Marxism, Hinduism and Literature
Vanam Jwala Narasimha Rao
The Hans India (27-09-2017)
It has become a fashion these days to
some self-styled professors and social activists to criticize Hinduism and its
various facets often using abusive language on some casts associated with that
religion. This is nothing but travesty of truth and attempt to forcibly impose
their views on others.
Having
come from an orthodox–agriculture family, with a predominant rural background,
having born, brought up and spent major portion of my childhood, as also
received early education in a remote village in Khammam district of Telangana
state, I learnt the earliest and the fundamental lessons either in “literature”
or in “humanism” or in “Hinduism”, amidst a unique geographical and historical
background in which the place I was born and brought up existed. Several of
them are still fresh in my memory. All these made me to understand in my early
and formative years itself, about the philosophy of Vedic “determinism” (the
theory of Karma Siddhantha).
“Hinduism”,
whether a religion or not, but, as a way of life influenced me a lot. I am a
born Hindu and still believe in chanting Gayathri, anytime, anywhere and in any
body position I am in when I want to chant. However, none of these influences
on my early childhood, and later too, could prevent me from turning my eyes to
“Marxism and Communism”, which according to me is the landmark theory on
humanism.
“Karma
Siddhantha”- the philosophy of Vedic “determinism” profound, that, everything
in the universe-from creation to destruction, is all pre-determined. Every
living and non-living creature play its assigned role in the universe in the
form of a lengthy drama (Jagannatakam) written, produced and directed by the
God Almighty. The Marxist philosophy of determinism too says similarly. The
anti-thesis, thesis and synthesis of this philosophy leading to establishment
of Rule of the Working Class-Dictatorship of Proletariat, is born out of
dialectical and historical materialism as also out of the theory of surplus
value. Is this too not a pre-determined theory as much as the “the karma
Siddhantha”?
Karl
Marx is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest thinkers of all ages and of all
schools. Though his writings were mainly directed to the critical analysis of
capitalist development and ultimate transition to socialism, they were all
depicting humanism in some form or other. The originality of this thought lies
in his immense efforts to synthesize, in a crucial way, the entire legacy of
social knowledge since Aristotle. His purpose was, to achieve a better
understanding of the conditions of human development, and with this
understanding, to accelerate the actual process, by which mankind was moving
towards an “association, in which the free development of each is the condition
for the free development of all”. The desired system would be a “People’s
Democratic Secular society” based on rational planning, cooperative production,
equality of distribution, and, most important, liberated from all forms of
political and bureaucratic hierarchy.
Dialectical
Materialism, a philosophical approach to reality derived from the teachings of
Karl Marx, holds that, all phenomena exist objectively and independently of
human perception and that reality is reducible to matter. In explaining human
history by the application of this theory, Marxism suggests, that, men’s mental
and spiritual life, their ideas and aims, reflect their material conditions of
co-existence. The relations that men enter, in producing the means of life,
determine the class relations in society. Social and political institutions and
their accompanying patterns of ideas arise as a superstructure on this economic
base. The history of society is the history of class struggles. History
progresses from one stage to its diametrically opposite, and moves further to a
higher level. All things contain contradictory sides or aspects-tensions and
conflicts are the driving force of change. Thus, according to this theory, the
inherent contradictions of any society will lead eventually to its overthrow by
the rural workers. The final synthesis will be a classless society.
Did
not Valmiki write the Ramayana, ahead of all these happenings, and foresee the
birth of Rama as god incarnation? Did he also not predict the existence of
Ravana a cursed devotee of Lord Vishnu destined to born as a Rakshasa? Ravana,
a ‘Super Human Devotee’ of Lord Vishnu destined to be born as his enemy.
Ravana, the strongest (may be like the mighty, in the metaphysical sense,
though in a different way) was ultimately overpowered by the combination of
weakest forces- the human beings and monkeys - led by a tactful Rama, his
brothers and Hanumanth. The final synthesis was establishment of Ramarajya.
Humanism
is the name given to the intellectual, literary and scientific movement of the
fourteenth to sixteenth centuries, a movement that aimed at basing every branch
of learning on the literature and culture of classical antiquity. We heard of
Christian Humanism, Cultural Humanism, Literary Humanism, Political Humanism,
and Religious Humanism and so on.
The
essence is, whether it was a “RAMARAJYA” or “GRAMARAJYA”, or KARMIKARAJYA” the
concern should be human being and that is humanism. Struggle for humanism is a
continuum. It is iterative and recursive. The message is struggle leading to
recognition of humanism. Literature is one of the means to achieve humanism.
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