More than 170,000 unknown people are buried in the Highgate Cemetery in London. Only one of the graves has fresh flowers every day. It is the grave of Karl Marx, nicknamed the Moor. He is clearly the most popular resident of the Highgate. Hundreds of people visit his grave every day.

Those paying homage to this great visionary come from all corners of the world, including Europe, North and South America, Africa and the Asia Pacific. It is estimated that some 100,000 people visit the grave every year. Those paying homage to revolutionary philosopher include many legendary characters of world history.

One of the most popular leaders who visited Marx’s last resting place was Lenin. He visited the grave in 1903 when he came to attend the congress of the Russian Social Democratic Party in London. Revolutionaries throng the grave on the days of the Paris Commune, May 1 and Marx’s birthday. There is a £4.5 entry fee per visitor so that every year hundreds of thousands of pounds are collected.

A few years after the death of Marx, a suggestion was floated in the congress of the German Social Democratic Party to erect a grand memorial for Karl Marx. August Bebel, a friend of Marx’s and a leader of the German SDP wrote a letter to Engels in this regard. In his reply, Engels wrote that the gravestone on the last resting place of Marx was of great importance to the Moor family. It was decided therefore that if the grave was shifted to some prominent place, the family gravestone would also be installed there.

The part of the graveyard where Marx is buried was not considered important until 1923. For decades the grave just lay there and was covered with wild bushes. Later, through the efforts of the British Communist Party and the Workers (Communist) Party of USA, attention came to be paid to the grave. In 1956, the mortal remains were moved to a prominent place and a memorial was erected there.

Every year some 100,000 people visit the grave of this revolutionary philosopher to pay homage. These include many legendary characters of world history.

The memorial was designed by Laurence Bradshaw. It was inaugurated by Comrade Harry Pollit, the general secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain that had provided funding for the construction. The memorial consists of a big bronze statue of Marx erected over a marble pedestal. There is a family gravestone and the last sentence from the Communist Manifesto: Workers of all lands unite. There is also a quotation from Theses in Feuerbach: “The philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.”

Many revolutionaries are buried around the grave. They include Dr Muhammad Yousuf Dadoo, chairman of the Communist Party of South Africa; Saad Saadi Ali of Iraqi Communist Party, Kurd revolutionary Nuzhad Ahmed Aziz Agha and Kris Harmen. The grave closest to Marx’s is Karamat Hussain’s. Hussain was a Pakistani and a recipient of Sitara-i-Quaid-i-Azam.

Marx’s ideology has been popular since the 19th Century. This is evident from the fresh flowers that continue to be placed at the grave every day. The memorial has also faced threats from those opposed to Marx’s ideas, particularly extremist groups. These include ethnic extremists, fascists, right-wing extremists, capitalists and ‘liberals’.

The first documented assault on the memorial was a pipe bomb attack in 1960. An explosion meant to raze the memorial caused extensive damage in 1970. At one point a Swastika was painted on the memorial. Later, a new statue was erected to replace the damaged one. In February 2019, Right-wing extremists twice tried to damage the memorial, breaking the headstone with a hammer and writing hate slogans all over it.

During a recent visit to London, I saw a large bouquet placed over the grave on behalf of the workers of a Vietnamese organisation. I saw a young Cuban couple and their two children approach Marx’s grave. They placed flowers on it and for some time stood there in respectful silence. I also saw dozens of individuals and delegations belonging to various cultures and countries visiting the last resting place of their beloved leader.

Marx and his ideological heritage are a beacon of light for humanity and the struggle against excesses of capitalism.

— The writer is a   freelance journalist