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Communist Party of India (M-L) [Satyanaran Singh]
Also known as the Provisional Central Committee, CPI(ML)
Documents, Statements, and For a New Democracy journal
The Communist Party of India (M-L) [Satyanaran Singh] referred to on this page was formed in 1971 as a split-off from the original CPI(ML) party led by Charu Mazumdar. Satyanaran [or Satyanarain] Singh led this split-off, and continued to lead this party in its early years.
The party was reorganized in April 1973. Other prominent individuals and factions, including Santosh Rana and the Chandrapulla Reddy-led Andhra Pradesh Committee of Communist Revolutionaries merged with the Satyanaran Singh party. The Wikipedia reports that:
When the Bihar movement was launched by Jayaprakash Narayan in 1974, Singh’s CPI(ML) decided to lend support to it. Narayan had been in contact with Singh since 1968, attempting to persuade him to support non-violent agrarian reform struggles.
On 4 July 1975 the Indian government banned 27 organisations, Singh’s CPI(ML) was one of them. Under the Emergency Singh’s CPI(ML) formulated a three-tier united front line, calling for the formation of a ‘revolutionary united front’ (consisting of communist revolutionaries, working towards a unified revolutionary communist party), a ‘proletarian united front’ based on working class struggles (and which could include the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist)) and a ‘democratic front’ which would unite forces working for restoration of democratic rights. Within the framework of the ‘democratic front’ work, party cadres began participating in joint protests with non-left opposition groups at the time.
After the defeat of Indira Gandhi in the 1977 Lok Sabha elections, the situation for the party was relaxed somewhat. Singh asserted that although the class character of the new Janata Party government was the same as the Gandhi government, he appreciated differences like improvement of civil liberties and weakening of Soviet influence...
Singh’s CPI(ML) was the first major ML-faction that opened up for participating in elections, which became a controversial issue. On 10 April 1977 Singh declared the willingness to contest elections at a press conference. The Calcutta District committee denounced the move. Other ML-factions saw as the new line as treachery. In 1971 Santosh Rana was elected to the West Bengal state assembly from the Gopiballavpur constituency (one of the areas were CPI(ML) had started armed struggle following the model of the Naxalbari uprising). Rana got 13,401 votes (25.67%), which was enough to defeat the CPI(M), Indian National Congress and Janata Party candidates....
Around 1980 Singh’s group appeared as the strongest ML-faction, but with the exit of Chandrapulla Reddy and other splits the party shrunk. In 1984 a severe split occurred, with the loyalists of Singh opposed to the group of Santosh Rana and Vaskar Nandy. The Singh faction levelled the following accusation: “In our organisation also, Nandy’s close associates established contacts with a foreign voluntary agency and a native voluntary agency financed by Western monopoly capital, keeping it secret from the POC and the general secretary of the party, S N Singh....”
The group of Rana came to win a majority in the leadership (the provisional central committee) and Singh’s followers formed a new committee (and de facto a new party). Singh died shortly afterwards. Rana’s group differentiates themselves from other ML-factions through their emphasis on antifascism. Rana considers the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a fascist danger for India. PCC, CPI(ML) gives the advice to their followers to vote for parties like CPI(M) or even the Indian National Congress in constituencies were no revolutionary communist candidate is available.
Ahead of the 2004 Lok Sabha elections the party participated in the united front of revolutionary communists initiated by Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Red Flag and Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist).
PCC, CPI(ML) publishes For a New Democracy as its central organ. The [current] editor-in-chief is Vaskar Nandy.
So clearly the CPI(ML) [Satyanaran Singh], now just called the Provisional Central Committee, CPI(ML), has fundamentally and permanently moved away from any prospect of participating in people’s war, and is now just another reformist electoral party.
Although the documents below are from many decades ago, they are very hard to locate and attempts to suppress them by the government authorities in India still continue. We will attempt to obtain more journals and documents from this party in the future, especially from the early years.
If you know of other CPI(ML) [Satyanaran Singh] documents which should be posted here please contact BANNEDTHOUGHT.NET at: freespeech@bannedthought.net
Documents:
- 1998:
- “The Fascist Danger and Our Tasks”, by the Provisional Central Committee, CPI(M-L), December 1998, 14 pages. Searchable PDF format [133 KB]
For A New Democracy: Theoretical Journal of the CPI(M-L) [Satyanaran Singh] / Provisional Central Committee, CPI(M-L)
- Vol. I, #3, May 1978:, 68 pages. PDF format [3,019 KB]
- Vol. I, #7, September 1978:, 90 pages. PDF format [3,978 KB]
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