Leon Trotsky: The Betrayers of India

March 4, 1939

[Writings of Leon Trotsky, Vol 11, 1938-1938, New York ²1974, p. 199]

In this issue we are printing an article by Stanley on the political situation in India. The article very cogently lays b are the oppressive policy that British "democracy" pursues in order to bar democracy in India. The population of England is 40 million; the population of India 370 million. In order to maintain democracy in an imperialist nation of 40 million, a nation of 370 million must be stifled. Such is the essence of imperialist democracy.

Only a victorious revolution can liberate India. The Indian bourgeoisie, closely- tied to British capital, fears revolution. The Indian bourgeois intelligentsia fears its own bourgeoisie. Instead of preparing for a popular revolution, these gentlemen constantly advocate the same old "Popular Front,” i.e., a union of the frightened liberals with the frightened democrats of various hues. In this work, the Stalinists, of course, are in the forefront. In order to put a brake on the revolutionary movement of the masses against the direct and immediate enemy — British imperialism — these gentlemen conduct agitation against — the danger from Japan. With such methods they hope to win the sympathy of the British slaveholders for democracy in India, and at the same time for — Stalin, who is dreaming of an alliance with the British bourgeoisie. The colonial peoples are small change in the Bonapartist oligarchy's reckonings with the imperialist democracies.