Recent Trends in Indian Nationalism, by A.R. Desai

[p025] Recent Trends in Indian Nationalism, by A. R. Desai. Popular Book Depot, Bombay, Rs. 8.75. This is a concise but telling , analysis of the role of the national bourgeoisie in India during and since World War II. Desai shows how, in 1942, the. Congress leadership made no serious attempt to call for and lead a mass struggle against the British but went calmly to prison, knowing that this would ensure their. being regarded as heroes. At this very time, of course, the bourgeoisie were piling up massive profits while the people experienced conditions of severe hardship. When Congress came to power in 1947 it did every- thing to conserve established property relations and to prevent the effective intrusion of the masses into political life. The inability of India’s ruling class to solve the agrarian problem decisively restricts the possibilities of economic growth; its unwillingness to spend more than a fraction of the budget on education shows its deep fear of a popular awakening; the increased emphasis on Hindu religion, amounting to revivalism, reflects the dread of a secularization of social ‘life which comes from lack of confidence about its social position and its future. Desai rightly pours scorn on the Congress claim that India today is socialist or even ‘democratic’. ‘What is democratic’, he asks, ‘about an economic system under which a few oligarchic families control the life and destiny of the entire nation while the vast portion of the people live in a state of abject poverty?’ The bourgeoisie has so mishandled the educational problem in order to protect its privileges that standards have fallen, there is universal over- crowding and ‘ corruption and bribery regarding admission or success at examinations are rife’. He firmly insists that the present Indian govern- ment, for all talk of neutrality and ‘sion organized by 23 “peaceful co-existence’, has chosen the side of the capitalist states. He underlines the irony of a _ poor country, professing high principles, even non-violence, which devotes more than half its budget to the military establishment. One could wish that some points were developed further, especially regarding the opposition forces and the symptoms of decay visible in the ruling class itself with its ‘hybrid culture which is decadently luxurious, which is modern in form but con- servative and status preserving in essence’. Perhaps Desai, who is a sociologist, will one day give us such a study, and will not forget to include in it those of his academic colleagues who, in a sycophantic way, take over, and try to apply to India, the sophisticated economic and _ social theories develop under Western capitalism. It is to be hoped that he will add flesh and blood to some of his political conclusions. His pro- fession of Marxism would be strength- ened if he paid less deference to the methodology and phraseology of Laski and Wright Mills and made fuller use of the Marxist classics themselves. However, this book effectively shows just how weak is one of the weakest links in the chain of world capitalism today and answers those who believe that India is in some sense a socialist country. T.K. Conditioning for