People's Democracy

M Venugopala Rao

THE need to fight to safeguard the native cultures from the onslaught of globalisation was stressed by P Govinda Pillai, former chief editor of Deshabhimani, while delivering the Sundarayya memorial lecture on "Globalisation and Culture" on December 9 at Sundarayya Vignana Kendram in Hyderabad.

Before going into his address, Pillai paid rich tributes to Comrade P Sundarayya. The personal interest shown by Comrade Sundarayya in the development of young cadres of the movement not only made him immensely popular among the cadres but also a great builder of revolutionary movement, he said. He was a builder of not only political and class organisations, but also Party institutions like publishing houses, newspapers, hospitals, study centres, etc. Sundarayya was a great revolutionary who strode like a colossus on the Indian political scene for more than half a century. He was a shining example of a great human being exuding love and affection all around, Pillai said.

Giving a brief account of the historical background of globalisation, the contradiction inherent in capitalist system between social production and private appropriation and emergence of imperialism as capitalism’s response to the cyclical crises, Pillai explained how even before 1973 and from the late forties onwards the newly liberated nations of Asia, Africa and Latin America began to protect their national interests and shut their doors against imperialist economic plunderers and intruders. All these, put together, drove the world capitalism to the wall and they were at pains to devise a new method of world dominance. The collapse of European socialism kindled some hopes in the capitalist and imperialist circles for a brief period. But that proved to be an illusion, with even Russia trying to challenge the US hegemony, Govinda Pillai said.

This was the global background which gave birth to the slogans of globalisation, privatisation and liberalisation. Tory Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in Britain, who assumed power in 1979 and the Republican President Ronald Reagan of the US became the great corporate missionaries of this new faith from 1980 onwards. Globalisation and its concomitants like privatisation and liberalisation were new forms of colonialism and neo-colonialism, Pillai explained. It seeks to rob the newly independent countries of the political freedom to pursue a policy of economic self-reliance and development as suited to its specific needs and tradition.

The concepts like ‘nation state’, ‘political sovereignty’ and ‘self-reliance’ which were inseparable elements of the anti-imperialist freedom struggles, were sacrificed at the altar of the new goddess of globalisation. The promises of economic development for the underdeveloped countries seem to be nowhere near fulfilment. As the old formulas and recipes trotted out by the aid-providers and the gratuitous advice dispensers during the Fifties and Sixties of the 20th century faded out, a new set of prescriptions were pushed in the guise of new panacea. The career politicians and upper-class rulers of the Third World including our country's Narasimha Rao-Manmohan Singh and Vajpayee-Sinha were only too ready to swallow such advice, without caring to have even a casual look at the history of such aid and its consequences, Govinda Pillai explained.

Explaining the progressive impoverisation of the major part of the world and proportional enrichment of the dominant countries, he said this aggrandisement in the name of globalisation had not proceeded smoothly with ease. The great popular protests in Seattle, Santiago, Genoa, Gothermburg, etc. broke through the media curtain and instilled hope and faith among the billions of victims of globalisation. The political and economic resistance to globalisation and neo-colonialism was also accompanied by resistance on cultural and ideological plane, even as the promoters and enforcers of globalisation worked hard to create a conducive atmosphere for their project by cultural and ideological aggrandisement, he said.

The phenomenal advance in the means and technologies of communication had two contradictory impacts on society. The new technologies increased the accessibility of knowledge and information to more and more people and broke up the elitist and casteist monopoly over the world. But at the same time the need for big capital investment in the modern means of communication and the growing control of advertisers on them and the commercialisation gave an upper hand to monopolists and mind manipulators. This aspect negates the popular and democratic character of modern media. As it was the case in every class and caste-ridden country, on a world scale, too, the dominant countries hold hegemonic power in the communication system, Pillai explained and warned that this was another dangerous by-product of the era of globalisation. The question of culture is inextricably bound with media and the mode of communication. It is because communication is the vehicle through which culture is passed on from generation to generation, people to people and person to person. If that communication and its media is controlled and guided by vested interest in a highly iniquitous and class-ridden society, communication looses its community and common aspect and becomes an instrument of hidden persuasion, hegemony and oppression, Govinda Pillai elucidated.

The communal, ethnic and linguistic tensions which have risen in the wake of the political crisis and instability from the 1970s, point to the erosion of the cultural cohesion built up during the anti-imperialist struggle. The dawn of freedom has not carried this historic achievement forward even after half a century. In the innumerable struggles being waged by various sections of the society-- the working class for socialism, the minorities for their rights, the Dalits for empowerment, women for equality, ethnic groups and other marginalised sections for justice and identity and, the people in general for national integrity and sovereignty -- culture is a crucial area for contest and conquest.

This struggle in all its depth and sweep cannot be carried on without cultural tools, products and theories fashioned with scientific precision and ideological clarity. Our endeavour should be directed towards this end, Pillai exhorted. It is easily realised by one and all that India is now passing through a deep political and economic crisis. But it is not often realised that we are also wading through a deep slush of cultural crisis and decadence. The rise of communal and semi-fascist forces and terrorist outfits point to this malady. Values of nationalism, patriotism, secularism, modernism and science, which were all signposts of the freedom movement, were nurtured through a century and half of Indian renaissance. One of the strange ironies of contemporary life, both in India and the world, is the fast increasing popularity of science and technology on one hand, and the almost parallel popularity of religion, cults, mysticism and other irrational trends, on the other.

The Western countries were prepared to join hands with anyone if their political interests were served, Pillai said and reminded that forces like the Taliban and bin Laden, for whom they are hunting now, were their own creation. In our country, too, the forces of Sangh Parivar were getting the support of the West because they were submissive to the latter. Reprehensible is the association of religion with and support to all types of oppressive and exploitative social and state systems, inspite of the tall claims of its adherence to unimpeachable values and ideals, love and compassion. It was religious fundamentalist forces which committed political murders, Pillai said and cited the examples of the assassinations of Mahatma Gandhi, Bandara Nayake in Sri Lanka and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in Bangladesh.

As the 21st century unfolds we hear a rising crescendo of shrill voices criticising and condemning modernisation from various quarters. The traditional critics of modernisation, science and secularism were the revivalists and religious fundamentalists. Drawing a curtain over the casteist inequalities and feudal exploitations prevailing in the old villages, such critics painted a pleasant picture of harmony, peace and prosperity reigning there. Referring to the attacks of Sangh Parivar on science and knowledge, Govinda Pillai explained the present drive of the BJP-led government at the centre to rewrite history text books, introduce astrology and the so-called vedic mathematics in college and school curriculum. It was refreshing to hear Dr P K Iyengar, former chairman of Atomic Energy Commission, attacking such revivalist concepts at the so-called Swadeshi Science congress held under the auspices of Sangh Parivar at Peechi near Thrissur in Kerala, he said. It is the urgent task before the democratic and secular movements to resurrect the spirit of reason and science and raise it to the centre of Indian life. Politics which ignore this cultural and secular task of the movement will only prove futile and hollow, paving way to the hegemony of obscurantist and reactionary elements in civil society, Govinda Pillai warned.

Dr J V Sesha Reddy, member of Sundarayya Vignana Kendram Trust, presided over the meeting. C Sambi Reddy, secretary, welcomed the gathering, and V R Bomma Reddy, former editor of Prajasakti, who sponsored the Sundarayya memorial lecture, proposed a vote of thanks.