Mao and His Concept of a Perpetual Revolution

Time magazine in its issue on 13 April 1998 showcased Mao as one of the 100 most influential men of the twentieth century. Mao was an enigmatic figure. But the facts show that his mind was conditioned by an ongoing war against his opponent’s right from 1927. He thus perhaps felt constrained in a peaceful environment. Thus he always looked for ways to keep society in ferment. This was perhaps his reason for launching the twin campaigns of the Cultural Revolution and the great leap forward.

At home Mao enforced Stalinist concepts in agriculture and industry. However his concepts dictated by decades of a society always in ferment played a part in his campaigns of which the great leap forward was a significant episode. Part of this concept of the great leap forward was his twin campaigns of let a hundred flowers bloom and the infamous Cultural Revolution. By these two campaigns he hoped to keep the Chinese society in a state of ferment for ever and have an ongoing revolution that would propel China to a place in the Sun.

History records that both the campaigns of Mao the Cultural Revolution and the hundred flowers bloom brought untold hardship to the common man. The policy of a hundred flowers was abandoned forthwith after Mao gauged the mood of his opponents, of whom many were arrested and sent to labor camps for rehabilitation. Buy launching this campaign of a 100 flowers Mao was able to purge any challenges to his power and dissidents were all eliminated. After all opposition had been muted or silenced he followed up with his Great Leap forward.

The Great Leap forward was Mao’s attempt to by pass the historical concept of industrialization and development by keeping society in ferment as well. He assumed that a perpetual revolution was a necessity in the development of China. In this his mind conditioned by decades of war and turmoil made him believe in quick solutions, irrespective of the hardship it could cause to the people

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Thus he started collectivelization of farms, abolished land ownership. The result was that famine stalked the land as Agriculture production fell to its lowest level. He also decided that China needs more iron and thus enforced a hair brained scheme where he ordered all peasant houses to be converted to smelters for pig iron. But he erred grievously and the result was disastrous with over 30 million deaths recorded. To worsen matters the period was marked by natural calamities and total mismanagement.

Mao perhaps had no qualms about the deaths conditioned as he mentally was of a society in ferment and a perpetual revolution. The Cultural Revolution was one such prop to keep society in ferment. Nobody was to feel secure and even men of standing were hauled up for ‘correction ‘campaigns.

The Cultural Revolution and formation of the Red Guards brigades were thus Mao’s attempt to keep society in ferment. But he forgot a cardinal principle that society cannot be kept in ferment and would unleash forces that would devour an entire generaion.Thus nearly 30 million Chinese died.

Reports that trickled in to the outside world from China created a dismal picture of starvation, concentration or rehabilitation camps, famine, denunciations and death. No body has been able to justify this aspect of Mao’s character. He took death as a part of the scenario, conditioned as he was by decades of war and its consequences. He failed to understand that Stalin enforced an iron will but brought stability. Mao did nothing like that he enforced an iron will all right but unleashed forces of violence that ate up an entire generation.

Mao will thus be dammed in History for the later part of his career. His earlier achievements of ushering in a mass uprising pale into insignificance with the monstrosity of the crimes that he inflicted on the Chinese people.

Nobody knows whether Mao towards the end of his life realized the futility of what he had tried to achieve. His plan of a society in perpetual ferment and conflict towards progress was wrong. You cannot enforce anything and the results even by Chinese estimates are disasterous. Mao is however a towering figure as far as China is concerned, but the last phase of his life where in he unleashed forces that went out of control will indict him as a man who was a megalomaniac in a way and perhaps more in the genre of Hitler than a Gandhi or Churchill.