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Book Review
Complete works of EMS
E.M.S. SAMPOORNA KRITIKAL — Vol. 23: P. Govinda Pillai — Editor; Chintha Publishers, for AKG Centre for Research and Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. Rs. 150.
SOON AFTER the death of E.M.S. Namboodiripad, the A.K.G. Centre for Research and Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, took up the monumental task of bringing out his complete works in 100 volumes. The first 22 volumes, covered EMS's speeches and writings for the period up to the fall of his Communist government, in 1959.
The volume under review, the 23rd in the series, does not take us forward from there. Instead it presents documents of earlier periods, which reached the editors too late for inclusion in the volumes relating to the relevant periods.
The Communist Party of India's draft policy statement on the agrarian problem, which Namboodiripad prepared in 1951, is one such. It was written at a time when the party was reappraising its position. As the Editor explains in the introduction, the party, which had fallen into sectarianism and adventurism during the effort to correct the reformist approach of the immediate post-War period, was engaged in an effort to work out correct Marxist-Leninist strategy and tactics.
E.M.S. argues in the draft document that the land reform proposals of the Congress governments in the States are aimed at cosmetic changes and will not destroy the feudal system. Describing "capitalist growth in agriculture" as a dangerous slogan, he makes out a strong case for differential approach to the land problem taking into account the nature of agrarian relations in each State.
The erstwhile Soviet Union figures prominently in several articles included in this volume. Writing in the party publication, The New Age, in 1953 EMS describes the rare homage paid by several Indian legislatures on the death of Stalin and the high tributes paid to him by even rightwing leaders as expression of the sentiments of the nation as a whole.
In the series of articles written for a prominent Malayalam weekly on his return from Moscow after attending the 21st congress of the Community Party of the Soviet Union as a fraternal delegate, he paints a glorious picture of the building of a communist society under the party's leadership. Although he and his party had occasion to re-evaluate their position on Stalin and the Soviet Union, these articles have tremendous historical value.
His early articles are highly critical of Jawaharlal Nehru's foreign policy. With several pieces from earlier periods in this volume, one may feel tempted to view this one as a meal of leftovers coming after a series of feasts.
B.R.P. BHASKAR
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