GEORGES KR1STOFFEL LIETEN Education., Ideology and Politics in Kerala I957-59 HUNGARIAN MARXIST Georg Lukacs has written some very reflective pieces about the position of class consciousness in diffeient socio-economic formations. According to him it was impossible for class consciousness to achieve clarity in precapitalist societies for the simple reason that class interests never attained a pure economic aiticulation. The caste system^ for example, meant that the economic structure was inextricably associated with political and religious factors which dominated class consciousness: ^With the creation of a society with a purely economic articulation class consciousness reached the stage of possible cognition (Bewusstwerdenkoennen). From then on the struggle in society was reflected in an ideological struggle for consciousness and for the covering up or exposure of the class character of society."1 The experience of the first communist ministry in Kerala provides an illustration in point. In the emerging Indian society characterized by feudal and capitalist modes of production in a complicated and almost stagnant formation, precapitalist, capitalist and socialist ideologies co-existed in the superstructure.2 The aim of this article is to analyze how the superstructure was tackled by the undivided Communist Party of India and how reaction hit back and scored a pyrrhic victory. In the elections held to the state assembly in March 1957 the