Sahityakar Ki Pratibaddhata Ek Srujanatmak Tattva - Book Summary

Here's a comprehensive summary of the Jain text "Sahityakar Ki Pratibaddhata Ek Srujanatmak Tattva" (The Commitment of the Writer: A Creative Element) by Rajeev Saksena, based on the provided pages:

The book "Sahityakar Ki Pratibaddhata Ek Srujanatmak Tattva" by Rajeev Saksena explores the concept of a writer's commitment, arguing it to be a crucial creative element in literature, especially in the context of societal and political struggles.

Core Argument:

The central thesis is that a writer's commitment means adopting the perspective of the working class (shramjeevi varg) in interpreting society, human relationships, and social structures. Through their art, writers should strive for their own refinement and, in turn, contribute to the refinement of the entire society.

Historical Context and the Rise of "Commitment":

Historically, writers, due to their social position, were often aligned with ruling classes. Even rebellious saints and writers primarily advocated for social reform and humane relations.
The advent of capitalism and the rise of the working class brought about a fundamental shift. This class has the potential to dismantle the entire exploitative system and establish a new order where previous dominant classes cease to exist.
The post-World War II era, particularly the Cold War, saw the emergence of theories opposing writerly commitment, often associated with modernism. However, the author argues that the term "commitment" itself is a product of the modern age.

The Contemporary Struggle and the Writer's Choice:

Today's society is characterized by a decisive struggle between the dominant capitalist class (and its allies like global imperialism, local landlords, and black marketeers) and the working class (along with its allies: peasants, intellectuals, and the global socialist camp).
In this conflict, a writer cannot remain neutral. Claiming neutrality is, in reality, siding with the dominant class and refusing to support the working class.
Therefore, commitment today signifies the writer's alignment with the working class in its revolutionary struggle.

The Nature of the Struggle and the Writer's Role:

This struggle is not merely a political one for the working class to gain state power. It's also a fight against the long-standing beliefs, life values, and moral ideals propagated by ruling classes, which have been used to maintain oppressive systems. It is, essentially, a struggle for a new philosophy of life.
The writer, as an intellectual, is needed in this struggle. Even the exploited class can be influenced by the values of the ruling class. To achieve class unity and victory, the exploited class must free itself from these dominant values.
When a writer participates in this struggle for social transformation, they must first adopt the perspective of the working class. They should use their artistic skills to propagate the working class's values and actively participate in the struggle to dismantle the life values of exploitative classes (which, in the contemporary Indian context, include traditional feudal values and nascent capitalist values).

The Philosophical Basis of Working-Class Perspective:

Marxist ideology is presented as a rich philosophical basis for the working-class perspective. It provides the ability to view reality objectively, rather than subjectively (which often reflects traditional mindsets).
However, the author acknowledges that a writer might not fully subscribe to Marxism but can still be committed to the working class if driven by humanitarian sentiments, if they attack the life values of exploitative classes, and thereby help develop the life values of the working class.
Emotional solidarity and partisanship with the working class are crucial. Citing Lenin, the author emphasizes that a conscious individual cannot remain neutral; they will inevitably take sides, rejoice in the successes of a class, grieve in its failures, and be angered by its opponents.

Partisanship as a Creative Element:

Partisanship is a highly creative element. By intensely sensing the joys and sorrows, hopes and aspirations of the common person, a writer can transcend their personal philosophical limitations, gain a multi-dimensional understanding of reality, and create works that are highly representative of their era.
Partisanship also provides the writer with a keen insight into the cruel and crude reality hidden beneath the veneer of civility and civilization in prevailing life values. This allows them to deepen human sensitivity and discover counter-values suitable for the working class within the lives of ordinary people.
Furthermore, partisanship enables writers to enrich their language and expression by drawing upon the colorful words, idioms, imagery, and symbols from the everyday lives of common people. This results in vibrant creations based on real life, not artificial constructs based on dictionaries or classical texts.

Politics and the Writer's Responsibility:

In today's class-divided society, politics is inescapable for a writer. Politics has the same significance now as religion did in the Middle Ages.
"Apoliticalism" is itself a form of politics. It serves to protect the ruling exploitative classes by discouraging struggle against them. Those who demand apoliticalism from writers often attack the politics of the working class, or at least feign disgust with both sides while proclaiming a commitment to "pure literature." This is a ploy to keep the public apolitical and protect the absolute power of exploiters.
A writer uninterested in politics cannot truly understand the realities of society, the lies and deceptions of exploitative philosophies, nor can they imbue their art with the depth of comprehensive social truth.
Therefore, apoliticalism has no place in a writer's commitment, as it isolates the writer from the working people, aligns them with the exploitative classes, and cuts them off from a vital source of artistic innovation.

The Bourgeois Counter-Arguments and True Freedom:

The capitalist system, being an organized force, requires an organized and disciplined counter-force, hence the need for a working-class political party based on its ideology.
Capitalists and their ideologues promote theories of democracy without parties or ideologies to disarm the working class, as unaligned representatives are easily controlled by money and made opportunistic.
Fearing proletarian revolution, capitalism has spawned philosophical theories based on irrationality, arguing that life is meaningless, social events are random, and destruction is imminent. These theories aim to prove that party and ideological commitment are detrimental to a writer's freedom.
However, in a society where a handful of exploiters and their intellectual followers control all communication channels, a writer expands their horizon of freedom to the extent they expose the exploitative system, foster class consciousness and organization among the exploited, understand the complexities of human relationships, and awaken subtle sensitivities. This is the true meaning of freedom in a class-divided society.
When capitalists speak of freedom, they mean the writer's freedom to work against the working-class movement, even to mildly criticize their patrons without severe repercussions.

Navigating Constraints and Maintaining Commitment:

It is not easy for a writer in a class-divided society to openly join a working-class party due to their positions in capitalist institutions or government jobs.
However, as long as they don't disguise this constraint as a principle of "classless and party-less existence" or attack committed writers, the working class will not consider them enemies.
Even without open commitment to a working-class party or ideology due to unavoidable circumstances, a writer can still indirectly support the working class's ideology and organizations.
In situations where the working-class party is divided, a writer can align with or remain unaffiliated with any faction. In such cases, they can focus on creating works inspired by working-class values, without worrying about which specific faction their writing might benefit.

The Party-Writer Relationship:

Capitalist followers distort the relationship between the party and the writer, portraying it as one-sided where the party dictates to the writer, and the writer has no contribution to the party's structure or discipline. This is false.
The relationship between a party and an individual is akin to the relationship between society and an individual.
Lenin, in "Party Organization and Party Literature," emphasized that literature cannot be mechanically equated with other aspects of the party's goals. He stated that "mechanical adjustments or leveling, or the rule of majority over minority" do not apply to literature.
Lenin believed that the party should provide "scope for individual initiative, individual inclination, thought and fantasy, and for diverse forms and content."

Conclusion:

The analysis concludes that writer's commitment, grounded in the working class's life philosophy, involves a deep empathy with the working masses. This solidarity empowers the writer to understand societal relationships and interactions from the working class's perspective, enabling them to view reality effectively. By recognizing common life as a creative force, writers can derive essential material for their language, style, and artistic forms, thus giving their art an intimate and new dimension. The principle of writer's commitment is a significant achievement in modern literary theory, credited to the philosophy of Marxism.

The article also includes a quote from Cuban poet David Fernandez, suggesting a commitment to basic human needs like bread, and the gun as the means to achieve it, implying a revolutionary stance.