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An Early Communist: Muzaffar Ahmad in Calcutta, 1913-1929
From an occasionally employed, lower middle-class Bengali Muslim intellectual on the borderline of starvation in the city, he was to become 'the chief accused' at the Meerut communist trials started by the colonial government in 1929. What was the road travelled before challenging imperialism 'from the dock'? In 1913, Muzaffar Ahmad (1889-1973) was just one more in the sea of migrants to Calcutta. His ambition was to be a writer. Yet in the vortex of metropolitan upheaval his life would take a completely different turn.
Taking Muzaffar Ahmad's early career (1913-1929) as its chronological frame, this book examines the dialectical interplay between his social being and the wider social consciousness which made him arrive at communism, in vital conjunction with the sources of self transformation in the city. 1929 marked the end of the first phase in his political life as a pioneer of the communist movement as it had emerged in Bengal and India of the 1920s. This was the year when leading communists were arrested and the Meerut trials began. The biographical details of Muzaffar Ahmad between 1913 and 1929 converged with a significant phase in the social and political history of India and the world. These years can also be read as two crisis-points in the history of imperialism and 1913, the eve of the First World War, and 1929, the year of the Wall Street Crash which set off the Great Depression; a period within which socialist ideas and communist activity became politically familiar in different parts of the globe. Many socially alienated, economically distressed and politically dissatisfied urban intellectuals stood at the crossroads of established and radical identity-formations. A 'fraction' emerged, informed by working class protest from below, and the leftward turn in literary and cultural fields. They were moving away from the more established political routes open to those from their social background to combat colonialism, and identifying with a more radical vision of decolonization. The little investigated history of the left in Bengal before the Meerut trials, and the convergences between individual radicalization and a new political space in the city are unraveled by tracing this process, in the context of colonial Calcutta and through Muzaffar Ahmad's transitions. This monograph will interest those engaged with the histories of communism, port-cities, Bengal Muslims, workers, intellectuals, migration, colonial intelligence, and internationalist currents.
Taking Muzaffar Ahmad's early career (1913-1929) as its chronological frame, this book examines the dialectical interplay between his social being and the wider social consciousness which made him arrive at communism, in vital conjunction with the sources of self transformation in the city. 1929 marked the end of the first phase in his political life as a pioneer of the communist movement as it had emerged in Bengal and India of the 1920s. This was the year when leading communists were arrested and the Meerut trials began. The biographical details of Muzaffar Ahmad between 1913 and 1929 converged with a significant phase in the social and political history of India and the world. These years can also be read as two crisis-points in the history of imperialism and 1913, the eve of the First World War, and 1929, the year of the Wall Street Crash which set off the Great Depression; a period within which socialist ideas and communist activity became politically familiar in different parts of the globe. Many socially alienated, economically distressed and politically dissatisfied urban intellectuals stood at the crossroads of established and radical identity-formations. A 'fraction' emerged, informed by working class protest from below, and the leftward turn in literary and cultural fields. They were moving away from the more established political routes open to those from their social background to combat colonialism, and identifying with a more radical vision of decolonization. The little investigated history of the left in Bengal before the Meerut trials, and the convergences between individual radicalization and a new political space in the city are unraveled by tracing this process, in the context of colonial Calcutta and through Muzaffar Ahmad's transitions. This monograph will interest those engaged with the histories of communism, port-cities, Bengal Muslims, workers, intellectuals, migration, colonial intelligence, and internationalist currents.
320 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2012
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August 6, 2022
"In a larger panorama of worldwide reactions to imperialism and the emergence of socialism as a systemic alternative to capitalism, pressures from above and below, critical social components of the political conjuncture, facilitated Muzaffar’s secession from the more entrenched and readily available ideologies. The anti-imperialism of the mass movements provided the political entry-point for many intellectuals and led them to grassroot politics. Deeper exposure convinced some that anti-colonialism, whether expressed through the prism of ‘nation’ or ‘community’, did not necessarily involve a radical reordering of society. This stream of thought led Muzaffar and others to communism."
This is a seriously impressive work on Muzaffar Ahmad, one of the pioneers of Indian communism, which uses his story to make a broader point about how people came to join this militant political tendency in the interwar period. Make no mistake, this book is about Ahmad, but it's about so much more. It's about the process by which, admittedly very few, members of the middle classes and intelligentsia in Bengal decided to disaffiliate from dominant politics- communal and nationalistic- in the favour of turning towards the workers and peasants of India as the harbingers of a thoroughgoing social and political revolution. The book is also very much about the city of Calcutta. I was very impressed by the way Chattopadhyay made the "imperialized urban texture" and "social geographies" of the city such a huge focus of her narrative. One really gets the impression that small details, like what Ahmad would have seen outside of his window on a given day, or the narrow lanes and alleyways of the city, were formative influences in his story and the story of the early Communist movement in Bengal.
In hindsight, I'm genuinely shocked this book is only about 270 pages. It feels much longer. This is very much an academic tome, and as a result the focus is more on novel interpretation and historical rigour than on being an invigorating and gripping read. That being said, I don't want to give the impression that Chattopadhyay's writing is jargon-heavy or indecipherable. It's actually quite readable, in my opinion, there's just a lot of information being thrown at you. It was slow-going for me at times. However, there's a lot of information- that's a good thing!
Perhaps my only gripe would be that Ahmad's voice feels absent from the text, especially considering how prolific a writer he was. This is slightly remedied in the last chapter, but that just made me wish the author had quoted from him more often. That is, of course, a matter of personal preference, though.
This text masterfully accomplishes what it sets out to do. Namely, "to trace a part of this radical social history by concentrating on the dialectical interplay between individual and wider consciousness; daily life and changing political praxis; social location and the creation of agency; subjective experiences on the ground; and the making/unmaking of collectives."
This is a seriously impressive work on Muzaffar Ahmad, one of the pioneers of Indian communism, which uses his story to make a broader point about how people came to join this militant political tendency in the interwar period. Make no mistake, this book is about Ahmad, but it's about so much more. It's about the process by which, admittedly very few, members of the middle classes and intelligentsia in Bengal decided to disaffiliate from dominant politics- communal and nationalistic- in the favour of turning towards the workers and peasants of India as the harbingers of a thoroughgoing social and political revolution. The book is also very much about the city of Calcutta. I was very impressed by the way Chattopadhyay made the "imperialized urban texture" and "social geographies" of the city such a huge focus of her narrative. One really gets the impression that small details, like what Ahmad would have seen outside of his window on a given day, or the narrow lanes and alleyways of the city, were formative influences in his story and the story of the early Communist movement in Bengal.
In hindsight, I'm genuinely shocked this book is only about 270 pages. It feels much longer. This is very much an academic tome, and as a result the focus is more on novel interpretation and historical rigour than on being an invigorating and gripping read. That being said, I don't want to give the impression that Chattopadhyay's writing is jargon-heavy or indecipherable. It's actually quite readable, in my opinion, there's just a lot of information being thrown at you. It was slow-going for me at times. However, there's a lot of information- that's a good thing!
Perhaps my only gripe would be that Ahmad's voice feels absent from the text, especially considering how prolific a writer he was. This is slightly remedied in the last chapter, but that just made me wish the author had quoted from him more often. That is, of course, a matter of personal preference, though.
This text masterfully accomplishes what it sets out to do. Namely, "to trace a part of this radical social history by concentrating on the dialectical interplay between individual and wider consciousness; daily life and changing political praxis; social location and the creation of agency; subjective experiences on the ground; and the making/unmaking of collectives."
Displaying 1 of 1 review