The writings of Kondapalli Seetharamiah for the Communist Party India(Marxist Leninist)

Below is the historic Self criticism document of the 1969 Communist Party India(Marxist Leninist) written by Comrade Kondapalli Seetharamiah (or KS, see article below) for the Andhra Pradesh State Committee:

The CPI (ML), unlike the CPI and CPM, correctly understood the laws of development of India society, when they characterized it as semi-feudal, semi-colonial and the stage of revolution as New Democratic.

The CPI (ML) also grasped the fundamental law of revolution i.e., the need for revolutionary violence to change the system. Marx and Engels had shown that all hitherto existing social systems had not passed away peacefully but through violent class struggles.

These errors were best summed up in the CPI (ML) (People’s war) document entitled "Summing up the past let us advance victoriously along the path of armed struggle." This document listed first the positive aspects of the CPI (ML), then the shortcomings and finally drew lessons on the basis on which to advance. This contrasted sharply with numerous other critiques from erstwhile leaders of the CPI (ML) like SNS, Kanu Sanyal, Ashim Chatterjee, etc who merely sought to throw blame on CM and escape into the revisionist camp. Of course, genuine criticism was raised earlier, particularly by Sushital Roy Chowdhary in late 1970, but he was the lone voice in the leadership then. Unfortunately, a few months later, he died of a heart attack. Though belatedly, Com. CM himself initiated the process of rectifying the errors as could be seen in his article "People’s interest is party’s interest" written in May 1972, two months prior to his martyrdom.

While clearly stating that the positive aspects were primary the CPI (ML) PW document outlined the main shortcomings as:

(i) An incorrect understanding of the era : The document stated that the party wrongly estimated that the character of the era had changed and on that basis had called for continuous attacks, without a thought to the relative strength of the revolutionary forces and that of the enemy. The document added that: "what should have been done instead, is to base (tactics) on a concrete assessment of the relative strength and weaknesses of the opposing sides of the contradiction, in a revolution."

(ii) A wrong estimation of the International and National Situation: The document stated that the Eighth Party Congress report had looked upon US intervention in Kampuchea as the beginning of World War III. It also said that the party had wrongly estimated the situation in the country and therefore called on the people to start armed struggle everywhere. The document added that in India there is uneven economic development, and the levels of political consciousness and social and cultural development vary, this, it added, has to be borne in mind, while formulating the tactics of struggle.

(iii) A disregard for the subjective factor: There was no proper estimate of the strength of the revolutionary forces vis-a-vis that of the enemy. There was a tendency to get carried away by the immediate success of the struggles.

(iv) Giving immature slogans: The over assessment of the objective factors of revolution led to many immature slogans and calls.

(v) The Line of Annihilation: The document succinctly analyzed this point saying: "All forms of struggle are subordinate to, and are guided by the concrete political line. If the concrete political line deviates from the mass line, the forms of struggle cannot but be otherwise..... So in order to negate the line of annihilation, we have to negate the wrong ideology which is alien to Marxism and its consequential political and organizational manifestations..... The problem is not whether the class enemy will be annihilated or not..... Rather the problem is, whether the party should adopt the mass line or not.... Every Marxist-Leninist Party must propagate revolutionary violence which may express itself in various forms of struggle; one of which may be annihilation of class enemies." The party had earlier asserted that the annihilation of landlords was the only means of arousing the landless and poor peasants. This document put the question in correct perspective.

(vi) The rejection of other forms of struggle and organization : Until then the party negated all mass organizations and all other forms of struggle, thereby isolating the party from the masses which made comrades easier targets for the enemy. As the document pointed out "In order to combat the long-standing revisionist practice of conducting mass struggles on the lines of economism and adopting legal and open forms of organization as the only form of organization, our party arrived at a one-sided and wrong formulation that the armed form of struggle is the only form of struggle and armed form of organization the only form of organization."

(vii) A wrong approach to the United Front: The document in its assessment of the earlier position said, "The United Front will be formed in the course of struggle only.... to work for it right from the inception of the struggle is the bounden duty of the working class. To say instead, that it will not be possible to form a United Front until one or a few liberated base areas are established....amounts to rejecting in practice the truth, that a United Front is essential for the victory of revolution."

(viii) Guerilla struggles in the cities: The document said that it was wrong to have started urban guerilla warfare in Calcutta... leading to enormous losses.

(ix) Wrong bureaucratic tendencies in Organization : The document explained that - bureaucratic methods, a lack of self-criticism, a lack of committee functioning, sectarian methods of solving differences, and finally the assertion of Com. CM’s individual authority above the Party.... did much to damage the movement. The document also added that this was a major reason why the party could not correct errors in time.

These then were the major errors of the movement and it is on the basis of a rectification done with this analysis, that the CPI (ML) (PW) has carried forward the heritage of Naxalbari, the basic line of the Eighth Congress and created the primary forms of the guerrilla zone.