The Marxist view of Indian History

The Marxist view of Indian History

Noam Chomsky is a much-flaunted linguist. But his genuineness as a scholar is critically under consideration. He was a declared Communist, a much-avowed defender of Communism. Now Marxism or Communism demands a strict Marxist view of any aspect of life, and in scholarship this demand for a Marxist view is more pronounced. Chomsky’s scholarship and theories were thus coloured according to his belief in Communism and Marxism. According to the Marxist historian Karr, (the historian who laid down the guidelines for the Marxist historiography), history must be written according to a pre-imagined Marxist framework. Facts must be fitted in this Marxist frame, and if there are left some chinks in the theory then facts must be invented for the sort of convenience. The interpretation of history is not a task left for historians. It has already been interpreted in the theory of Marxism, and the only task left for historians is to mould, manipulate, invent history so as to fit and prove the Marxist model of history. Indian history has been written by Marxists with this view in their mind and we must also view this history, with the fact in our minds that this is not the real history but the Marxist interpretation of history.

According to the Marxist view history is divided into the following periods:
1) The primeval stage of feudalism – this was an age of barbarity when a society was divided into two classes. One class was that of feudal lords, generally an elite being less than 1% of the society, which ruled and commanded the society on its own terms. Other was the ruled class, the proletariat, which worked and toiled endlessly for their feudal masters and got nothing in return, except a wretched existence.
2) The stage of class struggle – This is a stage of class struggle when the two classes clash with each other, one for defending its exclusive rights of masters and lords and other for gaining their natural rights, i.e., equality and justice.
3) The Communist egalitarian heaven – Then after the clash comes the Communist stage when all the inequalities between the two classes are put to an end (by an extermination of one class, namely the elite or bourgeoisie).

So every Communist and Marxist views Indian History in this context. The Ancient Age(including the so-called Harappan Age and the Vedic Age) is viewed as an age of barbarism, an age dominated by the death and destruction brought by the barbarous invading Aryans, the age of injustice, illiteracy, and the primeval age of Science and Arts, followed by a caste ridden society plagued by the various ills of Hinduism.

The comes the medieval Age of Islamic invasions, which is viewed by Marxists as a Golden Age when the noble light of Islam was introduced to the poor populace of India, which was ravaged by the superstitious rigours and rituals of Hinduism.

The third stage of a Communist Heaven is yet to come in India, as despite repeated efforts of the Communist Party, it has not succeeded to persuade the ignorant superstition ridden Indian populace of the fruits of a Communist State.

Marxists view history in linear view in which an ancient barbaric age is succeeded by a capitalist stage of class struggle, and then the final egalitarian stage of Communism. Religion is also viewed by Marxists in such a successive stage of social evolution in which Polytheism as an inferior religion is succeeded by a superior brand of Monotheism, and then finally the best stage of Atheist Communism. Regarding this view, Hinduism being polytheist in nature is said to be a religion of ancient barbarous invaders, and Islam is regarded as a noble betterment in the form of Monotheism. So the Aryan Invasion theory and its development is also a result of the Marxist view of history, and the reason that all the State Historians of India like Thapar, and R.C.Sharma support the Aryan Invasion theory is that all of them are avowed Marxists. Some of them namely Harbans Mukhia have written history books on Aryan Invasion theory, with a title as “The Marxist view of Indian History”. It needs not to be told how much we can trust in historians, scholars and linguists like Thapar, Mukhia, Sharma and Chomsky.