File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/97-02-17.213, message 9


Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 23:03:13 +0100
From: Hinrich Kuhls <kls-AT-unidui.uni-duisburg.de>
Subject: M-I: Re: Meera Nanda replies to Marxism-International


I wonder whether Hugh Rodwell  - having made his declaration of principle -
has any argument to add to the real issues which are at stake in this
thread, for instance to the class analysis of India, to the different
social and political situation in the major states of the Indian
federation, or perhaps to the educational system(s), or even to the
different currents of the Indian Left.

Why not lower your sight, and let us share in your concrete knowledge of
the social and political setting of the Indian subcontinent? Just
expressing basic convictions kills every discussion, doesn't it?  What has
Meera done to deserve this?  Why don't you pick up her suggestion to post
one of her papers on the net?

I prefer to first read the facts and the arguments before forming an
opinion. Rodwell only pronounces judgments in an old-fashioned style of
fundamentalism. A person who negates that there are lots of "unanswered
questions" is just an ignoramus.

Knowing hardly anything on India I would gratefully appreciate further
contributions to the problems raised by Meera Nanda's reply to this list.

Hinrich Kuhls

At 11:04 14.02.97 +0100, Hugh Rodwell wrote:

>So by not making the leadership of the working class the pivot of enquiry,
>Meera and many others end up contorted into one big question mark --
>however, incisive, intelligent and lucid their presentation of the symptoms
>of the crisis they are trying to get to grips with.
>
>The very first words of the Transitional Programme (perhaps the most
>important programmatic document for which Trotsky bore major
>responsibility) put this basic requirement for understanding current
>problems in the real world just about as clearly as anyone could wish:
>
>        The world political situation as a whole is chiefly characterized by
>        a historical crisis of the leadership of the proletariat.
>
>Anyone who ignores this perspective on the problems and crises people
>everywhere are grappling with today, ends up either in utopianism
>(nostalgia for the good old days, etc) or hopelessness and a mess of
>scepticism and unanswered questions. Or the equally hopeless cop-out of
>particularism pretending to focus on a single question and refusing to see
>the question concerned in its general social and political setting.



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