The
communist movement started in India in 1920s inspired by the victory of the
great October Revolution in Russia and formation of Soviet Union under the
leadership of Lenin. During the next two decades the CPI organized the working
class and peasantry in many parts of the then colonial India. It led many
heroic struggles of the working class and led many anti-feudal movements with
“land to the tiller slogan”. But it failed to apply the strategic line of the
People’s democratic Revolution put forward by the Communist International in
the concrete conditions of India. It failed to establish the leadership of the
working class in the independence struggle and in effect surrendered it to the
Congress and Muslim League, the parties of the big capitalists and landlords which were compromising with the British colonialists. As a result,
when the people’s upsurge against British colonialists was intensifying during
the post-Second World War period, they could communally divide the country to
India and Pakistan and transfer power to these comprador parties in 1947. After
the transfer of power, the CPI leadership in its 1948 party congress denounced the
right deviation of the past decades. But it adopted a left sectarian line of
armed uprising without any preparation which was soon crushed by the Congress
government. Though a Party Program and tactical line conforming to the
post-1947 period was adopted in the 1951 Conference, it was soon abandoned.
Under the influence of the revisionist line which had come in to dominance in
the 20th Congress of the Soviet Communist party under the leadership
of Krushchov, the CPI leadership soon degenerated to revisionist path and
adopted class collaborationist line. This led to the first split in the party
in 1964 and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) came in to existence. Though
its leadership claimed to reject the rightist line of the CPI, it refused to support
the ideological struggle then waged against the revisionist line of the Soviet
leadership under the leadership of Mao and the CPC. It also failed to make a
concrete analysis of the changes taking place in the country after transfer of
power, took a centrist line, refused to evaluate the comprador character of the
bureaucratic bourgeoisie leading the state and soon degenerated to
neo-revisionist positions by the time of the 1967 general elections.
By
struggling against the revisionist CPI and neo-revisionist CPI(M), the
communist revolutionaries, upholding
Marxism-Leninism- Mao Tsetung Thought as their guiding ideology, led the
Naxalbari Uprising in W.Bengal in 1967 with “land to the tiller” slogan, which
was suppressed by the state forces of the then CPI(M) led government in the
state and the Congress government at centre. Uniting the Communist
Revolutionary forces in the country the All India Coordination
Committee of Communist Revolutionaries was formed in 1968. Major sections of them took initiative to
found the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) in 1969 under the leadership
of com. Charu Mazumdar. It adopted its Program, Constitution and tactical line
at the first or Eighth Congress in Calcutta (
Kolkata) in 1970.
Though
the formation of CPI (ML) was a significant step forward, it mechanically
upheld the left adventurist line which had come in to dominance in the CPC by
the time of its Ninth Party Congress in 1969. According to this ‘Chinese path’
adopted by the Party, refusing to make a concrete analysis of the changes which
were taking place after the transfer of power under the influence of
imperialist camp led by US imperialism, India was evaluated as a semi-colonial,
semi-feudal country like pre-revolutionary China with area wise seizure of
political power and protracted people’s war as the path of revolution. Armed
struggle was adopted as the only form of struggle and the Leninist Bolshevik
concept of building party surrounded by class and mass organizations was
abandoned. ‘Annihilation of class enemies’ was adopted to facilitate the armed
struggle. Soon, ever intensifying external suppression by the state forces and
internal dissensions led to severe setbacks to the movement including the
elimination of its leadership and thousands of its cadres, imprisonment of tens
of thousands of its activists and supporters and its disintegration to many
groups by 1972. Even those who remained outside CPI (ML) had no alternative
approach to put forward, and they also faced the same fate.
Though
many of these groups talked of rectifying the sectarian line and adopted ‘mass
line’ and utilization of all forms of struggle including the electoral forms of
struggle, almost all these groups still adhered to characterization of Indian
state and society as ‘semi-colonial, semi-feudal’ and path of revolution as
people’s war, the Chinese line, refusing to recognize the vast changes that has
taken place in the country under new forms of exploitation under the
imperialist forces, their various agencies and MNCs through the comprador Indian
state. One of the trends among them, the CPI(ML) People’s War, CPI(ML) Party
Unity and Maoist Communist centre, who were still adhering to the 1970 line of
armed struggle as the only form of struggle, have merged in 2004 to form the
CPI(Maoist).
Another
trend, even while upholding the 1970 line in name and, unlike others still upholding
the present Chinese leadership as socialist, with the CPI(ML) Liberation as the
major force among them, is veering round to the line of forming a ‘grand left
alliance’ with CPI, CPI(M) like forces. A third trend, with the CPI(ML) New
Democracy in the lead, in form upholds the 1970 line but is advocating the ‘resistance
struggle’ as an interim phase of armed struggle, while accepting mass line and
utilization of all forms of struggle. There are a number of small groups
working at state or district levels which uphold the 1970 line in form along
with mass line, but do not put forward any form of armed struggle or other forms
of struggles in to practice. Their number and strength is getting reduced every
day.
After the
revocation of the internal emergency rule of Congress during 1975-77 period, a large number of communist revolutionary
forces were released from jails. By this time after the death of Mao the
capitalist roaders had seized power in China also. The imperialist forces beset
with a new wave of crisis of the global finance capital system had launched the
imperialist globalization and neo-liberal policies at international level.
Within the country a new wave of agrarian struggles led by the newly emerging
rich peasant-agricultural bourgeois class were taking place. All these
developments called for a new analysis and evaluation of the concrete
conditions internationally and in the country. A section of the CPI (ML) forces
mainly from UP region initiated an evaluation of these changes which took them
to the conclusion that the mode of production has become capitalist and India
had become a capitalist country with the stage of revolution as socialist. In
the interpretation and elaboration of this line soon differences surfaced among
them, which led to a number of splits within these Communist League of India
groups. They do not recognize the intensifying plunder of the imperialist
agencies in the country and of the character of the ruling class which is basically
comprador. None of these groups have so far succeeded to make any significant advance
in political organizational fields.
In the
post-emergency situation as explained above, the Central Reorganization
Committee- CPI(ML), formed in 1979 with the merger of the CPI(ML) group in
Kerala and a group from AP, initiated an
evaluation that during the post-Second World War period the imperialists have
transformed the colonial phase of plunder to neo-colonial phase in order to
confront the challenges posed by the growing strength of the communist forces
and to overcome the crisis faced by the imperialist finance capital system.
Instead of utilizing the feudal forces as the social prop for imposing their
domination as they were doing during the colonial phase, in the neo-colonial
phase the agrarian sector was transformed with the entry of finance capital,
market forces and technological inputs.
Failure to recognize this transformation of imperialist camp under its
new leader, US imperialism, including its ‘de-colonization’ policy led the
socialist forces to grave mistakes. The Soviet party evaluated that as imperialist
system has weakened, peaceful co-existence and peaceful competition with them
and peaceful transition to socialism was possible. The 9th Congress
of the CPC evaluated that as imperialism was facing total collapse, worldwide
victory of socialist forces was possible with a last putsch. Both these evaluations
led to serious setbacks to the ICM. On the contrary, imperialism had adopted
more heinous and sinister neo-colonial form of plunder and world domination in
order to intensify its hegemony. Based on this analysis, the CRC evaluated
Indian state and society as neo-colonial, where capitalism is developing from
above under imperialist domination. The ruling system has become more comprador
and the all major social contradictions including the new one between capital
and nature are intensifying. It also evaluated that in this phase of
imperialist globalization the international character of revolution has
increased calling for speeding up the unity of the Marxist- Leninist forces.
Through a process of intense ideological struggle, the CRC-CPI(ML), later changed
to CPI(ML) Red Flag and now CPI(ML), with Red Star as its central organ, has
propagated this line and in its Ninth party Congress held in 2011 it has
adopted new Party Program, Constitution and Path of Revolution rejecting the programmatic
and path positions put forward by the 8th Congress of 1970. It has
spread the Party organization at all India level and organized class/ mass
organizations and various movements to intensify the mobilization of the
working class and other left masses for seizure of political power through a
countrywide mass upsurge. The CPI (ML) has succeeded to unite with fraternal
forces and has found the International Coordination of the Revolutionary
Parties and Organizations (ICOR), and to spread the international activities in
different fields. It has built a Democratic People’s Forum uniting the
revolutionary left and democratic forces as the People’s Alternative to the
ruling reactionary system at all India level.
This
brief narration explains which are the different trends of the Communist forces
in the country and their orientation. Only by struggling against and defeating
the wrong lines the correct line can be established and the revolutionary
movement can be carried forward.