Communism has not worked in most countries especially in developed countries. It is still hanging on in some developing and under developed countries . Typically communist countries have poor living conditions , no innovative ideas and pressure from all sides . You rarely get to see a happy population under the communist regime.. In India too the communist party is slowly losing its relevance ..
http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/5-big-reasons-communism-failed-336631/
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.
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.
You are taking debate to a high level but most members are only interested in condemning repeatedly in different ways. Yes Plato indeed gave the similar advice as Marx. Karl Marx wrote Das Capital based on actual observations and data and brought out effectively how people are exploited to their great benefits by capitalists. Implementation was and is wrong by communists and thus they did not succeed.
Plato's theory of communism was flawed and also very limiting because he allowed some ( artisans ) to own property . His thoughts on family and women was definitely unhealthy for society because he felt family and relationships were stronghold of selfishness. No wonder his kind of communism never worked and cannot be considered as an ideology . Plato no doubt made a lot of contribution to the world in the field of philosophy but some of his views were controversial..." Love is a serious mental disease"
vijay wrote:Utopian ideas are for discussion and better understanding. It is well known they cannot be implemented in practice because average humans are indeed selfish. The kibbutz system in Israel did work for sometime however.
What appears Utopian today may be realized tomorrow. Our aim should be noble and high even if not realizable. If your direction is good, you will definitely accomplish something noble. Success may not be 100% but even if you get 20% success, this is worth. The idea of communism and the efforts of communists have definitely contributed a lot in labor welfare and protection of workers' rights. Today what ever you see in labor legislation and practice- maximum working hours, minimum wages, accommodation facilities, safety provisions, workers' participation in management- have been attained mainly owing to communist thought. There are many politicians and thinkers who are non Marxist but their policies are also influenced by Communism. There are non Marxist socialists as well. Pt Nehru was also influenced by Marxist though but he was not a Communist. But his idea of socialistic pattern of society and five year plans were no doubt attributable to Russian revolution. The social democratic parties in Europe are also an offshoot of communism. They are not Communist but also do not want reckless exploitation of labor. If there were no communist, there would also not be liberal democrats and non Marxist socialists like Nehru and Dr. Lohia.
Any organisation or ideology is bound to have some pros but in communism it is more cons than pros that led to its downfall worldwide...One can also see how in India's context how our erstwhile leaders like Nehru were perpetually in a confused dream world thereby making a mess of the nation and communalising it because of their failed policies which were neither communistic nor capitalistic nor wholly socialistic !!!
With the Indian context, Communist party leaders were pulled in different directions because of fractionalism with a section supporting Russian model of Socialism and another supporting Chinese model . This became a major issue during the Indo Chinese war with the section that supported China going to the extent of criticising Indian role and taking sides with India. The problem with Indian communism has been clarity of thought and direction with regard to their country and party, often leading the masses to question their patriotism !
I remember an incident that took place long back which was later discussed by some magazines then. EMS Namboodripad the scion of communism in Kerala also one of the first CM of Kerala , and AK Gopalan another equally famous communist party leader of Kerala attended a party meeting and later had to attend the thread ceremony of his nephew. There are such contradictions because one cannot disassociate the norms and traditions of the society we live in. With all that communism was looked up by the masses during that period because of the commitment show by the then leaders which is definitely not the case now..
@kiran8