On an unusually sultry April afternoon in Pune, over a home-cooked meal of fish-curry and rice, a friend told me about Datta Desai — social activist, writer and crusader who’s been working for four decades to popularise Marxist thought and ideas. The friend had recently attended a Desai workshop and couldn’t stop gushing about his sharp and incisive mind.
Needless to say, fish and Marx is one helluva combination. When I googled him, I found nothing save a couple of badly shot videos on Youtube and some of his English writings, in one of which he passionately expounds Bhagat Singh’s Communist convictions. The following day, I found myself in the lanes of Narayan Peth (commonly known as Pune’s Brahmin-dominated old quarters) to meet Datta Desai at the Academy of Political and Social Studies (APSS), which he joined in 1983 on the insistence of writer and Marxist ideologue Sudhir Bedekar.
For over 24 years, Desai served and shaped the institution as trustee and secretary, receiving a nominal monthly honorarium. His wife and comrade, Vinaya M.H., is also a full-time social activist.
Informed discourse
Desai is now a trustee there and holds workshops on current issues, runs a Bhagat Singh reading group, facilitates a Marxist study circle, and is closely associated with the APSS library, which has some rare books on the Left movement in India, besides books by Vivekananda, Mahatma Gandhi, B.R. Ambedkar, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana . Desai firmly believes in informed discourse: ‘read before you reject’ has been his lifelong dictum.
For over 20 years, Desai and an associate would post letters in Marathi to about 300 people with updates about the reading group. Now emails have replaced the letters.
Though born in Belgaum, Desai grew up all over Maharashtra owing to his father’s transferable job in the telegraph department. He was a sickly child who sought refuge in books.
His mother introduced him to an array of spiritual texts while he remembers his father as a rationalist who was reluctant to participate in religious festivals. Thanks to his father, Desai was introduced to words like ‘strike’ and ‘underground’ at a fairly young age, long before he understood their meaning.
Turning point
In 1973, while living in Kolhapur, Desai and his friends formed a mountaineering group and travelled widely across the Western Ghats. This shaped their social consciousness. They observed life in the hills closely and felt troubled by the lack of schools and other basic necessities. Desai recounts, “We felt that our humanness came out in these areas. In the cities, we were merely living a sectarian life.”
The group held many socio-political discussions. Desai was soon drawn into a Marxist circle where they read Capital . The turning point, however, came when he read two articles in Tatparya, a Marathi magazine on Marxist thought.
Desai recalls, “I still remember reading Nalini Pandit’s ‘The Political Content of Commerce Education’ and Vasant Vaidya’s critique of a Marathi poem. They shook me. I was working in Bombay those days and quizzed a colleague from Kerala about Communism. “He was not a Left supporter but he told me that Communism is about equality. I soon met Sudhir Bedekar who edited Tatparya . He asked me to read Marx in his Own Words . Once I started reading the book, I realised this man will help me go forward. I began to find answers to my questions which weren’t only socio-economic. I read Marx’s early writings and discovered new facets each time.”
Travels with a book
Upon Bedekar’s insistence, Desai quit his bank job and joined APSS, which was set up in Pune by several eminent people. Since its inauguration in 1985, the academy has held over 150 study camps for students, adivasis , agricultural workers and political activists, among others.
Besides organising seminars and lectures, APSS has also published the writings of D.D. Kosambi. APSS’s attempt is to create dialogue between the intelligentsia and the grassroots, and it has gradually become a meeting point for progressive thinkers from across Maharashtra.
Narendra Dabholkar would regularly invite Desai to talk about science and rational thought; Govind Pansare was a close friend who dropped by whenever he was in Pune. Desai never affiliated himself to any political party and stayed away from electoral politics.
At 63, he still reads 10-12 hours a day, and always travels with a book and a notepad. He is working now on a series of books in Marathi that explain Marxist thought. He wants to see Marxist philosophy unpacked in various Indian languages.
Desai says, “Everyone thinks they know Marx and that’s the biggest problem. Marx is more relevant now than he was in his age. To understand today’s world and human consciousness, you must read him. Whether you want to reject or accept him or go beyond him, there’s no bypassing Marx.”
The writer is a culture critic, and teaches literary and cultural studies at FLAME University, Pune.
