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From Labor Action, Vol. 14 No. 23, 5 June 1950, p. 3.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for ETOL.
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The press now reports a sizable split in the Communist Party of India, led by P.C. Joshi, former general secretary of the party. According to the dispatches, 4,000 to 5,000 have quit. The N.Y. Times story (May 31) gives opposition to violent methods as the basis of Joshi’s move, referring to a pamphlet published by the dissident leader which also accuses the official apparatus of “grave Trotskyite-Titoist errors” and “sectarian terrorist tactics.” Given the lack of other information, it is possible that the “Titoist errors” on which this charge is based are the ideological tribulations of Ranadive described in the accompanying article. The Joshi group would seem to be bidding for Moscow backing. |
Moscow has had to crack down on its Indian Communist Party too, forcing the general secretary of the Indian CP to eat his own words. The following account is from Janata, the organ of the Socialist Party of India.
In a lengthy article in the Communist last year, Ranadive, the general secretary of the party, had taken up cudgels against certain “reformist deviations” of his colleagues, who had dared refer to the “new contribution” of Mao Tse-tung in the matter of the analysis of the relation of forces, class composition of the Democratic Front and forms and techniques of revolutionary struggle in the retarded countries of Asia.
Not to be outdone in his kowtowing to Stalin, Ranadive de-cleared that his “party has accepted only Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin as the authoritative sources of Marxism” and that since even the Cominform has not thought it fit to refer to Mao’s enrichment of the Communist theory, he was not prepared to recognize it.
But alas! this incense burning was of no avail! For Ranadive’s mentors in Moscow have now cracked down upon him ...
Under the whip wielded by the Cominform, Ranadive has now recanted. He says that the recent editorial in the Cominform journal “helps to remove all errors and mistakes which hampered the growth of the struggle in India.”
He has swallowed all his former Criticism of Mao Tse-tung and admits that he did indeed carry out a successful extension and application of the teachings of Lenin and Stalin. The lessons of the victorious people’s struggle in China under the leadership of Comrade Mao Tse-tung will be an “unfailing guide” to the Communist Party of India, he confesses.
No more does he talk about the class differentiation among the peasants but assures that his party will unite “all the peasantry.” Gone is also the glorification of the proletarian general strike and uprising. He promises formation of a liberation army, “when the necessary conditions allow for it,” which obviously can be done only in the rural areas.
He does not as yet say with Mao that the Communists are prepared to cooperate with the “national bourgeoisie” – for such an open admission is too bitter a pill – although he indirectly admits the fact by saying that the Indian people have hereafter to struggle against the “Anglo-American imperialists and the big bourgeoisie and the feudal princes and landlords collaborating with them.”
The character of the Democratic Front has also undergone a change, for it now means “rallying all parties and classes willing to fight for national independence.” ...
It is instructive in this connection to observe that the various splinter groups breaking away from the Communist Party, while denouncing each other, all swear by Moscow ... Thus mutual recriminations go on sealing the doom of the Communist Party.
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Last updated on 26 January 2024