Dr. Lohia was one of the most popular figures in the socialist movement post independence and even in inspiring new breed of socialist leaders. There are many colleges and institutions named after him today.
His vision and his books do inspire an equal and Indian version of socialist thought; he was a popular orator and a person of eminence. Today at 2023, we rarely see a torch bearer of socialist thought, politics and the purpose of doing politics has changed. We don’t have an ideological parliament today, as in 1950’s or 1960’s. Commoditization of politics, big money and big machinery has not gone well; clean image amongst the aspiring politicians is becoming rare. Even contemporary parties are being run like social media departments of big companies.
Dr. Lohia is still a revered figure but what has happened to his message is also a big question. Socialism needs new triumph, new icons, new slogans and new mass based cadre driven party organizations. Imperialist societies and nations have big commodity control over culture, arts, technology, defense systems, capital flow and the most important the control over the destiny of labor.
The time is ripe to emerge in to a well of thought, create new narrative and evolve an alternative against the capitalist mainstream. Marx and Lenin are not practiced even by most conservative communist parties, but they remain a fashion figure for lecture themes and T-Shirt designs.
The alternative vision of left is greatly diminished after the fall of USSR, Berlin Wall event and 1991 pro-corporate economic reforms. The advance of Globalization, strengthening of WTO- IMF, Americanization of most global south foreign policies and emergence of global corporate giants bigger than national GDPs have left an unilateral view of an highly complex, diverse, middle income and vulnerable world.
Left has no Prime Ministerial history in India; it is seen mostly opposing the media mainstream politics of major pro- business parties. Let’s look at some of the difficulties of running an all left socialist party in India-
- Massive policy shift after 1991 and narrative of pro- privatization politics.
- Ethical leadership model to be practiced by mass cadre party not easy to attract attention of people.
- Peasantry and working class and trade unionism greatly diminished by massive wave of globalization.
- Cost of high octane politics majorly carried by top industrial donations.
- No systemic evaluation to measure the mishaps done by trickle down politics.
- No champions of socialism to showcase left version of alternative economics and inclusive politics.
Left has been a current of big revolutions, hope of the poor and imagination of an equal and just society. Corbyn in UK, Sanders in US, Castro in Cuba and many other left driven politicians have inspired change and challenged an one sided biased system for the better.
The system of fairer parties and just organizations, and pro-poor and public sector driven welfare model and subsidized system of human development is surely the need of the hour, not just for us but for all middle income nations to aspire an developed and a free thinking society. Dr. Lohia must be taught and practiced and more efforts should be made to mainstream his work and message, socialism shall triumph and equality is the best way to distribute prosperity.
Prof. Mohd Ossama is a senior management teacher, trainer and award winning writer. He has taught business management at major institutions and trained numerous corporate executives. He has mentored various students and led various academic and industry programs. He can be reached at: [email protected]
