The Tradition of Marxism

Author(s): Randhir Singh

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 24, No. 43 (Oct. 28, 1989), pp. 2421-2422
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4395527
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 PERSPECTIVES
PERSPECTIVES

The Tradition of Marxism not surprising, therefore, that they all

reacted with hostility. Hence the con-
tinuous effort to ignore Marxism, to
Randhir Singh
denigrate and distort it, to 'refute', "reject'
and 'dismiss' it, and the periodic an-
At a time when anything and everything claims the fashionable nouncements of its death and final demise
mantle of Marxism, and so many Marxists are busy revising over
itthe
outlast hundred years and more. But
Marxism has not merely survived, it has
of existence, a certain orthodoxy, a commitment to 'Marxism of
succeeded to an unusual degree to achieve,
Karl Marx' is not only in order, it is necessary if one wouldacross take all barriers, a genuinely global
*the issues of socialist theory and practice seriously. spread and influence, compelling even so
hostile a critic as Leopold Schwarzschild
We do not set ourselves up against the world opponents' distortions and nurtured by to write: "if a name had to be found for
in doctrinaire fashion with a new principle: certain trends within Marxism itself. De the age in which we live, we might safely
Here is the truth! Here you must kneel! We omnibus dubitandum ('doubt everything') call it the Marxian era". Marxism has in-
develop new principles for the world out of deed become, as Sartre once put it, the
was Marx's favourite methodological
the principles of the existing world.. . 'necessary' philosophy of our time.
principle. And breaking sharply with the
It is the great advantage of the new move- Significantly enough, Marxism is even
received tradition from Plato to Hegel,
ment that we do not seek to anticipate the
new world dogmatically, but rather to and in a truly remarkable statement for paying the penalty for its 'success'
discover it in the criticism of the old ... It their age, the Darwinian age drunk with namely, its co-operation by alien elements.
the achievements of science, or reason as
is not our task to build up the future in ad- So much of what goes by the name of
vance and to settle all problems for all time; they also called it, the founders of Marx- Marxism nowadays has little or nothing
our task is ruthless criticism of everything ism proclaimed: "the generations which to do with the Marxism of Karl Marx.
that exists, ruthless in the sense that the will put us right are likely to be far more Witness, for example, 'the theoreticist
criticism will not shrink either from its own deluge' of academic Marxism in the west
numerous than those whose knowledge
conclusions or from conflict with the powers
we... are in a position to correct; ... the in recent years; or, more specifically, the
that be...
stage of knowledge which we have now fast-flourishing theoretical school called
KARL MARY
reached is as little final as all that have 'post-Marxism' which has, in the name of
IN humankind's centuries-old effort to
preceded it" Engels in fact specifically openness, of updating Marx's supposed-
understand society and to change it for
wished that their followers "would not ly antiquated method and theories, vir-
the better on the basis of this understan-
pick quotations from Marx or from him", tually abandoned, via diverse routes or.
ing, Marxism is possibly the most am-
as if from sacred.texts, "but would think forms ('Analytical' or 'Neoclassical' or
bitious and yet a genuinely modest exer-
as Marx would have thought in their 'Game-Theoretic' or 'Rational Choice'
cise, so far. It is ambitious not only in the
place'. He hadinsisted that "it was only Marxism, etc), even the basic or 'central'
extraordinary sweep and power of its ex-
in that sense that the word Marxist had Marxist positions; it may have served to
planatory theory but also in its actual
any raison d'etre. " light up and clarify many issues, but it has
historical achievement. Peter Laslett, no
certainly defused Marxism of its revolu-
Marxist himself, has pointed out that the This scientific resilience, this openness
tionary content and transformed it into
teachings of Marx "have proved more suc- to 'correction', is really the strength of
so many safe, academic exercises. Why so
cessful than any other set of doctrines Marxism and not its weakness, except to
many of the scholars involved still insist
which the west has brought forth, swifter religious minds. Behind it lies an explicit
on describing themselves as Marxists is,
and more final in its conquest of the world assumption about the growth of human
obviously, not an intellectual issue only,
than ever Christianity was". Marxism' knowledge, about the continuous strug-
it is far more a matter of social history,
explicit commitment and claim to truth gle of men and women to acquire a bet-
as HalIDraper has argued. It certainly in-
is particularly significant and valuable ter, more true, understanding of the world.
dicates an awareness of the intellectual
today when, under cover of a seemingly To question the signature of Marx in the
and moral authority Marxism continues
scientific scepticism and in different, more course of this struggle, to seek to "put
to enjoy despite its many enemies and
or less sophisticated, guises (including, [him] right", if need be, is not to deny
critics, 'funereal' or any other. Besides,
most recently, 'the discourse theory'), Marx but to enter into the freedom of his
Norman Geras has suggested, the 'post-
relativism in matters of truth or know- Marxism.
Marxist' tag certainly has a nicer ring to
ledge has emerged as a new orthodoxy
But Marx has been subjected to a ques- ears than the alternative 'ex-Marxist'; it
among bourgeois philosophers and social
tioning and denial of another, essentially evokes the idea of forward movement, of
scientists, and not among them alone.
nihilistic, sort. History of Marxism is well 'goingbeyond' of 'an up to-the-minute
Theories abound today which, as Barrows
illustrative of Hobbes's observation that thinker' rather than, as does the latter, of
Dunham has put it, "preach paralysis-
if geometrical axioms were to be "a thing a change of colours, if not of downiight
which tell us that we can't know and can't
contrary to any man's right of dominion, renegacy itself?
do"
or to the interest of men that have domi- Much of this Marxism is practised, as
At the same time, Marxism is extraor- nion", even these would be, if not already mentioned, in the name of 'open-
dinarily open, and very modest indeed in disputed, certainly sought to be ness' as against 'orthodoxy. Now, the
its claims, contrary to the conventional suppressed-if necessary "by the burning value or importance of 'openness' is
belief, the familiar caricature of Marxism of all books of geometry"! Marxism almost
aroseimpossible to overrate today in
as a rigid, closed system already in posses- as a challenge to all the established view of the long and persistent tradition
sion of 'the truth' a set of scriptures as authorities-economic and political, in- of a certain other practice of Marxism,
it were-a caricature compounded of its tellectual, ideological or academic. It is which has been, 'officially' or otherwise.

Economic and Political. Weekly. October 28, 1989 2421

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dogmatic and sectarian, 'economistic', ticles and journalistic, even hack, pieces, from him.
'deterministic' or 'scientistic', often reduc-addresses, proclamations, speeches or Marxism, however, is ifot about under-
ing Marxism to a political catechism, the statements for particular occasions, situa- standing the world only, it is even more
ossified 'common sense' of the average tions or audiences, unpublished or un- about changing it; it is about communism
Party cadre, or sanctifying it as the publishable manuscripts, finished and un as' human liberation; "the definitive
legitimising ideology of a movement or finished or fragmentary, extensive cor resolution of the antagonism between
social order, especially in the countries of respondence with diverse addressees, ob man and nature, and between man and
'actually existing socialism' but elsewhere viously not intended for the eyes of others, man", "the ture appropriation of the
also, etc, etc. There is certainly a need for private notes and work-books, often in a human essence through and for man", as
'openness' in the context of all this and personal 'short-hand' and meant only for Marx put it. Hence the primacy of
so much else that has disfigured and the writer's own use later on, etc, etc. More politics, not economics, in Marxism and
stultified Marxism in our times, resulting specifically, Marx's treatment of politics, the fact that Marx was, by vocation, a
in repeated failures to respond effectively ethics, literature or culture, in fact of the revolutionary. More than a philosopher,
to the changing historical situations and realm of the non-economic in general, re- or economist, or sociologist, or historian,
to particular national conditions, as, for mnained largely untheojqsed by him. Quite or 'the man of science, "Marx was, before
example, in India. But as Stuart Hall has inevitably, therefore, Marxism has its all else, a revolutionist", as Engels put it.
pointed out, 'openness' is not a self- limitations and inadequacies, its am- And it is this revolutionary commitment
evident or self-validating good. And at a biguities and 'silences' or 'empty spaces'; and a certain moral passion that goes with
time when anything and everything claims there are many loose threads, the argu- it, which gives its special quality to the life
the fashionable mantle of Marxism, and ment often yielding large questions, ratherand work of Karl Marx, to his Marxism.
so many Marxists are busy revising it out than providing neat answers.. . This is as He recognised for himself and for Qthers
of existence, a certain orthodoxy, a com- it should be. Yet, it needs to be recognis- the liberating quality of practical activi-
mitment to 'Marxism of Karl Marx', I ed that most critiques of Marxism are ty, the purifying power of revolutionary
simply nihilistic, born of an implicit, ut- action in transforming the very nature of
believe, is not only in order, it is necessary
if one would take the issues of socialist terly.unscientific, 'all-or-nothing' attitude.those involved in it. I think Teodor Shanin
theory and practice seriously. For the fact remains that Marx opened up is very right in insisting that revolutionary
This is not to deny that there are -pro- the continent of social sciences, as ethics was as central as his historiography
blems with the theory and practice of Althusser stated it years ago. It is not to Marx's political judgment and to the
Marxism. Marx was not a system builder, merely that "Marx's combination of in- practice flowing from it. It is necessary to
nor was his Marxism a positivist science. sight and method permanently altered the recover and emphasise this today when,
And it needs to be remembered that his manner in which reality would thereafter in moving away from his 'economistic' or
theoretical work is, in a most important be perceived", as Heilbroner has argued 'scientistic' image of yesteryears, so many
sense, 'an unfinished project'. So much ofmore recently; it is that none has provid- are seeking to turn Marx into an abstract
what Marx expressly wished to write to ed, so far, a better method of understan- savant or a humanist philosopher, and
ensure a clearer or fuller understanding ding this reality, the reality of society and Marxism into a modern metaphysics or
of his ideas-for example, on philosophy historical processes. Marxism has gained scholastic exercises in analytical philo-
(Hegel), or political theory (the state), or for us knowledge of the structure and sophy. Marx would have dismissed it all
at least "two or three printer's sheets", on dynamics of social formations, past and with amused scorn, and he certainly
method (dialectics), and so much more present, particularly the contem- would have had no difficulty in under-
remained simply unwritten. Part of the ex-poraneously dominant capitalist social standing all this. Very 'early, while at
planation lies in the inescapable, near- formation, better than anything bourgeois school, Marx had put "working for
exclusive concern of the rmature Marx with social science has to offer. And given its humanity" at the centre of his values for
his work on 'Economics, which yet re- powerful analytical method, it could even life. Some years later, in 1843, writing to
mained unfurnished, the exacting stan- be, Macpherson has suggested, "that the his friend Arnold Ruge, he pointed out
dards he set himself for any serious utility of Marxism as a means of that Feuerbach's weakness was that "he
scholarly or theoretical work, intense understanding the world is increasingrefers over too much to nature and too'little
practical activity and involvement with time" and this 'world' includes, I would to politics". For Marx, on the other hand,
men, politics and movements the world like to make clear, not only India and the philosophy had to be realised through
over, besides long years of poverty, priva- so-called third world, but the world of 'ac- politics. Politics is indeed the cutting edge
tion and ill-health, the "humiliations, tually existing socialism' also, with all its of social revolution. Hence the primacy
torments and terrors", the "petites old and more recent developments. And of politics, that is, revolutionary politics,
miseries (small wretchednesses", as Marx insofar as we 'go beyond' Marx, we go in Marxism, at least in Marxism as Karl
himself wrote, of the daily struggle for with him and not against him or away Marx practised it.
sheer physical survival, and always the
demands, and still more the hazards, of
CENTRE FOR SOCIAL STUDIES
the life of a revolutionary. This apart,
University Campus, SURAT - 395 007
while we certainly have an authentic, even
if somewhat partial, expression of the The Centre, a multi-disciplinary research institute, provides congenial environment
views of Marx, as of Engels, in works to pursue empirical research in social sciences. The Centre has a few faculty openings
which were put out under the writer's own at Senior Fellow, Fellow and Associate levels. The positions and scales correspond
control, duly corrected and revised for to the University positions. Correspondence is invited from scholars belonging to
publication, we do need to take note of different Social Science disciplines. Scholars interested in studying Western India in
the specific nature and therefore the general and Gujarat in particular, especially those interested in joining the Centre
on Tenure Basis should apply. Scholars from SC/ST, Backward Classes and Women
precise theoretical status or quality of
will be given preference.
their other writings, the early as well as
the latter ones, which have come down to Those interested may correspond with the Director and send their detailed
curriculum vitae on or before 31st December, 1989.
us, scattered and translated-, over a long
pericd of time; these include numerous ar-

2422 Economic and Political Weekly October 28, 1989

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