The Curious Case of the Communist Movement in India

Growing up in a strong Communist family environment as a child, I was exposed to names like Karl Marx, Lenin, Mao Zedong and many more at a very early stage of my life. I started flirting with ideologies and philosophies my friends either didn’t know of or didn’t understand. That sure put me in a minority bracket. The stage was set for me to forever look at human beings differently, to always protest against suppression and oppression of all kinds, to stand by the truth. I was, mind you, way too young for all of this; but my mind would think of all humans as equals even though at that tender age, I didn’t know what equality in this world full of grey matters could be like. Then I started growing up!

The Leftist movement in India was pioneered by some of the stalwarts of our times. They stood for principles, they were mass leaders and they sacrificed their lives to bring equality into the society, to do away with ‘classes’ and above all to establish the dignity of human rights. The movement, quite sadly, however remained confined to only specific pockets of India, namely West Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. The popularity amongst and the mass acceptance of the ideology by people of these regions could be attributed to a cluster of socio-cultural parameters. I still remember a series of conversations with my father dating back fifteen years or so about the imminent state of stagnancy the movement in India was poised to head to.

While there has been wide-spread criticism of the ideology itself for decades across the world and theories for and against the Communist principles have emerged, it in the context of parliamentary democracy has not been able to leverage itself outside of the rule book. While we’ll continue to debate Communism versus Imperialism, the sad truth that we’ve all observed but have not been able to do much about, is that the ideology has steadily been reduced to a bookish space, one that is good to talk about, but difficult to comprehend and apply. In a democratic structure like ours, translating ideology into votes and thereby capturing the power corridors is the most effective mechanism to script a positive impact of permanence for the society. The stark reality however is that Communism has failed to capture the imagination of the young India. Today’s youth simply doesn’t understand what the movement stands for and what voting for them in an election would yield. I’ve observed for many years now that the youth of the country doesn’t anymore identify with this belief. For them, this is something that has largely lost its relevance.

The question therefore is: are the Leftist parties in India working on modernizing and simplifying their ideologies to make them attractive to the people? Are they trying to bridge the gap between the Marxist principles and the reality of an electoral polity? Do they realize that electoral oblivion could soon be a reality, scary enough to shake up the collective wisdom of the Left top brass?

The ouster of the Left government in West Bengal – I had hoped – would act as the final wakeup call for them. Has it really? I, as a socio-political observer, do not find too many glaring evidences to suggest it has. The movement in Tripura is a classic case study of how to balance the equation between a principled position and governance through participative democracy of the masses. While I’m certain the custodians of the Left movement in India would love to emulate the Tripura model outside of the tiny state, I’m not convinced they have a practical long term strategy to achieve that and remain relevant to the changing times. Tripura – however great its governance model is – will fail to orchestrate the electoral gyration at a national scale. 

Time is the wisest entity known to humans. And the best way to honor that perhaps is to remain true to the winds of change. I know it’s a mammoth uphill task, dangerously close to be potentially branded as impossible. When the history of the Communist movement in India is written, the chapters from this point onwards could be the turning point in the curious case of Leftism.