Socialism in India

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Socialism in India is a political movement

founded early in the 20th century, as a part
of the broader Indian independence
movement against the colonial British Raj.
The movement grew quickly in popularity
as it espoused the causes of India's
farmers and labourers against the
zamindars, princely class and landed
gentry. Socialism shaped the principal
economic and social policies of the Indian
government after independence until the
early 1990s, when India moved towards a
more market-based economy. However, it
remains a potent influence on Indian
politics, with a large number of national
and regional political parties espousing
democratic socialism.

Small socialist revolutionary groups arose

in India in the aftermath of the Russian
Revolution. The Communist Party of India
was established in 1921, but socialism as
an ideology gained a nationwide appeal
after it was endorsed by nationalist
leaders such as Jawaharlal Nehru and
Subhas Chandra Bose. Radical socialists
were amongst the first to call for outright
Indian independence from Britain. Under
Nehru, the Indian National Congress,
India's largest political party, adopted
socialism as an ideology for socio-
economic policies in 1936. Radical
socialists and communists also
engineered the Tebhaga movement of
farmers in Bengal against the landed
gentry. However, mainstream Indian
socialism connected itself with Gandhism
and adopted peaceful struggle instead of
class warfare.
After India's independence in 1947, the
Indian government under prime ministers
Nehru and Indira Gandhi oversaw land
reform and the nationalisation of major
industries and the banking sector.
Independently, activists Vinoba Bhave and
Jayaprakash Narayan worked for peaceful
land redistribution under the Sarvodaya
movement, where landlords granted land
to farm workers out of their own free will.
In the 1960s, the Communist Party of India
formed India's first democratically elected
communist government when it won
elections in the states of Kerala and later
West Bengal. However, when a global
recession began in the late 1970s,
economic stagnation, chronic shortages
and state inefficiency left many
disillusioned with state socialism. In the
late 1980s and 1990s, India's government
began to systematically liberalise the
Indian economy by pursuing privatisation,
aiming to attract foreign investment.
Nevertheless, the Congress party
continues to espouse some socialist
causes, and other major parties such as
the Communists, Samajwadi Party,
Bahujan Samaj Party and several others
openly espouse socialism.

History
The socialist movement began to develop
in India with the Russian Revolution.
However, in 1871 a group in Calcutta had
contacted Karl Marx with the purpose of
organizing an Indian section of the First
International.[1] It did not materialize due
to Marx's own racist contempt for Indian
people and culture as well as his support
for repressive Western colonialism.[2] The
first article in an Indian publication (in
English) that mentions the names of Marx
& Engels printed in the Modern Review in
March 1912. The short biographical article
titled Karl Marx – a modern Rishi was
written by the German-based Indian
revolutionary Lala Har Dayal.[3] The first
biography of Karl Marx in an Indian
language was written by R. Rama Krishna
Pillai in 1914.[4]

Marxism made a major impact in Indian

media at the time of the Russian
Revolution. Of particular interest to many
Indian papers and magazines was the
Bolshevik policy of right to self-
determination of all nations. Bipin Chandra
Pal and Bal Gangadhar Tilak were
amongst the prominent Indians who
expressed their admiration of Lenin and
the new rulers in Russia. Abdul Sattar
Khairi and Abdul Zabbar Khairi went to
Moscow, immediately on hearing about
the revolution. In Moscow, they met Lenin
and conveyed their greetings to him. The
Russian Revolution also affected émigré
Indian revolutionaries, such as the Ghadar
Party in North America.[3]

The Khilafat movement contributed to the

emergence of early Indian communism.
Many Indian Muslims left India to join the
defence of the Caliphate. Several of them
became communists whilst visiting Soviet
territory. Some Hindus also joined the
Muslim muhajirs in the travels to the
Soviet areas.[5]
The colonial authorities were clearly
disturbed by the growing influence of
Bolshevik sympathies in India. A first
counter-move was the issuing of a fatwa,
urging Muslims to reject communism. The
Home Department established a special
branch to monitor the communist
influence. Customs were ordered to check
the imports of Marxist literature to India. A
great number of anti-communist
propaganda publications were
published.[6]

The First World War was accompanied

with a rapid increase of industries in India,
resulting in a growth of an industrial
proletariat. At the same time prices of
essential commodities increased. These
were factors that contributed to the
buildup of the Indian trade union
movement. Unions were formed in the
urban centres across India, and strikes
were organised. In 1920, the All India
Trade Union Congress was founded.[7]

One Indian impressed with developments

in Russia was S. A. Dange in Bombay. In
1921, he published a pamphlet titled
Gandhi Vs. Lenin, a comparative study of
the approaches of both the leaders with
Lenin coming out as better of the two.
Together with Ranchoddas Bhavan
Lotvala, a local mill-owner, a library of
Marxist Literature was set up and
publishing of translations of Marxist
classics began.[8] In 1922, with Lotvala's
help, Dange launched the English weekly,
Socialist, the first Indian Marxist journal.[9]

Regarding the political situation in the

colonised world, the 1920 second
congress of the Communist International
insisted that a united front should be
formed between the proletariat, peasantry
and national bourgeoisie in the colonised
countries. Among the twenty-one
conditions drafted by Lenin ahead of the
congress was the 11th thesis, which
stipulated that all communist parties must
support the bourgeois-democratic
liberation movements in the colonies.
Some of the delegates opposed the idea
of alliance with the bourgeoisie, and
preferred support to communist
movements of these countries instead.
Their criticism was shared by the Indian
revolutionary M.N. Roy, who attended as a
delegate of the Communist Party of
Mexico. The congress removed the term
'bourgeois-democratic' in what became
the 8th condition.[10]

The Communist Party of India was

founded in Tashkent on 17 October 1920,
soon after the Second Congress of the
Communist International. The founding
members of the party were M.N. Roy,
Evelina Trench Roy (Roy’s wife), Abani
Mukherji, Rosa Fitingof (Abani’s wife),
Mohammad Ali (Ahmed Hasan),
Mohammad Shafiq Siddiqui and M.P.B.T.
Acharya.[11][12]

The CPI began efforts to build a party

organisation inside India. Roy made
contacts with Anushilan and Jugantar
groups in Bengal. Small communist
groups were formed in Bengal (led by
Muzaffar Ahmed), Bombay (led by S.A.
Dange), Madras (led by Singaravelu
Chettiar), United Provinces (led by Shaukat
Usmani) and Punjab (led by Ghulam
Hussain). However, only Usmani became a
CPI party member.[13]

On 1 May 1923 the Labour Kisan Party of

Hindustan was founded in Madras, by
Singaravelu Chettiar. The LKPH organised
the first May Day celebration in India, and
this was also the first time the red flag was
used in India.[14][15][16]

On 25 December 1925, a communist

conference was organised in Kanpur.
Colonial authorities estimated that 500
persons took part in the conference. The
conference was convened by a man called
Satyabhakta, of whom little is known.
Satyabhakta is said to have argued for a
‘national communism’ and against
subordination under Comintern. Being
outvoted by the other delegates,
Satyabhakta left both the conference
venue in protest.[17] The conference
adopted the name ‘Communist Party of
India’. Groups such as LKPH dissolved into
the unified CPI.[18] The émigré CPI, which
probably had little organic character
anyway, was effectively substituted by the
organisation now operating inside India.
Communist electoral mural in Jadavpur

Currently, Marxism is especially prevalent

in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. The
two largest Communist parties in Indian
politics are the Communist Party of India
(Marxist) and the Communist Party of
India. The RSP and Forward Block support
them in some states. These four parties
constitute the Left Democratic Front.

There are a large number of smaller

Marxist parties, including the Communist
Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), Marxist
Communist Party of India, Marxist
Coordination Committee in Jharkhand,
Janathipathiya Samrakshana Samithy,
Communist Marxist Party and BTR-EMS-
AKG Janakeeya Vedi in Kerala, Mazdoor
Mukti (Workers' Emancipation) and Party
of Democratic Socialism in West Bengal,
Janganotantrik Morcha in Tripura, the Ram
Pasla group in Punjab, and the Orissa
Communist Party in Orissa.

Political parties
At the 1931 Karachi session of the Indian
National Congress, socialist pattern of
development was set as the goal for India.
Through the 1955 Avadi Resolution of the
Indian National Congress, a socialistic
pattern of development was presented as
the goal of the party. A year later, the
Indian parliament adopted 'socialistic
pattern of development' as official policy, a
policy that came to include land reforms
and regulations of industries.[19] The word
socialist was added to the Preamble of the
Indian Constitution by the 42nd
amendment act of 1976, during the
Emergency. It implies social and economic
equality. Social equality in this context
means the absence of discrimination on
the grounds only of caste, colour, creed,
sex, religion, or language. Under social
equality, everyone has equal status and
opportunities. Economic equality in this
context means that the government will
endeavour to make the distribution of
wealth more equal and provide a decent
standard of living for all.[20]

Following independence, the Indian

government officially adopted a policy of
non-alignment, although it had an affinity
with the USSR. The party's commitment to
socialism has waned in recent years,
particularly following the assassination of
Indira Gandhi and her son Rajiv Gandhi.
Elected in 1991, the government of
Narasimha Rao introduced economic
liberalisation with the support of finance
minister Manmohan Singh, the former
prime minister of India.

Communists were also active in the Indian

independence movement and have played
a significant role in India's political life,
although they are fragmented into a
multitude of different parties. Communist
parties represented in parliament are:
(statistics from 2004 General Elections)
Communist Party of India (Marxist) (43
seats in the Lok Sabha), the Communist
Party of India (10 seats), the Revolutionary
Socialist Party (three seats) and the All
India Forward Bloc (three seats). The
former speaker of the Lok Sabha, Somnath
Chatterjee, is a member of the CPI(M). Left
Front parties remain an independent
faction in the parliament critical of the
policies of both the government and that
of the mainstream opposition parties.

Aside from the Congress and the Left

Front, there are other socialist parties
active in India, notably the Samajwadi
Party, which emerged from the Janata Dal
and is led by Mulayam Singh Yadav, the
former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh. It
has 5 seats in the 16th Lok Sabha.[21]
Noted Indian socialists include the
founding leader of the All India Forward
Bloc and the Indian National Army Subhas
Chandra Bose and the country's first prime
minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

See also
Communism in Kerala
Fabian Society
List of political parties in India
Marxist historiography
Politics of India
Secularism in India

Further reading
Communism in India
M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience in
Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003.
Goel, S. R. (1955). Netaji and the CPI.
Calcutta: Society for Defence of
Freedom in Asia.
Goel, S. R. (1953). CPI conspires for
civil-war: Analysis of a secret document.
Calcutta: Society for Defence of
Freedom in Asia.
Shourie, Arun (1991). "The Only
fatherland": Communists, "Quit India",
and the Soviet Union. New Delhi: ASA
Publications.
Shourie, Arun (2013). Self-deception:
India's China policies : origins, premises,
lessons. Noida: HarperCollins
Publishers India.
Swarup, Ram (1954). Communism and
peasantry: Implications of collectivist
agriculture for Asian countries. Calcutta:
Prachi Prakashan.
Swarup, Ram (1955). Gandhism and
communism: Principles and technique.
New Delhi: J. Prakashan.
Spratt, P. (1955). Blowing up India:
Reminiscences and reflections of a
 former Comintern emissary. Calcutta:
Prachi Prakashan.

References
1. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 103
2. Pandey, Raghvendra (24 July 2017).
"Karl Marx & His Prejudice Against
India" . Medium.com. Retrieved
13 May 2019.
3. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
 Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 82,
103
4. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 82
5. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 83
6. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 82-83
7. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 83-84
8. Riepe, Dale. Marxism in India in
Parsons, Howard Lee and
Sommerville, John (ed.) Marxism,
Revolution and Peace. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins Publishing Company,
1977. p. 41.
9. Sen, Mohit. The Dange Centenary in
Banerjee, Gopal (ed.) S.A. Dange – A
Fruitful Life. Kolkata: Progressive
Publishers, 2002. p. 43.
10. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 48,
84–85
11. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 88-89
12. Ganguly, Basudev. S.A. Dange – A
Living Presence at the Centenary Year
in Banerjee, Gopal (ed.) S.A. Dange – A
Fruitful Life. Kolkata: Progressive
Publishers, 2002. p. 63.
13. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 89
14. :: Singaravelar – Achievements ::
Archived 21 April 2011 at the
Wayback Machine
15. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 110
16. Report of May Day Celebrations 1923,
and Formation of a New Party (The
Hindu quoted in Murugesan, K.,
Subramanyam, C. S. Singaravelu, First
 Communist in South India. New Delhi:
People's Publishing House, 1975.
p.169
17. Satyabhakta then formed a party
called National Communist Party,
which lasted until 1927.
18. M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. Communist
Parties and United Front – Experience
in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad:
Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 92-93
19. "The Role of Law and Legal
Institutions in Asian Economic
Development: The Case of India :
Patterns of Change in the Legal
System and Socio-Economy" (PDF).
 Cid.harvard.edu. Retrieved 28 July
2016.
20. "The Constitution (Amendment)" .
Indiacode.nic.in. Archived from the
original on 28 March 2015. Retrieved
28 July 2016.
21. "ELECTION COMMISSION OF INDIA :
GENERAL ELECTION TO LEGISLATIVE
ASSEMBLY TRENDS & RESULT 2016" .
Eciresults.nic.in. Retrieved 28 July
2016.

External links
Where We Stand, by Mazdoor Mukti
 Socialism Kills: The Human Cost of
Delayed Economic Reform in India

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