Commemorating birth centenary let us resurrect visions of late Professor Randhir Singh who was an epitome of creativity as a Marxist - Part 1

By Harsh Thakor
On January 11^th we celebrated the birth centenary of the Marxist intellectual Randhir Singh who for decades served as a professor in Delhi University. He perished in January; 2016. Few academics were as scholastic, imaginative or dialectical as Randhir Singh who cut the tumours of capitalist ideology at the very root.

 

He was not a Maoist or Stalinist but upheld the positive role of USSR and China and with utmost consistency exposed the autocratic nature of the Indian parliamentary democracy, the fatal consequences of globalisation from 1991  and the germinating of Hindutva Neo-fascism. Randhir Singh never blindly accepted the analysis of Marxist Leninist groups on what caused the demise of Socialism nor those who reduced Marxism  to mere armed struggle. Randhir Singh even respected the view of integrating caste question with class Struggle.

 

He firmly stood by the genuine democratic movements of the day, of any strata of society. The professor was living example of what someone could do to contribute within the boundaries of an oppressive social order. We must uphold Randhir Singh's contribution in moulding youth towards Marxist ideology in the 1970's at a height few teachers did when revisionism was flourishing. He displayed mastery in explaining the dynamics of a capitalistic society and inspire cadre to join ranks of the progressive movement. Most lucidly he summarised the crisis and degeneration of capitalist societies. Few teachers as intensively fostered spirit of questioning in students or the Marxist method of analysis, in contrast to indoctrination. Randhir Singh sowed the breeding ground for many a revolutionary activist.

 

No Indian Marxist intellectual was held in such esteem as Randhir Singh by the Monthly Review. In Turn Randhir Singh rated the ‘Monthly Review’ as the finest Socialist journal in the world. I recommend readers to read tributes by Chaman Lal,Gilbert Sebastian 'Mainstream Weekly', Pritam Singh in 'The Wire' and by his student Sandeep Bhushan in the Caravan, which do ample justice to him.

 

I recommend any democratic cadre to study the writings of Professor Randhir Singh, who taught us the importance of studying all the bourgeois philosophers be it Plato, Thoreau or Voltaire and be a very good student of history. He delved into political thought of Machiavelli and Hobbes as he did to Marx. If he prescribed the work of New Left philosopher Lucio Colletti as a means to understand Rousseau, he would also recommended liberal thinkers such as Ernst Cassirer and Leo Strauss to help students understand theorists such as Machiavelli and Hobbes. His best essays are 'Future of Socialism", 'A Note on the Current Political Situation: Some issues and a Conclusion ", and on 'Nepal', published in 'Monthly Review. ‘They make readers question the orthodox views of Stalinist or Maoist groups.

 

His magnum opus Crisis of Socialism: Notes in Defence of a Commitment was published a decade ago, which was released by another notable Marxist thinker, Aijaz Ahmad, in Delhi. Since then, he published a few more collections — Indian Politics Today: An Argument for Socialism-Oriented Path of Development (2009, Indian Communist Revolutionary T Nagi Reddy memorial lecture in book form) and a collection of his early essays, On Nationalism and Communalism in India (2010).

 

Perhaps it was a misfortune that Randhir Singh could not comprehensively trace or address the root cause of the setback to Socialist societies or write a critique on Maoism, or the phenomena of splits or deviations within the Indian Communist Movement. Still few intellectuals in the world still displayed faith in Marxism with such degree of conviction as Randhir Singh. Where Randhir Singh was arguably flawed was his inability to trace The pro-Brahamanical stands of Gandhi like the promoting of Varnas. In the view of Vijay Singh Randhir Singh's enrolment as a member of the Communist Party of India and later C.P.I.(M) prevented him from grasping Kruschevian revisionism. We could also term him flawed in not demarcating completely from Trotskyism or classifying India as capitalist instead of semi-feudal.

 

 

Life Summary(by Chaman Lal)

 

Born on January 9, 1922, in Moga district of Punjab, Singh's father was an idealist and doctor (civil surgeon) by profession

Singh was a good student and qualified for a medical degree, but opted for arts (something that his teachers thought he was best-suited for). He proved his teachers right and topped masters in Political Science from Panjab University Lahore even though he was more involved in political activism during that time and had to spend a year in Lahore jail.

There he would often spend time with his hero Bhagat Singh’s comrades like Kishori Lal in the "terrorist ward", where Bhagat Singh was incarcerated earlier.

Singh became a full-time activist of the Communist Party of India in 1939 at the age of 17 years, first as an activist of All India Students Federation (AISF), of which Satya Pal Dang was leader at that time.

He remained underground as well, reaching out to peasants in rural area and was a part of editorial staff of party journal in Punjabi. Singh also translated the Communist Manifesto and some other works of Karl Marx in Punjabi in those days.

He was 25 at the time of partition and after moving to Delhi, he started teaching at the Camp College, which was set up for refugees from Pakistan.

His first-class-first master’s degree in political science came handy during this time and he got a lecturer's job in Delhi College, where he had the company of colleagues and friends such as progressive Hindi author Bhisham Sahni and historian Bipan Chandra.

Along with Bipan Chandra, he would distribute copies of Enquiry in those days, besides other Leftist journals. He continued to be a part of the CPI, but was critical of its "revisionist" policies.

With the split of the party in 1964, he went along with CPI (Marxist) for a few years. This was the period, he was viciously attacked by the "official" communists. He was removed from the editorship of CPI’s theoretical Punjabi journal Sada Jug (Our Age) charged with "individualism and intellectual arrogance", as he had refused to publish BT Randive’s criticism of Mao Tse Tung.

During those days of crisis, teaching was both a relief and pleasure for Singh.

After spending nearly two decades in Delhi College and a brief stint in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), he was finally invited by the Delhi University as a professor in the political science department in 1972, from where he retired in 1987.

In between, his PhD thesis was rejected, he published only one book in 1967 — Reason, Revolution and Political Theory: Notes on Oakeshott's Rationalism in Politics. But it was this one book that earned him laurels as a political theorist. His other publications came much later in life, mostly after retirement.

Contribution of Randhir Singh as a Teacher

Randhir Singh in his day played an important role in organising the Delhi  teachers Union.

 

Quoting Chaman Lal"Even though he did not write or publish much, Singh earned much respect as a teacher. In fact, his teaching techniques became legendary. As the classroom used to be mostly packed, some students would stand outside and listen to his lecture. Interestingly, he was advised many times not to teach "subversion". He was even stopped from "touching upon" Marx and instead given Plato to teach. But Singh would still end up imparting lessons on Marx, of course through Plato.
Singh had termed his teaching as "Robin Hooding". Despite facing harassment and humiliation from organised groups, his "Robin Hooding" went on very well, though he was conscious of the fact that this was "within the system" and even lent legitimacy to the system. While many get "co-opted" in the system by such liberalism, Singh remained different and did not confine himself to teaching alone."

To be continued=>