Thepfulhouvi Solo
The Communists in Manipur were unheard of to most Nagas at Kohima till the beginning of 1950s; this writer was then in High School but I heard of the word ‘communist’ only when our House-Helper and I were camping in the jungle far away in Medi [Major-landslip], well below Meriema Village opposite Sechü-Zubza, preparing our family’s second year dry cultivation plot of our Clan land, in 1948.
Before that, I didn’t know who the ‘Communists’ were and thought them must be someone outside the circumference of all right thinking people!
Our High School’s long winter vacation extended beyond December to the next year’s early Spring and our House-Helper and I were looking forward to spending an exciting one-week care-free life in the jungle without any of the unending monotonous domestic chores at home, before the school opened again for the next School Year.
We were only two days in the jungle, cleaning the light jungle re-growths that had come up in the field after harvest of previous year’s multiple agri-crops, when an urgent word came from home asking our work be cut short and return home soon in consideration of disturbing news from Manipur of violent troubles there created by the Communists of Manipur.
It was only after two decades after in 1960s that I came to hear them when [Kangleipak Communist Party PWG (Peoples War Group)] of Manipur sometimes put up their propaganda writings on Roadside stonewalls inviting people to join them fight People’s War against the Government.
Incidentally, Nagaland’s News Papers last month carried News of 12 members of Kangleipak Communist Party [PWG] to have surrendered to the current Chief Minister of Manipur, N Biren Singh, the other day Thursday 14th September 2022.
In the early quiet days of 1948, not long after World War II, one young man, very quiet, said to be from Assam, and one of my elder brother’s many strange friends, came and stayed with us in our house at Kohima for nearly a month. He was highly qualified and spent the entire day of his stay reading book the whole day every day. It was only as he left our place, that we learned he was a Communist! And much later, many years of decades after, we heard, -if my 85 years memory is still in good health- he became the Chief Justice in the legal Profession Gowahati in Assam and was responsible for getting my brother, his friend, out from Jail at Shillong, detained for selling Arms, found here and there abandoned in the battle field of Kohima by the Villagers, to Communists from Assam instead of getting them exchanged for 2 to 5 Seers of plain Salt from the DC Kohima.
[These personal touches of life are inserted in this Write-up to bring back the innocent naivety and the simple reality of the olden days, and the people who lived those fond nostalgic days, for the younger generations of today, so that they may have a glimpse of the old simple rustic days.]
In 1957 as students of science in the College, we were in utter wonder of the unbelievable equation: E=mC2 as the greatest IDEA of mankind, but we science students were far outnumbered by Arts students who in every sundry places were saying, talking, discussing, pronouncing ceaselessly that COMMUNISM is the Greatest Idea of the 20th Century!
There was no disputing of what the Arts students claimed: examples of the unprecedented development and advancement in Education, Science, Economy, Politics, Military Power and Sports, Communism has brought to Russia and China in just one short generation of what Capitalist Democracy took centuries.
As an irrefutable example of witness to the fact of the dispensation of those days, in 1960, an American unarmed spy plane flying very high up in space over USSR, was shot down by the communist Rocket; its American Pilot captured prisoner and exhibited to the Russian public and worldwide Media in great communist pride; Nikita Khrushchev, General Secretary of the Soviet Union even boasted Russia can shoot down a Fly in the sky and while attending a UN Council at New York, he took off his shoe and banged his table interrupting and asking the Chairman of the Council Meeting to stop the Philippine Representative speak criticism of the Soviet Union.
In the Olympics of those days, Russia alone would win hundreds of Gold Medals, when America and the democratic Nations could hardly garner four scores; in the field of Science, Russia had sent a dog Laika into Space in their Sputnik and brought the animal back to Earth alive ahead of the USA; Russia sent an Astronaut into Space the first and when Gagarin returned back to earth, he said he went up to the heavens, but did not see God!
Because of the Veto Power the USA has in the Security Council, Communist China couldn’t be a UN Member, yet outside, in real politic, communist prestige was so high among the Nations of the world that every free democratic Nation vied with each other to invite Zhou Enlai or Deng Xiaoping of China to visit their country. And Mao Zedong pronounced: “Just like he overwhelmed the cities of China with Villages from the rural countryside of his famous Long March, in the same manner, he said Europe and the USA will be engulfed with the villages of the world of Africa, Latin America and of Asia!”
Indeed, the world appeared inescapable from the Communism of Russia and China of the day. In less than one Generation 1950-1970 Mao-Zedong’s Communism took China to its zenith of development.
Everything in China was held in common: every Land, every Factory, every product, Agriculture, its products; everyone got his or her own share of what he or she needed. However, within a few decades, the Workers, the Proletariat, lost the incentive to work hard leading to stagnation of the National GDP.
Mao Zedong became concerned the young generation will lose the National Revolutionary Zeal, and to enliven them again, he introduced to the youths, called RED GUARDS, a new radical Movement unforgettably known as the Cultural Revolution of China.
He closed all School, Institutions; gave power to the young Red Guards to have public MEETINGS in which the high and the prominent, the great and the small, Professors and Parents were be summoned and forced to make Self-criticism of themselves publicly in front of the Public!
Mao must have reasons to initiate such unconscionable social earthquake. In the Communist Party Committees and Meetings, his colleagues sometimes criticised him and contended his proposals; some others even opposed his ideas and propositions; there were in-fighting in the Communist Party among the Members. Mao Zedong wanted the whole old writings in blackboard is rubbed off clean and fills the Board with new clean writings to begin anew.
He used the radical Red Guards to remove his old unwanted colleagues; they were purged, some even physically by the extremely gone wild Red Guards; even future leader to be- Deng Xiaoping was purged, Zhou Enlai somehow survived the pogrom by quietly carrying on as the head of the Government and maintained its continuity. Mao would trust only his young wife Jing Qing, fourth wife, for the New Cultural Revolution.
The young Red Guard forced the Parents, old Teachers to pay Respect to the young Red Guards; Professors and Public leaders were made to make public Self-criticism of themselves! Every man and woman, every boy and girl was required compulsorily to memorise the RED BOOK -Mao Zedong’s Red Pocket Book of Instructions and Teachings.
China respects Communist System more than love its Citizens; every person was expected to live for the Party and for its Government than for himself or themselves and life became no longer worth living.
As Mao grew older, his wife Jing Qing took the clout of being the Chairman’s wife and made her radical unilateral decisions appear having the approval of the great Mao. There was power struggle among members of the decision making Committees.
Mao began to know the Red Guards have become too powerful and divided them into independent Groups each in charge of different Areas; communication and cohesion among the Groups suffered, consequently chaos descended on the Groups and weakened them themselves.
Communism’s principal tenets prohibit private enterprise and Jing Qing in collaboration with three others, -severely blamed and hated by the infighting other leaders- dubbed the four as ‘Gang of Four’. The text book pattern of Communist System the Gang of Four have initiated, led China not only into great economic stagnation but also caused Social Earthquakes. Finally the Revolution Jing Qing has created kicked her back. She and her Gang of Four were arrested and jailed; she committed suicide.
Practical Deng Xiaoping somehow survived the cultural revolution on the support of his friend Zhou Enlai and suggested the Party should at least allow Private Garden to wherever is willing and able to let the owner produce for his own requirement and sell the excess, if any, to whoever neighbour needed it.
Some objected even to this suggestion as being a Capitalist Revisionist Idea, a Sin serious in Communism. To this, Deng Xiaoping however gave his famous reply: “As long as the Cat catches the mouse what does it matter if it is black or white?”
Deng Xiaoping’s piece of practical democracy began to lightened the millstone of stagnant communist economy hung on the neck of China and made it acceptable and successful to the grass-root people that it became the Cap stone of economic revival of China. Deng Xiaoping was straight forward, open-minded and adopted many Capitalist innovations wherever applicable to China. He travelled to many capitalist countries, particularly the USA, the home of Capitalism and China’s ancient enemy and visited diverse private factories and organizations there.
Deng Xiaoping was short in stature; an American described him so in the Times Magazine with “a head shaped like a bullet” and a habit of infrequently spiting, for which a Spittoon always followed him wherever he went. Deng Xiaoping was highly intelligent and progressive.
He advocated: One-child policy, De-centralized economy, Established cultural and trade ties with the West, Allowed foreign investment and Abandoned many communist doctrines. Many say Deng Xiaoping re-shaped the destiny of China more than by Mao Zedong and made China grow to be one of the fastest grown Powers.
Because of Deng’s progressive policies, China today appears almost a Democracy except for lack and prevention of many freedoms, important of which are: of religion, of expression, of opinion, of human right and of unlimited power of the Government under Xi Jingpin. Deng Xiaoping didn’t abandon Communism; yet, had he lived longer, China today would have grown a positively responsible peaceful Member of the United Nations than it is today.
It is interesting to note the countries formed by the power of Communism don’t not last long: the 15 Republics that Communism bound them together into the biggest Nation the world has ever seen, the –UNION OF SOVIET SOCIALIST REPUBLICS [USSR] lasted hardly two and half generations; and following the cue, Czechoslovakia and all the Eastern European countries that formed the COMMUNIST BLOCK bound together by Communism, soon disintegrated into Independent States; to freely elect democratic forms of Governments by themselves for themselves.
In Asia also Communist countries of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and North Korea fare less wellbeing than Democratic countries like Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Philippine, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia.
The Rise & Fall of Governments with Communist System of Governance happens faster than in Democracy; the world today has more Nations in Democracy than in Communism.
By 1990 Communism could not provide for the welfare of its people in the Soviet Union and simply become almost failed-State, so much so, that Gorbachov, democratically elected, abandoned Communism totally and officially declared GLASNOST AND PERESTROIKA for all the 15 Republics of the Soviet Union. Gorbachiev retired and made Yeltzin the President of FSU [Former Soviet Union] gave it over to a former KGB Officer!
How long the shell of Communist Governance of Putin and of Xi Jingpin last, octogenarians like this Writer may not perhaps see but he hopes the coming younger generations would find out!
