Posted on 12/26/2001 2:12:08 AM PST by duck soup
RW: Was the victory of the Chinese revolution a big factor in the establishment of the Communist Party in Nepal?
Prachanda: Yes, a very big factor. And there was also, at the time, a very big armed struggle of the peasants in India. This was the surrounding larger revolutionary situation at the time when the Communist Party in Nepal was established. The party started to work among the basic peasant masses, and for three or four years, there was a big peasant movement-a kind of revolutionary upsurge. But, at the same time, the leadership of the party changed and took a revisionist stand. And the leadership of the movement, the general secretary at the time, appealed to the king, saying we will do all our work peacefully, therefore please regard our party like this. And the party leadership totally went revisionist. After that there were so many mass struggles, mass movements. But every time, this revisionist clique confused people, made compromises with the ruling class, and betrayed the masses. Every time they betrayed the masses. And at the same time there was also ideological struggle going on inside the movement.
After the palace murders, India and China voiced concern about the politically volatile situation in Nepal and both sent messages to Gyanendra, calling for peace and stability.
India has been closely monitoring the political crisis in Nepal, worried about the Maoist insurgency gaining strength right across its open border. And there has also been talk that Gyanendra is closer to China than India. One analyst in South Asia wrote: "The elevation of Prince Gyanendra as King of Nepal presents India with a tricky problem. The new monarch is said to favor closer ties between Kathmandu and Beijing, a scenario that fills foreign policy wonks in New Delhi with dread. Successive Indian governments have striven to keep Nepal out of the Chinese sphere of influence; they succeeded mainly because of the slain King Birendra's instinctive pro-India stance. But Gyanendra is a different proposition."
Concern that the People's War in Nepal could shake the already volatile South Asian region has been underscored in recent months by the parade of diplomats from India, China, Britain and the U.S.--who held meetings with Nepalese officials where the Maoist insurgency was a major item on the agenda.
China’s foreign and defence policy initiatives are quite obviously designed to marginalise India in the long-term and reduce India to the status of a sub-regional power by increasing Chinese influence and leverage in the Southern Asian region. Brahma Chellaney is of the view that, "Nearly a quarter century of Indian nuclear pusillanimity had made the Leninist rulers in Beijing conclude that their containment was working, with the Indians tied down sub-continentally and rendered too meek to break out of the strategic straitjacket."[6]
Since a period of ‘peace and tranquillity’ will enable China to consolidate both economically and militarily, China is likely to continue its present stance of overtly improving relations with India and maintaining the status quo on the territorial and boundary issue. At the same time it will continue to covertly thwart India’s aspirations to become a major regional power in the Asia-Pacific region. Hence, the potential for military conflict will always exist and will, in fact, increase as the armed might of China increases. As such, an analysis of the military aspects of the Indo-China relationship is important.
Osama bin Laden was a holy warrior and disciplined religious legionnaire long before the U.S. attempt to crucify him. Now as the target of Washington's anti-terrorist campaign, he has become a legend in a region known for world conquerors. Armed with this new recognition and open to a powerful new philosophy that merges the grass roots attraction of revolutionary Maoism with Islam he stands to become a deciding factor in a region the U.S. is vitally dependent on for its future survival.
Will bin Laden become the next Constantine by uniting Islam with a grass roots political system that brought China into the hands of Mao Tse-tung. The answer to this next and final phase of the Great Game may lie in the word "Taliban" itself which in the Arabic means seeker and as the Prophet Mohammed was said to have urged his followers, knowledge must be pursued even if it means traveling to China.
Since religious freedom was declared in 1978, the Chinese Muslims have not wasted time in expressing their convictions. There are now some 28,000 mosques in the entire People's Republic of China, with 12,000 in the province of Xinjiang. In addition, there is a large number of imams available to lead the Muslim community (in Xinjiang alone there are over 2,800).
There has been an increased upsurge in Islamic expression in China, and many nationwide Islamic associations have been organized to coordinate inter-ethnic activities among Muslims. Islamic literature can be found quite easily and there are currently some eight different translations of the Qur'an in the Chinese language as well as translations in Uygur and the other Turkic languages. The Muslims of China have also been given almost unrestricted allowance to make the Hajj to Mecca [Reflections from the Hajj]. In 1986 there were some 2,300 Chinese Muslims at Hajj. (Compared to the 30 Soviet Muslims allowed to make the same pilgrimage, this number seems quite generous, considering that the Soviet Muslim population outnumbers China's by nearly four times).
China's Muslims have also been active in the country's internal politics. As always, the Muslims have refused to be silenced. Several large demonstrations have been staged by Muslims to protest intrusions on Muslim life. Last year, for instance, Muslims staged a massive protest rally in Beijing to demand the removal of anti-Islamic literature from China's bookstores. The Turkic [group] Muslims have also held demonstrations for a greater voice in the running of their own affairs and against the continued large-scale immigration of non-Muslims into their provinces. In the news this spring are more reports of demonstrations and struggles by Chinese Muslims to regain their rights. Insha'Allah they will be successful.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.