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Book Review
MALAYALAM
Clearing ideological confusion
B.R.P.BHASKAR
EMSINTE SAMPOORNA KRITIKAL — Volumes 49 and 50: T. Sivadasa Menon — Editor; Chintha Publishers, Thiruvananthapuram. Rs. 150 each.
THE VOLUMES under review present thematically E. M. S. Namboodiripad’s answers to questions posed by readers of Chintha, theoretical journal of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), over a quarter century. He had used the question-and-answer column to provide ideological clarity to party members.
Volume 49 deals exclusively with questions relating to Kerala politics. It was a period of shifting alliances during which the CPI (M) joined hands at various times with parties such as A. K. Antony’s Congress, K. M. Mani’s Kerala Congress and the All-India Muslim League, and cooperated with Jayaprakash Narayan’s movement in which the Sangh Parivar was active. Justifying alliances with disparate elements, Namboodiripad said the CPI (M) realistically assessed differences in other parties and made use of them to advance the revolutionary movement under working class leadership. Writing shortly before the Emergency, he pointed out that the JP movement had raised issues like civil rights and, free and fair elections, and the CPI (M)’s cooperation with it was limited to such issues.
Volume 50 is devoted to questions and answers on Communist unity, an issue that party members raised frequently. In the 1970s, when the CPI was in alliance with the Congress in the State, Namboodiripad repeatedly accused it of acting against the interests of the working class. After the CPI joined the CPI (M)-led front, party members often brought up the question of reunification of the two parties. While acknowledging that differences between the two parties on contemporary issues had narrowed since they started working together, he ruled out merger, saying “in the absence of complete ideological unity, two independent parties cannot become one.”
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