Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan was a

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular country's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific ideological or p ...

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 party was founded by Singaravelu Chettiar on 1 May 1923 in Madras. This was the first

May Day May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, usually celebrated on 1 May, around halfway between the spring equinox and summer solstice. Festivities may also be held the night before, known as May Eve. Tr ...

celebration in

. This was also the first time the red flag was used in

.M.V.S. Koteswara Rao. ''Communist Parties and United Front - Experience in Kerala and West Bengal''.

Hyderabad Hyderabad ( ; , ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Telangana and the ''de jure'' capital of Andhra Pradesh. It occupies on the Deccan Plateau along the banks of the Musi River, in the northern part of Southern India ...

: Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 110 Chettiar made arrangements to celebrate May Day in two places in 1923. One meeting was held at the beach opposite to the Madras High Court; the other meeting was held at the

Triplicane Triplicane, known in the vernacular as Thiruvallikeni, is one of the oldest neighbourhoods of Chennai, India. It is situated on the Bay of Bengal coast and about from Fort St George. The average elevation of the neighbourhood is 14 metres ...

beach. ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'' newspaper reported,

The Labour Kisan Party has introduced May Day celebrations in Madras. Comrade Singaravelar presided over the meeting. A resolution was passed stating that the government should declare May Day as a holiday. The president of the party explained the non-violent principles of the party. There was a request for financial aid. It was emphasized that workers of the world must unite to achieve independence.

Chettiar announced that it would join 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 E ...

and would strive to function as the labour and farmer wing of that party. In the manifesto of the party Chettiar described Congress 'our chief political organ, appear to define "nation" by referring to propertied class'. Singaravelu was critical that the Indian National Congress was dominated by landlord and

capitalist Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, priva ...

interests. Labour Kishan Party of Hindustan was a part of a larger, but not inter-connected, move by various Indian communist groups to find a mass-based political platform. The party was joined by

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 ...

and the communist group in

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising a ...

. Dange had initially expressed reservations on the LKPH and its programme drafted by Chettiar, but once the party had been formed he joined it. In December 1923, Chettiar started a fortnightly journal called ''The Labour Kisan Gazette''. Chettiar also started the Tamil Weekly ''Thozhilalar'' in which he wrote about the working class movements spreading in various parts of the world during the early part of the 1920s. Singaravelu announced the dissolution of the party at the 1925 Kanpur conference of the Communist Party of India.Ralhan, O. P.. ''Communist Party of India''.

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 211.

References

{{Reflist 1923 establishments in India 1925 disestablishments in India Defunct communist parties in India Labour movement in India Political parties disestablished in 1925 Political parties established in 1923