Karl Marx is said to be the father of modern communism. He prophesized communism during the colonial era. He blamed Capitalism as the root cause behind the colonialism. In a way he might be correct.

But over decades and centuries, Capitalism transformed itself. It reduced (though not discarded) its colonial mentality. During the colonial era the British did business in India, but not the other way round. We today see US/European companies doing business in India. But so as Indian companies also do business in US or else where.

Karl Marx claimed communism to be free from colonialism. However, we see that in today’s modern era the biggest colonial predators are the communist countries like china or ex-communist countries like Russia.

We see all erstwhile WARSAW pact nations,  Syria and countries like say Ukraine who were forcefully incorporated inside USSR by the power of bayonet were the colonies of USSR which were ruthlessly exploited by USSR and now stand at the brink of poverty or civil war or both.

Lets understand, what was USSR’s colonialization strategy and how it was applied to India.

  1. Colonialize the brains before colonizing the nation: In India they captured the Media. Through the media they could paint a picture that USSR is a true friend.
  2. Establish a dictatorial dynasty to rule the country: Whether it was East European nations or Syria or India, they establish a favorable person and the dynasty as the ruler of the country. In India for e.g. Shastriji was murdered to establish Indira and her family as the ruler. Hafeez-al-Assad’s family was established as the ruler in Syria. Similar patterns can be seen else where.
  3. Glorify the image of the dictator: With the media under the thumb, the image of the dictator is glorified. Assad was portrayed as a person with divine powers.
  4. Make attempts to stifle democracy: After few years in Assad declared emergency in Syria there by suspending the constitution and the emergency was imposed for several decades till the onset of the Syrian Civil war. Similarly Indira Gandhi tried to impose emergency but she failed due RSS, Opposition parties and intervention of Supreme Court.
  5. Make the Judiciary de-funct: During the emergency Indira Gandhi made every attempt to stifle the judiciary by changing the constitution. But she failed as the Morarji Desai Govt reverted the changes she made in the constitution.
  6. Make the nation dependent financially: USSR made India dependent on Russian arms completely.  At one point 85% of military hardware, spare parts of Indian military was procured from USSR. Even after 30 years of breaking up of USSR, India still procures nearly 60% of its hardware from Russia. No one knows how many trillions of dollars Russia would have earned from India. And to ensure India always remains dependent on foreign arms, policies were explicitly made to prevent Indian companies from making arms. Dalals (middlemen) were introduced in all defense deals during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure to ensure that they influence defense purchases.
  7. Build a corrupt ecosystem: This is done to ensure that the dictatorial dynasty stays in power for a long time. In case there is a revolt or uprising against the dynastic power, the corrupt ecosystem comes to its rescue and defense.

We see similar strategies also applied by China in Myanmar or Laos.

We hence need to understand, how nasty colonizers communism produces. I don’t know if Karl Marx ever had guessed this in his lifetime or not.

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