Reflections on the 100 years of the Communist Party in India | Suresh Khairnar

This is even more important in view of the competition between the present countries and the world to run after capitalism. Soviet Russia and China, the countries that were once the guides to socialism in the entire world, are today moving ahead in the competition of capitalism at such a fast pace and are exploiting their own workers. They are already defeating the countries that supported capitalism. From human rights to the workers and farmers, with whose help the socialist revolutions took place in Russia 107 years ago and in China 76 years ago. But today, in the present situation of both those countries, it seems doubtful whether socialist revolutions really took place there?

I am currently at home for more than a year after a long time due to Madam Khairnar’s illness. So in my free time, I have kept old books in my personal library, mainly from the 15-year-old residence of Calcutta, on the College Street pavement and some from the Book Fair. I have not read all of them completely. So whenever I get free time, I keep flipping through them. In the same sequence, as soon as I got a small book of less than 100 pages by a Malayali writer named N.E. Balaram of the Communist Party of India, I am trying to write this article after reading it all at once.

In 1912, Marxist Swadesabhimani Ramakrishna Pillai wrote Karl Marx’s biography on Indian soil. But till then there was no political movement on Marxist ideas. In 1921, Muzaffar Ahmed, who worked among the Young Nationalists and workers in Calcutta, S.A. Dange in Mumbai, and Ghulam Husain in Lahore were making some efforts in 1923. They were also publishing some magazines. Navayug was being published from Calcutta, Socialist from Mumbai, and Inqlaab from Lahore.

The Communist Manifesto was published in Bengali and Marathi in 1921. In 1923, this activity was started in Madras and some efforts were made in foreign countries as well. M.N. Roy himself was involved in Afghanistan, Germany and Russia. After gaining a good reputation among the workers of the industrial cities of India, mainly Mumbai, Calcutta, Kanpur, Ahmedabad and Madras, from 1911 to 1922, about 1.25 lakh workers participated in the strike in 1918. Similarly, the strikes of 1920 and 1921 took place in the iron factories of Jamshedpur, railways in Jabalpur and textile factories of Ahmedabad and as a result of this, the All India Workers Congress was born in 1920. (AITUC) means the organization of communist workers was born five years before the Communist Party of India.

In 1919, there was a protest against the Rowlatt Act. In response to that, the Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place. At the same time, the Khilafat Movement and the farmers’ movement were on the rise. In the February meeting of the Bardoli Congress Working Committee in 1922, on Gandhiji’s advice, it was suddenly announced that the Civil-Nafranami movement would be suspended as a result of the Chauri Chaura incident. After this announcement, Motilal Nehru, C.R. Das, Lala Lajpat Rai and Jawaharlal Nehru also criticized Gandhiji’s decision.

In this context, the process of the formation of communist groups accelerated. In fact, the Ghadar Party had been formed in 1913, and so had the Bengal Revolutionary Party. Among all these groups, Muzaffar Ahmed and mainly M.N. Roy, who were themselves members of the Communist International’s executive from 1924 to 1929, were expelled from it in 1929, which is a different matter.

In 1924, many communist leaders were arrested in the Kanpur Conspiracy Case. In which Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed and other comrades were sent to jail. Therefore, the party’s existence was halted for a while, but within a year, in December 1925, it was announced in a conference in Kanpur. It started functioning from January 1926. In which S. V. Ghatate, Muzaffar Ahmed, Singaravelu Chettiar, Hazrat Mohani, Janaki Prasad, Nimkar and Joglekar were the party’s first secretaries. S. V. Ghatate remained till 1929. This is the brief history of India’s first communist party.

But in the Second World War, the credibility of the Communists was deeply hurt due to the role of the party in the Russian Communist Party, by first taking the side of the war and then immediately deciding against the war, and by getting caught in the same trap, the decision to go against the Quit India Movement of 1942. Therefore, some beginning was made to remove the anti-India tag. But in 1962, when China attacked, they made the biggest mistake in history by calling it a liberator. After that, they split into two factions. But the damage that was to be done was done. They could not repair the image of the anti-national party among the public. And not even 15 years had passed when in 1974, they called the JPI movement a conspiracy of the CIA, and not only did they stay away from it, but in 1974, they played an important role in spreading propaganda against that movement in the entire country along with the Congress. Although the common workers of the Communist Party do a very good job, they do not have much political recognition among the people in India in comparison to their sacrifice and penance, except in Bengal, Kerala and Tripura. And now they have to face defeat in Bengal and Tripura too. The question arises as to how long will Kerala remain? Where is the RSS, which was born in 1925, today? And why are the communist parties, which have been continuously working for the proletariat, socially exploited, oppressed, farmers and labourers of India, having to face such a day today?

After 1925, we are still facing the consequences of these three mistakes! We started moving forward by learning from them! And that is why we got the opportunity to form the government in West Bengal in 1977! We ruled for 35 years continuously only by conducting Operation Barga! But we were removed from power in an attempt to impose anti-people projects like Nandigram and Singur, which is the biggest mistake till date! But the party suffering from the disease of making mistakes and not learning anything from them! When will it emerge again in this country? Only time will tell!

By writing all this, I have absolutely no intention of insulting or hurting anyone! But still, if any friend has felt this way, then I apologize! Because at present our biggest problem is to unite to drive out communal forces! Not to belittle each other!

Dr. Suresh Khairnar, 22 November 2024, Nagpur.