to appeals to the kings to rule based on Dhamma , a utopian proposition . It needed a high degree of imagination to think that as Dr Ambedkar said : “ The means to bring about communism which the Buddha propounded were quite definite ”. But when the issue is extended to comparing Buddha with Marx , it seems something more in the exercise than wishful thinking or imagination hidden in it . Dr Ambedkar ’ s Understanding on Marx :
Now let us find out how Dr Ambedkar looked at Marx . As great scholar and leading social scientist Dr Ambedkar has perfectly presented that : “ By scientific socialism what Marx meant was that his brand of socialism was inevitable and inescapable and that society was moving towards it and nothing could prevent its march ”. But after that in his attempt to oversimplify basic tenets of Marx he has proved that his knowledge about Marx and Marxism was superficial . Let us have a look at it .
1 . The very first point he wrote as Marx ’ s thesis is : “ That the purpose of philosophy is to reconstruct the world and not to explain the origin of the universe ”. What did Marx say in his famous sentence is as follows : “ The philosophers have only interpreted the world in different ways , the point is to change it ”. Interpreting the world in different ways cannot be construed as “ explaining the origin of universe ”. To confuse them is nothing but gross misunderstanding of Marx and Marxism .
2 . Then Dr Ambedkar said that according to Marx , “ The forces which shapes the course of history is primarily economic ”. This is also oversimplified understanding of Marx ’ s ideas . Marx has very clearly expressed that : “ History is nothing but the activity of men in pursuit of their ends ”. [ Holy Family , quoted in the Selected Writings in Sociology and Social philosophy , Karl Marx , edited by TB Bottomore and Maximilien Rubel , Penguin Books ,
March - 2024 p78 ]. TRUE , men cannot carry on the activity according to their sweet will . That part has also been explained by Marx , “ In the development of productive forces a stage is reached where productive forces and means of intercourse are called into being which , under the existing relations , can only work mischief , and which are , therefore , no longer productive , but destructive , forces ( machinery and money ). [ German Ideology , ibid , p79 ]. When such material condition is associated with the emergence of a class which act to change the condition , history is made . Thats why in the Manifesto of the Communist Party Marx declares : “ The history of all hitherto existing societies is history of class struggles ”. To him the exploiters and exploited from the time of Buddha till today are same in character , so it will be sufficient to differentiate the classes as “ owners and workers ”.
3 . As a consequence he put “ That society is divided into two classes , owners and workers ”, irrespective of stages of history they belong . He forgot that owners were not same in character at different periods of history , changing from slave owners , feudal lords and capitalists , for examples . Similarly exploited people also took different characters like slaves , serfs and industrial workers . There were different modes of extraction of surplus labour of the exploited people at different modes of production .
4 . This superficial understanding continued . We are not going to detail out them , but only point out where he grossly erred in his view about Marx . He said , according to Marx : “ That as the workers outnumber the owners , the workers are bound to capture the State and establish their rule which he called dictatorship of the proletariat .” But Marx ’ s actual opinion can be clearly understood from a little longer quotation from his famous writing , German Ideology : ( 1 ) In the development of productive forces , a stage is reached where productive forces and means of intercourse are called into being , which , under the existing relations , can only work mischief , and which are therefore , no longer productive , but destructive , forces ( machinery and money ). Associated with this is the emergence of a class which has to bear all burdens of society without enjoying its advantages , which is excluded from society and forced into the most resolute opposition to all other classes ; a class which comprises the majority of the members of society and in which there develops a consciousness of the need for a fundamental revolution , the communist consciousness . This consciousness can , of course , also arise in other classes from the observation of the situation of this class .
( 2 ) The conditions under which determinate productive forces can be used are also the conditions for the dominance of a determinate social class , whose social power , derived from its property ownership , invariably finds it ’ s practical and ideal expression in a particular form of the States . Consequently , every revolutionary struggle is directed against the class which has so far been dominant .
( 3 ) In all former revolutions the form of activity was always left unaltered and it was only be a question of redistributing this activity among different people , of introducing a new division of labour . The communist revolution , however , is directed against the former mode of activity , does away with labour , and abolishes all class rule along with the classes themselves , because it is affected by the class which no longer counts as a class in society , which is not recognised as a class , and which is expression of the dissolution of all classes , nationalities etc ., within contemporary society .
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