Mumbai Youth in Politics

Preethy Sekhar

(This is the text of the presentation made at a panel discussion organized by ‘Akshara centre’ at Dadar on 10th of February, 2012. Preethy Sekhar is President, Mumbai Committee, Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI))

At the outset, I would like to register our organisation’s sincere gratitude to the ‘Akshara Centre’ for giving us an opportunity to participate in this panel discussion on the theme ‘Youth in Politics’.

For the convenience of presenting my views, I shall divide youth involvement in politics in our city into three categories. 1) Sectarian mobilization of youth around religious and other identities; I would include the Sangh parivar, ShivSena, MNS, Jamaat-E-Islami, SIO etc. in this category. 2) Youth cadre of mainstream secular political parties whose motivation is not ideology but monetary and personal benefits. 3) Radical secular youth associated with Left parties and social organizations working for women’s equality, social justice, sustainable development etc.

Before proceeding further, let me add a clarification:  I consider these three categories neither as homogeneous entities nor differentiated from each other as water-tight compartments. These are broad streams which have many shades within each of them but also, in varying degrees, overlap with and ideologically influence one another in the actual world of our social lives and ideological upbringing.

Today, I would like to focus my attention on what is happening in the site where I come from, i.e. the radical secular youth stream in Mumbai city and its suburbs. Youth from two broad trajectories assemble here. Firstly, there is the youth from slums and low-income neighborhoods who organize around the issues of day to day survival and basic amenities. Secondly, there is the petty-bourgeois youth who are attracted to leftwing ideas due to a variety of influences.

The major feature of Mumbai’s human condition is huge disparity in income and living standards. Much of the employment has shifted to ‘un-unionized’ sector; millions are working in highly exploitative conditions with long working hours at low wage levels. There is large scale unemployment and disguised unemployment. Nearly half of the people live in slums. Social infrastructure like drinking water facilities, sanitation facilities, public hospitals, public education, roads and public transport are thoroughly inadequate.  The quest for decent living conditions and employment avenues in this subhuman setting takes the forms of democratic struggles in several instances. This is the primary site where political mobilization of youth along secular radical lines takes place. For example, most of my organization’s activities and activists emerge from such struggles. But let me admit that we are quite weak at present. Lot of socially active youth harbor many illusions, they volunteer to become foot soldiers of elite politicians with clear-cut anti-poor agendas! Many get attracted to sectarian platforms.

Such weakness is compounded by low level of involvement in Left politics from the side of radical youth from petty-bourgeois backgrounds.  This aspect of not having middle class youth in radical secular politics has much to do with the present international situation and concomitant weakening of anti-imperialism among petty-bourgeois youth in countries like India.

The imperialist bloc led by USA is trying to further strengthen its economic, political and military hegemony over the entire globe. Mass media and entertainment industry are so deployed as to establish imperialism’s ideological hegemony. The western Academic world and its imitations in backward countries are also at the disposal of imperialist interests.

The military actions in the name of combating Jihadists and the American discourse on terrorism are informed by nothing else but the imperialist project of establishing total global domination trampling upon sovereignty of poor nations. Imperialists are intervening in the situation in various Arab nations with varied strategies. In Syria, as it did in Libya, USA wants to use the current unrest to install its puppet regime but in other nations the attempt is to salvage current regimes with some superficial changes. The overall objective in the Arab world is to arrest the tide of democracy and retain control of that region in collaboration with the local elite classes.

But imperialism is being actively challenged too. Occupy Wall Street movement, the continuing struggle in Egypt against US backed military regime and massive protests in Europe are very fresh instances. South America’s reputation as a continent challenging US hegemony is very much intact. If we observe closely African nations’ response to NATO aggression in Libya, we can judge that anti-imperialist sentiment is growing in that continent also.

A big struggle developed in India under the leadership of Left parties against the Indo-US nuclear deal which was designed to lock India as a junior strategic partner of US imperialism.  Revelations by ‘Wiki leaks’ have now exposed the nature of US imperialism’s penetration in India against which the Left parties organized a valiant resistance.   The alliance of India’s ruling class and US imperialism succeeded in defeating Left parties inside the Parliament and in the 2009 LokSabha election. But the battle against nuclear deal advanced democratic forces’ sustained confrontation with imperialism’s political and economic interests in India. 

The ordinary people are at the receiving end of the ill-effects of imperialist penetration in India, mostly in the form of economic hardships. The situation demands greater efforts at rallying the youth against imperialist interests in our country.  At the same time we will have to caution the youth against Islamist movements and pseudo radical NGOs whose efforts result in blunting anti-imperialist politics.

In Mumbai, our emphasis will be on taking up, with renewed vigor, issues of livelihood and employment of youth in slum areas. The struggle against social backwardness including caste inequalities, gender discrimination, communalist exclusion and intimidation of migrants will also be intensified.  We will continue the propaganda against use of money power in elections and corruption.

All this will be done in the context of a consistent ideological campaign to rally more and more youth in the world-wide anti-imperialist platform. Anti-imperialism is the key to radicalization of youth. And that is what we are determined to pursue. Mumbai cannot remain alien to the ideas of Bhagat Singh and Che Guevara.