Communism in India

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Communism in India has existed as a social or political ideology as well as a political movement since at least as early as the 1920s. In its early years, communist ideology was harshly suppressed through legal prohibitions and criminal prosecutions. Eventually, communist parties became ensconced in national party politics, sprouting several political offshoots.

Early history of communism in India

The Statue of Vladimir Lenin in Vijayawada.

Following the

anti-communist propaganda publications were published.[3]

The

Bombay published a pamphlet in 1921 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.[5] In 1922, with Lotvala's help, Dange launched the English weekly, Socialist, the first Indian Marxist journal.[6]

The 1924 second congress of the

Communist Party of Mexico. The congress removed the term 'bourgeois-democratic' in what became the 8th condition.[7]

During the 1920s and the early 1930s the Communist Party existed but was badly organised, 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. A Communist Group was founded in

Muzaffar Ahmed).[8]

On 1 May 1923 the

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.[9][10][11]

On 26 December 1925,The

S.V. Ghate was the first General Secretary of CPI. The conference held on 1925 December 25 to 28. 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.[13] The conference adopted the name 'Communist Party of India'. Groups such as LKPH dissolved into the CPI.[14]
The émigré CPI, which probably had little organic character, was substituted by the organisation now operating inside India.

Participation in Indian Independence movement

Main article:
Communist involvement in Indian Independence movement
S.A. Dange, S.V. Ghate
, Gopal Basak.

Between 1921 and 1924 there were three conspiracy trials against the communist movement; First

M.N. Roy, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani, Singaravelu Chettiar, Ghulam Hussain and R.C. Sharma were charged, in Cawnpore (now spelt Kanpur) Bolshevik Conspiracy case. The specific pip charge was that they as communists were seeking "to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by complete separation of India from Britain by a violent revolution." Pages of newspapers daily splashed sensational communist plans and people for the first time learned, on such a large scale, about communism and its doctrines and the aims of the Communist International in India.[15]

Other communist movements

Main article: Communist movements in India

Involvement in Indian politics

Communist political parties

Main article: List of communist parties in India
Orissa Communist Party
in Orissa.

CPI(M) in Tamil Nadu.
Communist monument in Kerala.

The

insurrection conducted by radical Maoists in West Bengal in 1967.[23]: 101–102  CPI (Maoist) is designated as a terrorist organisation in India under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.[24][25][26]

Presence in states and politics

CPI(M) or the CPI
.

As of 2022[update] the

CPI(M) heads the state government in Kerala. Pinarayi Vijayan is Chief Minister of Kerala. In Tamil Nadu the alliance has 4 MLAs and in the Government with SPA coalition led by M. K. Stalin. The Left Front under CPI(M) governed West Bengal for an uninterrupted 34 years (1977–2011) and Tripura for 30 years including uninterrupted 25 years (1993–2018). The 34 years of Left Front rule in West Bengal is the longest-serving democratically elected communist-led government in the world.[27] The Left Front's highest tally nationally was in 2004 when it got about 8% of votes polled in and it had 59 MPs.[28]
It played the role of kingmaker for the Third Front governments during 1996-98 by joining a 13-party coalition and for the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in 2004.

The Left Front, also known as Left Democratic Front is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the Indian states. But the presence of this alliance is mainly in

CPI(M) and CPI
participate election together nationally while other Left parties ally with CPIM and CPI regionally.

[29][30] CPIM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury said that his party will ally with Rashtriya Janata Dal in Bihar and Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh.[31] CPIM Polit Bureau member and Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed about CPIM's plan of forming state-level alliances and hinted an alliance with Bharat Rashtra Samithi in Telangana.[32]

Kerala

Main article: Left Democratic Front

CPI(M), CPI, KC(M), JD(S), NCP, RJD, KC(B), INL, C(S), JKC and KC(ST).[33] Currently LDF has 99 MLAs, 2 Lok Sabha MPs[34]
and 7 Rajya Sabha MPs in the state.

Tripura

Main article: Left Front (Tripura)

The Left Front (composed of CPIM, CPI,

Democratic Secular Alliance with Indian National Congress in 2023 Tripura Legislative Assembly election.[36][37]

West Bengal

Main article: Left Front (West Bengal)

The Left Front (

BJP became the main opposition in the state, pushing the Left Front in the third position.[39] In 2019 Lok Sabha election, the front was unable to secure a seat. In 2021, the Left Front suffered a huge setback as the alliance drew blank seats for the first time in Legislative Assembly election.[40] But the Left emerged as the main opposition in the municipal polls across the state in 2021–22.[41]

Bihar

The communist parties in Bihar had historically held a large presence in the state that was reduced following the

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation, the All India Forward Bloc, the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist) and the Revolutionary Socialist Party decided to run in all constituencies on a join ticket citing its call for an alternative platform in 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election.[43] The CPI contested 98 seats, while the CPI-ML, CPI(M), SUCI, Forward Bloc, and RSP contested 98, 43, 10, 9, and 3 seats, respectively.[44] CPI released its first list of 81 candidates on 16 September 2015.[45] The Left parties together got 3.57% of the votes polled in the election.[44]
Before 2020 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, the Mahagathbandhan alliance were joined in by the left–wing parties in Bihar; namely the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, the Communist Party of India and the Communist Party of India (Marxist).[46][47] The new arrangement was described as an experiment beyond the caste based politics in Bihar with a caste plus class strategy.[48] The Left parties contested 29 seats (CPIML Liberation - 19 seats, CPI - 6 seats and CPIM - 4 seats). CPI(ML) Liberation won 12 seats while CPI and CPIM won 2 seats each. It is also spectaculated that if more seats were given to the left parties, the election could be won with majority.[42] The Left parties supported
RJD and INC to form coalition government in Bihar in August, 2022 without taking part in the government.[49]
The Left Front has also good presence in the panchayats.

Tamil Nadu

In

AIADMK (CPI - 10 seats, CPIM - 12 seats and AIFB - 1 seat) and won 20 seats (CPI - 9 seats, CPIM - 10 seats and AIFB - 1 seat). In 2016, CPI and CPIM joined Makkal Nala Kootani (People's Welfare Alliance) [50] and contested 25 seats each, but drew blank seats. In 2019, 4 MPs were elected (CPI - 2, CPIM - 2) from Left Front in coalition with DMK. In 2021 election, CPI and CPIM won 2 seats each. In 2022 Municipal Corporation elections, CPIM won 24 Municipal Corporations, 41 Municipality and 101 Town Panchayats while CPI won 13 Municipal Corporations, 19 Municipality and 26 Town Panchayats.[51] T. Nagarajan of CPI(M) got the post of Deputy Mayor in Madurai Municipal Corporation.[52]

Rajasthan

In

Rajasthan Loktantrik Morcha in 2013.[53] Amra Ram of CPIM became the chief ministerial candidate.[54] But the alliance could not win any seat in 2013 Legislative Assembly election. In 2018, 2 MLAs of CPIM and 1 MLA of RLD were elected.[55]

Himachal Pradesh

The presence of left parties in Himachal Pradesh is mainly based on the activities of their students wings.[56] CPIM had representatives in the Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1967 and 1993. In 1993, Rakesh Singha won from Shimla seat.[57] Though CPIM managed to win many seats in the municipal and panchayat elections.

In 2012 Shimla Municipal Corporation election, CPI(M) won the posts of Mayor and Deputy Mayor in Shimla Municipal Corporation with a huge majority with a total of 3 seats.[58] Sanjay Chauhan and Tikender Singh Panwar became Mayor and Deputy Mayor respectively.[59]

In 2016 CPIM won 42 seats out of 331 seats contested and received solely 2 district panchayats.[60] In 2017 Shimla Municipal Corporation election, CPI(M) managed to win only one seat despite being a kingmaker in previous election.

The Left front contested 17 seats in 2017 Himachal Pradesh Legislative Assembly election (CPIM - 14 seats, CPI - 3 seats).[61] Rakesh Singha of CPIM emerged victorious from Theog. After the election the presence of Left in state started to increase.[62]

In 2021 panchayat elections, CPIM increased its tally by jumping to 337 seats. 12 zila parishad(ZP) members, 25 panchayat samiti members, 28 panchayat pradhans, 30 vice-pradhans and 242 ward members got elected from CPIM. Also CPIM candidates got elected for president in 25 panchayats and vice-president in 30 panchayats.[63][60]

In 2022, the Left Front fielded 12 candidates : 11 from CPI(M) and 1 from CPI.[64][65] But the front drew blank seat securing only 28,444 votes (0.67%).[66]

Maharashtra

See also: Left Democratic Front (Maharashtra)

The presence of Left parties in Maharashtra is for the strong presence of their farmer wings in the state.[67] In 2009 Maharashtra Legislative Assembly election, Peasants and Workers Party of India won 4 seats (1.11% votes) and CPIM won 1 seat (0.60% votes). In 2019, Vinod Nikole of CPIM won from Dahanu constituency. In 2022 Panchayat election, CPI(M) won 93 Sarpanch (Village President) posts in direct elections, with the entire village voting, in the districts of Nashik (59) Thane-Palghar (26), Ahmednagar (6), Nandurbar (1) and Pune (1). Along with that, ward wise elections of Gram Panchayat Members were also held. The CPI(M) won hundreds of these seats, and has a majority in over 100 Gram Panchayats in the above districts.[68][69]

Andhra Pradesh

In 1994 Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly election 34 MLAs (CPI - 19, CPIM - 15), in 2004 15 MLAs (CPI - 6, CPIM - 9) of Left Front were elected. In 2014, CPI and CPIM won 1 seat each, which subsequently went to Telangana state. In 2019, the Left parties contested election in alliance with Jana Sena Party.[70] But they did not won a single seat. In 1984, each CPIM and CPI won 1 seat. The Left Front came victorious for many times in local body elections.[71]

CPIM had MPs in the Rajya Sabha elected from Andhra Pradesh. Moturu Hanumantha Rao M. Hanumantha Rao from 1988 to 1994, Y. Radhakrishnamurthy from 1996 to 2002 and Penumalli Madhu from 2004 to 2010.

Telangana

In

2023, CPIM and CPI will contest the election in alliance with BRS.[73][74] On 10 December 2022, CPIM leader Tammineni Veerabhadram said that his party is willing to contest 9 seats in the 2023 election.[75]

Leading the Third Front

The CPI(M) led the formation of the Third Front for the

HJC, TDP
were the members of this front. The newly formed alliance carried with them 109 seats before the 2009 election. After the election, the alliance won only 79 seats.

Ultra-communist insurgency

Main articles: Naxalite–Maoist insurgency and Red corridor
Further information: Maoism and Timeline of the Naxalite–Maoist insurgency

The Naxalite–Maoist insurgency

Maoist groups (known as Naxalites or Naxals) like Communist Party of India (Maoist). The Maoist parties has been designated as a terrorist organisation in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act since 2009. The naxalites affected areas are called the Red corridor, which has been steadily declining in terms of geographical coverage and number of violent incidents, and in 2021 it was claimed to be confined to the 25 "most affected" locations (accounting for 85% of LWE violence) and 70 "total affected" districts (down from 180 in 2009)[79] across 10 states in two coal-rich, remote, forested hilly clusters in and around the Dandakaranya-Chhattisgarh-Odisha region and the tri-junction area of Jharkhand-Bihar and-West Bengal.[77] However, some parts of the Red Corridor have also seen growth of Maoist insurgency in recent times, such as in the Kanha Tiger Reserve.[80] The Naxalites have frequently targeted tribal, police and government workers in what they say is a fight for improved land rights and more jobs for neglected agricultural labourers and the poor.[81]

See also

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