Text - III : DOCUMENTS ON PARTY FOUNDATION AND PARTY BUILDING
1
Letter To CPT Regarding Formation of CPI
No. 638 20 XII 1920
TURKESTAN BUREAU Tashkent
To : The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Turkestan
It is hereby testified that the Communist Party of India has been organised here in accordance with the principles of the Third International. The Indian Communist Party is working under the political guidance of the Turkestan Bureau of the Comintern.
Seal Secretary in-charge
(who writes the minutes) (Turkestan Bureau)
Roy Tech[1] Secretary sd. (illegible)
Note:
1. who writes the minutes
2
Minutes of The Meeting Held On l7 October 1920
The Communist Party of India founded at Tashkent on 17 October 1920 consists of the following members :
(1) M N Roy, (2) Evelyn Trent-Roy, (3) AN Mukherji, (4) Rosa Fitingov, (5) Mohd. Ali (Ahmed Hasan), (6) Mohd. Shafiq Siddiqi, (7) Acharya (M Prativadi Bhayankar).
It adopted a resolution establishing the condition of, 3 months’ probation period (as candidate member) for those persons who wished to join the party.
Comrade Shafiq is elected as secretary.
The Indian Communist Party adopts principles proclaimed by the Third International and undertakes to work out a programme suited to the conditions in India.
Seal
Chairman: M Acharya
Secretary: Roy
3
Minutes Of The Meeting Of The Communist Party Of India
Dated 15 December 1920 At Tashkent
The following three persons are admitted to the party as candidate members: (1) Abdul Qadir Sehrai, (2) Masood Ali Shah Kazi, (3) AkbarShah(Salim).
After that a resolution to elect an Executive Committee of three members of the party (was passed). Comrades Roy, Shafiq and Acharya were elected (as the executive). Shafiq was elected the secretary and Acharya the chairman of the Executive Committee.
It was decided that the party be registered in Turkestan and Acharya is entrusted with this task ... [The document is torn below this.]
4
Should The Communist Party Be A Secret Society ?
(Abridged)
To,
The Editor, The Socialist, Bombay.
Dear Sir,
May I have the use of your journal to answer the Open letter addressed to me by Mr Bagerhatta, member, All India Congress Committee? This letter was published in the Socialist of 24 September.
Mr. Bagerhatta raises two questions: (I) The necessity of organising a communist party; and (2) how this party should function. On the first question there is no difference, ... On the second point however he labours under some misunderstanding. He appears to think that we prefer an illegal existence to open political activity. ... But the fact of the matter is that on many an occasion we have deprecated the organisation of secret societies for conducting a great political movement, and we have registered our opinion unmistakably against the futile terrorism advocated by the nationalist secret societies, ...
Nevertheless the fact remains that so far communist propaganda has had an illegal character in India. Now the question is, whether this illegality has been of our own choice or has been forced upon us. Undoubtedly the latter is the case; we were forced underground, because we were denied the freedom to act openly ... the first stage of the communist party is bound to be marked by a bitter struggle for the right to a legal existence. The moment has arrived to begin this struggle.
When we talk of a communist party, what we have in mind is a political party reflecting essentially the interests of the working class, in which category the masses of the poor peasantry are included. Therefore our party will be a party representing the overwhelming majority of the nation. There is no constitutional pretext on which such a party can be denied the right to a legal existence. But precisely for this reason that we propose not to organise study-circles or a small sect preaching fanatically a novel socio-economic philosophy, but to mobilise the masses of the people under the banner of our party for a gigantic political struggle, we have been subjected to determined persecution from the very beginning. In the Kanpur Case, the judge as well as the prosecution counsel declared that communism or a communist party, as such, did not constitute a criminal offence ... what does it mean ? It means that the government would not consider us dangerous if we lived in the height of theoretical isolation; but applied communism is not tolerable ...
We must struggle for legal existence. The findings of the Kanpur court provide the starting point. A communist party is not criminal. Let it be organised; but there should be no illusion. The government will demand that it be a “communist party as such”, that is, a party which indulges in a dream which will be realised in some distant future, and which leaves the present alone. Our reply will be that the communist party must exist, not by the sanction of the government, but as a historic necessity — by its own power. All suggestions to trim our sails for the sake of legality should be dismissed. Illegal existence is bad; it places us under great disadvantages. But legality, which is attained at the sacrifice of our political demands, is worse; it will render us an impotent sect. In the advocacy of the much-needed legalisation, this highly dangerous tendency is discernible. This tendency is to be found in Mr. Bagcrhatla when he says, “It (communism) is purely an economic movement, and we will bring success at our feet without pains.” I am sure that Mr. Bagerhatta does not fully comprehend what this sentence implies. It contains the germs of “economism”, which ignores the fact that that without political power no economic change or social transformation can be realised. The so-called Labour Kisan Party of Mr. Singaravelu Chettiar of Madras was born under this evil star and, consequently, was suffocated in its own impotency. The programme of the above party was to secure “labour swaraj” and economic amelioration of the masses. It started out on This ambitious task, totally ignoring the realities of the situation. It was simply ridiculous to talk of labour swaraj while the burning question of national swaraj was still unsolved; it was equally ridiculous to suggest any way of ameliorating the economic conditions of the masses without challenging the political institutions which created those conditions. Yet the Labour Kisan Party, which chose to call itself communist, put forth this ridiculous programme to insure its legal existence. This inordinate zeal for a legal existence cost the party its existence altogether. Shall we make the same mistake ?
The question of the legalisation of the communist party should not be a diplomatic question. It is a broad political issue, and should be dealt with as such ...
... I affirm once more that the communist party stands upon too broad a political platform to fit into the narrow limits of "secret societies". But it will" be suicidal to buy legality at the sacrifice of the cardinal points of the communist programme as applied to the present situation in India.
M N Roy
Source: Meerut Conspiracy Case, Exhibit, p 1138
5
Constitution Of The Communist Party Of India
(Adopted on 27 December, 1925)
Article 1 : Object
The establishment of a workers’ and peasants’ republic based on the socialisation of the means of production and distribution, by the liberation of India from British imperialist domination.
Article 2 : Sessions of the CP India
(a) The Communist Party of India shall ordinarily hold its conference every year during the month of October at a place that may have been determined by the central executive hereinafter referred to.
(b) An extraordinary session shall be summoned by the central executive on a requisition of a majority of the provincial committees or of its own motion in case of grave emergencies.
Article 3 : The component parts of the CPI
The Communist Party of India shall consist of the following:
(a) central executive
(b) provincial committees
(c) district committees
(d) Other working-class unions as may be affiliated to it from time to time.
Article 4: Membership
No one shall be eligible to be a member of any of the committees or unions referred to in the forgoing article unless he or she has attained the age of 18 and has expressed his or her acceptance of the object as laid down in article 1 of this constitution of the Communist Party of India.
Article 5 : Provincial organisation
(a) Each provincial committee, district or other committee referred to in the article 3, shall have the power to frame rules laying down conditions of membership and for the conduct of business not inconsistent with this constitution.
(b) Each provincial committee shall consist of representatives elected annually by members of the district organisations in the province in accordance with its number.
(c) An annual report shall be submitted by each provincial committee of the work done by the end of each year.
Article 6: Delegates
Any bonafide worker or peasant shall be eligible for election as delegate for the annual conference.
Article 7: Fee
The delegation fee shall be fixed at a minimum of eight jnnas.
Article 8 : Election of the president
The several provincial committees shall suggest by the end of — to the central executive the names of persons who are in their opinion eligible for presidentship of the conference and the central executive shall submit these names to the provincial committees for final recommendations.
Article 9 : Central executive
Every union or committee referred to in article 3 will be authorised to send one representative for every 25 members. The election of the central executive shall take place at least a month before the annual conference.
The central executive shall meet as often as may be necessary for the discharge of its obligation and every time upon the requisition by 10 members thereof who shall state therein the purpose for which they desire a meeting of the central executive. The quorum shall be 1/3 of its whole strength.
Article 10: Function
The central executive shall be committee of the party to carry out the programme of work laid down by the conference from year to year and deal with new matters that may arise during the year and may not be provided for by the conference itself.
Article 11: President of the CE
The president of the conference shall be the chairman of the central executive for the following year.
Article 12: Office-bearers of the CE
The CE shall have three general secretaries and two treasurers who shall be annually elected by the CE.
6
Election of Office-Bearers
Proceedings of the meeting of the central executive held on 28 December at 10 am. in the president’s camp, Kanpur.
The first meeting of the central executive of the Communist Party of India was held today dated 28 December 1925. The following business was transacted:
Comrades Hasrat Mohani, Azad Sobhani, S Satyabhakta, SD Hassan, Muzaffar Ahmad, KN Joglckar, SV Ghate, Baba Rana Choube, Radha Mohan Gokulji, and JP Bagerhatta were present. Comrade M Singaravelu was in the chair.
1. The first item on the agenda i.e., the election of office-bearers and organisers was taken and the following elections were unanimously declared:
- JP Bagerhatta, KN Joglekar, SV Ghate and RS Nimbkar (Bombay)
- Hasrat Mohani, Azad Sobhani, S Satyabhakta and Baba Rana Choube (UP)
- Muzaffar Ahmad and Radha Mohan Gokulji (Calcutta)
- Kameswara Rao and Krishnaswamy Ayyangar (Madras)
- SD Hassan, Ram chandra and Abdul Majid (Lahore)
Item no 2: Election of the vice-president: Comrade Azad Sobhani was unanimously elected as the vice-president of the CE for the coming year.
Item no 3 : Comrades JP Bagerhatta and SV Ghate were elected general secretaries of the CE.
Item no 4: Comrade Krishnaswamy Ayyangar (Madras), S Satyabhakta (Kanpur) Muzaffar Ahmad (Calcutta) and SD Hassan (Lahore) were appointed secretaries for the circles noted against their names to undertake committee's work in the provinces so long as no committees were formed by the people there.
Item no 5: The central office of the committee was resolved to be transferred to Bombay for the ensuing year.
Item no 6 : Resolved, comrade Ghate be paid Rs 60 a month for his own private expenses and be placed in charge of the head-office at Bombay.
General Secretary
Communist Party of India
7
Resolutions
The following resolutions were put from the chair and carried unanimously :
(1) That this conference sympathises with the communist sufferers all over the world and expresses its strong indignant disapproval of the imprisonment of the communist comrades in Great Britain as opposed to liberty of thought and speech.
(2) That this conference emphatically condemns the action of the USA in preventing Mr. Saklatvala from entering the States.
(3) That this conference, while holding undermentioned comrades as not being guilty of the offences with which they are wrongly charged, places on record its high appreciation of the sacrifices undergone by them in the cause of communism
(4) That the conference resolves that the Labour-Kisan party of Hindustan be dissolved and the Labour and Kisan Gazette be the organ of the Party.
(5) That this conference appreciated the protest made by the French Communists against the war waged by the French government against Riffs and Druses.
M Singaravelu
President
8
Declaration Form
(To be signed by the members of the Communist Party of India.) Whereas the workers and peasants of India are unable to live a human life on account of their being exploited both by the foreign and native capitalists and landlords in India. And whereas the existing political parties in this country are dominated by bourgeois interests which are diametrically opposed by the well-being of Indian workers and peasants, I, the undersigned, aged ___, hereby accept and sign the creed of the COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA which stands for the establishment of a workers’ and peasants’ republic in India. I have carefully gone through the resolutions of the first communist conference printed on the back and fully agree with the immediate object of the party which is the securing of a living wage for the workers and peasants by means of nationalisation of public services, namely land, mines, factories, houses, telegraphs and telephones, railways and such other public utilities which require common ownership. I belong to no such communal organisation which can debar me from joining this party.
I herewith pay eight annas — the subscription for my membership for the ensuing year.
Signature
Address in full:
(The declarant is requested to sign two such forms one of which is to be kept with the enrolling secretary and the other one should be sent to the general secretaries of the central executive).
(On the back)
The resolutions of the first Communist Conference held at kanpur on the 26th day of December 1925 for the establishment and formation of the COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA.
Whereas the workers and peasants of India are unable to live a human life on account of being exploited both by foreign and native capitalists and landlords in India. And whereas the existing political parties in India are dominated by bourgeois interests which are diametrically opposed to the well-being of the Indian workers and peasants. This conference of the Indian communists resolves that a party be formed for the purpose of the emancipation of the workers and peasants of India. This party shall be known as the COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA and the ultimate aim of the party shall be the establishment of a republican swaraj of workers and peasants, and the immediate object of the party shall be the securing of a living wage to the workers and peasants by means of nationalisation and municipalisation of public services namely land, mines, factories, houses, telegraphs and telephones, and railways and such other public utilities which require public ownership.
For the purpose of achieving these objectives, the party shall form labour and peasants' unions in rural and urban areas, enter district and taluk boards, municipalities and assemblies, and by such other means and methods carry out the ideal and immediate programme of the party with or without the cooperation of the existing political bodies in India.
The party shall have a central office, with two general secretaries for conducting its business and the president of the conference shall be the president of the party for the year before the next conference. The party shall consist of communists only, who should pledge themselves to carry out the object of the party.
No one who is a member of any communal organisation in India shall be admitted as a member of the Communist Party.
The Communist Party of India shall ordinarily hold its congress session every year during the X’mas week.
The party shall have a central executive committee consisting of 30 members elected by various provincial organisations.
The EC shall have the following five provincial centres with Calcutta, Bombay, Kanpur, Madras and Lahore as their head-offices under its supervision to carry on the work in these circles.
The central executive shall have a council of seven members, with the president as its ex-officio member, to execute all emergency matters that may arise from time to time which come within its scope.
Every member shall pay eight annas as subscription for his membership to the enrolling secretary, 25 per cent of which will be sent to the CE as quota and the remaining part of its will remain with the provincial secretaries.
All the provincial organisations shall submit their working report to the secretaries of the central executive every quarter.
General Secretaries
CE, Communist Party of India
9
Excerpts from a Press Communique
Communist Party of India Aims And Objects
As a result of the session of the First Communist Conference at Kanpur the provisional Indian Communist Party was dissolved and a formal party with its name as the Communist party of India has been formed. The ultimate goal of the party will be the establishment of a workers' and peasants' republic in India. And the immediate object of the party shall be the securing of a living wage for the workers and peasants by means of nationalisation and municipalisation of public services; namely land, mines, factories, houses, telegraphs, telephones, railways and such other public utilities which require public ownership. The party shall for the attainment of the above object form labour and peasants’ union in urban and rural areas, enter district and taluk boards, municipalities and assemblies and by such other means and methods carry out the ideal and programme of the party with or without the cooperation of the existing political parties in the country.
The party shall have a central executive of 30 members returned by provincial committees and a council of seven members to execute all emergency matters.
The party shall consist of communists only who will pledge themselves to carry out its objects and no one who is a member of any communal organisation can be admitted as a member of this party.
Every member shall pay eight annas annually as subscription for his membership to the enrolling secretaries.
The office of the central executive shall be in Bombay with comrades Janaki Prasad Bagerhatta and SV Ghate as general secretaries for the year. Maulana Azad Sobhani of Kanpur has been elected as its vice-president and Comrade M Singaravelu the president of the conference will preside on the central executive for the ensuing year. Comrade Krishnaswamy Ayyangar (Madras), S Satyabhakta (Kanpur), Radha Mohan Gokulji and Muzaffar Ahmad (Calcutta) and SD Hassan (Lahore) will be working as provincial secretaries to organise provincial committees in their respective provinces. The next meeting of the central executive will meet early in April to begin effective work and formulate a scheme of work for the year.
10
Working Council of the CEC Resolutions
(1) This meeting of the council of the central executive accepts the invitation of second communist congress form Lahore and resolves that the congress be held in the month of March between 17 and 20 March.
The committee further authorises the reception committee to organise funds for the conference and requests the committee to send to the general secretaries a copy of their bylaws immediately.
(2) The general secretaries be authorised to issue the agenda of the conference, with the consent of the president-elect, to the members of the executive of the present year and to the newly-elected members by the provincial centres. The provincial secretaries be requested to send the list of the members authorised by their centres to join the subjects committee which will make the executive for the coming year.
(3) Whereas the Communist Party of India has now established itself formally, though the organisational work must still continue, it is necessary that the party adopts a more complete constitution for its guidance for the coming year, and appoints the following gentlemen to draft a constitution to be placed before the next congress. The committee will invite suggestions from other members also. The following were elected members of the above committee: (a) the president, (b) both the general secretaries, (c) Muzaffar Ahmad, (d) SD Hassan.
(4) Whereas in the opinion of this committee the internment of Comrade M Shafiq immediately after his release form 3 years’ imprisonment by the Frontier government is a repression unparalleled in the history of civilised government, this committee strongly condemns the action of the North-West Frontier government and places on record the services rendered by Comrade Shafiq to the cause of communism in India and foreign lands.
(5) The committee further condemns the action of the North-West Frontier government in restricting the liberty of Comrade Gauhar Rahaman, and treating-him as an ordinary criminal.
(6) The committee expresses its full sympathy with the popular movement for liberty in China and Dutch Indies. The committee further congratulates the British miners on their heroic struggle and historical role they are playing in the cause of a proletarian revolution in England.
(7) Whereas in the opinion of this committee the action of Comrade Saklatvala in sending the copy of his letter to the secretary of reception committee to the press is quite objectionable and a great blow to the cause of communism in India, this committee strongly protests against his action.
The committee further repudiates the allegations made by him against the party.
(8) Comrade Muzaffar Ahmad was finally elected unanimously for the presidentship of the ensuing congress.
16 Januaiy 1927
Source: Indian Quarterly Register, 1927.
11
Extended Meeting of the Central Executive of the CPI
Excerpts from
Executive’s Annual Report, 1927
We have the pleasure to submit to you the following report of the work done by us during the year ending 31May 1927 and before we proceed to discuss other points, it is, in our opinion, necessary to give you a short history of the Communist Party of India which will go a long way to clear the misunderstanding prevailing in some quarters about us. Our movement, as all of you know, is neither one imported from abroad, nor a group maintained by Russia for its propaganda in India, as the vested interests say, to unpopularise Soviet in this country. Really speaking, it is the development of the social forces that have brought us all together, and have helped the formation of this party. [After a brief description of the political scene in the early twenties, the report continues:]
Immediately after we parted fromKanpur, a meeting was called by Muzaffar Ahmad at Calcutta of all the provincial organisers and other members with the idea of changing the headquarters of the party from Bombay to Delhi, since it was found difficult to go on with it at Bombay, as was decided at Kanpur. At the same time a manifesto on the hindu-muslim problem which had become very tense at the time was issued suggesting that only an organisation of the masses based on an economic program would unite the different communities on a common platform. Subsequently the manifesto was proscribed by the Burma and Central Provinces government. About seven hundred rupees were promised out of which 600 were collected.
Later a regular office was started at Delhi with Bagerhatta in charge. He was later joined by Ghate and organisation work was started.
It was then decided to hold a propaganda conference at Delhi in November last. The general secretaries went on a propaganda tour all over the country but the conference could not be held because of an unexpected raid on the office of HA Nasim, the general secretary of the reception committee, and we have reasons to believe that our correspondence was interfered with, in spite of the home member's assurance to the contrary that our correspondence, including that with foreign organisations, was legal. All this gave a strong blow to the young party and it took another two or three months to recover from the attack ...
Record of Work Done During the period [Work done in Bengal, Lahore (Punjab) and Bombay having been already covered by us, the description of progress in these places is omitted here. — Ed.]
Rajputana: In the province of Rajputana, Bagerhatta, the general secretary, with the help of Pundit Arjunlal Sethi, has been able to have an effective majority in the provincial congress committee. This provincial congress committee has returned 3 members, two republicans, out of the 7 seats allotted to the all-India congress committee. Trade union activities could not be started because Bagerhatta had to devote a great part of his time and energies to the all-India organisation of our party. Recently a W and P organisation has been started and efforts are being made to organise industrial labour.
Madras: Singaravelu has been doing good propaganda work and has been devoting greater portion of his time to trade-union and strike activities. There is no other organisation excepting the Labour and Kisan Party. In his position as a member of the municipal corporation, Singaravelu has been doing propaganda there.
UP and other Provinces : Efforts were made to organise work in other provinces, but owing to lack of sufficient financial resources, we have not been able to organise any effective left wing, though desire has been expressed by a few communists in certain provinces. In the United Provinces particularly, Azad Sobhani has been able to create a favourable atmosphere for labour activities and we hope that young men would come forward and take up the work.
General Support
We have not been able to enlist that support which we expected while forming this party. Our handicaps in the way of carrying on propaganda amongst the students and young intelligentsia which could have given us a number of conscious workers for the party and also in the way of approaching all labour and peasants’ organisations, at this stage, for the purpose of promoting the party’s program, were mainly caused by lack of funds. It is very essential that energies are directed towards raising at least that small amount of money which is necessary for enabling our comrades to visit all important industrial centres for the purpose of taking stock of the situation in the different provinces and for coming into direct contact with the proletariat. It will only be then that we can promote the program of the party and give the masses a right understanding about our own party. Efforts were made to start a central organ of the party and in spite of the little help that we could get from our comrades, it was found difficult to start a party organ without our own press, as no press was prepared to suffer, if it came to that.
Government’s Attitude Towards the Party
Though the rulers have in no way directly come into a collision and nothing can, as yet, be said about their attitude towards us, yet the interference with our correspondence, and proscribing of our Calcutta manifesto and the publications of the Communist Party of Great Britain and recently of the 3rd International with all those of other communist parties, etc., will leave no doubts regarding their efforts to stifle our propaganda. Last year we were given to understand by the government of India that our correspondence was quite legal, but this does not seem to have held good in practice, and we are afraid that many letters meant for us have never reached their destinations. ...
Before parting with the responsibilities given to us last year, and while making it over to you, we wish a great success to the cause which we have tried to serve to the best of our abilities.
The constitution of the Communist Party of India
l. Name — The name of the party is the Communist Party of India.
2. Membership — Only those subscribing to the program laid down by the Communist International will be eligible for its membership.
3. Subscription — Each member of the party shall pay not less than Rs. 12 annually or in four installments as may be decided by the executive, the default in which will cause a lapse in membership.
4. Admission Fee — Will be Re 1 payable on signing the membership form. Every applicant for membership shall be required to get his form countersigned by at least two members of the party executive.
5. Annual Session — The Communist Party of India shall hold an annual meeting of all the members which shall be the highest authority to discuss and adopt the report of the retiring executive, congress and trade-union groups and shall, on the basis of the same, form a program for the ensuing year. Election of the office bearers and a central executive, discussing of the audited statement of accounts, and other resolutions on the agenda shall be the main business of the annual session.
6. Responsibility for Administration — The affairs of the party when not in session, shall be regulated and administered by the executive council, which will be elected on the principle of centralisation not territorially; it will be elected from the floor of the entire party membership and which will not act in any manner inconsistent with the resolution of the party.
7. The party, shall have the following executive offices — presidium of 5 members, one general secretary, one treasurer. There will be no president of the party and every meeting shall elect its own president during its sittings.
8. The Central Executive — The central executive of the party shall consist of the 5 member of the presidium, the general secretary and the treasurer and eight other members elected by the party. The executive shall ordinarily meet three times in a year at such time and place as the general secretary in consultation with the presidium may decide.
9. Notice for the Central Executive — The general secretary will issue the agenda of the central executive mentioning the date, time, and place of the meeting not later than 20 clear days before the meeting.
10. When no meeting of the central executive can be called, the general secretary in consultation with the presidium may circulate to the members for opinion such matters as require immediate action and the opinion of the majority of the members shall have the same force as they were passed at the meeting of the central executive.
11. Presidium — The party shall elect a presidium for the following purposes : (a) To investigate complaints which may be referred to it by the central executive and to make suggestions for dealing with the same, (b) To investigate complaints of individuals against disciplinary measures taken against them by other party organs and submit their opinion on the same to the central committee for definite action, (c) Supervise and organise small party groups in all other political institutions like the Trade Union Congress and the Indian National Congress. (d) To receive the reports of the group leaders, working in different political bodies and to circulate them among the executive members. (e) To deal with all foreign affairs with the sanction of the executive.
12. The candidates for membership of the presidium must be the party members of the highest possible standing. They must be active workers in the political field for at least five years.
13. Foreign Bureau — The presidium with the sanction of the CE will maintain a foreign bureau as an ideological centre, composed of comrades who are not in a position to work inside the country. The foreign bureau will be representative of the CE and will act as the organ through which the international relations of the party will be maintained. But it will not in any way work inconsistent with the party's program and resolutions. The foreign bureau will have a regular office at a place of their convenience and will keep a constant touch with all the CPs and the Comintern and will give publicity to Indian affairs.
14. Party Discipline — Strict party discipline is demanded from all members and party organisations. Discussion on all questions is completely open so long as no decision is taken. When a decision has been taken it must be promptly operated by all members and organs.
15. Breach of party discipline calls for action by responsible party organs. Action against party organs includes censure, suspension, or even dissolution of the organisation with re-registering of membership.
Against individual membership, action may be censure, dismissal from office or expulsion. In matters of emergency, action can be taken by the presidium and appeal will be allowed before the executive and the party.
16. Fractions — In all working classes, political and national organisations, where there are two or more communists, a party fraction must be organised for the purpose of increasing the influence of the party and applying its policy. These fractions will not be independent when formed and will be subordinate to party discipline and program.
17. In all bodies like the National Congress executive i.e., the All-India Congress Committee and the executive of the Trade Union Congress, the party will form fractions, which will be placed under the control of the presidium, where the fraction leaders, who will be appointed by the executive committee, will have to submit reports of the work done in the respective bodies. In all such matters, where the opinion of the members in the fraction may differ, it will be guided by the presidium until the executive meets.
18. Every question to be decided by the organisation or branch in which the fraction is working, should be discussed beforehand by the fraction meeting, and a report of their decision should be sent to the general secretary who will circulate it to the presidium. On every question on which a decision is reached, the fraction members must act unitedly and vote solidly in the meeting of the organisation hi question. Failure to do this constitutes a serious breach of party discipline.
19. Minimum Program — The Communist Party of India at its annual sessions will formulate a regular program and policy to be worked through the National Congress and the Trade Union Congress and form party groups called the comrades' fractions to work there on behalf of the party. The party will also form minimum programs on the lines of which it will seek cooperation with the existing workers ^nd political parties.
20. The central executive shall have powers to frame laws for the conduct of the communists in other political groups but they will not be inconsistent with those laid down by this constitution.
21. The Central Office — The place of the central office will be decided by the executive committee where the records of the party will be kept and publications issued.
Resolutions on the Party programme, elections, etc.
……….
Imperialism condemned
The following resolutions were unanimously passed:
1. The Communist Party of India looks up to the communist parties of the world, as well as the International, for lead and guidance, in the work undertaken by this party in this country.
2. The Communist Party of India desires that a delegation composed of JP Bagerhatta, Muzaffar Ahmad, RS Nimbkar do travel Great Britain and the continent to study labour conditions in those countries. The delegation shall submit a report to the party.
3. This Party emphatically condemns the imperialist designs on China and sympathises with the Chines in their struggle for securing economic salvation.
4. This meeting of the Communist Party of India condemns the Anglo-Soviet rupture, brought about by the conservative government, as one of the many attempts of imperialism to drive Russia on the verge of a war.
5: This party considers the present trade-union bill, introduced in Great Britain, as a direct challenge to the rights of labour to unite against capitalists and assures the working classes of Great Britain of its fullest sympathy in their struggle against capitalist aggression.
Programme
6. Whereas, in the opinion of the Communist Party of India it is only the dynamic energies of the toiling masses that can bring swaraj to India, and whereas the present bourgeois leadership in the Congress has proved itself to be gradually compromising with imperialism, and as such is directly in opposition to the interests of the masses, this party calls upon all its members to enroll themselves as members of the Indian National Congress, and form a strong left wing in all its organs for the purpose of wresting them from the present alien control.
This party further calls upon the communists to cooperate with the radical-nationalists there, to formulate a common program on the lines of the following minimum program laid down by this party:
(a) (i) Complete national independence, and the establishment of a democratic republic based on universal adult suffrage, (ii) Abolition of landlordism, (iii) Reduction of land rent and indirect taxation, higher incidence of graduated income-tax, (iv) Modernisation of agriculture with state aid. (v) Nationalisation of public utilities, (vi) Industrialisation of the country with state aid. (vii) 8 hour-day and minimum wage.
(b) For the promotion of the above program, the communist members of the Congress shall contemplate to form a republican wing in the All-India Congress Committee with the cooperation of the left wing of the Congress.
(c) That all the activities regarding elections to legislatures, municipalities, local boards, etc. shall be decided upon by the central executive from time to time.
(d) All important issues coming before the All-India Congress Committee shall first be discussed in the party group and instructions issued to its representatives in the All India Congress Committee to that effect.
(e) The members of the party shall not be members of any communal organisation and shall always try to expose the class character of such movements.
Trade Union Congress
7. Whereas it is found that the middle class leadership in the All-India Trade Union Congress has solely been responsible for keeping itself isolated form the proletariat, it is necessary that the communist members do enter the Trade Union Congress, and organise labour unions and get them affiliated to the Trade Union Congress, with a view to wrest it from its present bourgeois leadership. The comrades’ section in the Trade Union Congress will put up the following minimum program as the immediate demands of the working class: (a) Legal limitation of work to eight hours a day, (b) legal minimum wage, (c) abolition of employment of women and children under the age of 18, (d) abolition of employment of women underground, at night and in dangerous occupations, (e) schemes of maternity benefits, old age, sickness and unemployment insurance, (f) workmen’s compensation and employers’ liability, (g) freedom of organisation of trade unions, exemption from liability, for the acts of individual members and freedom to take part in political activities, (h) weekly payment of wages and (i) legislation providing for adequate safety devices in factories and mines.
8. The Communist Party of India approves of the program laid down by the workers’ and peasants’ parties of Bengal, Bombay and Rajputana, and enjoins the members to work out this program. The members shall try to form similar organisations where such do not exist.
9. This party congratulates Awari and his colleagues who are trying to establish their right to carry arms by “satyagraha” against the arms act.
10. This meeting emphatically condemns the recent order of the government of India, in proscribing all advanced literature from entering into this country, as an attempt to stifle the legitimate growth of free thought.
11. This meeting condemns the unjust terms that have been forced upon GR. Darveshi by the North-West Frontier Province government.
12. This meeting condemns the action of the North-West Frontier Provincial government in interning Shafiq who was to have presided over the proposed conference of this party in November last.
13. This meeting sympathises with Usmani and Akbar Khan in their sufferings in jail.
14. The Communist Party of India welcomes Dange back from jail and hopes that he will be able to resume his activities immediately he revives his health.
15. The Communist Party of India congratulates Babu Subhas Bose on the courage he has shown in not accepting the terms of government at the sacrifice of his principle.
Office-bearers
12
Excerpts from
Manifesto of CPI To All Workers
Comrades,
The working class is now entering upon a period of trouble and suffering, of great dangers and great opportunities, which it will have to face solidly as a class if it is to avoid many further years of slavery and degradations. We have recently passed through big strikes, and we shall soon have to fight many more. A big crisis is coming in industry and the government is showing in the TD bill and PS bill what sort of reception it is preparing. The political events of the last few months, constituting a series of demonstrations by the masses of the people and of answering acts of repression by the government, show that a crisis in the struggle for national freedom is also approaching. The news from Afghanistan, from China, from America and from Europe, all go to show that a big world-war is coming in the near future. Then we shall see probably a great attack by all imperialist powers to crush the Workers' Republics of Russia. Or one group of imperialist robbers will fight another group, and there will be a hideous slaughter of the masses of the people by war, by disease and by famine, and awful suffering, through high prices and low wages, hunger and slave-driving for the remainder, all for the selfish purposes of the capitalist masters of the world. ...
Comrades! the crisis is approaching. Very soon we shall be crushed under the new Trade Disputes act. Very soon war will again be upon us. Again the bourgeois nationalists of the congress are putting themselves at the head of the mass movement, as they did seven years ago, simply in order to betray it. Why did the great mass movement of that time collapse, leaving imperialism still victorious and the masses still in the depths of degradation of poverty? Because the leadership was in the hands of the bourgeoisie, who were drawn by their class interests towards imperialism and betrayed and deceived the masses.
Yet still today bourgeois ‘leaders’ are controlling the movement. In spite of all their talk of “the Masses” they are still burning foreign cloth as if that will get independence! They are still giving imperialism ‘another chance’ as if they are not certain that imperialism is their enemy! The bourgeois labour leaders are still trying to enter into cooperation with imperialism, through the Whitely commission. They still hold back the development of the labour movement splitting and disorganising it for their own class purposes.
How can we stop this nonsense ? How can we see that the masses are properly led to the struggle ? Only by taking the lead from our own hands into the hands of the working class. Only by pressing the real policy of the working class i.e., workers’ political party, the Communist Party.
Communism is based on the class-struggle. In society now we see more and more clearly two classes — owners and workers.
The owners are few, rich, powerful and educated, they control the government, the police, the law courts, the prisons, the army and navy, the newspapers, the industries. The workers are many, poor, weak and ignorant, they are always oppressed by the forces at the disposal of the capitalists. ...
The policy of the Communist Party to end this struggle, which brings with it so much misery and degradation, is for the workers to fight and win it. The workers must defeat the capitalists decisively, must out them, and become themselves the owners of industry, and possessors of state power, controlling education, health policy, the police-force and law courts, the army and navy, and all the apparatus of society. Then, and only then, when there have been established workers' rule, socialism, will the working class be properly cared for, properly paid, not exploited, educated free.
The working class must conquer power, as the working class of Russia has done and establish its own dictatorship, when the efforts of the capitalists to get back what they have lost, will be suppressed with all the power of the state. Then the wealth and power wielded today by the capitalists will be used, not as new for selfish purposes, but for the advancement of civilisation, the feeding of the poor, the education of the ignorant, the healing of the sick. Then under the dictatorship of the workers, will be established that socialism which all progressive thinkers for centuries have imagined when all men and women will really be equal, when “from each will be taken by society according to his ability, and to each will be given according to his need”.
Will the workers' trade unions do this? No, they cannot. The Communist Party calls upon all workers to Join trade union and build them up as strongly as possible, and take part in their fight for improvements. It is necessary that the union be freed from bourgeois Congressmen and imbued with the militant policy and theory of communism. But the unions alone cannot conduct the fight for political power, cannot establish the dictatorship of the workers, nor bring about socialism.
Will the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party do these things? No; again, the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party is a necessary stage. It gathers together all forces for the first fight against imperialism for the independence of the county. The workers and the unions must support the Workers’ and Peasants’ Party and help take the lead in the policy for which it stands — the fight of the poor, the peasants, the clerks, the shopkeepers, as well as the workers, against imperialism and for national independence.
But the workers’ own party, the Communist Party is also needed — is needed most of all. The working class is the most important factor in the struggle of the poor masses. The workers are the only section which will fight determinedly and consciously, and the section which can fight most effectively. The peasants will be but passive followers of the working class; the petty bourgeoisie will vacillate from side to side. Only the workers, drilled and disciplined in factory life and exploitation, in command of the vital industrial forces and lines of communism of society, can and will fight to the end ...
… The Communist Party is still very small and very young. It has a great and difficult task to perform. It is the special object of the repressive measures of the enemy. It has little time in which to prepare itself. Big crises are coming in the very near future, in which the working class must act decisively if it is to be saved. The workers must organise now their vanguard the Communist Party, if they are to emerge victorious. We call upon all workers to join the Communist Party, and help forward the great cause of the exploited and oppressed throughout the world.
“Down With Imperialism”!
Up With Communism!
Join The Communist Party Today!
Source: Meerut Record, p 527(8)
13
Communist Party of India Constitution
(1929)
1. Name : The name of the Party shall be the Communist Party of India (Section of the Communist International).
2. Object : The object of the Party is the attainment of Socialism through the overthrow of imperialist and capitalist rule, the seizure of power by the working class, and the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat; in accordance with the programme of the Communist International and the Policy adopted from time to time by the Party with the agreement of the Communist International.
3. Membership : Those shall be members who shall subscribe to the object, programme and discipline of the Party, shall pay membership dues, and shall perform organised work under the direction of the Party.
Candidates for admission who shall signify their willingness to observe these conditions, and shall be recommended by two Party members, shall be considered by Branch Committees, and if approved shall be admitted as members, subject to scrutiny, within one month, by the Provincial Committee.
4. Dues: All members, unless exempted by Branch Committees on grounds of unemployment, shall pay subscription of Rs. 3 per year, payable quarterly.
5. Annual Session : The Party shall hold an annual meeting representative of all branches, to discuss and adopt the report of the retiring executive, and to form a programme for the ensuing year. Election of office bearers and a Central Executive, discussion of the statement of accounts, and other resolutions shall be the main business of the annual session, which shall be the highest authority for deciding party affairs.
The basis of representation at the annual session shall be decided by the CEC. The annual session shall be called by the CEC which shall give at least one month’s notice to all Party organisations.
6. Administration : The annual session shall elect a Central Executive Committee which shall be responsible to the session and shall administer the affairs of the Party between sessions. The CEC shall hold full meetings at least quarterly. The General Secretary shall give at least two week’s notice of CEC meetings.
7. Officers : The CEC shall appoint from among its number a General Secretary, who shall be empowered to act on behalf of the CEC between its meetings, and shall be responsible to it.
8. Provincial Committees : In each province or other suitable’ division (political, linguistic or economic) of the country, shall be established a Provincial Party Committee, elected annually by a representative Conference of branches within the area. The Provincial-Committees under the direction of the CEC shall conduct and be responsible for the conduct of the Party work within the provinces.
9. Branch Committees : In towns and suitable urban and rural2 areas shall be established branches, which annually appoint Branch Committees.
In factories, mills, mines, railway stations, etc., shall be established factory groups, each of which shall elect a leader, who shall to a member of the Branch Committee.
In addition, subordinate to the branch shall be formed Area Groups, each of which shall appoint a leader, who shall be a member of the Branch Committee.
All members of the Party shall ordinarily be members of either factory or area groups.
10. Fractions : In such other organisations (Trade Unions and Federations, Peasants’ Unions, Workers’ and Peasant’s Parties, National Congress, etc., and their committees) as the Party shall decide, fractions shall be formed by Party members. Fractions shall be directed by and shall report to, appropriate Party Committees. Each Fraction shall appoint a leader, whose decision on questions which have not been decided on by the Fraction or by some superior Party organisation, shall be accepted by the members.
11. Discipline : Discipline must be observed within the Party. Decisions taken by appropriate organisations of the Party must be obeyed and carried out by all members.
Breach of discipline consists in (i) action or propaganda contrary to the Party Programme rules or policy (2) failure to carry out the reasonable instructions of properly appointed Party organisations or officials (3) breach of confidence in regard to Party affairs (4) repeated failure to attend meetings of Party or other organisations at which Party work is to be done (5) other actions or omissions which may do harm to the Party.
For breaches of discipline, action may be taken against members who may be censured, removed from positions, or expelled. Censure or removal from position, in regard to members in organisations subordinate to the Branch Committee, may be taken by the Branch Committee. Branch Committees may also recommend expulsion, which may be carried out by the Provincial Committees. During the period when the case is being considered by the Provincial Committee, the member shall be regarded as suspended. In all cases appeal is allowed to the superior organs of the Party.
12. Foreign Bureau : The CEC will maintain a Foreign Bureau as an ideological centre, composed of comrades who are not in a position to work inside the country. The Foreign Bureau will be representative of the CEC and will act as the organ through which the international relations of the Party will be maintained. It will not work in any way inconsistent with the Party Programme and resolutions. The Foreign Bureau will maintain an office at a place of its convenience and will keep touch with other Communist Parties and with the Communist International, and will give publicity to Indian affairs.
14
(These Statutes were framed and approved of by the Communist International in 1934, after the reorganisation of the Party and the formation of the Provisional Central Committee in December 1933)
The Statutes of The Communist Party of India
(Section Of The Communist International)
THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA, being a section of the Communist International, is the most advanced organised section of the proletariat of India, the highest form of the class organisation. ...
THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA demands from its members active and self-sacrificing work for carrying out the programme of the CI and the draft platform of action of the CPI. It demands also the carrying out of the statutes of the party and fulfilling all the decisions of the party and its organs, the guarantee of the unity of the ranks of the party and the strengthening of the fraternal international relations both between the toilers of the various nationalities of India and with the proletariat of all countries of the world. The party works in all the mass organisations of the toilers, including the most reactionary organisations, seeking to win over the toiling masses of members of these organisations to its side and to isolate the reformist, the national reformist, and socialist reformist leaders.
I. Party members and their duties
1. A member of the Party is any person who accepts the programme of the CI, the draft platform of the Communist Party, and who works in one of the party organisations, obeys the decisions of the Party and the Communist International, and regularly pays the membership dues.
2. A member of the Farty must :
(a) Observe the strictest discipline and maintain reticence with regard to secret matters, actively participate in the political life of the Party and the country, carry on in practice the decisions of the Communist International and the Party organs.
(b) Tirelessly work to raise his ideological attainments, to master the fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism and the chief political and organisational decisions of the Party and explain them to the non-party masses.
(c) Be a member of the mass organisation (Trade Union etc.) and carry on tireless work there under the leadership of the Party Committee for strengthening the political and organisational influence of the Party.
(d) Job mass organisation of toilers (Trade Unions etc.) which are under the influence and the leadership of the reformist and the national reformist and other opponents, and carry on there a tireless everyday ideological and organisational struggle for liberating the toiling masses from the influence of the class enemies, winning these masses to the side of the Communist Party and thus isolating the reformist and the national reformist opponents from the toiling masses.
(e) Besides participating, organising and leading everyday struggles of workers and peasants for practical demands, to carry on Kb tireless agitation and propaganda among the workers and other V: toilers and spreading the ideas of the anti-imperialist and agrarian revolution and the ideas of Communism.
3. Members are accepted into the Party only as individuals and through the Party Cells. Newly recruited Party members must be confirmed by the city committee or local committee.
4. If whole groups from other political organisations join the Communist Party, or if whole political organisations want to join the CP, a proper decision of the Central Committee is required for their acceptance.
- Note: If leading members from other political parties come over to the party, in addition to the sanctions of the town committee or local committee, it is necessary to have the sanction of the Central Committee.
5. When accepting a new Party member, he must be vouched for by at least two members of the Party who know him well both at his place of work and his place of residence. The comrades recommending him are responsible for him, and in case of improper recommendations, will be subject to Party disciplinary measures, to the point of exclusion from the Party. When a member of a Communist Youth organisation is accepted, a recommendation is required from the corresponding committee of this organisation of which he was a member before joining the Party.
6. A member of the Party can go from one district to another only according to the rules laid down by the Central Committee for the purpose. The consent of the Central Committee of the Party is required to go to another country.
7. Every member of the Party who works in some local organization and is going to work in the area of another local organisation, will be registered by the latter as one of its members.
8. The question of the expulsion of anyone from the Party is decided by a General Meeting of the Cell of which the given person is a member, and is confirmed by the town or local committee. Pending the decision of the town committee the person in question can be removed from Party work.
9. The following are expelled from the Party : —
(1) open or concealed supporters of Gandhism, of the Roy Group and other political trends condemned by the CI as enemies of Communism and as disorganisers and betrayers of the struggle for national independence;
(2) open or concealed violators of the iron discipline of the Party;
(3) those who betray in any way secret party affairs (it must be remembered that this leads to a position that the Party can be disorganised and Party workers arrested);
(4) provocateurs, careerists, traitors, morally degenerate people and those who, by their improper conduct, harm the good name and soil the banner of the Party;
(5) class-alien and hostile elements, who have crept into the Party by deception, concealing their counter-revolutionary or criminal past or their previous connections with the police.
II. The organisational structure of the Party
10. The Party is conducted as a strictly underground organisation. The underground organisations of the Party in their work make it their central task to develop most widely mass work to establish its leadership in the mass revolutionary movements and with this aim combine the method of underground work and semi-underground work and open work.
11. The leading principle of the organisational structure of the Party is democratic centralism, which means : —
a) All the leading organs of the Party, from top to bottom, are elected.
b) The Party organs periodically report on their work to their Party organisations.
c) The strictest Party discipline and the subordination of the minority to the majority.
d) Decisions of the Comintern and higher Party organs are unquestionably obligatory for lower organs and for all members of the Party.
12. The Party is built on the foundations of democratic centralism according to the territorial-industrial principle. Organisations which embrace any district as a whole are considered as higher than organisations which embrace part of the given district.
13. All the Party organisations are autonomous in deciding local questions, provided that these decisions do not conflict with the decisions of the Party and the Comintern.
14. The highest leading organ of every organisation is the general meeting, conference or congress.
15. The general meeting, conference or congress elects a committee, which is its executive organ and guides all the current work of the organisation.
- Note : (1) For reasons of underground work, in accordance with the decisions of higher Party committees, the lower Party committee can be formed without election at the corresponding Party conferences but by appointment or also by combining election with co-options, i.e., only a part of the Party committee is elected at the Party conference and the other part of the Party committee is co-opted; (2) For reasons of underground work, it is also permissible for the elections to take place not at the Party Conference, but by selecting persons from among the best activists who have been selected in advance by the higher Party committee from the cells and fractions in mass organisations, trade unions etc.
16. The organisational scheme of the Party is as follows:
a) Territory of India : All-India Party Congress, which elects the Central Committee of the CP of India.
b) Province : Provincial Party Conference and Provincial Party Committee.
c) Town (by locality): Town (Local) Conference, Town (Local) Committee.
d) Factory, Chawl (Basti) or Village : General Meeting of Cell, Bureau or Organiser of Cells.
17. Order of subordination of Party Organs : All India Party Congress, CC of the CP of India, Provincial Party Committee; General Meeting of Cell, Bureau or Organiser of Cell. ...
III. The central organisations of the Party
18. The highest organ of the Party is the Congress. Congresses are called if possible once a year/Extraordinary Congresses are called by the Central Committee on its own initiative or at the demand of not less than one-third of the total number of members represented at the last Party Congress. ...
The [extraordinary] Congress is to be considered as having full powers if it has representatives from not less than half the members of the Party represented at the last regular Congress. Representation quotas at the Congress and the method of election are decided by the CC.
- Note : If it is impossible to call a Congress of the Party, the CC will call an enlarged session of the Plenum of the CC with the participation of representatives of the provincial committees. Such an enlarged Plenum of the CC has the right by arrangement with the CI to change the composition of the CC.
19. The Congress (a) discusses and confirms the report of the Central Committee (b) reviews and changes the programme and statutes of the Party; (c) decides on the tactical line of the Party. ... (d) elects the Central Committee. During the sittings of the Party Congress, a small auditing commission has to be elected, which looks through the financial affairs of the past period, and at the end of the congress reports the results of the work, and is then dissolved.
20. The Central Committee is elected by the Congress. In case a member of the Central Committees leaves it, he will be replaced by one of the candidates in the order fixed by the Congress.
- Note: The Central Committee has a right to co-opt members to the Central Committee.
21. The Central Committee organises the Politbureau for current work. The Politbureau appoints a Secretary whose task is to guide the proper distribution of the Party functionaries and control the fulfilment of the directives of the CI [and] the decisions of the Party Congress and the Central Committee.
22. The members of the Central Committee are attached as instructors and representatives of the Central Committee to definite provincial organisations and also divide among themselves the various fields of activity of the Central Committee:-
a) Editor of the Central Party Organ.
b) A manager of the Central Technical apparatus and distribution of literature.
c) Treasurer
d) Head of the work of Party fractions in the mass organisations.
e) Head of the special apparatus
f) Head of the Party educational department.
- Note : According to the concrete conditions of work, the Central Committee can combine some of these functions and give to one person, or set up new departments etc. Special work must be entirely separated from the general in Party work ...
24. With the aim of strengthening the Bolshevik leadership over the work of local Party organisations, the Central Committee has the right to create in some parts of the country Regional Bureau of the Central Committee which would include several provinces, to send representatives and instructors to the localities. The Regional Bureau of the Central Committee, representatives and instructors of the Central Committee must work on the basis of special instructions laid down every time by the CC or the Politbureau.
25. The Central Committee regularly informs the Party organisations of its general work by sending out special information bulletins and also by sending members and representatives of the Central Committee to the localities to give reports on its work.
IV. The provincial organisation of the Party
26. The highest organ of the Provincial Party organisation is the Provincial Party Conference, and in the intervals between Conferences, the highest organ is the Provincial Party Committee. ...
- Note : The Provincial Committee works on the territory included in the administrative boundaries of the province. It might be formed from the town organisation of the main city of the province. When the town organisation of the provincial centre gets strong enough, the town committee, while maintaining the functions of the leading organ for the town Party organisation, takes on for a time, till a proper Provincial Committee is built, the rights and duties the Provincial Committee and develops its work in the administrative limits of the province, beginning with the chief industrial centres.
27. The regular Provincial Conference is called by the Provincial Party Committee if possible once in six months. Extraordinary Conferences are called at the decision of the Provincial Committee or on the decision of one-third pf the total number of members of the Provincial organisation, provided that consent of the Central Committee is given. ...
The Provincial Party Conference discusses and confirms the report of the work of the Provincial Committee and elects the committee of five members and two candidates and delegates to the All-India Communist Party Congress.
28. The Provincial Committee appoints a Secretary and an assistant. The Secretary of the Provincial Committee directs the proper distribution of Party workers and ensures the fulfilment of the decisions of the Provincial Party Conference, the Provincial Committee, and the directives of the Central Committee of the Party. The Secretaries of each Provincial Committee are confirmed by the Central Committee of the Party. ...
29. In order better to carry out the tasks which face the Provincial Committee and to ensure the proper leadership of the work of the local Party organisations, the members of the Provincial Party Committee are attached to definite districts of the province and divide among themselves the functions of the Provincial Committee, such as :
a) Editor of the Provincial organ (confirmed by the CC of the Party)
b) A manager of the provincial technical apparatus and the organiser of the distribution of literature.
c) Treasurer
d) Head of the work of the fractions in mass organisations.
e) Head of the special apparatus.
f) Head of the Party educational department.
- Note: According to the concrete conditions of the work, the provincial committee may combine several of these functions in one comrade, form new functions etc. or appoint comrades outside of the Committee members to carry on such work as of technical apparatus, subordinating him directly to the Secretary. ...
V. The town and local organisations
32. In the town and talukas or firkas, town (or local) organisations are formed, with the confirmation of the Provincial Committee. The highest organ of the town (or local) Party organisation is the town (or local) conference. The town (or local) Party conference is called by the town (or local) Party Committee if possible every six months. Extraordinary Conferences are called on the decisions of the town (or local) Committee, or at the demand of one-third of the total number of members in the town (or local) organisation.
33. The town (or local) committee elects a Secretary (to be confirmed by the Provincial Committee), organises and confirms cells and fractions in mass organisations, organises collection of membership dues, organises various Party institutions and commissions within the limits of the town (or locality) and guides their activity ...
VI. The section committees in the big cities
35. In the big towns with the permission of the Central Committee section organisations are formed under the control of the town committee, and work under its direction. The section organisations of big towns will work according to the rules of the town organisations.
VII. Cells
36. The basis of the Party is the factory cell. These cells are formed in factories, mills, big farms, units, institutions, etc., if there are not less than three party members. Besides the factory cells in the mills, chawl (basti) and street cells are organised from among the Party members who cannot be in factory cells — like small handicraftsmen and traders, housewives etc. In the village, village cells are organised. Special cells act on the basis of special instructions of the Central Committee. The cells are confirmed by the town (or local) committee.
- Note: Each group of class-conscious workers, poor peasants and other toilers can, on their own initiative, organise a Party cell and begin communist work among the masses. Such Party cell which are organised on the initiative of non-party class-conscious workers can be accepted into the Party by the town (or local) party committee, according to the statutes after a careful and personal investigation of the membership both in respect of political views and in respect to honesty and loyalty to the cause of the revolution.
37. In big factories, in order to adapt to conditions of underground existence, separate department cells are organised, and, through cell organisers, a joint unit [is formed].
38. The cell links up the workers, peasants and others with the leading organs of the Party. Its tasks are :
a) Agitational and organisational work among the masses for the Party slogans and decisions.
b) The attraction of sympathisers and new members and their political education.
c) The publication of factory paper or wall-paper.
d) Assistance to the town (or local) committee in its every-day organisational and agitational work.
e) Active participation as a Party unit in the economic and political life of their factory and city, and also of the whole country, active participation in the discussion and solution and carrying out of all general Party decisions.
39. In order to carry out the current work, the cell elects a secretary, who is to be confirmed by the town (or local) committee. ...
VII. Fractions in mass organisations
40. At all congresses, meetings, and in the elected organs of the mass organisations outside the Party — trade unions, factory committees, peasant organisations, co-operative societies, sports clubs, youth organisations, etc. — where there are not less than three Party members, Party fractions are organised which must function in an organised way, strengthen Party discipline, work to increase the influence of the Party, carry Party policy among non-Party masses. For current work the fraction elects a secretary.
41. The fraction is completely controlled by the corresponding Party committee, ... and on all questions must strictly and without vacillation, carry out the decisions of the Party organisations which lead them.
The fractions of the higher bodies of mass organisations, by agreement with the corresponding Party committee, may send directives to the fractions of the lower bodies of the same mass organisations, and the latter must carry them out without fail as directives from a higher Party organ.
IX. Inner-Party democracy and Party discipline
42. The free and businesslike discussion of Party policy in the various organisations or in the Party as a whole is the indefeasible right of every member of the Party, arising from inner-Party democracy. Only on the basis of inner-Party democracy can Bolshevik self-criticism be developed and Party discipline strengthened, as the latter should be conscious and not mechanical. But a discussion on questions of Party policy must be developed in such a way that it should not lead to Party organisations or Party workers being exposed to the police terror or to attempts on the part of an insignificant minority to force their views on the vast majority of Party members and to attempt to form factional groups which will break the unity of the Party, which will lead to splitting the working class. Therefore, wide inner-Party discussion can be recognised as necessary only if: —
a) this necessity is recognised by at least several big provincial organisations;
b) inside the Central Committee, there is not a sufficiently firm majority on the chief questions of Party policy;
c) despite the existence of a firm majority in the CC for a certain point of view, the CC nevertheless considers it necessary to verify the correctness of its policy by discussion in the Party. ...
43. The preservation of the unity of the Party, a merciless struggle against the slightest attempt at factional struggle and splits, the strictest Party discipline are the first duties of all members of the Party and all Party organisations.
In order to bring about the strictest discipline inside the Party and secure the greatest unity, while removing all factions, the Central Committee has the right to apply all Party penalties to the point of expulsion from the Party in cases of violation of discipline or the existence of factions.
44. The decisions of the leading Party organs must be carried out exactly and rapidly, failure to carry out the decisions of higher organisations and other actions which are recognised as crimes against the Party will be dealt with as follows :
For a Local Organisation: Censure and a general reorganisation (disbanding the organisation)
For Individual Party Members: Various forms of censure (public rebuke, reprimand, etc.), public censure, temporary removal from responsible work, expulsion from the Party.
Ail Party organisations from cells upwards have the right to inflict Party penalties. In order to carry on a preliminary investigation of the activity of Party members, Party committees may set up in individual cases, if it be necessary, a temporary investigation committee, whose conclusions later must be confirmed by the Party Committee.
X. The financial resources of the Party
45. The financial resources of the Party and its organisations are comprised of membership dues, income from Party undertakings, and other incomes.
46. The monthly membership dues for Party members are as follows. ... Unemployed members of the Party are exempt from the payment of membership dues.
47. On entering the Party an entrance fee of Rs. 1/- must be paid.
48. The Central Committee decides what proportion of the membership dues will remain at the disposal of the Cell and how much will be put at the disposal of the town or local committees, provincial committees and the CC.
15
Introducing “The Communist Bulletin”[1]
The Provisional Central Committee of the Communist Party of India, which has set itself the task of unifying all the genuine communist groups who accept the Draft Platform of Action of the CPI (published in 1931) and who are prepared to overthrow the despotic rule of the British Imperialism and fight for bread, work and freedom and for Communism under the guidance of the ONLY revolutionary World Organisation — The COMMUNIST INTERNATIONAL, is publishing its Central Organ — “The Communist”. But the abominable Press Act, Ordinances, strict police vigilance, censorship make the printing of the same impossible and irregular. The satanic British Government is doing its best to prevent the function of the Central Committee and isolate the different Provincial Committees from the Centre by putting insurmountable barriers on the way of rapid ideological and organisational unification. ...
The Proletariat is the only consistently revolutionary class capable of solving the great tasks which face the Indian revolution. But unless the proletariat is organised it is no force. If it is solidly organised and led by the Communist Party it becomes an invincible force.
Comrade Lenin says:
“Without a party, steeled in the struggle, without a party which is trusted by all that is honest in the given class, without a party which is able to watch the sentiments of the masses and influence them, it is impossible to carry on such struggle.” ...
At this critical stage of the Indian Working Class movement, we feel the dire necessity of a newspaper through which the Communist Party can enhance its struggle. A paper is not “merely a collective propagandist and collective agitator, it is also a collective organizer” (Lenin). The lack of such paper is one of the reasons of our organisational weakness and to overcome this ideological and organisational weakness and to give the masses a correct ideology and programme of revolution, we have decided to fill up that gap. We are issuing “The Communist Bulletin” as the Organ of The Calcutta Committee of the Communist Party of India. ...
“Draft Platform of Action” has been adopted by the CPI as the programme of the Indian revolution. The programme correctly points out the character of the Indian revolution as an Anti- Imperialist Revolution — a Soviet Revolution. ... We are therefore devoting the entire issue of the 'Communist Bulletin' to the publication of the “Draft Platform of Action” with a foreword. The Communist Bulletin will print all important decisions of the Communist International on Indian question, it will print documents, theses, organisational theses, programmes of CPI and CI and at the same time it will unleash persistent struggle against the reformists, pseudo-socialists of the type of renegade Roy and the labour parties and ail other socialist parties and it will open up a new path of revolution for the proletariat. We invite all genuine communist groups, who are isolatedly functioning, to come to our assistance and build up the paper and strengthen the party.
Note:
1. What follows is the untilled editorial (abridged) of the first issue (July 1934) of a cyclostyled paper published by the Calcutta Committee of CPI. The title has been supplied by us.
16
Unite Under The Banner Of The Communist Party
STRENUOUSLY OPPOSE THE NAKED DANGER OF THE CZARIST RULE STARTED BY THE BRITISH IMPERIALIST
The British Imperialist Government has been carrying on a terrible repression against the Communist Party in India since several years past. Government has just published an announcement declaring the Communist Party of India and all its branches as unlawful. ... Gandhi, Vallabhbhai Patel and others are assisting in the suppression of the Communist movement. On the one hand the Communist Party of the workers is being crushed, and on the other hand the National Congress of the capitalists is increasing its friendship with British Imperialism.
What lesson will the workers learn from this ? ...
The chief problem in India is to overthrow the rule of British Imperialism, to achieve independence, and to establish the workers’ and peasants’ rule. The native capitalists, zamindars, and sawkars assist British Imperialism, because it is with the assistance of British Imperialism that they are able to exploit the workers and peasants. It is with the assistance of the police of the British Imperialists that mill-owners like Sessons and Modi have been able to impose wage-cuts and rationalisation on the workers. It is with the help of the British police and courts that the Khots and Sawkars are able to exploit the peasants. ...
The workers’ struggle will strengthen and end in success only if a powerful Communist Party of the workers is brought into existence. In the last general strike the leadership was with the Communist Party, and it was on this account that the strike could occur and could be conducted for so many days on a proper policy. ... Thousands of workers thus spontaneously cried BRAVO to the Communist Party, and in the Azad Maidan meeting thousands of workers declared that they are Communists. Thus when representatives were to be elected to the strike committee, every mill returned only those who were members of the Communist Party.
At the time of the last strike the Communist Party organisation was very small, and still it was able to do so much work. If communist party cells had existed in every mill and chawl, and if thousands of workers had been members of the communist party, the strike would certainly have proved successful. ... It is therefore very necessary to bring into existence a powerful communist party. ...
The Communist International is the working class party of the whole world, and the Communist Party of India is a branch of the Communist International. It will not be possible to deliver a final attack against capitalism unless the workers of the world unite. The Communist Party of India has all along been doing its work secretly, because British Imperialism has been trying to crush it even from its inception. ...
Instead of sitting quiet or surrendering to imperialism by this repression, the Communist Party has accepted the policy of spreading the tentacles of its movement wider and wider by resorting to secret organisation. Besides this secret work, the Communist Party is trying its best to carry on open agitation through open organisations. You can see therefore that the Communist Party alone has got the power to face this attack of imperialism. The same thing is experienced in all other countries. In Germany, it is the secret communist party that is doing the work of carrying attacks against Hitlerism. ...
Wage-cuts, rationalisation, and unemployment are increasing day by day. The oppression against the workers and peasants is becoming unbearable. New repressive laws are coming into force. The capitalists of different countries are trying to declare war against each other on account of internal competition, and at the same time are looking out for an opportunity to declare a common war against Russia. Like the Great War of 20 years past, India will be involved in this war also, and the workers and peasants of India will have to suffer immense hardships. It is the duty of every worker to strengthen the communist party to oppose this possibility. The daily fights of the workers will be successful only under the leadership of the communists. The foundation of imperialism will be shaken by having recourse in the political weapon of general strike, and in the end, imperialism, capitalism and zamindarism will be administered the final rites by raising the standard of armed rebellion.
Therefore, brother workers! become members of the Communist Party, understand the programmes and rules of the Communist Party, and establish secret groups of the Communist Party in every mill and chawl ...
Communist Party of India
(Bombay Provincial Committee)
Branch of The Communist International
17
Manifesto Of The CC Of CPI On Party Unity
AT ALL COSTS : AGAINST ALL ODDS :
FORWARD TO A UNITED PARTY:
To all Party Members! To all Communists and Communist groups outside the Party!
Comrades,
The present Central Committee was formed by uniting most of the isolated communist groups existing in our country into a Centralised All-India Party. Since then the Party has grown all round, in every way. Today we have functioning party organisations in all the major provinces, our political influence is far greater than our organisational strength, we are bending all our energies to become a political force in the country. In achieving our revolutionary tasks the first and one of the most important impediments is the fact that we are not yet a United Party, individual communists and communist groups exist outside the Party.
The communist individuals and groups we have in mind are eager and willing to work under the leadership of the CC, they are entirely loyal to the Communist International, whole-heartedly accept the direction of the Seventh World Congress, The Central Committee throws open the doors of the Party to them and expects all Party members to give these comrades ready revolutionary welcome into our ranks and assimilate them in our Party organisation. ...
The central committee declares that it is improper for a communist to remain outside the Party and impermissible to form an independent group. Such comrades have thereby created unbolshevik traditions for the party, hindered the possible growth of the party, ... These comrades put forward the state of inner-party life or the mistakes of local and provincial party organisations as their justification for remaining out of the party. ...
The central committee calls upon all communists to cease forthwith all carping criticism of each other, give up the hunt for imaginary deviations, and the delightful pastime of discovering the “mistakes” of others. In our struggle for Party unity we must concentrate on finding out our point of agreement which will enable us to see our remaining differences in their true perspective. Let us, after this stage is reached, decide together and also separately whether our few remaining differences (political and otherwise) are of a type which could be discussed and decided upon inside the party in the usual way, or so fundamental and far-reaching as to make Party unity impossible. The central committee does not desire to smother criticism either of itself or of the party as a whole or of other independent groups, but suggests the means whereby discussion could be fruitful. Everything must be discussed and all serious differences liquidated BEFORE party unity is achieved ; but in all our discussions let us not lose sight of our aim — party unity — let us not degenerate into an endless debating society ...
The central committee states that there are groups and parties with whom party unity is not immediately possible, but the successful working out of the united front line in collaboration with such groups would create conditions when party unity with them would be feasible and proper. ...
A united Communist Party of India as the lever of building up the United Anti-Imperialist People's Front and through the successful experience of the united front struggle a still stronger CP worthy of its historical leaders and teachers, Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin. Such is the prospect today, and it is a realisable prospect. Let us realise it all together.
Central Committee
Communist Party of India
(Section of the Communist International)
Source: The Communist, June 1936.
18
Circular No. 13.
On Party Reorganisation
1. The representatives delegated by the Central Committee have concluded their investigation or inspection of work in four provinces and the state of affairs revealed is such of which none of us could be proud and this is putting it very mildly ...
2. Formerly the P.[1] was organised on a local group basis. In a town where we had only a few comrades they all met together and functioned as group, discussed all local matters and took decisions, and when instructions from a higher committee came the same procedure was followed. ... This form of organisation with all its limitations had one advantage that we functioned is some way, there was a sense of homogeneity and solidarity (which came from working together from day to day) and we ... thought we were working as best as we could, for our leading comrades were always available to us for advice and guidance.
3. Early last winter we decided to reorganise ourselves on the basis of our new statutes. We fondly hoped that when cells were formed at the base and P. elections are held we will start functioning according to the new statutes, as properly functioning illegal CP. Nothing of the sort happened in practice, our reorganisation “according to statutes” was on paper only, the new state of affairs were in several respects worse than the old.
How did this happen ?
(a) Cells were not properly cells at all either on territorial basis or on a factory basis. They were merely groups of individuals, 3-5, instead of the old larger groups. The old thing continued in a new form. ...
(b) Factionalism had not been finally liquidated ... This spring when the new line began to be discussed and adopted and particularly the sudden publication of Com. Dutt and Bradley’s article produced great confusion in our ranks, those factional elements at once seized the opportunity to canalise the theoretical confusion and the sectarian prejudices of the rank and file for their own factional ends, at first as opponents of the new line and when they found that in its nakedness this political attitude could not be defended for long, they came out as defenders of “inner-party democracy” (to prevent the adoption of the new line), as critics of the P. leadership, which they called “bureaucratic”, “cliquish”, etc., but really as disrupters of the whole party. Investigation has revealed that this was not a sudden outburst of a few individuals but that the factional disrupters had been slowly but gradually pursuing their factional game for a long time in an underhand way, they only utilised the opportunity created by the first confusion which naturally arose when the new line was adopted and the thoroughly justifiable dissatisfaction of the rank and file which arose from the absence of proper functioning of P. machinery, the causes of which they themselves did not understand nor any pains were taken to explain things to them. The factional elements have succeeded thus in creating a base for themselves inside the Party : in some places they have captured the Party machinery, in others they have organised a fairly effective opposition which is spreading itself out and sabotaging P. activity and discrediting the existing P. leadership ...
(c) In the old form of P. organisation every thing was centralized in the hands of a few leading comrades, we accepted them as a matter of course as sole custodians of P. experience, work, contacts, plans and secrets. No attempt was made to train up an alternative leading cadre and to save the existing leading cadre. When imperialist repression was intensified we lost not only our leaders but with them almost all that we have been able to do so far ...
(d) ... we had failed to create even a rudimentary technical apparatus which could have been used as a base for building up an illegal apparatus, which could have afforded us some protection from imperialist attacks ...
(e) It was in this background that our Party elections were held. No organisational or political preparations (except factional) were made for holding the elections ... The conferences did hardly anything more than election of new committees which were either composed of factionalists or of comrades who were not at all competent for their jobs. ... We elected an Editor and expected him to write out the whole issue himself, we elected an Organiser and expected him to organise the Party for us, we elected a secretary whom we expected to do everything and so on ...
4. Our tasks thus stand out clearly as :
An end to the attitude of smug self-satisfaction with the present, crushing out factionalism, activising the whole Party apparatus, in short a sharp break with our unbolshevik present.
5. How are these general tasks to be achieved ?
(A) Of course, the first task is to root out factionalism, take disciplinary action against incorrigible factionalists and reorganise the top committees.
(B) Then reorganise the whole Party and activise entire P. cadre in the following way :
While retaining the principle of individual responsibility for each task appoint committees for each Dept. in the province e.g., Party Organisation, Mass work (which may be sub-divided into TU, Peasant, Political United Front, etc. or it may be composed of the one most competent comrade from each of these fronts, the actual composition, sub-division, etc. of this committee to depend upon the number and quality of the cadre available), Agit- Prop (to be in charge of the legal and illegal publications, preparing lecture notes, translating or rewriting in popular way articles from the Central Organ, translating the most important inner-party political documents for the rank and file, writing out very simple study-courses), Tech. Committee (for producing and distributing illegal literature, finding addresses and collecting dak [mails], keeping Documents and literature safe, arranging for meeting places and shelter for illegal underground comrades, etc.).
... The Secy, single-handed is out-burdened with work and even if he means to work whole-heartedly he can do nothing more than cope with the day to day work and that with great difficulty. It is therefore suggested, as has already been done in some places, that the PCs appoint a PB of comrades who can meet at least once a week. Political and organisational guidance to the Distts. and the different fronts and systematic checking of their work, coordination of the activities of the different departmental committees would be the function of the PB. ...
Having reorganised the Provincial and Distt. top in this way the entire Party membership should be reorganised into functional cells e.g., mass cells (consisting of mass agitators and those doing basic mass organisational work like organising semi-secret or secret factory committees or engaged in organising workers’ clubs, bustee and chawl committees, grievance committees etc.). Agit-Prop cells, Tech. cells (consisting of new or entirely unexposed comrades — all old technical contacts to be scrapped at least for some time) and P. organisation cells. These cells to be placed at the disposal of the Departmental committees of their respective fronts as their immediately available cadre. ...
An overwhelming majority of the party cadre particularly that which is exposed should be put into mass cells unless there are any exceptional reasons ...
There is no doubt that our above plan is an organisational retreat but there is no other alternative if we mean to be honest with ourselves and are honest about building up an underground CP on a strictly cell basis i.e., if we are bolsheviks. The above plan is a nominal retreat for we are all the while building up the real basis ...
The above plan is, it will be further noted, only a transitional plan, for 3-4 months at the most, ...
(c) Having activised the whole party and apportioned tasks for individuals we should key up the level of Party discipline so far as our rank and file is concerned on the basis of work entrusted to individuals, done or not done by them, the quality of work etc. and if necessary have a Party Purge on this basis ...
(6) It is very necessary indeed in the case of a small and illegal Party like ours to have auxiliary cells. ... in the following forms which are certainly possible even today.
Sympathisers' cells : fairly widespread sympathy for the Party is not lacking but we have been so far unable to organise it. We maintain contacts with sympathisers through individual Party members who occasionally ask them to do some odd jobs and that is all ... we must organise the existing symapthisers into cells and if there is none among them who could make the sympathisers’ cell function, we should delegate a P. member for the task who could just give them a start. These cells must be secret ...
Student and youth cells : ... All students and young petty-bourgeois P. members, unless there are strong reasons for making an exception in individual cases should be sent into these auxiliary cells and made to function as student or youth cells of the party. Similarly all young workers who are not or cannot be as active as they should be as Party members should be sent into the youth cells (By “young” we mean the YCL age — 18-24 years) ... these also would be secret cells.
Besides their own students and youth work the other work which these cells could do would be to work inside the INC, CSP and what is very important among Congress volunteers. ... These cells would form the basis of a proper YCL organisation ...
Transferring young comrades from Party cells into youth or student cells should not be accomplished by just issuing a circular to this effect. They will think they are being degraded (no more full-fledged members of the CPI) and dub this change as being bureaucratic, they may even say that it is cliquish! We must patiently discuss the whole issue with our young comrades, show them the supreme and urgent importance of the task they are being asked to undertake and which they alone can discharge most effectively and that in opposing this scheme they are not being reasonable but childish (young people resent the most being called childish!). We must win over our young comrades to this course of change. ...
(10) We should be kept regularly informed about the progress made in the task of reorganisation and in putting this circular into practice.
(11) It may be considered that this circular is painting an unnecessarily gloomy picture of inner-party life. It may be gloomy but it is real. It is true that we have not recounted our achievements but emphasised our failings. ... Ruthless self- criticism, honestly conducted; ceaseless activity untiring in its efforts with all the force of our revolutionary self-sacrifice behind it; such should be daily life of a Party which claims to stand for Bolshevism; deeds must correspond to words.
PBCC
3rd August, 1936
Note:
1. Throughout the document, P. denotes the Party - Editor.
19
Stop Press
Swami Sahajanand’s Message For “Communist Party Day”
I hasten to endorse whole-heartedly the appeal issued by comrades Jaiprakash Narayan and PC Joshi to observe the 20th March as the “ALL INDIA DAY” for the legalisation of the Communist Party of India. It is most irritating to the true lover of civil liberties to find that a certain school of thought is sought to be suffocated and gagged by any individual institution or the Govt. calling themselves civilised. It is because of the clash of ideologies that we find this world of ours so advanced and forward. I am firmly of the opinion that to try to crush or stifle ideas is the greatest crime in the world and if it is allowed to go unchallenged and is not combatted by the combined effort of humanity there can be no hope for the salvation of mankind.
It is no doubt an irony of fate that the Communist Party, which represents certain school of thought and which is legal everywhere throughout the world, is illegal here in India even in the provinces administered by the Congress Ministries. The Congress has all along been trying for civil liberties and the freedom to propagate various ideologies is one of the main items of civil liberties. Therefore it passes one’s comprehension how Congress Ministries have tolerated this ban on the Communist Party so long. It is their bounden duty to lift it forthwith and thus to show the way for the non-Congress Ministries. And by our agitation we must force the hands of the authorities if we are true to our profession. Let the “All India Day” be a real foundation of that agitation and let us make it a complete success.
TUC President’s Appeal to Unions.
Dr. Suresh Chandra Banerjee, President of the ALL-India Trade Union Congress, has issued a press statement, in which he appeals to all unions affiliated to the AITUC to celebrate March 20th as the All-India Anti-Repression Day.
Source: National Front, 20 March, 1938.
20
Plan of Work
In view of the changed situation inside the CSP, the attitude of the CSP leadership and our tasks of working for socialist unity, the following plan of work is adopted:
1. The composition and character of the All India Contact Committee should be changed. It should consist of five members from each side. This would be a purely political committee and must meet every three months; it would take a review of the political situation and endeavour to evolve through its deliberations a united lead on the major issues facing the movement. These agreed decisions would become the basis not only of joint agitation and work but also be considered the official line of the two organisations unless they are over-ruled by the Executive of either organisation. ...
We hope such an All India Committee would become one of the transitional forms of achieving a United Executive and the deliberations of this body would lead in growing measure, the ideological political unification of the socialist movement and give concrete guidance to the national movement.
2. In Bombay, Calcutta and Cawnpore, where our differences are the most acute we should take the initiative to form contact committees which should not be of less than three comrades from either side. The functions of this committee would not be only political but it will take initiative to propose and carry out joint actions. ...
4. As the most suitable mechanism to give an organisational form to our UF work and to supply it the necessary driving force we should seriously endeavour to form informal Activists' Groups. These should consist of all the active elements from our CSP, TU, and Congress ranks who are easily available at the place of their work or residence. These ad hoc groups through their periodical meetings should take the responsibility for carrying through joint actions, e.g., organising a demonstration, helping or guiding strike, running mass campaigns. …
5. To inspire confidence in the CSP leadership to keep the unity of the CSP, to be able to enlarge it, we would not, from outside, for the time being press the demand “All Socialists inside the CSP”. We would tell the CSP leadership, who is scared away by this slogan, that since you yet mistrust us and lack confidence in our bonafides and construct [construe?] our attempt in working for socialist unity to be a partisan move to capture your organisation, we do not advocate [this] slogan. … [We] take you seriously at your own word and expect you to implement the slogan of “Joint Action with the CSP” and thereby create the preconditions of closer unity.
Our comrades within the CSP would continue to popularise the slogan. ... In those localities and provinces where it is possible to include all socialists inside the CSP it should be done without fail and without making much noise about it. ...
6. Our work inside the CSP must be guided by the considerations that we are conscious builders of socialist unity, it is our task to keep up the unity of the CSP. ...
The exact nature of our work inside the CSP depends upon our present position inside the CSP units.
In those provinces and places where we are in a majority: Here we must immediately begin to work in the new way and interpret and act upon the Faizpur thesis, on the lines of Zaheer-Batliwalla-Dinkar thesis[1] without giving any chance for technical breaches of discipline. We should defend this as being the logical working out of the Faizpur thesis. On the basis of our practical work and ideological campaign we should be able to win over the whole CSP to accept this draft thesis and recognise us as the best CSPers. Systematic efforts must be made to recruit the advanced elements of the CSP who begin to accept our line into our own organisation. We should take particular care not to let other CSP members be banded into a group against us or create the impression that we are rushing [ruining ?] the CSP or exploiting our majority in any other cause except in strengthening of the CSP itself. ...
In places where we are in a minority great vigilance and elasticity in day to day work is needed. We should endeavour to get as many of our new and unmarked comrades or sympathisers as possible inside the CSP promptly undertake to liquidate all sectarian mistakes and silently work towards a majority. ...
7. The specific tasks in the provinces where we are a majority are the following :
Andhra. Membership 480. Entirely under our influence. No rival group. Provincial CSP headquarters and District Executives function effectively. ... Andhra can and must become a model CSP Unit.
Tamilnadu. Membership 220. Entirely under our influence. Leadership united. No rival group. Madras city and Provincial head-quarters function as living units; in the other districts only agitational influence. Ideological level very low, ...
Madras. Membership 200. Entirely our influence and no rival group. ... The CSP as an organisation is lagging behind its agitational achievements. The comrades have failed to give up Congress methods of organisation and agitation. Individuals function for units.
The foremost task of the leadership is to make the district branches function and during the course of this organisational drive itself double the membership on the basis of a special recruitment campaign from the active workers and peasants. They have recently started a weekly of their own. ...
Orissa. Membership 40 (forty). Majority of members with us, an assured majority in the Provincial Executive. Naba Chowdhary who follows IP's lead is the only other element and is considered as a reactionary by our comrades! The membership must be doubled in the course of the next three months by drawing upon students and kisan cadres. Sectarian attitude towards Chowdhary must be immediately liquidated and the danger of his being used as agent by Massani is [to be] circumvented. Efforts must be made not to let any rival group to be consolidated inside the CSP and draw N Chowdhary nearer and nearer.
Bengal. Membership 250. Though we are a majority inside the Party we are not a majority inside the Executive (8 ours and 9 centre and Right). Owing to our inability to afford to send all our delegates to the Provincial conference. There are Right and Centre elements and both have begun to function as a united fraction against us. ...
The labour party should be made to speed up unity with the CSP. ... If the CSP agrees to have the effective membership of 30-40 of the LP we should have unity and dissolve the LP.
If the CSP refuses to accept the proposal we should continue to activise (sic!) the LP, work out United Front with the CSP without any half-heartedness or dilatoriness on our part with a view to bringing about unity on the above minimum conditions as soon as possible.
LP is not an alternative to CSP nor do we look upon it as a permanent organisation. We retain and activise it only to be able to achieve socialist unity and as a transitional measure. The slogan of the LP as a necessary political party of the working class and also the slogan of the All India Workers’ Party separate from the CSP is categorically rejected by us.
The activisation of the LP does not mean that is should be extended to the Distt. [level]. It should remain confined to Calcutta and be looked upon as our own political platform till unity with the CSP is achieved. Again, as many new comrades as can enter the CSP in Calcutta should continue to do so. Inside our own ranks all old prejudice against the LP must be cast aside.
The Anushilan is joining the CSP and is likely to join the Right and Centre fraction in opposition to us and take initiative to start local CSPs. We should not oppose their entry into the CSP but endeavour to work with them to strengthen the CSP itself.
Punjab. Membership 700. Though it would be correct to say that our policy would command an overwhelming majority yet this majority is not stable because of acute factional fights among the socialists as a whole. The biggest (sic!) problem so far has been the non-understanding and non-acceptance by our own comrades of our policy towards the CSP. This coupled with their own fractional attitude and the fact that the other faction was identified with the CSP has led them to commit a whole series of sectarian and opportunist mistakes. A big forward step has however been taken with the liquidation of the Socialist Party and the unification of all socialists under the CSP. This organisational unity of the socialists can be immediately made to yield serious political results only if sectarianism and factionalism are rooted out from our ranks in the Punjab. The proletarian movement is rising in the Punjab, headed by the socialists themselves and the rapid proletarianisation of the party can alone lead to a permanent solution of the Punjab problems which have so far defied solution.
The two groups within the CSP — Kirtiand the Nawajawan Bharat Sabha — are grovelling among themselves. They are likely to seek our support for factional ends. It is our task not to ally with any faction, keep the unity of the CSP and develop-'it as a homogeneous party.
Within the Congress the CSP must function as a unit and not ally with either of the Congress factions.
The provinces where we are in a minority are the following :
Bombay. Has problems of its own. Membership 200. Leadership rightist]. We are rigidly excluded. The local units of the CSP do not function. Immediate steps should be for us, to send as many unmarked comrades as possible inside the CSP and they should take the initiative to form local units and press for united action from within ...
CP. The CSP was in our hands but was dissolved, the passivity of our responsible comrades and their inability to build up a CSP was used by Masani and others not only to dislodge us by dissolving the Party but also to attack our political bonafides.
Later on, our comrades started a Radical Workers' League. The CSP is again being reorganised.
All comrades who were formerly in the CSP must demand admission into the CSP as a matter of right. We should dissolve the Radical Workers League and ask its members to join the CSP.
Constant contact with the new CSP members must be kept and all steps taken to influence them. The danger of Masani using the CSP in CP as his closed preserve must be tactfully circumvented. ...
Maharashtra. Membership 200. The local do not function at all, nor provincial headquarters. The leadership is definitely hostile.
We must get our comrades to make the locals function, enrol as many members as possible and establish new locals. These steps must be carefully camouflaged. ...
UP. Nominal membership 450. Majority of organised membership with us. All functioning locals ours. The leadership is Centrist and at present suspicious and hostile. Except at Cawnpore all our comrades are inside the CSP.
Our immediate tasks are rapid improvement in our local work, start CSP locals where they do not exist, seriously carrying on joint work at Cawnpore. Our top must keep constant touch with the CSP leaders and endeavour to influence them politically.
Karnataka. Membership 200. Bogus. Our isolated contacts must be asked to join the CSP and form locals. The existing CSP leadership would be unable to prevent this ...
Sind. The CSP was disbanded. A complete report should be demanded from our comrades and steps taken to find out the exact position of the CSP and investigate about Bachar’s corrupt opportunism.
Gujarat. 100. We were in majority. A part of the leadership had come over to us, but they [our comrades] lost it owing to their own inactivity. The other group has gone over to Masani. In Ahmedabad we are a majority. Our group is the very opposite of Andhra comrades — the growing inactivity has completely paralysed and demoralised them. Today they have to begin all over again, from the most elementary stage. ...
Behar. 200. Solidly with JP. Provincial headquarters function, but no district units. They supply cadres and political leadership to the Kisan Sabhas but function as a loose group of individual agitators. The party is not built through kisan work, not attempted to draw in new cadres. If we could send a good organiser a first-rate CSP could be organised but we cannot afford to send any. We have contacts with some recently released Andaman prisoners and they are working inside the CSP.
Delhi. Membership 70. Torn with factionalism. The left section is with us but they are really nothing more than left CSPers. ... Since we cannot afford to send a whole time organiser there, comrades on then-way to and from Punjab should drop down at Delhi.
NW Frontier. Punjab CSPers have contact with them and they go along with them. They are generally left. Our CSP comrades should get in direct touch with them through the Punjab comrades.
Ajmer. There are ex-terrorists, Left Congressmen working among the states peoples and some advanced workers and with them all a good local CSP can be formed. The BBCI Union comrades should get in touch with all these contacts in Ajmer and help to organise a CSP.
Note:
1. This refers to a draft thesis for the CSP conference (Lahore, early 1938) prepared by the three communists named here, the first one being a joint secretary of the CSP.