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ABSTRACT
This paper envisages how the concept of ‘Inequality’ has been perceived by the Trade Unionists in late colonial Bengal. Informed by the ideology of Communism, these activists penned down a myriad of insightful analytical tracts, primarily in vernaculars, ranging from propaganda pamphlets to articles in the party organs. Their critique of Imperialism, and how it precipitates economic and socio-political inequalities was grafted in the ethos of class struggle. Through delineating their stark ideological differences with Gandhian mass politics, and by focusing on their intellectual endeavours concerning various structural inequalities of class, religion, caste, and gender it aims at charting out the indigenous response to the global doctrine of Communism. Often overlooked as conventional intellectuals, their literature brings to fore an alternative discourse on anti-colonialism in South Asia, overwhelmed by the theme of Nationalism. This paper is a methodological probe in doing intellectual history from below, adding to the edifice of the existing scholarship on Decolonisation, Communism, and Inequality in the Global South.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1 Chatterjee, Samya. (As quoted in Chattopadhyay, Communism and Bengal’s Freedom Movement, 6–7.)
2 Hill, World Turned Upside Down. (The term was first used by Christopher Hill.)
3 A characteristic postcolonial critique of Hegelian metanarrative that equates global history as the history of Modern West whereby the term ‘global’ is reduced to a homogenous discourse highlighting European colonial dominance and authority and exclusion of other subaltern voices and knowledge systems.
‘“Europe” remains the sovereign theoretical subject of all histories, including ones we call “Indian”, “Chinese”, “Kenyan”, etc.’ Chakrabarty, Provincializing Europe, 27.
4 Kapila, Intellectual History for India.
5 Few such narratives are, Basu, The Political Parties; Basu, Does Class Matter?. Sporadic departure from this trend can be traced in historical biographies like, Chattopadhyay, An Early Communist.
6 Sartori, Liberalism in Empire. (The concept was introduced by Sartori in his book on Bengal peasantry and landed gentry.)
The two most compelling bodies of works on Intellectual History in India have been Eric Stokes, English Utilitarians, and Guha, A Rule of Property. Both the works designate the colonial state as the site of epistemological transformations and the actors, the official intellectuals of the state, ever stuck in the overwhelming Foucauldian trope of knowledge and power. Despite the undeniable complicity of knowledge and power being myopic obliterates the other perspectives in the discourse.
7 Moyn and Sartori, Global Intellectual History. (The recent scholarship on Intellectual history established a more global approach towards studying trends in intellectual history whereby new methodologies are professed to make the field more accommodating to various traditions of intellectual thought processes countering the prevalence of Western and Eurocentric tools of meta-analysis in the field. The anthology, by Andrew Sartori and Samuel Moyn, was a breakthrough in the field.)
8 Introduction of the Special Issue.
9 Islam Mrityukshud ha.
10 Chattopadhyay, Communism, 94–105.
11 West Bengal State Archive (Henceforth will be mentioned as WBSA), Intelligence Bureau (IB) File No: 320/26.
12 Ibid.
13 Ahmad, Prabandha Sankalan, 1–2.
14 Ibid., 4.
15 Ibid., 4.
16 Ibid., 6.
17 Tagore, “Gandhism,” 19–31.
18 Ibid., 19.
19 Ibid., 20.
20 The Karmi, August 1921.
21 Tagore, “Gandhism,” 21.
22 Ibid., 22.
23 Ibid., 22.
24 Ibid., 23.
25 Saha, Pioneers, 81.
26 Tagore, “Who Paved the Way,”16.
27 Tagore, “Gandhism,” 25.
28 Ibid., 25.
29 For further information on The League Against Imperialism consult, Chattopadhyay, Communism.
30 Tagore, “Who Paved the Way,” 12–16.
31 Tagore, Fascism, 95–6.
32 Tagore, “Gandhism,” 27.
33 Ibid., 27.
34 Ahmad, “Sreni-Sangram,” 84–6.
35 Dutta, “Bhuter Mukhe Ram Naam,” 127–30.
36 Chomsky, “The Responsibility of Intellectuals.” The New York Review of Books, February 23, 1967.
37 Mukhopadhyay, “Union Jinishta Ki?,” 256–7.
38 Ahmad, “Sreni-Sangram,” 81.
39 For details refer to, McPherson, The Muslim Microcosm, and Chatterjee, Bengal Divided.
40 McPherson, The Muslim Microcosm. (Refer for further details on the Communal tension and riots in Bengal during the 1920s.)
41 Chattopadhyay, An Early Communist, 166–7.
42 Ahmad, Nirbachito Prabandhya, 47.
43 Ahmad, Nirbachito Prabandhya, 46. (Saumyendranath published a pamphlet in 1937 titled ‘Peasants Revolt in Malabar’ which interpreted it as a revolutionary upsurge against feudal elements, not mere riot. It was banned by the Bengal government. Tagore, “Peasant Revolt in Malabar”.)
44 Ibid.
45 Tagore, “Peasant Revolt in Malabar,” 64.
46 Lahiri, “Thirty Thousand for Six.” National Front, December 25, 1938.
47 Ibid.
48 For further reference, Sarkar, “Dirty Work, Filthy Caste,” 176–206.
49 Tagore, Jatri, 108–10.
50 Ahmad, “Nari-Purusher Samandhikar.”
51 Chattopadhyay, Sramiknetri Santoshkumari, 32.
52 Chattopadhyay, Sanhati, Langal, Ganabani, i–xxx.
53 Kumari, “Banglar Chotkoler Kotha,” 56–9.
54 Sen, Women and Labour.
55 Chattopadhyay, The Trail-Blazing Women, 4.
56 Annual Report on Working of IndianTrade Unions Act, 1926 in Bengal. (1 April 1942–31 March 1943). (The Annual Report on Working of Trade Union's Act of 1942–1943 recorded a significant increase in the number of female trade unionists from 1690 in 1941–1942 to a whopping four-fold increase in 1940.)
57 West Bengal Govt. Publication, India’s Struggle for Freedom.
58 Chattopadhyay, The Trail-Blazing Women, 14–16.
59 Ibid., 6–13.