COMMUNISM

 

COMMUNISM

Briefly speaking communism is a political movement that believes in an economic system in which the state controls the means of producing everything on behalf of the people. It wants to create a society in which everyone is treated equally. It is opposed to capitalism in which a country’s business and industry are controlled and run for profit by private owners rather than by the government.

             Communism was first developed by Karl Marx (1818-1883) and his friend Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) in the middle of the nineteenth century. Both were German l philosophers who took a lot of interest in economic systems and were dead against the   exploitation of the workers. They jointly published the Communist Manifesto in 1848.

             Russia became the first communist state at the end of 1917. In 1922, the other territories of its empire also joined and became the Soviet Union. Subsequently many other countries adopted communism. Today only China, Cuba, Laos and Vietnam are communist states. India has no communist state but it has two Communist Parties CPI and CPI (M).

            India has accepted communism partially, for example it has abolished landlordism, framed some pro-workers laws, given more and more recognitions to the rights and interests of the working classes. However, it could not communist philosophy about religion. Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people. It teaches them to accept status quo and believe in the Karma theory.  India could not promote atheism.  It is a multi-religious country which is secular and socialist but allows religious freedom to every citizen. Furthermore, it allows private business, industry and ownership of land and property which communism does not. In communism, the distribution of wealth and material products is according to one’s needs, but there is no agreement as to who will define and decide the needs.

            Indian political thinkers like Nehru and Gandhi shared Marx’s love for the poor and the down-trodden but they were against violent and unfair means of communism to achieve any relief.  In Marxism all types of methods are valid if they achieve the desired goals. Nehru and Gandhi believed that only good methods should be used for good aims.

            However, every country agrees with Karl Marx that the labouring classes should not be exploited and they should be paid the wages which they deserve for all types of productions and outputs.

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