As Marxism teaches ruling ideas in the society at any time are the ruling class ideas. Since the imperialist system is in hegemony all over the world, the culture and the superstructure as a whole which serve the ruling imperialist system and their lackeys are in command and are relentlessly promoted to serve it. This was so when the society was under slave, feudal systems, and it is more so under present fascist capitalist-imperialist system, in spite of the challenges thrown up against this by the socialist forces for a long time. As culture in its real sense is not merely confined to art and literature, but includes all aspects and spheres of human thinking, traditions, habits; the superstructure as a whole, including religion, caste system, ideology, politics etc. The relation between the economic base and the superstructure is dialectical, one continuously reacting and counter-reacting on the other.
When it is said “being determines consciousness”, it cannot mean that just by being a worker, the working class consciousness will automatically come. Somas Lenin taught the working class, including all the individuals and classes who have to make the revolution, should be transformed from” a class in itself” to a” class for itself”, through continuous ideological, political and cultural struggles against the existing ideas that dominated the society, as the classes and sections of people who have to make the revolutionary change are also imbued with, and dominated by the ruling, dominant culture of the society. So, the struggle to evaluate the hitherto experience of the cultural movement, and to re-organize and to re-launch it with creative new approaches demanded by present concrete conditions, with all the importance it deserves, should be taken up with all the seriousness it demands. It is a vital task to create conditions for a new revolutionary leap. The significance of the activating of the Revolutionary Cultural Movement (RCM), in continuation to the contributions of the organized cultural movement in the country starting with the formation of the Progressive Writers Association (PWA) in 1936 should be viewed in this context.
Significance of launching of PWA
Mulk Raj Anand, with whose article on the PWA the first volume of the three volume history of the PWA opens, takes the readers back to ” those dark fogy November days of the year 1935 in London when after the disillusionment and disintegration of years of suffering in India and conscious of the destruction of most of our values through the capitalist crisis of 1931,a few of us emerged from the Slough of despondency of the cafes and garrets of Bloomsbury and formed the nucleus of the Progressive Writers Associations. For since the historic meeting in the Nanking restaurant in Denmark Street where the original manifesto was read, through the eager, well attended fortnightly meetings of the London branch where essays, stories and poems were read and lectures delivered (and through less eager, I’ll attended meetings) through the first All India Progressive Writers Conference held in Lucknow in April 1936, and the opening of branches or committees in the various linguistic zones through the provincial conference and the opening of more branches ,our organization has, today gathered in to it or around it, the most significant writers in India and commands membership so large that it forms, quantitatively, one of the largest blocks for the defense of culture in the World.”(PP.1-2,Vol 1).Munshi Premchand presided over the first conference of the PWA. Munshi Premchand’s presidential address and the manifesto adopted at the session made it clear that the founders of the organisation dissociated themselves from the prominent theory than the creative writers or other artists should be above politics. Every sensitive writer and artist was concerned with what happened around him or her. In India, the aspiration for freedom from foreign rule, putting an end to out-moded centuries-old feudal culture in Indian society, rapid transformation of India’s life and culture along the line of creating a new society without exploitation through a process of socialist transformation -all these could not be separated from the aesthetic tastes and talents of the writers and artists.
The early history of the progressive cultural movement at International level itself had received a new impetus when in 1919 prominent thinkers and writers like Maxim Gorky, Romain Roland, Apton Sinclair, Rabindranath Tagore, Bertrand Russell, Stephen Sung published the declaration of Freedom of Thinking. Along with the freedom of writers it called for basic human rights for all. The first International Conference of Writers was held in Paris on 21st to 26th April,1935 in which Sajjad Zahir and Mulkraj Anand represented India. The resolution adopted by the Lucknow PWA Conference in 9,10 April 1936 declared that it is the responsibility of the writers to oppose hunger, poverty, backwardness and slavery, and to struggle for independence. In the year of 1943 Indian People’s Theatre Association was also formed in Mumbai. It was a great beginning. I.P.T.A. had been formed by the initiative of undivided CPI in the wake of Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union. Part of the programme was to spread its influence among the intelligentsia. It did so by forming various anti-fascist organisations like IPTA. They played a significant role in the regeneration of the theatre and other arts. IPTA’s production of Nabanna directed by Bijon Bhattacharya in October 1944 signaled the emergence of the minority theatre which before long became the dominant voice of Bengali theatre. The pioneers of IPTA were Bijon Bhattacharya, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas,Ritwik Ghatak, Bheeshma Sahni, Utpal Dutt,Shambhu Mitra, Tripti Mitra, Balraj Sahni, Habib Tanwir, Anna Bhau Sathe, Omar Shekh, Homi Jahangir Bhabha.
Contributions of the Renaissance Movement
The first conference of the PWA and soon the International Conference of Writers were held when the progressive forces were getting United against the fascist forces and there was unity that the working class should not become part of the inter-imperialist war which broke out in 1939.This clarity in approach and in the context of socialist Soviet Union leading the socialist forces, the progressive writers movement moved ahead. While evaluating, why the PWA and IPTA and the progressive cultural movement in general could not go forward later in spite of this great beginning, it should be seen directly linked to the failure of communist movement to develop and pursue the revolutionary path both during the colonial period and after the transfer of power.
Any study of history from ancient times show that during all phases of human development struggles to transform and develop the surroundings have taken place continuously. It is the case with Indian sub-continent also. After the hegemony of Brahminism and feudal fiefdoms were established the first revolt against them came up from the period of Buddhist revolt against caste system and for universal brotherhood. It was followed by the rebellions of the Charvaka period, when the materialist and atheist philosophy had waged serious struggles against the idealist Brahminist ideologies. This period witnessed brutal attacks on the new thoughts by the Brahminist dynasties. These early renaissance movements extends to intellectual upsurges and to the anti-religious movements of the 18th century. It started from the time of Budha and went on intensifying in many forms during different phases and had reached a high stage in the Sufi-Bhakti movements(Nanak, Kabir, Raidas etc.).
It was through more than a century long ruthless colonization process, formally starting with the battle of Plassey of 1757, British Imperialism ultimately succeeded in formally transforming India in to its colony after defeating the First War of Independence of 1857.From the very beginning the British colonialist started transforming the agrarian relations through the introduction of Zamindari and Ryotwari systems. Through these steps feudal, semi-feudal relations were consolidated to serve as the social base of colonial domination. Along with this, while the colonial policies contributed to erosion of the stringent character of the inhuman caste system in some fields in at least a superficial ways, it promoted it to utilize it as a support base to colonial rule. To safeguard colonial rule the ‘divide and rule’ policy was also promoted by fomenting communal strife (by encouraging the formation of Hindu Mahasabha, Muslim League and RSS). In spite of all its limitations second phase of the renaissance movement in India led to movements against old rituals,habits, traditions and superstitions .It started caste based atrocities, in some areas leading to anti-caste movements and to demands for the caste annihilation. It fought communalism and communal decisions, and influenced by materialist thinking ,called for secular values and even to rationalist movements by Jyotiba Phule, Savitri Bai Phule, Sree Narayana Guru,Ayankali, Periyar, Shahid Bhagat Singh ,Dr B.R.Ambedkar and many more .
Challenges confronted by the revolutionary cultural movement
The revolutionary movement confronted both political and cultural challenges to overcome the limitations created by colonial domination which had violently intervened and stunted the unleashing of the anti-feudal, anti-imperialist democratic revolution. The history of the communist movement in India during the colonial period shows that, in spite of great strides made in building working class and peasant movements and leading many anti-feudal struggles, in spite of building the youth, student and women movements, and in launching the PWA and IPTA with broad based approach, on the central question of establishing its leadership in the working class in the anti-imperialist movement it failed, or it had no such vision. When a caste annihilation movement came up under the leadership of Dr. Ambedkar, it failed to forge United fronts with them and to lead the independence movement forward, away from the clutches of the Congress and Muslim League. Due to failure of CPI leadership on these questions, leading it as a result to both right and left deviations and ultimately to revisionist positions in line with the revisionist line which usurped power in Soviet Union in 1950’s.It was naturally reflected in the cultural front also. Soon both PWA and IPTA lost its class stand and degenerated to petti-bourgeois, opportunist organizations. Following the split in 1964, though the Democratic Writers Association (DWA) was formed under the CPI (M)’s initiative, reflecting the degeneration of it to neo-revisionist positions, the DWA also could not move forward. The Naxalbari Uprising in 1967 gave a new impetus to the cultural movement. Fighting against the opportunist and reformist degenerations, the communist revolutionaries started challenging the well-entrenched reactionary cultural values, and along with the revolutionary upsurge, many parts of the country witnessed a cultural upsurge also. Though it had succeeded to attack the reformist trends and inspired new cultural initiatives, it soon came under sectarian influence and disintegrated. The task before the revolutionary cultural movement is to seriously evaluate these experiences, take lessons and advance the cultural movement according to present conditions.
What is to be done
The three decades of neoliberalism in India since 1990s,in conformity with its inherent logic of maximum corporate wealth accumulation within the shortest possible time, has led to a ballooning of the speculative financial sphere and a relative stagnation of the productive economy including de-industrialisation .Vast majority of the working poor and partially employed are forced to depend on the expanding informal and unorganised sectors devoid of all erstwhile hard earned rights by working class. Almost half of the people still subsist on agriculture and allied sectors .Since the ascendance of the RSS led neo-fascist Modi government in 2014, neoliberal-corporatisation pursued since the 1990s took a more far right turn. Under the leadership of fascist sangh pariwar, all round corporatisation and superimposed capitalist relations, instead of eliminating feudal remnants and values, have merged with the latter, have led to a strengthen of reaction in more barbaric forms. The corporate-saffron fascist regime is propping up all obscurantist, feudal, casteist and patriarchal offensives in new and intensified manner. Consequently Dalits, Adivasis, Women and Minorities become still more oppressed.In particular, integrating with corporatisation, casteism and untouchability reinforced by Brahminical ideology and culture have become omnipresent including even in institutions of higher education and scientific research. As it’s manifestation, all the constitutional, institutional and administrative structures are being saffronised to suit this fascist transformation. Forcible integration of Kashmir into Indian Union through abrogation of article 370 of the constitution, construction of Ram Temple at the very site of Babri Masjid, making Muslims as second class citizens by amending the Citizenship Act and through a series of steps directed at saffronization of education and culture, and undermining all federal provisions of the Indian constitution. RSS is now moving towards its ultimate goal of establishing a majoritarian Hindurashtra.
Superimposing a pan-Indian homogenising drive over multinational, multilingual, multicultural, multi-ethnic and multi-religious essence of India and rejecting all values of modernity including rational-rational scientific thinking, fostering the cult of tradition and obscurantism, treating dissent and disagreement as treason , and targeting communists and progressive -democratic forces, and above all uncompromisingly integrating itself with corporate finance capital, the RSS led BJP regime has become a typical neo-fascist one.
Here at least there are some similarities between the Hitlerite fascism and today’s neo-fascism. First they will come for Muslims, like in Germany were they first went for Jews. Yes RSS has identified Muslims as the first Target. In order to terrorize others from defending the victims, RSS Pariwar shouts, any one talking for the victims are pseudo-secularists, they also will be targeted.The main strategy of RSS is to create hatred and division among people. RSS is working overtime to communalise and distort the history and culture of India.All have to stand with the Muslim minority in our country , irrespective of whatever harms we may have to face. All the progressive cultural organisations should have to declare unequivocally, we are for a casteless, genuinely secular country where there is gender equality, social justice, scientific temper and egalitarian approach. As we uncompromisingly fight against the Manuvadi Hindutva ideological base of RSS ,we oppose all those forces spread terror in the name of minority religions, whose activities are only helping the real enemy.
So along with the strengthening the caste annihilation movement, expose Manusmriti and Gita like discriminatory religious texts, country wide cultural movement to militantly propagate secular values and to openly criticize interference of religion in public life is needed. The question of struggling for gender equality is not a question to be taken up merely by the women’s movement, it is a question to be taken up by all progressive cultural forces. As the caste system and religions strengthen gender inequalities, the struggle for women’s liberation should be linked to the anti-caste, secular movement.
Imperialist neocolonial culture has reduced each and everything including the human beings, to a mere commodity to be marketed. Market is the god and everything is subordinated to it. Consumerism and lust for money and “pleasure” are promoted using the corporate media in a blatant manner. We must oppose the post-modernist thoughts and identity politics existing in art and literature.
At a critical juncture, when without open ,massive mobilization and uncompromising assault on the neo-fascist and imperialist culture by the progressive forces, the survival of the human race itself is going to be in peril, there is need of a powerful revolutionary cultural movement .In the name of ‘development’ what is created is a most unequal, reactionary, market fetishist, ecologically disastrous and absolutely self-centered and selfish society which is leading the human race to devastation in all spheres. So, the revolutionary cultural movement should become a flag bearer to liberate the society from this dangerous situation and to create a new society with a humane, democratic and socialist approach and culture. For this as a starting point, to build a revolutionary cultural movement, we should organise all progressive cultural organisations countrywide to launch joint cultural campaign against neo fascist cultural onslaught, against the communalisation and distortion of history and culture, against the game plan of RSS’s hatred and division. It is the need of hour.
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