In India all that communism has done is to stir up trouble, make sure people rebel at the drop of a hat even when there is no valid reason and generally show revolutionary tendencies...So, now we have a situation where thugs call them selves maoists or college students like Kanhaiya tend to think too much of themselves all because the Communist party supports the rebellion and make them think they are doing the right thing for themselves and the country !  Communists are as bad or worse than other political parties..

usha manohar wrote:

In India all that communism has done is to stir up trouble, make sure people rebel at the drop of a hat even when there is no valid reason and generally show revolutionary tendencies...So, now we have a situation where thugs call them selves maoists or college students like Kanhaiya tend to think too much of themselves all because the Communist party supports the rebellion and make them think they are doing the right thing for themselves and the country !  Communists are as bad or worse than other political parties..

They are worse as they never adapted to Indian conditions. Mao Tse Tung adapted Marxism to Chinese conditions and Maoism emerged. Credit to him. Indian communists continued hero worshiping Mao and Lenin. Frankly I wonder how they are voted into power in Bengal and Kerala.

Most of the Communist Countries pour Billions in to the Arms race. Poor living conditions and lack of innovation contributed to the failure of Communism in Russia. It's evident Communism in  Soviet Union primarily due to economic reasons. One of the main reasons for the economic stagnation was the failure to manufacture innovative products that compete on the Market. In other words Soviet union has failed to adapt to the changing times.

It is difficult to predict the future of communism in the global context but the relevance of its core beliefs which form the bedrock of this ideology continues to remain valid today.I would say its practioners in India have failed more than this ideology itself. Going by my West Bengal-centric experience this ideology especially the way it was practised over more than 34 years at a stretch in power one call it a surest path to perdition.Lumpenization of a state was complete and disconcertingly the process has become more systematic and vigorous under Mamata. Kerala and Rajasthan are two states whose electorate interestingly throw out the incumbent governments to bring in the ones they threw out the last time!!

I feel that one of the msjor readons why Communism is able to thrive in India is because of our political system which divided rather than unite and corrupt ion. According to opinion polls in all likelihood Communist party may yet again come to power in Kerala this time round and only the ruling party can be blamed for all the scams and corruption during its regime.

Communism in India was in the hands of Brahmins for too long and it thus became an arm chair movement. The opportunities they got in Bengal and Kerala or Tripura have not been converted into communist orientations as the Indian people are very possessive of their property and are willing to work in competitive atmosphere to improvevtheir lives. The party is seen as one more political party in democracy. It cannot take roots in India.

vijay wrote:

Communism in India was in the hands of Brahmins for too long and it thus became an arm chair movement. The opportunities they got in Bengal and Kerala or Tripura have not been converted into communist orientations as the Indian people are very possessive of their property and are willing to work in competitive atmosphere to improvevtheir lives. The party is seen as one more political party in democracy. It cannot take roots in India.

In India, Communists came to power only in states and not at center. They have to work within constitutional framework and can neither bring and drastic change nor can be expected to do so. But it is creditable that they are comparatively more honest and idealistic than others. The Tripura C.M. is an example. He is considered world's poorest head of any government. They are also not after ministerial posts like others. They supported Man Mohan singh government and earlier United Front governments from outside not accepting any ministerial berth though many parties smaller than them got ministerial berths.  

Communism is a universal philosophy which however because of greedy nature of humans and concentrated onslaught by capitalists led by USA has fails to deliver. But it's appeal for the downtrodden and tribals etc will always be there.

vijay wrote:

Communism is a universal philosophy which however because of greedy nature of humans and concentrated onslaught by capitalists led by USA has fails to deliver. But it's appeal for the downtrodden and tribals etc will always be there.

As a matter of fact, Marxism is not an ideology but a science. Marx studied the social and  economic phenomenon and history from  materialist angle. From his studies, we get (1) dialectical materialism (2) materialist  interpretation of history (3) concept of class war.  Marx did not prescribe any particular ready made model of society. He did not think that there would be revolution in a particular country. He thought of world as a whole. So he gave the idea of proletarian internationalism.  Apparently, the models in China, Soviet Union and some other countries did not strictly follow Marxist international principles. These were more or less national. There are some organizations that believe that Leninism is not communism.  They believe that one day communism- real and not Leninist- will prevail in entire world.

Incidentally, idea of communism also prevailed much before Marx. Plato first gave the idea of communism in his book "Republic'.  The communism as conceived by Plato would not allow any private property and any personal family to the ruling class including ministers and bureaucrats. They would get their necessaries from state. They would have  common wives and common children.