The Frontline Years (Selected Articles) by E.M.S. Namboodiripad

Author:E.M.S. Namboodiripad [Namboodiripad, E.M.S.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Leftword Books
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

‘Opium of the People’

Marxist Theory and Religion

Trenchant critics, as well as some ardent supporters, of the Marx-Engels-Lenin theory of Dialectical and Historical Materialism appear to agree that the essence of the Marxist theory concerning religion is the celebrated observation ‘religion is the opium of the people’.

Non-Marxist rationalists therefore criticize the Marxist-Leninists for ignoring the Marxist theory on religion when Marxist-Leninists join hands with religious leaders on questions of struggle for national independence, democracy, world peace and social justice.

On the other hand, dedicated religious leaders turn their guns against Marxists for sticking dogmatically to Marx’s formulation that ‘religion is the opium of the people’.

Both, however, forget the context in which Marx made the observation. In his Contribution to the Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, Marx says: ‘Man, who looked for a superman in the fantastic reality of heaven and found nothing there but the reflection of himself, will no longer be disposed to find but the semblance of himself, the non-human (Unmensch) where he seeks and must seek his true reality.’

He goes on:

‘Man makes religion, religion does not make man. In other words, religion is the self-consciousness and self-feeling of man who has either not yet found himself or has already lost himself again. But man is no abstract being squatting outside the world. Man is the world of man, the state, society. This state, this society, produce religion, a reversed world-consciousness, because they are a reversed world. Religion is the general theory of that world, its encyclopaedic compendium, its logic in popular form, its spiritualistic point d’honneur, its enthusiasm, its moral sanction, its solemn completion, its universal ground for consolation and justification. It is the fantastic realization of the human essence because the human essence has no true reality. The struggle against religion is therefore mediately the fight against the other world, of which religion is the spiritual aroma.’

He then concludes:

‘Religious distress is at the same time the expression of real distress and the protest against real distress. Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, just as it is the spirit of a spiritless situation. It is the opium of the people.’

The religious leaders in their criticism of Marx and the Marxist who consider the opium formally to be the essence of Marx’s approach to religion have therefore taken that particular formulation out of context. What it really means is that, helpless in the oppression of class society, man seeks imaginary help from religion. That help is provided by religion but only temporarily, just as opium relieves the agony of someone suffering excruciating pain. That immediate relief is no substitute for a real and permanent cure of the malady. In the same way, religion gives temporary relief to the oppressed man but does not give permanent relief. For the latter, man should organize himself, struggle against class oppression, take political power and create a classless society.

Against this background, it can be seen, religion has a positive element—temporary relief—which however is inadequate. The real solution is class struggle.

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