, ointments, powders, swish and suckers.

*ARCHITECTURE. There are still hundreds of examples of urbanism, engineering, and architecture in all America, call Teotihuacan, Tula, Xochicalco, Tenayuca, etc., all have a greater complexity than the pyramids of Egypt, and even with all this, the Spaniards considered that They were made by "savages".

* ASTRONOMY AND MATHEMATICS. The Mayans were those who contributed to the world of mathematics the number "zero", coupled with the calendar more accurate than the European, the Mayans had a very advanced astronomy, with respect to the invaders of the East.

*FARMING. The agriculture of the Indians had managed to cultivate thousands of hectares with a unique system in the ancient world, the "chinampas" or agriculture in the water with artificial islands, true floating gardens.

*ART. The indigenous works in cloth, clay or the different metals, wood, feathers, left the Europeans speechless for their perfection and beauty, in America, paper was made centuries before the conquest, using the bark of the tree, and in that paper it was they made books and the famous "codices."

*MUSIC. The Spaniards did not understand the importance of music either; the natives elaborated poems and songs to love and friendship, as well as coexistence with nature.

* ECONOMY AND COMMERCE. No civilization had developed so much commerce as the Incas and the Aztecs, its market reached Nicaragua, and they had a self-sufficient and organized economy, when in Spain they did not know what drainage was.

(Joaquin Chavez)

Touching the Frontiers of Physics

When Albert Einstein postulated his revolutionary Special Theory of Relativity, much of the world could make sense out of it, for it was only a revolutionary step forward. The scientific community in particular and the educated world in general did not find it too hard to comprehend the theories of Einstein. Remember that the French Mathematician Henri Poincare also arrived at the same formulations almost simultaneously. Only his understanding of the new formulations were more mathematical, while those of Einstein belonged more to Physics. His concept of space time but still remained abstruse

However, despite that fact that Riemann, Gauss and Lobachevsky made pioneering contribution to non-Euclidean geometry of curved space, calculus of tensors etc; being a classical physicist, Ernst Mach also contributed to this nascent understanding of space with that of gravitation; this branch of knowledge and utility of mathematical tool remained in the realm of obscurity and limited only to the use of cartography.

Einstein made the sweeping and revolutionanry utilization of this obscure branch of mathematics when he almost single-handedly made the giant leap forward from the Special theory to the all encompassing General theory of Relativity.

However, except for the British seafaring confirmation of bending of a distant star’s light rays by the gravity of the sun and explanation for the wobbling orbit of the Mercury, no easily confirmable event/ experiment was possible to generate interest in this theory; so mathematically complex, difficult to comprehend and far from commonplace to generate an interest among the general public. Its concepts were so outworldly, that it was nearly impossible to explain it in non-technical manner to a common man. It was remarked by Sir Arthur Eddington, the renowned British Astro-Physicist that apart from Einstein, only he understood it. It was another issue that Sir Eddington, like the worst colonial Master, suppressed the pioneering contribution to gravitational collapse; which comes by overpowering of the relative velocities between particles as caused by the working of the Pauli’s Exclusion Principle; as propounded by Subrahmanyam Chandrasekhar, which ultimately led to the understanding of the phenomenon of Black holes.

Subsequent to that and especially from the 1960s when Prof. Stephen Hawking formulated his famous Singularity Theorems, taking cue from the discovery of the well-known astronomer Sir Edwin Hubble, the word Big Bang generated lots of interest in the implications of the General Theory of Relativity among the Scientific community and then among the general public as well, on account of the philosophical & religious connotations - creation and destruction of the universe.

This led to many of the universities getting students and researchers on the difficult topic of general theory of relativity. Parallelly, there were the leaping growth in the understanding in and technological developments through Quantum Mechanics. Also there was the Nobel winning discovery of Prof. Salam and Steven Weinberg – of Unification of Weak Interaction with Electro - Magnetism. Meanwhile, remarkable improvements both in the capacity and versatility of Particle Accelerators and telescopes supplied lots of scientific data, confirmation of theories through experiment and knowledge of unusual objects and events in the depths of space or more precisely in space-time were available. This led to a sizable population of researchers, students, experimental scientists, science journalists and their readers as well as some superficial appreciation cum familiarity among the general public all over the world, even those who never have had a formal science education.

Therefore, all the scientific theories, most important and abstruse of them being the General Theory of Relativity, which were obscure and out of the reach of imagination of the layman, have started to melt now. Easier explanations, popular scientific essays, lectures, discourses, scientific documentaries of Discovery, National Geographic and BBC have brought such outworldly concepts to the drawing room and even to the roadside discussion corners in poor 3rd world countries.

Frontiers of Physics and frontiers of popular understanding of the remarkable recent developments of Physics are therefore in an interesting cat and mouse game now. Whereas physicists like Stephen Hawking and many others who have made similar path breaking contribution e.g. N=8 super gravity, heterotic superstrings, M-theory, p-branes some of them have also written best-sellers like “A Brief History of Time”, “Black holes & Baby universes” and “Quest for a Theory of Everything”. These helped popular understanding of such exotic ideas and whetted interests into the depths of such abstract concepts about the unperceivable world. This interaction sustains and strengthens the claims to the rightful existence of the profession called “Theoretical Physicist”.

The point of interest for this blogger is however, whether the layperson may contribute anything at all to this great mental expedition and adventure into the ultimate understanding of the deepest of the mysteries of existence, of being, of the universe. This expedition is perhaps no less challenging than those into the new worlds of America and unknown Africa by Columbus and Vasco-da-Gama.

The fruit of this mental venture as expected by the theoretical physicist of the day is the coveted “Theory of Everything”. This is supposed to explain and account for all that is meant by existence, of nature of being. It should answer the meaning and reasons of existence and coming into being of all forms of matter and energy, explain why it is as it is, as well as interactions between them and the mediums, of such interactions, what are all these made of etc.

It may not be very impractical to imagine that in such a grand cerebral venture, it is only the professional theoretical physicist who should be able to contribute just because of his training in mathematical tools of analysis and development of mathematical models for observed problems and phenomena whose quantitative relationships and dynamics have to be logically and precisely described.

The layman reader of modern developments in Physics may very well be able to think in a completely non-conventional way. It is because many of the path breaking concepts in unifying the too great but opposite theories in modern physics i.e. the General Theory of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics depended more on the intuitive and imaginationary competence of the theoretical physicist. Just consider the concepts of imaginary time and the theory of p-branes. The importance of mathematical model building comes only next. It is here that perhaps the lay reader of popular physics literature may help - by suggesting intuitive new ideas and radically, in a maverick way going beyond the mind sets formed by hitherto achieved consistent mathematical tools and models. Surely most of the concepts or ideas forwarded by laymen would come unstuck. But even if one in a hundred opens a new vista, it would be a great tribute to the strenuous efforts made by the theoretical physicist in popularizing science.

If nothing, an explanation of how time spaces out or space times in (as proposed by this blogger in another piece on this topic) may contribute to making such difficult concepts, dwelling outside the realm of sense perception, more perceptible to lay reader of popular physics literature . It is another matter if such understanding and visualisation of extra-sense perception based concepts and explanations catalyse and finally culminate into new and novel concepts. This would help sustain interest in the developments of novel concepts in Physics. It brings ivory towers down to the level of understanding and appreciation. That generates popular support as now available to the kind of costly experimental projects in Physics like those of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). This means prestige and social acceptability of research career in Theoretical Physics.

Prof Hawking is on record confirming that the received elaborate queries, comments and suggestions from his readers - for his books like the “Brief History of Time”, “Black Holes & Baby Universes” – about some of the most hard to digest concepts like “ imaginary time “ and “Hawking Radiation”. Emission from Black Holes - or in other words evaporation of Black Holes – is another case in point where he put accepted and well – ensconced theories on their heads. Queries from his readers must have helped him to be conceptually more clear and daring about these outworldly concepts. For ultimately every scientific theory has to be brought to the common people to sustain its further development by research.

“Imaginary time” was initially billed by Prof. Hawking as a mere mathematical trick (based on the well defined mathematical concept of imaginary numbers)

It was later on advertised by him as a great intellectual discovery of the order of that of Earth rotating around the sun. Here he cast doubts on the concepts of real time - time as we see in ordinary life – by exposing its limitations in executing the task of summing over histories. Clarity of concepts and liquefying complex ideas, which is therefore a two way process now must have become an important but rather unappreciated catalyst in developing new and path-breaking ideas in theoretical physics towards its quest for a “Theory of Everything”

Lastly but not the least, is the contribution that may possibly have come from science fiction writing and firing of imagination of its readers. Conceded, any novel imaginary idea of the Science fiction writer and its reader has to reach the professional scientist to give such a conception a proper theoretical shape and support of a mathematical model. It may not be out of place to recall that some very useful innovations of the modern space travel - fasteners of belts etc., came from Hollywood filming of science fictions.

To conclude, it appears that successful progress towards a “Theory of Everything” depends on an ever widening base of students and researchers where even the most abstruse and complex mathematical equations and formulations come intelligible with improved and easy to handle mathematical tools and techniques. Where an increasing population of laymen come to appreciate the most abstract and impercievable ideas as scientists and science journalists also work to bring such ideas to the common people. As common people understand the importance and support more and more of costly experiment machines like LHCs. Success of theoretical physics thus depends not just on scientific heroes like Prof Hawking but also their even - increasing no. of admirers.

[Softcopy generation by Ms. Dimple Tyagi; responsibility of all errors is however mine]

A conspicuous companion

(I wrote this piece as an impressional attempt about a Rajasthani’s face, appearing in a full-page ad in the Times of India sometime in 1990 – to express the feelings I experienced at that point of time. I hope you will find it interesting as a pastime; unfortunately the very ad is no longer with me – in fact the credit goes to my mother in preserving this piece in her beautiful handwriting; otherwise, even this would not have seen the light of this day)


A mood of melancholy oozes out of his transparent grey eyes glimmering dimly against the setting sun. It has lit up a side of his bold imposing countenance. On it the imprint of majesty is unmistakable. Of course it is the only remnant of a glorious past. His distinctive attire - a chequered turban, whiskers spiraling upwards and his beard brushed upwards too away from the middle of his chin along the sideburns would help you single him out from the midst of any admixturous rabble. His stately non-chalance confirms that the days of yore have deserted him. Those days of valour, pride and chivalry, so lofty and sublime yet gorgeous- in the midst of that inhospitable Jaisalmer desert. It was left only for Colonel Todd and Abanindranath Tagore to recount his ancestral anecdotes. On the other hand what does the darker side connote? Does it not insinuate darkness immediately below the lamp? Did not the indomitable Rajput Spirit also unleash the nastiest feudal oppression on a hapless peasantry? Did not their boisterous machismo trample so many Roop Kanwars over as many years? Probable. That is why he is unable to put brave face up to the setting sun


Anyway he is now consigned to a seemingly serene and unobtrusive existence to just one side of my cramped and stuffed room. Indeed in sharp contrast to the wide undulating expanses of his native sandy dunes. He cannot help it. After all, he is just a two dimensional entity courtesy the Times of India. In it he too modeled for a cigarette ad the other day. That was how the introduction went and since then apparently he did not find it difficult to perch himself on to me. As for me, divining the mind and mood of this singular personality has become an absorbing pastime. Strange enough, sometimes I feel myself to be in perfect unison with the ethos that surrounds him. Reclining on the back of my chair, I fight off occasional boredom fathoming the depths of a tradition of several centuries he epitomizes. But enough is enough, I must be stretching the limits of your patience. So let me rest my pen that you may ignite your imagination and activate your brain.


(Typing, formatting & editing – courtesy Ms. Dimple Tyagi; responsibility for errors if any is however mine)

Pricks on the question of Quantum Mechanics of Black Holes

# What caused the unimaginably high temperature at the time of the big bang singularity, which was concentrated at the unimaginably small dimensions at that time?

# In a black hole singularity, the event horizon does not let any energy (photons) to get away from it: so how could the big band singularity allow so much of energy and matter to move away from one another? Was there no event horizon? Was the big bang singularity naked?

# What could be the nature of matter within a singularity? Do all the probability waves associated with all the particles compressed into the singularity get joined and acquire relevance and meaning only over a region of space time far smaller than even the dimensions of subatomic particles?

# How far does the nature of matter within a black hole type of singularity differ from the known forms of matter? It is because while the mass of black holes still remain perceptible through its gravitational effects but the wave properties of the black hole mass/energy go outside the possibility of measurement/perception/ detection because of the event horizon-from which no photon can escape.

# How does Hawking radiation affect the event horizon of a black hole? Why does the space time curvature change so very rapidly near the event horizon of a black hole so much so that particle-anti-particle pairs are generated out of the quantum fluctuations of force fields outside the event horizons? Why does/or how can change in the value of space-time curvature (which is caused by gravity) cause quantum fluctuations in the force fields of types not related to independent of gravity?

# Does the theory of Quantum Gravity attempt to link the electric charges of electrons and protons with that of the gravitational mass of these particles, particularly when these are compressed inside a black hole singularity? How far is the net electric charge of a given mass of particles indestructible?

# Prof Stephen Hawking has postulated that a black hole, after losing a critical amount of mass, through processes like Hawking radiation ends up with violent outburst. Is the critical limit somewhat same as the "Chandrasekhar Limit" of two solar masses? Does the final violent outburst occur on account of the operation the "Pauli's Exclusion Principle"?

# Energy expenditure through axial jets and swirling and spiraling dust and debris moving at the speed of light to fall into a black hole consumes and saps away lot of energy from a black hole, Is that factor more important in evaporation of a black hole than that by the factor of Hawking radiation?

# Normally a black hole, especially those at the galactic centers of a spiral galaxy, nest in lot of interstellar dust and debris, whose movements extort lot of energy away from a black hole: Is it possible then for the mass, energy or value of force fields neighbouring a black hole to be near zero, so that its quantum fluctuations would become important for Hawking radiation to occur?

(softcopy generation and editing: Ms. Ritika Manchanda, all errors are however my responsibility)

Languages & Nationalities in India

Safdar Hashmi Samaroha & EMS Centenary lecture


Dt. 03.03.2010, Muktadhara Auditorium Near Gol Market, New Delhi.


Com Chanchal Chauhan of Lok Lahar(Hindi) presided over


Speaker; Com. Prakash Karat, General Secretary CPI-M:-


Communists' position and record of activities:-


[Initial tributes were paid to Com.EMS- as the leader who married Marxist Theory to actual political practice - he also demonstrated as to how communists should participate in parliamentary politics]


Recognition of linguistic nationalities aspirations:


Com.EMS was the first theoretician to study the historical evolution of the Malayali nationality- showed how agrarian relations shaped development of the Malayali culture and language in the Princely stated of Malabar and Travancore- Cochin; emphasis on the malayali identity was therefore a means to rally the peasantry of what is now known as modern Kerala, into the common struggle against feudalism and the overall anti-imperialist and anti- colonial struggle.


Com.EMS as a member of the Malabar tenancy Reform Committee- in his minutes of dissent advocated abolition of landlordism in Malabar and Travancore- Cochin States- the feudal Jammi system- championed the slogan that all Malayalis should be in a Malayala speaking state.

Communists elsewhere also pressed for the necessity of recognition of different linguistic nationalities in India- a major plank of the anti- imperialist & anti- feudal struggle.


Communists understood that the masses - mostly the peasantry in colonial India - can be brought easily to the common anti - colonial cum anti - feudal struggle only with a linguistic consciousness.


A pan- Indian identity consciousness- the necessary ingredient for freedom struggle- could develop as a culmination f the provincial linguistic consciousnesses serving as a backdrop of local struggles.


Communists recognized the process of development of linguistic identities in the feudal pre-colonial India -> with development of commerce - primarily money- lending over different regions - also as a result of the Bhakti Movement. However nationalities fully develop only with the development of capitalism - development of nation - states is possible only with the advent of capitalism.


In 1920, under inspiration of Gandhiji - in the Nagpur AICC session - Congress reorganized its Provincial Committees on linguistic lines- negating the British imperialist administrative divisions of India into admixtureous provinces and princely states in total disregard of the linguistic identities.


Around 1946, Com P Sundarayya called for Vishalandhra and Com Bhabani Sen called for Natun Bangla (New Bengal) - linguistic states as a base for the anti- imperialist/ feudal struggle.


Attitude of the Big Bourgeois:


Immediately after independence:


Though Congress set up a Committee under Motilal Nehru in 1920 for reorganisation of Indian provinces on linguistic lines- it started going back on its promise after Independence - citing partition as an excuse and displaying the specter of further vivisection of the country now on linguistic lines.


The Jawahar Lal Nehru + Vallabh Bhai Patel + Pattabhi Sitaramaiah Committee set up immediately after independence(in 1947) wanted to negate the demand for creation of linguistic states - as a diversionary tactic proposed postponement of formation of linguistic states for a period of 10 years.

However big movements for reorganization of states on linguistic lines viz. Vishalandhra, Samyukta Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala swept the country by 1953 - these were mostly led by the communists - Congress was unable to prevent this tide.


Even before 1953 there existed a small Andhra Pradesh - The states Reorganisation Committee (SRC) recommended an Andhra Pradesh sans Hyderabad, Bombay Province (Maharashtra & Gujarat)


The Morarji Desai Govt. shot dead scores of people on the streets of Bombay for demanding separate Gujarat and Maharashtra.


SRC also turned down formation of a Punjabi Saba. However the cause of formation of linguistic states triumphed finally with the formation of such states even in the North Eastern Region.


Anti- communist forces presently seek to interpret CPI-M opposition to smaller states as a means to prevent creation of Gorkhaland. That is as to how the opposition of CPI-M to TELENGANA formation is being portrayed.


The big bourgeois earlier distrusted formation of linguistic states as it favoured a countrywide common homogenous market with un- impeded access to any location. RSS also opposed formation of linguistic states on the plea of stopping vivisection of the country, as it regards India as an uniform ancient nation.


Big Bourgeois position as of now i.e. since 2000:


Because of strong development of capitalism mostly in linguistic states like Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra and Maharashtra compared to the non- linguistic Hindi speaking states, the Big- Bourgeois is no longer that strongly averse to formation of linguistic states


On the contrary the big bourgeois now prefers formation of even smaller states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand etc. where it can buy up/ suborn Govt. and get license to loot natural resources.


Smaller states like those in the NE Region are always dependent on central Govt. largesse. Politicians in those states therefore always have to switch sides with change of guard at the Central Govt.

Big linguistic states are more coherent and independent and can therefore reflect the democratic aspirations of their population.


Linguistic fissipareousness originating from regional backwardness:


Capitalist development with its lopsidedness- especially the accelerated pace of post- independence capitalist development generates so many advanced and backward states and similar disparities within a state. Thus we have historically backward regions like Vidarbha and Telengana experiencing demand for statehood- whereas Telengana autonomy resolutions were never seriously taken up.


the Liberalisation – Globalisation - Privatisation policies have generated cut-throat competition – it fractured petit bourgeois as a class – generated a fissured identity- encourages in some strata, a manufactured identity - which fuels an illusory hope of advancement through smaller statehoods


Hindi Regions are a particular case in point – no linguistic nationality concept is developed here - people here are either straightaway : Indian or Bundelkhandi, Awadhi etc. - no concept of a Hindi identity from Rajasthan to Bihar exists. Whether breaking up into smaller states would really solve the problem of lack of development is really doubtful?


Though Sardar Patel is credited with absorption of princely states - Com EMS has shown that struggle for linguistic and cultural rights formed the basis of a framework of a modern, secular and democratic India- for this mere existence of linguistic identity was not enough.


Position on Linguistic Rights:


Solution of the languages question is part of the democratic reordering of the Indian Society- so far there are 22 scheduled languages with option open for further addition to the list


There should be equality of all Indian languages - formation of linguistic states helped in further development of the languages


There should be simultaneous translation into various Indian languages-use of only English and/ or Hindi as official languages is unscientific nd undemocratic.

Primary Education should be in mother tongue which requires more use in day to day life ->to bloom as states official language- it can reduce utility of English and people develop through own experience a composite link language

(softcopy generation and editing: Ms. Dimple Tyagi, all errors are however my responsibility)

Seminar: “Maoist Role”: 06.11.2009

Muktadhara Auditorium, Gol Market, New Delhi
Chair:Prabir Purakayastha,
Speakers: Prof. Jayati Ghosh, Prakash Karat

Extracted points/ significant submissions/ formulations

[I am sorry as this blogging site has removed some colouring/ formatting tools, the points and formulations I wanted to focus specifically, could not be presented that way; however those in italics are my own additions]

Prof. Jayati Ghosh:

Perceptions & positions

Romanticisation of Maoist mayhems as ‘Revolution’ by some Left leaning intelligentsia;

Maoists in particular and Naxals in general are do not participate in the fight against US-led imperialism; not bothered about issues ranging from agrarian crisis, unemployment, food security to Nuclear deal; take no position about it; in fact such movements the world over degenerate into instruments of backroom manoeuvres by imperialist agencies like CIA;

Violence coupled with lack of any vision of future after overthrow of the present system of exploitation, of the big bourgeois controlled state. They do not speak of Socialism, democratic rights for the underprivileged – this results in undermining the progressive positions of the mainstream Left & Democratic movement. It is an empty political agenda;

Attack/ annihilate cadres of the organised Leftist movement in particular areas; seek to disrupt/ obstruct mass mobilisation by Leftist movement on burning issues affecting the toiling people;

It is a Nihilistic, anarchist and romanticised response to capitalist exploitation and state repression;

Maoist violence and gore provoke revulsion among middle class against Leftist movement in general and legitimises Govt. repression on that movement and toiling people; also it creates political space for counter activities for a Right-wing reactionary movement like Salwa Judum;.

Like Narodniks of pre-revolution Tsarist Russia Maoists oppose industrialisation and lack any vision of development – its economic outlook is similar to that of Cambodia’s murderous ultra-Left Pol Pot regime in opposing industrialisation, perpetuation of an underdeveloped agrarian economy;

Ground Realities

Maoist infested areas are basically Dryland farming, tribal areas, currently suffering from agricultural distress over and above affected by the Capitalist course of uneven development, now brutally exposed to the unjust inequalities of the market forces;

The Maoist scourge worsens the material conditions – destruction of infrastructure etc. in the affected areas and makes life harder for the population living there;

Oppose poverty amelioration/ relief attempts like National Rural Employment Guarantee (NREGA) schemes; siphon off funds for Mid-day meals, primary health centres, destroy power, transport and communication facilities;

Maoist reliance on violence results in an endless cycle of violence – violence begets violence;

Maoist Kangaroo courts ‘punish’ or victimise only the hapless poor toiling people, no exploiting landlord is ever punished;

There is absolute intolerance towards differing opinion; it is silenced by gun; recall recent media reports about Maoists trying to eliminate its splinter groups in Bihar and Jharkhand;


Prabir Purakayastha

There is absolutely no attempt to analyse the class character of the Indian State – according to them India is still a colony – they are however silent on whose colony is India now?


Prakash Karat

Putting Maoists to place

It is a Left Sectarian anarchist trend – it accompanies growth of the organised Left & democratic movement in every country – to disrupt the very same movement – as Lenin has put it “petty – bourgeois driven to frenzy by the horrors of capitalist exploitation”;

It is not to be equated with other terroristic organisation like the Islamic Fundamentalists viz. LeT, HuJI etc., which never voice any social issue; Maoists however use violence as a major instrument in their politics;

In Maoists world view, South Asia is going through a revolutionary upsurge, which includes even the TALIBAN !!! This perceived upsurge is regarded as only next to the actual West Asian/ Palestinian upsurge against US – cum – Israeli state terror in that area;

What occurred and is parallely occurring

US - led imperialism is slowly entrenching itself strategically in South Asia and Maoists are silent about it;

Naxals ultimately sided with the Indian Ruling classes from the ’70s; they were therefore used as instruments of extermination against the Left & Democratic Movement – as Cong –Shals (Congress + Nakshals/Naxals) they killed 350 CPI-M cadres; such elimination was mostly concentrated during 1970 – 72;

CPI-M was sought to be isolated and physically attacked during 1970 – 71; since only CPI-M bore the brunt of such ruling class ferocity, no other party made a protest – the same thing is happening now in putting CPI-M under siege in West Bengal with other Left Parties hardly raising any voice against the “murder CPI-M” campaign;

[This blogger still remembers how CPI-M cadres in West Bengal still used to be doubly cautious about disclosing their political identities till mid – ’80s, i.e. even after 7-8 years of Left Front Rule in West Bengal]

Attacks on CPI-M - 1970s onwards (approx. 1,500 killed and 25,000 displaced from home/ place of work) were later widened into general onslaught on democracy during the EMERGENCY;

Popular rejection of Maoists in West Bengal

Maoists are repeating the same agenda now against CPI-M in West Medinipur, Bankura and Purulia Distts. of West Bengal; they say that their “boycott” of CPI-M and State Govt. Machinery in those areas is “successful”;

However, the tribals mostly supported CPI-M in West Medinipur as CPI-M won the Jhargram Lok Sabha constituency by the biggest margin in West Bengal, amidst widespread reverses particularly in South Bengal – Lok Sabha Elections, 2009;

Murderous spree of Mao-Mulis (Maoists + Trinamulis) is therefore the most desperate in West Medinipur, West Bengal. However, they have also targeted and killed CPI-M activists in Orissa, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh;

Maoists weaken democratic mass movements

Maoists are nowhere known to be organisers of peasants in movement for land. Their predecessors Naxals too never organised peasants in movement for right to till and harvest land, even during the “spring thunder” at Naxalbari. All that they could achieve were diverting the developing peasants’ democratic movements from snatching surplus/ benami land from landlords to armed clashes with the Army or Police, giving the latter opportunity to launch repressive actions

It marginalises, displaces and diverts tribals’ democratic protest movements against dispossessing from forest rights, loss of tribal habitat etc., by adopting violent means, which invites Govt. repression. They operate from deep forests dwelt by tribals not for any concern for their miseries but because the terrain tactically suits their armed guerrilla operations

Only in Srikakulam Distt. of Andhra Pradesh did Naxals organise some peasant movement; there too, once they adopted violent means, police and para – military forces mowed down the movement and exterminated the leadership. Hardly, any Naxals survive there now. The only prominent surviving leader, viz. Com. Chaudhuri Tejeswara Rao acknowledges the strategic mistakes and has now returned to lead the mainstream Left movement. He is presently the Secretary, CPI-M, Srikakulam Distt. Despite the sharp ideological differences and their wrong political – tactical line, CPI-M always appreciated the heroisms and personal sacrifices made/ hardships faced by such deviated leaders of the original Naxalite movement (refer: http://www.hinduonnet.com/fline/fl1522/15220880.htm )

In an article, Prakash Karat predicted in 1985 that Naxals would keep splitting into splinter groups but would stage a comeback as grounds exist in certain areas of the country for such a possibility;

They keep extorting money (thousands of crores of rupees) from contractors, Govt. officials, industrialists, goods consignment transporters etc. in Chhatisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand; as they are now almost driven out of Andhra Pradesh, their original area of operation;

[This blogger also remembers recent media reports about how Maoists force tribal families at gun-point to let their teenagers join their ranks, turn them into ruthless killers and while similarly exploit the women in their ranks sexually]

Maoists’ “boycott of bourgeois parliamentary elections” is a farce, as they often negotiate with one bourgeois party, gives it covert support and enforce “boycott” of the opponent candidate;

Political combat vs. Banning Maoists

Ban seldom achieves suppression of such extremists, they regroup under different names; however, their violence – “elimination of the class-enemy”, in reality only the lowest level police personnel, army jawans, Govt. officials, teachers, doctors & nurses and political activists, no big-bourgeois/ landlord worth the name, need to be tackled administratively;

Ultra-Left groups like PWG of Andhra Pradesh and MCC of Bihar/ Jharkhand were already in the ban schedule of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Their regrouped synergy as “Maoists”, made them more lethal, so the only addition is of Maoists in the ban list.

Extremist organisations are not mere terrorists. So, ban under Unlawful Activities Prevention Act backfires and is hence opposed by CPI-M. The need is to fight them politically – organisationally.

UPA Govt. and PM Manmohan Singh acknowledges lack of development in the tribal areas – Privatisation of Mines & Minerals in the forested and tribal populated – dispossession of tribals – depredations of MNCs and Big bourgeois help sometimes the Maoists to strike a chord with the tribals

The hapless population of the affected areas gets caught in the crossfire; security forces which come from outside are usually unable to distinguish between the Maoists and the locals. While the guerrilla warfare trained Maoists can escape to deep forests, the locals usually face paramilitary repression.

Maoists have a special ire against CPI-M – as the latter fights it politically, organisationally and ideologically; Naxals ceased to have any base in rural/ tribal Bengal after successful implementation of Land Reforms in West Bengal.

Murderous spree of Mao-Mulis is with the objective to prevent CPI-M, West Bengal unit from working among the people – particularly the peasants and tribals

Mao-Mulis physically eliminate and uproot CPI-M cadre, particularly peasant activists, village after village in West Bengal and turn them into refugees in one’s own country; if any CPI-M sympathiser is left in the area, he/ his family has to face heavy extortion, denial of livelihood, live with constant fear of life and is compelled at gun – point to join Mao-Mulis’ meetings

“Civil Society” romancing Maoists

Maoists Left – Sectarian Appeal makes the urban intelligentsia romance it – Big business media highlights it to black out the organised Left – but the romanticisation has now become difficult in West Bengal, especially after the Maoists’ leader Kishanji confirmed several times their “joint – enterprise” with Mamata Banerji

The actual impact of the ultra – Left phraseology, of disrupting the genuine peoples struggle against the Big – bourgeois + Landlord rule and imperialist exploitation needs to be exposed through political – ideological struggle

Maoists borrow their concepts wholesale from the Left-sectarian and adventurist period of Chinese “Cultural Revolution”; for them India, like pre – revolution China, is still semi-colonial and semi-feudal; refuse to see the strong development of Capitalist industry and even Capitalist agriculture; therefore working class movement has no place in their politics

International experience of the fate of ultra – Left movements:

“Prachanda” of Nepal Maoists have denied any organisational contact with the Indian Maoists

“Senderno Luminoso” – the “Shining Path” Maoist movement of Peru got its popular appeal on a/c of the repressions let loose by the US backed military junta – lastly from the brutalities of Alberto Fujimori; however, return of democracy in Peru made them fail to adapt to the new political situation, caused organisational disarray and withering of their political appeal;

Similarly the “New Peoples’ Army” of the Philipino Communist Party, once controlling large tracts of that country failed to adapt to the democratic polity after overthrow of the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and is so diminished organisationally that not much of Left politics is left in that country

Time spaced out & Space times in: My impressions

1. According to the singularity theorems of Prof. Roger Penrose and Stephen Hawking, any stellar body of a mass more than that of two suns collapses to a singularity - unless it manages to throw off enough mass in a supernova explosion that its mass falls below that of the cut off limit of two solar masses.

2. Although the General theory of Relativity deals with structures on the very big scale and Quantum Mechanics consider things in the scale of very tiny and these two great theories do not reconcile in any normally occurring body or structure of the universe;

3. The singularity theorems underline the fact that matter can be squeezed to dimensions where their Quantum Mechanical properties cannot be ignored.

4. In fact, in a way, the high curvature of space-time produced by highly compressed matter, brought about by gravitational collapse brings the quantum mechanical properties of all that matter out to the fore so much so that it overshadows space-time and ends the histories of all particles in real time.

5. As formulated in the theories and principles of quantum mechanics beneath a certain length- which is lower than the wavelength of light e.g. gamma rays, it is difficult or rather impossible to determine both the position and velocity of a particle with any arbitrary accuracy.

6. Time dimension is a derivative of the space dimensions: time is measured by diurnal motion of the earth, annual motion of the earth around the sun, motion of the sun as round the galactic centre or the oscillations of a cesium atom in an atomic clock i.e. different kinds o periodic motion
7. When matter gets highly condensed on account of gravitational collapse- say in a black hole or in baby universe as was during the one second after the ‘big bang’, its position becomes highly certain but even the velocity of a photon may a fluctuate wildly in a quantum mechanical way, off the known velocity of light.

8. In such circumstances, it would be very difficult to measure with arbitrary accuracy the periodic motion of any particle in condensed mass clutter in a singularity. In other words, it would be very difficult to say with certainty the positions of a particle whose periodic motion so long rendered a time- keeping service. Chronology of particle positions would become meaningless, as it would be impossible to fix with any arbitrary accuracy, positions of a time keeping particle for labeling their position as past, present and future, if the velocities are very certain for such particles. Time, as we understand, ceases to exist in such a situation.

9. Anybody trying to correlate spatial positions of a time keeping particle -i.e. its chronological positions within a periodic motion- with the spatial positions of any other particle (without a recurring motion) will find the task practically impossible;

10. here will be no past or present against which the chronology of other particles’ positions may be labelled, it would be only positions correlated with positions without any consideration of chronology.

11. This above situation may be called “time getting spaced out” in black - hole condensation or if the reverse process of inflationary expansion after big bang is concerned, “space timing in” –where getting free from the quantum mechanical prison of indetermination, one can detect and measure stellar periodic motion.

12. When the histories/ world line of a particle(s) ends in real-time after entering the event horizon of a black hole, it is still possible for an observer outside that singularity to compute the histories of the particles converging into the black hole in real or imaginary time as the situation permits.

13. However, when an universe comes out of a worm hole or ends up in it (call it big bang or big crunch) nobody can measure the histories/ world lines of its constituent mass of particles proximate to either of the boundaries (i.e. big bang or big crunch) be it real - time or imaginary time.

14. From it comes out the further question: is it possible for an observer in another universe to calculate the sum over histories of our universe in imaginary time or for us to do the same for another universe?

(Ack: Ms. Dimple Tyagi in typing out, editing and formatting; responsibility of errors are however mine)

What provoked “imaginary time”?

[Prof Stephen Hawking - his imaginary time in Prof. Richard Feynman’s sum over histories - quantum Mechanics & definite measurements]

i. Smearing of position (impossibility of pinpointing space coordinates) when mass contracts beyond the quantum mechanical level into the dimensions of a singularity.

ii. Richard Feynman’s sum over histories for a particle - the world line of particles present insurmountable difficulties when summation is done over real-time. However, such summation is possible it is done over imaginary time.

iii. What is there in the probability distribution in the sum over histories or the world line of a particle that it makes it possible to do the sum over in “imaginary time” ?

iv. Was there anything in the equations of sum over histories that itself suggested to Prof. Stephen Hawking and Jim Hartle to have the idea of imaginary time?

v. How did they do the exercise of sum over histories using imaginary time particularly when all the particles under examination are squeezed into a position of near infinite density?

vi. Is it nor possible in quantum mechanics to create two identical experiments where in one case, attention is focused on the position of a particle rather than the velocity and in the other the velocity of the particle rather than the position? Thereby, if this suggestion is feasible, if not in the same situation, at least for two identical situations of the same kind of particle, say of an electron, you can get definite measurements of the position and velocity of the particle - or to be precise similar particles in identical situations if not most desirably the in same situation.

vii. If Real-time (time as we normally understand plus that which is connoted in the General Theory of Relativity) may be associated with periodic and/ or oscillatory motion, what kind of motion imaginary time may be associated with? Does any such association really exist? Is imaginary time only a mathematical trick coming with diagrammatic representation using imaginary numbers ?

(Ack: Ms. Dimple Tyagi in typing out, editing and formatting; responsibility of errors are however mine)

Picture of exploitation:

Contract workers in the Central Ministries

i. Most of the contract workers get a monthly remuneration as low as 1/3 or even ¼ of a permanent worker’s (i.e. LDC/UDC/Stenographers) remuneration.

ii. The contractors take a cut from even such small amount and what the contract workers get ultimately is even less than the minimum wage level.

iii. Though on paper the contractors may be depositing a part of the workers’ salary as contribution towards PF and ESI, whether they are actually depositing the amount always or not is doubtful.

iv. The contract workers do not get any leave and medical facilities like regular workers and are given very little salary to afford these on their own.

v. Any contract worker raising voice against such rampant exploitation may be immediately sacked from the job; there is no job security.

vi. The contract workers are not provided with appointment letters etc. with which they can prove that they were actually performing tasks in the Central Sectt. of perennial nature.

vii. The contract workers in most cases are designated as Data Entry Operators to give an impression that they are not performing a perennial job.

viii. The so called data entry operators actually perform the jobs of permanent/ perennial nature as performed by LDCs/UDCs/Stenographers.

ix. In many cases the contract workers are forced do jobs for longer hours than the permanent workers.

x. Instead of one officer in any GoI Ministry being designated as the principal employer, the no. of contract workers is being split into groups of 19 or less, which means that in each Ministry there may be more than one principal employer though all these workers happen to serve the same Ministry.

xi. Non-designation of any body as principal employer helps the Ministries to shirk their statutory responsibilities of obtaining license from CLC(C) as ‘principal employer’ as required under the Contract Labour (Rehabilitation & Abolition) Act and allows the contractor to exploit the workers.

xii. This rampant exploitation is going on everywhere, even at the Union Ministry of Labour which administers the Contract Labour Act and is supposed to protect the interest of the workers. It has engaged a large no. of contract workers circumventing its own Contract Labour (Rehabilitation & Abolition) Act by fragmentation of the no. of workers among various wings, its HQ. and field offices.

xiii. Sometimes because of non-renewal of contract, the workers do not get anything at all, although they are told to work in anticipation of renewal of contract.

xiv. The Govt./ Ministers take advantage of the fact that most of the contract workers are young girls from needy families or students/ fresh graduates who are neither aware their rights nor see their contractual status as a permanent aspect of their life worth a struggle for its improvement.

Difficulties in organizing contract workers in the Central Ministries

1· There is no record that a contract worker is actually employed at any Govt. Ministry it is difficult to prove their existence

2· Any contract worker would not easily raise his/her voice against their poor pay, arduous nature of duties and long working hours for fear of being sacked

3· It is also possible for the contractor and even the ministry to shift any ‘trouble’ making contract worker from one establishment to another and not exactly sack him/ her to avoid more trouble.

4· Since most workers are young girls/students who come to do the job as a transient phase before marriage/ better employment, do not feel very strongly about the exploitation they have to suffer.

5· Non – designation of principal employer in Ministries makes it difficult to prove their existence and unionise and take the cases of these contract workers to CACLB under Contract Labour Act for prohibition of their kind of jobs.

Possibilities of militant TU movement:-

a· The contract workers are actual ‘have - nots’- real proletariat- unlike permanent employees they do not have a world to lose if sacked.

b· They know that if sacked from one office/ establishment, they can always try at another establishment.

c· Most significantly the contract workers are not bound by conduct rules which is applicable to the duly appointed temporary/ permanent workers/ employees in Govt.

d· It properly led, they may come under the banner of organized TU movement.

e· Unlike less educated causal/ daily rated workers, the contract workers may understand the tactics/ requirements of organized TU movement better.

f· Wherever the branches of the Non-Gazetted employees union are strong and militant in the Central Sectt., there will be possibilities of easier organization of the contract workers.
Because of abolition/ non- fill up of vacant regular posts, the Ministries are becoming increasingly dependent on the services of contract workers, putting them at a better bargaining position.

(Ack: Ms. Dimple Tyagi in typing out and editing formatting,; responsibility of errors mine)

CPI-M debacle - General Election 2009

General Election 2009:

Analysis of CPI-M debacle in particular and Left Parties poor showing in general

Tendency of blaming Com. Prakash Karat alone, for withdrawing support on account of the N - deal is opportunistic – it mostly comes from those who at one point of time suffered from the illusion of joining the Central Govt. as an instrument to make a difference to the influence and reach of Leftist/ Communist movement at an all – India level;

This tendency comes perhaps from the outlook that aims and objectives of the Communist movement can be served better by staying close to bourgeois state power instead of organising the toiling masses on their fundamental class issues/ interests;

Whereas Com. Karat might have made the most significant contribution in formulating the tactical line of CPI-M in the post – 2004 period; it was ultimately a collectively adopted line, often receiving almost doctrinaire/ inflexible advocacy from other Left Parties;

CPI-M needed to demarcate itself as an upholder of the voices and interests of the toiling masses and could not have gone to the polls at the tail – end of Congress;

A dissociation from Congress and UPA was always on the cards, in view of the obvious fundamental difference in world view between Congress and CPI-M; it would have been better and more credible had the severing taken place even earlier, rather than few months before the elections – even if it precipitated a mid – term election;

Though its opposition to the N – deal was eminently valiant and strategically/ ideologically justified, CPI-M and perhaps Com. Karat committed a tactical mistake in not opting for a voting resolution in Parliament against the N – deal as suggested/ dared by SP, INLD etc. immediately after publication of the 123 Agreement;

It would have put a big hurdle before the Manmohonomic pursuit of the N-deal and could have saved CPI-M from the saleability of severing ties with UPA on a rather abstruse issue. Of course, as time passed by, nobody was left in any doubt of the fundamental and persevering opposition of CPI-M to the deal its intention of advancing to a strategic tie up with USA by jettisoning Non-Alignment. The doubting Thomases also fell silent;

The silver lining in the present gloom is that CPI-M would not have shoulder the additional burden of propping up a secular Central Govt. at times diverting its energy away from leadership of the working class movement. It may concentrate now more on the class issues of the toiling masses;

Fighting for a principle and firmness on a standpoint will often requires paying a price; it requires hard work, commitment and will to fight to prove a point

It is not always necessary for a tactical line to register immediate success in order to be regarded as correct. Setbacks and reverses may always have to be suffered before the line actually is vindicated;

Despite the disintegration of UPA, a strong Congress undercurrent based on the desire to have a stable secular Govt. bolstered Congress chances in Tamil Nadu, Andhra, Maharashtra and most states of the Hindi Belt;

As stated by Com. Yechury, the Third Front was electoral cut and paste job without any programmatic cohesion. So, it did not carry any conviction at the all – India level;

Factors in Bengal:

Affairs of Singur and Nandigram need not be clubbed together. At Singur, the local party organisation ultimately found its feet and was steering it to be a successful showcase story. That was one of the reasons, why Mamata was so desperate to sabotage it;

Unlike Keshpur of 2000-02, Nandigram was a far more complex case. Both the local party and local/ State Administration failed to grasp the ground realities. The tactics of islanding locality at Nandigram was not employed at Keshpur by Md. Rafiq;

Following the Chief Minister’s announcement of not acquiring land at Nandigram and the resulting apparent calm led the WB Home Secretary and IG police to enter Nandigram to re-establish administration in the isolated zone, while overlooking the fact that CPI-M supporters were still being forced to leave at Khejuri relief camps, stacking of weapons were going on for forcing a fight if police tried to enter, possibility of use of sniper fire and human shield by the Mamata led anti – communist rainbow coalition killers

The much condemned police killing of Nandigram villagers was therefore avoidable – though it was later unearthed that some of them were killed from the back by Mamata’s Maoists;

The second and successful freeing of Nandigram – in the largely peaceful way of Keshpur fight back method by the evicted CPI-M supporting villagers themselves should have been applied on the very first occasion itself after making adequate preparation for a fight back;

Since fear of Nandigram many villagers were sought to be used to dislodge CPI-M activists of peasant movements and roll back land reforms & Panchayeti Raj achievements at Nandigram, it was wrong to allow local leaders of Mamata’s conspiring coalition to return and resume their murderous and disruptive activities after the peaceful freeing of Nandigram on the second occasion;

Mamata should not have been allowed to lay siege on NANO factory and Durgapur Expressway – this portrayed a helpless, soft and passive bystander image of the State Govt.;

Though during the drive – out NANO attempts, sections of even the Trinamul supporting urban middle class became vocal against her, later on it again fell prey to the Big Business Press orchestrated campaign of “end the 30 year old Left – rule for a change of palate and variety” campaign;

It became almost customary for smaller constituents of LF to criticise CPI-M, WB industrialisation programme and the State Govt. (even by ministers like Kshiti Goswami) openly and CPI-M not responding in public in the interest of the so – called Left unity;

It was becoming the order of the day that parties like FB, RSP as also CPI at times would only share the spoils but spare themselves the trials and tests. They often joined the detractors of the Communist movement to berate CPI-M on any controversial issue. Their attitude was to pander to the petty bourgeois sentiment;

The tactics of berating CPI-M has become one way of blocking every attempt of job creation and improvement of the living conditions of rural toiling masses on one hand and putting the blame on CPI-M for perpetuating unemployment on the other;

1. 
   The fact that Land Reforms, Panchayeti Raj band of policies and resulting upliftment of huge sections of the peasantry above the poverty line, reduced child mortality on the one hand and caused population pressure in the villages on the other necessitating much more non – farm jobs and rapid industrialisation, received less than adequate analytical attention. Dissociation of the disguised unemployed from Left-led peasant movements must have been noticed by the Mamata led anti – communist forces. Hence, the vehement opposition to Left led industrialisation.

God, Reality and Scientific Theory as seen by Prof. Hawking

“Prof. Stephen Hawking’s Philosophical/ epistemological position”

(from “Black holes & baby universes”: Ch.-6, pages – 35 to 41, Originally given as a talk to a Caius College audience in May 1992)

{This is provisional posting - I intend to amalgamate it later on with more of similar material – formulations numberwise and related opinions of Prof. Stephen Hawking are my extractions, re – arrangements and editings without modifying any word but inserting one or two of mine at places within brackets}

Philosophical/ epistemological position #0

“This article is not about whether I believe in God - I will discuss my approach to how one can understand the universe: what is the status and meaning of a Grand Unified Theory, a theory of everything”

Stephen Hawking now berates Philosophers of science

“The people who ought to study and argue such questions, the philosophers, have not had enough mathematical background to keep up with modern developments in theoretical physics”.

“There is a subspecies called, Philosophers of science who ought to be better equipped. But many of them are failed physicists who found it too hard to invent new theories and so took to writing about the philosophy of physics instead. They are still arguing about the scientific theories of the early years of this century, like relativity and quantum mechanics. They are not in touch with the present frontier of physics”.

“I have been variously called nominalist, an instumentalist, a positivist, a realist and several other -ists. The technique seeems to be refutation by denigration”.

Logical self-consistency vs. theory

Philosophical/ epistemological position #1

“I am sure that Einstein, Heisenberg and Dirac didn’t worry about whether they were realists or instrumentalists, they were simply concernend that existing theories didn’t fit together. In theoretical physics, the search for logical self-consistency has always been more important in making advances than experimental results. Otherwise elegant and beautiful theories have been rejected because they don’t agree with observation but I don’t know of any major theory that has been advanced just on the basis of experiment.”

“The theory always came first from the desire to have an elegant and consistent mathematical model. The theory then makes predictions, which can then be tested by observation. If the observations agree with the predictions, that doesn’t prove the theory; but the theory survives to make further predicions, which again are tested against observation”.

About how people defend their challenged theory

“….by questioning the accuracy of the observastions. If that fails, they try to modify the theory in an ad hoc manner. Eventually the theory becomes a creaking and ugly edifice. Then someone suggests a new theory, in which all the awakward observations are explained in an elegant and natural manner.

Example: "Michelson Morley experiment, 1887 >> Showed that the speed of light was always the same, no matter how the source or the observer was moving"

Surely someone moving towards the light ought to measure it travelling at a higher speed than someone moving in the same direction as the light; yet the experiment showed thast both observers would measure exactly the same speed

Hendrik Lorentz and George Fitzerald tried to accommodate this observation within accepted ideas of space and time ……(with) ad-hoc postulates… “Objects got shorter when they moved at high sepeds”.

Then a new theory

1905: Einstein suggested…. “..time was not regarded as completely separate and on its own. Instead it was combined with space in a four-dimensional object called space-time”.

“Einstein was driven to this idea not so much by the experimental results as by the desire to make two parts of the theory fit together in a consistent whole …. (i) laws that govern the electric and magnetic fields and (ii) laws that govern the motion of bodies.

“…. new theory of relativity ….. completely revolutionized our notions of space and time”

Philosophical/ epistemological position #2.1

“This example illustrates well the difficulty of being a realist in the philosophy of science, for what we regard as relity is conditoned by the theory to which we subscribe. I am certain Lorentz and Fitzgerald regarded themselves a realists, interpreting the experiment on the speed of light in terms of Newtonian ideas of absolute space and absolute time. These notions of space and time seemed to coresponed to common sense and reality”.

Philosophical/ epistemological position #2.2

If what we regard as real depends on our theory, how can we make reality the basis of our philosophy?

Philosophical/ epistemological position #2.3

“I am realist in the sense that I think there is universe out there waiting to be investigated and understood. I regard the solipsist position that rverything is the creation of our imaginations as a waste of time …. But we cannot distinguish what is real about the universe withour a theory. I therefore take the view, which has been described as simple – minded and naïve that a theory of physics is just a mathematical model that we use to describe the results of observations. A theory is a good theory,… if it describes a wide class of observations and if it predicts the results of new observations. Beyond that, it makes no sense to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what reality is independent of a theory.

Philosophers of science vs. Prof. Hawking again

“This (i.e. #2.3) view of scientific theories makes me an instrumentalist or a Positivist”

“The person who called me a positivist went on to add that everyone knew that positivism was out of date – another case of refutation by denigration”

“It may indeed be out out of date in that it was yesterday’s intellectual fad, but the positivist position I have outlined seems the only possible one for some one who is seeking new laws, and new ways, to describe the universe. It is no good appealing to reality because we don’t have a model independent concept of reality".

“The unspoken belief in a model independent reality is the underlying reason for the difficulties philosophers of science have with quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle”.

“There is a famous thought experiment called Schrodinger’s cat: A cat is placed in as sealed box. There is a gun pointing at it, and it will go off if a redioactive nucleus decays. The probability of this happening is 50 per cent. ……… If one opens the box, one will find thre cat either dead or alive. But before the box is opened, the quantum state of the cat will be a mixture of the dead cat state with a state in which the cat is alive. This some philosophers of science find very hard to accept, the cat can’t be falf shot and half not-shot, they claim, any more than one can be half pregnant. Their difficulty arises because they are implicitly using a classical concept of reality in which an object has a definite single history. … Quantum mechanics … has a different view of reality.”

“An object has not just a single history but all possible histories. In most cases, the probabiltiy of having a particular history will cancel out with the probabillity of having a very slightly different history; but in certain cases, the probabilities of neighbouring histories reinforce each other. It is one of these reinforced histories that we observe as the history of the object”

“... Schrodinger’s cat, … two histories that are reinforced… cat is shot … it remains alive … in quantum theory both possibilities can exist together. Some philosophers … implicitly assume that the cat can have only one history”.

“Nature of time is another example … (where) our theories of physics determine our concept of reality. It used to be consisdered obvious that time flowed on for ever, .. theory of relativity combined time with space and said that both could be warped or distorted, by the matter and energy in the universe”.

“So our perception of the nature of time changed from being independent of the universe to being shaped by it. It then became conceivable that time might simply not be defined before a certain point; as one goes back in time, one might come to an insurmountable barrier, a singularity, beyond which one could not go. If that were the case, it wouldn’t make ssense to ask who, or what, caused or created the big bang. To talk about causation or creation implicitly assumes there was a time befor the big bang singularity”.

“Einstein’s general theory of relativity predicts that time must have had a beginning in a singularity fifteen billion years ago. But the philosophers have not yet caught up with the idea. They are still worrying about the founations of quantum mechanics that were laid down sixty-five years ago. They don’t realize that the frontier of physics has moved on”.

“Even worse is the mathematical concept of imaginary time, in which Jim Hartle and I suggested the universe may not have any beginning or end ….. attacked by a philosopher of science for talking about imaginary time. He said: How can a mathematical trick like imaginary time have anything to do with the real universe? … this Philosopher was confusing the technical mathematical terms real and imaginary nembers with the way that real and imaginary are used in everyday language. This .. illustrates my points how can we know what is real, independent of a theory or model with which to interpret it?

“ … examples from relativity and quantum mechnics to show the problems one faces when one tries to make sense of the universe.

Philosophical/ epistemological position #2.4

“What I hope I have demonstrated is that some sort of positivist approach, in which one regards a theory as model is the only way to understand the universe”

“I am hopeful that we will find a consistent model that describes everything in the universe. If we do that it will be a real triumph for the human race”.

(Ack.: Ms. Dimple Tyagi, in typing out, editing, arranging and formatting, errors are however, my responsibility)

My post General Election, 2009 exchanges with a brotherly acquaintance

16.05.2009 – 17.05.2009:

His SMS:
“After a long time the most promising result from West Bengal and Bihar; people have gone for change to see development rather than some equation for staying in power; people become really frustrated to see red signal for all development”.

My response was:
“Who gave red signal to NANO in Singur ? LF or Mamata + Cong ! People of WB would soon learn paying in blood that lumpens get you degeneration not development”.

Now in the context of your responding SMS below I would add further that you simply changed track when confronted with reality; even a casual reading of your 1st SMS would indicate that you wrote of WB and Bihar only, not of all – India politics; anyway, in Bihar the change continues from its last Assembly election, the much laughed-after Biharis clearly showing that they understand what and who is better for their state to develop;

on the contrary the much vaunted Bengali ‘intelligentsia’, urban middle class, some unemployed youth and some section of the middle and small peasantry (who at one point of time benefitted from the land reform – panchayeti raj movement and thus can now live life above the poverty line) has evidently chosen a downward direction; in fact sometime back just after the “drive-out-NANO” phase I rhymed and SMSd in Bengali to many of my acquaintances and friends :

NANO tarhiye khwaab dekhi; WRITERS ekbaar haate paai; tirish bachhar pete khide; elo-melo kore loote-poote khaai

I am sure those who have voted for Trinamul would soon realise what they have done and the whole of West Bengal would have to pay through its nose for this choice; the sordid saga of killing CPI-M cadres for the past few months having already intensified; I would again suggest a reference to my formulations at my March 2009 blog "No industry in Bengal".

Now his SMS in response:
I was talking about national politics; they have never allowed the Govt. to settle; they have always given red signal to market and economic friendly policies; instead criticising they should come with good global innovative policies like China; they are so open in economic policies though they are communist

My response now:
So far as all-India politics is concerned, a Communist Party worth its salt will always oppose anti – people, pro – big business economic reforms, allowing imperialist control of strategic sectors of economy, disinvesting and selling of PSU shares for a pittance, dismantling indigenous scientific & technological capacity building e.g. Thorium FBRs, abandoning of independent foreign policy etc. whether supporting or opposing the Govt. Strident opposition of CPI-M to Manmohanomics/ imperialist liberalisation/ globalisation ensured that your livelihoods are far less affected by the present global capitalist crisis as against in USA

As for China, success of all its economic reform policies is ensured by the (i) Peoples’ Democratic Dictatorship and the (ii) leading role of the Chinese Communist Party in the society. Reading of CCP documents show how acute is its awareness that the touchstone is ultimately how reforms ultimately serve the (iii) interests of its toiling masses. If you want CPI-M to follow Chinese economic line, learn first to bear with its whole of efforts to wage struggles to achieve (i) & (ii) to ensure (iii) and do not advise to be selective for so called economic reform policies(*).

Now, to counter the recession, it is pumping huge money into economy to develop domestic market/ purchasing power, rather than the headlong pursuit of handing over control of its economy to the global imperialist capital. As for its technological capabilities and confidence, its hardware are powering the so-called IT giant named India, which is rather dismantling indigenous research in Thorium FBRs and oxigenising moribund US N-technology firms using Indian public funds.

(*)As for the CPI-M practising what you called good global innovative policies like China, Trinamul supported Maoists would landmine Jindal Steel in Purulia, sabotage Katoa Thermal power plant, block proposals of Barasat – Kukrahati road project in PPP mode and drown the chemical hub in Nayachar, while Congress and Big-Business media cheers this nefarious game from Delhi; after all Left Front can not be allowed corner the credit for reindustrialisation of West Bengal now, following successful land reforms, which kept them out of power for 30 long years. Devastate West Bengal to devastate CPI-M.

I would however strongly agree with your assessment of acquiescing to some equation for staying in power (see his 1st SMS). WB Govt. should have firmly handled all saboteurs of its reindustrialisation programme – Singur, Nandigram and the rest of W. Bengal, given the mandate of the 2006 assembly election. Even if it meant some additional bloodshed – Mamata looking for more dead bodies so hopefully. After all, if your opposition believes in being political scoundrels, deal with them accordingly. This sends strong signals that you mean business. Being gentleman to a gang of hoodlums (as Buddhababu did), runs the risk of being seen as weak. Thus you lose a battle without really fighting it.

No industry in Bengal

Factors/ reasons for obstructing WB industrialization: -

i. CPI-M/ Left opposition to N – deal = vested interests/ imperialists needed to settle score/ deflect CPI-M from its vehement opposition; also dent the moral authority gained by CPI-M as watchdog of the sovereignty & self – reliance of the country;

ii. Deflect/ dent the moral authority/ settle – score with CPI-M for its strident & fundamental opposition to imperialist globalization;

iii. Prevent the ideological appeal of Marxism – Leninism being propagated by CPI-M from spreading to the whole country if after the widely acknowledged success of Land Reforms, poverty reduction Panchayeti Raj and rural empowerment; tangible success is registered in industrialization with emphasis on employment generation based on manufacturing, IT and agro - industries;

iv. Industrialization with emphasis on employment generation based on success of Land Reforms, may generate an irresistible appeal particularly on the philistine globalised middle – class youth, which may catalyse & intensify democratic movement in the country;

v. Presence of militant trade union movement alongwith industrialization would nail the lie that militant trade union movement drove out industries from West Bengal; growth in the no. of industries will help swell the no. of workers and may in turn further intensify their movement;

vi. If peasantry may be got misled by some rich peasants/ erstwhile kulaks and set against industrialization, educated unemployed youth, urban middle – class and trade union movement, democratic movement in West Bengal may be disrupted and Land Reforms may be rolled back

vii. Disguised unemployed may be rallied against Left Front Rule; this stratum will supply lumpen foot soldiers to Mamata’s disruptions and all other fascist ventures;

viii. The steady supply of cheap skilled labour to gold & gem-cutting industry etc. in North and Western India may be retained; also steady supply of cheap unskilled labour as maids and rickshaw – pullers to urban centres of North and Western India may be ensured; a handle to Hindu Fascism to use the bogey of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants”

ix. Retain the stranglehold on the now sizable rural market of Bengal for profits of industries outside Bengal

x. Mamata wants industrialists to purchase land from peasants direct, so that the peasants may be paid less than in Govt. acquisition and the industrialists do not have to shoulder any rehabilitation and alternative income generation responsibility.