THE STORMING of the golden temple in Amritsar by the Indian Army has turned the spotlight on the an international point of view, almost a throwback to another era. It was the leadership of the Indian Congress Party, famous 'non-aligned' movement with Yugoslavia's Tito and Egypt's Nasser.
During the 1960s and 1970s that movement had crumbled. Egypt, under Sadat, had moved being 'non-aligned' to being firmly in the camp of the United States. The 1970s were the era of the US-backed regimes SuCi Chile. Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay In East Asia the 1970s saw the rise of the 'miracle economies' South norea, Taiwan, Hong Kong Singapore economies which were fuelled by US bank loans whose growth was based on exports to the imperialist economies Anart from a tew individual states which became direct allies of the Soviet Union the most important being Ethiopia, South Yemen, Angola and, Mozambique - the semi-colonial capitalist states during the 1970s were heing tied more ilosely and directly into imperialism than at any time since the Second war. Ine same pallert Is continuing today with Angola and Mozambique being forced by economic and military pressure into close links with South Africa.
The basis of this intensified imperialist dominaton was cicar. ronowing the working class struggles western Europe atter 1968, the oil price Increases of 1973. economic recession of 1yl›, te imperalist coun tries began an intensified export of capital into some of the more developed countries Debt Huge bank loans, which now form the basis of the international debt crisis, were made finance the economic growth of Brazil, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan and similar SLates Simult aneously their industries were bull up oy alrect ex port of industrial capital from Western Europe, the United States and Japan the creation of a large scale car manufacturing industry in Brazil classic case.
India was the most important semi-colonial which tried hold out against this trend. When India gained independence 1947 possessed the most powerful and developed ruling class of any ex-colony and «ore economies of any third world countrv.
The British rulers had always constituted only a tiny proportion of the population of India - - less than 0.01 per cent. The Indian capitalist had been able powerful all India politica force the Congress Par In Mahatma Gandhi ly. the Indian bourgeoisie had India under Indira Gandhi still represents, from under Nehru, which launched the found leader ideology — that of 'non violent resistance' which had simultaneously been able to lead a struggle against the British and prevent any uncontrollable explosion of the workers and peasants.
The Indian bourgeoisie was further sireneunened by the policy which Stalin andthe indian Communist Seron pursued during are.
Under the political line of the popular front' the Indian Communist Party abandoned the struggle for Indian independence in favour of so called 'unity' with the British against the Japanese. The prestige of the independence struggle therefore fell wholly and completely to the Congress Indira Gandhi (Marxist) have built up major regional bases against the In slightly better off areas of the Indian state the Punjab, Gujurat, and UtPradesh Hindu communalist (notably the Jan Sangh)
the Sikh Akali Da anto ave mao SuDoorl Chaos The Punjab itself, where the Indian army has acted. is the richest state in India in terms of per capital income and the most prosperous agricultural area The strains within Indian society produced by the economic orientation of the Congres Dally already came to a head ir 1977 with the defeat of In dira Gandhi in the general election by a combination regionalist particularist parties Gandhi herself DaCk power simply because no other capitalist force was capable of keeping India Indira Gandhi's Congress party, however, now finds itself squeezed on two fronts. India's siov rate of economic growth is insufficien the centrifugal forces in the country. The artificial state welder together by the British into 'India' already came apart once in 1947 with the partiT1Qn into Pakistan Pakistan then exploded in 1971 with the creation of Bangla Desh. These centrifugal tendencies have only been Delhi INDIA strengthened by the economic policies pursued since independence But the only alternative open to Indian capitalism that of attempting to speed up economic growth by importing foreign capital on a larger scale would be likely to speed up the economic uneven nesses of the country still further Confronted with these pressures the policy of the central Indian government is tending to become less and less coherent. On the one hand the government is stepping up moves to import foreign capital - the number of authorisation collaborations with foreign firms approved by the government has doubled in the last two years SHOOTE Tapital have increased tenBut on the other side the Indian government's attempt to move military purchases away from the USSR have fail. -PUNJAB ed. Indian build Jaguar fighters came to nothing instead it has forced to go back reliance on production o Soviet MIG aircraft. Tensions between India and the United States have in creased again.
an increasingly incoherent economic and foreign policy ana will rapidly increasing regional nanna tensions within the country, Indira Gandhi maintains her dominant position in In alan pontics primarily b the fact that other bourgeois force is canable of keeping the country together. Following events such as in Amritsar even her ability to do • so is in. creasingly in doubt.
As the 1980s unfold the Words most populous capitalist state is heading inexorably towards chaos. The storming of the golden temple is just the beginning of the process
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growing political crisis in India. JOHN ROSS looks at the background to the current events and India's place in the 'third world'.