The general strike called by the 10 largest central trade unions (CTUs) on September 2 was a tumultuous success. The trade union and communist leaders who had anticipated a maximum of 100 million workers participating in the strike were flabbergasted at the sight of more than 150 million coming out on a total one-day general strike that paralysed India. It was a protest against the neoliberal policies of the 15-month-old Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government of Narendra Modi. The Indian proletariat has defied the rule of reaction. This strike’s triumph was demonstrated by the closure of banks, manufacturing, construction and the coal mining sectors. The streets of Delhi, Mumbai and other main cities remained empty as public transport was kept off the roads. This was a clear no to Modi’s anti-worker laws, slashing of social spending and price subsidies, privatisation of state-owned industries from Coal India and the railways to ports, airports and intercity bus services.The success of the strike was beyond the expectations of the trade union and communist leaders. Communist Party of India (CPI) General Secretary S Sudhakar Reddy said, “Great success I should say. [The response] was more than we expected. It is one of the biggest actions of the working class and manifestation of their unity against anti-labour policies of the government.” The CPI (M) responded: “The strike was successful despite the Centre trying to dissuade workers from proceeding with the agitation at the eleventh minute. Apart from dissuading RSS-affiliated Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, they could not deter any other CTU.” This strike was a clear refutation of all those cynics and merchants of doom and gloom: ex-communists, liberal analysts and the so-called ‘socialists’ who had written off the Indian proletariat as a decisive force to change society. Even the most right wing bourgeois television channels and newspapers had to admit the enormous success of this strike action. In reality, this general strike stunned the dominant intelligentsia and experts of the corporate media. India’s prominent liberal paper The Hindu reported: “Normal life was affected in various parts of the country, including West Bengal, Tripura, Kerala and Karnataka. The strike affected transport, banking operations and other services in various parts of the country.”The largest media house of the liberal Indian bourgeoisie, NDTV, reported: “About 15 crore workers are on a nationwide strike. In Kolkata, women activists from the left were seen being dragged by the police. Banks, shops and many schools are closed and all public transport is off roads. The bandh (closure) has also impacted southern states. Around 3,500 government-run buses are not running in Hyderabad (Deccan) and public transport has also been hit in Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala. Schools and colleges are closed in Bengaluru. Long lines of commuters and school children were seen waiting at bus stops in many cities across the country, including national capital Delhi, while passengers were stranded at airports as taxis and rickshaws stayed off the streets.”Even the western media could not conceal the huge impact of this strike. The BBC reported in the afternoon: “Workers across India are staging a day-long strike to protest the economic policies of the government. They say the ‘pro-business’ policies of the Narendra Modi-led BJP government will put their jobs at risk and hurt ordinary people. The unions are demanding the government drop plans to sell off stakes in state-run companies and change labour laws. Reports say some 150 million workers – mainly in banking, manufacturing, construction and coal mining industries – stayed away from work on Wednesday. The strike appears to have hit public transport, with long queues of commuters and school children seen at bus stops in many cities, including the capital, Delhi.” Such was the fear struck in the bourgeoisie by the strike’s success that within hours after it ended, news of the strike was removed from television news bulletins and expunged from the screens of the bourgeois newspaper websites.The unions opposed the government’s proposed labour reforms expected to make the labour market more ‘flexible’. The CTU’s 12-point charter of demands also included urgent measures to contain price rises and unemployment, strict enforcement of basic labour laws and stopping the disinvestment and privatisation of PSUs. They also demanded a universal social security cover for all workers and minimum wage of Rs 15,000 per month. Bank unions were also protesting against the government’s plan to revamp the working of the public sector banks. Several outfits representing informal sector workers also supported the shutdown.However, the most important aspect of this strike was the molecular pressure that had been building up amongst the workers for a long time. Not very long ago, under the previous Congress-led coalition government, there was a similar general strike with a participation of 100 million workers. In the landslide victory of the ‘business-friendly’ reactionary Hindu chauvinist demagogue Narendra Modi in the election of May last year, Indian and world corporate bosses were jubilant. The Modi regime started off with an array of ‘reforms’ to boost the rates of profits for its clientele. In their first annual budget Modi and his finance minister, Arun Jaitley, slashed corporate taxes by an astronomical 25 percent. The euphoria of the Hindu right and the reactionary Indian ruling classes was not strong enough. The seething pressure from below was palpable and even Modi’s regime, along with India’s bourgeois opposition parties, could neither ignore nor crush it. Paradoxically, there was also mounting pressure from the corporate world on Modi and his government to bulldoze austerity and anti-labour policies. Modi’s imperialist bosses, through their official organs like The Economist, scolded him for not being “courageous and steadfast” when it came to their agenda. Less than a week ago The Economist, Modi’s ardent supporter, wrote in its August 29th issue, “The prime minister is a forceful communicator. But he postpones the arduous job of getting things done…Mr Modi cares more for the theatre of politics than the hard grind of passing laws or accomplishing reforms through compromise. A former cabinet minister complains that Mr Modi’s rhetoric is way ahead of his plans…Investors grumble that promises to simplify tax laws, cut corporation tax and privatise state firms have come to little.”Perhaps after witnessing this massive general strike The Economist will realise what was actually stopping Modi and of whom he was afraid. However, to continue his socio-economic onslaught against the Indian masses, Modi is trying to divert attention by churning up religious sectarianism and whipping up anti-Pakistan chauvinism by his nationalist/Hindutva rhetoric. The military elite and the Islamic fundamentalists were more than happy with Modi’s venomous rhetoric across the Radcliffe Line in Pakistan. Hate speeches of various groups of the Hindutva from the RSS to VHP (Vishva Hindu Parishad) relentlessly provoked Muslims and Pakistan. This fed directly into the vicious religiosity of these monsters of Islamic fundamentalism whose social base was rapidly eroding. The military skirmishes along the Line of Control (LoC) in Kashmir and the international Indo-Pak borders with increasing casualties, strengthens the reactionary forces on both sides of the divide. (To be continued) The writer is the editor of Asian Marxist Review and international secretary of Pakistan Trade Union Defence Campaign. He can be reached at lalkhan1956@gmail.com