These Communism and Leftist Politics notes for OPSC OAS trace the origins of the communist movement in India, the formation of the CPI in 1920 and 1925, the Congress Socialist Party of 1934, and the peasant and workers’ movements that gave the left a mass base. The page also covers Odisha’s CSP unit, the Krushak Sabha of 1936 and the Nilgiri sharecropper movement, with OPSC practice questions and PYQs.
Rise of Communism and Leftist Politics in India: An Overview
Leftist politics in India emerged from three overlapping streams: the international communist movement after the Russian Revolution of 1917, the national liberation struggle against British rule, and the agrarian distress of peasants and workers. The Communist Party of India (CPI) represented the organised Marxist stream, while the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) worked within the Indian National Congress to push it leftward. Together they shaped debates on land, labour, caste and anti-imperialism that remain relevant to the OAS syllabus.
Political currents that seek structural change in property relations, class power and the state, typically through socialist or communist programmes, as distinct from constitutional liberalism or right-wing nationalism.
M.N. Roy and the Founding of the Communist Party of India
Manabendra Nath Roy (1887–1954), born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, was the first Indian to be elected to the leadership of the Communist International (Comintern).BPSC 1998 He founded the Mexican Communist Party in 1919 before moving to Soviet Russia, and in October 1920 he led a group of Indian revolutionaries at Tashkent who announced the formation of the Communist Party of India in exile.IAS (Pre) 2005
| Milestone | Date | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Tashkent group | 17 October 1920 | CPI formed in exile under M.N. Roy |
| Kanpur Communist Conference | December 1925 | CPI formally established inside India |
| First General Secretaries | 1925 | S.V. Ghate and J.P. Bagerhatta |
| Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case | 1924 | Dange, Muzaffar Ahmad, Shaukat Usmani, Nalini Gupta tried |
| Meerut Conspiracy Case | 1929–33 | 31 labour and communist leaders tried; international outcry |
The Kanpur Communist Conference of December 1925 is regarded as the point at which the CPI was formally established on Indian soil, with Singaravelu Chettiar as the first president and S.V. Ghate as the first General Secretary.
Tashkent 1920 = CPI in exile; Kanpur 1925 = CPI inside India; Kanpur Conspiracy Case 1924 = early repression; Meerut Conspiracy Case 1929 = the landmark trial of communist and labour leaders.
- Do not say the CPI was founded in Moscow. The 1920 founding was at Tashkent, not Moscow.
- Do not confuse the Kanpur Conspiracy Case (1924) with the Kanpur Communist Conference (1925); one was a trial, the other a party meeting.
Early Communist-Linked Organisations and the Left Turn
Before the CPI was formally unified, several regional organisations carried communist and radical ideas. The Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan was founded in Madras in 1923 by Singaravelu Chettiar, who also organised India’s first May Day celebration. The Labour Swaraj Party was founded in Bengal in 1925 and later became the Peasants’ and Workers’ Party of India. The Kirti Kisan Party emerged in Punjab as a radical peasant organisation with communist links.CDS 2015
The Labour Swaraj Party’s journal Langal (Plough) was associated with the poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, showing how literary and cultural production fused with leftist politics in 1920s Bengal.
Congress Socialist Party: Formation, Programme and Leaders
The Congress Socialist Party was formed on 17 May 1934 at Patna, with Acharya Narendra Dev as president and Jayaprakash Narayan as general secretary.UPPSC (Mains) 2008BPSC (Pre) 2000 It was conceived as a socialist group inside the Congress, not a separate party, and its members had to be Congress members until 1946.
The CSP’s programme combined anti-imperialism with agrarian reform, workers’ rights and decentralised socialism. It did not adopt the dictatorship of the proletariat and did not advocate separate electorates for minorities.IAS (Pre) 2015 Its leading figures included Narendra Dev, Jayaprakash Narayan, Ram Manohar Lohia, Minoo Masani, Achyut Patwardhan and Asoka Mehta.
| Event | Year | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Patna conference | May 1934 | Narendra Dev president, JP general secretary |
| First all-India CSP meet | 1934, Bombay | Detailed programme adopted; Masani joint secretary |
| CSP separates from Congress | 1948, Nashik | Socialist Party formed outside the Congress |
CSP founders: Acharya Narendra Dev (president) and Jayaprakash Narayan (general secretary), at Patna, 17 May 1934. The party worked inside the Congress and stood for joint electorates.
Leftist Leaders, Factions and the Radical Democratic Party
M.N. Roy’s trajectory illustrates the fragmentation of Indian communism. After falling out with the Comintern, he returned to India in 1930, joined the Congress, and in 1940 founded the Radical Democratic Party.UPPSC (Mains) 2007 The Radical Democratic Party opposed the Quit India Movement and advocated people’s committees and radical democracy rather than parliamentary socialism.
Saumendra Nath Tagore founded the Bolshevik Leninist Party, a Trotskyist organisation, in the 1940s.UPPSC 2015 Jayaprakash Narayan, after independence, moved away from parliamentary socialism and proposed ‘partyless democracy’, arguing that parties fragmented public life and enabled corruption.MPPSC 2019 Jawaharlal Nehru, though not a CSP founder, became the most prominent Congress voice for socialism in the early 1930s, criticising landlordism and capitalism.BPSC 2018
- The CSP–M.N. Roy pairing is a deliberate error in matching questions. Roy had no role in founding the CSP.
- Radical Democratic Party = M.N. Roy (1940); Bolshevik Leninist Party = Saumendra Nath Tagore. Do not interchange them.
Peasant and Workers’ Movements: The Mass Base of the Left
The left’s influence grew through peasant and trade union organisation. The All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) and the All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) became platforms for communist mobilisation. In the princely states and zamindari areas, peasants demanded abolition of intermediary systems such as mustadari, land to the tillers, and an end to money-lending.
The CSP and CPI also intervened in workers’ struggles. The Meerut Conspiracy Case of 1929, in which 31 labour and communist leaders were tried, drew international condemnation from figures such as Albert Einstein, H.G. Wells, Harold Laski and Roosevelt.UPPSC (Pre) 2017
IMAGE (Timeline): A timeline of the Indian left from 1920 to 1948.
Labels: 1920 Tashkent CPI; 1923 Labour Kisan Party; 1924 Kanpur Conspiracy Case; 1925 Kanpur CPI conference; 1929 Meerut Conspiracy Case; 1934 CSP at Patna; 1940 Radical Democratic Party; 1948 CSP splits from Congress.
Caption: Milestones in the growth of communism and leftist politics in India.
Find it: Draw from the dates in this page; or search ‘CPI centenary timeline Vision IAS’.
Communal Politics, the Muslim League and Partition: The Left’s Context
The left operated in a political field increasingly shaped by communal polarisation. The All India Muslim League was founded at Dhaka in December 1906, with Nawab Salimullah of Dhaka as its founder and Aga Khan as its first president.WBCS 2017CDS 2009UPPSC (Pre) 1997 The 1906 Simla deputation led by Aga Khan demanded separate electorates, conceded in the Morley-Minto Reforms of 1909.BPSC (Pre) 2004
Muhammad Iqbal’s 1930 Allahabad address first gave definite expression to the idea of a separate Muslim state, and Choudhary Rahmat Ali coined the name ‘Pakistan’ in his 1933 pamphlet Now or Never.UPRO/ARO (Mains) 2014WBCS 2019 The Lahore Resolution of 1940, moved by Fazlul Haq and presided over by Jinnah, formally adopted the demand for independent Muslim states.WBCS 2019
The left’s response to communalism was uneven. The CSP and CPI consistently opposed the Two-Nation Theory and separate electorates, but the Congress’s negotiations with communal leaders weakened secular Muslim voices. Direct Action Day on 16 August 1946, called by the Muslim League under Suhrawardy in Bengal, triggered the Great Calcutta Killings and accelerated the path to partition.WBCS 2019NDA 2010
OPSC and UPSC often combine leftist and communal politics in the same question set. Keep the dates of the Muslim League (1906, 1940) separate from the CPI/CSP dates (1920, 1925, 1934).
Odisha Angle: Communism and Peasant Politics in Odisha
Odisha’s left movement grew out of the Congress Socialist Party. Following the CSP’s formation at Gaya in May 1934, the Orissa unit of the CSP was formed on 5 June 1934. Its prominent activists were Prananath Patnaik, Naba Krushna Choudhury, Malati Choudhury, Bhagabati Panigrahi and Surendra Dwivedi.OPSC The unit brought out the weekly Sarathi, edited by Nabakrushna Choudhury, and later the journal Krushak in 1938 to champion peasant causes.
The Krushak Sabha was established in 1936 at Bagalpur near Gobindpur in Cuttack district. Communist leaders such as Prananath Patnaik and Gangadhar Paikray organised a large peasants’ conference at Chandmani field near Khurda. The main demands were abolition of the mustadari system and land to the tillers.OPSC Nilgiri, Jenapur, Dhenkanal and Talcher became major centres of peasant mobilisation.
| Odisha milestone | Year | Significance |
|---|---|---|
| Orissa CSP unit | 5 June 1934 | Prananath Patnaik, Naba Krushna Choudhury and others |
| Krushak Sabha | 1936, Bagalpur | Peasant organisation against mustadari and for land to tillers |
| Nilgiri sharecropper movement | 1967 | CPI-led struggle against feudal land relations |
The Nilgiri sharecropper movement of 1967 was led by the Communist Party of India, demanding better shares for sharecroppers and abolition of oppressive practices.OPSC It remains a landmark in Odisha’s left-led agrarian politics.
IMAGE (Map): Map of Odisha marking centres of left and peasant politics.
Labels: Bagalpur and Gobindpur (Cuttack); Khurda; Nilgiri (Balasore); Dhenkanal; Talcher; Jenapur; Shergarh (Ganjam).
Caption: Centres of communist and peasant mobilisation in Odisha, 1934–1967.
Find it: Odisha State Archives peasant movement map; or draw using the districts named in this section.
In 1943, communist leaders B.C. Panigrahi, Bijaya Chandra Dash and others organised a peasants’ rally at Shergarh in Ganjam, demanding land for the landless. A youth ‘red army’ captured unused lands in Kiritipur and Shergarh for distribution among the landless.
How Prelims and Mains Treat Communism and Leftist Politics
In Prelims, the treatment is factual: match the leader to the organisation, the year to the event, and the journal to the party. In Mains, the treatment is analytical: assess the role of the left in the national movement, the relationship between the CSP and the Congress, the agrarian question, and the left’s response to communalism and partition. For the History optional, expect source-based questions on the Comintern, the Meerut case, and the ideological debates between Roy, the CSP and the CPI.
Practice Questions
Who was the first Indian to be a member of the Communist International?
- Muzaffar Ahmad
- M.N. Roy
- S.A. Dange
- Abani Mukherji
Show answer
(b) - M.N. Roy was elected to the Comintern leadership in 1920. BPSC 1998
In October 1920, who headed the group of Indians at Tashkent that set up the Communist Party of India?
- H.K. Sarkar
- P.C. Joshi
- M.C. Chagla
- M.N. Roy
Show answer
(d) - M.N. Roy led the Tashkent group on 17 October 1920. IAS (Pre) 2005
The Kanpur Conspiracy Case was against the leaders of which movement?
- Khilafat Movement
- Non-Cooperation Movement
- Communist Movement
- Revolutionary Movement
Show answer
(c) - The 1924 case targeted early communist organisers. UPPSC 2010
The Congress Socialist Party was organised in 1934 by
- Jayaprakash Narayan and Jawaharlal Nehru
- Jayaprakash Narayan and Acharya Narendra Dev
- Jayaprakash Narayan and Subhas Chandra Bose
- Subhas Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru
Show answer
(b) - Narendra Dev was president and JP general secretary at Patna, 1934. UPPSC (Mains) 2008
Who had proposed ‘Partyless Democracy’ in India?
- S.A. Dange
- Ram Manohar Lohia
- Mahatma Gandhi
- Jayaprakash Narayan
Show answer
(d) - JP advocated partyless democracy after independence. MPPSC 2019
Which of the following was/were connected primarily to communist ideology?
I. Kirti Kisan Party
II. Labour Swaraj Party
- Only I
- Only II
- Both I and II
- Neither I nor II
Show answer
(c) - Both were early communist-linked organisations in Punjab and Bengal. CDS 2015
The Orissa unit of the Congress Socialist Party was formed on 5 June 1934. Which of the following was a prominent activist of this unit?
- Prananath Patnaik
- Gopabandhu Das
- Madhusudan Das
- Fakir Mohan Senapati
Show answer
(a) - Prananath Patnaik was a leading CSP activist in Odisha, along with Naba Krushna Choudhury and others.
The Krushak Sabha was established in 1936 at which place?
- Bagalpur near Gobindpur, Cuttack
- Khurda
- Nilgiri
- Shergarh, Ganjam
Show answer
(a) - The Krushak Sabha was founded at Bagalpur in Cuttack district in 1936.