Skip to main content

SOCIALISM: AN ENDANGERED SPECIES

I'm contemplating and reflecting here upon what is known as devil to the very idea of development and progress. Socialism and Communism, you may call them two myths or two visions? Progress and development know how to prune what is unwanted and obnoxious, how to belittle and usurp, how to include to exclude, or how to exclude to include, for the sake of emancipatory hues and saturations, yes I'm talking about an ordinary story of a species who have disappeared from this planet though some of the country states have adopted a new version of conformist Socialism which appears as a pariah to many, reason being, its working is dangerous and perilsome for those who are propagating a development model which is development of few at the exclusion of many. Like Orwellian paradox, where all are equals, but a few are more equal than others. 

Some commentators claim that Plato and Aristotle were socialist. Reason being, Plato was looking for an ideal State, a state which is often understood as Ram Rajya in Hindu mythological or for those who it as a historical tradition. I don't know the difference between them either. Some theologians claim Jesus as a socialist, some claim prophet Muhammad as a socialist. I don't know what they mean by this term. This term appeared in works of Saint Simon for the first time, then Owen, Fourier, and Prodhoun revolutionised it in their own way. 

Socialism as a genus got it's various branches, starting with anarchism, syndicalism, anarcho communism, anarcho syndicalism, Democratic Socialism, Liberal Socialism, Fabian Socialism, and Gandhi Socialism, etc. Communism as a species comes out in middle after differences between Mikhail Kunanin- Karl Marx and Friedrich Angel conflict at First International. Only then The Communist Manifesto published by Marx and Angels. Mikhail Kunanin or P.J. Proudhon were supporting a view milder than Marx. Marx as a materialist was opposed to the very idea of Hegelian dialectical idealism. He believed that Bourgeois are not only expropriating wage labourers but taking the shares of proletariats, left them for nothing, crippling for survival. On the other hand, Mikhail Kunanin group was much moderate, asking to be conformist at the promise of reform.

Third wave of Socialism could be traced in Fabianism, originated in the name of Fabius the delayer, as a Roman general, he employed Guerilla Warfare to defeat Hannibal. Fabian society was established accross Europe, and the notable members were like George Bernard Shaw, Bertrand Russel, Anie Baseant, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Lee Kuan, Harold Laskee, etc. Fabianism believed in gradual process of transformation. Indian Socialism was led by Nehru after independence, it was a mix of Gandhian and Nehruvian Socialism. Gandhi was against the idea of industrialisation and Modernism but Nehru was fond of it. India had some notable socialists, like Vinoba Bhave, Jai Prakash Narayan, J.B. Kripalani, Minoo Masani, Ram Manohar Lohiya, etc. The basic philosophy of Socialism transformed into welfarism like Bismarcian welfarism. Social welfare state becomes the flag bearer of justice, but this attachment is again breaking into pieces. Market is no more invisible hand in Smithian term, market is now the life-line to the humankind.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Meeting Justice Rohinton Nariman in a Sunday Morning

Aristotle once wrote in his Nicomachean Ethics that there are four significant virtues for human beings, namely Prudence, Temperance, Justice, and Courage. There are a few judges who have courage and sense of justice, both. Hon'ble Mr. Justice Rohinton Nariman has been truly an exemplar judge and erudite historian, theologian and philologist, a great scholar of music as well as a courageous and meticulous jurist of our country. He did his Master of Laws from Harvard Law School in 1980-81 and taught by one of the finest jurists of the last century, Roberto Unger. He became Senior Advocate in 1993 in the age of 37 and also served as Solicitor General of India in 2011 before he was elevated as a judge of the Supreme Court of India in 2014. He delivered many landmark judgments, including Shreya Singhal v. Union of India. There are a few people with whom time moves too fast, but to count that experience takes ages. Justice Rohinton Nariman is one of those great jurists with whom a meet
1 comment
Read more

Same Sex Marriage Verdict: Apolitical Politics of Court

Every judgment of the Constitutional court solves and unsolves certain fundamental questions. Court often takes two steps forward and one step backward (Shklar). Navtej Johar was rightly celebrated as a progressive judgment which recognised same sex relationships on the touchstone of constitutional morality. In a way, judgment progressively explored the colonial and post-colonial politics and reviewed Section 377, IPC from the perspective of constitutional morality emanating from the "objective purposive interpretation",  a concept devised by Justice Aharon Barack, a former judge of Israel Supreme Court. NALSA judgment already went ahead with the recommendations to broaden the scope of reservation policy in India to allow the constitutional protection of sexual minorities. The latest judgment has attracted widespread criticism from the intellectuals. Many of them have argued that the Court has not taken its responsibility in protecting the rights of sexual minorities. There i
Post a Comment
Read more

The Rhythm of Law: A Book Review

Book Cover of the Book Law is the subject and object of curiosity since the ancient civilizations started its journey of contemplation about the order within the nature; its mysterious paths inspired the germination of metaphysics. Initially, human's mode of existence lived as instinctual life as per the call of nature. Instincts were primarily used as a medium for survival and to receive the call of wisdom from the “order of nature”. Humans are primarily one of the modes of expression of the nature, as Spinoza calls it attributes which express the essence of God and modes which are derived from the essence of God or nature (Spinoza, Ethics). The doorway of all the laws, as brooding presence of harmony, may be received if one is alert to recognize its call. Prof. Raman Mittal has penned a beautiful book titled “The Rhythm of Law”. The uniqueness of the book is its potentialities to express the inexpressible wisdom. Martin Heidegger in his Magnum Opus, Being and Time, expresses the
Post a Comment
Read more