The Weight of Loss

 “Hold aloft the red lantern.” –Chinese poster, 1971, artist unknown.

This is a propaganda poster of Chinese origin. When translated it reads as: “hold aloft the red lantern.” If understood explicitly, it is most likely a reference to a female fighting group, formed during the Boxer Uprising of the 1900s, called the Red Lanterns. However, it could stand for other ideas too. One of them being the illuminating effect of communism. That this dream, this ideology, is able to help one feel the heaviness of all that has been lost. With this, it also tells a story of what this realization leads to and most importantly, who it is felt by.

Learning about a cause leads to the unveiling of an ability. In his memoir, Chains to Lose, Dada Amir Haider Khan on many occasions refers to his experience in the Soviet Union as one that led to “fundamental changes” in him. It is interesting to note how, these changes accumulate slowly and from the very beginning of his journey. It starts from him being given a soft bed to sleep on in the train. Eventually, leading up to him having the chance to speak up in “exclusive” communist meetings and circles. With this there is also a gradual growth in his intellectual “maturity”. He talks about his urge to return to India after his education. In many ways, one could interpret this as his acknowledgement of loss. Going back to a place that has given him nothing but adversity, suggests a need; a yearning to claim a part of himself he never knew how to confront before. The knowledge of social structures and oppressed peoples helps him see his native land as a “slave nation”. In other words, he is finally ready to look his country in the eye, holding his fist tight to brace the unknown.

The realization of a particular self, however, can produce a feeling of uniqueness. To understand this better, it is helpful to acknowledge that the poster also shows a woman. This is its most striking element. In his recollections, Dada Amir describes women as well. The most prominent one is his Indian comrade, Suhashini, who becomes a great help, particularly in his scholarly efforts, such as while writing his thesis. There is also a reference to the women of the nursing school as cures for “mental fatigue”. There is a parallel here, in that, women are a crutch. They have not been painted as people looking for a different future. They are not described in themselves alone, but in relation to something else. Perhaps this struggle, and this sacrifice of one’s life for a bigger purpose leads to an inwardness. A feeling that it is only one’s own pain that makes the revolution relevant. The poster says otherwise. It says that others, including women have something to reveal as well. They too have something to share in their “folk songs” and “stories”. They too are holding up lanterns to light up their ideas and recommendations. The individuals of the Indo-American group themselves when engaged in “quarrels”, were indicative of the friction that can exist between two hopes stemming from the same dream. To reconcile them under one banner is the real challenge. Unity is easy to proclaim when the “toiling” masses are seen as nothing more than a mere mass.

Communist Internationalism then is a concept made up of many pieces. It is not simply the coming together of different nationalities, but of vastly different humans, who believe their losses can be weighed with knowledge. The weight of their grievances can vary, but this is not a reason to raise one over another. In the end, everyone has their own lantern, and their own destination to reach. The source of the light however, is the same. It is this fact of being both alike and unalike that proves to be the most difficult lesson. To come together as one subjugated community means to understand pain in its many forms.