12 SOCIAL SCIENTIST that he stresses. Both consistently opposed "national" upsurges based on concrete developments but engineered either to divert the mass of people from fighting for their genuine class interests in the name of nationalism or as a part of the imperialist game of 'divide and rule'. A number of disintegrative struggles, like the partition of India in 1947 on the basis of the Two Nation theory, the Katangan and Biafran revolts in Africa, the Cyprus crisis and the Khalistan, Hindu Rashtra and Assamese secessionist upsurges reflect how powerful these trends are still and require the most detailed study by Marxists to see their impact on the class struggle today. Thus, running like a red thread from the writings of Marx and Engels through to the documents of the Communist International and its historic Theses of 1922, one thing is clear: Class struggle, and especially revolutionary class struggle that will result in creating a shift in the correlation of class forces in favour of the proletariat, is never subordinated to other interests. That is the essence of the Marxist outlook on the national question. This is clearly stated in no uncertain terms in the review of the Congress as follows: "The refusal of Communists in the colonies to take part in the struggle against imperislist tyranny, on the ground of ostensible 'defence9 of their independent class interests is opportunism of the worst kind, which can only discredit the proletarian revolution in the East. Equally injurious is the attempt to remain aloof from the struggle for the most urgent and everyday interests of the working class in the name of 'national unity', of 'civil peace' with bourgeois democrats."35 This is the outlook that was evolved after the Great October Socialist Revolution and tested in the era that saw the liquidation of the great world empires and the setting up of the Socialist camp. It was a living principle based on uncompromising class struggle. And so it is today. (Paper presented at the Marx. Centenary Seminar held at the Indian Institute of Regional Development Studies, Kottayam, December 11-20, 1983) 1 V I Lenin, "Once Again on the Trade Unions, the Current Situation and the Mistakes of Trotsky and Bukharin", in Selected Works, Vol III, p 485. 2 J V Stalin, "The Social Democratic Deviation in Our Party", in On the Opposition, Peking, 1975. pp 397-398. 3 Karl Marx "Thesis on Feuerbach", in Marx, Engels, Collected Works, Vol V, p 8. 4 Marx and Engels, "German Ideology'* in Collected Works, Vol V, p 64. 5 Ibid, p 89. 6 Ibid, p 90. 7 Engels, "On Ernst Moritz Arndt", in Collected Works, Vol II, p 149. 8 Engels, "The Civil War in Switzerland", in Collected Works, Vol VI, p 368. 9 Marx, "Democratic Pan Slavism", in Collected Works, Vol VIII, p 364. 10 Engels, op cit. Collected Works, Vol II, p 145. 11 Engels, op cit. Collected Works, Vol VI. p 369. 12 Marx, op cit. Collected Works, Vol VIII, p 371.