Out of the country for a couple of weeks, I was surprised to be on your 'quote of the week' (From the Nepali Press, #276) and so were my friends who wanted to know where I had said that the Maoists were 150 years behind in their thinking. A very nice apology by your reporter cleared the matter: it was an interview in Nepal magazine 15 months ago. With hindsight, after my irritation subsided, I realised that the content of the quote was indeed 'eternal', although the context in which it was stated needs elaboration. It is not just the Maoists but the entire Marxist fraternity that is an epitome of regression, since they base their agenda on an analysis of unbridled capitalism of the mid 19th Century. Since then, capitalism has transformed itself, as well as the world, so fundamentally that today's battles for social justice need newer social science insights. Marx's egalitarian critique was used by Lenin, Stalin and others in the pantheon right down to Pol Pot, to justify an extremely hierarchic order of politburo dictatorship. Indeed, South Asian Marxists following the Leninist path remind one of neo-Brahmins using the Hirsute One as a new Manu Smriti to foist another despotic order. In this globalised world, the vanguards on the fight for social equity are no longer the Reds but the Greens, and very often quite pleasantly, the Blues from 'sustainable development' businesses. Thank God, the Bearded One famously said: "As far as I know, I am not a Marxist!" His egalitarian Marxian critique still has points of usefulness for the Greens and the Blues in converting the globalised world into a kinder, gentler place: no society, however, has come to much good with Red Marxist thinking.

Dipak Gyawali,
Patan