The Kanpur Bolshevik conspiracy case was a controversial court case initiated in

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

in 1924. After Peshawar in 1922, two more conspiracy cases were instituted by the British government, one in Kanpur (1924) and Meerut (1929). The accused in the cases included, among others, important communist organisers who worked in India, such as

S.V. Ghate Sachchidanand Vishnu Ghate (December 14, 1896 – November 28, 1970), also known as S.V. Ghate, was a freedom fighter and first General Secretary of the Communist Party of India.''SV Ghate: First General Secretary of CPI'', in ''New Age Weekly' ...

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 ...

, Muzaffar Ahmad and Akshay Thakur, and members of the émigré party, such as Rafiq Ahmad and Shaukat Usmani. On 17 March 1924,

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 ...

, Muzaffar Ahmad, Nalini Gupta,

Shaukat Usmani Shaukat Usmani (Maulla Bux Usta) (1901–1978) was an early Indian communist, who was born to artistic USTA family of Bikaner and a member of the émigré Communist Party of India (Tashkent group), established in Tashkent in 1920, and a founding ...

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 ...

, Ghulam Hussain and others were charged that they as communists were seeking "to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by complete separation of India from imperialistic Britain by a violent revolution" in what was called the

Cawnpore Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation (help·info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military stations o ...

(now spelt Kanpur) Bolshevik Conspiracy case. The case attracted interest of the people towards Comintern plan to bring about violent revolution in India. "Pages of newspapers daily splashed sensational communist plans and people for the first time learned such a large scale about communism and its doctrines and the aims of the Communist International in India".Ralhan, O.P. (ed.) ''Encyclopedia of Political Parties'' New Delhi: Anmol Publications p.336 Singaravelu Chettiar was released on account of illness. M.N. Roy was out of the country and therefore could not be arrested. Ghulam Hussain confessed that he had received money from the Russians in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Acco ...

and was pardoned. Muzaffar Ahmed, Shaukat Usmani and Dange were sentenced for four years of imprisonment. This case was responsible for actively introducing communism to the Indian masses. After Kanpur, Britain had triumphantly declared that the case had "finished off the communists".Stevenson, Graham, ''Shaukat (Shavkat) Usmani''
{{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060815041715/http://graham.thewebtailor.co.uk/archives/000090.html , date=2006-08-15 Compendium of Communist Biographies But the industrial town of Kanpur, in December 1925, witnessed a conference of different communist groups, under the chairmanship of Singaravelu Chettiar. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani were among the key organizers of the meeting. The meeting adopted a resolution for the formation of the Communist Party of India with its headquarters in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

(now

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

). The British government's extreme hostility towards the Bolsheviks, made them to decide not to function openly as a communist party, but they chose a more open and non-federated platform, under the name the Workers and Peasants Parties.

References

Indian independence movement Communist Party of India 1924 in India 1924 in case law History of Uttar Pradesh Political repression in British India History of Kanpur Indian case law

See also

References