COMMUNIST PARTIES AND UNPRAGMATIC POLITICS

 

As a student of political science, I have always wondered why communist parties like CPI and CPI-M have not fared well in Tamil Nadu elections, in spite of having a clear ideological inclination towards uplifting the life of the poor and oppressed. Communist parties are the pioneers of so-called ‘populist mobilisations’ which has become the way of political mobilisation in Tamil Nadu today. Starting from the way of including more than three fourth of people as oppressed to projecting themselves as the sole saviour of those oppressed, communist parties did set the tone of today’s politics even before the entry of Dravidian parties in Tamil Nadu’s electoral scene. But today these parties are nothing more than any newly formed fringe parties with respect to electoral results in Tamil Nadu. Many reasons are attributed for this pathetic situation like lack of charismatic leadership at Tamil Nadu level, lack of elite political clienteles etc. But as we know, the so-called ‘Charisma’ is not entirely ‘ascribed’ attribute, but to a larger extent is an ‘achieved’ attribute in politics. It is an ever-going process by which a leader develops a ‘politically acceptable image’. Similarly, political clienteles are not eternally given to any political party as such. The electoral victories and perceived personal advantage to rent-seeking elites will distribute and re-distribute political clienteles from time to time. Hence, these reasons are not independent reasons but dependent reasons ‘or’ in Marxist terms, these reasons do not form the base but are part of superstructure with base still being elusive. My recent visit to CPI-M office in T-nagar, Chennai regarding my PhD research, and my half day stint with communist party cadres gave some interesting yet probable answers to the above question, which I thought worth sharing.

I reached the office by 3 PM and I already got the appointment from a veteran communist leader. As I reached the office well before the appointment time, I started interacting with the few party cadres available there while waiting in the lobby. The interaction was casual and all the people present there were very cordial and informative. But the striking point was, all the cadres present there addressed me with a distinct word ‘Thozhare’, a typical communist greeting meaning friend or fellow comrade. Even though I addressed them with words such ‘sir’, ‘boss’, ‘anna’, ‘thambi’, all of them preferred to address me as “thozhare”. Despite being used to this greeting from my childhood, the sincerity and casualness with which they uttered that word numerous times confounded me. Even forgetfully they didn’t address me with any other word other than ‘thozhare’. As I was interacting with the cadres, the veteran leader came and cordially welcomed me and answered all my research questions with utmost sincerity and humility. Since he looked like a septuagenarian leader, I preferred to address him with term ‘Ayya’ during the entire course of discussion. When we finished and as we got up, I thanked him uttering ‘nandri ayya’, meaning thankyou sir. He accepted my gratitude with a smile but immediately corrected my choice of words! He said “thozhare, always call me ‘thozhare’ as we always prefer to be a thozhar to all the cadres, common people and there should be equality in all relationship”! I smiled and thanked him again with his choice of words and departed. Even though I physically left the office, I couldn’t stop thinking about their greeting of ‘thozhare’ for the rest of the day. ‘Thozhare’ is definitely a great word and treating all as equals is an even greater political ideal to have. But is it suitable in a country like India and for region like Tamil Nadu? Tamil Nadu is a place where people love to worship their leaders. Here, the leadership status is solidified not on the basis of the quality of work done but based on the kind of continuous deference people show on you. Whether it is a cinema star or a cricketer, people love to worship their heroes. People innovate new ways of worshipping from time to time to create and recreate the ‘leadership image’ of their heroes. In fact, leaders are born in India not because of their innate qualities but are ‘made’ by their avid, ardent, diehard “bhakts’ and their innovative ways to show deference. The sorry state of affairs in Tamil Nadu is that, any person either a cinema star or a politician, who does not understand this dynamic can never become a leader in public eyes.

            It is not the problem of the people of Tamil Nadu, but the point is, they don't see this as a problem at all. The act of worshipping their heroes has its roots in the culture of Tamil Nadu which in turn is dialectically bound with the social psyche of its people. A child which encounters the act of worshipping like raising cut-outs, performing milk abhishekams, justifying every act of their heroes without logical thinking, belittling the perceived enemy of their heroes without any guilt etc, by their much-adored parents, leaders and elders in their locality from its childhood accepts these as universal truths and the way of leading life. These acts get emotionally connected and imprinted in the child's psyche in such a way that it seldom deems it necessary to use the rational mind before performing such acts from then on. When the child grows, their heroes change, but the feeling of showing unconditional deference to their heroes continues and is reproduced by them whenever required which socialize the new children they encounter, and the process continues. As a famous saying goes, ‘the mob don't think and then act; but they act and then think’, people generally act based on the psychological imprints they gained through their voluntary and involuntary socialisations from their childhood and for actions which they deem emotional and hinders their self-esteem they react based on a predetermined pattern set on their social psyche without applying the rational mind. When it comes to their heroes, the people of Tamil Nadu have always learnt to be emotional from their childhood!

            The problem does not lie with the communist parties either. Communist parties all over the world are known for the strategies and policies which tend to break the pre-existing power relations which control the world. They try to create a society which is more egalitarian in every aspect known, and hence they are always cautious in coining every term they use that it does not entail domination but faster equality. They tend to create ‘leaders’ in ‘everyone’ true to their ideal which Che Guevara beautifully phrased- “liberators don't exist; people liberate themselves”.  

            Then where is the real problem? The problem neither lies with the people nor with the communist parties but lies in the fact that these methods of communist parties are not suitable for the people like that of Tamil Nadu. The people of Tamil Nadu either do not want it or not confident in liberating themselves. They need liberators, demigods and messiahs to save them from their misfortune. They are not ready to attach themselves to the ongoing hard-fought struggle which the communist parties project as the road to liberation. They don’t have both time and energy and at the same time they are also not convinced yet, that struggle for liberation would uplift their life. They simply need a messiah, demigod to become their leader and change their lives.

            The leaders that communist parties project in Tamil Nadu are undoubtedly leaders with good qualities and great passion for people’s politics. But the fact that they are not allowing themselves to be worshipped is not helping the cause. In the eyes of the common man of Tamil Nadu, a true leader is the one who is worshipped by his followers publicly, thanks to the socialisation they received from their childhood.  They seldom try to understand the true attributes of their leader, rather try to imagine and attribute all non-worldly powers to their leaders and enjoy their omnipotence. Either of the two must change if communist parties wish to lay a solid foundation to change their electoral fortunes in this state; the people’s nature or communist parties’ unpragmatic politics.