Leftism-Communism with its various ideological titles like Marxism, Leftism, Bolshevism, Maoism, Stalinism, Leninism, Naxalism, Marxism-Leninism, Marxism-Leninism-Maoism, etc, is a worldview and is no less than a religion for its followers. It presumes man to be primarily materialistic-being whose prime and exclusive interest is material or economic. Further, it assumes that it is not the ‘idea’ but the ‘matter’ which is the driving force of the society and human-civilizations; material-forces to be the sole cause of movement or progression in all aspects–be it human development or progress of the society. The other aspects of life like religion, culture, ideology, polity and society are just the refection of the prevailing economic-relations which they purportedly classify into mode of productions and means of production. Whosoever controls the means of production controls the mode of production and hence other aspects of the society which they call as superstructure.
Since human is exclusively a material being, his prime allegiance is to his ‘class’. His first and foremost allegiance, alignment and loyalty are class loyalty. Depending upon his control over means of production, his class may be of– Haves or Have Nots. Further, there continues a dialectic struggle between the antagonistic forces of Haves and Have nots, which has always manifested in history in one form or the other– landholders vs peasants, bourgeoisie vs proletariat, rich vs poor.
So, ‘class’ is the prime factor; and not the nation. ‘Nation’ is nothing but invented and devised by the Capitalists like religion (which they call an opium) to further and protect their own class interests. Nation is a class structure; which represents class and is a temporary phenomenon, which will wither away when there is no class in the state of classless stateless society. Since ‘nation’ is secondary to class; there is a dialectical-struggle between the class and the nation. If we have to give priority, class-loyalty obviously comes much above the nation. Further, it prophesies that there would be a world-revolution of the proletariats where the have nots will overthrow the haves of the world to establish a classless stateless society. So, Marxism and Nationalism are opposite, antagonist, and antithesis.
With these underlying basic tenants of Communism-Leftism, let us understand the role of Communist-Leftist in the freedom struggle of India.
Communism evolved as an ideology as propagated by Marx and Engels. Communism claimed to achieve its first revolution as Russian-Revolution (1917) which influenced the whole world under the power-struggle of imperialism and colonialism. It influenced and attracted many Indian young intellectuals who wished to have a political power for the purpose of ending class exploitation.
However, there was another parallel social movement named as Socialism, which stands for equality and equitable distribution of the wealth of nation. Many of the Indian intellectuals, freedom fighters and social-political leaders including the leaders in the Congress got influenced by the ideas of socialism. Socialism believes in peaceful and evolutionary process of the equitable distribution.
In this background, Communist Party of India (CPI) was founded in 1920 at Tashkent by MN Roy following the Bolshevik Revolution. The very foundation of the party was alien and on the foreign land. The ideas, ideology and principles of Communism-Marxism were an alien concept to the Indian culture and were sought to be imported and applied in the Indian socio-political scenario.
Ideologically, the idea of dialectical material class struggle was incongruous with the socio-politico-cultural reality of the Indian culture and political-circumstances.
From the very beginning, the Communist movement worked as a satellite and stooge of Comintern (Leninism) and worked as such till 1947. The communist party, movement and ideology worked as a subordinate of the Russian-Communism (Comintern) in getting political directions and directives and even in following the course of action in anti-imperialist struggle. The Communist-Leftist idea of ‘nationalism’ and freedom struggle was subservient to their ideology of international proletariat revolution. It was dictated and monopolised by the Comintern than by the nationalistic freedom struggle of India. So, Communist-movement was never an independent movement ideologically or organisationally.
Ideologically, Communist-Leftists were more aligned to their idea of ending class-struggle; and the idea of freedom from the British Imperialism was a proxy to their main ideology.
According to the Leftist historians, the Indian freedom struggle led by Gandhi was a class struggle wherein Gandhi was representing the Indian Capitalists – the bourgeoisie who was waging a dialectical struggle with the imperialists as well the as Indian working class. The Indian bourgeoisie led by Gandhi wanted independence gradually and not at the cost of their own entrenched class-positions. They cite the example of withdrawal of Non-Cooperation Movement following the Chaura-Chari (1922) incident. According to them, Gandhi, the bourgeoisie, withdrew the movement as the masses were radicalised and were even ready to overthrow the Indian capitalists. So, he chose to retreat.
From 1920 to 1930, there was hardly any worth contribution to the national-struggle by the Leftist-Communists. The participation of the Communist-Leftist was more on individual leadership basis than on any party or ideology basis. It was never ever a mass movement or a movement, which included multi-regions or multi-classes.
With the start of AITUC in 1920 and other working class and farmer-peasants based social movement, the communist tried to appropriate them as their own without making any significant contribution.
The CPI for most of the time between 1942 and 1947, advanced a collaborationist attitude towards the British Raj and the Muslim League alike. CPI passed a resolution for creating Pakistan on September 19, 1942. It was based on the thesis of Gangadhar Moreshwar Adhikari (GM Adhikari) who was the General Secretary of the CPI and the eminent scholar of Communism-Marxism in India (The Pakistan and National Unity edited by G Adhidkhari, People Publishing House pages 12-13, pages 14 to 16). It endorsed the formation of Pakistan as a front against British colonialism. According to the cult-god of Indian Left, following the lines adopted by Stalin, for Adhikari, India was never a united country and that the idea of ‘one nation, one people, one language’ never existed at any point in the country’s history. He proposed a declaration of rights that would ‘give to the Muslims wherever they are in an overwhelming majority in a contiguous territory which is their homeland, the right to form their autonomous states and even to separate if they so desire’. This resolution seeded the path of the avoidable partition of India.
Indian Leftists were directed and dictated by the Russian-Communism. When Hitler attacked his erstwhile ally, the Soviet Union, in 1941, the fight against Nazism overnight became a People’s War for the Indian communists. Since, the communists’ “fatherland” was attacked, the British rule became a friendly force. They aligned with the rule and became their stooge. Latest historical research shows that many of the communist activists worked as agents of the Empire against the Indian people and aligned with the British after this event.
Of late, the Leftist historians have started appropriating the revolutionaries who have chosen non-Gandhian path as people influenced by the Communist ideology. Even the incident of Komagata Maru where many revolutionaries sacrificed their life (1914) is being eulogised and finds mention in the Communist-history (CPI History Pre-Independence Novem. 19, page7) which happened much before the formation of the Communist Party.
The Quit India Movement (1942) was not only not participated but was vehemently opposed by the Communist-Marxist.
Clemency, apology letters and mercy petitions were written to the British government and were favoured by the Crown too. Notable person whose arrest warrant was withdrawn was PC Joshi who was the most prominent leader of the Leftist-Communist face at that time. In 1942, Joshi had a clandestine meeting with Stafford Cripps of the Cripps Mission who was looking for ways to suppress the agitating Indian freedom struggle of ‘Quit India’ and support in the British War effort.
The Independence Day was boycotted since the leaders like BT Randive took the line that this freedom was fake (‘yeh azadi jhooti hai’), and argued that the situation in India was ripe for an armed revolution.
We must know the truth of the role played by the Communist against the narrative as set by the Leftist-Historians.
The author is an independent columnist and commentator. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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