In spite of the commendable attempt and raving reviews all over western media, the claims made by Frank Dikotter in his book, Mao's Great Famine, do not rise above the levels of sensationalism.
Dikotter's study largely bases itself on facts and figures compiled from local Communist Party archives and offices. It contends that 45 million people died between 1958 and 1962, that 2.5 million of these were violent deaths. It says the period was witness to the "greatest demolition of property in human history" and indicts Mao Ze Dong for turning up to 40 per cent of all housing into rubble.
It should be mentioned right at the beginning that Frank Dikotter's work is not an objective historical study of the 1958-1962 period. In the preface, the author states: "Any attempt to understand what happened in Communist China must start by placing it squarely at the very centre of the entire Maoist period. In a far more general way, as the modern world struggles to find a balance between freedom and regulation, the catastrophe unleashed at the time stands as a reminder of how profoundly misplaced is the idea of state planning as an antidote to chaos." Thus, Dikotter draws the ideological premise of his work at the very outset.
My problem with Dikotter's work is very basic. I dispute the sources cited by Dikotter as authentic and beyond contention. In the post-Mao era, the Chinese Communist Party embarked upon a mission to paint the Cultural Revolution and Great Leap Forward in negative light. In that sense, doubts arise so to how authentic data and statistics compiled after 1976 are. Since Dikotter himself writes that some of the data and facts came from worn-out documents purchased at "chaotic flea markets of Guangzhou, Shanghai or Beijing" but avoids mentioning which ones, one wonders as to the authenticity of the study.
The way Dikotter arrives at the '45 million deaths' magic figure is conjectural. Chinese historian Cao Shuji had estimated 32 million deaths based on a survey of reports drawn up by local Communist Party branches into Mao's Great Leap Forward deaths. Now, these reports were produced in 1979, when the Party line had swung decisively against the principles of the Great Leap Forward. Dikotter himself claims to have discovered another set of documentary evidence in the local Party archives. Dikotter calculates that the excess death tolls he has found tend to be 50 per cent higher than those in the reports Cao Shuji cites. Thus he arrives at the 45 million mark.
There are numerous other points where the figures are contentious. Dikotter quotes extensively from Mao's biggest detractors, Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, people whose political fortunes depended on turning Mao and his policy turtle and reversing every one of the Chairman's decision.
In a nutshell, Dikotter almost equals the feat of Jasper Becker who wrote 'Hungry Ghosts' on the same subject. Becker had claimed to unearth a Communist Party record that claimed that a party secretary in Qisi had boiled 100 children to make fertiliser. That was referred to by Italian politician Silvio Berlusconi at a political rally in 2006 about the Chinese boiling babies for fertiliser. It led to censure from the Chinese government and led to international ridicule for the controversial Italian tycoon.
Title: Mao's Great Famine; Author: Frank Dikotter; Publisher: Bloomsbury; Price: Rs 650
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