->Arjun Madathiparambil Muraleedharan at 13:08, 7 January 2022

2022-01-07T13:08:16Z

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{{notability|1=Biographies|date=June 2021}}

'''Satyabhakta''' (Hindi: सत्यभक्त) (April 2 1897 – December 3 1985) who used the mononym, was one of the founders of the [[Communist Party of India]] December 25-28, 1925 at Kanpur (then spelled Cawnpore).<ref>भारत में कम्युनिस्ट आंदोलन: 100 साल के सफ़र के पाँच पड़ावों ने बदला इतिहास, जीएस राममोहन, बीबीसी तेलुगू सेवा, 25 अक्टूबर 2020</ref><ref>Satyabhakta aura Sāmyavādī Pārṭī By Satyabhakta, Karmendu Śiśira, Lokamitra Publications, 2010</ref><ref>Banārasīdāsa Caturvedī ke cunindā patra: eka lambe yuga kī jhān̐kiyām̐, Volume 2, p. 364</ref><ref>[https://peoplesdemocracy.in/2019/1124_pd/kanpur-communist-conference-1925 Kanpur Communist Conference - 1925, People's Democracy, Nov 24, 2019]</ref><ref>[https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/144526776.pdf COMMUNIST MOVEMENT AND COMMUNAL QUESTION IN INDIA, 1920-1948, PhD Thesis, HABIB MANJAR, ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY, 2008]</ref>

==Biography==
===Early life===
Satyabhakta’s original name
was Chakhan Lal.<ref>[https://www.epw.in/journal/2021/23/special-articles/vernacular-communism.html Vernacular Communism, ‘Marginal’ History of Satyabhakta, Charu Gupta, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 56, Issue No. 23, 05 Jun, 2021],</ref> He was born in
Bharatpur district of
Rajasthan, on April 2,
1897. His father
Kundanlal was the principal of the Middle School
run by the princely state.<ref>[http://thewirehindi.com/38906/remembering-communist-leader-satya-bhakta/ सत्यभक्त: हिंदी नवजागरण के अलबेले सेनानी, कृष्ण प्रताप सिंह, The Wire Hindi, 02/04/2018 ]</ref>

He subscribed to ‘Bharat
Mitra’of Calcutta, which
deeply influenced
Satyabhakta. Satyabhakta
came from a humble back-
ground and never
accumulated wealth or
property.

He grew up reading
revolutionary papers, and
learnt about Khudiram
Bose, Barindra Ghosh and
Aurobindo Ghosh. He was
also introduced to the
weekly ‘Satya Sanatan
Dharma’.

He married a Dalit
woman, who probably
was a widow.

He came under the influence of Ganesh
Shankar Vidyarthi and his
‘Pratap’. He joined the
underground revolution-
ary movement at a young
age in 1912-13, collecting
explosives making bombs.
He did some senseless ex-
periments in explosives
and got his finger blasted
off. Consequently, he was
under police watch for the
next twenty years. He ap-
preciated Sakharam
Ganesh Deuskar’s‘Desher
Katha’, ‘Anand Math’ of
Bankimchandra and ‘Japan ka Uday’ etc.

===Becoming a Gandhian===

In 1916, he became a
volunteer of Bharat Sevak
Samaj in Haridwar
Kumbh and got an opportunity to meet Gandhiji. At
that time, Sabarmati
Ashram had not yet come
into being. Its nucleus was
functioning from a village
one mile away from Alice
Bridge, Ahmedabad, from
a hired house.
Satyabhakta went there
and started doing the menial jobs like filling water,
running flour hand-mill,
etc., learning Bangla and
Gujarati languages also at
the same time.
There he translated
Gandhiji’s ‘Sarvodaya’
and ‘Jail ke Anubhav into
Hindi. He came in contact
with Gandhians like Kaka
Kalelkar, Vinoba Bhave,
Mahadev Desai and oth-
ers. Gandhiji wanted him
to stay in the Ashram per-
manently but Satyabhakta
had his own ideas and did
not fully agree with the
concept of Ahimsa etc.
Staying there from 1918 to
1920, he attended Bombay
session of the Congress.
He began to write from
1916, his first article being
life of Dhondo Keshav
Karve, then several biog-
raphies, articles in
nationalist papers such as
Saraswati, Maryada,
Hitkarini, Pratibha and
others. He worked in
Bhavishya of Pt Sundarlal,
coming in contact with
leaders like Jawaharlal
Nehru, Vijaya Lakshmi
Pandit, others.

===In contact with Communism===

While woking in
‘Maryada’ of Krishna Kant
Malaviya, Satyabhakta
joined non-cooperation
movement in 1921. But
soon getting disillusioned
with Congress politics, he
joined Rajasthan Seva
Sangh. Then he came in
contact with communist
views and began to read
about and appreciate Rus-
sian revolution.
Satyabhakta corre-
sponded with Sylvia
Pankhurst, editor of Work-
ers’ Dreadnought, organ
of [[Communist Party of Great Britain]]. Through
her, he got lot of Marxist
literature. At the beginning
of 1923, he joined Radha
Mohan Gokulji in his
leftwing weekly called
‘Pranveer’ from Nagpur.

He edited it for eight
months and brought out its
Independence Day Spe-
cial. He also attracted
attention as a correspon-
dent on writing about [[S. A. Dange]].
Towards 1923-end,
Satyabhakta returned to
Kanpur and took part in
workers’ activities. There
was a strike at the begin-
ning of 1924 of workers of
Victoria Cotton Mills, last-
ing for one and half
months. Satyabhakta in a
letter in DainikVartman of
April 31, 1924, provided
details of the strike. He
wrote that Mazdoor Sabha
had collected two thou-
sand rupees. He further
wrote: “…there may be
people in the Kanpur labor
movement who believe in
Communist or Bolshevik
theories…”. British gov-
ernment raised bogey of
Bolshevism to cover up its
anti-Communist acts such as [[Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case]], he said.

===Idea of formation of CPI===
He began to think in
terms of forming Commu-
nist party and convening
an all India conference of
Communists. Of course,
many others in India, in-
cluding Bombay Group,
were thinking along simi-
lar lines. He announced
intention to set up ‘Indian
Communist Party’ in the
Hindi daily Aj of July 12,
1924. He referred to Rus-
sia and to the Communist
rule there, asserting that
Communism was the only
path uplifting unhappy
and exploited people.
He called upon all wage
earners, peasants, workers,
clerks, school masters, rail-
way and postal
employees, peons etc. to
join the party. He signed the
letter as secretary of
‘Bhartiya Samyawadi
Dal’. His announcement
appeared in English daily
‘Indian World’.
In September 1925,
Satyabhakta published
two 4-page leaflets, in
Hindi and English, titled
‘Indian Communist
Party’, with a membership
form printed at the end.
The objects of Communist
Party were defined as “es-
tablishment of complete
swarajya and society based
upon common owner-
ship… of means and
instruments of production
and distribution…” He
called for the abolition of
zamindari system. He
stated that the toiling
people must organize
themselves. The party will
work to change the present
system.
Government of United
Provinces banned both
these pamphlets by a no-
tification in the gazette of
October 11, 1924.
Satyabhakta protested
against it through a letter
to ‘Vartman’ (Kanpur) of
October 20, 1924: “It is
cowardice of the govern-
ment to ban the rules of the
party without declaring
the party itself illegal.” He
was a Communist,and
would face all the conse-
quences.
In Aj of November 5,
1924, he reiterated, “We
have the right to organize
a communist party.” He
said that the Congress had
not defined swaraj,
changes in social order
have not been clarified, and
the National Congress
was strongly under the in-
fluence of rich people.
Communists wanted to
eliminate the difference
between the rich and the
poor. He quoted Lenin on
this question.
British government
closely watched his activi-
ties, raided his house and
his Socialist Bookshop sev-
eral times and confiscated
publications. His name
was originally included
among 13 people selected
for Kanpur Conspiracy
Case, but was dropped for
want of evidence.
‘Pranveer’ published
the ‘first quarterly report’
of ‘Indian Communist
Party’ in a brief letter signed
by Satyabhakta as secre-
tary. He mentioned that
party had 78 members by
that time, mostly in
Kanpur, and Madhya
Pradesh and Rajasthan.
Prominent members were: Maulana Hasrat Mohani,
Narayan Prasad Arora
(MLC), Rama Shankar
Awasthi (Editor,
Vartman), Radha Mohan
Gokulji, Ram Gopal
Vidyalankar (Editor,
Pranveer), etc.
Satyabhakta was in con-
tact with the revolutionary
organization HSRA,
though not agreeing with
everything. In the raid on
his office, police seized
copies of ‘Volunteer’ and
‘Revolutionary’, organs of
HRA in UP. In October
1924, Satyabhakta wrote
a 16- page pamphlet ‘Bol-
shevism Kya Hai’ (What is
Bolshevism) in question-
answer form. Mukut
Bihari, editor of Swadesh,
was arrested in Gorakhpur
while selling this pam-
phlet. Satyabhakta
strongly protested. Mukut
Bihari was released in
March 1925.
A second ‘quarterly re-
port’ of Indian Communist
Party was published in
March 1925, which
claimed a membership of
215, including 139 from
UP. The same month,
Saklatvala, British Com-
munist MP,
communicated with
Satyabhakta.
A leaflet issued by
Satyabhakta (June 18,
1925) titled‘The Future
Program of Indian Com-
munist Party’, mentioned
for the first time that an
Indian Communist confer-
ence would be held at the
same time as Congress ses-
sion in Kanpur at
1925-end.
Police again raided his
bookshop on July 7, 1925
and seized communist lit-
erature of CPGB.
Hindustan Times of July
16, 1925 reported with the
heading ‘Communist
Party: police raid uncalled
for, secretary explains’.
Satyabhakta commented
that India has been re-
duced to the level of a
prison.
The police and the Brit-
ish intelligence suspected
that the Communist Party
set up at Kanpur by
Satyabhakta was a direct
result of [[Hindustan Republican Association]],
with himself as figurehead.
In his documents,
Satyabhakta tried to pro-
vide aims, objects and
programs of Communist
Party more clearly.
===Response to Satyabhakta’s call===
[[S. V. Ghate]] recorded that
after Kanpur Conspiracy
Case, the “’Socialist’
Group” of Bombay had
considered formation of a
party. In the meantime,
they came across
Satyabhakta’s announce-
ment, and decided to join
the Kanpur conference. JP
Bagerhatta also decided to
do the same.
KN Joglekar records
that he and Bombay Group
came to know about it
through VH Joshi, who
was going to meet SA
Dange in Kanpur Jail. He
wrote: “We, the Bombay
Group, gave support to the
idea and decided to partici-
pate in as large a number
as possible.” Joglekar said
that Satyabhakta was help-
ful to the defence
committee in Kanpur
Conspiracy Case.
Muzaffar Ahmed wrote
that Satyabhakta con-
tacted him through letter
in Almora requesting par-
ticipation in Kanpur
Communist conference.
Muzaffar Ahmed reached
Kanpur and found Ghate,
Joglekar, Nimbkar etc
present.
The initiative of
Satyabhakta and others
met with a positive re-
sponse not only from
Bombay and Bengal but
also from Punjab and
Madras.
Thus, according to
Ghate, the work of bring-
ing together the
Communist groups at
Kanpur was done by
Satyabhakta. Satyabhakta
formed a committee and
got help from Ganesh
Shankar Vidyarthi and his
paper ‘Pratap’. Vidyarthi
was a leftist and helped the
Communists.
As is well-known,
Kanpur foundation con-
ference of CPI was a grand
success. The ‘Indian Com-
munist Party’ of
Satyabhakta was dissolved
and a formal Communist
Party of India was
founded. Satyabhakta
wrote that he did not feel
any dissatisfaction about
this.

===Satyabhakta’s differences and departure===
Satyabhakta was elected to CEC (central executive committee)
formed at Kanpur conference. But he soon developed differences,
particularly on the ques-
tion of internationalism,
and resigned from CEC.
Later he went out of the
party, though remained a
sympathetic nationalist.
Actually, there had
been certain divergence of
views between him and
CPI at Kanpur on the na-
ture of party, which he
himself had initiated. This
led to his gradual diver-
gence from Communist
movement. In
Satyabhakta’s perception,
it should have been an ‘Indian Communist Party’
rather than Communist
Party of India. It was not
a question of just a name
but of a whole
approach.He said he was
not opposed to the Com-
munist International
(Comintern) and favoured
a friendly relation with it,
but observed that the
party should not be tied to
it.
Satyabhakta published
the first number of his 8-
page Hindi fortnightly
‘Samyavadi’ on January 1,
1926 after the conference.
He wanted to publish it at
the time of the conference
but could not do so. It con-
tained articles by
Singaravelu, Maulana
Azad Subhani and Radha
Mohan Gokulji, besides ar-
ticles on Russia and Lenin.
Both its initial numbers
were seized by the British
police. His book ‘Agle SaatSaal’ (next seven years)
was also banned and
seized.

He later on worked in
various Hindi journals like
‘Chand’, ‘Pranveer’, etc but
had to leave them. He
gradually became a desti-
tute. He joined a spiritual
ashram in Mathura in 1941
and other places, but he
continued writing. He
wrote about hundred
small biographies of
prominent Indian and for-
eign historical figures. He
also wrote the history of In-
dian freedom movement
from 1857 to 1947. He
joined ‘Akhand Jyoti
Ashram’ but never partici-
pated in their daily prayers
and ‘aarti’ etc. He contin-
ued to believe in his own
interpretation of communism.

Even 46 years after the
events, he made it clear that
he had no quarrel with the
workers of the CPI.

===Death===
Satyabhakta died on
December 3, 1985 as a
destitute in the Ashram,
nearing the age of 90. He
deserves his due in the his-
tory of the Communist
movement in India.

==Writings==
* साम्यवाद का संदेश (The message of Communism), 1934<ref>[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.320238/page/n91/mode/2up साम्यवाद का संदेश, 1934]</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Communist Party of India}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Communist Party Of India}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1985 deaths]]
[[Category:Indian communists]]
[[Category:Communist Party of India politicians from Rajasthan]]
[[Category:Indian Marxist writers]]

Satya Bhakta - Revision history

->Arjun Madathiparambil Muraleedharan at 13:08, 7 January 2022