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CONFRONTING CHALLENGES Memorial Lectures and Some Major Speeches SITARAM YECHURY PRAJASAKTI BOOK HOUSE M.H. Bhavan, Plot No. 21/1, Azamabad, Hyderabad - 20. Ph : 040-27660013 1 Publication No : 1271 Published by Prajasakti Book House First Edition : 2013 For Copies Prajasakti Book House M.H. Bhavan, Plot No. 21/1, Azamabad, Near RTC Kalyana Mantapam, Hyderabad-500 020. Ph: 040-27660013, 040-27635136 E.mail : [email protected] Branches : Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Thirupathi, Khammam, Hanmakonda, Nalgonda Guntur and Ongole Price : ` 150/- Printed at Prajasakti Daily Printing Press R.T.C. X Roads, Chikkadapalli, Hyderabad-20. A.P., INDIA 2 Confronting Challenges - Sitaram Yechury CONTENTS Preface................................................................................ 5 1. On Transitional Governments ........................................ 7 2. Language : A Unifying Force ....................................... 19 3. Millennium Development Goals : Status and Way Ahead .................................................. 25 4. Neo-Liberalism, Secularism And The Future of the Left in India ............................................ 33 5. Contemporary Relevance of Marxism ......................... 43 6. World Capitalist Crisis : Causes and Implications .... 51 7. Global Crisis and Indian Response .............................. 65 8. Education is not a Commodity ...................................... 75 9. Integrate the Struggle Against Social Oppression and Class Exploitation ................................................. 81 3 10. Socialism In The Era Of Globalisation ........................ 89 11. Socialism Today Challenges ...................................... 111 12. Secularism, Democracy and Political Morality ......... 117 13. Culture in the Era of Globalisation, Commercialization and Communalisation – Some Thoughts .............................................................. 127 14. Capitalism's Inabilities Exposed ................................. 137 15. The Philosophy and Theology in Liberation ............. 143 16. Emergence of Communal and Fascist Forces In Independent India................................................... 147 17. Caste and Class in Indian Politics Today .................. 163 18. Utilize the contradictions between Bourgeois and Landlord Parties ................................................... 175 19. Menace of Growing Bonapartism ............................... 187 20. India's 12th Five Year Plan - Jettisoning of the planning process................................................. 193 4 Confronting Challenges - Sitaram Yechury PREFACE I am indebted to Prajasakti Book House for continuously pursuing me to publish this collection of lectures that I had delivered during the course of these two decades on various occasions, mainly commemorating anniversaries of important personalities. These lectures deal with a vast variety of subjects like Bonapartism, the caste and class overlap in India, language, communalism, liberation theology, economic crisis etc. By this very nature it is a heterogeneous mix of various themes and ideas. However, there is a commonality in most of these. This is concerned with the consolidation of our secular, democratic republic in order to advance the peoples’ struggle for emancipation through the victory of peoples’ democracy, leading to the establishment of socialism in India. At the global scale some of these reflect upon the inevitability of crisis and intensified exploitation under capitalism and the imperative of socialism as the objective to end the exploitation of man by man and nation by nation. The entire body of Marxist thought is often subjected to a relentless attack in a reductionist effort to narrow it as being applicable only to economics and politics – political economy. Marx in his famous critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Law had said that neither legal relations nor political forms can be comprehended by themselves or on the basis of a so-called general development of the human mind – the conclusion of Hegelian idealism – the totality of which, Hegel embraces in the term, civil society. On the contrary, Marx argued that these political and legal structures originate in the material conditions of life and thus came to the conclusion that the anatomy of Hegel’s ‘civil society’ has to be sought in political economy. The emphasis on the material basis of life and the consequent social conditions are often narrowly interpreted to confine Marxism as yet another economic Preface 5 theory. Marxists desire to study the material conditions of human existence and development was meant to understand the multitude of human activities and endeavour more comprehensive, hence Marxism is a creative science that seeks to comprehend all expressions of human activity and creativity and therefore cannot be straitjacketed into a narrow stream of political economy. Marx at once, famously said, “Nothing human is alien to me”. It is because of this very character and nature of the body of Marxist thought that it finds reflection in understanding every phenomenon human endeavour ranging from aesthetics, pure science, art and literature, linguistics, culture, etc. The abiding relevance of Marxist outlook and methodology can be found today in every manifestation of human activity. However, as Marx himself famously said, the job of philosophy is not to merely interpret the world, its job is to change the world. This is what Marxism is all about – to change this world, for the better and for the first time in human history to establish a social order that would be free from any manner of exploitation. Marxism is all about the creation of a better human being, the creation of a new society and the creation of a new world. Marxists therefore are irrepressible optimists, who not merely hope, but struggle to create a new world. The lectures contained in this volume attempt to express this idea within the constraints of the concerned topic or theme. This effort is however inadequate both in terms of the range of themes and due to my personal inadequacies in handling them more competently. At the outset, I seek the readers indulgence to accept such inadequacies. I owe my gratitude to Koduri Veeraiah for compiling this collection. I am indebted to Suma, who has by now mastered my pronunciation to dilligently input much of the matter contained in this volume. As always, I am deeply indebted to Anees Chisthi, who as is his habit has painstakingly and patiently edited this volume. Finally I am indebted to G. Vijaya Rao, editor Prajasakti Book House who doggedly pursued to ensure this volume sees the light of the day. - Author 6 Confronting Challenges - Sitaram Yechury 1 ON TRANSITIONAL GOVERNMENTS It is, indeed, appropriate that this discussion on transitional governments is taking place in Kerala which produced the first democratically-elected Communist state government in a country pursuing a capitalist path of development under the bourgeois-landlord class rule led by the big bourgeoisie. The term 'transitional governments’, in my opinion, is unscientific and, therefore, unsatisfactory. In the CPI(M) Programme, we describe the Left-led state governments as “governments of a transitional character”. This is because there can be various types of transitions – there is a transition from capitalism to socialism, there is a transition in the nature of opposition to imperialism etc – as can be seen in Latin America today. As we shall see, all such governments are products of class struggle that is taking place within the concrete conditions of individual countries. Broadly speaking, we can identify, among others, four different types of transitions which have throw up governments as a consequence of popular struggles : Intervention in the concluding session of International Congress on Kerala Studies on January 3, 2011, Thiruvanantapuram On Transitional Governments 7 a) The transition towards building socialism following a triumphant revolution like Russia in Lenin’s time, or, in a completely different context, Cuba today; b) Governments that have emerged through massive popular struggles against imperialism and its neo-liberal economic offensive like in various countries in Latin America; c) A government that emerged after a heroic and a long-drawn national democratic revolution defeating the apartheid regime in South Africa; and d) Left-led state governments in India working within the constraints of a bourgeois-landlord Constitution. Needless to say, the character, the functioning and the policies and programmes adopted by these different categories of governments would, naturally, be different. The policies and programmes implemented by these governments, however to a large extent, determine their success in achieving the transition that they have set out to do. It must always be borne in mind that a period of transition is, by definition, a period of intense class struggle when those who seek to advance and those who seek to regress this transition come into sharp conflict. The success of achieving the declared objectives of such a transition by the Left progressive parties leading such governments, in the final analysis, depends crucially on whether these governments succeed to keep politics in command, i.e., the political objective determining the content of economic policy and not the other way around which is the neo-liberal prescription that its economy needs (read maximizing profits) that will determine its politics. II Soon after the Russian revolution,