COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA

The 'Communist Party of India' (CPI) is a political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 december 1925. But the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which split-off from the CPI, claims that the party was founded in the USSR in 1920.

Contents

Communism during the colonial period

Communists after Independence

Present Situation

State Election Results For the Communist Party of India

External links

References

See also

Communism during the colonial period

During the 1920s and beginning of 1930s the party was badly organized, and in practice there were several communist groups working with limited national coordination. The British colonial authorities had banned all communist activity, which made the task of building a united party very difficult. Only in 1935 was the party ready to be accepted as the Indian section of the Communist Third International.
In connection with the change of policy of the Comintern toward Popular Front politics, the Indian communists changed their relation to the Indian National Congress. The communists joined the Congress Socialist Party (CSP), the left wing of Congress. In Kerala communists won control over CSP, and for a brief period controlled Congress there.
During the Second World War, there were drastic changes for the Indian communists. After that the USSR had sided with Britain in the war, the Communist Party of India was legalized for the first time. Communists strengthened their control over the All India Trade Union Congress. At the same time, communists were politically cornered for their opposition to the Quit India Movement.
In 1946 the party launched the Tebhaga movement in Bengal, a militant campaign against feudalism.

Communists after Independence

During the period around and directly following Independence in 1947, the internal situation in the party was chaotic. The party shifted rapidly between left-wing and right-wing positions. In 1948, at the 4th Party Congress in Palghat, B.T. Ranadive (BTR) was elected General Secretary of the party. In several areas the party led armed struggles against a series of local monarchs that were reluctant to give up their power. Such insurgencies took place in Tripura, Telangana and Kerala. The most important rebellion took place in Telangana, against the Nizam of Hyderabad. The communists built up a people's army and militia and controlled an area with a population of three million. The rebellion was brutally crushed and the party abandoned the policy of armed struggle. BTR was deposed and denounced as a 'left adventurist'. In the general elections in 1957, the CPI emerged as the largest opposition party.
In 1957, the CPI won the state elections in Kerala. This was the first time that an opposition party won control over an Indian state. E. M. S. Namboodiripad became Chief Minister.
At the 1957 international meeting of communist parties in Moscow, the Communist Party of China directed criticism at CPI for having formed a ministry in Kerala.^[1]
A serious rift within the party surfaced in 1962. One reason was the Sino-Indian War, where a faction of the Indian communists backed the position of the Indian government, while other sections of the party claimed that it was a conflict between a socialist and a capitalist state, and thus took a pro-Chinese position. There were three factions in the party - internationalists, centrists, and nationalists. Internationalists supported the Chinese stand where as the Nationalists backed India. Centrists took a neutral view. Prominent leaders including S.A. Danke, A. K. Gopalan, and E. M. S. Namboodiripad were in the nationalist faction. B. T. Ranadive, Sundarayya, P. C. Joshi, Basavapunniah, Jyoti Basu, and Harkishan Singh Surjeet are among those supported China. Ajoy Ghosh was the prominent person in the centrist faction. In general, most of Bangal communist leaders supported China and most others supported India . Hundreds of CPI leaders, accused of being pro-Chinese were imprisoned. Some of the nationalists were also imprisoned, as they used to express their opinion only in party forums, and CPI's official stand was pro-China.
Ideological differences lead to the split in the party in 1964 when two different party conferences were held, one of CPI and one of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). There is a common misconception that the rift during Sino-Indian war lead to the 1962 split. In fact, the split was leftists vs rightists, rather than internationalists vs nationalists. The presence of nationalists A. K. Gopalan, and E.M.S. Namboothirippad, and internationalists P. Sundarayya, Jyoti Basu, and Harkishan Singh Surjeet in the Communist Party of India (Marxist) proves this fact.
During the period 1970-77, CPI was allied with the Congress party. In Kerala, they formed a government together with Congress, with the CPI-leader Achutha Menon as Chief Minister. After the fall of the regime of Indira Gandhi, CPI reoriented itself towards cooperation with CPI(M).
In 1986, the CPI's leader in the Punjab and MLA in the Punjabi legislature Darshan Singh Canadian was assassinated by Sikh extremists.

Present Situation

CPI is recognized by the Election Commission of India as a 'National Party'. To date, CPI happens to be the only national political party from India to have contested all the general elections using the same electoral symbol.
On the national level they support the Indian National Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government, but without taking part in it. The party is part of a coalition of leftist and communist parties known in the national media as the Left Front. Upon attaining power in May 2004, the United Progressive Alliance formulated a programme of action known as the Common Minimum Programme. The Left bases its support to the UPA on strict adherence to it. Provisions of the CMP mentions to discontinue disinvestment, massive social sector outlays and an Independent Foreign Policy.
In West Bengal it participates in the Left Front-government. It also participates in the state government in Manipur. In Kerala the party is part of Left Democratic Front, and has ministers in the state government. In Tripura the party is a partner of the governing Left Front, but does not have any ministers of its own. In Tamil Nadu it is part of the Progressive Democratic Alliance.
The current general secretary of CPI is A.B. Bardhan.
The principal mass organizations of the CPI are:

★ All India Trade Union Congress

★ All India Youth Federation

★ All India Students Federation

★ National Federation of Indian Women

★ All India Kisan Sabha (peasants organization)

★ Bharatiya Khet Mazdoor Union (agricultural workers)

★ All India State Government Employees Federation (State government employees)
==Lok Sabha (House of the People) Election Results for the Communist Party==

'State'	'No. of candidates 2004'	'No. of elected 2004'	'No. of candidates 1999'	'No. of elected 1999'	'Total no. of seats from the state'
Andhra Pradesh	1	1	6	0	42
Arunachal Pradesh	0	0	0	0	2
Assam	1	0	1	0	14
Bihar	6	0	9	0	40 (2004)/54(1999)
Chhattisgarh	1	0	-	-	11 (2004)
Goa	2	0	2	0	2
Gujarat	0	0	1	0	26
Haryana	0	0	0	0	10
Himachal Pradesh	0	0	1	0	4
Jammu and Kashmir	0	0	0	0	6
Jharkhand	1	1	-	-	14 (2004)
Karnataka	0	0	0	0	28
Kerala	4	3	4	0	20
Madhya Pradesh	2	0	1	0	29 (2004)/40(1999)
Maharashtra	1	0	2	0	48
Manipur	1	0	1	0	2
Meghalaya	0	0	2	0	2
Mizoram	0	0	0	0	1
Nagaland	0	0	0	0	1
Orissa	0	0	3	0	21
Punjab	1	0	1	1	13
Rajasthan	2	0	4	0	25
Sikkim	0	0	0	0	1
Tamil Nadu	2	2	2	0	39
Tripura	0	0	0	0	2
Uttar Pradesh	6	0	11	0	80 (2004)/85 (1999)
Uttaranchal	0	0	-	-	5 (2004)
West Bengal	3	3	3	3	42
Union Territories
Andaman & Nicobar	0	0	0	0	1
Chandigarh	0	0	0	0	1
Dadra and Nagar Haveli	0	0	0	0	1
Daman and Diu	0	0	0	0	1
Delhi	0	0	0	0	7
Lakshadweep	0	0	0	0	1
Pondicherry	0	0	0	0	1
Total:	34	10	54	4	543

State Election Results For the Communist Party of India

'State'	'No. of candidates'	'No. of elected'	'Total no. of seats in Assembly'	'Year of Election'
Andhra Pradesh	12	6	294	2004
Assam	19	1	126	2001
Bihar	153	5	324	2000
Chhattisgarh	18	0	90	2003
Delhi	2	0	70	2003
Goa	3	0	40	2002
Gujarat	1	0	181	2002
Haryana	10	0	90	2000
Himachal Pradesh	7	0	68	2003
Jammu and Kashmir	5	0	87	2002
Karnataka	5	0	224	2004
Kerala	22	17	140	2006
Madhya Pradesh	17	0	230	2003
Maharashtra	19	0	288	1999
Manipur	16	4	60	2006
Meghalaya	3	0	60	2003
Mizoram	4	0	40	2003
Orissa	6	1	147	2004
Pondicherry	2	0	30	2001
Punjab	11	0	117	2006
Rajasthan	15	0	200	2003
Tamil Nadu	8	6	234	2006
Tripura	2	1	60	2003
Uttar Pradesh	5	0	402	2002
Uttaranchal	14	0	70	2002
West Bengal	13	8	294	2006

Results from the Election Commission of India website. Results do not deal with partitions of states (Bihar was bifurcated after the 2000 election, creating Jharkhand), defections and by-elections during the mandate period.
See also: List of political parties in India, Politics of India, List of Communist Parties

External links

★ Communist Party of India web site

★ Assorted CPI-related images

★ On the repression of Honda workers in Gurgaon, Haryana from the Anti-Caste Information Page

References

1. Basu, Pradip. Towards Naxalbari (1953-1967) – An Account of Inner-Party Ideological Struggle. Calcutta: Progressive Publishers, 2000. p. 32.

See also

★ Communist party of Bangladesh

★ Communist Party of India (Marxist)