By Krishna Jha
The Communist Party of India will be a century old in another year. The party was formed on December 26, 1925. In 1920, the All India Trade Union Congress was formed with strikes and struggles of working masses, in the textile mills in Bombay, jute mills in Kolkata, and many other places. Emancipation from the shackles of an exploitative system became a goal. India was at the time, a colony of British imperialism.
Those early years the trends that could be identified among the Indian revolutionaries were classified in four groups. First were those active from abroad during the war and post war years – in the United States, Germany, Afghanistan and Turkey. A “provisional government of independent India” was formed in Kabul. Prominent among those active were Raja Mahendra Pratap, Virendranath Chattopadhyay, M Barakatullah, MPBT Acharya, M N Roy and Abani Mukherji, earlier functioning from Berlin.
The second group was those from the Pan-Islamic Khilafat movement, who went abroad during the war itself (1914-16). There were also those coming from the great Hijarat Movement in the War days and later were influenced by the October Revolution. Among them were Mohammad Ali Sepassy, Rahmat Ali Khan, Ferozuddin Mansoor, Abdul Majid, and Shaukat Usmani.
A third group of national revolutionaries as they were all categorised by Dr G Adhikari, were from the Ghadar party organised among the Sikhs and Punjabi emigrant labour in the US before the war. They had intended to stage a revolution in 1915, but the attempt failed.
The last group belonged to those who were in the left wing of the National Congress, Khilafat movement, the underground national revolutionary organisations and parties, the Akali movement especially from among the Babbar Akali left group linked with the Ghadar Party, active within the country itself. There were many from these groups disillusioned after the withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement in 1921-22, who came in the folds of those who believed in scientific socialism, and joined the class organisations of workers and peasants.
It was also a period when the great October revolution was accomplished and the new Soviet government had a deep impact on the freedom and revolutionary movements all over the world, including anti-colonial national liberation movements in Asia and elsewhere. The British colonialists were witnessing the rise of the Indian revolution as dangerous and desperate as that of 1857.
The very foundation of the Communist Party in the early twenties of twentieth century was the opening of the flood gates for the search for ever new programmes and ways for more effective methods and programmes of struggles for freedom. It also brought together all those who were from different trends and found a scientific way to move further towards freedom. It was a dialectical unity of proletarian internationalism as well as the patriotism that led to the foundation of CPI.
Both of these streams kept evolving along with the party itself. The anti-imperialist stream was as much the part of the CPI as was the struggle against exploitation, which led to organising the working class and the peasantry both.
Early communist groups were formed in various parts of the country. Among them were S A Dange in Bombay who brought out the Socialist, wrote a book called Gandhi Vs Lenin and both were seen and read by Com Lenin. Singaravelu in Madras was a popular trade union leader, and established the Peasants and Workers Party.
The events that helped form a context for the formation of the party could be identified among those taking place in 1922-25. The first ones were the conspiracy cases held at Peshawar in the 1922-24 period. These were followed by strengthening of ideas to form a legal and open party for open activities for the communists and organise the masses. It had impacted the British rulers strongly.
As a way out they planned the separation of leadership and the masses. The first step in this regard was the Kanpur Bolshevik conspiracy case in 1924. Soon the executive committee of the Communist International adopted a resolution on India in March-April, 1925. Soon after was the Foundation Conference organised on December 26, 1925. The British rulers had realised that the evolution of ideas that led to October Revolution was now irresistible in India also and that “nascent communist activities were the real danger in the coming years”.
Lenin was concerned about forming the strategy for continuing struggle on the anti-colonial front. He had been keen about the necessity of broader support to that section of the bourgeoisie which was involved in the national movement in colonies and semi colonies. The issue was to remain alive even long after independence.
The characterisation of the national bourgeoisie and their role in the national mainstream was imperative for the formation of a united front. The debate was also raised about the varied class interests and making compromises on causes and interests while aligning with the commitment towards nationalism.
Later, in 1925, when the party conference took place in Kanpur, the basics of a brief programme were presented along with the party constitution. The brightest point of the conference was that the party could assemble all the comrades representing communist groups active since the early days from Kolkata, Bombay, Madras, Punjab and several other places.
The conference elected a central executive committee. With certain changes introduced, it worked as the guiding force from 1926- 29, when almost all leaders were arrested in 1929 in the Meerut conspiracy case. Just before the arrests, a new phase was ushered in when the party unleashed a two pronged attack, fighting against imperialism, and also organising the working class and the peasantry.
Large scale mass movements, strike struggles and peasant morchas helped people to become politically aware. It was an open politico- economic struggle, a struggle between the classes, openly initiating movements led by workers and peasants parties almost all over the country. Communists were working in Indian National Congress also, urging broad left wing support for the national revolutionary programme and also building an independent mass base among workers and peasants to work as class organisations and play the role of a mass force leading the country’s struggle for independence towards a national revolutionary direction.
It was this clarity about the direction that helped the leadership to decide on August 18, 1959, the Kanpur conference of 1925 as the foundation day of the party. But it did not mean that it was done at the cost of importance and significance of the Tashkent date.
Foundation conference also asserted that the Communist Party would strive to liberate the country from colonial rule and move towards socialist path. Journey continues keeping pace with the changes, but the goal remains the same. (IPA Service)
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