On August 15 1947, India became independent from British colonial rule. The vast masses of our people rejoiced at this development. They hoped that the oppressive and alien colonial institutions, that humiliated and subjugated our people, would be overthrown. They hoped that the imperialist and colonial loot and plunder of labour and natural resources of our people would come to an end. They wished that all the human and natural wealth of our country would be deployed to eliminate poverty and deprivation, and that a bright future would dawn for all the toiling masses. They hoped that now they would become decision makers and shape their own destiny.

All these hopes have been cruelly belied for the vast masses of our people. Over the decades, a popular slogan amongst the working masses has been “Yeh azadi jhooti Hai, Desh ki Janata Bhooki Hai” (this freedom is false as our people remain hungry). Shaheed Bhagat Singh’s call that India’s struggle shall continue, independent of whether the exploiters are white or brown, finds deep echo amongst the people. It has become common for people to say that “kale angrez” or brown sahibs have replaced the “gore angrez” or white sahibs.  In states like Kashmir, Nagaland, Manipur and Assam, the masses of people have continued to shed blood for “azadi”, for freedom and an end to Indian imperialist and colonial plunder.

It is common knowledge that India is emerging as one of the global imperialist powers. The ruling class is extremely cocky and boastful of its aims. It is proud that it has joined the ranks of the five big nuclear powers. It is proud that Indian capitalists are spreading their tentacles worldwide, and that the Anglo-American rulers are regarding India as the largest democracy and a global power of importance.

From the time of the anti-colonial struggle, the Indian bourgeoisie has considered its role model to be the colonial masters. Leaders of the Indian National Congress were trained in Oxford and Cambridge, and later on at Harvard and other universities in the US. They embraced European bourgeois philosophy and culture, habits and lifestyle, along with their political institutions and method of rule, and the economic system of plunder in the private interests of a capitalist minority.

It is natural that the Indian bourgeoisie celebrates 15th August with great joy, because it gained political power on that day. The landlords and capitalists, headed by the Tatas and Birlas, became the rulers of India. On 15th August 1947, sovereignty was transferred from the British colonialists in London to the Indian bourgeoisie ruling in Delhi. The Indian bourgeoisie, represented by the leaders of the Congress Party, skillfully manipulated the revolutionary struggle of workers and peasants against colonial rule, to emerge as the leader of the struggle, and establish its own rule.

The bourgeoisie has used its control over the vast territory of India with a gigantic population and massive natural resources, India’s strategic location in Asia, to pursue singlemindedly its goal of becoming a world class imperialist power. Its internal and external policies have been guided by this overriding consideration. It has step by step removed the roadblocks inside the country to the flourishing of capitalism in all spheres of economy, even while taking care to preserve those aspect of the old social system that serve to super-exploit the toiling masses and weaken them. The exploitation and plunder of the land and labour of India have been carried out both by the state acting as a collective capitalist, and by individual privately owned monopolies assisted by the state. The bourgeoisie has taken over and further developed all the colonial institutions of rule. The state apparatus — the armed forces, the judiciary, the executive as well as the parliament elected on basis of universal franchise are all a continuation and development of the British colonial institutions of rule.  The Indian bourgeoisie established the Indian Union on the basis of the European nation state model, denying the existence and rights of the hundred of nations and peoples who had together and separately fought to end colonial rule, and forcibly integrated many nations and peoples into the new union.

In sum, the Indian bourgeoisie preserved and strengthened the entire colonial edifice, including the capitalist system of plunder against which the Indian masses had fought during the anti-colonial struggle. Colonial rule has ended, but the weight of the colonial legacy, including capitalism, weighs heavily on our people, exploiting and oppressing them, making them feel alien in their own country. End of colonial rule has only benefited the bourgeoisie. What the toiling majority of people need is deep going social transformations, getting rid of the entire colonial legacy, including its mainstay, the capitalist system.

India was a key link in the chain of world imperialism during colonial times. It remains a key link in this chain even today. The Indian bourgeoisie has benefited from this and so have the capitalists of the whole world. World imperialism is deadly opposed to social revolution in India, to the workers and peasants of India breaking free of imperialism and establishing their own rule.

Within the imperialist system of states, there are contradictions amongst the bourgeoisie of different countries over controlling markets and sources of raw materials, over their respective spheres of influence. The Indian bourgeoisie is colluding and contending with the US and other imperialist powers. Both when it supports the US and when it opposes the US, the Indian bourgeoisie is pursuing its own imperialist aims.  Workers and peasants cannot afford to have any illusion on this score.  The 'independent' policy of the bourgeoisie is an imperialist policy, which spells danger for the working class and people.

The capitalist system of exploitation and plunder is draining out the wealth and resources of our people. It is creating wealth at one pole and poverty at the other. Capitalism has to be overthrown and replaced with socialism, based on social ownership of the means of production.  The orientation of a socialist economy is to provide for the people, ensure their security and prosperity, and not to ensure maximum profits for a minority.

Sovereignty needs to be transferred from the bourgeoisie to the workers and peasants of India. The Indian Union must be reorganized as a voluntary union of workers' and peasants' republics. We must replace the colonial state institutions which serve as instruments of plunder and repression of toilers, with institutions that defend the rule of workers and peasants. We must replace the present political system with a new one that ensures that workers, peasants, women and youth of India become the decision makers.  Only then will the people of India wholeheartedly celebrate their freedom and independence, their azadi from enslavement and plunder.