From National Revolutionism to Marxism: A Politico-historical Narrative of Origins of Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI)

Abstract

The national revolutionaries of India while in detention in the first half of the 1930s came in contact with Marxist literature. Imbibed by the Marxist view of social change, they gave up ‘terrorism’ after coming out of jails/camps. However, a sharp debate developed among them on the perception of the Comintern, its colonial policy in general and the policy with respect to the Indian freedom struggle in particular. Instead of joining any of the existing Marxist political parties, these revolutionaries formed their own parties. The Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP) and Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) are two such parties. The RSP was formed in 1940. However, a group of young revolutionaries who were with the RSP dissociated themselves and formed a ‘Platform of Action’ as Socialist Unity Centre (SUC) in 1946 and then gave birth to yet another political party, SUCI, on the Marxist–Leninist lines in 1948. The process of formation of SUCI has been analysed in this article.