Rajani Palme Dutt (19 June 1896 – 20 December 1974), generally known as R. Palme Dutt, was a leading

journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalism ...

and theoretician in the

Communist Party of Great Britain The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) was the largest communist organisation in Britain and was founded in 1920 through a merger of several smaller Marxist groups. Many miners joined the CPGB in the 1926 general strike. In 1930, the CPG ...

. His classic book ''India Today'' heralded the Marxist approach in Indian historiography.

Early life

Rajani Palme Dutt was born in 1896 on Mill Road in

Cambridge, England Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge became ...

. His father, Dr. Upendra Dutt, was an Indian

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

, his mother Anna Palme was

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

. Anna Palme was a great aunt of the future Prime Minister of Sweden

Olof Palme Sven Olof Joachim Palme (; ; 30 January 1927 – 28 February 1986) was a Swedish politician and statesman who served as Prime Minister of Sweden from 1969 to 1976 and 1982 to 1986. Palme led the Swedish Social Democratic Party from 1969 until h ...

. His sister was the statistician Elna Palme Dutt, who went on to become an official of the International Labour Organization in Geneva. He, along with his older brother Clemens Palme Dutt, was a founding member of the Communist Party of Great Britain. Dutt was educated at

the Perse School (He who does things for others does them for himself) , established = , closed = , type = Public schoolIndependent day school , religion = Nondenominational Christian , president = , head_label = Head , he ...

, Cambridge and

Balliol College Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the f ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, where he obtained a

first-class degree The British undergraduate degree classification system is a grading structure for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and integrated master's degrees in the United Kingdom. The system has been applied (sometimes with significant variati ...

in Classics, after being suspended for a time because of his activities as a

conscientious objector A conscientious objector (often shortened to conchie) is an "individual who has claimed the right to refuse to perform military service" on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion. The term has also been extended to object ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, during which his writing was deemed subversive propaganda.Colin Holmes "Rajani Palme Dutt", in A. Thomas Lane (ed.), ''Biographical Dictionary of European Labor Leaders'', Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1995; vol. 2, p.284 Dutt married an

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

Salme Murrik Salme Pekkala-Dutt (: Salme Anette Murrik) (29 August 1888 – 30 August 1964) was an Estonian-British communist politician, wife of Rajani Palme Dutt. The Finnish-Estonian author Hella Wuolijoki was her elder sister. Murrik was also grandaunt of ...

, the sister of

Finnish Finnish may refer to: * Something or someone from, or related to Finland * Culture of Finland * Finnish people or Finns, the primary ethnic group in Finland * Finnish language, the national language of the Finnish people * Finnish cuisine See also ...

writer

Hella Wuolijoki Hella Wuolijoki (née Ella Marie Murrik; 22 July 1886 – 2 February 1954), also known by the pen name Juhani Tervapää, was an Estonian-born Finnish writer known for her ''Niskavuori'' series.Wuolijoki, Hella. Eesti Entsüklopeedia 10. Estonian ...

, in 1922. His wife had come to Great Britain in 1920 as a representative of the

Communist International The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to "struggle by a ...

Political career

Dutt joined the

Labour Research Department The Labour Research Department (LRD) is an independent trade union based research organisation, based in London, that provides information to support trade union activity and campaigns. About 2,000 trade union organisations, including 51 national ...

, a left-wing statistical bureau, in 1919. The following year, he joined the newly formed

(CPGB) and in 1921 founded a monthly magazine called ''

Labour Monthly ''Labour Monthly'' was a magazine associated with the Communist Party of Great Britain. It was not technically published by the Party, and, particularly in its later period, it carried articles by left-wing trade unionists from outside the Party. ...

,'' a publication that he edited until his death. In 1922, Dutt was named the editor of the party's weekly newspaper, the '' Workers' Weekly.'' Dutt was on the Executive Committee of the CPGB from 1923 to 1965 and was the party's chief theorist for many years. Dutt first visited the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

in 1923, where he attended deliberations of the

Executive Committee of the Communist International The Executive Committee of the Communist International, commonly known by its acronym, ECCI (Russian acronym ИККИ), was the governing authority of the Comintern between the World Congresses of that body. The ECCI was established by the Foundin ...

(ECCI) relating to the British movement. He was elected an alternate to the ECCI Presidium in 1924. Following an illness in 1925 which forced him to stand down as editor of ''Workers' Weekly,'' Dutt spent several years in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

as a representative of the Comintern. He also played an important role for the

Comintern The Communist International (Comintern), also known as the Third International, was a Soviet Union, Soviet-controlled international organization founded in 1919 that advocated world communism. The Comintern resolved at its Second Congress to ...

by supervising the

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 ...

for some years. Palme Dutt was loyal to the

and to

Leninist Leninism is a political ideology developed by Russian Marxist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin that proposes the establishment of the dictatorship of the proletariat led by a revolutionary vanguard party as the political prelude to the establishme ...

ideals. In 1939, when the CPGB General Secretary

Harry Pollitt Harry Pollitt (22 November 1890 – 27 June 1960) was a British communist who served as the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) from 1929 to September 1939 and again from 1941 until his death in 1960. Pollitt spen ...

supported the United Kingdom's entering the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Palme Dutt who promoted Stalin's line and forced Pollitt's temporary resignation. As a result, he became the party's General Secretary until Pollitt was reappointed in 1941, after the

German invasion of the Soviet Union Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

cause a reversal in the party's attitude on the war. His book ''Fascism and Social Revolution'' presents a scathing criticism and analysis of

fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy an ...

, with a study of the rise of fascism in Germany, Italy and other countries. He defined fascism as a violent authoritarian, ultranationalist and irrational theory: "Fascism is antithetical to everything of substance within the liberal tradition." After Stalin's death, Palme Dutt's reaction to

Khrushchev Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev (– 11 September 1971) was the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 and Premier of the Soviet Union, chairm ...

Secret Speech "On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences" (russian: «О культе личности и его последствиях», «''O kul'te lichnosti i yego posledstviyakh''»), popularly known as the "Secret Speech" (russian: секре ...

played down its significance, with Dutt arguing that Stalin's "sun" unsurprisingly contained some "spots". A hardliner in the party, he disagreed with its criticisms of the

Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia The Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia refers to the events of 20–21 August 1968, when the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic was jointly invaded by four Warsaw Pact countries: the Soviet Union, the Polish People's Republic, the People's Rep ...

in 1968 and opposed its increasingly-

Eurocommunist Eurocommunism, also referred to as democratic communism or neocommunism, was a trend in the 1970s and 1980s within various Western European communist parties which said they had developed a theory and practice of social transformation more rele ...

line in the 1970s. He retired from his party positions but remained a member until his death in 1974. According to the historian Geoff Andrews, the

Communist Party A communist party is a political party that seeks to realize the socio-economic goals of communism. The term ''communist party'' was popularized by the title of ''The Manifesto of the Communist Party'' (1848) by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels. A ...

of the Soviet Union was still paying the CPGB around £15,000 a year "for pensions" into the seventies, recipients of which "included Rajani Palme Dutt". Th
Labour History Archive and Study Centre
at the

People's History Museum The People's History Museum (the National Museum of Labour History until 2001) in Manchester, England, is the UK's national centre for the collection, conservation, interpretation and study of material relating to the history of working people i ...

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

has Palme Dutt's papers in its collection, spanning from 1908 to 1971.

Works

*1920: The Sabotage of Europe *1920
The Two Internationals
*1921: Back to Plotinus, Review of Shaw's ''Back to Methusela: A Metaphysical Pentateuch'' *1921: Psycho-Analysing the Bolshevik, Review of Kolnai's ''Psycho-analysis and Sociology'' *1922: The End of Gandhi *1923: The British Empire *1923: The Issue in Europe *1925: Empire Socialism (pamphlet) *1926: The Meaning of the General Strike (pamphlet) *1926: Trotsky and His English Critics *1928: Indian Awakening *1931: India *1931

*1933: Democracy and Fascism (pamphlet) *1933: A Note on the Falsification of Engels’ Preface to “Marx’s ‘Class Struggles in France” *1934
Fascism and Social Revolution
*1935: The Question of Fascism and Capitalist Decay *1935: British Policy and Nazi Germany *1935: The British-German Alliance in the Open *1935: For a united Communist Party : an appeal to I.L.P'ers and to all revolutionary workers *1936: In Memory of Shapurji Saklatvala *1936: Anti-Imperialist People's Front in India, ''written with Ben Bradley'' *1936: Left Nationalism in India *1938: On the Eve of the Indian National Congress, ''with Harry Pollitt and Ben Bradley'' *1938: The Philosophy of a Natural Scientist *1938: The Philosophy of a Natural Scientist, a Rejoinder to Levy *1938: Review of Marx & Engels on the U.S. Civil War *1939

ref> *1940: Twentieth Anniversary of the Communist Party of Great Britain *1940
India Today
*1947: Declaration on Palestine, at the Empire Communist Parties Conference, London on 26 February to 3 March 1947 *1949: Introductory Report on Election Programme *1953: Stalin and the Future *1953: The crisis of Britain and the British Empire
new and revised edition 1957
*1955
India Today and Tomorrow
*1963: Problems of Contemporary History *1964
The Internationale
*1967
Whither China?

Footnotes

External links

''Fascism and Social Revolution: A Study of the Economics and Politics of the Extreme Stages of Capitalism in Decay''
(1934)
''The Internationale''
(1964)

Marxists Internet Archive

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dutt, Rajani Palme Communist Party of Great Britain members Leaders of political parties in the United Kingdom Anti-revisionists British Comintern people English conscientious objectors English people of Indian descent English people of Swedish descent Indian people of Scottish descent Indian people of Swedish descent People educated at The Perse School Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford 1896 births 1974 deaths Palme family People from Cambridge British Hindus British expatriates in the Soviet Union English people of Bengali descent