Indian Marxists on Colonialism

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This module seeks to analyse Indian Marxists
•In this Module We will look into Aims
response to the conventional Marxist perspective • NA
and Learning Outcomes on the necessity of colonialism
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It was a new approach in Indian historiography
INDIAN MARXIST, or historical writing in India on colonialism and • NA
nationalism. It is good to note from the onset
HISTOGRAPHIC that when one talks about Indian Marxist, it
does mean that all writers were Marxists; but
BACKGROUND that, they more or less adopted materialistic
interpretation as a method of understanding
and tool of analysis in the historical
phenomena. Their interpretation derived from
historical philosophy of Karl Marx, the
dialectical materialism. The essence of this
new approach lies in the study of relationship
between social and economic organization and
its effects on historical events. Instead of
political history they gave more emphasis on
the history of common people and the history
of history less people.
From a preliminary perspective, Marxist
historiography on modern India was
inaugurated by one of the founders of
Marxism in India M.N.Roy with his work ‘India
In Transition’ published in1922. It was followed
by India Today of R.Palme Dutt in 1940 and
‘The Social Background of Indian Nationalism’
of A.R.Desai in 1959. All the three were
classical Marxists and treated Indian national
movement as the representation of particular
stage in the development of mode of
production. India today was considered as an
authoritative Marxist work for a long time. It
became an important school of historiography
in India. Dutt and Desai studied the negative
and positive roles of Gandhi in the national
movement They highlighted the positive as, he
made the national movement at mass
movement by awakening the backward masses
with national consciousness.
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DESPOTISM narration
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Another view that Marx established about India
was that of despotism. He extracted the views of
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Robert Patton and Richard Jones, who had earlier
posited a thesis that because of the non-
existence of a landed aristocracy as a political
counter-weight, the sovereign's power is
absolutely unrestricted. According to Patton, the
immense extension of the country, as far back as
history can reach, perpetual sovereignties have
existed with undiminished power and splendor,
without the occurrence of any degree whatever
of limitation, alteration, or restraint. Nowhere
would one find any allusions by Karl Marx as to
the factual abuse of political power by state
officials he, with Jones and others, considered
that ownership belonged to the state and that,
by implication no privileged landed proprietors
existed as contenders to political power in pre-
colonial India. The result of all this was despotism
he says. He goes ahead to assert that in the pre-
colonial Indian social formation, despotism and
propertylessness seem legally to exist
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Historians have established that, Britain was
BRITISH CONQUEST OF INDIA AND THE DAWN
able to subjugate and colonize India by about
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OF COLONIALISM • . At this stage, India was fully
the middle of the 18th century. Britain,
however, had trading contacts with India for a compensated for the growing export of its
commodities even though the
long period before that, though her trade with
compensation may have come relatively
India increased rapidly during the first half of cheap to Britain. Thus, even though till
the 18th century. According to Aditya the middle of the 18th century India’s
Mukherjee, the trade during the first half of contact with Britain had not yet acquired
18th century consisted primarily (about three- colonial characteristics nevertheless India
fourths) of imports of textiles and silk from fitted neatly into the structure of global
India, which was the largest grower of raw domination by Europe that had
cotton and the largest producer and exporter commenced a few centuries ago,
of cotton textiles in the world till the end of beginning with the cheap mining of gold
and silver in the Americas and extending
the 18th century. He goes ahead to say that
to the slave trade from Africa to the spice
While Indian textiles were much in demand in trade in east Asia. From about the middle
earlier centuries in European markets, as well of the 18th century, with the victory in
as, to exchange for spices from east Asia, one the battle of Plassey in 1757, once Britain
major impetus for the spurt in demand for began to seize and subjugate India
Indian textiles was the facilitation of the
golden age of the Atlantic slave trade.
Indian textiles constituted the single largest
item with which the slaves were paid for,
accounting for about 27% of all goods shipped
from England to Africa during the 18th
century. Since Britain had nothing to sell to
India which she needed therefore the imports
from India were financed by export of treasure
or bullion
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According to Palme Dutt, British colonial
THE INDIAN PROBLEM
On the second note Dutt says there was a
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administration gradually and steps destroyed
Hindustan. In the earlier period the initial
steps of destruction were accomplished first
by the East India Company’s colossal direct
plunder. He buttresses that the whole
course of the 18th century the treasures
transported from India to England were
gained much less by the comparatively
insignificant commerce, but by the direct
exploitation of that country and by the
colossal fortunes extorted and transmitted
to England.
neglect of irrigation and public works, which
had been maintained under previous
Governments. In the third perspective Palme
Dutt posits that Briatian introduced the
English landed system, private property in
land, with sale and alienation, and the whole
English Criminal Code; and, fourth, there was
a direct prohibition of import heavy custom
duties imposed on imports. In the light of
the East Indian Company, Palme enunciates
that, the East India Company was not
concerned to find outlets for British goods. It
sought to secure a monopoly of the trade in
foreign goods imported into England and
Europe from the East. The English
manufacturing interests fought against the
monopoly, and secured the exclusion from
England of Indian manufactures while rival
British trading interests agitated for the
abolition of the Company’s monopoly of the
Indian trade.
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• OUTCOME OF BRITISH COLONIAL RULE
• According to Palme, when Karl Marx spoke
of British rule causing a social revolution in
India, and described England as ‘the
unconscious tool of history in bringing about
that revolution,’ he had in mind, as his
explanation made clear, a twofold process.
The dual process is destructive and
generative at the same time. From the
destructive point of view, Palme deducing
from the views of Karl Marx talks about the
old social order and from the point of view
of regeneration Palme talks of the laying by
the British in India material basis and
foundation for a new social order.
• The destruction of the old hand industry is
still reflected in the continuing diminution of
the total number of industrial workers, since
that diminution is not yet balanced by the
slow advance of modern industry.
According to Aditya Mukherjee (2010), Karl
Marx saw in the very process of destruction
by colonialism of the pre-colonial Indian
society, the regenerative role of colonialism,
as it opened up the possibility of growth of
capitalism and industrialization in the
colony. The hope was that colonialism
would lead to the mirror image of capitalism
being produced in the colony and in that
sense would play a historically progressive
role.