Comments on: Karl Marx Again

By: Vivek Patwardhan

Vivek Patwardhan — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 12:59:26 +0000

Shweta Bandri writes:

Wonderful piece… Marx is becoming increasingly relevant in today’s day and world…much to the chagrin of the ‘haves’.
As you rightly pointed out that an absence of Marx’s reference in our academic syllabus has actually turned him into a figure who is more feared than revered.
I genuinely believe that we do not have a sense of history and hence we end up not learning anything from it. Therefore we keep committing the same blunders all over again.
We are moving into an age where only the Right triumphs and the rest are ‘left’ to fend for themselves. We have made every possible amendment in the lawbook that will never allow Marx’s dream of ‘Workers of the world to unite’ to turn into reality.The cotractualization and casualization of labour in every sphere of the industry has made matters worse.
The ‘opium of the masses’ is being sold legally and doping would no longer be a punishable offence. A country riding high on such dope would eventually give way to what Germany under Hitler propagated -Lebensraum.
I am just hoping my fears are unfounded and we continue to live in a more tolerant country where our democratic ethos remains unscathed.

By: Vivek Patwardhan

Vivek Patwardhan — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 11:59:50 +0000

In reply to Abhay Damle. Thanks Abhay for considering me to be competent to do it..., some challenges are best not taken! :D

By: Abhay Damle

Abhay Damle — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 11:32:34 +0000

Real good writing.
This is flowing commentary.

Sir, why not more about Das Kapital ?

By: Vivek Patwardhan

Vivek Patwardhan — Wed, 18 Sep 2019 05:43:49 +0000

Dr Zahid Gangjee comments:

Ideologies are relevant for the time and I – like you – believe that socialism IS being appreciated for it real truth all over the world. The irony is it is still unfashionable here.

By: N Muralidharan

N Muralidharan — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 15:04:44 +0000

Dear VSP, You have this uncanny knack of connecting the dots. A visit to Karl’s memorial and the thoughts and views cone flowing to you. To someone like me who has had little experience in labour issues your notes have been an eye opener. Thanks

By: G v joshi

G v joshi — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 11:59:10 +0000

Pleasure to read your experiences about Karl Marx philosophy in those days. Our Govt chose socialist pattern of society which was supposed to be middle path having best of both capitalism and communism. While it may not have achieved the desired objectives, it is best suited for large country like ours. Thanks for sharing thought provoking blog as usual. Regards

By: Saptarshi Das

Saptarshi Das — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 10:30:53 +0000

“Many people hold adverse view about Karl Marx without study… ” is actually the main stay in Marx or any unpopular (or popular) argument revolving around communism. And then they masquerade as neo-liberal subject matter experts as well, even that is more ‘judging the book by its covers’ sorts 🙂

Communist leaders are difficult in the whole ER/IR context since they somehow never have opened up to those neo-liberal options. Should they have or not, would be a whole new debate but one can’t fault them for being deep technical masters of their domain. Its like faulting Nadal for being the clay master.

Now whether a clay master has worth in today’s jet age is again a different debate.

Was an absolute pleasant read Sir… Sometime one needs to read a piece to just understand a paradigm in greater detail and not look for quick answers or solutions. As you many years back had said, there are no right answers but just the right questions 🙂

By: Marrcel R Parker

Marrcel R Parker — Tue, 17 Sep 2019 10:09:17 +0000

THANK YOU vIVEK-Always a pleasure to read of your thoughts and views and of course Karl Marx who we thought fashionable at a certain age and then realised what it really meant!