A Road To Revolution
By Li Onesto
09 April, 2005
A World to WinMany tens of thousands of people are engaged in building the Nuwagaun-Thawang-Chunwang roadway to be known as the Sahid Marg, the Martyr's Highway. The project is taking place in Rolpa, a district in Western Nepal where the people hold political power, a famous revolutionary base area for the people's war led by the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) that has driven the Royal Army out of most of the countryside. Villagers Nar Bahadur KC, Meera Gautam and Geeta Buda Magar are anxiously awaiting its completion so that vehicles can reach the area. The monarchy and, after 1990, the parliamentary parties, promised to build the road. They asked for votes and spread dreams of roads, but never built it. Today the CPN(M) and the new revolutionary regime it leads are honouring the wishes of the oppressed people. Work has been started on 100 kilometres of rocky road in Rolpa. Although the initial plan was to complete it in three years, thousands of people have been mobilised and they have finished almost 40 percent of the work in just four months.
The autocratic regime backed by the notorious Royal Army is busy trying to stop the road from being built. But the result is negative for its side. It has tried more than a dozen times to disrupt the mass campaign, mostly by firing from helicopter gunships and dropping 81mm bombs from the choppers. The Royal Army has tried to stop people from coming to build the road. Nar Bahadur KC, who is 75 years old, defied these attempts. He came from the neighbouring district of Rukum to help in the work. He told us, "This campaign is both exciting and a little scary. The new regime is trying to bring into reality a dream we have had for more than 50 years, so it's exciting. On the other hand, the Royal Army is terrorising us and we fear that they may kill us by dropping bombs. The new regime has responded to our sentiments, and has tried to make our dreams real, so we are ready even to give our blood for this great campaign."
Comrade Pasang, the Commander of the Western Division of the People's Liberation Army, informed us that sufficient security arrangements had been made to protect the campaign. He added, "We have given special attention to the security of the people who have come to build the road." PLA fighters are busy 24 hours fulfilling this duty, and the Royal Army has not been able to reach the construction area even once on the ground. It has shown its presence with aircraft.
Sixty-eight year-old Meera Gautam reacted in the same way as Nar Bahadur KC. She said that the royal regime neither works nor lets others work. She continued, "Why should the old regime get a headache if the new regime mobilises the people to build a road in remote places? I had been mentally prepared to become a martyr when I came here to help in the construction. But when I arrived here, I found PLA fighters were taking care of security and not a single unpleasant incident has occurred." She is much impressed with the work of the Maoists. She reminisced about her younger days, and said, "How exciting it would have been if this kind of work had started then!"
A schoolteacher from Baglung fully agreed with the older lady's comments. He said, "If the Maoists seize power centrally, I believe that within ten years Nepal will be changed dramatically. The work the Maoists have initiated in the base areas involving agriculture, industry, education and health is novel, scientific and positive. One cannot underestimate this great work; it really is great because the Maoists are carrying forward development along with the strategic offensive." The CNP(M) has announced that the war has entered the stage of the strategic offensive whose aim is to seize power in all of Nepal.
A 17-member "Sahid Marg Building Committee" convened by a member of the Maoist party's Central Committee, Comrade Prasant, is now monitoring the whole campaign. The area is administered by the Magarat Autonomous Regional Government, formed under the party's leadership in January 2004. The Magar people are a minority nationality who had been oppressed and without political power since Prithur Narayan Shah conquered them and Nepal's other minority peoples - who together make up the majority of Nepalese - when he led the violent unification of Nepal in 1768.
Some 100,000 rupees have been allocated for the project initially, to be used for buying tools, explosives and other essentials. People from all the districts under this autonomous government have been engaged in the work. The building tools and explosives are supplied by the party. The people manage their own food and lodging. Of course people have volunteered from the districts that will be directly benefited by the road, like Rolpa, Rukum and Salyan. A significant number have also come to work from other districts where the road will not have a direct impact. Some of them had to walk for several days to get here. The campaign has generated huge excitement among the masses.
A Maoist cadre from the Rukum district, Comrade Samir, shared this feeling. He said, "The traditional thinking that bigger plans like this cannot be accomplished without foreign aid has been changed. Tens of thousands of people have been mobilised and a project equivalent to millions of rupees is being accomplished by the power of people's bare hands. People have started to call it the 'Maoist model of development'."
The building campaign is under the direct leadership of Comrade Prachanda, Chairman of the CPN(M), and organised by the party's Special Regional Bureau. The project was inaugurated on 20 November 2004 in four locations by party Central Committee members. The Nuwagaun section was inaugurated by the head of the Magarat Autonomous Regional Government, Santosh Buda Magar, and comrades Asare Kaka and Prasant. The Dui Kholi section was inaugurated by comrades Namuna, Udaya and Suraksha. Similarly the Chunwang and Thawang sections were inaugurated by comrades Kranti and Surya, respectively. Around seven or eight thousand people have been engaged in the campaign every day since. People from the districts directly benefited by the road work for 15 days and the people from other places work for 10 days.
Why was it necessary to initiate this kind of huge project at a time the party has decided to begin the strategic offensive? This has been a significant focus for debate. We asked Comrade Biplab, the Special Regional In-Charge of the CPN (Maoist). He said, "We want to carry forward development along with revolution. But the building of the road is related to more than just development and economics. Its aims are also ideological and political, and to serve the strategic offensive as well." He added, "We are carrying out in practice our Chairman Comrade Prachanda's instructions to make the people self-sufficient in agriculture, industry and transportation. The Rolpa district, which is a revolutionary base area, is now independent in terms of food production. In fact, the expansion of fruit, vegetable, poultry and animal farming has even started to increase people's food supplies. The development in health care and education is also significant. After the completion of the road, all of these are sure to grow radically."
The most significant factor in the "Maoist model of development" is that the local people participate in and supervise all development plans and projects, both in the base areas and areas where the Maoists have influence but have not yet been able to lead the establishment of revolutionary political power. This road-building campaign is the biggest project of its kind so far. Comrade Santosh Buda Magar, the head of the autonomous government, says that the road-building campaign has brought new levels of excitement, enthusiasm and awareness. "This has made the people more conscious in general, and especially of their own power. It has strengthened the ideological, political and organisational bond between the party and people."
This building campaign has also provoked controversy within the old regime and parliamentary political parties. Debates arose within the old regime about whether to allow or obstruct the campaign. People from other countries were surprised by the huge mobilisation and the amazing results in a very
short period. Some representatives of international NGOs involved in "development" work in Nepal commented on this to CPN(M) central leaders. The royal regime itself was and is politically cornered by the stand against assaulting the people building the road taken by members of other political parties and national and international organisations. A district head of the police in a neighbouring district was so impressed with the campaign that he even encouraged people to go help build the road. People who were frightened to come in the initial period are now happily involved in the campaign.As Comrade Arjun, a PLA fighter, explained, this road is not being built just to run vehicles, but to convey the history of struggle and the revolutionary significance of Thawang (a village that symbolises Rolpa's revolutionary struggle) to the entire nation and abroad. The road is to work
as a bridge between this revolutionary base area and the whole world.
