Labour Monthly, January 1944
Source: Labour Monthly, January 1944, p. 32, book reviews by Tara Basu;
Transcribed: by Ted Crawford.
India’s Famine The Facts, Ben Bradley (Communist Party, 2d., 15pp.)
The Situation in India, by V.K. Krishna Menon (India League, 2d., 16 pp.).
Indian Famine, by the Labour Research Department (2d., 15 pp.).
Ben Bradley, a pioneer in the joint struggle of the British and Indian peoples for justice and freedom, who proved his devotion to the Indian cause by undergoing a long-term imprisonment in connection with the historic Meerut Case, has written an indictment of British imperialist rule and an appeal “to every British man and woman” for action without delay – the action that “can still save the living.”
Based on an analysis of the background of the present ghastly hunger-cry in India, his pamphlet gives an exposition of the crushing economic policy which has brought “permanent starvation” to the Indian people. His arguments tear down the falsehoods of imperialist propaganda.
The policy of the Government of India, visible in, the Report of the Royal Commission on Agriculture, 1928, he says, “is to keep things as they are, to protect the landlords, to maintain the system of land tenancy and revenue.” This policy has given a free hand to British and Indian hoarders resulting in death, starvation and pestilence for India’s millions. He outlines the immediate relief measures needed, such as shipment of food from abroad, confiscation of hoarders’ stocks and their punishment, medical supplies to cope with cholera, typhoid, malaria, etc. He emphasises the imperative need for a solution of the political impasse by the release of “all Congress and anti-Fascist leaders and the establishment of a National Government of national unity so as to “make it possible for India’s people to solve the food crisis and throw their whole weight into the fight against Fascism and for the building of a new world.”
A vigorous appeal to the conscience, reminding the public of its shared responsibility to reverse the Indian policy of the British Government is the keynote of Krishna Menon’s pamphlet. He surveys the present grim situation of India in war, examines the causes of the famine, and shows how the political conflict, precipitated by the Government, isolates Indian national forces, thus preventing them from effectively taking part “in the total resistance to Japan and the destruction of Hitler.”
The Labour Research Department’s pamphlet brings out the appalling conditions of the Indian peasantry, including over thirty-three million landless labourers, and of millions of industrial wage-earners. It stresses the necessity for immediate rationing; popular control over prices and distribution; import of million tons of food grain; check on the “chaotic and brutal” inflationary situation; and above all, the need to do away with the die-hard imperialist obstinacy which is perpetuating the deadlock.
TARA BASU.