->Shaheed Hemukalani at 18:15, 20 April 2021

2021-04-20T18:15:04Z

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{{Use Indian English|date=November 2019}}

{{Communism in India|Colonial years and Partition=2nd Party Congress}}

The '''2nd Congress of the Communist Party of India''' was held in [[Calcutta]], [[West Bengal]] from 28 February to 6 March 1948.<ref name="chan" /><ref name="Windmiller" /><ref name="surkh" /> At the Second Party Congress, the party line shifted dramatically under the new General Secretary [[B.T. Ranadive]] and subsequently [[Communist Party of India|the party]] engaged in revolutionary insurrections across the country.

==Background==
The party had seen a rapid growth in membership in the years preceding the Second Party Congress, reaching around 89,000.<ref name="Jukes1973"/> In 1935 there had been only around 1,000 CPI members, and by 1943 the number had increased to around 16,000.<ref name="Naik">{{cite book|author=Dr.Chandravadan Naik|title=GLIMPSES OF ICHALKARANJI CITY|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mP5pCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA145|publisher=Lulu.com|isbn=978-1-329-82942-8|page=145}}</ref>

Whilst the CPI constitution stipulated that an All India Party Conference be held yearly under normal conditions, the last one had been held in 1943.<ref name="Windmiller"/> By the time the Second Party Congress finally convened, [[P.C. Joshi]] had served a 13-year term as Party General Secretary.<ref name="Windmiller">{{cite book|author=Marshall Windmiller|title=Communism in India|year=1994|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PAFBW743Bi4C&pg=PA229|publisher=University of California Press|pages=229, 270–274|id=GGKEY:NSY99CAKNFU}}</ref>

When the Second Party Congress convened, CPI stood at a crossroads. Either they would work within the constitutional framework of the newly independent Indian state or it would engage in insurrectional revolutionary struggles.<ref name="Saikia2015">{{cite book|author=Arupjyoti Saikia|title=A Century of Protests: Peasant Politics in Assam Since 1900|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-sNcCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA208|date=12 August 2015|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-32560-4|page=208}}</ref> The incumbent CPI General Secretary, P.C. Joshi, represented the former position, [[B.T. Ranadive]] (BTR) the latter.<ref name="Saikia2015"/> At the time of independence of India and Pakistan in 1947 CPI adhered to a moderate line of 'responsive cooperation' with the [[Indian National Congress]] and the [[All-India Muslim League|Muslim League]].<ref name="Maniruzzaman1975">{{cite book|author=Talukder Maniruzzaman|title=Radical politics and the emergence of Bangladesh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ea9KAAAAMAAJ|year=1975|publisher=Bangladesh Books|page=4}}</ref> But as of December 1947 the leftist group around BTR had won control over the [[Central Committee]] of the party.<ref name="Windmiller"/> A key factor in the ascent of BTR and the defeat of the incumbent P. C. Joshi clique was post-[[Partition of India|Partition]] dissatisfaction with the past policy of alliance with the Muslim League.<ref name="Harrison2015">{{cite book|author=Selig S. Harrison|title=India: The Most Dangerous Decades|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9jbWCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA154|date=8 December 2015|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-7780-5|page=154}}</ref> The group around BTR began to purge the followers of P.C. Joshi.<ref name="Windmiller"/> The December meeting of the Central Committee sent out instruction to party branches to hastily elect delegates to the Second Party Congress.<ref name="Windmiller"/>

==Delegates==
919 delegates were elected by the party branches, but only 632 were able to attend.<ref name="Windmiller"/><ref name=surkh>{{cite book|author=Kamran Asdar Ali|title=Surkh Salam: Communist Politics and Class Activism in Pakistan, 1947–1972|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o0bzjwEACAAJ|year=2015|isbn=978-0-19-940308-0|pages=39–40, 56–57}}</ref> For example, only a handful of the 75 delegates elected from [[Telangana]] were able to reach Calcutta.<ref name="Windmiller"/> Out of the 632, 565 were party [[Professional revolutionaries|whole-timers]].<ref name="Windmiller"/>

Three delegates represented party branches in [[West Pakistan]]: Eric Cyprian from [[Punjab (Pakistan)|Punjab]], Jamaluddin Bokhari from [[Sind]] and Mohammad Hussein Ata from the [[North-West Frontier Province (1901–55)|North-West Frontier Province]].<ref name=surkhb>{{cite book|author=Kamran Asdar Ali|title=Surkh Salam: Communist Politics and Class Activism in Pakistan, 1947–1972|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=o0bzjwEACAAJ|year=2015|isbn=978-0-19-940308-0|pages=81–82, 321}}</ref> Estimates on the number of delegates from [[East Pakistan]] vary, party documents suggested that 60 delegates participated, an intelligence estimate put the figure at 32.<ref name=surkhb/> Delegates from East Pakistan included [[Kalpana Datta]] (P.C. Joshi's wife) and Khokar Roy.<ref name=surkhb/> [[Moni Singh]] claimed that there had been 125 delegates from East Pakistan, representing 12,000 party members, as well as five delegates from West Pakistan.<ref name="GuhathakurtaSchendel2013"/>

From [[French India]], the local [[Communist Party of French India|Communist Party]] leader and member of the [[French Senate]] [[V. Subbiah]] participated in the Second Party Congress.<ref name="Sen2012">{{cite book|author=Sailendra Nath Sen|title=Chandernagore: From Boundage to Freedom, 1900–1955|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cjAweaCPLD0C&pg=PA84|year=2012|publisher=Primus Books|isbn=978-93-80607-23-8|page=84}}</ref> On 24 February 1948 he had made a visit to the French colony of [[Chandernagore]] together with the French delegate to the Calcutta Youth Conference (see below).<ref name="Sen2012"/>

==Proceedings==
The congress was held under a big tarpaulin in Mohammad Ali Park.<ref name="GuhathakurtaSchendel2013">{{cite book|author1=Meghna Guhathakurta|author2=Willem van Schendel|title=The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture, Politics|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=haGORCJRlOUC&pg=PA170|date=30 April 2013|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=978-0-8223-5318-8|pages=170–172}}</ref> BTR held the opening speech of the conference, outlining the new party line.<ref name="Windmiller"/> His speech lasted four and a half hours, and presented detailed criticism on the performance of the party leadership.<ref name=surkh/>

<blockquote>So far we have been taking a reformist path. We dovetailed with bourgeois interests. We could not take an independent stance in the movement on the issue of freedom. As a result, the reactionary forces of Congress and Muslim League through a forged alliance ushered in a so-called Independence. This is not real independence, it is false! Just as in a postwar situation, there is still grounds for revolution. That is why we must continue our struggle against the bourgeoisie. Strikes, mass rallies, demonstrations, and armed struggles must be used to challenge this false sense of freedom.</blockquote><ref name="GuhathakurtaSchendel2013"/>

BTR echoed the notion that the world was divided in two camps, and in the struggle between the Anglo-American imperialist camp and the Soviet-led democratic camp the Indian state had aligned itself with the imperialists.<ref name="Windmiller"/> The second speech was held by Bhowani Sen who presented an overview of tactical questions.<ref name="Windmiller"/> Sen presented criticism of the performance of the party 1942–1948, including the support to [[Sheikh Abdullah]]'s movement in [[Jammu and Kashmir (princely state)|Jammu and Kashmir]].<ref name="Windmiller"/> The Telangana struggle was presented as the model to be replicated throughout the subcontinent.<ref name="Windmiller"/>

BTR and Bhowani's speeches were followed by a long presentation by the now isolated P.C. Joshi.<ref name="Windmiller"/> P.C. Joshi expressed self-criticism, stating that he had 'confused and corrupted' the party during his tenure as General Secretary.<ref name="Windmiller"/>

The main document debated by the Second Party Congress was its Political Thesis.<ref name="Windmiller"/> Many amendments to the document were suggested by delegates, and the Central Committee was tasked with amending it later.<ref name="Windmiller"/> The party constitution was amended at the Second Party Congress.<ref name="Farooqui2000">{{cite book|author=Amar Farooqui|title=Remembering Dr. Gangadhar Adhikari: Life, Reminiscences, Tributes, Selected Writings|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8KDaAAAAMAAJ|year=2000|publisher=People's Publishing House|pages=xlvi, 384}}</ref>

==CC election==
BTR was elected as new General Secretary of the party.<ref name=chan>Chandra, Bipan & others (2000). ''India after Independence 1947–2000'', New Delhi:Penguin, {{ISBN|0-14-027825-7}}, p.204</ref> In the election to the new Central Committee all of the candidates proposed by the outgoing leadership were elected, with the exception of P.C. Joshi, who was left out of the new Central Committee.<ref name="Windmiller"/>

==New party line==
The line adopted at the Second Party Congress became popularly known as the 'Ranadive thesis', the 'Ranadive line' or 'Calcutta thesis'.<ref name="Pillai1969">{{cite book|author=Késavakurup Raman Pillai|title=India's foreign policy: basic issues and political attitudes|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YfK1AAAAIAAJ|year=1969|publisher=Meenakshi Prakashan|page=11}}</ref><ref name="Chakrabarty2014">{{cite book|author=Bidyut Chakrabarty|title=Left Radicalism in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R0xWBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA52|date=13 November 2014|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-317-66805-3|page=52}}</ref><ref name="MitraEnskat2004">{{cite book|author1=Subrata Kumar Mitra|author2=Mike Enskat|author3=Clemens Spiess|title=Political Parties in South Asia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dObxI9xahSYC&pg=PA81|year=2004|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-275-96832-8|page=81}}</ref> The Second Party Congress raised the slogan that the independence achieved in 1947 was 'sham independence'.<ref name="Saikia2015"/> The [[Indian National Congress]] was denounced as a party of the bourgeoisie.<ref name="Guharāẏa2007">{{cite book|author=Siddhārtha Guharāẏa|title=Calcutta Tramwaymen: A Study of Working Class History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=h3EdAQAAMAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Progressive Publishers|isbn=978-81-8064-129-9|page=129}}</ref> The People's Democratic Revolution was outlined as a one-stage revolution, to be achieved through a [[united front]] of workers, peasants and revolutionary intellectuals.<ref name="Gilberg1989"/> Thus the Second Party Congress implied a drastic shift in CPI policy, gearing towards armed insurrection against the nascent Indian state.<ref name="Gilberg1989">{{cite book|author=Trond Gilberg|title=Coalition Strategies of Marxist Parties|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_ryleTJzX88C&pg=PA214|year=1989|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=0-8223-0849-5|page=214}}</ref> The new line found inspiration in the [[Zhdanov Doctrine]] of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks)]], which saw the world divided in an imperialist camp and a camp of people's democracies.<ref name="Gilberg1989"/> It also drew upon the experiences of Bengali communists in the post-Partition chaos in Calcutta and the resistance against the Nizam regime in the [[Hyderabad State]].<ref name="Gilberg1989"/><ref name="Chakrabarty2014"/>

Another meeting held in the city around just a few days before the Second Party Congress was the [[Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence]], which has been credited with disseminating the Zhdanov insurrectional line throughout the continent.<ref name="Jukes1973"/><ref name="KatzScholars1990">{{cite book|author1=Mark N. Katz|author2=Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars|title=The USSR and Marxist Revolutions in the Third World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t7ch26SKx7kC&pg=PA23|year=1990|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-39265-5|page=23}}</ref><ref>Low, Francis. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=OsliN9sykagC Struggle for Asia]''. Essay index reprint series. Freeport, N.Y.: Books for Libraries Press, 1972. pp. 96–97</ref><ref name="Walters1970">{{cite book|author=Robert S. Walters|title=American and Soviet Aid: A Comparative Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PhTlQCycKJwC&pg=PA27|date=15 December 1970|publisher=University of Pittsburgh Pre|isbn=978-0-8229-7586-1|page=27}}</ref>

==Founding of the Communist Party of Pakistan==
Bhowani Sen presented a 'Report on Pakistan' to the Second Party Congress.<ref name=surkh/> He argued that both India and Pakistan were dominated by similar reactionary elites in alliance with imperialist forces.<ref name=surkh/> Thus the task of communists in both countries would be the same, to struggle for people's democratic revolution.<ref name=surkh/> The Second Party Congress deliberated on the Pakistan question for some time, and eventually agreed that a separate Communist Party should be built in Pakistan.<ref name=surkh/> Sen's 'Report on Pakistan' was adopted with some amendments.<ref name=surkhb/> After the vote the delegates from West Pakistan held a separate meeting at the sidelines of the CPI congress on 6 March 1948 and constituted the [[Communist Party of Pakistan]].<ref name=surkhb/><ref name="GuhathakurtaSchendel2013"/> [[Sajjad Zaheer]], founder of the [[Progressive Writers' Movement|All India Progressive Writers Association]] and a CPI Central Committee member, was named general secretary of the Communist Party of Pakistan.<ref name="Maniruzzaman1975"/> The other eight Central Committee members were Mohammad Hussain Ata, Jamaluddin Bokhari, Ibrahim (a labour leader), Khoka Roy, Nepal Nag, Krishna Binod Roy, [[Syed Abul Mansur Habibullah]] (from West Bengal, but moved to East Pakistan after the foundation of CPP) and Moni Singh.<ref name="GuhathakurtaSchendel2013"/>

After the congress Zaheer travelled to West Pakistan to build the party there.<ref name=surkhb/> He was no longer considered a CPI Central Committee member.<ref name=surkhb/>

Notably, the party structure in [[East Pakistan]] would remain under the supervision of the West Bengal committee of CPI for some time afterwards.<ref name=surkhb/>

==Foreign delegations==
Four foreign delegations attend the Second Party Congress: the [[League of Communists of Yugoslavia]] ([[Vladimir Dedijer]] and [[Radovan Zogović]]), the [[Communist Party of Australia]] ([[Lance Sharkey]]), the [[Communist Party of Burma]] ([[Thakin Than Tun]], Thakin Ba Thein Tin, ''yebaw'' [[Aung Gyi]], Bo Yan Aung, Khin Kyi and Hla Myaing) and the [[Communist Party of Ceylon]].<ref name="Windmiller"/><ref name="Lintner1990">{{cite book|author=Bertil Lintner|title=The Rise and Fall of the Communist Party of Burma (CPB)|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tMBtwdQ9ZUsC&pg=PA11|date=January 1990|publisher=SEAP Publications|isbn=978-0-87727-123-9|pages=11–12}}</ref>

Dedijer's speech detailed the struggle of [[Yugoslav Partisans]] and was met with heavy applause from the assembled delegates.<ref name="m">Miskovic, N. ''[https://www.zora.uzh.ch/20770/2/Miskovic.pdf The pre-history of the non-aligned movement: India's first contacts with the communist Yugoslavia, 1948–1950]''</ref> Acting as ''de facto'' representatives of [[Cominform]], the Yugoslav delegates provided important symbolic support to legitimize B.T. Ranadive's coming to power in the party.<ref name="m"/> The Burmese communist leader Thakin Than Tun also aroused the revolutionary fervour in his speech, highlighting that armed struggle alone would provide a path towards liberation.<ref name="GuhathakurtaSchendel2013"/>

Along with the Asian Youth Conference, the CPI Calcutta Congress is credited to have influenced the Burmese communists to initiate armed rebellion at home.<ref name="Lintner1990"/> Nevertheless, [[Bertil Lintner]] argues that the impact of the Calcutta meetings on CPB line is a myth, and that [[H. N. Goshal|H.N. Goshal]] (who is credited with the 'Goshal thesis' of armed insurrection in Burma) never attended neither of the two Calcutta conferences.<ref name="Lintner2015">{{cite book|author=Bertil Lintner|title=Great Game East: India, China, and the Struggle for Asia's Most Volatile Frontier|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p--5BwAAQBAJ&pg=PA183|date=1 April 2015|publisher=Yale University Press|isbn=978-0-300-21332-4|page=183}}</ref>

==Aftermath==
Following the Second Party Congress and under the leadership of BTR, the party embarked on an 18-month campaign of armed uprisings in [[Telangana]], [[West Bengal]] ([[Kakdwip]]), [[Tripura]] and [[Travancore-Cochin]] between October 1948 and March 1950.<ref name="Gilberg1989"/><ref name="Jukes1973">{{cite book|author=Geoffrey Jukes|title=The Soviet Union in Asia|url=https://archive.org/details/sovietunioninasi00geof|url-access=registration|date=1 January 1973|publisher=University of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-02393-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/sovietunioninasi00geof/page/103 103]–104}}</ref><ref name="Mulhern2011"/><ref name="Bareh2001">{{cite book|author=Hamlet Bareh|title=Encyclopaedia of North-East India: Tripura|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fk8kq9PUapkC&pg=PA26|year=2001|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=978-81-7099-795-5|page=26}}</ref> In [[Malabar District|Malabar]], the party raised the slogan "Telangana's way is our way" and "Land to the tiller and Power to the People" in a campaign April–May 1948. Paddy crops were seized by the party and sold at fair prices. The Malabar revolt was crushed by police forces.<ref>{{cite book|title=Peasant Struggles, Land Reforms and Social Change: Malabar 1836–1982|year = 1989|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PAxzWmBN-HkC&pg=PA64|publisher=Radhakrishnan|isbn=978-1-906083-16-8|page=64}}</ref>

After the Second Party Congress CPI suffered a number of set-backs and repression, and party membership dropped to around 25,000 in early 1950.<ref name="Jukes1973"/> Likewise the membership of the communist-led [[All India Trade Union Congress]] dropped from 700,000 to a mere 100,000.<ref name="MaterialismParsons1977"/> On 26 March 1950 CPI was banned by the West Bengal state government.<ref name="MaterialismParsons1977">{{cite book|author1=Society for the Philosophical Study of Dialectical Materialism|author2=Howard L. Parsons|author3=John Somerville|title=Marxism, Revolution, and Peace: From the Proceedings of the Society for the Philosophical Study of Dialectical Materialism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3Um04zTdisEC&pg=PA39|date=1 January 1977|publisher=John Benjamins Publishing|isbn=90-6032-066-2|page=39}}</ref><ref name="Trager1959">{{cite book|author=Frank N. Trager|title=Marxism in Southeast Asia: A Study of Four Countries|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9DusAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA266|year=1959|publisher=Stanford University Press|isbn=978-0-8047-0592-9|page=266}}</ref> The West Bengal ban would later be followed by prohibitions of the party in [[Amritsar]], Malabar (1949–1951), [[Madras]], [[Manipur]], [[Ahmednagar]], Hyderabad, Travancore-Cochin, [[Indore]] and [[Bhopal]].<ref name="Jukes1973"/><ref name="MaterialismParsons1977"/><ref name="Krishnan1993">{{cite book|author=V. V. Kunhi Krishnan|title=Tenancy Legislation in Malabar, 1880–1970: An Historical Analysis|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EGaz-FdVtowC&pg=PA120|date=1 January 1993|publisher=Northern Book Centre|isbn=978-81-7211-051-2|page=120}}</ref> On 2 April 1948 [[S.A. Dange]] and other key party leaders in [[Bombay]] were jailed.<ref name="MaterialismParsons1977"/><ref name="Trager1959"/> By 1949 2,500 party members were imprisoned across the country.<ref name="MaterialismParsons1977"/>

In January 1950 the [[Cominform]] instructed the party to abandon the insurrectional line, through an article in its newspaper ''For a Lasting Peace, for a Peoples Democracy!''.<ref name="Jukes1973"/><ref name="Farooqui2000"/> BTR was demoted in June 1950, denounced as a 'left adventurist' and replaced by [[C. Rajeshwar Rao]] as General Secretary.<ref name="Jukes1973"/><ref name="Mulhern2011">{{cite book|author=Francis Mulhern|title=Lives on the Left: A Group Portrait|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ieBtAUCoSR4C&pg=PA75|date=7 November 2011|publisher=Verso Books|isbn=978-1-84467-699-6|page=75}}</ref> In April 1951 [[Ajoy Ghosh]] became the new General Secretary and the Chinese-inspired guerrilla warfare line was condemned by the new CPI leadership.<ref name="Jukes1973"/> The [[Telangana rebellion]] did however, in spite of Cominform instructions, continue until late 1951.<ref name="Jukes1973"/> In 1951 CPI contested [[1951 Indian general election|the first parliamentary elections]] and emerged as the largest opposition party in the [[Lok Sabha]].<ref name="Jukes1973"/><ref name="Weiner2015">{{cite book|author=Myron Weiner|title=Party Politics in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xz_WCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA103|date=8 December 2015|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-1-4008-7841-3|pages=103}}</ref>

The [[Madurai]] Party Congress, held in 1954, and the [[Palghat]] Party Congress of 1956 marked the definitive break with the 1948 line and fully embraced parliamentarian orientation of the party.<ref name="Sharma1995">{{cite book|author=Sadhna Sharma|title=States Politics in India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i0HdDbdKa8UC&pg=PA153|year=1995|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=978-81-7099-619-4|page=153}}</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:1948 in India]]
[[Category:Political party assemblies]]
[[Category:Communist Party of India]]
[[Category:1948 conferences]]
[[Category:Congresses of communist parties]]

2nd Congress of the Communist Party of India - Revision history

->Shaheed Hemukalani at 18:15, 20 April 2021