Free Saibaba Coalition – US
On Friday, February 28, 2020 the Revolutionary United Front and the US Coalition to Free Professor Saibaba hosted a panel event at Boston University to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Viplava Rachayitala Sangham (Revolutionary Writers’ Association), popularly known as Virasam. The event focused on the founding and history of Virasam, the work that Virasam is doing in anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggles, and the importance of international solidarity here in the U.S. There was great interest in learning from the experiences of Virasam and considering how to apply a similar political approach in the U.S.
This solidarity event came at an important time. Virasam itself is facing heavy repression from the Indian state. Varavara Rao, who is a founding member of Virasam and a famous Telugu poet, has been languishing in jail for the past 14 months. The government has charged him and 8 other intellectuals with serious crimes in a phony conspiracy case as part of a larger state effort to criminalize all forms of dissent. Professor Kaseem, who was just elected secretary of Virasam, was arrested in January. In a typically absurd fashion, the state claimed that he had absconded for years to avoid trumped up charges on an old case, despite the fact that Kaseem has been teaching all this time at Osmania University in Hyderabad, Telangana.
These arrests are part of a larger campaign of suppression of dissent and attacks on democratic rights by the Hindutva fascist government of Narendra Modi. Shortly before the panel at BU, Modi’s party—the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—orchestrated a brutal pogrom in Delhi. Following calls from BJP leaders, right-wing goons associated with the party attacked protesters in Delhi and rampaged through Muslim neighborhoods. They burned mosques, attacked people, and burned Muslim homes and businesses. The Delhi police joined in the carnage and aided the Hindutva mobs.
These pogroms were aimed at crushing popular resistance against the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizens, two pieces of legislation aimed at disenfranchising Muslims. This is part of the BJP’s larger effort to impose a Hindu Rashtra (Hindu State) in India. The pogroms happened while U.S. President Donald Trump was making his first official visit to India. Unsurprisingly, Trump made no mention of them. Instead, during his visit he signed a series of political and economic agreements with India, including a multi-billion dollar arms deal which includes the sale of armed drones to the Modi government.
All of this is important context which helps to clarify the significance of the panel event at BU. At a time when the BJP Modi government is ratcheting up their efforts to impose Hindutva-fascism nationwide, it is important to support and learn from organizations like Virasam. For the last fifty years they have been on the forefront of anti-feudal and anti-imperialist struggles in India. They have supported struggles against landlords, Brahminism, displacement of adivasis, patriarchy, and more.
Extending solidarity and learning from Virasam are important in their own right. However, it has a particular significance for those of us in the U.S. As Trump’s visit shows, the relationship between the U.S. and Indian ruling classes is quite significant. American corporations make billions of dollars each year by looting India’s natural resources, stealing indigenous land, and putting Indian people to work as wage-slaves in sweat shops. The U.S. government is deepening ties with India as part of a larger effort to counter the rise of its main imperialist rival, China. Given all of this, it is particularly important for progressive and revolutionary movements in the U.S. to extend their support and solidarity to people’s struggles in India.
This panel event with Virasam was a modest but significant step in developing solidarity between the people’s movements in the U.S. and India. Audience members were very interested in learning about the history of Virasam, and asked many engaging questions. Many asked questions about how Virasam makes revolutionary art for the people. People were excited to hear about the method of “from to the masses to the masses” in which revolutionary artists go among the masses of people, learn from their experiences and struggles, create art about these matters, and then present the art to the masses of people for feedback. This inspired many, and stands in sharp contrast to the elitist doctrines about art that many have been taught at elite institutions of higher education.
The last question the audience asked focused on the recent arrest of Professor Kaseem. The audience member in question proposed that those in attendance work together to get intellectuals from the U.S. to condemn professor Kaseem’s arrest. In the wake of the event, the sponsoring groups and audience members have taken up this effort. This is just one small example of how the panel event has inspired people here in the U.S. to extend solidarity to Virasam and the revolutionary movement in India.
