CHAPTER: 7

THE PRESENT CLASS STRUCTURES OF INDIA

----------------------------------------------------------------In continuation to the theme of previous chapter, the contention of the present one
is briefly the following:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Where we have come from? (in respect of India)

Where do we stand?
Where do we want to go?
How do we want to go to that target?
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.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Big bourgeois and owners of monopoly capital

The proponents of imperialist multinational reforms-----Imperialist forces.
Small bourgeois capitalist class.
Eroded feudal land owners & jotdars class
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 denationalize 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.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Workers of ultra-modern organized private industries.

Workers of traditional organized industries (Textile, Jute)
Workers of sunset industries (Jute, Tea, etc)
Workers and contract labors attached to unorganized industries.
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.