The Red Star Isn’t Setting

The Red Star Isn’t Setting. It’s Being Systematically Erased — and Conveniently Misrepresented.

Articles like “Is the Red Star Setting over India?” belong to a familiar genre of liberal commentary — smug in tone, shallow in substance. These pieces claim that the Indian Left is dead or irrelevant, while conveniently ignoring the structural conditions that gave rise to it and the role it continues to play in resisting the twin forces of casteism and religious authoritarianism. Worse, they rewrite history to suit a narrative that paints all resistance as either obsolete or misdirected.

Let us examine the key premises of this narrative, and why they fail.

1. The Lazy Myth That "Communists Didn’t Understand Caste"

This trope has been repeated so often, it has become a sort of reflexive dismissal of Left politics in India. But any serious student of modern Indian history knows better.

The Indian Left — particularly the CPI(M), CPI, and other mass-based Left formations — didn't just "understand" caste. They attacked it at the structural level. In Kerala, EMS Namboodiripad led temple entry movements, implemented radical land reforms, and built alliances with Dalit and backward caste communities. In Andhra and Telangana, peasant uprisings led by communists were fundamentally anti-feudal and anti-caste in character. In Bengal, the Left Front implemented one of the most successful land-to-the-tiller programs in Asia.

Were these efforts perfect? No. Were they class-reductive at times? Certainly. But the idea that Communists were blind to caste is not just inaccurate; it’s intellectually lazy.

2. The Convenient Amnesia Around "Regional Anti-Caste" Parties

The article implies that the "space for fighting casteism" has now shifted to regional parties. But here’s the part it omits: many of these same parties have, at some point, enabled the very forces they claim to resist.

Take the DMK, for example. Today, it markets itself as the torchbearer of rationalism and anti-Hindutva resistance. But in 1999, the DMK joined the NDA alliance and supported the BJP-led government at the Centre. Murasoli Maran, a senior DMK leader and Karunanidhi’s relative, served as a Union Minister in Vajpayee’s cabinet. This wasn’t an ideological aberration — it was a calculated alliance at a time when the Sangh Parivar was laying the groundwork for Gujarat 2002.

The DMK is not alone. Shiv Sena, JD(U), AIADMK, BJD, TDP — all have either allied with the BJP or provided outside support. These are not exceptions. They are the rule. In contrast, the Indian Left has never shared power with the BJP. Not in Delhi. Not in the states. That is not an accident. That is ideological clarity.

3. The Premature Obituary for Maoism

Another assumption repeated in the article is that the Maoist movement is finished because of military crackdowns and economic development. This is an astonishingly shallow analysis.

Yes, many Maoist leaders have been killed or captured. Yes, roads and telecom towers have reached some parts of the Red Corridor. But the structural reasons for Maoist resistance — displacement, land grab, denial of tribal rights — remain fully intact. What we are seeing is not the end of the movement, but its adaptation: decentralization, shifting strategies, and localized resistance.

State violence does not end insurgency. It merely changes its shape.

4. The Weaponization of "Urban Naxal"

The term "Urban Naxal" has become a convenient hammer to crush all forms of dissent. Lawyers, professors, journalists, Dalit activists — anyone who questions the state is now branded an extremist. While real threats to democracy wear robes of patriotism and march through institutions, those who raise alarms are jailed under draconian laws like UAPA.

And what do many of these so-called regional anti-caste parties do? At best, they stay silent. At worst, they cheer.

5. What’s Actually Setting? Not the Red Star — But Liberal Fantasy

If anything is fading, it’s not the relevance of the Left, but the liberal illusion that resistance can survive without ideology. Hashtags, op-eds, and electoral posturing cannot fight fascism. Only a political project grounded in material justice — one that recognizes class, caste, and capital as interconnected — can do that.

The Indian Left offers this, imperfectly but consistently. It is the only force that has refused to compromise with Hindutva. It is the only force that continues to organize workers, students, farmers, and tribal communities around a common vision of justice.

Conclusion: The Red Star Still Burns

The Indian Left may be electorally diminished, but it is not defeated. It is obscured — by media narratives, political opportunism, and an atmosphere of fear. But its relevance remains undeniable.

As long as there is oppression, there will be resistance. And the Red Star will remain the symbol of that resistance — not because it is trendy, but because it is necessary.

Let us not confuse silence for absence. The Left is not setting. It is gathering strength.

In the shadows, in the margins, and in the hearts of those who refuse to give up the fight.

Final Word:

If the Left appears diminished today, it’s not because its principles are outdated — but because the terrain has shifted. In an age of jingoism, corporate capture, and mass surveillance, truth itself is radical. And the Left’s greatest crime, perhaps, is refusing to make peace with injustice.

So no — the Red Star is not setting. It’s obscured by smoke from burning forests, demolished homes, and rising fascism. But it hasn’t died. Because as long as exploitation exists, resistance will too. And the Left, whether in the form of unions, farmers’ protests, student struggles, or tribal uprisings, will always be at the heart of it.