| • Science | • People | • Locations | • Timeline |
Mural in Thiruvananthapuram.
During the 1920s and beginning of 1930s the party was badly organized, and in practice there were several communist groups working with limited national coordination. The British colonial authorities had banned all communist activity, which made the task of building a united party very difficult. Only in 1935 was the party ready to be accepted as the Indian section of the Communist Third International.
In connection with the change of policy of the Comintern toward Popular Front politics, the Indian communists changed their relation to the Indian National Congress. The communists joined the Congress Socialist Party (CSP), the left wing of Congress. In Kerala communists won control over CSP, and for a brief period controlled Congress there.
During the Second World War, there were drastic changes for the Indian communists. After that the USSR had sided with Britain in the war, the Communist Party of India was legalized for the first time. Communists strengthened their control over the All India Trade Union Congress. At the same time, communists were politically cornered for their opposition to the Quit India Movement.
CPI Orissa office.
During the period around and directly following Independence in 1947, the internal situation in the party was chaotic. The party shifted rapidly between left-wing and right-wing positions. In several areas the party led armed struggles against a series of local monarchs that were reluctant to give up their power. Such insurgencies took place in Tripura, Tebghana and Kerala. The most important rebellion took place in TelanganaTelangana is an unofficial region of India's Andhra Pradesh state. It includes the northwestern interior districts of Khammam, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Rangareddi, Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Adilabad, Medak, and the capital, Hyderabad. The region lies, against the Nizam of HyderabadHyderbd was an autonomous princely state of south-central India from 1724 until 1948, ruled by a hereditary Nizam and an Indian state from 1948 to 1956. Its capital city Hyderabad was for most of that time one of India's four largest cities. Hyderabad was. The communists built up a people's army and militia and controlled an area with a population of three million. The rebellion was brutally crushed and the party abandoned the policy of armed struggle. In the general elections in 1957, the CPI emerged as the largest opposition party.
In 1957, the CPI won the state elections in Kerala. This was the first time that a opposition party won control over an Indian state. E. M. S. NamboodiripadElankulam Manakkal Sankaran Namboodiripad ( 1909 1998), popularly known as EMS was one of the architects of unified Kerala. He was renowned as a brave and committed socialist, historian and a marxian theorist. EMS was born on June 13 1909 in Perinthalmann became Chief Minister.
A serious division began in 1962. One reason was the Sino-Indian WarThe Sino-Indian war was fought in 1962 between China and India. The following information is courtesy of the Field Marshal Military Web Project. Introduction On October 16, 1962, eleven years after it had invaded Tibet, the Peoples Republic of China assai, where the Soviet faction of the Indian communists backed the position of the Indian government, while other sections of the party claimed that it was a conflict between a socialist and a capitalist state, and thus took a pro-Chinese position. The internal split was sealed in 1964 when two different party conferences were held, one of CPI and one of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), and thus the party was split.
During the period 1970-77, CPI was allied with Congress. In Kerala, where there was government together with Congress, with the CPI-leader Achutha Menon as Chief Minister. After the fall of the regime of Indira Gandhi, CPI reoriented itself towards cooperation with CPI(M).