No to Reformism,

No to Anarchism,

March to Revolution

 

International Situation and Our Tasks

On Character of Indian State

On Principal Contradiction

Party Program

Party Constitution

Path of Indian Revolution

 

(BASIC DOCUMENTS OF THE CPI(ML) ADOPTED BY THE ALL INDIA SPECIAL CONFERENCE OF NOVEMBER 2009 AND NINTH PARTY CONGRESS IN NOVEMBER 2011)

 

A Historic Step Forward

THE six basic documents: The International Situation and Our Tasks, On Character of Indian State, On Principal Contradiction, Party Program, Party Constitution and Path of Indian Revolution are published as decided by the Ninth Party Congress as part of the ideological-political campaign to deepen the understanding about the Program and path of Indian revolution in the present stage among the party members and the revolutionary forces as a whole. Among these: the International Situation and Our Tasks, On Character of Indian State On Principal Contradiction and the Path of Indian Revolution are the basic documents adopted by the All India Special Conference held in November, 2009, and updated based on the Party Program adopted by the Ninth Party Congress held in November, 2011. The Party Constitution was also amended and adopted by the Ninth Congress. They provide the basic orientation and path of Indian revolution in the concrete conditions of today and are the products of the ideological struggle during the last four decades in the communist movement based on the guiding ideology of the CPI(ML), Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought.

It was after a gap of 41 years the Ninth Congress of the CPI(ML) was convened from 7th to 12th November, 2011 at Bhubaneswar in Odisha. The first Congress of the Communist Party of India (CPI) was held in 1943. Till its Sixth Congress in 1961, it had remained united in spite of serious inner-Party struggles, which went on intensifying and started coming out in the open from the time of the Fourth Congress in 1956. These inner-Party struggles led to the first split in the communist movement in the country in 1964. The CPI(M) was formed and the Seventh Congress took place in the same year. But as the leadership of the CPI(M) took a centrist line, the inner-Party struggle intensified within it leading to the Naxalbari Uprising of 1967, to the second split in the communist movement and to the formation of the CPI(ML) in 1969 upholding Marxism-Leninism-Mao Tsetung Thought as its ideological guideline.

In 1970 the First Congress of the CPI(ML), that is the Eighth Congress of the Communist movement, was held which adopted a new Party Program. Though it succeeded to bring the agrarian revolution and completion of the People’s Democratic Revolution back to the agenda of the Indian people, it had come under the influence of left adventurist line divorced from Indian realities. As a result, when the Indian state unleashed a severe onslaught against the movement, it soon disintegrated. It is after more than four decades of incessant efforts for the reorganization of the Party by developing the Marxist-Leninist understanding according to the concrete conditions of today and applying them for the development of the theory and practice of Indian revolution, the Ninth Party Congress was convened, marking a historic step forward in the nine decades long history of the Communist movement in the country.

Following the victory of the great victory of the October Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, formation of Soviet Union and founding of the Third or Communist International (Comintern) in 1919, based on their lessons Lenin had put forward the ideological-political orientation and the strategic line of the two streams of World Proletarian Socialist Revolution, the socialist revolutions in the imperialist countries and the People’s Democratic Revolutions (PDR) in the countries under colonial domination, or in the colonial, semi-colonial and dependent countries, to be applied under the concrete conditions of each country. By applying the Comintern positions according to the concrete conditions, the Communist Party of China (CPC) under the leadership of Mao Tsetung could lead the democratic revolution to great victory and to the formation of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949.

But the experience of the nine decades of Indian Communist Movement was quite different. In spite of the very favorable objective conditions for completing the PDR in the colonial India, the CPI leadership failed to apply the Comintern positions to the concrete conditions here and to recognize the comprador character of the big bourgeoisie and the bureaucratic class, and of the leadership of the Congress and the Muslim League. As a result, even though the Party and class and mass organizations could make great advances and the Party could play important role in developing the working class movement and the anti-feudal struggles, it failed to establish the leadership of the working class in the independence struggle to overthrow the British colonialists and their lackeys (An overview of this failure is given in the booklet, Nine Decades of the Indian Communist Movement).

The Second Congress of the CPI in 1948, held after the transfer of power to the comprador classes, rejected this reformist line. But once again, failing to analyze the concrete conditions at international and national levels, when imperialist camp under US imperialism had transformed the colonial plunder to neo-colonial forms, and to utilize the favorable conditions created through the Telengana struggle and numerous other struggles, the leadership resorted to a left sectarian line based on the ‘Calcutta thesis’. The sporadic struggles that took place were brutally suppressed by the Congress government and the Party faced a crisis. The interim Telengana leadership that took over also could not provide a revolutionary orientation, and the crisis deepened. It was in this situation, the Party Program, Policy Statement and Tactical Line adopted in 1951 after consultation with the CPSU leadership, provided a positive orientation to the Party calling for an Indian path of revolution utilizing all forms of struggle for the capture of political power. 

But the new leadership elected did not follow this line. It withdrew the Telengana struggle and failed to develop a revolutionary orientation for utilizing the parliamentary struggles. As soon as the Krushchovite leadership in Soviet Union came out with its revisionist line, by the time of the Fourth Congress in 1956, CPI came under its influence. Under the line of ‘peaceful transition to socialism’ of Soviet revisionists, it took the line of National Democratic Revolution, taking the stand that the big bourgeoisie and the Congress Party are predominantly national bourgeois in character. Emergence and strengthening of this revisionist line led to intensification of inner Party struggle and the first split in the undivided Party in 1964, leading to formation of CPI(M). But as its leadership took a centrist line which soon led it to neo-revisionist positions, and to parliamentary cretinism, the inner-Party struggle intensified against it.

Following the Naxalbari Uprising, the Communist Revolutionaries openly started rebelling, leading to the second split and formation of the CPI(ML). But, soon it came under the influence of the left adventurist line which was gaining dominance in the CPC, and mechanically following it advocated the ‘Chinese Path’, contrary to the concrete conditions here, declared India is in ‘semi-colonial, semi-feudal’ condition like pre-revolutionary China, and advocated armed struggle as the only form of struggle, with the ‘line of annihilation of class enemies’ to launch it. In spite of the positive contribution of the 1970 Eighth Congress of the CPI(ML) of bringing agrarian revolution and the PDR back to the agenda of the Indian people, due to the sectarian line, it got alienated from the revolutionary classes and under severe state suppression soon disintegrated as stated in the beginning.

From that time different groups have tried to reorganize the Party and to revive the revolutionary struggles. But almost all of them, including those who claim to have rejected the sectarian past and to have adopted mass line, refuse to go deep in to the reasons for the setbacks suffered by the movement in India, and in the larger context of the setbacks suffered by the international communist movement during the last four decades or more.  While the groups who merged to form CPI(Maoist), claiming to uphold the 1970 line, degenerated to anarchist positions, others even after adopting mass line, refuse to reject the ‘semi-colonial, semi-feudal, people’s war’ line, the very source of the sectarian positions. At the same time, a section of these forces even claiming itself as the most ardent upholders of Naxalbari line, have degenerated to rightist positions, including electoral alliance with CPI(M)-CPI like forces. Few others have gone to the other extreme by characterizing India as capitalist and stage of revolution as socialist. But, none of them could make any headway in the reorganization of the Party at all India level and in developing the line of revolution based on the concrete conditions of the country. Even those who could make some progress in the beginning are now fumbling in the darkness.

It is in these circumstances, a section of the CPI(ML) after the severe setbacks to the communist movement at international level and in India took up the concrete analysis of the changes that have taken place in the world situation and in the imperialist system after the Second World War when imperialism replaced its colonial forms of plunder with neo-colonial ones. It made an evaluation of the dissolution of the Comintern in 1943, almost without any opposition from any of its members. It is these critical studies which helped it to develop a study of the post-Second World War developments in the imperialist system when it transformed its colonial plunder to neo-colonial forms and to the evaluation that the setbacks suffered by the ICM took place, in the main, due to the failure to recognize it. It is after consistent efforts to develop the ideological-political line based on Marxist-Leninist positions, and evaluating the long experience about Party reorganization undertaken from the time of the First All India Conference in 1982, that it successfully organized the All India Special Conference in 2009, which put forward the documents: International Situation and our Tasks, On Character of Indian State, On Principal Contradiction and on the Path of Indian Revolution.

It created the basic premise to play an important role in the founding of the International Coordination of the Revolutionary Parties and Organizations (ICOR) with other like minded Parties in 2010, as a first step towards the reorganization of the Communist International. These developments created the conditions for convening the Ninth Party Congress, forty one years after the 1970 Congress.  The Party Congress has consolidated the 2009 Bhopal Conference positions through the Party Program adopted by it, developing the basic line of Indian revolution. The documents adopted by the Bhopal Conference updated based on the Party Program, along with the amended Party Constitution are the basic documents of the Indian revolution developed in the course of the strenuous ideological political struggles during the last four decades. We are presenting these documents before all revolutionary forces and left masses for carrying forward the building of the Party and class and mass organization at all India level, for developing the class struggle in all fields with a comprehensive world outlook they provide and to carry forward the Party reorganization uniting all communist revolutionary forces that can be united, so as to make CPI(ML) capable of leading the PDR to great victory utilizing the present favorable objective situation.

These documents were distributed at their draft stage itself for ever deeper discussion, not only inside the Party but outside also, inviting responses from all. After adoption by the Party Congress and updating, they are again taken to broader sections for further discussions at all levels, cutting across the boundaries of different organizations, as the basis for developing active revolutionary practice. We appeal to all Communist Revolutionary forces to unite on the basis of these documents to complete the tasks of the PDR and to advance towards socialist revolution, upholding proletarian internationalism.

Central Committee

Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)

1 January, 2012