Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in India

Writings of Marx & Engels on India

Comintern and Cominform on India

Works by Evelyn Roy
The Crisis in Indian Nationalism by Evelyn Roy (1922)
Politics in Gaya by Evelyn Roy (1923)
Some Facts about the Bombay Strike by Evelyn Roy (1924)
Indian Political Exiles in France by Evelyn Roy (1925)

Baku Congress of Peoples of the East

baku congress
Minutes of the Congress of the Peoples of the East (Baku, September 1920)

Speech at the Opening of the Second All-Russian Congress of Communist Organizations of the Peoples of the East Josef Stalin (1919)

The Political Tasks of the University of the Peoples of the East Josef Stalin (1925)

Shapurji Saklatvala

British Capital and Indian Revolt Shapurji Saklatvala for The Communist (1922)
Faked Indian Statistics as Imperialist Propaganda by V Chattopadhyay for Labour Monthly (September 1930)
The Indian Masses Move Forward by D.P.R. Gunawardena for Labour Monthly (February 1932)
The Meerut Sentences by R. Page Arnot for Labour Monthly (February 1933)
The Background in India by Ben Bradley for Labour Monthly (March 1934)
The Sixty-Six Per Cent Background to the India Bill by Joan Beauchamp for Labour Monthly (March 1935)
The Indian Elections by Ben Bradley for Labour Monthly (March 1937)
On the Eve of the Indian National Congress Labour Monthly (March 1938)
The Haripura Session by Ben Bradley for Labour Monthly (April 1938)
India and World Peace by V R Krishna Menon for Labour Monthly (June 1938)
Indian Workers’ Great One-Day Strike by Ben Bradley for Labour Monthly (January 1939)
Indian Nationalism After Tripuri by Bill Bradley for Labour Monthly (May 1939)
The Bombay Strike by S.S. Batliwala for Labour Monthly (December 1939)
Indian National Congress Resolution Labour Monthly (April 1940)
India Before Storm by Michael Carritt for Labour Monthly (May 1940)
India To-day by Page Arnot for Labour Monthly (September 1940)
India's Agrarian revolution by Michael Carritt for Labour Monthly (November 1940)
Civil Liberty in the Empire by Desmond Buckle for Labour Monthly (February 1941)
The Crisis in India by Michael Carritt for Labour Monthly (February 1941)
India — A Call to the British People by Harry Pollitt for Labour Monthly (June 1941)
Indian Trade Union Movement Labour Monthly (June 1941)
India — What Must be Done by Ben Bradley for Pamphlet of Communist Party of Great Britain (1942)
India Problems — 4 articles for Pamphlet of Communist Party of Great Britain (December, 1942)
What is Happening in India? by Sharaf Athar Ali for World News and Views (March 12, 1949)

Trotsky on India

An Open Letter to the Workers of India Leon Trotsky (July 25, 1939)

Writings on the Revolutionary Movements in India

Abani Mukherji: Indian Labour Movement: A Review of the Situation (1922)

Articles by Ajit Roy from Workers' International News
Ferment in India July 1939
Congress Socialism 1939
Friends of India 1943
India — The Role of Congress Leaders 1943

Hemu Kalani: Ministry-Makers and "Leftist" Fakers from Fourth International, July 1945

Forward to Socialist Revolution Statement of policy on International and National situation as passed and adopted by the [Revolutionary Socialist Party at its] Third All-National Conference, 1948. (BASTI, U.P.)

A Positive Programme for Indian Revolution Articles Reproduced from The Call
(September, October, November and December, 1973)
This booklet offers a brief but comprehensive rationale for Socialist Revolution as the immediate stage of Revolution in the post-Independence India, as advocated by the Revolutionary Socialist Party of India and some other groups, as opposed to various forms of Democratic Revolution - as espoused by the CPI, CPIM, CPIML, CPI(Maoist) and such other offshoots from the official communist movement in India.

This remains an important ongoing debate in the Indian context.

The Swing Back: A critical survey of the devious zig-zags of CPI political line
by Tridib Chaudhuri (1947-1950)

Origins of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) by Buddhadeva Bhattacharya (1982)
This work is something of an historical document which traces the trajectory of the evolution of the leading section of militant nationalism into a Marxist current.

The work focuses upon a specific chapter and aspect of India’s Freedom Movement — its complex and evolving relationship with Marxism in terms of the genesis of a political party, swearing by Revolutionary Marxism-Leninism, called the RSP (the Revolutionary Socialist Party).

Spring Thunder Over India (1967) People's Daily

Sushital Roy Choudhuri: Ranadive Tries To Deceive (1967)

Trotskyist Writings on India

Critiques of Gandhism

Present Events in India by "N." (December 1921)

The Debacle of Gandhism by Evelyn Roy (1922)

The End of Gandhi by R. Palme Dutt (1922)

India Past Present and Future (Book Review) Labour Monthly (1922)

Mahatma Gandhi: Revolutionary or Counter-Revolutionary? A Reply to Romain Rolland and Henri Barbusse by Evelyn Roy (1923)

On Non-Violence and the Masses by MN Roy (November 10, 1923)

Who is this Gandhi? by Shapurji Saklatvala (1930)

To Young Political Workers by Bhagat Singh (February 2, 1931)

The Sino-Indian War (1962)

The Himalayan Adventure: India-China War of 1962 — Causes and Consequences
by Suniti Kumar Ghosh (2002)

Selections from The Sino-Indian Boundary Question

Statement of the Government of the People’s Republic of China (October 24, 1962)
Premier Chou En-Lai’s Letter to Prime Minister Nehru (November 7, 1959)

Indian Writers and Political Leaders

M N Roy Bhagat Singh (1907-1931)
Celebrated revolutionary and a major figure in the Indian independence movement of the early Twentieth Century. Singh was active in revolutionary struggle from an early age and he was briefly affiliated with the Mohandas Gandhi's "Non-Cooperation" movement, although Singh would break with Gandhi's philosophy of non-violent resistance later in life. full biography

M N Roy D.D. Kosambi (1907-1966)
Mathematician, Indologist, historian, political theorist and commentator. As a Marxist, D.D. Kosambi applied Historical Materialism to the analysis of ancient Indian civilisations and societies. A prominent peace activist, Kosambi helped to raise awareness regarding the threat that nuclear weapons pose to humanity. full biography

On Japanese Rearmament: An Indian View (June 16, 1951)
Full Text of D.D. Kosambi's Exasperating Essays (1957)

M N Roy M.N. Roy (1887-1954)
A principal figure in revolutionary nationalism in his early years, M. N. Roy eventually became the forerunner of Marxian politics in India. Roy had a leading role in revolutionary movements in India, Mexico, the Middle East, the Soviet Union, Indonesia and China. full biography

Charu Mazumdar (1918-1972)
First General Secretary and Co-Founder of the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI-ML). Joined Tebhaga Movement in 1946 and organized the leftist faction of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in the 1960s. Mazumdar was instrumental in the Naxalbari peasant uprising of 1967 and soon thereafter, Mazumdar and Kanu Sanyal formed the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) and later founded the CPI-ML. Mazumdar was arrested in July 1972 and died in custody, reportedly following torture at the hands of the police.

Vinod Mishra (1947-1998)
General Secretary of CPI-ML (Liberation) from 1975 to 1998. His important theoretical contributions include writings on party organization building, collective leadership and political unity, as well as his theories on caste, class and gender issues in the Indian context. full birography

Shibdas Ghosh (1923-1976)
Founder of Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI).

Vinod Mishra Cherukuri Rajkumar "Azad" (1952-2010)
Leading member of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoist). He was instrumental in establishing the party in Karnataka and Maharashtra, and in supporting its "People's War". In time Azad became the leading spokesperson for the party's Central Committee.

Other Writings

Rajani Palme Dutt—Great Son of the Indian People by Dilip Bose (1975)

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"There are three alternatives. To march at their head and lead them? To trail behind them, gesticulating and criticizing? Or to stand in their way and oppose them?"