Comrades, Workers and the Dispossessed: A Critique of the Left in Kerala
On 25 March 2025, the Kerala Legislative Assembly passed the Kerala State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Bill, paving way for private capital in higher education in the state, marking a fundamental policy change and ideological shift for the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and others in the Left Front.
This heralded a change of winds in the region. What should’ve caused a storm, however, did not even raise a breeze. The Private University Bill did not undergo the much-needed scrutiny of the public. The 24/7 media channels did not host prime time debates about it. Various left organisations (maybe except AISF) never protested or openly criticized the move. The usually outspoken public intellectuals remained silent. Like most neoliberal reforms, it has crept in insidiously, and transformed itself into law, like a skilled magician who tricks his audience into believing that nothing is happening in front of them, while many things actually are.
Kerala, the bastion of the communists since its formation in 1956, is widely believed to have been strongly influenced by the violent communist uprisings of the 1940s, and the subsequent Left governments that came to power, who initiated a slew of socio-economic amendments, primarily land and educational reforms. The legacy of the Left kept materialist needs of people the prime focus of governments throughout the years, resulting in remarkable, almost incredible, social development results. Education and healthcare remained top priority of every administration in the state for a long time.
Whenever the case of privatisation of education came up, initiated when the Congress-led governments came to power, student organisations belonging to the CPI-M protested, and rightfully so, arguing that commercialisation of education was socially disastrous, extremely corrupted and unproductive for the larger society and the underprivileged populations, whose upliftment depended on affordable education. The students belonging to organisations like the SFI and the DYFI jointly conducted mass protests against privatisation, often clashing with the police on the streets, getting lathi-charged and water-cannoned.
The worst happened in 1994, when police fired upon the protestors agitating against alleged state support for privatisation of Pariyaram medical college and the then minister for co-operation, M.V Raghavan, at Koothuparambu, resulting in the tragic death of five DYFI activists. The incident remains a blot on Kerala’s democratic history.
30 years after Koothuparambu, the CPI-M led government introduced legislation to invite private universities into higher education. No one, except K.K Rama of the RMP, objected in the assembly. A voice-vote was called. The assembly unanimously thundered a loud ‘yes’.
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The opposition led by the Congress, architects of structural adjustments for marketization in India, performed predictably, as always. The opposition leader, V. D Satheeshan, stood up to speak, a joyous smile on his face after watching the CPI-M roll back their ideology like a dusty carpet and lock it away in the closet. He declared that his party and the UDF supported the legislation ‘in principle’, although amendments were required (some of these amendments would demand relaxation of conditions prescribed in the bill so as to make the privatisation process quicker and easier).
Some time ago, the same opposition leader, in a strange and ludicrous turn of events, had claimed that the CPI-M was no longer ‘left’ in its principles (which is debatable) and that the ‘real left’ were him and his acolytes in the opposition (which is laughable). One wonders where the ‘left-ism’ he claimed to be a part of his ideology evaporated off to when a blatantly neoliberal move was taking place in the assembly, right in front of his eyes.
When the question was about private capital, even his anti-government sentiments seem to have disappeared, which were staggeringly intense during the left government’s agitation against the central government on fiscal issues.
To expect the Congress to oppose privatisation is like expecting a wild fox to decline a rooster. However, that was not the expectation from the LDF government. Unfortunately, those who had to oppose this bill in the assembly, those who were expected to oppose such bills in the assembly, did the most hilarious somersault, and became the ones who moved the bill in the first place.
Speaking to The Hindu on the question of the corpus fund of 25 crore rupees required as deposit from a private university planning to establish itself in the state and whether this condition would ‘transfer the burden to the students’, the minister for higher education, R. Bindu, replied:
“It is not necessary that all students should study in private universities. Our public universities have been strengthened and students can get good education there too. It is not that everyone should study at the private universities. Those students who go out of the State to study in private universities can study within Kerala, going forward”.1
So we can all agree on the fact that private universities envisaged in Kerala are not for all the students in the state. She is clear on that. However, she chose to be cleverly ambiguous about for whom these universities are for.
She could have spelled it out, actually. The rich.
It is a shame that the only communist-led state government in India is shifting its ideological stand for privatization in education, while multiple student organisations, including the SFI, are campaigning tirelessly in places like Delhi against NEP 2020 and commercialisation of public education.
While we voice our criticisms of the parliamentary left, especially for their deviations from the left principles, the retaliation comes in the form of a loose argument—that we are not living under socialism in Kerala, or that there are many hurdles in achieving socialist causes while remaining within the boundaries of the neoliberal Indian state.
It is not a secret that there is no socialism in Kerala. The CPI-M does not have to declare that every thirty days, like a sweet favour they are doing to us, by gracefully accepting a common fact that literally everyone in the state and elsewhere accurately knows. I don’t think anyone is actually calling on the CPI-M to establish socialism in Kerala. Or eliminate the bourgeoisie. Or abolish money. The critics are merely pointing out that the CPI-M is moving in a direction which is explicitly opposite to the one they have officially and ideologically declared to be theirs.
Inviting private universities for rich kids to hang out is obviously not in that direction. Stating this publicly does not, let me stress, make anyone liberal, anti-left, fascist or Islamist. It is a criticism which is valid in the present political context, although you can obviously disagree.
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All across Europe and the United States, far-right populism is triumphant, making those who know the history of the 1930s flinch and worry about where the world might be moving towards. India sinks further, into social chaos, economic inequality and political violence and intimidation, all supported and perpetuated by the BJP-RSS led government, who are actively trying to destabilise federalism (fiscal and political, both) and to ensure the transition of the republic into a violent, Hindu-supremacist, corporate theocracy. While most Indian states have been swept away in the Hindutva wave, and are now under a systematic and clinical process of communalization, the Southern states keep the flicker of hope and resistance alive for millions of people in the country. Kerala, with an impressive zero BJP representatives in the state assembly, is undoubtedly a great example for others and a strong voice of opposition, against what many are convinced is blatant and catastrophic fascism.
It is at this historical and precarious juncture that questions are being raised regarding what the parliamentary left might be doing and whether they are drifting away from their ideology when we require it the most.
A draft resolution moved in the 24th congress of the CPI-M at Madurai created political storm when it fell short of calling the BJP-led government ‘fascist’, and instead put forward a play of words, saying that the government was “displaying neo-fascist characteristics”, and according to various leaders of the CPI-M, has not gone completely fascist.
Both the CPI and the CPI-ML disagreed with this analysis.
The CPI-M’s attempt at distinguishing between classical fascism and neo fascism is entirely valid and justifiable since there are differences in the socio-economic and political conditions in which both emerged. However, adding the prefix ‘neo’ to the larger ‘fascism’ doesn’t dilute the latter, nor is it any helpful in fighting the forces which unapologetically subscribe to that ideology.
The politburo member of the CPI-M, B. V Raghavalu, upon question from The Print, said that if the BJP government were fascist, “there shouldn’t be any elections at all” and that "there will be only one party”.2 That is almost close to the argument that we are still a democracy because we have democratic elections. It is disturbing to hear from a communist that he believes we have somewhat free and fair elections nowadays in India. The way the Election Commission performed during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is more than enough to prove how our elections are conducted in favour of the ruling party.
M. A Baby, the newly elected general secretary of the party, gave multiple interviews to Malayalam news channels (as the first person who has become general secretary of the CPI-M after E.M.S Namboodiripad from Kerala) upon his elevation at the party congress. In one such interview, facing a question on the same ‘fascist or neo fascist government’ controversy, Mr. Baby reiterated what Raghavalu said, and threw a convincing line to the interviewer that if we were really living under fascism, such kind of television interviews wouldn't have been possible. And then he smiled his usual smile.
I honestly believe he (and most of his comrades in the party) is genuinely confused between fascism and dictatorship. While dictatorial, one-person rule and personality cult are major themes of both classical and neo fascism, it does not necessarily have to begin as a dictatorship. Fascism needs to be understood as a social process—rigorously systematic, clearly defined, well planned, adequately funded and dramatically orchestrated socio-political programme—which fundamentally transforms the existing society and its people. Complete dictatorship is what might follow this social process. The latter would have created consent for the former when it finally shows up, like a demon who was in disguise.
If anyone is doubtful whether such a social process is occurring or not in India, they could either read the history of Germany in the 1930s and see the striking similarities for themselves, or, read the daily news that comes out from our own country.
Teachers are making Hindu students beat up their Muslim classmates. Hindu students refuse to be friends with their Muslim classmates. Hindu men are thrashing young Muslim kids for saying ‘Allah’ and not ‘Jai Sree Ram’. Muslim men are lynched by vigilante mobs. Hindus, mistaken as Muslims, are being lynched by vigilante mobs. Hindu landlords refuse to rent property to Muslim families. Attacks on Christians, students, artists, dissidents, Dalits and Adivasis proliferate.
Yet, some of us fail to identify this systematic transformation of our world into a hellhole. But for the communist parties to utterly fail in this is not a matter of laughter, but of gravest concern. If the major and the most prominent communist party in our country is even slightly feeling that the fascism under which we live today does not need to be officially recognized, then it is signalling the emergence of a cataclysmic future for all of us. It is, I am afraid, collusion.
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On February 10, 2025, the ASHA workers in Kerala went on strike with a set of demands which included better wages, appropriate pensions and formal recognition as workers. Their strike continues to this day.
The ASHA workers were the frontline warriors during the COVID-19 catastrophe, whose service during the pandemic cannot be forgotten by any of us. They are on the forefront of community care and their workload is only increasing, with additional work like data collection and data entry. Speaking to The Polis Project, an ASHA worker says that sometimes her work duration extends to “eighteen hours” and “sometimes more”.3
18 hours of work a day. That reminds one of the miserable conditions women and children had to go through in England during the Industrial Revolution. These are the kind of things against which the communists had fought hard, and won.
In a sample survey conducted by Dr. J. Devika among the protesting ASHA workers, it was revealed that most of the women who were part of this agitation belonged Bahujan-Dalit castes. Most of these women are lone breadwinners of their house—they are either widows, deserted or with ailing husbands who are unable to work. Most of them do not have houses of their own (those who have them have their houses under mortgage or at the risk of confiscation). According to J. Devika, the biggest problem these women face is huge debts.4
On 20th March, the workers began a hunger strike. On 30th March, as an act of protest against the inactive government, the women came forward and publicly shaved their heads. News channels aired the visuals live. We saw tears flowing down their faces as their long hair started falling down. We saw them marching on the secretariat, with their heads bare and faces red.
Now, there are many issues here that we can debate about—the actions of the Centre who is actively trying to dismantle fiscal federalism and particularly the government in Kerala, or the economic constraints on the Kerala government which makes it difficult to provide the wages the ASHA workers are demanding. However, I would like to shift my attention to the attitude taken by the CPI-M against the ASHA workers strike.
On February 24, Elamaram Kareem, former member of Rajya Sabha and minister, wrote an op-ed in Deshabhimani in Malayalam titled ‘Aarkuvendiyan Ee Samaranadakam’ (Who Is This Drama-Struggle For), launching an extraordinary attack against the protesting women. He accuses that certain anarchist groups are behind this agitation (without providing any evidence or naming anyone in particular). He believes that the ASHAs have been ‘misled’ by these anarchist groups.5
This repeated characterization of the striking women workers as some kind of poor ladies who have been deceived is not just an attempt to evade important questions they raise but also a patriarchal understanding of women and their dissent. You should be arguing with facts and figures (what Mr. Kareem later does in the article) instead of trying to measure the intelligence of protesting women.
The article goes on to talk in detail about the pay-raise and other programmes initiated by various CPI-M governments since the time of V. S Achuthanandan. His arguments are clear and precise, with facts and statistics. I see it. I acknowledge it.
However, the wage, which the government gives to the ASHA workers, is not some kind of alms given out of sheer generosity. It’s the remuneration for the labour the workers have rendered. It is the responsibility of the government—who’s the employer—to raise pay in due time and provide incentives. While it is commendable that various Left governments have taken positive measures for the ASHA workers, it does not mean that the workers are supposed to join their palms, get on their knees and thank the CPI-M for their goodness and love. They are not obliged to thank the government for giving them their work’s pay.
To add to that, can’t the workers demand a raise if they feel that their salary is not proportionate to the work that they do? Isn’t that a basic right of any worker? And if these women are forced to work for eighteen hours or more, don’t you think they actually deserve a raise? How is that an unjust demand?
Most importantly, who is Mr. Kareem to decide whether the ASHAs are actually on a protest or not? Do we need his assent to declare a workers’ protest? Can a proletarian struggle occur only if the CPI-M identifies it as one?
To expect the women to praise the government for whatever money they are receiving and go home without any complaints is absurd. It reeks of landlordism. We are not living in a time where the people are going to prostrate in front of their rulers. That’s history.
One argument put forward by the government and its loyal supporters is that this strike is led by a small group of ASHAs, and that the organisation which leads the protest is not big enough to represent the whole of the working women. While they are quick to measure the size of the organisation, why are they not equally enthusiastic to measure the working hours of the ASHA workers and the pay that they receive for their long hours of work? One does not have to read all three volumes of Capital by Marx to understand that their demands are reasonable. Or to realise that these are working class women fighting for working class rights. It’s unfortunate that Marxists loyal to the CPI-M are not willing to recognise this as a working class struggle.
If the government decides to make the demands of the agitating ASHA workers their first priority today, wouldn't it be solved in a few weeks? If the government concedes to their demands, their protest will be a huge success. A working class struggle emerging victorious without the endorsement of the communist party is not acceptable for them. That seems to be the only reason to invalidate the heroic struggle of these protesting women.
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The Lok Sabha was informed, as per the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) statistics, that there were 16 cases of custodial deaths reported in Kerala between 2016 and 2024.6 There has been countless allegations of torture against the police over the years. A recent case is that of Tamir Jiffry, who died at the Tanur police station, Malappuram, after suffering acute physical torture.7 Another one is the case of Gokul, a tribal youth from Wayanad, who was found hanged in the Kalpetta police station. Psychological distress, it is assumed, led to his death, which has been officially considered as a suicide.8
We live in a society where the police are worshipped (who demand that worship), where they are not identified as the biggest perpetrator of state violence against innocent civilians. Those who have never suffered at the hands of the police, especially the privileged and the powerful, continue to openly justify, or worse, glorify police violence. According to their wisdom, some sort of police torture and encounter killings are necessary to maintain order in our society (that ‘order’ seems to be their caste and class hegemony). The applause and showers of praise police across India receive from Kerala for any encounter killings that occur is a stark and painful evidence of how politically illiterate people have become in one of the most literate states in the country. Malayalam films, considered one of the best in the country, are busy competing against each other on glorifying cops and telling the soulful tales of their hard, risky work.
There is no inspection of what the police do. They continue to pick up people, lock them up and beat them up in the most merciless ways possible (quoting massive numbers of torture cases from random north Indian states won’t end similar incidents here). Between the public praises, the ‘copganda’ movies and the supposedly funny memes posted by social media pages of the Kerala police, the fundamental rights of the citizens against torture are being grossly violated. It is a shame that the Chief Minister, who presides over the home ministry, who was once picked up by the police and tortured in custody during the Emergency (1975-77), who returned to the legislative assembly with his bloodied shirt and waved it in front of the then chief minister K. Karunakaran (who oversaw police violence during the Emergency), while his voice thundered against the police excesses of the period, is now almost mute to the atrocities committed by the same police under him.
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The 21st century witnessed two historic land struggles in Kerala, one at Muthanga and another one at Chengara.
The Muthanga struggle, launched by the Adivasis of Wayanad in 2003, was viciously suppressed by the state. It was one of the most brutal demonstrations of violence by the state of Kerala, conducted against its poorest people, following the orders of the A. K Antony government. The police burned the Adivasi settlements, thrashed the protestors (men, women and even children) and tortured people who were arrested. It remains, perhaps, the worst atrocity committed by the state against its people. Those responsible for this crime, the then chief minister, A. K Antony, and the then minister for forest, K. Sudhakaran, (who recently resigned as KPCC president, who had publicly applauded the police action in 2003), continue to enjoy widespread popular support and respect.
The Congress has lost all its moral rights to speak about Adivasis and their struggle, when criminals like Sudhakaran and Antony continue to remain its topmost leaders.
What about the CPI-M?
The Chengara land struggle was launched in 2007, during the Achuthanandan administration, predominantly by the Dalits and groups of Adivasis, to claim and occupy land which was under the control of Harrisons Malayalam, an agricultural business corporation. The movement uncovered the faults in the much-celebrated land reforms of Kerala, first initiated by the E.M.S Namboodiripad government of 1957-59 and completed by the 1970s. It revealed how the most marginalized in Kerala’s society—Dalits and Adivasis—were left out significantly from the land reforms which merely transformed the land from the janmi (landlord) to the paatta kudiyan (rich, middle and upper caste tenants). Many landlords found clever ways to evade the land reform laws and preserve their lands and privileges. Although the land reforms in Kerala remain radical in approach, in implementation, it did not reach the most oppressed people in the state. This historic inequality resulted in various land struggles across Kerala at multiple times. Economists like M. Kunjaman have written extensively on this issue.
No major political parties supported the Chengara struggle. Since the protest included occupation of Harrisons estate, it was labelled as encroachment and illegal, by the ruling CPI-M led Achuthanandan government as well (imagine the communists calling the occupation of land owned by the capitalist class by the landless class an illegal action). When the Kerala High Court ordered eviction of protestors without any violence or bloodshed, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, the then home minister, publicly responded by saying that he was doubtful whether that was actually possible.9 Fortunately, what happened at Muthanga did not happen at Chengara. However, a ruthless blockade was put around the estates where people were protesting, resulting in inadequacy of medicines, food and even drinking water. Despite the declaration of Chengara Package by the government in 2009, it proved to be insufficient and remains unimplemented effectively to this day. Numerous landless people continue to protest, with no public or media support.10
To not have enough land to bury one’s loved ones when they pass away ought to be one of the worst living conditions for a person to live through. For most Keralites, this is a dystopian imagination, whereas for many in the same state, it is the reality they live in.
This is not about an unfortunate or dreadful past. We need to understand the present land struggles in Kerala, the one at Nilambur being the most popular one right now.
Despite a Supreme Court order in 2009 which instructed the distribution of 538 acres of land to Adivasis in Nilambur, it has not been implemented by successive governments. On May 10, 2023, the Adivasis of Nilambur launched their agitation which lasted 314 days before an agreement was reached between the administration and the protestors. The promise of the government however went in vain, forcing the Adivasis to relaunch the struggle, which continues to this day.11 It is not an exaggeration to say that the Adivasis are being betrayed again and again by those in power, without the government facing any notable consequences.
Let us look at the Nilambur struggle from a different but important perspective, one that is missing in the mainstream.
Imagine houses under the Kochi Corporation not receiving drinking water for 48 hours. Or electricity for 24 hours. It would cause such a huge uproar, from both the civil society and the media, that the administration will be forced to fix it up within hours. There will be long rants about the ‘suffering’ of the people. There will be prime time shows in media channels where politicians of all kinds will voice their strong opinions. Social media pages would be flooded with the news of this mayhem. Kerala would be convulsed in the issue.
Now let us turn to the other side.
In Nilambur, women are going on hunger strikes, which often continue for many days. 80 year olds are on the street with placards saying ‘Adivasi Bhoosamaram Vijayipikkuka’ (Make The Adivasi Land Struggle A Success). Their reinitiated struggle has crossed 40 days now. However, there is no outrage, no public support and no media coverage.
Anyone can understand why the movement is not considered radical or picked by the mainstream media in Kerala. Why the people of Kerala who belong to the so-called progressive society are not at all disturbed by this. Why no major political party, including the communist parties, is not seen extending solidarity to the protestors.
The problem is, as always, the Adivasis. If you address their problems, all our ‘progressiveness’ and ‘development’ will come under question. No one wants the number one state in India to be pushed into second place. This is not ignorance, but a deliberate way of side-lining the marginalized and their voices.
During the same time, a by-election to the Nilambur assembly constituency was conducted. It was, as always, a festival. Political parties traded criticisms and insults. Media channels were stationed in the region till the results were declared. After the declaration of results, all sorts of assessments have been done—on how the Congress candidate won and how the CPI-M candidate lost. The CPI-M has held Muslim fundamentalists responsible for their defeat. The Congress leaders are busy determining who deserves the acclaim for their victory.
In between remains the land struggle of Adivasis. Not even on the margins of our consciousness. For the larger society in Kerala, the Adivasis and the Dalits (who live in colonies which are actually ghettos) are invisible. If a by-election passed through a constituency where its constituents are agitating for land distribution, and the political parties did not even address the struggle, it is only because it was being waged by the Adivasis. This is the same for the opposition Congress and the ruling Communist Party (Marxist).
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We are passing through a perilous phase of history as the world is swinging back to the ultra right ideology, a devastating change which was predicted by many since the emergence of neoliberalism. Hindu nationalism is no longer an unpopular ideology in Kerala. The state has contributed at least one BJP member of parliament to the Lok Sabha after the 2024 general elections, breaking the existing tradition of not giving electoral victories to the BJP. Hindu supremacist groups have slowly begun actions in the state—the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) members disrupting a Christmas celebration at a school in Palakkad being one frightening example.12 At this crucial point, it is imperative that the communist parties stay true to their ideology and not deviate to the centre, or worse, to the right.
While I raise strong criticisms of the CPI-M, to say that the CPI-M and the BJP are both equally problematic and needs to be resisted in the same capacity is, in my opinion, absurd and nonsensical. That is like equating Stalin to Hitler in order to critique Stalinism. While Stalinism and its gulags deserve critical scrutiny, that doesn’t have to come from equating Stalin to Hitler who was busy liquidating millions of people in gas chambers. The CPI-M and the BJP cannot be considered equally problematic under any circumstances.
At the same time, the space for open and constructive criticisms must remain free. The CPI-M, being a parliamentary political party taking part in bourgeois democratic processes, deserves its criticisms for their wrong actions. They should seriously think about taking a break from the ‘How Muslim Fundamentalists Will Destroy Kerala’ thesis to actually defend the state against the biggest danger we face today, which is Hindu communalism—an ideology which is in power unlike its Muslim counterpart who continues to remain on the margins of our political arena. If they are going forward with the ‘Muslim fundamentalist theory’, they must realise that people from outside Kerala who subscribe to the politics of the BJP-RSS have started to quote communist leaders to corroborate their own ‘Kerala-Muslim-Terror-Land’ thesis.
Also remember the prime minister making fun of the minister of ports, V. N Vasavan, as he welcomed Gautam Adani as the ‘partner of the government’ during the inauguration of Vizhinjam Port at Thiruvananthapuram.13 (Adani is not just the partner of the CPI-M government in Kerala, he is also in partnership with the Israeli government—he sells them drones and weapons which are being used to obliterate people and neighbourhoods in Gaza)14. Another incident which made us squirm was chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s long obituary for one of the biggest capitalists in the country, Ratan Tata, who’s empire is responsible for the displacement and massacre of farmers and Adivasis across India.15
The CPI-M in Kerala shouldn’t be giving those on the far right lines to perform.
Criticising the mainstream Left doesn’t make you anything other than a critic. We are not dismissing the entire Marxist-Leninist ideology when we speak up against the CPI-M. On the contrary, we are publicly raising doubts about whether the CPI-M is withering away from its Marxist-Leninist ideology. Most of us speak out those doubts, hoping that the Left would amend themselves, as most of us do believe that they are indeed the better alternative.
However, I doubt whether the same courtesy is returned by the stringent followers of the CPI-M to their critics.
We are not obliged to respect those in power, but to keep a check on their use of that power. We cannot keep a check if we are busy glorifying them or telling ourselves that our state is in a perfect condition. We need to remain critical while being supportive. And we need to ensure that the development that we so proudly speak of actually reaches every section of our society.
If it doesn’t, irrespective of who is in power, they need to be questioned and held accountable. It does not matter whether they have a hammer and a sickle on their flag.
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much needed read