Communism in India

Communism in India has existed as both a social and a political ideology, as well as a political movement since the 1920s. In its early years, communist ideology was harshly suppressed through legal prohibitions and criminal prosecutions. Eventually, communist parties became ensconced in national party politics, sprouting several political offshoots.

Early history of communism in India

Following the October Revolution, Bipin Chandra Pal and Bal Gangadhar Tilak were amongst the prominent Indians who expressed their admiration of Lenin and the new rulers in the USSR, now Russia. Abdul Sattar Khairi and Abdul Zabbar Khairi went to Moscow, immediately on hearing about the revolution. In Moscow, they met Lenin and conveyed their greetings to him. The Russian Revolution also affected émigré Indian revolutionaries, such as the Ghadar Party in North America.^[1] The Khilafat movement contributed to the emergence of early Indian communism. Many Indian Muslims left India to join the defence of the Caliphate. Several of them became communists whilst visiting Soviet territory. Some Hindus also joined the Muslim muhajirs in their travels to the Soviet areas.^[2] The colonial authorities were clearly disturbed by the growing influence of Bolshevik sympathies in India. A first counter-move was the issuing of a fatwa, urging Muslims to reject communism. The Home Department established a special branch to monitor the communist influence. Customs were ordered to check the imports of Marxist literature to India. A great number of anti-communist propaganda publications were published.^[3]

The First World War was accompanied by a rapid increase in industry in India, resulting in the growth of an industrial proletariat. At the same time prices of essential commodities increased. These were factors that contributed to the buildup of the Indian trade union movement. Unions were formed in the urban centres across India, and strikes were organised. In 1920, the All India Trade Union Congress was founded.^[4] S. A. Dange of Bombay published a pamphlet in 1921 titled Gandhi Vs. Lenin, a comparative study of the approaches of both the leaders with Lenin coming out as the better of the two. Together with Ranchoddas Bhavan Lotvala, a local mill-owner, a library of Marxist Literature was set up and the publishing of translations of Marxist classics began.^[5] In 1922, with Lotvala's help, Dange launched the English weekly, Socialist, the first Indian Marxist journal.^[6]

The 1924 Second Congress of the Communist International insisted that a united front should be formed between the proletariat, peasantry and national bourgeoisie in colonised countries. Among the twenty-one conditions drafted by Lenin ahead of the congress was the 11th thesis, which stipulated that all communist parties must support the bourgeois-democratic liberation movements in the colonies. Some of the delegates opposed the idea of alliance with the bourgeoisie, and preferred support for communist movements of these countries instead. Their criticism was shared by the Indian revolutionary M.N. Roy, who attended as a delegate of the Communist Party of Mexico. The congress removed the term 'bourgeois-democratic' in what became the 8th condition.^[7]

During the 1920s and the early 1930s, the Communist Party existed but was badly organised, and in practice, there were several communist groups working with limited national coordination. The British colonial authorities had banned all communist activity, which made the task of building a united party very difficult. A Communist Group was founded in Tashkent on 17 October 1920, soon after the Second Congress of the Communist International by M.N. Roy. Roy made contact with the Anushilan and Jugantar groups in Bengal. Small communist groups were formed in Bombay (led by S.A. Dange), Madras (led by Singaravelu Chettiar), United Provinces (led by Shaukat Usmani), Punjab, Sindh (led by Ghulam Hussain) and Bengal (led by Muzaffar Ahmed).^[8]

On 1 May 1923 the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan was founded in Madras by Singaravelu Chettiar. The LKPH organised the first May Day celebration in India, and this was also the first time the red flag was used in India.^[9]^[10]^[11]

On 26 December 1925, the Communist Party of India was formed at the first Party Conference in Kanpur, then Cawnpore.^[12] S.V. Ghate was the first General Secretary of CPI. The conference was held on 1925 December 25 to 28. Colonial authorities estimated that 500 persons took part in the conference. The conference was convened by a man called Satyabhakta, of whom little is known. Satyabhakta is said to have argued for a 'national communism' and against subordination under the Comintern. Being outvoted by the other delegates, Satyabhakta left both the conference venue in protest.^[13] The conference adopted the name 'Communist Party of India'. Groups such as LKPH dissolved into the CPI.^[14] The émigré CPI, which probably had little organic character, was substituted by the organisation now operating inside India.

Until the 1940s, communist works in India were primarily those of Western and Soviet Marxist thinkers.^[15]^: 120 Texts of Chinese communists were less circulated in India, in large part because Mao's works were generally available in English but not Bengali or Telugu.^[15]^{: 120–121} Chinese texts of particular interest to Indian communists included On Contradiction, On New Democracy, and Liu Shaoqi's How to be a Good Communist.^[15]^{: 120–121}

Participation in Indian independence movement

Between 1921 and 1924 there were three conspiracy trials against the communist movement: the First Peshawar Conspiracy Case, the Meerut Conspiracy Case and the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case. In the first three cases, Russian-trained muhajir communists were put on trial. However, the Cawnpore trial had more political impact. On 17 March 1923, Shripad Amrit Dange, M.N. Roy, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani, Singaravelu Chettiar, Ghulam Hussain and R.C. Sharma were charged in the Cawnpore (now spelt Kanpur) Bolshevik Conspiracy case. The specific pip charge was that they, as communists, were seeking "to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by complete separation of India from Britain by a violent revolution." Pages of newspapers daily splashed sensational communist plans and people for the first time learned, on such a large scale, about communism and its doctrines and the aims of the Communist International in India.^[16]

Other communist movements

Involvement in Indian politics

Communist political parties

As of 2022^[update], the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (abbreviated CPIM) is the largest communist party in India. The party emerged from a split from the Communist Party of India in 1964. The CPI(M) was formed at the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) held in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) from 31 October to 7 November 1964. Land reform movement in India led by CPI(M) leaders Benoy Choudhury and Hare Krishna Konar which threatened the interests of the landowning middle/backward castes that supported the Communist Party of India (Marxist). Currently CPI(M) and CPI are members in the ruling alliance LDF in the state of Kerala and CPIM has elected leaders in 8 state legislative assemblies including Kerala, Tripura, Bihar, Maharashtra, Assam, Odisha,

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