THE FALL OF THE COMMUNIST BASTION?

The question mark at the end of the subject line is highly significant and needs to be retained for at least the next 2 years, till the assembly elections in the state of West Bengal.

To call the recent debacle of the left in Bengal as the beginning of the end of tyranny would border on the dramatic, since most political parties in India have practiced tyranny at some point or the other, in different places and different times,
but any party, or coalition of parties that has wielded almost unchallenged power for over three decades is bound to indulge in tyranny with a fair amount of abandon, as most communist governments have done in their heyday.

I do not wish to turn this into a scathing attack on communist principles -- I know some of you are rather enamoured of such ideas. I am not and never have been. It goes against the grain of evolution, and requires people to be selfless -- hardly something one can expect of even in the best of men (and women). It is a really fine utopian idea at the end of the day -- just as Plato's original idea of a philosopher-king reigning over his beloved Athens is untenable, so are the tenets of communism. Marx's theory is brilliant, but as many argue today, fundamentally flawed.

Be that as it may, calling the recent left coalition "communists" would be to indignify even this brilliantly flawed idea. For a rather long time, probably going back to the 90s itself, the left has been the unashamed purveyor of subversive politics. All parties are corrupt, we really choose the least threatening of evils, but some wallow in negativity. And thus, as the demi-god that they have forever looked up to, the dragon-nation, went about ushering in industrial and economic reforms from the late 70s (correct me if I'm mistaken about the date) under Deng Xiaoping, the Left
in Bengal went about shutting down industry and trade, driving out the "evil capitalists" and shunning technology as if it were some variant of the bubonic plague. All, of course, in the interests of the common man, they claimed! And all the while, China burgeoned in all these aspects.

And even more shockingly, they went about politicizing education in a way so systematic and devious, as had never been seen in the history of post-independence politics. The fact that Bengalis today still have a reasonable presence in education and research is not due to their efforts, but despite them. At the end of the day, they left the state famished - -with a tottering industrial base, with a significantly
diminished presence in the field of education and learning, a demoralized public and a frustrated young generation. West Bengal wallows near the bottom of most tables of progress today. Bengalis have always revelled in being the anomaly -- the contrast to the Indian mainstream--even historically (remember Sasanka, who was the perennial thorn in the flesh to Harsha ruling from the north) -- but I suspect that the anomaly that we have become today is not one that we needed to become.

But finally, finally, there is hope that Bengalis realize that these subversive and irrelevant dispensers of unbridled negativism need to go, or at least to be shaken up so thoroughly that they mend their ways. I am no great fan of Mamata Banerjee -- in fact, the very fact that the state has primarily voted against the left despite realizing that the other option embodies itself in Mamata, is probably the biggest indictment of the left. The hope, I suppose, is that Mamata, quite an expert in subversive politics herself, will show greater responsibility with greater power. Is this hope ill-founded? We shall see.

On the larger Indian front, the Congress has done very well and not without reason. Once again, I am not a big fan of the Congress party either but contrasted with the leftists and on the other hand, the right wing, the Congress is probably the least of the evils that can befall India at this time. If we don't need the left (well, this is really a non-issue, for they have never been a national player and thank the almighty for that), we need the right even less. The last thing that we need in India right now is the ruling party fomenting hate politics. The BJP's allies would really like to turn India into a theocracy, and if you think that's a good idea, well please take a look at what Pakistan in its attempt to become a theocracy has turned into. An anti-minority government would just provide an ideal opportunity for terrorist groups operating all around us to recruit disgruntled Muslim youth in their ranks in an attempt to destabilize the country.

India has voted wisely -- it has voted with its head, not its heart. Fundamentalism and negativism lead nowhere (and there are ample examples in the global context
that they don't) -- hence the right and the left are out. The center has its flaws, but at the end of the day, seems to be the best option to lead the country in the near future.

P.S: For all her failings, it does credit to Mamata that she has been such an active voice of dissent. As the saying goes, often you battle fire with fire. I was never a big fan of hers but feel obliged to concede (even grudgingly) that the woman has balls. Whether she will be able to sustain the recently gained advantage, we will monitor with considerable interest.

Along the lines of the Devil's Dictionary

Ambrose Bierce's "The Devil's Dictionary" is one of my favorites when it comes to iconoclastic humor, cynicism and razor-sharp wit. Written in the period that it was, the name itself would have been iconoclastic enough, though even today vast swathes of the American heartland probably still shudders at the name; provided of course they've heard of it, and that's not an assumption automatically made. There is something of Oscar Wilde in him, the other great iconoclast who prevailed all too briefly on the other side of the Atlantic, shaking up the pretensions of Victorian society, exposing it's sordid underbelly, and being victimized in the process; a victimization that was unfortunately helped by the man's sexual orientations being out of tune to those prescribed in holy writ! And then, of course, there's George Bernard Shaw, iconoclast-extraordinaire, dissecting icons with abandon, with the rapier of his pen -- truly an instance of the pen being mightier than the sword!! "They" would surely have taken him "to the cleaners" as the modern slang goes, had "they" been able to detect some homosexual streak, or if not, they wouldn't have been displeased had he turned out to have some "other perverse" sexual life (in their definition), but unfortunately, to their vast disappointment, the man was a celibate. This made him fundamentally difficult to wreak major havoc on. He lacked "the" Achilles' heel!!

In any case, there's a lot that one could write about this trio. That is, however, not the goal of this essay, but staying true to the name of the blog, I will tend to ramble, digress and at times pontificate. Formal writing does not always allow such flexibility, but this is my own blog -- here, I am lord and master of all I survey and my right there's none to dispute.

What I have often thought of doing is building my own version of "The Dictionary", though not quite a Devil's Dictionary, since I'd like mine to have broader scope. Qualitatively, it won't be anywhere near Ambrose's stuff -- one can merely aspire to shoot for the mark he set, in their dreams -- but if it's at least a reasonable fraction of his stuff, it ought to be worth reading. Rest assured, there's going to be a stiff dose of the diabolical in it. So, as I keep posting new essays, I'll make sure to devote some space in every essay to new words and my interpretations of those every time (or most times). A Dictionary is seldom written in a day, and of course it never terminates, unless the language dies out, so this is the best way to pursue my desire of paying my own humble homage to Ambrose's very best. By the way, those of you that are familiar with Sashi Tharoor's writings (which is more likely if you happen to be East Indian (Columbus's historical gaffe is so bloody annoying, isn't it?)), Sashi has his version of "An Indian Dictionary" that was published recently in his "The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cell Phone". I plan to make mine more generic.

But, despite having lauded iconoclasts in the beginning, must I needs
be schizophrenic now and invoke Sarasvati, the Vedic goddess of learning, music and speech; one of my treasured icons from the ancient religion of my motherland (note my non-use of the word Hindu, a debate we will engage in some other day); to bless this intellectual enterprise I am about to embark on, to bestow on me her deep wisdom, that I should make the right choices in my endeavors and have the power to discern the essential from the mundane, like her accompanying swan that, ever so efficiently, filters out the water from the milk.