NOVANEWS
Eminent Marxist scholar and popular teacher of political theory Prof Randhir Singh passed away on the night of 31st January in Delhi. He was 95. Prof Randhir Singh was a founder of the Left student movement in India, during India’s freedom struggle. He is best remembered for his unwavering lifelong commitment to popularising and communicating Marxist theory widely, in the most accessible language of the people. Till very recently, he would still travel to Punjab villages and small towns to give talks on political developments as well as on Marxist thought.
In spite of his formidable academic prowess, he was always had the unassuming air that is the hallmark of the activist. He was a close friend of many Left activists, and many in the CPI(ML), young and old, will have fond memories of their rich interactions with him. Prof Randhir Singh inspired many generations to study Marxism and to study society using Marxist tools. Liberation pays tribute to him with memories shared by academicians and activists, as well as excerpts from his writings and speeches.
Comrade Randhir Singh’s Legacy
(CPI(ML) General Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya reflects on Comrade Randhir Singh’s legacy for the Left movement.)
I did not have the luck of being a student of Professor Randhir Singh. But I consider myself greatly fortunate that I had several opportunities of listening to him and discussing with him and even speaking alongside him in meetings during the last three decades since I moved to Delhi in connection with my political assignments. Had I not moved to Delhi in the late 1980s, I’d have probably known Randhir Singh only through his writings. That would have surely been inspiring and enlightening as all his readers will readily testify, but listening and talking to him was always a special experience, something so fondly remembered and cherished by all who have been his students and comrades.
When I came in contact with him during the late 1980s, the Soviet Union was on the brink of collapse, Punjab was caught in the crossfire between Khalistani insurgency and the counterinsurgency of state terrorism, the RSS, BJP, VHP and Bajrang Dal were busy whipping up an aggressive communal frenzy around the Ram Mandir agenda, and the economic policy discourse and direction had begun to rapidly move away from the once dominant rhetoric of socialistic pattern and mixed economy to the glorification of the market and worship of private capital, the desi monopolies as well as foreign MNCs. In such difficult times, Randhir Singh continued to apply his profound Marxist scholarship and sharp analytical gaze to the study of the changing reality around us and help us achieve the clarity of understanding of complex social phenomena and political questions that must guide the thinking and action of every communist.
