[This is Part 2 of the two-part series. Part 1 was published in the previous issue.]

Five

Are Communists not Indian? Who, then, can claim to be more Indian than the Communists? 

In 1921, at the Ahmedabad session of the Congress, it was the Communists who first raised the demand for complete independence— voiced by none other than Maulana Hasrat Mohani and Swami Kumarananda. The following year, at the Gaya session, Communists raised the demand again. Gandhi was displeased at the time. Eight years later, in 1929, the Lahore session of the Congress finally adopted the call for Purna Swaraj (complete independence). In 1931, the Karachi session set out the blueprint for an independent India.

Communists played a decisive role in the freedom movement and in shaping independent India: they forced crucial issues onto the national agenda, made immense sacrifices, and gave their lives as martyrs. Consider this telling fact— at the party’s first Congress in Bombay in 1943, 139 delegates representing 15,563 members had, between them, spent a combined 411 years in prison. To put it starkly: the party’s leaders had spent more than half of their political lives behind bars. Kalpana Dutta and Kamala Chatterjee, for instance, were imprisoned for seven and a half years each. Even as the Congress was in session, 695 party members remained jailed— 105 of them serving life sentences.

After independence, Communists were present in every major debate on building the new India. They raised the question of land rights— confronting zamindars and landlords from Tebhaga to Telangana. They forced land reform onto the national agenda. They fought for the recognition of linguistic diversity and the redrawing of political boundaries along linguistic lines. They made vital contributions to India’s federal structure and Centre-State relations— and to the causes of social justice and secularism.

As early as 1931, it was the Communist Party that first demanded an end to the caste system and untouchability in its Draft Platform of Action.

So, who are the traitors? And who are the patriots? Were Savarkar and Vajpayee— who signed pledges of loyalty to the British— patriots? Were those who betrayed freedom fighters to the British patriots? Or were Bhagat Singh and Lakshmi Sahgal the patriots? Are those who contributed nothing to the freedom struggle— who in fact aided the British Raj— patriots? Or were Khudiram Bose, Surya Sen, and Kalpana Dutta the patriots? Was the Sangh, which actively aided the British rulers, patriotic? Or were the Muslims who fought British rule and shed their blood— are they the patriots? Were Sidhu, Kanu, and Birsa Munda— along with countless other Adivasis— not patriots?

Are those who sell out India’s public industries to foreign buyers for a pittance, while permitting the unrestrained plunder of water, forests, and mines, not the true traitors? Are those who engineer the disappearance of crores in tax revenue, who conceal illicit wealth and abscond from the country, not the ones committing treason against the nation?

Six

Communists are, simultaneously, both patriots and internationalists. There is no contradiction between love for one’s country and solidarity with working people across the globe.

Mao himself once posed the question: “Can a Communist, who is an internationalist, at the same time be a patriot? We hold that he not only can be but also must be. We are at once internationalists and patriots, and our slogan is, Fight to defend the motherland against the aggressors.”

And here, once again, we return to Rabindranath. And to Marx. 

The terms “patriotism” and “nationalism” may appear synonymous, yet they are not. Nor is “patriotism” equivalent to “devotional nationalism.” “Love” (Prem) encompasses disagreement and dissent. “Devotion” (Bhakti), by contrast, implies blind obedience— unquestioning surrender. We stand for love, not for blind devotion. Genuine love for one’s country means dedication— not hatred or violence against others.

In the very country where Where the mind is without fear was written, a large segment of the population is now expected to bow their heads and obey the ruler’s dictates. In his novel Ghare Baire (The Home and the World), the character Nikhilesh observes: “Those who must cry ‘Mother, Mother!’ and recite prayers to feel love for their country— their love is not truly for the country, but for the intoxication.” And Rabindranath, through the character Bimala, articulates Nikhilesh’s view: “He said: I am prepared to serve my country, but the one I will worship stands far above it. If I worship the country itself, the country will be destroyed.”

Their question is this: why should there be portraits of Marx, Engels, Lenin, and Stalin? In our party’s state office, within the editorial board’s meeting room, none of their portraits appear. There is only Rabindranath— painted by none other than Sanatan Dinda. Below it stands the statue of Comrade Muzaffar Ahmad. The building bears his name. The central office in Delhi is designated A.K. Gopalan Bhavan. The new party edifice is Harkishan Singh Surjit Bhavan. And the CPI’s central office is Ajoy Bhavan. Meanwhile, in Nepal, the Sangh’s sister organisation, HSS, maintains its headquarters under the name Keshav Dham— and in Delhi, there is Keshav Kunj. In Birganj, the principal’s chamber is titled the Hedgewar Room, and the third floor displays a portrait of Golwalkar.

But— and this calls for honest self-reflection— in the Communist Party’s early years, most who joined were educated, middle-class, or relatively well-off. As a result, national-level programmes often took cues from Russian, European, or English models. Had the base been more grounded in farmers and workers, the “classroom” model might never have arisen. Where peasant movements were strong, names reflected that— Krishak Praja Party, Peasants and Workers Party of Maharashtra. Newspapers were titled Langal (Plough), Navaug, Dhumketu, Swadhinata. Yet composed songs frequently imitated European and Russian tunes rather than Bhatiyali, Bhawaiya, Gambhira, Jhumur, or other folk forms. IPTA (Indian People’s Theatre Association) later reclaimed the earthy idiom of the local soil. More attention could have gone to Kabir, Nanak, Baba Farid, and Lalon. While Europe remained mired in the Middle Ages, India was already developing a non-communal, progressive, and harmonious tradition. Had we cultivated that tradition more consciously, we would be stronger today.

Seven

Songs must carry a folk melody. The language must be simple and vernacular, drawn from everyday speech. In Kerala and West Bengal, much of this was accomplished. In Bengal, processions, dawn marches, choral singing, flower showers, and the sandalwood mark on the forehead as a gesture of welcome— with women in red-bordered sarees and male volunteers in white pyjama-kurtas— all integrate Bengali culture. Khaki shorts, full pants, or batons and tridents in hand— none of that belongs to any Indian tradition

Indeed, we still have a considerable distance to traverse. Indian culture cannot be reduced to any single religious tradition. Any custom that shackles us— we shall not bear that burden. We must relinquish it. And whatever propels us forward— we shall embrace it as a golden thread and disseminate it through practice. 

And so, we conclude once more with Rabindranath. His understanding was this: Indian civilisation is multi-layered. To isolate one stratum and declare it the totality of Indian tradition is erroneous. Furthermore, there is no fundamental antagonism between Indian— Eastern— civilisation and Western civilisation; there exists, rather, a profound connection and relationship between them. We must therefore judge with an open mind. Whatever brings us joy— irrespective of origin— is ours to claim. And whatever is flawed, we ought not accept merely because it arises from our own soil. (Amartya Sen, address at Santiniketan after receiving the Nobel Prize) 

We, too, hold this conviction:

Come out of your self,

Stand in the open;

Within your heart wilt you hear

The response of all the worlds.

[Original Source: Apan Hote Bahir Hoye, Marxbadi Path (marxbadipath.org); April 1, 2026]