Communism – it’s a pretty strong word, isn’t it? Now honestly ask yourself a very simple question. How many of you really know what Communism is? This applies for those people the most that vouch for the communist parties or are influenced with their philosophy or agendas. In fact I could not have thought a better place to trigger the debate then on the land of Hammer, sickle and star. The last time I wrote something, it aroused immense level of interest among the readers and the blog visits shot overnight. Thus it’s a disclaimer that this post is not judgmental.
Communism as a subject of social studies was an idea conceived by Karl Marx and it is a very well known fact. What is a lesser known fact is that it was brain child of Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels in the early 19th century and how it came into application almost 70 years later in the dawn of 20th century. It is irony of the human history that very few of the great historians, mathematicians, scientists, poets or even actors received their due credits while they were alive and what is even more ironical is that we write a great account of them after their death. Karl Marx died in 1883, till then his work was only a text with a theory of communist society. His theory stated that Capitalism will one day be overthrown by socialism as feudalism was replaced by the former and finally it will be the ‘stateless, classless society called pure communism’. Karl Marx stated that one day the ‘proletariat’ (the working class) will overcome the ‘bourgeoisie’ (owner of Capital). Unlike science it is relatively easier to devise a theory in Social Science as you have extremely less constraint that stops you from doing that. Thus, Communism was also just a theory till Karl Marx died and even after that.
So how did it all started, it started somewhere around 1917 when Vladimir Ilyich Lenin started the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. Lenin inspired by the writings of Marx thought of implementing a theory to overcome the capitalist’s undue advantages over working class. When the mass people are suppressed and their tolerance level has reached a peak, any kind of revolution or better quoted ‘ray of hope’ drives them to take the extreme measures. This resulted in the overthrow of the capitalist regime in Russia ending the rule of Tsars. The government was formed but it was not the efforts of Lenin that took Soviet Russia to the height. Like Physics Inertia applies to real life as well, post revolution people were not willing to accept the new policies of the government and it was then the second hero for Russia rose. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the man responsible for the practical implementation of the Lenin’s theory. By force or by will it was the government’s policy that prevailed. This was the dawn for the communism and it started taking its real shape, but the point that should catch your interest is that Marx’s theories nowhere suggested the use of force explicitly in his text.
The other prominent figure which cannot be missed if we are on communism is Mao Zedong. People’s Republic of China, the country with the largest population in the world and only a single political party, this could not have been possible without a large force which kept all the uprisings and revolt aside. Mao Zedong’s theories and its practical implications are well known to the world.
Soviet Russia fell in 1991 as it was not able to cope up with the international fiscal changes with the existing communist policies. China is still high and progressing as they have adopted some theories of communism and a large portion of it added by Mao which can always be debated on humanitarian grounds.
The question here is the framework of communism what we see in the country like India with diverse topographic and demographic constraints is really communism? If yes do we require it? Are the political parties keeping a word communist in front of their names are really communist? Are they really communist?
I conclude this piece with a question for you, just think a bit, is it really necessary to abide by a theory written 150 years ago or formulate a plan keeping present in mind?
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