Political philosophy of Mao Tse-Tung

This study of Mao Tse-tung's thought has been undertaken keeping in view the concrete problems of social transformation that we in the developing countries face today. These are essentially the pro blems of completing the anti-colonial and anti-feudal revolution. This is an attempt to analyse how the Chinese communist leadership headed by Mao comprehended such problems in China and tried to tackle them.

✓Mao Tse-tung's thought is the philosophy of the praxis of the Chinese revolution. I have divided this into four major dimen sions: (1) the theory of new-democratic revolution which deals with the analysis of the anti-colonial and anti-feudal revolution in China, (2) the theory of class struggle in socialist society or the theory of continuous revolution which underlies the mode of so cialist development in China, (3) the Maoist world-view which analyses the nature of the contradictions in the modern world situa tion and governs China's foreign policy, and (4) the dialectical materialist method as understood by Mao Tse-tung which has been reformulated here in terms of four laws. Together these four dimensions can provide a comprehensive understanding of this important political philosopher of the twentieth century.

Each one of these theories was subjected to diverse interpretations even in Mao's own lifetime, as has been discussed at various places in this book. After the death of Mao some of his ideas have been reinterpreted with the declared objective of correcting certain recent deviations. It has been pointed out that the 'gang of four' had given an idealist interpretation to the theory of continuous revo lution by undermining the need for developing the production pro cess. The new programme of all-out modernisation of the economy to turn China into a powerful socialist country by the end of this century has been regarded by some observers as throwing the perspective of the Cultural Revolution overboard. But as our dis cussion of the theory of continuous revolution shows such a debate had gone on from time to time in China and each deviation was followed by a corrective since there was no mechanical way of implementing the Basic Line.