Centre of Indian Communists
Centre of Indian Communists (CIC) was a minor Maoist group in the Indian state of Kerala 1974-1978. CIC was a continuation of the Communist Unity Centre, which was formed in April 1972 through the merger of the groups of A.V. Aryan, K.P.R. Gopalan and Arayakandi Achuthan.[1]
A.V. Aryan's group was a significant split from the Communist Party of India (Marxist) in Thrissur.[2] Following the August 1972 murder of CPI(M) leader Azhikodan Raghavan A.V. Aryan, one of the CUC secretaries, was arrested and put on trial.[2]
The CIC was founded at a convention in Cochin in 14-15 December 1974.[3][4] The convention was attended by 500 delegates, including some prominent former CPI(M) members.[3] Attendees included K.P.R. Gopalan, P. Gangadharan , J. Abraham and M.T. Thomas.[5] The founding convention elected a 19-member committee with A.V. Aryan as its chairman.[3][5] Arayakandi Achuthan was one of the committee members.[5]
The CIC convention pledged to adhere to the ideological line of the Communist Party of China, but adapting it to local conditions.[4] The convention called for the establishment of a 'people's government' through revolutionary armed struggle of workers and peasants.[3] The document adopted by the founding convention identified Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) (CPI(ML)) as 'Indian Narodniks'.[6] CIC denounced the Communist Party of India for 'right-wing opportunism', the CPI(M) for 'left-wing opportunism' and CPI(ML) for 'adventurism'.[4] Far Eastern Economic Review described the CIC as, compared to other splinter-groups of CPI(M), as 'mellow'.[7]
At the time of its foundation CIC claimed to be in contact with groups outside Kerala, such as the Lenin Banner group in West Bengal, the T. Nagi Reddy group in Andhra Pradesh and the A.K. Roy group in Bihar.[5] However Manoranjan Mohanty noted that later CIC stayed away from participating in the efforts to unify different Maoist groups in India during the latter half of the 1970s.[6]
CIC was one of ten Maoist groups that were banned by the Central government on 3 July 1975.[6][8] After the end of the Emergency the Shah Commission noted that one member of the banned CIC was detained.[9] The ban was lifted in March 1977.[10]
In May 1978 The Hindu reported that members of CIC had participated in the founding of the a new party, Communist (Bolshevik) Party, in at a conference in Cochin, together with former members of CPI, CPI(M), the Communist Unity Centre and the People's Democratic Front.[11] The main leaders of the Communist Bolshevik Party were K.P.R. Gopalan and A.V. Aryan.[12] In 1979 the publication Bolshevik began to be issued from Thrissur, edited by A.V. Aryan.[13]
References
[edit]- ^ New Democracy. Committee of Communist Revolutionaries, 1974. p. 8
- ^ a b After Fratricide, in [Link, Vol. 15, Part 4]. United India Periodicals, 1973. p. 11
- ^ a b c d Indian Recorder and Digest, Vol. 21. 1975. p. 11
- ^ a b c Guy Arnold. Revolutionary and Dissident Movements: An International Guide. Longman, 1991. p. 135
- ^ a b c d 東南アジア要覧. 内閣官房内閣調查室, 1975. p. 37
- ^ a b c Manoranjan Mohanty. Revolutionary Violence: A Study of the Maoist Movement in India. Sterling Publishers, 1977. pp. xxi, 166
- ^ Far Eastern Economic Review. 1975. p. 25
- ^ The Naxalites Through the Eyes of the Police: Select Notifications from the Calcutta Police Gazette, 1967-1975. Dey's Publishing, 2007. p. 21
- ^ India. Shah Commission. Interim Report, Vol. 3. Controller of Publications, 1978. p. 79
- ^ Subhash C. Kashyap. Reforming the Constitution. UBS Publishers Distributors, 1992. p. 102
- ^ New Communist Party formed, in Data India. Press Institute of India, 1978. p. 328
- ^ Link: Indian Newsmagazine, Vol. 23. 1981. p. 17
- ^ Press in India: Annual Report of the Registrar of Newspapers for India, Part 2. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, Government of India, 1985. p. 327