- Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) was formed by the
All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries at a congress inCalcutta in 1969. The foundation of the party was declared byKanu Sanyal at a mass-meeting in Calcutta on the 22nd of April (Lenin 's birthday).History
CPI(ML) advocated armed revolution and denounced participation in the electoral process. The party leaders were
Charu Majumdar andKanu Sanyal , both of whom had belonged to the left-wing withinCommunist Party of India (Marxist) in northernWest Bengal . Majumdar and Sanyal had mobilized a revolutionary peasants movement inNaxalbari , which evolved into an armed uprising of the mostlySanthal tribal inhabitants. CPI(ML) saw Naxalbari as the spark that would start a new Indian revolution, and the movement came to be known as 'naxalite s'. In several parts of India, for exampleUttar Pradesh , Bihar, different parts ofWest Bengal and inSrikakulam in northernAndhra Pradesh CPI(ML) organized guerilla units. The party got moral support fromChina , which actively encourages the attempts of CPI(ML) to launch revolution.The first party congress was held in
Calcutta 1970. A Central Committee was elected consisting of:
*West Bengal :
**Charu Majumdar
**Kanu Sanyal
**Sushital Roy Chowdhury
**Saroj Dutta
**Soren Bose
**Suniti Ghosh
**Ashim Chatterjee
* Bihar:
**Satyanarayan Singh
**Gurubax Singh
**Rajkishore Singh
*Uttar Pradesh :
**Shiv Kumar Mishra
**Mahindar Singh
*Andhra Pradesh :
**Dr. Nagbhushan Patnaik
**M. Appalasuri
**Vempatapu Satyanarayana
**Adibathla Kailasam
*Tamil Nadu :
**Appu
**Kodasudayanam
*Kashmir :
**R.P. Saraf
*Kerala :
**Ambaddi As a result of both external repression and a failure to maintain internal unity, the movement did however degenerate into extreme sectarianism. Instead of popular armed struggle in the countryside, individual terrorism in
Calcutta became a principal method of struggle.In 1971 Satyanarayan Singh revolted against the leadership and sectarianism of Majumdar. The result became that the party was split into two, one CPI(ML) led by Satyanarayan Singh and one CPI(ML) led by Charu Majumdar. In 1972 Majumdar died in police custody, and after his death a series of splits took place during the major part of the 1970s. The naxalite movement suffered a period of extremely harsh repression that rivalled the
dirty war s of South America at the same time that the movement got all more fragmented. Another heavy blow to the movement was theLiberation War of Bangladesh in 1971 whenChina more or less asked the Indian naxalites to support the side ofPakistan (which was a political suicide in India at the time). On this issue Majumdar's line had some differentiation from that of the CPC. He gave emphasis to supporting the armed struggle of theEast Pakistan Communist Party (Marxist-Leninist) , which fought against bothPakistan and theBangladesh i national liberation movement. Majumdar's line and the Chinese line caused conflict in CPI(ML) and produced splits, such as that ofAshim Chatterjee .The pro-Majumdar CPI(ML) later split into pro- and anti-
Lin Biao factions. The pro-Lin Biao group became known asCommunist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Mahadev Mukherjee) and the anti-Lin Biao -group later became known asCommunist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation .A third major current at this time was
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Central Organising Committee , led bySuniti Kumar Ghosh . CPI(ML) COC was a reorganisation attempt that tried to differentiate from the Majumdar line, without completely discarding Majumdar as a political leader.Today
Today, there exists a large number of political organizations whose roots are in the AICCCR/CPI(ML). Some maintain and develop Majumdar's concept of armed revolution, whereas others have condemned the excesses of the sectarian epoch. The organizations belonging to the latter category have established legal overground structures (trade unions, student groups, etc.) and started participating in elections.
The more militant sector comprises:
*Communist Party of India (Maoist) -- result of a September 2004 merger between theMaoist Communist Centre (MCC) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) People's War, also known as thePeople's War Group (PWG)
*Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti
*Communist Party of United States of India
*Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Naxalbari
*Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Mahadev Mukherjee) The more moderate sector comprises:
*Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation
*Provisional Central Committee, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
*Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), led by Kanu Sanyal
*Communist Revolutionary League of India
*Marxist-Leninist Committee A middle-category can be said to consist of parties such as
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) New Democracy (who combine legal methods with armed struggle).Lastly, these organizations should not be confused with the
Communist Party of India and theCommunist Party of India (Marxist) , which are mainstream national parties recognized by theElection Commission of India .
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