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All 24 themes of modern India Now open: The Left in the national movement

Part A The British conquest 1707 to 1857

  1. 01Mughal decline and the regional powers
  2. 02The European trading companies
  3. 03The Carnatic Wars
  4. 04The conquest of Bengal
  5. 05The wars of expansion
  6. 06Instruments of expansion and the frontiers
  7. 07Resistance before 1857
  8. 08The Revolt of 1857

Part B Awakening and early nationalism 1857 to 1915

  1. 09Socio religious reform movements
  2. 10Rise of organised nationalism
  3. 11Partition of Bengal and Swadeshi
  4. 12Revolutionary nationalism, first phase

Part C The Gandhian era 1893 to 1947

  1. 13Gandhi in South Africa
  2. 14The First World War years
  3. 15Khilafat and Non Cooperation
  4. 16Civil Disobedience
  5. 17The Left in the national movement
  6. 18Caste movements and the depressed classes
  7. 19Peasant, worker, tribal and princely state movements
  8. 20Quit India and the INA
  9. 21Communal politics and the Muslim League
  10. 22Partition and independence
  11. 23Women, capitalists, foreigners and others

Part D After 1947 1947 to 1975

  1. 24Integration and reorganisation

Theme 17Part C · The Gandhian era

The Left in the national movement

1920 to 1942 · communists, trade unions, socialists and the Tripuri crisis

From the 1920s a third force grew beside the Gandhian Congress and the revolutionaries: the Left. This theme maps its founding, its unions and the trials that tried to crush it, then its rise inside the Congress up to the Tripuri crisis of 1939.

19201922192419261928193019321934193619381940Communists and unionsTashkent, AITUCKanpurmill strikeMeerut caseLeft in the CongressCSPLucknow, FaizpurHaripuraTripuri

Event 11920 to 1934

Communists, trade unions and conspiracy cases

The Russian Revolution of 1917 inspired a new generation that saw independence as the first step to a socialist society. They organised workers and peasants, and the government answered with a series of conspiracy trials.

BombayAITUC 1920; mill strike 1928 CalcuttaMuzaffar Ahmad MadrasSingaravelu Lahore KanpurCPI conference 1925 CalcuttaWPP Peshawar case Kanpur case 1924 Meerut case1929 to 1933

Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.

The Communist Party of India is founded at Tashkent (17 October 1920) by M. N. Roy, Abani Mukherjee and others. In India, communist groups form in Bombay (S. A. Dange), Calcutta (Muzaffar Ahmad), Madras (Singaravelu Chettiar) and Lahore (Ghulam Hussain). A conference at Kanpur (December 1925) forms the CPI in India.

Event or centreCentre of revoltLeftWorkers

Event 21934 to 1939

The Left inside the Congress

In the 1930s the Left grew inside the Congress itself. Its two great figures were Jawaharlal Nehru and Subhas Chandra Bose.

PatnaCSP 1934 BombayCSP conference LucknowApril 1936; AIKS FaizpurDec 1936 Haripura1938 Tripuri1939

Swipe the map sideways to see all of it.

The Congress Socialist Party is formed at Patna and Bombay (1934) by Acharya Narendra Dev, Jayaprakash Narayan, Minoo Masani, Achyut Patwardhan, Ram Manohar Lohia and others: socialists working inside the Congress.

Event or centreLeftIndian National Congress
Subhas Chandra Bose1,580
Pattabhi Sitaramayya1,377

The 1939 Congress presidential election. Gandhi said Sitaramayya's defeat was more mine than his.

What the Left changed

  • Karachi resolution (1931) on fundamental rights and economic policy, drafted with Nehru.
  • Planning: the National Planning Committee (1938).
  • Kisan sabhas and trade unions as part of the national movement.
  • Pressure for a more radical struggle, which came in 1942.

Where it divided

  • Communists called the war a people's war after Germany attacked the Soviet Union (1941) and stayed out of Quit India.
  • Socialists such as JP and Lohia led the Quit India underground.
  • Bose went abroad to seek help from Germany and Japan (Theme 20).

Who's who11 people

People

M. N. Roy

CPI

Founded the CPI at Tashkent (1920).

S. A. Dange

Bombay

Kanpur and Meerut cases.

Muzaffar Ahmad

Calcutta

Communist organiser.

Singaravelu Chettiar

Madras

Organised the first May Day in India (1923).

N. M. Joshi

AITUC

Trade union pioneer.

Acharya Narendra Dev

CSP

Its first president.

Jayaprakash Narayan

CSP

General secretary; Quit India underground.

Ram Manohar Lohia

CSP

Socialist leader.

Jawaharlal Nehru

Congress

Lucknow 1936; National Planning Committee.

Subhas Chandra Bose

Congress

Haripura 1938, Tripuri 1939; Forward Bloc.

Swami Sahajanand Saraswati

AIKS

First president of the All India Kisan Sabha.

Key terms7

Terms

CPI
Communist Party of India, 1920 (Tashkent) and 1925 (Kanpur).
AITUC
All India Trade Union Congress (1920).
Meerut conspiracy case
1929 to 1933 trial of 31 labour leaders.
CSP
Congress Socialist Party (1934).
AIKS
All India Kisan Sabha (1936).
Forward Bloc
Bose's party after Tripuri (1939).
People's war
The communist line on the Second World War after 1941.

Maps are drawn on the Survey of India outline used across VidBodh; maps that leave the subcontinent use a world base with India shown as the Survey of India depicts it. Coloured glows show where a power held sway, a movement spread or tribute was collected; they are not borders.