How Vladimir Lenin influenced Indian revolutionaries

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How Vladimir Lenin influenced Indian revolutionaries

On February 17, 1920, a group of Indian revolutionaries met in Kabul to pass a resolution. The resolution directed at the Russian Communist revolutionary, Vladimir Lenin, expressed deep admiration of Soviet Russia's working class struggle that was led by him. 'The Indian revolutionaries express their deep gratitude and their admiration of the great struggle carried on by Soviet Russia for the liberation of all oppressed classes and peoples, and especially for the liberation of India,' said the statement. Just about a couple of months later, Lenin responded to the Indian call. 'I am glad to hear that the principles of self-determination and the liberation of oppressed nations from exploitation by foreign and native capitalists, proclaimed by the Workers' and Peasants' Republic, have met with such a ready response among progressive Indians, who are waging a heroic fight for freedom,' he said. For the revolutionary leader, an India free from an oppressive British rule was a necessary prerequisite for a decisive defeat of an exploitative capitalist system.

Lenin was sure that the Russian revolution would be incomplete unless it was followed by a similar uprising of workers and peasants across Europe and Asia. The anti-colonial struggle in this regard was a necessity, an essential step in that direction, and Lenin did everything in his capacity to motivate and support a revolution against imperialist rules.

On Tuesday, the legacy of the Soviet leader in India received a disturbing jolt when a statue of his in Belonia town of Tripura was brought down by an enthusiastic crowd of BJP supporters amid cries of 'Bharat mata ki jai.' The demolition was on one hand justified by the BJP as a reaction by those being 'oppressed' by the Left. On the other hand, though, the CPI-M explained the act as the manifestation of 'Communism phobia'. 'Even if it was a statue of our former CPI(M) chief minister Nripen Chakraborty, nobody would have touched it ' he was one of us and belonged to the country. But what does this foreigner Lenin have to do with our people''' remarked BJP south district secretary Raju Nath in response to the incident.

The incident took place just days after the BJP made a sweeping victory in the state that had been a Communist citadel for decades. While the motive of the act remains debatable, what is indisputable is the disdain for one of the most important communist revolutionaries of the world. What is further necessary to dwell upon is the lesser known details of the support that Lenin lent to both the rise of a communist movement in India and to the anti-colonial struggle that gave birth to a free India.

Two decades before the Russian revolution, Lenin had been aggressively advocating the need for an international community of revolutionaries. In his article, 'Inflammable material in world politics' written in August 1908, the leader made a detailed analysis of the revolutionary movements across the world, admiring their intensity and appreciating the diversity of their methods in pulling down those who prey and exploit.

'The international movement in various European and Asian countries has latterly made itself felt so weightily that we see before us the fairly clear outlines of a new and incomparably higher stage in the international proletarian struggle,' he wrote.

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Date Posted: Tue, 6 Mar 2018, 02:37 pm

Tags: Vladimir Lenin

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