THE THEORY OF ALIENATION BY KARL MARX AND HIS CRITIQUE OF RELIGION: AN INTROSPECTION

Karl Marx found in religion the consequence of “Entausserung” or alienation created by the capitalist mode of production. For Max Weber, religion is an impetus for social change, while for Marx it is a force trying desperately to preserve the status quo. Refuting Adam Smith, Marx established that division of labour alienated the proletariat from their “essence”. Capitalism later developed a laissez-faire individualism that created fatal cleavage in the human consciousness. Marx revised the Hegelian idea of “Entausserung” that was earlier refuted by Feuerbach for being metaphysical. A minute observation of the language and imagery, Marx uses about religion, reveals comprehensive morphological, semantic and stylistic resonance of Feuerbach although Marx criticized Feuerbach as his theory ignored economic and social perspectives. 
This paper tries to analyse the language of different texts of Marx to decipher how he gradually relates his theory of alienation to his unique theory of religion in a dialectic complex process and finally establishes religion, not as an illusion, but to be an intrinsic part of the “superstructure”. Instead of simple abolition of religion, Marx demands extinction of that very vulnerable human psyche that receives religious “reflex of the real world” in “Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, Volume I”. 
A close scrutiny the text of “Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts” reveals that while discussing the different types of alienation, Marx, initially uses religion simply as an allegory, with gradual and conscious change of emphasis. Here Marx does not put religion in a direct causal relationship to alienation of labour; he just uses religion as an analogy, just to make his point clear. Significantly, Marx almost echoes the logical and linguistic pattern of Feuerbachian proposition. If we again compare minutely the language and imagery Marx uses, we find interesting and comprehensive morphological, semantic and stylistic resonance of Feuerbach. While discussing alienation from the ‘species-being’, Marx again refers to religion, not just as an illusion, here he refers to religion significantly to be consciously created by mankind. Marx makes his discrete critique on the history of religion and its developing relation with different modes of production. Moreover, we should observe the subtle terminology Marx uses very cautiously “The religious world is but the reflex of the real world”, “The religious reflex of the real world” he carefully selects the word “Reflex” not influence, inspiration or stimulus. That is why he takes religious issues so seriously, and a more minute understanding of the text will reveal that he is not at all bothered with abolition of religion, rather he wants extinction of the “religious reflex of the real world”, and to be more specific he wants abolition of that very vulnerable state of human mind that receives such “reflexes”. Moreover, here Marx first discovers Protestant reformation was the “most fitting form of religion” for bourgeois mode of production to develop. In “Capital” Marx is so much distressed with religion that is not hesitant to declare religion to be as devastating as war in terms of economic wastage. The developing pattern of the language, Marx uses, regarding religion is scrutinized in this paper.