Rethinking Secularism in India in the Age of Triumphant Fascism

This essay deals with the rise of the right-wing Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) to power in the 2014 National Elections, a party that is fundamentally anti-secularist and anti­democratic whose aim is to convert secular and democratic India into a Hindu Kingdom. It deals with the crisis of secularism in India and the Revolutionary Marxist response to this crisis. The methodology that it follows is the Marxist one. The leitmotiv of this paper is rather startling—Marx was not a secularist as one has hitherto imagined. It claims that a new theoretical problematic has to be sought in understanding the dilemma haunting secularism: the discourse and practice of secularism are important, and yet Marx (the exemplary humanist and revolutionary) was not a secularist as one imagines it. What we have done is a terrain shift in our study of secularism, especially on the question of the thesis of the separation of religion and the state. This essay consequently makes a distinction between ‘secularism as we know it’, or liberal secularism, and communist secularism. Besides this, the essay grounds the discourse in material social formations in India that are determined by the Asiatic mode of production and along with this mode, the caste formations that are inherent in the Indic variant of the Asiatic mode of production. By and large, the entire discourses of secularism and the rise of fascism in India determined by the ideologies of liberalism and Stalinism ignore the caste question. Thus along with the caste question, the Asiatic mode of production is also brought in, a mode of production that mainstream Marxists have almost ignored, thereby implanting Eurocentric understandings of secularism in India. We thus discover certain methodological guidelines where we develop new terms and conditions to understand an authentic ‘people’s secularism’. This essay deals with the question of secularism in India as rooted in the conflict between ‘secularism from above’ that was grafted by Jawaharlal Nehru and the upper caste elites in the freedom movement against British colonialism and ‘religious politics from above’ that formed the contours of elite politics in India since 1947. In contrast to ‘secularism from above’ (or liberal secularism) and ‘religious politics from above’, this essay argues for ‘secularism from below’, which shall serve as the revolutionary critique of Indian fascism.

The 'Young Marx' Myth in Interpretations of the Economic- Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844

Focusing on the dissemination and reception history of the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, this article will critically examine the famous controversy surrounding the relationship between Marx’s ‘early’ and ‘mature’ writings.

Thomas Piketty's Capital in the Twenty-First Century: A Critique Roundtable

The following is a round table with Yassamine Mather (YM), Hillel Ticktin (HT), Peter Kennedy (PK) and Alex Marshall (AM), which met on Saturday 6 February to discuss Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century, a substantial work on capital as it has evolved since the 18th century, using a great variety of material gathered on France, Germany, the UK and the United States. The participants are members of the editorial board of Critique. Their biographies are in the Notes on Contributors.

The Failure of Indirect Orientalism: Islamic State

In this article, it is argued that the emergence and growth of Islamic State reveals the failure of US indirect orientalist policy towards the Middle East. The effectiveness of this policy, which is based on local actors to pursue orientalist dogma by promoting a Sunni based, anti-Iranian and Israel biased vision has become questionable following changes that occurred in the post-Arab uprisings period. Within this framework, the factors driving the appearance of Islamic State are discussed and it is explored how Islamic State has affected regional dynamics and politics.

Towards a Political Economy of War in Capitalism, with reference to the First World War

This is an attempt to discuss the political economy of the causation and results of the First World War. It lays particular stress on the overall militarisation of the capitalist economy, linking it with commodity fetishism. It is integrated into the everyday life of capitalism to the point that capitalism has never been without it and probably could not survive without it. The different elements involved in the First World War are examined. The ruling class did not expect the war to last more than two months or so, and certainly did not anticipate the huge slaughter. The revolutions, bankruptcy of nations and change in the world order were entirely unexpected. The war was effectively a crime against humanity that led to the Russian Revolution overthrowing capitalism, which in its turn was defeated by Stalinism, thus allowing capitalism to continue, in its decline, for a further century and more.