The Counter-Hegemonic Politics of the CPI(M)

Abstract

The 1990s saw the CPI(M) elaborate a new ideological vision that emphasizes democratic norms and practices and grassroots-oriented development. In this vision it placed tremendous value on educating and training subalterns in order to meaningfully extend and deepen democracy to all spheres of society. The CPI(M) rejected the idea that “nothing could be done” until a national revolution occurred, arguing instead that it was in and through the current conditions that a socialist democracy would be forged. In practice, this meant the party had to find concrete ways in which it attempted to contest the predominant capitalist logic and construct alternative socialist logics through participatory democratic norms and practices and democratic state institutions. In this chapter I look at the ways in which the CPI(M) in Kerala utilized the space afforded by the new ideological developments to initiate a new type of transformative politics.