ATTACK OF FUNDAMENTALIST FORCES ON RATIONALIST INTELLECTUALS
The murder of Kannad scholar and academic M.M. Kalburgi by the Hindu rightist forces on 30th August is the latest addition in the list of murders of rationalist intellectuals by the rabid Hindu fundamentalist forces. He is the third intellectual who has been murdered by the Hindu fundamentalist forces after Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare of Maharashtra. Narendra Dabholkar was an anti-superstition crusader and due to his relentless pressure the Maharashtra Government had been forced to enact an anti-superstition act. Due to his work against superstition he was under constant threat from the Hindu fundamentalist organizations like Sanatan Sanstha and ultimately murdered in August, 2013. Govind Pansare earned the ire of the Hindu fundamentalist forces especially for his work on Shivaji where he laid bare the falsity of depiction of Shivaji as an icon of Hindu fundamentalism. The list probably will not end here. Newspaper reports tell us that following the death of MM Kalburgi, another academician - KS Bhagwan - has received a death threat and a journalist, Nikhil Wagle, is being targeted by Sanatan Sanstha.
It is not that only a few rationalist persons have been murdered. The Hindu fundamentalist organizations have unleashed a series of attack on anyone who questions obscurantist, superstitious, casteist, unscientific Hindu religious practices and beliefs. A publishing house, Penguin India succumbed to the pressure of the Hindu fundamentalist groups and recalled a book of American author Wendy Doniger which questioned some Hindu religious practices. A Tamil writer, Perumal Murugan, had been attacked by the Hindu caste-based organizations for his novel, ?One Part Woman?. He also surrendered to the Hindu outfits and wrote his own obituary as a writer. There has been also an incident where a Tamil news channel Puthiya Thalaimurai was forced to cancel the telecast of a programme under the threat of Hindutva outfits. The programme was a debate on the question whether the practice of wearing mangalsutra was still relevant in now. Borrowing from Marx, we can say that the religious fundamentalists are not opposing these rationalists with the weapon of criticism, but they are criticizing rationalists with weapons. The list of such attacks is long and getting longer almost every day.
Though the attack in India has been launched mainly by the Hindu fundamentalist organizations, such organisations of other religions also are working on similar lines. Sanal Edamuruku, an atheist from Kerala, is fighting for a long time against superstition, mystics and godmen. In March 2012, he investigated a report that a crucifix at Our Lady of Velankanni church in Mumbai was dripping water from the feet. His research indicated that the dripping was caused by capillary action from a clogged drain. But, the church initiated blasphemy charges against him and told him that the charges may be withdrawn if he apologizes. Sanal later decided not to return from a trip to Europe to avoid any possibility of imprisonment or physical attack by the fundamentalist forces. We have also seen a number of fatwas from Muslim clerics, whenever somebody has raised voice against obscurantist religious practices of Islam.
In fact the role of Islamic fundamentalist forces reveals itself in sharp relief in our neighbouring country Bangladesh. In recent times, four atheist bloggers, namely, Avijit Ray, Washiqur Rahman Babu, Ananta Bijay Das and Nilay Chatterjee have been murdered by the Islamic fundamentalist forces. These bloggers, being atheist, not only attacked the obscurantist ideas of Islam, they attacked religion in general. They preached scientific, progressive values against the superstitious beliefs of religion. However, Islamic fundamentalist forces of Bangladesh are angry with these bloggers due to another reason, which is essentially political in nature. These fundamentalist forces were against the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan and had committed innumerable crimes against the people of Bangladesh during the liberation war of Bangladesh in 1971. Due to the relentless pressure of these bloggers, the government had been forced to institute a war tribunal to punish these criminals and already some war criminals had been awarded death sentence and some has been already hanged. The fundamentalist forces consider these bloggers as mainly responsible for this movement and this is one of the reasons of their attack on these atheist bloggers.
It goes without saying that the proletariat should stand against these attacks of the fundamentalist forces on the rationalist, atheist intellectuals who have launched a relentless struggle against the superstitious, blind beliefs, and also unscientific thoughts which are being propagated by all religions. We may not always agree with the way in which these intellectuals have launched their attacks with criticisms, but we cannot but appreciate their relentless fight against the religious fundamentalism. These religious beliefs, superstitions are also influencing the workers and other toiling people. The fundamentalist forces of every religion try to keep the people engrossed in superstitious, unscientific, obscurantist ideas which work against democracy and also against class struggle that advances towards socialism. They divide people along religious communal lines which disturb class unity and class struggle. So, the proletariat should consider this growth of fundamentalism as a grave danger to the struggle for democracy and also struggle for socialism, which can only emancipate the working class and toiling people from exploitation. In fact, these fundamentalist forces are enemies of democracy and progress as a whole.
However, we should remember that the real strength of fundamentalist forces is their influence over the people, especially poor, exploited, toiling people. Religion is the fantastic reflection in the minds of the people of those external forces, social or natural, which control their daily life. As long as these forces continue to dominate society, people cannot be freed from the influence of religion, as it is nothing but the reflection of these forces in the minds of the people. Only when there is such a society which is able to bring these forces under its control and domination by taking into possession all the means of production, it will free itself and its members from the influence of religion completely. However, the influence of religion and also of religious fundamentalism is greater in pre-capitalist societies because in these societies domination of forces of nature is much greater. So, the influence of these forces of fundamentalism becomes weaker more the society modernizes and removes pre-capitalist production relations and also the institutions, values, customs, traditions etc built upon those relations. So, the fight against fundamentalism must be seen in connection with this struggle for democracy and socialism. Because, democratic transformation of society and ultimately, socialist transformation of society, will pave the way for total eradication of all types of religious fundamentalisms. With the advent of such society, the working class and toiling people will come out from the grip of the fundamentalist forces and will sound the death knell of these forces with the development of class struggle. Because, only the class struggle can teach the workers that they cannot win their struggle for socialism without fighting the forces of fundamentalism.
However, we should also note that this growth of religious fundamentalism could not have been possible without the overt and covert support from the imperialist forces and the ruling classes of different countries. In this era of imperialism, in this period of decay, of moribund capitalism, the bourgeoisie have lost all their progressive characters, and generally colluded with the religious fundamentalist and other reactionary forces to retain their influence over the mass of people, to divide the people along religious and communal lines, so that they can rule and exploit people uninterruptedly. In this period of defeat of international proletarian movement, the imperialists and the ruling classes are using these reactionary forces at will and helping the growth of these forces. So, the fight against the forces of fundamentalism is not only an ideological fight, but it is essentially a part of the political fight against the ruling classes.
While the communists should oppose the attack of the fundamentalist forces on these rationalist intellectuals and support their struggle against religious fundamentalism, (may be in some cases against religion in general), they should not merge themselves with these rationalist intellectuals regarding the fight against fundamentalist forces. In spite of all their courage and tenacity, the fight of these rationalists remain weak because they do not see the struggle against fundamentalist forces as part and parcel of class struggle for socialism and for that reason cannot bring the masses of people in their fight against fundamentalist forces. The fight against fundamentalism can gather strength only by integrating with the struggle of toiling masses for democracy and also for socialism. Only the working class can develop this struggle by uniting with masses of toiling people. This fundamental truth cannot become false just because the working class is not capable of building up this struggle at this moment due to its disarrayed and disorganized condition. The working class struggle will definitely be reawakened and uniting with the toiling people the working class will develop the real fight against fundamentalist forces. All communists should work towards that goal relentlessly.
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