What can Engels Teach the Neo-Narodnik “Communists” and the Nationalist “Marxists” Today?

Friedrich Engels, a great teacher of the proletariat and bosom friend of Karl Marx, was born on November 28, 1820. Along with Marx, he developed the theories of dialectical and historical materialism as well as of scientific socialism. Marx and Engels together led the world proletariat movement until the death of Marx in 1883 and after that Engels continued the task until 1895. Besides establishing the universal principles of Marxism, Engels also carried out research works in the fields of history, ideology, anthropology and natural sciences in the light of these principles, which are undoubtedly essential and indispensable readings even today for the students of these fields.

In the context of the present situation of our country, Engels’ several works are worth reading, but the one I can particularly think of is ‘The Peasant Question in France and Germany’. Many Narodnik and Nationalist Communists of our country who are occupied with representing the interests and demands of kulaks, rich farmers, upper-middle peasantry should especially read this small but extremely important work. This work made a significant contribution to the Marxist thought on the agrarian and peasant question and later became the basis of Lenin’s understanding on this question.

Ajay Sinha aka Don Quixote de la Patna’s Disastrous Encounter with Marx’s Theory of Ground Rent (and Marx’s Political Economy in General)

The entire bunch of intellectually-challenged individuals gathered around this magazine ‘The Truth’ is no different at all. It is a motley crew of passive radical armchair “intellectuals” with backgrounds of social-democracy of one of the worst and most ridiculous kind (SUCI) and, of course, the “general secretary”, Don Quixote de la Patna, Mr. Ajay Sinha. What is the commonality that binds this coterie together? Unbelievable levels of sheer ignorance, idiocy and stupidity, as we shall see with evidence in what follows.

The Three Farm Ordinances, Present Farmers’ Movement and the Working Class

Majority of the poor, lower-middle and middle peasantry is destined to be ruined under the capitalist system. To give these classes any assurance or promise to save small-scale petty production as well as this entire class is nothing but an act of treachery and betrayal against them and making them tail-end the rich farmers and Kulaks politically. So what should we do amongst them? As Lenin said: we should tell the truth! Telling truth is revolutionary. We should tell them about this inevitable destiny that awaits them in this capitalist society, make them conscious about their main and foremost demand that is the right of employment, and profess that their future lies in the system of socialist farming, that is to say, cooperative, collective or state farming. Only such a system will give them permanent redemption from poverty, starvation, insecurity and uncertainties. Our long term aim is certainly the socialist revolution. In the short term, the fight for the right to employment, the fight for labour rights for farm workers, and freedom from all debts can be our only struggle. Only such a program will take forward the class struggle in the countryside, and will organize the rural proletariat and semi-proletariat class into an independent political force and prepare them for socialist revolution.

Problems of the Revolutionary Communist Movement in India: The Question of Program and Strategy

There has long been a controversy on the characterization of the Indian social formation and the stage of Indian Revolution. There is a considerable section of Marxist-Leninist parties/organizations/group that hold that India is still a semi-feudal semi-colonial or neo-colonial country. Others contend that India is no more a semi-feudal semi-colonial country; it is a relatively backward capitalist country. The aim of this paper is to make an intervention in this ongoing debate by going to the fundamental theoretical issues and testing the present Indian political situation as well as the socio-economic conditions against the Marxist-Leninist-Maoist theoretical fundamentals regarding what a semi-feudal semi-colonial social formation is. The issues at stake here are principally the determination of production relations in Indian agriculture, the nature of Indian bourgeoisie and the extent of capitalist industrial and financial development in India.

Problems of Indian Revolution: Prospects and Challenges

Abhinav Sinha After the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the disintegration of the mighty Soviet Union in 1990, bourgeois think-tanks and academia of the West reveled in hysteric caterwaul. The death of Marxism and Socialism was proclaimed; the age of 'meta-narratives' was finally over; the last oppressiveness of the 'modern' was finally … Continue reading Problems of Indian Revolution: Prospects and Challenges

Development of Capitalist Agriculture in India and the Intellectual Origins of the Fallacy of Present Semi-feudal Thesis

Introduction The question of capitalist development in Indian agriculture has long remained an issue of controversy among Marxist academicians as well as the Communist revolutionary camp. Even after the six decades of independence a number of Marxist academics (Amit Bhaduri, T.Nagireddy, K. Balgopal, D. Venkateswara Rao, Pradhan H. Prasad, etc) and majority of ML revolutionary … Continue reading Development of Capitalist Agriculture in India and the Intellectual Origins of the Fallacy of Present Semi-feudal Thesis