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

Feminine Mystery

        Portrait Courtesy: Shraddha One day when 'I' die  All would born as free life The long struggle to be Would turn out to be a mirage  Whose mystery is long known But forgotten Every concern or engagement Is an escape to forget  The first germ of life; its completeness Shackles are nowhere  But imagined as real One day that image would disappear And a blank sheet would represent The Being and Nothingness My mother my light  Has merged into the shadow To witness the geist  Glittering in every particle  All around ether  One day when I laugh On the seriousness of playfulness And let the things flow  Without any expectation or resistance The day would be a new dawn To the spirit of wholeness And unity of phenomenon Fragmented in an age of reason And anarchus egoism of individuals  One day the expression of collective Would loose its relevance  When man would realise The silent spirit  And its feminine mys...
1 comment
Read more

पिरोता जाऊँ एक माला ज़िन्दगी का

पढ़ता हूँ हर एक दिन एक ही पन्ना, हर दिन हज़ार ये मालूम पड़ते हैं। जबसे होश संभाला है एक ही पन्ना सवांरते आया हूँ, लोग इसे ज़िन्दगी कहते हैं। इसपे लिखे हर एक लब्ज़ जो मेरे मालूम पड़ते हैं, ना जाने कितने जुबां पे चढ़े होंगे। आज हम भी कुछ पल के लिए ही सही इसके सारथी हैं, जाने से पहले कुछ रंग मेरा भी इसपे चढ़ जाए, बस इसीलिए एक ही पन्ना बार बार पलटता रहता हूँ। हर कोई अनजाने किताब की तलाश में बाहर निकलता है, जिसका हर एक पन्ना वो ख़ुद है। जब ख़ुद के रंग को समझ ही ना पाया, तो भला इंद्रधनुषी किताब के क्या मायने हैं? अस्तित्व में ना जाने कितने पन्ने बिखरे पड़े हैं, बस एक से ही अवगत हो जाऊँ, उसके हर एक शब्द को चुनता जाऊँ, कुछ पल के लिये सही, पिरोता जाऊँ एक माला ज़िन्दगी का।
1 comment
Read more