‘Marxism and Islam in Bangladeshi Left Politics: A Conversation’ was organized and sponsored by the South Asia Solidarity Initiative (SASI) on Saturday, November 29th, 2014, at a local Restaurant in New York. Azfar Hussain, Associate Professor of Liberal Studies at Grand Valley State University, Michigan, was the key speaker.
The key talking points of the speaker about Marxism and Islam in Bangladeshi Left Politics were as follows:
- Marxism is falsely described in the West as a power struggle, atheism, dictatorship, against free speech, anti-individual rights, anti-spiritualism, anti-religion, etc. This kind of false stereotype remains. Even within some Marxist theorists (post-modern, post-structuralism, post-humanism, post-colonialism), a selective understanding of Marx’s work has undermined Marx. These created a vast challenge to re-establish Marxism as a valid ideology.
- There is a new renewal of interest in Marx’s appeal and importance in the light of economic collapse, job loss, labor discontent in the West, and anti-capitalist, anti-imperialist activism in South America and Asia, Africa, and worldwide. Marx appeared on the cover of TIME magazine, and the Wall Street Journal wrote about Marx. Social breakdown, poverty, loss of livelihood, homelessness, and hunger around the world are bringing Marxism back into the game.
- What is Marxism? Marxism is the body of works of Karl Marx and Frederick Engels. Almost all and every extension of Marx’s ideas is also Marxism. Marx and Engels combined work (published in 50 volumes) and who followed, applied, acted upon, and stretched the concept of Marx can be called Marxism. (Lenin, Mao, Che, Castro, MN Roy, Nkrumah, etc). In that sense, Marxism is better called Marxism.
- Class struggle and the overthrow of capitalism have been the core of Marxism. Still, Marx’s concept of total emancipation of humanity is essential and crucial in understanding Marxism, which has been overlooked. Total emancipation of humanity means freeing oppressed and oppressors as well. The totality of all human practices is included in total emancipation. Therefore, religion is also included. Marxism cannot bypass the question of religion as part of its discussion. The speaker, Azfar Hussain, emphasized that this encompassing concept of Marxism attracts him – not the curbed, curated, stereotyped, narrow idea of Marxism. As a part of the revolutionary transformation and reconstruction of society, the speaker raised the possibility that religion can be seen as a sign of (kind of) class struggle.
- Many Eastern and Arab philosophers deeply enriched Western Philosophers. Many concepts that are thought to be associated with Western Philosophy were independently developed in the Arabic world, such as rationalism, negative dialectical thinking, etc.
- Marx lived in Algiers for two months in 1882, a year before he died. He observed various aspects of Islamic civilization and studied North Indian Muslims, Algeria, the Hanafi school of thought, and Indonesian society. Therefore, Marx’s inattentiveness to Islamic society was not correct. Late in his life, Marx paid attention to Islamic law and jurisprudence. Some authors think that Marx saw absolute equality in some social intercourse in the Islamic law practice!
- The relationship between Marxism and religion is that Marxism pays attention to the totality of lived human practices – including religions. To understand the masses in a given society, it is crucial to understand how they become religious.
- In the case of Bangladesh, the Left contributed to the formation of Bangladesh by theorizing and sometimes participating in Bangladesh’s national liberation movement. Today, mainstream Bangladesh’s bourgeoisie political culture is marked by the bureaucratization of politics, the militarization of politics, the politicization of the military, the politicization of religion, communalization of democracy, etc. And a significant part of the left has joined mainstream bourgeois political culture. Bangladeshi Left did not understand the question of religion in the light of Marx’s concept of total emancipation of humanity.
- By and large, the question of religion and Islam has not been addressed in Bangladeshi left politics. Part of the reason is that the Left in Bangladesh is not interested in exploring Marx’s letter writings! For them, Marxism is still a matter of economic extremism, against capitalism, against imperialism, etc. They are not getting any momentum in their politics as they are not focused on the Religious people of Bangladesh.
- Based on the above talk, Azfar Hussain ended his presentation by suggesting five key propositions regarding Marxism and Islam in Bangladeshi Left Politics:
» Marxism cannot ignore the totality of lived human practices. Religion is one of the practices. Therefore, the issue of religion should be addressed and reckoned with.
» Marxism may move forward the emancipatory potential of religion itself. It can take the challenge of combating and confronting oppressive bourgeoisie abuse of religion by mainstream political culture.
» The Left in Bangladesh largely failed to face the question of religion/Islam. Islam’s forefront role in the anti-imperialist struggle, as well as the struggle of other religions, races, genders, environments, ethnicities, and languages, should be addressed.
» Marx’s letter writings should be discussed thoroughly in the contemporary environment.
» Mass line organizing or revolutionary politics cannot be assertive without considering why and how religion becomes a material force/cause.
It was undoubtedly an interesting talk.
Left politics in Bangladesh was never mainstream. There are many reasons for that. One strong assumption for it is that Bangladesh is a Muslim country. Ideologically, religion (especially Islam) does not go hand in hand with the ideas of Marxism. Therefore, Bangladesh was never shown much excitement about building a classless, secular, equal society for all based on Marxist ideas. Although the ideas of Marx were always an exciting intellectual enthusiasm among many – perhaps they still are. A country’s political history, economic life, cultural trends, societal values, nationalist ideas, spiritual inclination, environmental condition, geographic location, national psyche, international standing, etc., determine its historical place. Seeing and balancing all these factors are important in understanding a nation’s desire and destiny. Left politics missed the opportunity to find the pulse of Bangladesh and its people.
It seems like the above conversation was a way to address this issue. It was good to see that left-leaning thinkers of Bangladeshi origin are trying to spread ideas beyond the core Marxism thoughts (Though they are trying to find some support in Marx’s letters, notebooks, and side notes – which, perhaps, is unnecessary). However, a conversation is a good start. To go further, many questions have to be addressed:
In the West, there are some efforts to equate Marxism with Islam as they try to portray both as evil ideologies! Now, a similar effort is being made by some scholars to assimilate left politics (Marxism) more integrated with religion (Islam) as part of the total emancipation of humanity. How these two opposing viewpoints can be explained? Why religion is being considered as a “comrade” in Marxism now? Is Islam being used as a leftist tool or a genuine understanding? Do religion-based political groups see Marxism as their ally, too? How various versions of Marxism can handshake with many versions of Islam? How does the Left in Bangladesh explain Islam? Etc.
Hard questions were not addressed as most attendees were ‘comrades’ to each other from the same school of thought. The talk ended with a free lunch provided by the restaurant.