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The threat of war is
a stark reality. The British government has contacted British Airways in a bid
to airlift hundreds of British citizens out of Pakistan and India as the two
countries slide into a state of war. This is the largest evacuation organized by
the British government since the Gulf War. Other governments are evacuating
citizens as well. Both the governments of India and Pakistan are talking to each
other from within their bunkers and staring down each other’s nuclear barrel.
However, on the streets of Pakistan life goes on oblivious to the war clouds
hanging over the sub-continent. If war breaks out, the common person in Pakistan
will be caught totally off-guard. The ruling class is deliberately keeping the
people uninformed and deceiving them with slogans of "Nationalism" and
"Religion". The people of Pakistan and India deserve the truth about the
character of this war.
The Role of
Regional Nationalism
India and Pakistan
are not nation states, they are multinational neo-colonial states. In both
states the capitalists, feudals, and military oligarchs of the dominant nation
oppress and exploit the smaller or economically less developed nations. These
smaller or economically less developed nations periodically rise up to challenge
the dominant nation within India and Pakistan. For example, in Pakistan the most
prominent example is the struggle of the Bangaldeshi nationalists. There have
also been struggles of the Baluch, Sindhi, Pathan, Saraiki and so called Mohajir
nationalists. Not a single of these struggles is a proletarian struggle. The
struggle is organised and led by the ruling group of that nation. Workers and
peasants have joined this struggle only in so far as the national oppression
from the dominant state has been extremely high. I refer to these struggles as
regional nationalist movements. The choice of words might not be
considered appropriate by those who accept the assumptions of their nationalist
cause, they might feel that the term region belittles their struggle. I
use the term regional only to differentiate between these struggles and
the anti-colonial nationalist struggle that brought to the forefront the
multinational states of Pakistan and India.
Although certain
regional nationalist movements have played a progressive role (Bangladesh
springs to mind) history has proved that these struggles have failed to solve
the fundamental problems of the people: the slave like conditions of class
oppression. Indeed, it cannot be any other way since nationalism as a philosophy
and the national movement as a political force is purely and inevitably a
product of the struggle of the local ruling class for monopoly control over the
local market.
The state of India
(dominated by the nations of north India) and Pakistan (dominated by the Punjab
and industrial groups in Karachi) have engaged in a war of attrition for the
last 54 years by financing and arming regional nationalist movements against
each other.
The struggle of the
Kashmiri people, that has occupied the attention of the world recently, is a
similar regional nationalist movements that has arisen on the basis of genuine
grievances of the Kashmiri people against the chauvinist attitude of the
dominant nations in India. However, the support that Pakistan is lending to this
struggle is part and parcel of a long policy by the ruling class of Pakistan to
undermine India. It is an undeniable fact that the Pakistani ruling class
(especially those interests connected to the Pakistan army) has waged a veiled
war on India for the last 50 years by financing and arming regional nationalist
movements in India (Khalistan, Nagaland, Tamil, Nagaland, Assam etc.). India has
done the same against Pakistan.
The ruling class of
Pakistan wants to utilize Kashmiri regional nationalism to undermine India. The
struggle in Kashmir has been changing in character over the years. What started
out as a national struggle of the Kashmiri people (Hindu and Muslim Kashmiris)
is increasingly turning into a religious struggle mainly owing to the influence
of Islamic religious fundamentalism exported from Pakistan. Therefore, the
entire confrontation between India and Pakistan is simply a struggle to grab
more land, undermine each other’s government, and consolidate their hold over a
greater portion of the sub-continent by utilising the services of arch
reactionaries and regional nationalists. The confrontation is a direct outcome
of the bankrupt neo-colonial semi-feudal decrepit capitalist system of India
Pakistan. Needless to say, this confrontation only benefits the corrupt military
oligarchs, capitalists, feudals, and religious fundamentalists of the region. In
the last 54 years of this confrontation nothing positive has ever been achieved
for the workers and peasants of Pakistan or India who continue to slip ever
deeper into poverty misery and destitution. Nothing demonstrates the utter
bankruptcy of the ruling class of the sub-continent than the current state of
war between India and Pakistan. Nothing demonstrates more sharply the need for a
working-class revolution in the sub-continent.
If the ruling class
of both states seek to undermine each other by fanning religious fundamentalism,
communalism, regional nationalism, the workers and peasants must make a
determined struggle to uphold the international unity of all working people
against the ruling class of their own country.
Why is India Acting
Now?
The BJP has been
actively pursuing a policy of attempting to undermine the Pakistani government
for the last decade. However, the war in Afghanistan has seriously aggravated
the state of conflict between India and Pakistan. The India ruling class feels
that this is a good moment to pressure Pakistan to curb the Jihadi militants. It
feels that the war against terrorism gives India the opportunity to increase
pressure against Pakistan by a policy of military brinkmanship.
When Musharraf (the
military dictator of Pakistan) decided to break with the Taliban in order to
back the US war against Afghanistan, it was rumoured that the US had secretly
promised that they would assist in solving the Kashmir problem. If such a
promise was made, it cannot be considered anything other than an empty promise
to placate the right-wing opinion in the Pakistan army in light of the highly
controversial decision to stop backing the Taliban. Nonetheless, for the last 50
years the Pakistan ruling class has continually appealed to the imperialist
countries to "solve" the Kashmir issue. On the other hand, India has maintained
that the Kashmir issue is "purely an internal affair". Therefore, the presence
of US troops in Afghanistan and Pakistan aggravated the possibility of an
imperialist brokered deal to "solve" the Kashmir issue. The ruling class of
India was quick to pre-empted such a possibility by provoking a state of war and
moving troops into the region. The pogroms organised by the BJP in the state of
Gujrat reflect the rise of Hindu fundamentalism in order to prepare the
political forces to bully the smaller nations into submission and also pressure
its arch enemy, Pakistan. However, as appalling as the policies of the BJP are
(the pogroms they have organised against Muslims in Gujrat, the chauvinistic
bullying of small nations, the policy of military brinkmanship to pressure
Pakistan, the aggressive nuclear sabre rattling and so on) these do not change
the character of the confrontation on the part of the Pakistani ruling class.
Pakistan is not
fighting a "War of Defense"?
Pakistan is not
fighting "war of defense" or a "national liberation struggle". The ruling class
of Pakistan is fighting a PREDATORY WAR.
The common view about
war is that war occurs as an squabble between two countries, much as a squabble
between two individuals, as a result of some misunderstanding or some specific
issue. In a word, that war occurs as a kind of exception to the general course
of state policy. This view was countered by Otto Von Clauzewitz who explained
that "war is the extension of politics by violent means." Therefore, war cannot
be separated from the politics of states. The politics of the state are
determined by the type of economic system and the interests within the framework
of that economic system of different classes. The character of the war,
therefore, is determined by the aims and objectives of the classes involved in
the war.
The confrontation
over Kashmir is the extension of the politics of the military oligarchy that has
ruled Pakistan for the last 54 years. They envisage a domain of influence
stretching from Afghanistan to Kashmir. They believe that this will give them
"strategic depth" vis a vis India.
Therefore, regardless
of whether it is India or Pakistan that strikes first, this does not change the
character of the war. Regardless of who strikes first the aims and objectives of
the classes waging the war do not change. In the final analysis it is the aims
and objectives of the classes fighting the war that determine its character and
not who strikes first.
Therefore, all talk
of Pakistan fighting a "war of defense" covers the objective reality that the
Pakistan ruling class is engaging in this confrontation for the purpose of
acquiring, in their own words, "strategic depth", or in other words, a sphere of
influence stretching from Afghanistan to Kashmir. Since 1998, this confrontation
between the ruling class of India and Pakistan has reached the level of a
nuclear confrontation. The people have a right to ask what has this
confrontation brought to the workers and peasants of Pakistan and India after 54
years of exploitation and oppression.
This predatory war is
unacceptable to the workers of Pakistan.
What is the role of
foreign powers in this conflict?
All the imperialist
countries (USA, UK, France, Germany) and regional powers (China, Russia) are
interested in keeping the conflict in check. This is the main force (along with
the threat of a nuclear counter strike by Pakistan) staying the hand of the BJP.
Were it not for these two factors an attack on Pakistan might already have
occurred. At the moment, it appears that these forces have managed to convince
the BJP to not declare war on Pakistan in exchange for promises by Musharraf
that he will do more to curtail "cross border terrorism". Nonetheless, the form
of this confrontation is continuing and threatens to break out into open war if
and when there is a small change in the balance of power or geo-strategic
interests of the imperialists.
The imperialists
correctly estimate that instability in the region will assist the rise of the
right-wing in Pakistan. Already Musharraf has moved troops away from the border
with Afghanistan thus weakening the position of the US and UK troops against the
Taliban. Furthermore, war with India, even the threat of war with India, has
always strengthen the right-wing forces in the administration in Pakistan. Last
but not least, the imperialists will gain nothing new from fanning a war between
India and Pakistan. They already have full access to both markets and are active
in building their monopolies all across the sub-continent. In fact, war will
undermine the safety of their investments and the stability that they require in
order to make a consistent profit (especially from India). Therefore, all
foreign powers are interested in bringing peace to the region.
At the same time, in
the eventuality of a conflict between India and Pakistan nearly all foreign
powers will back India and not Pakistan. The reasons are quite simple. India is
a lucrative thriving market of a billion people and 20 million middle class
consumers. Its highly developed bourgeois democratic and secular institutions
make it ideal for foreign investment. Pakistan on the other hand, is considered
a comparatively smaller market (1 million consumers), where the structures of
power are not secure, investment is not secure, the threat of a Islamic
fundamentalist coup in the army is a real possibility. Pakistan was only inches
away from being branded a "terrorist state". Even Pakistan’s traditional backer
in the region, China, has made secret statements of support to India. Therefore,
Pakistan does not have the international backing to wage a sustained war against
India.
What is the economic, military, and
political strength of Pakistan relative to that of India?
The strength of
Pakistan is much inferior in comparison to the strength of India. Since the BJP
has been in power, India increased its military budget by the size of the total
military budget of Pakistan. Experts argue that the Pakistan army is better
trained and equipped than the Indian army. However, the Indian army has many
times the man power and the economic base to fight a sustained war against
Pakistan. Pakistan cannot economically, politically, or militarily sustain a
long war with India. However, the ruling class of Pakistan posses one weapon
that allows them to achieve military parity with India. The nuclear bomb. Thus,
the military capacities of Pakistan should be taken lightly. The reactionary
ruling class of both India and Pakistan that are armed to the teeth are prepared
to plunge the people of the region into a blood bath in order to extend their
monopoly. Militarily the strategy of India and Pakistan in order of the level of
involvement in violence is listed below.
At the moment both
countries are standing at the least option but it will take only a slight change
in the alignment of international and local forces to tip this balance into a
larger confrontation.
What Is To Be Done?
The only manner in
which progressive forces can act in this conflict is by consistently upholding
working class internationalism. As Karl Marx declared in the Communist Manifesto
"Working men have no country. You cannot take away from them what they have not
got." We must declare openly (in India and Pakistan) that the biggest enemy of
the people of the sub-continent is the enemy at home and that we must declare
war on this predatory war. The greatest enemy of the people of Pakistan is not
India but the ruling class at home.
Therefore, the
workers of Pakistan must declare war on this predatory war. In the eventuality
of the outbreak of war, they must concentrate their energies to convert this war
into a revolutionary civil war against the military oligarchy and ruling class
of Pakistan. The war will expose all the contradictions of the system. We must
utilize these contradictions not to narrow the social chasm between the ruling
class and the working class but to widen it and utilize all means at our
disposal to convert the social chasm into a revolutionary conflagration.
We are ready to unite
with all the forces in India that are prepared to declare war on this predatory
war and are struggling to destroy the Hindu fundamentalists and the ruling class
of India. At the same time, we are working in Pakistan to hold back the hand of
Islamic fundamentalists against India. Only working class internationalism can
create a lasting peace in the sub-continent.
Bourgeois pacifists
and various other reformists talk of "opposing the war". But they do not accept
that the capitalist system and the ruling class has given rise to this war in
the first place. In order to uproot the basis of war, we must declare a
revolutionary war on the war itself. This means that we not only "oppose the
war" but that we spare no effort in converting this war into a revolution. That
is why we use the phrase "we must declare war on this predatory war".
If we fail to do so,
we will be giving in to opportunism that threatens to engulf all the people of
Pakistan and India in a nuclear conflagration that will destroy the lives of
millions of people.
People of Pakistan and India, Unite to
overthrow the WAR MONGERERS of the subcontinent !!!
Long Live Proletarian Internationalism!!!
Down with Bourgeois Nationalism!!!
Long live Socialism!!!
Communist Workers and Peasants Party, Pakistan
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