asianaffairs

Worshipping a failed god

Communism in India is not a spent force, but it has no future if its political proponents do not become less dogmatic in their thinking.

By Kuldip Nayar

TRIED AND TESTED: Mahatma Buddha advocated believing only in doctrines that have proved conducive to the general good

I am not surprised by the comment from former West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that communism must 'either change or perish'. He is right, but Prakash Karat and A B Bardhan, who control the two communist parties in India, continue to worship a god that has failed. They can see how almost all the world's communist regimes have collapsed but they still refuse to budge from the text-book of communist ideology.

In fact the dogmatic communists, as they are, have harmed liberal thought, leaving no room for new left-wing ideas to blow free in the fresh air. Young people the world over have long been inclined to the left and it used to be said that if you were not a communist by the age of 25, you should consult a doctor. But this is not so today, as ideals have become lost in consumerism and there are no values to uphold. Young people talk more about economic growth than the removal of social disparities. In India, the leaders of the two communist parties have sounded the death knell for the left because they are too disciplinarian, too rigid.

Karl Marx is still relevant when it comes to understanding historical changes or analysing social revolutions. But communism has ceased to be an engine for change. It has become distant from the people and their feelings, and has remained stuck in the thinking that a small revolutionary minority — the Communist Party — knows what is best for society as a whole.

China is making progress because of the capitalist system it is pursuing, with bayonets to support it. The communist order will cave in once the Chinese have political freedom. The mighty Soviet Union fell when the people began questioning totalitarianism and asserting their identity, for once people begin to ask questions, cracks in the monolithic structure of communism begin to appear and its collapse is only a matter of time.

In China, too, people are now beginning to ask questions and dissent is increasing. How quickly such dissent will spread, thus weakening the communists' ideology, no-one can say, although it will probably take several years. Whatever the timescale, there is no doubt that the will of the people will prevail one day.

Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee is like Mohit Sen from my generation, which also had the likes of S A Dange and Mohan Kumarmangalam, the crème de la crème of Cambridge University. Mohit was dogmatic during his initial years, but by the time I came to know him he had mellowed and realised that communism had to undergo drastic changes in view of realities on the ground.

That was probably the reason why he launched a weekly journal, New Thinking Communist. It may have made little difference to general communist thinking, but at least he confronted the communists with another perspective — something akin to democratic socialism.

I think that the communists in India would eventually have looked introspectively and rounded off the old edges of communism. But unfortunately for the ideology, they won some 60 seats in the Lok Sabha. They joined the ruling United Progressive Alliance (UPA) and began to feel the vicarious satisfaction of power. In the 1960s and 70s they looked towards the Soviet Union but then they switched over to China. True, they are probably the only communist force committed to the parliamentary system and they stand determined to challenge rightist forces. Yet they have chained themselves to an ideology that has outlived its utility.

I feel sorry for them because they have no future if they continue to remain dogmatic. They have to become more democratic and less doctrinaire in their thinking. West Bengal was their laboratory and even after ruling the state for more than three decades they did little beyond effecting land reforms and giving limited power to the panchayat. They neglected the basic needs of the people, for example, education. The Sachar commission found that only 2.5 per cent of Muslims were literate. In Kerala, the communists gave their full attention to literacy but got mired in internal quarrels and scams, such as the lottery one.

The problem with communism is that it has become another religion. Ideology and religion help up to a point, but subsequently, free thinking must take over. This does not mean capitalism, more specifically global capitalism. One ugly example of that is America, which is drunk with military and political power.

We in India have to think of an ideology suited to our genius. The starting point could well be Mahatma Gandhi's advice: 'If means are vitiated, ends are bound to be vitiated'. Better still is Mahatma Buddha's saying from the third century BC.

'Believe nothing merely because you have been told it, or because it is traditional, or because you yourself have imagined it. Do not believe what your teacher teaches you merely out of respect for the teacher.

'But whatever after due examination and analysis you find conducive to the good, the benefit, the wellbeing of all things, that doctrine believe and cling to and take it as your guide.'

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