"Marx had said, if the appearance of things coincided with their reality there would be no need for theory... In order to get to the roots of social problems, it is not enough to have a moral attitude, you have to theorise about it... By which I don't just mean that you become bookworms; that you cease to be activists. What I mean is that activism must be informed by theory. Activism that is not informed by theory is something which can actually end up achieving the very opposite of what it intended to achieve... If we approach issues on entirely moral grounds, if we approach issues based entirely on the empirical consciousness of the people and not without any theory, we would end up achieving something very different from what we intended to achieve. Therefore as far as the student movement is concerned, I'm sure you'll have many discussions on what you should be doing in your day-to-day struggles and so on and so forth. But I would just underscore the importance of theory. Please, read. Brecht had said, "Hungry man, reach for the book". Why? He didn't say, "Hungry man, reach for the food!". He said, "Hungry man, reach for the book". Because in order to get rid of hunger, you have to get rid of the system that produces hunger. And to get rid of that system which produces hunger is not easy. In order to get rid of that system you must understand the system, and you can do so only by reaching for the book. The Left has always emphasised theory; Karl Marx, when he wrote the preface to the French edition of Capital, he says, "I'm very sorry"; he apologises to the French working class, "the first hundred pages are a bit difficult". The point is he expected the French working class to read his book. The Left has always emphasised theoretical grounding. And therefore I would like to say that left students must play the lead in bringing back theory into the political discourse."
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Prof. Patnaik, who is Professor Emeritus at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, was speaking at the inaugural session of the 18th Delhi State Conference of the Students' Federation of India (SFI), held in JNU on February 1-2, 2014.
