— Photo: R. V. Moorthy

ON THE REVOLT: CPI(M) leaders Sitaram Yechury and K.Varadharajan releasing the special issue of People's Democracy in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI: The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has unveiled the latest edition of its weekly party organ, the People's Democracy, which seeks to understand the events of 1857 from the left perspective through articles written by noted thinkers and academics, past and present. The special articles begin with this year's Republic Day issue of PD and culminate with the Independence Day issue.

In an editorial, the PD said the articles threw up many new insights into the 1857 uprising which were not entirely unknown but not articulated as they had been done now. The authors concretely established that 1857 represented the largest colonial uprising both in its intensity and spread anywhere in the world in the 19th century. The scale of its suppression was also unprecedented in that century.

Though the British to a large extent managed to obliterate the historical records of the sweep of the revolt and the sacrifices of the people, many of the articles seek to give an accurate perception and account of what happened during that period. With the cover designed by artist-activist Ream Rehman, the latest issue carries articles by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, B.T. Ranadive, E.M.S. Namboodripad, P.C. Joshi, Hiren Mukherjee, Irfan Habib, Prabhat Patnaik, Prakash Karat and Sitaram Yechury.

Talking to newspersons, Mr. Yechury said there was merit in the Akali Dal's protests against overlooking the pre-1857 uprisings. There were 968 recorded revolts and rebellions before 1857, but the difference was in the scale of the protests — the earlier uprisings were confined to some areas but the 1857 revolt was much more widespread. ``Their point is correct but there was nothing of this scope and size. It is not that we are detracting from those revolts,'' he said.

The CPI(M) leader felt the BJP's decision to separately commemorate the 1857 uprising on Monday was not unexpected. The Hindu-Muslim unity displayed in the revolt was at odds with its ideology of creating a divide between the two communities. ``Their decision is perfectly understandable from the point of view of the unity displayed at that time which is completely anathema to the BJP's thinking.''

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