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{{Use Indian English|date=July | {{Short description|Cofounder of the Communist Party of India}} | ||
{{Use dmy dates|date=July | {{Use Indian English|date=July 2016}} | ||
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2016}} | |||
{{Infobox person | {{Infobox person | ||
| name | | name = Abaninath Mukherji<br/>অবনীনাথ মুখার্জি | ||
| image | | image = Abani Mukherji.jpg | ||
| alt | | alt = | ||
| caption | | caption = | ||
| birth_name | | birth_name = | ||
| birth_date | | birth_date = {{Birth date|1891|06|03|df=yes}} | ||
| birth_place = [[Jabalpur|Jubbulpore | | birth_place = [[Jabalpur|Jubbulpore]], [[British Raj|British India]] | ||
| death_date | | death_date = {{Death date and age|1937|10|28|1891|06|03|df=yes}} | ||
| death_place = [[Moscow]], [[ | | death_place = [[Moscow]], [[USSR]] | ||
| other_names = | |||
| other_names = | | known_for = | ||
| known_for | | occupation = Revolutionary | ||
| occupation | |||
}} | }} | ||
{{Indcom}} | {{Indcom}} | ||
'''Abaninath Mukherji''' ({{ | '''Abaninath Mukherji''' ({{langx|bn|অবনীনাথ মুখার্জি}}, {{langx|ru|Абанинатх Трайлович Мукерджи}},{{Efn|His Russian name was spelt variously Абани/Абони/Абанинатх Троилокович/Трайлович Мукерджи/Мухарджи/Мухараджи (Abani/Aboni/Abaninath Trailokovich/Troilokovich/Traylovich Mukerdzhi/Muhardzhi/Muharadzi). The second part of the Russian version of the name (Trailokovich) is a [[patronymic]], traditional in Russian appellations. [http://memory.pvost.org/pages/mukerdzhi.html Abani Mukherji's biography] {{in lang|ru}}}} 3 June 1891 – 28 October 1937) was an Indian communist and émigré based in the [[USSR]] who co-founded the Communist Party of India (Tashkent group). His name was often spelt '''Abani Mukherjee'''.<ref name=banerjee>Banerjee, Santanu, | ||
[http://www.hvk.org/articles/0903/287.html Stalin's Indian victims] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120043445/http://www.hvk.org/articles/0903/287.html |date=20 January 2008 }} in ''The Indian Express'', 28 September 2003 (accessed 16 January 2008)</ref> | [http://www.hvk.org/articles/0903/287.html Stalin's Indian victims] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120043445/http://www.hvk.org/articles/0903/287.html|date=20 January 2008}} in ''The Indian Express'', 28 September 2003 (accessed 16 January 2008)</ref> | ||
== Biography == | ==Biography== | ||
===Early life=== | ===Early life=== | ||
Mukherji was born in [[British Raj|British ruled India]] to very poor weaver parents in the central town of [[Jabalpur]]. Abani Mukherji's father was Trailokyanath Mukherji and his family was Hindu.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ta4_DwAAQBAJ&dq=Abani+Mukherji+hindu&pg=PT131|title=The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941|isbn=9781108210416|last1=Pons|first1=Silvio|last2=Smith| first2=Stephen A.|date=21 September 2017|publisher=Cambridge University Press}}</ref> After leaving school, he moved to [[Ahmedabad]], where he trained as a weaver, and in 1910 he was employed as an assistant weaving master at the Bangla Laxmi Cotton Mills. In 1912, he was sent to [[German Empire|Germany]] to study weaving. In Germany, he encountered [[socialism]]. After returning to [[Calcutta]] in December of the same year, he was employed at another cotton mill, Andrew Yule Mill.<ref name="ralhan114">Ralhan, O. P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946)''. [[New Delhi]]: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 113</ref> | |||
===Revolutionary activities=== | ===Revolutionary activities=== | ||
{{Main|Hindu–German Conspiracy}} | {{Main|Hindu–German Conspiracy}} | ||
In 1914, Mukherji met [[Rash Behari Bose]] and joined the revolutionary movement. In 1915, he was sent to Japan to acquire weapons for the revolutionaries. According to British intelligence reports, he was active in the [[Hindu–German Conspiracy|Hindu–German conspiracy]]. In September 1915, while on his return journey to India, he was arrested in [[Singapore]] and incarcerated at the [[Fort Canning]] prison there, where he remained until he escaped in the autumn of 1917.<ref name="ralhan114"/> The exact details of his escape are unclear, but he told his friend [[Suniti Kumar Chatterji]] that he was assisted by a group of sympathetic Irish soldiers.<ref>Chinmohan Sehanbish, ''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.267256 The Russian Revolution and Expatriate Indian Revolutionaries]'' p.389 (accessed 18 November 2020)</ref> Mukherji managed to reach [[Java]] in the [[Dutch East Indies]], where he stayed until the end of 1919, living under the name of Dar Shaheer. In Java, he was in contact with [[Indonesians|Indonesian]] and Dutch revolutionaries and became a [[ | |||
In 1914, Mukherji met [[Rash Behari Bose]] and joined the revolutionary movement. In 1915, he was sent to Japan to acquire weapons for the revolutionaries. According to [[British Raj ]]intelligence reports, he was active in the [[Hindu–German Conspiracy|Hindu–German conspiracy]]. In September 1915, while on his return journey to India, he was arrested in [[Singapore]] and incarcerated at the [[Fort Canning]] prison there, where he remained until he escaped in the autumn of 1917.<ref name="ralhan114"/> The exact details of his escape are unclear, but he told his friend [[Suniti Kumar Chatterji]] that he was assisted by a group of sympathetic Irish soldiers.<ref>Chinmohan Sehanbish, ''[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.267256 The Russian Revolution and Expatriate Indian Revolutionaries]'' p.389 (accessed 18 November 2020)</ref> Mukherji managed to reach [[Java]] in the [[Dutch East Indies]], where he stayed until the end of 1919, living under the name of Dar Shaheer. In Java, he was in contact with [[Indonesians|Indonesian]] and Dutch revolutionaries and became a [[Communism|communist]]. He also travelled to [[Amsterdam]] and back. In Amsterdam, he met [[S. J. Rutgers]], who recommended him as a delegate to the Second Congress of the [[Communist International]].<ref name="ralhan115">Ralhan, O. P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946)''. [[New Delhi]]: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 114-115</ref> | |||
===Communist International=== | ===Communist International=== | ||
In 1920, Mukherji traveled to Russia to take part in the Second Congress of the [[Communist International]]. There he met [[M. N. Roy]], and with Roy and Roy's wife Evelyn he drafted a document which was published in ''Glasgow Socialist'' on 24 June 1920, under the title ''The Indian Communist Manifesto''.<ref>[http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=187&page=26 Did Moscow play fraud on Marx?–I: Pre-1957 Left perspective on 1857] {{ | In 1920, Mukherji traveled to Russia to take part in the Second Congress of the [[Communist International]]. There he met [[M. N. Roy]], and with Roy and Roy's wife Evelyn he drafted a document which was published in ''Glasgow Socialist'' on 24 June 1920, under the title ''The Indian Communist Manifesto''.<ref>[http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=187&page=26 Did Moscow play fraud on Marx?–I: Pre-1957 Left perspective on 1857] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120034840/http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=187&page=26|date=20 January 2008}} by Professor Devendra Swarup at organiser.org (accessed 13 January 2008)</ref> Like Mukherji, Roy had been an [[Anushilan Samiti]] member during his early political life.<ref>Buddhadeva Bhattacharya, ''[http://www.marxists.org/archive/bhattacharya/1982/origins-rsp/ch01.htm Origins of the Revolutionary Socialist Party]'' (accessed 16 January 2008)</ref> | ||
Mukherji took part as a delegate in the Second Congress of the Communist International, held in [[Petrograd]] between 19 July – 7 August 1920. In the [[Russian language]] notes of the Congress, he is listed as a 'left-socialist', without party affiliation being stated. At the Congress, Mukherji met [[Vladimir Lenin]] for the first time. Directly after the Congress, Mukherji traveled to [[Baku]] in | Mukherji took part as a delegate in the Second Congress of the Communist International, held in [[Saint Petersburg|Petrograd]] between 19 July – 7 August 1920. In the [[Russian language]] notes of the Congress, he is listed as a 'left-socialist', without party affiliation being stated. At the Congress, Mukherji met [[Vladimir Lenin]] for the first time. Directly after the Congress, Mukherji traveled to [[Baku]] in [[Azerbaijan Soviet Socialist Republic|Soviet Azerbaijan]] to represent India at the [[Congress of the Peoples of the East]].<ref name="ralhan116">Ralhan, O. P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946)''. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 116</ref> | ||
The Communist Party of India (Tashkent group) was founded in [[Tashkent]] on 17 October 1920, two months after the end of the Second Congress of the | The Communist Party of India (Tashkent group) was founded in [[Tashkent]] on 17 October 1920, two months after the end of the Second Congress of the Communist International. The principal movers in the founding of the party were Roy and Mukherji.<ref name="rao">M. V. S. Koteswara Rao. ''Communist Parties and United Front - Experience in Kerala and West Bengal''. [[Hyderabad]]: Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 88-89</ref> After the founding of CPI, Roy returned to Moscow whilst Mukherji was put in charge of the Indian Military School, with the task of training armed forces to fight British colonialism.<ref name="ralhan116"/> The same year, Mukherji became a member of the [[Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks)]].<ref name="ru-bio">[http://memory.pvost.org/pages/mukerdzhi.html Abani Mukherji's biography] {{in lang|ru}}</ref> | ||
The following year, 1921, Mukherji went to Moscow to attend the Third Congress of the Communist International as a delegate with a consultative vote. There he also took part in a meeting of Indian revolutionaries.<ref name="ralhan116"/> | The following year, 1921, Mukherji went to Moscow to attend the Third Congress of the Communist International as a delegate with a consultative vote. There he also took part in a meeting of Indian revolutionaries.<ref name="ralhan116"/> | ||
Also in 1921 Mukherji drafted a document on the [[ | Also in 1921, Mukherji drafted a document on the [[Malabar rebellion]], which he sent to Lenin.<ref>[http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/marxists/archive/lenin/works/1921/nov/14b.htm V. I. Lenin to N. I. Bukharin, note dated 14 November 1921] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120034145/http://www2.cddc.vt.edu/marxists/archive/lenin/works/1921/nov/14b.htm|date=20 January 2008}} at cddc.vt.edu (accessed 13 January 2008): Lenin's note was written on a letter from Mukherji, by which he sent Lenin his article on the Malabar uprising of 1921.</ref> In 1922, Roy and Mukherji together wrote the book ''India in Transition'', a [[Marxism|Marxist]] analysis of the [[Indian Rebellion of 1857]], which the Communist International published in four languages in 1922. The book argued that the 1857 rebellion had failed to rid India of [[feudalism]].<ref>[http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/4799/1/174 India: The 1857 Revolt And Its Historiography: An Overview] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120021923/http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/view/4799/1/174 |date=20 January 2008 }} by Biswamoy Pati at politicalaffairs.net (accessed 13 January 2008)</ref> Roy had assigned to Mukherji the task of gathering statistical data for the book.<ref name="ralhan117">Ralhan, O. P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946)''. New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 117</ref><ref name=":0" /> | ||
===Return to India=== | ===Return to India=== | ||
In December 1922, Mukherji returned from Moscow to India clandestinely, via [[Berlin]]. He privately met local communist leaders on his way. Once in India, he was sheltered by the [[Anushilan Samiti]] in [[Dacca]]. After meeting [[S.A. Dange]] at the [[Gaya, India|Gaya]] session of the [[Indian National Congress]] in December 1922, and after meeting [[Bengal]] communist groups, Mukherji moved to [[Madras]], where he met [[Singaravelu Chettiar]]. Mukherji helped Chettiar with his efforts to form the [[Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan]] and to draw up its manifesto.<ref name="ralhan117"/><ref name="rsp">[http://www.marxists.org/archive/bhattacharya/1982/origins-rsp/ch01.htm Origins of the RSP<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Mukherji later returned to the Soviet Union.<ref name=":1">{{ | In December 1922, Mukherji returned from Moscow to India clandestinely, via [[Berlin]]. He privately met local communist leaders on his way. Once in India, he was sheltered by the [[Anushilan Samiti]] in [[Dacca]]. After meeting [[Shripad Amrit Dange|S. A. Dange]] at the [[Gaya, India|Gaya]] session of the [[Indian National Congress]] in December 1922, and after meeting [[Bengal]] communist groups, Mukherji moved to [[Madras]], where he met [[Singaravelu Chettiar]]. Mukherji helped Chettiar with his efforts to form the [[Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan]] and to draw up its manifesto.<ref name="ralhan117"/><ref name="rsp">[http://www.marxists.org/archive/bhattacharya/1982/origins-rsp/ch01.htm Origins of the RSP<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref> Mukherji later returned to the Soviet Union.<ref name=":1">{{cite book|last=Pinaki Biswas|title=Rabindranath Hatya Shorojantra (Bengali)|publisher=Lalmati Prakashan|year=2021|isbn=978-81-953129-3-1|location=Kolkata|pages=78}}</ref> | ||
===Split with Roy=== | ===Split with Roy=== | ||
Roy and Mukherji did however part ways and became bitter enemies. Mukherji learnt that during his travel to India, Roy had sent a circular to the Indian communist groups denouncing him and claiming that he did not represent the Communist International. By the mid-1920s, the break between them was complete.<ref name="chnn">{{ | Roy and Mukherji did however part ways and became bitter enemies. Mukherji learnt that during his travel to India, Roy had sent a circular to the Indian communist groups denouncing him and claiming that he did not represent the Communist International. By the mid-1920s, the break between them was complete.<ref name="chnn">{{cite web|url=http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/chnn/CHNN13CIR.html|title=CHNN, No 13, Autumn 2002: Features<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=11 January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120082000/http://www.socialsciences.manchester.ac.uk/chnn/CHNN13CIR.html|archive-date=20 January 2008|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref name="ralhan118">Ralhan, O. P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946)''. [[New Delhi]]: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 118</ref> | ||
Mukherji took an uncompromising attitude towards cooperation with [[ | Mukherji took an uncompromising attitude towards cooperation with [[Nationalism|nationalist]] sectors. In 1928, he described the [[Workers and Peasants Party (India)|Workers and Peasants Party]] as 'the party that is accumulating by itself the elements of future Indian Fascism.'<ref name="chnn"/> | ||
===1930s=== | ===1930s=== | ||
During the 1930s, most of Mukherji's work was academic. He was an [[ | During the 1930s, most of Mukherji's work was academic. He was an [[Indology|indologist]] at the Oriental Institute of the [[Academy of Sciences of the USSR]],<ref name="ralhan118"/> and became president of the All Union Association of Orientalists. He also worked at the [[Communist Academy]].<ref name="ralhan119">Ralhan, O.P. (ed.). ''Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946)''. [[New Delhi]]: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 119</ref> | ||
===Death=== | ===Death=== | ||
Mukherji | Mukherji was executed in the [[Great Purge]] by [[Joseph Stalin]] in the late 1930s,<ref name="ralhan119"/><ref name=":1" /> but his death was only acknowledged by the Soviet Union after 1955.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&page=37&pid=83|title=Organiser - Content<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=11 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120034838/http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&page=37&pid=83|archive-date=20 January 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref> Mukherji was arrested on 2 June 1937. He was assigned for the first category of repression ([[execution by shooting]]) in the list "Moscow-Center" and executed on 28 October 1937.<ref name="ru-bio"/> | ||
==Personal life== | ==Personal life== | ||
In 1920, while in Russia, Mukherji met Rosa Fitingov, who was then an assistant to one of Lenin's private secretaries, Lydia Fotieva. Rosa Fitingov was a [[Russian Jewish]] woman who joined the Communist Party in 1918.<ref name=KJ>Jayawardena, Kumari, ''The White Woman's Other Burden'' (1995) p. 226</ref><ref name=":0" /> They married and had two children; a son named Gora and a daughter named Maya.<ref name="rao"/> Gora Mukerdzhi | In 1920, while in Russia, Mukherji met Rosa Fitingov, who was then an assistant to one of Lenin's private secretaries, Lydia Fotieva.<ref>{{cite book|last=Studer|first=Brigitte|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5hC3EAAAQBAJ&dq=rosa+fitingov+Communist+Party+of+India&pg=PT103|title=Travellers of the World Revolution: A Global History of the Communist International|date=2023-06-20|publisher=Verso Books|isbn=978-1-83976-803-3|language=en}}</ref> Rosa Fitingov was a [[History of the Jews in Russia|Russian Jewish]] woman who joined the Communist Party in 1918.<ref name=KJ>Jayawardena, Kumari, ''The White Woman's Other Burden'' (1995) p. 226</ref><ref name=":0" /> They married and had two children; a son named Gora and a daughter named Maya.<ref name="rao"/> Gora Mukerdzhi was killed fighting the invading [[Wehrmacht]] in the [[Battle of Stalingrad]] in 1942.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&page=20&pid=96|title=Organiser - Content<!-- Bot generated title -->|access-date=11 January 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080120034831/http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&page=20&pid=96|archive-date=20 January 2008|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite book|title=Samajtantrer Agniparikkha o Bharater Communist Andolan (Bengali)|last=Goutam Chattapadhyaya|publisher=Pustak Bipani|year=1992|isbn=81-85471-11-8|location=Kolkata|pages=76}}</ref> His wife Rosa was later one of the founding members of the CPI and acted as M. N. Roy's interpreter.<ref name=KJ/> | ||
==Publications== | ==Publications== | ||
* ''Indian Labour Movement: A Review of the Situation'', published in ''[[Communist Review]]'', May 1922<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.marxists.org/history/international/comintern/sections/britain/periodicals/communist_review/1922/05/indian_labour_mvt.htm|title=Indian Labour Movement: A Review of the Situation|last=Mukherji|first=Abani|website=www.marxists.org|language=en|access-date=2018-10-21}}</ref> | |||
==See also== | |||
== See also == | |||
* [[Anushilan Samiti]] | * [[Anushilan Samiti]] | ||
* [[Hindu–German Conspiracy | * [[Hindu–German Conspiracy]] | ||
* [[Communist Party of India]] | * [[Communist Party of India]] | ||
==References== | == References == | ||
{{Reflist | ===Notes=== | ||
{{Notelist}} | |||
===Citations=== | |||
{{Reflist}} | |||
==Further reading== | ==Further reading== | ||
* Chattopadhyaya, Gautam. ''Abani Mukherji, a dauntless revolutionary and pioneering Communist''. [[New Delhi]]: People's Publishing House, 1976 | |||
*Chattopadhyaya, Gautam. ''Abani Mukherji, a dauntless revolutionary and pioneering Communist''. [[New Delhi]]: People's Publishing House, 1976 | * Roy, Anita. ''Biblavi Abaninath Mukherji''. [[Calcutta]]: 1969 | ||
*Roy, Anita. ''Biblavi Abaninath Mukherji''. [[Calcutta]]: 1969 | |||
{{Hindu-German Conspiracy}} | {{Hindu-German Conspiracy}} | ||
| Line 86: | Line 87: | ||
[[Category:Soviet rehabilitations]] | [[Category:Soviet rehabilitations]] | ||
[[Category:Hindu–German Conspiracy]] | [[Category:Hindu–German Conspiracy]] | ||
[[Category:Great Purge victims]] | [[Category:Great Purge victims from India]] | ||
[[Category: | [[Category:Immigrants to the Soviet Union]] | ||
[[Category:Indian emigrants | [[Category:Indian emigrants]] | ||
[[Category:Indian Indologists]] | [[Category:Indian Indologists]] | ||
[[Category:People from Jabalpur]] | [[Category:People from Jabalpur]] | ||
Latest revision as of 12:47, 17 December 2025
Abaninath Mukherji অবনীনাথ মুখার্জি | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 3 June 1891 |
| Died | 28 October 1937 (aged 46) |
| Occupation | Revolutionary |
| Part of a series on |
| Communism in India |
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Abaninath Mukherji (Script error: The function "langx" does not exist., Script error: The function "langx" does not exist.,[lower-alpha 1] 3 June 1891 – 28 October 1937) was an Indian communist and émigré based in the USSR who co-founded the Communist Party of India (Tashkent group). His name was often spelt Abani Mukherjee.[1]
Biography[edit | edit source]
Early life[edit | edit source]
Mukherji was born in British ruled India to very poor weaver parents in the central town of Jabalpur. Abani Mukherji's father was Trailokyanath Mukherji and his family was Hindu.[2] After leaving school, he moved to Ahmedabad, where he trained as a weaver, and in 1910 he was employed as an assistant weaving master at the Bangla Laxmi Cotton Mills. In 1912, he was sent to Germany to study weaving. In Germany, he encountered socialism. After returning to Calcutta in December of the same year, he was employed at another cotton mill, Andrew Yule Mill.[3]
Revolutionary activities[edit | edit source]
In 1914, Mukherji met Rash Behari Bose and joined the revolutionary movement. In 1915, he was sent to Japan to acquire weapons for the revolutionaries. According to British Raj intelligence reports, he was active in the Hindu–German conspiracy. In September 1915, while on his return journey to India, he was arrested in Singapore and incarcerated at the Fort Canning prison there, where he remained until he escaped in the autumn of 1917.[3] The exact details of his escape are unclear, but he told his friend Suniti Kumar Chatterji that he was assisted by a group of sympathetic Irish soldiers.[4] Mukherji managed to reach Java in the Dutch East Indies, where he stayed until the end of 1919, living under the name of Dar Shaheer. In Java, he was in contact with Indonesian and Dutch revolutionaries and became a communist. He also travelled to Amsterdam and back. In Amsterdam, he met S. J. Rutgers, who recommended him as a delegate to the Second Congress of the Communist International.[5]
Communist International[edit | edit source]
In 1920, Mukherji traveled to Russia to take part in the Second Congress of the Communist International. There he met M. N. Roy, and with Roy and Roy's wife Evelyn he drafted a document which was published in Glasgow Socialist on 24 June 1920, under the title The Indian Communist Manifesto.[6] Like Mukherji, Roy had been an Anushilan Samiti member during his early political life.[7]
Mukherji took part as a delegate in the Second Congress of the Communist International, held in Petrograd between 19 July – 7 August 1920. In the Russian language notes of the Congress, he is listed as a 'left-socialist', without party affiliation being stated. At the Congress, Mukherji met Vladimir Lenin for the first time. Directly after the Congress, Mukherji traveled to Baku in Soviet Azerbaijan to represent India at the Congress of the Peoples of the East.[8]
The Communist Party of India (Tashkent group) was founded in Tashkent on 17 October 1920, two months after the end of the Second Congress of the Communist International. The principal movers in the founding of the party were Roy and Mukherji.[9] After the founding of CPI, Roy returned to Moscow whilst Mukherji was put in charge of the Indian Military School, with the task of training armed forces to fight British colonialism.[8] The same year, Mukherji became a member of the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks).[10]
The following year, 1921, Mukherji went to Moscow to attend the Third Congress of the Communist International as a delegate with a consultative vote. There he also took part in a meeting of Indian revolutionaries.[8]
Also in 1921, Mukherji drafted a document on the Malabar rebellion, which he sent to Lenin.[11] In 1922, Roy and Mukherji together wrote the book India in Transition, a Marxist analysis of the Indian Rebellion of 1857, which the Communist International published in four languages in 1922. The book argued that the 1857 rebellion had failed to rid India of feudalism.[12] Roy had assigned to Mukherji the task of gathering statistical data for the book.[13][14]
Return to India[edit | edit source]
In December 1922, Mukherji returned from Moscow to India clandestinely, via Berlin. He privately met local communist leaders on his way. Once in India, he was sheltered by the Anushilan Samiti in Dacca. After meeting S. A. Dange at the Gaya session of the Indian National Congress in December 1922, and after meeting Bengal communist groups, Mukherji moved to Madras, where he met Singaravelu Chettiar. Mukherji helped Chettiar with his efforts to form the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan and to draw up its manifesto.[13][15] Mukherji later returned to the Soviet Union.[16]
Split with Roy[edit | edit source]
Roy and Mukherji did however part ways and became bitter enemies. Mukherji learnt that during his travel to India, Roy had sent a circular to the Indian communist groups denouncing him and claiming that he did not represent the Communist International. By the mid-1920s, the break between them was complete.[17][18]
Mukherji took an uncompromising attitude towards cooperation with nationalist sectors. In 1928, he described the Workers and Peasants Party as 'the party that is accumulating by itself the elements of future Indian Fascism.'[17]
1930s[edit | edit source]
During the 1930s, most of Mukherji's work was academic. He was an indologist at the Oriental Institute of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR,[18] and became president of the All Union Association of Orientalists. He also worked at the Communist Academy.[19]
Death[edit | edit source]
Mukherji was executed in the Great Purge by Joseph Stalin in the late 1930s,[19][16] but his death was only acknowledged by the Soviet Union after 1955.[20] Mukherji was arrested on 2 June 1937. He was assigned for the first category of repression (execution by shooting) in the list "Moscow-Center" and executed on 28 October 1937.[10]
Personal life[edit | edit source]
In 1920, while in Russia, Mukherji met Rosa Fitingov, who was then an assistant to one of Lenin's private secretaries, Lydia Fotieva.[21] Rosa Fitingov was a Russian Jewish woman who joined the Communist Party in 1918.[22][14] They married and had two children; a son named Gora and a daughter named Maya.[9] Gora Mukerdzhi was killed fighting the invading Wehrmacht in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942.[23][14] His wife Rosa was later one of the founding members of the CPI and acted as M. N. Roy's interpreter.[22]
Publications[edit | edit source]
- Indian Labour Movement: A Review of the Situation, published in Communist Review, May 1922[24]
See also[edit | edit source]
References[edit | edit source]
Notes[edit | edit source]
- ↑ His Russian name was spelt variously Абани/Абони/Абанинатх Троилокович/Трайлович Мукерджи/Мухарджи/Мухараджи (Abani/Aboni/Abaninath Trailokovich/Troilokovich/Traylovich Mukerdzhi/Muhardzhi/Muharadzi). The second part of the Russian version of the name (Trailokovich) is a patronymic, traditional in Russian appellations. Abani Mukherji's biography (in Russian)
Citations[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Banerjee, Santanu, Stalin's Indian victims Archived 20 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine in The Indian Express, 28 September 2003 (accessed 16 January 2008)
- ↑ Pons, Silvio; Smith, Stephen A. (21 September 2017). The Cambridge History of Communism: Volume 1, World Revolution and Socialism in One Country 1917–1941. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9781108210416.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Ralhan, O. P. (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946). New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 113
- ↑ Chinmohan Sehanbish, The Russian Revolution and Expatriate Indian Revolutionaries p.389 (accessed 18 November 2020)
- ↑ Ralhan, O. P. (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946). New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 114-115
- ↑ Did Moscow play fraud on Marx?–I: Pre-1957 Left perspective on 1857 Archived 20 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine by Professor Devendra Swarup at organiser.org (accessed 13 January 2008)
- ↑ Buddhadeva Bhattacharya, Origins of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (accessed 16 January 2008)
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Ralhan, O. P. (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946). New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 116
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 M. V. S. Koteswara Rao. Communist Parties and United Front - Experience in Kerala and West Bengal. Hyderabad: Prajasakti Book House, 2003. p. 88-89
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Abani Mukherji's biography (in Russian)
- ↑ V. I. Lenin to N. I. Bukharin, note dated 14 November 1921 Archived 20 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine at cddc.vt.edu (accessed 13 January 2008): Lenin's note was written on a letter from Mukherji, by which he sent Lenin his article on the Malabar uprising of 1921.
- ↑ India: The 1857 Revolt And Its Historiography: An Overview Archived 20 January 2008 at the Wayback Machine by Biswamoy Pati at politicalaffairs.net (accessed 13 January 2008)
- ↑ 13.0 13.1 Ralhan, O. P. (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946). New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 117
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Goutam Chattapadhyaya (1992). Samajtantrer Agniparikkha o Bharater Communist Andolan (Bengali). Kolkata: Pustak Bipani. p. 76. ISBN 81-85471-11-8.
- ↑ Origins of the RSP
- ↑ 16.0 16.1 Pinaki Biswas (2021). Rabindranath Hatya Shorojantra (Bengali). Kolkata: Lalmati Prakashan. p. 78. ISBN 978-81-953129-3-1.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 "CHNN, No 13, Autumn 2002: Features". Archived from the original on 20 January 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2008.
- ↑ 18.0 18.1 Ralhan, O. P. (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946). New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 118
- ↑ 19.0 19.1 Ralhan, O.P. (ed.). Encyclopaedia of Political Parties - India - Pakistan - Bangladesh - National - Regional - Local. Vol. 13. Revolutionary Movements (1930–1946). New Delhi: Anmol Publications, 1997. p. 119
- ↑ "Organiser - Content". Archived from the original on 20 January 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2008.
- ↑ Studer, Brigitte (20 June 2023). Travellers of the World Revolution: A Global History of the Communist International. Verso Books. ISBN 978-1-83976-803-3.
- ↑ 22.0 22.1 Jayawardena, Kumari, The White Woman's Other Burden (1995) p. 226
- ↑ "Organiser - Content". Archived from the original on 20 January 2008. Retrieved 11 January 2008.
- ↑ Mukherji, Abani. "Indian Labour Movement: A Review of the Situation". www.marxists.org. Retrieved 21 October 2018.
Further reading[edit | edit source]
- Chattopadhyaya, Gautam. Abani Mukherji, a dauntless revolutionary and pioneering Communist. New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1976
- Roy, Anita. Biblavi Abaninath Mukherji. Calcutta: 1969
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