A three-day study camp was organised by the DYFI Maharashtra State Committee for its leading activists in the state from May 8 to 10, 2015 at Uran in Raigad district. The camp was attended by 92 delegates from 14 districts.

Dr. Sulabha Brahme, well-known economist and intellectual, inaugurated the camp. In her inaugural address, she pointed out that Maharashtra has become a distress-ridden state. The large majority of the people in the state are facing serious challenges to their livelihood. The misery of the people is particularly severe in the tribal and rural areas. She exhorted the DYFI to build struggles from the grassroots against neo-liberal policies that have caused distress to the people.

Former leaders of the DYFI in Maharashtra, Mahendra Singh and Dr Ashok Dhawale delivered lectures in the study camp. In his presentation, Singh dwelt on the “Current Socio-political Challenges and Tasks of Youth”. He said that in the current neo-liberal phase of capitalism, capitalist classes everywhere are trying to resolve the economic crisis by mounting attacks on the rights and livelihood of the people. The experience in India is no different. He critically explained the anti-people policies of the Modi-led BJP regime as shown in the reactionary attempt to amend labour laws, the land acquisition bill, the attack on NREGA, sky-rocketing price rise and unemployment and on the other hand, the massive bonanza being showered on the corporates. Hindutva forces have been able to tap the discontent of the people and have become the ruling party at the Centre and in states like Maharashtra. The democratic youth movement has a vital role to fight back this agenda. The DYFI must organise the youth against unemployment and communalisation of society.

Dr. Dhawale spoke on the topic “The Ideology and Politics of Communalism”. Beginning with the Marxist analysis of religion and after distinguishing between religiosity and communalism, he explained the meaning of secularism and stressed its importance. He then dwelt at length on the history of Hindutva communalism in India and stressed its early links with fascism in Germany and Italy. Maharashtra has seen a constant battle between the progressive tradition of Shivaji-Phule-Ambedkar on the one hand and the reactionary tradition of Savarkar-Hedgewar-Golwalkar on the other. Hindutva forces have always been in the camp of the enemies of the people. The RSS, Hindu Mahasabha and the Muslim League all played the role of serving British imperialism by trying to disrupt our freedom struggle on communal lines. This eventually culminated in the chilling bloodshed of Partition and the dastardly assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. Similarly, after Independence, they served the capitalist classes to disrupt the working class movement. The Hindutva world-view is an obscurantist ideology, it stands for perpetuation of the caste structure, it accords inferior status to women, it is against spreading scientific temper and it considers the Left as its deadly enemy. Today, the Sangh Parivar and the BJP regime are unleashing a two-fold strategy: intensifying the assaults on socio-economic rights of the people and aggressively promoting communal hatred to splinter people’s unity. This in turn is feeding minority communalism. The real resistance to communalism has to be led by the Left forces. The DYFI as an organisation of secular and progressive youth has a major role to play in this task.

Dr. R Ramakumar of Tata Institute of Social Sciences gave a talk on the growing commercialisation of sports. He explained how sports have suffered greatly in the process of ultra-commercialisation that has gripped this field at the international and national levels.

DYFI national president M B Rajesh made a detailed presentation on the organisational aspects of building the democratic youth movement.

On the first day, participants went to Uran town to collect funds for Nepal earthquake victims’ relief. A cheque of Rs 45,252 was handed over to Rajesh in the camp.

A detailed plan for DYFI activities for the next five months till the coming state conference was finalised at the camp. The major activities planned are: 1) Carrying forward the efforts to build a movement for re-introducing lakhs of abolished vacancies in Maharashtra’s public services, 2) Conducting youth festivals at village, town and taluka levels, and 3) Stepping up the campaign against social backwardness, caste atrocities, gender discrimination and communalism. The camp decided to organise two state-wide jathas as part of the campaign against communal forces. One jatha will start from the spot where Narendra Dabholkar was shot dead in Pune city and the other from the spot in Kolhapur city where Comrade Govind Pansare was shot. These week-long jathas will end at Aurangabad on October 1 on the eve of the three-day DYFI state conference which will be held there from October 2 to 4, 2015.

This study camp at Uran has enthused the leading activists of DYFI in Maharashtra.  The comrades who attended the camp went back to their districts, determined to implement the five-month plan successfully, hold a path-breaking conference in October and advance towards building a vibrant youth movement that will confront the rightwing forces that are dominating Maharashtra’s society at present. (END)