IS COMMUNISM THE CURSE OF INDIA?
Indian Digest
Sasidharan Nair
Communism is an ideology. Marxism is the political philosophy and
practice derived from the works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.
Though there are various forms of Marxism, most forms share capitalism
is based on the exploitation of workers by the owners of capital.
Socialism is their utmost goal and that is a Utopian dream. Marxism is
an exemplary ideology to mankind. Nevertheless, mere interpretation of
Marxism or Communism based on the extraneous political theory to a
country and its people, improper practice and prejudiced thoughts of
the so-called Marxist pundits augmented the confusion and non-
acceptance of Communism in India to the mass.
India is not a simple country, but a vast country that has multi-
continental dimensions: Several states, several languages, several
cultures, several life styles and living standards and several
religions and beliefs. But, despite all diversities India and people
of India are united. Unlike 19th and 20th centruy England and Europe
with the industry based economy, India had centuries old agricultural
oriented economy. It is true that the changes all over the world
reflected and influenced in India also.
The Communism arrived in India around 1920. However, the
Communist Party of India was officially found on December 26, 1925 in
Kanpur, by a few ardent young people inspired by the Great October
Socialist Revolution. Now they claim that their affirmed aim while
forming the party was to fight for national independence and a future
of socialism. Let us praise their Gods Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels!
Amen!
When we look at the present day communists and their communism
from the view point of an 'educated layman', he will rapidly arrive at
the conclusion that Communism is the curse of India.
Now three states namely West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala are
ruling by communists. What they really achieved? Communism is an
imported ideology. There is no harm to adopt an imported ideology.
But, our needs are different, our people are different, our languages
are different, our weather conditions are different, our cultures are
different, our resources are different, our work conditions and
opportunities are different. We have to look into all these aspects
and factors and intensely study them at different perspectives before
wedding a new ideology. Inspired by the novelty, a few young people
attracted to 'foreign' element factor and victory of October
Revolution akin to the natural attraction, passion and love of a youth
towards opposite sex. It is an undisputed fact that everywhere in the
world at any given time you will get some readily available people as
followers for any good or bad ideology or action.
Let us approach Communism in India with an Indian perspective.
The Communists are preaching Socialism, which is definitely a Utopian
dream and impractical theory, with the trapeze play of capitalism,
class, workers, people's consciousness of the conditions of their
lives that reflects material conditions and relations, an
understanding of material conditions and social relations as
historically malleable, view of history according to which class
struggle, the evolving conflict between classes with opposing
interests etc. etc.
Many of a Communist leaders and so-called 'think tank
intellectuals' are big capitalists and they accumulated wealth
amassing the known source of income. According to the lead story
carried by The Verdict news weekly, March 2- 8, 2008 issue, written by
Muraleedharan Raghavan, "the workers of the ruling party (in Kerala)
are started murmuring about the negative performances of some of the
ministers in the government" and "most of the ministers in the LDF
government in Kerala (most of them from CPI (M)) are involved in a
scam. The government secretariat is busy and the employees are fed up
with preparing affidavits and collecting supporting documents to
submit in the courts, it is learnt." It is recommended to read this
together with CPI (M) general secretary Pinarayi Vijayan's wealth, and
his alleged association with 'land mafia' people and Pharis Abubaker.
The Communist Party of India split due to its rather passive
manner, thereby forming a second faction known as the CPI (M)-the
Communist Party of India (Marxists), at the Seventh Congress of the
Communist Party of India held in Calcutta from October 31 to November
7, 1964. The CPI (M) called for a large scale revolt of workers. These
people, mostly members of the lower castes and agricultural workers,
were negatively affected by the elites trying to gain national power
through capitalism by increasing India's industrial strength. The
other group hurt by capitalism were the landlords and peasants with
the breakdown of feudal society.
It is a pity that even after 44 years and despite tall claims by
its high profile leaders, CPI (M) can not attain a membership of
10,00,000 from a population of 110,00,00,000. According to the
official confirmation by CPI (M), it had a membership of only 9,76,622
in 2007. So what influence and importance CPI (M) has among Indians?
The other faction, CPI, has lesser membership than CPI (M). Altogether
the members from both parties are less than 15 lakh people.
They want to look at Russia, China, Poland, North Korea, Laos,
Vietnam or Cuba to study the problems and situations faced by Indians
and in India. Their criterion is foreign, impractical, non-relevant
and hence anti-national, anti-growth oriented and anti-people. In this
sense they are not nationalists. When the new technology of computer
came to India, they blindly opposed computerisation. In short, if
Communists object anything sturdily then it could be considered
without any second opinion or argument that the same is as most
wanted, people friendly and best for national interests.
The main cause of the failure of the communist movement in India
is that no one encouraged the joining of the peasant castes, the
landowners and the middle class proletariat into one large
revolutionary group. There was no genuine national spirit existed
amongst them. The main concern of the communist movement was of a
socio-economic nature for each individual group of people -- not for
the good of the working man in general.
In general view of communists, worker means factory worker or
agricultural worker only. This is a rigid, narrow-minded, limited,
inhuman and theory-sake interpretation. Many communist supporters knew
nothing about Marx and Engels, they were simply using communist
movement to show their economic frustration. This failure to unite
and create a new national identity is what led to the failure of the
communist movement in India.. Are you hearing, communist pundits?
While preaching secularism loudly, present day leaders practise
communism with communalism and playing cleverly caste and religion
cards. Now this is the hall mark of communism also. Mismanagement of
capital, slaughter of worker potential and hollowness of theory--thy
name is communism! A classical example, taking over of Kamani
Industries Limited, Bombay, from the owners without paying anything by
communist union workers and their miserable failure to run it and
eventually closing down the factory.
It is alleged that the communist leaders are sitting in a fools'
paradise without understanding the ground realities and the changing
world. They want only welfare from the state at others' cost and
productivity. The communist trade unions in Kerala are a fine example.
Kerala is the only place in the world where a communist trade union
worker can earn pretty good for an excellent livelihood without doing
any work. For example, if someone brought household materials or
building materials in a three-wheeler immediately the so-called
'working class' will come and demand a hefty sum as unloading charges.
If the owner prefer to unload it by himself, they will call the poor
fellow as 'the rogue capitalist' and without doing the loading and
unloading work, a CITU worker will shamelessly demand wages and by
militancy, abuse and threat they will force the common man to comply
with their demand. Many earn stupendous money without any virtual
physical work and lavishly spend in bars, for vice pleasures and
shopping. The common man is the victim of communist workers'
'politically shielded extortion'. Is it communism?
Handling Nandigram problem by West Bengal communist government is
another shining and living example of Marxist capitalism. Another
hypocrisy of communists is throwing out world renowned writer Thaslima
from Kolkata.
It is the double standard of communists not supporting the
Nuclear cooperating Agreement with the U.S.A. India wants nuclear
power to supplement our power requirements. According to eminent
nuclear experts like former president Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam,
scientists, political observers, intellectuals, economists, editors,
journalists and political leaders, in the present scenario, bilateral
123 agreement for civilian nuclear cooperation to be signed with the
U.S.A. But, just for opposition sake and raising the Hyde Act, which
is purely an internal matter of the U.S.A., they are blindly against
it. Definitely this act of communists will compel a true nationalist
'educated layman' think about them as an anti-national party. Let them
clarify in this regard after the proposed meeting with UPA leaders on
17th March, 2008.
David Frossard describes that Kerala, a thriving capitalist trade
centre as well as one of the poorest areas of India, a "bold social
experiment" because it is the first ever democratically elected
Marxist government. Kerala occupies only 1.2% of India's land area,
yet it has 3.4% of India's population. The CPI was unsuccessful in
uniting the castes in most of India, hence the failure of the
movement.
The judgement of Kerala High Court on 11th March, 2008, in the
wake of Kannur 'bloodshed' and deaths of seven people, observed
"manslaughter in Kannur, especially in Thalasseri, is a compelling
sport" and suggested permanent deployment of Central forces. Justice
V. Ramkumar expressed the hope that there will be a gubernatorial move
to apprise the Central government of the urgent need for permanent
'prophylactic' action to curb further bloodshed and killings in
Kannur. The judge also came down heavily against the "cult of
violence". The judgement also cited, "It is a shame that even if it is
for survival, police are pandering to the vicious instincts of
influential politicians by shielding from punishment those who are
really guilty." There are reported instances of peoples'
representatives from a particular party coming to police station to
rescue their "party criminals" from the police lock-ups, the court
said. The court added, "If reports are to be believed, Kannur
district, particularly Thalasseri, has over the years become a hotbed
of political violence and carnage of the worst order." Thanks to the
inexperienced bunch of ministers in Kerala and the LDF lethargy.
All in all, it is observed that an 'educated layman' wants to
denounce the communists as curse of India. He is dreaming let the
Congress, NCP and BJP merge and form a rejuvenated big national party
with some foreseeable refinement and correction in their ideologies
and practice to contain the communists.
(Published in Sunny News, March 15 - 31, 2008. Please visist
http://www.sunnynewsonline.com)
kuri...@gmail.com
> IS COMMUNISM THE CURSE OF INDIA?
>
> Sasidharan Nair
>
> from the view point of an 'educated layman', he will rapidly arrive at
> the conclusion that Communism is the curse of India.
There is some truth in the statement
> Now three states namely West Bengal, Tripura and Kerala are
> ruling by communists. What they really achieved? Communism is an
> imported ideology. There is no harm to adopt an imported ideology.
> But, our needs are different, our people are different, our languages
> are different, our weather conditions are different, our cultures are
> different, our resources are different, our work conditions and
> opportunities are different. We have to look into all these aspects
> and factors and intensely study them at different perspectives before
> wedding a new ideology. Inspired by the novelty, a few young people
> attracted to 'foreign' element factor and victory of October
> Revolution akin to the natural attraction, passion and love of a youth
> towards opposite sex. It is an undisputed fact that everywhere in the
> world at any given time you will get some readily available people as
> followers for any good or bad ideology or action.
I don't know what bothers the author of this article. Is it the
foreign origin of the ideology (imported ideology) or its lack of
adaptation to Indian conditions? It would have been better if he spelt
out the deficiencies of the ideology as it was applied in India.
>
> Let us approach Communism in India with an Indian perspective.
> The Communists are preaching Socialism, which is definitely a Utopian
> dream and impractical theory, with the trapeze play of capitalism,
> class, workers, people's consciousness of the conditions of their
> lives that reflects material conditions and relations, an
> understanding of material conditions and social relations as
> historically malleable, view of history according to which class
> struggle, the evolving conflict between classes with opposing
> interests etc. etc.
I don't think socialism is an undesirable goal, although very
difficult to achieve. Most democracies do aim at social justice,
economic uplift of the downtrodden, offering help to those who cannot
maintain themselves without help. India did the right thing to model
its society in a "socialistic pattern". Most democracies do not
subscribe the means to achieve socialism is through perpetuating
"class struggle" in one form or the other.
>
> Many of a Communist leaders and so-called 'think tank
> intellectuals' are big capitalists and they accumulated wealth
> amassing the known source of income. According to the lead story
> carried by The Verdict news weekly, March 2- 8, 2008 issue, written by
> Muraleedharan Raghavan, "the workers of the ruling party (in Kerala)
> are started murmuring about the negative performances of some of the
> ministers in the government" and "most of the ministers in the LDF
> government in Kerala (most of them from CPI (M)) are involved in a
> scam. The government secretariat is busy and the employees are fed up
> with preparing affidavits and collecting supporting documents to
> submit in the courts, it is learnt." It is recommended to read this
> together with CPI (M) general secretary Pinarayi Vijayan's wealth, and
> his alleged association with 'land mafia' people and Pharis Abubaker.
This tells that communism as a practical method to solve social and
economic problems of the state has thoroughly failed. The party cadre
is there to serve the leaders who as mentioned above are thorough
hypocrites, corrupt and inept. If you have gone into the
qualifications and work-experiences of the elected MLAs you will find
not many of them are well educated, most of them were party workers
throughout their lives. Many of them list "social work" as their
profession which translated into day to day language means sitting at
road junctions and commenting on people that go by. They probably
never held productive jobs, and were living of other family members,
or on income generated through party 'fund raising' and labour union
extortions of people who are at the mercy of the labour mafia.
The author is sidestepping the obvious and the most pertinent issue.
The communists in India do not seem to want to address "the" class
struggle that has been going on in India for centuries. Their
ideology is modeled after the class struggle that existed in Europe
where the struggle was between the bourgeois and the proletariat. In
India economic and social classes were created over centuries by
manipulation of religious doctrines, segregating people into classes
some of which were vested with controlling dictatorial powers and
those who were at the receiving end were very much deprived
economically and socially. Yet how many of the present communists
dared to challenge the system and attempted to strike at the root of
the primeval causes of misery for millions in India?
>
>