Nepal: The People's Liberation Army

Nepal: Interview with PLA Division Commander, Comrade Jeevan

In late August 2009, activists from WPRM (Britain) and WPRM (Ireland) visited the main cantonment holding the 7th division of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The cantonment is in Kailali district in the far south-west of Nepal, in one of the most oppressively hot districts of the Terai. Although here the land is mostly flat, the cantonment occupies an area formerly used by the PLA for military operations, on the slopes of the southern-most range of mountains, covered in thick jungle, and overlooking the plains as far as the border with India. We aimed to look at various crucial questions involving the PLA, in particular the danger of losing links with the masses, the issue of army integration, the role it can play in the future New Democratic Revolution, and how the revolutionary army can ensure its continual revolutionisation even during the construction of socialism, without turning into its opposite, a reactionary army, as happened in the USSR and China. Below is the transcript of an interview with the acting commander, Comrade Jeevan.

WPRM: It’s a great pleasure to have the chance to talk with you. Can you please introduce yourself?Comrade Jeevan: My name is Jeevan and I am from a remote district of Nepal, Kalikot. I have been involved in the revolution since 2053, using the Nepali calendar [*1996]. I have been involved since I was 16 years old and now I am just continuing my job. I am acting division commander of the 7th division of the PLA.

WPRM: How and why did you join the PLA and can you describe to us your conception of the People’s War (PW)?
Comrade Jeevan: For thirteen years I have been part of this organisation which aims to build New Democratic Revolution, oppose feudalism and imperialism in our country and eradicate all social dogmas in our society. To live real life, humans need a life of freedom and according to our ideology we strive for this. When we first waged struggle we saw how the reality of society is different from this, not in the favour of the people. Although it looked as though there was just one monarchy, there were actually many small parts of the monarchy, and we arrived here by defeating them. All the feudal forces exploited the people, the proletarian class, especially in the remote village areas. All of these feudal forces were supported by the central feudal power: the monarchy. Our strategy was not to fight with the central feudal power at first, but to start from the remote areas. We decided to start from the countryside and encircle the urban areas. At that time we were totally absent from the centre, we started from the villages. It was especially important to carry out our theories in the countryside, but they actually have a world-wide significance. Now there are no feudal forces in village areas, but still new leadership has not been fully established. We have demolished the feudal forces from the villages but we can’t claim that we have established the new system in these areas. In these areas there is still no social or cultural administration, no legally established regional administration. So we have to do two things: we have to establish people’s rule in the countryside and we have to demolish the central state. For the rest of the post please follow the link: Interview with PLA Division Commander, Comrade Jeevan