| Description | Press statements; resolutions; typescript and published articles and pamphlets issued by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist). Members of the Indian Workers Association led by Jagmohan Joshi during the 1960s and 1970s supported this party rather than the Communist Party of India because of its pro-Chinese views.
Papers consist of:
/1-/2 draft and final version of a statement issued by the Central Organising Committee of the Communist Party of India (M-L) on the armed struggle of Naxalite peasants in India, February 1974
/3 draft resolution on the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party in India, December 1975
/4 Copy of 'Red Flag', the bulletin of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), No.1 May 1977
/5 press release by Satya Narain Singh, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) hailing the defeat of the Congress party and the victory of the Communist-led United Left Front in West Bengal in elections, June 1977
/6 flyer issued by the Maharashtra State Committee of the Communist Party of India (M-L) condemning the repression of peasants and workers and the persecution of 'Dalits', and urging people to defend the 'Peoples Movement'
/7 photocopy of pages from 'Frontier', 23 July 1977 consisting of an article entitled 'When Will They Be Freed', focusing on the detention of political prisoners in West Bengal
/8 photocopy of a typescript article entitled 'Defend the Andhra Forest Movement', issued by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Andhra Pradesh Committee, 15 August 1977
/9 press statement in Punjabi issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) about the violence in Punjabi 4 April 1983 |
| AdminHistory | The Communist Party of India [CPI] maintains that it was founded in 1925, but the Communist Party of India (Marxist), which split from the Communist Party of India in the 1960s, claims that the party was founded in 1920.
During the 1920s and 1930s the party was badly organised, and there were several communist groups working on a regional level with little national coordination. All communist activity was banned by the British colonial authorities, making it more difficult to establish a united party. The party was accepted as the Indian section of the Communist Third International in 1935. After the Soviet Union joined the Allies in 1941, following its invasion by the Nazis, the Communist Party of India was legalised for the first time. At the same time, communists were criticised for their opposition to the Quit India Movement.
During the late 1940s and 1950s, the party led armed struggles in Tripura, Telangana and Kerala against a series of local monarchs that were reluctant to give up their power. 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. After the rebellion was brutally crushed, the party abandoned the policy of armed struggle.
In the general elections in 1957, the Communist Party of India emerged as the largest opposition party, and won the state elections in Kerala.
A serious rift within the party surfaced in 1962 with the outbreak of the Sino-Indian War. The Soviet faction of 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. Hundreds of CPI leaders accused of being pro-Chinese were imprisoned. In 1964 two different party conferences were held, one of CPI and one of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and thus the party was split.
During the period 1970-77, CPI was allied with the Congress party, and formed a government with Congress in Kerala. After the fall of the regime of Indira Gandhi, CPI reoriented itself towards cooperation with CPI(M).
Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_India Accessed August 2006 |