Communism and Nationalism in India: M.N. Roy and Comintern Policy, 1920-1939 9781400869329

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COMMUNISM AND NATIONALISM IN INDIA

WRITTEN UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE RESEARCH INSTITUTE ON COMMUNIST AFFAIRS COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

A list of other Institute publications appears at the back of this book

COMMUNISM AND NATIONALISM IN INDIA M. N. Roy ana Comintern

Policy

1920-1939

JOHN PATRICK HAITHCOX

P R I N C E T O N U N I V E R S I T Y PRESS P R I N C E T O N , NEW JERSEY 1971

Copyright © 1971 by Princeton University Press ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

LCC 79-120755 ISBN 0-691-08722-9

This book has been composed in Linotype Caledonia Printed in the United States of America Princeton University Press, Princeton, New Jersey 08540

FOR MARILYN, KEVIN, AND STEFFAN

~~~ Table of Contents ~~~ xi

List of Illustrations Acknowledgments

xiii

Abbreviations

2

Introduction

3

l. The Second Comintern Congress

11

2. The Dawn of Indian Communism

20 20 25 30 32 34

Indian Moslems Bengali Revolutionaries The Labor Movement The Fourth Comintern Congress The Peshawar and Kanpur Trials

3. The CPI and the Workers' and Peasants' Party The Fifth Comintern Congress Significance of Colonial Policy "Appeal to the Nationalists" Satya Bhakta's Communist Conference The Workers' and Peasants' Party British Emissaries

4. The China Episode The Seventh Plenum of the ECC! Emergence of the Left Kuomintang The Eighth Plenum of the ECCI The Fifth Congress of the CCP The Unequal Alliance The Debacle The Two Revolutionary Streams Trotsky and Roy Turn to the Left vii

37 38 40 43 44 46 50 58 58 62 65 68 69 71

73

75 78

CONTENTS

5. The Radicalization of Indian Politics Return to Moscow The Ninth Plenum of the ECCI The Indian Nationalist Movement The Workers' and Peasants' Party and Indian Labor

80 80 84 88 96

6. The Sixth Comintern Congress Decolonization The British Delegation Theses on the Revolutionary Movement in the Colonies The Indian Delegation The Tenth Plenum of the ECCI Roy's Expulsion from the Comintern The International Communist Opposition

108 110 117

7. The Decline of Indian Communism The Civil Disobedience Movement The CPI Turns Left Government Offensive Split in the Labor Movement

144 144 149 153 160

8. The Foundations of Royism in India Exile in Germany Roy's Program Formation of the Royist Group Royists and Indian Labor The Karachi Congress Session The U.P. Agrarian Crisis Arrest, Trial, and Imprisonment Trade-Union Unity The Seventh Comintern Congress

164 164 167 174 179 184 191 196 201 206

9. Left-Wing Unity and the Indian Nationalist Movement The Congress Socialist Party The CSP and Gandhi The CSP and the Congress Party

215 216 220 222

121 124 129 130 139

CONTENTS

The CSP and the Royists Roy's Break with the CSP The CSP and the CPI Roy and the CPI Reasons for the Roy-CSP Split

10. Nationalism and Socialism Nehru and Socialism Nehru and Roy The Relationship of Socialism to Nationalism Roy, Gandhi, and Indian Nationalism

11. Twentieth-Century J acobinism Collective Affiliation Office Acceptance Dissolution of the Left India at War

225 230 233 236 237 240 240 244 246 251 259 260 270 277 288

Notes

301

Selected Bibliography Books and Pamphlets Articles Articles from Inprecor M. N. Roy: Books and Pamphlets M. N. Roy: Articles from Inprecor M. N. Roy: Articles Government Documents Newspapers, Journals, Party and NonGovernment Publications Unpublished Material Selected List of Interviews

343 343 351 354 358 361 362 363 365 368 370

Index

379

Books Published by the Research Institute on Communist Affairs of Columbia University

ix

List of Illustrations 1. M. N. Roy as Father Martin, 1916 2. M. N. Roy in Mexico, 1917-1919 3. M. N. Roy in Moscow, early 1920's 4. Wang Ching-wei, leader of the Left Kuomintang 5. M. N. Roy with Oriental delegates to the Comintern congress in Moscow, Nov.-Dec. 1922 6. M. N. Roy and two Russians at Soviet consulate, Canton, 1927 7. M. N. Roy and Louise Geissler, Hankow, 1927 8. M. N. Roy, unidentified Russian, General Galen (V. K. Blucher), and Louise Geissler at railroad station, Hankow, on eve of return to Soviet Union, 1927 9. Escape from China in 1927, Gobi Desert 10. Escape from China in 1927, Gobi Desert 11. M. N. Roy at St. Moritz, 1928 12. Brajesh Singh, one of Roy's early associates in India, in the 1930's 13. M. N. Roy on his first visit to Bombay after release from |ail in 1936, with K. F. Nariman, S. K. Patil, Maniben Kara, Yusuff Meherally, and Leelavati Munshi 14. M. N. Roy and Ellen Roy with Congress party workers in the U.P., 1938 15. M. N. Roy in his study at his home in Dehra Dun in the early 1950's

Xl

efcxttsexs Acknowledgments SYS)(SYS(SYS

I

T IS with considerable pleasure that I acknowledge the assistance I have received from various persons and institutions in the preparation of this book. To Professor Richard L. Park of the University of Michigan I owe the inspiration for writing on M. N. Roy. It was through him that many of my initial contacts in India were made. Professor Robert C. North of Stanford University was generous in sharing the results of his work on Roy with me. A Ford Foundation Foreign Area Training Fellowship made possible an extended period of field research abroad. Further research was supported by a Faculty Research Grant from the Rackham School of Graduate Studies of the University of Michigan. The leisure and financial support required for preparing the manuscript was provided by a Senior Fellowship from the Research Institute on Communist Affairs at Columbia University. I am especially grateful to its director, Professor Zbigniew Brzezinski, for his confidence and encouragement. My task was lightened immeasurably by the cheerful efficiency of the Institute's administrative assistant, Mrs. Christine Dodson, and the competence of my two research assistants, Mr. Edward McGowan and Miss Toby Trister. But most of all I am indebted to a remarkable group of enlightened Indians, the Royists,* whose kindness, concern, and intelligence made this study possible. They submitted patiently to numerous interviews and generously made available the material, including much private correspondence, at the Roy Archives in Dehra Dun, U.P. Their friendship has enriched my life. * Members of this group with whom I have consulted are listed in the subsection of the bibliography entitled, "Selected List of Interviews."

xiii

Earlier versions of portions of this book have appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies (November 1963 and May 1965, copyright by the Association for Asian Studies, Inc.) and in Modern Asian Studies (January 1969, copyright by the Cambridge University Press).

xiv

COMMUNISM AND NATIONALISM IN INDIA

Abbreviations

AICC AIRF AITUC CCP Comintern CP. CPGB CPI CPSU

CSP ECCI G.I.P. GKU Inprecor ITUF LCC LRC NFL NTUF PCC RPIWC WPP U.P.

All-India Congress Committee All-India Railwaymen's Federation All-India Trade-Union Congress Communist Party of China Communist International Central Provinces Communist Party of Great Britain Communist Party of India Communist Party of the Soviet Union Official designations of the Soviet party are as follows: 1898-1918—Russian Social Democratic Labor Party 1918-1925—Russian Communist Party (Bolshevik) 1925-1952—All-Union Communist Party 1952—Communist Party of the Soviet Union Congress Socialist Party Executive Committee of the Communist International Great Indian Peninsula (Railwaymen's Union) Girni Kamgar Union International Press Correspondence Indian Trade-Union Federation Left Consolidation Committee League of Radical Congressmen National Federation of Labor National Trade-Union Federation Pradesh Congress Committee Revolutionary Party of the Indian Working Class All-India Workers' and Peasants' Party United Provinces (before 1947) or Uttar Pradesh (after 1947)