The Communist Party of India (CPI) considers December 26, 1925, as its foundation date from a meeting in Kanpur. It marked the first concerted effort on Indian soil to form an all-India Communist party. The movement drew inspiration from global revolutions and local political strands.
The story of the Communist Party of India (CPI) begins with the French Revolution of 1789 and the Napoleonic wars from 1796 to 1815, which divided Europe into monarchists and republicans, establishing the right-left binary. Karl Marx, a German philosopher in England, drafted a manifesto for transforming society from capitalism to socialism, predicting capitalism's collapse in Europe. Instead, the first socialist revolution occurred in 1917 in the backward Russian empire under Vladimir Lenin, inspiring non-European countries under imperialism, including India.
Three strands fed into CPI's formation: M N Roy, a Marxist revolutionary active in the US, Mexico, Berlin, and USSR, who represented India at the 1920 Comintern meeting advocating anti-imperialist alliances. Diasporic groups operated in Berlin under Virendranath Chattopadhyay and in Kabul under Raja Mahendra Pratap. Independent left groups emerged in Lahore (Ghulam Hussain), Bombay (S A Dange), Calcutta (Muzaffar Ahmad), and Madras (Singaravelu M Chettiar). The All-India Trade Union Congress formed in 1920 under Lala Lajpat Rai.
The Comintern planned an Asian meeting in Tashkent, where in 1920, Roy, Raja Mahendra Pratap, Abdul Rab, and Trimul Acharya established a CPI with Comintern approval, aiming to liberate India for socialism. However, it lacked ties to Indian or European revolutionary groups. Meanwhile, Indian communists from major cities convened in Kanpur in 1925, coinciding with the Indian National Congress session. Kanpur had seen the 1923 Bolshevik Conspiracy case, imprisoning leaders like S V Ghate, S A Dange, and Muzaffar Ahmad for four years.
The Kanpur conference founded the CPI, declaring a workers' and peasants' republic, liberation from British rule, and socialization of production as goals. Debate persists: CPI(M) views Tashkent 1920 as the start due to Comintern ties, while CPI insists on Kanpur 1925 as the Indian initiative. Communists engaged in anti-imperialist struggles, forming Workers and Peasants Parties from 1925-28, facing the 1929 Meerut Conspiracy Case ban, allying in a 1930s United Front with the Congress Socialist Party that ended in 1939. Post-1945, they led Tebhaga in Bengal and Telangana land struggles. After independence, some pursued armed insurrection, others parliamentary paths, forming governments in Kerala, West Bengal, and Tripura.
Despite criticisms of authoritarianism and obsolescence, communism remains relevant as a philosophical stand against inequality, siding with the disadvantaged.
