Capitalist narrative of religion, market, flag waving nationalism: Options before Left

By Bhabani Shankar Nayak*
Flag waving nationalism is growing across the globe along with reactionary market fundamentalism which collaborates with religious politics to access state power. Flag waving nationalism is not a nation building exercise. It neither provokes patriotism nor help to build unity among people.
It is a sign of deep anxiety created by capitalism. It is also a response to capitalist crisis. The flag waving nationalism helps in hiding the failures of capitalism and increase the life span and legitimacy of crumbling Westphalian nation state as the organising unit of global capitalism.
Flag waving nationalism helps the governments to hide its failures by reinventing themselves as protectors of people. It is a hiding ground and subtle way of asserting the falling legitimacy of populist politicians to convince people about their invincibility. Flag waving nationalisms are becoming official ideologies of the governments around the world.
The political capitals of the nation states are the financial capitals of capitalist system. The reactionary religious politics upholds the interests of the capitalism and its institutional and cultural process of the market.
Religion is neither personal nor social. It is a product of ruling classes and used by the ruling classes to domesticate the masses. It is a tool of mass subordination. The religious reactionary political, social and cultural forces use religion to uphold the ruling class ideology of governance.
The religious praxis is an escape route under capitalism. It institutionalises spiritualism and domesticates human emotion that is compliant and subservient to the established structures and superstructures of power, represented by the states and governments.
Religions help for the growth of sectarianism in the society which destroys the idea of share and care. The collective social spirit and solidarity is replaced by puritan religious practices of individuals in search of happiness in a market society based on price tags.
Market is a product of society. It is a combination of social processes and social institutions. It brings producers and consumers together to satisfy their everyday needs and desires. However, capitalism has destroyed the social and collective character of market and replaced it with market individualism, where actions are determined by the idea of utility, pleasure and satisfaction. This is the only way market can make profit and establish a society based on consumerism that commodifies social relations, human beings and nature.
The culture of consumerism destroys cultures of diverse consumption habits of people. In the process, it destroys local production, local business and local consumption to spread global market forces. Market fundamentalism helps large corporations to consolidate their global presence.
In this way, the troika of flag waving nationalists, religious and market forces are helping capitalist systems but damaging social cohesion by spreading alienation, anxiety and fear. These troika help each other to establish their hegemony over people and planet. Fighting these troika is central to the revival of the Left politics.

Considering the capitalist crisis and everyday realities, most people across the globe are looking for alternatives to improve their everyday lives

The success of the struggle depends on reframing the Left narratives by engaging with people and outlining the relevance or irrelevance of these three concepts in the everyday lives of people. It is time for the Left politics to reframe its narratives and reclaim the lost glories of democratic and pluriversal internationalism, scientific secularism and social foundations of a market that is free and fair in real sense. It is time to replace religion with science and nation states with cooperative communities to establish collective control over markets and ensure social ownership over resources.
The cultural relativism and its ruinous political path had led the Left forces to conceptualise national socialism, state command market economy and government led secularism, where capitalism and all its ideological tenets survived and managed to kill the democratic, socialist and secular practices across the globe.
National socialism is a myth. State command market economy has helped to develop market fundamentalism. The cultural relativism and its essentialist arguments of exceptionalism have helped the religious reactionary forces to capture state power. It is within this context, the Left forces need to reframe their narratives on nationalism, religion and market. These three things are weapons of ruling and non-ruling elites today.
Considering the capitalist crisis and everyday realities, most people across the globe are looking for alternatives to improve their everyday lives and advance conditions of their families. There is a greater realisation that capitalism is not an alternative. It can never offer peace and prosperity. Human emancipation is an anathema to capitalism.
Therefore, the struggle for human emancipation from all forms of bondages and survival of the planet and peace depends on Left’s ability to reframe the narratives for a mass struggle to establish international socialism and global citizenship rights based on solidarity of entire human race.
There is no time for pessimism. It is not the time for ideological bargain. It is time for a worldwide struggle for peace and prosperity for a sustainable world for all. It is possible and inevitable for the survival of people and planet.
---
*University of Glasgow, UK

Comments

'Halt Covid-19 vaccination drive': Indian doctors join campaign across 36 nations

By Rosamma Thomas* A group of Spanish doctors first got together to call for a halt to the Covid-19 vaccinations, and doctors from other countries too later joined them – there are now over 12,000 doctors from India, Portugal, Canada, Hungary, South Africa, Israel and a host of other nations who have issued a call to halt vaccinations. On September 10, a group of Indian doctors came together to address the press over a webinar to explain why they thought the vaccination drive should end forthwith. Dr Amitav Banerjee, who after a career as an epidemiologist in the Indian Army now teaches at a private medical college in Pune, said there was no longer a medical emergency. Children are at low risk of infection, and there is good reason to halt vaccination and conduct proper research, given the high number of adverse events. There is a sudden and poorly explained spike in the number of young and healthy people dying. While it may be impossible to attribute deaths entirely to the vaccinatio

Did Mother Teresa trivialise poverty? 'You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you'

By Harsh Thakor* The world commemorated the 25th death anniversary of Mother Teresa on September 5. Whatever her flaws, she rendered service to humanity in regions almost untranscended, resembling the relentless spirit of the waves of an ocean. Irrespective of community or religion, she offered her service. Even those not drawn by sainthood revere the role of Mother Teresa. For 68 years, she had worked selflessly and tirelessly in India and elsewhere in the world, taught the destitute, healed the sick, fed and clothed the poor, cared for abandoned children, housed lepers and those afflicted with HIV/AIDS and offered dignity in death to desolate persons abandoned by family and society. Mother Teresa was born in Skopje in 1910 to an Albanian family as Anjezë Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. She became wedded to religious vows at an early age and moved to India to join the missionary work of the Catholic Church. Heartshaken by the misery faced by the Indian masses, in 1950 she set up her own

Tracing roots of Hindutva Zionism: cannon fodder for 'warped' nationalist pretensions

By Shamsul Islam* Those who believe in a world free of hegemonic ethno-nationalism, racism, religious bigotry and hatred have rightly taken note of Zionism and its ally Christian Zionism, major perpetrators of ethnic cleansing of ‘Others’. However, the civilized world with its core belief in multi-culturalism and peaceful co-existence is oblivious to a no less dangerous threat to the present human civilization: the Hindutva Zionism. As the term reads it is part of the Hindutva world-view which stands for an exclusive Hindu India minus Muslims and Christians. The other religions like Sikhism, Buddhism, and Jainism will have no independent status but treated as part of Hinduism. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS; National Volunteer Organization) is the most prominent flag-bearer of the Hindutva politics whose cadres presently rule India, the largest democracy in the world. RSS was founded by Keshav Baliram Hedgewar (1889-1940) in 1925 who was disillusioned with the Indian freedom st

Regional parties, anti-Congress progressives, civil society groups 'joining' Bharat Jodo

By Harshavardhan Purandare, Sandeep Pandey* The Congress party declared Bharat Chhodo (Quit India) movement against the British regime in 1942. The Congress party has now launched a movement Bharat Jodo (Connecting and Uniting India) against the Modi regime in 2022. Indian people have had a journey of 80 years since Mahatma Gandhi gave that Quit India call to the British and we have to agree that we stand most divided in our modern history when Rahul Gandhi is giving this Bharat Jodo call to the nation. And back then, Congress was a thriving idealistic political movement against the British rulers and now it is an ever weakening political organization electorally defeated several times. However, it is India at stake, not just the Congress party. That is why so many regional political parties, civil society organizations, traditional anti-Congress progressive forces like socialists and communists, intellectuals and civil servants have declared their support and are proactively partici

Shocking? No Covid vaccine trials conducted on pregnant, lactating women: RTI reply

By Rosamma Thomas* A Right to Information applicant who sought details of safety trials conducted in India on pregnant and lactating women for three Covid vaccines in use in India – Covishield, Covaxin and ZyCov-D -- was shocked to learn from the Central Drugs Standard Control Organization (CDSCO) that Serum Institute, manufacturer of Covishield, and Cadila Healthcare, manufacturer of the ZyCov-D vaccine, had not sought permission for such trials. Bharat Biotech, manufacturer of Covaxin, had sought permission for trial on pregnant women and later withdrawn its application. This response , provided after the applicant was initially unsatisfied with the response and went in appeal, is from the joint drugs controller, CDSCO. It was dated September 13, 2022. One researcher closely following the vaccine rollout, however, is of the opinion that the lack of a trial on pregnant and lactating women is a blessing; potential trial participants and their unborn babies thus escaped harm. Aruna Ro

Grave error? Scholar blames ex-Gujarat babu for anti-Christian riots 'citing fake report'

By Rajiv Shah A few days back, I received a message from one of the finest former Gujarat government bureaucrats, PG Ramrakhiani, a 1964 batch IAS official, who retired in November 2000. I would often interact with him in 1997-99, even later, after I was sent to Gandhinagar as a Times of India man to cover Sachivalaya. Those were turbulent times. Shankarsinh Vaghela was the Gujarat chief minister, under attack from two sides – from the BJP, which he had left to form a separate breakaway party, Rashtriya Janata Party (RJP), one one hand, and the Congress, which was supporting him from outside, on the other. Ramrakhiani, in his message, referred to the book authored by Ghanshyam Shah and Jan Breman, both top-notch scholars who have known Gujarat in and out. Called “Gujarat, Cradle and Harbinger of Identity Politics: India’s Injurious Frame of Communalism”, I reviewed the book in January 2022. It claims that Muslims in Gujarat have been turned into “new untouchables”, thanks to the Hin

Excess to cheetah in Kuno to increase 'woes' of local people, 'disturb' wildlife balance

Bharat Dogra* The release of eight cheetahs into the Kuno National Park ( Madhya Pradesh) by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 17, although accompanied by a media blitz, has raised several questions. The animals were flown from Namibia to Gwalior and from there they were taken to the release site in a helicopter. Official sources have stated that this is the first time a large carnivorous species has been moved across continents for establishing a new population. This first release will be followed by others under this project. However, precisely for this reason, it is important to be cautious because if such translocations have been generally avoided in the past, there may have been reasons for this and at the same time we do not have much learning experiences from the past. The Cheetah became extinct in India in 1952, although this very fast moving animal is still remembered in the folklore of many areas. Hence the first impulse is to say that trying to introduce and revive

Introducing non-native cheetahs is 'not equivalent' to restoring pride in the nation

By Bappaditya Mukhopadhyay* The Cheetahs from the African continent has finally been introduced to India by the Indian Prime Minister on his 72nd birthday. The process had started with the previous Government in 2009. However, the Supreme Court clearance was pending owing to the objection by the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) plea to reintroduce cheetahs. Finally the clearance was obtained in January 2020 and thereafter Kuno National Park (KNP) was chosen for the reintroduction of first set of Southeast African Cheetahs. In the near future, depending upon the success story of the current reintroduction, more cheetahs from South Africa may also be introduced. This exercise has generated a lot of interest among various stakeholders with opinions on both sides galore. It is important to pose some questions that surround the whole exercise. Let us evaluate some of these arguments. The first set of arguments are quite detached from the issues of conservation as they most

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

'Military diplomacy': US praises Bangladesh Army for leadership role in UN operations

By Kamal Uddin Mazumder* As the Indo-Pacific region represents the world’s economic and strategic center of gravity, the Indian Ocean today is becoming the centerpiece of all geo-strategic play. Cooperation in the region is crucial to implementing the international community’s global agenda, including achieving the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals. Major powers like the US have enhanced and deepened their strategic engagement and leadership roles with countries in the region. The Indo-Pacific Army Management Seminar, or IPAMS, is a U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC) initiated conference that is aimed at facilitating and enhancing interactions among the armies of the Indo-Pacific region. This year's 46th Indo-Pacific Armies Management Seminar (IPAMS)-2022, co-hosted by the Bangladesh Army and US Army Pacific (USARPAC), concluded in Dhaka. The objective of IPAMS is to promote peace and stability in the region through mutual understanding, dialogue, and friendship. It is the largest confer

Counterview

Search This Blog