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M.J. Joseph And ‘Action Images’ of Turbulent Times

ByJoe M.S.

02 August, 2014
Countercurrents.org

Comrade M.J.Joseph, a towering figure of Kerala’s rationalist and leftist movement, died on 10th July, 2014, at the age of 78. The leading daily of Kerala, Malayala Manorama, reported that he was a contemporary of Edamaruku and Pavanan, in leading the rationalist movement and leaves behind memories of a tale of humanitarian struggles. He was an old time worker of the undivided communist Party, who began his political career as an organiser of AISF in school and later got membership of the Communist party. He even courted arrest during the notorious anti communist liberation struggle (Vimochana Samaram) by the right wing forces in 1958 and later in the 60’s lost his government job for being a member of the Communist party. Being an advocate of inter-caste marriage, he married comrade.Shanta without any religious ceremony in the party office. He led many working class struggles of the plantation workers in the high range area. He also fought for the rights of beedi workers at Manjeswaram, in Kasaragod, while working as a government servant there. He did not mention caste/religion in the governments documents of his family members or in the school certificates of his children, facing the ire of the authorities. He made his children marry outside the ambit of caste and religion, according to Special Marriage Act. After retiring as an IRDP officer, he moved from CPI(M) to S.U.C.I. He was a candidate of SUCI to the Loksabha elections in 2001 and 2006. He also worked very actively in various organisations like science forum, All India anti imperialist forum, Misra Vivaha Sangam (inter-caste marriage association), Janakeeya prathirodha samithi and Yukthi Vadi Sangam (Kerala Rationalist Association). His eyes were donated and body was cremated without any religious ceremony.

With the passing away of M.J. Joseph, a doyen of the left rationalist movement in Kerala, one of the last linchpins of enlightenment has bid farewell. His radical life, along with his intense scholar ship and avid passion for reading, that shows an interest in almost everything in the universe, as a classical enlightenment man would supposedly have done, was great. His oeuvre reflected the glorious history of progressive movements in all it’s complexities. An organic intellectual to the core, hailing from a literal proletarian background, his intellectual pursuits remained probably a lesser known facet, than his public interventions.

Mapping of an era

His life was a part of history, in which, he attempted genuinely the difficult task to reinvent himself according to changing times. However, it resulted in a complex struggle through contradictions. He could witness and be an active party to the change brought about by leftist and rationalist movement in the early 1950’s. Though however problematic and limited such change might be, he was proud of the confidence it instilled in the oppressed, through the moves like marginal land reform legislation wrought by the left and the democratic spaces such attempts inaugurated. He remained till the end, an active combatant, even to the new pseudo religious revivalism, in the neoliberal period.

His life was, in a way, the cognitive mapping and it’s inherent dissonances, through an individual, the complex history of colonial and post-colonial modernity and it’s interaction with nativity. He had a highly advanced theoretical understanding of the trajectory of the main stream left parties. And he commented on the intricacies of the hisotry of their split with documental proof to buttress his unique observations. He had studied about the contribution of stalwarts ranging from of Musaffar Ahmed to lesser known characters in the movement. His vast experience from life cut across all schools. He had studied at close quarters about even quacks, sorcerers and their investments in libidinal drives. With the passion of a rationlist missionary and an anthropologist’s objective research zeal, he observed the rarest of the rare ritual, amongst the tribes. His commitment to people and their strife in northern Kerala made him proficient even in Tulu. It was in these unique socio-political climate of northern Kerala, that his wife, Mrs.Shanta Joseph, emerged as a wonderful organiser for CPI(M), among the beedi workers, in the 1970’s .

He travelled the length and breadth of Kerala, sometimes as part of punishment transfers for not appeasing the corrupt bureaucrats or sometimes as an activist of rationalism or Marxism, residing in various nooks and corners, living amidst people and their woes, mastering their problem as a wonderful organiser. Yet, as though in some magic, he mastered the technique of making himself disappear, to find ample time for reading even the latest theoretical outputs on Einstein’s relativity, or some mundane text on farming methodology. He found time to immerse himself in a book, whether it be a literary criticism of Marquez’s new novel or a ‘cinemapattupusthakam’ (cheap books which compiled the latest hit film’s lyrics). He was a stark contradiction to many an Indian leftist activist, who in their hubris, cultivates a kind of deliberate anti intellectualism and an aversion for books, as an appreciable trait.

Comrade Joseph, had an eclectic approach to social issues and activism. This was evident in the anecdote he depicted about an official study trip he made to Bihar in 1980. There, he met a Malayali Christian missionary, in a remote rural hamlet, living in poorest and harsh conditions. This made a deep impression on him to acknowledge the dedication of liberation theologists, despite his uncompromising atheism and dialectical materialism. Thus, he had regard for the Liberation theology of Paulose Mar Paulose. Though he understood religion as the opiate of the masses, he was generous enough to understand the solace which the religious opiate provides to destitute. He thus narrated an incident, where he felt it futile and arrogant, to pontificate atheism to a poor and illiterate old woman, whose severe and intolerable hardships in life, made her belief in the almighty her only hope, to avert suicide.

His life and times in the late 1980’s were marked by a specific kind of political angst, as the whole ideological apparatus of soviet style Marxism was crumbling the world over, and the party of his own (CPIM) was ending up as another mainstream participant in power politics, sans no alternative thought or praxis. That stage of deep inquiry and doubts, attracted him to Socilaist Unity Centre of India, its spartan politics, alternative life style, intellectual commitment, and even scholarly ambience. It provided him the much needed certitude, a venue for sacrificial life, and an abode for his intellectual passion and honesty.

His predicament of being a product of positivist progress, had seen him interact with rare passion with the down trodden masses. His job as a government servant gave him ample avenues, for that. He intervened in this capacity to bring about progressive changes in the tribal life, a process which assumes complex philosophical and sociological dimensions.

Radical struggles and reforms

History is always something understood in retrospect, the potential meanings of which never gets exhausted. The status-quoist stances of mainstream left combined with their theoretical laxity at the grass root level and many more issues like, that would have made him gravitate towards new theoretical pastures, as was provided by SUCI and Shibdas Ghosh, where he could anchor his philosophical queries. In their conception that enlightenment of India remained truncated and half baked, necessitating a cultural struggle with renewed vigour, he could accommodate adequate flexibility, and space for his multifarious theoretical engagement.

In fact, he has exhibited ‘symptoms’ of revolutionary fervour in his poverty stricken school days it self, the narrative of which , when one listens to him in person, gives the accurate impression of the woes of a famished countryside of Kerala in the middle of the 20th century, where feudal exploitation was feeling the reverberation of its death throes, by the awakening of radical consciousness amongst an impoverished peasantry. His forays in to the radical movements in his school days, equipped with academic brilliance, saw him pitted against the forces of yore’s orthodoxy, in the form of religion and feudal norms and customs, costing him almost his higher education. (Or else he would have had a brilliant academic and intellectual career). In his own words, his passion to fight injustice was obsessional, his needs meagre, the solidarity he felt for the needy and the poor phenomenal and religious. As he himself puts it, (he being a meticulous student of Bible, though he turned later into an atheist and rationalist), his childhood days as a passionate and devout Catholic, uttering the prayers of St. Sebastian round the clock and the stories of holy martyrdom and sacrifice such religious figures inculcated in him, has already prepared him for an aversion to hedonistic pursuits and a sense of sacrifice for a public cause.

He showed a rare sensitivity to ecology, unlike many of his positivist contemporaries, thus associating his energy for the Silent valley struggles, in the 1970’s itself. Till death he was conscious of the threat of fascism and remained a vigorous champion of human rights.

The fact that, though belonging to the old school( subjectively), his genuine interest in human liberation is brought forth in the apparent contradiction of his equal interests in A.K.Gopalan and Laha Gopalan- a point which shows that many of the new left concerns were not an anathema to him.

He had a fancy or fixation for the romantic revolutionary ideal called Bengal, bordering on Bhadralokik ambience, derived from Saratchandra, Subsh candra bose, Shibdas Ghose, and it’s intellectual engagements. Yet he could never visit West Bengal, which remained an unfulfilled passion. The story of Khudiram Bose and Bhagat Singh filled a revolutionary romantic nostalgia for anti-imperialist struggles in him. On the other hand, his theoretical mastering of the socio political and rational contributions of Ayyankali, Ambedkar, Periyar and Sahodaran Ayyappan, filled him to the brim with enthusiastic energy in updating and reaching out to the new social movements and struggles of the marginalised, oppressed, Dalits, tribes and environment.

He had great admiration on reading about the martyred comrade Varghese, who has assumed the cult status of a Cheguevera, in the media of Kerala. Accordingly, for him, Varghese was the first revolutionary to address the slavery and marginalisation meted out to the tribes in Kerala by the mainstream society, which did not even come with in the purview of traditional Marxism. Yet he admonished the violent culture of the ML movement, as he even had influences of Gandhi in him
His theoretical musings, in an unique way, could correctly place Ayyankali’s militant struggles, as not just an attempt at social reform, but in content, as one of the pioneering, in the agrarian struggles in Kerala. He exuded enthusiasm in his almost divine admiration for Ayyankali, and he left no stone unturned in identifying himself with Dalits at every opportunity, mocking at the ‘Savarna tharavadu’ (upper caste family) genealogy manufacturing cult, of late rampant, in the noveau riche upper caste Christian communities. He was receptive, though being a participant in an Onam or Vishu celebrations, as to the queries relating to its fabricated historicity, as has been observed , for instance by many an eminent pro Dalit scholars, and the ideological purposes it served in symbolic oppression of the depressed classes. He remained attentive to a discourse that many such celebration, end up as nothing but reproduction and entrenchment of the upperclass/caste values. Still he maintained his bias for Onam and many other festivities as an occasion for celebration and human association. Thus, though from a different school, he tried to follow, the post structural questioning of the apparent harmless anointment of the festivals and idioms of one particular class/caste as symbolic of all, and it’s implicit marginalisation and othering of minorities, their culture, ritual, and festivals. Unknowingly, he could comprehend and engage with the new trajectories of cultural politics. Yet rationalist association in general, was greatly apprehensive of the complex discourses of identity politics attempted by marxist scholars like Dr.P.K.Poker and K.E.N.

He was actively involved in the struggles of Plachimada, which became a symbol of a meek village rising up in protest against the exploitation of tribal people, by a multinational giant, the world over.

His rationalism and scientific temper was always in dialectical throes. It could never end up as the hubris of instrumental positivism, as it was inherently balanced by deep scientific concern for ecological activism, which drew energy from leftist ecology of the historic Kerala’s People Science Movement, to the new left ecological activists like C.R.Neelakandan, despite differences.

He was not a life denying dry rationalist. He proved, like Gandhi, that he can win over even enemies by softness in approach and love. He made rationalist life popular and people centric, never becoming a dry atheistic maniac. His character traits as an extrovert would have helped him in it. Thus, he used to participate in Muslim friends’ Ifthar party and Christian’s Pesaha Pal (Pass Over Milk) served on pass over night of Maundy Thursday, was his favourite nostalgic drink. In other words, he has mastered that rare art of becoming a militant atheist and being popular among kids and elders of all classes and creed.

He passionately loved Malayalam as a language, so that he signed only in his mother tongue. He never entertained even the faintest sign of aristocracy and casteist overtones, whomever he was engaging with. He literally hated words like servants and was even skeptical of the so called comrades, if they behaved improperly with dalits. He fought valiantly for the respect and dignity of dalits. But surprisingly, this was anchored in a kind of personal marxist standpoint, unhampered by economic reductionist understanding. Thus he read marxism with a rare reflexivity, as against it’s canonical understanding, though never fully traversing the path of identifying with the productive unravelling of the invisible power structures of society, by post structural discourses.

Thus he could not catch up on new film theory and criticism inspired by structuralism and Feminism. Likewise, when it comes to aesthetics he had ambivalent positions, belonging to the old school, and could not come out fully from its final vocabulary.

His historic recollections vividly portrayed the mythical narratives of a Salem Vaidyan (in the 1950’s of Muvattupuzha), one of the pioneers of the revolutionaries of those areas, whom Joseph and his friends as teenagers looked at admiringly as a star and whose tales of physical acrobatics with feudal forces gained mythical proportions. He relished explaining the machismo of such martial arts militancy. He also dwelt at length on his engagement in an open question session with stalwarts like E.M.S, on the shenanigans of the party split, in the 1960’s.

In the modernity driven exodus to margins (Idukki) of the 60’s, he too was a participant in the politics of migration, marked by literal physical struggle for existence, where he worked as a tailor (he excelled even in that). The torments of sheer physical labour he had to go through without even proper food for years, has been habituated from early poverty stricken childhood , where he eked out a living almost literally as a child labourer, experiencing violent physical persecutions for minor negligence, surviving without food like an enigma, still completing school finals with laurels, despite the lack of books and other facilities. All of these has prepared and steeled him for all odds in life. The kind of rare appetite to devour books would have come from such a denial.

His life and struggle in the hilly terrain would have brought him closer to AKG, a cult revolutionary figure of Indian Marxism. The very fact that he could meet and work for him was celestial for Joseph. It was at this juncture, that he met his partner, wife and comrade in life, Mrs.Shantha Joseph, hailing from Hindu background. Their marriage in party office without rituals, was even curious by the party standards. They had to brave many odds from religious orthodoxy and even physical threat, since inter caste marriages were looked down upon in society. They had to struggle to get admission for their children in schools since the schools run by religious orthodoxy insisted on filling the caste/religious column in the application form, which they never had. Incidents like this, resulted in a glorious struggle to get a government order by the rationalist for the right to leave such column as unfilled, for the purpose of admission of their children.

Comrade Joseph’s courageous militancy in organizing peasants against hoarding of the rice meant for the poor by the local feudal lords and their henchmen, took him to prison once. In another incident, his deep concern for Dalits, made him organise his leftist comrades, as it was his wont to go against conformism, to make a Dalit artist perform Kathakali in the upper-casteist dominated precincts, where such a move was culturally forbidden. Their efforts ended up in physical altercations with feudal landlords.

He had to work hard, some times as a tailor and later as a IRDP government officer in rurual postings. Thus he helped whomever who came his way, with out any concern for his own financial stability, which, at times, landed him in dire straits.

He used to attend the speeches of Swami Chinmayananda, just to enjoy the beauty of English language, though he was a full-fledged atheist. Through his own hard work, he had mastered English language, and used to read Dascapital and other serious theoretical works, in English.

His struggle during the emergency when he was posted at Kozhikode is great. His interaction with working class from the fisherman community, endeared him to them, and he literally commanded their unquestioning loyalty. He remained a first rate organiser on people’s issues.

Another important struggle he waged, in the 90’s was against the district primary education programme with the SUCI, which he found as a world bank project to disband the educational achievement made by the Keralites. He was also very active till his very end in organising people, who in the name of development and highway construction, were getting displaced, which many mainstream communists in their neoliberal pragmatism and developmental teleology, could not even understand. Mrs. Shanta Joseph, his comrade in life and struggle, was his ultimate pillar of support in facing odds.

His own role as a small time village playwright was inspired, may be, by the contributions of K.Damodaran, the communist maverick. He was even acknowledged as a wonderful singer. He was always in the forefront of championing the marginalised and the incarcerated.

Under his own initiative as a government servant, he could arrange for the respectable livelihood, with imparting technical skills and education, for some members of impoverished tribes, to make out a living in the cities. All such intervention has a historic context, in which the penetration of modernity had made the wane of pristine tribal economy and livelihood, were lives were merely wasted, as the marginalised other, with no means for livelihood. Pitted against such a predicament, where no radical rupture in the economy was on the horizon, as far as livelihood was concerned, his moves were very pragmatic.

As he remained himself, a crusader against corruption in all its forms, being himself a victim of corrupt officials, and their ire which resulted in constant punishment transfers, it was natural that he was enamoured with the anti corruption move of Anna Hazare in 2011, which came with a bang on the scene, though his interest apparently waned with its petering out.

In short, one could surmise that, his ideological core was premised on and his theoretical enquiries culminated in Shibdas Ghose’s pronunciations, that Indian enlightenment remained majorly a half baked and truncated one, due to the specificity of the character it acquired, under the peculiar stages of the development of Indian bourgeois, when capitalism the world over was in crisis- which got reflected in the culture of the country as such. He mediated a space for manoeuvring with in the ambit of this understanding, to work in many directions. He could be seen, many times, reading back to back the thick volumes of Shibdas Ghose thought, some times even literally running away in the middle of an interesting talk. He was, thus, deeply concerned with cultural reformation of man. Following Ghose, he rightly opined that the new complexities brought forth by capitalist culture, needs a deeper understanding of human psychology.

A Radical humanitarian and humanist

Though a humanist , in the sense that one who is secular in the worldly affairs, his was a humanism informed by humanitarian concerns. In this sense the radical political theory in him was surpassed by his philanthropic instincts.

He was very close to the most towering left rationalist, Pavanan. Especially, his close association, deep respect and love for him was evident in his frequent visits, after the latter fell ill in early 2000’s. He remembered the warmth with which Pavanan responded to him when he was seriously ill. He used to explain the deep love he had for Pavanan, his admiration for his scholarship, commitment and innocence, and the time they spent together, with nostalgia.

Joseph’s narrating of own experience of helping out a man, who was brought down to begging, by providing him with the initial sum to start a small business was genuinely inspiring. His anecdotes of giving money to an old man to meet his medical expenses, every month, and his end in a suicide, was heart wrenching to listen to. His mission was more of a philanthropist, the revolutionary ‘nihilist’ in him getting sidelined in the process. He left no stone unturned to go out of his way to help people in problems. He always remembered with pride an incident, where he made his wife to attend to and help out a women in labour pain, in a remote, desolate place. He valiantly waged an organised struggle in the 70’s in Kasargod, for the poor tribes who does not even have a path to go to the town, against feudal forces, taking great risks. The success of the struggle made that road being named after him later.

He went out of his way in disbursing government funds meant for the poor in his capacity as a government servant, which would have lapsed, due to the lack of knowledge of the persons concerned. In fact it was an attempt at utilizing democratic avenues for alleviating poverty and empowering people through information. Though it pitted him many a times against his own radical political views, he was much of a pragmatist in addressing immediate concerns. He indulged in self mockery for deviating from Lenin in endearing the decrepit system to the people. He was very punctual in reminding and wishing all his friends their birthdays. He absolved himself from his own ideology to present generous gifts and presents to people.

In a way, his philanthropy bordered on a passion of belief, though secular, often in an apolitical sense, bordering on excess, which indirectly proves that he remained a unique, humane and passionate individual, not a mere instrument in the teleological discourses, on strait jacketing history.

At the height of a society of spectacle (Guy Debord) in the neoliberal and consumerist 90’s onwards, where consumerism assumed a ritualistic and religious vein, he remained unaffected by sheer strength of character, among fickle minded and upstart revolutionaries.

Inter-caste marriage, endogamy and the politics of caste

The interest he evinced in inter-caste marriages, was of extremely important sociological relevance in the Indian context. Thus , as Ambedkar and Sahodran Ayyappan believed, the annihilation of a thousand year old graded inequality called caste system and its entrenched patriarchal values, could only be done by a break with endogamous marriage system, which was facilitated by the inter-caste marriage. What ever be the judgements from the safe coteries of intelligentsia, on such attempts at annihilating caste system, such efforts would be marked in the glorious history, for emancipation of mankind, as bold attempts. For attempting such a rupture in the communally segregated casteist and orthodox culture, what ever be the pitfalls of marriage as an institution in its reproduction of patriarchal values, the very biological revolt it attempted in breaking endogamy , will be remembered in history. Though it was not an easy walk, as Joseph and his wife, Mrs. Shantha Joseph, had to face constant physical threats at the hand of forces of reaction. The feudal society admonished the marriage of a Christian to a Hindu Ezhava lady. The society at large , due to their sectarianism, could not even conceive such unions. He remained a loyal and staunch advocate of that movement organising hundreds of such marriages and an office bearer of the association of inter-caste marriages. Though the complexities raised by a rising feminist movement, Dalit assertion and minority gender are more nuanced, the importance of breaking endogamy, through inter-caste marriages, remains a potent catalyst for liberation, as the eminent poet Balachandran Chullikad once observed.

A biographical picture need not indulge in hagiography. Thus it does not meant that he was never even faintly affected by historic limitations. Being schooled in many ways , in the social reform under the auspices of men attempted in Kerala in a markedly matrilineal society, as the eminent scholar J.Devika has observed, he would have neither time or orientation to have followed in detail the new horizons in Feminist discourses, Even then, one could not say that for sure, since his relentless attempt in reading journalistic pieces, to the close following of electronic media to social interactions , would have given him the drift, to catch up on newer developments and complexities posed by social turns. Any way, the discourse attempted by the likes of , say a Judith Butler, was beyond his interest.

His intellectual itinerary

His lived experience of history, was always a treasure, treading from Sahodaran Ayyapan, to his struggles with the intricacies of theory of relativity of Einstein. His passion for Einstein was such that , he once toyed with idea of naming one of his grand children as Einstein. He, was an astounding grammatician, and a literal scholar of Malayalam language. A.R.Rajarajavarma remained his favourite grammatician. Such sheer intellectual passion, out of a weird shyness, he kept to himself. He devoured classical poetics. He adored Sooranad Kunjan Pillai, the eminent lexicographer and had great respect for the literary skills of KunjikuttanThampuran. In other words, one could even say that he continued the now defunct legacy of the great rationalist, Kuttipuzha Krishnapilla.

His rationalism was not bourgeois. It was definitely inspired by Marxism. Thus it was quite natural that he would side with Kerla Yukthivadi Sangham of U.Kalanthan, with it’s leftist leanings, in 1984, when EMS, Namboothirippadu, unleashed a scathing criticism of the kind of rationalism indulged in by the Edamaruku school, as bourgeois. Even then, Joseph was of the opinion that atheist propaganda was necessary to bring about changes in society, and he buttressed his arguments with quotations from Lenin’s exhortations for the same. (In the internet age he relished like a child watching real clippings of Lenin to Stalin on Youtube). Charvaka, the ancient great Indian materialist, remained his source of inspiration and he read thoroughly all material available on it in Malayalam. Marxist archaeologist, Gordon Childe, was there in his intellectual itinerary from the beginning. Early from his youth hood, very zealous reading of Marxist party journal like Chinta, had impact even in his personal life, as he named his own daughter Chinta .

He passionatley read Maximgorky’s ‘Amma’, though he had political considerations in liking Sarat Chandra Chatterjee as more organic. But his favourite literatteur was Thakazhi, and his favourite book ‘Randidangazhi’. He considered, Chathan’s transformation in it from a secret lover of Chirutha to her protector, out of his deep comradeship for Koran, as the height of classical communist virtue. This does not mean that he was not engaging with questions raised by the likes of K.E.N. Kunjahamad that Chandu Menon made Indulekha’s skin tone as extremely fair contrasted to the black skin of Soori Namboothiri, the villain, to entrench a particular ideological world. Nevertheless, Joseph was compromising and commended that historical limitation of their world view should be allowed for. He used to vax eloquent on Ponkunnam Varkey.

A champion of chaste, and even canonical Malayalam, with grammatical perfection, he represented an era, of E.M.S’s Keralam Malayalikalude Mathrubhumi, internalising the ideological world it imagined, in body language, demeanour and mannerisms. The gentlemanly teetotaller comrade in him, directly evolved from the nationalistic Gandhian fervour, and remained a disciplinarian, unlike their anarchist progenies. His very presence, tone and tenor of language and the ambience he cultivated was that of the extreme positive hopes of enlightenment and positive energy, of a bygone era which no longer exists. Having said this, he was a bundle of contradictions, since from the 90’s, he remained an Ambedkarite scholar critical of the upper caste domination of the main stream Marxism. Yet he had great nostalgia for the days of AKG, when the camaraderie among the comrades cutting across caste , religious divide was noteworthy.

A studious student of history, he meticulously studied Elamkulam Kunjan Pillai, to know his own past, to the recent educational interventions of historians like Rajangurukkal. Having a good word for the magic in language in O.V.Vijayan’s Khasakkinte Itihasam, though even not a bit infested by modernism or existential angst of Sartre literally, being a bundle of energy, he used to walk kilometres day.

He enthusiastically involved in the activities of Break Through Science society, to inculcate scientific temper among the people, and ravenously devoured issues of Break through of SUCI. He was active in the activities of , Banner, another out fit of SUCI, to bring out fresh talents in literature. Apart from this, as an office bearer of SUCI, and Kerala Yukthivadi Sanghom, he was always travelling , attending meetings, as long as health permitted.

His recollection of memories of his time spent as a rationalist activist expending time, energy and money against superstitions, most of the time at a personal financial loss, is inspiring . Even from the early days he was associated with veterans of rationalism like Pavanan, Edamaruku, M.C.Joseph and Varki Shantisthan. He could spent time with historic revolutionaries like comrade Sugathan, in the olden days in communist party, who was down to earth and lived in a party office. He could thus attempt to map cognitively and struggle to bear the dissonances, the changes of an era from the feudalism to modernity, even in literature and movies.

He himself had told the fact that, unlike understood in the mainstream, Lenin had theorised on the need for militant atheism and it’s campaign. It seems, he brought it to the notice of Rajagopal Vakathanma to incorporate in the latter’s book. Rajagopal Vakathanam, another veteran rationalist, whose dalit centric left rationalism, re-inaugurated an interest in Sahodaran Ayyappan and Periyar, which unlike some schools of bureaucratic rationalism limiting itself only to the miracle exposure, would have also influenced him. He was very much interested in Chao’s theory and read Dr.babu Joseph’s contribution with much interest.

He always cherished enthusiastic memories of his comrades in SUCI like Lukose, whose failing health worried him. He preserved the memory of his great inspiring interaction with comrade Krishna Chakroborthy from Bengal. For him comrade Shibdas Ghose’s philsophical understanding of Marxism, was completely different and exhilarating . He firmly believed in the SUCI(C)’s conception that in the face of looming capitalism socialist revolution is the only panacea, unlike CPIM’s idea of a people's democratic revolution or a national democratic or a new democratic revolution, upheld by other communist parties, which were deemed as theoretically incorrect. He had deep love and affection for the agility of his comrades like Padmakumar And Chandrasekhar.

Progressive literature and socialist realism remained his cup of tea. A Chullikkad hardly interested him, though he had cried listening to Kattakada Murukan reciting poetry on T.V.

Even a few months before his death he had bought a new book on carnatic music (he being an excellent singer in old party forums, though not classically trained) deatiling on swarasthanam and ragas, which he studied with taking notes, to replenish his aesthetics.

He had very close relationship with noted social reformers like Keshavan vaidyar. He was a pillar of support to the lone pursuit of A.V.Jose in his rationalist campaign. He cherished his first meeting with M.C.Joseph, when he went to show a patient with psychological problems to him, and the rationalist and psychological tricks used by M.C.Joseph in healing him, impressed him.

He had an interest in all kind of movies and tried to even catch up with the modernist experiments of Shaji.N.karun’s ‘Vanaprastham’. Joseph’s Marxism was Indian to it’s core , some times even populist, which worked both as a strength and impediment in facing odds.

He had an insatiable passion for science and it’s Marxist understanding. He laboured , though a school finalist, as a self taught expert, into the intricacies of theory of relativity and genetics, amply helped by the eminent science forum of Socialist Unity Centre, Break Through. His lone pursuits, infested with intellectual greed, saw him buy, with his meagre income as a government pensioner (a large share of which goes to philanthropic pursuits like helping out poor kids in education and helping out old friends) some times even the latest books on genetics from the USA, and polemical discussion on environmental and genetic impacts on beings. His Marxist surety in environmental impact was sometimes undermined to believe, as the admiration for the base voice of yesudas dictated, to wonder at genetics. The writer had the privilege some times to inform him of the Monthly Review school, John Bellamy Foster’s intervention through Marx’s ecology, Levins and Lewontin Dialectical Bologist, the works of Brett Clark, and Richard York, Helena Sheehan and Meerananda. J.b.S.Haldane and J.D.Bernal, remained and in-house name for this Malyalam pundit, whose days still a few months back, has seen him busy campaigning in rural hamlets on issues, ranging from marginalisation to displacement from highway construction, educational needs and superstitions. (He had even visited in the year 2000, with a team of rationalists, to expose the exploitative superstitions based on Chatans, at their abode).

A heavily biased comrade in favour of his leanings, he could even be seen as a messenger of peace and reconciliation, and was friendly with even priests and the religious minded,who were comrades with them in different endeavours.

His unknowing forays in his reading in to subaltern historiography made him ‘vulnerable’ to accord the status of freedom struggle, to the one waged by Birsamunda and the tribes ( may be, as the one unleashed by the post colonial musings of Partha Chatterjee and his associates), as against the mainstream understanding, only to be corrected by his much younger scholarly comrades of classical Marxism, with the certitudes of a systemic progression and stages of development.

His scholarly efforts made him to perceive a nuanced understanding of the history of Kerala’s social reform, where in his studies, comparatively unknown characters who predated Narayan Guru like, Vaikundaswamikal, were accorded their due. He always was in awe of Narayana Guru and his social reform. He realized the potential of progressive religious movement for social change. Thus he maintained good relation with followers of Brahmananda Shivayogi and was a subscriber of the monthly Saragrahi.

Always reaching out to the exhaustion of the school of left rationalism, he could proceed naturally in to the newer terrains of social movements, as reflected in his interests in the subaltern assertions in the postmodern clime, despite unswervingly upholding the certitudes of his classical Marxism.

His intellectual itinerary also took him from earlier days to the books of scholars like Rahul Sankruthyayan and P.Govindapillai. He loved the songs of Yesudas, and belonged to the old school of Vayalar Devrajan team, as a fan. Though an admirer of Rafi, Yesudas’ base voice has done it’s cultural politics in his attitude. His artistic sensibility was generous and great. Unknowingly, it seems , he relished the fact that cinema was the boon and bane which realized modernity. A case in point, is Dharmendra’s Hindi movie, Jeevan Sanghursh (noted for the song Jhin min sitaron ka ) which got dubbed in to Malayalam and became a huge block buster. This film and it’s song had a great influence on the Malayali psyche, Joseph not an exception. Some times, there were Jugalbandis in singing, with his wife and comrades.

He told once that, he undersstood from the writings P.Govindapillai, one of the most veteran intellectual giants of the Indian Communist movements, that the inbuilt structure of Theyyam was counter hegemonic- a differential understanding from mainstream rationalism. He spend hours on re-reading Liu shaoqi, to become a good communist .
Comrade Joseph never inculcated the business culture of one-upmanship. He never projected himself, but remained largely to work anonymously at the grass root.

He took pains, to propagate rationalist magazines like ‘yukthirekha’, often venturing to market places to paste anti superstitious campaign posters on his own, with philosophical justifications for enjoying the sheer thrill of attempting that, even when he was in his late 70’s. He could be seen even, a couple of month before his death, labouring over thick volumes of Ghosh, repeatedly. He has even ordered for the latest offering on Freud in Malayalam. His library was literary polyphonic, with all genres of books and languages. His will power was phenomenal, proven even recently when he met with a near fatal car accident, in which his legs were seriously injured, and he fought back to life with a rare militancy, hardly shown even by the youngsters.

Though rationalist enlightenment had inherent potential to end up as instrumentalism (at least in it’s mainstream variety), as has been observed in dialectics of enlightenment by Adorno, in a way a kind of secular spiritualist aesthetics inherent in him, guarded him against such occurrences, as is evidenced by his apparently contradictory views reflecting the life world of an Indian proletariat, where unabashed celebration of love and sentiments exudes. Moreover, his considerable interest in ecology combined with an interest in alternative lifestyle was visible in his passion for Aryurveda. As Drucella cornell has observed in Social Text, Foucualt’s passion for marginalised religiosity was that his observations showed him the emancipatory potential in them. Likewise, Joseph’s passion, obsessions and vacillations was a graduation to an interest in the intellectual production of the new left/social movement of the Dalits and Muslims- an unacknowledged recognition by the atheist in him of the common endeavour to be made with oppressed of all types.

Conclusion

As a concluding note, one could agree with and draw from the eminent French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, who philosophised Cinema as philosophy itself, that M.J.Joseph’s formation belonged to the Chaplinesque era of action images that instilled in him hopes of linear revolts, though the process of navigating the turmoil of a later era marked by modernist time images wilfully made him susceptible to the complexities of a post war era, thereby enriching and opening up his perspectives. In such a process of struggle, the disenchantment of his modern scientific temperament, was, as he admitted subjectively, in a different vein and would have been a natural progression from the rupture with religious enchantment into a religious yet dichotomous disenchantment (Christianity). In short, to quote Derrida, the work mourning to be meaningful, have to be an invitation to Marx’s specter, thereby beseeching the memoirs of all the lost struggles of marginalised , to face fascism.

To end on an open ended note, in the context of shattering in certainties, brought forth by post structural skepticism, the inherent teleology of linear view is problematic. Yet, the towering authority figures of philosophy like Alain Badiou and Salvoj Zizek are still reinstating the Communist. So, in an eclectic jumbling, one could say that the action image of linear hopes not got extinguished, but extended to the time period of time images, and navigating through it, sustaining on with the life-world of third world and it’s Marxism, which can be complex, as it’s responses are, despite theory, shaped by empirical contexts and the remnants of it’s life-world.

Joe is a social science teacher from Kerala. Worked in various places of India, now residing in Ireland.

 




 

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