As in the past, the situation in the form of war in evolution in the subcontinent has caused shouts both in India and in Pakistan so that all internal political differences are abandoned in the name of the “national unity.” Among the most notable examples of what this means in practice are public statements issued by the two main left-wing parties of India, the Communist Party of India (IPC) and the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), following the strikes of India within Pakistan on May 7.
Both parties have learned the narrative of the Modi regime about Pakistan that houses the “terrorists” and the justice of attacking the “infrastructure” (read: civilians) responsible for the attacks of Pahalgam on April 22. Declarations are inscitic of Indian state policy and only do the need for diplomatic solutions to avoid war.
Other Indian opposition parties, including Congress, have expressed similar positions. But parliamentary communist parties, with a long history of state nationalism challenge, while also mainly against war, are entering non -characterized territory.
Note that the CPI and the CPI-M have greatly maintained critical for the support of the Indian Government to Zionist war crimes against the Palestinians since October 2023. They have repeatedly demanded that India rearils its historical policy of support for Palestinian self-determination, refuse to be the condition of hamas dominant of the death of the death of death. ‘Terrorist’ organization.
The CPI and the CPI-M are threatening their own political creed.
Even if the robust left of India has been less willing to challenge the Indian State with respect to the issue of self -determination of Kashmir, at several points it has recognized the organic roots of the militancy in Kashmira instead of committing all the responsibility with the proverbial “foreign hand”. But when taking the positions that have a flourishing conflict with Pakistan, the IPC and the CPI-M are threatening their own political creed.
This is not a small matter, especially when observed from the perspective of the Pakistani left much smaller and more conform. Opposing state militarism in this country can be a dangerous effort, as evidenced by the repression facing progressive forces. But despite the propaganda in the official and online media, the progressives of the left have not retired from their principles positions.
It is not only in India that it is becoming more difficult for what in general can be called the counter-war that remains to survive, much less prosper. Hindutva is not the only extreme ideology that has taken over the ‘democratic’ institutions. We all live in political environments dominated by an increasingly xenophobic right wing, sub-chancated by entrenched establishments of military-media media. But this is exactly the reason why it is yielded to the majority feeling is an anathema for any person committed to a horizon of justice, egalitarianism and lasting peace.
The CPI-M should have learned from its own historical defeat in what was once its western Bengal Bastion in 2011. Having governed one of the largest states in India for more than three decades, its fall was triggered by a symbolic decision in 2007 to reduce thousands of peasants in Nandigram to establish a special export zone. The peasantry was the basis of the CPI-M policy, but by accepting the dominant logic of neoliberal globalization, the party turned its back on its social base and signed its own death order.
In the two intermediate decades, the CPI-M has not been able to recover the land lost in Western Bengal, although again having government power in Kerala. The socialist left in Pakistan is not currently equipped to take state power, so parliamentary communism in India still represents a kind of inspiration. But by unequivocally supporting the modi regime in its heating, both the CPI-M and the CPI have largely reduced their brightness.
At the time of writing this article, India has further increased tensions flying to drones to the main Pakistani cities, causing panic and creating more space for aggressive elements in the Pakistani political and intellectual current. According to reports, drones are imported from Israel, a symbol of the growing synergy between Zionism and Hindutva. Surely this link that Indian progressives should try to challenge.
At least, those on the left in the subcontinent and beyond should stop criticizing the language of “terrorism” at the request of the State, thus trampling the real stories of structural oppression that explain so many conflicts in our region and the world. In hysteria and misinformation of war fog, this clarity is essential.
The writer teaches at the University Quaid-I-Azam, Islamabad.
Posted in Dawn, May 9, 2025
