KCP underscores urgent need for ‘class consciousness’

By Our Staff Reporter
IMPHAL, Apr 13: The proscribed Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) has underscored the urgent need to overcome the ‘False Consciousness’ created by India  and bring out ‘Class Consciousness’ in order to wage a counter-hegemonic movement.
A statement issued by the outfit’s Central Committee on the occasion of its 41st raising day (April 14) asserted that since the forceful and coercive proselytisation of Meitei people into Hinduism which was followed by renaming of Kangleipak to Manipur, the indigenous faith, cultural values, traditions rituals were obliterated and linked with Hinduism.
Over the years, Manipuri people were forced to adopt  foreign culture and history as their own. After erasing their own cultural memory, cultural values of India were instilled among the people of the land. Now Manipuri people do not have any qualms in calling themselves as Indians, the Central Committee remarked in the statement issued by the outfit’s Information and Publicity secretary in-charge S Mangal.
Some 3/4 years back, a public leader from Kangleipak attended a fair at Madhavpur, Gujarat where many Indian leaders were present and he claimed that the present North Eastern States including Manipur have been a part of India since the days of Lord Krishna.
“Now we don’t feel any shame in deceiving ourselves. We are accepting servitude to others knowingly”, it alleged.
The present situation bears close resemblance to the Hegelian, Marxist and Gramsci’s concept of ‘Hegemony’ based on False Consciousness’.
Hegemony is basically a way of dominating the masses by the ruling class and it is also known as Cultural Leadership.
There is a gulf of difference between dominating the masses by using legislative and executive power and ruling over the masses through hegemony. Under hegemony, the masses willing accept the overlordship       of the ruling elite willingly.
In hegemony, the ruling class pays special attention  to Ideological State Apparatus (ISA) in addition to exercising Repressive State Apparatus (RSA). The ruling elite finds it easier to corrupt the social values, norms, ethics, political practice etc of the colonised people and instil their own norms, values and ideas upon the masses through ISA.
Through constant exercise of ISA, the colonised people are mentally oriented to accept the colonial rule instead of opposing it. This is the Hegemony defined by Gramsci, the Central Committee asserted.
Gramsci’s hegemony is exactly what is seen in Manipuri society today. Hegemony is more far-sighted than the general understanding of economic determinists that colonised people can be controlled completely if economy and RSA are taken into their hands.
If a particular Nation or community must be dominated permanently, one must gain control over the consciousness of the Nation/community.
Once the consciousness of the masses has been controlled by the ruling class, they would not understand their class interest and they would be overwhelmed by false consciousness and thus they would never achieve ‘revolutionary consciousness’, it continued.
Knowing the importance of hegemony or cultural leadership in order to fully dominate the Manipuri society, Indian leaders have been using several Ideological State Apparatuses to control the consciousness of the masses, it alleged.
The Central Committee remarked that this method is quite similar to Structural Marxist Louis Althusser’s theory known as Interpellation.
Once such a domination has completed a full circle, there would not be any need for the ruling elites or the colonial rulers to use coercive measures in order to sustain their domination. The colonised people would ultimately accept and support the colonial rule, it said.
There is a growing need for all the revolutionary groups of the land and the masses to wage a counter-hegemonic movement in order to over the false consciousness created by India and bring about class consciousness and ‘National Prestigious Consciousness’ otherwise the masses may sink completely within the alleged Indian colonial system and the beacon of revolutionary may go out for good, it warned.
It is the responsibility of the revolutionary movement to bring the masses to the level of revolutionary consciousness after bringing the people out of false consciousness. That was why Vladimir Lenin highlighted the need for professional revolutionaries in any revolutionary movement.
As stated by Lenin, professional revolutionaries should have the minimum necessary theoretical knowledge. If any revolutionary movement is led by people who do not have the basic minimum theoretical knowledge, the movement will never succeed in bringing the masses out of false consciousness. As such, all revolutionary cadres should brace to learn the necessary minimum theoretical knowledge, it said.
Saying that one major weakness of the revolutionary movement of Manipur is lack of theoretical base, the Central Committee stressed on the need to consolidate and strengthen the theoretical base.