CHAPTER: 7THE PRESENT CLASS STRUCTURES OF INDIA------------------------------------------------------------------In continuation to the theme of previous chapter, the contention of the present one is briefly the following:1. Where we have come from? (in respect of India)2. Where do we stand?3. Where do we want to go?4. How do we want to go to that target?5. Why do we want to go there?

The first question has been discussed in the previous chapter. The second issue demands throwing light on the class structures prevailing on the Indian people.The classes in India may be grouped as follows:-1. Big bourgeois and owners of monopoly capital2. The proponents of imperialist multinational reforms-----Imperialist forces.3. Small bourgeois capitalist class.4. Eroded feudal land owners & jotdars class 5. Rich peasants.

The relentless conflict exists between the above mentioned exploiting classes and the following revolutionary elements pervading exploited classes:-

1. Modern working class of India: Modern working class is found among organized ,unorganized, public, private, sick industry, contract labor class.

2. The largest peasant class of India: This category is subdivided in Bargadars, landless agricultural labors, small or marginal peasants, medium peasants, etc. Along with this section toiling people of various jobs demand the attention , e.g. small traders of agricultural produce, dealers in fertilizer and insecticide chemicals, fisherman, and so on.

3. Middle class: The intellectual class comprising rural and urban teachers, public and private employees, writers, physicians, lawyers, small and medium business man, owners of small cottage industry, owners of small industry etc.

3(a) Professionals attached to Information Technology: This section belonging mainly to the middle class and staying apart as Cybertariat take a special class of information technologists is dubbed as proletariat by many . 4. Tribal peasants & working class: Inspite of their general category of peasantry, different tribal groups are different from non-tribal working people and peasants for their special features and regional differences. Tribals of India are admittedly victims of severe exploitation.

The exploiting classes as stated previously have close relation with a few groups of middle class who generally resists revolutionary changes. They are counter-revolutionary and reactionary. These people exploit people using the state power of India.All economic, political and state policies in regard to these classes are controlled by the big bourgeois monopoly capitalist and their collaborator imperialist multinational corporatism. The rest classes rubbing shoulders with the exploiting class take the opportunistic supporting stand. It is true that the petty bourgeois is also divided among them; still this class is the most important patron of the present bourgeois tic-friendly state system as they enjoy much advantage from their close alliances. Imperialist forces have been satisfying their interest through multinational corporations and they have floated the theory of globalization for this purpose.The state control of economy for the interest of the vast population has been given good bye for the reckless loot and to maintain the environment of exploitation. Globalization is now the last weapon of imperialists to survive. It can hardly be denied that capitalism has faced a big jolt in the very first decade of the 21st century. Share markets in all states are experiencing consecutive falls. Thus crisis of Europe, America, rather the entire world are moving deeper and deeper. Such critical economic situations results in the despondency of joblessness and increasing unemployment and the steady fall of economic standard of common men. On the other side, the exploiting classes have been planning with the design of peace of grave after amassing the incalculable wealth. The struggle of the toiling people is being waged to the high pitch. In absence of political training and guidance the movements in most cases take either economic or anarchists character. The recent gherao of New York Stock Exchange may be cited as an example.The present day text books of children of India contain in the first page, sweet words and hollow promises as found in the preamble to the Constitution of India.to constitute India into a Socialist Republic. In fact, the attempt has to make ambiguous the concept of Socialism. It is next to impossible to establish the socialism keeping right to private property and the scope of expansion of private ownership without social ownership of property and collective ownership the advent of socialism remains a mirage.The relation of socialism with democracy is intimately related History bears the testimony that until and unless the aforesaid exploiting classes are removed the appearance of socialism will remain a dream only. Amidst the existence of socialism the residue of the exploiting classes in their design of gradual influencing and weakening the superstructure of socialism may mislead socialism to the path of counter-revolution and rebuild the capitalist edifice. In the cases of the eroded Soviet Union and post Mao China such possibility has come true.

It is a fact that class struggles were present in the socialist system of the Soviet Union and other socialist states. In the Second World War genuine communists sacrificed their life and revisionists filled in the vacuum to pave the way of free economy. The dictatorship of proletariat ends in the dictatorship of the Communist Party. The reactionary leadership took the advantage of the demise of Lenin and Stalin in the Soviet Union and death of Mao-Tse-Tung and Cho-En-Lai of China. Instead of fight against poverty and illiteracy of people the party beurocracy started to keep the party in its grip and went on amassing wealth and power.Ultra-left comrades indirectly came to help them. They captured the party from within, red flags destroyed red flags. In the name of containing revolution they indulged in the amassing of private property and strengthening power of the propagators of exploitation. The brief fight of two lines took shape of revisionism and ultimately revised Marxism itself.This element can be traced in the Euro-communism and the organization of CPI of India. Having tasted the state power the CPI (M) too has transformed into a revisionist anti-revolutionary party. In the class character of this party the dominance of petty bourgeois is very much pronounced. It cannot be denied that Socialism cannot be established only through capturing power by revolution or by means of state control over the economy of the state.The class divisions persist and the exploiting class remains the driving seat over the superstructure in spite of losing power for a brief period. Having taken that advantage they enter the corridor of power. Stealthily they go on influencing the toiling masses with their ideology and use state ownership in their favor.This counter-revolution was comfortably organized in the socialist countries in the absence of universal democracy. The needs of safety valve in this respect will be discussed in the next pages.

The Working Class of India

Over near one hundred fifty years old imperial rule and under independent India a huge modern working class appeared with different forms in different periods. Among different shapes we find at present the following types of working class:

(A) The working class of the state or state regulated autonomous industrial and financial enterprises (e.g. Railways, Nationalized Banks, Insurance companies, Telephones, post and telegraph department, public transport, some heavy industries, steel plants etc.). in order to implement the policy of privatization of the globalization attempts are being initiated to de-nationalize these enterprises, still they are the core public industries which indicates the goal of Socialism as laid in the Indian constitution. In the absence of genuine ideology of socialism, these state owned enterprises have turned into beaurocrats organizations. The performances of them are so much poor that the remedy lays only in their privatization which results in more opening and exploitation of the working class. The present ruling and exploiting class has no other alternative but more leaning towards the private sector.It must be remembered that national enterprises has been developed and functioned not only for the interest of the working class rather for the interest of the comparatively weak Indian bourgeois which appeared much later than the development of capitalism in Europe and the appearance of imperialism. A section of Indian bourgeois after having elevated to big bourgeois and monopoly capitalist has been propagating for the theory of globalization in order to capture profitable state enterprises in alliances with imperialist multinational corporations. The intellectuals and economists biased in favor of free economy have been rationalizing the theories of globalization and privatization to give them legitimacy to the general public mind.There is no end of such efforts to sound death quell of the socialist ideology on the one hand and to make permanent the capitalist system on the other. They are receiving fabulous rewards for their devoted labor.

In the state enterprises workers and technologists are in very vital position to play a significant role towards revolution. Unfortunately, they are unable to go more than agitating for their mere economic demands in the absence of a vigorous ideology. This failure is manifested in left organizations. Admittedly, workers and technologists attached to state enterprises are better paid than those of private enterprises. They are dubbed as white colored proletariat or labor aristocrat by Marxists theorists. It is also held by the latter that it is difficult to involve the farmer in revolution. Even white colored workers may oppose revolution. Such assumptions appear to be wrong and inconsistence with Marxism.

(B) The position of the working class outside state enterprises is as follows:

1. Workers of ultra-modern organized private industries.2. Workers of traditional organized industries (Textile, Jute)3. Workers of sunset industries (Jute, Tea, etc)4. Workers and contract labors attached to unorganized industries.5. Workers of Information Technology who cannot be ranked with the aforesaid categories. The workers are attached to organized mechanical industries outside state and semi-public industries (various private steel plants, motor cars, modern textile, and fertilizers chemical industries) serve the bourgeois owners of big monopoly capital. Workers of these particular private and public industries are the most leading section of Indian workers. Comparatively they are at the payroll of high income. Many hold that these well paid workers may agitate for higher income for higher standard of living but refuses to agree to move for greater political and radical changes. This approach may be dismissed as mistake and non-Marxian. Apparently, opposed to revolutionary thinking these leading workers may play crucial role in political revolution and radical change. Until they are imbued with the revolutionary movements and political consciousness, the future of revolution remains very far. A mere high economic standard does not bear the ideology of consciousness. Had it been so, the revolutionary changes in developed countries could not be thought of. And in the developing and underdeveloped states the peasantry and workers of sick industries alone could have engineered the revolutionary change.

That the working class takes part in revolutionary politics only to improve the economic standard is an erroneous hypothesis. The urge for revolution of the working class aims to improve the social system, to do away with exploitation to establish social dignity of human beings to remove the gender differences, to achieve rights of citizens and full-fledged democracy and to march towards the goal of socialism and communism. The working class will be the main actors as they are makers of economic and social wealth. Workers of small and big industries along with those of sick industries and contractual workers will cooperate and expand the scope and intensity of revolution at all levels.

Let us now have a look towards workers of the information technology sector. They can hardly be equated with the general working class. Hailing from the middle class highly educated and trained in information technology this increasing section is gradually taking the shape of a separate class. As such, this class with middle class individuality, consciousness of rights of citizens, thoughtful and ambitious characteristics is getting separated from the traditional workers and low middle class people. Possessing high sensitivity and high intellect these category of employees spend their life with the desire of satisfying their individual needs and hopes. Divorced from the creation of wealth, isolated from the social life the employees of information technology lead their lives in somewhat blind lane. Still, their role in all modern industry trade, economy and international exchanges is decidedly crucial. Until this category is motivated in the revolutionary political ideology the final victory of the working class will remain far behind. In the history of class struggle this category will add new dimension which could never be imagined. Some thinkers appreciate their role by calling this category as Cybertariat instead of proletariat.

The middle class of India comprises men of various professions. It is akin to that of other parts of the globe. Teachers, government employees, physicians, technologists of diverse streams, small and big merchants, lawyers, writers and other types of intellectuals belong to this class.

Although the traditional Marxism has remained indifferent in respect of this petty bourgeois, in reality this class has gradually got prominent and dominant over various aspects of the society and controlled the super-structure of the state. Naturally in order to maintain administration and exploitation, the ruling exploiting class badly needs this petty bourgeois class.

Hailing from the middle class intellectuals have on the one hand hopes and aspirations of the bourgeois and on the other realizing the hollowness of the bourgeois system oppose the present society. Organic intellectuals as termed by Gramsci will emerge from this section of intellectuals with the commitment to the ideology of radical social change.

Is they who will win over traditional intellectuals like writers, artists, technologists, lawyers, economists, etc. Having brought up in the bourgeois ideology the intellectuals evolved from the middle class have lost their faith in the revolutionary transformation and socialism on account of their tragic experience of non-fulfillment of democracy and civil rights in socialist countries. The majority of intellectuals have been serving the bourgeois knowingly or unknowingly. Of the middle class the section of intellectuals who are active plays a significant role in the revolutionary change.

We must see that these people are led to the ideology of the working class leaving behind the bourgeois camp. The working class will not change not only the social and state up also them too. In these changes the most helpful comrade at arms will be intellectuals and the middle class. As such, the ideology and the strategy of the working class should b such that intellectuals of other camp can be influenced to join the ideological struggle and political movements of the working class. The farmer can act as great friend and philosopher.