Ram Manohar Lohia
Subtitle
Life
▪ Born in 1910 in Akhbarpur, UP.
▪ Obtain PhD in economics, university of Berlin.
▪ Returned to India in 1933. Joined Congress socialist party along with
Narendra Dev, JP, Achyut Patwardhan etc.
▪ After Independence it was separated from congress. Joined Praja
Socialist Party(1952)
▪ Become active opposition the congress government.
▪ Political ideas can be seen in works like -
1. wheel of history,
2. the caste system,
3. interval during politics,
4. Marx,
5. Gandhi and socialism, etc.
Lohia as a thinker
▪ Lohia refused to accept any of the given ideologies in totality.
▪ He was influenced by both Marxism and Gandhism but also criticised
both of them. He synthesized several opposite ideas and influences.
▪ His method of arriving at conclusion is to locate dichotomy within
existing thoughts and then resolve it.
▪ Original thinker.
Intellectual Context
▪ His entire system of thought was an attempt to build a truly universal
socialist theory that took into account the non-European world as
well.
▪ According to Lohia, socialism liberating and revolutionary ideology.
▪ However, due to various historical reasons it has till now centre
around Europe.
Lohia’s theory of history
▪ What is the moving force behind history as a whole?
▪ Lohia’s theory of history was stated in his book ‘wheel of history’
▪ His main criticism against Marx theory was that it projects a reading
of European history as history of mankind.
▪ Account his theory there are two main principles which explain the
movement of history.
2 Principles
▪ The 1st principle relates to struggle amongst various societies for
supremacy in terms of power and prosperity.
▪ 2nd principle is about internal social organization of any society.
▪ In every society there is a constant shift between two kinds of social
division.
▪ One is class that permits social mobility and second is caste which
freeze individual in social position
▪ The society which is centre of world tends to have class division and
the other have caste division
▪ There is also 3rd principle that operates in history and it works for
human unity. - "Approximation of mankind"
Capitalism and colonialism
▪ 2 Faces of modern civilization – Capitalism and Colonialism
▪ In his essay, ‘Economics after Marx’, Lohia discussed origin of
capitalism and criticized Marx for his analysis.
▪ Capitalism and colonialism were born together.
▪ Lohia's theory of twin origin of capitalism and colonialism.
▪ Marx explains rise of capitalism only in reference specific to European
societies.
▪ But Lohia argued right from beginning capitalism depend on external
resources.
Communism
▪ What is the solution to Capitalism ?
▪ Both communism and capitalism are two faces of modern civilization
and equally irrelevant for non-western country like India.
▪ Both depend on heavy capitalization, centralized economic
mechanisms, and large-scale technology.
New Socialism
▪ Conventional socialism “a dead doctrine and dying organization”
▪ recommended a double approach to the creation of new society -
economic development together with a systematic effort to change
those social institutions.
▪ socialism based on Gandhi’s ideas
▪ independent of communism and capitalism
New Socialism – 6 Principles
▪ Maximum attainable equality, towards which nationalization of
economy may be one essential step
▪ A decent standard of living throughout the world, and not increasing
standard of living within national frontiers;
▪ A world parliament and government "elected on adult franchise with
beginning, towards a world government and world army;
New Socialism
▪ Collective and individual practice of civil disobedience so that the
unarmed and helpless little man may acquire the habit to resist
tyranny and exploitation civilly;
▪ Four-pillar state-, the village, the district, the province and the centre
▪ Evolution of a technology, which would be consistent with these aims
and processes
Goal for Future – Saptkranti
▪ 1. Revolution against economic injustice
▪ 2. Revolution Against caste system
▪ 3. Revolution Against gender inequality
▪ 4. Revolution Against imperialism
▪ 5. Procedural Revolution of non-violent civil disobedience.
▪ 6. Against colour discrimination
▪ 7. Revolution for individual rights against the collectivity
Strategy for bringing change
▪ Propose a doctrine of ‘Immediacy’: Every act must be justified
immediately i.e. in terms of its immediate consequences
▪ Slogan – “VOTE, JAIL, SPADE”
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