All About Karl Marx , Marxism and Communism

 Karl Marx a man born in 1818 has probably become one of those few men who are relevant even after more than 200 years of their birth. His ideas are not limited to some specific countries and almost every decently aware citizen of the world has a vague idea about him.

We must have come across terms like Marx, Marxism , Communism , the workers revolution etc.

Or if you may have noticed the 'M' in CPI(M) party in India ( ruling in Kerala ). The M here refers to Marxist.

So, is this only a political idea or it has applications in other spheres of life. Why do we need to bother about it? 

It were these ideas which were the driving force behind the cold war which lasted 45 years.

 So today we learn about an ideology which made empires fall , United people beyond national borders and helped us get many rights which we never acknowledge. 

Marxism!!

Issues addressed and topics covered

1. Basic principles of Marxism and their application on today's problems in Indian context.

2. How is every phenomenon of social life described by the underlying economic system of the society.

3. What is ' Ruling class Ideology ' and how it helps highly exploitative systems like slavery , untouchability to sustain for centuries.

4. Why has religion been described as opium for the masses and the role played by religion in sustaining the exploitative economic systems.

Analysis

To analyse these issues we first need to develop a basic understanding of the ideas given by Karl Marx. Since Karl Marx was born in 1818 and gave his ideas during that period it is necessary to understand the context in which he gave such ideas.

Note : Capitalism is a system of production where private ownership of resources is allowed. It allows private ownership of industries who invest and re invest their profits to create a business empire. In this system the sole purpose of production is profit and not social welfare unlike PSUs. E.g reliance industries

Context

Year : 1840 onwards

Contemporary society - 

The world was witnessing the boom of industrial revolution ,  railway lines were being laid , new factories were being setup in London and Paris , thousands of people were migrating from villages to work in industries.

The situation can even be compared to the India of 21st century as, London and Paris were unable to handle such large influx of migrants thus large slums emerged , the air of London was filled with pollution much like Delhi of today.

The urban society was in infancy and the ideas of democracy and fundamental rights were just born. People had just come out of a slave society ( Feudal society to be precise ) . 

Thus in this context, the owners of these factories were in a rat race to make more money and the condition of workers was of least concern.

Hence the workers migrated to cities escaping low productivity of agriculture dreaming of higher incomes and better standard of living just like the Indian rural migrants to cities today. But this dream didn't last long as the conditions in cities were even more miserable.

They were forced to work for 14-16 hours a day ( expected since slavery wasn't seen as a taboo ) , they worked in close congested spaces , with absolutely no rights , no minimum wages and no concern for their safety.

It was in this context that Marx wrote about the exploitative system which the society was moving towards.

Theory 1 : Historical Materialism

Analysing the relationship between an economic system and the corresponding society Marx developed a correlation.

He divided the society into 2 parts -

1. The economic infrastructure - representing the methodology used in the society to produce goods and services like the agriculture system or the capitalistic system.

2. The social superstructure - it included all other aspects of the society comprising family , religion , culture , education , government , military etc.

Marx said that in any society , the economic system always shapes the social superstructure while the social superstructure is such that it supports the economic system.

It will always be the economic system which will determine the functioning of all the aspects in the social superstructure including family , religion , education etc. And never the other way round.

Let us understand this using some examples from India -

Capitalism and family : 

Initially when our society was agrarian, most of our families were joint , there was joint ownership of property and whole family's combined labour was employed in agriculture.

In the contemporary capitalistic society agriculture is no longer the major source of production. Hence the joint families broke into nuclear families by migrating to cities , the property owned by the family now started being divided among nuclear families and the labour required now became individual ( in office ) hence it gave rise to individualism in society. The familial bold among the members now weakened due to this individualism.

Thus a change in economic system led to change in the familial structure and functions.

Capitalism and religion -

In the agrarian society our festivals were based on harvesting seasons like baisakhi , pongol etc.

Now in the capitalist society festivals are characterized by diwali bonanza sales or the big billion days on Ramzan.

They are seen as a  source of making more profits for the capitalists ( businessmen ) with use of dhanteras , diwali , festive offers and sales.

 Capitalism even made us celebrate new festivals e.g ganapati visarjan was initially a local Maharashtra festival , however smelling profits it was deliberately promoted throughout India to create another pan India festival to be made profit off.

A more visible example can be seen in the form of ' special darshan ' paid schemes at various worship places such as Tirupati , Shirdi etc. As if even access to god is determined by the money you have.

Capitalism and judiciary

This is the most visible example where we see the access to justice is directly proportional to the wealth of the individual. Salman Khan can get a supreme court hearing overnight for his bail plea while the cases in which he is the accused go on for decades.

Thus it can be observed that the capitalists who control this economic system also influence religion , family , judiciary , government , education and everything in the society.

Theory 2 Ruling class Ideology

Marx was analysing that if slave system was so exploitative why didn't the slaves ever revolt , or if the capitalist system is such exploitative why is it still thriving.  He came up with the ruling class Ideology to explain this. 

 He said that in every society there is a class which controls the economic system. For them to maintain their supremacy in the society they need the system to be stable.

To maintain the stability of the system an ideology is propagated which helps in justification of the system.

For example : the caste system was highly exploitative towards the shudras. Hence the purusharth theory was given in the Rigveda which said that the Brahmins emerged from the god's mouth , the kshatriyas from the god's arms , the vaishya's from the god's thighs and shudras from his feet.

Once the origin of the varna system was attributed to god , it was very difficult for the system to be questioned.

 To compliment it further, the theory of birth- rebirth was given which said that our present life depends on our deeds from last life. It made those who were exploited to justify their exploitation. Hence it stabalized the system for about 2500 years.

Considering the capitalist system

The ruling class Ideology in this system makes us believe that we all have equal opportunity to become a capitalist. We are made to believe that with education and hardwork we can achieve all the heights of success.

However he pointed out that this is not true. The probability of a capitalist to expand his business and become a bigger capitalist is much more than a worker ever becoming a capitalist in his entire life. The education recieved by the children of capitalists is much superior to that received by ordinary people , they have very high social and cultural capital. 

Thus a capitalist stays a capitalist and a worker stays a worker. But the ruling class Ideology let's the worker live in a false believe that he has equal opportunity to be a businessman as the son of Mukesh Ambani.

Theory 3 : Religion as the opium of Masses

Marx analysed religion using historical materialism and ruling class ideology.

Marx argued that religion is a part of ruling class ideology and has always favoured those who occupy the dominant position in the society.

Let's understand this using examples of India

Traditionally , in the Indian society the upper castes included Brahmins , Kshatriyas and Vaishyas, while the Shudras and Untouchables were considered lower castes.

The upper castes were also the dominant economic members in the society.

Thus religion was used by them to exploit the lower castes and derive unpaid labour from them. While for the lower castes this religion justified their pain and exploitation as a consequence of their deeds in the past life.

Just like opium takes us away from the pain of the world to make us feel good , religion is used by those exploited to escape from the hardships of the world and give them hope.

It also prevents those exploited from revolting against the unjust system.

It can also be applied to the position of women in the society. Religion was used as an excuse for long to justify sati and  prohibit widow remarriage. 

To be continued...

This is part 1 of the Marxist ideas. In part 2 we shall discuss the way forward and how we can get out of this ruling class ideology and such exploitative systems. These ideas of Marx can be applied to various other problems in the society including patriachy , nationalism , marriage politics etc. 

Remember, the explaination for every phenomenon in our society lies in the economic system and how those who control the system can make profit from that. 

 Happy Brainstorming!!

P.S all these ideas given above especially about religion are views of Marx and various Marxist thinkers and do not resemble my thinking. Kindly refrain from hate!.

Amit Chauhan!