Communist Party of India
인도 공산당
A Marxist–Leninist party in India. The party dates its foundation to the Kanpur conference of 26 December 1925, although others trace it to the émigré organisation founded in Tashkent in 1920. It was the main opposition party in India in the 1950s and 1960s, and after the 1964 split it became smaller than the breakaway Communist Party of India (Marxist).
In depth
The founding date is disputed. On 17 October 1920 M. N. Roy and others founded a Communist Party of India in Tashkent, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Russian-language source regard that day as the founding date. The CPI itself dates its foundation to the Kanpur conference of 26 December 1925. According to the English-language source, the Comintern considered neither date significant because no party constitution was adopted on either occasion. The Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case of 1924 sent Dange, Muzaffar Ahmad and others to prison, and in March 1929 the Meerut Conspiracy Case put the leadership behind bars again.
The party was reorganised in 1933 with a central committee and was accepted as the Indian section of the Comintern in 1934. Following the popular-front line, communists joined the Congress Socialist Party, the left wing of the Congress, until they were expelled in 1940. The party was legalised in July 1942 after Britain and the Soviet Union became allies, but its opposition to the Quit India Movement left it politically cornered. Between 1946 and 1951 it led an armed rising in Telangana against the Nizam of Hyderabad, and after the rising was crushed it abandoned armed struggle.
In 1952 it became the leading opposition party in the first Lok Sabha, and in 1957 it won the Kerala state election, making E. M. S. Namboodiripad chief minister. It was the first time an opposition party had won control of an Indian state, but the central government dismissed the ministry in 1959. According to the Russian-language source, the 1962 Sino-Indian border conflict divided pro-Soviet and pro-Chinese factions, and under the impact of the Sino-Soviet split the party broke in two in 1964; the breakaway became the Communist Party of India (Marxist).
From 1970 to 1977 the CPI was allied with the Congress, and according to the Russian-language source it was the only party apart from the Congress to support Indira Gandhi's Emergency (1975–1977). After 1977 it became a junior partner in left coalitions led by the CPI(M). It had two ministers in the United Front governments of 1996–1998. After repeated poor results the Election Commission of India withdrew its national party status on 10 April 2023.