Maoism, also known as Mao Zedong Thought (), is a political theory derived from the teachings of the Chinese political leader Mao Zedong (1893–1976). Its followers, known as Maoists, consider it as an anti-Revisionist form of Marxism. Developed during the 1950s and 1960s, it was widely applied as the political and military guiding ideology of the Communist Party of China (CPC). It fell into disfavour in China in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping introduced sweeping reforms.

Maoism is also used to refer to Mao's belief in the mobilization of the masses, particularly in large-scale political movements; it can also refer to the egalitarianism that was seen during Mao's era as opposed to the free-market ideology of Deng Xiaoping; some scholars additionally define personality cults and political sloganeering as "Maoist" practices. Contemporary Maoists in China criticize the social inequalities created by a capitalist and "revisionist" Communist party.

Internationally, Maoist organizations mainly draw upon Mao's ideology of the People's War, mobilizing large parts of rural populations to revolt against established institutions by engaging in guerrilla warfare. Notable Maoist organizations and armed groups currently exist in several countries, most notably the Shining Path in Peru, the Naxalites in India, and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist); the latter of which is the only current Maoist party holding power through a democratic process.

Origins

Although often described as an evolution of Marxism/Leninism, Maoism is defined more by its theoretical and ideological departures from orthodox Marxism or Leninism than by its similarities to the Western versions of modern socialism. Thus, the origins of Maoism cannot be found in Marxist writings alone, but also in the modern Chinese intellectual tradition in which he was raised.

The modern Chinese intellectual tradition

The modern Chinese intellectual tradition of the turn of the twentieth century is defined by two central concepts, iconoclasm and nationalism.

Iconoclastic revolution/anti-Confucianism

By the turn of the twentieth century, a proportionately small yet socially significant cross-section of China's traditional elite (i.e. landlords and bureaucrats), found themselves increasingly skeptical of the efficacy and even the moral validity of Confucianism. These skeptical iconoclasts formed a new segment of Chinese society, a modern intelligensia, whose arrival, or as lauded historian of China Maurice Meisner would label it, their defection, heralded the beginning of the destruction of the gentry as a social class in China. The fall of the last Chinese imperial dynasty in 1911 marked the final failure of the Confucian moral order, and did much to make Confucianism synonymous with political and social conservatism in the minds of Chinese intellectuals. It was this association of conservatism and Confucianism which lent to the iconoclastic nature of Chinese intellectual thought during the first decades of the Twentieth century.

Chinese iconoclasm was expressed most clearly and vociferously by Chen Duxiu during the New Culture Movement which occurred between 1915 and 1919. Proposing the, "total destruction of the traditions and values of the past," the New Culture Movement was spearheaded by the ''New Youth'', a periodical which was published by Chen Duxiu and which was profoundly influential on a young Mao Zedong whose first published work appeared on the magazine's pages. Vital to understanding Chinese nationalist sentiments of the time is the Treaty of Versailles which was signed in 1919. The Treaty aroused a wave of bitter nationalist resentment in Chinese intellectuals as lands formerly ceded to Germany in Shandong were, without consultation with the Chinese, transferred to Japanese control rather than returned to Chinese sovereignty. The negative reaction culminated in the May 4th Incident which occurred on that day in 1919. The protest began with 3,000 students in Beijing displaying their anger at the announcement of the Versailles Treaty's concessions to Japan yet rapidly took a violent turn as protesters began attacking the homes and offices of ministers who were seen as cooperating with, or in the direct pay of the Japanese. Afterwards, "To become a Marxist was one way for a Chinese intellectual to reject both the traditions of the Chinese past and Western domination of the Chinese present" Maurice Meisner, ''Mao's China and After'', page 18.

Mao's personal philosophy

Along with the Chinese intellectual tradition which was prevalent during his youth, it is clear that Mao's personal philosophy, his idealism and populist leanings, were foundational to the formation and profile of Maoism.

Idealism

Mao believed that human consciousness is the key factor in human history. In other words, Mao can be seen as an idealist and as such, directly contravenes the deterministic tenets of orthodox Marxism. Mao had the utmost faith that, through the actions of "dedicated revolutionaries" a new social reality could be formed which would be in harmony with his ideals. Many of the pillars of Maoism such as the distrust of intellectuals and the abhorrence of occupational specialty are typical populist ideas. Mao truly believed that China was to play a crucial preliminary role in the socialist revolution internationally. This belief, or the fervor with which Mao held it, separated Mao from the other Chinese Communists and led Mao onto the path of what Leon Trotsky called, "Messianic Revolutionary Nationalism" which was central to his personal philosophy and is demonstrated in his long-standing hostile relationship with ComIntern. The rudimentary philosophical base of Chinese Communist ideology is laid down in Mao's numerous dialectical treatises and was conveyed to newly recruited party members. This period truly established ideological independence from Moscow for Mao and the CCP.

Contradiction

Mao drew information from the writings of Marx, Engels and Lenin in elaborating his theory. Philosophically, his most important reflections emerge on the concept of "contradiction" (''maodun''). In two major essays, “On contradiction” and “On the correct handling of contradictions among the people”, he adopts the positivist-empiricist idea (shared by Engels) that contradiction is present in matter itself (and thus, also in the ideas of the brain). Matter always develops through a dialectical contradiction:

Furthermore, each contradiction (including class struggle, the contradiction holding between relations of production and the concrete development of forces of production) expresses itself in a series of other contradictions, some dominant, others not.

Thus, the principal contradiction should be tackled with priority when trying to make the basic contradiction "solidify". Mao elaborates further on this theme in the essay “On practice. On the relation between knowledge and practice, between knowing and doing”. Here, “Practice” connects "contradiction" with "class struggle" in the following way: Inside a mode of production, there are three realms where practice functions: economic production, scientific experimentation (which also takes place in economic production and should not be radically disconnected from the former) and finally, class struggle. These may be considered the proper objects of economy, scientific knowledge, and politics.

These three spheres deal with matter in its various forms, socially mediated. As a result, they are the only realms where knowledge may arise (since truth and knowledge only make sense in relation to matter, according to Marxist epistemology). Mao emphasizes—like Marx in trying to confront the "bourgeoisie idealism" of his time—that knowledge must be based on empirical evidence.

Knowledge results from hypotheses verified in the contrast with a real object; this real object, despite being mediated by the subject’s theoretical frame, retains its materiality and will offer resistance to those ideas that do not conform to its truth. Thus, in each of these realms (economic, scientific and political practice), contradictions (principle and secondary) must be identified, explored and put to function to achieve the communist goal. This involves the need to know, "scientifically", how the masses produce (how they live, think, and work), to obtain knowledge of how class struggle (the main contradiction that articulates a mode of production, in its various realms) expresses itself.

People's war

Maoism's political orientation emphasizes the "revolutionary struggle of the vast majority of people against the exploiting classes and their state structures", which Mao termed a "People's War". Usually involving peasants, its military strategies have involved guerrilla war tactics focused on surrounding the cities from the countryside, with a heavy emphasis on political transformation through mass involvement of the lower classes of society.

Agrarian socialism

Maoism departs from conventional European-inspired Marxism in that its focus is on the agrarian countryside, rather than the industrial urban forces. This is known as Agrarian socialism. Notably, Maoist parties in Peru, Nepal and Philippines have adopted equal stresses on urban and rural areas, depending on the country's focus of economic activity. Maoism broke with the state capitalist framework of the Soviet Union under Nikita Khrushchev and dismisses it as modern revisionism, a traditional pejorative term among communists referring to those who fight for capitalism in the name of socialism.

New Democratic revolution

The theory of the New Democracy was known to the Chinese revolutionaries from the late 40’s. This thesis held that for the majority of the peoples of the planet, the long road to socialism could only be opened by a ‘national, popular, democratic, anti-feudal and anti-imperialist revolution [the language of the day], run by the communists.'

And in the context of New Democratic revolution, the rationality of such economic policies as to destroy feudalism on the basis of land to the tiller, to confiscate all foreign and domestic economic establishments with a monopolistic character and to limit, control and guide private capital that do not control public life, have been proved in practice.

Mao's intellectual Marxist development

Mao’s” Intellectual” Marxist development can be divided into five major periods: (1) The Initial Marxist Period from 1920–1926; (2) the formative Maoist period from 1927–1935; (3) the mature Maoism period from 1935–1940; (4) the civil war period from 1940–1949; and (5) the post-1949 period, following the revolutionary victory. # The Initial Marxist Period from 1920–1926: Marxist thinking employs imminent socioeconomic explanations; Mao’s reasons were declarations of his enthusiasm. Mao did not believe education alone would bring about the transition from capitalism to communism because of three main reasons. (1) Psychologically: the capitalists would not repent and turn towards communist on their own; (2) the rulers must be overthrown by the people; (3) “the proletarians are discontented, and a demand for communism has arisen and had already become a fact.” These reasons do not provide socioeconomic explanations, which usually forms the core of Marxist ideology. # The Formative Maoist Period from 1927–1935: In this period, Mao avoided all theoretical implications in his literature and employed a minimum of Marxist category thought. His writings in this period failed to elaborate what he meant by the “Marxist method of political and class analysis”. Prior to this period, Mao was concerned with the dichotomy between knowledge and action. Now, he was more concerned with the dichotomy between revolutionary ideology and counter-revolutionary objective conditions. There was more correlation drawn between China and the Soviet model. # The Mature Maoist Period from 1935–1940: Intellectually, this was Mao’s most fruitful time. The shift of orientation was apparent in his pamphlet “Strategic Problems of China’s Revolutionary War” (Dec, 1936). “This pamphlet tried to provide a theoretical veneer for his concern with revolutionary practice.” Mao started to separate from the Soviet Model since it was not automatically applicable to China. China’s historical particularism viewed through Marxist eyes served as the link between the Marxist process and China. # The Civil-War Period from 1940-1949: Unlike the Mature period, this period was intellectually barren. Mao focused more on revolutionary practice and paid less attention to Marxist theory. “He continued to emphasize theory as practice-oriented knowledge.” The biggest topic of theory he delved into was in connection with the cheng-feng movement of 1942. It was here that Mao summarized the correlation between Marxist theory and Chinese practice; “The target is the Chinese revolution, the arrow is Marxism-Leninism. We Chinese communists seek this arrow for no other purpose than to hit the target of the Chinese revolution and the revolution of the east.” Mao assertively revised theory to relate it to the new practice of socialist construction. These revisions are apparent in the 1951 version of “On Contradiction”. “In the 1930’s, when Mao talked about contradiction, he meant the contradiction between subjective thought and objective reality. In “Dialectal Materialism” of 1940, he saw idealism and materialism as two possible correlations between subjective thought and objective reality. In the 1940s he introduced no new elements into his understanding of the subject-object contradiction. Now, in the 1951 version of “On Contradiction”, he saw contradiction as a universal principle underlying all processes of development, yet with each contradiction possessed of its own particularity."

Departure from Leninism

Mao departed from Leninism not only in his near-total disinterest in the urban working class but also in his concept of the nature and role of the Party. For Lenin, the Party was sacrosanct because it was the incarnation of the "proletarian consciousness," and there was no question about who were the teachers and who were the pupils. For Mao, on the other hand, this question would always be virtually impossible to answer.

Post-revolution

In its post-revolutionary period, Mao Zedong's thought is defined in the CPC's Constitution as "Marxism-Leninism applied in a Chinese context", synthesized by Mao Zedong and China's "first-generation leaders". It asserts that class struggle continues even if the proletariat has already overthrown the bourgeoisie, and there are capitalist restorationist elements within the Communist Party itself. Maoism provided the CPC's first comprehensive theoretical guideline with regards to how to continue socialist revolution, the creation of a socialist society, socialist military construction, and highlights various contradictions in society to be addressed by what is termed "socialist construction". While it continues to be lauded to be the major force that defeated "imperialism and feudalism" and created a "New China" by the Communist Party of China, the ideology survives only in name on the Communist Party's Constitution; Deng Xiaoping abolished most Maoist practices in 1978, advancing a guiding ideology called "Socialism with Chinese characteristics.

Maoism after Mao

Shortly after Mao's death in 1976, Deng Xiaoping started the capitalist reforms of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1978 beginning the radical change of Mao's ideology in the PRC. Although Mao Zedong Thought nominally remains the state ideology, Deng's admonition to seek truth from facts means that state policies are judged on their practical consequences; the role of ideology in determining policy, in many areas, has thus been considerably reduced. Deng also separated Mao from Maoism, making it clear that Mao was fallible and hence that the truth of Maoism comes from observing social consequences rather than by using Mao's quotations as holy writ, as was done in Mao's lifetime.

In addition, the party constitution has been rewritten to give the capitalist ideas of Deng Xiaoping prominence over those of Mao. One consequence of this is that groups outside China which describe themselves as Maoist generally regard China as having repudiated Maoism and restored capitalism, and there is a wide perception both in and out of China that China has abandoned Maoism. However, while it is now permissible to question particular actions of Mao and to talk about excesses taken in the name of Maoism, there is a prohibition in China on either publicly questioning the validity of Maoism or questioning whether the current actions of the CPC are "Maoist."

Although Mao Zedong Thought is still listed as one of the four cardinal principles of the People's Republic of China, its historical role has been re-assessed. The Communist Party now says that Maoism was necessary to break China free from its feudal past, but that the actions of Mao are seen to have led to excesses during the Cultural Revolution.

The official view is that China has now reached an economic and political stage, known as the primary stage of socialism, in which China faces new and different problems completely unforeseen by Mao, and as such the solutions that Mao advocated are no longer relevant to China's current conditions. The official proclamation of the new CPC stand came in June 1981, when the Sixth Plenum of the Eleventh National Party Congress Central Committee took place. The 35,000-word "Resolution on Certain Questions in the History of Our Party Since the Founding of the People's Republic of China" reads:

"Chief responsibility for the grave 'Left' error of the 'cultural revolution,' an error comprehensive in magnitude and protracted in duration, does indeed lie with Comrade Mao Zedong . . . . [and] far from making a correct analysis of many problems, he confused right and wrong and the people with the enemy. . . . Herein lies his tragedy."

Both Maoist critics outside China and most Western commentators see this re-working of the definition of Maoism as providing an ideological justification for what they see as the restoration of the essentials of capitalism in China by Deng and his successors. In 1978 this led to the Sino-Albanian Split when Albanian leader Enver Hoxha denounced Deng as a revisionist and formed Hoxhaism as an anti-revisionist form of Marxism.

Mao himself is officially regarded by the CPC as a "great revolutionary leader" for his role in fighting the Japanese and creating the People's Republic of China, but Maoism as implemented between 1959 and 1976 is regarded by today's CPC as an economic and political disaster. In Deng's day, support of radical Maoism was regarded as a form of "left deviationism" and being based on a cult of personality, although these 'errors' are officially attributed to the Gang of Four rather than to Mao himself. Thousands of Maoists were arrested in the Hua Guofeng period after 1976, with prominent Maoists sentenced to death.

Maoism internationally

Maoism outside China

From 1962 onwards, the challenge to the Soviet hegemony in the World Communist Movement made by the CPC resulted in various divisions in communist parties around the world. At an early stage, the Albanian Party of Labour sided with the CPC. So did many of the mainstream (non-splinter group) communist parties in South-East Asia, like the Burmese Communist Party, Communist Party of Thailand, and Communist Party of Indonesia. Some Asian parties, like the Workers Party of Vietnam and the Workers Party of Korea attempted to take a middle-ground position.

The Khmer Rouge of Cambodia is said to have been a replica of the Maoist regime. According to BBC The Communist Party of Kampuchea (Cambodia), better known as the "Khmer Rouge", identified strongly with Maoism, and is generally labeled a "Maoist" movement today. Maoists, however, are quick to point out that the CPK strongly deviated from Marxist doctrine, and that the few references to Maoist China in CPK propaganda were critical of the Chinese.

In Africa, Siad Barre's regime in Somalia is often cited as being pro-Maoist, as it sided with the People's Republic of China during the Sino-Soviet split and, as such, China provided support to the regime during its war with the pro-Soviet nations of Ethiopia, Cuba and South Yemen.

In the west and south, a plethora of parties and organizations were formed that upheld links to the CPC. Often they took names such as ''Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist)'' or ''Revolutionary Communist Party'' to distinguish themselves from the traditional pro-Soviet communist parties. The pro-CPC movements were, in many cases, based among the wave of student radicalism that engulfed the world in the 1960s and 1970s.

The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is a Maoist political party in India which aims to overthrow the government of India. It was founded on September 21, 2004, through the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) People's War and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCC). The merger was announced to the public on October 14 the same year. In the merger a provisional central committee was constituted, with the erstwhile People's War Group leader Muppala Lakshmana Rao alias Ganapathi as General Secretary. It is currently proscribed as a terrorist organization by the Indian government for organizing mass killings in furtherance of their ideology.

Only one Western classic communist party sided with CPC, the Communist Party of New Zealand. Under the leadership of CPC and Mao Zedong, a parallel international communist movement emerged to rival that of the Soviets, although it was never as formalized and homogeneous as the pro-Soviet tendency.

In the United States, the Black Panther Party, especially Huey Newton, was profoundly influenced by Maoist thought.

After the death of Mao in 1976 and the resulting power-struggles in China that followed, the international Maoist movement was divided into three camps. One group, composed of various ideologically nonaligned groups, gave weak support to the new Chinese leadership under Deng Xiaoping. Another camp denounced the new leadership as traitors to the cause of Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. The third camp sided with the Albanians in denouncing the Three Worlds Theory of the CPC (see Sino-Albanian Split.)

Che Guevara, though initially praising the Soviet Union prior to, during and shortly after the Cuban Revolution, later came out in support of Maoism, and advocated the adoption of the ideology throughout Latin America. The pro-Albanian camp would start to function as an international group as well, led by Enver Hoxha and the APL, and was also able to amalgamate many of the communist groups in Latin America, including the Communist Party of Brazil and Marxist-Leninist Communist Party in Ecuador. Later Latin American Communists such as Peru's Shining Path also embraced the tenets of Maoism.

The new Chinese leadership showed little interest in the various foreign groups supporting Mao's China. Many of the foreign parties that were fraternal parties aligned with the Chinese government before 1975 either disbanded, abandoned the new Chinese government entirely, or even renounced Marxism-Leninism and developed into non-communist, social democratic parties. What is today called the "international Maoist movement" evolved out of the second campthe parties that opposed Deng and claimed to uphold the legacy of Mao.

Maoist organizations

Today, there is no consensus on who does and who does not represent Maoism. Various efforts have sought to regroup the international communist movement under Maoism since the time of Mao's death in 1976.

One notable organization was the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement (RIM). RIM was founded in 1984 and included such notable organizations as the Communist Party of Peru (PCP), also known as "Sendero Luminoso" or "Shining Path," the then Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), now known as the Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) UCPN(M), and the Revolutionary Communist Party USA (RCP(USA)). Today, the RIM appears to be defunct or near defunct. The magazine associated with the RIM, A World To Win, has not published an issue since 2006, though A World To Win News Service still publishes regularly on the internet.

In addition, many of the one-time RIM organizations have become increasingly critical of each other. This has resulted in many public splits. For example, recently the RCP USA has criticized the UCPN(M) as revisionist after the UCPN(M) abandoned its people's war for the parliamentary road. In addition, Red Sun, a web page that claims to be affiliated with some faction the Communist Party of Peru, has criticized both the UCPN(M) and RCP USA. Another movement that has criticized the UCPN(M) is the Communist Party of India (Maoist) -- although they were never formally a RIM member, the CPI(Maoist) was formed out of three organizations, some of which were RIM members, at conferences organized by RIM.

Another effort at regrouping the international communist movement is the International Conference of Marxist-Leninist Parties and Organizations (ICMLPO). Two notable parties that participate in the ICMLPO are the Marxist Leninist Party of Germany (MLPD) and the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP). The ICMLPO seeks to unity around Marxism-Leninism, not Maoism. However, some of the parties and organizations within the ICMLPO identify as Mao Zedong Thought or Maoist.

The Unified Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), a national communist party with a revolutionary background, is a follower of Maoism, although it is believed that the party has developed its own ideology, Prachanda Path, which was developed taking Nepal's political, sociological and geographical constraints into consideration. Still, this party is believed to have taken Maoism as its doctrine as its name suggests.

In the USA the Kasama Project (KP), was initiated by former RCP USA members critical of what they viewed as the dogmatism and cult of personality of RCP USA. KP describes itself as seeking to radically re-imagine contemporary revolutionary politics. It is deeply influenced by Maoist thought, in particular as developed by the RCP USA, but claims members who arrive from other traditions, such as anarchism. KP has published articles in English, Persian, Spanish, and other languages.

The Communist Unification of Spain is an independent party that follows Marxist-Leninism and Maoism.

Criticisms and interpretations

Maoism has fallen out of favour within the Communist Party of China, beginning with Deng Xiaoping's reforms in 1978. Deng believed that Maoism showed the dangers of "ultra-leftism", manifested in the harm perpetrated by the various mass movements that characterized the Maoist era. In Chinese Communism, the term "left" can be taken as a euphemism for Maoist policies. However, Deng stated that the revolutionary side of Maoism should be considered separate from the governance side, leading to his famous epithet that Mao was "70% good, 30% bad". China scholars generally agree that Deng's interpretation of Maoism preserves the legitimacy of Communist rule in China but at the same time criticizes Mao's brand of economic and political governance.

Critic Graham Young claims that Maoists see Joseph Stalin as the last true socialist leader of the Soviet Union, but allows that the Maoist assessments of Stalin vary between the extremely positive and the more ambivalent. Some political philosophers, such as Martin Cohen, have seen in Maoism an attempt to combine Confucianism and Socialism - what one such called 'a third way between communism and capitalism'.

Enver Hoxha critiqued Maoism from a Marxist-Leninist perspective, arguing that ''new democracy'' halts class struggle, the theory of the three worlds is "counter-revolutionary" and questioned Mao's guerilla warfare methods.

See also

Chinese New Left

Cult of Personality

Deng Xiaoping Theory

History of the People's Republic of China

New Democracy

Three Represents

''Quotations from Chairman Mao''

External to China:

Communist Party of India (Maoist)

Guevarism

Naxalite

Naxalite-Maoist insurgency

References

Further reading

''Marxism in the Chinese Revolution'' by Arif Dirlik

''Rethinking Mao: Explorations in Mao Zedong's Thought'' by Nick Knight

''The Function of "China" in Marx, Lenin, and Mao'' by Donald Lowe

''Li Ta-chao and the Origins of Chinese Marxism'' by Maurice Meisner

''Mao’s China and After'' by Maurice Mesiner

''The Political Thought of Mao Tse-Tung'' by Stuart Schram

''Mao Tse-Tung, The Marxist Lord of Misrule. On Practice and Contradiction'' by Slavoj Zizek

External links

General

Selected organizations

Revolutions

Category:Political philosophy by politician Category:Chinese philosophy

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Varavara Rao (born November 3, 1940) is a communist, activist, naxalite sympathizer, renowned poet, journalist, literary critic, and public speaker from Andhra Pradesh, India. He has been writing poetry for the last four decades. He is considered as one of the best Marxist critics in Telugu literature and taught Telugu literature to graduate and undergraduate students for about 40 years. He is known as an orator and had addressed hundreds of public gatherings. He founded ''Srjana'' (creation), a forum for modern literature in Telugu, in 1966 as quarterly and later turned it into a monthly and successfully brought it out till 1992. He was associated with many a progressive and revolutionary journal in Telugu.

Early life

Pendyala Varavara Rao was born on 3 November 1940 in Chinna Pendyala, Warangal district into a middle class Telugu Brahmin family. He studied at Chinna Pendyala, Warangal and Hyderabad. He has been publishing his poetry since 1958. By 1960, he finished his masters in Telugu literature from Osmania University. Thus he was trained in traditional literary forms and criticism besides being himself a poet and literary critic in his own right.

After completing his M.A., Varavara Rao registered for Ph.D. to pursue research on poetry. But later he left research to join a private college at Siddipet, Medak district as a lecturer. From there he switched over to DAVP, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, New Delhi to work as a Publication Assistant. Again he left the job to join as a lecturer in another private college at Jadcherla, Mahabubnagar district. He could not feel content with all these short-spanned occupations as he was basically rooted in the soil of Warangal.He was principal to the government C.K.M. college in Warangal. He longed to be in Warangal and to work amidst the masses there.Vague humanism, ambiguous concern for the people, and illusions about Nehruite socialism marked his character of that period.

Srujana

Transformation towards revolutionary ideas started in Varavara Rao's mind during his tenure in Mahabubnagar district. He thought of publishing a journal to be a forum of modern Telugu literature. He founded a group, by name ‘''Saahithee Mithrulu’'' (friends of literature) in Warangal and started bringing out the journal from November 1966.'' Srjana'' initially was totally devoted to modern literature without any outspoken commitment towards any particular philosophical outlook.

Thirugabatu Kavulu (Rebel Poets)

But that period was immediately followed by an age of clarity and polarization. Ambiguity was losing ground. The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution on the international arena and Naxalbari on the national scene paved the path for ''‘blossoming of hundred flowers’''. Warangal was one of the earliest centers in Andhra Pradesh to have responded to the call of Naxalbari. By that time Varavara Rao returned to Warangal to join CKM College as a lecturer in 1968. In 1969 Warangal witnessed the sprouting of a literary group, ''‘Thirugabadu Kavulu’'' (Rebel Poets), who associated them with the armed struggle going on in Srikakulam then. Naturally Varavara Rao was the moving force behind this group.

Virasam (Revolutionary Writer’s Association)

At the same time, momentous changes were taking place in Telugu art and literature. A number of young writers and artists openly came out with their solidarity to the fighting masses. All the existing literary establishments were questioned. Rebellion shook the foundations of traditional, vague humanistic and romantic schools of literature. Some illustrious figures like Sri Sri and Kutumba Rao from older generation joined hands with the young blood in the cause of the people. Under the influence of the three-year old people’s armed struggle in Srikakulam, a yearlong effort in the literary field brought Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (Revolutionary Writer’s Association) into existence. Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (Virasam) declared that the martyred poet–revolutionary Subba Rao Panigrahi as its source of inspiration. Varavara Rao was one of the founder members of Virasam. Since its inception he has been on its executive committee.

As a spokesperson of Virasam, Varavara Rao toured whole of Andhra Pradesh and addressed several meetings. He had to convert ''Srjana'' into a monthly to enable it to carry the revolutionary message far and wide. He never relinquished writing poetry throughout this hectic period of teaching in a college, speaking at public meetings and editing a highly respected literary monthly.

Poetry and literature

Varavara Rao has published nine poetry collections of his own besides editing a number of poetry anthologies. His poetry collections are: ''Chali Negallu'' (Camp Fires, 1968), ''Jeevanaadi'' (Pulse, 1970), ''Ooregimpu'' (Procession, 1973), ''Swechcha'' (Freedom, 1978), ''Samudram'' (Ocean, 1983), ''Bhavishyathu Chitrapatam'' (Portrait of the Future, 1986), ''Muktakantam'' (Free Throat, 1990), ''Aa Rojulu'' (Those Days, 1998), and ''Unnadedo Unnattu'' (As it is, 2000). His poetry has been translated into almost all Indian languages. His poetry collections appeared in Malayalam, Kannada and Hindi and a few Bengali and Hindi literary journals brought out special numbers of his poetry and writings. Besides a number of articles on particular occasions, his thesis on ‘Telangana Liberation Struggle and Telugu Novel – A Study into Interconnection between Society and Literature’ (1983) is considered to be landmark in Marxist literary criticism in Telugu. He published three volumes of literary criticism and a volume of his editorials in ''Srjana''. During his prison days he translated Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o’s prison diary ''Detained'' and novel ''Devil on the Cross'' into Telugu, besides writing his own prison diary ''Sahacharulu'' (1990).

Life in prison

1973- 1975

Varavara Rao’s political and literary activity enraged the government of Andhra Pradesh to arrest him under the Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) in October 1973. The High Court of Andhra Pradesh struck down the order and released him after a month and a half. The High Court judgment asked the government not to resort to such actions against writers unless their writings have an immediate and direct bearing in a physical action. After a few months, the government charged a conspiracy case wherein all the actions of revolutionaries were shown as the direct consequences of a poem or a speech or a writing of revolutionary writers. Prominent Virasam leaders Cherabanda Raju, KV Ramana Reddy, T Madhusudana Rao, M T Khan, Varavara Rao and M Ranganatham were implicated in the case along with 41 revolutionary activists. This conspiracy case, known as Secunderabad Conspiracy Case, was filed in May 1974 and ended in acquittal in February 1989, after 15 years of prolonged and tiresome trial. In connection with the Conspiracy Case, Varavara Rao was arrested in May 1974. He was denied bail several times and finally released on conditional bail in April 1975.

1975-1977 (Indian Emergency)

Varavara Rao was arrested again on 26 June 1975, on the eve of proclamation of Indian Emergency. During Emergency, he was a detainee under the MISA. He was one of the few prisoners whose interviews with their relatives were restricted and their mail was subjected to stringent scrutiny. Though all the prisoners were released on the day when Emergency was lifted, Varavara Rao was arrested again at the entrance of the jail and was kept behind the bars for a week more on a fresh MISA warrant. He was released only when the new Janata Party government repealed the Act itself.

Varavara Rao was in the forefront in mobilizing popular and democratic support to the widespread mass movements in northern Telangana during post-emergency days. As a consequence, he had to face mental harassment and physical assaults. He survived several attempts on his life by mercenaries of landlords as well as anti-social elements. A police official at Mandamarri, Adilabad district in April 1979, beat him on a public platform.

1983- 1988

In 1983 elections, N T Rama Rao came to power defeating the Indian National Congress. He praised the Naxalites for their patriotism before the elections. After coming to power, he demonstrated no significant change in government policy towards the revolutionary movement. Particularly after he was elected for a second time in 1985, his government put all it’s efforts to suppress the naxalite movement in the state. Varavara Rao too was subjected to severe repression during this time. Six cases were foisted against him in 1985 alone. In July that year, along with functionaries of other people’s organizations, he undertook an all India tour to make the people aware of the repression that was going on in Andhra Pradesh. After visiting Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, New Delhi and Tamil Nadu, Varavara Rao returned to Andhra Pradesh in September to attend court cases. On September 3, the police of Warangal killed Dr. A. Ramanatham, Vice-President, Andhra Pradesh Civil Liberties Committee (APCLC) and a popular pediatrician in Warangal. Dr. Ramanatham was a close friend of Varavara Rao. While killing Dr. Ramanatham, and on several other occasions, police openly declared that killing Varavara Rao was their aim. With his life at risk, Varavara Rao could not discharge his duties as Secretary of Virasam and spokesperson of revolutionary literary movement. He was not able to move freely in Andhra Pradesh. Warangal has become a forbidden place for him. Armed and unarmed ruffians and police in civil clothes attacked his house on several occasions. Persecution against his friends in the movement was also mounted. Taking into consideration all these developments, Varavara Rao chose to cancel his bail in Secunderabad Conspiracy Case. On his request, his bail was cancelled and he was sent to jail on 26 December 1985.

After Varavara Rao went to jail, his interviews were restricted and under severe surveillance. His mail, including registered newspapers, was censored for months together. He was implicated in two more cases while he was in jail. One of them was another conspiracy case by name, Ramnagar Conspiracy Case. Foisted in 1986, this case went on to break records and after 17 years of trial, Varavara Rao was acquitted in 2003. In 1986, one of his poetry anthologies ''Bhavishyathu Chitrapatam'' (Portrait of the Future) was banned by the state government. Varavara Rao was released in 1988 when he was acquitted in Secunderabad Conspiracy Case and from 1990 onwards he started living in Hyderabad.

After release from jail

After a stifling repression period between 1985-89 under the Telugu Desam Party rule, the newly elected Indian National Congress government allowed a little relaxation for a short period after December 1989. Beginning from January 1990, when Virasam held its twentieth annual conference in Hyderabad to May 1990 when Andhra Pradesh Raithu Cooli Sangham held its annual conference in Warangal, millions of people attended the meetings and expressed their unity with the movement. The media reported that 12 lakh people attended the Warangal meeting; almost double the population of that city. Varavara Rao played a very important role in all these meetings as organizer and speaker. But within a short time from this massive gathering, repression on the revolutionary movement resumed with the killing of N Prabhakar Reddy, a lawyer and leader of APCLC. Varavara Rao had to shift to relatively safer Hyderabad, where he joined as a post-doctoral research scholar studying oral traditions in literature at University of Hyderabad.

Varavara Rao, along with a number of intellectuals and people’s organizations stood in the forefront in exposing and resisting the globalization policies of Chandrababu Naidu who came to power in 1994. During Chandrababu Naidu’s government, three Central Committee members of Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Peoples War were arrested in Bangalore and killed. Some private criminal gangs killed T. Purushotham and Md Azam Ali, leaders of APCLC and life-threat to Varavara Rao turned imminent.

CPI (Maoist) emissary

In 2001, the Telugu Desam government accepted a proposal to have peace negotiations with Naxalites and the then Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Peoples War announced the names of Varavara Rao and Gaddar as its emissaries to work out modalities for the proposed talks. The Naxalite party was under ban at that time and these two writers were chosen as emissaries, keeping in view their yeomen services in people’s causes for over three decades then. The government had also named two ministers as its representatives and after three sittings held at a time of unabated encounter killings, Varavara Rao and Gaddar pulled out of the talks’ process, that went on between May and July 2002.

The then opposition Congress party criticized the stand of the Telugu Desam Party with regard to the talks and made a categorical promise in its Election Manifesto 2004 to hold talks to arrive at a meaningful peace. The Congress came to power in May 2004 and initiated the talks’ process in June. This time around the then Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Peoples War named Varavara Rao, Gaddar and novelist G Kalyana Rao as its emissaries. The emissaries assumed their position on 13 July 2004 and had involved themselves in several rounds of discussions on modalities with the government including the Home Minister and the government representatives. Finally, leaders of two Naxalite parties (by then Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Janashakti also joined the talks process and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Peoples War became CPI (Maoist)) came for the talks held between 15 October and 18 October 2004. After this first round of talks, the negotiating parties had to meet for subsequent rounds but after the encounter killings of some naxalites in January 2005, the Naxalite parties withdrew from the process on 16 January. After some failed attempts to revive the process, Varavara Rao and other emissaries withdrew from their positions on 4 April 2005. The peace process ended with the imposition of ban on CPI (Maoist), Virasam and some other people’s organizations on 18 August 2005.

Reimprisonment

Within 24 hours of imposition of ban on Virasam, Varavara Rao and Kalyana Rao, were arrested on 19 August 2005 under AP Public Security Act and sent to Chanchalguda Central Prison in Hyderabad. Since his arrest, 7 new cases were charged against him. Apart from an earlier case of 1999 (pertaining to a protest meeting against the killings of three top leaders of Peoples War), and the case regarding the ban on Virasam, the remaining six cases pertain to the period of talks between the government and the Naxalites. When the government revoked the AP Public Security Act against Virasam through GO Ms No. 503 of 11.11. 2005, the cases against Varavara Rao and Kalyana Rao should have become redundant. In the normal course, Public Prosecutor should have informed the court about the redundancy of the cases. However, that order has not reached the court and Varavara Rao and Kalyana Rao had to undergo a number of adjournments of the case after the lifting of the ban. Finally, the court struck down the case on Varavara Rao under Public Security Act on 31 March 2006 and he obtained bails for all other cases by the time. He was released from jail under bail on 31 March 2006 after a period of about 7 and half months.

External links

Varavara Rao Homepage

Varavara Rao arrest news in BBC

References

Category:1940 births Category:Living people Category:Indian communists Category:Indian journalists Category:Indian poets Category:Marxist journalists Category:Marxist writers Category:Telugu people Category:Marxist poets Category:Communist writers Category:Communist poets Category:Political repressions in India Category:Naxalite-Maoist insurgency

ml:വരവരറാവു te:పెండ్యాల వరవరరావు

Name	Alex Paul
Background	solo_singer
Origin	Kerala, India
Instrument	(playback singing), Harmonium
Occupation	Film composer, music director
Years active	2002 – present
Past members	}}

Alex Paul is an Indian music director mostly active in Malayalam cinema.

Biography

Alex Paul, born in Kochi Kerala,Age 51 years, Date of birth, 21/11/1961, is the son of A. M. Paul, a music artist who formed the first orchestra (in Malayalam: 'ganamela') troupe in Kochi. His elder brother is Lal, of the Siddique-Lal fame, and it was on Lal's film ''Chathikkatha Chanthu'' (2004), that Paul debutted as musical director.

The songs from ''Classmates'' especially "Ente Khalbile Vennilavu Nee" and "Kaattadi thanalum" made him a well-known composer in the year 2006.

He graduated in from R.L.V. College, Thrippunithura. He learnt musical instruments from Kalabhavan, Kochi. He started his own studio, where he composed music for several music albums and for TV serials. Alex made his film debut as music director with Rafi Mecartin's Chathikkatha Chanthu.

Filmography

Cobra (2012)

Seniors (2011)

Tournament – Play & Replay (2010)

In Ghost House Inn (2010)

Aap Ke Liye Hum (Hindi film) (2010)

Chattambinadu (2009)

Duplicate (2009)

2 Harihar Nagar (2009)

LollyPop (2008)

Chocolate (2007)

Classmates (2006)

Pothan Vava (2006)

Red Salute (2006)

Tantra (2006)

Achanurangatha Veedu (2006)

Thuruppu Gulan (2006)

Vaasthavam (2006)

Thommanum Makkalum (2005)

Black (2004)

Chathikkatha Chanthu (2004)

Hello (2007)

Ali Bhai (2007)

Kichamani MBA (2007)

Inspector Garud (2006)

References

External links

Category:Indian film score composers Category:People from Kerala Category:Indian Christians Category:Malayalam Music directors Category:People from Kochi Category:Living people

ml:അലക്സ് പോൾ