Khammam prepares to hold CPI centenary: What's ailing Indian communists today?

Khammam in Telangana is set to witness grand celebrations on Sunday (January 18) to mark the centenary of the Communist Party of India (CPI), one of the major pillars of communism in the country.

As part of the celebrations, the fort in Khammam will wear a red look, while cadres and supporters, numbering in several thousands, are expected to be present. Besides a massive public meeting, marches, flag hoisting, and cultural events will also take place to commemorate the occasion.

The party has also reached out to its cadre and supporters to attend the celebrations in large numbers, calling it a “historic moment”.

There is no shortage of arrangements for the occasion, particularly since the CPI secretary from Telangana, K Sambasiva Rao, is an MLA from Kothagudem constituency, which falls under the Khammam Lok Sabha seat and is not far from Khammam district.

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Delegates from nearly 40 countries are also expected to be present in Khammam, top sources in the CPI said.

After the rally to remember the centenary is held, meetings of the CPI’s National Committee and other programmes will he conducted for three days. CPI General Secretary D Raja and his Communist Party of India (Marxist) counterpart MA Baby will also participate in those events.

CPI's 100 years in trying times

At a time when India is increasingly witnessing a right-wing onslaught, the CPI’s centenary celebrations will boost the cadre’s morale.

A hundred years ago, when the country was still in the clutches of foreign rule, two contradictory ideologies had emerged on its soil and two distinct organisations bore – one of them being the CPI and the other the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. While the latter has grown into a dominant force in current politics, the CPI has faced numerous challenges.

As this piece tries to look back at the CPI’s hundred-year journey, one may recall eminent Marxist historian Sumit Sarkar, who had said that the roots of Indian communism had originated from the freedom movement.

The formation of CPI

As a strong left-wing current had emerged in India by 1924-25, people such as Sripad Amrit Dange from Bombay (now Mumbai) and revolutionary Satya Bhakta wanted to hold a national conference in December 1925, in Kanpur (then Cawnpore). The meeting paved the way for the setting up of the CPI in the presence of nearly 500 delegates.

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Maulana Hasrat Mohani, who was also among the founders of the CPI, had defined communism as a movement of farmers and workers and that the party aimed to achieve independence. The British imperialists were not amused by the new strand of Leftism that arose in the country, inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. Those who followed the CPI’s ideals could not be deterred, and slowly, many organisations affiliated to the CPI, including the All-India Trade Union Congress, Kisan Sabha, Indian People’s Theatre Association and All India Students Federation, were formed.

However, even as Leftist ideologies spread throughout the country in the final years of foreign rule, P C Joshi, a top CPI leader, had said, “the national struggle itself became the biggest class struggle”. The CPI had also played a key role in the Telangana peasant armed struggle (1946-51), which later declined in the early years post-Independence.

CPI was once India's main Opposition party

As parliamentary democracy took root in India after Independence, the CPI emerged as a top political force, next only to the dominant Congress, even though by some distance. Till 1964 (when the communist party got split and the CPI(M) was formed), the CPI remained the main Opposition to the Congress in the first three Lok Sabhas. In between, in 1957, the communists even formed a government in Kerala, a development that had surprised the entire world then.

However, EMS Namboodiripad’s government was short-lived and was dismissed in 1959, and President’s Rule was proclaimed in the southern state.

Sino-Soviet rift split Indian communists

Gradually, a change started emerging in the thinking of India’s communists, mainly due to international factors such as a rift between the Soviet Union and China. While Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels and Vladimir Lenin remained heroes for all, differences grew over Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong. The effect had a deep impact as Indian communism saw a split in 1964 and the birth of the CPI(M).

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While the split in 1964 dealt a blow to the CPI, the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left it without an international benefactor. The CPI(M) still ruled a few states, but the CPI’s fortunes slumped. Today, the Left rules only one state in India, which is Kerala.

There, the Left Democratic Front government is dominated by the CPI(M) while the CPI remains a partner. In states such as West Bengal and Tripura, the Left has lost its ground to local and national opponents, such as the Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party, respectively.

Ideology and electoral numbers

Should a party that strongly bases itself on ideology be measured solely by electoral numbers? While it may not be necessary, there is still a need for it to strengthen itself. The decline of the communists in current Indian politics, besides centrist forces such as the Congress, has allowed the right-wing camps to establish a lop-sided dominance.

India's Left-democratic-secular unity

Finding their support shrinking in such a scenario, the weakened communists have now been seeking unity of the Left-democratic forces. This unity is about bringing together all democratic and secular forces with the Leftist ideology to put up a consolidated front featuring not just the political parties, but also trade unions, farmers’ associations, and agricultural labour unions. The objective is to conduct unified social movements not only in times of elections but also otherwise.

Through this unity, the Left-democratic warriors seek to confront liberal economic policies of the right-wing rulers; fight against social exploitation and communal politics, particularly against the Hindutva politics propagated by the RSS-BJP; make issues like caste, religious, and gender discrimination and inequality a part of the political agenda; and also to fight for issues such as social justice, secularism, land reforms, labour rights, and government intervention in the economy.

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Throughout the decades, this unity has been politically manifested in many forms. In the 1980s, it was the ‘unity of Left and secular forces’, then came the ‘unity of Left, democratic, and secular forces’. There was also the Third Front after the collapse of the United Front in the late 1990s, while now it is the INDIA (Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance) bloc. There are also such alliances at the state level.

In Kerala, there is the LDF; in Bengal and Tripura, it’s the LF (Left Front); in Bihar, the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance); in Tamil Nadu, the Secular Progressive Alliance; in Manipur, the Manipur Progressive Secular Alliance, in Maharashtra, the Maha Vikas Aghadi (Grand Development Front), in Andhra Pradesh, sometimes the Left Front, sometimes the Third Front; and in Telangana, the CPI(M)'s Bahujan Left Front (BLF) (which does not include the CPI, and is in alliance with the Congress as part of the INDIA coalition).

Maintaining this unity is not easy, however. Ideological differences, wavering between convenient allies, and the need to increase their own strength constantly threaten this unity.

Unity 'not an electoral concept'

According to what both communist parties state in their documents, this unity is “not an electoral concept”. It is a process. However, the Left also faces accusations of compromising with the agenda of the bourgeoisie parties while forming alliances and not prioritising their own agenda.

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A political alternative is different from alternative politics. A senior CPI leader opined that for communists to work towards an alternative political movement, there should be unified slogans (like bank nationalisation, Modi's 'Achhe Din', among others). He said that for the belief to strengthen among the people that their lives will improve only if communists come to power, it is essential that one or two communist slogans are included in the agenda of the parties with whom they form alliances, and for that, they must have their own agenda.

There is also an argument that, because of the lack of distinctiveness of the communists, whichever liberal bourgeois party they allied with, it only helped that party to become stronger, not the left-wing parties. This is what Andhra Pradesh has seen since the 1980s. Making an alliance with other parties has come to mean, in common parlance, handing over the communist party workers to those parties.

Are communists losing ground touch?

But are today’s communists getting detached from the grassroots reality? According to senior leader DVVS Varma, who had been a member of the CPI for a long time and worked extensively on the ground, “Communist party leaders have become distant from the villages. The parties lack political vision. We saw in the last elections in Andhra Pradesh that even contesting together yielded no results. The people have distanced themselves. We have to mobilise the people around their problems; these are not the days when people will listen if we simply decide something and give a speech.”

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“The programme is important, publicity is crucial, and solving people's problems is paramount. Now, we need people who will go to the villages and talk to the people. People who can understand the pulse of the public are what the people need now. Today, people are asking, ‘What will I gain if I come to you?' The communists are not in a position to answer that. Therefore, leaders must increase their credibility. Only then will they be able to recover. Only then will they be able to gain acceptance for these kinds of fronts,” he added.

'Hundred years', 'sacrifice', 'ideology' not enough

When one evaluates the CPI today, terms such as “a hundred years”, “struggle”, “sacrifice”, and “ideology” alone do not make the story forward-looking anymore.

For the sickle to be sharpened in the flow of time, tomorrow's history must provide the answer. The unity of left-wing democratic forces should not be just a slogan. It's a long journey. It's more than just elections. It's something to be achieved through people's struggles.

“It may feel burdensome for a few days, but that doesn't mean you should stop. Even if progress is slow, it is still progress. Defeat is the foundation of victory. I don't think the millions of activists, leaders, and party full-timers who are risking their lives to protect the communist parties will abandon this goal,” N Kondiah, a senior journalist, said.

As prominent Marxist theoretician Anil Rajimwale said, “The communists will adapt to the changing times, stand with the people, and fight for them. We hope that this centenary celebration will contribute to that spirit.”

(The article was first published in The Federal Andhra Pradesh)