Why Marxism has lost its appeal for Indian Muslims

One of the most recognised statements of Karl Marx pertains to religion being the “opium of the people”. This is understood as exemplifying his criticism of religion as a tool of oppression or a form of delusion. However, the less famous sentence preceding this one says, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world and the soul of soulless conditions.”

Marx’s metaphor was both empathetic and critical. In one of his earlier works he sees religious identity as socially conditioned, and its persistence as being materially rooted. While not celebratory of religion, Marx recognised that religion could potentially serve as a form of resistance.

It is this possibility of religious identity that we see in the engagement of Indian Muslim intellectual traditions with Marx’s explanations of oppression and resistance, during the colonial rule and in post-colonial India.

Marx and India’s Muslim past

Marx had a deep interest in India. As a scholar of his time he remained orientalist in his approach, perhaps also an outcome of the sources he relied upon. These sources were deeply focused on Muslim rule – often presenting it as both despotic and advanced, compared to “Hindu antiquity” or tribal societies. The Mughal empire, in particular, was central...

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