Commentary/E M S Namboodiripad

The capitalists intended to conquer Kerala

This week, I will talk on the controversy raging in Kerala over the writing of history. Several historians have attacked me following Professor Sreedhara Menon's resignation from a government-appointed committee for writing Kerala's role in the freedom struggle in consultation with me. My critics say my knowledge of history is poor. I would like to clear my position in this context.

There are differences of opinion between Marxist historians and others. My critics claim that history is just the chronicling of past events. For them, recording the invasions of India by the Portuguese, Dutch, and the British is history. But I have a different perspective about historical events. As a historian, I would like to dwell on how they came and what were the circumstances that led to the invasions. Necessarily, I would reach my own conclusion after analysing the events.

If we see the events in this context, we can easily understand that capitalism came to Kerala in the aftermath of feudalism. The intention of the capitalists was to conquer the state. When I talk of these matters, my critics say that I am twisting history. But history cannot be complete without going into the circumstances that led to the transformation from feudalism to capitalism. My critics fail to probe the reasons that led to the struggle against Portuguese, Dutch, French, and Britons.

I admit that it was feudal lords like Voluthampi Dhalva and Pazhassi Raj who had led the struggle against the foreign invaders in the beginning. Similarly, feudal lords in other states also revolted against the foreign invaders. The Sepoy Uprising was part of the feudal struggle which came at the end. After this stage, the leadership was taken over by the bourgeois.

At this juncture, the Indian National Congress came into the picture. From here on, we can divide the freedom struggle into two parts -- one led by the feudal lords and the other by the bourgeois. Both had clashed with each other when the struggle for freedom started in a concentrated manner in 1919. Mahatma Gandhi entered the scene around this time. The freedom struggle for the communists was waged by the All-India Trade Union Congress. In the fight between the communists and the Congress, the latter won.

There are different perceptions about the freedom we won on August 15, 1947. One section firmly believes that it was Gandhiji who brought freedom to the country. But the Congress, which led the freedom struggle, used the freedom for the prosperity of its own leaders. Gandhiji had warned the Congress not to contest in the elections. He had advocated the formation of a party called the Lok Sevak Sangh for contesting the elections. We naturally could not share his views and we formed a party for the poor peasants and industrial workers.

We have clashed with the Congress on many occasions. We can easily understand why, after its 111 years of history, the Congress is now a deteriorating force. The United Democratic Front has taken root in the country. Although there are some problems in the United Front, it will race ahead and strengthen its roots in the country. The non-Marxist historians are not ready to accept this reality. And that is the basic ingredient for the present contradiction.

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