UNDER Marx’s editorship, the Rheinische Zeitung soon began to flourish. The Prussian authorities imposed strict censorship on the paper and demanded that it change its tune. For a while the paper, before publication, had to be submitted daily to the Government President for his approval. The intellectual level of the Prussian censor in Cologne – very reminiscent of our own censors of the Emergency period – was such that he struck out a notice for Dante’s Divine Comedy saying that it was impermissible to mix comedy with divine things.

THE possibilities for a secure career had worsened drastically. Friedrich Wilhelm IV had come to the throne in Prussia in 1840. The Prussian bourgeoisie reiterated its demands, particularly the one for a decisive share of political power, especially in the administration of the State in law-making. When the King rejected these demands, the economically leading section of the industrialists—the bankers and the merchants, with the Rhinelanders in the forefront—went over to the liberal opposition and put itself at the head of the popular movement.

KARL Marx is two hundred years young. He is still widely read, thoroughly discussed and critically analysed. It should be our endeavour to trace the path he had traversed and however difficult, to live true to it.

THIS is the bicentenary year of the birth of Karl Marx; and the best way of observing it is to recall the teachings of that great man – and act according to them. A basic part of his thought was his conception of history; and for us in India, as for other people throughout the world, this is of living importance – a guide to how we should draw lessons from the entire past experience of mankind, and how, understanding the trend of movement of human societies, we should strive to shape our future.