Class, Caste, Colonial History and the Left in Kerala
Manali Desai, Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Kent, UK undertakes to critically analyse and historicize the relationship between what she terms as "representative democracy" as opposed to "substantive democracy" in a detailed comparative case study of the South Indian state of Kerala and the Eastern Indian state of West Bengal. Although the Communist Party is in rule in both states for a significant number of years, the trajectory of their development and achievements could not have been more different. The study investigates the contribution of communist movements to left party formations, particularly focusing on how formal democratic systems actually support and integrate popular struggles and resistance. Studies that showcase Kerala as a model example in post-colonial societies are not new in the field of development studies. However, the study thankfully avoids making the over-simplistic link between the success of Kerala's economic and social development to communist party rule alone. Instead it cautiously approaches the history of left movements in relation to the colonial context of the state. By interlinking the reforms introduced prior to Indian Independence by princely states such as Travancore and Cochin, to what the author terms the state capacities in the direction of popular welfare, the book argues that Kerala's unique development in the 20th century, as opposed to states such as Bengal, Uttar Pradesh or Bihar, is "a historical confluence of changes and continuities at three levels - state, regime and government" (p. 8).
In six closely knit chapters, Desai asks why Kerala's development is the way it is, and why the Southern Indian state achieved what left regimes in other Indian states, particularly Bengal, did not achieve in terms of social welfare and justice. To answer this question, the author looks at the formation of the state of Kerala in a historical light, focusing on the intersection between left party creation, caste politics and the history of anti-colonial resistance. She draws a key theoretical distinction between the Gramscian notion of hegemony as a "moral-political authority to transform society" as opposed to state dominance, which would be the mere electoral or formal authority of a state. This almost qualitative vs. quantitative distinction allows her to critically engage with three aspects: (a) the colonial legacy of the state, including the welfare reforms introduced by the princely states prior to independence, (b) the strategic alliance of the left party with the National Congress in the pre-independence mobilisation phase, and (c) the role of caste in relation to left party ascendancy and the development of a welfare state.
Desai assesses the formation of the communist political party in Kerala not so much in terms of its institutional development, nor in terms of the broader history of the communist movement in India, but rather as a "congealed practice", implying that differences between communist ideology and actual practices in policy regimes must be taken into account and analysed from a historical context. She thus refrains from idealising civil society as an unquestionably democratic form of association. It is within this broader notion of a civil society, viewed as a heterogenous matrix of differing political agendas, caste and tribal relations, free and bonded labour forms, and levels of social authority, that Desai posits the emergence of protest movements in Kerala. Her analysis of historical data concludes that the contextual growth of left parties in the state went hand-in-hand with lower caste protests in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Further, the formation of the state was closely connected to the colonial legacy of state control of development policy, established through indirect princely rule.
The book is a useful reference for sociologists and political analysts of South Asia. For those interested in the history of communism, it presents a complex picture of how state hegemony in a post-colonial state cannot be understood independently from its colonial history. The study concludes with brief comparative notes on the rise of the social democratic party in Sweden and of the workers' party in Brazil. Both of these are very sketchy accounts and are therefore redundant in terms of the context of the study. On the other hand, one wishes that the author could have explored the cases of state formation and protest movements in Andhra Pradesh and Bihar in more detail, although these are repeatedly touched upon. The study is illustrated with several graphs and statistics, of which some could have been edited out, since they tend to be more suitable as a visualisation for a lecture or class situation rather than for the format of a book. The book is well produced on the whole, although one would expect Routledge Publishers to be more thorough in correcting typographical errors.
Reviewer:
Dr. Sruti Bala, Department of Art and Culture, University of Amsterdam