The Centre of Indian Communists (CIC) was a minor Maoist group in the Indian state of Kerala. The organisation was founded at a convention in Ernakulam in 1974. It included elements that had broken away from Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)).
Kerala, Vanguardism, and the CIC
Kerala, an Introduction
The Center of Indian Communist (CIC) did not gain popularity within a vacuum, their platform manifested within the context of the greater population of Kerala, a district known for employing leftist values in their political decisions. In the elections of 1957, the people of Kerala gave the Communist Party of India thirty-five present of the vote, demonstrating strong communist values among the people.
Vanguardism in Kerala and the CPI
The Center of Indian Communist (CIC) distanced themselves from the Communist Party of India (CPI) largely because they saw the peasantry as being the appropriate vehicle for revolution as opposed to the proletariat. This contrast is analogous to that of Maoism and Marxism, Mao focuses his literature on the peasantry while Marx stresses the importance of the proletariat. While both Revolutionary Vanguards utilize the ethos of class struggle as their main rhetorical strategy, the areas where they depart are consequential. The proletariat encompasses all of the working class, while the peasant is one who is under direct control of an individual, thus accentuating the dominance hierarchy on an interpersonal level. Naturally, a multi-varied equation would be necessary to plot the requisite conditions from which communist sympathies emerge, however, some political-scientist attribute communist acceptance in Kerala as being the result of a high population of agricultural workers and peasants. This analysis is important when examining the Center of Indian Communist in contrast to the Communist Party of India.
Demographic Kinship between Kerala and Mao's China
The Center of Indian Communist (CIC) saw their propagation strategy as superior given the prominence of agricultural peasantry within the Keralan people. The (CIC) was a Maoist organization, one which developed under similar demographic conditions to that of Mao’s China. Maoism seemed like the perfect fit for the (CIC) because of the strong emphasis on what Mao described as the “declassed intellectual elite” as the appropriate mechanism for revolution. Similar to Mao's description of China, the vast majority of the people in Kerala were very well educated, they enjoyed some of the highest literacy rates in all of India. Despite this, they also suffered from unemployment, and high levels of poverty. As a result of the demographic Kinship shared with pre-revolutionary China, the Center of Indian Communist aimed to propagate a revolutionary Maoist political ideology to the people of Kerala.
A Struggle for Traction: How Marxist Ideology Became the Primary Mediator of Revolutionary Discourse in India
Fundamentals of Marxism
In his work, Karl Marx was deliberate in establishing the requisite industrial conditions under which his theory becomes applicable. These conditions included a normative class structure predicated on achievement, such as capitalism. It also necessitated a high level of career mobility, a precursor for industrial development. Marx cites that Western industrialized society often sees and increases in demand for a product without increasing production, thus leading to price inflation instead of industrial development. Under this model goods become the tools of ostentation, the possession of land, technology, and even food become emblematic of economic achievement. Marx argues that this system is only able to prevail under the lie of autonomy, an equation in which the only variable relative to fiscal success is the conscientiousness of the individual. For Marx, a communist revolution of the people can only be achieved when the proletariat actualize the erroneous nature of this analysis, allowing the poor and middle class majority to rise up against the rich and powerful minority. This model of revolution is widely applicable given the prominence of industrial workers throughout the world, and particularly within India.