5 - State, industry, and labor

Summary

Public administration

In orthodox Marxist theory the bureaucracy represents the interests of the ruling class, hence the CPM's theory of the Indian “bourgeois-landlord” state. The experience in West Bengal indicated this is an oversimplified view. Rather the administration is an instrument in the hands of the ruling party which can be used by the Communists for implementing significant changes if they so desire. In fact the Communists did not have to obstruct the bureaucracy but could utilize it for Communist ends without necessarily becoming reformist. In the short term at least the bureaucracy was indispensable, as the Communists had no organization capable of performing its functions, and without these functions being performed the system, whether Communist or capitalist, would collapse.

The state in West Bengal is in a unique position in India, in being manned to a considerable extent at all levels by East Bengal refugees and their descendants, who are not tied to the propertied class and most importantly not to the rural landed class. At the clerical level and also at the officers' level the Communists often had a dominant position. The extent of their influence is indicated by Congress charges that the CPM used its position as the dominant force among state government employees to pad and fabricate voter rolls deleting known Congress supporters. Though this support does not extend to the point where their Communist followers will undertake their jobs conscientiously as government employees, it does mean they are not actively hostile. If active at all it is on behalf of the Communist government, rather than working for the opposition.