{{Use dmy dates, date=October 2015
The Marxist League was a political grouping 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- ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...
. The League was founded by the middle of 1933 as an open front of the illegal
Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India (CPI) is the oldest Marxist–Leninist communist party in India and one of the nine national parties in the country. The CPI was founded in modern-day Kanpur (formerly known as Cawnpore) on 26 December 1925.
H ...
amongst middle class elements and intellectuals. The League substituted previous associations functioning amongst intellectuals, the 'Marxist Students Club' (organised in 1930 by S.V. Deshpande) and the 'Friends of the Soviet Union' (organised in May 1932). G.V. Haria played a leading role in organising the League. The League ran study classes and arranged public meetings in the city during 1933-1934. Attendees at its meetings included leading communists such as B.F. Bradley,
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.S. Mirajkar
Shantaram Savlaram Mirajkar (8 February,
1899– 15 February 1980) was an Indian communist politician and trade unionist. He was part of the old guard of the Communist Party of India, led the All India Trade Union Congress as its president for ...
and K.N. Joglekar.
The draft programme of the Marxist League read: "…It is the rule of the Marxist League to spread the interest in
Marxism
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 ...
, especially amongst middle class intellectuals, and create a band of trained Marxist intellectuals who will take up the ideological fight against
imperialist
Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
and National Reformists and at the same time work in closest cooperation with the revolutionary movement of the masses of workers and peasants. …", "…It therefore appeals to all thinking intellectuals, who being dissatisfied with the tactics of the
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress (INC), colloquially the Congress Party but often simply the Congress, is a political party in India with widespread roots. Founded in 1885, it was the first modern nationalist movement to emerge in the British Em ...
, wish to participate in a genuine anti-Imperialist movement of the masses for complete independence of India from
imperialism
Imperialism is the state policy, practice, or advocacy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas, often through employing hard power (economic and ...
, for the establishment of a Workers’ and Peasants’ Government in India, to join the League and actively participate in its activities and to broaden and deepen the same."Roy Subodh, Communism in India – Unpublished Documents 1925-1934.
Calcutta
Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...