Who are the Friends of Communists

 Who are the Friends of Communists

       *Who Are the Friends of Communists?*

*Danny*

Social Analyst

 

The question that now arises with great urgency is whether the Communist parties of India, which are commemorating their centenary celebrations, can once again instil enthusiasm and vigour among the masses.

 

In India, the Communist movement may have splintered into a hundred factions, yet its achievements remain unparalleled. The very drafting of the Indian Constitution bears the imprint of Communist influence. During the period of its formulation, Communist parties were leading armed peasant struggles in two different regions of the country. In China, the armed struggle had already triumphed, leading to the establishment of the People's Republic. The Soviet Union, having vanquished Nazi Hitler in the Second World War, stood as a beacon of hope for the oppressed across the world. The very process of drafting the Constitution in India was, to a significant extent, a defensive response to the revolutionary ferment that had gripped the peasantry and the working class.

 

With the enactment of the Constitution, a series of progressive laws were instituted under the pressure of Communist movements. The abolition of the zamindari system, land ceiling laws, industrial disputes legislation, minimum wage laws, the eradication of bonded labour, and the recognition of tribal rights over forest lands—all these were outcomes of Communist and Naxalite struggles.

 

Even the populist schemes of Indira Gandhi, such as ‘Garibi Hatao,’ and those of N.T. Rama Rao, like two-rupee-a-kilo rice, Janata clothes, and free housing for the poor, were designed to win over the sympathizers of the Communist cause.

 

The Communist Party and the RSS were born almost simultaneously. Despite the latter's vast resources and its network of hundreds of affiliated organizations, it took nearly ninety years for it to seize absolute power. The principal obstacle in its path was the secular ideology championed by the Communists.

 

However, even the leaders of the Communist movement were bound by the material conditions of their time. The first generation of Communist leaders emerged from agrarian backgrounds and possessed deep knowledge of agriculture and irrigation. They were profoundly empathetic toward agricultural labourers, firmly believing that the emancipation of these workers was synonymous with national liberation. It was within this context that the ‘Andhra Thesis’ and the ‘Agrarian Revolution’ were formulated. At that time, agriculture contributed the lion’s share to the national economy, enabling the Communist movement to thrive. But the Communist leadership failed to anticipate the radical restructuring of production relations brought about by technological revolutions and industrial transformations. This was their historical limitation.

 

By the 1990s, Communism faced a global crisis of legitimacy. The Soviet Union, long the epicentre of world revolution, had collapsed as a socialist state. Doubts loomed even over the socialist path of China. At precisely this juncture, global finance capital, under the aegis of the World Bank, launched its final assault on Communism. The WTO emerged, and neoliberal economic policies were implemented with vigour. The rise of Information Technology transformed economic structures, reducing agriculture’s share in the GDP to a mere 15%, with industrial production also stagnating at similar levels, while the service sector surged to 70%. Class consciousness receded, and identity-based politics gained prominence.

 

When Indian Communists found themselves at an impasse regarding revolutionary strategy, a delegation of four members visited Stalin in February 1951. His response was unequivocal: “First, study your country and your society in depth, then devise a revolutionary program suited to your conditions.”

 

The Indian Communists failed to recognize that the fierce struggles among caste, religious, and ethnic groups were, in essence, class struggles in another form. Consequently, oppressed social groups such as Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, Backward Classes, minorities, and women drifted away from the Communist movement.

 

It is astonishing that many Communist parties in India still cling to the ‘New Democratic Revolution’ model propounded by Mao in the 1940s. Unlike China, where anti-imperialism played a central role in this strategy, India lacks a comparable dimension.

 

Meanwhile, the RSS, biding its time, expanded its ideological and geographical reach precisely when the Communist parties entered a phase of decline in the 1990s. The retreat of Communists from the political arena created a vacuum that the RSS swiftly filled.

In the 2004 elections, the people rejected the RSS-led NDA government and reaffirmed their faith in the Left, awarding Communist parties 60 seats—an astonishing feat in the post-Soviet era. This resulted in the formation of the UPA-1 government, where the Congress and the Communists forged an alliance against the right-wing establishment. Under this coalition, several pro-people policies were enacted, including the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), reflecting the influence of Leftist forces.

 

Yet, the historic blunder of the Communist movement occurred on July 9, 2008, when the Left withdrew support from the UPA-1 government over the Indo-US nuclear deal. In the parliamentary democratic framework, this was a squandered opportunity. With the Communists gone, the Congress turned to opportunistic alliances, leading to its eventual degeneration. This, in turn, facilitated the complete takeover of power by the RSS-backed forces. Disillusioned with Communist decisions, the people punished them severely in the 2014 elections.

 

From the very beginning, the Indian Communist movement has been torn between two strategic orientations: the path of armed revolution and the path of parliamentary democracy. To this day, one or two parties remain committed to the former, while others adhere to the latter. However, both paths now stand on the precipice of existential crisis.

 

The Union Home Minister has declared his intent to create a ‘Naxalite-free’ India by 2026. In the 2024 elections, the Left secured less than 3% of the vote share, winning only six seats in a 543-member lower house of the parliament. The Communist movement, across all its factions, now faces a moment of deep crisis.

 

The crucial question remains: Who are the friends of the Communists?

 

Across the country, numerous social groups are suffering immense hardships. Among them, Adivasis and Muslims face the most severe repression. It has been well documented that the RSS ideologue M.S. Golwalkar, in his 1968 book ‘Bunch of Thoughts’, explicitly labelled Muslims, Christians, and Communists as the ‘internal threats’ of the Hindu Rashtra. In 2014, the World Hindu Congress in Delhi conference identified Marxism, Macaulayism, Missionary influence, Materialism, and Muslim Extremism as the ‘Malicious Five.’ In February 2014, Ajit Doval, now the National Security Advisor, in a lecture at Sastra Deemed University, proposed the doctrine of ‘Four Warfronts - stating that, in addition to combating external enemies and terrorism, the state must also engage in war against civil society for the sake of national interests. He reiterated this doctrine again in 2021 at a Hyderabad event for IPS officers.

 

At this historical juncture, a rift is becoming apparent among the followers of Phule and Ambedkar that deserted communist parties on the caste question during the 1990s.  One faction is aligning itself with the BJP, while another remains skeptical, recognizing that Communists—despite their past failures—may still be better allies than the Hindutva forces.

 

If the Communist parties recognize this vast ocean of potential allies and take steps toward collaboration, they can once again create a glorious history.