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Mainstream, Vol XLVI, No 49

Remembering I.K. Shukla

Tributes

Tuesday 25 November 2008

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Shuklaji

by Shamsul Islam, Neelima Sharma

It is unbelievable but a fact now that our beloved thinker I.K. Shukla Saheb is no more. He breathed his last in San Francisco on October 17. All his friends and admirers knew about his deteriorating health problems but his everyday internet postings showed no sign of his sickness. His last posting that we received was on September 13 in which he protested against the spying (by the IB) of the SAHMAT’s activites in Delhi.

His death is an irreparable loss to the cause of justice, democracy, equality. We have lost a great fighter who waged relentless struggle against the forces of fascism, intolerance and repression not only in India but the world over.

His pen was mightier than the sword when it came to challenging the fascist elements. His indepth knowledge of Sanskrit and Buddhist texts, his mastery over English, Hindi and Bengali languages and familiarity with Urdu made him a unique thinker.

The most appropriate homage to him would be to preserve his scattered writings and publish the same. Last month he sent a manuscript to us which contained the Hindi translation of the well-known Urdu poet, Habeeb Jalib’s poetry against autocracy. We hope to publish the same as a tribute to him.

I.K. Shuklaji is dead but his writings will always be with us to dispel the darkness of bigotry and intolerance enveloping around us! n

Comrade Shukla

by Soumitra

How to be a Good Communist? Well, Liu Shao Chi might have thought this was very important to write on. Could prescriptions and guidelines make a Good Communist? Could there be a goodness or some special traits of it to follow a process, a process that deals in making people more conscious, pro-active [rather than re-active], and always aware? Chairman Mao differed with Liu on different points. Whatever be the points, one see more living examples of Good Communists than one can find in books. I.K. Shukla [IKS], a retired Professor of English and Hindi in Allahabad University, who later migrated to the US on personal ground, was one such living example!

Was IKS really a Communist? I don’t know! Rather I would never be interested to know! I found in him a Communist more than any self-avowed card holder member and media-dazzling leader. I found in him an ardent Gandhian, much more than any living Gandhian these days. I found in him a better rational humanist than any of the few MNRoyists that we get these days. IKS was very anti-Stalin and still never fell short of appreciating Stalin’s contributions. He was more an ardent follower of Mao while concomitantly criticising Mao in the most incisive terms, than any of the normal Mao Thought followers. He was more erudite than the Trotskyites and Althusserists and Gramscians that we find in our daily activism. Prof Shukla was an activist, immensely erudite and the keenest analyst I have ever seen.

A son of the soil from UP, Prof Shukla was more Bengali than those I meet these days in any part of Bengal. His knowledge of Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Bangla was so deep and voluminous that he could go as a professor in any of these languages and literatures. Prof Shukla’s write-ups were read by those who knew him so avidly as equally for their literary value as they were for their political and social significance.

IKS is [and I resent to refer to him as something of passé] an Indian and an American and a Bengali, an Asian and most so a proletarian at heart and deed. He chose to live in Long Island in the ship worker neighbourhood near the ocean front. He frequented every [and very interestingly every in reality] congregation of the ship workers or the protesting workers in Long Island. This was his duty. Almost single handedly he started organising like minded people in the suburbs of Los Angeles to fight against Hindu communalism, Muslim fundamentalism, racism, anti-worker jingoism and anti-Asian madness. A dhoti-clad Shukla was quite often found strolling and promenading on the ocean side park discussing politics with some African-American or Latino comrades or some Indian comrades. He was revered all around! I recall an incident when in a near-riot condition prevailing with hoodlums shattering anything in sight and hurting anyone they can see and definitely Asians, he took me out on his regular strolls and assured me with his strong grab and I found the hoodlums just hiding their crude machetes, stepping away from him and avoiding eye-to-eye contact with him. He was veritably revered in the neighbourhood. IKS knew how to win over and not to manoeuvre.

IKS could chant Sanskrit slokas in the different styles as he could recite Meghnadbadh Kavya, and that he could do better than the Sanyasis of the religious organisations. His knowledge of Indian scriptures was only paralleled by his deep insight into Torah, Bible and of course the Holy Quran. I know incidents where Muslims used to call him on religious and scholarly Behaes [debates] and they were all bewildered by his wisdom.

IKS was a regular writer in Frontier and in Mainstream and in many magazines. His articles were published in Liberation and in other partisan political mouthpieces. He was a conscious political animal, one who always would fight actively for the just and right and for the producing people.

I do not cherish to remember him in the past tense. I would like to think about him still and always ever as my comrade, my guide, my leader. I would like to see him as a continuing fighter for the cause of the Indian revolution, for the cause of a world free of exploitation and a world of conscious humanity. Prof Shukla lives and he will live with us in every battle we fight in the future for the cause of the liberation of humankind!

Hasta la Siempre, Comrade Shukla ! We will fight along with you!

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