Monitoring Indian Communists - 2

[Guest]

<b>In God we trust - 'The Marxist attempts to "defend the indefensible"
smack of hypocrisy'</b>


<i>That's the word from the CPM. Debashis Bhattacharyya - reports on the
conflicts between Marxism and religion</i>
From: The Telegraph (Kolkata) 24 September 2006

<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Sitting in his small, book-cluttered "home office" inside the CPM's
headquarters in Calcutta's Alimuddin Street, Benoy Konar fishes out a
bidi from his kurta pocket, lights it and takes a deep puff. As the
smoke curls up, the 76-year-old Marxist watches it, coughs a little
and then, with a wave of his hand, dismisses all the arguments about
the "so-called" conflicts between Marxism and religion.

"A believer can be a Marxist. There is nothing wrong with it," Konar,
a peasant leader and member of the CPM's state committee,
says. "Marxists believe in dialectical materialism but are not
necessarily atheists."

Such words — coming from a veteran Marxist — might sound a tad odd.
But times change and so do the Marxists. Gone are the days when
communist leaders studiedly shunned religion — especially public
display of religiosity — as it went against the basic tenets of
Marxism.

They now not only visit temples to "seek blessings" but also hop from
one puja pandal to another, cutting ribbons. The phenomenon is not
restricted to Bengal's ruling party for three decades, though. If
West Bengal transport minister Subhas Chakraborty, photographed
offering puja at a temple in Bengal's Birbhum district barely 10 days
ago, sees nothing wrong with the puja, since he's "a Hindu and a
Brahmin" besides being a Marxist, two CPM legislators from Kerala who
had taken their oath "in the name of God" in the Assembly in May have
shown no remorse either. And in both cases, the party squirmed in
embarrassment, but has done little else to the "believers" who, in
the words of a former Marxist functionary, "would have been summarily
expelled from the party in our day".

Apart from a rap on the knuckles in public by his mentor and former
Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu, the CPM's Bengal unit has virtually
let Chakraborty off with a slap on the wrist. He was summoned to the
party's state committee meeting a couple of days ago to "explain" his
position after the media widely covered his visit to the temple. But
later, CPM Bengal secretary Biman Bose made it clear that the
transport minister was "neither show-caused nor censured" but was
asked to "clear the air" in public. Then, all Chakraborty did was
express a feeble regret saying he had not realised his going to the
temple would spark off a controversy. "I have been to many temples
before in different parts of the country but have never faced this
(controversy)," the Marxist minister told reporters.

Things are no different in the CPM's Kerala state unit. There, too,
the party has not been able to lift a finger to reprimand — let alone
punish — the "religious-minded" legislators, Aisha Potti, the Marxist-
ruled state's first Brahmin woman MLA, and M.M. Monayi, a practising
Christian. "We don't censure any party leaders for their ignorance or
backward consciousness. We try to indoctrinate them into the Marxist
way of thinking," says Kerala education minister M.A. Baby, who is a
member of the CPM's central committee.

If wooing private and foreign capital is the new economic credo of
the ruling Left in Bengal, born-again Marxists see no contradiction
between having faith in God and Marxism at the same time. An irony
indeed, given the communist propensity to use Marx's overused dictum
that "religion is the opium of the people…" (see box ). If anything,
the party is now falling back on "a technicality" to justify the act
of its leaders. "Our party constitution does not make it mandatory
for a member to be a non-believer. So you can be a member of the
party and still practise your religion," CPM Rajya Sabha MP Nilotpal
Basu says.

To be fair, the communist parties in the country, particularly the
CPM, have never been "anti-religion" as such. But there was always a
strict guideline — an unwritten code of conduct — when it came to
religion. According to a senior CPM leader, the party permitted
religious activities in private but strongly objected to its members
participating in public acts of religious faith. In other words, you
could be a devout believer in private and an ardent Marxist in
public.

But the thick Marxist curtain that has long concealed the religious
activities of the party leaders from the public view is fraying at
the edges — and the truth is peeking out. Rajashri Dasgupta of the
Calcutta-based Centre for Studies in Social Sciences says the
distinction between the private and public domain of a Marxist does
not hold any more. "The Subhas Chakraborty episode has amply
demonstrated this. What they practised in private is now spilling
over into the public," he says. Dasgupta has extensively studied the
religiosity of Bengal's Marxists.

Not everyone is convinced about the way the Marxist leaders are
trying to explain away the conduct of their "God-fearing" comrades-in-
arms. A Jadavpur University professor, who is well versed in
Marxism, says the Marxist attempts to "defend the indefensible" smack
of hypocrisy. "God is simply an untenable concept in Marxism, which
is rooted in rationalism," he says.

Some also view the Marxist "change of heart" as a "failure" of the
ideology. "Marxism has collapsed all over the world for a number of
reasons, especially its failure to come to terms with the religious
needs of the people," Trinamul Congress MP Sougata Roy says.

Opposition parties also see a "blatant" political opportunism in the
CPM endorsing the religious belief of its members. "It's not possible
to be a Marxist and go to capitalists for investment. At the same
time, it's not possible to be a Marxist and go to temples," BJP
Bengal president Tathagata Roy says. "But they are doing both just to
hang on to power and control the lives of people."

Yet in some ways, social scientists say Marxists in India had never
really strayed very far from the country's deep religious
traditions. "<b>Historically, upper caste Hindu men dominated the
communist movement in the country and it would be wrong to say that
all of them have given up their religious identity for Marxism," says
Dasgupta of the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences.</b>

True, the social, linguistic, caste and religious identities of the
people are too strong for any political party to ignore in India.
Aisha Potti, a Marxist lawyer who got elected from Kollam district in
Kerala, says she preferred to be sworn in "in the name of God" as she
has never given up her religious faith despite being "committed" to
her party.

CPM leaders cite examples of the Christians, Buddhists and Muslims
participating in communist movements in Latin America, East Europe,
Vietnam and China. "Lenin said even a priest could become a communist
if he is ready to fight for the oppressed," Kerala education minister
Baby says.

Yet the dilemma over religion persists as Indian Marxists grapple
with the idea of marrying a rationalistic ideology with the
country's "social reality". For all its public posturing, the CPM
hasn't clearly approved of what Subhas Chakraborty has done. Konar
says Marxists are supposed to be rational, materialistic and
secular. "<b>It's unbecoming for a Marxist leader to go to a temple and
then brag about his Hindu identity.</b> We should not act like
preachers," says the veteran CPM leader, frowning upon Chakraborty's
visit to the temple.

And there are differences between the communist parties. The CPI, the
party the CPM was born of, feels Marxism and religion are not
compatible. "As Marxists, we don't believe in God or any supernatural
power. We are materialistic and seek to end the injustice and
exploitation of the people by the people. There is no God involved in
this battle," CPI Rajya Sabha MP Gurudas Dasgupta says.

Clearly, there is a chasm between what the Marxists preach and
practise. In the 1980s, E.M.S. Namboodripad, the late Marxist
ideologue, would not let Kerala Congress (Joseph) supreme P.J. Joseph
into the Left Democratic Front unless he disowned the bishops
publicly. Now the Kerala leadership feels no compunction about
letting party legislators take an oath in the name of God even
though, Baby says, they do not "encourage leaders to go to church or
temples".

In politics, ideology often takes a back seat as expediency takes
over. Some say it's not unusual for the CPM to wink at the
religiosity of its members. "This is simply the consequence of a
Marxist party trying to survive in a parliamentary democracy. The CPM
has to take into account popular sentiments and cannot afford to be
seen as irreligious in Indian context," says Dwaipayan Bhattacharyya,
a political scientist, who has widely surveyed the ruling Left
Front's successful reform programme.

More than anything else, Bhattacharyya says the CPM, to stay in
power, has transformed itself to a party of accommodation and
mediation. "The coexistence of different thoughts is inevitable
within the party as it accommodates conflicting forces, including
those who believe in religion," he says.

Some Marxist leaders feel taking a hardline and purging the party of
believers could send many into "the clutches" of the BJP, something
the CPM can ill afford politically. After all, it's the BJP that is
the Left party's ideological enemy number one.

Shyamal Chakraborty, president of the Bengal CITU, the CPM's powerful
trade union arm, believes the party is "flexible" when it comes to
religion. And for good reasons. Chakraborty says most festivals in
the country are religious by nature and it's hard to keep the
Marxists away from them. "How can a municipal councillor or an MLA or
an MP say no when puja organisers invite them to pandals? Marxists
live in society and have to participate in social and cultural
festivals like Durga puja," says Chakraborty, a former minister in
the Jyoti Basu government.

A CPM minister says the political cost of turning down requests
to "cut ribbons" at the puja can be very high. "Don't forget these
are the people who vote for us and stay with us year round as many of
the puja organisers are our workers," he says bluntly.

Not all Marxists share that viewpoint, however. Konar, for instance,
says he is personally against party leaders inaugurating a puja or
attending an iftaar party. "Such acts can be misleading," he says.

But make no mistake, Marxists are no longer squeamish about
displaying their religious faith. After all, as Konar puts it,
Marxists, being secular, are the "most religious" people around. "We
are not disrespectful of God. Nor do we blame God for all our ills
and pains unlike the so-called religious parties," the veteran
Marxist says, stubbing out the bidi.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->