Communism and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1939-45

Communism and Nationalism in Colonial India, 1939-45 is an incisive and original contribution to our understanding of the Communist Party of India’s approach towards the Indian national movement and British colonialism from 1939 to 1945. Based on extensive use of archival material, private papers and rare documents, the book is a critique of both the official CPI line as well as its detractors` opinions about the Party’s role in the said period. It analyses in detail both points of view with regard to why the CPI failed to expose what it termed as the ‘betrayal’ of the `bourgeois nationalist` leadership and why it was not able to establish its `hegemony` over the Indian freedom struggle-to transform the bourgeois democratic revolution into a socialist revolution. This book can be used both as a textbook as well as a supplementary reading material by students, researchers and academicians working in the fields of Political Science, Economics, Sociology and History. It is an invaluable resource for all those interested in the study of the inter-play of communist, nationalist and imperialist forces during the Second World War, including political parties and civil society organizations.