Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

216 I Ramnath
present in its commonsense form and content. Incidentally,
Omvedt comments that in the earliest stages of the New
Left upsurge, "the Naxalite movement ... combined orthodox
Marxist-Leninist language with what many saw (with
a good deal of validity) as 'ruralist anarchism."'7 (Of course,
depending on who those "many" were, this was of a piece
with other criticisms and self-criticisms, such as "infantile;'
" a d ventunst, . " an d" u I tra-I err. C.")
Several Delhi-based progressive scholars wrote a statement
in May 201 1 after the defeat of the CPI(M)-lcd Left
Front governments that had governed West Bengal and
Kerala since 1977, proclaiming that the death of the Left
had been (yet again) greatly exaggerated, because the Left is
not the CPI(M); and not only because the coalition, while
losing its majority, had actually held on to a Significant
percentage of votes.
Votes have never been a real marker of the strength
of a political movement and its culture. Indeed, the
Left Front parties now have a historic opportunity
to transform themselves, starting with a consciollS ef
fort to introduce more democracy in their ranks and
a culture of open debate . ... [Ilt is clear that as long
as Indian democracy survives . .. in its broken state
as a system unable to nourish the mass of its population
or live without violence and the subjugation
of whole communities, the Left outside parliament,
the left as a culture of democracy and resistance, a
network of movements and organisations, and a
new more vigorous set of campaigns, will continue