Growth of Left Movement

Left-wing politics are political positions or activities that accept or support social equality, often in opposition to social hierarchy and social inequality. The political terms Left and Right were coined during the French Revolution (1789–1799), referring to the seating arrangement in the Estates General: those who sat on the left generally opposed the monarchy and supported the revolution, including the creation of a republic and secularization, while those on the right were supportive of the traditional institutions of the Old Regime.

Factors Responsible for Growth of the Left

Left movement in India grew out of the politico-economic conditions prevailing in India owing to the evil effects of the First World War. Gradually the leftist trend intertwined in the mainstream nationalist movement in India. Russian revolution of 1917 inspired Indian revolutionary nationalists and moved them towards socialism.
Growth of trade unionism: Ground for rise of the left was prepared by development of modern industries and consequent concentration of the working population who also the exploited class.
Search for an alternative trend of politics: Sudden end of NCM resulted in an atmosphere of disillusionment. The search for an alternative ideology to Swarajists and Gandhian constructive programs led to the rise of left politics.
Role of leaders like Nehru, Bose and Dange: These leaders offered radical solutions to existing socio-economic and political ills in society. They emerged as great publicists of socialist ideas.
External Factors: One significant factor was the Russian revolution, formation of a Socialist state. The remarkable success of revolution and the success of centralized soviet model of economy that remained largely unaffected by the great depression of 1929.
Suspension of Civil Disobedience Movement in 1934 also generated a sense of despair and led to the formation of Socialist party within the INC.
Other factors: Certain other important world events also drew the attention of the people towards leftist ideologies. Rise of Nazism and failure of capitalistic system of production were some of these.

Rise of the Left Wing

Left Movement in India developed into two main streams socialists and communists. Emergence of Indian Communism out of shortcoming of mainstream national movement is quite undeniable. It was borne out mostly of peasant and labour activists, Non-Cooperators, Khilafatists & revolutionaries whose aspirations and participation in the national movement remained either unfulfilled or insufficient. They sought alternate roads for their demands, and some joined the Left Movement.
After meeting Bolshevik Mikhail Borodin in Mexico in 1919 and helping in establishment of a Communist Party, M N Roy attended the second Congress of Communist International in Russia in 1920. Hereafter ensued a much-celebrated dialogue between Naren Bhattacharya and Lenin on the strategy of Communists in the colonial world. He then founded Communist Party of India in Tashkent in October 1920. Various formal Communist bodies were formed in the period 1921-25 in different parts.
Satyabhakhta organized an All-India Conference of communists at Kanpur in December 1925. The convening of this Conference under the presidentship of Singaravelu Chettiar of Madras is considered the formal beginnings of Indian Communism.

Other Left Parties

Between 1922 and 1927 several organisations cropped up, essentially to provide legal cover to workers and peasants. These included Labour Swaraj Party of Bengal, Congress Labour Party in Bombay, Kirti Kishan Party in Punjab and Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan in Madras. Ganbani, Mehnatkash, Kranti and Krantikari were some of the popular journals and newspapers.

Communist Party of India

M.N. Roy was the first person who succeeded in organizing peasants and labour in the provinces of Mumbai, Bengal, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh and finally, the Communist Party of India in 1924.
Efforts of S. A. Dange and his newspaper ‘Socialist’ in Mumbai, efforts of Muzaffar Ahmad and Fazlul Haq and their newspaper ‘Navayuga’ in Bengal, and efforts of Gulam Hussain and his monthly magazine ‘Inqilab’ in Punjab contributed a lot towards spreading Communist ideas.
The Government was suspicious of them from the very beginning and tried to suppress communist ideology. Three critical cases were-
Kanpur Conspiracy Case: Shaukat Usmani, Muzaffar Ahmad, Nalini Gupta and S. A. Dange were charged with attempting to overthrow the government by violent means. Each of them was imprisoned for four years. The case became a topic of discussion even outside India.
Meerut Conspiracy Case: All important communist leaders were involved and were charged by the government with conspiring to overthrow the government by violent means. Each of these leaders was given long-term imprisonment.
Peshawar Conspiracy Case: Those people who had gone out of India during the Khilafat Movement but had returned after training in Russia were involved in the Peshawar Conspiracy Case. They were charged with conspiracy against the government and were imprisoned for one to two years.

Socialist Party of India

Socialist groups of people originated within the All India Congress. They were disenchanted with Gandhian strategy.
They did not believe in class war or in violent means to attain their object, but they aimed at establishing a socialist state in India through the democratic process.
They remained within Congress and supported the national movement.
They organized labour unions and peasant associations and fought for their rights but limited their efforts to peaceful means.
Among national leaders, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhash Chandra Bose supported them. But the efforts of these socialists remained negligible.
While Jawaharlal Nehru bowed down before the ideas of Gandhiji, Subash Chandra had to form a separate party called the ‘Forward Bloc’.
Many people, having faith in socialist ideas, left Congress and formed a separate organization called the ‘Congress Socialist Party’ under the leadership of Jai Prakash Narayan and Acharya Narendra Deo. This party emphasized the right to economic equality, opposed the Act of 1935, and tried to avoid the partition of India by having a compromise with the Muslim League.

Left Movement and Indian National Congress

Communist Party of India (CPI) asked its members to join the ranks of the Congress and to form a strong Left-wing within it.
Leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose were also Left inclined and brought a Left tint to Congress. The left influences were very, strongly visible in the second, phase of revolutionary terrorism between 1922 and 1928.
In December 1928, All-India Workers and Peasant’s Party (WPP) aim to work within the Congress and infuse in it a more radical orientation. Their program comprised:
- Abolition of zamindari & redistribution of land
- Development of peasants & workers movement
- Raising the standard of living of the masses.
But soon CPI meet at Calcutta in 1929, of the Comintern change of policy, Congress was declared as the class party representing bourgeoisie interests and all connections with it were broken.

Causes of Failure

Its primary cause was its total dependence on the dictates of the communist party of Russia.
Communist Party of India was a part of ‘Comintern’ (an international organization of the Communists).
Communist Party of India pursued its dictates between the period 1928-34 and, therefore, lost the sympathy of all political parties in India and Indian masses as well.
Communist Party opposed Civil Disobedience Movement led by Gandhiji & lost further its popularity.
Its members were asked to infiltrate other organizations like Congress, the Socialist Party, the Forward Bloc, and their youth organizations. Their purpose was to influence the policies of these parties from within and, thus, make them their instruments.
When other parties understood the game of the Communists, they turned them out from their parties.
Russia was opposite to Britain at the beginning of World War-I but when Germany attacked Russia, it befriended Britain. Communist Party of India changed its colour accordingly. It opposed Indian government in the beginning, but when, later, Russia changed sides, it cooperated with the Indian government and even opposed the ‘Quit India Movement of 1942’. Therefore, it was defamed in India.
It also supported the demand of Muslim League for Partition of India and accepted that India was not one nation but a country inhabited by people of different nationalities.

After Independence

After Independence, Communist Party was divided. It’s one faction decided to function within the limits of Indian Constitution while the other faction aimed at pursuing the goal of establishing a socialist state in India.
In 1964, another party, Communist Party (Marxist) was formed, which became more influential among the Communists.
Left Movement in India grew before Independence but could not gain popularity among the masses.
It helped in organizing labour, supported their movements, attracted a good number of intellectuals, and enlightened people in matters of economic justice.