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History of the Communist Movement in India: Volume 1: The Formative Years 1920-1933
The Present Volume tells the story of the early years of the communist movement in India.
The Communist movement in India was a product of the radical impetus coming out of the national liberation struggle. Though the Communist Party of India was first organized in Tashkent by émigré India revolutionaries, the seeds of class politics and ideology of scientific socialism sprouted in the soil of the subcontinent once the message of the October Revolution reached its shores.
From the outset, the colonial state unleashed repression on the communists. The conspiracy cases in Peshawar, Lahore and Kanpur were meant not crush an organized movement, but to suppress the very possibility of communism taking root in India.
The communist movement, with its strong ideological moorings, influenced virtually all other streams. This contributed to the rise of radical trends even inside the Congress in the post-First World War period. The militant anti-imperialist stand of the communists attracted various revolutionary fighters. Among them were the Gadar fighters of the Punjab, the colleagues of Bhagat Singh, the revolutionaries of Bengal, the militant working class fighters of Bombay and Madras presidencies and radical anti-imperialist Congressmen from different parts of the country.
Communists played the principal role in transforming the demand for independence from the vaguely-enunciated idea of Swaraj to pro-people concept of freedom not just from the colonial regime, but also from social and economic exploitation and sectarian strife. Despite its organizational limitations, the CPI, guided by the Communist International (Comintern), forced attention on the class exploitation of workers and peasants.
However, the sectarian stand of the communists restricted the Party’s growth. The Comintern’s stand particularly after the Six Congress in 1928, isolated the Party from the main current of the anti-colonial movement. The Meerut conspiracy case trial provided a common platform for all the communist groups to sit together and to initiate the process of self-introspection. The Party took a new turn politically and organizationally, and this prepared the ground for the massive people’s movements led by the communists in the coming years.
Backed by meticulous research, this volume will be invaluable to researchers and lay readers alike.
The Communist movement in India was a product of the radical impetus coming out of the national liberation struggle. Though the Communist Party of India was first organized in Tashkent by émigré India revolutionaries, the seeds of class politics and ideology of scientific socialism sprouted in the soil of the subcontinent once the message of the October Revolution reached its shores.
From the outset, the colonial state unleashed repression on the communists. The conspiracy cases in Peshawar, Lahore and Kanpur were meant not crush an organized movement, but to suppress the very possibility of communism taking root in India.
The communist movement, with its strong ideological moorings, influenced virtually all other streams. This contributed to the rise of radical trends even inside the Congress in the post-First World War period. The militant anti-imperialist stand of the communists attracted various revolutionary fighters. Among them were the Gadar fighters of the Punjab, the colleagues of Bhagat Singh, the revolutionaries of Bengal, the militant working class fighters of Bombay and Madras presidencies and radical anti-imperialist Congressmen from different parts of the country.
Communists played the principal role in transforming the demand for independence from the vaguely-enunciated idea of Swaraj to pro-people concept of freedom not just from the colonial regime, but also from social and economic exploitation and sectarian strife. Despite its organizational limitations, the CPI, guided by the Communist International (Comintern), forced attention on the class exploitation of workers and peasants.
However, the sectarian stand of the communists restricted the Party’s growth. The Comintern’s stand particularly after the Six Congress in 1928, isolated the Party from the main current of the anti-colonial movement. The Meerut conspiracy case trial provided a common platform for all the communist groups to sit together and to initiate the process of self-introspection. The Party took a new turn politically and organizationally, and this prepared the ground for the massive people’s movements led by the communists in the coming years.
Backed by meticulous research, this volume will be invaluable to researchers and lay readers alike.
373 pages, Kindle Edition
Published August 1, 2017
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December 15, 2020We live in interesting times, but it must seem so mundane to someone who has lived through 1920s 30s. Nothing was set, everyone's ideologies in a flux. The world war and Russian revolution made grand empires seem like card towers that could be brought down if only the right mix of ideology and mass action were found.
All sorts of people in all sorts of circumstances find themselves in a position to apply communism to the colonial Indian context, and that's what we have documented here. The story is thus not linear. A lot of false starts and broken momentum, but each new start builds on the previous failure.
The book also drives home how important the Indian communist movement was in driving the Indian liberation movement, even though it wasn't the party that led it. It was constantly pushing the INC leftward and worked with the socialists within the INC, though there was mutual distrust.
The account is quite confusing, with a distinct effect that it hasn't been written by one person. The chronology is all over the place and the narrative seems bogged down in too much detail.
All sorts of people in all sorts of circumstances find themselves in a position to apply communism to the colonial Indian context, and that's what we have documented here. The story is thus not linear. A lot of false starts and broken momentum, but each new start builds on the previous failure.
The book also drives home how important the Indian communist movement was in driving the Indian liberation movement, even though it wasn't the party that led it. It was constantly pushing the INC leftward and worked with the socialists within the INC, though there was mutual distrust.
The account is quite confusing, with a distinct effect that it hasn't been written by one person. The chronology is all over the place and the narrative seems bogged down in too much detail.
January 16, 2021
Really useful for scholars, given the depth and breadth of the research that went into it.
However, this is an "official" history, so to speak, and the readability suffers as a result. I still enjoyed reading it but the book could be a bit dry at times.
However, this is an "official" history, so to speak, and the readability suffers as a result. I still enjoyed reading it but the book could be a bit dry at times.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews