THOUGHT

Karl Marx (1818-1883), a German philosopher and economist is often considered as the father of socialism. Socialism emerged as an ideology just before the turn of the eighteenth century. It developed as a protest against the exploitation of workers and of other ordinary people that was common to capitalism. The Industrial revolution, which was made possible by use of the scientific method, had given people a new framework for thought. It also brought mechanized production and replaced human or animal energy with steam. Yet, as machines and energy sources became more sophisticated, the costs of mass production exceeded the resources of the individual. Consequently, cottage industries were replaced by the factory system. Family ownership of Industry was eventually displaced by stock market investors and professional managers. Each of these developments removed ownership from production and estranged the owners from the workers. The political oppression and economic exploitation, together with the social evils that accompanied them, were decried by Karl Marx. He demanded that they be replaced by a system that treated people justly and humanely: Socialism.

Marxian socialism begins with the simple observation that in order to survive, man must produce food and material objects. In doing so he enters into social relationship with other men. From the simple hunting to the complex industrial state, production is a social enterprise. Production also involves a technical component known as the forces of production which includes the technology, raw materials and scientific knowledge employed in the process of production. Each major stage in the development of the forces of production will correspond with a particular form of the social relationship of production. Marx saw history as divided into a number of time periods or epochs, each being characterised by a particular mode of production. Major changes in history are the result of new forces of production. The key to understanding society from a Marxian socialism involves an analysis of the infrastructure. In all historical societies there are basic contradictions between the forces and relations of production and there are fundamental conflicts of interest between the social groups involved in the production process. In particular, the relationship between the major social groups is one of exploitation and oppression. The superstructure derives largely from the infrastructure and therefore reproduces the social relationships of production. It will thus reflect the interests of the dominant group in the relations of production. Ruling class ideology distorts the true nature of society and serves to legitimate and justify the status quo. However the contradiction in the infrastructure will eventually lead to a disintegration of the system and the creation of a new society.

Dr sir Mohammad Iqbal (1877-1938) was one of the greatest literary figures of the 20th century India. His personality had the unique combination of the heart of the poet and head of thinker. Many poetical works of Iqbal testify to his sincere interest in the movement and principles of socialism. He was attracted to socialism by the thought of unity and equality of mankind. But, as Iqbal was opposed to a materialistic view of Karl Marx, he did not believe in the materialistic interpretation of the modern socialism of the west; rather, he was sympathetic to the spiritual socialism akin to Islam. However, his interest in the socialist movement of Bolshevik Russia was immense, because he regarded it as a storm that swept away all the foul airs in the atmosphere. He was, perhaps, the first Urdu poet of Asia to greet the victory of the great October socialist Revolution in Russia. When soviet power was installed in Russia, Iqbal wrote an Urdu poem under the caption: “Sarmaya wa Mihnat” (Capital and Labour). In this poem he exhorted the working people of the east and the west, with the dawn of a new social order, to follow the soviet revolution and cut off the chains of capitalism.

Thus Iqbal gave a clarion call to the workers of the world to get a lesson from the Great October Revolution of 1917 of the soviet Russia. Iqbal’s sympathy for the socialist revolution might have been due to his utter dislike for social injustice and economic exploitation of mankind. Iqbal would welcome a revolution in which the do-nothing absentee landlord, or the usurious money-lender, is swept away.

However, the revolution of Iqbal’s choice was not along the lines of communistic socialism with its ideal of absolute equality, expressed in the maxim; from each according to his capacity, to each according to his needs. His socialism was more along the lines of a socialism which has as its ideal not mechanical equality of all members of society, but rather potential equality in the sense of the maxim of Karl Marx followers whose ideal was; from each according to his capacity, to each according to his merit. Over and above, Iqbal believed in a spiritual socialism identical with Islam. According to him economic basis of socialism was identical with the teaching of the Quran. He believed that Islam and socialism had the same aim: to safeguard the sustenance of all the people. He called for the society which would rest on a foundation of social justice. He also contended that the social system of Islam, with all its potentialities, has sufficient provision for ensuring social justice. Iqbal believed that the best solution for the economic ills of all human communities has been put forward by Islam, which lacks in Karl Marx theory of socialism. Marx sees religion as the “false consciousness”. According to him it is the “Opiate of the people” because it offers them “pie in the sky” to divert them from the class struggle and prolong their exploitation.

Iqbal believed that the best solution for the economic ills of all human communities has been put forward by Islam in the Quran. There is no doubt that when the power of capitalism exceeds the limits of the golden mean, it becomes a curse for mankind. But to save mankind from its harmful effects, the remedy is not the elimination of this factor from the economic system, as communism has suggested. On the contrary, the Quran has devised a system comprising the laws of inheritance, Zakat, Haj, etc., to keep its power within proper limits. Iqbal condemned the socialism put forward by Karl Marx because it is based on materialistic social order; Iqbal had great respect for the founder of scientific socialism, Karl Marx. He addressed Marx as the prophet and founder of new social order founded on the equality of all peoples, and in his ‘Das capital’ Iqbal saw a kind of scripture in which are the principles of a new and just social order. To him in Marx’s teachings, there is an unconscious, hidden truth, i.e., the Islamic principles of equality of all peoples before God; a truth hidden there despite the fact that Marx’s social system is materialistic and Marx did not acknowledge God.

The chief flaw of the Karl Marx’s social order, according to Iqbal, is its atheism. For Marxian socialism is a socio-political system which preaches the abolition of religion in the supposed interest of humanity. It is thoroughly materialistic in its outlook; and for it, no other world beyond this life exists. According to Marx’s theory of socialism, the process of history is determined purely by economic forces and the only principle that governs is, ‘Might is Right’. Karl Marx predicts that power will eventually fall into the hands of the proletariat by the sheer force of historical causes. The proletariat, therefore, wrest by force the power from the hands of the rich and impose upon the world a new social order.

On the contrary, Iqbal’s thought is wholly permeated with the concept of the spiritual nature of the universe and the positive social philosophy and ethical ideology of Islam. Although the family is the basic unit of the Islamic social order, the moral and social injections of Islam are such that they unite all believers into a fraternity in which everyone is solicitous of the well-being of all, despite the existence of economic disparities. Instead of class-war, Iqbal preaches the principles of equality and solidarity in a social system in which the holder of legitimately acquired wealth is the trustee of all that exceeds his own requirements, for the benefit of his less favoured fellow-men. Islam, according to Iqbal, visualises a democratic fraternity of dignified individuals, conscious of divine guidance and a centralised welfare organisation, with sufficient scope for individual initiative in thought and action, subject to the limits imposed by the Islamic shariah. The institutions of intrest-free loans are an index of the fraternal solicitude of members of the community for one another. There is to be complete equality of opportunity and equality before the law; the head of the Muslim state is as much subservient to the dictates of God’s law as the lowest individual in the social scale. All human beings will be accountable for their mundane action in the hereafter. The maintenance of the disabled, the sick and the indigent, who in spite of effort are unable to earn their livelihood, and the education for the young, become the collective responsibility of the community in the social order of Islam. Thus Iqbal’s approach to the doctrine of socialism is wholly moral and, in the highest sense, is spiritual and idealistic.

The only thing Iqbal shares with the communist’s doctrine of socialism is its outright condemnation of lasses-faire capitalism. He, however, advocates the golden mean of Islam which maintains the necessary balance between capitalism and socialism. The dialectic that is contemplated in his system of thought is the dialectic of love rather than of hate and strife. On the one hand, this dialectical process enables man to assimilate the world of matter with a view to conquer it, on the other, it provides the human individual with a scope for progress to the exalted level of absorbing Divine attributes, by ever fresh creation of desires and ideals in the spiritual sphere.



(Prof. Taskeena Fazil teaches at Iqbal institute, University of Kashmir; Ajaz Lone is doing Research under her guidance. Feedback at ajazlone432@yahoo.co.in)