Socialist Party to take up the cause of socialism. As part of its farewell
to Congress, however, the Socialist Party expressed the hope that the
Congress would ultimately ‘remain a progressive organisation sharing
common political ideals, loyalties and memories with the Socialist
Party’.^17
This farewell had something in common with the initial stand of
the CPI, the party that the socialists now considered their sworn enemy
after its gains at the expense of the old CSP in capturing left organisations
in India – student unions, the trade union movement, the Kisan Sabhas
and other front organisations. In June 1947, the CPI passed a resolution
offering support to the ‘national leadership in the proud task of building
the Indian republic on democratic foundations’, and urged all progressive
Congressmen to rally behind Nehru.^18 The CPI’s position was, how-
ever, contradictory. From February 1948, after the Calcutta ‘Conference
of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and
Independence’, the CPI took a strong anti-Nehru line. After the estab-
lishment of the Cominform on September 22, 1947, the Andrei Zhdanov
line had been adopted by the communist movement – there were now
two camps in the world, imperialist and anti-fascist. The CPI stepped
up its campaigns in India, much to the alarm of Nehru’s government
(it was officially at war with the Indian state until October 1951, when
the Telengana struggle was called off). At the same time, the CPI’s
members clearly recognised the situation in India for what it was: if the
Congress was to rule, it would be Nehru who could prevent it from
ruling as a right-wing party, or taking a pro-US position in the emerging
Cold War; to that extent, they had to strengthen Nehru’s hand – as the
lesser evil. Many members of the Congress, and senior figures in civil
service positions, were resolutely reactionary as well as anti-communist,
and would have gladly seen India closely aligned with the USA – which
Nehru, despite the changes in his views over the years, still identified
as an imperialist power. Nehru, for his part, intervened – it became
part of his ongoing struggle with Patel – in what he saw as unnecessary
persecution of communists quacommunists, deciding instead to use the
forces of the law only against particular communists who broke particular
laws. He regarded communism as an ideology rather than an international
conspiracy led by the Soviet Union; therefore, in what might be seen as a
classical liberal position, he believed communism should be allowed to
compete with other ideologies on a level playing field.182 CONSOLIDATING THE STATE, c. 1947–55