{"id":77053,"date":"2013-03-13T00:10:48","date_gmt":"2013-03-13T00:10:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=77053"},"modified":"2013-03-18T07:16:16","modified_gmt":"2013-03-18T07:16:16","slug":"remembering-karl-marx-asiatic-despotism-and-sri-lanka","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/remembering-karl-marx-asiatic-despotism-and-sri-lanka\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Karl Marx, Asiatic Despotism And Sri Lanka"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Laksiri Fernando<\/a><\/span> –<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Dr Laksiri Fernando<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cHe had been left alone for scarcely two minutes, and when we came back we found him in his armchair, peacefully gone to sleep, but for ever<\/em>.\u201d<\/strong>\u00a0 \u2013 <\/strong>Frederick Engels<\/span><\/p>\n

This happened on 14 March 1883, at quarter to three in the afternoon, hundred and thirty years ago. Since then so many things have happened and so many other things have changed in the world but many of his ideas are still valid or relevant. Karl Marx<\/a><\/span> undoubtedly is a great thinker of all times. He is the founder of \u2018scientific socialism\u2019 along with Frederick Engels<\/a><\/span> and wrote the Communist Manifesto<\/em> in 1848 which summed up their thinking in programmatic form even before Marx ventured into write Das Capital<\/em> as an analysis of the \u2018laws of motion\u2019 in the capitalist economy. Among his many theories and discoveries was his analysis of the Asiatic mode of production (AMP) \u2013 the base of Asiatic despotism – which is the main focus of this article in celebrating Marx this year considering its relevance in understanding even the present day Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n

General Contribution <\/strong><\/p>\n

A standard text to understand Marxism as a beginning perhaps still is V. I. Lenin<\/a><\/span>\u2019s The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism<\/em> written in March 1913, in commemorating Marx\u2019s thirtieth death anniversary. That is exactly hundred years ago. That is how I began to learn and understand Marxism. The three sources that Lenin talked about were \u2018German philosophy,\u2019 \u2018English political economy\u2019 and \u2018French socialism.\u2019 He added that \u201cthose were the best that man produced in the nineteenth century.\u201d The three components that he talked about were \u2018dialectical materialism,\u2019 \u2018Marxist political economy\u2019 and \u2018scientific socialism.\u2019<\/p>\n

That is about Marxism. But in assessing the contribution of Marx as a person or thinker, I would rather depend on what Engels said at Marx\u2019s graveside on 17 March 1883. It was brief but succinct. He said, \u201cJust as Darwin discovered the law of development of organic nature, so Marx discovered the law of development of human history.\u201d We all know that Darwin\u2019s theories are disputed as Marx\u2019s are. But their profound impact and the validity of key propositions are almost undisputed.<\/p>\n

Engels highlighted two discoveries of Marx in interpreting human history and society. When he was referring to the \u2018laws of development of human history\u2019 he was not merely referring to class struggle. In simple terms he said \u201cmankind must first of all eat, drink, and have shelter and clothing, before it can pursue politics, science, art and religion.\u201d It may sound like the Buddha<\/a><\/span> who asked his disciples to \u2018feed the people before preaching\u2019 but the sociological conclusion of Marx was the most important as follows.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe production of the immediate material means, and consequently the degree of economic development attained by a given people or during a given epoch, form the foundation upon which the state institutions, the legal conceptions, art, and even the ideas on religion, of the people concerned have been evolved.\u201d <\/em><\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Most importantly, therefore, Marx concluded that the state institutions, legal conceptions, art or even the ideas on religion should be explained on the basis of the production of the immediate material needs, and the degree of economic development attained, \u201cinstead of vice versa, as had hitherto been the case.\u201d This however did not disregard the importance of ideas or science in history. As Engels said, \u201cScience was for Marx a historically dynamic, revolutionary force.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that is not all,\u201d Engels further reiterated at his graveside. \u201cMarx also discovered the special law of motion governing the present-day capitalist mode of production, and the bourgeois society that this mode of production has created.\u201d That is the discovery of surplus value. This discovery, Engels said \u201csuddenly threw light on the problem\u201d in understanding both the rise and expansion and the possible demise of the capitalist system \u201cwhich all previous investigations, of both bourgeois economists and socialist critics, had been groping in the dark.\u201d<\/p>\n

The above two \u2018discoveries\u2019 undoubtedly have profound application in understanding the present day Sri Lanka<\/a><\/span> if they are not applied artificially or superficially. There are, for example, salient connections between the (weak) nature of the \u2018owners of the means of production\u2019 and their overdependence on the State for capital accumulation and even the State\u2019s move towards more and more authoritarianism. It is not the strength but the weakness of the capitalist system. This is abundantly apparent particularly in comparison to India. This is only one example of the possible application. But some of the other political phenomena might not be explained solely by Marx\u2019s general theories but by his specific theory of the AMP.<\/p>\n

Asiatic Mode of Production <\/strong><\/p>\n

There are those who tried to confine Marx\u2019s analysis of AMP to his early years only. That is not correct. In his Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy<\/em> Marx said \u201cIn broad outline, the Asiatic, ancient, feudal and modern bourgeois modes of production may be designated as epochs marking progress in the economic development of society.\u201d This was in January 1859. Although in a footnote to the Communist Manifesto<\/em> in 1888 Engels explained the existence of what could be called \u2018primitive communist\u2019 societies but he never suggested dropping the idea of Asiatic mode of production. That distortion came from Moscow for obvious reasons in the 1930s. The obvious reason was the congruence between the AMP and the Stalinist rule.<\/p>\n

The analysis of AMP came in early writings and repeated in the three volumes of Das Capital<\/em> as a comparison to other modes of production. The chapter on \u2018pre-capitalist economic formations\u2019 in much celebrated theoretical work of Grundrisse<\/em> (1857-58) analysed it more clearly. Nevertheless, it may be true that the analysis of the AMP remained clouded with some uncertainties due particularly to the lack of empirical research. Lenin often equated the Tsarist Russia to Asiatic despotism and Leon Trotsky alluded it in interpreting class alliances in colonial societies. It was however the former Marxist, Karl Wittfogel, who resurrected the theory in his famous Oriental Despotism<\/em> (1957).<\/p>\n

Marx\u2019s Reference to Ceylon <\/strong><\/p>\n

As far as I am aware, there is one reference to Ceylon in Marx\u2019s writings and interestingly it is in the context of AMP. That is quite important and revealing. It is not only in respect of geography but also in social formation. He considered India and Ceylon as one single ecosphere. This is what he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHindostan is an Italy of Asiatic dimensions, the Himalayas for the Alps, the Plains of Bengal for the Plains of Lombardy, the Deccan for the Apennines, and the Isle of Ceylon for the Island of Sicily.\u201d <\/em>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

For those who know about the history of Sicily, the comparison of Ceylon to Sicily is interesting apart from the present Mafia! Marx was writing to the New York Tribune<\/em> in 1853 to be precise. He criticised the British colonialism in its despotic ruling both in India and Ceylon. It is more invasive than the Asiatic despotism and here he used the term \u2018Asiatic despotism.\u2019 Then he explained what was there before.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been in Asia, generally, from immemorial times, but three departments of Government; that of Finance, or the plunder of the interior; that of War, or the plunder of the exterior; and, finally, the department of Public Works.\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As Marx was writing to the general reader, he used the term \u2018government\u2019 but it could also read as the State. The three departments that he talked about are like references specifically to Sri Lanka today. For example, one handling the Finance or the \u2018plunder of the interior,\u2019 another handing the War or the \u2018plunder of the exterior\u2019 beyond its own ethnic group and the third handling Public Works, including of course \u2018Divineguma<\/a><\/em><\/span>.\u2019 Whatever there in addition is merely cosmetic. How prophetic Marx was!<\/p>\n

To come back to the more serious points of the ancient AMP, his letters with Engels during the period reveal that Engels was the person who highlighted the \u2018climatic conditions\u2019 and the need for artificial irrigation \u2013 impressive tanks and canals – that underpinned the public works in ancient AMP. The communities that were scattered in small and isolated villages completely depended on the State or those who wielded power.<\/p>\n

Bases of AMP <\/strong><\/p>\n

There were two major facets that Marx emphasised as the bases of the AMP. First is the necessity of the people to develop a kind of \u2018voluntary associations\u2019 or self-help social relations at the village level to survive and sustain their living. Some even identified these villages as \u2018communistic.\u2019 I have maintained the view that Thomas More possibly drew inspirations for his Utopia<\/em> (1516) from village life in Ceylon and Kerala (Calicut).<\/p>\n

Second is the necessity of a \u201ccentralizing government\u201d interfacing this village means of production for essentially irrigation purposes. There was also a strong element of manpower control. This is the Asiatic despotism. I am not alluding but quoting: \u201cHence an economical function devolved upon all Asiatic Governments, the function of providing public works.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Then he criticised the colonial administration by saying \u201cNow, the British in East India accepted from their predecessors the department of finance and of war, but they have neglected entirely that of public works.\u201d This was the disaster of that particular colonialism and misery of the people. He also maintained the view that the British principles of not only laissez-faire<\/em> but also laissez-aller <\/em>might not apply or work in these conditions.<\/em> Laissez-aller<\/em> here means the \u2018freedom of movement.\u2019 Then what would be the alternative? He didn\u2019t say directly.<\/p>\n

But he supplied an unmistakable critique of Oriental despotism and said:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must not forget that these idyllic village-communities, inoffensive though they may appear, had always been the solid foundation of Oriental despotism, that they restrained the human mind within the smallest possible compass, making it the unresisting tool of superstition, enslaving it beneath traditional rules, depriving it of all grandeur and historical energies.\u201d <\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The reincarnation of \u2018Oriental despotism\u2019 is still possible and occurs as we have experienced in Sri Lanka under several different regimes based on \u2018public works\u2019 and keeping the mass of rural populous dependent on the State through various devices. This is also the secret behind the Rajapaksa<\/a><\/span> hegemony. As Marx said, the political character of this despotism is the \u201crestraining of the human mind within the smallest possible compass, making it the unresisting tool of superstition, enslaving it beneath traditional rules, depriving it of all grandeur and historical energies.\u201d At least this is the attempt.<\/p>\n

Marx criticised the British colonialism<\/a><\/span> by saying that it \u201cwas actuated only by the vilest interests, and was stupid in her manner of enforcing them.\u201d It may be considered too much of a mild criticism however. It was left for Lenin to analyse the true nature of Imperialism and announce the possibility of political and social change. But Marx asked the right question: \u201cCan mankind fulfil its destiny without a fundamental revolution in the social state of Asia?\u201d Although this was raised in respect of AMP of that time it is still valid in respect of AMP of our time. It was also Marx who said that \u201cPhilosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways. The point is, however, to change it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

When we consider the application of Marx\u2019s AMP to Sri Lanka\u2019s social evolution along with his general theory of political economy, the country has gone through (a) indigenous living of \u2018Yakkas\u2019 and \u2018Nagas\u2019 (b) long periods of fluctuating AMP with Asiatic despotism (c) colonial plunder and introduction of capitalism and (d) post-colonial bourgeoisie development mixed with the resurrection of AMP and Asiatic despotism again and again. What may be absent in understanding the past and the present might be the decisive role that the Asiatic despotism played in differentiating the ethnic formations and its relation to AMP. Marxism has always been weak in analysing the ethnic question.<\/p>\n

In the resurrection of Asiatic despotism in contemporary Sri Lanka, it is not by accident that \u2018Mahinda Chinthana<\/a><\/em><\/span>\u2019 quoted Parakramabahu the Great in its preamble declaring that \u201cA ruler is only a trustee and not the owner of land or its vegetation\u201d in a benevolent tone. It is an ideology or a mind-set. J. R. Jayewardene<\/a><\/span> had a similar vision. Marx extensively quoted J. B. Tavernier\u2019s Voyages<\/em> (1679) in his letters to Engels in early 1850s to explicate this aspect of governance or rule to strive his point of AMP. As Tavernier said the Mogul Emperor also was \u2018not the landowner but the trustee of the land and territory.\u2019 But he could plunder.<\/p>\n

More precisely, the current thinking of overall centralized power on the one hand and the resurrection of village administration on the other, is akin to AMP at the base and the Asiatic or Oriental despotism at the top, that Marx talked about. It should not be mistaken, however, that the primary nature of the \u2018mode of production\u2019 in Sri Lanka today is capitalist or semi-capitalist. However, the over dependence of the agricultural communities on the State and the poor sections of the populous on the government hand-outs (i.e. Samurdhi) have created a situation where Despotic rule has been possible behind the democratic paraphernalia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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