Growth Of The Left Wing In The Congress And Communists

Growth Of The Left Wing In The Congress And Communists

The 1930’s witnessed the rapid growth of socialist ideas within and outside the Congress. In 1929, there was a great economic depression in the United States which gradually spread to the rest of the world. In all the capitalist countries there was a steep decline in production and foreign trade, resulting in economic distress and large scale unemployment. On the other hand, the economic situation in the Soviet Union, not only was there no slump, but the years between 1929 and 1936 witnessed the successful completion of the first two Five Year Plans which pushed the Soviet industrial production by more than four times. The world depression, thus, brought the capitalist system into disrepute and drew attention towards socialism and economic planning. Consequently, socialist ideas began to attract more people, especially the youth, the workers, and the peasants.

The left-wing in Congress also grew because of the work of Jawaharlal Nehru and Subash Chandra Bose. Nehru had an association with Fabian socialists in England but it was his tour to Europe and Russia in 1926 and 1927 which turned him into a socialist. He went to Brussels to attend the International Congress on Imperialism and Colonial Exploitation as the representative of the Congress in 1926 where he met freedom fighters from all over the world and was introduced to socialist ideas. His visit to the Soviet Union in 1927 as a state guest made him see the progress Soviet Union was making under socialism and turned him into a die-hard socialist. He popularised socialist ideas in the Congress with the help of Subash Bose and formed the Independence of India league which was against Dominion Status and pressed for complete independence or Poorna Swarajya. He was elected as President of the Congress three times in 1929, 1936 and 1937.

Bose was more influenced by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda who spoke for the downtrodden and his mentor C.R. Das who held that Swaraj should be secured for the masses and not the classes. He played an important role in spreading socialist ideas along with Nehru by delivering lectures and mass rallies. Bose was elected as President of Congress twice in 1938 and 1939. Another development was the formation of the Congress Socialist Party by a group of young socialists in 1934 after the Civil Disobedience Movement was withdrawn. Acharya Narendradev was made the President while other famous leaders were Jayaprakash Narayan. Achyut Ratuvardhan etc. Their main objective was to act as a socialist pressure group within the Congress, give it a socialist direction and also support socialist leadership.

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