Role of socialists in Indian National Movement. (UPSC CSE Mains 2020 - Political Science and International Relations, Paper 1)
The leaders of the Indian national movement, inspired by Russian revolution and ethos of socialism radicalised the movement and moved towards the mass mobilization tactics of the Indian people’s struggle.
- Lala Lajpat Rai, presiding over the first session of the All India Trade Union Congress in 1920, advocated for organized labour as the antidote of capitalism and imperialism.
- Mahatma Gandhi, a firm believer of non-violence, while writing in his journal Young India on Bolshevism, also advocated for the sacrifices of many for the just and equal society.
- Bhagat Singh and his fellow revolutionaries were deeply influenced by the October Revolution when they gradually learnt about it.
- Jawaharlal Nehru was fascinated by his visit to Russia in the late 1920s , was convinced that the only key to the solution of the world’s problems and of India’s problems lies in socialism.
- On the lines of Socialism, was formed Communist party of India in 1925, which played crucial role in the freedom struggle with its peasant and workers movements. Prominent leaders like Maulana Hasrat Mohani and M. N. Roy were associated with it. So profound was the impact of the formation of the Communist Party under the direct inspiration of the October Revolution that the British Crown panicked at the possibility of a Bolshevik revolt in India!
- Furthermore, leaders like Acharya Narendra Deva and J P Narayan and many others, who were inspired by Marxism-Leninism, formed Congress Socialist party in 1934.
- S.C. Bose was also a strong beliver of socialism. His forward bloc and INA give new directions to the freedom struggle.
- Such changes in political leaders and freedom fighters has Energized social movements and freedom struggles. Many working class struggles broke out in India in 1919 and onwards
- Thousands of workers went on strikes in various working class centers such as Calcutta, Bombay and Ahmadabad.
- The All India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) was, thus, established in March 1920 giving shape to organized working class trade union movement in India.
- Armed Telangana peasant struggle in the late 1940s brought on to the agenda of the Indian freedom movement the question of abolishing landlordism in independent India.
- The Socialist wave motivated various revolutionary groups operating both within India and from abroad owing to British persecution to come together and strive for the freedom struggle. These Indian revolutionaries were operating from various locations in Canada, the U.S., Afghanistan, Germany, Singapore and some other places.
Socialism, therefore, must be seen as an event that profoundly changed the character of the Indian people’s struggle for freedom and transformed the struggle of the political independence of the country.
Read More: https://thewire.in/politics/book-extract-socialist-movement-india-splits-differences
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