NOVANEWS
It lives inside the so-called “Kerala Model,” inside free medical care for the poor, and inside free education in public schools that are, arguably, still the best ones in the entire India.
Kerala is one of three states in India, where the Communist Party, predominantly CPI (M), is either holding power, or is a very close second. West Bengal and the restive and remote Tripura in the Northeast are other two.
India under the leadership of the ultra-conservative Prime Minister Narendra Modi may look increasingly like a “BRICS-breaker,” — the economic block comprised of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — embracing neo-liberal economic policies while forging ever-closer “defense” cooperation with the United States and Israel, but Marxist ideology has refused to simply go away. It still inspires Indian intellectuals, artists and academics alike, as well as the Maoist fighters in some of the most desperate parts of the nation.
But right now it is hard to imagine that one of the several communist or socialist parties or movements of India, could win elections, or struggle and manage to come to power, anytime soon.
Benny Kuruvilla is from Kerala, a recognized expert on BRICS, and political lead at the “South Solidarity Initiative.”
Benny is married to a Chilean social organizer, Susana Barria. He readily clarified the situation in his country when we all met in New Delhi:
“Modi and his government would be happy to be part of the Western alliance and of the BRICS… This is really an ultra-nationalist government, and it has to reassert its ideology… In the past it was all very different: during the Cold War, India was very close to Cuba, and to the USSR. Now that India has a very pronounced right-wing government, it is reluctant to side with the anti-Western bloc. I don’t think India will go along with the idea that the Western concept should be cancelled. Indian Left-wing forces are very weak now, and this government is so happy to be part of big-boy’s club; for them it is the place in the sun! What is happening in BRICS and in Latin America is mainly monitored by the local intelligentsia; mainly by the upper class.”
In Kerala itself, there is hardly any dispute that the Communists did a great job improving the lives of most of ordinary citizens.
As I sail through the Kerala Backwaters, on a public and heavily subsidized boat, I observe local farmers reading their daily newspapers, or engaging in passionate political discussions. This could easily be some place in Venezuela or Ecuador.
An old man is scolding my friend for not voting in the latest elections. He is not with the Communists, he actually voted for the Congress Party, but he readily admits that he has been benefiting from the long years of Communist rule:
“Look, I am 80 years old, and I am still strong and working. I am just returning from my field. This is all because of the good medical care that I have been receiving, and because I was educated and explained to, how to live a good and healthy life.”
The Communists did not lose in the last elections because of their concept. They mainly lost because of the view that their leadership had become too stale, and too boring. There were also serious accusations of corruption.
But above all, Kerala lost its progressive, revolutionary edge, or at least for now. It produces almost nothing, or very little. It became literally washed out with remittance money coming from the Gulf. Hundreds of thousands of young and talented people, many educated for free by the state, left their country, seeking well-paid jobs, mainly in the Arab countries.
“Now sometimes we can see entire families doing absolutely nothing, just reading and talking, guarding new condominiums and houses, waiting for when the next money transfer from abroad arrives,” explained Mr. Ashirbad Praharaj, the General Manager of the Taj Gateway Hotel in the southern beach resort city of Varkala.
A new culture of dependency arrived with easy money. Consumerism began pushing out both ideology and political awareness, and then it even infiltrated the traditional Kerala culture itself.
New condominiums and shopping malls are sprouting up all around the major cities and their suburbs, while bookstores, art cinemas and galleries are closing down.
Mr. George J. Thaliyath, Director of the outstanding Kerala Folklore Museum and a custodian of southern Indian culture, is bitter:
“Now everything in Kerala is becoming money-oriented. Ideology is dying. Members of political parties just want to make money. The entire system is becoming corrupted, and as a result, there is no political art, anymore. Even the Communists, the CPI (M) are not showing true leadership, anymore!”
There are all sorts of attempts, some coming from abroad, to derail Kerala’s Communist model. Some of them are ideological, and others economic, even religious.
“We have Pentecostal Christians opening their houses of worship all over the state,” explained Joseph, a Catholic priest from Kochi. “There is also the ‘prosperity gospel’ being introduced and promoted in Kerala. That definitely comes from the United States and Europe. These people have plenty of money. They go to the poorest and most uneducated communities, and pay for conversions. These new implants are totally brainwashing and de-politicizing our people.”
I am driven to a town called Vaylar, some 40 kilometers south of Kochi, by my friend and the editor of the influential left-wing Indian on-line magazine, Countercurrents (www.countercurrents.org), Binu Matthew. In the center of Vaylar, we pay tribute to a Communist uprising, suppressed by the Brits, which took place in 1946, and which took around 1,000 human lives.
But before reaching the place, we stop at a stall selling coconuts by the side of the road.
A lady vendor confirms what was said earlier: Kerala, which literally means ‘land of coconuts’ does not even produce its native staple fruit, anymore. The coconuts sold here are imported from the neighboring state, Tamil Nadu.
“Now I make around 300 Rp a day (under US$5), which is not too bad, but prices keep going up”, explains the seller. “I have two children; one is 15, the other 14. Both of them attend free government schools. Healthcare is also provided by the state…”
As we drive away, Binu comments:
“Education and medical care are free. Kerala had actually created a development model. It is not going to go away, no matter whether the Communists come back to power, or not. The problem is that there are many private medical centers and schools now, all over the state. And some middle-class families are sending their kids to private schools. There is also substantial ‘medical tourism’ from the Middle East, and it drives the prices for private medical care, higher and higher.”
CHAVEZ ALIVE IN KERALA
Not everything is lost; many young men and women, uninspired and unimpressed by the market fundamentalism of India and its right-wing government, are returning to the communist ideology enthusiastically and full-heartedly.
As we sail through the beautiful and lush Backwaters, red banners with hammers and sickles decorate almost every bend in the river, and every jetty.
Rais, a 24-years-old man has no doubts that the Communists will come back, after the next elections. He is working very hard to make it happen.
“I’m a Branch Committee Member; I’m a Communist and a Muslim”, Rais explains. Then he admitted: “We have so many problems here, now… We have the onslaught of capitalism, of Hindu fundamentalism, Muslim fundamentalism and Christian fundamentalism. Most of it is imported from abroad. We are facing all these challenges.”
When he hears that I have been making films and write for teleSUR, his face brightens up:
“In India they don’t allow us to watch teleSUR or RT on television screens. Here we are only fed with the Western and local corporate television networks. But we are following teleSUR on the internet! For us, Hugo Chavez is still alive, at least in our hearts! You know, after he died, or after he was killed, several villages in Kerala changed their names, to Hugo Chavez Nagar.”
“Negar” means “village.” In Kerala, there are also places called “Che Negar.” One, I am told, was even named “Saddam Negar.”
Rais is a very determined and hardworking young man. He tells me all about this area, about the Backwaters:
“Here, the majority still votes for the Communists. Most of the officials are from the CPI (M). And I am certain that during the next elections, we’ll take back the entire state — the whole of Kerala.”
Before disembarking and before our parting, Rais recites statistics to me, as if trying to convince me about the correctness of his party’s course:
“In Kerala, people are still very strong, ideologically. Can you imagine: the Communists to this day have 32,000 branches here, 2,000 local conferences, and 14 district conferences… Many Muslims here are secular; and that is because the Communists are keeping Kerala this way. Kerala is still the greatest model for the medical care and education that serves the people. We have only 14 districts, but over 30 medical colleges!”
As we part, Rais embraces me. We are comrades, after all!
During my discussion with Noam Chomsky, the conversation, which led to our book “On Western Terrorism – From Hiroshima To Drone Warfare”, Noam fondly, recalled this state:
“Kerala is unique. It is incredible how neat and organized things are, there. One can see almost none of that extreme, appalling misery, so noticeable elsewhere in India. Kerala is not rich, but people are well looked after, there. Then, when you cross to the richer Tamil Nadu, you immediately see people begging; you see real poverty.”
But my friend Binu is tired and often depressed:
“So much information goes through me; so many terrible things that are taking place in all corners of India and the world.”
Binu sometimes loses hope. His Kerala is changing, and not always for the better. But he fights, editing one of the best on-line publications in India, while still keeping his 9-5 job at a television station.
Kochi is hosting the Art Biennale during my working visit, with over 90 artists from 30 countries, including Pakistan. As I stroll through the historic Fort Kochi, where Vasco de Gama spent his last days, a European artist is blowing soap bubbles in front of giggling children, while some North American video artist is musing, from the monitors, about how our galaxy will look some several billion years from now, and how much fun we are missing, considering that by then we would all have kicked the bucket.
It is all “form over the substance,” an absolute intellectual emptiness.
Local artists and intellectual, museum curators — they all realize what is going on: public money is spent on promoting several handpicked artists, all of them decorative and non-political. The Biennale makes them big, so later they can be invited to international exhibitions, showing the compliant and non-confrontational face of India to the rest of the world.
While India is going to the dogs, according to Binu; “betraying BRICS politically, economically and militarily,” treating its poor majority with a total and cold corporate spite, the few endorsed artists are just playing with form and refusing to touch substance. In the entire Biennale, there doesn’t seem to be one single political piece of art!
Everyone I spoke to about the Biennale was indignant. Everyone I spoke to about the direction Kerala was taking, outraged. Many saw the Biennale as symbolic to what is happening to the entire state.
And almost everyone believed that the Communists have to get their act together, fast, and then return to power!
In 2015, there will be the “Kerala Panchayat Elections,” polls that are held to elect the Local Self-government Representatives.
As I drove through Varkala town, I spotted a beautiful and old building. It was protected by barbed wire, and hopelessly shut down. Above the entrance it stated: “Public Library.”
My driver slowed down, then pointed towards the building, and uttered: “When the Communists come back, there will be no barbed wire around this place. It will be a library, once again!”
