Issue 39 Vol II, May 15, 2007

L I T E R A T U R E

Karl Marx and The First Indian War of  Independence
Dr. Jaspal Singh

THE great Indian Republic in the recent days has been commemorating the hundred fifty years of the great revolt euphemistically called the First Indian War of Independence. Karl Marx has also meditated over this event at the time when the ubiquitous revolt was spreading all over the country in the fifties of the nineteenth century. Incidentally a recent survey conducted by the BBC, England establishes Marx as the greatest intellectual of the 2nd millennium of the Christian era. He excelled not only in the field of political economy where his contribution remains unrivalled up to the present time, he proves to be a brilliant philosopher besides being an outstanding commentator on the political and historical events of the epoch. He intently watched the Indian scene in mid-nineteenth century and wrote dozens of articles on the prevailing situation for the ‘New York Daily Tribune’. These articles are a testimony that Marx had a grip over facts and reporting these truthfully with an insight sitting in London, he could excel any on the spot journalist.

In fact his Notes on Indian History (1853) and the articles published in the Daily Tribune are a brilliant exposition of the socio-economic-political conditions of India that led to the great revolt of 1857. British Empire in India at that time was controlled by the East India Company and incidentally it was the Company that completed the English conquest of the sub-continent after the annexation of The Panjab in 1849. The great revolt of 1857 was a unique show of unity of the Indian people despite their ethnic, communal, caste, lingual and cultural diversity.

Contrary to public belief the revolt actually started at Berhampore in Bengal as early as 25th February 1857 where the soldiers refused to use the controversial cartridges. Consequently on 31st March, that particular regiment was disbanded. Then from Bengal, the revolt spread to the whole of the country engulfing one cantonment after another.

Karl Marx was particularly interested in the colonial policy of the capitalist countries of Europe, eagerly reacting to all major events of the great insurrection. By mid-nineteenth century, Marx maintains that patriarchal and feuded relations in India were dissolving and the country was undergoing gradual transition to capitalist development. The colonial plunder of the vast land inhabited by 200 millions people was the main cause of the native wrath, though the revolt was unleashed by the well-paid soldiery. Therefore, Marx observes, this event represents a general anti-colonial liberation struggle of the oppressed nations unfolding in whole of Asia. By 1824, Britain had started exporting 1,00,000 yards of muslin to India, after having imported it for two centuries and in 1837, this export had touched 6,40,00,000 yards in just 13 years. Meanwhile the population of Dacca, the main muslin producing town decreased to 20,000 residents from 1, 50,000 residents only a decade or so before. So the British colonialism was systematically destroying Indian industries, manufactories and crafts, pauperising the vast mass of the Indian people. Hence poverty became the lot of Indians and wealth that of the “mother country” (Britain). The peasantry in India now had to face a two-tier plundering system, one by local feudal aristocracy and the other by the colonial masters. All in all the colonial state in India became a predominantly predatory state.

Marx was perhaps the first analyst to find the ancient Roman principle of “divide et impera” (divide and rule) being implemented in India. At the time of the Revolt The East India Company had a native army of 2, 00,000 soldiers which was kept in check by the English force of 40,000 officers and others. The army was being used not only for making wars for annexation of more and more Indian kingdoms but also for policing the colonial state to keep the people under thumb. Many British historians dub this event as a “sepoy mutiny” but Marx rubbishes them by christening is as a “national revolt” and a “revolution of the Indian people” to throw away the colonial yoke once for all. One proof of such a judgement was that even the Indian traders of Bengal (the most submissive class) refused when they tried to raise funds for their war efforts.

Why did the revolt fail after having shaken the colonial empire to the roots? Marx believes that there was no single authority with a single command to properly regulate the wide-spread rebellion. Secondly, the weapons and war tactics of the rebels were inferior to those of the British. Of course there was no dearth of courage and patriotic zeal among the mutineers but their leaderless armies were more riddled with confusion. After the suppression of the revolt, Marx says that the brutality of the English broke all previous records and the so-called “civilized nation” proved more savage invaders and marauders in those historical times. The statistics and data provided in these scores of articles are a treasury of historical evidence to weave an authentic narrative. The parliamentary debates in England commented upon here, in which luminaries like Benjamin Disraeli participated shed a lot of light on the organization of British Empire in India after the dissolution of East India Company when the country came under direct rule of the British Crown.

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Akhar, a Punjabi Word Processor
Jagpal S Tiwana

Till now Punjabi keyboard was used to type Punjabi; it was just a type writer with no formatting features of a modern word processor. Now thanks to Punjabi University, Patiala we have with us 'Akhar' a Punjabi word processor developed by Dr. Gurpreet Singh Lehal, Professor and Head, Computer Science Department.

Akhar is a full fledged word processor with many attractive features. It not only has all the tools of MS-Word like,  Bold, Italics, Underline, small, large fonts, setting margins, bullets and numbering, Find and Replace and other formatting commands  etc, but one can also create a table, insert a picture or OLE object, alphabetize and analyze the text and save the document in html and Punjabi format. One can prepare a document in html and put it on Internet with pictures inserted in the text. There is a good spell checker and a Punjabi _English Dictionary and English _Punjabi Dictionary. A separate dictionary of all words occurring in Sri Guru Granth Sahib to check for spellings of texts taken from Sri Guru Granth Sahib and a built-in Search Engine for Sri Guru Granth Sahib have been included. One can transliterate from Gurmukhi to Devnagri or Roman and from Roman to Gurmukhi.

Typing Punjabi is phonetic, easy and fun. With F3 command one can open a type writing pad where one types in Roman in the top window, it automatically gives its Gurmukhi equivalent in the window below and it also suggests other similar words in the third window on the right in case one spelled it wrong. I tried the following lines in Roman and found it simultaneously typed below in Gurmukhi.  I did not have to change a thing.

tusin punjabi vich soch ke roman vich likho, eh ape hethan gurmukhi vich likhia jaiga qusIN pMjwbI ivSc soc ky romn ivSc ilKo, ieh Ewpy hyT¢ gurmuKI ivSc iliKEw jwiegw.

[You think in Punjabi and write that in Roman, it will automatically produced in Gurmukhi below]

It is extremely helpful to those who cannot write in Punjabi, but can write Punjabi in Roman

Some often used words like Nanak, Ik Onkar, Singh, Punjab and all lagan-matran, sihari, bihari are symbolically represented on Keys and can be typed with one key stroke. Besides the Akhar's own fonts, all other popular fonts like Amritlipi, Amar lipi, Dr. Chatrik, Anandpur, Gurbani etc are listed and are easy to use or to convert the text.

Though 'Help' answers most of your queries, it would be better if Dr. Lehal adds a tutorial for the beginners in the next version.

This is a wonderful contribution of Dr. Lehal to Mat Bhasha, Punjabi. He has put Punjabi at par with other developed languages of the world. Dr. Lehal deserves recognition from Punjabi literary societies and Sikh religious bodies as has been accorded to Dr. Raghbir Singh Bains and Dr. Kuldip Singh Thind, other pioneers in the field.

Akhar, the bilingual Punjabi-English word processor, should be acquired by all Punjabi writers, Gurdwaras, Punjabi Sahit Sabhas, University and colleges where Punjabi is taught. Strongly recommended.

For more information and to order a copy of the software, one can contact  emerge.enterprises@gmail.com or akhar_help@yahoo.com tiwana@eastlink.ca
[The writer is a commentator on public affairs and lives in Dartmouth, NS, Canada]

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