Communism is an idea that sounds great in theory but in practice is quite deadly. With the commencement of Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in the early 20th century, communism started to spread throughout the world. From the East to the West communism spread everywhere. Every country has had communism peak to different levels with some effectively adopting the ideology even keeping it alive today. Very surprisingly this includes arguably the biggest anti-communist country in the world the United States of America.
After the conclusion of the Second World War, a time period known as the red scare commenced in the US. When communist spies Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were caught giving information on nuclear bombs to USSR, this served as a triggering event.[1] With the combination of the rapid rise of the Communist Party of USA with the addition of the Iron Curtain, Korean civil war, China civil war; it seemed like communism was going to effectively take over the US and in effect the world[2]. However, America tackled this threat in an unprecedented way which resulted in communism being eradicated from US soil. Today communism is nowhere to be found in the world’s “oldest democracy” while the world’s “biggest democracy” is allowing to tolerate this extreme ideology.
However, we must look at what is wrong with communism before looking at how India should handle it?
While communism has a variety of different schools of thoughts they all collectively want one thing. That one thing is equality.[3] Equality is great as it is both fair and just. However, in practice it is not that simple. First of all, humans can never be factually equal. There will always be someone who will work harder than the next person and there will always be someone who is lazier than the next person. This simply called the Law of Karma as described in the Gita. If both the lazy and active get the same result this is unjust and unfair which is the opposite of equality. Also every human is special in his or her own way. We all have different strengths and weaknesses as we all think differently. This is basic common sense human behavior. However, looking past all that and skipping the horrific economic policies; it is important to see how communism wants to make everything equal.
To establish equality, communism believes you have to simply destroy everything that is responsible for the inequality. The primary thing responsible for the inequality is the class system.[4] This idea also believes that history, culture, religion and law are responsible for implementing the class system.
So how do you destroy the class system? There are two ways.
Communists believe you can take on the class system head on by uniting the lower class to get together and destroy (kill) the upper class effectively creating a revolution (class warfare). In India they see the lower class as Muslims, Christians, SC/ST and the higher class as the forward castes. Fortunately, they have not had success using this method in India.
The other way to achieve equality is by deconstructing history, culture, religion and law. When all of the latter are deconstructed this leads to the class system being destroyed. Communism believes that once everything is destroyed there will be a revolution which marks a fresh start where everyone and everything is equal. A revolution in one country will lead to a revolution in another and so on until the whole world has a revolution effectively destroying history effectively establishing equality.
Unfortunately to achieve this equality communism has never shied away from violence. There has never been a single “revolution” without blood being spilled. USSR killed millions under Joseph Stalin to establish and consolidate/develop communism. China, Vietnam also killed millions. Cuba killed thousands which is a huge amount given its tiny size. Everywhere communism has traveled it has left behind scars that will never heal.
Surprisingly one country in the world acted promptly and destroyed the idea in such a way that it is a taboo to even speak about it. As mentioned in the intro this very country is the USA.
After the establishment of the USSR communism grew everywhere in the world including America.
This spread created a time period known as red scare.[5] In America the government propagated the truth about communism and its deadly poison. The government enacted laws like the Alien Registration Act which looked to prohibit certain subversive activities.[6] This very law resulted in 215 people being indicted under the legislation, including leaders of the Communist USA. Fear continued rising when the House Un-American Activities Committee heard testimony from Elizabeth Bentley and others who worked as communist spies in America.[7] The committee also held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the Hollywood motion picture industry. This hearing resulted in 300 artists being shunned by producers.[8] At the height of this scare in February 1950, Joesph McCarthy gave a speech where he claimed he had a list of 205 known members of the Communist Party who were “working and shaping policy” in the State Department.[9]
While the truth in this claim continues to be debated McCarthy was correct about the dangers of communism. As a result this single speech triggered the collapse of communism in America forever. The Congress (US Parliament) passed Communist Control Act of 1954 which looked to outlaw the Communist Party, to prohibit members of Communist organizations from serving in certain representative capacities.[10] Furthermore hundreds of people started to be accused and investigated of being communists. This institutionalized anti-communism sentiment in America as communism from that point on until today is still heavily heavily frowned upon.
The US has benefited quite a lot from eradicating it. They do not have concerns about naxalites or young comrades like Kanhaiya Kumar who wish for the breaking up of the country. US citizens also do not have to be worried about being killed as a result of their political views (unlike some Indian citizens in states where communism is strong). India can learn quite a lot from the America when it comes to communism. Communism is not just another political view. It is an extremist idea which looks to destroy everything in its path to achieve absolutely nothing. Communism is racist, casteist and communal and should not be tolerated.
There is a reason why communism cannot be found in any western country from UK, to France, to Canada, to Germany to the USA. India needs to come together and denounce this idea of communism much like the USA. Softer versions of communism under the Foucault school of thought believes in discipline through norm. This is a great way of using soft communism to destroy communism. By denouncing communism as an extremist ideology there will be a negative connotation associated with it. This connotation will create an anti-communism norm like McCarthyism which will effectively destroy the ideology from the subcontinent.
However, the strangest point to wonder is why communism is still alive in India? Hindu values are heavily based on history, culture and language, which are all things that the communist ideology wants to destroy. These values are institutionalized in the public and there will not be a single person who can escape it completely. However, Communism is alive in India as a result of the ruling governments being left-thinking since the formation of India. Our very own first prime minister was considered a heavy communist sympathizer or even a closet communist by many.
It is clear that communism and heavy left socialist ideas were quite deadly as they worked on bringing their idea of equality to India via destruction of history, language and religion. India has only seen two governments centre or even right-of-centre (arguably only the current one since Vajpayee was in a coalition with left wing parties.) This has resulted in the deconstruction of everything history once held in India. As a result, some people are still being brainwashed into this ideology today.
In India communism is alive in places where there is no logical explanation for its existence. A prominent example is the state of Himachal Pradesh. Himachal Pradesh has never seen any communist party win a single seat in the Vidhan Sabha for the last 23 years and never seen a party form not even a part of a coalition government.[11] Strangely Students’ Federation of India (SFI) is one of the biggest student political organizations in not only Himachal Pradesh University (Shimla) but all the colleges throughout the state.[12]
Similar questions can be posed as to how JNU has such a large communist presence for such a long time when communism has never played a proportionate or even remotely role in Delhi state or municipal or even states in the NCR. If students are being associated with communism this should in a logical sense result in the rise of communist parties. The bigger question is where do they get the money for this student organization when the parties don’t perform well in the surrounding areas? Could there be the hand of a foreign power looking to revolutionize India?
Lastly why do people still believe in this delusional belief camouflaged for violence and destruction? Communism is a very old concept, a dying one. Surprisingly the country which is known for being “the mother of all civilizations” is sheltering people who wish to destroy anything associated with that very thought.
The United States of America has created a great precedent that should be subsequently followed in India.
[1] Virginia Carmichael, Framing history: the Rosenberg story and the Cold War, University of Minnesota Press, 1993.
[2] Ibid
[3] The ABC of Communism, Nikoli Bukharin, 1920
[4] ibid
[5] http://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/red-scare
[6] 76th United States Congress, 3d session, ch. 439, 54 Stat. 670, 18 U.S.C. § 2385 i
[7] “Hearings before the Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 80th Congress, 2nd Session, Public Law 601 (Section 121, Subsection Q (2))”. Government Printing Office (via Archive.org). Retrieved 11 August 2013.
[8] Victor Navasky, Naming Names, New York: Viking, 2003
[9] http://www.authentichistory.com/1946-1960/4-cwhomefront/1-mccarthyism/
[10] ibid (at the bottom)
[11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assembly_election_results_of_Himachal_Pradesh
[12] http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/himachal-student-polls-sfi-sweeps-campus-nsui-takes-districts/1156722/