India and Communism PART-2

In 1917, Russia saw the Communist revolution for the first time when Tsars were removed and Communist Party of Soviet Union (CPSU) came in power under Vladimir Lenin. After that it spread across the globe.

 India was no exception. The Communist Party of India (CPI) was formed in 1920 (some says 1925) in Tashkent of USSR (now in Uzbekistan) by M.N Roy. Later on this ideology spread across the country and many prominent freedom fighters of that time like Bhagat Singh, Chittaranjan Das, and Jawaharlal Nehru etc. were highly influenced.

Communism theory was given by a German philosopher Karl Marx and Frederic Engels in 1867. According to him it is a social, political and economic philosophy which examined the effect of capitalism on labor, productivity, and economic development and argues for a worker revolution to overturn capitalism in favor of communism. 

Sounds pretty appealing right? But what follows this ideology is an armed revolution within the nation. Whenever the academicians or thinkers raised a single question to the Marxists that in order to achieve socialist state, why ransack the entire nation? Unfortunately there’s no specific answer to that.

In 1940 Muslim league demanded for a separated nation for Muslims but very little attention was given to them unless the CPI came in support with them. Leaders like Mohammad Ali Jinnah, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan (founder of Aligarh Muslim University), and Allama Iqbal (barrister and a poet) etc. were pioneer supporter of two nation theory.

During the independence movement CPI joined against the British during 1939 but when Germany invaded USSR in 1940s they changed their stand by called World war-2, “People’s war”. They suddenly started working in favor of British and reason behind this was that British were with Soviet Union in the World War-2. Many communists stated that besides overthrowing British from India, we also need an armed revolution against the rich class, landlords of this country and distribute their wealth among poor. CPI even stated Gandhian non-violent movement as “a combination of feudalistic-imperialist movement”.

After the independence CPI declared that “this freedom is false” (yeh aazadi jhoothi hai). In February 1949 a widespread chaos, violence and unending strikes spread across the nation to overthrow the government under B.T Ranadiva, General Secretary of CPI. Those days Telangana was under the Nizam of Hyderabad and to overthrow the Nizam an armed revolution took place in 3000 villages of Telangana. But when the Indian army captured Hyderabad state they took arms against the army. Nearly 2000 were killed and more than 10,000 were arrested. Some CPI leaders at that time secretly went to USSR to meet Joseph Stalin for their “advice” in continuation of armed revolution in India. Well, Stalin refused to continue to struggle.

In 1949 China was took over by newly formed Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong. Mao became the first chairman of China. In India many CPI leaders got influenced by Maoist revolution.

Cut to 1962. China invades India and another question arises within the CPI. Whom should we support? During a press conference CPI leader E.M.S Namoodripaad told that it’s not the China who invaded India but the land India holds is considered to be part of Chinese territory. During the same conference another CPI leader Shripad Amrit Dange refused to take a stand with China and challenged Namoodripaad.

Communist party got split into two. Pro-India leaders stayed in CPI while those who were in favor of China formed Communist Party of India (Marxist).

Two leaders from West Bengal, Charu Majumdar and Kanu Sanyal also joined CPI(M) but due their radical thoughts they were expelled from the party in 1968. Majumdar and Sanyal along with their comrades started a brutal violence against the landlords in Naxalbari village of Siliguri in West Bengal. Many people were killed by Maoists and when police retaliated many innocent farmers were also killed. Soon this violence spread in entire state. Even the State government of CPI(M) was unable to control the violence.

In China, People’s Daily newspaper published an editorial with a title “Spring thunder in India” in support of this naxal movement.

Charu Majumdar and his comrades formed another party Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).In 1970, Majumdar declared armed struggle against government and landlords and instructed his comrades to kill all Class enemies with axes, shovels, hammers etc. brutally enough to instigate fear among people. In the name of cultural revolution libraries were burnt, statues of Subhash Chandra Bose, Swami Vivekananda, Vidyasagar etc. were vandalized. 

In 1971 in Delhi, Jawaharlal Nehru University was established which later on gave ideological support to Maoists.

Soon this movement spread in southern part of India and also in Maharashtra. Grenades, assault rifles, improvised explosive devices were supplied from China and Russia.

From 1949 till today naxal brutality is going on. Bombing, ambush and killing of CRPF jawans and police, riots, mob violence, extortion, drug trafficking, rape etc. is still going on in many parts of India.Nowadays they are even getting ideological backup from media houses like Outlook, NDTV, The Print etc.

Naxal brutality:-

1)https://www.indiatoday.in/india/east/story/former-woman-maoist-lays-bare-the-full-of-adultery-naxal-culture-166080-2013-06-08

2)https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/naxal-violence-claims-12000-lives-in-20-years/articleshow/59521195.cms?from=mdr

3)https://www.dailymail.co.uk/indiahome/indianews/article-2338122/Former-Naxal-commander-raped-tortured-seven-years-comrades-reveals-culture-misogyny-violence-women-Maoist-movement.html