PRAGOTI

http://www.deshabhimani.com/Profile.aspx?user=62806

In West Bengal and elsewhere too, they have created similar 'civil society' groups for similar purpose. The US Government (if there is any) should be forced to disband organizations like the CIA and retract their imperialist machinations. The time is ripe for a total worldwide economic boycott of the US.

I totally agree with your comment on this.

congrats to pragoti for this excellent interview. hope to see more such interviews and write ups in future highlighting the successful struggles being waged in the country under the red banner.

The role of members of the emigre Communist Party at Tashkhent, mostly ex-Muhajirs along with M. N. Roy and Evelyn Roy, cannot be minimised; it will be ahistoric, communally occlusive and anti-internationalist to do so. Despite arrests and persecutions by colonial authorities through a series of Conspiracy Cases in the early 1920s, these early communists from an Indian Muslim backgroud contributed to the growth of the CPI both in and outside India. Their role within India, especially in Lahore and Delhi, are amply recorded. Many, including Abdul Majid and Ferozuddin Mansur returned and after long stints in jail, were at the forefront of building the CPI. They must not be erased from the memory of future communists as founders of the Party. Even while living in exile outside India, early 'Tashkhent communists' like Khushi Mohammed, sent funds and instructions of the Comintern and organised Indian students and workers in Europe; never allowed to return by the British colonisers, he was also in charge of the foreign bureu of the CPI in Paris during the inter-war years and executed by the Nazis when they occupied the city. The Kanpur Conference of 1925 was organised by some very questionable types who wished to build 'a national communist party' without any connection with the Third Communist International; those who were already members of the CPI and had already undergone imprisnment, such as Muzaffar Ahmad, attended it in order to prevent these elements from styling themselves as communists. And the CPI participants succeeded in doing this by taking over the conference and formalising a communist network that already existed in India and was connected with the Comintern. It will therefore not do to dismiss 1920 and valorise 1925 in search of 'national' roots of the CPI. The social roots and networks of the CPI can be traced both within and outside India; as for a formal party, it was first floated in 1920 in Tashkhent. Those thinking along left lines in India at the time, inspired by the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917, were soon contacted by this emigre Party. I suggest a judicious reading of Muzaffar Ahmad's 'Myself and the Communist Party of India' for proper education on the subject.

Pragoti apologises to its readers for the inappropriate title and introduction to the original post. This has now been changed. The purpose of this post is to commemorate the Kanpur Conference of 1925 which was a landmark event in the history of the Communist movement in India where most of the regionally confined communist groups and parties merged into the Communist Party of India, as did the earlier, emigre Communist Party formed in Tashkent in 1920.
 

This is probably the best interview on Pragoti, as it is more of a conversation than an interview between two grassroots activists. That the interview, the transcription and upload was done through a colloborative effort, is encouraging as more such conversations with ears to the ground can be made possible. Thanks to all who were involved.

zaforollah, does the alleged attacks by the cpm cadres on journalists in nandigram justify the attack on himal by the nepalese maoists? please make your stand clear..

Well,for our corporate-controlled media, only the Congress and the BJP are the national parties whose leaders' speech must 'reach' the public,not the speech of Sitaram Yechury or that of Mohd Salim of the CPI(M). Why should our media 'waste' their precious airtime or space by covering the speeches of Sitaram Yechury? They will prefer to sell the speech of Raghul Gandhi any day to the public than that of Yechury, even of the former's speech does not contain any real substance.

Even on the day when the Mumbai terror attack was being debated in Lok Sabha, the media first gave a live coverage of the speeches of Chidambaran, LK Advani and Pranab Mukherji in full on all the three mainstream English TV channels. When Mohd Salim was speaking, only one channel was initially showing his speech live for 5 minutes or so and then quietly switched over to other programmes . And Yechury;s speech was not even mentioned in their news coverage itself. So much for their so-called 'unbiased 'and 'balanced' coverage the media boasts of.

The media is very particular in selling the concept of 2 party system to Indian people by denying the due political space for the Left. As such, if they dont cover Yechury's or Salim's speech,it fits very much in their scheme of things of either blacking out or belittling the Left ,the CPI(M) in particular.

R Maran
Tamilnadu

Very good speech. I wonder why this has not got media coverage

I do agree with you that India should create an international pressure on Pakistan to flush out the terrorist elememts from its soil. But I doubt that the Zardari-Gilani governmnent have such strength to act against the jihadi forces on their own i.e. without the support of military establishment. That is why I feel that we should also take in account the Pakistani military in any scheme to root out the terrorist bases acting against India. Moreover, unfortunately, we know that the popular mood in our neihgboring country is that of suspicion and denial about India's claim. May be, because of this, the present democratic ruling dispention is lacking enough conviction to act honestly against these murderers. But I beleive that only a democratic power can sincerely fight the fundamental forces and not the army which, until 9/11, was the bedfellow of mullahs.

There are links to Tamil version of the pages in here; but the links don't seem to work.

Can someone please see into that.