"It is here that we come to the cultural ethos that accompanied left politics in Kerala , as the public sphere in the region cannot be discussed meaningfully without reference to it. For the past 50 years , the communist movement has been functioning very much as a community with religious overtones.As different from urban Marxism that was unencumbered by the need to mobilize large pessant masses , this was dominated by a utopian and not an analytical element.It had to proceed iconoclastically and in so doing threw up its own idols. The familiar pictures of Marx, Lenin and Stalin in party families and small haircutting saloons filled the space vacated by the calendar Gods of the Hindu pantheon. Names like Lenin and Stalin and also other names that were free from divine associations abound in the generation born in the forties and fifties and this was not just nominal. A huge ritual including demonstrations and sub-committee meetings, the monumental A.K.G. centre and village libraries, totemic flags and other insignia, the regular liturgy of slogans and progressive songs, the scrupulously observed martyrs' days as relic worship and the official theology of the party; about sums up the sacred character of the secular community. There were "insiders" and "outsiders" and established procedures to deal with heretics, dissidents, ideological contamination and lapses in loyalty.There was also the distinction between laity and clergy and the constantly felt need to increase and improve the flock. From the routine attempts to alleviate doubt and increase faith.There were the more extreme inquisitorial procedures that resulted in the regular myths of agents , agent –provocateurs and sellouts.The goal of a kingdom of heaven on earth ensured that this religion would be adhered to passionately and those who know the political milieu of North Malabar would agree that this is no exaggeration.Marriages and other rites of passage could be conducted by the party and the difference between the party ritual and traditional ones was marked." ( "Hindu Community Formation in Kerala: Processes and structures under Modernity" , seminar paper, 1994)
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