Quest for alternative

In Quest of Alternative For Radical Shift

Gian Singh

The present has gone muck, The future blinks

Communism: Perceptions and Perspectives

In Search of Alternative For Social Change

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Published by:

Tehrik Publications 383/6 Fatehpuri Colony Rohtak-124001, India

2014

t t

Circulation is the best price Acknowledgement will be appreciated, if used in any

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Yes, one day she will feed her child well!

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Yes! She has a world to win

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For survival!

Another face of capitalism

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INDEX

Introduction

i-xiv

1. The Dream 2. The Vision

1-4 5-16

3. The Philosophy

17-24

4. The Problem

25-52

5. The Present System

53-62

6. Fact File

63-86

7. Analysis of Events

87-92

8. Theory of Revolution

93-108

9. The New Experiment

109-134

10. Communist Movement

135-178

11. Quest for Sustainable Future

179-188

12. Prologue

189-197

References

198-199

Annex-1

200-213

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The first step is to penetrate the clouds of deceits and distortion and learn the truth about the world, then to organise and act to change it. That’s never been impossible, and never been easy. It is not impossible now and not easy either. There has rarely been a time in history when that choice carried such dramatic human consequences.

Noam Chomsky

I

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In Lieu of Introduction This is a study about the society, with its web of relationships and its future. It is a society living in twenty first century with all its attractions and absurdities. The study also intends to meet certain myths in the present day world deliberately built up to keep status quo working and the failures to meet them squarely so far, where status quo is not worth living for heavy majority of populations all over. The living experiences gained till now, especially in the immediate past, make it essential to undertake this exercise in the interest of social good.

There is no dearth of studies on society; it is an unending stream. A lot has been written on communist movement also; critical presentations are in heaps. The present effort, however, is from a different perspective having a different reference point and in one sense from a partisan angle, differentiating peole from the state structure/establishment and whom it serves like an obedient kin.

The harsh experience of recent history teaches not to take concepts on authority, state and political party as have been accepted so far. The concept of capturing state power for revolution has done a great harm to (i)

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social science; every nasty manoeuvre for capturing or holding authority stands legitimatised to disadvantage of social g ood. To invest revol utionary character in proletarian class was wong based on false logic. So has been a concept of dictatorship of proletariat damaging to the cause of social change from capitalist juggernaut.

Conceptually, political party relates basically to the interest of bourgeois class; it canno twork as an instrument of working population with its sinister principle of democratic centralism. Theory built around these concepts and formulations have proved disastrous to the science of social change.

Secondly, there is no case in denying valuable studies in the past, point is to relate things for a changed situation when balance of forces have gone for a shift with much to learn from past mistakes. For study, it is not intended to go by stereotype studies from teachers of bye-gone era blindly. For this study, it is recognised that none can do justice to it unless present condition is taken into account without blinkers.

We as society are driven at present for over a period by a capital based mode of production and distribution, which designed contending self-interests as its motivating force to move ahead, bringing its own corresponding cultural mould to dominate social relations delivering a death blow in consequence to harmonious way of life with nature, prevalent in previous family farming mode. This shift proved disastrous. (ii)

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In between, an effort was made by legions of well meaning sociologists t correct course in early twentiethcentury, though remaining attached to capital centred mode intact, fought private ownership of means of production describing it as the only evil in system and equating social ownership with state ownership, to counter the contention that sanctifies private profit for progress. This did not prove a sufficient course correction in the model. For one, the State cannot be equated with Society, unless one is determined to commit hara kari (suicide).

To sum up, we, the people at present are living essentially in a savage world of strife and unfulfilled wants but of possibilities too for a better future. (We here means minus rulers, donning various colours). Man, including woman, stands devalued, dehumanised and alienated in midst of material gains for few today.

Human society has reached a stage where both these aspects of present impasse and inherent possibilities to break road blocks require careful inquiry lest it loose self assurance for a better future. After collapse of Soviet experiment in 1991, disturbing factor in the situation is lack of self confidence in a large section of dispirited mass to look beyond the abounding myths that go to colour vision and enslave our thinking faculty to keep status quo intact. When occasional upstarts exploit this desperation of masses, it celebrates illusions unbound.

An honest exercise to break the stranglehold of such deadening burden must go green. (iii)

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There is an irony of sorts: Those among us who aspire to live by honest labour and with dignity are the hardest to suffer at present. Children, elderly and those who stand deprived of gainful pursuits have gone uncared and unloved. It is a world of full of contradictions, contradictions within contradiction, pulls and counter pulls, unity ofopposites, negation of negations, constant tussle bet ween differing interests and a constant urge for lasting peace with nature.

Still, it prides to call itself modern, civilised and democratic, signifying rule of rich over the people, claiming it as an advance frompast stage of slavery by feudal autocracy and patriarchy.

It is a reckless world where rule of powerful ordains cut-throat race for survival is made the norm, where ‘animal instinct. is sanctified as a prime mover to progress and become rich while aam aadmi is asked to happily accept position of a sacrificial goat in race of wild and development a word to mesmerise.

There is another facet: dark alleys keep rays of hope within. Possibilities for a better future though are not easy to have unless the present is shaken off shoulders.

This present had started its journey with industrial revolution that changed relations and culture drastically between men and men (women included) for centuries to come and brought in new organs of governance, most deadly of them is modern state coupled with its power of coercion and control over thinking faculty of masses at will. The built in structures of an intrusive (iv)

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state are working as agents of status quo, some with deadly powers for hands-down obedience while others busy in churning consent of the misled. Like every other country, Indian situation is essentially the same for people despite repeated claims, ad nauseam, of a high ‘democratic’ faith.

Now, in present .democratic. dispensation, man is seemingly free but chained all around in a cob web of laws/regulations ordained by the state apparently for an orderly obedience to power-mad rich and disobedience is unlawful in a society that rests on perennial disorder. The overarching law of disorder is where inequality reins, which cannot leave society orderly for a moment. Law is enacted to protect lawlessness and order is made to keep disorder intact, while court is to provide legitimacy to illegitimate.

The nexus between profit oriented defence industry and expansion oriented armed forces work upon each other for mutual existence with ‘Fight Against Terror’ as an alibi freshly crafted by executive, when a previous ghost in communism turned meaningless after collapse of the Soviets. This is how present set up is breathing heavy over shoulders of the people.

The reason for this duplicity remains that it is a rule of minority over majority with help of an elaborate system of deception and coercion, using varied tools it has devised.

It is a world where myths are galore; built and rebuilt, to keep status quo safe for plunderers. (v)

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It is a world of lies and manufactured truths for the ruled to believe in. Here legions of leaders and teachers are busy ever who preach from past and present for future to keep the flock in attendance, some spinning fancy stories at times, working almost as soothsayers and living on followers. The state regulates and administers an elaborate system of inequalities, injustice, plunder. It prepares this class of preachers to tune in with carrot/ rods. For the state, citizens are unruly urchins to discipline, notwithstanding fancy theories about its democratic faith.

If questions are asked about earlier set up.well, society has moved ahead dispensing patriarchal community!

The questions are summarily dodged or narrated with malice and disdain, only to serve justification for bourgeois take over as a progressive march of history.

Unfortunately, by implication in bargain, vested interest of bourgeoisie (trader) was made co-terminus with interest of masses when this take over was described as progressive without describing the loss it heaped on them. The lost past is to be accepted as a period alone of retrograde feudal lords and patriarchy to despise in favour of these new savages and brutes.

In between, there came an experiment spanning almost seven decades of twentieth century to rid present society of these ills that had plagued it, with full theory of liberation covering all aspects of life. The logic was captivating. By then unjust and unequal society was tired of armed conflict and hunger. The experiment (vi)

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thus attracted much attention and support worldwide.

Later at a stage, it fell flat by 1991 mainly due to its own faulty premises and follies in practice, not confirming to social reality, on essentials to rebuild society fresh. It failed to meet challenges thrown by a capital-based industrial-commercial life and corresponding culture. Instead, the experiment helped to grow capitalist mode of production and distribution within its womb nurturing its ills beneath. When experiment fell finally for all to see, society was no better. The labour of almost seven decades went waste with hopes for liberation dashed to ground for a while, breeding despondency in its wake. The ranks were unaware what so-called communist /socialist leadership has done to their biblical faith.

Everything was rotten in society before industrial revolution, as per mythical script of these self-claimed wise men. Industrial revolution abolished slavery and ignorance, they say, bringing society to modern times.

And for progress some have to pay a price, dictum goes in utter simplicity!! Obeying it, after a journey of three centuries, 99 per cent are paying hard for benefit of 1 per cent of population as in America (per-centage varying with countries: in India it is 80:20), experience so far testifies. It is increasingly becoming difficult even for rulers to deny grim reality now.

Another disturbing aspect has emerged lately: the unmistakable message of relevant social indicators is that upward movemt of social forces worldwide has (vii)

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entered to a new low for over three decades. The first decade of twenty-first century saw a frenzied effort to debunk gullible and brute armed repression of dissent.

Technology and money power have additionally given them new teeth. The regressive forces are on offensive at present. Those who once worked for progress are in disarray. The saga of heroic struggle by Vietnamese against US invaders was the last pitched battle of this series against colonial possession, oppression and indignity that gave hope for a sustained struggle against aggression. It itself stands betrayed by fighters them selves after victory. A tragedy of sorts indeed!

Twentieth century had witnessed two events that proved decisive in effect. The collapse of former socialist camp and its structures formalised in 1991 proved as game changer as October Revolution of 1917 in Russia had shape to a course of history that had attracted changes in balance of forces.The events of 1991 provided opportunity to dark forces for moving unchecked. The capitalist-imperialist countries re-asserted their hegemony with much vigour and sought by other means what they tried through two world wars earlier. Alignment of forces has changed drastically in their favour, at least for time being.

The forces inimical to a just social-political-economic, cultural-ethical, administrative and moral order are in hurry to consolidate and prey. Wasting no time, they have taken steps in favour of corporate capital to dominate both by mi litary and non-mi litary (viii)

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means and secondly to de-steam commoners by making capital and technology charming and invincible, by heavy dose of cosmetics. Human labour is at discount, much less than even inert labour. Efforts are afoot to portray human labour as inconsequential.

Machine with new technologies are posed as new saviours. As a result, man stands devalued and money is made central to relationships in a market dominated world. This is a new world of manipulators.

Keeping thinking faculty tight to their design is on increase with active help of state, and political establishment, embedded academicians and media.

The ruling classes in every country feel confident to overawe disinherited humanity with technological refinement and subjugate them with regulatory mechanism duly buttressed by sophisticated military hardware. The so-called class parties of all hues were toeing same line of corporate capital, to the dismay of commoners all over world; many changing colours overnight to keep their shops going.

At this stage of capitalist growth by spurts and bouts another disturbing feature has emerged: since the state is most convenient with atomised individuals as its citizens for easy control and to keep system immune and safe from any potential challenge, crash individualism is made out as a liberating pill for an unsuspecting mass of people, especially women and youths, charmed to drugs and uninhibited sex so that institutions of community and family are demolished in bargain as evils. (ix)

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Family is posed as an inconvenient hurdle for a free citizen to grow and its neighbourhood community as relic of a past. Its social structures devised to provide shelter at difficult times to the family and its community are told to vanish from scene as anti-development. There is no challenge to this scheming design worth the name. Those who took pride once to champion for human labour and dignity as central to human civilisation and progress have by and large gone mute.

One fact is unmistakable. The state as an institution world over has transformed into its new avatar. It is a monster growing day by day like an octopus with the web of laws more stringent to control with one alibi or the other in a stream. How to explain this in this world of democracy and freedom?

And those betrayed faith of struggling masses were the leaders of every conceivable colour with whom people had reposed faith mistakenly. The institution of political parties played game on the masses. The creative energy of the people and their initiative stood expropriated with their power emasculated by this tribe of political class in human history. Democracy was debased as representative democracy running through the institution of political parties has saved the day for exploiters unchained.

For a while desperate people and those who believed in human values of a just order had reposed faith in communist/socialist parties to be different. The class theory made these parties attractive to them. Millions (x)

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joined ranks for a better world. The betrayal, however, by leadership of these so-called revolutionary formations world over during these seven decades of experiment in rebuilding society tes tified their basic characteristics of a reliable tool in hands of capitalist order.

These formations compounded the tragedy mani fold who virtually worked for capitalist growth every where while mouthing slogans against exploitation and expropriation for believers to be duped. It is a sad story that these parties too were as effective as bourgeois parties were instrumental in destroying initiative and creativity of masses that had gained wings after overthrow of autocratic rulers in past with a liberating slogan of equality, liberty and fraternity.

With collapse of Soviet and Chinese model of socialism/ communism in making, with numerous variants in many other countries like Albania, Romania, Vietnam, Cuba etc. and role of left formations, certain important questions of theory and practice are up for reasonable answer. That collapse did not make dehumanising capitalist set up any more pleasing. Neither it was the end of history; collapse signified fatal errors in judgement and opened a window afresh to relook certain important postulates of liberation struggle that started taking shape in nineteenth century in answer to degrading capitalist order. The agenda is still on table.

In India, situation has gone worse, despite potentialities.

It is rich country with poor people, deprived by crafty forces in command, firstly a colonial (xi)

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power and later by its native clone. The country had gained freedom after a prolonged struggle against a shameful chapter in its history, bearing humiliation of degrading slavery and dehumanising expropriation.

The aroused aspirations of masses during freedom struggle were an excellent force for execution. But it was not to be. It did not suit new ruling masters. The opportunity went squandered and people stood cheated. The story of last seven decades of Independence is a grim tale of slavery to the rich accompan ied with hunger, destitution and indignity for labouring masses no less than the British rule had heaped. All ills of capitalist imperialist regime are welcome with glee to them now.

The current phase of globalised economy is being utilised to transfer not only ownership of national resources to corporate capital with vigour, including land, water, forest and minerals through a web of dirty machinations, brewing discontentment in disinherited mass but also pass on all its costs of crisis to the shoulders of the people. The corresponding rise in its armed strength during this period is to the rule book of amatured capitalist mode that speaks same tale of other imperialist countries in world, having more relevance to internal discontentment than external threats to its existence.

The globalised economy has brought sharp division in ranks of working people. In Europe those who lost job or opportunities for a batter wage are on streets fighting (xii)

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for preservation, while in countries where western countries have shifted manufacturing units in search of low labour costs workers have turned mute and obedient to their masters for their benevolence to hire them on relatively better wages and other benefits. The dream of international solidarity among workers has gone sore again like it had during world wars previously shattering wild hopes of classical revolutions in advanced industrialised countries as a vista of liberation.

While Government trembles in rage on any faint sign of self management in exercise of direct democracy by the people, it remains very accommodating to even disgustingly depraved behaviour by any unruly section, flaunting its democratic faith. Constitution is a convenient book of reference at need but ruling establishment looses no time to walk over it several times a day to serve vested interests. It is ruling through a legion of false gods and myths.

The ebb has set in, not because capitalist-imperialist forces have grown younger or invincible. It is a haggard entity of low morale. The present dispensation has not gathered steam for a better future either.

It cannot. Capitalism is too dehumanising to retain vitality. For this aspect alone it must be thrown away.

The present hiatus signifies a state of disintegration and conceptual confusion among forces of struggling mass desirous of change. The agenda of social change for a just and peaceful order is order of the day.

This study is not intended to be a classic treatise of (xiii)

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academic value or style. It concentrates on dealing with current issues of at hand to release dialogue and discussion on questions of social change in light of experiences so that the movement is out of old rut. It is a document for the movement.

Theory for us is not a subject of conventional wisdom to adorn but a guide to action and practice, a habitual performance of principles. In the present study theory has come under radar for fresh evaluation and for normal exercise in renewal in light of experiences but never to decry teachers.The stinking garbage from failed attempts to transform society for a better one is too heavy a legacy. It has to be replaced with fresh approach to things. The outdated postulates even from teachers in past may not keep us stuck in tracks.

The practice on theory in the past is under study for fidelity and never to decry ancestors on personal level. If somewhere harsh words used in study have hurt anybody, we feel sorry for unintentional pain.

We propose to look at things afresh. The present study may at places relate to our experiences rooted in India, but it must relate to universal relevance. The vision retains focus on common application.

Let us proceed to learn from failures....

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I

The Dream

We do redeem our hope in a cherished dream after a long journey of desperation indeed. Yes, we dream of bright future when present is not worth living in constant strife and tension. It is a dream of substance.

True it is a dream to move away from present reality that is cruel and painful. And this dream is also a strong denouncement of what we are forced to live with presently. One realisation is overwhelming: humanity is faced with a reality, which is a harsh price peoples all over are paying for believing in cheats, robbers and double-speak of a history as saviours.

We do not dream wild. Wild targets lead society nowhere. Our aspirations are well within reach, rather much earlier these could have been a bench mark of reality. It is not necessary that humanity is placed in perpetual cruelty and uncertainty.

One fact of social life can be forcefully underlined: humanity was not destined to suffer as at present; it is entirely a man made tragedy of a trap contrived to subserve sectarian interests of cheats and bad elements, banking upon muscles of an armed state that timidly speaks a language of saviour to the weak while subserving the powerful and the rogue.

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Before history suffered a setback nearly four hundred years ago by falling prey to a wild promise, man was never such beastly in conduct to his compatriots as he can be today. So, we, the peoples of all countries, do dream to live in peace and live with dignity, where none would deceive others on their labour.

No one likes ever to starve for no fault of one and die unloved and unwanted. It is a reasonable case where honourable living in harmony with nature and with fellow beings in communitarian setting and in a congenial atmosphere bearing trust, sharing, cooperation, brotherhood and the right of self-management of one’s community life is fully feasible. In fact, it is a natural right with human beings, usurped so far by cheats and double-speaks. All round discrimination, indignity and inequality rule that cannot be the basis of socio-economic and political-cultural existence in any desirable variant of democracy.

Certainly it is not the case that no one had aspired ever for bright future before. Many strived many times to translate a better future earlier; probably with serious limitations in their times. A few of them were honest experiments quite illogical and wishful without understanding nature of their enemy, while others proved blunders of high magnitude. A new effort has to be made after evaluating current problems and taking due cognizance of past efforts.

At present humanity is faced with an adversary force that is crafty, deceitful and as cruel as cunning. It has (2)

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mastered this art of trickery and using perpetual fear through a combination of armed power combined with sophisticated methods for blunting thinking faculty of people to keep them in mental and physical subjugation.

Surely, no one could doubt real intentions of the leading force when it once propounded a captivating slogan, ‘Equality, Liberty, Fraternity’, for a change in social, economic and political relations, which it has translated today into a virtual machine to keep hapless majority everywhere under heels only to keep float the interests of corporate capital. A butcher poses to be a saviour!

For almost four hundred years, it is a rule of capital that made human society reel under unprecedented agony, oppression and expropriation, under constant strife and tension, but on principles like George Bernard Shaw spoke of such souls as he described for Englishmen: ‘There is nothing so bad or so good that you will not find Englishman doing it; but you will never find Englishman in the wrong. He does everything on principles: he fights you on patriotic principles, he robs you on business principles; he enslaves you on imperial principles, but he bullies you on manly principles; he supports his king on loyal principles and cuts off his king’s head on republican principles’.

Yes, capitalist masters do everything on principles which British represent in classic piety of gentlemen. They invest to provide employment to hungry, they sell (3)

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The Dream

their merchandise for keeping humanity satisfied as saviours of Christian faith, they accept incentives on their services from public exchequer to oblige tax payers!

So do our leaders in political establishments who sell fake dreams, a field of their specialisation. They can sell in confidence any of their merchandise anywhere to varied takers in any climate with humilityat necessity-salesmen of quality. It is a tribe that stands groomed, rewarded and cultivated during times of youthful performances but more in periods of serious challenge. It is neither said on malice nor on hearsay but a result of study.

There is no doubt that today Man stands devalued. In his/her place, property/capital has been made a master key to all relations at the cost of social values. To lead a life has become a burden for majority of people; many are pushed to unethical ways for survival . Even womb of a woman has been turned into a paying industry and female sexuality a highly profitable value that keeps their industrial pursuits blooming amidst general down slide. Still masters claim bringing prosperity and bliss in modern way of life to humanity without parallel.

Itis nobody’s case that living in sin is an honourable choice, but a tragic hole per force of this system for a good number of people for mere survival. No other explanation is possible of any worth to keep it living.

Now is the time to have a purposive dream! And constant efforts made to translate it to reality of hope.

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II

The Vision

The Blind Spots Pursuing a feasible dream needs to be translated in reality, especially one which serves future of humanity. That is the current agenda worth working for by all those who love living a worthy present that is free from squalor and indignity. A bright dream to fulfil.

Let us now start probing our issue with a question: How to look at things; read the problems to their real meanings and possible solution? My fresh student does not answer. He is good at theorems but does not understand philosophy that provides insight to prob things in their varied dimensions. He is satisfied to move around under illusion of a sponsored vision kowingly. Social sciences do not attract him any more, much less the philosophy as its good part. At present he selects his subjects that are saleable in the marketand prides in secialisation without bothering whom it benefits best to turn personality of a man sectional and torn, while getting some crumbs to his lap too in exchange. These go to satisfy him with a notion of self negation in a world of competition where unemployment reigns. He finds no use for philosophy; where is the time to deliberate or ontest on right and wrong, he argues.

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But, where is the need of destructive competition and where has gone his time to analyse? Do you think the world, or India is short of resources enough for employment to all? He shrinks his shoulders in despair.

Clearly he has not given thought to such aspects of the problem. Whom his theorems help, I ask. Again, he remains silent. OK. This is one aspect of the problem.

Lack of interest in philosophy that made him blind to realities apart, how he fell out with his parents who did their best to finance his studies so far going out of their means with faith in the best of his career, my new student is not ready to open. What made him sick and alone in the midst of a good package, he is dumb.

His sickly face frightens with sleepy eyes and negative tendencies to hide after a short live-in-relationship broke; the charmed beauty was his colleague in the same city of fortunes. He is from cyber city of all modern gadgets to entertain. But the fleeting fortunes do not smile on him any longer. Desperation brought him for counselling lessons. Sad, indeed. This is another side of the story that unfolds.

What is wrong with usual marriage? The estranged girl student flares up in rage to my question. Her answer stuns; why a girl has to be a machine for producing children, she counters. Do you love your mother? Yes, very much, more than my father and she loves me too.

The claim comes proudly, from a girl, who fell victim to modern education with feminist flavour. Was your mother a machine to produce you? She angrily keeps (6)

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silent. That was her mother’s choice; perhaps the answer from a modern girl would be, without realising that the choice of an individual emanates from a given milieu. Universities and colleges in the times of her mother had not taken up the job of creating trained cogs out of students for the market to serve corporate capital engaged in earning maximum profit through high tech industries at the debilitating cost of human society, my girl student did not realise. The state did it for her at the call of capital by changing the whole gamut of educational system, as Indian government formalised the change in the object of education under its New Education Policy 1986, if told my both students are likely to react and brand me a political enthusiast in a moment spontaneously as if intuitively.

There is a reason: bereft of analytical capacity due to lack of interest in philosophy of life as their guide, the young generation stands conditioned to a given philosophy of rulers, mostly without their knowing it, through universities and colleges, duly hammered by constant blare from an embedded media at command.

Media-men/women too, conditioned themselves as products of the same education, work as convinced enthusiasts to uphold values that go to serve corporate capital and not the society they came from, like any John Perkins of Confessions of an Economic Hitman.

So, who changed the previous milieu of a mother to new set of the defiant daughter and why, without their knowing it or conscious consent? For both students this (7)

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explanation is philosophy, which does not interest them.

If it is explained that the question relates more to the ups and downs in your own lives that affected their mental faculties, both students may feign fatal ignorance. This is another disturbing part of the issue.

Without clear vision, we then go by others without examining motives/parameters involved and do not try to know generally our surroundings we live in. This makes us half blind to take things granted, while remaining more concerned about specialised knowledge good enough for saleability for mere survival or some addition to riches of dubious value, while at the same time moving with a sense of half-backed superiority over our own specialisation. We do not remain realists, but chasers of fleeting dreams/ mirages. This leaves a big gap in life and ultimately turns society poorer and the man a dud. The deficit ultimately tells upon both individuals and the community we live in telling upon the health of society. Who has made the situation slide back in terms of overall social necessity? Again, there is a long silence from both of them. Perhaps prudence of the self dictates it!

Money begets money; and more money makes one mad for it in a strange world where dog bites dog. My both students take courage and express confidence that the state regulation is a good remedy here to keep the market going, keeping the dog at bay. When asked to explain the rapid economic growth and rising graph of crimes direct in proportion despite having a highly (8)

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centralised state structure during the last seven decades of independence in India, the boy keeps mum, while the girl seems ignorant. Both lack courage to analyse their half-baked conviction and court tragedy of sorts.

There is another incident recently that throws ample light on what we are faced to at present. A family groomed its daughter well and she, like my students above, dreamed high perhaps unaware of rules of the game in a world of competitive market so let loose a few decades earlier by adherents of globalisation as a creed. Exercising her new consciousness of freedom, she somehow reached Mumbai to try her luck in the murky but glamorous field of films. Despite her physical assets, she could not rise above the level of .a smalltime actress. and faced unemployment bouts off and on. In the meantime, she was .lucky. to have an airman buddy loving her who was soon posted outside.

However, she was desperate to be on the high screen and tried to groom a film-journalist to help her in the bid. At one point, her lover could smell presence of someone with her while talking on phone at dead of night and took a flight to reach the rented flat. In a rage over betrayal of faith in love, the airman killed both of them in bed, without him realising the bigger tragedy involved in an episode behind a curtain that drew a girl to a murky market. He could not reach the real enemy to avenge, hidden in a much darker corner.

Hopeful on the weight of her assets, she tried to play game of the market without understanding its impli(9)

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cations, particularly in her case that overflows with supply, and where bigger fish swallows smaller one for survival. The grim tragedy occurred where an ignorant girl fell victim to the allurement of money and fame let loose by a larger group of dubious forces for people like her duly tutored of freedoms and rights of an individual to choose in a wild web of the powerful.

This was not the case of a newly enlightened girl of her fictitious right to choose her partner at will; it was a case of finding her way in the blind alley of market forces that took an innocent young life extinguished ultimately in a useless pursuit of low value gamble. My girl student sympathised with the female victim, while the boy could not defend the journalist who was out to exercise his position for sex as an individual liberated by market economy, neither the airman who valued faith in love rather than indulgence in available sex.

The boy surmised that Mumbai is a different world with paradoxes. OK. Another incident nearby from an area which prides in its rich cultural heritage of a community feeling: on 18th September, 2009 the world woke up to a shocking news of a frail girl student in University nearby who killed her full family of children, young and old one by one at dead of night throttling them in induced sleep by poison. She was removing them from her path to remain free with her neighbourhood buddy in the village and went to enjoy life in midst of dead bodies lying around. Her dotting father was away to earn for her studies, girl remained busy learning lessons to be bold on sex, sexuality and freedom of choice.

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My students stood stupefied for a while on grim details of happenings so close. Both at face value stood perplexed, but took it a case of individual degeneration.

They are as ignorant of a philosophy working behind market as they are unaware about philosophy of life.

They are ignorant on another aspect: the situation working behind these happenings is not a natural outcome of infantile choice of individuals alone. It is the net result of a definite cultural mould being pursued laboriously of late by those who command governance and worked upon citizens, young and old.

Total education system is designed on purpose to make one poorer while another zone richer hinged on market compulsions. And market in turn is controlled by the requirements of the finance/corporate capital and its owners. Alluring film-land to an aspiring girl and university campus for a budding student of .modernity. is doing the assigned job well. The recent spurt in sex crime is not without reason when family, community and its web of relationships are made irrelevant. In the s c h e m e o f t h i n g s t h es e a re c o m m o n m e n / women who are commandeered to follow the laid rules ordained by a patriarchal state establishment.

The sad story of all the unfortunate victims, however, underlines a tragedy under estimation of these modern cities of fortune. They fell for it and suffered. The family of Mumbai girl had not visualised perhaps what is in store for their beloved daughter who had set her foot in a wild world of market driven beasts.

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The victim girl and the status drunk journalist were propelled to chase wild goose, while old-fashioned airman misunderstood this world of freedom in sex for love wjilr the lovers in village were seeking bliss in freedom for self with no mind for others. My half-ignorant students are no exception to a game of the rich; who for the rest are intelligent enough for jobs assigned to them under market mechanism.

Another big stakeholder in this big business of half ignorance is the state machinery that is designed to control /enslave mass of followers in perpetuity to serve masters of capital. The half ignorant students do not understand this law of opposite interests and have no incentive left to understand the particular philosophy behind the market that is working constantly for this deluge, while serving ultimately the forces inimical to social good. It signifies though the level of success the establishment has achieved in fulfilling a design. It can not be a fault with half ignorant boy or girl on way to school; clouded vision due to deeply sponsored haze.

Later in life, one will have less chance to know the bluff behind living with theorem centric mind to guide.

Still, the first question remains. The answer starts with the decision where one remains on side of the fence that separates opposite interests consisting of traders in darkness and the camp that relishes truth instead.

Those who do business in darkness and ignorance are mortally afraid of those who cherish light and wisdom to dominate. If one decides, in ignorance or by (12)

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deliberate choice, to be part of the ugly business and joins the termite brigade out to crush society from within and enjoys destruction of homogeneity in community, it is a choice of self negation.

The society, which includes respective community and the family where one learnt the art of taking first step ahead, goes bust to the advantage of corporate capital. If one decides to remain with kith and kin in turmoil around, the forces of reason go gaga. In that case, one can see problems from a point of view that helps to determine the interests of your fellow beings.

The other is a view point of the ruling establishment.

The grey area between two is very slippery at core.

One has to be careful to wade through muddled waters for safe landing. One has to be made. The state is never neutral in a divided society of opposite interests or honest to some social contract theory. It has already turned into an armed instrument in the hands of capital to coerce the ruled. All fine trappings to hide that reality have fallen asunder.

My students are very hopeful on democracy, but have little clarity what it signifies in the real world. They are conscious on their right to adult suffrage and feel free to exercise it for answerable governance. However, both are pathetically patchy about its story of past 67 years in independent India on the point. When told to correct on deficiency in knowledge, they agreed to listen a bit on democracy for the present.

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Concept of Democracy Democracy is the outcome initially of ‘equality, liberty, fraternity. slogan first in French bourgeois revolution.

It rests on the concept of individuality at its core to facilitate emergence of trade, commerce and industry independent of agricultural pursuits in community life, perceiving individual as the founding block of a nation to work as its market, effectively replacing family and its neighbourhood community. Later, democracy was invested with supremacy of people in governance when another slogan was coined; government of the people, by the people, for the people based on representative character instead of participative democracy on selfgovernance mode. This later version gave rise to emergence of political parties as an instrument of representative democracy to operate effectively.

Representative democracy was again asked to firm up to constitutional form. Philosophically, the term constitution refers to the idea that a government should be legally limited in its powers and that its authority or legitimacy depends on it observing such limitations.

Constitution or the state reversely cannot limit the society to which it is answerable.

By now, both the state and its system of representative democracy, as institutions of governance, have come to be associated with a philosophy which has the individual as its corner-stone, debunking family and its community as worthless in matters governance; and not without reason. The basic unit of governance in (14)

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Indian Constitution is the individual in place of family/ community. This core feature of conflict between the two permeates their respective field of operation.

K. Marx once in May, 1842 underlined the lack of control of the electorate over their representatives in democracy once they are elected. He had argued that freedom of press will make it possible for exercising necessary control from below without which there could be no true representation. That was in nineteenth century. In present phase of corporate capital, media is another capital based industry and operates in subordination to its owners. The interests of capital and media stand now fully converged leaving no scope to serve the interests of people.

The scope of independent/neutral media has gone wrong. It is merely a carrier of sponsored news/views, more or less to the detriment of people’s interest.

It is no longer a free vehicle of pressure in hands of people categorised as the ruled. It is a drastic change in situation since then. There remains no ground for formulation from Marx to operate any longer as check on unruly representatives in favour of people.

To get a clear vision another facet recently added to its philosophic kitty by rulers need be taken note. In pursuance of New Education Policy-1986 Indian government shifted emphasis on human development as resource. Man is not labour power alone; he/ she is a unique product of nature with extraordinary characteristics of a living organism capable to shape (15)

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The Vision

social values. It is not open to anyone to turn him/ her into a resource for any other man to use for sectional purposes and covert these characteristics.

Human resource is a distinct category of input where question of dignity is vanished and where individual worker remains merely a cog to produce. If ministry of human resource development (HRD) includes education, it merely underlines a fact that role of education is reduced to suit demands of corporate capital; turning interests of corporate capital coterminus with social/national interests, saying in a way that corporate capital is India, India is corporate capital.

And the rulers did it surreptitiously and unilaterally without any popular mandate. Later, through a crafted media blitz they built ‘public’ opinion for it, as perusual tactics of rulers in the game of deception.

Here media played a nasty game; it utilised vehicle of expression in its hands for a wrong purpose and to advance a sectional interest. The media is another handy but powerful tool in their hands to shape opinion, in addition to what education performs. The rulers know it. They are out to make both totally subservient to its dictates. The masters meanwhile have sharpened their skills in manipulating news/views to their advantage and keep their business of ignorance bloom.

It is evident that to remain alert and free from prejudice, one has to be equipped with a visionary approach having a scientific bent of mind. The clear vision of a conflict free society alone can be a guide to wade through the dark alleys.

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III

The Philosophy

The Guide This section, in a way, is in continuation of previous one relating to vision; philosophy though connotes something more profound. So, before venturing into defining the way one needs to look at things, it will be appropriate if first it is realised what available philosophies in main contend. Since people in general have been made to think about philosophy as an abstract subject for idlers, it scares busy bees.

In our context it is important to keep on track and avoid any possibility of derailment. Useless pursuit of abstracts for mere intellectual exercise or indulge in it like entertainment is not our taste, neither relevant to the subject of this appraisal. Let us then talk a little in this section about philosophy and its role in life of individuals as well as society, though a concerted ef fort is on to discount importance of philosophy as something dispensable or at best a subject to pursue at leisure. It is a recent phenomenon; say around six decades in India that philosophy is discounted and pushed as a subject which stands detached from practical life. Those who are behind it, intend to blunt (17)

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thinking faculty of people so that they do not invest energy in analysing events and take sermons at face value without murmur. This ensures status quo to survive without any serious challenge to untruth.

In fact, it is philosophy that holds key to unravel the hidden meaning to events and postulates as guide.

Simply said, philosophy embodies a system of thought derived from practical life that human society lives through and a logical presentation of some social values and cherished ideals pertinent to progress in human relations. Basically philosophy has two variants: one, materialist philosophy and the other, idealist philosophy.

One rests on taking cognizance of physical nature while the other links it to idea that is central to what exists.

Matter and Idea are made distinct categories that respectively form basis of categorising philosophies. In physics matter is a category that exists to change, can be felt so, through our sense organs and can be known.

In philosophy, matter is an epistemological category; a name given to certain distinct characteristics common to things that exist. The force of motion in matter is basically internal. These three defining principles or characteristics of matter reflect in motion as: 1. Since matter exists in motion and in a state of constant change, which defines that it is a struggle basically between opposites within, leading to change from quantitative to qualitative and vice-versa, from simple to complex and vice-versa, lower to higher and viceversa (18)

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2. Motion has it in negation of negation 3. Motion in matter denotes Struggle and Unity of Opposites Idealist philosophy, Adhyatmvad in India, on the other hand, is a system of thought that believes idea as central to existence of universe and believes that some supernatural power outside matter is the cause of its motion.

It has three variants in Indian idealist philosophy i.e Aduvetwad, Duvetwad, Tretvad. One takes a single element or force as source of origin that makes this universe move, second takes two forces in combination as source, while the third believes three basic elements in combination as a basic source. Here, motion is subject to outside force; much of it rests on faith that is not subject to inquiry. Despite, various interpretations of idealist philosophy have led to hundreds of variations of faith worldwide leading to unresolved contests.

These two sets of philosophies have contradicting elements as basis respectively to exist with nothing to reconcile, except if at all, on peripheries. Twentieth century saw sharp contest between these two sets of philosophies for supremacy to interpret universe with the help of armed states full of resources and power.

The armed power of those who claimed to work for materialist philosophy for hegemony lost control of state structure after over seven decades of last century and those who are still in possession of armed state structure having faith in idealist philosophy are desperate to claim death for their rival, forgetting that basically it is a (19)

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struggle between two system of thought and not state powers. Those who lost race are poor on state strength.

It is yet to be proved that materialist philosophy has lost relevance, all because of losing an experiment/ practice on the strength of a lost armed state power.

The materialist philosophy is for life as it exists and intends to exist. It is not, as is commonly made out, a guide to mad race or craze for materialist possessions and pursuit of wild consumerism.

Materialist philosophy does cognise idea as a force with humanity on its onward march, yet not its original progenitor. Idea itself is the product of a material condition. It denies, however, that idea forms the base that propels nature to move.

Idealist philosophy is for eternal salvation working hard t h ro u g h c o bwebs o f m ate r i a l wo r l d . On e i s communitarian in approach based on historical materialism, which once became driving forces in search of breaking status quo for social change in major part of twentieth century. The other basically caters the individual for salvation in eternal peace by breaking grip of material world; it works on Individual as is its main thrust for salvation.

Both philosophies have respective social, cultural modes and mores for smooth survival in commensurate with defining principles of each and are made to change prevalent traditions, customs to its requirement, may or not with consent -mostly (20)

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through contrived consent.

It is recognised that life without philosophy is like living in a deep pool not knowing where to drift for the stair up before losing breath. Philosophies are views to interpret the world, past, present and future with an explanation circumscribed by its context, as torchlight is needed in darkness. These are not disposable as worthless items of luxury, nor a decorative piece to adorn. Philosophy has a practical value.

It may be underlined: Any specific philosophy emerges out of concrete conditions of respective times as a possible answer to problems humanity faces in its stride to move ahead. Some may stick; others fall by side as irrelevant in course of time. In a world of differing interests, these give views to interpret and serve humanity, giving reason for contending interpretations.

Nonetheless, all philosophies have one common characteristic: these come, serve and changes with times. Idle or abstract thoughts do not serve any one and are useless for society to remain as guide.

So, to be sure, philosophy is not dreary theory or something abstract material to know at ease. As part of normal life, it gives insight to problems. Philosophy is vision, to find one.s own path, day or night. The clear vision makes journey happy and fruitful. Without vision or coloured one fatal accident is in store. To theorems, philosophy provides guidelines for proper use.

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Let us narrate: Philosophy of life is a social science with a system of thought that makes things easier to understand in their varied dimensions and goes to make society richer in knowing things for good and bad, legitimate or illegitimate, helpful or damaging. It helps analytical process to understand side of your truth.

Philosophy gives that insight. A vision is created, which empowers to walk through firewall.

If one attains capability to know things properly it may do good in general but harms those who deal in darkness and ignorance. Society.s gain is their loss and their gain is loss to society. Interests of each collide with interests of the other. The law of opposite works like that.

The ideology of rulers is to rule and perpetuate it.

They create their own system of logic in the interests of minority rule they serve and subdue the ruled with as refined subterfuges as required, changing stances at need. Since these rulers have to oversee market economy for better operation in a world of un-equals under industrial-commercial dispensation, they have devised philosophy of individualism to run things smoothly. Rational individual is the central figure for it. It is a system of thought that goes for an atomised society, totally dependent on state structure.

The state establishment under such dispensation uses all its tools, including political establishment, to fulfil its assigned task and simultaneously make individualism attractive, despite deep pock marks, for gullible to embrace whatever cost to society.

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A particular philosophy working behind this law of opposite interests is weaving through dark alleys of a design in order to pepper out rough edges in course of its operation. Myths are created, recreated constantly with sharp eye on followers.

Principles of various hues are floated to keep faith in the system intact. The theory of Fate is one such principle. To turn man into a human resource for the use of capital is another new invention in this game of deception through the philosophy of plunder. The inevitability of authority is another gem they have created to make oppression essential. Many still explain inequality as orderly and essential element in nature, to justify injustice in human society.

Apart from media, professional academia spins fine for the state to breathe easy. It helps in colouring vision of the people in light of changing stance from the leadership for keeping system kicking.

Today, speaking concretely, there is conflict of interest between philosophy of life and philosophy of rulers which is the philosophy of individualism to suit market economy to flourish. Both of these work with their distinctly corresponding cultural and social milieus for smooth sail, while state works to keep society in tune with its assigned task by its masters in economy.

Essentially, an industrial-commercial mode of production-cum-distribution, that relies on the market operations, produce individualism hourly as a way of (23)

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The Philosophy

life, as its labour-unit is an atomised, freely available individual. It is a barren entity for the social milieu. To keep flow in supply of requisite labour for these pursuits family bonds are put on sacrificing block first and academia dutifully advance new norms of behaviour for young with fresh consciousness on individual rights.

The rationale behind current campaign unleashed against ‘patriarchy’ feudalist mindset, conservative uncouth of rural areas by media, political establishment and academia is to remove cultural roadblock to serve liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation push in India. This is done under a specific philosophy of robbers by advancing individualism. In contest with such philosophy of robbers, common people must master its own. They cannot do without it unless hara kari is the object or one has decided to follow executioners in blind faith.

For a pulsating life it is imperative to master the philosophy of life by all those who understand an old but somewhat vague saying that .man is social animal. in the first instance. Life cannot go without it.

All those who are living with no illusions of short cuts towealth and fame must realise that their own labour will stand by them in a social milieu. Wealth is essentially theft of social assets.

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IV

The Problem

The human-society does change as other objects in nature do. It is similarly subject to law of motion.

Recognising that constant change in nature occurs in slow or say normal and abrupt, i.e. fundamental form per force its law, human society does go for change in course of its function, while its own dynamics releases forces that work at a point of time to affect its normal rhythm for abrupt transformation. It is natural. School students know it too.

If present stage in human relations, including that govern socio-economic life, fulfils requirement of times the level of contentment may also be normal requiring no fundamental change in its course. If the level of discontentment is beyond tolerance level, time for such an abrupt change has arrived. This law of change provides the cue to fathom what we are faced to, as a barometer does to the temperature.

Let us then proceed to understand first what is the present level of development in human society and see the law that drives it, which necessarily must generate its corresponding level of contentment/ discontentment in general affecting working people in particularly, being its producer component of wealth (25)

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of nations? Normally, answer to this query will score the problem.

Presently, society is government by a law of development that constantly generates inequality between a c t u a l p r o d u c e rs o f g o o d s w h o c o n s t i t u t e heavy majority of population and those who own means of production through a system of overt and covert expropriation, which is a microscopic minority. There is no shortage of goods; problem is the distribution through market mechanism where unequal ownership over money predominates. Imbalance creates crisis of its own make.

The overview by mere keen observation, without going into detailed data here at the moment it is evident that social life presently is beset with crisis of sorts.

Rulers most often too face crisis as a result of a system they are presiding over.

But, our concern is basically for mass of the people who are victims, all because they stand a ruled lot as a distinct category and suffer. If it is not dismissed outrightly as a reading from negative approach, crisis is all over. pervasive and debilitating, beneath even apparent tranquillity. It is much more painful than ever.

Peoples everywhere are made to live in constant turmoil, intimidation of one sort or the other to maintain order of inequality and tension eating at their nerves with unusual regularity.

What is the source of this turmoil? Definitely, it is not (26)

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The Problem

normal trajectory of growth in society to fulfil its needs keeping compatibility with nature. To say it briefly, source of turmoil is basically the craze to produce extra for extracting maximum profit beyond what is normally saleable. It is done by creating demand artificially through outside interventions.

The circle is running constantly relying more and more on inert labour i.e. using technological improvements in machinery than human labour by a powerful minority and who have cheated society on common resources to become owners over means of production at cost of people where state is in a happy nexus.

The mad race for expansion in demand to meet the speed in production generates corresponding tension and turmoil with periodic bouts of crash, crisis and boom. This skewed model of production and distribution has a law of uneven development giving rise to extreme polarisation, leading to ever rising inequality with squalor and deprivation for majority at one end while a hopeless minority rules roost at another.

Let us take an example to explain. By claim, America is a model capitalist state in the world, a first rate economic power in so-called modern world following capitalist system of production and distribution. It is also first rate military power after Second World War to guard and extend its interests worldwide.

Under a crisis of their own make, in powerful America situation for ru lers has gone so sore that they cannot (27)

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win an election after a term of four years if a war in foreign land is not waged to give artificial boost to a faltering economy and befool electorate on capabilities of their leaders in turn.

America is rich and powerful, Americans are heady over it. They are made to believe that their country is rich because they are exceptional. If American government occupies a foreign land or contrives possession of resources from other lands, leaders win elections on valour of a robber. The question remains: what is the source of this economic power of America in the first place to a claim of prosperity? Americans do not bother.

They are happy to get their pound of flesh.

America today is a damn polarised society; inequality reigns as never before, a country of 1 versus 99; a country of vast sea of producers at another end as wageslaves in the sense that to get regular supply of rations for survival it must depend on good wishes of its employer-masters or good will of creditors where law/ surveillance agencies constantly breathe heavy over their shoulders day and night lest there is any break in order that establishment has set in for protection of these slave owners presiding over huge resources.

What American establishment thinks as right these slaves are made to think right. This is short story of American growth in its normal course under capitalist dispensation rulers there one day had chosen for it.

And, direction America is fast heading to? After Second (28)

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The Problem

World War, it has turned over to be head executioner of resource rich countries for possession; a constant source of turmoil and war. At the end of Soviet experiment as a powerful rival, it is exceptionally brute in action. This is America . the pariah of capitalist order!

And other countries of similar credo/pedigree, they too do not differ in substance. There is a crisis of faith in social life all over. The urge for peace and contentment has taken a strong beating. This is cumulative result of their present path of pursuit.

The crisis, however, had not been always so. It is the natural outcome of a deliberate system forced upon human society. Its strength is in an armed state presiding over this system that generates strife and social tension perpetually. Its weakness lies in its womb. The present crisis stems from its skewed structure in midst of unprecedented accumulation of wealth and knowledge, which has potentiality of providing a life of bliss.

However, concrete situation today necessarily leads to a state of constant strife. This is mother of all problems.

So, nature of present day problems and philosophy that may empower one to face the situation is the question.

Here at this point we desire to know the pathology of problem in its various dimensions so that clarity is reached about different aspects of a possible solution and its objective trajectory underlined.

The social wealth is as usual on its growth trajectory, while simultaneously increasing rate of deprivation is multiplying social debility. Wealth in itself have not (29)

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and cannot solve the riddle, it is its cause under the prevalent structure, which has come from a specific project of a profit driven production system.

The masters of new type that gained foothold almost three hundred years back raised the pitch and have driven it to present stage. The cause lies here. Any prognosis of social problems, which plague our life today, can ignore it only at cost of objectivity and truth.

If ignored, it may not lead one anywhere near a solution.

The present is so complex that one is likely to grope in dark without a valid reference point and method (may be called philosophy) to understand it in a world of myths woven around in abundance like its wealth.

Though present era took its first steps after a new situation had emerged as a result of trade and trader coming out free from agriculture as a free pursuit and earning livelihood from deductions on sale of commodities one dealt in, first by theft and later named as a right, leading to primary accumulation of capital.

This led in course to industrial revolution to take over as leading force for production, which turned relations taking shape since primary accumulations in society to upside down. The human society stood divided into incompatible interests to contend. Since then, situation has so emerged that individuals, barring few honourable exceptions, stand conditioned to act and talk as individual under influence of personal interest and how this society of incompatible values affect each.

A short break came in November, 1917. It was thought (30)

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The Problem

that as per law of motion a moment has arrived where society requires a push in its course of development for an abrupt (fundamental) change. The reading was not wrong. The event though first occurred in Czarist Russia, it heralded sweeping changes all over and affected all walks of life, good or bad. Many described it as beginning of a new era, as it could have, with fresh experiment in social engineering that lasted for over seven decades of twentieth century.

There was instant reaction to the event. Since October evolution of 1917 occurred in name of peasants and workers with a claim of building a new society in their lead, many quarters felt threatened. At first, chaos started gripping and soon after nearly 14 countries intervened to thwart the effort with help of internal elements who were dislodged. After a protracted civil war lasting almost three years the Soviets started to take up the task with certain formulations to work upon for building a new society of fresh relations. The intentions enthused working population everywhere.

Till end of Second World War in 1945 the event of 1917 in Russia attracted wide attraction and received wide appreciation, though legions of critiques denounced the experiment as extravagant and regressive. Many deprecated its theory and practice as violent in nature.

Later, for some reasons of succession to power in Soviet Union, personality of Stalin came under serious attack after his death, mainly from his close associates firstwho s u c c e eded h i m , te r m i n g h i m as d es p o t a n d (31)

The Problem

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murderer with debatable and untested charges. Since charges came fast and thick from his associates as well as adversaries alike, the heavy blitz of campaign stuck.

But, when some wise men of communist faith try to describe disintegration of Soviet camp as .collapse of Stalinism., it boils down that the effort lacks a serious exercise to analyse reasons underlying its collapse and betray poor understanding of the science of dialectics.

To pass on the blame to one man for the collapse saves part of theory and practice that went wrong wholly. It may serve only those who wish to continue with such old formulations pertaining to the science of social change that lie under the collapsed experiment despite heap of evidence pointing to it.

There is no place for personality cult in science, so in social science. No one in serious study of social movements for human progress can cultivate it. This does not imply that individuals have no role in history; role of individuals do influence the course, but social change is more a question of processes that require collective contribution in a chain. Here in this case, it is theory of authority, accepted by teachers of communist movement like F. Engels to Stalin and Mao which has played the main mischief. The concept, combined with concept of democratic centralism as developed by a besieged communist leadership at one point and continued throughout their rule of over seventy years helped to perpetuate strange concept of discipline under hierarchal structure that tragically preached equality in theory. It was irony of sorts.

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The Problem

But the claim to bring fundamental shift in matters of governance and redefining economic relations afresh remained as distant a dream as ever, while alienation of people continued as previously, nay, increased manifold so much so that the people stood unmoved when efforts were made to dismantle these relief measures one by one, even in matters of governance.

The .revolutionary. proletariat in USSR remained totally unconcerned and did not come forward to defend its ‘class’ power when coup leaders turned the so-called state of ‘peasants and workers’ in 1991 into a state of capitalist development again. The alienation seemed complete . an unfailing feature of capitalist system.

With fall of Berlin wall it was clear that structures built around for a new society had low foundations. The whole Soviet camp collapsed while China was started on move to dismantle since 1978 slowly. The whole project in socialist reconstruction came down flat and the experiment was declared closed. The disarray simultaneously in leading forces everywhere, both ruling as well as intending-to-be-ruling, facilitated ideological confusion to rein in for a while. Francis Fukuyama and his tribe jumped out to pronounce death sentence immediately on the ideology of liberation itself. That is a piece from recent history.

With collapse of the Soviet experiment, the simultaneous disintegration of ruling communist parties was a notable feature in the emerging situation.

Scrambling for power and opportunism exhibited by (33)

The Problem

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so called ruling communist leaders in changing colours to suit their individual interests like in any other bourgeois political formations was striking. It reflected the growth of individualism within. No one so far has questioned what gave rise to individualism while the state structure was busy to build socialism?

The fall back of 1991 has affected all the continents. Its reach was universal in impact. Philosophy of liberation came under carping ridicule instantly. A different ideology was put in practice, the philosophy of marauders that soon changed the scene: American policy of aggression went on spree with no contest. International relations were redefined. Social security measures started disappearing fast. Labour was put on discount. Family and its neighbourhood community were put on sacrificing block. Capital and wealth became central to relations. Social values and morality became irrelevant. Unearned income was turned into sacred possession. All defining characteristics of trade and commerce gripped the entire social life and individuals, which previously stood despised. Individualism became the cherished philosophy in the market, duly getting support from media and academics.

Soon after 1991 event, imperialist countries were on offensive to seize upon opportunity and tighten their grip on world market and politics. The Uruguay Round of negotiations for trade and tariff started silently, without any mandate with the rulers, to pave way for World Trade Organisation, replacing GATT in order to (34)

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The Problem

build and consolidate one world market with American hegemony. With the disappearance of this so-called socialist market by 1991, the balance of forces and shifted decisively in favour of corporate capital with American hegemony, at least for the time being.

The w orld had gone through two wars for the sake of redistributing the market among industrialised nations and grabbing of natural resources to fuel their industrial race; signifying the acute internal crisis in the production/distribution system the capitalist class had forged for itself with corresponding culture in attendance based on individualism and national pride, inviting consequential crisis in social relations. The Second World War had paved way for emergence of a so-called parallel socialist market with Russian hegemony to the detriment of American aspirations.

In terms of market, world stood divided in two rival camps. Now Western countries achieved through WTO and NATO with a weakened UNO what they could not get by armed strategy in two world wars.

In the changed situation, America needed an enemy to consolidate its hold on its citizens as well as on other partner countries to safeguard its interests. It had inventing one in communism by 1948 to consolidate its lead over the imperialist camp and depended heavily on defence industries to provide both butter and muscle in the game, while conjuring up national jingoism to the extreme within. McCarthyism was its creed for long.

With elaborate propaganda blitz it helped American (35)

The Problem

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corporate capital to consolidate world over and beat mental faculty of American citizenry into extreme individualism against communitarian way of life to the sheer advantage of industrial commercial culture: Rulers won and citizens lost. Citizenry everywhere had to bear burden of this costly mad race between two sets of armed rulers.

Now after 1991 when ghost in communism was gone, America needed another enemy as an alibi to maintain its ideological hegemony and keep its citizenry subdued to forestall any challenge. It is now War Against Terror to fill the gap that occurred in 1991. This way, WTO and War against Terror are now weapons of convenience in hands of expropriators to maintain rule of predatory corporate capital with facility to stem potential threat from citizens and recalcitrant countries.

At this stage development, capitalism has turned very uneasy with its democratic pretensions. There is reason: corporate capital cannot do with democracy intact. It needs alibi occasionally to curb democratic rights of its own citizens, so it creates one to suit circumstances as it has done now with its rhetoric against terrorism.

In recent history, Hitler had done it with Reichstag fire in Berlin on 27 February, 1933 and Bush junior orchestrated with World Trade Centre fire in Washington on 11 September, 2001. One was against communists on the rise and the other is under way against democratic pretentions.

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The Problem

It was not for nothing that rulers everywhere have taken up so obediently War against Terror as a creed since then and ambit of democratic rights of citizens curbed in name of ‘national security’ while these very rulers have happily conceded their sovereign rights to American institutions for the sake of ‘globalisation.’ with a perennial threat to national security at the hands of American spy agencies! Almost all countries are now subject of sabotage and terror activities which previously had remained peaceful.

The present situation has come around despite professing democratic faith in place. Tragedy, however, crept stealthily from the beginning. .Equality, Liberty, Fraternity. had proved a liberating slogan against autocratic rule with ‘divine right of the king’ in West and paved way for the mercantile and industrial capital to take root instead. The released energy of people’s power was soon to be a fearful perspective for the new class. The crafty slogan of ‘government of the people, by the people and for the people’ fooled them into representative democracy instead as a practical solution to the impracticable participatory (direct) democracy, which it had meant.

The globalised economy with free market as its guide started taking shape after 1991 with speed, much fanfare and zeal. It left forces of expropriation unchecked for speedy gains, dismantling old safeguards against uncouth jaunts that made masses venerable to heavy costs with no easy remedy available. It speeded the reign of (37)

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exploitation. Within two decades of its sway, corporate capital has turned into an unruly monster fomenting a state of constant strife and sectarian wars to keep perpetuate its hold and subdue masses in obedience.

The rising inequality in America, strife, displacement, spectre of pink slips and unemployment, constantly rising prices of essential goods, unbearable cost of medical care, high cost of education and vanishing civil rights have left peoples gasping everywhere with no immediate way out. All political parties and other civil formations have gone to the side of rich and rogues.

Peoples stand alone and sidelined, left with no effective voice against injustice. Discontentment among the deprived is rising high now. Leaders are targets of ridicule. All democratic and political institutions have lost respect of people; a crisis of new kind indeed.

The protagonists of industrial commercial mode, when left with no alternative than to accept the ground reality, resort to hedging and have the habit to hide the cause. For example, to pose poverty as a problem, devoid of reasonable entitlement, is an intellectual trickery that people are fooled.

By harping merely on poverty virtually goes to sidetrack attention from its cause. This in fact helps in saving a system of expropriation that goes on to enrich corporate houses. People are not poor; they are deprived of fruit of their labour by legal and non-legal trickery involving political/trade union leadership, sate and capitalist class organisations.

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Poverty again is relative, while expropriation of hard labour is concrete in terms of one.s entitlement. It is undeniable that today poverty is defined by robbers themselves at will, while expropriation is in-built with the system of present production to keep inequal ity intact, which again is important to keep health of capitalist class to grow. This results in disturbance in social harmony and tranquillity when working population is made subject to good-wishes of the rich and goodwishes are hard virtues to find in the commodity market!

With collapse of the Soviet and Chinese experiments in social engineering, it was declared by its rival camp that philosophy of liberation from capitalist slavery is a sham. It has no future. The future lies with capitalist mode. There was a flurry of activities to invest it with new vigour and energy by forging some new tools with a declaration that it signifies a new era of efficiency, plenty and prosperity. Unfortunately for the proponents, however, sooner than expected by them system proved again and again to be terminally sick.

Events at international level so moved by last decade of twentieth century that ecstasy ruled the jackals over their prey by the time collapse of experiment in building a new society occurred in USSR, though it was terminslly sick of its own make before collapsing. They became almost mad with the grab, invited friends to rejoice and were smart enough to sharpen their jaws for the next jump. However, soon the grim story for them started to unfold within a decade.

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The collapse of Tiger economies in East and a bit later depression like situation worldwide in all capitalist countries after its leader in America suffered collapse in its banking system around 2008 with the collapse of Lehman Brothers. The administration had to provide a massive injection of public money to save the system of free economy. The burden of debt accumulated by private banks was shifted to shoulders of masses. The state immediately came to rescue of corporate capital in spite of the claim by supportive economists that it has no role to play in operation of a free economy.

With integrated economies of capitalist countries profits are national entities, more to the kitty of powerful ones among them, while the cost of crisis is shifted to pliant countries by manipulating terms of trade and which in turn their population are paying through their nose. It led Noam Chomsky to crisply sum up the reality of corporate jaunts in a globalised economy with the remark: The basic principle of modern state capitalism is that cost and risk are socialised, while profit is privatised.

The massive increase in credit has turned into a massive cesspool of debt. Despite talk of ‘recovery’ crisis did not subside and the talk proved a futile fiction advanced to sooth troubled nerves to restore ‘confidence’ in the system. In USA corporate houses are awash with money yet they do not invest in productive activity for lack of ‘confidence’ or incentives at public cost.

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According to even IMF. the world economy is on track to grow merely a 2.9% which is about half to previous level. It was a crisis of globalised economy where weak is asked to share burden equally. Despite infusion of heavy dose of public money, crisis is ruling the scene. Similar is the position of Europe. The global nature of crisis made it impossible to keep Europe immune from the crisis that took America at tailspin.

Italy has lost 9% of its GDP since beginning of crisis and Greece 25%. The launch of euro in 1999 was seen as key to a golden era of peace, prosperity and European integration but it took little time to face the reality of failures and disintegration. Greece crisis found its echo in euro and the European Union itself. Middle East is in turmoil, while in most countries of Latin American countries tagged to IMF and World Bank like South East Asian and Indian scene are not better. They are feeling the pinch of a globalised economy and are transferring its cost to shoulders of respective population.

The report by Oxfam, titled .Working For the Few., published ahead of World Economic Forum (WEF) 2014 meet in Davos, details impact that widening inequality is having in developed and developing nations. .Wealthy elites have co-opted political power to rig the rules of the economic game, undermining democracy and creating a world where the 85 richest people who own the wealth of half of the world’s population, Oxfam claimed.

It further added that since the late 1970s, tax rates for (41)

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the richest have fallen in 29 of the 30 countries for which data are available, meaning that in many places the rich not only get more money but also pay less tax on it. The report alleged that the richest individuals and companies in the world hide trillions of dollars away from the tax man in a web of tax havens around the world. It is estimated that USD 21 trillion is held unrecorded and off-shore, it said. The reality of situation is too stark to ignore. Sins of the system refuse to die silently. The dark forces of skewed age are on prowl, while peoples nurture hope of their destiny to win against sinners! Fukuyama or no Fukuyama, history did not end. That is the world after 1991.

The Indian Scene It was time after 1991 for the Indian rulers also to take turn: inheriting a bankrupt nation from marauding British rulers in 1947, Nehru led economics led it to consolidate capitalist development at the cost of working people, especially the peasantry. Learning its lesson in Korean War, Indian played its card well taking help from both Western block and Soviet camp to advance its task in capitalist development.

In the changed situation after disintegration of Soviet camp, Indian ruling circles found it opportune to take the next stage in its onward journey with similar superb dexterity to cling to American tail instead of an independent course and surrendered its vast resources at service of corporate capital in pursuit of its own imperialist aspirations with American help. In 1991 its (42)

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march to capitalist growth reached a new stage of consolidation. It took the plunge and shifted to globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation in the interest of corporate capital to flourish.

The worst Indian state could do to its faith in democracy was how at the back of its citizens and its so-called elected representative body .the parliament it tagged fate of the country to WTO under GATT proposals in 1994. It was to prove as a charter for more sinister adoption of a neo-colonial regime clearly under the hegemony of American model of growth with its corresponding culture of loot and domination.

The agreement on agriculture (A o A) under its aegis as integral part of international trade for first time at the call of imperialist block turned out to be the turning point and an open declaration for demise of family farming in India despite strong opposition when the issue came out in open. It was a shameless abdication of obligation to its constituent citizens at worst.

Accordingly later, New Agriculture Policy-2000 by BJP government under Atal Bihari Vajpayee changed the very character of Indian agriculture to bring it in tune with aspirations of corporate capital which so far the state was doing secretly. The country is paying the price of this folly; its agricultural economy is in deep crisis making rural India virtually gasping with no visible sign of recovery in the near future unless it is radically changed by abrogating AoA in the first instance.

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It was the UPA- I under Manmohan Singh who had a bilateral agreement on Nuclear energy with American ruling dispensation in 2005 that surrendered agriculture business also to their dictate. American ruling class thereafter started dictating to Indian government for changing its laws according to its trade interests when obligation on suppliers in case of defective machinery was made a legal bond.

With American dictation to scrape its Food Security Act 2013 and enforce its will under threat of trade bar to drop it altogether under WTO negotiations now with Modi Government of BJP the reality of abdication by Manmohan Singh in 2005 came calling. A new BJP government has taken over with Modi in command.

W ith it fresh pressure came from American government to agree with Bali declaration and drop its concerns on food security. The corporate media in India was furious and launched a campaign asking its government to drop the said law on food security and bring its incompatible policies in tune with WTO obligations. This is symbolic where Indian democracy now has landed when interests of traders take precedence to the concerns for its citizens.

Let us understand that Indian agriculture is not a barren field incapable to feed its citizens. Position is in reverse. If today after seventy years after colonial governance came to end in 1947 its 80 per cent of population needs Food Security Act it simply implies that skewed policies of discrimination against agriculture (44)

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to turn it into capitalist agriculture and subserve industrialisation spree are basic to this crisis that has made people go hungry and turned insecure about food.

Arguments changed. Dreams were altered for the sake of capital. Everything was put on notice for abrupt change to the wish of dollars and sterling pounds.

Aspirations of freedom movement were buried. At a time when the country was celebrating 50 years of its freedom, for sake of trade interests of the community his party represented, the then Prime Minister on behalf of BJP advised: it is not wise to tease old wounds when Amritsar citizens wanted apology from visiting British Queen to the city for crimes at Jalianwala bag mass massacre by British General Dyer at Baisakhi day in April, 1919. It was new low for the sake of foreign money.

In the era of LPG, state came out openly for the capital.

Labour-power was devalued along with human values.

Money was made a master key of relations. Man stood dehumanised. Self became dominant in conduct.

Everything was sought for market duly converted into a commodity, including female sexuality, human emotions and marital relations. New venues in female sexuality are zero risk industries now.

The Indian media, as if on command, is going constantly gaga for globalisation on one side, while at the same time it continuously is whipping crash nationalism and projecting grand agenda for the nation to become a super-power hurriedly by itself and attain number two position, if not the first by grace of America! This (45)

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modus operandi of media helped subtly the ruling circles to justify its alignment with the number one imperialist country with its dastardly crimes to humanity.

The policy of Globalisation and Liberalisation adopted by it since 1991 has produced such a clumsy, but powerful face of an embedded media in India as at present. It is out to chisel public opinion in service of constant strife and injustice in the country. Media is acting as a fourth important pillar of the establishment to serve corporate capital. Elections to 16th Lok Sabha proved the final fall of a free press/media.

It is the short story of Indian journey during last seven decades with last leg of twenty years of fast strides to ruin of a dignified growth on its own talent.

There can hardly be any legitimate quarrel with such a course India has adopted for growth if it satisfies the aspirations of common men and women in the country.

History however testifies otherwise.

Urge to be super-power, by definition, is to dominate others in economic, political and military affairs with capitalist mode of production/ distribution to earn private profit, goes against rationale of war for its own independence from British rulers. What wrong then East India Company and the British capital were doing to India with force of arms and cheating?

If India has a legitimate urge to become a super power, Britons cannot also be denied the same right legitimately? If Indian Capital is doing good to other countries, British Capital cannot be faulted on this (46)

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account? Such logic justifies illegitimate occupation of other lands for grabbing resources and expropriation.

Secondly, what the present mode has done to common masses within the country since 1947, with all fine promises of justice and common good? Despite almost seven decades at its command, country was made to reel under agonising poverty, injustice, inequality, filth and disease. Heavy majority of its people go hungry or half hungry daily. Delivery of justice is a nightmare.

People stood cheated. Around 1952, Nehru used to banter opponents on the question of equity by arguing that there was nothing to distribute before producing enough. The slogan was to produce first in the fields and factories before question of fair distribution is raised. Though the newly adopted Constitution mandates rulers to fashion government policies for equitable distribution of gains in development, this question still after 67 years has gone to winds and is conveniently replaced with trickle-down theory to rob Peter and pay Paul! In fact, people stand reduced to a position of virtual destitutes with begger’s bowls in their hands for littles concession here and there from the rulers.

Perhaps freedom fighters had not bargained for it when they left their hearth and homes to gain selfrule from colonial Britain. Production still remains a slogan without equity and justice.

The banter on that day from Nehru served the capitalist class well. In the name of raising production with legal frames strongly to serve ‘production’ it consolidated (47)

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its grip on economy and hence on national politics. Its pace for expropriation also quickened unabated in the first half century of production that made it worthy of take off by 1991 to dream high and nurture imperialist aspirations through the globalised economy at the cost of working population which stood cleverly cheated even of legitimate wage in the name of national pride.

What this growth in production means to commoners, by the way? It proved a sheer robbery of their hard labour. They did not receive due share in wages, what to say in raised production. Abject poverty and deprivation through crafty manoeuvre of economic tools by the state in favour of capitalists is the result. They stand literally robbed, starved and famished to bare bones despite hard and honest labour during these past seven decades and despite what the pius Constitution promised them on this count.

Perhaps, the written promise and banter from the supreme leader came as a deft design to keep famished people silent over the impending injustice as a result of chosen mode. One does not need elaborate data to corroborate the fact that around 80 per cent of people in India are forced to survive on less than 20 rupees a day, when Ambanis, Adanis, Tatas, Jindals and the like get more than thousand rupees per second without shedding a drop of personal sweat by simply managing an elaborate web of robbing/cheating the nation with grace of state! Their accumulated wealth is a sufficient proof of the loot. The misery of people tells a tale (48)

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eloquently -a testimony that Articles 38, 39 stood flouted in letter and spirit both with impunity.

In their simplicity Indian people had believed the message in banter from Nehru on that day. But it was Nehru including his successors who did not keep promise to people. Advantage went definitely to capitalist class.

Nehru on that day was not a dodo; he was intelligent enough to understand what is meant by what. It was a definite strategy to take the country along capitalist mode by inventing timely clichĂŠs like socialistic pattern, welfare state at one time and inclusive growth with social justice at the other. For once, removal of poverty b e c a m e a ca p t i va t i n g s l o ga n .T h e s o - c a l l ed communists in India, on the other ha d, proved to be sheer dodo; they worked like one, despite vast readings of texts and carrying sufficient mount of ego on this account. They miserably failed Ind an masses to educate them honestly. Their failure at crucial times, as on that day Nehru surmised and Modi now, proved devastating in real terms. The people believed them and suffered unmistakeably for the fault or failure or both of these leaders. It proved disastrous to the future of country in no small terms.

Let us hear advice from a prominent personality in 20th century on this score: 1) To prevent capitalist growth and go for social revolution ..is altogether reactionary.

2) Except through the growth of capitalism there (49)

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is no guarantee of victory over it.

3) Do not retard the development of capitalism but accelerate it, forcing it to resort to more civilised, technically higher methods ofcapitalism ... it suits the proletariat.

Please bear with us; the above postulates as matters of advice are not from any communist-hater. It was no one else but the great leader/teacher of communist movement in twentieth century, the leader of Socialist Revolution in Czarist Russia, Lenin who said so in these terms quoted above to clear a crucial point un der reference on capitalist growth.

The leader was successful to convince his followers worldwide on theory to follow the advice on clearing roadblocks in way of capitalist growth first before any effort is made to build socialism proper.

And communists of his faith believed it without applying their brains. In India all shades of communists are virtually slave to these teachings from the leader without applying their thinking faculties to use.

Mouthing slogans in favour of socialism and revolution their energies were spent in virtually clearing path for ruthless capitalist growth here.

Following these Leninist teachings truly, If Indian communists, sham or real in faith, are fighting semifeudalism as a creed since 1947 onward one need not be surprised unnecessarily. If one finds them very touchy on patriarchy, family bonds and community practices (50)

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like khap for the sake of freedom of choice in matters sex, sexuality, same-gotra or same village marriage and love by young they have a faith to follow.

If they are fighting against conservative traditions and customs of rural uncouth it is as per rule of progressive path they are following in good faith.

If one finds them decrying family as an institution it is not beyond their logic of social change. All these are perceived by them as roadblocks in capitalist growth of Leninist dictums.

Unfortunately, by this time people, without realising it, became victims of faith on these parties and leaders who are charged to work mainly for capitalist growth.

For want of a coherent understanding on historical growth of these political institutions under social system of industrial culture, it was difficult for commoners to realise inherent danger in depending on political parties and leaders for solving their social issues.

By reasons of electoral politics, rulers since 1947 onward have been promoting heaps of welfare schemes to keep famished people bewitched to their pals, while these schemes proved effective more in skirting away from the real issue. Doles could not solve the problem rather accentuated its pangs. As a result, hunger, disease and starvation level subsistence for majority of citizens persists doggedly with no solution in sight. It needs to be stressed that it is not poverty which bedevils Indian citizenry, it is expropriation of their honest labour;

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poverty is its result. This makes fight against capitalism relevant and important.

People who value to live with dignity and cherish human values as indispensable social asset have to prefer adoption of a different way of life than individualism. Here, the importance of philosophy to cultivate clear vision for a useful life can be ignored by dull heads at great peril, both collective and personal.

Fukuyama or no Fukuyama, history moves on. There is no end of road even for ideology; neither philosophy of life is uni-linear or irrelevant. It is kicking and alive, despite soothsayers from the camp of adversaries.

In fact, these are the inherent flaws of capitalist growth that guarantee the emergence of a counter philosophy of life for the peoples. Their assertion for a dignified life, for social peace and satisfaction is an outcome of this objective condition that has emerged out ofcapitalist system in search of uncouth wealth for deceit, expropriation and intimidation.

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V

The Present System

Philosophy of Robbery Well said by one close observer: Fukuyama or no Fukuyama, history moves on. There is no end of history in sense Yoshihiro Francis Fukuyama on the day was in a hurry to predict with a claim to assure justice, equity and tranquillity by liberal democracy of American vintage at the collapse of Soviet camp and its system of governance. He was unduly charmed of its advantage over the socialist thought.

History has its own dynamics working with forces that drives it, despite wishes of men like him. Philosophy of life in a deeply fractured world cannot be uni-polar either; Francis Fukuyama was too optimistic about future of his benefactors and tried to mislead the world in favour of capitalist philosophy of robbery and strife which marvels with a drive to thrive at the cost of others less drunk with power and pelf. Later, he himself tried to wriggle out of ideological soup he was in on matters of hopes and aspirations. The reality of life was too harsh to ignore anymore; it works differently.

So much for soothsayers of false gods.

Fukuyama was not alone indulging in wild goose fantasies but with a definite purpose at hand, many others like him are in circuit. They theorise myths, half truths or (53)

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manufacture some to create ideological confusion so that efforts to fathom stark realities go thwarted about barbarity of present capital centred system based on theory of personal profit as the driving force for development, notwithstanding the fact that such a course necessarily releases a violence inducing virus in society through cut-throat completion and perpetual strife in its trail. Fukuyama apparently evaded a stark reality that he and his ilk sell wisdom and thrive in the cause that is hardly honourable. See a piece: ‘At the modern stage, the ability to build up material wealth at an accelerated rate on the basis of front-ranking science and high-level techniques and technology, and to distribute it fairly, and through joint efforts to restore and protect the resources necessary for mankind’s survival acquires decisive importance.’

On its face, prescription is exceptional, fair and neutral to be palatable for all. If looked a bit carefully, the formulation is not as innocent as it appears; the syntax used is purposive and thrust apparent. While it is sufficiently emphatic on employing new technologies that rests on labour displacement concept to accelerate creation of wealth speedier, the way it pleads very innocently and softly to continue old cliché in the distribution of fruits of labour is remarkable. Workmen, as creators of wealth, were sanctioned ‘fair’ wage over sixty six years back by new rulers of free India, but under an inbuilt myth of a right of owners of capital to (54)

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expropriate surplus only to accelerate accumulation of capital in their hands, a deliberate creation to justify a definite capitalist norm for exploitation.

By the way, how capital reached the hands of these people in the first instance? The claim for exclusive right on surplus value created by others rests on the premise that capital legitimately belongs to them?

Since investment ready capital is not a result of any honest labour put by them in production, naturally, it remains possible only through expropriation of surplus out of production done by their labour employed through a ‘right’ falsely backed by state or accumulated through plain theft, robbery and thuggery.

Primary accumulation and savings have lost relevance in general under sway of corporate capital that rules the roost today; it is a fairy tale now. Why it was felt necessary to make capital primary requirement for growth and social production? Bank money is sourse of investment. This public money and interest on it, is made a valid charge for calculating cost which consumers pay. What Ambani or Tata gets paid at fabulous ratesfor their skills on managerial task, including fudging of accounts, or mastery in handling bureaucrats and political bosses as personal remuneration? Expenditure on such pastime items as bribes for getting preferential treatment or bypassing rules and regulation are considered valid charge that is accountedexpenditure. Dividends on shareholders money is likewise charged similarly.

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These are primarily the source of capital for investment to spur industrialisation spree and commercial enterprises. How, say Ambani or Tata came in picture for instance, except through the grace of state and allowed the ‘right ’ of expropriating surplus production as masters of such expropriated or interest bearing finance capital that stands charged from consumers? Nonetheless, this is made legal as a right at the cost of those who create wealth by their hard labour.

The system is designed in a way that greater the production, heavier is the expropriation, which leads to greater polarisation of society into rich and deprived, giving inequality to rise daily and hourly. These gentlemen, as wiseacres, so serve their masters to sell such a philosophy of robbery but softly and politely by pushing such trash as above quote illustrates!

At least workmen do know by experience of last sixty six years what Indian government has been doing in matters of fixing differential wage structure including ‘fair wage’ formula to keep them at starvation/beggars level while at the same time giving push to some others like Ambani to rise from rags to uncouth riches by sheer manipulation of legality and legitimacy.

The Indian story about how governments made rich class richer using administrative or legal methods makes a fascinating reading, including one for cheating working population, most shrewdly the peasantry, on question of entitlement (details a bit later). Factually, it is robber himself/ herself who decides liability of his/her action on this (56)

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account. These wise men/women did nothing extraordinary except giving voice to what is in the interest of capitalist class. What they said, as above, is the philosophy of present system in vogue a ‘robber’s guide to action. Such gems of wisdom do nothing except disorientate efforts of people to know stark realities. In fact, such people are warriors of a sharp war of intellect on behalf of corporate capital.

Providing an intellectual cover to evil is doing no good to society; it helps prolonging period of its agony. Bereft of such intellectual cover, natural delivery of capitalcentred, market driven profit-seeking and strife inducing system in pangs of deprivation and inequality will necessarily induce also a consciousness to resist injustice by its victims. Through such intellectual intervention from this tribe of intellectuals the system seeks stamina to prolong its octopus like grip on society.

Strife here is perennial while collaboration is temporary, timely and subject to terms of communality in interest. In natural delivery, it produces perpetual inequality, unemployment/under-employment, hunger, disease, misery for working population and polarisation in social formations.

Through state intervention, however, the characteristic output gets boost. This induced delivery through surgical intervention or legal/administrative measures this volatile system brings death of family farming and disintegration of family quickly on one hand and super riches for the masters of capital and state.

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In a natural course of development other than capitalist set up, it is fulfilment of human needs i.e. the sustenance that provides fillip to move ahead constantly in harmony with nature providing a base for peace, cooperation and mutual trust. Human labour is centre of focus and gains necessary skill to overcome hurdles, while interaction, in course of activity with fellow citizens, creates knowledge. Since the law of motion generates continuously rising ambit of needs, society ever moves from lower to higher stage of development. Luxury of today turns into need next day, which guarantees constant motivation for growth to newer heights.

The impetus, driving force for production under natural mode is communality of interest for fulfilling needs that go on increasing steadily. The trajectory of growth is steadily upward as in a mathematical progression. The rhythm of this growth requires labour input of the family in common soliciting cooperation of other neighbouring families for social good that includes fulfilment of individual needs. It is living and sharing in common for sustenance through centuries that has gone decisive in shaping the nature of man/woman as defined one.s characteristics. These defining features of growth under family farming by its nature could not and did not give reason to be individualist or selfish. So, they did not.

With advent of capital centred industrial-commercial mode, in contrast to natural mode, the focus shifted to individual as its basic labour unit while gaining more capital as driving force of enterprise that went to reshape characteristic feature of labour as a freely (58)

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available individual. Individuality and self was made one’s characteristic feature through a sustained effort.

For availability of such an individual to fit in a new culture in consonance was given a shape. Family and its community became a hurdle and were subjected to blows after blows to vacate space. Woman was tutored to be as a free individual with freedom of choice and master of her sexuality, perfect atmosphere for free availability of both male and female in open market of labour and entertainment. It is short story where female and male sexuality are made objects of entertainment through a sustained ideological warfare. This is the philosophy of corporate capital at its current stage of development- a long way indeed from its earlier commitment to democratic values of its younger age.

The motive behind investments for capitalist enterprises is to gain profit and not generation of employment, as is masqueraded to fool people at times.

Subdued employment and uneven development go as outshoots. Market as a place where to collect the profit, acts a regulator for equilibrium between demand and supply subject to manipulations by both for extra gains. Rather, with labour displaying echnologies the ambit of employment decreases in productive enterprises and shifted either to the reserve army of unemployed or to unproductive tasks in service sector for greasing easy life style of rich gentry at low cost. This mode necessarily generates split personality of man, strife, periodic crisis, alienation, shortages, (59)

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hunger and disease and breaks social bonds; family, its community are unwanted categorie for disposal.

Traversing such a course for about four hundred years, capitalism has assumed the general form of imperialism in the era of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation characteristically called corporate capital. Indian capitalism worked tirelessly to strengthen itself quickly in given situation and took a quantum jump in 1991.

With the help of state it grew in strength and now it is an aspirant imperialist enterprise.

Capitalist system cannot serve beneficially to both robbers and their victims. Its wheels run like this ruthlessly and tirelessly. With its capital-centred industrial-commercial culture of competing individual interests makes capitalism more furious that criminally dehumanises man. Without robbery, cheating deceit as its necessary tools It cannot move ahead.

Capitalism, as a system of production and distribution, promises opportunity to all with fair play in a level field to eliminate poverty by releasing creative energies of man through the operation of market forces rather than coercive methods of state. The promise is offered as its main stay to bewitch.

In concert to the above, Capitalism, as a method of governance, promised equality before the law and framing policies with consent of people as its master with regulations and regulatory mechanism in place.

The practice, however, is the real test of fidelity that (60)

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it fails to pass. In process, democracy by now has lost its sheen in general and real face is too dark to adore.

Regulations or regulatory mechanisms do not bind capital for good behaviour; these are virtually meant to deceive its victims into slumber one after the other or enlarge number of beneficiaries in deals. When one set is exposed or rendered to be useless another takes its place to deceive for a while. This is the story world over how rule of law works. Where and when the plethora of laws has been able to control the rapacious capital to remain human and civilised?

In India the phase of liberalism was ushered in by denouncing and dismantling inspector.s raj which was there to enforce regulations for good behaviour, otherwise there was no necessity for ruling circles to frame legislations that sanctified inspectors in place to assure good behaviour of rogues! In fact these inspectors were there to smooth its affairs more in favour of rich rather than the harassed labour.

Labour welfare legislations of that era are loaded heavily in favour of employers. Industrial Disputes Act, 1947, The Payment of Wages Act, 1948, The Minimum Wages Act, 1948 and Trade Unions Act, 1926 are examples for corroboration. Labour Departments have served more employers than the labour everywhere.

With‘liberalisation, Privatisation, Globalisation’ policies were brought in favour of capital as against labour to develop capitalism to corporate level, State (61)

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(polity), or Nation state as an institution now stands graduated to be its hip adjunct without pretensions.

The capitalist mode carries with it reasons for constant stress and malfunction leading to mismatch in production and distribution giving rise to convulsions.

It talks of equality but thrives on inequality. It is hilarious on human rights but rules over with brutal organs of coercion. It flaunts about its rule of law but maintains an elaborate order of illegitimacies/ immoralities to its advantage with help of its legislatures and courts. It is never shy to preside over scams and pamper corrupt at its need. It promises a world of plenty but dispenses poverty and unemployment in plenty.

Capitalism professes virtue of market forces to release creativity and dispense justice but is never shy to manipulate it for advantage of the rich and powerful.

It does not have capacity to keep whole population satisfied of its wants. Majority of its citizens has to be keptconstantly need of essentials and search for employment for reasons of keeping its economy going.

After a phase of its development, capitalism promised a world of plenty in industrialisation spree. The mad race for industrialisation went unchallenged. Claim apart, it is difficult to tell any country in world which is industrially developed and is free from unemployment problem; with no want and misery.

To hell, then, for such a barbarous mode to depend upon for delivery, if one does not prefer to live in constant delusion and depression.

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VI

Fact File

Despite promise for heaven, what masters of the current situation have delivered in this period of three/four hundred years or more is not promising even a decent life in peace for 99 percent of all those populating different continents, equivalent to a virtual hell of sorts.

Heavy majority of them stands alienated and deprived.

By its nature capitalism is an organised system of out right robbery of commons and human labour-power.

It cannot be otherwise. In its trajectory, the unfailing idiom is: big fish eats smaller one for growth. The ground reality speaks volumes about its anti-social character basically. The available data of economies amply belies this story of .progress. and stability in the system with echo in political instability and turmoil in these leading imperialist countries no less than others.

It is now widely admitted that we live in a world rife with inequality of wealth, income, power and influence.

It is the underlying cause of deep seated social tensions.

The disparity between the wealthy minority and the billions living in suffocating deprivation is greater than it has ever been. Worldwide it is estimated that the wealthiest 10 per cent owns 85 per cent of global household wealth. According to Wikipedia as of May (63)

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2005, the three richest people in the world have assets that exceed the combined gross domestic product of the 47 countries with the last GDP., and .The richest 2 per cent of the world population own more than 51 per cent of the global assets..

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development states that income inequality .first started to rise in late .7 0s and early .80s in America and Britain (and also in Israel).. The ratio between the average incomes of top 5 per cent to the bottom 5 per cent in world increased from 7 8:1 in 1988, to 114:1 in 1993.

One of consequences of this social economic imbalance is worldwide movement of people, from impoverished communities with few employment opportunities, to a rich or richer region or nation. The International Organization for Migration estimates there to be over 105 million persons [excluding children] working in a country other than their country of birth. Women make up lion’s share of this army of workers, many of whom are vulnerable to trafficking. The US State Department states that up to 800,000 persons are trafficked every year (althoug the figure is probably considerably higher): 80 per cent of victims are women, of which 80 per cent are sold into the commercial sex industry - particularly a product of commoditization of women labour and her physical assets by capitalist economy. For those with means they are cheap: on average, 90 dollars will buy you a human being, according to Free the slaves. Migrant workers form an economic lifeline (64)

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for millions of families. In 2012 they sent, 406 billion dollars in savings to their families in developing countries., the World Bank reports. In a world of plenty there are billions of people vulnerable to such pursuits merely for survival. The vulnerable and exploited exist because of an inherently unjust social economic system, which has caused extreme global inequality and built a divided and fractured world.

The state establishment everywhere is very alert in hiding facts from people by falsifying data. Still, ground reality is too stark to keep under wraps forever. Though available hard data for developed or developing industrial countries proves the rising scale in inequality, let us take the leading imperialist one for scrutiny. An American, Mr. Paul Buchett (paul@UsAgainstGreed.org) has recently compiled a few facts this system has produced (by grace of Nation of change 26 August 2013).

See, some filthy facts about the rich: First of all, who are they in America .the most industrialized country and a model of self claimed Western democracy?

Mostly, it is 1% of its population. But the top 2.5% has also done quite well, increasing their inflationadjusted wealth by 75 percent from 1983 to 2009 while average wealth went down for 80 percent of American households. The rest of top 20% have been prosperous, realizing a 32 percent gain in inflation-adjusted wealth since 1983. The facts to follow are primarily about richest 1%, with occasional dips into the groups scrambling to make it to top. As evidence of the extremes between very rich and the rest of us, average household net worth for top 1% in 2009 was al(65)

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most $14 million, while the average household net worth for bottom 47% was almost ZERO. For nearly half of America, average debt is about the same as average asset ownership. The extremes are just as filthy at global level. The richest 300 persons on earth (about a third of them in U.S.) have more money than the poorest 3 billion people. Out of all developed and undeveloped countries with at least a quarter-million adults, U.S. has the 4thhighest degree of wealth inequality in the world, trailing only Russia, Ukraine, and Lebanon. In another alarming testament to wealth at the top, richest 10% own almost 90 percent of stocks excluding pensions.

Consider what that means. The stock market has historically risen three times faster than the GDP itself.

Since recession, as U.S. economy has .recovered,. 62 percent of the gain was due to growth in stock market, which surged as much in four years as it did during the ‘greatest bull market in history’ from 1996 to 2000.

Many stock owners see a couple thousand dollars added to their fortunes every time they go online. But that’s not enough for the very rich. Thanks in good part to derivatives market, world.s wealth has doubled in ten years, from $113 trillion to $223 trillion, and is expected to reach $330 trillion by 2017. The financial industry has figured out how to double or triple its buying power while most of the world has proportionately less.

If the richest 1% had taken the same percentage of total U.S. income in 2006 as they did in 1980, they (66)

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would have taken a trillion dollars less out of the economy. Instead they tripled their share of post-tax income. And then they captured ALL the income gains in the first two years of post-recession recovery.

Two dependable sources provide pretty much the same information. Barclays reported that those with earnings in the top 20% donated on average 1.3 percent of their income, whereas those in the bottom 20% donated 3.2 percent. And according to New York Times, non-profit Independent Sector found that households earning less than $25,000 a year gave away an average of 4.2 percent of their incomes, while those with earnings of more than $75,000 gave away 2.7 percent in donations.

In 2012, three members of the Walton family each made over $4 billion just from stocks and other investments.

So did Charles Koch, David Koch, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Larry Ellison, Michael Bloomberg, and Jeff Bezos. India just approved a program to spend $4 billion a year to feed 800 million people. Half of Indian children under 5 are malnourished.

It.s not the obligation of any one of these individuals to feed the world. The disgrace is in fact that our unregulated capitalist system allows such outrageous extremes to exist. Here is more to provoke outrage the 400 richest Americans made $200 billion in just one year. That.s equivalent to the combined total of the federal food stamp, education, and housing budgets.

Even all that is not enough for the very rich. About twothirds of nearly $1 trillion in individual ‘tax expendi (67)

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tures’ (tax subsidies from special deductions, exemptions, exclusions, credits, capital gains, and loopholes) goes to the top quintile of taxpayers. An astounding 75 percent of dividend and capital gain subsidies go to the richest 1%.

And that doesn.t include business subsidies, like the $16.8 billion per year in agricultural benefits paid out to big companies and to wealthy individuals who happen to have farms in their portfolios. The filthiest fact, in terms of detestable extremes, is that much of Congress wants to cut $4.35 a day food benefit to hungry Americans, almost half of them children, so that money can keep flowing to the top.

Instead of investing in new ventures, new plants and machinery big companies are borrowing huge amounts at negligible rates of interest to buy back their own shares. In nine months of 2013 alone $308 billion was spent for this purpose in USA while unemployment hovers around 7%. Trade deficit haunts it around $45 billion per month. Imports from China are down at almost two-thirds.

Another story about America from Jeanna Smialek on Aug 7, 2014 states: The 1 percent in America is rich beyond measure, depriving nations of billions in tax revenue and obscuring shifts in global inequality.

Similarly, research conducted by European Central Bank economist Philip Vermeulen and London School of Economics. Gabriel Zucman show the wealth of super(68)

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affluent hidden by tax shelters and non response to questionnaires is undercounted. Correcting for similar lapses in income data almost erases progress made from 1988 to 2008 in narrowing the gap between world’s rich and poor, the World Bank research found.

We always suspected there was some low-balling of top 1 percent,. said Joseph Stieglitz, a Nobel-prize winning economist and author of.The Price of Inequality. There’s a growing sense that our system is rigged and unfair. The richest of America’s rich, the top 0.1 percent with at least $20 million in net wealth . held 23.5 percent of all U.S. wealth in 2012 after adding in estimates of how much was hidden in offshore tax havens, said Zucman, a visiting scholar at the University of California at Berkeley. Another facet of this American grim reality is summed up in a quote: .. . in America, we have achieved the Orwellian prediction - enslaved, the people have been programmed to love their bondage and are left to clutch only mirage-like images of freedom, its fables and fictions. The new slaves are linked together by vast electronic chains of television that imprison not their bodies but their minds.

Their desires are programmed, their tastes manipulated, their values set for them . said Gerry Spence, in From Freedom to Slavery.

Thomas Piketty, author of bestseller .Capital in the Twenty-First Century,. estimates that out of 7.2 billion populations in world half is forced to survive on less (69)

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than $2 per day, which is standard poverty line from World Bank. Most of it lives in India, China, Sub-Saharan Africa where 45% lives on $1.25 per day in 2010.

Oxfam estimates that 1% of world population owns $110 trillion in wealth, which is 65 times of what half of the population has. What half of world population i.e 3.6 billion have, only 85 people own.

See some other samples, in brief what countries that went by industrial-commercial pursuits to achieve prosperity has led them to situations similar to the leading example of America. It will help to understand true nature of the myth deliberately created to keep capitalist road acceptable by the people for progress.

Germany adopted unprecedented dependence on exports to escape worst of recent crisis triggered by collapse of Lehan Brothers in 2008: in 2012 Germany reached a record 44% of its GDP (euro 1.1 trillion) on basis of holding back of real wages of German workers at the same level of 1992. AsFT remarked: .Germany now has the highest proportion of low paid workers relative to national median income in western Europe.

One quarter of its workforce is on low income wages.

The temporary employees have trebled in ten years.

Britain once gained status of industrial workshop ofthe world, though not by its own talent and resources.

Now it is on parasitic finance capital and services simultaneously claiming recovery from impending calamity of recent crisis. But the country has witnessed most consistent fall in living standards in recent period (70)

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since 1860. For example, nearly 2 million children go to school hungry every morning in industrially, commercially developed Britain .country that led the current fallacious mode of modern growth to take roots. Result: common Britons have come down from seventh cloud to earth, harbouring now a feeling that something is rotten in the establishment conjuring anti-elite sentiment.

BRICS Group of countries are also going through the same features oh crisis in economy. China is experiencing slowing down and so India. It is known that China got muscles in growth of economy at the cost of cheap labour made available to industrialcommercial concerns. Japan is in no good health of late. Japan is having a debt of 250% of GDP. Russian economy depends largely on exports of Oil and Gas with growth rate at 1%. Russia has now highest level of wealth inequality in the world, having 110 billionaires who own 35% of its wealth. Brazil experienced slow down of its economy in 2011 and 2012.

Greece is having unemployment of 1.4 millions including two out of three young people. Portugal is suffering unemployment rate at a record high of 16% with cut of public sector wages between 2% and 12% per worker in yearly budget of 2014.

Italy is on the brink with an accumulated debt of nearly euro 2 trillion and over 3 million unemployed officially, one million of them young between the age of 25 and 34 who lost jobs in a period of 3 years. In 2012 9 millions were classified as poor of whom 4.4 million were living (71)

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in absolute poverty. Spain is suffering currently from unemployment to the tune of nearly 27% of workforce and debt burden approaching 100% of its GDP. Income Inequality. Survey data on all ultra-rich also undershoot, foiled in part by small sample sizes, ECB researcher Vermeulen writes in a July paper. The 1 percent held 35 percent to 37 percent of wealth in 2010, exceeding the 34 percent indicated in the Federal Reserve.s Survey of Consumer Finances, Vermeulen found in his paper. A greater concentration of income and wealth at the top could help explain why consumer spending has been slow to rebound from recession that ended in June 2009, according to Stieglitz. Some of problems in the performance of economic system are related to the true degree of inequality, not measured degree of inequality, he said.

Since 18-month slump ended, the Bloomberg Industries Mass Merchant Index, which includes WalMart Stores Inc. and Dollar General, is up 80 per cent, less than 109 percent gain in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. Luxury retailers have flourished, as evidenced by 254 percent surge in Bloomberg Industries Global Luxury Goods Index, which includes companies such as Coach Inc., Hermes International and Prada Spa. Jeffrey Hollender, who is among wealthiest 1 percent in U.S., isn’t surprised he world’s richest have even more than currently estimated.

The more money that you have, easier it becomes to hide that and avoid taxes, said Hollender, 59, cofounder of cleaning and personal-care products company Seventh Generation Inc. (72)

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The measurement of assets for Europe.s super rich could be even faultier, according to Zucman. About 10 percent of their wealth is in offshore accounts compared with 4 percent in the U.S., he estimates in a May pa per.

Very rich people also have wealth in foundations and holding companies that make calculations difficult, he said. It is possible that some European countries, like the U.K. in particular, are ‘almost’ or even more unequal than U.S., Zucman said, a contrast with current data that show they are more wealth-equal.

European surveys do less than U.S. surveys to counter sampling bias and many miss the mark more, Vermeulen found. For example, Austria.s top 1 percent held as much as 36 percent of that country.s wealth in 2013, if adjusted with Forbes. data. That.s 13 percentage points more than one survey estimate suggests, which would make Austria almost as unequal as the U.S. Financial wealth held offshore costs the U.S. government $36 billion in annual revenue from non- payment of income, investment, inheritance and estate taxes, according to Zucman.s paper. That.s enough to buy lunch for every student in New York City public schools for over a century. Europe is losing $75 billion.

There are potential implications for tax policy, Zucman said. If inequalities are higher than we thought, then maybe it can change views on the extent to which marginal tax rates should be increased on top incomes or the extent to which we should use other tools, like a wealth tax.

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Carl Robits, 34, sleeps on London Wall, one of the main streets in the City, London’s financial district. He.s been homeless for about 18 months after a medical discharge from Royal Anglian Regiment Second Battalion. He was part of Occupy London movement when it took over Finsbury Square in 2011-2012. Since then, the system’s not any better, said Robits, who was back at Finsbury Square last week. There’s too much bureaucracy. Unless you have a drug or alcohol problem, you are not a high priority. I’m not being helped. I’m not getting any form of advice or direction.

Worldwide economy made some of biggest strides in globalization between the fall of Berlin Wall and start of past recession, causing living standards to improve for millions of poor people, including in China and India.

World Bank looked and found there was little progress in reducing global inequality once adjustments were made for possibly under counting wealthy.

In contrast with unadjusted figures that show a drop in disparity, World Bank.s Gini coefficient measuring the extent of income inequality barely budged during those decades, according to preliminary adjustments by economists Christoph Lakner and Branko Milanovic.

With a ‘top heavy’ adjustment, the decrease in inequality . present when we use all other adjustments almost entirely dissipates, they wrote in a December paper. That.s surprising for a period when poverty was falling sharply in World Bank data: number of people living on less than $1.25 a day dropped to 1.22 billion (74)

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in 2010 from 1.91 billion in 1990 after adjusting for inflation according to it.

In Independent India position is similarly as dismal where economic and financial policies are tailored to favour corporate capital. Following capitalist mode of development it did not and could not produce socialist pattern of society., despite open policy decision by highest political leadership. The net result of this path delivered what it was destined to produce. A latest example published on 14.08.2014 speaks loud: According to analysis by wealth research firm namely, Wealth-X of country’s richest individuals 5 top richest individuals led by neo-tycoon Mukesh Ambani have an estimated net worth of $85.5 billion (about Rs. 5,23,897 crore) amounting to 47.5% of India’s total billionaires wealth, Ambani alone owns $24.4 billion (about Rs. 1,49,474 crore) in personal wealth. They have expropriated it through their business in sectors like oil, gas, steel and pharmaceuticals when consumers were made to pay through their nose. On other hand a mother sells her dear child for a few hundred rupees to ward off hunger.

On Aug 15, 1955 Prime Minister, P. Jawaharlal Nehru exhorted when he said from the rampart of Red Fort: It is very humiliating for any country to import food.

So everything else can wait but not agriculture.

Despite, agriculture stood discriminated in terms of support. Devender Sharma, an expert on agriculture affairs commented recently on his blog thus : Farm (75)

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suicides began as a trickle around 1987 or so and since then have taken a toll of nearly 3 lakh farmers in the past 17 years. World Bank/IMF and the international financial institutions began to propose that economic growth can only take place when fewer people are left in agriculture. In 1996, the World Development Report of the World Bank suggested moving 400 million people, equally to twice the combined population of UK, France and Germany, from the rural to the urban areas in India in the next 20 years i.e. by the year 2015.

The IMF/World Bank induced policy of support to industrial-commercial ventures instead have led almost the demise of support to agriculture that resulted in human tragedy of sorts. In 2013 14, farmers produced a record harvest of 264.4 million tonnes of food grains. Production of oilseeds reached a record high of 34.5 million tonnes, a jump of 4.8 per cent.

Maize production increased by 8.52 per cent to reach a level of 24.2 million tonnes. Pulses production reached an all-time high of 19.6 million tonnes, an increase of 7.10 per cent over the previous year.

Cotton production too touched a record high. With such record production, the nation should remain indebted to the virile and hardworking farmers.

But last year, in 2013-14, when farm production recorded a quantum jump, agriculture received Rs 19,307-crore from the annual budget kitty, which is less than 1 per cent of the total budget outlay.

This year, only Rs 22,652- crore has been provided for agriculture and cooperation departments.

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Again outlay for agriculture remains less than 1 per cent of total budget. The apathy towards agriculture continues, although it grew at an impressive rate of 4.1 per cent in Eleventh Plan period (2007-8 and 201112) it received a dismal support of Rs 1 lakh crore.

For a sector which directly and indirectly employs 60crore people, Rs 1 lakh crore outlay for five years is peanuts. In 12 Plan period (2012-13 to 2017-18) agriculture is projected to receive Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

Compare this with Rs 5.73 lakh crore tax exemptions showered on industry in 2014-15 alone. Since 200405, Industry has received tax concessios (computed under revenue foregone in budget documents) to the tune of Rs 36.5-lakh crores or Rs1,100 crores per day for past 9 years. In fact, farmers have disappeared from economic radar screen., Sharma comments. Agriculture stands impoverished by deliberate policy decisions by government that has led rural economy to the verge of collapse.

The insidious expropriation of unorganised sector, mainly family farming is truly criminal To illustrate how system was tailored to work and rob farming through a maze of contrived policies the following points may suffice: The mischief was to categorise workmen into organised and unorganised sectors for purposes of wage determination. The organised sector comprises merely 8.5% of the total work force and rest is placed unorganised.

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1. The organised were further categorised into trade wise workers for differential wage fixation.

2. Trade wise workers were further categorised as highly skilled, skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled for this purpose.

3. Unorganised work force was categorised as agricultural and non-agricultural 4. Agricultural workmen were categorised as ploughmen, head-loaders, herdsmen, etc 5. Non-agricultural workforce was categorised trade wise workers for wage determination.

Likewise, list goes on to keep workforce divided and rob them by section wise handling of issues arising of the discrimination so built around. Different criteria were framed for organised and un- organised sectors in matters of wage determination and a highly discriminatory wage structure was formalised.

The worst sufferer was the farming sector. The idea behind, perhaps, was to keep the majority of work men deprived of decent wage and create a middle class comprising of organised sector as a shock absorber to the system of expropriation for safe sailing. In bonus, it keeps workmen/women and farmers divided as also peasant movements fragmented.

Farming was clubbed with unorganised sector, where working unit comprises labour unit of two adults instead of one as in organised sector against a family.

Farming was declared an unskilled job with the result (78)

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that for fixation of minimum wage rate under the relevant Act agricultural labour got the last category of least paid, while fixing minimum support price of agricultural products family labour was accounted on the scale the family is supposed to give to agricultural labour! In the bargain, both stood robbed of a due wage for the labour put in production.

Family unit in farming sector was declared arbitrarily consisting of three consumption units instead of five as in the organised sector. Family labour was counted for work-hours bureaucracy determines it spent in farming operations for 156 days in a year through this mechanism instead of 365 days. For rest days farming family was deprived of even starvation wage.

Putting together all these subterfuges, farming was made the worst looser. By such a mechanism rural sector was deprived of even a living wage and drained it off the additives it created by their labour to finance the industrial-commercial sectors.

As a result, cities thrived and village economy collapsed with hunger and wants lurking around. Agriculture thus was made to subserve the interest of industry and trade.

1. As organised sector holds complete control on money system in India and all centres of political and administrative power belong to it, this elite club has the last word on distribution of total national product and takes advantage of its position in a variety of ways.

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2. The subterfuge is resorted while fixing relative value of labour input made by different categories of workmen/women in production by devising highly discriminatory criteria for workers arbitrarily categorised sectors as organised and unorganised.

The level of discrimination is unexceptional: The minimum wages being prescribed by governments in different states and the centre through legislation reflect deep-rooted bias of the decision making power elites exercise against workers in unorganised sectors.

The wage so fixed for a worker in unorganised sector ranged between 5 to 10 rupees per day in 1986 for the upkeep of worker family of three units i.e. 2 adults and 2 minor children, when class iv employee in organised sector was getting at least four times; perks and service security fo lifelong was extra bonus.

The central labour commissioner on 1.4.2004 notified a minimum wage of rupees 97.80 per day for unskilled workers in central undertakings and class iv regulars were getting 4,721 per month as ordained by Fifth Pay Commission and not less than rupees 10,000/ per month under vi pay commission, while 77% of population was living on rupees less than 20/ per day in 2004-05 according to report of Commission on Unorganised workers headed by Arjun Sen Gupta. This disparity is alarming between organised and unorganised sectors.

To summarise, farming is unskilled work in unorganised sector where two adults, instead of one in other (80)

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avocations working for maintaining a family of 3 labourunits accounted for 156 days labour in a year. Calculating input costs for working out Minimum Support Price (MSP) for agriculture products, thus heavily depressing arbitrarily the actual income for a farming family.

It was to extract heavily labour-value out of farming that was ploughed in for financing free industry and trade sector. It spelt disaster for family farming and released land for sale to the rich. See an example: In 1990, the average wage for a farmer worked out at a rate of rupees 10/- per family per day for 147 (now 156) days in a year. Later, rate was rupees 15/- in 1995, rupees 35/- in 2007 and is around rupees 75/at present, while class iv employee gets 600/-, teacher 1000/- district collector no less than 2500 per day, while there is no limit for corporate honchos, despite the compelling difference in use value of agriculture products for food ecurity of the nation.

By one account nearly 7 lakh crores of rupees are extracted on this account alone from rural sector to finance the urban sector i.e one crore per village per year in the country!

A report of CRISIL Research on January, 7, 2014 points out: non-farm jobs to shrink by 25 pc in 7 years. It estimates 12 million people may be forced to look for low-quality, low productivity rural or agriculture jobs over seven years, a reversal of old trend of migration from farm to non-farm employment opportunities.

Job generation in the non-farm sector will slow down (81)

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sharply in the coming years. Employment outside agriculture is expected to increase by only 38 million between 2011-12 and 2018-19 compared with 52 million between 2004-05 and 2011-12. Due to insufficient employment creation in industry and services sectors, more workers willn become locked in the least productive and low-wage agricultural sector or remain unemployed (emphasis added). Around 12 million people will join farm work force by 201819, compared to a decline of 37 million in agriculture employment during 2004-05 and 2011-12.

We expect the Indian economy to expand at slower pace of six per cent per year in FY 2013-19 from 8.5 per cent in FY 2005-12. GDP growth is driven increasingly by less labour-intensive services such as finan cial, real estate and business services (including IT-ITES). For eg, in FY 2012, these services, with nearly 19 per cent share in GDP, employed 3 out of 100 workers in economy, said Dharmakirti Joshi, chief economist, CRISIL. The great divide between Rural and Urban sectors in India is widening. As per official data, which is almost always skewed to buttress success of reform policies, inequality is not narrowing between these sectors: In 1993-94, average monthly per capita expenditure was Rs 281 in rural and Rs 458 in urban India. They rose, respectively, to Rs 772 (+174 per cent) and Rs 1,472 (+221 per cent) in 2007-08, which means that gap between urban and rural areas has jumped from 63 to (82)

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91 per cent. The gap diminished somewhat between 2007-08 and 2011-12, with rural MPCE reaching Rs 1,430 (+85 per cent) and urban MPCE rising to Rs 2,630 (+79 per cent), it remained more than 20 percentage points higher than what it was in 199394, at 84 per cent.

The gap between rural and urban areas has become particularly pronounced in states where cities have boomed, like Karnataka, with the Bangalore phenomenon, and where, the gap between rural and urban MPCE has increased from 57 to 93.5 per cent.

The trickle-down theory stands fooled.

According to NSS 66th Round repot, Key Indicators of Household Consumer Expenditure in India 2009-2010, July 2009-June 2010, average Monthly Per Capita Expenditure in 2009 10 was Rs 1054 in rural and Rs 1984 in urba India, that is, per capit expenditure level of urban population was on an average 88% higher than the rural. Its key findings were: • Average MPCE in 2009-10 was estimated as Rs.1053.64 in rural India and Rs.1984.46 in urban India. Thus the per capita expenditure level of the urban population is about 88% higher than that of the rural population. The poorest 10% of India.s rural population had an average MPCE of Rs.453.

The poorest 10% of the urban population had an average MPCE of Rs.599. The top 10% of the rural population, ranked by MPCE, had an average MPCE of Rs.2517 about 5.6 times that of the bottom 10%. The (83)

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top 10% of the average MPCE of Rs.5863, about 9.8 times that of the bottom 10%. The top 10% of the urban population had an average MPCE of Rs.5863 about 9.8 times that of bottom 10%.

Furthermore, 40% of the rural population had MPCE below Rs.800 while 60% had MPCE below Rs.1000.

In a report published in The Hindu on 29 November, 2013. Beyond the debate, govt. accepts 65% Indians are poor. According to a CRRID survey, Chandigarh in Punjab 98 per cent rural households are under debt.

Each household has an outstanding debt of Rs 4.79 lakh or 96.73 per cent of its annual income.

Wealth has grown but mostly gone to the hands of super rich. The report by Oxfam, titled .Working For the Few., published ahead of World Economic Forum (WEF) 2014 meet in Davos, said that in India, number of billionaires increased tenfold in past decade, aided by a highly regressive tax structure and wealthy exploiting government connections, while spending on the poorest remains remarkably low. The gap in incomes is 1:1000.

This gap is increasing with pace of development.

Despite claims from rulers everywhere for a bright future under present dispensation, life for commoners is hell for no fault of theirs, except that they believed their tormentors. They promised honey but delivered poison while continued to serve capitalist growth instead clandestinely in the beginning but are doing it openly since 1991 by narrating its liberating qualities.

It is beyond doubt that present mode of development (84)

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worldwide has led to accumulation of wealth at one pole is at the same time accumulation of misery at the opposite pole. leading to constant turmoil, tension and distress to mass of the people despite honest labour.

Skills too do not pay after a while. The machine works like this to grind the targets fine and with speed.

In the midst of even a crisis of its own make, the rich get richer and poor relatively getting poorer. Credit Suisse in a recent report provides an interesting contrast: 3.2 billion people control $98.7 trillion in wealth amounting to 41 percent of the world wealth is in the hands oh 0.7% of the population. At the other extreme 3.2 billion people control a meet $ 7.3 trillion meaning thereby that 68.7 percent of world.s adult population control just 3% of its wealth.

Another report from the same source indicates increase in the number of dollar millionaires between mid2012 to mid- 2013. See a few cases for example: Spain 402,000

+13.2%

Us 13,210,000

+ 14.6%

France 2,210, 000

+ 14.9%

Germany 1,730,000 +14.6% China 1,120,000

+08.7%

It is a malaise of the system and makes little difference h e re a n d t h e re b y p e rs o n a l i t i es w h o d r i ve .

The sterile system has stopped delivering honey even (85)

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to the capitalist class without tears. The crisis is on its sleeves of its own make with least possibility of delivery presently, except by accelerating the pace of expropriation of the masses on hourly basis.

Despite promise for heaven, what masters of the current situation have delivered in this period of four hundred years or more is not promising even of a decent life in peace for 99 percent of all those populating different continents. Heavy majority of them stands alienated and deprived. It is not a happy picture. It needs to be changed and changed for better as earlier as possible.

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VII

Analysis of Events And Issues

As noted earlier, human society about four hundred years back took a hop to a set of different relationships among fellow beings with new set of promises that went stale and putrid by now. The pinch started biting hard. Some wise men/women studied phenomenon, felt worried and tried to redefine society afresh.

The human society since then is faced with two incompatible streams of views how one should lead life and with what type of relationship among ourselves. As a result, some interesting but fundamental aspects have emerged on this question. The foregoing narrative has noted the main dominating contention of a capital-centred industrial-commercial mode of development in a market driven economy, having its specific theoretical approach to life.

And if said bluntly, in essence it is a philosophy of outright bluff, deceit, robbery and falsification. The other contending view of life remains vilified and today stands largely distorted on various counts and reasons of stupidity in practice.

The narrative leads one in no uncertain terms to conclude that abrupt push fundamental change (87)

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sought to be performed for rebuilding society faulted before its collapse in 1991. After fall of Soviet camp, adversaries alleged with renewed vigour that: 1) The communist philosophy itself is skewed and unnatural; it goes againstthe very nature of man and so utopian.

2) Communism turns man slave to big brother.

3) Individual is soul of society and its building block. The task of the state establishment is to facilitate development of one’s personality.

4) Nature rests on a principle where the fittest survives and those weak are destined to give way to the winner with no question asked.

5) Inequality is a norm in society which pushes it forward.

6) Communist ideology kills the animal instinct in man to struggle for the best and worker turned into a lazy lizard. There is no incentive for innovation and progress.

7) Communism is negation of democracy and rests on violence which goes both against the basic grain of human being.

8) Human society has moved forward and has developed structure suitable like armed state and institutions to exercise authority to maintain order in society and check evil in man.

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Analysis And Issues

9) It is capital that performs as the engine of growth. By eliminating capital as its primary means of production in society the communist mode of social and economic structure seeks to take human society back to stone-age.

The crisis that broke in course around First World War found manifestation for an abrupt change in Czarist Russia during 1917. The totality of conditions then available there had triggered fundamental push to rebuild society on the basis of new relations, taking communist philosophy as guide giving birth to USSR. In a short span, despite lacerating wounds of civil war and aggression to thwart its existence at initial stage country moved fast to deliver a good account with much needed relief to struggling people. The level of satisfaction was much better than other models of industrialised nations and on their own strength.

The hard earned victory gave shape to a distinct Soviet camp of socialist economy as its leaders defined. The communist philosophy got a shot in arm and attracted millions to its fold. Humanity in colonised countries got a boost to seek liberation from foreign rule, including India, got freedom with a wish to shape their destiny according their own talent and energy.

However, almost all countries which came out of colonial fold took recourse basically to capitalist form of development as in West, some under duress others voluntarily, while few looked to USSR for guidance and help. A new formation of such countries emerged as (89)

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non-aligned block seeking economic political help from both contending American as well as Soviet camps. In both camps and the so-called non aligned block they followed a similar faith in industrial mode of development, giving rise to individualism symbolic of selfish faith as the guiding philosophy at base of this economic mode seeking a life of plenty with corresponding cultural milieu, though claims differed on social plane and political postures in each.

That gave rise to reasons for tensions and local or regional armed conflicts for possessions and market.

This is the summary of events when a push back came down in 1991 to where it had started from. Market driven capitalist mode of development was adopted.

It gave occasion for capitalism to claim victory of its philosophy and practice with a renewed charge against communist philosophy on it failure. In fact it is a failure of industrial mode to reshape a society with one step ahead and three steps back.

The present state of indignity and inequality is face to face with an ugly reality of a wretched mode of life that dehumanises and alienates man. This gives reason to find an alternative for liberation from this situation of frustration in favour of peace and satisfying system of living a useful social life.

Meeting the charge It was unhistorical to claim that man is actuated to act in self interest. It may be true for present day man to be selfish, who got now fully conditioned by a powerful (90)

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Analysis And Issues

campaign under present philosophy of individualism through strenuous efforts of a collaborating state.

There is nothing to suggest in history that man was born selfish by nature; by nature human is social and collective way of life is one’s condition of existence.

The other premise in favour of capitalist mode to justify inequality seeks to explain it as a feature in the very nature of man, rhetorically recounting a simple tale to fix simpletons that all fingers in hand are not equal with man. But equally in rhetoric, man has two equal legs and a mere limp in any does disturb the equilibrium for walking straight is so conveniently ignored in consideration by such ‘wise’ men.

Let it not be ignored that unequal fingers in hand with man have developed in course of human growth to perform specific tasks while equal legs and equal eyes with a healthy mind for keeping walking in equilibrium.

By resorting to such tricky and foolish etiology to keep others confused one cannot reasonably justify inequality.

Man is not a junglee now. The theory that justifies survival of the fittest is completely anti-thesis to social existence of man and cannot be justified by any sane standard of civilised behaviour. It negates the march of history to modern concepts of human life. It is also not true that in one.s fight against inequality man turns hyper active leading to progress. The logic is puerile.

To depict state as a pre-condition for existence of an civilised society is travesty of history; society survived a longer period without it. The state and other so(91)

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called structures developed by minority to control majority in check is the development of a specific condition with specific motives. It cannot claim perpetuity, unless one seeks to justify status quo.

It is also not true that capital is unfailing engine of growth. To minimise the centrality of human labour as the base of human progress, the force invested in capital as an engine of growth is artificially created under duress, to provide a legal alibi for expropriation of fellow beings in a system of inequality and injustice.

Once the back up of armed state is removed the force invested in capital against human labour power remains as inert as it was ever and totally infertile.

Capital is a medium that was created to cheat the labour-power with no regret and shame.

Human history testifies beyond any shadow of doubt that man has developed a congenial social structure for growth living and working in collectivity whose basic building block is the family of closest possible relationships as symbolic of communist principles in miniature. Communist society may be the closes proximate of this past heritage to move ahead.

The sad experience of present capital centred way of life and misery it has inflicted upon humanity through its industrial-commercial mode provide an unfailing background for this hope in communism for society to move ahead with confidence. The concocted stories against it do not stand scrutiny of reasonable thought.

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VIII

Theory of Revolution

Radical Change in Relations Twentieth century saw a fierce contest between two systems of thought called capitalism and communism for supremacy. The first takes capital as central to progress while the later views human being in a communitarian setting as its point of interest. Capital formation is not an object for the later.

The history of capitalist supremacy over society is hardly of three hundred years. It is also a period of ruthless colonial exploits and armed conflict for possession inthe interest of trade and industrial spree. Volume of production has gone up, so misery too is increased.

The capitalist mode started facing challenge almost 150 years back from communist thought as a theory of radical changes in relations, called in common parlance as social change. The sway of capitalist mode over lives of people came under attack far and wide.

Absurdities of system had pushed people everywhere to seriously search for viable alternative and communist hilosophy explained by K. Marx was attracting them worth experimenting with. Large section of working people tried to understand contours of this philosophy.

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Materialism Gave Vision At a point of time capitalist relations in course of development started pinching hard and urge for change propelled men/women to know reality of things first.

It was materialist interpretation of universe in its historical context that provided a vision for reordering relations afresh when capitalism turned unbearable.

As discussed earlier, law of motion reasonably unfolded by science i.e. physics provided a guide to understand principles that govern materialism as a philosophy, leading to realise the reality and how it is unfolding presently. This philosophy with a mundane character rooted to the ground came handy. The subjective philosophy of idealism on the other hand keeps one bound to faith, which may incidentally be knowable or may not be; it cannot guide surely to reach the truth.

Communist ideology recognises material world (the nature) as basic for understanding society and its problems with due respect to the force of ideas in present era that equip man to move ahead. It differentiates idea from idealism which is a definite system of belief.

It is known now that idea, the base of idealism, is itself a product of material world. The growth story of human race elaborates that at a definite point in time it got equipped with a faculty to think having developed a particular physical organ. With power of translation human race decisively moved ahead of others in living world. The science of society presents a definite route (94)

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map to know how human race has come to think and interpret; the power of translation. According to it, idea basically is the product of a particular matter at growth that enabled human being to think. After coming into being this particular capacity of humans to interpret, the idea influences society in its course.

Well reasoned ideas guide society while fantasies do misguide it. Idea is organically a part of material world. The ideology of communism based on reason thus recognises philosophy of idealism what it is worth as something subjective and not of much help to know reality around. Idealism has a history; it came into being at a particular juncture of social development much after human being came into being with its developed thinking faculty. Coming into being ideas influence material world though basic reason of motion remains in-inter play of its negativepositive forces inside.

While unravelling reality of material world and how relations are working in social interaction at present, communist philosophy advanced essential elements of viable alternative. Broadly these are: • It will be a new society where one gets according to need and works according to capacity passing through a stage where one gets according to work while putting labour according to capacity for social benefit, replacing capital by human labour in dignity.

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• Working people need abolishing stranglehold of capitalist relations and replace it with human labour.

• It will be a classless and stateless society • Essentially communism will be a society free from expropriation, oppression and indignity in a communitarian setting so as to replace the present capitalist stranglehold.

• Marx said that proletariat is midwife to revolution and works for abolishing classes though sovist experiment belied it.

Let us here recollect: The inexorable law of capital based system in economy is expropriation of living as well as inert labour to an increasing scale hourly. This is done on the strength of self-proclaimed right of private ownership over means of production, including capital and present it as natural inheritance, pushing producers the working masses - to a life of deprivation and relative misery, brutalising man in process of a mad race for profit.

The natural corollary of this process leads to polarisation between a minority of small numbers with huge wealth at command and teeming millions in penury at the other end. Millions stand condemned to hapless situation day by day, in spite of intensified labour. In between, a handful of them are sucked to its bosom and coopted as its ozone cover. The process of capitalist development and distribution leaves producers of this wealth - the workingmen to go hungry in trail and live (96)

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in relative penury. To keep it going the deprivation is laced with an elaborate mechanism with some doles and carrots in the first instance, while disinformation and coercion go as its dependable instruments of state to do dirty job for subduing the recalcitrant.

When capitalist society was pregnant for change on its fundamentals, communists came on scene. The situation had turned unbearable in the era of capitalismimperialism. For a change in society, however, a different type of mass movement was to take shape with its own fresh outlook, its own methodology and had to forge its own instruments of struggle with its distinct culture along with its mode of development to follow in consonance with such an outlook.

Later half of nineteenth century, especially after publication of the communist manifesto in 1848, events charged workingmen with a fully realisable dream of a society having no exploitation and oppression of man by man. It promised withering away of state and where one will get according to need, after a day of happy labour, after passing through a short period of .one getting full according to labour put in for social production. Was it a wishful? No one can claim that such a phase is not desirable or unattainable. Apologists for status quo apart, no sane person can doubt feasibility of such a project with a bountiful nature and resourcefulness of community ready to push for touching the moon, provided stranglehold of regressive forces is broken for good replaced by a harmonious set up instead!

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The teachers of workingmen concluded by middle of nineteenth century after going through a long process of reading, engaging and delivery that present day society is pregnant for change with people.s power as its engine. They did not merely preach but started also working for it. It was the beginning of a universal communist movement, engaging teachers and their followers belonging to various sections of society and imbued with new ideas.

The Theory The movement for radical change in relations over throwing capitalist set up has communism as its ideology with a definite system of thought and analysis. It is an ideology of emancipation and empowerment that emerged out of certain specific conditions of history.

It had a reason to come and a mission to achieve in midst of painful turn in situation due to utter regressive nature of capitalist system that had once come on stage to build fraternal relations to deliver justice and equality; delivering constant strife and tension instead.

The ideology of radical change in relations came out as answer to ills of exploitation, oppression, inequality and indignity. When emerged, it was not out of vacuum or came out of the blue from some dreamers.

It was as a natural outcome at a particular juncture in contention to theories of status quo, philosophy of robbery of commons and labour-power.

Communist theory thus was in answer to absurdities of capitalist relations in production, distribution and socio(98)

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political-cultural milieu these relations create in consequence, when it did not or could not answer ills of a fractured society. Communism as a new philosophy tried to fathom the world from a realist angle.

The prevalent capitalist mode i.e. master-servant relations of production and distribution, with individual right of property in market place to contend had emerged in its turn to answer certain ills of previous feudal lord and serf relations of a type emerged mainly in Western countries. Individualism came to be recognised as its philosophy of life, while electoral democracy as its political creed for governance to be translated through parties on behalf of rulers and the ruled. The whole thing was designed to give it long life by containing mass energy on dotted lines that did not work as smooth as planned all because of its own inner contradictions.

To change the present evil for a better future, teachers of wisdom then with a mind to translate events, studied history of human development first describing savagery of present capitalist dispensation and course open to move ahead for delivery. The discourse guided the struggle for bread and peace in early part of twentieth century that gave ray of bright hope to commoners, prima facie. People were tired of pains from present system, eating into their nerves.

The study by teachers of workingmen underlined a fact that under capitalist system, labour is replaced by capital (99)

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as fulcrum of production relations in society that ensures expropriation of surplus value added by labour-power spent in production process and taken away as profit by owners of capital as also other means of production, converting labour as a commodity while controlling the distribution of goods through market mechanism. Profit replaces fulfilment of need as the motive force of production. Thus private profit turned society poorer, pro rata. These processes as a whole tend to leave society highly fractured into incompatible interests to contend releasing forces of polarisation that breeds concentration of capital with proportionate poverty of the majority, giving rise to constant crisis, strife and turmoil with no reliable solution within its ambit. In the system, wage slavery is a new norm debunking society to new indignities constantly.

To maintain order in disorder of capitalist system, state with standing army of professionals was made inevitable for it to survive. Communism was viewed as the answer to debasing capitalism. Abolition of private property was first taken as a solution with social ownership of means of production where motive force of production will be to fulfil needs of citizens while state withers away and people manage their own affairs voluntarily and habitually with abolition of commodity production. Happy human labour by replacing capital as fulcrum of production becomes creative and habitual giving way to compatible interests for a harmonious society taking over. Higher form of social cultural relations replaces a fractured (100)

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society to life of bliss, harmony and peace. It took a long ideological debate to concretise historical experiences and formulate course of action by legions of teachers on behalf of working masses led by K. Marx.

With emergence of communist ideology, humanity relied for deliverance on well meaning leadership of communist movement, though it faced fierce resistance naturally from the entrenched forces of status quo.

The creed was international in approach with a slogan ‘Workers of the World Unite’. Later, they went to form a common platform, called International Working men Association for dialogue, discussion and expansion. Action was limited in scope.

Karl Marx among such teachers was a whole time devotee to cause in dignity. He died in penury but developed a system of thought rich in content fighting against philosophy of poverty and poverty in philosophy both. With his contribution, helped by his dependable colleague in intellect, F. Engels, communist theory took shape and a movement gained roots, influencing course of society till better part of twentieth century. The duo gave theory of liberation to an ailing society.

The picture was not that rosy. There were many teachers of workingmen during the days of K. Marx and F. Engels who had a different notion of emancipation. Unanimity on theory and practice of movement could not be reached in their times. Fabians, Anarchists, Nihilists to Pacifists, joined later by Mensheviks to Narodniks had their fields of contest. Stalwarts like Bernstein, (101)

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Plekhanov, Henderson, Kautsky, Wilhelm Liebknecht, Bebel, later V.I. Lenin, Rosa Luxemburg, Clara Zetkin and many others explained things in their own wisdom.

However, on essence there was little to differ and role of Marx was acknowledged. The theory of liberation gained currency and attracted stalwarts from all corners.

Analysing capitalist mode of production Karl Marx held that: all wealth has become industrial wealth, the wealth of labour, and industry is accomplished labour, just as the factory system is the perfected essence of industry, that is labour, and just as industrial capital is the accomplished objective form of private property..

(Economic and philosophic manuscripts, Coll. Works, vol.3, p. 293)

Again, he held that by investing labour-power the producers add value to goods for sale, but in return get wage much less than what is their creation. Thus surplus value is expropriated on the notion of ownership over means of production through capital. It leads to constant deprivation in society for a large section of people creating conditions of unrest and tension. This conflict of interest between these two parts turns society in turmoil. According to him, for getting rid of it proletariat being the most deprived section will lead liberation struggle for redemption.Marx-Engels assigned the proletariat key role, as E. Mandel comments: ....because of a place it occupies in production process and the capacity it possesses to acquire talent for organisation and cohesion in action which is incommensurable with that of any oppressed class in the past.

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Theory of Revolution

The central political concept from Marx turns out to be proletarian self-emancipation by holding state power after overthrowing bourgeoisie and leading to a phase when the state withers away. The predominating view, however, holds that a proletarian revolution can occur only when industrial capitalism and a large class of proletarians also are developed. This opinion still holds sway over Marxist understanding of revolution. Lenin perfected it and provided a theoretical base for seriously compromising credentials of revolutionary praxis. It in effect opened a path to work in favour of capitalist development in name of revolutionary change. Apparently the view is based on the premises that: (1) capitalist system of production with industry and trade in lead has no alternative to depend for taking society to new heights and is progressive (2) proletariat (wage-slave) class is invested with unsurpassed revolutionary character By now, this view on industrial-commercial capitalism along with proletariat class has gained a determining influence on theory and practice of revolutionary movement, though veracity of these premises is based on presumptive logic, debilitating in effect. The first premise largely reflects a study of social mobility in western world applied universally. Hence, wrong prescription is made that proved fatal ultimately. For the second, wage-slave class did not prove its capability. By beginning of twentieth century Lenin from Rus(103)

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sia but stationed as immigrant in Europe keenly followed Marxist movement emerging as a leaderteacher for his native followers. He hammered that to translate it on ground Communism was to pass through an intermediary phase of socialism when incompatible interests are to be eliminated through use of state power in hands of proletariat. He was to convince his followers to seize political power in 1917.

Drawing lessons from some of best mass struggles against exploitation and oppression like Paris uprising a need was made out by Lenin for an organised action to advance cause of emancipation.

There came a strong plea from him for formation of a Communist Party as vanguard of working class to wrest state power and usher in a system ordained by philosophy on behalf of deprived masses. Lenin laboured his best for moulding communist movement in Czarist Russia on the basis of these concepts, fighting opponents bitterly and turned RSLDP (B) into a formidable force ready for revolution on these line(Communist philosophy by the time was termed Marxism or Marxist philosophy) Following events keenly, Lenin equipped with such concepts and myths led revolution when situation was ripe in Czarist Russia passing through pangs of a World War and when peace was the issue among people and soldiers alike. Workingmen reposed faith in his teachings, helping his party to move ahead for a considerable time. Lenin’s view on revolution and Marxism became prevalent.

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Theory of Revolution

Lenin had taken over leadership of communist movement in Czarist Russia and relentlessly advanced his understanding of Marxism among his followers. Apart from his famous treatise on Russian economy, he laboriously dealt the important question of theory on state and revolution that laid down the road map for him to pursue immediately.

He was forthright in holding the state as an organised instrument of coercion in the hands of one class to suppress the other class. He convinced his followers that the primary task of revolution is capturing of state power from the hands of bourgeoisie to the hands of proletariat, which will use it against the over thrown ruling class on force. To emphasise the point he termed it as dictatorship of proletariat and proceeded to act accordingly in pursuit of building socialism in USSR. The formulation on state by Lenin prescribes use of violence for a cause. In effect, the theory glamorises state power in the first instance to achieve a settled object and secondly invests it with a quality for achieving social production. If to believe a formulation from Marx that proletarian is for self-emancipation, primacy of people.s power as a moving force for social change in relation stands seriously compromised by formulation on state and revolution by Lenin.

State is invested with administrative authority backed by armed strength as also with pelf and privileges which are not available to common masses. This puts the rulers (105)

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in a class apart. By glamorising state the formulation in effect condones politics of cheating, manipulating and scheming by crafty leaders for gaining access to authority in general and capturing or holding state power in particular. The spectacle of political games played by leaders even in communist parties like their brethren in bourgeois parties or organisations world over and as also in USSR and People.s Republic of China has a base in theory on state. The concept on withering away of state in such conditions is totally misplaced.

Need of a Political Party Lenin in pursuit of revolutionary politics had concentrated on organisational issues. He developed theory on organisation itself and prepared a good number of followers agreeing on a necessity in reference to core idea from Karl Marx himself on organising a specific political party in Russia before a revolution could be made, which later named itself .Communist. to advance the cause, having a proletarian state at command aimed to resolve the process of deprivation as a fundamental question. The formation of communist party came under a specific formulation on revolution that posed it as a vanguard of proletarian class. It was an intervention of a decisive type that affected its course in long run, as the sad experience of conducting experiment in USSR later testified.

Lenin led an ant-capitalist socialist revolution in 1917 and proceeded to form a federation of few nations, called USSR having an agenda to build socialism on his (106)

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teachings. A grand experiment started. People rejoiced.

After staging a ‘revolutionary’ event thus in October, 1917 for this purpose, Lenin turned iconic and drew a large following in other countries also to conduct communist movements. This gave reason to form the Third International to conduct and coordinate efforts of communist parties for purpose of staging revolutions through capturing state power in respective countries on similar lines, mutatis mutandis. The scheme worked for a period and left a legacy of sorts, sometimes tragic This class of leaders started building a web of organisational principles and crafted structures to suit the new requirements of rule. In the process certain myths came into being which later proved its undoing too. In their zeal to stage world revolution Lenin encouraged communist movement to take shape in various countries of world. He and later Stalin as rulers in USSR, sitting in Moscow, theorised and advised on practice to communists in other countries through writings on issues regularly with International as a central authority to oversee affairs.

What Lenin theorised on question of a organisattion however did not work so smoothly as visualised.

When Lenin took over with a specific agenda at hand on theory and practice of communist movement, acrimonious differences led to occasional splits and groupings. The formulations from many quarters on theory and practice of movement, its strategy and tactics differed. Many like Bauer, Bukharin, Sukhanov, (107)

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to Stalin, Trotsky, Kamenev, Z inoviev, Smilga, Radek, Togliatti, Mao had their contributions. Many other pygmies later like Liu Shao Chi, Dieng Shao Ping, S A Dange, Ajay Ghosh, Namboodripad, Shibdash Ghosh to name a few, brought confusion more than light on how to conduct communist movement for victory. A tragedy struck: Party line for them became important to uphold than critically examine issues at hand. Quotation mongering was a result. The ideology started turning stale and routine.

In general, pygmies arose to leadership through manipulations to be respected as theoreticians for others to follow. The malady turned deep.

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IX

Theory of Revolution

The New Experiment

Experiment: Achievements and Failures After the event of a revolution in 1917, a unique experiment on theory to build socialism, under dictatorship of proletariat represented by Communist Party of Soviet Union (Bolshevik) started with much hope, zeal and planning. Later it collapsed for failures and blunders of its own both on theory and practice.

Failures were not merely on part of individuals, but signified something deep and profound which escaped attention. No one questioned its rationale in terms of communist ideals and took word from leaders as reasonable enough with faith deep in them. The malady reared its head later without much notice till recently.

It will be rewarding to see how this experiment unfolded to test veracity of such formulations before a study is done on communist movement.

The Experiment With teachings from Lenin, RSLDP (B) could stage a ‘revolution’ in 1917 under his leadership for launching a new experiment for rebuilding social relations and production of goods afresh in USSR. Stalin till his death in March 1953 stepped into its leadership after death of his teacher in 1924. Earlier, Lenin had worked hard (109)

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on Marxism’ and hammered certain formulations, some mythical in content, which took the form of basic principles to work with, few like: 1. In a class divided society where basic contradiction between capital and labour dominates, proletariat as a wage-earner and free from private property is alone a revolutionary class that is capable of over-throwing capitalism for social change and reconstruction through rapid development of productive forces by attaining a stage of plenty.

2. The state is basically an armed organ of violence by one class against the other. To conduct change in society, primary task of every revolution is to capture state power.

3. Revolution needs a revolutionary party armed with revolutionary theory to carry out the task. Such a party is vanguard of proletarian class.

4. Socialist revolution pre-supposes dictatorship of proletariat to vanquish bourgeois class and lead reconstruction of socialism having social ownership over means of production.

5. Instruments forged by one class to rule cannot serve the other after taking over state power. To rule is a class rule, which evolves a corresponding superstructure, including morals and ethics.

6. Revolutionary party is based on and works with the principle of .democratic centralism. and subscribes to international solidarity.

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The Experiment

7. For success in building socialism/communism proletariat, through a process of elimination/ absorption has to establish its hegemony over other sections of working population, which work with it as friends and collaborators in conducting revolution.

8. After capturing of power by proletariat, the overthrown bourgeoisie turns ferocious to regaining it. Hence proletarian state has to be more centralised and fully alert in using it to curb enemies. Stalin thereafter followed the prescription to new heights.

Apparently, such postulates by Lenin were extensions of few basic principles in communist philosophy, crafted to answer exigencies of times and questions raised by rival organisations of various hues. In bitter contest with rivals he was keen to mould RSLDP into a party of his shade, distinguishing it on questions of fidelity to revolutionary politics. For such extensions, his followers named his logics as Leninism, which later was turned like a creed in communist movement.

This attracted unprecedented mass attention, support, and appreciation. Mass energy released by it enthused them in rebuilding nations. The working people in other countries were on feet challenging the status quo. For once, the ruled took that they are rulers themselves; a myth of first order though soon busted.

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people.s democracies to form a distinct camp for economic-political common cause had come to symbolise a dream to fruition. After Second World War, communist movement got a shot in arm for popular support. The imperialist camp was jittery and retaliated by countering its influence through vilification and physical encirclement. During cold war period it became difficult for common man to determine what is right and where fault lies between two contending camps as accusations went thick and wild.

Thus came a unique experiment on the basis of this philosophy in reordering society on new principles of socio-economic existence after repudiating the old, at least on theory. The party began building socialism in one country surrounded by its adversaries with a hostile faith to pursue though, there was a parallel opinion within the movement that building socialism/ communism in one country is not possible to translate.

With this experiment a new hope took wings for emancipation of human society with told and untold sacrifices by millions. There was little doubt that initially new experiment in reorganising socio-economic relations enthused masses and provided a much required relief. Russian society stood changed. Agrarian Russia was transformed into an industrialised one swiftly. With disappearance of family farming and onslaught of industrial spree soon family as an institution of social stability was also gone. Standard of living started taking strides ahead for a while. Education and health services took big jump for better. Social security was universal (112)

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The Experiment

and reassuring in reach. Housing problem was tackled on priority. Low cost economy proved a boom to social peace. Crime rate came down appreciably.

Impetus for scientific development gave confidence to reach new heights. People’s Liberation Army (Red Army) came close to working people and sense of a secured future took its citizens to a life of peace and pride. It provided a solid base for it to fight aggression from inimical forces with enthusiasm as was evidenced during Second World War. The communist parties in different countries laboured to translate in their own way what philosophy of workingmen seemingly ordained. A block of 17 countries worked on the project known as socialist camp after Second World War, while rival capitalist camp became crazy about its own invincibility telling that the communist philosophy itself was a faulty notion to aspire. The contest between the two for attracting adherents sharpened with no holds barred to gain supremacy on strength of respective state resources, much of the times truth becoming a victim.

However, experiment in USSR started facing problems soon and relief proved a transitory relief and ills of industrial culture gripped USSR underneath, despite availability of a well equipped structure to handle problems of contrary nature at hand.

After a period, people lost interest in raising level of production, many parts of the federation felt neglected and left out of real decision making process; handful of (113)

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leaders at top appropriated it for them. Despite vast social security net and other benefits, level of satisfaction went down drastically. Bureaucracy stood entrenched and remained over bearing. People lost initiative and alienation increased. Respect for leadership was gone. Attachment with ruling party remained for privileges. Everybody was for easy self.

Sycophancy ruled; only because power and pelf prevailed, a sure disease when state is adorned as inevitable representing best the concept of authority to work. Social deficit soared.

The structure started telling upon health of experiment itself with a heavy bureaucracy on its shoulders and lopsided development in hands. The features emanating from working of first contradiction in modern society between a state and citizens were visible prominently.

Apart from state apparatus, ruling party took form of a monster. Fear of state power at every level was too prominent to ignore. Power and privileges starkly stared. Almost alike features emerged in China after a period. The experiment lost steam and collapsed.

Collapse of Experiment The unique experiment in rebuilding social relations in USSR and later in China on principles of socialism defined mainly by Lenin, later Stalin and Mao, had attracted a large following, but was not to last later than 1991. It ultimately did not work in favour of oppressed masses and collapsed, giving rise to many questions of theory and practice requiring straight answers from (114)

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The Experiment

practitioners of ideology and followers of postulates that governed the new exercise in social relations.

When this camp disintegrated finally, dashing all hopes of recovery by any last ditch battle, tremors over lost labour and untold sacrifices are not mild to bear; though it is not to say that this was the first defeat humanity has suffered in history. This time, however, blow was deadening in its first moment. Defeats, before the last victory in 1917 were many. Even after this great victory of 1917, defeats were several in other countries, like Germany, France, Italy Austria etc. But blow this time is stupendous in its effect. It is another matter if first practitioners of this giant experiment faulted and later, deviated soon to prove unworthy of the faith people, rightly or wrongly had reposed in them. The experiment was grand, so was the failure treacherous.

The failure of this experiment that lasted a span of over seven decades gave a crude setback to efforts by masses in freeing themselves from stranglehold of a cruel capitalist state structure and wage slavery that dehumanised social relations. Since we stand for this fundamental change in relations, it is incumbent that a critique is made of this failure, to take due lessons fo fresh efforts. The critique must encompass both theory and practice as also contours of the dream.

The events that led this experiment of rebuilding society on socialist relations of production and distribution with compatible socio-cultural change to flounder by 1991 (115)

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were as earth-shaking in effect, which have paved way for capitalist-imperialist camp to consolidate and claim invincibility. So, when the experiment collapsed peoples around all continents stood traumatised and disillusioned. The faith shattered. It was not an ordinary failure; it was virtually an earth-shaking in effect.

We can thus underline the fact of recent history that twentieth century was important for two opposite earth-shaking events. The Revolution of 1917 gave a shock to the old structure and force matters to chart a fresh path for movement ahead. Likewise, the events that led to its collapse by 1991 were as forceful in effecting change in world situation. It forced balance of forces to a new scale, nullifying gains of the first.

The collapse invited scathing criticism on issues of fundamental importance while efforts were made simultaneously to confuse issues involved by mainly those forces which were inimical to the very idea of experiment itself. It so muddled the atmosphere that even friends could not make out where lies the fault line. For a time, a sense of despondency took over enthusiasm among activists worldwide. The leadership of the movement failed not only cadres but masses too. They skirted responsibility to clear questions involved. Whatever came out from them was rubbish and perfunctory, giving unnecessary space for more confusion. People at large were left to draw their own impressions under a shadow of propaganda blitz from adversaries of philosophy and the new experiment.

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The communist movement once claimed honesty of purpose and ranks were used to be forthright in selfcriticism in owning even their own mistakes. This time however, leaders and cadres were found wanting with the result that lessons from latest failure of seven decades could not benefit them so far. Those who are still working willy nilly in various parties of communist faith stand largely dissipated and exhausted with no will to learn, playing with old jargons, usually without understanding implications for present and the future.

The interest of working population in all countries demands a dispassionate analysis of events and concepts that had laced the experiment to its death so that right conclusions can be drawn for a better future.

Reasons are many for this failure to occur. But, it is important to mark first those which affected the very direction and decided character of experiment to take shape. These need be detailed for assurance to avoid a similar fate and at the same time warn ranks in movement to be free of pitfalls in theory and practice.

Reasons for Failure A unique experiment in human history had started by a well-meaning leadership of communist party in Russia after winning civil war thrust on its head by overthrown forces of capital there. The effort in building ‘socialism’ was conducted by communists of Marxist .

Leninist, Maoist or Ho-Chi-Minh faith. They were not fools either. Some of brilliant brains had laboured hard to sharpen their intellectual and organisational tools.

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But tools remained tools. The experiment collapsed.

The point of surprise was that first experiment to build socialism in history collapsed without a fight and so easily. The termite within and woodpecker outside worked in tandem. It was all well beyond any wild expectations; at least for those who were bred with an abiding faith in wisdom of communist leadership backed by historicity of proletariat as a liberating force.

The adversaries of communist movement were in ruptures virtually with collapse of experiment and lost no time in declaring death of its philosophy with glee.

In fact, later events proved them wrong.

There is hardly any doubt that experiment in USSR and China collapsed along with formulations these were toying with. By 1991 came only a formal announcement of this collapse. Decades before collapse finally of this experiment in building socialism, world communist movement had started gasping at seams. It got moving downhill much before the formal collapse of Soviet Union was acknowledged.

The communist movement had started loosing stamina earlier, though major setbacks started coming in around eighties of last century. The collapse came, primarily, for its own follies in theory and unchaste practice. There is hardly any doubt.

Some tried to fish in troubled waters was nothing unusual in. Many of them were active since long to give it a fatal push but USSR survived all such attempts when relatively it was weak on all counts. Basic reason or its survival then was mass support it enjoyed among (118)

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its citizens. They had a feeling to own the experiment then. When it collapsed, this support was nowhere to be seen. Total alienation of people was much in evidence; they seemed happy over disappearance of a brute, conspiring and corrupt system. Not a single voice was heard to save it, no proletariat around to protest.

Ostensibly, all was not that fine when Soviet experiment in human history had started taking shape. Something wrong remained intact at the very base. May be, it was not realized early. True, it was not easy for common masses to detect fissure, given their level of experience and wisdom on state matters that generally are kept under wraps by all rulers in history, including followers of Lenin. Secondly, they were not supposed to be masters in organisational matters of a party formed in secrecy and that advanced a claim for higher wisdom with persons of extra-ordinary intellect at command.

Russian masses believed them in simplicity. Barring a handful of soldiers, they were peasants who go by word of mouth and repose faith in honest labour.

When collapse occurred for all to see and feel, socalled socialist (or communist) system in USSR was found completely rotten within. Surprisingly, quite another entity of opposite type had taken full shape within its very womb and delivered at an opportune moment without much trouble in 1991. Crash individualism was in command, almost in all fields of social life and administration, including so-called Red Army having the task of safeguarding a socialist state.

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It may be marked that the project to reorder social relations and method to produce goods for satisfy needs was not uncalled for. Society in fact was crying for it.

No one denied ills of present society, neither any one refuted basic principles of communist philosophy for rebuilding society afresh on new relations which any such project is bound to undertake in good faith. The one in 1917 was fully in response to such concrete conditions calling for overthrow of a diseased set up.

On the other hand conditions that gave rise to emergence of communist Philosophy of Emancipation and Empowerment of Masses have not disappeared yet, rather, these dehumanising conditions have accentuated with absurdities of capitalist relation gone berserk; pangs and pains of a divided society for masses in general and workingmen in particular are there to make life hell. The masses as a ruled category live in alienation and indignity while rulers have become more brute and cunning. Expropriation has gone acute. Society stands atomised and alienated, living in perpetual tension and fear of the future.

By beginning of 21st century, society is still faced virtually with those conditions that gave rise to this liberating philosophy. This situation cannot merely be wished away by cunning subterfuges. It is a challenge presently to be met resolutely. Agenda still remains on table of humanity.

There is nothing on record to claim that this philosophy of change has faulted on basic principles. The object of liberation from a system of exploitation and (120)

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oppression is very much valid and principle of equality very reasonable to obtain. None can contest these contentions, not even diehard believers in capitalism where market is a place for powerful to dominate and jackals rule the roost in present disposition.

Reasons for failure of experiment, authored by Soviet and Chinese camps during twentieth century, to distance away from capitalism and build socialism as a way to create a communist society, then lie somewhere else.

Let us look into the muddle on both sides of divide to reach objective conclusions. For a viable alternative to emerge against a decaying present, it is imperative that past is analysed as to what went wrong and why.

What happened in socialist camp during course of experiment for rebuilding society on communist lines was a travesty of its basic principles to materialise and life did not become less formidable. For reasons that are numerous, International Communist movement suffered wholly unexpected ignominy by last quarter of twentieth century when people had pinned hopes on it for liberation from capitalist onslaught.

Communists are known for their zeal to struggle for a just cause in society everywhere, selflessly and courageously. They made history. But they also made history of blunders in thought and practice somewhere nasty in conceiving and execution of the project. If leaders failed to pin these failures and blunders, it is for ranks to step in, leaving jargons out.

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To sort out the matter in context, it is incumbent to analyse fundamentals first. It is essential to mark true nature of philosophy and what actually its essence is.

Otherwise, one is likely to be enmeshed in clichĂŠs of orthodoxy found in abundance littered here there and everywhere. It has to be avoided to save fr m pitfalls, which has been the tragedy so far.

For proper context to communist ideal a short recording of capitalist relations at pain of repetition may be helpful here: it necessarily entails expropriation and tend to cause alienation in society. Indignity and deprivation at large scale are its results. For private gain, interests of society go bust despite web of regulations, dehumanising man in this scheme. Crash individualism as a necessary outcome of capitalist relations leads to the demise of family and community leading to a distracted personality solely dependent on mercy of a socially junk state.

Communist ideology finds ways not only to meet these absurdities but crafts a viable alternative to breath happily. For reordering social relations a principle .From one according to capacity, to one according to needs. negates expropriation and alienation in society. To make society free from stranglehold of state, self management of its own affairs in communitarian setting is the law worth working for. To earn peace and satisfaction is a dream worth doing in dignity and not to earn riches by expropriation, deceit and indignity unbound.

Unfortunately, experiment in the name of establishing (122)

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socialism by so-called communist parties of USSR and China worked in a reverse direction ending instead in developing capitalist relations with all absurdities in abundance. It was not a surprise. How it happened?

Faulty Option: Industrial Mode Let us examine. There cannot be more important cause of failure to build new society after October revolution in 1917 than wrong option it adopted for its mode of production and distribution in socialist society for the present and future. There is little doubt that both economic life of society in countries of communist faith and science of organisation for its movement failed to deliver what was desired.

The blunder of highest magnitude committed by leadership of experiment related to production relations it opted for progress. The Soviet and later Chi nese experiment could not or did not abandon the old capital -centred industrial mode of production and market oriented distribution to deal with economic issues at hand for rebuilding society on socialist principles.

Individual being its labour unit the industrial mode produced individualism as it was bound to do in its course leading the experiment to collapse with all ills and absurdities of capitalist system in bloom.

Lenin remained mesmerised with developing forces of production rapidly. The experiment focussed primarily on developing productive forces in speed for socialism to succeed, to the exclusion of satisfaction. As a sure (123)

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symptom of capitalist relations, expropriation continued where alienation surfaced after a while. Emphasis on developing productive forces alone was a fatally misplaced prescription that reaped failure at appropriate time of its maturity. The leadership failed to devise an appropriate mode for building socialism instead, adopted the old to deliver new and courted disaster.

Despite claim, experiment in USSR remained rooted within its past basically, except in matters of ownership over means of production. The State replaced private ownership over means of production with a mistaken notion that it signifies social or community ownership.

It did not by any means.

The ‘socialist’ state was projected as something synonymous to the people in this case with whom it has adversary relationship basically. That turned the masses detached and complacent.

Oppression found place on many pretexts. Masterservant relationship in production and distribution system did not disappear as was desired in the blue print. As a result, alienation and cynicism gripped common mass of people everywhere. No scope was left for protest and challenge in the name of prole tarian democracy while operating absurdities of democratic centralism, closing doors for people that were still open to some extent under previous dispensation. Harsh suppression operated in name of safeguarding revolution.

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Suffocation reigned, people suffered privation. The very purpose of a movement for building socialism evaporated in thin air with no fault of people.

This trickery could succeed only by sidetracking first principal contradiction between state and the people from their active attention. It is an admitted fact that people stood alienated in USSR dispensation too, as before. And alienation, within .socialist. society is a symptom of a sure capital-based socio-economic structure that generates it hourly but surely, like individualism, in vision and approach.

Industrial mode v/s Agriculture It will be rewarding if here itself a bit of attention is paid to examine what industrial and agriculture mode comparatively signify in context of social values.

For over seven decades in USSR and two decades till 1978 in China what .socialism. or People’s Democracy. produced was capitalism through state patronage to industrial-commercial pursuits which laid a strong base for counter political revolution in restoring capitalist relations on the strength of individualism that this mode generated every moment of its journey.

This could not have happened without the leading role of so called communist leadership in such countries of socialist faith. It was a tragedy of colossus magnitude that communist leadership universally gave little importance to this side of issue so far. The other reasons may have contributed to failure of this experiment but have secondary value.

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The leadership ignored to understand the dynamics of family farming and that of industry. It erroneously put a tag of feudalism on agriculture that helped to ignore its nature in relation to social dynamics. Similarly, leadership took note of production capacity of industry while ignored its social dynamics. It did not distinguish between dynamics of two and over rated progressive nature of industry in relation to family farming on the basis of partial and prejudiced rating of two.

Agriculture is a productive system that takes route in mathematical progression, while industry goes in geometrical form for its productive journey. One provides stability in progress while the other suffers in periodic ups and down. That defines difference between two for society in its course of development.

Communist leadership failed to evaluate it properly with devastating effect. It took note only of financial/ economic aspect of both, devoid of social debit/credit of each to serious disadvantage of social progress.

Agriculture in its form of family farming may not have produced in quantity what industry is capable of, it terms of stability and quality industry cannot beat family farming, neither it is sterile to fulfil needs of social value.

It is an irony of sorts that new state of proletariat in Russia plunged whole hog to transform an agrarian society to an industrial one hurriedly by opting a mode that brewed social strife. Industry was placed in the centre of .development., while agriculture became subservient to it. Simultaneously, farming also was transformed from a family-labour based affair to a large-scale industrial concern.

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Wrong Prognosis Apparently, experiment conducted in soviet camp started with some premises built on wrong theory. It involved prognosis of society to craft strategy and tactics of revolution. The starting point relates to the study of forces working in society and their relationship.

The Class The premise on class was one aspect where rot stated, among many more that played truant.

According to Marxist analysis we live in a class society.

Under capitalist dispensation it is a society that rests basically between bourgeoisie as master of capital and working class as producer of goods.

Further, as master of capital it is the ruling class while working class as victim of expropriation is charged to work for changing this relationship between master and servant to abolish exploitation. So far so good.

The project for social change was built on a premise that as constituent part of working class, industrial workers as wage-slave have nothing to loose but their chains. Bereft of property proletariat as a homogenous class is thus taken a leading force destined to work for project change leading to socialism and then to communism abolishing exploitation for good. Exercising dictatorship of proletariat after capturing state authority through its unfailing vanguard in communist party proletariat offers self-emancipation.

The failed experiment in USSR of over 74 years, China of 65 years, Vietnam of 38 years etc as also long lasting (127)

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experiences of communist movements in Germany, Britain, Italy, France, as also America particularly and other countries in general conclusively testify that this proletariat class has completely failed to corroborate the premise so laboriously built around. Premise was built on false logic and wrongly assigned status of a theory which worked havoc with the experiment.

Conceptually, proletariat class exists till bourgeoisie lasts. One is a condition of existence for the other.

Proletariat class cannot be ruler; individuals may. The moment a proletarian turns ruler, he/she ceases to be proletariat by loosing the status of a wage slave.

The premise is also wrong to say that proletariat class is a homogenous entity with singleness of purpose in unity and hence cannot reasonably be depended upon as a leading force of revolution including building of socialism with such authority as dictatorship denotes.

Still it was done, courting disaster in chain.

The principle of dictatorship of proletariat laboriously so built on a faulty premise is untenable as a reasonable extension of communist philosophy. It rests on the principle of representative democracy which goes against ideology of communism. Still, as producer of goods the whole working class is an unfailing victim of expropriation at the hands of capitalist class, not merely the industrial workers. The principle is a classical fallacy built on presumptive logic to circumvent democracy in the interest of rule: proletariat is made representative of the working class while its vanguard is made (128)

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representative of proletariat class and few leaders are taken representatives of this vanguard, who actually rule through professional machinery!

To say that industrial workers exclusively has a status of being revolutionary since it has gone bereft of private property and a consciousness of exploitation, does not stand scrutiny. Merely by owning means of production or property does not make one reactionary unless a servant is hired on wage. The issue of struggle is expropriation and not owning property.

Farming under family labour, without hiring no wage slave, cannot be termed a capitalist or feudal pursuit by any logical standard. Leaving out this class of producers from victims of capitalist order was no service to the cause of socialism. This is the class which face extinction at the hands of bourgeoisie and proletariat.

Primary Contradiction In carrying out experiment leadership committed another folly of great magnitude. It ignored completely primary contradiction in modern day society between the state and its people. It proved a fatal mistake. The understanding of a modern state by leadership remained outdated and faulty at the cost of experiment.

The state, operating even under leadership of communist party remains an armed instrument of rule over people. In principle it is minority that needs a state to rule over majority of population. The majority does not need a state, whereas rule by minority cannot (129)

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serve the ruled for progress. Communist leadership faulted to appraise it correctly and devise alternative method of governance in consonance with requirements of principles concerning socialism.

Dispersal of Family Another myth did a colossal damage to the experiment.

Dissolution of family was a colossal blunder. Atomised society is least competent to build socialism. As corollary to first grade blunder with individualism in command, dispersal of family rapidly laid solid ground for disaster to occur, for which communist leadership worked happily. Family is an informal institution working as building block of social structure and its neighbourhood community that could have provided society the requisite stability. Alternatives were not to work.

Need of Political Party Another blunder in this context was to depend on the institution of a political party in building socialism. The necessity of a political party was drawn in hurry and clearly without much thought to the sordid history of what gave reasons for its emergence and what it does to the system as such. The teachers wrongly relied on instrument of an alien origin. The communist parties too did what a political instrument was invented to do in history . to turn democracy into a sham!

The political formation, named as communist party, did same as was destined to perform in case of proletarian democracy also. The teachers of emancipation theory (130)

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could not fathom correctly that by naming a political formation as communist cannot change its base character and hence its role.

There is a lesson : communist movement took a beating more after a political party was to take its command replacing people.s power as the element for so cial change. New forms of organising people.s power in consonance with principle of participatory democracy were needed. The blunder was committed under a classparty formulation instead, to uphold dictatorship of proletariat. Practically, Communist Party took over the people and leadership took over the party stifling initiative and creativity of masses with deadly effect.

Old Structure This experiment also faulted on another count. There is an edict from Marx-Engels that .the working class cannot simply lay hold of the ready-made state machinery of a different class and wield it for its own purposes.. If revolution is understood as .the most radical rupture with traditional property relations it involves a most radical rupture with traditional ideas. but with deep roots to sustain. It did not. For complete overhaul, it was incumbent upon new forces to devise their own methods and structures to serve the new project. It is clear by now that a certain amount of compromise was struck in Russia. They continued to rely on forms and concepts in certain important respects from old society quite for wrong reasons.

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To quote a few: it continued to have faith in a regular ‘red army’ and professional bureaucracy both political and administrative with concept of authority intact, having few thousands directly inducted from the Czarist regime, to serve as its oppressive organs, instead of support from people. It proved another fatal infatuation.

The experiment produced few privileged souls as a byproduct of the system so built; leaders could expropriate benefits and arrogate wisdom to themselves.

One thing can be said without hesitation, postfactotum, that experiment in socialist building led by former Soviet Union and also China failed to emerge as something qualitatively fresh and different. The experiment essentially failed to be .revolutionary. in character with little benefit to social science of change in comparison to labour put in and sacrifices made.

Fault-lines in Soviet experiment With passing away of first-rankers, however legacy worked to the advantage of upstarts and to the disadvantage of masses. To depend on individual genius proved so slippery in history again. The commoners had no reason to doubt sincerity and wisdom of leadership that had struggled hard for liberation struggle.

The level of their efforts to remain free in past from overt or covert designs, conceit and arrogance attracted the people. They believed their leaders thoroughly.

Thereafter, they believed their successors from the organisation too with fatal consequences!

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Ruling Communist Party of Soviet Union was found as a typical picture of bourgeois organisation with intrigues and a hive for self seekers. Individualism reigned supreme where groups played havoc with its vitality and corruption by self seekers left it junked dspite all its Leninist teachings on organisation. By 1991 none could recognise ita as a communist party of Lenin.

With their blessings capitalism stood reborn there even without a birth pang, except for a minor skirmish. What then accounts for this sharp decline of the ‘advanced vanguard’ and what explains rise of old system within instead? The vanguard itself was found completely degenerated. The Party had developed as a big macine around that killed vitality of the people who had found it as a source of inspiration once. None came forward after 1991 to reasonably explain the phenomenon.

Another folly of magnitude Soviet Union committed in all probability was its unchaste hurry to compete with capitalist world for industrial ‘development’ of a foreign frame. It drained its material and human resources. The country was put on a course of suicide. It fell to the bait of capitalist-imperialist frame to bite the dust, whereas necessity was to give stability to new system through a sustained development of men and material.

It ignored men and lost material race too. Same thing happened in China with a similar crop to harvest.

Another example in post-1991 era: The duality of opening floodgate of social crimes first, including corruption, drug trafficking and flesh trade as a (133)

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corollary to industrial commercial mode under ‘socialist market’ and then resorting to capital punishment to check rot is a tragedy of same parentage in China and Vietnam today. Corruption is like lubricant for capitalist system to move around in the midst of regulatory mechanism it has resorted in order to iron out conflicting interests it lives in. Capital punishment cannot deter the urge for maximising accumulation under this system.

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A Self-Critique Twentieth century saw not only the beginning and collapse of a grand project in redefining social relations led by mainly USSR and China so also rise and decline in communist movement. Both, new experiment and communist movement are organically linked with each other having a single philosophy of life and thought, though reasons for rise and fall of both are not same.

The experiment was to translate principles of theory while communist movement is intended to create ground for social change to occur in different countries.

The experiment was conducted by a leadership through a state which declared itself as dictatorship of proletariat with all essential elements of armed organ of ruling elite. The movement was conducted by leaders and ranks of communists believing their leaders.

The failure of this experiment does entail misreading of communist philosophy on certain aspects and due to blunders inherent in some specific formulations from its leaders, while the ebb in communist movement set in first due to wrong faith in concept of authority, symbolised during the period of experiment by USSR or China as also simultaneously by a substantial change (135)

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in correlation of forces due to shift in composition of working populations in countries.

For both, leadership of communist parties betrayed the trust and failed to uphold vitality in philosophy. The loss to experiment and communist movement is great.

In fact, reliance on a communist party as instrument of communist movement, as also of the experiment, proved a devastating belief. Consequently, movement remained infected with debilitating faults in conception and practice. Working masses stood disarmed ideologically, socially, culturally and organisationally in front of a brutal enemy in state and capital.

Ailments and skewed principles An objective critique of the communist movement is called for to know what went wrong in its journey that had roused high hopes and whether it can still has the capacity to deliver or needs better alternative model instead. Since it was communist ideology which had imbibed the liberation movement to free society from an utterly decaying capitalist mode, it may be rewarding to find out if there existed any deficiency in its outlook somewhere or whether the hope itself was misplaced.

Let us make a statement in the very beginning that failings of communist movement are much deeper and agonising; with some aspects which only insiders can perceive to requisite extent, if obduracy is kept aside, rhetoric left and necessity to learn from practice is overwhelming. Let us, as humble communist practitioners intervene, investigate and search answers (136)

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to such sticky questions in all sincerity, shedding bias and preconceived notions of all hues.

We propose to do what is required in the circumstance with utter honesty of purpose and with whatever little knowledge of social relations we have gained through the struggle. For us, no organisational interests to uphold principles and safeguard formulations are supreme.

We are insiders; as part of the communist movement we also have many sad experiences. Many questions of theory and practice do trouble us. Not only leaders/ teachers at various levels, ranks too have gone stale in matters of theory.

First Grade Blunder: State as Instrument of Progress The fatal blunder leadership after Marx committed, more so during period of building socialism, was to sidetrack first principal contradiction between people at the state. It was a major blunder in theory. When this contradiction was put under carpet, people suffered from a blurred vision. In such a situation when state comes into conflict with the ruled, which it generally does, people tend to bear it. The state gets a lease of life from such blurred vision in mistaken belief that its action is for common good, when it is not. The ruled in such a situation tend to take oppression as inevitable.

The first instinct to resist goes unattended. Moreover, state structure in countries, which claimed these were building socialism, did not reflect in any field that it was transitory in nature, preparing to wither away.

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The situation of believing in state as a benevolent institution proved fatal in Soviet Union. It can happen only when citizens are made blind on question of state and its character. In USSR people were made to believe that Soviet state is people.s state which it can never.

The nature of state is unfriendly to the ruled and citizens in USSR were never its masters. It cannot be.

With Marxist faith in the strength and creativity of masses, level of reliance on state structure to build socialism by Lenin is inexplicable. It sapped energy of masses. Lenin was for a ruthless state machine during transitory stage of socialism. Among four major contradictions that he enunciated to focus primary attention of the movement during this era of ‘imperialism and proletarian revolution’ this firs principal contradiction of present day society curiously did not find any place in his scheme of logic. The effort to build socialism paid price for it.

It is worth remembering that state power in Russia as elsewhere did never pass into hands of masses so enjoined in a coined slogan for revolution i.e. .All power to Soviets.. In the name of Soviets, again state power passed into hands of a small number of people representing communist party or trade unions. True, it was in the name of workers, soldiers and peasants!

Yet, it was a replica of representative democracy and a sure travesty of the slogan.

Perhaps, like all rulers in history, leadership in Soviet Union disbelieved in efficacy of people.s power or (138)

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feared mass energy it was bound to release. In any case, communist party acted against Marxist postulate.

On hindsight, it may be said that over-looking of this primary contradiction in society certainly was one of Lenin.s most devastating disservice to the science of socialism as a tactician. He placed much of his heart on service of a state structure to deliver during this phase of socialist construction without any tangible check on its fangs. Lenin.s postulate on so-called socialist state as people.s state blinded reason against ruthless state oppression not always justifiable, especially when it was incumbent first to persuade some sections of society, especially peasants on economic measures it was taking. The whole democratic process remained thwarted. People remained disarmed ideologically and organisationally against might of state.

Likewise, Chinese leadership later put its heart on its own capacity to handle state power while releas ing initially market forces in its economy. Such an extraordinary belief in its own capacity, a subjective factor, to handle state power to mould an objective law of economic operation was something foolish to believe. It in effect helped in restoring capitalism with state help and revolution stood betrayed.

Governance: Dictatorship of Proletariat To handle state a concept in theory came for dictatorship of proletariat till state withers away. Lenin gave emphasis on it and made it a litmus test of fidelity (139)

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on revolutionary practice. The formulation however proved futile. The dictatorship of proletariat completely failed in eliminating bourgeoisie as a class in USSR during almost 74 years of its uncouth operation.

The concept hides behind two wrongs and seeks to justify its necessity with regulation by the party of proletariat to invoke confidence in an instrument of repression. It is a wrong theory to justify existence of state as instrument of governance and building socialism which this formulation seeks to do.

Firstly, to reaffirm confidence in state is good for rulers but fatally bad for the ruled. Secondly, to invest in state the role of benefactor through sponsoring development projects with public money is not only bad politics but it also provides legitimacy for another channel to benefit capitalist class on public expense. It will open another venue to rob Peter and pay Pal. Thirdly, on both counts this justification is being utilised by all parties of right to turn highly centralised state as sacrosanct, necessary and inevitable for maintaining law and order in society and promoting progress, while the beneficiaries remain capitalist class.

The concept relating to dictatorship of proletariat is a myth deliberately created to hide behind it for uncouth exercise of unaccounted authority on a fallacious premise of proletariat class being revolutionary. It merely legitimises rule of communist party in its name replacing self-governance by the people.

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Party Replaced People The second most important blunder in theory was committed on question of organisation. Lenin as leader/ teacher of revolutionary politics advocated need for a political party as an instrument for conducting communist movement. Ideologically speaking, Marx had propounded concept of people.s power . workingmen as moving force of history. Self-emancipation of proletarian looses all meanings. He had developed an abiding faith in their capacity to work for social change with attributes like creativity and initiative in abundance due to their working conditions. It got a beating from a concept of political party as driving force for social change instead for universal application.

Lenin did it first; later magnified manifold by others in line taking a cue from Marx’s uttering on Paris Commune and perfecting the logic to turn it upside down. It proved a big shift from the teacher on a vital question of principle that muddled the exercise to a point of no return. A political organisation tasked with handling question of state power replaced people as driving force of revolution social change and revolution reduced to mere capture of state power; a master-stroke to decompose the concept of socialist revolution indeed.

When the task is assigned to it for capturing state power for a different class through revolution, as was ordained

by Lenin, unwittingly it is admitted that state as an institution to rule over masses remain intact under changed dispensation and political party will act its tool (141)

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to oppress the ruled. The communist party became the party of rule over the people.

The role of masses was thus transferred to a party of elites as self-proclaimed representative of proletariat in the name of class approach. In consequence, Theory stands changed and the Practice boiled down to outright elitism where Party acts as something superior to the working people themselves. Where was the necessity to form a political party and name it communist in conducting the movement? None, to answer in short.

Taking into account the difference between organisation and political party as two formal forms, it was wrong to go for a political party.

Despite features of choice added by Lenin to it, after coming into being, a political party has its own dynamics unfolded with its internal mechanism of structure and disciplinary code of a formal type instrument. Imbued with an object of capturing or sharing state power, political party in operation is bound to affect internal harmony and create bickering for hegemony giving rise to self interests, killing ultimately the endowed aim from outside of reordering social relations on communitarian basis. This is what happened in USSR, China, Vietnam, India, France, Germany, to name a few.

See another disturbing feature within these parties: it was observed that with change of leadership in a ruling communist party in USSR or China, especially after the demise of Stalin and Mao respectively, shift in ideological positions often occurred simultaneously that (142)

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started baffling cadres everywhere, while leadership of communist parties elsewhere followed change in policy as if meekly and obediently. There were no signs of any critical appraisals of discarded positions and/or freshly undertaken. Blindness reigned supreme, turning such leadership staled in approach and practice.

The noticeable stink inside these parties grew universally and at a speed, though many aspects of this bad breath drew serious attention only after tragic collapse of Soviet experiment by 1991 and China earlier.

It made us collate things afresh in proper sequence thereafter. The state power where it ruled or powergame played for capturing state apparatus corrupted in intellect, culture and morals while Individual interests laced their way of life with impunity.

Production Made Primary For industrial spree, less said the better. Raising production, ipso facto, is not progress. It cannot be.

Production must have an object to subserve; material goods must satisfy social needs for harmony and peace.

To chase production in itself merely for capital accumulation i.e. maximising profits breeds essentially constant tension and conflict. This cannot subserve social needs and hence be the object of growth.

To achieve higher level of production unnecessary faith was placed on industrial mode of production in unchaste copy of Adam Smith and Ricardo who were high priests of unabashed capitalism and individual enterprise; (143)

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ignoring the aspect of stability to society that industrialisation cannot provide, where speed is essence. It forgot deliberately that so far development in capitalist mode was dependent on internal as well as external expropriation and deprivation of commons in addition to surplus value as a matter of principle.

It surprises that how such a leadership could introduce, so easily and without any dissenting voice a production system in the country that in effect bred individualism galore, as it was bound to do. It is fairly known that individualism as a philosophy of life is a product of industrial-commercial revolution and Marxists contest it on logical grounds. The same selfperpetuating and crafty leadership on the other hand sought to fight individuality to attain uniformity instead where it lost control over both. There were allegations galore that dignity of man was suppressed, at times ruthlessly, in the name of fighting .individualism. to an extent of justifying even physical violence. Many times individuality was mixed up with individualism to the disadvantage of ranks. Times testified that this proved a tragedy of proportions with no redeeming features.

Basically this European model of development had emerged and flourished on large-scale internal and external expropriation. It could not be otherwise in Soviet Union, as also in other so-called socialist countries, though direct external expropriation in their case was not possible. After collapse many complained about internal expropriation in USSR. Naturally, these (144)

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countries had to bear resultant effects of this model in spite of the fact that means of production were in command of state, with a powerful leadership and a vast political army of cadres to direct and control.

Building socialism through economic principles of capitalism on pretentious grounds led the movement no-where. Still communist leadership world over has not learnt anything from collapse of Soviet experiment.

Another query; how long commodity production will last in a socialist superstructure and how to offset its effect in social relations? How this dialectics will play out in practice when, practically both socialist and capitalist nation-states exist and national jingoism is worked up off and on by rulers to seek mass support for their actions against rivals?

There is no doubt that in course of their rule Soviet, Chinese or Vietnamese leadership among others fell prey to this jingoism in name of theory, where ranks in their respective organisations went mute followers.

Failures Examined Inadequately With collapse of socialist camp, many reasons were advanced for mass consumption by failed leadership according to respective perceptions. None however looked into salient formulations of theory and practice that failed to deliver, lest it demolish their own credibility to lead. Many of them turned coats as per flow of winds to safeguard their careers. Communists! careers, corruption? Surprising indeed!

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For example: There was no adequate explanation from any quarter what was the source of huge wealth found with hordes of leaders, including high ranking officers in Red Army, in these countries of communist faith, if individualism had not ruled social life and misuse of authority did not occur there underneath.

To find such conduct in cultural degradation of individuals amounts to clever diversion and skirting the issue. It does not explain the cause of disease that made possible for such a vide spread theft by a particular category of people, when there was no legal right to hold private property in USSR. The rot to rob public property during a period after collapse of USSR raises a question on the level of socialist consciousness generated during over seven decades of proletarian dictatorship there. If proletarian dictatorship survives on fear alone how it is different from bourgeois dictatorship then?

Enigma: Individualism One cannot ignore the growth of individualism in the womb of socialist society of their make in USSR, despite dictatorship of proletariat working for seven decades in that country with no right of private property.

One may say, it was a sheer riddle to find individualism raging to that level in Soviet Union. China also could not escape same tragedy and so in Vietnam. There is no riddle however. The dependence on industrial mode produce less scope for plenty to offset wants of people and more of individualism from its womb, despite ideological offensive for socialist philosophy to have (146)

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its sway. The said socialist experiment did produce enough Individualism which provided single most solid ground for capitalist relations to take over but could not produce plenty of soap in these countries.

Individualism which found congenial ground to prosper was most effective factor that killed the new experiment and led to collapse of Soviet camp. But leadership was at its best to avoid investigating it.

In effect, leadership successfully took recourse to such pep talks that helped in putting off both substantive issues from radar. What it did at its creative best resulted in engaging communist/socialist cadres in peripheral issues of insignificance. It beautifully saved the capitalist mode from searching glare and its ugly character remained out of reach for any serious challenge.

Responsibility for this post-collapse deliberate ideological surrender to capitalism and its onslaught or sheer shirking of leading role lies with socialist/ communist leadership. Ranks remained followers.

On question of organisation we may talk a bit more. It was Lenin again who by making party a pre-condition to revolution created a fetish of it that blunted creative thinking difficult on it by leaders and ranks in communist movement with fatal consequences.

Lenin and Question of Organisation It needs be studied how certain myths communist movement itself has built around questions of organisation. It is important to realise how in course of time difference between an organisation and a political party was obliterated and ignored, deliberately.

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True, importance of a formal type of organisation was stressed earlier by Marx when he analysed failure of Paris Commune and started making efforts along with his compatriots to fill gap by organising. First International Workingmen Association.

Later, it was Lenin as a master strategist and tactician in a tearing hurry to capture state power who had charted his own course and gave shape to an underground organisation for overthrow of Czarist autocracy when he was confronting a plethora of problems working with various types of people in revolutionary movement of Russia then. In course of this struggle, he developed a whole philosophy of organisation pertaining to working class and termed it as an organisation of a ‘new type’ to stress its distinct features from older genre. It is known that bourgeoisie as a ruling class felt threatened of its own kin in democracy at a stage of development all because it had released mass energy of colossal degree. To obviate the danger, it laboured in converting it into representative form instead and groomed a political party to control and regulate the jinn, ensuring its own life safe from turmoil.

It is known in political theory that ruling bourgeoisie is safe with representative democracy while working masses need participative democracy where they can utilise mass energy and creativity best for social governance. History was ignored in hurry.

After adopting institution of political party of representative character, Lenin proceeded to create (148)

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cardinal principles of organisation for a communist party termed one as ‘democratic centralism’ with a single centre of authority, a paid membership and a band of ‘professional revolutionaries’ forming its core, putting it into an integrated whole. This reflected the spirit in organisation of one other fundamental postulate he laboriously elaborated as dictatorship of proletariat. to concretise the form of socialist revolution centring around another postulate that made capturing sate power a pre-condition to socialist construction by over throwing the old order from state power. The whole revolution was thus turned into a fight for state power and then holding it tight in image of revolution.

Since communist party monopolised power after revolution in 1917, on behalf of workers, soldiers and peasants as the single representative of proletariat in Russia, both postulates i.e. democratic centralism and dictatorship of proletariat pertaining to different categories happened to merge together and became rooted in the system. The third element of party being the vanguard of proletariat completed the juggernaut that turned ruling leadership absolute in authority to subdue people in the name of revolution. This proved fatal in the long run for society as well as for a set up devised to give it a fresh shape.

Lenin was not to live beyond January 1924. His successors translated his postulates in a difficult situation with much zeal, but without his dynamism. Lenin’s (149)

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words carried more weight afterwards than the spirit, perhaps to bolster position of leading group against other in struggle for supremacy within ruling junta. It led to feuds, coups, violence and disintegration of structure.

What Lenin himself said about organisational principles, let us turn to Congress of Third Communist International that had adopted a resolution on organisation in 1921.

Lenin could appear for a brief period in Fourth Congress next year of this International and denounced resolution of 1921 in unequivocal terms.

This is what Lenin in his report to Congress on November 13, 1922 said about it: At the Third Congress, in 1921, we adopted a resolution on organisational structure of the communist parties and on the methods and content of their activities. The resolution is an excellent one, but it is almost entirely Russian, that is to say, everything in it is based on Russian conditions.

This is its good point, but it is also its failing. It is its failing because I am sure that no foreigner can read it. I have read it again before saying this. In the first place, it is too long, containing fifty or more points.

Foreigners are not usually able to read such things.

Secondly, even if they read it, they will not understand it because it is too Russian. Not because it is written in Russian- it has been excellently translated into all languages - but because it is thoroughly imbued with the Russian spirit. And thirdly, if by way of exception some foreigner does understand (150)

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it, he cannot carry it out. This is the third defect. I have talked with a few of the foreigner delegates and hopes to discuss matters in detail with a large number of delegates from different countries during the Congress, although I shall not take part in its proceedings, for unfortunately it is impossible for me to do that. I have the impression that we made a big mistake with this resolution, namely that we blocked our own road to further success. As I have said already, the resolution is excellently drafted; I am prepared to subscribe to every one of its fifty or more points.

But we have not learned how to present our Russian experience to foreigners. All that was said in the resolution has remained a dead letter. If we do not realise this, we shall be unable to move ahead. I think that after five years of the Russian revolution the most important thing for all of us, Russian and foreign comrades alike, is to sit down and study. We have only now obtained the opportunity to do so. I do not know how long this opportunity will last. I do not know for how long the capitalist powers will give us the opportunity to study in peace. But we must take advantage of every moment of respite from fighting, from war, to study and to study from scratch. .The whole party and all strata of the population of Russia prove this by their thirst for knowledge. This striving to learn shows that our most important task today is to study and study hard. Our foreign comrades, too, must study. I do not mean that they have to learn to read and write and to understand, as (151)

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we still have to do. There is a dispute as to whether this concerns proletarian or bourgeois culture. I shall leave that question open. But one thing is certain: we have to begin by learning to read and write and to understand what they read. Foreigners do not need that. They need something more advanced: first of all, among other things they must learn to understand what we have written about organisational structure of the communist parties and what the foreign comrades have signed without reading and understanding. This must be their first task. The resolution must be carried out. It cannot be carried out overnight; that is absolutely impossible. The resolution is too Russian, it reflects Russian experience.

That is why it is quite unintelligible to foreigners and they cannot be content with hanging it in a corner like an icon and praying to it. Nothing will be achieved that way. They must assimilate part of the Russian experience. Just how that will be done, I do not know... We are studying in the general sense. They however, must study in the special sense, in order that they really understand the organisation, structure, method and content of revolutionary work. If they do that, I am sure the prospects of the world revolution will not be only good, but excellent.

Teaching Ignored That did not happen. In all likelihood, Russian compatriots did not heed the advice of their teacher to study and avoid help in drafting resolutions for the (152)

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worldwide movement based on Russian spirit; apparently foreigners also shirked study in a special way as suggested by the leader to disadvantage of both.

This resolution is popularly known as Leninist principles of party organisation in communist movement. Perhaps, leadership following him later found much meaning in his comment that resolution is ‘excellent’ one and must be ‘carried out’, casting aside his study that by adopting t h i s r e s o l u t i o n ‘ w e m a d e a b i g m i s t a k ’.

Despite admission of mistake by the teacher, followers after him continued treading mistaken path faithfully and are continuing till now. Lenin though was forthright in his remarks on this ‘Russian’ resolution by third International and much concerned about averting tragedy it implied. Still, it could not be averted.

The tragedy however unfolded when this resolution by International with Russian spirit continued to remain a touchstone of organisational fidelity with communists worldwide. The same Russian spirit permeates almost in all international formulations till collapse of the experiment in Russia itself. No other variation was allowed to enter the domain. Not much is known how this happened to materialise despite warning from the teacher himself of its ills.

These principles of organisation from Lenin are not dependent on merely a particular resolution from third international which he himself repudiated: his many treatises advance the same in essence. How it then?

History is best answer. Let us study.

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Myths around organisation Principle of Democratic Centralism The Bolshevik party under leadership of Lenin successfully captured state power in Russia through ‘Socialist Revolution’ of 1917. The era of .imperialism and proletarian revolution. inaugurated by this revolution was dominated by a few concepts developed and practised by communist parties chiselled as instruments of .change. to over throw capitalism and build socialism, guided mainly by Lenin. One was principle of democratic centralism. It gained currency and became central to any communist organisation.

Lenin distinguished his understanding of proletarian democracy as superior to one prevalent bourge is democracy, but underlined it with emphasis on centralism as its distinguishing trait. Proletarian democracy emphatically was relegated to a partial role only for proletarians to enjoy. Since bourgeoisie as a class was to be eliminated as per scheme for proletarian revolution to succeed, it was denied any right under this new form of democracy. In between there remained other sections of society, like family farmers who also were by implication kept out of its purview, though for some period these were designated as friends of proletarians to be treated differently from enemy class.

Democracy Rests on Individual entity Though Lenin worked zealously to distinguish proletarian democracy from old bourgeoisie democracy, he could (154)

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not or did not foresee danger in its basic ingredient in individualism. Democracy takes individual as its primary object of concern, all because of its class origin in industrial capital. Basically concept of democracy was brought in to serve bourgeois class with individual rights made sacrosanct. Socialist thought cannot afford to borrow such a concept that goes contrary to its principles as it did. No alternative in consonance with principles of social cohesion under socialist thought was conceived to replace individualist approach.

Similarly tragedy occurred on representative form of democracy that had reduced the whole concept to a sham. Happily representative form of democracy was embraced. All power to soviets remained ineffective to the last with highly centralised party at top with no effective check from below.

All rulers in human history fear energies of the masses most. Soviet rulers fared no better. Neither Chinese, nor Vietnamese after revolution fared different. The same is true of other so-called socialist countries. With such concentration of authority in hands of a centralised leadership, initiative and activism of rank and file in a communist party is extinguished like-wise. In such a condition, initiative of people is a far cry to expect.

People will remain lifeless mass where leaders rule. In democracy, as a matter of principle, people are supreme. Representative democracy ostensibly, was brought in by bourgeoisie to manage its unwieldy mass (155)

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energy! But in practice it was designed to sideline power of people and in its place .representative. was placed above people to rule them basically with help of armed machinery. Lenin fell for it, knowingly or unknowingly.

As a result, democracy was extinguished in Soviet Union, what remained was absurd dictatorship over the people, unaccounted and ruthless, manipulative and unrepentant. In realm of political organisation, the damage was much more pernicious. Alienation of people from ruling party and the state there explains it.

Here, the ‘representative’ virtually is replacing its ‘master’, its creator - its class.. Thus institution of political party faithfully discharged its duty assigned to it by history and paralysed people.s power to contain effects of democracy to the dotted task. The story in Soviet Union was not different.

The very idea of a party being vanguard is untenable.

To assume a sole representative character of a class with so varied and at times conflicting interests even within the industrial proletariat is a fallacy deliberately created. The worst sufferers were working people world over for no fault of theirs. They paid price for believing in a wrong concept uncritically - a dangerous path full of sludge leading surely to ruin.

In wielding state power, ‘representative’ vanguard in the shape of a communist party placed itself even above ‘class’ to be ruled by it with no check from its parent source of power. It proved to be a farce in the name of proletarian democracy as capitalist class did in case (156)

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of its own democracy. There was no clear cut break from past to chart a new course.

Centralism is antithetic to communism and cannot be justified on logic of consonance during its transitory stage of socialism, if this stage is not defined something hostile to a stateless stage of communism based on selfmanagement of civic affairs by citizens in communitarian settings. The transitory stage of socialism is designed to prepare for switch over to stateless communism.

Highly centralised state machinery under socialist stage cannot graduate to discharge this duty to prepare for a non-centralised and self-managed communist society propounded by Marx and Engels.

This contradictory concept of centralism to communism reflects more characteristics of industrial-commercialfinancial complex under capitalism and much nearer to its nature. The tragedy was severe when it struck roots in erstwhile Soviet Union as an industrialised state.

There was another folly. The principle of democratic centralism contrived for a communist party by Lenin was applied to all social-economic formations like mass organisations, production process and in spheres of social importance lile state structure. That stifled whole social life with no safety valve to breath safe.

Dictatorship of Proletariat It was another tragedy of sorts when dictatorship of proletariat was equated with dictatorship of commu(157)

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nist party and party was equated with its supreme leader in exchange! This ultimately threw up a full crop of intellectual dwarfs in the movement and bred clearly a pyramid like Brahmanical hierarchy in operation with inbred arbitrariness. It created a class division within organisation, leading to antagonism breading confusion of worst kind and encouraged isolation from masses, with octopus like bureaucracy at top. The impregnable wall between leaders and the led became a reality worse than one between citizens and their elected representatives in parliamentary political frame. If Leon Trotsky had labelled structure in Soviet Union as .bureaucratic socialism. during course of tiff with Stalin in his struggle for supremacy, the fact that bureaucracy overpowered this experiment with an iron grip does not loose relevance. Second, if defining democratic centralism was good enough, yet nowhere in world had it flowered as postulated! One cannot find a single case of a communist party where this principle worked as defined. It proved a mirage, yet crafty enough for leadership to introduce worst form of arbitrary conduct and justification for high-handedness in practice.

Third, having a central object to capture state power entailing vast privileges tagged along, communist party easily turned into a cesspool of intrigues and manipulations. It left two possibilities open for explanation: one, individual interests predominated within leadership of ruling party to enjoy privileges of power attached with such organism as armed state; (158)

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second possibility is that an infantile infatuation for using armed power of state establishment must have turned too nasty with leaders playing truant with Lenin.s own postulate about state. In both cases however, communist philosophy remained the real victim.

The organisational principles based on ‘democratic centralism’ provide an easy route for leadership to hammer party along their group-interests in name of class and revolution cheating working people by sheer regimentation. This proved fatal to the experiment.

Principle of Vanguard Party Fourthly, it is presumed that self-proclaimed vanguard party of proletariat represents the whole class and acts on its behalf; even without proving its legitimacy reasonably ever, to claim mystic support of a amorphous class for its arbitrary conduct. It is a deliberate myth created with much hard labour -perhaps to ride roughshod over society with least accountability. This myth of vanguard party helped to create arrogance in cadres and leaders leading to alienation of worst kind.

Fifth, a class of parasitic professionals in politics is created with an inflated arrogance of their infallibility, superior knowledge and a false sense of .sacrifice. to rule, with all evil influences to rub society at wrong ends. It hardly helps to create a better man ready to take over a communist society for self-management.

Sixth, operation of these so-called principles in organisation leaves virtually its General Secretary of the party at best a sole arbiter of social good with no (159)

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reasonable and reliable check whatsoever. The whole centralised party-structure unfailingly creates an emasculated band of paid .professional politicians. who are supposed to exercise another myth in ‘criticism and self-criticism’ of their leaders to checkmate possible distortions. It never worked anywhere what it is supposed to deliver so far. The system groomed Lenin to Stalin as also Beria, Khrushchev- Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Yeltsin in Soviet Union and Mao to Deng in China, while in Vietnam from Ho Chi Minh to much little pygmies in other countries thereafter as arbiters of social good with generations to suffer in the end. It is like playing ‘lottery’ drakes with future of society that no serious activist would like to arbiter.

Seven, if once communist party is accepted as repository of working class interest par excellence, adage that best available is ‘elected’ to post its leadership then stands endowed with ‘highest of wisdom’ that go to make aristocracy rise at top and followers meek enough to accept it perennially in intellectual and also organisational sense. In such circumstances, intellectual dwarfism observed of late in communist movement world over is not a surprising development. Discipline in this dispensation is used not to smooth away rough edges but to curtail perceived threats to leadership, even by violent methods.

Eighth, accusation that leadership in a communist party is self-perpetuating cannot be brushed aside lightly with such absurd postulates in organisation.

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Ninth, level of alienation people felt in Soviet Union from such a leadership, as also of reluctance seen among working masses to join ranks of communist parties was quite visible during last years of its rule.

The concept of authority provides much needed grist to principal of democratic centralism. The concept of ‘authority’ in a communist party need be scrutinised afresh, totally rejecting iniquitous grades and privileges.

The ‘communist’ parties world over following these ‘Leninist’ principles of organisation are surviving on concept of authority in political field just as state does in matters of governance. By now people stand conditioned to their necessity debunking concept of self-governance by community. It is tragic.

Indian Experience: Case of genuine communist. party!

How leadership translates such formulations? The example to illustrate must come from a self-proclaimed ‘genuine’ one, though other ‘non-genuine’ like CPI, CPI(M), CPI(ML) are almost similar in content.

The case of ‘genuine’ among them will help to provide a better insight into the way these gentlemen took theory and communist movement as their hand maid with impunity.

One such so-called ‘real communist party’ in India prides that basing itself on the principle of democratic centralism, the party, like human organism, has to be a single organic whole of monolithic character’.

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developing a collective leadership concretely personified and its democratic functioning on the basis of centralism, both ideological and organisational . the former leading to the latter to take shape. It asks its members to develop one process of thinking, uniformity of thinking, oneness in approach and singleness of purpose on matters covering all aspects of life. At another level, party tells its members that the process involves subordination of the individual to the organisation, of the minority to the majority, of the lower to the central committee of the party. These are few gems of wisdom from this group.

Explaining that this is proletarian democracy emanating from proletarian class outlook reflecting proletarian way of life, that is, collective way of life. Party asks subordination to be conscious, voluntary and happy.

This party teaches that .interest of the party which is interest of the toiling people in general and the working class in particular should be placed above all other interests. Party discipline should be observed unfailingly and decisions of the leading bodies carried out strictly and happily identifying himself/herself with the interest of the party, the class and the revolution.

Yes, identifying oneself with interest of party, class and revolution is a unique demand in rhythmical way from leaders for typical uniformity. There is no way for cadres of party to go except what this party thinks about class and revolution and how it defines these categories in wisdom. As per this leadership, cause of revolution so (162)

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interpreted by it decides truth; facts may be created accordingly. It is a demand for complete surrender to leadership of this party, both on intellectual and organisational grounds. It can breed nothing but dwarfs.

Unless one bestows leadership of this party with supernatural powers of intellect and honesty of purpose, views coming from it on affairs party, class and revolution have to be accepted as nothing but truth.

Jargons apart, no one can beat this, perhaps to plead for such a hideous Brahmanical hierarchy creating both caste and class division at the same time in a ‘genuine communist’ party of sorts! There is no doubt that this feat was achieved under this .Leninist. principle of .democratic centralism. for a party organisation.

The leadership of this .genuine. communist organisation is never tired to claim its contribution for higher understanding of communist principles in Indian soil in justification of its existence. The scrutiny, however, of its past sixty and odd years is quite a revealing chapter in this regard. It could better utilise common faith in brahmanical order available in society at large for its own version of democratic centralism to work with ease and without much scrutiny by obedient cadres.

Tricky premise An absurd premise was developed by this .only communist. party that a revolutionary organisation has to be modelled like a human organism. The premise, wittingly or unwittingly justifies .division of labour. between .mental. and .physical. labour, typically of (163)

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capitalist growth in economy giving rise to hierarchy.

It pushes artificial division between cadres and leaders as a permanent fixture that falsifies Marxist understanding of a just social order where eradication of such division is a pre requisite. The premise is based on a socio-economic theory that copiously follow western thought with ‘division of labour’ as the highest formation to ensure expertise and better production, which capitalism contributes!

Why this principle is inevitable in a communist party?

It is not explained. Why you need physical and mental labour separated in a communist organisation? No answer. Since the postulate came from leader endowed with superior capabilities. only a great Brahmin can obtain it! There is nothing in science to suggest that a formal organisation that is a communist party can be equated with a natural organism as human being.

For birth and later for their growth processes both in human organism and a political formation are totally different categories. To prescribe conditioning for one process of thinking cannot but lead to worst regimentation of thought in a party, kill creativity and initiative in society to a level of fascist absurdity.

Pleading for developing collective leadership concretely personified through an individual placed at highest level in organisation is plainly a mine sweeping job for a supreme leader at top of organisation as an embodiment of wisdom found only in brahmanical order copious from Manuvadi social stratification in India.

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On another aspect none can beat it. The leader teaches: if a revolutionary fails to transform members of his family into revolutionaries then his relations with them should cease forever. This a fundamental issue. Again, ‘the revolutionary may feel pain if his beloved (or wife) is not a comrade. But he knows...countless beloveds will come, relieve him of his torment, fill his heart full with love’. And: ‘those who cannot surrender his self, love, affection, tenderness, family, his everything to the party, can never be communists of first rank’.

This is how ‘study in a special way’ is carried to such absurdities and theory is made, remade and broken.

One thing certainly can be said that this party falls much too short on practice, while it is a very sad tale on morals and conduct. With these principles, this party has taken a fascist character in behaviour and social practices with a Brahmanical hierarchy intact having no respect to principles of its own make, when outright lies are used as normal tricks in the game at need.

The Practice Understanding goes that theory and practice must work in concert with each other; practice has to serve theory and theory must guide practice to remain in step with theory. But it hardly worked like it in these parties who remained busy in playing games of power. Most often leadership exhibits capabilities in theorising practice for followers to remain loyal. The practice formulated and executed during this period both in realm of state and political organisation in USSR, China and (165)

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others as vanguard of ruling class or classes is a good indication how the system faulted.

It is incontestable that communists world over have been valiant fighters for the social cause, more so they stood firm to change social relations on new footing by a collective effort. People depended on them for lead and believed their words. They had earned credibility over a long period for integrity, both organisational and ideological. Selfless dedication to the cause and fearless sacrifices from innumerable fighters had become an illuminating history for young to emulate.

What peoples in different countries professing socialism ultimately experienced in the last decade of twentieth century is a sad story in betrayal by the very leadership in command. Apart, in countries where capitalist onslaught continues unabated and communist parties professed fidelity to workingmen, experiences about leadership were no different. No doubt that somewhere something went terribly wrong.

It is noticed that while concretising many important aspects of theory in search of easy and rapid short cuts to build socialism communist leadership faulted seriously.

On practice the blunders are of no less magnitude.

For the first, let us cite a few examples. The split in world communist movement and the emergence of its two hostile blocks, one led by the big brother - Soviet Union and the other by China, was a first serious blow to its image of international solidarity and comradeship.

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Narrow national interests worked to over-shadow the principles instead. Hegemony got currency as an accusation. The prestige earned by Soviet Union, as a consistent harbinger of peace in the world and supporter of independence struggles in colonial countries as also victorious giant in the war against fascism stood badly shaken. It emerged as a narrow nationalist state in search of hegemony, while China contended on same plane.

It is an irony of sorts that Chinese leadership have not only shed off international communist movement, but turned inward for nationalist objectives alone, whereas earlier it had claimed leadership of the international communist movement as a genuine upholder of principles in contest to CPSU! Almost similar was the case with Vietnamese leadership, who were later found lining up their young girls for presenting roses in search of dollars to the same visiting Americans on their shores.

Here an important question arises: despite claim of internationalist solidarity as an abiding principle in communist movement what is the place for fidelity to national cause and how both can co-exist simultaneously?

One unmistakable fact emerged that political class came out as nothing different from its historical parentage in the long run! The last ruling patriarch of CPSU, Michel Gorbachev along with his ambitious wife celebrated fulfilment of their life dream and the Soviet Camp was declared dead by 1991. The ruling parties in countries of soviet camp stood disbanded without tears. Poland (167)

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paved the way earlier on whims of a Pope claiming affinity with polish nationality. Its trade union by the name of ‘Solidarity’ proved the disgracing force.

Chinese revolution had started moving to death much earlier but with crafty jargons none protested against.

Those who had supported the system in USSR from outside the ring were surprised to find billionaires overnight in Moscow, including some commanders of Red Army despite long campaign of 74 years for social obligation. The ruling Political-Bureau was inhabited

by Berias, Brezhnovs, Yeltsins and the like Gorbachevs could easily find space in an organisation of new type.

Society in the old socialist camp reversed back with vengeance with a corresponding structure to support.

The reversal brought back all those social relations that breed strife, greed, manipulations and crime in tail. It was brought about those who knew all about dark features of capitalism in the past and present.

How people of USSR accepted this to happen in a society that was in turmoil for long in quest of new initiatives for social justice, is another aspect of the question.

How it came in a communist party of Lenin and Stalin that such persons could invent a practice of offering gifts to leaders and used it like a ladder to arise in hierarchy? Who will explain as to how Yeltsin .the drunkard could sneak into its Political-Bureau who later proved to be a stooge of America like none else.

It is a sad commentary on infallibility of organisational principles of party sanctioned by none other than Lenin and Stalin and the Third Communist International.

(168)

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When a section among fighters for communism, especially its leaders, turned as rulers in many countries, people found them wanting on many important counts as usual. Serious questions were raised on their conduct.

The ruled remained ruled in those countries. Over a long period of observation and practice has given a chance to see through what leaders in communist parties preach and what they do in practice, barring a few honourable exceptions whose dedication and honesty of purpose is unimpeachable. In fact these exceptions are the glittering stars that attract common mass to the ideology like a magnet. Even best in bourgeois world prove wanting in comparison to such examples in communist movement. But these remain exceptions, not the rule. The communist movement, however, demands necessarily attributes of honesty of purpose in thought and practice pervading all its ranks.

It was found that where ever communist leadership was engaged in political-games to capture or share power they were easy resorting to manipulations, mean methods and shady deals like any other party not the least compatible with declared principles it was supposed to follow. Privileges associated with power and pelf attracted these leaders no less than others that created strong grounds for alienation within ranks.

Take another yardstick. Despite their claim to be organisation of an opposite class to the capital, plight today of communist or socialist parties of Marxist faith world over without exception, again underlines their (169)

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inherent bourgeois characteristic. These parties are as faction-ridden as any other infested by self-centred careerists to gain status or grab pelf and power. This is but a sure symptom of individualism working within unabated to serve capitalist growth in society.

Organisational principles apart, communist or socialist parties subscribing to Marxist ideology are as corrupt and compromising as other parties of any other faith today, but more regimented and closed. There is hardly anything special to distinguish these entities other than mere rhetoric on ideology and disciplinary faith.

In their zeal of being part of a vanguard, the leaders easily slipped into a conceited lot with arrogance unbound. They took it to themselves that what they say is the only truth, how they look at things is right and urely logical. The other opinion was equated with betrayal; suspicion reigned supreme with manipulators having a heyday, ultimately shutting out honest intellectual regeneration. While in polemics with adversaries, even Lenin paved way for a haughty style that later developed into a hallmark of self-righteousness and rude behaviour with the opponent, many times with hollow reasoning. This ultimately belittled the role of a man and human dignity became the easy victim.

The provision of .inner-struggle. in a communist party propagated as a dependable mechanism for selfcorrection and a sure anti-dot to miscarriage of just conduct proved a virtual hoax. Nowhere, in no communist party this mechanism ever proved effective (170)

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to check the rot or help correct a deviation in time.

Rather, there are instances in legion when those taken in over the promise of inner-struggle had to pay heavy price for their impudence in challenging established leadership of the time even where party was not in power. The case of ruling parties was despicable in this regard and brought much bad name. Violence was freely used to settle issues, branding any voice of dissent as treason against state, inviting capital punishment at will. Ultimately, provision for ‘criticism and selfcriticism’ lost even its face value.

Central Committees or Polit-Bureaus of communist parties, as highest organs of authority, were turned as mere pack of hand-picked loyalists of ruling ones including the .Control Commission. of Lenin.s type that were supposed to balance arbitrary powers of C.C and PBs. Spineless people entered these institutions of authority; like Gorbachev, Yeltsin in abundance dotting every party, genuine or otherwise If democracy was the word, how it happened then that with a change of an individual in command effected immediate change in policy-making bodies too clapping new leader all the time.

This happened in all communist parties world over without exception. There was a case when Khrushchev got a decision changed in his favour with active help of an Army commander by keeping the entire PoliticalBureau hostage. He got rid of all inconvenient members of Bureau and Central Committee immediately thereafter, taking the country in his boot by capturing (171)

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total administrative machinery along with Red Army. It cannot be explained, except as a treacherous game of individualism manifesting sheer group politics. With such conditions in a so-called communist party there is nothing surprising to find that initiative and activism of masses evaporated in all countries of socialist camp. Non-ruling communist parties too habitually behave with people as if these are doers and people have simply to repose faith in them!

See another facet. Propaganda is important for dissemination of information and help kindling awareness. But mastering tricks in mis-information and outright dis-information is a crime against humanity with no justification whatsoever, more so if it is done utilising extensive state resources. Ruling parties, including communist parties did it unchecked.

People were manipulated to doctored truths. Stories abound when falsehood was resorted to and truth suppressed only to buttress a particular set of leaders with attributes he/ she had none. Arrogance of being ‘vanguard’ have done much damage when people are taken as mere tools to be ‘treated’ and ‘educated’ by these superior humans.

Another facade of political parties is illustrated by what these do in legislative chambers of present day set up.

They become happy collaborators in manipulating legislative institutions to subdue people. The Indian story is an eloquent testimony.

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Communist Movement

The accumulated dirt and moss in communist parties world over was testimony enough to ill effects of this principle of democratic centralism in practice. As a result, this has sapped zeal out and left communist movement gasping. The masses stood aside and leadership remained content with their privileges as a class; they surpassed bourgeois rulers in many cases and corrupted such organisations to bones.

This is said to remind all those practitioners of revolutionary ideology that there is nothing sacrosanct about any postulate or formulation coming from any ‘authority’ whatsoever for today unless it satisfies the test of objective truth without blinkers of past. It must satisfy test today. So far, practice is laden with quotes from this authority or the other to claim fidelity. This led to sterile action generally with follies in trail that has done more harm than clarity.

There is a qualitative change of reverse order in situation after 1991 that demands creative approach to problems of today. Exercise must begin with analysis of what went wrong in Soviet and Chinese experiments.

What mars its further growth is skewed understanding on certain features the communists harboured so far, in a mistaken belief that what Lenin said about Russian path is the path to revolution and revolutionary change thereafter. One such understanding relates to question of capturing state power that necessarily involves a question of armed struggle as means to reach the object.

(173)

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In this context the question of violence/non-violence came up for contest. Communists were accused of unalloyed faith in violence. Communist circles world over contributed no less to confuse the issue by propagating a saying that violence is the midwife to revolutionary regeneration of society.

Perhaps Indian communists perforce focused this formulation to combat the influence gained by a question of non-violence vis-Ă -vis violence that Mahatma Gandhi had raised to counter the rising influence of revolutionary politics quite an anathema to Mahatma in the conflict between labour and capital.

Gandhi was for collaboration between the two, propounding the concept of trusteeship. In fact, he was deeply abhorrent to initiative of people; he wanted their energy to be used but within a prescribed frame of his own mark! And as a master tactician, he had raised this issue of violence and non-violence to wean away masses to his side of thinking.

When Bhagat Singh and his colleagues replied with much ease and logic, they were ignored by those who had developed anti-pathy to the ideals of these youngmen in the struggle by terming them as urchins.

It was a fatal digression which the movement was asked to pay for its raw ideological pursuit at the time.

Unfortunately, there was none to contest the question on theory after these ‘urchins’ were removed from the scene by execution in 1931. The dynamics worked against the social cause. None in the movement then (174)

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visualised that the question will be haunting the people’s movement even after independence with much more harm to the cause of social change.

May be Indian communists were right in using such idiom to counter the ideological offensive from Mahatma.

Still the ultimate outfall of .midwife. argument proved debilitating to the movement itself with much serious ramifications, not visualised earlier by the authors. They did not convincingly answer Gandhi’s poser on .end justifies means. from them. And it proved a handy tool in his hands to isolate revolutionary politics of those times from the common man with a different psyche.

In addition, this midwife formulation in the long run posed a dangerous mind-set to extol violence as a matter of radical faith in routine, which has nothing to do with revolutionary practice. Violence in such a milieu tends to take routine character in dealing any and every dissenting voice with a revolutionary fervour, even within the organisations. Leadership did not counter this to happen. And the movement had to pay a price for this ideological failure of communist leadership.

The justification for violence is to capture state power against a ferocious and armed adversary. Basic in logic first is extolling the virtue of capturing state power; violence then is justified in trail as a means to gain it as the supreme object by a handful of enthusiastic cadres. Later, violence gains importance to retain this state power and ultimately it turns into a base of this power that goes against the ruled mass, where (175)

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oppression and coercive methods get a veneer of legitimacy! .Centralised power. then plays havoc in the society. This has its own dynamics to operate, which goes against the people ultimately.

History is witness to the fact that violence breeds violence. It consumes human sensibilities. History is witness that violence then ultimately devours its own children. It blunts human qualities that are very basic to a communist, if any swears to be one. In case of basic change, with faith in strength and creativity of people at large, the question of violence is a wrong poser and turns non-relevant.

Butchers and murderers have different trajectory.

Murderer is different from a butcher. Murderer goes in panic while butcher has a plan to achieve. One tends to call names to butcher and legitimately too. But butchers and hangmen do their job religiously, with fervour and zeal taking the object in routine. May be butchers are not bad. Normally, they are not. Still it stinks. Murderer may have a cause -good or bad. One has to be careful about understanding both.

Violence and non-violence go together as a matter of philosophy. One exists with the other. If there is no violence non-violence looses relevance; so it cannot claim the status of a creed as Mahatma tried to assign it with, like a devoted Jain. Violence cannot be a basis of legitimate social existence, nor non-violence be its mast to hang by. For a peaceful and contended life other basic issues have to be addressed.

(176)

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In matters of people’s movement the poser of nonviolence vis-à -vis violence is a non issue and a false alarm. Even in criminal jurisprudence, violence in self defence is no violence and is well recognised as legitimate. In reverse, violence as a creed is not acceptable in normal course of social life. Then why to muddle the issue, if there is no hidden agenda? At least this cannot be the yardstick to accept or reject an ideology of social change. Much more goes to decide merits or demerits of the same.

Another poser from Gandhi related to ends and means.

He charged Indian communists in course of independence struggle of following a postulate that ends justify means to isolate them from common masses who generally were poor on philosophical issues involved. The poser in fact involved a moral question for those who were engaged in mass struggles for liberation.

Indian communists failed the test; they were trapped and lost for want of philosophical clarity on the issue.

Gandhi and after him all his disciples took full advantage and could put communists on wrong footing.

Simply put, means have to be in consonance with ends; means do influence the outcome. Since the poser from Mahatma related to a movement which involves participants nurturing certain values of aspirations means do influence their cultural mores too.

Naturally tactics of movement cannot and must not cross the strategic aims in search of shortcuts. This is basic.

It is observed that leaders many times do commit wrongs in this regard, search for shortcuts and badly damage (177)

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the object in consequence. Communist movement in India has suffered much with such failures.

Morality and ethics in social relations have their own force. True, these are not static categories for ever.

But to conduct affairs without having regard for maintaining any standard of social behaviour and transgressing ethical and moral values of times cannot be justified on any account. Communists are people who more than any other have a better sense of social values and cannot act otherwise under false pretexts.

(178)

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XI

Quest For Future

Quest For Sustainable Future

The Perspective My students opened up on question of a bright future: both felt concerned and now have developed a common desire for a better social order free from ills of the present. Both like a life of peace and justice when system works for equality, where no one is left with propensity for oppressing the other on strength of muscle power, does not possess extra means to exploit fellow citizens, when one enjoys labour for social production in common, has inclination to manage their own life and nurture a will to stand against injustice. Society needs a hope that can sustain, they agreed.

Faced with stark realities of the present, these young souls have no stomach still for prioritising social obligation, primarily for want of clarity about a utopia and what is achievable on the ground. Both are habitually prone to cultivate a wish but bother little to think about what can be translated into a reality. They are unaware so far how and when dynamics for social change unfolds in real terms.

Yes, both agreed that ills of present day society for common masses are worth a dustbin and should not (179)

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govern social life any longer, while the experiment to get rid of these during present era proved futile. They are no longer pessimist also about any effort to come out of this mess and do not find any reason that mistakes committed in carrying out experiment by Soviet and/ or Chinese camps were inevitable. Both agree that contours of a road map for a fully workable effort to reorder social relations are within human reach.

The effort to free society from absurdities of capitalism during twentieth century had in consequence freed society of fatalism and gave good reasons to believe in human efforts for social change, not depending upon any super-natural power to intervene on its behalf.

Nonetheless, the last experiment instilled one common theoretical belief still powerful in mass psyche in leadership of political parties to depend upon for this change to occur and it proved fatal to the project.

This lesson about leadership and its negative role in social movements has still to sink down in consciousness of the masses, including these students on highway of their careers despite what failed experiment of building socialism in twentieth century succinctly taught. It will take time to absorb it in depth. At any rate, day to day practice in pursuit of their adopted targets does not allow them to be free from confusion on question of leadership in social and individual life.

One killing argument from conscious keepers of capitalist mode needs be debunked for what it is worth and (180)

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cleared of its support base. To provide theoretical basis for capital centred system to prevail, logic of skeptics still holds wide acceptance that the world is bust due to laggards and diligent are few which have the capacity to create heaven on earth, if their chains go. Lassie faire is their pet theory in economics.

It ensures a system that keeps society perennially fractured on false ground. Why basically a creative man has gone laggard, in first place? If to admit such absurd logic for a while, the reason is not explained. Capitalist mode essentially creates alienation of producers of social wealth. The apologists of capitalist mode do not want to admit and desire to shift blame on workers/real producers to discipline them on pain of penalty. In fact, it is a game of wits to deceive society and keep it chained to its mode on deceptive logic.

After 1991 the governments world over, democratic or dictators have accepted this absurd logic and are out to discipline laggards, with carrots and rods, in interest of development that provides legitimacy to an argument for making an oppressive armed state inevitable!

Provision for cash incentive for extra production apart from better management techniques with various labour laws in such a system merely ensures to turn man/ woman selfish in working for gain i.e.giving legitimacy to a fanciful theory that human is basically greedy, which he/she is not originally. There is hardly any doubt left that with such fanciful theoretical support present system is being kept afloat with no sound (181)

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basis. It is a completely torn cloth to hide under.

Man/woman basically is social and creative by nature.

If one is laggard or greedy and selfish one is made so by vested interests, those who for wrong reasons happen to control things in their own fashion. It does not provide valid ground to continue the illegitimate in history and has to be changed for good reasons now.

For any fresh effort to define contours of a workable draft to replace the present dehumanising system, however, one has to be free from past mistakes, including the concept of Authority as also about a Political Party in vogue today. Let us recollect, these concepts were devised to serve a capital-based industrial-commercial system of production and distribution and cannot serve the one that is to replace it, since first task is to find ways for state to wither away as its primary contradiction today that governs outworn social relations the society today is tired of.

A society free of expropriation and oppression of one by another, needs a system of production and distribution of wealth so produced among equals on a rational basis that creates no tension in consequence, fulfils need of all and ensures collective way of life.

Such a mode will have to be based necessarily where labour unit does not remain a free individual engaged on wage. The postulates that .each works according to capacity and gets according to work. and then ‘every one works according to capacity and gets according to need’ have to be modified accordingly where family (182)

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as its basic social unit replaces individual. To remain free from both expropriation and tension, industrialcommercial mode has to give place to family farming mode instead as fulcrum of production and equitable share in social wealth for sustenance in comfort.

There is a contest that industry alone has capacity to take society on fast track of growth and its negative effects are not beyond good management to keep society free from unjust delivery and turmoil. To meet needs of constantly growing population the rate of production has to arise much beyond normal growth level, which only industry can assure, argument goes.

Dispersal of family is a collateral damage for a better life style, apologists of capitalism explain innocently.

First, let us realise the nature of two competitive modes for comparative study. Agriculture is by nature organic and develops in mathematical progression rising constantly and steadily providing stability to the system. Its mode depends on collective labour generating corresponding web of relationships.

Industrial mode is by nature inorganic and develops in geometrical progression rising by sharp curves providing instability in return. Its mode depends on free individual as its basic unit of labour atomising society to unmanageable situation of disintegration and making armed state a necessity to control and repress for order in disorder generating corresponding relations of conflict and tension perpetually, turning human labour into a commodity for sale and purchase with wage (183)

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slavery as its necessary component.

The futuristic mode so to be crafted has to answer basic questions of social harmony and peace while meeting the rising needs of a population, borrowing no elements of the discarded one.

Both of my students also now agree recapitulating in nutshell broad lessons that emerge out of our study so far. There is no ambiguity to conclude: 1. That it is armed state power which makes present system work in favour of capitalist relations to benefit handful rich and against working population who broadly constitute 99 per cent of population.

2. That basic interest of rulers, a microscopic minority and the ruled that is a heavy majority, invariably are under conflict against each other.

3. That representative democracy is the political mechanism which is helping to sustain present exploitative system, designed as a crude replacement of participative democracy that was crux of equality, liberty, fraternity once.

4. That family farming as fulcrum of village life with family as its unit, survives on human labour having a corresponding culture of brotherhood, sharing, cooperation and peaceful co-existence.

5. That industrial/commercial pursuits as fulcrum of city life is based on individual free labour with profit as its motive force by expropriation of surplus value (184)

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added by human labour, having a corresponding culture of self, exploitation, cheating, adulteration and corruption. It creates constant tension and conflict in life and is inimical to family and community life.

6. That social/family life of harmony and peace with communality of interests suffers fatal blows from individualism as a distinct philosophy of life which industrial/commercial mode necessarily produces. It turns man/woman into crash individuals as selfish consumers to keep commodity market floating in the interest of earning private/public profit to maximum.

7. Replacement of human labour by capital as centre of activity, turning it into a master-key of relations, has devalued man which society is suffering including disappearance of family and human bonds.

8. That society stands fully divided into warring group of interests and is the basic cause of constant conflict that is destroying social cohesion unnecessarily.

9. That technological development to serve maximisation of profit creates surplus production in speed, correspondingly displacing human labour is creating a situation of development with zero employment which lately India has reached while profits rise to new heights, turning to export oriented growth where business flourish and rest of the population relatively suffers from price rise, unemployment, poverty and wants.

10. That armed state goes on to spend more on (185)

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armaments and prop defence industry in order to survive, while resorting to curb freedom of population day by day with one alibi or the other, lest there is danger to this system of exploitation from its disgruntled citizens.

11. Apart from disappearing of family, as a web of compatible relationships, youth and females in particular face a disturbing future under presen capitalist mode. It fears energy of first and wants the other as a highly paying commodity for her sexuality caring little about human dignity in turn.

12.That there is need to search for a viable alternative way to live than what is available today.

The failed experiment during twentieth century leaves a rich treasure of lessons to take into account for building a fresh move. These lessons comprise: I. Capital based industrial mode of production is not compatible to socialist construction.

II. Family is the only reliable social/labour unit of production and only available collective way of life at present to depend upon. It must play its role as a cohesive unit of social activism for social change too.

III. Farming with allied pursuits is the only remaining mode of production that need be fulcrum of growth. Technological growth must serve to sustain growth compatible with nature and lighten unnecessary burden on human labour. Industry and trade must serve to make life easy on equitable (186)

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terms, without ills of capitalism when production does not depend on wage slavery.

IV. Participatory democracy must define every walk of social-economic life. People.s right to selfmanagement must be recognised and honoured fully by all, including their right to set deviants on course.

V. Proletariat does not possess characteristics of a revolutionary force anymore which may have interest in over-throwing capitalist relations. To see liberating tendency in proletariat on account of its wage slavery alone under capitalist mode proved a fallacy. It is not a homogenous class either; it suffers from conflicting interests within and has an inherent tendency to suffer death with the negation of capitalist mode.

VI. Proletariat, if it captures state power, will turn into ruler to stand apart from the ruled. As ruler its position does not remain a force of people’s movement for socialism. Since a ruler constantly perpetuates itself, interest of the ruled suffers defeat.

VII. The peasant family faces sure death, especially its communality of interest and way of life, under onslaught of capitalist agriculture and has no interest in keeping this mode alive.

VIII. The concept of authority/leadership need be put to rest for good and the need for political parties negated. The concept of dictatorship of proletariat and democratic centralism go against the very interest of socialist/communist reconstruction.

(187)

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IX. Commons, including land, forests, mines, water resources must remain with community to manage and utilised for fulfilling needs of constituent families for a comfortable life. None of the families can be denied a right of using these resources till one is a constituent part of a settled community in a common habitat.

X. Inter-family and/or inter community disputes must be resolved by respective social practices on common wisdom without any outside interference, with a right to seek help as and when required on established norms.

XI. Fraternal wisdom and cooperation must inform social interaction, resource exchange and economic relations with the neighbouring communities. Muscle power and/or aggression have to be met with common wisdom and resources not to possess but to repel evil.

XII. Relationship between man/woman, have to be respected on equitable norms. The social norms on marriage etc have to be informed by traditions and customs of respective communities/ families.

There cannot be any discrimination between male/ female; both are compatible to each other to live in harmony.

(188)

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XII

Prologue

Prologue

No society ever can stand injustice and oppression for long, if it has to remain a living organism. Its essential ingredients have to answer the call to maintain dynamism of a requisite order for health and ensure renewal normally of decaying ones.

If one is not prejudiced with a word, communism is not a philosophy to be despised. One cannot brand a philosophy unwanted for mistakes or even blunders of its past practitioners. It is evident that those engaged in experimenting in building socialist society had played with theory on many accounts with false logic and human society suffered.

The philosophy of communism is a call to fight against injustice and expropriation, providing elementary ingredients to craft a future free from tension and disharmony. The formulations built by different practitioners may or may not stand scrutiny of times.

That does not invalidate its basic premise.

My old and new students have reached a stage of crisis in old beliefs and fear of the new, though they have cultivated a desire for a bright future free from tension, injustice and disharmony. They are no longer skeptics .

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The uncertainty of the present, however, makes them cautious about stepping aside for opting the new outright. They need to cultivate the truth for what it is worth. This brings them to a state of study and interaction for conviction on new ideas gained so far.

The primary question that requires clarity is the rise of individualism in the midst of socialist thought during heydays of these experiments and what processes led to this result that wrung the death knell of building socialism in these countries. It is disgusting to find that not a single communist party was found free from the scourge of individualism; where all were found busy in catering to selfish interests of one sort or the other in practice while chanting jargons of socialist theory day and night. Similar was the position in society where these parties ruled to usher in communist culture.

Apparently, it is inexplicable that socialist movement led by communist parties will help produce individualism in societies where they were ruling to reshape the world afresh from absurdities of capitalism.

The communists, including stalwarts and their formations completely failed to take note or just ignored a bare fact of capital based industrial production process that necessarily produces individualism as a corresponding way of life and culture serving an individual, all because its labour unit is the individual, nurturing a primary relationship of wage against energy so spent and giving way to all other relations in course of time, somewhere leading to selfish individual of a (190)

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crash variety. This was the net result that experiment in building ‘socialism’ in USSR for over seven decades produced. Less said the better about People’s Democratic Republic of China.

The agonising aspect remains that none took responsibility either of this failure. In scheme of things, responsibility squarely lies with leadership.

Leaders who have been in command of this movement, still of whatever worth, are reluctant to provide any reliable and convincing account of past failures of people.s movement so far. The realisation on their part is seriously lacking of what happened and why. May be they are shy to face the truth or they are working still under certain illusions woven around by them in the past and have no courage to change tack. May be they are victims of their own past. They failed the future.

Now, citing this failure, questions are raised on the very raison d. etre of need for such a change itself by various forces. This is one part. Another facet of reality, however, remains valid that capitalism is left with no capacity to deliver. It is too destructive by nature. It has to be over-turned if society is to survive.

In such a situation, one has to find out answer to a query so that society can easily move out of this quagmire. Since, followers of communist creed were staunchest forces who worked with exceptional zeal, grit and sacrifice for a bright future, it was incumbent on them to clean their own house first.

(191)

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When working with capital during the exercise to build socialism, with capitalist world around, leaders could not remain immune from its magnetic pull perhaps. They themselves became its votaries finally and pulled powers of state structure in its service by dubious means of ‘practical politics’. One fact emerges: Once fresh and quite energetic, people.s movement is in disarray both organisationally and in vision that needs energising.

For communist parties, in early phase of their existence, ideology was their strength and dedication to principled cause was superb with untold valour and sacrifices by their cadres. If there is any comparison, only Sardar Bhagat Singh and Chandershekhar Azad as an organisational and ideological phenomenon surpassed them in intellect, valour, dynamism, character and dedication in India. None else fared better. Dedication with self-denial was their hallmark that none could surpass, except perhaps fanatics or hermits.

After the distressing events of 1990-91, situation in previous Soviet camp took a speedy turn. With the lid off, capitalism sprouted with full vigour immediately.

Everybody seemed happy to welcome the new avatar with open arms. Definitely it was not the handwork of one hour or one day. Many of its ills were found quite ripe. Corruption in worst form became a known phenomenon, more so in the leading cadres of ruling party, administrative apparatus and more surprisingly in the Red Army that was given the task to safeguard revolution, at least in theory. Loot of public resources (192)

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was as rampant as anywhere. Imperial ambitions took to wings. Love for imperialist America and American culture was astounding. Situation in other countries of socialist faith, more so in China and Vietnam had earlier taken a turn for capitalist relations.

Adversaries rejoiced. They were in ruptures virtually.

Capitalist-imperialist forces started dominating rest of the world to bring them all under their dictation. By 1994 new tools were brought in place, well forged to serve imperial interests and economic domination was thus assured in their favour. All nationalists in various countries of allegiance capitulated with joy and fanfare, even conceding good portions of sovereign rights to super powers for a pie in world market!

Mass movement against injustice, oppression and capitalist expropriation is at serious discount. Coercive arm of state is furiously sharpened for which .war against terrorism. is a new alibi forged. Democratic rights of the people, once described sacrosanct, are relegated to archives. Philosophical confusion is continuously generated and middle class ambitions fanned with intoxicants of various genres, including sex and drugs are there in plenty to deaden nerves of the young to obviate any challenge, present or future.

Corporate media is in place to do bidding. This is singleminded achievement of victors after those events that had declared old socialist camp dead.

After collapse of Soviet camp and winning over China and Vietnam by 1991, the American camp acted swift (193)

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to recover lost ground after Second World War on redistribution of world market for hegemony. General Agreement on Trade and Tariff (GATT) was revised with Dunkel Proposals by pursuance, cajoling and armstwisting for an all comprehensive agreement on trade and tariff, bringing agriculture in its ambit for the first time with a fresh organisation named WTO. Liberalisation, Privatisation and Globalisation (LPG in short that proved as inflammable) became a catchy mantra for warding off its ever emerging problems but opened fresh vistas of colonialism of new type working within and outside national barriers through hyper active financial capital under aegis of corporate houses knowing no code of good and honest conduct.

Since 2008 system is facing again a down turn, shifting its costs to shoulders of working populations everywhere and relishing support from public exchequers when profit is private and cost is public.

Capitalist world is in deep crisis again and gasping.

Remedies make it more prone to disaster. Globalisation as an escape route could give little respite as two world wars earlier failed to ameliorate ills but rather helped to the rise of socialist camp instead as a parallel market to compete. Packages from public exchequer for relief are of little help. Public outcry against such loot is getting shrill day by day. Search for a better alternative is the current agenda today even before hesitant souls.

Representative democracy has gone bust; people have grown skeptics of its efficacy. Political parties and their (194)

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Prologue

leaders have lost relevance. With this emerging situation at hand, ruling circles have invented NGO sector to tide over this deficit as a parallel to the torn cloth with liberal financial grants to corrupt the educated but unemployed youths in all continents with an elaborate ideological offensive against communist philosophy with new zeal along side. The rusted leadership of former socialist/ communist parties has proved incapable to meet the challenge on this count.

Largely they remain victims to old clichĂŠs.

It is worth recapitulation here that events which formally had announced the collapse of one time socialist camp and simultaneous disintegration of so-called communist parties world over, even with different nomenclature, closed a chapter of innumerable sacrifices and tremendous amount of labour put in by working peoples of the world and their best sons and daughters for a cause which once seemed just within their reach. Surely, they were not chasing a mirage.

Neither, it was an unattainable wish. With solid base the dream was attainable.

For the peoples, when basic tenets of philosophy are valid, it is time to learn from the malady that has afflicted the movement so that a tide may rise again and human society is rid off the dark forces for a better future. A totally fresh initiative is required so that philosophy of liberation can regenerate to the level required for answering new challenges. In the first instance, efforts must be mounted to: (195)

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1. Stop corporatisation of agriculture and acquisition of agricultural lands, including common resources.

2. Thwart capital intensive urbanisation spree.

3. Dismantle Principle of Eminent Domain and divest authority with the state to acquire commons.

4. Save and reinvigorate family for its life of relationships, mitigate influence of individualism.

5. Save village life and its core values of community life from alien characteristics of urban values.

6. Mitigate influence of individualism on young.

7. Save unity of working people; read, enquire, deliberate For this purpose khap practice is effective instrument and must be regenerated to its core principles for effective functioning.

Radical shift is the need of times. The state cannot do it. Mass movements must force change; force of state must be neutralised. Peasants must desist from selling lands; land be taken out of market as non-saleable.

And communities must assert their right of ownership over commons and Principle of Eminent Domain defied to begin with. Interest free and inflation free economic categories encouraged to take over in localities with active participation of people.

There are lot of doubters who claim this shift will take society back by hundreds of years. There is no such possibility; only vested interests silenced. The charge (196)

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Prologue

is groundless. Society has to move ahead. The shift is intended to take it ahead by shaking off unnecessary burden of garbage it has accumulated. Industries have come to stay and technologies make production fast, they assert in defiance. Yes! we are living in twentyfirst century and do not propose to banish socially beneficial industries and valuable technologies.

The point is first to shift the balance in favour of family farming and hands of state be stopped to dole out public funds in favour of corporate capital. Family farming has to be the fulcrum of development; the shift will usher change in balance of forces. Industries must be brought under the strict supervision of communities and its fangs neutralised by appropriate measures to fulfil needs of developing agriculture and satisfy needs of population with interest free and inflation free economy in command. Technologies must not displace labour, these must serve to lighten burden of labour.

End

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References/Readings 1. State and Revolution, Lenin 2. Paris Commune, Marx 3. Poverty of Philosophy, K. Marx 4. Dialectics of Nature, F. Engels 5. Origin of Family, Private Property and State, F. Engels 6. Holy Family. K. Marx 7. Communist Manifesto, Marx-F. Engels 8.What is to be done, Lenin 9. Permanent Revolution, Leo Trotesky 10. Lenin’s Political Thought, N. Harding 11.Leninism and Permanent Revolution, K. Chattopadhay 12. On Organisational Question, R. Luxemburg 13. The Formation of Economic Thought of K. Marx, E. Mandel 14. Reinterrogating the Classical Marxist Discourses of Revolutionary Democracy, Soma Marik 15. On Opposition, J V Stalin (198)

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16. Lenin’s Last Struggle, M. Lewin 17. The Bolshevik Revolution, E. H. Carr 18. Confession of an Economic Hitman, J. Perkins 19. Interest and Inflation Free Economy, M. Kennedy 2o. Planning for Millions, Anand Awarup and Sulabha Brahme 21. Web of Poverty, Dr. B D Sharma 22. Hap- Perceptios and Perspectives, Gian Singh 23. Desh Hamara, Rah Hamari, JAS

Note: I hit upon an online illustration by an artist on the onslaught of capitalism after I had posted the book. Finding it interseting attaching it as Annex-1 in following pages with gratitude to the artist.

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ANNEX-1

Disturbing (But Amazing) Pictures Expose The Absurdities Of Modern Culture *Warning: Graphic Images* December 15, 2014 by Jeff Roberts.

One of my first thoughts after coming across these illustrations was ”how have I never seen this artist’s work before?”, because they are freaking amazing.

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Few too many artists today have the courage to tackle important social commentaries with their art. But Spanish artist Luis Quiles has undoubtedly broken this mold with his series of illustrations that depict a relevant and unfortunate reality for our world today.

Through his art, Quiles challenges a wide range of controversial issues ranging from over-the-counter drug addiction, censorship and corruption to sexism, violence, child abuse, and most pertinent of all, our cultural socialmedia-crazed obsession.

There is something raw and hauntingly telling about the commentaries being expressed through each illustration, perhaps in part due to the apparent truth that exists in the messages. Many of them are difficult to look at, but all of them stand as an accurate representation of the conundrums which plague our world today.

Take your time with this one to enjoy these fantastic pieces of art! And lastly, viewer discretion is advised. *Edit: Art is open to subjective interpretation, and these are just my interpretations of Quiles’s art. Feel free to share your take on the illustrations in the comment section below!

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The force-feeding of cheap food to the docile and lethargic public.

It’s rampant throughout all forms of media today. The hyper-sexualized image of women, used to stimulate a (202)

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With the cost of living continuing to rise at a rapid pace, and an economy which, especially in the U.S., is pushing more and more people into the lower socio-economic bracket, many families and students are basically being force-fed fast and cheap food as their only financial option. Proper nutrition keeps us running at our optimal cognitive and energetic capacities, a lack of nutrition keeps a nation lethargic and docile.

The censorship of free-thought and the consequences which follow voicing our opinion. nI

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a nation stating itself to be ‘free’, it’s interesting how many laws, regulations and fear programs exist which limit our choices and thoughts. One can get locked away simply for defying their government’s belief systems. I’m curious how long people will continue to let this censorship take place.

Religion’s ‘helping’ hand in poverty.

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It’s no secret that the predominant religious institutions are some of the wealthiest bodies in our world today.

Yet even among all of the collections of gold and assets, their high-stakes morals, and their claim to be the world’s path to salvation, the religious institutions have failed to help solve the poverty pandemic worldwide. This is something they surely have the finances to, at the very least, drastically reduce.

Ironically enough, many of the developing nations of people are enveloped in the lure of organized religion, following the teachings ever so diligently without drawing a connection to the fact that these religious institutions have the means to help, but simply are not.

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How female sexuality is used to divert the attention of a hormone-driven population of men.

It’s rampant throughout all forms of media today. The hyper-sexualized image of women, used to stimulate atestosterone-driven population of men. Not only is this (206)

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prevalent in the media but it is also commonly witnessed in various aspects of modern-day culture.

For example, many restaurants or lounges force girls to wear skirts, heals, even boots, all to appeal to a specific audience. Female pop stars and celebrities are also usually exploited sexually in the mainstream media. Just another example of the dominating male influences at the top of the ladder.

‘Generation Notification’; the social media crazed population.

Social media has undoubtedly changed our way of connecting through the world wide web, but whether or (207)

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not this was for the better is debatable by many. Today we see a high percentage of youth and adults literally addicted to their phones, iPads, or laptops. It’s almost beginning to move towards the physical merging of technology and man, where the line between social media reality and the everyday reality is continuously becoming blurred.

There are now multiple social media platforms available for people to get lost in, many of which are great at wasting our time aimlessly scrolling through a never-ending news feed. How will this relationship with social media continue to grow in the coming years? I’m somewhat nervous to find out…

The innocent casualties of unnecessary war.

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How anyone could continue to harm completely innocent civilians is something I will never understand. Children growing up around the devastation of war are oftensubject to the by-product of war arms, i.e., radiation and firearm-induced amputation. Whether one supports the ‘war on terror’ or not, one can’t argue the absurdity of killing innocent children in the name of defending one’s own country.

The cut-throat power money holds over the people.

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With the way the system is currently set up, it’s almost as if people are intentionally pit against one another like a giant game of survival of the fittest. Like the famous line states, ‘the rich are getting richer, and the poor are getting poorer.’ Practically every industry today is fueled by financial gain. People are willing to step on whoever they need to in the name of money.

Most unfortunate of all, we see financial interests literally wiping out the planet, destroying ecosystems and wildlife at an unsustainable pace. How did a made-up value system come to be the eventual downfall of the entire planet? Will mankind wake-up to its own insanity before it’s too late?

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How professional athletes are used as products.

Enough said..

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How pharmaceuticals are both turning a population into zombies and killing us at a notso-slow pace.

The Times analysis of 2009 death statistics showed: •

For the first time ever in the US, more people were killed by drugs than motor vehicle accidents (212)

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37,485 people died from drugs, a rate fueled by overdoses on prescription pain and anxiety medications, versus 36,284 from traffic accidents

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Drug fatalities more than doubled among teens and young adults between 2000 and 2008, and more than tripled among people aged 50 to 69

These facts are based off of legal prescription drug statistics. An estimated 450,000 preventable medication-related adverse events occur in the U.S. every year. The costs of adverse drug reactions to society are more than $136 billion annually — greater than the total cost of cardiovascular or diabetic care.

Looking over records from 1976 to 2006, researchers found 62 million death certificates related to prescription drugs, almost a quarter-million of these deaths were coded as having occurred in a hospital setting due to medication errors. How is this considered normal?

These pictures do a fantastic job at getting you thinking about widely-accepted yet absurd facets of our world today. It’s safe to say that Luis Quiles is a brave, artistic genius. To see more of his work, check out his webpage HERE. ‘Chilling Cruelty, Unspeakable Suffering & Corporate Denial’ – The Real Cost Of Canada Goose Jackets (213)