MIA: Subjects: India : Communist Party
COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA
LEADERS AND ACTIVISTS: BRIEF BIOGRAPHIES
Bankim Mukherjee (1897-1961)
Bankim Mukherjee was one among the first generation of Communist leader from Bengal. Born in Belur in Howrah as in 1897, he at first studied in Hindu School and then Presidency College. In the early twenties he left his studies at the call of Gandhiji, joined the non-cooperation movement with his boyhood friend and teacher colleague Radharaman Mitra, and toured the whole of Bengal as a firebrand Congress Volunteer carrying the message of non-cooperation to the masses. In 1923-24 he went to Benaras as a congress worker and was jailed in Uttarpradesh during this time. Under the instruction of Motilal Nehru Bankim Mukherjee returned to Calcutta in 1926 and came closer to the working class movement. In 1928 he, along with Radharaman Mitra, organised the jute workers of Bauria and Chengail in the district of Howrah and led their long drawn strike. In the course of the strike, Bankim Mukherjee ’s political outlook underwent a radical change: he embraced Marxism. During this period he also developed contact with Kishorilal Ghosh, secretary of the then Bengal Trade union federation. Subsequently he came into contact with Gopen Chakravarty, Dharani Goswami, Philip Spratt and other leading members of the Workers and Peasants Party of Bengal. Inside the congress Bankim Mukherjee was well-known as a leader of the militant section and was elected as one of the vice-presidents of the Bengal provincial congress committee. He brought some congressmen towards the trade union movement. He was one of the main organisers of the famous workers march to the Calcutta congress session in 1928. He was also famous as an orator having mastery over both Bengali and Hindi languages. His oratory, intelligence, dedication and untiring labour for the cause of the working class attracted not only the workers but also quite a good number of intellectuals of Bengal. Thus both inside the Congress and the trade union movement Bankim Mukherjee brought left and militant politics. He, along with Abdur Razzak Khan, jointed the Bengal Chatkal workers union and organised about three lakhs of jute workers. He became one of the left leaders of the AITUC and was regarded as one of its stalwart. Along with Abdur Razzak Khan, Moni Singh, Kali Sen, Bankim Mukherjee led the biggest strike of the jute workers in 1929. Bankim Mukherjee attended the All India conference of the Workers and Peasants party held at the end of December 1928 but did not join the party formally. Nor was he a member of the communist party at that time. He was, however, well known as a communist and was loved and respected as such. After the Meerut Conspiracy case he came closer to the Bengal unit of the Communist Party of India and fully and unhesitatingly cooperated with the party in all mass movements carried on in the province. He was elected to the AICC and visited many parts of India as a congress leader and as a trade union leader wedded to the principles of Marxism-Leninism. During the thirties Bengal was the epic centre of political movement – Satyagraha movement on the one side and secret and violent revolutionary movement on the other electrified the whole country. Actions of the militant youth like the Chittagong armoury raid were bursting forth in profusion. In 1930 Bankim Mukherjee, along with some communist and left minded congressmen, organised and led the carters strike in Calcutta. The police and administration oppressed the strikers as well as their organiser. Carters barricaded some areas of Calcutta and fought the police. The police opened fire on them and injured a number of them. Bankim Mukherjee and Abdul Momin were arrested. During the days of his incarceration Bankim Mukherjee held classes teaching congress boys the principles of Marxism. Some of his jail students joined the CPI after their release according to his advice. He became a member of the CPI unit in Bengal in 1936. He was elected to the Bengal Assembly form Asansol constituency in 1936 as an independent candidate supported by the CPI. As a communist parliamentarian he worked inside the assembly as a spokesman of the masses, against British Imperialism, for the freedom of the country. Outside the assembly he led struggles of working class and peasants including the strike of the jute workers in 1937. He was one of the founders of the All India Kisan Sabha and started organising the Kisans of Bengal. The radical developments on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in April 1936, with Swami Sahajanand Saraswati elected as its first president. The other prominent founding members of this Sabha were N.G. Ranga, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, Indulal Yagnik, Sohan Singh Bhakna, Z.A. Ahmed, Pandit Karyanand Sharma, Pandit Yamuna Karjee, Pandit Yadunandan (Jadunandan) Sharma, Rahul Sankrityayan, P. Sundarayya, Ram Manohar Lohia, Yogendra Sharma and Bankim Mukherjee. At the Seventh AIKS conference held at Bhakhna, Punjab from 1-4 April 1943, Bankim Mukherjee was elected as the All India President and at the Eighth and Ninth conferences held at Vijayawada (1944) and Netrakona (Now in Bangladesh – 1945) he was elected the General Secretary. In 1938 he became a member of the Bengal Provincial committee of the CPI. During the Second World War he was one of the campaigners against fascism and carried the policy of the party not only in Bengal but outside as well. His loyalty to proletarian internationalism was displayed at that time, when nationalist-minded people became hostile to the CPI for adopting the people’s war policy. He married Shanta Bhalerao, who was a secretary of the AITUC. Bankim Mukherjee was elected to the legislative assembly of West Bengal from the Budge Budge constituency as communist party candidate in 1952 and again in 1957. At the party congress of the CPI held in Vijayawada in 1961 he was elected to the national council. He was jailed for the last time in 1959 during the Food Movement of Bengal. He died of cancer at the age of 62 in Kolkata on 15th November 1961.
Moni Singh (1901-1990)
Moni Singh was a communist militant, a member of Communist Party of India, subsequently active in the Communist movement in East Pakistan and a founder of communist party of Bangladesh. He was born at Susang-Durgapur in the district of Mymensingh on 28 June 1901. After completing his primary education he went to Kolkata to pursue a secondary education. There he joined Anushilan Dal, an armed revolutionary group (1914). But after a decade he withdrew himself from the terrorist movement and joined the Communist Party of India in 1925. Moni Singh achieved his initial success as a communist organiser in 1928 when he led a successful 13-day long strike by the workers of Kesharam Cotton Mills at Metiaburuj in Kolkata. He was arrested in 1930, and on his release from jail in November 1937 came back to Susang-Durgapur. There he organised the farmers and led a peasants’ movement to protest against Tanka system. He was one of the chief organisers and president of the reception committee of the convention of Nikhil Bharat Kishan Sabha held at Netrakona in 1945. After the partition of India in 1947 Moni Singh assumed the leadership of the communist movement in East Bengal. At this stage he once again joined the Hajang peasants of Mymensingh and started a movement for the abolition of Tanka system. As this turned into an armed uprising, the government of Pakistan abolished the Tanka system in 1951. At the same time, an arrest warrant was issued against Moni Singh and all his movable and immovable properties were confiscated. While in hiding, Moni Singh was elected secretary of Communist Party of East Bengal in 1951. In 1954, the Communist Party was banned by the government of Pakistan. At the third conference of the Party which took place in secret in 1956, Moni Singh was again elected secretary. He was interned in 1967. He was elected general secretary for the third time at the congress of the party held secretly in 1968. Moni Singh sided with the Soviet Union in the Sino-Soviet split. A mass upsurge of 1969 compelled the government to release him, but he was soon arrested again. During the Bangladesh war of liberation, Moni Singh managed to escape from the Rajshahi prison on 7 April 1971 with the help of common prisoners and joined the war. He was made a member of the advisory council of the mujibnagar government during the War of Liberation. After the emergence of Bangladesh, Moni Singh was elected president of Communist Party in the second congress of the party held in 1973. In 1975 he joined the bangladesh krishak sramik awami league (BAKSAL). Moni Singh helped revive the Communist Party in 1976. In the presidential election in 1978, he took part in a campaign in support of the Democratic Alliance. At the third Congress of Communist Party held in 1980 he was once again elected president of the party and continued to hold this position until his death on 31 December 1990. His autobiography entitled Jiban Sangram (2 volumes) is an important record of the history, politics and the communist movement in the Indian subcontinent.
DOCUMENTS OF THE COMMUNIST MOVEMENT IN INDIA
Volume II (Meerut Conspiracy Case 1929)
DOCUMENTS OF THE HISTORY OF THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA
INDIAN COMMUNIST PARTY DOCUMENTS 1930-1956
Before the 1920s
Letter from Virendranath ’Chatto’ Chattopadhyaya (in German) (1916)
Letter from Virendranath ’Chatto’ Chattopadhyaya (translated by Baijayanti Ray) (1916)
The 1920s
The Indian Communist Party [Object, Programme, Methods, Principles], The Indian Communist Party, Cawnpore (n.d.)
The Moplah Rising By Abani Mukherji for Communist Review (March 1922)
Indian Labour Movement: A Review of the Situation By Abani Mukherji for Communist Review (September 1922)
Summary of the proceedings of the first Indian Communist conference, Cawnpore, (December 1925)
Conspiracy of Imperialism in the All-India Trade Union Congress, by S.A. Dange (n.d.)
Summary Report on the First Annual Conference of the Workers' and Peasants' Party, Bombay, (March 1928)
The Workers' and Peasants' Party of Bengal, Preliminary Report on 1928 Annual Conference, (April 1928)
A Call to Action, Being the Resolutions, Theses and Report presented to the Third Annual Conference of the Workers' and Peasants' Party of Bengal (April 1928)
Constitution of the Workers' and Peasants' Party of Bengal, (1928)
The Workers' and Peasants' Party, Bombay. What It Stands For - Its Program and Policy, (n.d.)
Manifesto of the Workers' and Peasants' Party, Bombay to the Youth Conference, (n.d.)
Draft Constitution and Rules and Regulations of the "Young Comrades' League", (n.d.)
The Workers' and Peasants' Party, Bombay. Manifesto against the "Trade Disputes Bill", (n.d.)
The Workers' and Peasants' Party of Bengal. Leaflet against the "Trade Disputes Bill", (n.d.)
Constitution of the All-India Workers' and Peasants' Party, (December 1928)
Manifesto of the Workers' and Peasants' Party of India on the Simon Commission Boycott, (n.d.)
Statement of the Workers' and Peasants' Party of India On its attitude to the nationalist movement and the Congress (n.d.)
An Echo of the General Election By Shaukat Usmani for Labour Monthly (August 1929)
The 1930s
Draft Platform of Action (1930)
Draft Platform of Action of the Young Communist League of India, in International Press Correspondence, Vol. 12, No. 11 (March 10, 1932)
Abridged Draft of Political Theses of the C.C. of the CP of India, in International Press Correspondence, Vol. 14, No. 40 (July 20, 1934)
A Congress Socialist Looks at World-Politics By S. S. Batliwala (1938)
No Compromise: No More Wavering (1939)
The Second Imperialist War, By G. Adhikari (1939)
The 1940s
An Open Letter to the Working Committee from the Indian Communists (July 1942)
The Indian Communist Party. Its policy and work in the war of liberation, By P. C. Joshi (with an introduction by Harry Pollitt) (1942)
Solve India's National Crisis Through National Unity!, Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPI (September 1942)
Dramatics for National Defense. Two Anti-Fascist Plays: "Four Comrades" and "Roar China", By the Indian People's Theatre Association (Bombay) (1942)
On Pakistan and National Unity Edited by G. Adhikari (1942)
India's Problems (December 1942)
All Together... For the Release of Gandhiji to End the National Crisis, Resolution of the Central Committee of the CPI (February 1943)
The Kayyur Heroes, by P.C. Joshi (1943)
The Man-Made Famine by Jyoti Bose (1943)
Resolutions of the Fourth All India Progressive Writers' Conference (May 1943)
A Case for Congress-League Unity, By Sajjad Zaheer (1944)
All Together... Against Jap Aggression for Food and Freedom, May Day Call of the Communist Party of India (1944)
Welcome [Gandhiji], (1944)
Danger Signals in Indian Economy By S. A. Dange (September 1944)
Congress and Communists By P.C. Joshi (1944)
Rural Bengal in Ruins By Bhowani Sen (1945)
India and the British Election By S. A. Dange (June 1945)
India's Sterling Balances By B.T. Ranadive (1945)
Correspondence Between Mahatma Gandhi and P.C. Joshi (1945)
A Free Happy India. Election Policy of Indian Communists, By P. C. Joshi (1945)
Bhaghat Singh and his Comrades, By Ajoy Ghosh (1945)
Communist Reply to Congress Working Committee's Charges, Part One By P.C. Joshi (1945)
Communist Reply to Congress Working Committee's Charges, Part Two By P.C. Joshi (1945)
What Happened at the Deshhapriya Park Meeting and Thereafter? Issued by the Bengal Provincial Committee, CPI (1945)
Election Manifesto of the Communist Party of India (1946)
Notes on the Bengal Renaissance By Amit Sen (1946)
Vishala Andhra By P. Sundarayya (1946)
Declaration of Independence. Communist Party Resolution for the Constituent Assembly (1946)
"Operation Asylum" and You (1947)
Who Rules in Delhi? (1947)
Princistan. Imperialism's Nest for Tomorrow, By Romesh Chandra (1947)
To the People of Pakistan: Communist Party's Appeal (1947)
Notes of the Discussion of Comrade A.A. Zhdanov with Comrade S.A. Dange, Member of the CC of the Communist Party of India (September 6, 1947)
The Punjab Riots By P. C. Joshi (October 1947)
On his 79th birthday: Our Homage and Our Pledge [to Gandhi] (1947)
Bleeding Punjab Warns by Dhanwantri and P.C. Joshi (1947)
For the Struggle for Full Independence and People's Democracy (1947)
Political Thesis adopted at the Second Congress, Feb. 28 - March 6, 1948
Report on Pakistan. Draft Submitted to the Second Congress of the Party (For Delegates Only), (1948)
Towards the Democratic Front to Win Real Independence and People's Democracy (1948)
Down With Autocracy. Tasks Before the States' Peoples Movement (1948)
One Year of People's Struggles (1948)
Who Rules Pakistan? (1948)
Manifesto of The Central Committee of the Communist Party of India on The New Constitution (1949)
The 1950s
Imperialist Aggression in Kashmir, (1950)
Foreign Capital in "Free" India (Reprinted from Communist, Vol. 3, No. 1) (1950)
Views: Letters to Foreign Comrades and B. T. Ranadive, By P. C. Joshi (1950)
The Letter of New Central Committee - A Review, By Jyoti Basu (1950)
Andhra Provincial Committee Documents on Telangana Struggle with Polit Bureau Introduction (1950)
Statement of Editorial Board of Communist on Anti-Leninist Criticism of Comrade Mao Tse-Tung, Communist, Vol. 3, No. 3 (1950)
Problems of the Mass Movement. Being Part II of P.C. Joshi's Letters to Foreign Comrades Entitled "Are We Only Stupid?" [For Party members and sympathisers only], By P. C. Joshi (1950)
Meeting of Top Communist Party of India and Communist Party of the Soviet Union Comrades [transcription] (February 4, 1951)
Record of a Conversation between Stalin and Representatives of the Indian Communist Party (February 9, 1951)
Record of Conversations between G.M. Malenkov and M.A. Suslov with the Representatives of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Febraury 21, 1951)
Statement of Policy of the Communist Party of India (1951)
Central Committee Resolution on Telangana (May 1951)
Draft Programme of the Communist Party of India (1951)
On Our Programme, By Prokash (1951)
On the Agrarian Question in India, By E.M.S. Namboodripad (1952)
The National Question in Kerala, By E.M.S. Namboodripad (1952)
General Elections in India, By Ajoy Ghosh for Labour Monthly (May 1952)
On the Results of the General Elections and the Tasks Before the Party (For Party Members Only), By Ajoy Ghosh (1952)
Some of Our Main Weaknesses, By Ajoy Ghosh (1952)
On the Indian Trade Union Movement, By S. A. Dange (1952)
Stalin Illumines the Path, By Ajoy Ghosh (1952)
Party Letter #2: The Extended Plenum of the Central Committee, (for Party Members Only) (1953)
Under the Banner of Stalin, By Ajoy Ghosh (1953)
Great Leader of the Working People, [on Stalin] By Ajoy Ghosh (1953)
Resolutions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (1953)
Programme of the Communist Party of India, Adopted at the Third Party Congress (1954)
On the Work of the Third Party Congress (1954)
Resolution On Organization (1954)
The R.I.N. Strike, by a Group of Victimized R.I.N. Rating (1954)
The Peasant in National Economic Construction, By E.M.S. Namboodripad (1954)
Nehru and Indian Communism, Part 1, By Ajoy Ghosh for Labour Monthly (February 1955)
Nehru and Indian Communism, Part 2, By Ajoy Ghosh for Labour Monthly (February 1955)
Sampattidan and Bhoodan Movement: A Marxist Critique, By C. G. Shah (1955)
Communist Party in the Struggle for Peace, Democracy and National Advance, Resolution of the Central Committee (1955)
Some Questions of Party Policy, By Ajoy Ghosh (Fourth Party Congress Document #4) (1955)
The Indian Bourgeoisie, By Ajoy Ghosh (1955)
Resolutions of the Communist Party of India, Adopted at the Extraordinary Party Congress (1958)
Constitution of the Communist Party of India, Adopted at the Extraordinary Party Congress (1958)
Amritsar Congress of the Communist Party, By Ajoy Ghosh (1958)
Communist Party of India Years of Formation, 1921-1933, By Muzaffar Ahmad (1959)
Kerala: A Report to the Nation, A Verdict on the Eighteen-Month-Old Communist Rule in Kerala, By H.D. Malaviya (October 1958)
Kerala's Answer to KPCC Charges Full Text of the Kerala Government's Reply to the Memorandum Submitted by the KPCC to the President of the Indian Union (September 1959)
Twenty-Eight Months in Kerala. A Retrospect, By E.M.S. Namboodiripad (December 1959)
The 1960s
Election Manifesto (1961)
Third Elections — Communist Challenge By Ajoy Ghosh (1961)
The Real Face and Purpose of the "Criminal Law Amendment Act" (as passed by the Parliament) By the West Bengal State Council, CPI (1961)
The Communist Party of India and Its Formation Abroad By Muzaffar Ahmad (April 1962)
Entry from the Journal of Soviet ambassador to India Benediktov, on his Conversation with General Secretary of the Communist Party of India, E.M. Nambudiripad (October 26, 1962)
Unite to Defend Our Motherland Against China's Open Aggression, Resolution of the National Council of the Communist Party of India (November 1962)
Resolutions of the National Council of the Communist Party of India (February 1963)
Neither Dogmatism Nor Revisionism is Our Guide. Reply to the Chinese "Mirror" by S. A. Dange (April 1963)
Resolutions of the Central Executive Committee of the National Council of the Communist Party of India (September 1963)
Resolutions of the National Council of the Communist Party of India (October 1963)
The Threatening Disruption and Split of the Party — How to Avert the Disaster? by M. Basavapunniah and 16 other members of the National Council (December 1963)
A Reply to the Statement by Comrade M. Basapunniah and Others on Party Unity by S.A. Dange (1963)
Party and Trade Unions. Some Problems (1964)
Statement of the Secretariat of the National Council [on the Dange letters] (March 13, 1964)
Statement of the Secretariat of the National Council [on convening an NC meeting on April 10] (April 1, 1964)
Statement of Nine Members of the Central Executive Committee (April 6, 1964)
Letter to the National Council from Twelve CEC Members (April 10, 1964)
Statement of Thirty-Two Members of the National Council (April 11, 1964)
Second Statement of Thirty-Two Members of the National Council (April 12, 1964)
Appeal to Repudiate Dange and His Group from Thirty-Two Members of the National Council (April 14, 1964)
Resolution on Splitters and Other Documents of the National Council of the Communist Party of India (April 10-15, 1964)
Letter from the Central Secretariat to Each of the Thirty-Two Suspended Members of the National Council (May 29, 1964)
Reply of the Ten Suspended Members of the National Council to the Letter from the Central Secretariat (May 31, 1964)
Response Letter from the Central Secretariat to the Letter of the Ten Suspended Members of the National Council (June 3, 1964)
Resolutions and Decisions of the National Council of the Communist Party of India (June 1964)
Communist Party and India's Path to National Regeneration and Socialism [A Review and Comment on Comrade E.M.S. Namboodiripad's Revisionism and Dogmatism in the Communist Party of India] by G. Adhikari [for members only] (June 1964)
Against Dogmatist Disruption, Adventurism and Opportunism: For the Unity of the Party and the International Communist Movement (August 1964)
Resolutions of the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of India (September 1964)
The Problems of the Non-Capitalist Path of Development in India and the State of National Democracy, By G. Adhikari (1964)
Documents of the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of India (13-23 December 1964)
Appeal to Members of Parliament: Voice Your Protest Against Detention of Communist Leaders Without Trial (January 1965)
Resolutions Adopted by the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of India (July 1965)
Resolutions Adopted by the Central Executive Committee of Communist Party of India (September 1965)
Defense, Democracy, Secularism - Kashmir by S. G. Sardesai (September 1965)
Aspects of CPI Program by Mohit Sen (February 1966)
Marxist CP's Programme X'rayed by Mohit Sen (February 1966)
The Tashkent Spirit by Romesh Chandra (February 1966)
Kerala's Cry for Justice by C. Achutha Menon (March 1966)
Bombay Textile General Strike. February 28th to March 11th, 1966. By S. G. Sardersai (1966)
The Present Political Situation (June 1966)
Resolutions Adopted by the National Council of the Communist Party of India (June 1966)
A Dialogue with Marxist Communist Party (September 1966)
What Do They Want to Achieve By This 'Cultural Revolution' in China by G. Adhikari (October 1966)
Recent Events in People's Republic of China Connected With the So-called 'Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution' Resolution of the National Council of the Communist Party of India (November 1966)
India's Path to Socialism by S. G. Sardesai (November 1966)
Election Manifesto of the Communist Party of India - 1967 (December 1966)
Review of Fourth General Election Adopted by the National Council of the Communist Party of India (April 1967)
Madurai Ideological Stand of the Communist Party (Marxist) [and other resolutions of the CEC of the Communist Party of India] (September 1967)
Shiv Sena: The Fascist Menace Behind the Pseudo-Maharashtrian Mask by Prabhakar Waidya [publication of the Maharashtrian State Committee, Communist Party of India] (February 1968)
Political Resolution Adopted at the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of India (February 1968)
Organizational Report Adopted by the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of India (February 1968)
International Situation and Problems of World Communist Movement Adopted at the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of India (February 1968)
Constitution of the Communist Party of India Adopted at the 8th Congress of the Communist Party of India (February 1968)
A Course of Party Education (For Branch Secretaries) Second Stage (June 1968)
Fight Back Communalism (June 1968)
Indian Capitalism and Its Crisis by Mohit Sen (July 1968)
Das Kapital Centenary Volume: A Symposium Edited by Mohit Sen and M.B. Rao (July 1968)
What Is Communism? By Chinmohan Sehanobis (November 1968)
Congress Claims X'Rayed, By Bhowani Sen (December 1968)
Communist Party and the Problems of Muslim Minority by M. Farooqi (1969)
Incendiary Hand of the RSS and Jana Sangh Behind Communal Riots by H. K. Vyas (1969)
Marx and India by G. Adhikari (1969)
communism and the new left by Mohit Sen (1969)
Political Perspectives in India by Rajeswaro Rao (1969)
The 1970s
Lenin in Contemporary Indian Press by P.C. Joshi, Gautam Chattopadhyay and Devendra Kaushik (1970)
The Mahatma: A Marxist Symposium Edited by M.B. Rao (1970)
Communist Party and Naxalites by Pratap Mitra and Mohit Sen (1971)
Turning Point in India, By S.G. Sardesai for Labour Monthly (May 1971)
New Tensions in India, By S.G. Sardesai for Labour Monthly (January 1972)
The Truth About CPM. A Critique of the Ideological-Political Line of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), By Bhowani Sen (1972)
CPM's Opportunism in Crisis by N.K. Krishnan, Mohit Sen and Bupesh Gupta (1976)
Communist Party of India Statements and Resolutions on the State of Emergency (1976-77)
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Periodicals
Marxist Miscellany, Vol. 5 (November 1945)
Marxist Miscellany, Vol. 6 (April 1946)
Communist, Vol. 1, No. 7 (January 1948)
Communist, Vol. 3, No. 1 (January 1950)
Communist, Vol. 3, No. 3 (July-August 1950)
New Age, [magazine] Vol. 5, No. 10 (October 1956)
New Age, [weekly newspaper] (1958-1965)
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See also:
Manabendra Nath Roy Internet Archive
Shripad Amrit Dange Internet Archive