Monk and revolutionary

Bengal has long been a land of dualities, a unique soil that nurtured the spiritual fire of Swami Vivekananda and, decades later, became a stronghold for the revolutionary zeal of Karl Marx.

- SINDHUNIL BARMAN ROY

For much of the 20th century, the intellectual history of this region oscillated between these two poles: the ochre robe and the red flag. Both men championed the oppressed and prophesied the rise of the working class, yet their maps of reality were drawn on opposite axes. Today, at the intersection of ancient wisdom and modern physics, we must ask: which vision aligns more closely with the nature of the universe?

To comprehend the chasm, one must look at the foundation of reality. Karl Marx was a materialist. He argued that the physical world is primary and human consciousness is merely a byproduct. As he wrote in 1859, "It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but ... their social being that determines their consciousness." For Marx, the road to justice lay in seizing the economic base. Religion was dismissed as "opium," a sedative used to numb the pain of exploitation.