HVK Archives: Different communities viewed freedom variously says EMS
Different communities viewed freedom variously says EMS - The Times of India
Bisheshwar Mishra
()
17 October 1996
Title : Different communities viewed freedom variously
says E.M.S.
Author : Bisheshwar Mishra
Publication : The Times of India
Date : October 17, 1996
Communist leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad on the topic of
'Marxism, religion and caste' at the Jawaharlal Nehru
University to a packed and attentive audience on Tuesday,
traced through India's struggle for independence, the
different perspectives that had evolved for viewing the
question of caste and community.
Freedom itself, according to Mr Namboodiripad was viewed
differently by people belonging to different communities.
"For the Hindus, freedom meant the revival of the golden
Maurya Gupta period, for the Muslims it meant the revival
of the Dead Sultanate and for the Sikhs, freedom meant
the rule of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. The freedom struggle
therefore expressed itself In different forms,"
The British, he said, took advantage of this and set up
organisations for every cute and community. "The first
and second Round Table Conferences were nothing but
representations Of such people apart from the princes.
And the present day question of case and community can
clearly be traced to this period," he asserted.
He said that In the course of the freedom struggle while
"Mahatma Gandhi took recourse to a liberal humanitarian
approach to unite the people and tackle the division
brought about by caste and community factors, the Marx-
ists applied the revolutionary proletarian approach."
He, however, admitted that neither approach could suc-
cessfully contain the two-nation theory of Mohammad Ali
Jinnah,
though Gandhi was the only Congress man who opposed Mr
Jinnah till the last. Mr Namboodiripad claimed that the
"Marxists approach could have successfully countered Mr
Jinnah's two-nation theory, but the Marxist movement was
not very strong at that time."
He said that the Marxist understanding prescribed that
"caste and communal divide among people can be fought
only if the people are organised on class lines and not
caste lines. Mr Namboodiripad insisted that the concept
of "class struggle was not only related to the economic
aspect of human life but also to its social, cultural and
political aspects."
He admitted that the struggle on Marxist approach was
even today very weak. And that was the reason that BSP
leader Kanshi Ram could dictate terms to other political
parties on the basis of caste factor. "He tells all
other political parties, 'you accept my candidate as
chief minister,' which is nothing but political black-
mail," he asserted.
The real solution to all such divisive tendencies "lies
in more unity of the working elms and the peasant class,"
he said.
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