All India Kisan Sabha

All India Kisan Sabha   All India Peasants Union, also Akhil Bharatiya Kisan Sabha), was the name of the peasants front of the undivided Communist Party of India (CPI), an important peasant movement formed by Swami Sahajanand Saraswati in 1936, and which later split into two organizations, by the same name.

The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati who had formed in 1929 the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) in order to mobilise peasant grievances against the zamindari attacks on their occupancy rights, and thus sparking the Farmers' movement in India  

Gradually the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. The formation of Congress Socialist Party (CSP) in 1934 helped the Communists to work together with the Indian National Congress, however temporarily,  then in April 1935, noted peasant leaders N.G. Ranga and E.M.S. Namboodiripad, then secretary and joint secretary respectively of South Indian Federation of Peasants and Agricultural Labour, suggested the formation of an all-India farmers body,  and soon all these radical developments culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha (AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress on April 11, 1936 with Swami Sahajanand Saraswati elected as its first President,  and it involved prominent leaders likeN.G. Ranga, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, Pandit Karyanand Sharma, Pandit Yamuna Karjee, Pandit Yadunandan (Jadunandan) Sharma, Rahul Sankrityayan, P. Sundarayya, Ram Manohar Lohia,Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev and Bankim Mukerji. The Kisan Manifesto released in August 1936, demanded abolition of zamindari system and cancellation of rural debts, and in October 1937, it adopted red flag as its banner.  Soon, its leaders became increasingly distant with Congress, and repeatedly came in confrontation with Congress governments, in Bihar and United Province. 

In the subsequent years, the movement was increasingly dominated by Socialists and Communists as it moved away from the Congress, by 1938 Haripura session of the Congress, under the presidentship of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the rift became evident, and by May 1942, the Communist Party of India, which was finally legalized by then government in July 1942,  had taken over AIKS, all across India including Bengal where its membership grew considerably.  It took on the Communist party's line of People's War, and stayed away from the Quit India Movement which started in August 1942, though this also meant it losing its popular base and many of its members defied party orders and joined the movement, and prominent members likeN.G. Ranga, Indulal Yagnik and Swami Sahajananda soon left the organization, which increasing found it difficult to approach the peasant without the watered-down approach of pro-British and pro-war, and increasing its pro-nationalist agenda, much to the dismay of the British Raj which always though Communist would help them in countering the nationalist movement. 

The Communist Party of India (CPI), split into two in 1964, following which so did the All India Kisan Sabha, which each faction affiliated to the splinters.

Currently two organizations work under the name of AIKS:

• All India Kisan Sabha (Ashoka Road), attached to Communist Party of India (Marxist)
• All India Kisan Sabha (Ajoy Bhawan), attached to Communist Party of India

Organisation

The address of AIKS (Ashoka Road) is 4, Ashoka Road, New Delhi.

• National President: S. Ramachandran Pillai
• National Vice-president: Amra Ram (CPI(M) MLA)
• National general secretary: K. Varadharajan.
• National joint secretary: N.K. Shukla  

All India Kisan Sabha is the peasant or farmers' wing of the Communist Party of India. The Kisan Sabha movement started in Bihar under the leadership of Swami Sahajanand Saraswati, who had formed in 1929 the Bihar Provincial Kisan Sabha (BPKS) to mobilise peasant grievances against the zamindari attacks on their occupancy rights. 

Gradually the peasant movement intensified and spread across the rest of India. All these radical developments on the peasant front culminated in the formation of the All India Kisan Sabha(AIKS) at the Lucknow session of the Indian National Congress in April 1936, with Swami Sahajanand Saraswati elected as its first president.^[2] The other prominent members of this Sabha wereN.G. Ranga, Ram Manohar Lohia, Jayaprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Dev and Bankim Mukerji, and it involved prominent leaders like N.G. Ranga, E.M.S. Namboodiripad, Pandit Karyanand Sharma, Pandit Yamuna Karjee, Pandit Yadunandan (Jadunandan) Sharma, Rahul Sankrityayan, P. Sundarayya, Ram Manohar Lohia, and Bankim Mukerji. The Kisan Manifesto, released in August 1936, demanded abolition of the zamindari system and cancellation of rural debts; in October 1937 it adopted the red flag as its banner. Soon, its leaders became increasingly distant with Congress and repeatedly came in confrontation with Congress governments, in Bihar and United Province.

In the subsequent years, the movement was increasingly dominated by Socialists and Communists as it moved away from the Congress. By the 1938 Haripura session of the Congress, under the presidency of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the rift became evident  and, by May 1942, the Communist Party of India, which was finally legalized by the government in July 1942,  had taken over AIKS all across India, including Bengal where its membership grew considerably.  It took on the Communist Party's line of People's War and stayed away from the Quit India Movement which started in August 1942, though this also meant losing its popular base. Many of its members defied party orders and joined the movement. Prominent members like N.G. Ranga, Indulal Yagnik and Swami Sahajananda soon left the organization, which increasingly found it difficult to approach the peasants without the watered-down approach of pro-British and pro-war, and increasing its pro-nationalist agenda, much to the dismay of the British Raj which always though Communists would help them in countering the nationalist movement. 

The Communist Party of India (CPI) split into two in 1964; following this, so did the All India Kisan Sabha, which each faction affiliated to the splinters.

Swaraj Party

The Swaraj Party, Swarajaya Party or Swarajya Party, established as the Congress-Khilafat Swarajaya Party, was a political party formed in India in 1923 that sought greater self-government and political freedoms for the Indian people from the British Raj. It was inspired by the concept of Swaraj. In Hindi and many other languages of India, swaraj means "independence" or "self-rule".

The Swaraj Party was formed on 1 January, 1923 by Indian politicians and members of the Indian National Congress who had opposed Mahatma Gandhi's suspension of all civil resistance on 5 February 1922 in response to the Chauri Chaura tragedy, where policemen were killed by a mob of protestors. Gandhi felt responsible for the killings, reproached himself for not emphasizing non-violence more firmly, and feared that the entire Non-Cooperation Movement would degenerate into an orgy of violence between the British-controlled army and police and mobs of freedom-fighters, alienating and hurting millions of common Indians. He went on a fast-unto-death to convince all Indians to stop civil resistance. The Congress and other nationalist groups disavowed all activities of disobedience.

But many Indians felt that the Non-Cooperation Movement should not have been suspended over an isolated incident of violence, and that its astonishing success was actually close to breaking the back of British rule in India. These people became disillusioned with Gandhi's political judgments and instincts.

Gandhi and most of the Congress party rejected the provincial and central legislative councils created by the British to offer some participation for Indians. They argued that the councils were rigged with un-elected allies of the British, and too un-democratic and simply "rubber stamps" of the Viceroy.

In December 1922, Chittaranjan Das, Narasimha Chintaman Kelkar and Motilal Nehru formed the Congress-Khilafat Swarajaya Party with Das as the president and Nehru as one of the secretaries. Other prominent leaders included Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy and Subhas Chandra Bose of Bengal, Vithalbhai Patel and other Congress leaders who were becoming dissatisfied with the Congress. The other group was the 'No-Changers', who had accepted Gandhi's decision to withdraw the movement.

Now both the Swarajists and the No-Changers were engaged in a fierce political struggle, but both were determined to avoid the disastrous experience of the 1907 split at Surat. On the advice of Gandhi, the two groups decided to remain in the Congress but to work in their separate ways. There was no basic difference between the two.

Swarajist members were elected to the councils. Vithalbhai Patel became the president of the Central Legislative Assembly. However, the legislatures had very limited powers, and apart from some heated parliamentary debates, and procedural stand-offs with the British authorities, the core mission of obstructing British rule failed.

With the death of Chittaranjan Das in 1925, and with Motilal Nehru's return to the Congress the following year, the Swaraj party was greatly weakened.

After his release from prison in 1924, Gandhi sought to bring back the Swarajists to the Congress and re-unite the party. Gandhi's supporters were in a vast majority in the Congress, and the Congress still remained India's largest political party, but Gandhi felt it necessary to heal the divide with the Swarajists, so as to heal the nation's wounds over the 1922 suspension.

The Swarajists sought more representation in the Congress offices, and an end to the mandatory requirement for Congressmen to spin khadi cloth and do social service as a prerequisite for office. This was opposed by Gandhi's supporters, men like Vallabhbhai Patel, Jawaharlal Nehru and Rajendra Prasad, who became known as the No Changers as opposed to the SwarajistChangers. Gandhi relaxed the rules on spinning and named some Swarajists to important positions in the Congress Party. He also encouraged the Congress to support those Swarajists elected to the councils, so as not to embarrass them and leave them rudderless before the British authorities.

When the Simon Commission arrived in India in 1928, millions of Indians were infuriated with the idea of an all-British committee writing proposals for Indian constitutional reforms without any Indian member or consultations with the Indian people. The Congress created a committee to write Indian proposals for constitutional reforms, headed by now Congress President Motilal Nehru. The death of Lala Lajpat Rai, beaten by police in Punjab further infuriated India. People rallied around the Nehru Report and old political divisions and wounds were forgotten, and Vithalbhai Pateland all Swarajist councillors resigned in protest.

Between 1929 and 1937, the Indian National Congress would declare the independence of India and launch the Salt Satyagraha. In this tumultuous period, the Swaraj Party was defunct as its members quietly dissolved into the Congress fold.

The Madras Province Swarajya Party was established in 1923. S. Satyamurti and S. Srinivasa Iyengar led the party. Though the character of the organisation was heterogeneous it was largely dominated by Brahmins. The party contested in all provincial elections between 1923 and 1934 with the exception of the 1930 election which it did not participate officially due to the Civil Disobedience Movement though some of the members of the party contested as independents. The party emerged as the single largest party in the 1926 and 1934 Assembly elections but refused to form the provincial government under the existing dyarchy system. In 1934, the Madras Province Swarajya Party merged with the All India Swarajya Party which subsequently merged with the Indian National Congress when it contested the 1935 elections to the Imperial Legislative Council held as per the Government of India Act 1935.the

From 1935 onwards, the Swarajya Party ceased to exist and was succeeded by the Indian National Congress in the elections to the Imperial Legislative Council as well as the Madras Legislative Council.

Chandra Shekhar Azad

Chandra Shekhar Azad   (23 July 1906 – 27 February 1931), popularly known as Azad ("The Liberated"), was an Indianrevolutionary who reorganised the Hindustan Republican Association under the new name of Hindustan Socialist Republican Association (HSRA) after the death of its founder, Ram Prasad Bismil, and three other prominent party leaders, Roshan Singh, Rajendra Nath Lahiri and Ashfaqulla Khan. He is considered to be the mentor of Bhagat Singh and chief strategist of the HSRA.

Chandra Shekhar Azad was born on 23 July 1906 in Bhawra village, in the present-day Alirajpur district. He was then called Chandra Shekar Tiwari.  His forefathers were from the Badarka village near Kanpur (in present-day Unnao District. His mother, Jagrani Devi, was the third wife of his father Sitaram Tiwari. After the birth of their first son, Sukhdev, in Badarka, the family moved to the Alirajpur State. 

Chandra Shekhar spent his childhood in Bhawra, and learned archery from the tribal Bhils of the erstwhile Jhabua district, which helped him later on during the armed struggle against the British.

His mother wanted her son to be a great Sanskrit scholar and persuaded his father to send him to Kashi Vidyapeeth, Banaras to study. In December 1921, when Mohandas K. Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement, Chandra Shekhar, then a 15 year old student, joined.. As a result, he was arrested and sentenced to fifteen days' imprisonment with hard punishments. From that day onward, having announced his name to be Azad (The Liberated) in court, Chandra Shekhar Tiwari assumed the name of Azad.

After suspension of the non-cooperation movement in 1922 by Gandhi, Azad became more aggressive. He committed himself to achieve complete independence by any means. Azad also believed that India's future lay in socialism. He met a young revolutionary, Pranvesh Chatterji, who introduced him to Ram Prasad Bismil who had formed the Hindustan Republican Association (HRA), a revolutionary organisation. Azad was impressed with the aim of HRA, i.e., an independent India with equal rights and opportunity to everyone without discrimination of caste, creed, religion or social status. On introduction, Bismil was impressed by Azad, when Azad reportedly put his hand over a lamp and did not remove it till his skin burnt. He then became an active member of the HRA and started to collect funds for HRA. Most of the fund collection was through robberies of government property. He also wanted to build a new India based on socialist principles. Azad and his compatriots also planned and executed several acts of violence against the British. Most of his revolutionary activities were planned and executed from Shahjahanpur which was also the hometown of Ram Prasad. He was involved in the famous Kakori Train Robbery of 1925, in the attempt to blow up the Viceroy's train in 1926, and at last the shooting of J.P. Saunders at Lahore in 1928 to avenge the killing of Lala Lajpat Rai.

Azad made Jhansi his organisation's hub for some time. He used the forest of Orchha, situated 15 kilometres (9.3 mi) from Jhansi, as a site for shooting practice and, being an expert marksman, he trained other members of his group. Near the forest he built a hut near to a Hanuman Temple on the banks of the Satar River. He lived there under the alias of Pandit Harishankar Brahmachari for a long period, and started teaching children from the nearby village of Dhimarpura. In this way he managed to establish good rapport with the local residents. The village Dhimarpura was renamed as Azadpura by the Madhya Pradesh government.

While living in Jhansi, he also learned to drive a car at Bundelkhand Motor Garage in Sadar Bazar. Sadashivrao Malkapurkar, Vishwanath Vaishampayan and Bhagwan Das Mahaur came in close contact with him and became an integral part of his revolutionary group. The then congress leaders from Raghunath Vinayak Dhulekar and Sitaram Bhaskar Bhagwat were also close to Azad. He also stayed for sometime in the house of Rudra Narayan Singh at Nai Basti, as well as Bhagwat's house in Nagra.

The HRA was formed by Bismil, Chatterji, Sachindra Nath Sanyal and Shachindra Nath Bakshi in 1924 just after two year of the non co-operation movement. In the aftermath of the Kakori train robbery in 1925, the British clamped down on revolutionary activities. Prasad, Ashfaqulla Khan, Thakur Roshan Singh and Rajendra Nath Lahiri were sentenced to death for their participation. Azad, Keshab Chakravarthy and Murari Sharma evaded capture. Chandra Shekhar Azad later reorganized the HRA with the help of revolutionaries like Sheo Verma and Mahaveer Singh. Azad was also a close associate of Bhagwati Charan Vohra who along with Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev, and Rajguru, helped him to transform the HRA into the HSRA in 1928 so as to achieve their primary aim of an independent India based on socialist principle.

In the last week of February 1931, Azad went to Sitapur Jail and met Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi. He hoped that Vidyarthi would involve in the case of Bhagat Singh and others as he had previously done in the Kakori conspiracy case. Vidyarthi suggested him to go to Allahabad and meet Jawahar Lal Nehru. If he could be convinced, Nehru would be able to persuade Gandhi to talk to the Viceroy Lord Irwin and reach an agreement with the British Government in the forthcoming Gandhi-Irwin Pact. Azad met Nehru on 27 February 1931 and asked for help in stopping the execution of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. Nehru refused and told him to leave immediately. 

Azad proceeded to the Alfred Park and met with a revolutionary colleague, Sukhdev Raj. The police were notified of his location by an informer. Faced with armed police, Azad fired upon them. He was wounded in the process of killing three policemen and wounding some others. His actions made it possible for Sukhdev Raj to escape, after which Azad shot himself when he ran out of ammunition. The file related to Azad is preserved in C.I.D. Headquarters, 1, Gokhale Marg, Lucknow. The Colt pistol of Chandra Shekhar Azad is displayed at the Allahabad Museum within theChandrashekhar Azad Park. 

The body was sent to Rasulabad Ghat for cremation without informing general public. As it came to light, people surrounded the park where the incident had taken place. They made slogans against the British rule and praised Azad. 

He once claimed that as his name was "Azad", he would never be taken alive by police. 

Alfred Park, where he became "Shaheed", has been renamed Chandrashekhar Azad Park. Several schools, colleges, roads and other public institutions across India are also named after him.

Starting from Manoj Kumar's 1965 film Shaheed, every film or commemoration of the life of Bhagat Singh has featured the character of Azad.  Sunny Deol portrayed Azad in the movie 23rd March 1931: Shaheed. In the movie The Legend of Bhagat Singh, starring Ajay Devgan, Azad was portrayed by Akhilendra Mishra.

The lives of Azad, Bhagat Singh, Rajguru, Bismil and Khan were depicted in the 2006 film Rang De Basanti, with Aamir Khan portraying Azad. The movie, which draws parallels between the lives of young revolutionaries such as Azad and Bhagat Singh, and today's youth, also dwells upon the lack of appreciation among today's Indian youth for the sacrifices made by these men.

Communist Ghadar Party of India

Communist Ghadar Party of India

                                              The Communist Ghadar Party of India is a far-left political party that is committed to a revolution in India based on Marxism-Leninism.   
      The party was founded on 25 December 1980, as a continuation of the Hindustani Ghadar Party - Organisation of Indian Marxist-Leninists Abroad founded in Canada in 1970. The group had established a presence in Punjab during the 1970s. Initially the group identified itself with the Naxalite movement in India, especially in Punjab. However, by the end of the 1970s the group rejected the Three Worlds Theory and sided with Albania in the Sino-Albanian split.  The name of the party was inspired by the American-based Ghadar Party, formed by Indian revolutionaries in the early 1900s. Ghadar means revolt, a narrative abbreviation referring to Indian Revolt.

The party opposed the policies of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) at the time, which according to CGPI had both adopted a policy ofparliamentarianism and support for the Soviet Union and the Naxalbari were fragmented. The party also adopted a policy of opposing 'national oppression', particularly in Punjab, Kashmir andManipur and rejected defense of the centralised India state.

In December 1990 they held their first congress where they reflected upon the collapse of the Soviet Union, declaring "we are our own models". They concluded that "it is the workers and peasants, women and youth, organised in their collectives, who should rule". They recognised the communist movement as one, and rejected social-democracy as a compromise between rightreaction and revolution and rejecting support for the Indian National Congress party against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Second Congress was held in 1999, and the Third Congress in January 2005. At the latter the Constitution of the Communist Ghadar Party of India was adopted. The Fourth Congress was held in October 2010. December 25, 2010 marked the 30th anniversary of the founding the Party.

 

The work of CGPI is based on the theoretical thinking of Marxism-Leninism and guided by contemporary Marxist-Leninist thought. Contemporary Marxist-Leninist thought is the summation, taken in general form, of the experience of the application of Marxism-Leninism to the conditions of socialist revolution and socialist construction, to the struggle against modern revisionism and against capitalist restoration, against fascism, militarism, imperialism and medievalism. It is not the final form of Marxism-Leninism under the economy, empowerment of the people and the democratic renewal of India. 

The principle adopted at the First Congress that "we are our own models", let us emulate the best we have created.

"We are her masters!" — the Program adopted by the Second Congress of the Communist Ghadar Party of India in October 1998 was characterised by the slogan: "Hum hain Iske Malik! Hum hain Hindostan! Mazdoor, Kisan, Aurat aur Jawan!" — which means: "Workers, peasants, women and youth — We constitute India! We are her masters!"  

From its 3rd congress document it states: The challenge is to enable the working class to emerge as a united force that forges a powerful front with the peasants and all the oppressed. The challenge is to organise and lead this front to wrest political power from the hands of the exploiting minority and vest it in the hands of the people. The workers, peasants, women and youth of all the nations, nationalities and tribal peoples constituting India must be enabled and organised to set the agenda for the new society.  Titled: Towards the Rule of Workers and Peasants and a Voluntary Indian Union.

 In its research, CGPI states in its 3rd congress document:- India is seeking a place at the privileged high table, to carve up the world. The Indian big bourgeoisie, in pursuit of imperialist aims, is seeking closer collaboration with US imperialism as well as with the European Union and Russia. China is seen as a major competitor, while it could also be a potential collaborator. The Indian bourgeoisie is colluding and contending with other imperialist powers, seeking to expand its own sphere of influence in the world, especially in central and South-East Asia. Imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, stands increasingly exposed as a system that cannot prolong its life without raining death and destruction on a colossal scale. It is being exposed as a system that is unable to sustain itself without militarisation and wars of conquest, without intensifying the degree of exploitation and misery of the labouring people, and without destroying entire nations and continents. Capitalist globalisation—through liberalisation, privatisation and fiscal stabilisation—has been exposed as nothing but unbridled robbery and plunder of the nations and peoples of the world in the interests of monopolies and financial oligarchs of a few big and emerging powers.

"Within the capitalist democracies, the regimes in power are openly showing their contempt for the well-being and rights of the working class and peoples. They are openly revealing themselves as the tools of finance capital and of the biggest and most aggressive capitalist monopolies. The political process of bourgeois democracy, in its parliamentary and presidential forms, stands exposed as a process designed to concentrate political power in fewer and fewer hands, to the exclusion of the vast majority of people. More and more people are protesting this exclusion from power. They are protesting the fact that they have no say, except to vote once in a few years to legitimise the rule of one or another party or coalition of the bourgeoisie. 

"The times are calling on all Indian communists to redouble their efforts to forge the political unity of the working class, peasantry, intelligentsia, oppressed nations and nationalities, tribal peoples, dalits, women and youth. Such political unity can and must be forged on the basis of uncompromising opposition to the bourgeoisie and its anti-social program; and for the realisation of the program for the Navnirman of India. This is a program for taking India out of the world imperialist system by making a clean break with the colonial legacy in economic and political terms. It is a program to establish the rule of workers and peasants, and a voluntary Indian Union, with the economy being oriented to fulfil the needs of the toilers and tillers. The Communist Ghadar Party of India, as a contingent of the international communist movement, is dedicated to adopt tactics that will pave the way for the defeat of the bourgeoisie and those who conciliate with it, and ensure the victory of the program for the Navnirman of India."  

It pointed out the necessity for the working class to contest outmoded Eurocentric ideas as well as the reactionary bourgeois rendering of Indian thought, so as to develop the theory of the Indian revolution. It also pointed out that the seeds of revolution exist within the existing conditions of perpetual crisis and revolutionary theory must illuminate the way to nourish those seeds so as to open the path to revolution and social progress. The starting point of all theoretical work is the study of the facts and phenomena that are being revealed. Revolutionary theory must assist in analysing the class struggle within the present conditions.

• ...aimed at exposing and defeating the lies, illusions and diversions that the bourgeoisie is throwing at the working class and other discontented masses of people. It must be waged against the enemy within the communist movement—that is, those who are acting as the channels of spreading bourgeois illusions among the workers and peasants.

• ...against the notion that some individual genius or expert group can develop theory and lead the ideological struggle. The struggle against this 'expert line' has been waged concretely by involving more and more comrades in the theoretical and ideological work. The Central Committee has made a conscious effort to create an enabling environment for wider and wider participation in this work. This has greatly contributed to the strengthening of the work of developing theory. In addition to enriching the line, this work has assisted in raising the ideo-political level of all members of the time-tested.

• ...have brought together a large number of comrades to spend extended periods of time on concentrated research work and theoretical treatment of selected topics.

• ...approach to the theoretical and ideological work, as in the case of all other time-tested work, has been to rely on the principle of collective leadership and individual responsibility.

• ...waged a stern struggle in the course of carrying out the theoretical and ideological work, in defence of the scientific method and implementation of agreed upon decisions of the collective. The scientific method consists in starting from facts and analysing the problem as it presents itself today, based on studying the documents of the Party and the Marxist-Leninist classics. A constant struggle has been waged against the tendency to start writing without studying the facts or the Party’s basic documents and the classics.

• ...adopted the immediate program of Navnirman (reconstruction, to build afresh, a thoroughgoing renewal), aimed at making the toilers and tillers the masters of India.

• ...have further laid bare the laws of capitalism as they operate at the present stage of monopoly capitalism and imperialism. We have investigated and exposed the content of the privatisation and liberalisation program and the so-called war against terrorism. We have further elaborated the theoretical considerations underlying the Program we have adopted. All this work has contributed to developing the content of the struggle of the working class against this anti-social program. It has contributed to the development of the programmatic calls of mass organisations of the peasantry, of the youth and of all the oppressed. 

Further areas include:

• In struggle against the anti-social offensive
• United struggle of the working class
• Worker-peasant alliance
• Against imperialist war, state terrorism and communal violence
• Building organisations to empower the broad masses of people
• Work among the youth
• Work towards the Restoration of Unity of all Communists

Ghadar Party

Ghadar Party 

                                                   The Ghadar Party   was an organization founded by Punjabi Indians,  in the United States and Canada with the aim to liberate India from British rule. The movement began with a group of immigrants known as the Hindustani Workers of the Pacific Coast. 

After the outbreak of World War I, Ghadar party members returned to Punjab to agitate for rebellion alongside the Babbar Akali Movement. In 1915 they conducted revolutionary activities in central Punjab and attempted to organize uprisings, but their attempts were crushed by the British Government.  After the conclusion of the war, the party in America split into Communist and Anti-Communist factions. The party was formally dissolved in 1948.

Ghadar is an Urdu/Punjabi word derived from Arabic which means "revolt" or "rebellion." As Kartar Singh Sarabha, one of the founders of the party, wrote in the first issue: "Today there begins 'Ghadar' in foreign lands, but in our country's tongue, a war against the British Raj. What is our name? Ghadar. What is our work? Ghadar. Where will be the Revolution? In India. The time will soon come when rifles and blood will take the place of pens and ink." The name of the organization was primarily spelled "Gadar Party" or "Ghadr Party" by its members.

The economic downturn in India during the early nineteenth century witnessed a high level of emigration. Some of these emigrants settled in North America. These included Punjabis as well as people from other parts of India. The Canadian government decided to curtail this influx with a series of laws, which were aimed at limiting the entry of South Asians into the country and restricting the political rights of those already in the country. The Punjabi community had hitherto been an important loyal force for the British Empire and the community had expected, equal welcome and rights from the British and Commonwealth governments as extended to British and white immigrants. These laws fed growing discontent, protests and anti-colonial sentiments within the community. Faced with increasingly difficult situations, the community began organising itself into political groups. A large number of Punjabis also moved to the United States, but they encountered similar political and social problems. 

The Ghadar Party, initially the Pacific Coast Hindustan Association, was formed in 1913 in the United States under the leadership of Har Dayal, with Sohan Singh Bhakna as its president. The members of the party were Indian immigrants, largely from Punjab.  Many of its members were students at University of California at Berkeley including Dayal, Tarak Nath Das, Maulavi Barkatullah, Kartar Singh Sarabha and V.G. Pingle. The party quickly gained support from Indian expatriates, especially in the United States, Canada and Asia

The party was built around the weekly paper The Ghadar, which carried the caption on the masthead: Angrezi Raj Ka Dushman (an enemy of the British rule). "Wanted brave soldiers", the Ghadar declared, "to stir up rebellion in India. Pay-death; Price-martyrdom; Pension-liberty; Field of battle-India". The ideology of the party was strongly secular. In the words of Sohan Singh Bhakna, who later became a major peasant leader of the Punjab: "We were not Sikhs or Punjabis. Our religion was patriotism". The first issue of The Ghadar, was published from San Francisco on November 1, 1913.

Following the voyage of the Komagata Maru in 1914, a direct challenge to Canadian racist anti-Indian immigration laws, several thousand Indians resident in theUSA sold their business and homes ready to drive the British from India. However, Hardayal had fled to Europe concerned that the US authorities would hand him over to the British. Sohan Singh Bhakna was already in British hands, and the leadership fell to Ram Chandra. Following the entry of Canada into World War I, the organization was centered in the USA and received substantial funding from the German government. They had a very militant tone, as illustrated by this quote from Harnam Singh:

No pundits or mullahs do we need

The party rose to prominence in the second decade of the 20th century, and grew in strength owing to Indian discontent over World War I and the lack of political reforms.

Ghadar activists undertook what the British described as political terrorism, but what was revolution to most Indians. Ghadar activists were responsible for bombs planted on government property.

In 1917 some of their leaders were arrested and put on trial in the Hindu German Conspiracy Trial in which their paper was quoted.

The Ghadar party commanded a loyal following the province of Punjab , but many of its most prominent activists were forced into exile to Canada and the United States. It ceased to play an active role in Indian politics after 1919. The party had active members in other countries such asMexico, Japan, China, Singapore, Thailand, Philippines, Malaya, Indo-China and Eastern and Southern Africa.

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