The '50s of the
twentieth century was the romantic period of the communist movement. The
reasons were many. In geopolitics, the Soviet Union with the communist
bloc held sway. For the first time in India, a communist government came to
power in a tiny state in southern India -Kerala under EMS Namboodhirpad. The
Kerala Agrarian Relation Bill which the first communist State in India enacted
took away ownership rights from landlords having excess land and transferred
the same to the tenants and agriculture labourers. In the same period,
the communists got the West Bengal Land Reforms Act 1955 passed with a similar
ceiling on landholding. Both these Acts were enacted based on contemporary
Marxist narratives to give land to the land less a good intention. However, history
proved that land reforms did not create an inclusive industrial development in
both states but only trade unionism and lack of capital formation. In Kerala,
land reforms had a retributive reaction in the form of '' Vimochana Samaram'' a
larger movement led by the Nair/Menon community in Kerala under the able
leadership of their leader, Sri Mannath Padmanabha Menon and duly supported by
the Congress Party and the influential church. The outcome- The Nehru
government dismissed the EMS Govt in Kerala in 1959. However, the communists
held themselves as a National Political party since then running governments in
West Bengal, Tripura, and intermittently in Kerala, much propelled by the
proximity of the Indian State to the Soviet Union in the Cold War era.
The 21st Century was
a period of nemesis to the Marxian narratives. Dismantling of the communist
bloc and the emergence of a globalized world order, the triumph of the free
market economy, and communists in China leading a market-led growth, among
many, progressively resulted in a situation where the communist party was
disqualified from the label of a National Party in 2023 by the Election
Commission of India. Currently, the leftist doesn’t have any double-digit
representation in the Lok Sabha
After the first
decade of the twenty-first century, a new form of nationalist aspirations
started sweeping the world marked by nativism, protectionism, and right-wing
narratives began sweeping the world with its reflection in India under the
leadership of Narendra Modi and the Bharatiya Janata Party. Interestingly
western intelligentsia and press, tacitly observing nationalist re-assertions
in Western democracies were the first to cry foul on nationalist reassertion in
India which echoed with the slogan Sabke Saat Sab Ka Vishwas and sab ka
Prayas, an inclusive political narrative albeit centered around the
Hindu cultural and civilization pride. Sensing this the Economist wrote “All societies
draw on nationalism of one sort or another to define relations between the
state, the citizen, and the outside world, and new nationalists are riding
high on promises to close borders and restore societies to a past homogeneity.
The Western press laments this so-called ‘'de-democratization of India'' and
the essence of this rhetoric is only due to the loss of a soft power that they
enjoyed by creating convenient narratives piggybacked over the so-called
intellectual left in India. This was well articulated by India's foreign
minister to the Western press when he said "The West has a bad habit of
commenting on others and they somehow think that it is their right".
It
is in these contours that we need to understand the antitheism of the left
narratives against nationalism and understand its genesis. The origin of the
disinterest of the Left in national aspirations through cultural revival starts
with Antonio Gramsci who developed the concept of ‘’cultural hegemony’’
as a derivative of the Marxian theory of ‘’dominant ideology of society’’ which
reflects the beliefs and interests of the ruling class. The hegemony of a singular
culture as a ‘’ superstructure’’ above that, is according to Gramsci the greatest
impediment to establishing the rule of the proletariat. Hence unless cultural
hegemony is challenged there is no loophole for a revolution in the society. In
India, the earlier communists had realized India’s long-connected history. They
knew that it is the soul of the nation that acts like a superstructure of its
existence. Later years Deen Dayal Upadhyay a nationalist ideologue in India
called this wholeness CHITI which forms the essence of our nationhood, Chitti
is nontangible and is indeed the personality of the nation, and destroying this
superstructure is indeed the first step to be taken for a revolution of the
proletariat in India.
The
superstructure named CHITTI being nonphysical and composed of beliefs attitudes
emotions and feelings can be dismembered only through an ideological narrative
of redefinition of whatever contributes to CHITI. Here comes the Marxian view
of India of defining our society culture and history through a dismantling
narrative which was first attempted by Marx himself but later carried on by his
comrades in India. It is this strategy of dismantling the superstructure through
newer narratives is the genetic code of all leftist analysis be it sociological
historical or political.
On
the political side, it has two objectives. Firstly, it was through affiliation
with a movement of Islamists in the early 20s of the centuries called mujahirs
who believed in creating the Islamic State of India and fighting colonial rule.
MN Roy the earliest communist ideologue was instrumental in assimilating
disgruntled mujahirs who left India and formed the communist party. Since then
a global unholy alliance of leftists with Islamists is now well-researched and
documented which was started by MN Roy in India and the Bolsheviks in Russia.
The best alliance that can happen in a country like India, is an alliance with
a counterforce that successfully ruled the Indian subcontinent for 500
years.
The
communist support for the division of India where PC Joshi declared that an anti-imperialist
organization like the muslim league expressing the freedom urge of the Muslim
people that its demand for Pakistan was a demand for self-determination is another example.
This unholy alliance was very much reflected in the later writings of communist
ideologues when they were caricaturing Maplah's Violence of the genocide of
Hindus in Kerala into a freedom movement of Muslim peasant struggle against the
British. Sir C Shankaran Nair in his book Gandhi and Anarchy systematically
explains the atrocities committed against Hindus, particularly from Nair
/Namboothiri communities. I also recall the oral testimony of my paternal
grandfather whose family history traces forced migration from Malabar to Kochi.
This unholy alliance continues even today and the central government's banning
of the PFI and the tacit communist backing for them is well known through the
media
The
second political narrative is in dismantling the idea of a singular nation. In
1942 the communist party while supporting the two-nation theory of the Muslim
League, declared that India couldn’t claim to be a single nation. Later
published by its general secretary G Adhikari the narrative goes that every
section of the Indian society has the right to self-declaration ‘’ based on
common language culture and psychological makeup”
Creating
a history that emphasizes India’s underbelly to be hollow, with the systemic
glorification of invasion and negation of local resistance is one aspect.
Defining Indian feudalism through the prism of Marxian definitions, and
undermining the developments of science and philosophy in India was another.
Securing positions in academic institutions and self-proclaiming itself as
Liberal left and ensuring those narratives be part of the national curriculum
was indeed part of this counter to the hegemony of the culture
Since
this is not a research paper, covering enormous such cases of dismantling the
hegemony systematically asserted by the left is beyond the purpose of this
essay. However, what is significant is in the era of neo-globalization and as
we have seen in the COVID times enhancing the CHITI and converting that energy
to national development and reasserting our nationhood is paramount as human
existence is under threat from pandemics and climate change. A
strong nation with hard and soft power and a civilizational history of
amalgamation of cultures and considering the world as one as Vasudaiva
kudumbakam is the need of the hour. Political and Social movements
irrespective of the party in power should be singular in protecting our
national oneness and ensure we move away from the left narrative of our culture
religion and ethos. Dismantling the leftist ecosystem in India is hence should
be the priority of each citizen
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Rajesh
Menon is an educationalist, infrastructure professional, and author
