Editing Marxist Interpretations of Buddhism in India (section)

== Early Marxist Readings, 1910–1956 ==

=== Dharmanand Kosambi ===
{{Main|Dharmanand Kosambi}}
Dharmanand Kosambi (1876–1947), a Marathi Pali scholar and former Buddhist monk who remained a Gandhian within the Indian National Congress, wrote the earliest Marxist-minded reading of the Buddhist order that the RBP has found (thus far). In a letter to the Marathi newspaper ''Kesari'' written at Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1910, he argued that the sangha rested on "collective ownership which is the highest stage of democracy," and that the Buddha could not have built such a body had he not been born in a republic.<ref name="mk">Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', pp. 232–233, quoting Kosambi, Dharmanand (1910). ''Kesari'', 25 October 1910, in the translation of Kosambi, Meera (Ed.) (2010). ''Dharmanand Kosambi: The Essential Writings''. Permanent Black, Selection 5.</ref> Ober counts the thesis among the most persuasive and enduring arguments of modern Indian Buddhism, while also calling it a modernist claim.<ref>Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', pp. 233–234.</ref> His ''Hindi Sanskriti ani Ahimsa'' (1935) follows a Marxist scheme of primitive communism, slavery, feudalism, and capitalism, within which Buddhist and Jain non-violence is the thread of progress. He took Marx's economic analysis to be right as far as it went, but held that Marx had never considered non-violence.<ref>Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', pp. 237–238, 240–241; M. Kosambi (Ed.) (2010), ''Essential Writings'', Selection 7.</ref> Ober describes the result as a "democratic Buddhist socialism" in which non-violence takes precedence over the Marxist emphasis on exploitation.<ref>Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', p. 241.</ref> His editor argues that he was the first to explain Marx and socialism to Maharashtra in Marathi; the claim was not checked.<ref>M. Kosambi (Ed.) (2010), ''Essential Writings'', Introduction, endnotes 24–34.</ref>

=== Rahul Sankrityayan ===
{{Main|Rahul Sankrityayan}}
Rahul Sankrityayan (1893–1963), a Hindi polymath who was trained as a Buddhist monk and later joined the Communist Party, produced the most explicit Marxist reading of Buddhist philosophy by an Indian scholar with monastic training. In ''Samyavad hi Kyon?'' (1935) he presented the sangha as a precedent for communal property, and in ''Bauddh Darshan'' (1948) he wrote that the Buddha, aware of the evils of individual property, wished to abolish it within his own order.<ref>Sankrityayan, Rahul (1935). साम्यवाद ही क्यों? [''Why Communism?'']. Kitab Mahal (3rd ed. 1943), p. 38; Sankrityayan, Rahul (1948). बौद्ध दर्शन [''Bauddh Darshan'']. Kitab Mahal (2nd ed.), p. 30</ref> He read impermanence and dependent origination as anticipations of dialectical thinking, but held that Buddhism, especially in its Yogacāra form, stayed closer to Hegelian idealism than to materialism, and that "seen from a class perspective" it acted as an intermediary of the ruling class.<ref>Sankrityayan (1948), ''Bauddh Darshan'', p. 59.</ref> He also cautioned that it would be erroneous to say that Buddhism helped Marx or came near his fundamentals.<ref>Sankrityayan (1970), "Buddhist Dialectics". Ober (2023), n. 22 (p. 332), says the essay first appeared in ''New Age'' in 1956 and was republished under other titles.</ref> He declined to call himself a follower of the Buddhist religion, since for him culture and religion were not the same thing.<ref>Joshi, Maya (2009). "Rahul Sankrityayan's Journeys of the Self: Nation, Culture, Identity". ''Studies in Humanities and Social Sciences'' 16(1&2): 119–147, pp. 136–138.</ref>

=== Narendra Deva ===
{{Main|Narendra Deva}}
Narendra Deva (1889–1956) was a founder of the Congress Socialist Party in 1934, a self-described Marxist, and the author of the Hindi treatise ''Bauddha-Dharma-Darshan'' (1956). That Deva synthesized Marxism and Buddhism is a claim made by others: a tribute printed in the 1956 book, the blurb of a 1979 collection of his writings, and later commentators describe such a synthesis, but the sources read do not show Deva arguing it himself.<ref>Deva, Narendra (1956). बौद्ध-धर्म-दर्शन ''Bauddha-Dharma-Darshan'' [Buddhist Religion and Philosophy]. Bihar Rashtrabhasha Parishad, front matter pp. 52–56 (tribute by Jagannath Upadhyaya) and 71 (preface by Sri Prakasa); Deva, Narendra (1979). ''Towards Socialist Society''. Ed. Brahmanand. Centre of Applied Politics, foreword and p. 7; Ober (2023), ''Dust on the Throne'', p. 250.</ref> His socialist essays contain a Marxist critique of religion without reference to Buddhism, and his treatise contains only brief social passages, on the śramaṇa tradition of dissent, on caste in the canon, and on the governance of the sangha.<ref>Deva (1979), ''Towards Socialist Society'', pp. 283–286, 302–306; Deva (1956), ''Bauddha-Dharma-Darshan'', pp. 1–3, 12–15, 31.</ref> His biographer Rakesh Ankit nevertheless concludes that he was "a Marxist and a Buddhist" to the end.<ref>Ankit, Rakesh (2017). "Marxist Guru, Socialist Neta, Buddhist Acharya, Gandhi's Shishya: the many Narendra Deva(s) (1889–1956)". ''Global Intellectual History'' (online first, 6 September 2017). DOI: 10.1080/23801883.2017.1370241, pp. 6, 14 (offprint pagination). The characterization is the author's own verdict.</ref> Deva's case thus differs from the others on this page: Marxism and Buddhism run in parallel through his life and are not joined in a single argument.