WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE A LEFTIST TODAY? [ A GUIDE TO YOUNG COMRADES]

 And I am not talking about being a liberal or a socialist and for that matter having shades of left. I am talking about communism here. No bullshit, serious reconstruction of political institutions like State and other machineries and creating new improved versions of social institutions based on emancipatory values. It is wrong to say that left is on a decline now a days. The left never rose in this country properly. May be in the case of Bhagat Singh for a brief moment, a bit in MN Roy and in a naive way in Nehruvian policies, but not fully. Here, I outline what it means to be a leftist in India right now. 

There are problems that an Indian leftist has to tackle which are multi-fold. There are some problems which I ascribe to the universal left ideology, that is, left everywhere, whereas there is a problem of Indian Left. The problem is in general, a problem of Modern Indian Political theory and Political thought. Let's deal with it one by one. 

1. The Non-indigenous nature of Indian left 

        This is a problem of hitherto all post-colonial countries where the role of colonialism is seen as a destructive one. Post-colonial thinkers point out how the discourse of political theory has always been Eurocentric, and how Eurocentric thinkers try to universalize what they claim is not universal but particularistic. 

The communist ideology suffers here because thinkers of decoloniality and post-colonial discourse try to discard it based on the fact that the origins and categories of the communist ideology is European and there is nothing "particularly Indian" about it. To which, the communists do not try to retaliate. They, in some sense, do not have an answer. They might quote Lohia, Ambedkar here and there. But I have a stance particularly Eurocentric here. 

We are particularly in a deadlock here because the problem is not that communism is discarded by calling it Eurocentric. What is deliberately being kept out of the picture is the concept of universality itself. Of course, Eurocentric approach should not be accepted but we need to ask what does Europe represent? And the answer is not in the naive sense of imperialism, capitalism and colonialism. It is much more nuanced. I believe Europe represents the confrontation with the problems of a collective of the globe and find a universal solution to the universal problems which are common to different societies. So, what post-colonial thinkers end up doing is they present particularities not as universalities, but they discard the concept of universality itself. This is the philosophical temptation we should resist. This is laziness of thought. We should not give up hope of a universal system. We can and in a sense must leave the Eurocentric lens, but We need to make another strong lens of seeing universal systems and systems in toto. 

So, the answer to the allegation that left is not Indian enough is precisely that the problems that India is facing today is not Indian only. It is a blend of International and national problems, it is a global problem of organizing political systems, to tackle climate change and to organize economy in a better manner. We should try to make Left indigenous, but we should not fall for creating a sole and sole Indian Left. In a radically provocative sense, all that is Indian is not left, so How can all the left be Indian. 

2. The Hermeneutic Temptation 

        This is a problem of Global left today. Hermeneutics refers to the art of interpreting texts. The problem with the global left today is not the lack of understanding of current events through a Marxist or left perspective but actually over-interpreting things that do not matter. This makes the Left ridiculous. For example: What is this concept of Pseudo-feminist? Someone who overanalyzes the problems of society and for whom everything is because of patriarchy. To give an unnecessarily provocative example, ascribing every rude male behavior to patriarchy and calling it toxic masculinity is precisely falling into the hermeneutic trap. For instance, the provocative film Animal, the scene where the protagonist asks the woman to lick his shoes. I do not agree with the liberal space interpreting it as anti-woman and so on. But why? Precisely because I do not think this needs to be interpreted. This is what the director wants from us. To interpret it that way. To provoke a public sphere unnecessarily. The Hermeneutic temptation is a trap, a sort of bait offered by the ruling ideology. Let us say, we interpret it as anti-woman. The next question arises, what next? Will boycotting this film or prohibiting these films provide cure to the deeply patriarchal power structures of the society. No, they will not. At max, we should see this film as mere symptom of the much much bigger problem. A pimple on skin, indicating a lethal skin disease. 

So, what the left should avoid today the most is Over-analysis and interpreting things which needs no interpretation. They are just intellectual bait offered by the ruling ideology and nothing else. 

3. READ AND THEORIZE MORE

        The major criticism that Philosophers like Slavoj Zizek face today from the likes of Noam Chomsky is that in these times of a so called post-theoretic and post-ideological era, Theorizing and trying to understand instead of doing something to change it is actually flawed. To which, Zizek gives a fantastic explanation. 

“The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it."

            - Karl Marx

After Quoting this, Zizek says, "Hey, but may be, in the 20th century, we tried to change the world too much too soon without enough interpretations. So, let us go back to understanding the world, theorizing and interpreting. 

The second and third point might seem contradictory to each other, but they are not. The gist of the second point is not to not interpret at all, it is not to fall prey to ruling ideology and interpret what the ruling ideology wants you to interpret. 

4. Deal with concrete problems and not romanticize with revolution!

            Let us not fall in love with our miseries and make revolution our fetish. Let us focus on four major and concrete problems namely, Reconstructing the State apparatus such that it delivers, reconstructing religious consciousness to lead to emancipation, reconstructing theory of Marxism to include intersectionality and finally, provide a macropolitical framework of how to proceed the changes that will lead to revolution. 

 In a nutshell, these are some aspects of left. It is not being a cynic and skeptic in a naive sense. The left should also, cynically see itself and find flaws that lead to the global hegemonic order of the right. The criticism of hitherto all existing ideology, as Marx said, will include today all of critical left as well.