Abaninath Mukherji ( bn, অবনীনাথ মুখার্জি, russian: Абанинатх Трайлович Мукерджи, 3 June 1891 – 28 October 1937) was an Indian communist and émigré based in the Soviet Union who co-founded the Communist Party of India (Tashkent group). His name was often spelt Abani Mukherjee.Banerjee, Santanu,
Stalin's Indian victims
in ''The Indian Express'', 28 September 2003 (accessed 16 January 2008)

Biography

Early life

Abani Mukherji was born in the city of Jabalpur. Abani Mukherji's father was Trailokyanath Mukherji and his family was Hindu. After leaving school, he moved to

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ; Gujarati: Amdavad ) is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 (per t ...

, where he trained as a weaver, and in 1910 he was employed as an assistant weaving master at the Bangla Laxmi Cotton Mills. In 1912, he was sent to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

and Germany to study weaving. In Germany, he encountered socialism. After returning to Calcutta in December of the same year, he was employed at another cotton mill, Andrew Yule Mill.Ralhan, O.P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930-1946)''. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 113

Revolutionary activities

In 1914, Mukherji met Rash Behari Bose and joined the revolutionary movement. In 1915, he was sent to Japan to acquire weapons for the revolutionaries. According to British intelligence reports, he was active in the Hindu–German conspiracy. In September 1915, while on his return journey to India, he was arrested in Singapore and incarcerated at the Fort Canning prison there, where he remained until he escaped in the autumn of 1917. The exact details of his escape are unclear, but he told his friend

Suniti Kumar Chatterji Bhashacharya Acharya Suniti Kumar Chatterjee (26 November 1890 – 29 May 1977) was an Indian linguist, educationist and litterateur. He was a recipient of the second-highest Indian civilian honour of Padma Vibhushan. Life Childhood Chatterji ...

that he was assisted by a group of sympathetic Irish soldiers. Mukherji managed to reach Java in the

Dutch East Indies The Dutch East Indies, also known as the Netherlands East Indies ( nl, Nederlands(ch)-Indië; ), was a Dutch colony consisting of what is now Indonesia. It was formed from the nationalised trading posts of the Dutch East India Company, which ...

, where he stayed until the end of 1919, living under the name of Dar Shaheer. In Java, he was in contact with Indonesian and Dutch revolutionaries and became a

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

. He also travelled to Amsterdam and back. In Amsterdam, he met

S.J. Rutgers Sebald Justinus Rutgers (25 January 1879 – 14 June 1961) was a Dutch Marxist theoretician and journalist who played an important role in the Left wing section of the Socialist Party of America. He was also a construction engineer who was activ ...

, who recommended him as a delegate to the Second Congress of the Communist International.Ralhan, O.P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930-1946)''. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 114-115

Communist International

In 1920, Mukherji traveled to Russia to take part in the Second Congress of the Communist International. There he met

M. N. Roy Manabendra Nath Roy (born Narendra Nath Bhattacharya, better known as M. N. Roy; 21 March 1887 – 25 January 1954) was an Indian revolutionary, radical activist and political theorist, as well as a noted philosopher in the 20th century. Roy ...

, and with Roy and Roy's wife Evelyn he drafted a document which was published in ''Glasgow Socialist'' on 24 June 1920, under the title ''The Indian Communist Manifesto''. Like Mukherji, Roy had been an Anushilan Samiti member during his early political life. Mukherji took part as a delegate in the Second Congress of the Communist International, held in

Petrograd Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

between 19 July – 7 August 1920. In the

Russian language Russian (russian: русский язык, russkij jazyk, link=no, ) is an East Slavic languages, East Slavic language mainly spoken in Russia. It is the First language, native language of the Russians, and belongs to the Indo-European langua ...

notes of the Congress, he is listed as a 'left-socialist', without party affiliation being stated. At the Congress, Mukherji met Vladimir Lenin for the first time. Directly after the Congress, Mukherji traveled to

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

in Soviet Azerbaijan to represent India at the Congress of the Peoples of the East.Ralhan, O.P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930-1946)''. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 116 The Communist Party of India (Tashkent group) was founded in Tashkent on 17 October 1920, two months after the end of the Second Congress of the Communist International. The principal movers in the founding of the party were Roy and Mukherji.M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. ''Communist Parties and United Front - Experience in Kerala and West Bengal''. Hyderabad: Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 88-89 After the founding of CPI, Roy returned to Moscow whilst Mukherji was put in charge of the Indian Military School, with the task of training armed forces to fight British colonialism. The same year, Mukherji became a member of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).Abani Mukherji's biography
The following year, 1921, Mukherji went to Moscow to attend the Third Congress of the Communist International as a delegate with a consultative vote. There he also took part in a meeting of Indian revolutionaries. Also in 1921 Mukherji drafted a document on the Malabar uprising, which he sent to Lenin. In 1922, Roy and Mukherji together wrote the book ''India in Transition'', a

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

analysis of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which the Communist International published in four languages in 1922. The book argued that the 1857 rebellion had failed to rid India of feudalism. Roy had assigned to Mukherji the task of gathering statistical data for the book.Ralhan, O.P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930-1946)''. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 117

Return to India

In December 1922, Mukherji returned from Moscow to India clandestinely, via Berlin. He privately met local communist leaders on his way. Once in India, he was sheltered by the Anushilan Samiti in Dacca. After meeting

S.A. Dange Shripad Amrut Dange (10 October 1899 – 22 May 1991) was an Indian Politician who was a founding member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and a stalwart of Indian trade union movement. During the 20th century, Dange was arrested by the ...

at the

Gaya Gaya may refer to: Geography Czech Republic *Gaya (German and Latin), Kyjov (Hodonín District), a town Guinea * Gaya or Gayah, a town India *Gaya, India, a city in Bihar **Gaya Airport *Bodh Gaya, a town in Bihar near Gaya *Gaya district, Bi ...

session of the Indian National Congress in December 1922, and after meeting Bengal communist groups, Mukherji moved to

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

, where he met

Singaravelu Chettiar Malayapuram Singaravelu (18 February 1860 – 11 February 1946), also known as M. Singaravelu and Singaravelar, was a pioneer in more than one field in India. In 1918, he founded the first trade union in India. On 1 May 1923 he organised the fir ...

. Mukherji helped Chettiar with his efforts to form the

Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan was a political party in India. The party was founded by Singaravelu Chettiar on 1 May 1923 in Madras. This was the first May Day celebration in India. This was also the first time the red flag was used in Ind ...

and to draw up its manifesto.Origins of the RSP
/ref> Mukherji later returned to the Soviet Union.

Split with Roy

Roy and Mukherji did however part ways and became bitter enemies. Mukherji learnt that during his travel to India, Roy had sent a circular to the Indian communist groups denouncing him and claiming that he did not represent the Communist International. By the mid-1920s, the break between them was complete.Ralhan, O.P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930-1946)''. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 118 Mukherji took an uncompromising attitude towards cooperation with nationalist sectors. In 1928, he described the Workers and Peasants Party as 'the party that is accumulating by itself the elements of future Indian Fascism.'

1930s

During the 1930s, most of Mukherji's work was academic. He was an indologist at the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and became president of the All Union Association of Orientalists. He also worked at the

Communist Academy The Communist Academy (Russian: Коммунистическая академия, transliterated ''Kommunisticheskaya akademiya'') was a higher educational establishment and research institute based in Moscow. It included scientific institutes of ...

.Ralhan, O.P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930-1946)''. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 119

Death

Mukherji fell victim to the Great Purge by Joseph Stalin in the late 1930s, but his death was only acknowledged by the Soviet Union after 1955. Mukherji was arrested on 2 June 1937. He was assigned for the first category of repression ( execution by firearms) in the list "Moscow-Center" and executed on 28 October 1937.

Personal life

In 1920, while in Russia, Mukherji met Rosa Fitingov, who was then an assistant to one of Lenin's private secretaries, Lydia Fotieva. Rosa Fitingov was a

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest pop ...

woman who joined the Communist Party in 1918.Jayawardena, Kumari, ''The White Woman's Other Burden'' (1995) p. 226 They married and had two children; a son named Gora and a daughter named Maya. Gora Mukerdzhi died fighting the invading Wehrmacht in the

Battle of Stalingrad The Battle of Stalingrad (23 August 19422 February 1943) was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad (later re ...

in 1942. His wife Rosa was later one of the founding members of the CPI and acted as M.N. Roy's interpreter.

Publications

*''Indian Labour Movement: A Review of the Situation'', published in '' Communist Review'', May 1922