(c) Lok Awaz Publishers 1996. No Part of this Publication may be reproduced without prior written permission of the publisher.
The starting point, the first step, the most immediate question and the long-term task that appears in India for the victory of the revolutionary movement is that of theory. It expresses it self most succinctly in the necessity for Indian theory, a theory emerging out of the conditions of India and suitable for the development of communism here. This starting point has to be made by settling scores with the old conscience, the conscience of all conciliators with social -democracy, on the one hand, and that of the British colonialists and of the bourgeoisie and feudal elements, on the other.
The theory of the conciliators with social-democracy considers it normal to have a system which is a direct import from Europe, suitable for the classes created by the colonialists themselves, classes in whose interests it is to renovate and strengthen such a system. It is also important to examine seriously how Marxism-Leninism which is presented in a dogmatic form is something quite suitable to these classes that form the large industrial houses, the capitalists and feudal landlords. For what other reason have they nurtured this dogmatic Marxism-Leninism than to defend their system?
Comrades, the greatest problems taken up for solution at this time by CGPI is that of Indian theory. This work began at the time of the First Congress of the Party, the tenth anniversary of its founding. If CGPI is to play its role as the vanguard of the working class, it must develop the theory of communism from Indian conditions. This theory must be developed by settling scores with the old conscience of India. It must be given an Indian form. It must bear no trace of Euro-centrism or any other influence that would render it unscientific. This theory most be suitable to the practice of Indian revolution and applicable in general terms to any conditions in the world. It is only through the development of this Indian theory that the question Whither Indian? can be fully answered and the revolutionary movement spurred forward.
India, a land of small production and individual and communal property for more than twenty-five hundred years, is filled with numerous philosophies and theories based on this experience, However, the conditions have changed in many ways, Large-scale production, that is, the social process of material production, is taking hold in both the cities and the countryside, Regardless, there remains a lot of space in which community ownership and ideas abound and cannot be filled by capitalism. What will the Marxist-Leninists do about it? Will they first transform these primeval communal feudal-patriarchal relations, the Asiatic mode of production, into capitalist relations; or, will they go straight to socialism? It is far better to go straight to socialism. For this, there is a need for an Indian revolutionary theory that can illuminate the practice of revolutionising the entire life in India, of doing just that-going straight to socialism. This requires actually putting all the many philosophies and ideologies, their myriad forms and shapes, to the critical test of practic and working out one revolutionary theory.
This theory has to be closely linked to the working class movement for emancipation, around which everything hinges. Only by comparing and contrasting it with the most advanced philosophy and theory, Marxism-Leninism and contemporary Marxist-Leninist thought, can Indian revolutionary theory be modernised. Indian philosophy and theory must be the most modern. It has to mercilessly differentiate itself from all schools of thought which render it powerless and give it the role of being merely of some spritutal character.
Ideas, notions, views, interpretations are all, generally speaking, relative. For this reason, anyone's ideas can be as right or as wrong as anyone else's. Theory, on the other hand, is absolute until such times it is proven wrong. If ideology does not arise from the soil of a country, if constant struggle is not waged to resolve what is right or wrong on the basis of theory, there can be no truly conscious, truly independent and truly revolutionary movement of the working class. To achieve victory in the movement of the working class for emancipation, it is crucial to pay continuous attention to both ideological struggle and theory.
The fundamental premise of the Indian philosophy of Darshan is that things and phenomena reveal themselves. The entire universe is nothing but Maya. Awagaman is the mode of existence of Maya. Such a materialist rendering of the Indian outlook is an excellent starting point for the development of Indian theory. Indian communists must develop this theory by beginning from the present, bringing under sharp criticism all that is in vogue within the Indian conditions, especially the old conscience that is pushed by the Indian ruling classes.
The stagnation of the philosophy of Darshan is inextricable linked with the stagnation of Indian thought, and of the economic and political theories in our country, The darshandharis, ensconced within the comfortable walls of Indian, American and British universities, pontificate about Indian philosophy, as if it has no relevance or link with the present conditions in India, with the illumination of the road to progress for the Indian people at this time in history. Idealist and religious interpretations are given of Darshan, to make it lifeless and useless for the Indian people. Meanwhile, deprived of a philosophy and outlook to deal with the problems, today, the Indian people are left floundering helplessly, at the mercy of the bourgeoisie and imperialism.
Darshan, for instance, is confined to the sphere of religion wherein God reveals himself to believers through their daily darshan. Various schools of philosophy deliberately given an idealist interpretation to maya-the entire universe, including matter and the reflection of that matter in the forms of thought-declaring it to mean illusion. Awagaman, the coming into being and passing away of things and phenomena including thought, is deprived of its profound revolutionary and materialist character, that it in fact reflects the way things and phenomena reveal themselves and come into being and pass away, Instead, these darshandharis give an idealist, cyclical as well as fatalistic interpretation to these concepts.
Such interpretations do not assist the Indian people to address the problems that exist in society. Instead of assisting the people in working out the proper relationship between humans and nature and between humans and other humans, as Darshan did in ancient times, they make human beings a passive victim to the ravaging forces of society and nature today. It is the tragedy of India that Indian communists do not combat these false interpretations of Darshan. For the Anglo-Americans, especially since the days of colonial rule, to deliberately denigrate Darshan and reduce it to a matter of scholastic study of something from the dim past with no relevance for this day and age, is understandable. But why should Indian communists fall prey to this?.
By not developing Indian philosophy, by not rescuing it from the realm of scholasticism and the confines of the universities ad religious institutions, by not arming themselves and the people with an outlook that will help them solve the problems facing Indian society, Indian communists have assisted the bourgeoisie in perpetuating its rule. The bourgeoisie and its political parties, while paying lip service to Indian philosophy, carry on their fighting by donning themselves in the garb of Indian traditions and colours. Communists meanwhile remain on the sidelines, debating on the "backwardness" or "forwardness" of the Indian people. Some of them even debate whether they should appropriate some of the old symbols of Indian history or religions, as if the question of philosophy or theory is a matter of shedding one set of clothes for another. Such a thing makes a mockery of the place of theory in society, its necessity at a time when history has to be created consciously and the pre-history of anarchy and spontaneous upheavals has to be ended. Communists of India need to raise theory to the highest level possible and give it profile that will be acknowledged on the world scale as a contribution to opening the path to the progress of society not only in India but throughout the world.
Having traversed seventy years of struggle for socialism and communism in India, all Indian communists must realise that the theories that must be opposed are not rejected simply because they are foreign. They must be repudiated because they are instruments for the enslavement and bondage of Indian society. If society is to prepare itself for the twenty-first century, it must leave behind this entire baggage of European social-democracy and assortment of bourgeois socialism. This is really the point. It must be recognised that without a theory and philosophy that has historically developed within the concrete conditions of a given country. it is not possible to build socialism and communism in that country. This will put to rest once and for all the legacy introduced by British colonialism according to which Indian philosophy and thought can only find expression through European philosophy.
The European philosophical tradition originating from Plato and Aristotle was perfected during the Age of Enlightenment and Reason and was given further shape during the revolutionary struggles which gave rise to the modern European nation-state. Nonetheless, this momentous development was to be followed by Irrationalism, the reaction of the European bourgeoisie to the revolutionisation of social science carried out by Karl Marx and to the fear of proletarian revolution.
In this Irrationalism which the European colonialists imposed on their colonies. Such a thing carried on even after these colonies became independent. Viewing India through the prejudices of such colonialist philosophy may satisfy the requirements of some foreign scholars and may even be used to justify the notion of a "white man's burden", that missionary zeal with which the colonialists sought to conquer and civilise the "barren" Indian souls. Through bloodshed and conquest they brought India under the sway of civil society and European colonialist philosophy. That civil society and that European philosophy can do nothing to advance the movement of the working class for emancipation.
The colonial destruction of the people created a void which the colonialists tried to fill with irrationalism. They negated Indian society and philosophy. They must now be negated if Indian society and philosophy are to develop and progress. The negation of their irrationalism must give way to rationalism.
Frederick Engles sharply pointed out long ago that "the philosophy of every epoch presupposes certain definite thought material handed down to it by its predecessors from which it takes its start..........."(4)
Do we Indian communists suggest that our ancestors handed down to us no" certain definite though material" at all?.
Just as Karl Marx and Frederick Engles settled scores with their old conscience-the prevailing ideas of their age-so too must we settle scores with the prevailing conscience of India, our old conscience. We cannot even begin to do so if we deny its existence, if we deny Indian philosophy, if we deny that we have "thought material" which has come down to us. If we do not settle scores with our former conscience, the domain of philosophy will remain in the hands of the Indian bourgeoisie and imperialism. The development of Indian philosophy and theory will be obstructed.
We Indian communists take from the Indian philosophy of Darshan, that which is materialist and revolutionary, namely, that all things and phenomena reveal themselves. Things and phenomena do not reveal themselves in their dogmatic form as the Indian bourgeoisie would want us to believe. The mode of existence of maya, that is awagaman, puts to rest such revelations in their dogmatic form. Awagman provides maya with the quality of coming and going, coming into being and passing away. Things and phenomena reveal themselves according to their level of development-as conditions change, what they reveal changes accordingly. Recognising this is the starting point of establishing Indian philosophy and theory. This is not the end point any more than dialectical and historical materialism is the end point. It is foolish to think that the formidable discoveries that have been made to date are the pinnacle and final word on what is needed by humanity, for all times and for all peoples of this world. Such a vulgar opinion only appeals to those who are satisfied with the present state of affairs and are benefiting from the status quo.
Just as the bourgeoisie has reduced the entire country to dependence and reliance on foreign capital by strengthening the foreign colonial legacy, the economic and political system and other institutions, it is reduced to reliance on European philosophy. It is a beggar also in terms of the "thought material". This is the greatest crime it is committing against the people. Its schools are filled with foreign "thought material", to the extent that the "national language", the language in which it transacts its relations is also foreign.
According to Engles, "Marx summarises the common content lying in things and relations and reduces it to its general logical expression. His abstraction therefore reflects, in the form of thought, the content already reposing in things"(5)
If the philosophy is foreign, "the common content laying in things and relations" has to be foreign as well. In other words, such a philosophy would not reflect "the content already reposing in things" in Indian society. The bourgeoisie as a class, the big industrial houses, the capitalists and landlords, owe their creation to the British colonial system. The British colonialists, besides other things, provided the bourgeoisie with property relations based on exploitation and a thought material which justified those relations. By destroying everything that was theirs in the past the British have given Indians the option either to take up the thought material of the classes created by the British, or to be lost in the void of what has been negated. Revolutionary communists must reject both and create a vibrant theory that will smash the thought material passed on by the British and the void created by them.
British thought material as presented by the Indian ruling classes negates the development of India philosophy and theory. Such a thing can be called a genocide (at the very least a cultural genocide), but the Indian bourgeoisie is proud of it; it spews forth every thing that is hostile to the interests of the Indian working class and people. Indian communists, basing themselves on the definite thought material handed down from the past and the summation of the experience of the working class movement taken in general form, must give rise to a theory that provides it with its own spiritual weapon, a theory that finds its material weapon in the working class itself.
Karl Marx pointed out that the proletariat is the heart of the revolution, while philosophy is the head, If the proletariat, the material weapon and heart, is Indian, how can it be directed by a British head? Furthermore what is the use of a heart if it has no head? To suggest that European social-democracy or that different forms of bourgeois socialism are the head is to bury one's own head in the sand and to continue the rotten tradition of serving the class that is hostile to the working class and people, Indian communists must provide the working class with its own head, with Indian theory and philosophy in order to guide its struggles for emancipation. Either the working class takes command of its own philosophy, or it allows the bourgeoisie a free hand to sing bhajans to European philosophy so as to disarm the working class and keep it and the society in perpetual bondage. Indian communists must fight unwaveringly against the Eurocentric pressure according to which the thought material coming out of European and American academia and other institutions is the only one of value, and the most advanced at that.
The so- called theory of orientalism even denies that there is such a thing as Indian philosophy. It reduces Indian philosophy to spiritualism, opposing the very essence of materialism - the conclusion that every society provides itself with "certain definite thought material". Far from allowing Indian philosophy to remain a target of curiosity for the native and foreign scholars, Indian communists must develop Indian theory and philosophy as an integral part of the development of the revolutionary movement.
Internationally, by taking the experience of the international communist and worker's movement as a whole, in general form, the communist philosophic conscience has developed from Marxism to Leninism to contemporary Marxist-Leninist thought. However contemporary Marxist-Leninist thought is not the negation of Leninism, just as Leninism was not the negation of Marxism. Together, they are not dogmas but are a guide to action. The philosophy and theory that would guide the Indian revolution will find their development in close connection with the working class movement as it exists today in India and internationally. Nonetheless, the dogmatism of different social-democratic and opportunist trends is exerting enormous pressure to sabotage this work.
The main enemy of this revolutionary theory remains right opportunism, the social democratic ideas that seek to subordinate the class struggle of the working class to the requirements of the bourgeoisie. Today, right opportunism is adapting itself to the requirements of the world bourgeoisie of privatisation and liberalisation. This adaptation has continued for more than fifty years and will continue until such a time as either the world proletariat is completely disarmed, or it confronts its bourgeois false conscience and Indian theory and philosophy are renovated, modernised and brought up to date . With this revolutionary adaptation and development, the mimicry and buffoonery of the present period will end.
The intrigue against socialism and communism is not only to present Marxism as a form of liberal ideology that is an ideology minus its revolutionary class content, but also as the last word in social thought in the spirit of a catechism, a kind of Marxian fundamentalism It is also to present it as hostile to Leninism, and to present Leninism in opposition to contemporary Marxist-Leninist thought.
It is significant that in the last six years, not a few parties which formerly called themselves communist have changed their names and are now presenting themselves as "nice", liberal and soical-democratic parties, In bourgeois style, they pretended to have no class content, no national content, but in fact, they have no revolutionary class content. At the same time , some others who have not changed their names have, in like manner, adopted the demeanour of very "nice" peaceful, liberal communists with whom it is possible for imperialism, the bourgeoisie and world reaction to "get along with ". At the Congress of CPI (M) in April 1995, for example the leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation (CPRF)issued a public statement according to which 21 major communist parties in the world have all abandoned the notion of the dictatorship of the proletariat. In other words, communism is not the condition for the complete emancipation of the working class, but merely a policy objective, Communism as the condition for the complete emancipation of the working class can be created only by proletarian revolution and the dictatorship of the proletariat. Communism as a policy objective stands against proletarian revolution and the directorship of the proletariat. It embraces the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie as the final act of human civilisation, as immutable, as something that will go on forever.
Within this framework, a position of opposing all dictatorships is presented merely as a ruse, an act of treachery and deception against the movement of the working class for emancipation. It is not for nothing that following the capture of the largest number of seats in the Duma by the CPRF, the Clinton administration, according to news agency reports, "dismissed communist electoral gains in Russia, declaring that the Party's new breed are not the 'totalitarian Bolsheviks of old'.
Contemporary Marxist-Leninist thought is a guide to the creation of Indian theory. Lenin's conclusion that "... a correct revolutionary theory..... is not a dogma, but assumes final shape only in close connection with the practical activity of a truly mass and truly revolutionary movement," means that a really revolutionary and really scientific theory develops only by beginning from the present and serving it. Our work for the creation of Indian theory has already begun. The Indian revolutionary movement is under the sway of the bourgeoisie at this time. Far from being guided by a revolutionary theory. the working class is guided by the interests of its class enemies. The bourgeoisie is split into many factions. These factions are fighting with each other dividing the working class and the toilers along the lines of division in their own camp, creating a disaster for the revolutionary movement. Divisions in the bourgeoisie, in the objective sense, provide the working class with an opportunity to make an advance. But in the absence o f revolutionary Indian theory, it is the working class that is split and its movement for emancipations is temporarily paralysed.
Scores of communist parties and groups exist, some big and many small, promoting a lot of theories in the working class movement. Some of these are alien class theories while others are so divorced from practice that they do nothing else but cause maximum confusion. Besides parties and groups of communists, there is the Congress(I), a social-democratic party. Several socialist parties also exert influence, and even outright reactionary parties also exist. The bourgeoisie is extremely satisfied with this arrangement. However, the workers still succeed in revolting from time to time.
Different sections of the bourgeoisie rountinely inflame passion all over the country on the basis of religion, region, language, tribal affiliation and caste. This is done habitually, as part of settling scores and scoring points over their rivals, while the people are divided along these lines and terrible tragedies are committed against them. The abominations in Punjab and the North East, the massacre of Tamils in Karnataka, of Sikhs following the assassination of Indira Gandhi, and of Muslims all over India following the demolition of the Babri Masjid are but a few of the most glaring instances of this bloodletting. What began with the partition of India in 1947, with millions of people being slaughtered and rendered into refugees as a result of the infighting of the bourgeoisie has continued to date, inflicting fresh and painful wounds upon our people, and dividing the polity in favour of the bourgeoisie.
Instead of showing a way out of this situation and forging the political unity of the working class and toilers on the basis of a revolutionary path, the communist movement itself has tended to become divided along the lines of the division within the ranks of the bourgeoisie. It has tended to get embroiled in these conflicts on one side or the other. It has even become an advocate for this or that bourgeois grouping or front. Instead of concentrating on developing the revolutionary movement through theoretical and organisational work, it has side-tracked itself into becoming a cheer leader for this or that section of the bourgeoisie and for the capitalist system . The Indian revolutionary movement is in a cul-de-sac as a result. It is through the work for the creation of Indian revolutionary theory as one of the most important ingredients for the growth of communism of Indian soil that the revolutionary working class movement for emancipation will extricate itself from this painful position and achieve its goal.
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