On May 16th China silently mourned the Grand
Proletarian Cultural Revolution, brainchild of the legendary Mao Zedong fifty
years ago. As the citizens ruefully recollect the infamous decade of the
calamity, the mouth piece of Communist Party of China, breaks silence promising
that another Cultural Revolution would never happen. While there was no
official event reckoning the decade of chaos there were muted discussions on
the same in the Chinese social media platforms. But unlike the Tiananmen Square
incident discussions on Cultural Revolution are not censored by Chinese
government. Ironically, China which claims to be an emerging power has one of
the severely repressed media and government overtly controls the internet too.
Together, lack of credible information and absence of clear media reportage on
events past and present impeded common understanding of contemporary Chinese
history. Hence any firsthand account of individuals who lived through the
tiring times can help in unraveling the past events. To this end, my own
curiosity of the initial days of China were comprehensively satiated by a poignant,
intense and gripping family memoir- “Wild Swans- the Three Daughters of China”
authored by Jung Chang.
After the tumultuous defeat at the hands of Allied powers,
Japan was forced to withdraw from China. Soon China slipped into a civil war
and the Communist Party of China under the helmsman ship of Mao Zedong seized
power and established Peoples Republic of China (PRC) by defeating Kuomintang Forces
who fled to Taiwan subsequently. By 1949, the fledgling nation was marred by
rampant poverty, lawlessness, corruption and espionage broke the backbone of
the economy. Persons who served the party and ingrained veritable principles
and ideals of Communism held all the official positions. Soon the party cadres
at various positions brought about massive changes reflecting party’s ideology
in all spheres of live. People were disenchanted with policies like community
kitchens and regulated rationing of fuel, food and other essential supplies. Common
man was disappointed by the authoritarian travails of Mao regime. To placate
the public who silently moaned an oppressive government Mao announced hundred
flowers policy in 1956 to promote to arts, literature and scientific research. In
1957 Mao appealed intellectuals to criticize officials who made concessions and
tripped communist ideals. Oblivious of Mao’s tactics, intellectuals
enthusiastically expounded their views. These were subsequently labelled as
“rightists”. About half million of such individuals from all walks of life were
effectively purged off from their jobs and sent off to country side to do
manual jobs. Their families were treated as second-class citizens. Mao thus effectively
annihilated opposition and completely silenced new ideas (capitalist and
western).
Soon, Mao launched an initiative, The Great Leap Forward to
transform the traditionally agrarian Chinese economy and ambitiously embarked
producing steel. While his vision for a resurgent China is commendable, the
path employed to achieve it was utterly ridiculous. People were prohibited from
cooking food at home and fuel supplies were pooled to incessantly burn steel
furnaces. Scrap metal was collected fed to steel furnaces. While Children
collected metal pieces, adults were expected to keep the furnace burning
uninterruptedly. Farming was neglected and trees were indiscriminately cut and
fed to burning furnaces. Consequently rainfall became erratic, crop production
drastically fell leading to severe food shortage. Eventually the nation stared
at a famine from 1958 through 1961, The Three Bitter Years, resulting in the
death of around 40 million people. Soon officials and party officials began to
denounce Mao and condemned the ludicrous Great Leap Forward. In a bid to assert
control over party cadres and to destroy his enemies (supporters/sympathizers
of Kuomintang) Mao unleashed the fiery campaign of Cultural Revolution.
Mao came up with the idea of Cultural Revolution in 1966
spear headed by his wife Jiang Qing designed to annihilate any revisionist
ideas. The May 16th notification document of the party announced
that party was “infiltrated by counter-revolutionary revisionists who were
plotting to create a dictatorship of the bourgeoisie”. By June 1st
the movement commanded by paramilitary force of students spread like a wild
fire. Following a warning call from the party mouth piece, the student force christened
as “Red Guards”, carried out all-out assault on persons, who failed to conform
to norms dictated by party. In the process, they eliminated
“capitalist-roaders” in other words-dissidents in party cadres, scholars,
official and intellectuals. The movement also called for destruction of four
olds-old customs, culture, habits and ideas. Overpowered by the support from
the Chairman Mao students went on rampage and anything/ anyone objectionable to
the principles enunciated by Mao were destroyed. Having beautiful lawns,
pleasurable lives, poetry, art forms, enjoying a tea in coffee shops were all
considered “bourgeois” and pulled down. Life soon became insipid, dull and
moreover violent. Even the traditional structures, paintings, monuments,
artefacts, books in the library with classical literature were ruined. Schools,
museums, libraries, shops and private homes were ransacked. High officials who
questioned the destruction were condemned at denunciation meetings and publicly
humiliated. Within the first two months of the Cultural Revolution nearly 1800
people lost their lives.
By 1968 situation spiraled out of control, Red terror began
to spread at tremendous pace. Realizing the crux of the deterioration, Mao
ordered the Army to restore order. In the meanwhile, children of
capitalist-roaders were packed off to country side especially to counties in
hills. They were assigned menial and arduous jobs. Unable to bear the rampant
cruelty, torture and suspicion several thousands have committed suicides. With
Army called in to take control, death toll increased. The revolution lasted for
a decade resulting in persecution of 1.5 million people with lives of several
millions were brutally trampled. Economy was reduced to tatters and country was
socially destabilized. The political careers of several communist leaders were
upended- these included Deng Xiaoping, Xi Zhongxun, father of President Xi
Jinping. The 13 year old Xi, at the time of revolution witnessed the brutal
attacks endured by his family. His family was forced to flee and one of his
sisters were persecuted. Curtains finally rolled over the entire massacre with
the death of Mao on September 9th 1976 and normalcy was finally
restored. Significantly, to keep morale of the red guards high, reading
sessions of the cultural revolution’ official hand book, The Little Red Book
were held. With over billion copies of the book printed so far, it is one of
the most printed book on earth.
Cultural Revolution was marred by sheer high-handedness,
strict control and flagrant repression. Government brutally clamped down fundamental
rights like the freedom of expression, speech and liberty of the citizens.
Reckoned as the darkest days of Communist, the bone chilling stories of
brutality in the worst affected regions of southern province of Guangxi
reported incidents of cannibalism too. The cries of hapless people tried for no
fault of theirs evokes pity. Amidst this
crisis, Richard Nixon visited China to “re-establish” ties between both the
countries. Between 1971 and 1976, China has virtually slipped into a military
dictatorship. Truly “(Mao) was as evil as Hitler or Stalin and did as much
damage to mankind as they did”. But he was smart enough to pass off European
despots without much condemnation and without denting his image. After the
death of Mao, a trial was conducted and the Gang of Four- Jiang Qing, Wife of
Mao, Zhang Chunqiao, Yao Wenyuan, Wang Hongwen and General Lin Biao were
indicted for the travesty that prevailed in China.
Through a disguised civil war (Cultural Revolution) Mao
aspired to project China as lodestar of communism. By 1980 retraced its path,
steadily charted out economic reforms, embraced Capitalism, reaped economic
boom and emerged as predominant manufacturing hub. Ironically, even now
Communist Party exercises greater restrain in condemning the atrocities of the
Cultural Revolution. Just 10 days before the start of the 50th
anniversary, a concert was held at Beijing’s Great Hall of People praising
Cultural Revolution, singing accolades to Mao Zedong and Red Songs. Though
China proclaims that a Cultural Revolution can never make a comeback an
increasingly assertive China evoking nationalism at drop of hat can never be
immune to extreme leftist ideology.
For all the loud admonitions, outlandish remarks and spurious
aggression condemning Indian government of intolerance, the Elite Indian
Leftist intellectuals may first thoroughly introspect their ideological affiliations.
Deafening silence, muted responses commemorating 50th anniversary of
Cultural Revolution from the tempered Indian liberals reflects their duplicitous
stance. As citizens of largest democracy, Indians must be eternally grateful to
the founding fathers of our constitution for the priceless treasure of
fundamental rights and uncensored media.
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