MAKE IN INDIA, WITH CAUTION

MAKE IN INDIA, WITH CAUTION


Mr Rohit Azad, teaching Economics at JNU, on his blog wrote an article criticising Prof Jagdish Bhagwati's article published in Economic Times of 9 January 2015. While Prof Bhahwati made a strong case for PM Modi's 'Make in India' and (sell abroad), Mr Rohit opposes an export driven approach, claiming it to be in contradiction with a domestic demand driven approach. Both authors seem to be missing that in today's world, both domestic and export markets are inter-related and capital is interested in maximisation of rate of return only. Below are comments by Mr Suresh Srivastava.
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Mr Rohit Azad's article 'Prof. Bhagwati's has got it wrong' appeared on 9 January 2015 on rohitazad.wordpress.com.
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Suresh commented on January 11, 2015

Lenin had observed that ‘in view of the extreme complexity of the phenomena of social life it is always possible to select any number of examples or separate data to prove any proposition.’ Present day neo-Marxists, with their petty bourgeois consciousness, fail to understand ‘value’ correctly with its form and content and hence, consider capitalist mode of production and capitalism, synonymous. They choose data and arguments at will, to prove what they want to prove. Evaluating ‘Make in India’ per say, in isolation with domestic and international Socio-economic formations, is a futile exercise.
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Rohit replied on 12 January 2015

So, are you suggesting that what is proved here is wrong? Instead of prices, you can use the labour theory to prove exactly the same set of assertions, so please let me know where is the argument wrong? By the way I have not used any data to prove any thing here.
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Suresh commented on 14 January 2015

In modern world, with the development of technology, boundaries have broken down for products and money, which can travel across the globe, wherever needed, in no time, and commodities and capital have become truly global. But to produce any commodity, human labour power can be expanded only where the worker is present, and hence creation of value in manufacturing or in distribution will continue to be local.
Newly created value is split into two parts, wages and surplus value. Wages have to be disbursed locally to the worker. Surplus value is shared amongst various owners of the assets and of money or, means of production needed to set the labour power into motion to create new value. The share in the surplus value could be termed rent, interest, profit etc. The surplus value in the form of money is free from any geographical constraints and can move globally at will.
Sharing of the surplus among various players depends upon their respective strengths, and the state as a moderator between various conflicting classes is the most powerful arbiter. Whosoever can influence a state within the national boundaries or various states globally, will get the larger share in the surplus produced nationally or globally.
Every effort to increase efficiency and productivity of human labour through cooperation and large scale production is innate quality of human society, and hence liberalisation of economies for globalisation is progressive and must be supported. Marx in his speech on 9th January 1848 before Democratic Association of Brussels stressed, 'But, in general, the protective system of our day is conservative, while the free trade system is destructive. It breaks up old nationalities and pushes the antagonism of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to the extreme point. In a word, the free trade system hastens the social revolution. It is in this revolutionary sense alone, gentlemen, that I vote in favour of free trade.'
The problem is in individual, disproportionate appropriation rather than social appropriation of the surplus value, which is produced collectively.
Any effort to oppose the natural forward movement of global integration of various national economies is counter-progressive and reactionary. Every effort to curtail the share of private appropriation and to augment the share of social appropriation of the surplus produced, is progressive and revolutionary.
Every socially conscious intellectual, who understands Marxism as a scientific world outlook, must support globalisation to ensure large scale production and distribution, and must participate in every movement which may push for collective ownership of resources rather than for individual ownership and may augment share of social appropriation of the surplus value produced.
In his famous pamphlet 'Marxim and Revisionism', written in 1908 on Marx's 90th birth anniversary, Lenin warned, 'Whoever does not understand the inevitable inner dialectics of parliamentarism and bourgeois democracy—which leads to an even sharper decision of the argument by mass violence than formerly—will never be able on the basis of this parliamentarism to conduct propaganda and agitation consistent in principle, really preparing the working-class masses for victorious participation in such “arguments”.' CPC, with correct understanding of Marxim, was able to follow Lenin's warning to understand correctly the contradictions in the Chinese Society, and to evolve the concept of 'New Democracy' as elaborated by Mao in his famous pamphlet. 90 years of the history of CPC in successfully leading the Chinese people through revolutionary transformation of Chinese society on socialist path testifies relevance of Lenin's warning.
In the same pamphlet, characterising revisionism, Lenin observed, 'Needless to say, this applies to bourgeois science and philosophy, officially taught by official professors in order to befuddle the rising generation of the propertied classes and to “coach” it against internal and foreign enemies.' And the history of 90 years of communist movement in India, which, in the absence of correct understanding of Marxism, first disintegrated into more than 40 fragments and the fragments now trying unsuccessfully for unprincipled unification, testifies Lenin's observation.
For more on my views on left movement in India, please see my various articles on my blogs 'marxdarshan.blogspot.com' and 'marx-darshan.blogspot.com' and old issues of Hindi quarterly 'Marx Darshan'.

Suresh Srivastava
14 January 2015

Recasting Caste – Utopian and Scientific

Recasting Caste – Utopian and Scientific

(Suresh Srivastava)

I normally do not involve myself in any discussion on the proposition of convergence of class and caste, and am apprehensive whether any fruitful result can be achieved by identifying caste as class, because the discussants are normally petty bourgeois pseudo left intellectuals, who are not trained to think dialectically, hence there are arguments only and no discussions. But after reading the article written by Mr Asit Das, titled THE REAL WORLD OF CASTE IN INDIA, as a prefatory to Mr Hira Singh’s RECASTING CASTE, and circulated on a group of socially conscious young intellectuals, I could not restrain myself from intervening. Need of the time is to provide socially conscious young intellectuals every opportunity to help them develop a dialectical reasoning and scientific outlook so that some of them could play the historical role of torch bearer for emancipation of the human society. And nothing could be more effective than to juxtapose dialectical and metaphysical interpretations about any phenomena exposing inherent contradiction in the metaphysical analysis.

Ever since Marx and Engels enunciated the theory of dialectical and historical materialism, and on the basis of that theory suggested a revolutionary praxis for the working class, in the form of ‘Manifesto of the Communist Party’, multipronged attack by bourgeois intellectuals was unleashed against the theory. When bourgeois intellectuals failed in their frontal attack to contain the spread of Marxist ideas among the working masses all over the world, they chose to sabotage the theory from within, by obfuscating the core content of the Marxist theory, importing numerous metaphysical concepts, in the name of developing Marxism in line with ever developing society.

In last 175 years, plethoric documentation has been churned out by middle class left intellectuals, in the name of development of Marxism with reference to the modern and post modern stages of development. About any social phenomenon, first they choose an interpretation at will, and then to justify the veracity of their conclusions, conveniently gather some data and some quotations from Marx, and configure an analysis in a metaphysical manner to claim their interpretation to be dialectical. In the preface to his famous pamphlet ‘Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism’, Lenin categorically warned against this revisionist trend. He writes ‘In view of the extreme complexity of the phenomena of social life it is always possible to select any number of examples or separate data to prove any proposition.’

With their petty bourgeois consciousness, self-proclaimed Marxists fail to distinguish between dialectical approach and metaphysical approach, and feed the young minds with their utopian concepts in the name of scientific concept of socialism. In his preface to ‘Anti-Duhring’, Engels writes ‘And finally, to me there could be no question of building the laws of dialectics into nature, but of discovering them in it and evolving them from it’. Pseudo-Marxists, unable to comprehend the philosophical aspect of Marxian dialectics, fail to understand that the whole world of political, social and religious ideas of any class is a superstructure built on the infrastructure of material production relations between various classes, and which may appear to be completely unrelated with its foundation.     

Those leftists who propagate the idea that Marxist understanding of caste and Ambedkarite understanding of caste are convergent or that the caste shall be annihilated with class, have not been able to get themselves rid of their petty-bourgeois consciousness. Again in the above pamphlet, Lenin writes ‘For they are the real agents of the bourgeoisie in the working class movement, the labour lieutenants of the capitalist class, real vehicles of reformism and chauvinism. …….. Unless the economic roots of this phenomenon are understood and its political and social significance is appreciated, not a step can be taken toward the solution of the practical problem of the communist movement and of the impending social revolution.’

If one has understood philosophical aspect of Marxism - which most of the leftists either do not understand or consider unimportant – one will be clear, that caste system is an ideological manifestation of, division of labour in the process of material production and relations of production, and hence question of caste cannot be solved in a predominantly feudal society but will fizzle out as division of labour fizzles out with the growth of capitalist mode of production.

Marx had identified that division of labour was based on the development of individual skills and on an individual providing specific kind of skilled labour power in the production of one particular kind of product. But production of one particular kind of goods was not confined to an individual or a family, in some areas like India, a whole community was producing one kind of product which is the basis of development of caste system in India. Even today a cast is identified by the kind of work the community has been doing.

Marx had further identified that ‘Upon the different forms of property, upon the social conditions of existence, rises an entire superstructure of distinct and peculiarly formed sentiments, illusions, modes of thought, and views of life. The entire class creates and forms them out of its material foundations and out of the corresponding social relations.’ (Marx, XVIII Brumaire). Thus caste system developed on the material foundation of division of labour, but took the form of religion and social stratification with un-touchability. Caste system, like religion is an integral part of feudalism and continues even during the development of capitalism.

Marx did not deal with the subject of caste because he had realised that the cause of human woes is the private appropriation of surplus value produced by collective labour and he focused on finding how exploitation of man by man can be annihilated. Different classes and identities will be having their own specific problems at different stages of historical development, which will have to be dealt specifically by people of that particular era, but emancipation of human race as a whole will occur only when surplus produced collectively, is appropriated collectively.

Metaphysical view of Indian left is to assume that, in India, caste is synonymous to class because both have a common foundation in division of labour and hence class struggle and caste struggle are coterminous, and since annihilation of class is possible only with annihilation of capitalism, hence annihilation of cast is also possible with annihilation of capitalism only.

Dialectical view is that division of labour leads to production of commodities and division of society into classes. Within the domain of production workmen were divided between classes on the basis of skill, but, while in class structure individual workman is identified by the skill he acquires and becomes member of a class, in caste structure an individual is part of a caste, which is identified by the particular trade it follows, and the individual acquires the same skill. Because in caste structure division of labour was linked to birth, over a time, concept of caste became part of ideological consciousness of the particular class and integrated with religion.

In a feudal socio-economic formation castes and classes are synonymous because working masses are divided into various classes on the basis of skill. But with development of capitalist mode of production, machines take over the skill of the craftsmen and all workmen become simple wage labourer, and workmen hitherto divided into various classes converge into one class, proletariat and so will converge all castes into one oppressed class.

At social level there could be various oppressed groups e.g. ethnic groups, religious minorities, women and children, refugees etc., and at social level different groups may have to fight different battles, but at economic level there are only two classes, oppressed or oppressor, and at political level there has to be a united fight by all the oppressed people. Any identity politics will weaken the proletarian class struggle, and hence communists may be part of all social movements but shall not be in the forefront of social movements. Their task is to bring in political awareness among the masses through their participation in these social movements.

With due apologies to Mr Asit Das and Mr Hira Singh, I have to take up this ungrateful task of identifying the content in Mr Asit Das’ article which obfuscates Marxism, and appeal to the young intellectuals not to identify ideas with individuals, and rather dwell upon the idea forgetting the author, to guard against subjective understanding of the subject matter. I shall reproduce some of the phrases from the article which, in my opinion are contrary to Marxist thought, and leave it to the young readers’ reasoning.   

·                     The annihilation of caste is intrinsically related with the abolition of class rule in India.

·                     Identification of India with caste and reduction of caste to its religious essence is a product of the colonial process of essentialization.

·                     Hence, caste is very much an important component of Indian politics, and it is a reality which no sensible Marxist can afford to overlook.

·                     Communists should be in the forefront in the fight against caste, gender, racial, national and ethnic oppressions. One need not miss the wood for the tree. In the light of above arguments, Hira Singh’s book “Recasting Caste” is a serious Marxist intervention in the contemporary caste debates. 

·                     In India, in the era of Mandal and Kamandal politics, caste has assumed an overwhelming importance both in politics and in the Academia.(The result of XVI Lok Sabha elections shows that caste has not assumed an overwhelming importance in politics, rather it is waning. In Academia, yes of course, because it suits the existing system.) 

·                     Delineate a strategy for a classless and casteless society.

·                     The question whether caste is infrastructure or superstructure is redundant.

·                     It is here that the Marxist and Ambedkarite project of ‘annihilation of castes’ converge.

·                     And it is here that the political project of Ambedkarites and the political left converges.

While fighting against revisionism in Russuian communist movement, in 1902, Lenin wrote his famous pamphlet ‘What is to be done’ and in the preface he writes, ‘But the confusion and vacillation which constitute the distinguishing feature of an entire period in the history …….. [may be read as history of 90 years of Indian communist movement]; ………. also acquires significance, for we can make no progress until we have completely put an end to this period.’

I hope Indian Marxist will pay heed to Lenin’s teachings.

Suresh Srivastava

15 July, 2014

                

          

    

   

LGBT – A Good Case, Badly Presented

LGBT – A Good Case, Badly Presented

Suresh Srivastava

The efforts of a small section of middle class intellectuals and thirteen of their NGOs, to get social approval, through legal intervention for certain sexual preferences, hitherto considered immoral by a substantial section of the society, has come to a naught. These middle class intellectuals claiming to be progressive socially, showed political naivety by failing to appreciate the wisdom and power of the Parliament as the representative of the Indian people. Instead of getting the grievances of the LGBT community, regarding the actions of law enforcing agencies under section 377 of IPC, in the matter of sexual preferences of lesbians, gays, bi-sexuals and transgenders, redressed by Parliament through their elected representatives, they preferred to challenge the constitutional validity of the section 377, alleging it to be discriminatory, encroaching upon the fundamental rights of a minority group, inter alia gays, to have consensual sex in private. This construes that, in the opinion of the petitioners, not only the founding fathers of our constitution, but also the subsequent framers of the law, our Parliament, and the interpreters of the law, our Supreme Court have failed in their duty by not repealing it or by not striking it down as unconstitutional for sixty five years.

Petty bourgeois intellectuals are always in a hurry and adamant in implementing their utopian ideas. They want everything to be delivered, the way they want, by some genie as soon as they wish. The petition which was dismissed by the order of the apex court dated 11 December 2013, met its fait accompli, the day petition was originally filed before the Hon'ble High Court of Delhi in 2001 seeking it's indulgence to declare the section 377 as violative of the constitutional rights of individuals having consensual sex in private.

Let us examine if right thinking people could have foreseen twelve years ago, the fate of the petition, and what the way forward is now.

Before going into the facts of the present case, let us examine some fundamental aspects of development in the inclusive democratic political system of our nation which is a federated structure of complex societies of diverse nationalities, languages, religions, cultures and modes of productions e.g. feudal, capitalist, tribal and even slavery in terms of bonded labour, which gives rise to heterogeneous groups, with diverse interests, some time conflicting, coexisting together.

Our constitution gives responsibility to the elected representatives to legislate through Parliament and State Assemblies for ensuring honourable living and development for the citizens, individually and collectively, keeping proper balance between mutual rights and obligations and to oversee the functioning of the government. The Supreme Court has been assigned the responsibility and authority of judicial review to ensure that the legislature enacts laws in accordance with the letter and spirit of the constitution and the government acts in accordance with the laws enacted by legislature. At the time of independence and adoption of the new constitution, to ensure smooth transition from the previous regime to the new regime, all the laws in force during the old regime were adopted with a provision to amend or repeal them as the needs of the society would develop. The right to amend or repeal any existing law is vested in the legislature and not in the judiciary. The judiciary is given the right to interpret the law in consonance with the developing needs of the society.

Our nascent democracy in sixty years has developed into a strong vibrant democracy because of perfect understanding between legislature, executive and judiciary for mutual respect for their respective responsibilities and authorities. Society is an entity ever developing; economically, politically and culturally and so are developing aspirations of individuals. Old values give way to new values. With this, new conflicts and clash of interests between different groups or sections of the society also emerge. Our legislature has been amending or repealing provisions in existing laws and enacting new laws, and the judiciary has been interpreting old and new laws to meet the needs of the changing times keeping the sanctity of the objects enshrined in our constitution. Because of conflicting interests between different sections of the society, it is not always possible to satisfy every section entirely, but in general the nation as a whole feels satisfied with the role played by our judiciary, may be less satisfied with the role played by our legislature, in strengthening our democracy. Petty bourgeois intellectuals, who lead every struggle for a social change, because of myopic vision, focus on short term interests of a segment of the society and are not able to appreciate that an integrated and flexible approach might be able to satisfy a wider section.

In the light of above general observations, let us examine the petition.

In the petition it is prayed that Section 377 IPC may be declared as constitutionally invalid insofar as it affects private sexual acts between consenting adults or in the alternative to read down Section 377 IPC to exclude consenting same-sex sexual acts between adults.

Section 377 IPC is contained in Chapter XVI of the IPC titled “Of Offences Affecting the Human Body”.  Within this Chapter Section 377 IPC is categorised under the sub-chapter titled “Of Unnatural Offences” and reads as follows:

“377. Unnatural Offences - Whoever voluntarily has carnal intercourse against the order of nature with any man, woman or animal, shall be punished with imprisonment for life, or with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to ten years, and shall also be liable to fine.

Explanation - Penetration is sufficient to constitute the carnal intercourse necessary to the offence described in this section."

From the contents of section 377 it is clear that the petitioners are having in mind only MSM (Men who have sex with men) or gays when they are asking for exclusion of consenting 'same-sex sexual acts'. Further, use of term 'sexual orientation' in their arguments regarding Article 15 of the constitution shows that they consider gays different from normal man.

Presence of words 'voluntarily' and 'penetration' in Section 377, excepts minors and lesbians from its ambit, but it covers all adult males, females and eunuchs. Effectively, the petitioners chose to fight, out of LGBT community, only for gays, leaving out all normal males, females and eunuchs at the mercy of the archaic law.

The petition was ill conceived on two counts. It was assumed that gays are a different community just because they are homosexual and homosexuality is considered by the society a sexual act against the order of nature. Secondly it tried to project that section 377 is directed against gays only and hence is discriminatory. It is obvious that the petition was doomed to be rejected by the apex court on both the accounts. Once it is accepted that the consensual sex between gays, who according to material on record are a very small fraction of the society, is not a normal practice for all other male members of the society or in other words is against the order of nature, the plea that it is being done in private can not absolve the perpetrator from penalty. Since the law is applicable to all citizens, normal males, females and eunuchs, equally, the argument that it is discriminatory against gay community does not hold ground.

Social activists with their petty bourgeois mentality and identity politics, try to find faults with entire political system and undermine the wisdom and sacrifice of a whole life of our founding fathers, who put in place the finest constitution that could be conceived, for the new nation. They try to set things right in an arbitrary manner through mass protests and judicial activism. In this case also, instead of choosing the correct but torturous path of educating people about such a complex issue and convincing the people's representatives to bring about the desired change in the law through Parliament, they wished the judiciary will step into the domain of legislature and wishfully thought to get, through a petition, what they ought to have got through a democratic process. Their misconceived approach was destined to result into miscarriage. The Hon'ble Supreme Court has rightly observed, "In fact a constitutional duty has been cast upon this Court to test the laws of the land on the touchstone of the Constitution and provide appropriate remedy if and when called upon to do so. Seen in this light the power of judicial review over legislations is plenary. However, keeping in mind the importance of separation of powers and out of a sense of deference to the value of democracy that parliamentary acts embody, self restraint has been exercised by the judiciary when dealing with challenges to the constitutionality of laws."

In last few decades, attitudes and preferences, legally and socially, about sexual activities have undergone a sea change. In the eyes of law the idea of normal sex has transformed from being sex-for-procreation only to sex-not-for-procreation also. Socially it is being accepted that sex is for recreation and procreation is incidental to it. People exposed to modern technologies and modes of production are having views about sexual activities which are more liberal than those of people who are still working with primitive modes of production.

Development of science in the area of human behaviour has played a great role in convincing people that sexual interaction between same sex persons exists in animal world also, and hence is natural for humans also. “According to current scientific and professional understanding, however, the core feelings and attractions that form the basis for adult sexual orientation typically emerge between middle childhood and early adolescence.  Moreover, these patterns of sexual attraction generally arise without any prior sexual experience.” (American Psychiatric Association). Everyone is aware that as children, irrespective of sex, grow, they enjoy sexual gratification by stimulating each other's genitalia and it is quite natural. And as children grow into adults, if they are left on their own, they will experiment all kinds of sexual acts and develop their individual sexual preferences in a perfectly natural way. And culmination of sexual stimulation into ejaculation or orgasm is also a natural consequence. Hence new generation is getting used to accept that, sexual intercourse between same sex partners or non-penal-vaginal intercourse is not against the order of nature.

The petitioners are better advised to pray to the apex court to 'read down' Section 377 IPC to clarify that 'carnal intercourse' between consensual same gender partners shall not be 'against the order of nature'. Hon'ble Supreme Court has already shown the way forward. 'Another significant canon of determination of constitutionality is that the Courts would be reluctant to declare a law invalid or ultra vires on account of unconstitutionality. The Courts would accept an interpretation, which would be in favour of constitutionality rather than the one which would render the law unconstitutional. Declaring the law unconstitutional is one of the last resorts taken by the Courts. The Courts would preferably put into service the principle of 'reading down' or 'reading into' the provision to make it effective, workable and ensure the attainment of the object of the Act. These are the principles which clearly emerge from the consistent view taken by this Court in its various pronouncements including the recent judgment in Namit Sharma v. Union of India'

Socially conscious intellectuals, who want to be real actors in making of the history through social movements, must remember Marx's teaching, "Theory also becomes a material force as soon as it has gripped the masses. Theory is capable of gripping the masses as soon as it demonstrates ad hominem (fallacy), and it demonstrates ad hominem as soon as it becomes radical. To be radical is to grasp the root of the matter."

Suresh Srivastava

03 February 2014

9810128813

suresh_stva@hotmail.com

(Author is the president of the Society for SCIENCE)

Lessons from AAP Phenomenon

Lessons from AAP Phenomenon

What are the lessons to be learnt from the election results in five states and the rise of AAP as a potential alternative to Congress and BJP? Everyone will analyse the events and draw his or her conclusions depending upon one’s mindset and attitude. A dialectical approach will be different from a metaphysical approach. While analyzing sequence of events on a short term basis, taking into account only aspirations and actions of prominent individuals or common individuals in general as the sole actors and overlooking the role and significance of underlying class consciousness of groups and organizations, is a metaphysical approach. On the other hand taking an integrated view of any event as an epoch in the continuous historical process of development of human society and considering both aspirations and consciousness of individuals as well as that of their class, the motive force for their individual as well as collective actions, is dialectical approach.

With metaphysical approach, by conveniently choosing facts and data, any conclusion can be drawn. Since bourgeois analysts do not vouch for dialectical materialism, this article will limit its critical examination to the conclusions drawn by the leading communist party CPM, representative of left movement in India, for whom Marxism and hence dialectical materialism is supposed to be the guiding theory.

Marxism identifies human society or any organization as an organic entity having life and consciousness of its own and not as a simple conglomeration of individuals as bourgeois thinkers consider it to be. Engels elaborated, ‘This further development did not reach its conclusion when man finally became distinct from the monkey, but, on the whole, continued to make powerful progress, ............. owing to a new element which came into play with the appearance of fully-fledged man, viz. society. (The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man, Dialectics of Nature). Society is not a biological formation like a human being, but is a socio- economic formation having consciousness and other characteristics of life. Humans and society have been growing side by side ever since the origin of society, ‘The production of life, both of one's own in labour and of fresh life in procreation, now appears as a double relationship: on the one hand as a natural, and on the other as a social relationship’ as Marx noted in German Ideology. Bourgeois thinkers consider history as a sequence of isolated events resulting from the actions and ideas of certain individuals, while Marxism takes a dialectical materialistic view of history, which is historical materialism. Engels in his letter to J. Bloch explains this in the following words, ‘According to the materialist conception of history, the ultimately determining element in history is the production and reproduction of real life.’

Marx in XVIII Brumaire wrote, “Upon the different forms of property, upon the social conditions of existence, rises an entire superstructure of distinct and peculiarly formed sentiments, illusions, modes of thought, and views of life. The entire class creates and forms them out of its material foundations and out of the corresponding social relations.” Therefore, while analysing respective political activities of various classes, to overlook material foundation of these classes, particularly their social position in relation to the production and distribution of material goods, shall be a grave error. Any attempt to understand and draw lessons from any political activity and historical event, without considering the relative position of various classes in the economy, will lead to erroneous outcome. Every class acts according to its class consciousness and in the absence of clear understanding of the form and content of class consciousness and their dialectical relationship, one can’t understand and draw correct lessons from historical events. Marxism identifies the sentiments, illusions, modes of thought and views of life as the ideological-social-social-consciousness – ‘the form’ of social consciousness – and the forms of property and social conditions of existence as the material-social-consciousness – ‘the content’ of social consciousness. Lenin had rightly summarised that ‘economics is the base and politics the concentrated expression of economics.’

Engels points out, ‘LABOUR is the source of all wealth, the economists assert. It is this next to nature, which supplies it with the material that it converts into wealth.’ (The Part Played by Labour in the Transition from Ape to Man, Dialectics of Nature). Human labour power transforms material provided by the nature with the help of tools. Ever since society came into existence all production is social and not individual. With ever increasing social and individual knowledge, men started producing surplus, more than what was necessary to rejuvenate the labour power exhausted during production. Disproportionate distribution of surplus cleaved society into two classes, the producer-consumer and the appropriator of surplus. With the development of the productive forces and the productivity and with the division of labour, different interests in the sharing of social production gave rise to conflicting interests in different forms and hitherto classless, the society was transformed into class-society with different classes having different relationship to the social product in the form of property.

On the basis of private ownership of the three components of production process – the object of labour, the instruments of labour and the labour power – Marx identified three different modes of production; slave, feudal and capitalist. While economic growth was necessitating integration of smaller societies into larger societies, lust for appropriation of the surplus was sharpening irreconcilable contradiction between the classes. ‘But in order that these antagonisms, classes with conflicting economic interests, shall not consume themselves and society in fruitless struggle, a power, apparently standing above society, has become necessary to moderate the conflict and keep it within the bounds of “order”; and this power, arisen out of society, but placing itself above it and increasingly alienating itself from it, is the state.’ writes Engels and also ‘As the state arose from the need to keep class antagonisms in check, but also arose in the thick of the fight between the classes, it is normally the state of the most powerful, economically ruling class, which by its means becomes also the politically ruling class’. History of cleaved human society is the history of class struggle for the control of the means of production and surplus produced, through the control of the state machinery.

Marx noted in his letter to P. Annanikov, “...... the petty bourgeoisie will be an integral part of all the impending social revolutions” and “In an advanced society and because of his situation, a petty bourgeois becomes a socialist on the one hand, and economist on the other, i.e. he is dazzled by the magnificence of the upper middle classes and feels compassion for the sufferings of the people”. Only this dialectical materialist approach can lead to the correct analysis and understanding of the nature of various social movements and the role of various sections in each one of them and to draw correct lessons from the recent happenings we need to understand the role played by the bourgeoisie at different stages of development during last one hundred years.

Since the beginning of last century, Indian freedom struggle apparently was a fight of native people against the foreign rulers, but in reality it was a class struggle between well entrenched feudal and emerging nationalist bourgeois classes. On the feudal side were the landlords and comprador bourgeoisie in the form of trading partners of English bourgeoisie and on the other side was emerging nationalist bourgeoisie supported by the peasants and workers. As time passed, with industrialisation and national and international historical developments, comprador bourgeoisie switched side and took control of the freedom movement.

The conflict of interest between petty bourgeoisie and feudal has existed since the beginning of the independence movement but it became significant at the end of the first quarter of the last century when big bourgeoisie switched sides and took control of independence movement. In the new situation petty bourgeoisie was also divided into two sections. One went along with the big bourgeoisie, putting struggle for political independence in the focus with the demand of Purn Swaraj and pushing workers struggle for economic emancipation on the backburner, and the other proceeded to usher in socialist (utopian) revolution in the footsteps of Soviet Revolution. First section became integral part of Indian National Congress and the other, besotted with the success of Bolshevik movement constituted the Indian Communist Party. A communist party is supposed to be the vanguard of proletarian struggle for emancipation of humankind, and is capable of successfully leading the peasants and workers in their struggle because it is armed with the most revolutionary scientific world outlook i.e. Marxism. But during one hundred years of communist movement in India, the working class movement seems to have been going on a roller coaster ride and at present seems to be at the lowest ebb so much so that AAP is being perceived, even by the CPI and CPM, as the alternative to Congress and BJP led alliances, which the communist parties were being perceived till now. "In the assembly polls, the AAP has become a viable alternative to the Congress and the BJP. We have to watch and see the party's (AAP) political programmes, policies and plans before supporting it," Prakash Karat told reporters during the CPI-M's Central Committee (CC) meeting in Tripura in December 2013. This compels one to critically analyse, whether the proletariat is still not enlightened enough to lead the peasants and workers for a qualitative transformation or the self styled Indian communist parties are really not equipped with the revolutionary scientific world outlook known as Marxism and hence are not capable of guiding the working class movement correctly. 

After independence, bourgeoisie which embarked on development of capitalism in India, in its competition against foreign capital was able to garner support of working class using the nationalist sentiment, and developed an alliance with feudal to share the natural resources. At the time of independence, India’s level of industrial development was very low as compared to that of the developed nations, and so were the expectations of the people also. Since the imperialist loot was put to an end, the three classes, feudal, bourgeois and capitalist, living off the surplus produced by the peasants and workers, could live in harmony because they could get their share in accordance with their aspirations. Hence, Indian National Congress which started as the representative of national bourgeoisie and peasants and workers, after independence started protecting interests of Indian Capitalism, against external capitalism, taking along feudal and petty bourgeoisie. Initial years after independence saw unbridled growth of Indian capitalism reaching its highest stage – imperialism.

History of the third quarter of the century, after independence, is the history of development of Indian capitalism to have full control of Indian sub-continent and then to its highest stage of imperialism. Once Indian capital was fully integrated with foreign capital, it did not require any trade barriers by the state as it required during the third quarter of the century and the government gradually removed all barriers for free movement of money and material in line with the global market demands. Last quarter of the century is the history of this transition.

Also to meet its global requirements, it started encroaching into the domain of feudalism to control natural resources and to recruit unprecedented army of wage earners from amongst the peasantry and the artisan. New situation brought to the fore the conflict of interests among different classes. True to its character petty bourgeoisie joined hands with feudal lords in latter’s conflict with the capitalist. Different classes started organising their own political parties for the control of the state machinery in line with their economic interests. This brought into the arena regional political parties based on cast, language, religion and other localised issues and their ‘identity politics.’

History since the beginning of the twenty first century is the history of the struggle between Indian capitalism in league with the global capitalism on one side and on the other side feudalism supported by petty bourgeoisie, true to its class character. At national level Congress with its ideology of laissez-faire represents the economic interests of capitalism and BJP with its ideology of ‘old is gold’ and ‘small is beautiful’ represents the interest of feudalism and petty bourgeoisie. All regional parties move on the fringes of these two national parties. The peasantry and the working class is left in the lurch at crossroads confused and stupefied by the presence of umpteen numbers of self styled communist outfits and their assurances of respective brands of socialism.  

Lessons to be learnt from the emergence of AA Party led by Arvind Kejriwal and the overwhelming support it is getting will depend upon the answers to the two fundamental questions. First is, why the communist parties, the parties of the proletariat have failed to lead the peasants and workers to pose an alternative to Congress and BJP and the second is, will the AAP movement lead to some qualitative change in the direction of emancipation of the exploited classes or will it fizzle out like the earlier movements led by J.P. and V.P. Singh. Answers to these questions will show the way forward.

To delve into the first question let us summarise the role of the CPI or subsequently of all its offshoots. During the independence movement CPI was fighting against British Imperialism but refused to form a joint front with the Congress calling it to be in league with British Imperialism but after Germany attacked USSR during WW-II, CPI started supporting British calling the war to be one against fascism. After independence CPI started supporting Congress policies in the name of Nehruvian Socialism, while in fact the policies were to strengthen Indian capitalism by protecting it against world capitalism. Later when Indian Capitalism started integrating with world capitalism and Congress turned its policies against feudal and petty bourgeois interests, CPI and CPM went against congress and supported JP movement which was a petty bourgeois movement in league with feudal interests. At the beginning of the 21^st century, in the XIII Lok Sabha when BJP gained upper hand against Congress, the Left Front led by CPM switched sides and started supporting Congress in the name of fight against communalism. In the XIV Lok Sabha Congress came back to power with the support of the Left Front and embarked upon its strategic alliance with international capital. When the government signed Agreement 123, Left Front had no option but to withdraw support from Congress. Before elections to the XV Lok Sabha, CPI led by CPM tried to persuade all other local parties to join hands as a third front against Congress and BJP both. But by now they had completely lost their credibility. They were not taken as reliable partners who were apt to switch sides at first convenience. Peasants and workers lost faith in them as their representatives and were seen like any other regional petty bourgeois party so much so that they were dumped at the hustings and the masses voted for representatives of various other political parties.       

This is the history about which Engels had warned in his famous book ‘The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’, in which he had very aptly defined true character of a bourgeois state under representative democracy.  ‘And lastly the possessing class rules directly by means of universal suffrage. As long as the oppressed class – in our case, therefore, the proletariat – is not yet ripe for its self-liberation, so long will it, in its majority, recognize the existing order of society as the only possible one and remain politically the tail of the capitalist class, its extreme left wing. But in the measure in which it matures towards its self-emancipation, in the same measure it constitutes itself as its own party and votes for its own representatives, not those of the capitalists.’ The results of all elections at the centre or in the states clearly show that the representatives of bourgeois and feudal classes are being voted by the oppressed classes and that the oppressed classes are not enlightened enough.

But more important is to find the reason why Communist parties have failed to enlighten the masses, while it is the foremost and most important task for leading working class successfully in its struggle. If we pay attention to warnings by Lenin and Mao, the picture becomes quite clear. While in exile and fighting against revisionism, on Marx’s 90^th birth anniversary, Lenin had warned, ‘Whoever does not understand the inevitable inner dialectics of parliamentarism and bourgeois democracy—which leads to an even sharper decision of the argument by mass violence than formerly—will never be able on the basis of this parliamentarism to conduct propaganda and agitation consistent in principle, really preparing the working-class masses for victorious participation in such “arguments”. And Mao in his famous pamphlet, ‘On New Democracy’ had warned about the character of bourgeoisie. “When confronted by a formidable enemy, they united with the workers and peasants against him, but when the workers and peasants awakened, they turned round to unite with the enemy against the workers and peasants. This is a general rule applicable to the bourgeoisie everywhere in the world.” In the light of the observations of Engels, Lenin and Mao, the history of 90 years of communist movement in India lays bare the fact that the communist parties are deeply infested by petty bourgeois consciousness and have been behaving like petty bourgeois parties since the very inception.  

The Communist party of India was organised by few Indian bourgeois intellectuals in Tashkent in 1920 just after the success of Bolshevik revolution. Lenin, while working on his programme for building Bolshevik Party, in his famous pamphlet ‘What is to be done’ had noted, ‘Those who have the slightest acquaintance with the actual state of our movement cannot but see that the wide spread of Marxism was accompanied by a certain lowering of the theoretical level. Quite a number of people with very little, and even a total lack of theoretical training joined the movement because of its practical significance and its practical successes.’ Subsequent history of a century of the communist movement in India shows that the founders of CPI did not have proper understanding of Marxism and the party started with a bourgeois-consciousness and not proletarian-consciousness and is still continuing with the same trend. Vacillating attitude at various crucial stages of the movement and subsequent fragmentation of the communist party into number of communist parties is a testimony to the bourgeois outlook of various communist outfits in India and the reason for their failure to recognise the contradictions between various classes during independence movement, after independence or after opening up of the economy.

One should not be surprised that masses do not identify various communist parties differently than other petty bourgeois regional parties. In their struggle for freedom from exploitation, during last half a century, working class has been voting for parties of feudal and capitalist classes. As usual they are following intellectuals from petty bourgeois class who have failed to educate proletariat about scientific socialism. Lenin had explained that socialism does not come into the proletarian consciousness from within, it has to be brought in from outside by the intellectuals from the bourgeois class. The Utopian Socialism was brought in by the intellectuals from the petty bourgeois class and so will have to be the Scientific Socialism. The masses have refused to choose CPI or CPM and instead have been falling for leaders like J.P., V.P. Singh and now for Arvind Kejriwal and will continue to do so till Scientific Socialism is not imbibed into proletarian consciousness.

Now first question having been answered, the answer to the second question is straight forward. The AAP movement, in the absence of a scientific ideology, will fail as a cohesive political party and will disintegrate, sooner than later, as it happened with J.P. and V.P. movements.

So what are the lessons to be learnt and what is the way forward.

In ‘What is to be done’ Lenin wrote, ‘Class political consciousness can be brought to the workers only from without, that is, only from outside the economic struggle, from outside the sphere of relations between workers and employers’ and ‘Without a sense of theory among the workers, this scientific socialism would never have entered their flesh and blood as much as is the case.’ These are the lessons to be learnt by those who claim to be vanguard of proletarian movement in India. Unfortunately all communist parties seem to be in a hurry for a socialist revolution and are not prepared to devote time to educate themselves and the workers about the theory. They quote Marx’s comment in ‘Theses on Feuerbach’ that ‘The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it’ and also an extract from his letter on The Gotha Programme, AEvery step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes.@ to ward off the criticism of their opportunism. Condemning such revisionists, Lenin clarifies, ‘To repeat these words in a period of theoretical disorder, is like wishing mourners at a funeral many happy returns of the day. Moreover, these words of Marx are taken from his letter on the Gotha Programme, in which he sharply condemns eclecticism in the formulation of principles. If you must unite, Marx wrote to the party leaders, then enter into agreements to satisfy the practical aims of the movement, but do not allow any bargaining over principles, do not make theoretical Aconcessions@. This was Marx=s idea, and yet there are people among us who seek-in his name to belittle the significance of theory.’ Lenin further warned emphasizing the importance of the theoretical struggle, ‘Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement. This idea cannot be insisted upon too strongly at a time when the fashionable preaching of opportunism goes hand in hand with an infatuation for the narrowest forms of practical activity.’

And what is opportunism. Opportunism is revisionism in practice, revisionism of left or right. Lenin in his valuable pamphlet ‘Marxism and Revisionism’ has very rightly defined revisionism in the following words, ‘ “The movement is everything, the ultimate aim is nothing"—this catch-phrase of Bernstein’s expresses the substance of revisionism better than many long disquisitions. To determine its conduct from case to case, to adapt itself to the events of the day and to the chopping and changing of petty politics, to forget the primary interests of the proletariat and the basic features of the whole capitalist system, of all capitalist evolution, to sacrifice these primary interests for the real or assumed advantages of the moment—such is the policy of revisionism.’ And the whole history of left movement - from CPI to Maoists - and the latest statement of General Secretary of CPM testifies this.  

And the way forward is same which was shown by Lenin a century ago. ‘…., but the confusion and vacillation which constitute the distinguishing feature of an entire period in the history of Russian Social-Democracy [read Indian communist movement]; ………….., also acquires significance, for we can make no progress until we have completely put an end to this period.       

Suresh Srivastava

9810128813

15 January, 2014

Deepening Crisis of Indian Rupee

Deepening Crisis of Indian Rupee

In spite of three internationally recognised legendary economists being at the helm, there is deep crisis in the Indian economy and nobody knows what to do. Those who are in the seat of power, are holding international situation responsible for it and to hide their incompetence are citing example of the depreciation of the currencies of all the developing economies of the world. They have a simple solution, restraint and curtailment in consumption by the public. Those who are out of power, are holding responsible government's welfare policies and incapability to rein in corruption. According to them the solution of the problem is an early election and change of guards. And the leftists in their usual singsong are hammering the government responsible for its policy of liberalisation and corruption and according to them the solution for the problem is to establish socialism replacing capitalism.
People are at their wits' end. They are finding it difficult to make both ends meet, where to curtail. Those who are affluent, are already paying enough lip service, why should they curtail their expenditure. As far as demand for change of guards is concerned, people have already been fulfilling that very demand for last twenty five years, and know very well that power goes into the heads of those who occupy the seat of power and they enforce those very policies which are in the interest of capitalism. And socialism is being presented in umpteen different shades and flavours. There are as many different kinds of socialisms as there are left parties, and as many capitalisms. Every thing is in such a mess that people fail to understand as to which ism is to be removed and which ism is to be ushered in.
'Philosophers have interpreted this world in many ways, question is how to change.' 'Dialectical materialism based on scientific outlook' or the dialectical method to understand laws of nature and materialist interpretation of nature is the only modus operandi to understand every thing in this nature, from living world, human and human society to consciousness and the laws of development. Following this modus operandi 'Surplus value produced by human labour' is identified as the basis of the organisation and development of human society and the examination of the chronology of the development of the society since inception till date authenticates that identification as 'Historical materialism'.
It is impossible, for bourgeois intellectuals because of their prejudices, and for so called protagonists of Marxism because of their revisionist thinking, to understand that this eternal theory of natural laws is the core content of proletarian consciousness, that is Marxism. There are innumerable unanswered questions before the people, but why did the Indian Rupee had such a free fall is a million Dollar question, so it's examination is urgent.
There is only one thing which is universally required to convert natural resources in usable form for human consumption (in one step or in many steps), and that is human labour. Real value of any product is the congealed socially essential average labour (labour power expanded during specific period, depending upon social conditions and level of development),  which is integrated with it during production process.
With time collective knowledge of human society has kept on growing, and with this has kept on growing the division of labour and productive forces. With the growth of productive forces, the worker also starts producing, with in a given time, more value than that of the means which are needed by him to perpetuate his own life and that of the human race. In other words he starts producing surplus value. This surplus value accumulated in the form of products, collectively is the wealth of the society. But with the production of surplus value, the concept of individual property is also ingrained in the social consciousness and wealth started accumulating in individual hands. With this the purpose of production of usable goods for consumption and their barter was replaced by the purpose of production of commodities for trade and their exchange for money. Commodity is something outside the consumer which satisfies some need of the consumer, irrespective of whether that need arises out of the stomach or of the mind. Every producer is a consumer also in one form or the other. But in the exchange of commodities, besides the producer there appears in between a set of people, the intermediaries or the middle-class.
Value and capital are ideological entities, they do not have any physical entity of their own. Generally people lack theoretical thinking and understanding because of which they take price as value and property as capital. The value of a commodity is assessed differently by the consumer and by the intermediary. For the consumer the value is related to the utility of the product while the seller assesses the value of a commodity on the basis of the quantity of another product which he could get in exchange of a specific quantity of the commodity. Different products have different forms and utilities, therefore to compare exchange values of commodities, something is required which is universally inherent in all the products and can be used as a standard in terms of which values could be  compared, and it is nothing but the socially necessary average useful human labour. As the inherent labour is abstract, something is required which is tangible and socially acceptable as a standard measure of labour. Historically developed, money has played that role. To begin with the physical form of money was specific amount of precious metal, gold or silver, the value inherent in it was the value represented by the money. But with passage of time money certified by the state which had no relation with its own value assumed the role of the standard of exchange of commodities and the form of money became more ideological rather than physical. Common man started comparing the value of commodities on the basis of universally acceptable certified value of money instead of on the basis of congealed labour in them, and started considering the price of the the commodities as the value of the commodities.
Before money assumed completely ideological form, the exchange of congealed labour was in the physical form of sale-purchase of goods, but as the money assumed ideological form, along with physical form congealed labour started being exchanged in ideological form as assurances and contracts.
With the accumulation and concentration of wealth in the hands of the middle class and with scientific and technological development in the field of manufacturing, communication and transportation, the middle class started getting production done in an organised manner on its own terms transforming itself into bourgeois class. Because of better productivity and organised production, cost of production was reduced which made it impossible for the workers and artisans to face the competition and a new era started in the field of production. Now the worker did not have any accumulated labour in the form of any commodity in exchange of which he could get goods needed by him. For exchange the only thing left with the worker was his labour power and which he was compelled to sell for sustenance to the purchaser of labour power on the terms of the purchaser, and with this evolved the new form of workman, the proletariate. With complete control over production, by accumulated labour in the form of wealth, in place of inactive form of accumulated labour came into existence the active form of accumulated labour, that is capital. Appropriation of surplus value is also completed with the completion of the process of production-consumption. During the entire process, various forms of capital keep on appropriating a part of the surplus value.
Capital is entirely a social consciousness whose form is completely ideological and which embodies as property or money. By taking control of the labour power of the proletariat for a definite period, in lieu of accumulated labour or of an assurance of the accumulated labour to be acquired in future, capital expands by appropriation of surplus value produced by the labour and self-aggrandisement. Capitalist is a carrier of this consciousness and not its master. Core character of capital is to create ever new demands by affecting the individual consciousness of the consumer and to provide ever new products to satisfy those needs, and to appropriate surplus value at different stages in different ways during the process of production-consumption. Capital has converted everything into commodity, not only all that is available in the nature, but everything human and social to the extent of even human body, mind, sentiments and human relations also. The entity of a demand could be entirely ideological, therefore the limit of ever new demands coming up is entirely dependent upon social consciousness, but every commodity, even if it has to satisfy a purely ideological demand, can be produced on a material base only, and hence the extent to which such demands can be met is limited by the capacity of the society to exploit natural resources.
You may call capital by any name, industrial capital, mercantile capital, international finance capital, crony capital, fictitious capital or any other name that can be coined, but as a part of social consciousness, capital is synonymous of one thing only and that is, an ideological conscious entity which does not have any physical entity of its own but resides in the subconscious of human beings and whose inherent quality is self-aggrandisement by appropriating congealed labour in the form of surplus value. Those revisionist who say that capitalism of twenty first century is qualitatively different from that of twentieth century, they probably do not know that first capitalist state came into existence in Italy seven hundred years ago at the beginning of the fourteenth century, and capitalism had reached it's highest stage, imperialism, five hundred years ago.
Because of presence of money not only in physical form but in ideological form also as  assurances, presence of proletariat with division of labour as physical labour and mental labour, presence of surplus labour in the form of commodities capable of satisfying physical as well as ideological needs and in the form of instruments and objects of production physically and capital Ideologically, with in capitalist Socio-economic formation the economy has split into two parts. One is Ideological economy whose field of activity is in the ideological world, and the other is physical economy whose field of activity is the physical world, but there is no clear line of demarcation, yet the Ideological economy stands on physical economy only.
Because of its core character of more and more self-expansion through extraction  of surplus value from the process of production, capital tries incessantly to increase demand and supply. With in the physical-economy, because of physical laws, there are limitations on increasing the demands and supply, but with in the ideological-economy there is no limit to enhance demands, yet because the basis of the commodities which satisfy these needs is physical, therefore the supply of such commodities is not unlimited, and because of this, rational relationship between demand, supply and price ceases to exist.
By affecting the mentality of consumers in various many ways, capital creates ever new demands, and by acquiring labour power on the basis of assurances about the value to be made available in the future, produces more and more and continuously raises the purchasing power of consumers. For fulfilment of ideological demand pressure increases on material resources also. A situation comes when production is not able to meet the demands then prices of commodities start increasing and the assurance based value, that is the value of money in the hands of the people starts devaluing relatively. Apprehending further reduction the consumer tries to convert as quickly as possible the available assurance based value into physical assets. In spite of all efforts to bring situation under control, collective confidence in the assurances of the controllers of capital starts diminishing and a panic situation pushes economy into crisis. After some time the artificial value created by assurances gets out of the hands of the consumers and a new cycle starts.
Capital may be confined with in the boundaries of any nation state, but its nature and modus operandi remains same. All capitalist systems are destined to pass sooner or later through this cycle. People, because of lack of theoretical thinking, in general are not able to distinguish between physical and ideological dimensions of value and money, and in the increase of the prices of the commodities can not see the relative decrease in the price of money.
To deal with the problem arising out of non availability of a uniform standard for exchange of goods as the trade and commerce achieved international level with passage of time, first money started being traded on the basis of promissory notes of banks and then after Breton Woods Agreement in 1944 Dollar having been accepted as universal standard in international trade, leaving its physical form, money in its ideological form  has transformed itself into a commodity. With technological development and e-banking, money at national level also is assuming completely ideological form leaving its physical form. Economies, initially divided with in the boundaries of nation states, are transcending boundaries transforming into global economy and boundaries are becoming meaningless for capital and commodities.
In such a situation the depreciation in the value of money named Rupee, which itself has transformed into a commodity, or its devaluation in relation to Dollar is nothing surprising. And Non-Marxists and Revisionist-Marxists both are cursed not to be able to understand the depreciation in the value of the Dollar itself.

Suresh Srivastava
1st September, 2013    

Enlightenment

Enlightenment

By the time I attained adulthood, I was convinced about reasonableness of Marxism. I had become well acquainted with words like Dialectical Materialism, thesis-antithesis, unity and struggle of opposites, quantitative and qualitative change, but I was quite ignorant about the practical use of these words. Only use of these words was in participating in arguments with petty-bourgeois mentality and half-baked knowledge, and to remain adamant till end.

Completely unaware about form and content and development process of self, I spent next thirty years without any realisation how time was flying. Because of utility of Marxist logic during arguments on social issues with leftist friends and in finding solution to personal problems, I continued to have a lively relationship with Marxism. After marrying away both children I thought I have fulfilled my responsibility. I had taken retirement from professional activities and during last thirty years for all my responsibilities towards all friends and relatives I had depended completely on Poonam and which she had been discharging so perfectly that I felt that in personal arena there is nothing left for me to do.

When accounted for last thirty years, my conscience pricked, 'what life have I lived, taken much much but repaid very little.' When assessed the economic-political-social environment, I realised everyone is fed up with the situation but can not visualise an alternative. Why is the Marxist theory, with which I have been so enamoured since my student days and which I have always found useful in finding solution for my personal problems, not been able to provide common people with an alternative? When I tried to figure out I found that the communist party vouching for that ideology is split into umpteen different forms, and leaders and followers divided into more than forty fragments don't even know as to which form of Marxism or Socialism is correct. Who is going to suggest the alternative to the common man? Many a right or left revised edition of Marxism is so much rife in the left consciousness that there is hardly any ground visible for the development of proletarian consciousness. While endeavouring to find a role for myself in this milieu, Lenin's famous pamphlet 'What is to be done?'' came to my mind, in the preface of which, warning against the revisionist trend permeating the left movement in Russia, he had written, 'we can make no progress until we have completely put an end to this period.'

Inspired by Lenin's advice organised Society for SCIENCE so that correct understanding of Marxism could be developed through discussions among socially conscious intellectuals. During these discussions it became clear that the understanding of the philosophical aspect of Marxism is completely missing among all the established left thinkers, economists, philosophers and writers claiming to be Marxist. Completely ignorant about the content, they take the form as the inner kernel, and in the literature that is being produced in the name Modernism and Post-modernism, discussion is limited only up to revolutionary practice, and discussions on theoretical content are not even visible. With this misconception neither can the proletarian consciousness be understood nor can any alternative be explored. After this realisation, with the objective to develop and share the philosophical aspect of Marxism, three years ago I started publication of Marx Darshan in Hindi. After translating many articles of Marx, Engels and Lenin, discussing their interpretation and writing many of own articles, I felt my understanding of Marxism has become thorough.

The theory about which Lenin had said," The Marxist doctrine is omnipotent because it is true. It is comprehensive and harmonious, and provides men with an integral world outlook irreconcilable with any form of superstition, reaction, or defence of bourgeois oppression", and the theory and the knowledge based on that theory about which Marx himself used to say, 'Whatever I have written there is nothing new, it is the collective knowledge of the human society accumulated over centuries', basis of that knowledge is the 'Scientific Outlook' which Karl Marx recognised as the innate property of proletarian-consciousness, apropos to material-social-consciousness of the proletariat class. During last ten years after my renaissance, I had become fully convinced about omnipotence and omni-relevance of that theory and knowledge, but there was one query, answer to which I was not able to figure out. I could understand the source of scientific outlook of intellectuals like me, but from where could the worker get that consciousness and scientific outlook was beyond comprehension, and I had an uneasiness within.

On 9th May 2013 I have returned from 40 days long sojourn abroad, and my intellect is brightened up by the light of new knowledge. The itinerary was finalised last year with the invitation of Poonam's niece's marriage. Large number of family members and friends living in America, Canada, England, Germany and Austria had been insisting that Poonam and I must spend some time with them. (Howsoever distant the relative might be, for Poonam he or she was always a family member, and for the relative it was impossible to remain untouched with this sentiment.) We had not many of them for years, and few of them even in decades. But everyone for certain had fond memories of those few moments which they might have spent with Poonam years or even decades ago. In these forty days whatever I saw, heard and felt, it cleared all the clouds of ignorance which all these years had deprived me of the dawn of wisdom after my renaissance.

With in the feudal economy and patriarchal society of Bundelkhand, in a backward city like Jhansi the atmosphere in our affluent family was significantly different from that in the family of all other relatives and friends. In spite of the presence of many servants in the house, my mother would not only do all her personal work herself but will extend helping hand to the servants in the kitchen and other household work, and will eat herself only after feeding all the servants or with them. In spite of all the affluence, needs of my mother were very limited and she was always satisfied with very little, always ready to help others physically, mentally and materially. And for my father will of my mother used to be above everything else. Some times under the influence of male psyche or ego, if he would take a decision against correct stand of my mother, I never saw him hesitating in accepting his mistake after some time. My father was a mathematician and philosopher besides being a successful lawyer and always encouraged me to put forward my viewpoint and logic. Bringing up by parents, progressive in practice, imbued me with the yearning for studying and understanding about socialism and Marxism.

After completing engineering education at I.I.T. Delhi, I was extremely happy to have found, as desired, an educated and extremely beautiful wife in Poonam. Everyone was enamoured by her celestial beauty. With in few days Poonam won everyone's appreciation and admiration. During family get togethers people would describe Poonam's beauty and behaviour and people would congratulate my mother for having a model daughter-in-law as per her wish.

But as one desire is satiated, a new one crops up, so I also started desiring that Poonam studied Marxism as I did and must participate in discussions over Marxism as girls in JNU and DU used to do. But Poonam had no interest in all this. Her ideal was my mother and the period of ten years before migrating to Delhi from Jhansi, Poonam utilised living with my mother and assimilating all her qualities.

Life went on smoothly amidst the educated and affluent class, with high education for career and a perfect wife like Poonam to live with, and I did not notice how thirty years passed in upbringing of the two children. Poonam and I were a unique example of unity in diversity. I was a declared atheist and Poonam's day started with ablution and worshipping in her temple with in the precinct of the house. In all rituals I had to participate with Poonam as her husband which I did gladly and that was enough for Poonam. Division of labour was also clearly demarcated. Whether it was a friendly get together or a family function, discussion on social issues was a must for me while during that period Poonam would be interested in satiating the taste buds of the guests with different tasty preparations. If I ever complained to Poonam why, with so many servants, she preferred to keep herself occupied with in the kitchen, her answer would be, "For discussions You are there, and the food will not be prepared on its own." And if I said that servants are there, then Poonam would render me speechless with her answer, "Guests are ours and not of servants." (I did not understand delitescent idea with in these words which I have understood now.)

In the family and social environment Poonam and I were complementary to each other and we were fully satisfied with our own and each other's way of life. If ever there was disagreement, then Poonam without any insistence would leave the matter to my sole discretion and would wait with this faith that in the end whatever I would do would be in the interest of everyone. And in the end I would invariably find that Poonam's view was correct. On every issue I always found Poonam with me. With my engineering education, capabilities and honesty, I was recognised among friends and relatives as a professionally and socially successful person and we both were happy with this recognition. In the journey of life there were occasions when I unknowingly would be drifting into the rat race for affluence. Poonam would not nudge me. But after some, with the change appearing in Poonam's behaviour, I would feel as if Poonam has slowly left my gently held arm saying, "This path is not ours. I would not be able to join you in this race." And Poonam without uttering a word would remind me my father's words that one who is not satisfied with little can not be satisfied with more. And this was the greatest support for our way of life.

Poonam was extremely popular among all friends and relatives and hospitality was Poonam's way of living life. After shifting to Delhi thirty years ago, Poonam had started the tradition of inviting on Rakshabandhan all brothers and sisters settled in Delhi (we do not use the word cousin), to our house to tie Rakhi collectively. In the beginning the number of brothers and sisters of two generations was limited to ten or twelve, which has now swelled to thirty-forty in three generations. Every member eagerly waits for the whole year to celebrate, as a festival in our house, the tradition started by Poonam thirty years ago. Poonam had in memory birthdays and wedding-days of dozens of friends and relatives and would never forget to telephone and wish them on time. The cake did get cut on children's birthday, but Poonam laid down the tradition of cake-cutting on every servant's birthday also.

Every visitor and guest used to be a family member for Poonam. She would be as careful about the likings of suddenly arrived visitor, as she would be about those of mine or her children. Poonam would remember very well what the guest, even rarely coming in years, liked to eat and what he did not like to eat. In the event of something being limited, it was as normal as breathing for Poonam to cut into my or children's share and would share with everyone. To take out her children's chocolate from the fridge and hand over to the guest child was as usual for Poonam as sharing anything of one of her child with another of her child. In the initial stage when we did not have a separate guest room in the house or an air conditioner in it, Poonam would gladly leave her bedroom for the guest. When I did not approve of this, Poonam would cajole me, "The guest is hungry for our love and affection and not for food. Whatever we do is only an expression of our feelings."

Poonam was fond of cooking different kinds of dishes, delicacies and sweets. Idli, Dosa, Utappam, Gattey, Rasanjey, Phale, Kadhi, Dhokla, Chhole-bhaturey, Pao-bhaji, Chat-papri, Dahi-bhalley, Aloo-tiki, Gol-gappey, Samosey, Kachori, Gujhia, Malpua, Gulabjamun, Rasmalai, Gajar-halwa, Mewa-laddoo, Gond-laddoo, Besan-laddoo, Thikua, Gulguley, Pua, Cheela, Cake, Caramel pudding, Soufflé, all these we ate cooked by Poonam, and rarely got an opportunity to eat cooked by servants or from the market. Often a new guest and a new request and Poonam would cook everything herself with full dedication, and for fifteen-twenty people. Not only for guests and family members but for all the domestic helps. Everyone appreciated Poonam's cooking skills and expressed surprise how year after year same taste and appearance, and shape and size identical, whether it is Dosa or Gattey or Gujhia, Malpua, Gulabjamun or Mewa-laddoo. I always wondered that Poonam would cook without measure, with estimation and still how could she do everything with such a perfection.

Poonam was very meticulous and used to have a keen eye on even the smallest thing, and everything small or big was always in Poonam's knowledge. Poonam knew all the time exactly as to what was the number of eggs or lemon or quantity of vegetables in the fridge. At any given time what was the number of Gulabjamuns or Laddoo in the store, Poonam's information was never wrong. Poonam knew exactly when my shaving cream or razed blades or undergarments were going to finish, and everything would be replenished before I could say anything.

Eating habits, attire, housekeeping, conduct in social interaction, for everything in her walk of life, everybody was all praise for Pponam's elegance and proficiency. But there was something which used to make Poonam uneasy, and that was, praise for her skills, hospitality or conduct or personal criticism of someone in her presence. In any such situation she would leave the meeting and engage herself in some other work. If ever I or our children talked to her about this she would say, "Praising someone in his presence is flattery. Praise is when done behind the back" and, "Angels don't live on this earth. Everyone is born good, in due course of life one becomes good or bad with the environment. We should be grateful to people that they gave us opportunity to become good."

Ever since I constituted Society for SCIENCE, some times when I criticise her religious faiths (which Poonam did not like), and would say that she should get rid of her blind faiths and must develop a scientific outlook, then Poonam would retort, "Let it go! You and your scientific outlook! You will hold the blade and switch on the mixer or hang the immersion rod outside the bucket." Poonam used to have even smallest thing in her focus. She did not know any thing about construction and internal mechanism of household equipments. I used to do minor maintenance of these equipments myself. Many a time it would happen that I would be stuck with something and would not be able to get out for long, then Poonam would correct me, " you are turning the screwdriver in the wrong direction, it will open the other direction" or "Put that one first only then this can go in place." Upon understanding I would irritate on my carelessness, why I was not able to see such a small thing for so long, and how could Poonam understand while she did not know a thing about the construction or maintenance of the equipments. One more thing which had impressed me immensely and that was her putting the thread through the eye of a needle, without so much as looking at the end of the thread or eye of the needle. I have never seen anyone putting thread into a needle in that manner. I do not know whether she had learned the technique from someone else or had worked out herself. She would hold the end of the thread and the eye of the needle between her index finger and the thumb in such a way that neither the end of the thread wold be visible nor the eye of the needle. Then she would slide the needle to the other side and when the needle came out on the other side the thread would be through the needle. Everything would happen within blink of an eye and in the first attempt. I never saw needing a second attempt.

Diabetes caught Poonam in the youth itself. In the beginning it was managed with oral medicines, for about last twenty years she had started taking insulin. But there was no change at all in her daily routine. Hospitality, entertaining friends and relatives, festivals, celebrations, marriage functions in the families of friends and relatives, on every occasion Poonam would be so much engrossed in it as if she did not have an independent identity of her own. She would completely forget that she was diabetic and doctors have instructed her to be strictly disciplined about her meal timings. Poonam used to be in the centre of every celebration and ritual and everyone looked to Poonam for everything small or big. If ever I objected and said that she should forget about guests and must pay attention towards her disease, she would, "Who is born with immortality?" And if I ever tried my other argument, "In between caring for guests you don't have time for me", Poonam will retort back, "Then tell me what I have to do?" and I would be rendered speechless. Even after searchingly I would not find anything which Poonam might not have arranged for me well in time or might not have fulfilled my wish well before time.

During last two-three years Poonam's health had started deteriorating rapidly because of which the routine of morning walk and watering the plants was getting hampered. She would get tired earlier. She could not work standing in the kitchen as long as before. Diabetes had started affecting all the organs, but Pponam's thinking, way of life and enthusiasm had not changed. Poonam' conduct did not give me an opportunity to realise that her life was slipping out of our hands. I was busy in collecting material for Marx Darshan or participating in seminars, completely oblivious to Poonam's deteriorating health.

Marriages of children of three relatives came in November 2011 and Poonam with utmost vigour was participating in various festivities for seven days and nights as if those were the marriages of her own children. She did not let anyone have an inkling about her deteriorating health. We had already planned to go to Gujrat after marriages. Poonam for long had desired to go on pilgrimage to Dwarkadhish and I wanted to go to lions safari at Gir forest, so in third week of December completed that programme also.

On return found that Poonam's blood pressure was very high. We had planned to go to Thailand in the third week of January, so thought to have her thorough checkup done. On further investigation it was found that her creatinine level has increased alarmingly as compared to what it was in October and we started preparing ourselves mentally for a situation of renal failure. Dialysis or transplant, both options were considered. In spite of difficulties, legal hurdles and risks, we chose the option of transplant because the way daily routine and movements would be hampered in case of dialysis, which would be required every alternate day, would not be conducive to Poonam's life style. Visit to Thailand was cancelled and Poonam was admitted into the hospital and operated upon for making fistula in the left hand so that in case of emergency if dialysis was required it would make things easier.

After operation Poonam had grown very weak. Restrictions on food were increased. But there was no change in Poonam' daily routine worshipping after ablution and working in the kitchen for some time. What is the position of provision in the kitchen was in her knowledge all the time. Hospitality to suddenly arrived guests was still being done in the same old way, only difference that occurred was that Poonam started depending more on servants. Cooking vegetables for herself or cooking some selected delicacies she would still do with her own hands.

Weekly blood test became routine. Process for finding kidney donor and getting legal permission for transplant was also started. With sudden change in Poonam's sodium and potassium levels at the end of February 2012, dialysis became inevitable and on 28 February 2012 Poonam underwent her first dialysis. Poonam gladly accepted twice a week dialysis as part of the routine of her life. With in few days Poonam earned the recognition as the most pleasant, social, calm and disciplined patient in the dialysis centre.

There is a saying that misfortunes never come alone and that is what exactly happened with Poonam. On 1 March I was suddenly taken ill and after examination it was found that my gallbladder and left kidney have problems and both would have to be taken out. I was admitted into the same hospital in which Poonam was undergoing her treatment. The month of March passed in various investigations, three small/big operations and removal of gallbladder. Removal of left kidney with four small/big operations and struggling with post operative infection took away whole of April. After dialysis, staying back in the hospital during my stay in the hospital and subsequently at home, to take my care during my recuperation had become Poonam's first priority. But in the morning worshipping after ablution and then spending sometime in the kitchen was still part of the daily routine. With in few months legal formalities were completed and arrived November. Hospital gave date for operation after Diwali. Poonam's health was deteriorating continuously still engaging herself in the kitchen for two days, Poonam like every year this year also prepared all the delicacies for Diwali with her own hands.

Operation was done successfully on 19 November 2012 and after six days Poonam was discharged from the hospital and we all were very happy that her body has accepted the new kidney. With doctors' satisfaction Poonam was also assured about her life. But after few days due to little fever Poonam had to be hospitalised again. During investigation it was found that there was infection in urine but the graft was functioning perfectly well and doctors assured that infection had come under control. Since 10 December Poonam was kept in ICU to save from infection. On 13th morning after eating breakfast with daughter's hands, Poonam suddenly had convulsions and went into coma. After detailed investigation it was found that Poonam is infected with CMV and the situation had become critical. After being in coma for three days Poonam breathed her last on the morning of 16 December 2012. All family members and friends were in shock. Slowly we all accepted the truth that Poonam was no more amongst us.

It was becoming extremely difficult for me to come to terms with Poonam's loss. I was developing reclusion. I was not seeing any reason for living. Material for Marx Darshan's third issue of second year (July-September 2012) was somehow prepared during Poonam's illness, proof reading was also almost over but could be sent for printing only in January. The decision for stopping publication of Marx Darshan had already been taken and there appeared nothing worth doing in the Society for SCIENCE also. The plan for the foreign trip on which I was to go with Poonam was also cancelled. I cancelled the plan, which was finalised in June, to attend a marriage in the end of January in Ahmedabad.

The children impressed upon that for my own physical and mental well being it was essential that I get out of the house and participate in the two marriages. All relatives in and out of the country were also insisting that I must not cancel my programme. Everyone had been waiting for so long to meet Poonam and me and now in the changed situation everyone had a keen desire to meet me. Considering everyone's wish I realised that Poonam's way of life was collective and not individual and if it were Poonam in my place she would not have cancelled the programmes of participating in marriages. I had seen after the death of her father, my mother, my father and my brother (all these people had been very very dear to her), how she had participated in family marriages as usual, concealing her deep sorrow. So, in January in Ahmedabad and in April in America, I participated in both the marriages and at both the places met many relatives and friends. Everyone, young and old, had something or the other to express about Poonam's conduct and way of life, which gave a new perspective to my understanding of human being and human society.

Those who had occasions to spend even a little time, they still remembered every detail how affectionately Poonam took care of their even the smallest liking. And those who did not get such an opportunity, they, from what they heard about Poonam's behaviour from others, had formed Poonam's image as that of a role-model house wife. They had in their minds Poonam's image as a perfect person because Poonam's that conduct which they themselves consider valuable for human relations and the society, even if they themselves may not be able to conduct in that manner. "Never heard Poonam uttering, knowingly or unknowingly, anything negative," or "Poonam was as beautiful from inside as she was from outside" these were the words which I heard many a time during these meetings. Poonam might not be present physically, but in ideas she was present in the memories of the people everywhere.

During forty years of married life, Poonam gave me every kind of happiness and even after leaving has presented me with the most precious gift of lifetime. During these forty days whatever I have seen and heard of in terms of the sentiments and expressions of people towards Poonam, it has cleared my that doubt about Marxism for which I was mentally perturbed and which I had not been able to clear in years on the basis of my bookish knowledge. In people's expressions I could see their feelings towards Poonam in the light of which I could see that inner core of Poonam's consciousness which I could not see during forty years of my living with Poonam. Everyone said there was no show off in Poonam's behaviour, whatever she did, was uncontrived and unconditioned, her conduct was inherent, there was no dichotomy between her thinking and practice. I was fully satisfied with Poonam's conduct but could not realise that Poonam's conduct was not her deliberate behaviour but was an expression of her subconscious. Her behaviour was her habit, materialisation of her core consciousness. Now in retrospect I find that sometimes in some function in the hose of  some  relative or friend when Poonam without any inhibitions  would get busy with the affairs as if it was her duty and right also, I would worry if the host or his near ones took an exception to Poonam's informal approach then she might feel insulted, but such thought did not even flash in any corner of her mind.

Marx had written, "Man can be distinguished from animals by consciousness, by religion or anything else you like. They themselves begin to distinguish themselves from animals as soon as they begin to produce their means of subsistence, a step which is conditioned by their physical organisation. By producing their means of subsistence men are indirectly producing their actual material life." "The production of life, both of one's own in labour and of fresh life in procreation, now appear as a double relationship : on the one hand as a natural, on the other as a social relationship."

Marx identified human society not as a mere collection of individuals but as a conscious organic formation whose form is ideological and which manifests through organisation of humans. According to Marxism to properly understand human-consciousness and social-consciousness, their content and form separately and their dialectical relationships will have to be understood. Human sub-consciousness and material-social-consciousness of the society are inner kernels and conscious part of human-consciousness and ideological-social-consciousness are superstructures.

According to Marxism proletarian class is the most advanced class of the society because the basis of its material-social-consciousness is based on scientific temper. Earlier I was unable to figure out where from does the proletariat get his scientific outlook. How and why does the non-scientific outlook of the workers changes into scientific outlook after they have lost everything. Individually most of the proletariat are extremely ignorant, superstitious, orthodox, god fearing, polytheist and hero worshippers, then who provides the scientific outlook to the material-social-consciousness of the proletarians collectively as a class.

After foreign jaunt my viewpoint about Poonam has undergone complete transformation and in the light of this transformed outlook towards Poonam's behaviour I have found answer to all my hitherto unanswered  questions. Earlier in some nook of my innerness there was some kind of vainness regarding Poonam, conceit of being the husband of a very beautiful, proficient, skilled and esteemed wife, the thought that Poonam's all this is owed to me and as my wife she is my absolute monopoly. And that probably Poonam also thinks like this that is why I am on top in her priorities. But now I know I was wrong. I was special for Poonam, but only in a limited arena, as Poonam's husband and father of the children. But the arena of life is so vast that neither Poonam's nor my life could fit into that limited arena. By identifying her personal interests with her social interests, Poonam had made her behaviour so magnificent that in its arena speciality of being husband or father of children had ceased to mean anything. Her behaviour had the capacity to satisfy everyone. In her arena there was no place for conflict of personal interests. Expression of people's emotions testify this. Everyone says, "Never heard anything negative from Poonam's mouth, nor she ever had time to listen to such things."

Poonam was the embodiment of this human consciousness that 'for the security and continuity of human life, identifying personal interests with collective interests is essential, and the basis of human life is production by human labour power.' Scientific temper and scientific outlook is founded upon this very truth of nature. At personal level this truth is revealed continuously during the production process and this social consciousness which is based on scientific outlook is that Marx named as 'Proletarian class-consciousness.

With proliferation of the productive forces, man starts producing more than consumption and accumulating and with this comes into existence private property and the family. Organisation of the family is the genesis of slavery of women. With ownership of the means of life, the man acquires control over woman's labour power also. And control on labour power of one by the other is what is the basis of slavery. With private property germinates the idea that the basis of life is means of production and not human labour power and with this myth starts pollution of scientific outlook. When widespread this very idea becomes the core of social consciousness and then it becomes the cause of unscientific-outlook of millions of men and women. Slaves, serfs, artisans, even natural scientists continue to be the carriers of this wrong concept because they, for personal interests, in some or the other form consider private property as the means of production and of life. 

Out of special family circumstances, thousands of women like Poonam, as exception, because of the very basic productive activity of cooking food in their kitchen, have been for ages continuing to be carriers of the concept that the basis of human life is human labour and social cooperation and not the physical goods, the worker recognises that concept when in capitalism after having lost everything he is rendered proletariat and to continue his living he is left with nothing except his labour power to sell.

I consider myself fortunate that I had the opportunity to live with such a wonderful person who throughout life continued lavishing happiness on all and sundry and in her death has gifted me with the knowledge for which I had been searching agonisingly for all these years. This my effort to share that knowledge with all others is my real tribute to Poonam.

Suresh Seivastava

9810128813

15, July 2013

(Author is president of Society for SCIENCE and chief editor of quarterly Marx Darshan