CPI Oachira LC

BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CPI

On December 26, 1925, a few ardent young patriots moved by the urge to free the motherland from colonial bondage, inspired by the Great October Socialist Revolution and fired with revolutionary zeal, braved imperialist persecution and came together in the city of Kanpur, to form the Communist Party of India with a view to fight for national independence and a future of socialism.

The birth of the CPI was the result of tremendous historical developments at home and abroad. The CPI was born in the period when the anti-imperialist struggle in India had acquired new mass militant dimensions taking the shape of the historic first non-cooperation movement of 1920-22, led by the Congress and headed by Gandhiji. The workers, peasants, middle classes and students had been roused to new levels of consciousness and action. Thousands of militant patriotic cadres had been thrown up by the national upheaval. But the disappointment and disenchantment caused by the sudden withdrawal of the non-cooperation movement compelled them to search for new, more revolutionary and consistent platforms and forms of anti-imperialist struggle.

The CPI was born in the new era for mankind opened up by the October Revolution. The victory of the Russian working class, peasants and other toilers led by the Bolsheviks and guided by Lenin attracted the militant youth of India as of all lands. It inspired them to study, accept and apply the science of Marxism so that they too could lead their people forward along the road of revolutionary struggle for national and social liberation. The CPI was born out of the disillusionment of the national-revolutionaries with the methods they had employed hitherto, which despite all their unparalleled heroism and sacrifices had failed to rouse the masses into action against British imperialist rule. In prison camps and in places of exile abroad, they began to search for more effective forms of mass, militant struggle against the hated foreign oppressor. They were inevitably attracted towards the scientific revolutionary ideology of Marxism and the lessons of the Russian revolution, which had a special message for the people of the colonial countries. The CPI was born in the fire of the militant and class upsurge of the workers, and of the peasants and students manifested in a wave of strike struggles, anti-landlord actions, anti-imperialist boycotts and hartals. This had already led to the foundation of the ALL India Trade Union Congress in 1920, to the first celebration of May Day in 1923 with the rallying cry: "Workers of All Lands Unite". Conscious of the historic role of the workers and peasants in the freedom struggle, groups of communists went to work among them, to organise them, to build the trade union movement on the foundation of class-struggle, to bring them forward to the arena of the broad struggle and to imbue them with socialist ideals. It was the representatives of all these anti-imperialist currents, who came together to found the CPI in Kanpur at the foundation meeting (26-28 December, 1925) , and who thereafter flocked into its ranks. The CPI was born out of the fusion of militant anti-imperialist patriotism and internationalism, of the struggle for national liberation and the class struggle for socialism. Land to the tiller! Nationalisation of foreign imperialist capitalist! Adult suffrage! The nation’s wealth in the nation’s hands! 8-hour working day! Democratic rights of organization, meeting, demonstration and strike! Social equality for women! Social justice for the untouchables! – these and other demands which were destined to become national demands, first resounded after 1925 from the ranks of the CPI. Communists took initiative to set up and build the class and mass organisations of different sections of our people. The AITUC which had been set up in 1920 grew into the premier and united mass organization of the Indian working class – a position that it held till 1947, despite occasional divergences and splits which were however soon overcome. In 1936 along with many revolutionary-democratic personalities the All India Kisan Sabha was set up, under whose banner in the years to come, mighty anti-feudal peasant actions demanding an end to the zamindari system, for security of tenancy rights and for land to those who till it, were fought. The same year, i.e. in 1936 the All India Student’s Federation was founded, which emerged as the foremost champion and leader of the student movement throughout the country. Several generations of its leading cadres joined the CPI.1936 too saw the founding of the Progressive Writers’ Association in which communist writers played a prominent part. Another big step forward was taken in 1943, with the formation of the Indian Peoples’ Theatre Association (IPTA). It was a landmark in the development of our great national culture. Revolutionary songs, plays, ballets, street plays, revival of folk forms of art and culture, have helped to bring the people to culture and culture to the people. From the outset the CPI targeted the native rulers and the feudal lords who were the support base of the British imperialists in India. Along with other anti-feudal and democratic sections, communists launched and built the Praja-mandal and states peoples’ movement in the native states, which the Congress largely neglected.