Politics, Culture and Socialism

Abstract

Between the start of World War I and the end of World War II, global capitalism was in a severe crisis. In addition to the two horrific wars, the Great Depression occurred during this time, which was the most severe economic crisis in capitalism's history up to that point. It should come as no surprise that a sizable portion of the intellectual elite in almost every nation held the view that the world had entered a "general crisis of capitalism" from which socialism was the only viable course. Working people worldwide, both in developed and developing nations, experienced severe distress at this time. For example, the Great Depression in India led to tremendous absolute poverty among the peasantry, but the colonial government's long-term halt in foodgrain production and the effects of World War II military spending resulted in a sharp rise in food prices, which in turn led to the 1943 Bengal famine, which killed three million people.