HISTORY, THE MARXIST WAY

HISTORY, THE MARXIST WAY

Marxist historians trace the evolution of mass consciousness through the circumscribed human situation obtaining in history. They lay emphasis on this gradual mass awakening, its causes, the factors aiding it or hindering it, and the joys and sorrows of the teeming millions suffering the yoke of man-made poverty. They highlight the age-old exploitation of labour culminating in capitalist deprivation of their basic means of decent survival. Conquests of emperors, kings and nations are incidental to this social evolution and serve only to either facilitate or delay the inevitable mass revolution that will usher in the millennium, such is the hope entertained by comminists, socialists and leftists of varying degrees of persuasion. Thus, leftist history depicts feudal territorial expansion, wars waged by kingdoms and nations, and even exceptional military prowess as exhibited by a Napoleon or an Alexander or a Julius Caesar or a Genghis Khan as merely episodes that manifest the historical struggle of the proletariat to break free of the forces of exploitation. This constant refrain of exploitation of labour by the capitalists, the impoverished condition of the masses, their pain and misery, their distressing destitution -- these form the core of their narrative and not the dazzle and glitz of conquering monarchs or of dictating tribes and nations. Hence, there is seemingly trust betrayed in hearing history from these scribes of the socialist kind but that is as much a valid way of describing the flowing human situation as is highlighting as isolted events the exploits of extraordinary personalities who have shaped history. The Marxist way is to read history in the light of Marxian theory and this becomes an irritant to many who do not subscribe to such a view. However, Marxist historiography is characterised by its propensity to highlighting the people's slow unfolding of political consciousness leading to eventual socialist revolution rather than glorifying the exploits of exploitative monarchs as disconnected deeds.

Written by Sugata Bose