The Communist Party turns 100 in India – but its legacy is paradoxical

The Indian Communist Party was born in Kanpur in 1925. A party centenary is an occasion for celebration and also to restate the aims, path and reinforce the character of the organisation. But if spirit is lacking, the celebration will ring hollow.

Over the century, the Party has gone through several splits. In time, it has given birth to various Left mass formations, or inspired them. The focus on elections and electoral victories in some states transformed an organisation that aimed to be a Leninist party into a mass party with Leftist ideas.

But as the Party – a word that in this article is an idea as well an organisation that includes the various communist parties in India without intending to dismiss their differences as meaningless – became Left and democratic, it left behind the communist nature of its ideals, goals and methods.

Has this transformation of the Communist Party into a mass party with Leftist ideas been an unalloyed achievement?

In India, centenary celebrations will surely follow among followers of the Leftist movement and the different communist parties like the Communist Party of India, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist), the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation and the Communist...

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