Marxism 16

A comment on Ram Naga's post.

Congratulations. Many many salutes for heroically holding up against big odds. You have taken legacy to higher level. Salutes. Please do not take it as hostile criticism but a self criticism. A Marxist must be ruthlessly self-critical. War is not over, it has just begun, long way to go as repression is not going to stop hence the spirit of resistance needs to be maintained and strengthened. Relax a bit and then we have to go back to where we left. Occupy UGC,perpetrators of Rohith's institutional murder are having free hand. Nationwide student consciousness against the dubious designs to gift away the higher education to WB. We start with the demand of total transformation and after clamp down, the slogan comes down to JAIL KE PHATAK TOOTENGE--HAMMARE SATHI CHHOOTENGE. Back to square one. That is why the real battles are ahead. Now we have to begin from beginning again. The "authority" has so many apparatuses to subvert and divert the agenda and we have no alternative but to react as an unavoidable immediate task. With wishful thinking, I have written in my many articles and fb posts that this is a beginning of new cultural struggle with the unity of slogans of JayBhim LalSalam and that the unity of slogans; the unity of struggles must result into political unity with a new theoretical basis for a new political formation, as the old ones have become either redundant or obsolete with progressively declining mass base. But if wishes were horses. A subtle sectarianism and party line, both anti-Marxist concepts,were galore, I wish my observation is wrong. We were so upset with the goings-on in the evening of AC meeting. I called up Ujjwalda in (Ujjwal Bhattacharya, the 70 year old boy)in Germany who in turn called up 3-4 students from Social justice plank. Last thing that sounds like lamentation (with expected reaction बोलने का मौका नहीं दिया तो ज्ञान बघारने लगा), is that as a first decade of JNUite and an activist of just another so-protracted movement in 1983, inviting first Police clamp down and arrests, wanted the mike for few minutes during the nationalism classes to share its experiences. I shamelessly made several requests from the time of the announcements to JNUTA and JNUSU, but probably it was not in line with the party line with the managers of the mike. I am not a big name but even the ordinaries might have to say something sense. It is not, honestly speaking, lamentation about opportunity to address, but just to point out existing sectarianism and sense of diffidence, that must be done away with, if you really wish to create the history. To create history, one needs to critically comprehend one's own history and learn from it with ruthless self-criticism, as Marx would say. That is why I wished just to share some experiences and observations the history of JNU's student movements. 1983 "May revolution" was to defend the admission policy from proposed elitist changes. Com. Dileep Upadhyay (no more) once jokingly said, "French May Revolution was a tragedy, ours was not even the farce". University was closed sine-die and 1983-84 was zero year. 20 students were rusticated, 3 of them subsequently apologized and were taken back. 3 students including me were rusticated for 3 years, others for 2. No one except passing references by Mukul Manglik and Amit Sengupta, no one talked about it as most of them had crossed the fence. I had saluted them in one of my fb posts for making up now for then by standing with Stand With JNU. I love you all for laying the foundation of potentialities of a new history. The way Sehla conducted the proceedings is commendable (Except ignoring my request, ha ha) Please read my article in Countercurrent (4 May). We the oldies were discussing about unity of various groups, Anil Chaudhary (JNUSU Gen Sec 1980) jokingly he pointed to another contemporary, senior member of his party standing with us at Freedom Square that इन सबको यहां से हटा दो, स्टूडेंट्स अपने आप एक हो जायेंगे. Friends, you have opportunity to create history but that needs sustained various hues of lalsalam and jaybhim, unity in practice as well as in theory. I wrote in an article over 3 decades ago (10 copies of which I gave on hunger strike sight) that Marx had put Hegel upside down Indian communists have put Marxism upside down. To put it straight it has to be put upside down by critically re-reading Marx and Lenin and by redefining Democratic Centralism, which was envisioned to be a better alternative of participatory democracy. You need to reverse the trend of "Politics from above" to "politics from below". Sorry for the long "class". मास्टरों को बक बक की बुरी आदत लग जाती है. In fact I had reserved this morning for final editing of another long article on JNU for June Issue of समकालीन तीसरी दुनिया. There was one in its April issue (available at Geeta Book Center). I thought of writing a 2-liner congratulatory comment but then became politically emotional. I shall always stand with Stand With JNU. जेयनयू तेो हमारा गांव-देश है. किसी को मेरी बात बुरी लगे तो बेबाकी से कह दें. आप के क्रांतिकारी जज्बे तथा निष्ठा को जयभीम-लालसलाम. JNUSU March on. खूब पढ़ो, खूब लड़ो.