Articles
The Communist Record - Do You Know?
Dt: 10/8/23
The Communist Record - Do You Know?
-Dr T.H.Chowdary*
In the 1940s the Communist Party of India (CPI) fervently demanded the dismemberment of the country. In the pamphlet “Pakistan and the National Unity” published in Dec 1943 Com. G Adhikari a noted theoretician of the CPI wrote: "For the solution of communal problem in India we must turn to the Marxist Leninist teachings on the question, the Stalinist application to Russia, viz. "the right of all nationalities forming part of Russia to freely secede and, form independent states, was to be recognised.... To begin with it is quite clear that India was not a nation from time immemorial, from the days of Ashoka and Akbar. Nation building in India begins with the advent of capitalism! This takes place in India with the British conquest!.... Stalin said as early as in 1925, now-a-days India is spoken of as a single whole. Yet there can hardly be any doubt that in the case of a revolutionary upheaval in India many hitherto unknown nationalities each with its own language and its own distinctive culture, will emerge on the scene.....The grant of self determination to the Muslim nationalities has, however, nothing to do with Pan- Islamism. Mr. Jinnah has defined the Pakistan state and resisted attempts to define it as a Muslim theocratic state as Hukumate-e-Ilahiya. Only the enemies of unity equate Pakistan with Pan-Islamism and impute extraterritorial loyalty to Muslim league patriots....Punjab Muslims up to Sutlej were a distinct nationality. That is why we grant the right of self-determination to this Muslim nationality of Western Punjab. The Sikhs and the Hindus in the eastern districts of the Punjab can easily come to settlement with Muslims of the western districts. They can thus form a united autonomous Punjab with the right to secede from the rest of India. Then these states (Bengal, Sind ,Punjab, Baluchisthan, Pathanisthan) can be autonomous and sovereign and form the federation within an Indian Union or they may secede and from their federation without”.
2. Com P.C. Joshi, General Secretary of the CPI, wrote in the Party's organ: "Pakistan is as much the inalienable right of Muslims as Swaraj is the right of us all. Self-determination is not the right to vote, but the recognition of the sovereignty of the people..... The Sikhs are nowhere a majority but a strong minority. The best solution would be for them to go into Pakistan. The Sikhs have nothing to fear. It is unfortunate that Sikhs did not like the idea." The party vigorously pursued this treacherous line and immensely harmed the national interests.
The election manifesto of the CPI published in January 1946 demanded that power be transferred to seventeen interim sovereign national constituent assemblies. The interim government structure posed was not even a federation of states on the Soviet pattern but confederation of independent states! In 1947, Namboodripad authored a book on this issue titled Kerala-the Motherland of Malayalis."
3. In fact, the CPI submitted memoranda both to the Cripps Mission in 1942 and to the Cabinet Mission in 1946 demanding that Great Britain hand over power to the 17 sovereign states (then provinces) carved out of India.
4. There should be no wonder now that the several communist parties in India talk of federalism whereas, in not even one of the 395 Articles of the Constitution are there words “federation”, “federalism” or “federal”. The undivided CPI supported the Muslim League’s demand for the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan inspired by Stalin’s thesis of the right of nationalities for self-determination. The CPI held that Muslims in India form a separate nation as claimed and asserted by the Muslim League presided over by Md. Ali Jinnah in its 1940 Lahore session. There should be no wonder that the different Communist Parties support every demand that weakens the Union Government .
5. These days it is pathetic to see the CPI and CPM in Telangana urge the Telangana Rashtra Samiti to take them into an alliance to fight the BJP. The TRS which is in an undeclared alliance with the All India Majlis Ittehadul Muslameen (AIMIM) (the descendant of the notorious Kasim Razvi-led Razakarist Majlis Ittehad-ul-Muslameen -MIM) has been ignoring the communist parties’ repeated petitions for alliance with them. The two communist parties are reduced to “Statement Parties of India” as they almost every day issue statements on some matter or the other from their respective party offices in Hyderabad .
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