Revolutionary Socialist Party | |
|---|---|
 | |
| General Secretary | Manoj Bhattacharya[1] |
| Lok Sabha Leader | N. K. Premachandran |
| Founder | Tridib Chaudhuri |
| Founded | 19 March 1940 (85 years ago) (1940-03-19) |
| Headquarters | 17, Firoz Shah Road, New Delhi – 110001 28°37′20.5″N77°13′27.9″E / 28.622361°N 77.224417°E /28.622361; 77.224417 |
| Student wing | Progressive Students Union |
| Youth wing | Revolutionary Youth Front |
| Women's wing | All India United Mahila Sangh |
| Labour wing | United Trade Union Congress |
| Peasant's wing | Samyukta Kisan Sabha |
| Ideology | Communism Revolutionary Socialism Marxism–Leninism[2] |
| Political position | Left-wing |
| Colours | Red |
| ECI Status | State Party[3] |
| Alliance | Left Front (West Bengal) Secular Democratic Alliance (West Bengal) Left Front (Tripura) UDF (2014–present) (Kerala) MPSA(Manipur) INDIA (National level) |
| Seats in Rajya Sabha | 0 / 245 |
| Seats in Lok Sabha | 1 / 543 |
| Seats in Kerala Legislative Assembly | 0 / 140 |
| Election symbol | |
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| Party flag | |
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TheRevolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) is acommunist party in India. The party was founded on 19 March 1940 byTridib Chaudhuri and has its roots in theBengali liberation movementAnushilan Samiti and theHindustan Socialist Republican Army.[4]
The party got around 0.4% of the votes and three seats in theLok Sabha elections in 1999 and 2004. It is part of theLeft Front (West Bengal),Left Front (Tripura) andCongress-ledUnited Democratic Front (Kerala).[5]
A major section of the Anushilan movement had been attracted to Marxism during the 1930s, many of them studying Marxist–Leninist literature whilst serving long jail sentences. A minority section broke away from the Anushilan movement and joined theCommunist Consolidation, and later theCommunist Party of India. The majority of the Anushilan Marxists did however, whilst having adopted Marxist–Leninist thinking, feel hesitant over joining the Communist Party.[6]
The Anushilanites distrusted the political lines formulated by theCommunist International. They criticised the line adopted at the 6th Comintern congress of 1928 as 'ultra-left sectarian'. The Colonial theses of the 6th Comintern congress called upon the communists to combat the 'national-reformist leaders' and to 'unmask the national reformism of theIndian National Congress and oppose all phrases of the Swarajists, Gandhists, etc. about passive resistance'. Moreover, when Indian left-wing elements formed theCongress Socialist Party in 1934, the CPI branded it asSocial Fascist.[7] When the Comintern policy swung towardsPopular Frontism at its 1935 congress, at the time by which the majority of the Anushilan movement were adopting a Marxist–Leninist approach, the Anushilan Marxists questioned this shift as a betrayal of the internationalist character of the Comintern and felt that the International had been reduced to an agency of Soviet foreign policy.[8] Moreover, the Anushilan Marxists opposed the notion of 'Socialism in one country'.
However, although sharing some critiques against the leadership ofJoseph Stalin and the Comintern, the Anushilan Marxists did not embraceTrotskyism. Buddhadeva Bhattacharya writes in 'Origins of the RSP' that the "rejection of Stalinism did not automatically mean for them [the Anushlian Samiti] acceptance of Trotskyism. Incidentally, the leninist conception of international socialist revolution is different from Trotsky's theory of Permanent Revolution which deduces the necessity of world revolution primarily from the impossibility of the numerically inferior proletariat in a semi-feudal and semi-capitalist peasant country like Russia holding power for any length of time and successfully undertaking the task of socialist construction in hand without the proletariat of the advanced countries outside the Soviet Union coming to power through an extension of socialist revolution in these countries and coming to the aid of the proletariat of the U.S.S.R."[9]
By the close of 1936, the Anushilan Marxists at the Deoli Detention Jail inRajputana drafted a document formulating their political line. This document was then distributed amongst the Anushilan Marxists at other jails throughout the country. When they were collectively released in 1938 the Anushilan Marxists adopted this document,The Thesis and Platform of Action of the Revolutionary Socialist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist): What Revolutionary Socialism Stands for, as their political programme in September that year.[11]
At this point, the Anushilan Marxists, recently released from long jail sentences, stood at a cross-roads. Either they would continue as a separate political entity or they would join an existing political platform. They felt that they lacked the resources to build a separate political party. Joining the CPI was out of the question, due to sharp differences in political analysis. Neither could they reconcile their differences with theRoyists. In the end, the Congress Socialist Party, appeared to be the sole platform acceptable for the Anushilan Marxists. The CSP had adopted Marxism in 1936 and their third conference inFaizpur they had formulated a thesis that directed the party to work to transform the Indian National Congress into an anti-imperialist front.[12]
During the summer of 1938, a meeting took place betweenJayaprakash Narayan (leader of CSP),Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee,Tridib Chaudhuri andKeshav Prasad Sharma. The Anushilan Marxists then discussed the issue withNarendra Deva. The Anushilan Marxists decided to join CSP, but keeping a separate identity within the party.[13]
The great majority of the Anushilan Samiti had joined the CSP, not only the Marxist sector. The non-Marxists (who constituted about a half of the membership of the Samiti), although not ideologically attracted to the CSP, felt loyalty towards the Marxist sector. Moreover, around 25% of the HSRA joined the CSP. This group was led by Jogesh Chandra Chatterji.[14]
In the end of 1938 Anushilan Marxists began publishingThe Socialist fromCalcutta. The editor of the journal was Satish Sarkar. Although the editorial board included several senior CSP leaders like Acharya Narendra Deva, it was essentially an organ of the Anushilan Marxist tendency. Only a handful issues were published.[15]
The Anushilan Marxists were soon to be disappointed by developments inside the CSP. The party, at that the time Anushilan Marxists had joined it, was not a homogenous entity. There was the Marxist trend led by J.P. Narayan and Narendra Deva, theFabian socialist trend led byMinoo Masani andAsoka Mehta and aGandhian socialist trend led byRam Manohar Lohia and Achyut Patwardan. To the Anushilan Marxists differences emerged between the ideological stands of the party and its politics in practice. These differences surfaced at the 1939 annual session of the Indian National Congress atTripuri. Ahead of the session there were fierce political differences between the leftwing Congress president,Subhas Chandra Bose, and the section led by Gandhi. As the risk ofworld war loomed, Bose wanted to utilise the weakening of the British empire for the sake of Indian independence. Bose was re-elected as the Congress president, defeating the Gandhian candidate. But at the same session a proposal was brought forward byGovind Ballabh Pant, through which gave Gandhi veto over the formation of the Congress Working Committee. In the Subjects Committee, the CSP opposed the resolution along with other leftwing sectors. But when the resolution was brought ahead of the open session of the Congress, the CSP leaders remained neutral. According to Subhas Chandra Bose himself, the Pant resolution would have been defeated if the CSP had opposed it in the open session. J.P. Narayan stated that although the CSP was essentially supporting Bose's leadership, they were not willing to risk the unity of the Congress. Soon after the Tripuri session the CSP organised a conference inDelhi, in which fierce criticism was directed against their 'betrayal' at Tripuri.[16]
The Anushilan Marxists had clearly supported Bose both in the presidential election as well by opposing the Pant resolution. Jogesh Chandra Chatterji renounced his CSP membership in protest against the action by the party leadership.[17]
Soon after the Tripuri session, Bose resigned as Congress president and formed theForward Bloc. The Forward Bloc was intended to function as a unifying force for all leftwing elements. The Forward Bloc held its first conference on 22–23 June 1939, and at the same time aLeft Consolidation Committee consisting of the Forward Bloc, CPI, CSP, theKisan Sabha,League of Radical Congressmen,Labour Party and the Anushilan Marxists. Bose wanted the Anushilan Marxists to join his Forward Bloc. But the Anushilan Marxists, although supporting Bose's anti-imperialist militancy, considered that Bose's movement was nationalistic and too eccletic.[18] The Anushilan Marxists shared Bose's view that the relative weakness of the British empire during the war should have been utilised by independence movement. At this moment, in October 1939, J.P. Narayan tried to stretch out an olive branch to the Anushilan Marxists. He proposed the formation of a 'War Council' consisting of himself,Pratul Chandra Ganguli, Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee and Acharya Narendra Deva. But few days later, at a session of the All India Congress Committee, J.P. Narayan and the other CSP leaders pledged not to start any other movements parallel to those initiated by Gandhi.[19]
The Left Consolidation Committee soon fell into pieces, as the CPI, the CSP and the Royists deserted it. Bose assembled the Anti-Compromise Conference inRamgarh,Bihar, now Jharkhand. The Forward Bloc, the Anushilan Marxists (still members of the CSP at the time), the Labour Party and the Kisan Sabha attended the conference. The conference spelled out that no compromise towards Britain should be made on behalf of the Indian independence movement. At that conference the Anushilan Marxists assembled to launch their own party, theRevolutionary Socialist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist), severing all links to the CSP. The first general secretary of the party was Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee.[20]
The first War Thesis of RSP in 1940 took the call for "turning imperialist war into civil war". But after the attack by Germany on theSoviet Union, the line of the party was clarified. RSP meant that the socialistSoviet Union had to be defended, but that the best way for Indian revolutionaries to do that was to overthrow the colonial rule in their own country. RSP was in sharp opposition to groups like Communist Party of India and the RoyistRDP, who meant that antifascists had to support the Allied war effort.[21]
In October 1949, theKerala Socialist Party passed through a split. A section of its cadres, like N. Sreekandan Nair, Baby John and K. Balakrishnan, joined RSP and built a branch of the party in Kerala.[22]
Ahead of the 1952 general election, negotiations took place between RSP and theUnited Socialist Organisation of India. USOI, a coalition of socialist groups, wanted RSP to join its ranks. RSP declined, but a partial electoral agreement was made. USOI supported RSP candidates in twoLok Sabha constituencies in West Bengal, but in other constituencies USOI and RSP candidates contested against each other. In the end, three RSP candidates were elected, two from Bengal and one from Kerala.[23][24]
| 1952 Lok Sabha election | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Constituency | Candidate | Votes | % | Elected? |
| Travancore-Cochin | Quilon-cum-Mavilekara | N. Sreekanthan Nair | 220312 | 21.42% | Yes |
| Uttar Pradesh | Mainpuri District (E) | Putto Singh | 19722 | 14.15% | No |
| Allahabad Dist. (E) cum Jaunpur Dist. (W) | Badri Prasad | 18129 | 3.01% | No | |
| Gondi Dist. (E) cum Basti Dist. (W) | Harban Singh | 4238 | 3.61% | No | |
| Ghazipur Dist. (W) | Balrup | 22702 | 13.37% | No | |
| West Bengal | Birbhum | S.K. Ghose | 20501 | 4.07% | No |
| Berhampore | Tridib Chaudhuri | 82579 | 46.17% | Yes | |
| Calcutta North East | Lahiri Tarapado | 5801 | 4.05% | No | |
| Calcutta North West | Meghnath Saha | 74124 | 53.05% | Yes | |
| Total: | 9 | 468108 | 0.44% | 3 | |
In 1953 Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee left the party and rejoined theIndian National Congress. Tribid Kumar Chaudhuri became the new general secretary of the party.[25][26]
In 1969 RSP sympathizers inEast Pakistan formed theSramik Krishak Samajbadi Dal. RSP and SKSD maintains a close relations from that moment onwards.[27]
Ahead of the 1977 elections, a section of the party in Kerala broke away and formed theNational Revolutionary Socialist Party. The NRSP contested the election in alliance with theCommunist Party of India (Marxist).[28][29][30]
In 2000 a severe split affected the Kerala branch, when the regional party chief Baby John broke away and formedRevolutionary Socialist Party (Bolshevik). The RSP(B) joined the Congress-ledUnited Democratic Front.[31]
In 2002 RSP supported, along with the other Left Front parties, the presidential candidature ofLakshmi Sahgal. Saghal, who challenged the main candidateA. P. J. Abdul Kalam, got around 10% of the votes.[32][33]
The erstwhile RSP, which was part of theLDF for almost three decades, decided to walk out of the LDF in March 2014, after theCPI(M) arbitrarily announced the candidature ofpolitburo member and sitting legislatorM. A. Baby for theKollam Lok Sabha seat. Later RSP was offered the loksabha seat by theUDF. The RSP candidateN. K. Premachandran defeated LDF candidate M.A. Baby in the election of 2014. Later in June 2014, both the factions of RSP inKerala-RSP(B) and RSP merged.[34] Later, a faction headed byKovoor Kunjumon left the party to form a new party namedRevolutionary Socialist Party (Leninist). The main faction of the RSP successfully defended its bastion Kollam Loksabha seat in 2019 fieldingN. K. Premachandran again despite aggressive campaign by the LDF but suffered huge defeats in the2016 and2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly elections, with all its candidates losing. But, Kovoor Kunjumon was elected to the Legislative Assembly fromKunnathur, and his party supports the LDF.[35]
InKerala, RSP is the part ofUDF andN K Premachandran is the presentMP (Kollam Lok Sabha) in theLok Sabha.RSP(L) is the part ofLDF inKerala andKovoor Kunjumon is the presentMLA (Kunnathoor) inKerala Assembly. RSP is part of the Left Front inWest Bengal andTripura.[36]
| No. | Name | Tenure |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Jogesh Chandra Chatterjee | 1940 – 1953 |
| 2. | Tridib Kumar Chaudhuri | |
| 3. | Sushil Bhattacharya (Acting) | |
| 4. | Baby John | |
| 5. | K. Pankajakshan | |
| 6. | T. J. Chandrachoodan | 2008 - 2018 |
| 7. | Kshiti Goswami | 2018 - 2019 |
| 8. | Manoj Bhattacharya | 2019 - Present |
| Election Year | Overall votes | % of overall votes | seats contested | seats won | +/- in seats | +/- in vote share |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kerala Legislative Assembly | ||||||
| 1957 | 188,553 | 3.23 | 28 | 0 | New | New |
| 1970 | – | – | – | 6 |  6 | – |
| 1977 | – | – | – | 9 | 3 | – |
| 1980 | – | – | – | 6 |  3 | – |
| 1982 | 263,869 | – | – | 4 | 2 | – |
| 1987 | – | – | – | 5 | 1 | – |
| 1991 | – | – | – | 2 | 3 | – |
| 1996 | 2,94,744 | 2.07 | 6 | 5 | 3 | – |
| 2001 | 269,689 | 1.71 | 6 | 2 | 3 | – |
| 2006 | 224,129 | 1.44 | 4 | 3 | 1 | – |
| 2011 | 228,258 | 1.31 | 4 | 2 | 1 | – |
| 2016 | 216,071 | 1.1 | 5 | 0 | 2 | – |
| 2021 | 244,388 | 1.17 | 5 | 0 |  | – |
| West Bengal Legislative Assembly | ||||||
| 1952 | 63,173 | 0.85 | 16 | 0 | – | – |
| 1962 | 245,261 | 2.56 | 17 | 9 | 9 | – |
| 1969 | 375,983 | 2.80 | – | 12 | 3 | – |
| 1971 | – | – | – | 3 | 9 | – |
| 1972 | 284,643 | 2.14 | – | 3 | | – |
| 1977 | 536,625 | 3.74 | 23 | 20 | 17 | – |
| 1982 | 901,723 | 4.01 | 23 | 19 | 1 | – |
| 1987 | 1,036,138 | 3.94 | 23 | 18 | 1 | – |
| 1991 | 1,073,445 | 3.47 | 23 | 18 | | – |
| 1996 | 1,367,439 | 3.72 | 23 | 18 | | – |
| 2001 | 1,256,951 | 3.43 | 23 | 17 | 1 | – |
| 2006 | – | – | 23 | 20 | 3 | – |
| 2011 | – | 2.96 | 23 | 7 | 13 | – |
| 2016 | 911,004 | 1.67 | 19 | 3 | 4 | – |
| 2021 | 126,121 | 0.21 | 11 | 0 | 3 | – |
| Tripura Legislative Assembly | ||||||
| 1977 | 12,446 | 1.66 | 2 | 2 | 2 | – |
| 1983 | 15,218 | 1.64 | 2 | 2 | | – |
| 1988 | 18,182 | 1.60 | 2 | 2 | | – |
| 1993 | 21,235 | 1.58 | 2 | 2 | | – |
| 1998 | 22,526 | 1.65 | 2 | 2 | | – |
| 2003 | 28,688 | 1.89 | 2 | 2 | | – |
| 2008 | 31,717 | 1.69 | 2 | 2 | | – |
| 2013 | 31,717 | 1.95 | 2 | 0 | 2 | – |
| 2018 | 17,568 | 0.75 | 1 | 0 | | – |
| 2023 | 17,007 | 0.67 | 1 | 0 | | – |
| Lok Sabha | ||||||
| 1952 | 468,108 | 0.44 | – | 2 | 2 | – |
| 1957 | 308,742 | 0.26 | – | 0 | 2 | – |
| 1962 | 451,717 | 0.39 | – | 2 | 2 | – |
| 1971 | 724,001 | 0.49 | – | 3 | 1 | – |
| 1977 | 851,164 | 0.45 | – | 4 | 1 | – |
| 1980 | 1,285,517 | 0.65 | – | 4 | | – |
| 1984 | 1,173,869 | 0.50 | – | 3 | 1 | – |
| 1989 | 1,854,276 | 0.62 | – | 4 | 1 | – |
| 1991 | 1,749,730 | 0.64 | – | 4 | | – |
| 1996 | 2,105,469 | 0.63 | – | 5 | 1 | – |
| 1998 | 2,032,585 | 0.55 | – | 5 | | – |
| 1999 | 1,500,817 | 0.41 | – | 3 | 2 | – |
| 2004 | 1,689,794 | 0.43 | – | 3 | | – |
| 2009 | 1,573,650 | 0.38 | – | 2 | 1 | – |
| 2014 | 1,666,380 | 0.30 | – | 1 | 1 | – |
| 2019 | 709,685 | 0.12 | – | 1 | | – |
| 2024 | 587,363 | 0.07 | – | 1 | | – |
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