Socialism was generally defined as a system in which the State or Government owns and manages the means of production and
distribution of goods. The accumulation of wealth and the control of means of production (land, workers, machinery, and other means) by a few individuals are called Capitalism by Marx, Angels and their followers. During the later and subsequent periods, the word socialism had become the common terminology for those seeking equality and justice for all. But in the past 150 years, there have been innumerable differing socialist programs. In fact, no other word has been used, misused, played and tampered with in such a high magnitude and imprudent manner in the human history as the word ‘socialism’ to suit the opportunism and political advantage of political parties and politicians world over. For this reason, socialism as a doctrine is ill defined or badly defined, although its main purpose, the establishment of a system of justice and equality for all, in place of capitalism, remains fixed.
Vladimir Lenin led the
revolution to achieve these goals of equality and justice, but succeeded partially only. The reasons were very clear. Lenin and his followers had dealt with the symptoms of the suffering of the people but chose to neglect the root causes of their suffering. Maurice Frydman, a disciple of the great Indian philosopher J.Krishnamurti , says : “When the victim of
oppression rises in revolt against the oppressor, he may succeed in liquidating a particular oppression or system of oppression and yet the oppression will remain because its real causes were not understood and its deep roots not uncovered. It is but an instance of a general law that the removal of the symptom does not affect its cause. A successful revolution will undo the causes while a revolt will at the best remove the symptoms only to see them return in another and often an aggravated form. A revolt is always followed by a reaction, while a revolution is final.”
Though land reforms, involving abolition of all private lands and distribution of its benefits to all the subjects equally, in terms of socialism theories explained till now, can be the starting point for obtaining equality and justice, the two main abstract characteristics of socialism, this in itself cannot become the sole essence or end objective of socialism. ‘Socialism’, whose right and left hands are equality and justice respectively, is a way of life that confers equal opportunities in rights and responsibilities as well to all citizens of a state in all spheres of life including education, employment, health, national wealth and freedom of speech. It is a system of society in which people understand each other in good spirit and live in harmony with each other .It is a conglomeration of people where every one takes pleasure in living in dignity and also letting others live in dignity. It is a system of establishment in which no one neglects his/her responsibility towards the nation / co-citizens and no one suffers because of the denial of equal opportunities by the state. It is an administrative / governing system in which the ruling clique administers the principles of law and justice to all citizens equally with out any partiality or bias towards any body. Finally, socialism is a system of polity in which the state plays the role of a sincere watch dog and caretaker, and not the role of a brutal force, to see that this socialistic way of life never goes astray or retrograde.