ABSTRACT
Ever since the Soviet iron-curtain was shredded and the Tiananmen uprising exposed the chinks in the Chinese model of socialism, a mutation, that was slowly but silently going on in the depths of the political consciousness of the Left, since World War II, suddenly started becoming more pronounced. Class, that historical cornerstone of proletarian politics, has been going into a kind of freeze and has acquired the status of a fetishised divinity. Class, contrary to being a salient feature of an authentic Marxist discourse that grapples with the human being as a species in historical motion is today no more than an heirloom, meant to be prominently showcased in the museum of working-class political history. The Indian Marxists, if they really wish to fight Fascism—its shadow looms large on the subcontinent—will have to realise soon enough that Marx’s notion of class has to be made historical through what John S. Saul (2003) calls “classifying of difference”.
