COURSE-420.

UNIT-3
BY Dr. ALEYA MOUSAMI SULTANA
DEPT. OF POLITICAL SCIENCE, CPBU.

LEFT PARTIES IN INDIA

The Left has 2 streams in the world and similarly in India. The Socialist and
Communist. The INC, SP, JD(S) , RJD etc. belong to the Socialist stream which
advocate the policies of social and economic justice. On the other hand, the CPIM,
CPI, Forward Bloc and the RSP belong to the Communist stream who believe in
more radical reforms like Land Reform, eradicating caste inequalities, controlling
capitalism and empowering workers cooperative and public sector industry . These
together form the Left Front in Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura and other states.
Also the CPI (Maoist) too is a communist party although unlike the others it does
not believe in parliamentary democracy but in armed struggle.

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (CPI)

It is the oldest communist political party in India, and one of the eight national
parties in the country. There are different views on exactly when it was founded.
The date maintained as the foundation day by the CPI is 26 December
1925. The Communist Party of India (Marxist), is also a national party, which was
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separated from the CPI in 1964 following an ideological rift between China and the
Soviet Union, continues to claim having been founded in 1920. The party remains
committed to Marxism–Leninism.

FORMATION
The Communist Party of India has officially stated that it was formed on 26
December 1925 at the first Party Conference in Kanpur, then Cawnpore. S.V.
Ghate was the first General Secretary of CPI. But as per the version of CPI (M),
the Communist Party of India was founded in Tashkent, Turkestan Autonomous
Soviet Socialist Republic on 17 October 1920, soon after the Second Congress of
the Communist International. The founding members of the party were M.N. Roy,
Evelyn Trent Roy (Roy's wife), Abani Mukherji, Rosa Fitingof (Abani's wife),
Mohammad Ali (Ahmed Hasan), Mohammad Shafiq Siddiqui, Hasrat
Mohani, Rafiq Ahmed of Bhopal and M.P.T. Aacharya, and Sultan Ahmed Khan
Tarin of North-West Frontier Province. The CPI says that there were many
communist groups formed by Indians with the help of foreigners in different parts
of the world and the Tashkent group was only one of. Contacts
with Anushilan and Jugantar groups in Bengal. Small communist groups were
formed in Bengal (led by Muzaffar Ahmed), Bombay (led by S.A.
Dange), Madras (led by Singaravelu Chettiar), United Provinces (led by Shaukat
Usmani) and Punjab and Sindh (led by Ghulam Hussain). However, only Usmani
became a CPI party member.

ROLE IN INDEPENDENCE STRUGGLE

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As we find that during the 1920s and the early 1930s the party was badly
organised, and in practice there were several communist groups working with
limited national co-ordination. The British colonial authorities had banned all
communist activity, which made the task of building a united party very difficult.
Between 1921 and 1924 there were three conspiracy trials against the communist
movement; First Peshawar Conspiracy Case, Meerut Conspiracy Case and
the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case. In the first three cases, Russian-trained
muhajir communists were put on trial. However, the Cawnpore trial had more
political impact. On 17 March 1924, Shripad Amrit Dange, M.N. Roy, Muzaffar
Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani, Singaravelu Chettiar, Ghulam Hussain and
R.C. Sharma were charged, in Cawnpore (now spelt Kanpur) Bolshevik
Conspiracy case. The specific pip charge was that they as communists were
seeking "to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by
complete separation of India from imperialistic Britain by a violent revolution."
Pages of newspapers daily splashed sensational communist plans and people for
the first time learned, on such a large scale, about communism and its doctrines
and the aims of the Communist International in India.

Singaravelu Chettiar was released on account of illness. M.N. Roy was

in Germany and R.C. Sharma in French Pondichéry, and therefore could not be
arrested. Ghulam Hussain confessed that he had received money from the Russians
in Kabul and was pardoned. Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani and
Dange were sentenced for various terms of imprisonment. This case was
responsible for actively introducing communism to a larger Indian
audience. Dange was released from prison in 1927. Rahul Dev Pal was a prominent
communist leader.

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On 25 December 1925 a communist conference was organised in Kanpur. Colonial
authorities estimated that 500 persons took part in the conference. The conference
was convened by a man called Satyabhakta. At the conference Satyabhakta argued
for a 'National communism' and against subordination under Comintern. Being
outvoted by the other delegates, Satyabhakta left the conference venue in protest.
The conference adopted the name 'Communist Party of India'. Groups such
as Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan (LKPH) dissolved into the unified CPI. The
émigré CPI, which probably had little organic character anyway, was effectively
substituted by the organisation now operating inside India.

Soon after the 1926 conference of the Workers and Peasants Party of Bengal, the
underground CPI directed its members to join the provincial Workers and Peasants
Parties. All open communist activities were carried out through Workers and
Peasants Parties. The sixth congress of the Communist International met in 1928.
In 1927 the Kuomintang had turned on the Chinese communists, which led to a
review of the policy on forming alliances with the national bourgeoisie in the
colonial countries. The Colonial theses of the 6th Comintern congress called upon
the Indian communists to combat the 'national-reformist leaders' and to 'unmask
the national reformism of the Indian National Congress and oppose all phrases of
the Swarajists, Gandhists, etc. about passive resistance'. The congress did however
differentiate between the character of the Chinese Kuomintang and the
Indian Swarajist Party, considering the latter as neither a reliable ally nor a direct
enemy. The congress called on the Indian communists to utilise the contradictions
between the national bourgeoisie and the British imperialists. The congress also
denounced the WPP. The Tenth Plenum of the Executive Committee of the
Communist International, 3 July 1929 – 19 July 1929, directed the Indian

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communists to break with WPP. When the communists deserted it, the WPP fell
apart.

The party was reorganised in 1933, after the communist leaders from the Meerut
trials were released. A central committee of the party was set up. In 1934 the party
was accepted as the Indian section of the Communist International.

When Indian leftwing elements formed the Congress Socialist Party in 1934, the
CPI branded it as Social Fascist.

The League Against Gandhism, initially known as the Gandhi Boycott Committee,
was a political organisation in Calcutta, founded by the underground Communist
Party of India and others to launch militant anti-Imperialist activities. The group
took the name ‘League Against Gandhism’ in 1934.

In connection with the change of policy of the Comintern toward Popular

Front politics, the Indian communists changed their relation to the Indian National
Congress. The communists joined the Congress Socialist Party, which worked as
the left wing of Congress. Through joining CSP, the CPI accepted the CSP demand
for a Constituent Assembly, which it had denounced two years before. The CPI
however analysed that the demand for a Constituent Assembly would not be a
substitute for soviets.

In July 1937, the first Kerala unit of CPI was founded at a clandestine meeting
in Calicut. Five persons were present at the meeting, P. Krishna Pillai E.M.S.
Namboodiripad, N.C. Sekhar, K. Damodaran and S.V. Ghate. The first four were
members of the CSP in Kerala. The latter, Ghate, was a CPI Central Committee
member, who had arrived from Madras. Contacts between the CSP in Kerala and
the CPI had begun in 1935, when P. Sundarayya (CC member of CPI, based in
Madras at the time) met with EMS and Krishna Pillai. Sundarayya and Ghate
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visited Kerala at several times and met with the CSP leaders there. The contacts
were facilitated through the national meetings of the Congress, CSP and All India
Kisan Sabha.

In 1936–1937, the co-operation between socialists and communists reached its

peak. At the 2nd congress of the CSP, held in Meerut in January 1936, a thesis was
adopted which declared that there was a need to build 'a united Indian Socialist
Party based on Marxism-Leninism'. At the 3rd CSP congress, held in Faizpur,
several communists were included into the CSP National Executive Committee.

In Kerala communists won control over CSP, and for a brief period controlled
Congress there.

Two communists, E.M.S. Namboodiripad and Z.A. Ahmed, became All India joint
secretaries of CSP. The CPI also had two other members inside the CSP executive.

On the occasion of the 1940 Ramgarh Congress Conference CPI released a

declaration called Proletarian Path, which sought to utilise the weakened state of
the British Empire in the time of war and gave a call for general strike, no-tax, no-
rent policies and mobilising for an armed revolutionary uprising. The National
Executive of the CSP assembled at Ramgarh took a decision that all communists
were expelled from CSP.

In July 1942, the CPI was legalised, as a result of Britain and the Soviet Union
becoming allies against Nazi Germany. Communists strengthened their control
over the All India Trade Union Congress. At the same time, communists were
politically cornered for their opposition to the Quit India Movement.

CPI contested the Provincial Legislative Assembly elections of 1946 of its own. It
had candidates in 108 out of 1585 seats. It won in eight seats. In total the CPI vote
counted 666 723, which should be seen with the backdrop that 86% of the adult
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population of India lacked voting rights. The party had contested three seats in
Bengal, and won all of them. One CPI candidate, Somnath Lahiri, was elected to
the Constituent Assembly.

POSITION AFTER INDEPENDENCE

During the period around and directly following Independence in 1947, the internal
situation in the party was chaotic. The party shifted rapidly between left-wing and
right-wing positions. In February 1948, at the 2nd Party Congress in Calcutta, B.
T. Ranadive (BTR) was elected General Secretary of the party. The conference
adopted the 'Programme of Democratic Revolution'. This programme included the
first mention of struggle against caste injustice in a CPI document.[

In several areas the party led armed struggles against a series of local monarchs
that were reluctant to give up their power. Such insurgencies took place
in Tripura, Telangana and Kerala. The most important rebellion took place in
Telangana, against the Nizam of Hyderabad. The Communists built up a people's
army and militia and controlled an area with a population of three million. The
rebellion was brutally crushed and the party abandoned the policy of armed
struggle. BTR was deposed and denounced as a 'left adventurist'.

In Manipur, the party became a force to reckon with through the agrarian struggles
led by Jananeta Irawat Singh. Singh had joined CPI in 1946. At the 1951 congress
of the party, 'People's Democracy' was substituted by 'National Democracy' as the
main slogan of the party.

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Communist Party was founded in Bihar in 1939. Post independence, communist
party achieved success in Bihar (Bihar and Jharkhand). Communist party
conducted movements for land reform, trade union movement was at its peak in
Bihar in the sixties, seventies and eighties. Achievement of communists in Bihar
placed the communist party in the forefront of left movement in India. Bihar
produced some of the legendary leaders like Kishan leaders Sahjanand Saraswati
and Karyanand Sharma, intellectual giants like Jagannath Sarkar, Yogendra
Sharma and Indradeep Sinha, mass leaders like Chandrashekhar Singh and Sunil
Mukherjee, Trade Union leaders like Kedar Das and others. It was in Bihar that
JP's total revolution was exposed and communist party under the leadership of
Jagannath Sarkar fought Total Revolution and exposed its hollowness. "Many
Streams" Selected Essays by Jagannath Sarkar and Reminiscing Sketches,
Compiled by Gautam Sarkar, Edited by Mitali Sarkar, First Published : May 2010,
Navakaranataka Publications Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore . In the Mithila region of Bihar
Bhogendra Jha led the fight against the Mahants and Zamindars. He later went on
the win Parliamentary elections and was MP for seven terms.

In early 1950s young communist leadership was uniting textile workers, bank
employees and unorganised sector workers to ensure mass support in north India.
National leaders like S A Dange, Chandra Rajeswara Rao and P K Vasudevan
Nair were encouraging them and supporting the idea despite their differences on
the execution. Firebrand Communist leaders like Homi F. Daji, Guru Radha
Kishan, H L Parwana, Sarjoo Pandey, Darshan Singh Canadian and Avtaar Singh
Malhotra were emerging between the masses and the working class in particular.
This was the first leadership of communists that was very close to the masses and
people consider them champions of the cause of the workers and the poor. In
Delhi, May Day (majdoor diwas or mai diwas) was organised at Chandni Chowk
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Ghantaghar in such a manner that demonstrates the unity between all the factions
of working classes and ignite the passion for communist movement in the northern
part of India.

In 1952, CPI became the first leading opposition party in the Lok Sabha, while the
Indian National Congress was in power.

Communist movement or CPI in particular emerged as a front runner after Guru

Radha Kishan undertook a fast unto death for 24 days to promote the cause of
textile workers in Delhi. Till than it was a public misconception that communists
are revolutionaries with arms in their hands and workers and their families were
afraid to get associated with the communists but this act mobilised general public
in the favour of communist movement as a whole. During this period people with
their families used to visit 'dharna sthal' to encourage CPI cadre.

This model of selflessness for the society worked for the CPI far more than what
was expected. This trend was followed by almost all other state units of the party
in the Hindi heartland. Communist Party related trade union AITUC became a
prominent force to unite the workers in textile, municipal and unorganised sectors,
the first labour union in unorganised sector was also emerged in the leadership of
Comrade Guru Radha Kishan during this period in Delhi's Sadar Bazaar area. This
movement of mass polarisation of workers in the favour of CPI worked effectively
in Delhi and paved the way for great success of CPI in the elections in working
class dominated areas in Delhi. Comrade Gangadhar Adhikari and E.M.S.
Namboodiripad applauded this brigade of dynamic comrades for their selfless
approach and organisational capabilities. This brigade of firebrand communists
gained more prominence when Telangana hero Chandra Rajeswara Rao rose to be
General Secretary of the Communist Party of India.

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In the 1952 Travancore-Cochin Legislative Assembly election, Communist Party
was banned, so it couldn't take part in the election process. In the general elections
in 1957, the CPI emerged as the largest opposition party. In 1957, the CPI won the
state elections in Kerala. This was the first time that an opposition party won
control over an Indian state. E. M. S. Namboodiripad became Chief Minister. At
the 1957 international meeting of Communist parties in Moscow, the Communist
Party of China directed criticism at the CPI for having formed a ministry in Kerala.
Ideological differences lead to the split in the party in 1964 when two different
party conferences were held, one of CPI and one of the Communist Party of India
(Marxist). There is a common misconception that the rift during the Sino-Indian
war, when Communist Party Of India proudly supported China in the war led to
the 1962 split. In fact, the split was leftists vs rightists, rather than internationalists
vs nationalists. The presence of nationalists in CPI, and internationalists P.
Sundarayya, Jyoti Basu, and Harkishan Singh Surjeet in the Communist Party of
India (Marxist) proves this fact.

During the period 1970–77, CPI was allied with the Congress party. In Kerala,
they formed a government together with Congress, with the CPI-leader C. Achutha
Menon as Chief Minister. After the fall of the regime of Indira Gandhi, CPI
reoriented itself towards co-operation with CPI(M).

In 1986, the CPI's leader in the Punjab and MLA in the Punjabi legislature Darshan
Singh Canadian was assassinated by Sikh extremists. Then on 19 May
1987, Deepak Dhawan, General Secretary of Punjab CPI(M), was murdered.
Altogether about 200 communist leaders out of which most were Sikhs were killed
by Sikh extremists in Punjab.

THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA (MARXIST)

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The CPI(M)) is a communist political party in India that adheres to Marxist–
Leninist philosophy. It is one of the national parties of India. The party emerged
from a split from the Communist Party of India in 1964. The CPI(M) was formed
at the Seventh Congress of the Communist Party of India held in Calcutta from 31
October to 7 November 1964. As of 2018, CPI(M) is leading the state government
in Kerala and has representation in the following Legislative assemblies in the
states of Kerala, West Bengal, Tripura, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu &
Kashmir, Odisha and Maharashtra. As of 2018, CPI(M) claimed to have 1 million
members The All India Party Congress of the party, which is held every three
years, is the supreme organ of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) However,
in between two party congresses, the Central Committee is the highest decision
making body.

UNDIVIDED COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA

The Communist Party of India(Marxist) emerged from a division within the

undivided Communist Party of India (CPI), which was formed on 17 October
1920. The undivided CPI had experienced a period of upsurge during the years
following the Second World War. The CPI led armed rebellions
in Telangana, Tripura, and Kerala. However, it soon abandoned the strategy of
armed revolution in favour of working within the parliamentary framework. In
1950, B. T. Ranadive, the CPI general secretary and a prominent representative of
the radical sector inside the party, was demoted on grounds of left-adventurism.

Under the government of the Indian National Congress party of Jawaharlal Nehru,
independent India developed close relations and a strategic partnership with
the Soviet Union. The Soviet government consequently wished that the Indian
communists moderate their criticism towards the Indian state and assume a
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supportive role towards the Congress governments. However, large sections of the
CPI claimed that India remained a semi-feudal country, and that class
struggle could not be put on the back-burner for the sake of guarding the interests
of Soviet trade and foreign policy. Moreover, the Indian National Congress
appeared to be generally hostile towards political competition. In 1959 the central
government intervened to impose President's Rule in Kerala, toppling the E.M.S.
Namboodiripad cabinet (the sole non-Congress state government in the country).

FORMATION OF CPI(M)
The relations between the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and
the Communist Party of China soured, leading to the Sino-Soviet split around this
time. In the early 1960s the Communist Party of China began criticising the CPSU
of turning revisionist and of deviating from the path of Marxism–Leninism. Sino-
Indian relations also deteriorated, as border disputes between the two countries
erupted into the Sino-Indian War of 1962.

The basis of difference in opinion between the two factions in CPI was ideological
– about the assessment of Indian scenario and the development of a party
programme. This difference in opinion was also a reflection of a similar difference
at international level on ideology between the Soviet and Chinese parties. The
alleged 'right wing' inside the party followed the Soviet path and put forward the
idea of joining hands with the then ruling party – Indian National Congress.
Whereas the faction of CPI which later became CPI(M) referred to this as a
revisionist approach of class collaboration. It was this ideological difference which
later intensified, coupled with the Soviet-Chinese split at the international level and
ultimately gave birth to CPI(M). Hundreds of CPI leaders, accused of being pro-
Chinese, were imprisoned. Thousands of Communists were detained without

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trial. Those targeted by the state accused the pro-Soviet leadership of the CPI of
conspiring with the Congress government to ensure their own hegemony over the
control of the party.

In 1962 Ajoy Ghosh, the general secretary of the CPI, died. After his death, S.A.
Dange was installed as the party chairman (a new position) and E.M.S.
Namboodiripad as general secretary. This was an attempt to achieve a compromise.
Dange represented the rightist faction of the party and E.M.S. the leftist faction.

At a CPI National Council meeting held on 11 April 1964, 32 Council members

walked out in protest, accusing Dange and his followers of "anti-unity and anti-
Communist policies".The leftist section, to which the 32 National Council
members belonged, organised a convention in Tenali, Andhra Pradesh 7 to 11 July.
In this convention the issues of the internal disputes in the party were discussed.
146 delegates, claiming to represent 100,000 CPI members, took part in the
proceedings. The convention decided to convene the 7th Party Congress of CPI
in Calcutta later the same year. Marking a difference from the Dangeite sector of
CPI, the Tenali convention was marked by the display of a large portrait of
the Chinese Communist leader Mao Zedong. At the Tenali convention a Bengal-
based pro-Chinese group, representing one of the most radical streams of the CPI
left wing, presented a draft programme proposal of their own. These radicals
criticised the draft programme proposal prepared by M. Basavapunniah for
undermining class struggle and failing to take a clear pro-Chinese position in the
ideological conflict between the CPSU and CPC. After the Tenali convention the
CPI left wing organised party district and state conferences. In West Bengal, a few
of these meetings became battlegrounds between the most radical elements and the
more moderate leadership. At the Calcutta Party District Conference an alternative
draft programme was presented to the leadership by Parimal Das Gupta (a leading
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figure amongst far-left intellectuals in the party). Another alternative proposal was
brought forward to the Calcutta Party District Conference by Aziz ul Haq, but Haq
was initially banned from presenting it by the conference organisers. At the
Calcutta Party District Conference 42 delegates opposed M. Basavapunniah's
official draft programme proposal.

At the Siliguri Party District Conference, the main draft proposal for a party
programme was accepted, but with some additional points suggested by the far-left
North Bengal cadre Charu Majumdar. However, Harekrishna Konar (representing
the leadership of the CPI left wing) forbade the raising of the slogan Mao Tse-Tung
Zindabad (Long live Mao Tse-Tung) at the conference.

Parimal Das Gupta's document was also presented to the leadership at the West
Bengal State Conference of the CPI leftwing. Das Gupta and a few other spoke at
the conference, demanding the party ought to adopt the class analysis of the Indian
state of the 1951 CPI conference. His proposal was, however, voted down. The
Calcutta Congress was held between 31 October and 7 November, at Tyagraja Hall
in southern Calcutta. Simultaneously, the Dange group convened a Party Congress
of CPI in Bombay. Thus, the CPI divided into two separate parties. The group
which assembled in Calcutta would later adopt the name 'Communist Party of
India (Marxist)', to differentiate themselves from the Dange group. The CPI(M)
also adopted its own political programme. P. Sundarayya was elected general
secretary of the party.

In total 422 delegates took part in the Calcutta Congress. CPI(M) claimed that they
represented 104,421 CPI members, 60% of the total party membership.

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At the Calcutta conference the party adopted a class analysis of the character of the
Indian state, that claimed the Indian bourgeoisie was increasingly collaborating
with imperialism.

Parimal Das Gupta's alternative draft programme was not circulated at the Calcutta
conference. However, Souren Basu, a delegate from the far-left
stronghold Darjeeling, spoke at the conference asking why no portrait had been
raised of Mao Tse-Tung along the portraits of other communist stalwarts. His
intervention met with huge applauses from the delegates of the conference .

REVOLUTIONARY SOCIALIST PARTY (RSP)

It is a political party in India. The party was founded on 19 March 1940 and has its
roots in the Bengali liberation movement Anushilan Samiti and the Hindustan
Socialist Republican Army. The party got around 0.4% of the votes and three seats
in the Lok Sabha elections in 1999 and 2004. It is part of the Left Front (Tripura).

The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) is a regional political party, as approved

by the Election Commission of India. Its mass base is primarily in the state of West
Bengal, though it has a visible presence in the states of Kerala, Tripura and Tamil
Nadu, along with branches

n Bengal and Tripura, whereas it is part of the Left Front, in Kerala it is part of the
Left Democratic Front. The RSP has a left political position, and operates on the
political ideology of Socialism and Marxism-Leninism.

The Revolutionary Socialist Party was formed in March 1940, largely as a political
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manifestation of the Anushilan Samiti or the Liberation Movement in Bengal. It
also draws its roots from the Hindustan Socialist Republican Army. The youth who
were members of the Anushilan Samiti took active part in reading Marx-Lenin
manuscripts, and were jailed a number of times for being radical freedom fighters.
Though many young members of the Samiti broke away from the Anushilan
movement to join the CPI, which was the oldest existing political party to begin the
communist movement, most stayed attached to the movement itself, indulging in
copious readings of Marxism-Leninism.

The RSP is one strand of the many Indian political parties with a communist
ideology. It was born at a time when India was facing the severest colonial
oppression. Inspired by the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia in 1917,
and the victory of the working-class under the leadership of the Bolsheviks guided
by Lenin, this group of young Indian freedom fighters wanted to utilize the ideal of
Marxism to the Indian anti-imperialist struggles. They also questioned the growing
buzz of ‘Socialism in One Country’. They exposed the hypocrisy of the ‘national-
reformist leaders’, and branded the Communist Party of India as a group of ‘Social
Fascists’. Their militant and revolutionary spirits were inclined towards improving
the dismal conditions of the working-class of the country. Many of these
communists worked together with the workers, peasants, trade unions and
labourers, as part of a class-struggle against imperialist forces. Their rallying
Marxian outcry was “Workers of All Lands Unite”. Though they rejected the
fascist mentalities of Stalinism, they did not automatically embrace Trotskyism. In
Ramgarh, Bihar in 1940, the members of the Anushilan Samiti, including the
Forward Bloc supremo Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, met at a historic conference
and formed the RSP.
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The RSP’s strong agendas were to study and struggle together — study in order to
enhance ideas, and struggle in order to liberate the nation from imperial forces,
thus changing the movement into a civil war cry. In the post independent Indian set
up, a number of splits and factionalism took place within the RSP. Presently, the
RSP is part of the Left Front government in Tripura, having two seats in the
Legislative Assembly. It has 7 assembly seats in the West Bengal Vidhan Sabha
and 2 seats in the Kerala Vidhan Sabha.

ELECTION SYMBOL OF RSP

The Election Symbol of the Revolutionary Socialist Party, as approved by the
Election Commission of India, is “spade and stoker”. This election symbol is
usually depicted on a red-coloured flag, which is the colour of struggle
symbolizing a communist party. Red is the colour of revolutionary zeals and ideas,
and the spirit to “never say die”. Red is also the colour of blood, indicating a class
struggle. The spade and stoker are individually very significant. Seen as
intersecting each other, these motifs help the election symbol depict that the RSP is
a party of the peasants, farmers, labourers, the workers who work in the fields and
industries to earn a living. It depicts the conditions of the working class. The
hammer is used to dig the ground in the agricultural field, or in the industries. The
worker or the farmer toils in the industry or the land and at the end of the day gets
a meagre amount as pay. This is represented by the RSP. It is a party of the poor
and the oppressed in society. The RSP, through its Marxian ideologies and
practices, in support with the trade unions present across the country, addresses the
issues of the working class. It is symbolic of the anti-capitalist and anti-
globalization policies and schemes across India. The symbol is therefore very
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prominent in the role the RSP plays as a significant left political party. Unlike the
other left parties which use a different set of pictorial imagery in their election
symbols, the RSP uses a starkly different combination — the hammer and the
stoker. This is also a sharp retaliation to the theories used by other left political
organizations. The RSP adheres to the singular Marxian concept of “Continuous
Revolution”, until, as expressed in the famous words of Karl Marx, “all more or
less possessing classes have been forced out of their position of dominance, the
proletariat has conquered state power, and the association of proletarians, not only
in one country but in all dominant countries of the world, has advanced so far that
competition among the proletarians of these countries has ceased and that at least
the decisive productive forces are concentrated in the hands of the proletarians.” In
this sense, the Election Symbol of the RSP is more significant compared to other
left parties.

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