All India Forward Bloc
Encyclopedia
The All India Forward Bloc is a leftwing nationalist political party
in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress
in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party after the independence of India. It has its main stronghold in West Bengal
.
, who had resigned from the presidency of the Indian National Congress
on April 29 after being outmaneuvered by Mohandas K. Gandhi. The formation of the Forward Bloc was announced to the public at a rally in Calcutta. Bose said that who all were joining, they had to never turn their back to the British and must fill the pledge
form by cutting their finger and signing it with their blood. First of all, seventeen young girls came up and signed the pledge form. Initially the aim of the Forward Bloc was to rally all the leftwing sections within the Congress and develop an alternative leadership inside the Congress. Bose became the president of the Forward Bloc and S.S. Cavesheer its vice-president. A Forward Bloc Conference was held in Bombay in the end of June. At that conference the constitution and programme of the Forward Bloc were approved. In July 1939 Subhas Chandra Bose announced the Committee of the Forward Bloc. It had Subhas Chandra Bose as president, S.S. Cavesheer from Punjab as its vice-president, Lal Shankarlal from Delhi
, as its general secretary and Pandit B Tripathi and Khurshed Nariman
from Bombay as secretaries. Other prominent members were Annapurniah from Andhra Pradesh
, Senapati Bapat, Hari Vishnu Kamnath from Bombay, Pasumpon U. Muthuramalingam Thevar
from Tamil Nadu and Sheel Bhadra Yajee
from Bihar
. Satya Ranjan Bakshi, was appointed as the secretary of the Bengal Provincial Forward Bloc.
In August the same year Bose began publishing a newspaper titled Forward Bloc. He travelled around the country, rallying support for his new political project.
. The conference declared the Forward Bloc to be a socialist political party, and the date of June 22 is considered as the founding date of the party by the Forward Bloc itself. The conference passed a resolution titled 'All Power to the Indian People', urging militant action for struggle against British colonial rule. Subhas Chandra Bose was elected as the president of the party and H.V. Kamath the general secretary.
, seeking Soviet support for the Indian independence struggle. Stalin declined Bose's request, and he then travelled to Germany. In Berlin he set up the Free India Centre, and rallied the Indian Legion.
In August 1942 the British authorities banned the Forward Bloc. Its offices around the country were ransacked. In 1943 Bose was transported to Asia, where he took over the leadership of the Indian National Army
. During the final phase of the war the INA fought alongside the Japanese against the British army.
Inside India, local activists of the Forward Bloc continued the anti-British activities without central coordination. For example, in Bihar members were involved in the Azad Dasta resistance groups, and distributed propaganda in support of Bose and INA. They did not have, however, any organic link neither with Bose nor the INA.
. The conference declared the formation of the 'FB Workers Assembly', in practice the legal cover of the still illegal Forward Bloc. Notably some leading communists
from Bombay, like K.N. Joglekar and Soli Batliwalli, joined the 'FB Workers Assembly'. The Workers Assembly conference declared that the "Forward Bloc is a Socialist Party, accepting the theory of class struggle in its fullest implications and a programme of revolutionary mass action for the attainment of Socialism leading to a Classless Society."
The Ahead of the 1946 assembly elections the ban on the Bloc was lifted in June that year. The Working Committee of the Forward Bloc met on June 10.
Elections to the Constituent Assembly and to provincial legislatures were held in December 1946. The Forward Bloc contested the elections. H.V. Kamath won a seat in the Constituent Assembly and Jyotish Chandra Ghosh, Hemantha Kumar Basu and Lila Roy were elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly.
However, the Bloc was clearly divided along ideological lines. One section was influenced by Marxism
whereas the other upheld 'Subhasism', a syncretic ideology consisting of socialism
, nationalism
and Indian spiritualism.
, Bihar on January 12–14, 1947. S.S. Cavesheer (a leading member of the Subhasist sector) was elected president and Sheel Bhadra Yagee (a leading member of the Marxist sector) was elected general secretary. The party took the name 'All India Forward Bloc'. The conference denounced the understanding between the Congress and the British government for the Independence of India, and called upon the Forward Bloc members present in the Constituent Assembly to withdraw from it. Subsequently, a national council was held in Bauria
, West Bengal
, which reaffirmed the demand of boycotting the Constituent Assembly as well as issuing a decree that Bloc members of state legislatures would resign.
, the party national council met in Varanasi
February 1948. The national council meeting was also preceded by a decision of the Indian National Congress in the beginning of the year to expel all dissenting tendencies within the Congress, including the Forward Bloc. Thus the party decided to renounce any links with the Congress once and for all, and reconstruct itself as an independent opposition party. Moreover, it passed a resolution that the party be divided into a Forward Bloc for India and a Forward Bloc for the new nation of Pakistan. This would soon prove to be very controversial. The general secretary Yagee did, in line with the Varanasi resolution, dissolve the Bengal
committee of the Forward Bloc and set-up ad hoc committees for West Bengal
and East Bengal
. Now the division between 'Marxists' and 'Subhasists' resurfaced. The 'Subhasists', and S. S. Cavesheer in particular, criticized Yajee's actions. Yagee resigned from the post of general secretary.
The split was now a fact. The 'Subhasist' group, led by Ruiker and Cavesheer, called for a conference in Chandranagar, West Bengal
. Their conference was held on December 29–31. On the same dates Yagee organised a conference in Calcutta. Effectively there was now two Forward Blocs, the Forward Bloc led by Ruiker and the Forward Bloc led by Yajee. Yajee was elected general secretary and K. N. Joglekar, chairman of the Yajee-led group. Notably, the Yajee-led group adopted a red flag with a leaping tiger and a hammer and sickle
.
Roughly speaking the Yajee's party had its main base in Bihar, Punjab and West Bengal, whereas the Ruiker-led group had its strongholds in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.
The same year Yajee's party decided to join the United Socialist Organisation of India
, a front led by Subhas Chandra Bose's elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose
. Joglekar revolted against this decision. His followers, which were found in West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, rallied to form the Forward Communist Party
.
The Yajee-led party did however survive Joglekar's departure. Yagee was able to push through a merger between the Forward Bloc and the Desh Sevak Party
, led by INA officers General Mohan Singh and Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon
, in October 1949. Both had worked closely with Subhas Chandra Bose. They had both been amongst the accused in the Red Fort trials. Now, Mohan Singh was appointed chairman of the Forward Bloc and Dhillon was appointed as its general secretary. This merger gave a considerable moral boost to the party. In June 1951 the majority of the Ruiker-led Forward Bloc reunified with the party. A joint central committee meeting was held on June 23, which confirmed the merger of the two parties. Mohan Singh and Dhillon were re-elected as the party chairman and general secretary.
In Tripura
a united front was formed by the Communist Party of India
, Tripura Ganatantrik Sangha, Ganamukti Parishad
, Ganatantrik Nari Samiti and independents for to contest the election to the Tripura electoral college (whose function was to appoint a Rajya Sabha
delegate from Tripura) jointly. The Forward Bloc participated in mass rallies on October 2 and December 2, 1951. However, just before the election the Forward Bloc withdrew from the front and decided to contest three of the 30 seats on their own. None of the Forward Bloc candidates were elected.
The 5th party conference (a 4th party plenum had been held in Ingota, U.P.
in 1949) was held in Puri
, Orissa
on December 28–31, 1952. Mohan Singh was elected chairman and Dhillon as general secretary.
In 1953 a group of party leaders from West Bengal, like Amar Bose, Satyapriya Banerjee and Suhurit Chaudhury, were expelled for breaking party discipline. The expellees formed the Marxist Forward Bloc
.
May 11–15. The Central Committee decided to expel Singh and Yagee. Hemanta Kumar Bose was elected as the new chairman and R.K. Haldulkar as general secretary. This team would continue in their posts until Bose's murder in 1971. U. Muthuramalingam Thevar
from Tamil Nadu
was elected as deputy chairman of the party.
Following the 1955 split the party would enjoy a relatively long period without any major splits.
, which eventually resulted in the formation of the Samyukta Socialist Party
. The Forward Bloc was invited to join the new party, and the Delhi unit of the party did take part in a joint socialist anti-Nehru campaign conference in April 1964. However, the party did not merge into the SSP.
, died on October 30, 1963. Following his death a power-struggle began between two of his disciples, Sasivarna Thevar and P.K. Mookiah Thevar. Mookiah Thevar emerged victorious and Sasivarna Thevar left to form his own party, the Subhasist Forward Bloc
.
A bye-election for the Aruppukottai Lok Sabha constituency seat vacated by U. Muthuramalingam Thevar's death was held in 1964, in which the Forward Bloc was defeated for the first time.
, Communist Party of India, the Forward Bloc and a break-away faction of the Socialist Party
. The front demanded nationwide land reform
s, strengthening of the national defence, withdrawal from the Commonwealth
, nationalisation of foreign capital, a rational food policy
, release of all political prisoners and scrapping of the Indo-American agreement of food supply. Existence of the new front was declared at a meeting in Agartala on November 17. Mass rallies of the front were held in Belonia on November 28 and then in Birchandra Bazar (near Belonia) on December 1. The front did not last, though, as in the 1967 election the communist parties aligned with a splinter-group of the Congress Party. The Forward Bloc did not present any candidates in that election.
. Nayar and Thevar accused the Forward Bloc of having deviated from its socialist
principles through its cooperation with the rightwing Swatantra Party
.
, West Bengal, between peasants aligned with the of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and East Pakistan
i refugee cultivators, who supported the Forward Bloc. CPI(M) leader Hare Krishna Konar
characterized the events as a degeneration of the agrarian struggles in rural West Bengal.
had entered into open conflict with the traditional Congress leadership. Effectively two separate Congress parties appeared, the Congress(R) led by Indira and the Congress(O) led by Kamaraj. The split was in many ways a left-right one, with Indira whipping up populism against the established party elites. The Forward Bloc did in some ways welcome the new developments. It appreciated Indira's stands and reformulated its anti-Congress line to focus mainly opposition to the traditional Congress elite (i.e. the Congress(O)). In the 1969 presidential elections, AIFB supported Indira's candidate V.V. Giri. This caused an abrupt break-up of the Swatantra-AIFB alliance in Tamil Nadu, as the Swatantra Party sought to align itself with the Congress(O).
In the 1971 Lok Sabha election, the Forward Bloc launched 24 candidates around the country. Two were elected, P.K. Mookiah Thevar from Ramanthapuram and Jambuwantrao Dhote
from Nagpur
. The party contested 3 seats in the interior of Maharashtra
, were it performed well. Dhote, who was then known as Vidarbha ka Sher (the Lion of Vidarbha), had joined the Forward Bloc and campaigned for a separate Vidarbha
state with the Forward Bloc as his platform. Dhote was hugely popular in the region at the time, and could draw crows of hundreds of thousands to his meetings.
In Tamil Nadu the party contested one seat, Ramanthapuram, with the support of its allies in the Progressive Front (most notably the Congress(R) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
). Meanwhile the Forward Bloc played an important role in securing Mukkulathor votes for its Progressive Front allies.
In West Bengal the party contested 10 Lok Sabha seats. The party obtained some significant votage in constituencies like Cooch Behar
(22.17%) and Birbhum (19.70%), but in general it was defeated by the CPI(M) candidates.
Moreover the party contested three seats in Bihar, one in Haryana, 1 in Madhya Pradesh, 4 in Uttar Pradesh and 1 in Delhi. In total the candidates of the party obtained 962 971 votes (0.66% of the national vote).
In the 1971 state legislative assembly election in Orissa, the party contested four seats. It got 8393 votes (0.19% of the state-wide vote), but was not close to winning any seat. In Tamil Nadu the party contested 9 seats in the southern part of the state within the framework of the Progressive Front. Out of these nine candidates, seven won. In total its vote stood at 268 721 (1.71% of the state-wide vote). One of its candidate came second and in the Mudukulathor constituency (that had been the centre of the violent 1957 Ramnad riots
) the AIFB candidate R. Rathina Thevar came third with 17244 votes (31.02%). The most spectacular victory was that of P.K. Mookiah Thevar (who contested Lok Sabha and assembly elections simultaneously) who got 49292 votes (74.46%) in the Usilampatti constituency, defeating S. Andi Thevar of the Revolutionary Forward Bloc. Lastly in West Bengal the party contested 52 constituencies, but could only win three seats. Its vote stood at 374 141 (2.90% of the state-wide vote).
On March 28, 1972 the party was able to win a seat in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council (the upper house of the regional parliament) for the first time. S. Sakthi Mohan, the editor of the regional party organ Kannagi
, was elected with the votes of the AIFB, DMK, PSP, Muslim League and the Tamil Arasu Kazhagam.
In the 1972 state legislative assembly election, the Forward Bloc presented one candidate in Assam, 5 in Bihar and 2 in Madhya Pradesh. In Maharashtra the party contested 26 seats. Like in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections the party did well in the interior areas of the state. It won the Nagpur North and Yeotmal seats, and came second in several others. In total the AIFB candidates in Maharashtra got 363 547 votes (2.4% of the state-wide vote). In West Bengal, were fresh elections to the state assembly were again held in 1972, the Forward Bloc launched 18 candidates. It got 331 244 votes (2.48% of the state-wide vote), but could not win a single seat.
was organised by the front on December 16. On May 3, 1974 the four parties organised a 12-hour Tripura Bandh.
, out of whom all three were elected. Moreover, the party contested one seat in Haryana.
In Tripura a Left Front
was formed consisting of the CPI(M), RSP and the Forward Bloc. The Front launched one Forward Bloc candidate, Brajagopal Roy in the Town Bordowali constituency. Roy won the seat with 7800 votes (62.76%). In the beginning of 1978 the Left Front formed a majority government in the state, with Brajagopal Roy appointed minister in the state government.
, the Bihar Vikas Party
, the Janata Dal (Secular)
, the Samajwadi Janata Party and the Nationalist Congress Party
. The front vowed to maintain equidistance towards the two major blocs in Bihari politics, the Rashtriya Janata Dal
and the National Democratic Alliance
, condemning them as 'casteist and communal'.
In 2002 AIFB was one of four leftwing parties that nominated Lakshmi Sehgal as a candidate for the presidency of India. Sehgal, who challenged the main candidate A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, got around 10% of the votes.
In the Lok Sabha
elections 2004 the party received 0,4% of votes and three seats (All from West Bengal).
Just before the 2006 Tamil Nadu legislative election, the party was joined by the actor Karthik. Karthik was given the post of president of the Tamil Nadu state unit by the national party leadership and was put in charge of the election campaign of the party in the state. The party decided to contest a large number of seats wiuthout joining neither of the two major political blocs in Tamil Nadu. The appointment of Karthik as the new leader of the state unit provoked the sole Forward Bloc legislator and secretary of the state unit, L. Santhanam to leave the party. In the election the party lost its representation in the assembly. A few months later the party leadership expelled Karthik on the grounds of 'anti-party activities'
Ahead of the 2006 West Bengal legislative election, a section of the party led by Jayanta Roy, former AIFB Rajya Sabha
member, and Chhaya Ghosh
, former West Bengal Minister of Agriculture, broke away and formed the Indian People's Forward Bloc
. This party aligned itself with the Indian National Congress.
(CPI(M)) and Communist Party of India
(CPI), as they build their socialism on foreign ideologues as Karl Marx
and Vladimir Lenin
, whereas the socialism of AIFB is the Indian socialism of Subhas Chandra Bose.
AIFB has branches throughout the country, but the main strength of the party is concentrated in West Bengal
. It is part of the Left Front
government in there, and Forward Bloc has various ministers in the state government. Notably though AIFB is cooperating with CPI(M) in West Bengal, Tripura and on the national level, AIFB is not part of the Left Democratic Front in Kerala.
The current general secretary of AIFB is Debabrata Biswas. N. Velappan Nair is the chairman of the party, Dr. Amar Singh Kushwaha the deputy Chairman and Ashok Ghosh the financial secretary. Additional secretaries of the party are Subrata Bose (MP), Dr. Barun Mukherjee, G. Devarajan, Naren Dey, Hafiz Alam Sairani, Bir Singh Mahato, V.P. Saini, Shyamal Roy, G.R. Shivashankar.
is the General Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh State Committee.Other members are Dr. Harish Kumar Gupta
,Hasraj Akela Jatav
,Netra Pal Sharma Advocate, Mohan Singh Rajput
etc.National Vice President Com.(Late) Dr.Amar Singh Kushwaha from Kanpur,& Com.Sanjay Bhattacharya is National President of All India Youth League
from Banaras.
In the 2007 assembly
election in Uttar Pradesh
AIFB launched three candidate, Ram Lakhan in Bisalpur (732 votes, 0.51% of the votes in the constituency), Samar Singh in Fatehpur (870 votes, 0.69%) and Jabar Singh in Hastinapur (503 votes, 0.42%).
coalition, but since they've failed to win any seat in the state legislative assembly they don't have any minister in that government. In the 2003 Tripura legislative election the Tripura State Committee president Brajagopal Roy
contested the Town Borowali constituency on behalf of the Left Front. Roy got 9844 votes (43.57%), but was defeated by a Congress candidate. The secretary of the Tripura State Committee of Shyamal Roy (who replaced the former state committee secretary Nisith Das). The AIFB state unit publishes Tripura Bani
.
. The party supported LDF in the last Assembly and Parliament elections. But in the local body election the party contested separately. The mass fronts of the party is also working in the state. V. Ram Mohan is the State General Secretary. AIFB national Secretary G. Devarajan and Chairman N. Velappan Nair are from Kerala.
It has also formed an "India - China Friendship Association".
Political party
A political party is a political organization that typically seeks to influence government policy, usually by nominating their own candidates and trying to seat them in political office. Parties participate in electoral campaigns, educational outreach or protest actions...
in India. It emerged as a faction within the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
in 1939, led by Subhas Chandra Bose. The party re-established as an independent political party after the independence of India. It has its main stronghold in West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
.
Formation of the Forward Bloc
The Forward Bloc of the Indian National Congress was formed on 3 May 1939 by Netaji Subhash Chandra BoseSubhash Chandra Bose
Subhas Chandra Bose known by name Netaji was an Indian revolutionary who led an Indian national political and military force against Britain and the Western powers during World War II. Bose was one of the most prominent leaders in the Indian independence movement and is a legendary figure in...
, who had resigned from the presidency of the Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
on April 29 after being outmaneuvered by Mohandas K. Gandhi. The formation of the Forward Bloc was announced to the public at a rally in Calcutta. Bose said that who all were joining, they had to never turn their back to the British and must fill the pledge
Oath
An oath is either a statement of fact or a promise calling upon something or someone that the oath maker considers sacred, usually God, as a witness to the binding nature of the promise or the truth of the statement of fact. To swear is to take an oath, to make a solemn vow...
form by cutting their finger and signing it with their blood. First of all, seventeen young girls came up and signed the pledge form. Initially the aim of the Forward Bloc was to rally all the leftwing sections within the Congress and develop an alternative leadership inside the Congress. Bose became the president of the Forward Bloc and S.S. Cavesheer its vice-president. A Forward Bloc Conference was held in Bombay in the end of June. At that conference the constitution and programme of the Forward Bloc were approved. In July 1939 Subhas Chandra Bose announced the Committee of the Forward Bloc. It had Subhas Chandra Bose as president, S.S. Cavesheer from Punjab as its vice-president, Lal Shankarlal from Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, as its general secretary and Pandit B Tripathi and Khurshed Nariman
Khurshed Nariman
Khurshed Framji Nariman, also known as Veer Nariman, was one of the second generation of Parsi stalwarts in the Indian National Congress. He came into the public eye in 1928 as an independent and courageous politician for his sensational process against the British engineer involved in the Bombay...
from Bombay as secretaries. Other prominent members were Annapurniah from Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh , is one of the 28 states of India, situated on the southeastern coast of India. It is India's fourth largest state by area and fifth largest by population. Its capital and largest city by population is Hyderabad.The total GDP of Andhra Pradesh is $100 billion and is ranked third...
, Senapati Bapat, Hari Vishnu Kamnath from Bombay, Pasumpon U. Muthuramalingam Thevar
U. Muthuramalingam Thevar
Ukkirapandi MuthuramalingaThevar , also known as Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar, was an Indian politician. He hailed from the Maravar community, the dominant warrior caste group in his home district in southern Tamil Nadu...
from Tamil Nadu and Sheel Bhadra Yajee
Sheel Bhadra Yajee
' was a freedom fighter from Bihar who was associated with the non-violent and the violent form of freedom struggle.Yajee's participation in the freedom movement began in 1928 when, as a student, he attended the Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress. He joined the Congress Socialist...
from Bihar
Bihar
Bihar is a state in eastern India. It is the 12th largest state in terms of geographical size at and 3rd largest by population. Almost 58% of Biharis are below the age of 25, which is the highest proportion in India....
. Satya Ranjan Bakshi, was appointed as the secretary of the Bengal Provincial Forward Bloc.
In August the same year Bose began publishing a newspaper titled Forward Bloc. He travelled around the country, rallying support for his new political project.
Nagpur conference
The following year, on June 20–22, 1940, the Forward Bloc held its first All India Conference in NagpurNagpur
Nāgpur is a city and winter capital of the state of Maharashtra, the largest city in central India and third largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune...
. The conference declared the Forward Bloc to be a socialist political party, and the date of June 22 is considered as the founding date of the party by the Forward Bloc itself. The conference passed a resolution titled 'All Power to the Indian People', urging militant action for struggle against British colonial rule. Subhas Chandra Bose was elected as the president of the party and H.V. Kamath the general secretary.
Arrest and exile of Bose
Soon thereafter, on July 2, Bose was arrested and detained in Presidency Jail, Calcutta. In January 1941 he escaped from house arrest, and clandestinely went into exile. He travelled to the Soviet Union via AfghanistanAfghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
, seeking Soviet support for the Indian independence struggle. Stalin declined Bose's request, and he then travelled to Germany. In Berlin he set up the Free India Centre, and rallied the Indian Legion.
In August 1942 the British authorities banned the Forward Bloc. Its offices around the country were ransacked. In 1943 Bose was transported to Asia, where he took over the leadership of the Indian National Army
Indian National Army
The Indian National Army or Azad Hind Fauj was an armed force formed by Indian nationalists in 1942 in Southeast Asia during World War II. The aim of the army was to overthrow the British Raj in colonial India, with Japanese assistance...
. During the final phase of the war the INA fought alongside the Japanese against the British army.
Inside India, local activists of the Forward Bloc continued the anti-British activities without central coordination. For example, in Bihar members were involved in the Azad Dasta resistance groups, and distributed propaganda in support of Bose and INA. They did not have, however, any organic link neither with Bose nor the INA.
Post-war reorganization
At the end of the war, the Forward Bloc was reorganized. In February 1946 R.S. Ruiker organised an All India Active Workers Conference at Jabalpur, Madhya PradeshMadhya Pradesh
Madhya Pradesh , often called the Heart of India, is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal and Indore is the largest city....
. The conference declared the formation of the 'FB Workers Assembly', in practice the legal cover of the still illegal Forward Bloc. Notably some leading communists
Communist Party of India
The Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...
from Bombay, like K.N. Joglekar and Soli Batliwalli, joined the 'FB Workers Assembly'. The Workers Assembly conference declared that the "Forward Bloc is a Socialist Party, accepting the theory of class struggle in its fullest implications and a programme of revolutionary mass action for the attainment of Socialism leading to a Classless Society."
The Ahead of the 1946 assembly elections the ban on the Bloc was lifted in June that year. The Working Committee of the Forward Bloc met on June 10.
Elections to the Constituent Assembly and to provincial legislatures were held in December 1946. The Forward Bloc contested the elections. H.V. Kamath won a seat in the Constituent Assembly and Jyotish Chandra Ghosh, Hemantha Kumar Basu and Lila Roy were elected to the Bengal Legislative Assembly.
However, the Bloc was clearly divided along ideological lines. One section was influenced by Marxism
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...
whereas the other upheld 'Subhasism', a syncretic ideology consisting of socialism
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
, nationalism
Nationalism
Nationalism is a political ideology that involves a strong identification of a group of individuals with a political entity defined in national terms, i.e. a nation. In the 'modernist' image of the nation, it is nationalism that creates national identity. There are various definitions for what...
and Indian spiritualism.
Arrah conference
The Bloc held its 2nd All India Conference in ArrahArrah
Arrah is a city and a municipal corporation in Bhojpur district in the state of Bihar, India. The actual name of Arrah is Ara but it was misspelt by the British and now corrected to Ara but still known as Arrah in many records. It is the district headquarters of Bhojpur district, located near the...
, Bihar on January 12–14, 1947. S.S. Cavesheer (a leading member of the Subhasist sector) was elected president and Sheel Bhadra Yagee (a leading member of the Marxist sector) was elected general secretary. The party took the name 'All India Forward Bloc'. The conference denounced the understanding between the Congress and the British government for the Independence of India, and called upon the Forward Bloc members present in the Constituent Assembly to withdraw from it. Subsequently, a national council was held in Bauria
Bauria
Bauria is an extinct genus of the suborder therocephalia. It belonged to the family Bauriidae. Bauria was probably a carnivore or insectivore.thumb|200px|left|Bauria...
, West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
, which reaffirmed the demand of boycotting the Constituent Assembly as well as issuing a decree that Bloc members of state legislatures would resign.
Split between Yajee and Ruikar
Following Independence and PartitionPartition of India
The Partition of India was the partition of British India on the basis of religious demographics that led to the creation of the sovereign states of the Dominion of Pakistan and the Union of India on 14 and 15...
, the party national council met in Varanasi
Varanasi
-Etymology:The name Varanasi has its origin possibly from the names of the two rivers Varuna and Assi, for the old city lies in the north shores of the Ganga bounded by its two tributaries, the Varuna and the Asi, with the Ganges being to its south...
February 1948. The national council meeting was also preceded by a decision of the Indian National Congress in the beginning of the year to expel all dissenting tendencies within the Congress, including the Forward Bloc. Thus the party decided to renounce any links with the Congress once and for all, and reconstruct itself as an independent opposition party. Moreover, it passed a resolution that the party be divided into a Forward Bloc for India and a Forward Bloc for the new nation of Pakistan. This would soon prove to be very controversial. The general secretary Yagee did, in line with the Varanasi resolution, dissolve the Bengal
Bengal
Bengal is a historical and geographical region in the northeast region of the Indian Subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. Today, it is mainly divided between the sovereign land of People's Republic of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous...
committee of the Forward Bloc and set-up ad hoc committees for West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
and East Bengal
East Bengal
East Bengal was the name used during two periods in the 20th century for a territory that roughly corresponded to the modern state of Bangladesh. Both instances involved a violent partition of Bengal....
. Now the division between 'Marxists' and 'Subhasists' resurfaced. The 'Subhasists', and S. S. Cavesheer in particular, criticized Yajee's actions. Yagee resigned from the post of general secretary.
The split was now a fact. The 'Subhasist' group, led by Ruiker and Cavesheer, called for a conference in Chandranagar, West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. Their conference was held on December 29–31. On the same dates Yagee organised a conference in Calcutta. Effectively there was now two Forward Blocs, the Forward Bloc led by Ruiker and the Forward Bloc led by Yajee. Yajee was elected general secretary and K. N. Joglekar, chairman of the Yajee-led group. Notably, the Yajee-led group adopted a red flag with a leaping tiger and a hammer and sickle
Hammer and sickle
The hammer and sickle is a part of communist symbolism and its usage indicates an association with Communism, a Communist party, or a Communist state. It features a hammer and a sickle overlapping each other. The two tools are symbols of the industrial proletariat and the peasantry; placing them...
.
Roughly speaking the Yajee's party had its main base in Bihar, Punjab and West Bengal, whereas the Ruiker-led group had its strongholds in Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal.
The same year Yajee's party decided to join the United Socialist Organisation of India
United Socialist Organisation of India
United Socialist Organisation was a leftwing alliance in India. The USOI was launched by Sarat Chandra Bose, the elder brother of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, after his resignation from the Indian National Congress in 1947. Bose wanted to assemble all the leftist groups in a common front. Most...
, a front led by Subhas Chandra Bose's elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose
Sarat Chandra Bose
Sarat Chandra Bose was a barrister and Indian freedom fighter. He was the elder brother of Subhash Chandra Bose.-Early life:His forefathers had served the Afghan rulers of pre-Mughal Bengal with great distinction....
. Joglekar revolted against this decision. His followers, which were found in West Bengal, Bihar, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, rallied to form the Forward Communist Party
Forward Communist Party
Forward Communist Party was a political party in India. FCP was formed in 1948 following a split from the Forward Bloc . In FB , the then party president K.M. Joglekar opposed the alignment of FB with the United Socialist Organisation of India. Thus Joglekar broke away and formed FCP...
.
The Yajee-led party did however survive Joglekar's departure. Yagee was able to push through a merger between the Forward Bloc and the Desh Sevak Party
Desh Sevak Party
The Desh Sevak Party was a political party in India. It was led by veteran leaders of the Indian National Army, General Mohan Singh and Col. Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon. In October 1949 it merged with the All India Forward Bloc...
, led by INA officers General Mohan Singh and Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon
Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon
Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon was an officer in the Indian National Army who was charged with "waging war against His Majesty the King Emperor". Along with Shah Nawaz Khan and Prem Kumar Sahgal, he was tried by the British at the end of World War II in the INA trials that began on November 5, 1945 at Red...
, in October 1949. Both had worked closely with Subhas Chandra Bose. They had both been amongst the accused in the Red Fort trials. Now, Mohan Singh was appointed chairman of the Forward Bloc and Dhillon was appointed as its general secretary. This merger gave a considerable moral boost to the party. In June 1951 the majority of the Ruiker-led Forward Bloc reunified with the party. A joint central committee meeting was held on June 23, which confirmed the merger of the two parties. Mohan Singh and Dhillon were re-elected as the party chairman and general secretary.
1952 elections
In the 1952 general election the party contested as 'Forward Bloc (Marxist)', a denomination that differentiated it from the rump 'Forward Bloc (Ruiker)'.In Tripura
Tripura
Tripura is a state in North-East India, with an area of . It is the third smallest state of India, according to area. Tripura is surrounded by Bangladesh on the north, south, and west. The Indian states of Assam and Mizoram lie to the east. The capital is Agartala and the main languages spoken are...
a united front was formed by the Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India
The Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...
, Tripura Ganatantrik Sangha, Ganamukti Parishad
Ganamukti Parishad
Tripura Rajaer Upajati Ganamukti Parishad is a leftwing movement working amongst the tribal peoples of Tripura, in north-eastern India.-Origins:...
, Ganatantrik Nari Samiti and independents for to contest the election to the Tripura electoral college (whose function was to appoint a Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha or Council of States is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Rajya means "state," and Sabha means "assembly hall" in Sanskrit. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature,...
delegate from Tripura) jointly. The Forward Bloc participated in mass rallies on October 2 and December 2, 1951. However, just before the election the Forward Bloc withdrew from the front and decided to contest three of the 30 seats on their own. None of the Forward Bloc candidates were elected.
The 5th party conference (a 4th party plenum had been held in Ingota, U.P.
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
in 1949) was held in Puri
Puri
Puri is district headquarter, a city situated about south of state capital Bhubaneswar, on the eastern coast of the Bay of Bengal in the Indian state of Orissa. It is also known as Jagannath Puri after the Jagannath Temple . It is a holy city of the Hindus as a part of the Char Dham pilgrimages...
, Orissa
Orissa
Orissa , officially Odisha since Nov 2011, is a state of India, located on the east coast of India, by the Bay of Bengal. It is the modern name of the ancient nation of Kalinga, which was invaded by the Maurya Emperor Ashoka in 261 BC. The modern state of Orissa was established on 1 April...
on December 28–31, 1952. Mohan Singh was elected chairman and Dhillon as general secretary.
In 1953 a group of party leaders from West Bengal, like Amar Bose, Satyapriya Banerjee and Suhurit Chaudhury, were expelled for breaking party discipline. The expellees formed the Marxist Forward Bloc
Marxist Forward Bloc
Marxist Forward Bloc is political party in India, a splinter-group of the All India Forward Bloc. MFB was formed in 1953 as Satyapria Banerjee, a member of the AIFB Central Secretariat, Amar Bose, Suhurit Chaudhury and Ram Chatterji were expelled from AIFB...
.
Expulsion of Yagee and Singh
In 1955 the Indian National Congress adopted socialism as its policy. Thus leaders like Yagee and Singh then proposed that as the Congress had become a socialist party, the Forward Bloc ought to merge with it. Singh and Yagee, without consulting the Central Committee nor the party membership, declared the unification of the Forward Bloc into the Congress. Many sections of the party disagreed with this move, and a Central Committee meeting was held in NagpurNagpur
Nāgpur is a city and winter capital of the state of Maharashtra, the largest city in central India and third largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune...
May 11–15. The Central Committee decided to expel Singh and Yagee. Hemanta Kumar Bose was elected as the new chairman and R.K. Haldulkar as general secretary. This team would continue in their posts until Bose's murder in 1971. U. Muthuramalingam Thevar
U. Muthuramalingam Thevar
Ukkirapandi MuthuramalingaThevar , also known as Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar, was an Indian politician. He hailed from the Maravar community, the dominant warrior caste group in his home district in southern Tamil Nadu...
from Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu
Tamil Nadu is one of the 28 states of India. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu lies in the southernmost part of the Indian Peninsula and is bordered by the union territory of Pondicherry, and the states of Kerala, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh...
was elected as deputy chairman of the party.
Following the 1955 split the party would enjoy a relatively long period without any major splits.
Socialist unity
In 1964 a unity process was initiated by the Praja Socialist PartyPraja Socialist Party
The Praja Socialist Party was an Indian political party in existence from 1952 to 1972. It was founded when the Socialist Party, led by Jayprakash Narayan, Acharya Narendra Deva and Basawon Singh , merged with the Kisan Mazdoor Praja Party led by J.B. Kripalani...
, which eventually resulted in the formation of the Samyukta Socialist Party
Samyukta Socialist Party
Samyukta Socialist Party , was a political party in India from 1964 to 1972. SSP was formed through a split in the Praja Socialist Party in 1964. In 1972 SSP was reunited with PSP, forming the Socialist Party....
. The Forward Bloc was invited to join the new party, and the Delhi unit of the party did take part in a joint socialist anti-Nehru campaign conference in April 1964. However, the party did not merge into the SSP.
Death of U.M. Thevar
The party stalwart in Tamil Nadu, U. Muthuramalingam ThevarU. Muthuramalingam Thevar
Ukkirapandi MuthuramalingaThevar , also known as Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar, was an Indian politician. He hailed from the Maravar community, the dominant warrior caste group in his home district in southern Tamil Nadu...
, died on October 30, 1963. Following his death a power-struggle began between two of his disciples, Sasivarna Thevar and P.K. Mookiah Thevar. Mookiah Thevar emerged victorious and Sasivarna Thevar left to form his own party, the Subhasist Forward Bloc
Subhasist Forward Bloc
Subhasist Forward Bloc is a political party in Tamil Nadu, India. The party was founded in 1963 by Sasivarna Thevar, after a power vacuum led Thevar to try to take control of the All India Forward Bloc Subhasist Forward Bloc is a political party in Tamil Nadu, India. The party was founded in 1963...
.
A bye-election for the Aruppukottai Lok Sabha constituency seat vacated by U. Muthuramalingam Thevar's death was held in 1964, in which the Forward Bloc was defeated for the first time.
Progressive Front in Tripura
In 1965 the party joined a 'Progressive Front' in Tripura. The front consisted of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India is a political party in India. It has a strong presence in the states of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. As of 2011, CPI is leading the state government in Tripura. It leads the Left Front coalition of leftist parties in various states and the national parliament of...
, Communist Party of India, the Forward Bloc and a break-away faction of the Socialist Party
Socialist Party (India)
Socialist Party has been the name of several political parties in India, all of which have their roots in the Congress Socialist Party formed during the freedom struggle...
. The front demanded nationwide land reform
Land reform
[Image:Jakarta farmers protest23.jpg|300px|thumb|right|Farmers protesting for Land Reform in Indonesia]Land reform involves the changing of laws, regulations or customs regarding land ownership. Land reform may consist of a government-initiated or government-backed property redistribution,...
s, strengthening of the national defence, withdrawal from the Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
, nationalisation of foreign capital, a rational food policy
Food policy
Food policy is an area of public policy concerning the production, distribution, and consumption of food. The policy consists of setting goals for food production, processing, marketing, availability, access, utilization and consumption, and describes the processes for achieving these goals...
, release of all political prisoners and scrapping of the Indo-American agreement of food supply. Existence of the new front was declared at a meeting in Agartala on November 17. Mass rallies of the front were held in Belonia on November 28 and then in Birchandra Bazar (near Belonia) on December 1. The front did not last, though, as in the 1967 election the communist parties aligned with a splinter-group of the Congress Party. The Forward Bloc did not present any candidates in that election.
1968 split in Tamil Nadu
In 1968 two influential party leaders in Tamil Nadu Velayudham Nayar (then a central committee member of the party) and S. Andi Thevar broke away from AIFB and founded the Revolutionary Forward BlocRevolutionary Forward Bloc
Revolutionary Forward Bloc was a political party in Tamil Nadu, India. The party was founded in 1968 by S. Andi Thevar and Velayudham Nayar, following a split from the All India Forward Bloc....
. Nayar and Thevar accused the Forward Bloc of having deviated from its socialist
Socialism
Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...
principles through its cooperation with the rightwing Swatantra Party
Swatantra Party
The Swatantra Party was a classical liberal political party in India founded by Chakravarti Rajagopalachari and N. G. Ranga in August 1959. The party opposed the Nehruvian socialist outlook of the Congress Party by advocating free enterprise and free trade, and opposing the licence-permit Raj...
.
West Dinajpur clashes
In July 1969, violent clashes erupted in West Dinajpur districtWest Dinajpur district
West Dinajpur district was a district of the state of West Bengal from 1947 to 1992. At India's independence, the former Dinajpur district of undivided Bengal was partitioned along religious lines, and West Dinajpur became one of the 14 districts of West Bengal...
, West Bengal, between peasants aligned with the of Communist Party of India (Marxist) and East Pakistan
East Pakistan
East Pakistan was a provincial state of Pakistan established in 14 August 1947. The provincial state existed until its declaration of independence on 26 March 1971 as the independent nation of Bangladesh. Pakistan recognized the new nation on 16 December 1971. East Pakistan was created from Bengal...
i refugee cultivators, who supported the Forward Bloc. CPI(M) leader Hare Krishna Konar
Hare Krishna Konar
Hare Krishna Konar was a fire brand politician, belonging to the CPI, who played a major role in land reforms in the Indian state of West Bengal.-Early life:...
characterized the events as a degeneration of the agrarian struggles in rural West Bengal.
Split in the Indian National Congress
In 1969 a major split in the Indian National Congress. Indira GandhiIndira Gandhi
Indira Priyadarshini Gandhara was an Indian politician who served as the third Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms and a fourth term . She was assassinated by Sikh extremists...
had entered into open conflict with the traditional Congress leadership. Effectively two separate Congress parties appeared, the Congress(R) led by Indira and the Congress(O) led by Kamaraj. The split was in many ways a left-right one, with Indira whipping up populism against the established party elites. The Forward Bloc did in some ways welcome the new developments. It appreciated Indira's stands and reformulated its anti-Congress line to focus mainly opposition to the traditional Congress elite (i.e. the Congress(O)). In the 1969 presidential elections, AIFB supported Indira's candidate V.V. Giri. This caused an abrupt break-up of the Swatantra-AIFB alliance in Tamil Nadu, as the Swatantra Party sought to align itself with the Congress(O).
1971–72 elections
On February 20, just ahead of the 1971 general elections, the All India Forward Bloc chairman Hemantha Kumar Bose was murdered in Calcutta. An emergency central committee meeting was held on February 24, which appointed P.K. Mookiha Thevar as the new chairman of the party.In the 1971 Lok Sabha election, the Forward Bloc launched 24 candidates around the country. Two were elected, P.K. Mookiah Thevar from Ramanthapuram and Jambuwantrao Dhote
Jambuwantrao Dhote
Jambuwantrao Dhote is also called as Lion of Vidharbha. He is Member of Parliament from Nagpur in 1971 to 5th Lok Sabha.He was again elected for second time from Nagpur in 1980 to 7th Lok Sabha....
from Nagpur
Nagpur
Nāgpur is a city and winter capital of the state of Maharashtra, the largest city in central India and third largest city in Maharashtra after Mumbai and Pune...
. The party contested 3 seats in the interior of Maharashtra
Maharashtra
Maharashtra is a state located in India. It is the second most populous after Uttar Pradesh and third largest state by area in India...
, were it performed well. Dhote, who was then known as Vidarbha ka Sher (the Lion of Vidarbha), had joined the Forward Bloc and campaigned for a separate Vidarbha
Vidarbha
Vidarbha is the eastern region of Maharashtra state made up of Nagpur Division and Amravati Division. Its former name is Berar . It occupies 31.6% of total area and holds 21.3% of total population of Maharashtra...
state with the Forward Bloc as his platform. Dhote was hugely popular in the region at the time, and could draw crows of hundreds of thousands to his meetings.
In Tamil Nadu the party contested one seat, Ramanthapuram, with the support of its allies in the Progressive Front (most notably the Congress(R) and Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam
Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam is a state political party in the states of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, India. It is a Dravidian party founded by C. N. Annadurai as a breakaway faction from the Dravidar Kazhagam headed by Periyar...
). Meanwhile the Forward Bloc played an important role in securing Mukkulathor votes for its Progressive Front allies.
In West Bengal the party contested 10 Lok Sabha seats. The party obtained some significant votage in constituencies like Cooch Behar
Cooch Behar
Cooch Behar is the district headquarters and the largest city of Cooch Behar District in the Indian state of West Bengal. It is situated in the foothills of the Eastern Himalayas and located at . Cooch Behar is the only planned town in North Bengal region with remnants of royal heritage...
(22.17%) and Birbhum (19.70%), but in general it was defeated by the CPI(M) candidates.
Moreover the party contested three seats in Bihar, one in Haryana, 1 in Madhya Pradesh, 4 in Uttar Pradesh and 1 in Delhi. In total the candidates of the party obtained 962 971 votes (0.66% of the national vote).
In the 1971 state legislative assembly election in Orissa, the party contested four seats. It got 8393 votes (0.19% of the state-wide vote), but was not close to winning any seat. In Tamil Nadu the party contested 9 seats in the southern part of the state within the framework of the Progressive Front. Out of these nine candidates, seven won. In total its vote stood at 268 721 (1.71% of the state-wide vote). One of its candidate came second and in the Mudukulathor constituency (that had been the centre of the violent 1957 Ramnad riots
1957 Ramnad riots
The Ramnad riots were a series of politically motivated violent clashes that occurred between July and September 1957 in the Ramnad district and in southern Tamil Nadu, India. Congress Reform Committee was formed just one month before the 1957 elections to the Lok Sabha and the Madras state...
) the AIFB candidate R. Rathina Thevar came third with 17244 votes (31.02%). The most spectacular victory was that of P.K. Mookiah Thevar (who contested Lok Sabha and assembly elections simultaneously) who got 49292 votes (74.46%) in the Usilampatti constituency, defeating S. Andi Thevar of the Revolutionary Forward Bloc. Lastly in West Bengal the party contested 52 constituencies, but could only win three seats. Its vote stood at 374 141 (2.90% of the state-wide vote).
On March 28, 1972 the party was able to win a seat in the Tamil Nadu Legislative Council (the upper house of the regional parliament) for the first time. S. Sakthi Mohan, the editor of the regional party organ Kannagi
Kannagi (newspaper)
Kannagi was a Tamil language newspaper published in Tamil Nadu, southern India. The first copy was published on the initiative of former Indian National Army officer S. Sakti Mohan on May 29, 1952. It succeeded the publication Netaji, which had started in 1948...
, was elected with the votes of the AIFB, DMK, PSP, Muslim League and the Tamil Arasu Kazhagam.
In the 1972 state legislative assembly election, the Forward Bloc presented one candidate in Assam, 5 in Bihar and 2 in Madhya Pradesh. In Maharashtra the party contested 26 seats. Like in the 1971 Lok Sabha elections the party did well in the interior areas of the state. It won the Nagpur North and Yeotmal seats, and came second in several others. In total the AIFB candidates in Maharashtra got 363 547 votes (2.4% of the state-wide vote). In West Bengal, were fresh elections to the state assembly were again held in 1972, the Forward Bloc launched 18 candidates. It got 331 244 votes (2.48% of the state-wide vote), but could not win a single seat.
Realignment in Tripura
After having contested the 1972 elections on its own, the Forward Bloc decided to join a 'United Front' led by the communist parties in Tripura. The front demanded clear-cut policies for procurement and distribution of food grains, stop to sprilalling prices of essential commodities, a land reform legislation for delimitation of Tribal reserve areas and creation of employments opportunities for the unemployed. A 24-hour Tripura BandhBandh
Bandh , originally a Hindi word meaning 'closed', is a form of protest used by political activists in some countries like India and Nepal. During a Bandh, a political party or a community declares a general strike....
was organised by the front on December 16. On May 3, 1974 the four parties organised a 12-hour Tripura Bandh.
1977 elections
1977 was a crucial year in Indian political history. For the first time in independent India, the Congress Party was routed in a national election. The Forward Bloc had contested four seats in the Lok Sabha election. In West Bengal it had three candidates which were supported by the Left FrontLeft Front
The Left Front is an alliance of Indian leftist parties. After a 34-year reign in West Bengal, the Left Front was swept from power in the 2011 election...
, out of whom all three were elected. Moreover, the party contested one seat in Haryana.
In Tripura a Left Front
Left Front
The Left Front is an alliance of Indian leftist parties. After a 34-year reign in West Bengal, the Left Front was swept from power in the 2011 election...
was formed consisting of the CPI(M), RSP and the Forward Bloc. The Front launched one Forward Bloc candidate, Brajagopal Roy in the Town Bordowali constituency. Roy won the seat with 7800 votes (62.76%). In the beginning of 1978 the Left Front formed a majority government in the state, with Brajagopal Roy appointed minister in the state government.
Recent history
Ahead of the 2000 Bihar legislative election AIFB took part in building a front together with the Bharatiya Jan CongressBharatiya Jan Congress
Bharatiya Jan Congress was a political party that existed in the Indian state of Bihar around 1999-2001. BJC was led by the ex-Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra....
, the Bihar Vikas Party
Bihar Vikas Party
Bihar Vikas Party , political party in the Indian state of Bihar. BVP was formed ahead of the Lok Sabha 1999 elections by Bharatiya Janata Party Rajya Sabha MP, Janardan Yadav. Yadav got some local ex-BJP leaders along to his new party...
, the Janata Dal (Secular)
Janata Dal (Secular)
The Janata Dal is a Centre-left ಕನ್ನಡ: ಜನತಾ ದಳIndian political party led by former Prime Minister of India H.D. Deve Gowda.The party recognized as state party in the states of Karnataka and Kerala . It was formed in July 1999 by the split of Janata Dal party. It has political presence mainly in...
, the Samajwadi Janata Party and the Nationalist Congress Party
Nationalist Congress Party
The Nationalist Congress Party is a centre to centre left political party primarily based in the state of Maharashtra, India.-Background:...
. The front vowed to maintain equidistance towards the two major blocs in Bihari politics, the Rashtriya Janata Dal
Rashtriya Janata Dal
The Rashtriya Janata Dal is a political party in India, based in the state of Bihar. The party was founded in 1997 by Laloo Prasad Yadav. The party came about as a result of Lalu Prasad Yadav, ex-president of Janata Dal, being evicted by Sharad Yadav, the then president, on corruption charges ...
and the National Democratic Alliance
National Democratic Alliance (India)
The National Democratic Alliance is a centre-right coalition of political parties in India. At the time of its formation in 1998, it was led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and had thirteen constituent parties. Its convenor is Sharad Yadav, and its honorary chairman is former prime minister Atal...
, condemning them as 'casteist and communal'.
In 2002 AIFB was one of four leftwing parties that nominated Lakshmi Sehgal as a candidate for the presidency of India. Sehgal, who challenged the main candidate A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, got around 10% of the votes.
In the Lok Sabha
Lok Sabha
The Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
elections 2004 the party received 0,4% of votes and three seats (All from West Bengal).
Just before the 2006 Tamil Nadu legislative election, the party was joined by the actor Karthik. Karthik was given the post of president of the Tamil Nadu state unit by the national party leadership and was put in charge of the election campaign of the party in the state. The party decided to contest a large number of seats wiuthout joining neither of the two major political blocs in Tamil Nadu. The appointment of Karthik as the new leader of the state unit provoked the sole Forward Bloc legislator and secretary of the state unit, L. Santhanam to leave the party. In the election the party lost its representation in the assembly. A few months later the party leadership expelled Karthik on the grounds of 'anti-party activities'
Ahead of the 2006 West Bengal legislative election, a section of the party led by Jayanta Roy, former AIFB Rajya Sabha
Rajya Sabha
The Rajya Sabha or Council of States is the upper house of the Parliament of India. Rajya means "state," and Sabha means "assembly hall" in Sanskrit. Membership is limited to 250 members, 12 of whom are chosen by the President of India for their expertise in specific fields of art, literature,...
member, and Chhaya Ghosh
Chhaya Ghosh
Chhaya Ghosh was a former minister in the Indian state of West Bengal and was a Forward Bloc leader.-Political career:...
, former West Bengal Minister of Agriculture, broke away and formed the Indian People's Forward Bloc
Indian People's Forward Bloc
Indian People's Forward Bloc is a political party in West Bengal, India. The party emerged through a split in the All India Forward Bloc. The party is led by Jayanta Roy, former AIFB Rajya Sabha member, and Chhaya Ghosh, former West Bengal Minister of Agriculture. Ahead of the 2006 legislative...
. This party aligned itself with the Indian National Congress.
Forward Bloc today
AIFB struggles for socialism in India but they consider that their ideology differs from that of Communist Party of India (Marxist)Communist Party of India (Marxist)
The Communist Party of India is a political party in India. It has a strong presence in the states of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. As of 2011, CPI is leading the state government in Tripura. It leads the Left Front coalition of leftist parties in various states and the national parliament of...
(CPI(M)) and Communist Party of India
Communist Party of India
The Communist Party of India is a national political party in India. In the Indian communist movement, there are different views on exactly when the Indian communist party was founded. The date maintained as the foundation day by CPI is 26 December 1925...
(CPI), as they build their socialism on foreign ideologues as Karl Marx
Karl Marx
Karl Heinrich Marx was a German philosopher, economist, sociologist, historian, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. His ideas played a significant role in the development of social science and the socialist political movement...
and Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Lenin
Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was a Russian Marxist revolutionary and communist politician who led the October Revolution of 1917. As leader of the Bolsheviks, he headed the Soviet state during its initial years , as it fought to establish control of Russia in the Russian Civil War and worked to create a...
, whereas the socialism of AIFB is the Indian socialism of Subhas Chandra Bose.
AIFB has branches throughout the country, but the main strength of the party is concentrated in West Bengal
West Bengal
West Bengal is a state in the eastern region of India and is the nation's fourth-most populous. It is also the seventh-most populous sub-national entity in the world, with over 91 million inhabitants. A major agricultural producer, West Bengal is the sixth-largest contributor to India's GDP...
. It is part of the Left Front
Left Front
The Left Front is an alliance of Indian leftist parties. After a 34-year reign in West Bengal, the Left Front was swept from power in the 2011 election...
government in there, and Forward Bloc has various ministers in the state government. Notably though AIFB is cooperating with CPI(M) in West Bengal, Tripura and on the national level, AIFB is not part of the Left Democratic Front in Kerala.
The current general secretary of AIFB is Debabrata Biswas. N. Velappan Nair is the chairman of the party, Dr. Amar Singh Kushwaha the deputy Chairman and Ashok Ghosh the financial secretary. Additional secretaries of the party are Subrata Bose (MP), Dr. Barun Mukherjee, G. Devarajan, Naren Dey, Hafiz Alam Sairani, Bir Singh Mahato, V.P. Saini, Shyamal Roy, G.R. Shivashankar.
Uttar Pradesh
In Uttar Pradesh the party had raising during the 1960-70s by Com.Rameshwar Dayal Sharma (Ex.State President)& Late Rajendra Kumar Tata (Ex.State Vice President)of Western UP. Now Com.Shiv Narayan Singh ChauhanShiv Narayan Singh Chauhan
Shiv Narayan Singh Chauhan, a politician , presently General Secretary , All India Forward Bloc, Uttar Pradesh-External links:*...
is the General Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh State Committee.Other members are Dr. Harish Kumar Gupta
Harish Kumar Gupta
Harish Kumar Gupta, a politician, presently General Secretary, All India Forward Bloc, Uttar Pradesh-External links:...
,Hasraj Akela Jatav
Jatav
Jatav , also called Jatia, Jatba in the Jammu region Jatoi, is the largest tribe of the Chamar caste in India.-Origin and etymology:...
,Netra Pal Sharma Advocate, Mohan Singh Rajput
Mohan Singh Rajput
Shiv Narayan Singh Chauhan, a politician, General Secretary, All India Forward Bloc, Uttar Pradesh. He is Jadaun Rajput and belongs to Mathura, Uttar Pradesh.-Political career:...
etc.National Vice President Com.(Late) Dr.Amar Singh Kushwaha from Kanpur,& Com.Sanjay Bhattacharya is National President of All India Youth League
All India Youth League
All India Youth League is the youth wing of All India Forward Bloc. AIYL is a member of World Federation of Democratic Youth. G. Devrajan is National Secretary of the All Indian Youth League....
from Banaras.
In the 2007 assembly
Vidhan Sabha
The Vidhan Sabha or the Legislative Assembly is the lower house or the sole house of the provincial legislature in the different states of India. The same name is also used for the lower house of the legislatures for two of the union territories, Delhi and Pondicherry...
election in Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh
Uttar Pradesh abbreviation U.P. , is a state located in the northern part of India. With a population of over 200 million people, it is India's most populous state, as well as the world's most populous sub-national entity...
AIFB launched three candidate, Ram Lakhan in Bisalpur (732 votes, 0.51% of the votes in the constituency), Samar Singh in Fatehpur (870 votes, 0.69%) and Jabar Singh in Hastinapur (503 votes, 0.42%).
Andhra Pradesh
In Andhra Pradesh the party had significant presence during the 1950s, but then declined sharply. In 2005 the party took an initiative to revive its Andhra Pradesh State Committee. A.K. Biswas became the secretary of the Andhra Pradesh State Committee. Other State Committee members includes G. Appa Rao, Malla Reddy, K. Narender, Konda Dayanand and D. Venkatesam. The party is opposed to the Congress-led state government.Haryana
AIFB has a small state unit in Haryana. The chairman of Haryana state committee is Com. D.K Sharma. In the 2005 election to the Haryana legislative assembly AIFB ran a single candidate, Mukhtiar Singh Kaushik in the Nilokheri constituency. Kaushik got 442 votes (0.44%).Tripura
The Forward Bloc established its presence in Tripura in 1944, founded by Kamala Ranjan Talapatra. Bengali immigrants like Sailesh Sen, Gopi Ballav Saha, Dwijen Deu, Anil Dasgupta, Hiren Nandi and Sati Bhardwaz are the other active members of the party. They took part in various political campaigns. However, around 1955-1956 most of the founding core of the party in Tripura joined the RSP. Today, AIFB is a member of the ruling Left FrontLeft Front
The Left Front is an alliance of Indian leftist parties. After a 34-year reign in West Bengal, the Left Front was swept from power in the 2011 election...
coalition, but since they've failed to win any seat in the state legislative assembly they don't have any minister in that government. In the 2003 Tripura legislative election the Tripura State Committee president Brajagopal Roy
Brajagopal Roy
Brajagopal Roy is an Indian politician. Roy is the main leader of the All India Forward Bloc in the North-Eastern state of Tripura. He is President of the AIFB Tripura State Committee and a member of the All India Secretariat of the party....
contested the Town Borowali constituency on behalf of the Left Front. Roy got 9844 votes (43.57%), but was defeated by a Congress candidate. The secretary of the Tripura State Committee of Shyamal Roy (who replaced the former state committee secretary Nisith Das). The AIFB state unit publishes Tripura Bani
Tripura Bani
Tripura Bani is the Bengali language mouthpiece of the Tripura State Committee of the All India Forward Bloc. Tripura Bani is published weekly....
.
Kerala
In Kerala, the party is working in all the fourteen districts. The party is seeking an entry into Kerala's Left Democratic FrontLeft Democratic Front
Left Democratic Front is a coalition of left winged political parties in the state of Kerala, in India. This is one of the two major political coalitions in Kerala, each of which have been in power alternatively for the last two decades. LDF is the coalition that is presently in oppposition...
. The party supported LDF in the last Assembly and Parliament elections. But in the local body election the party contested separately. The mass fronts of the party is also working in the state. V. Ram Mohan is the State General Secretary. AIFB national Secretary G. Devarajan and Chairman N. Velappan Nair are from Kerala.
Mass organizations
- All India Youth LeagueAll India Youth LeagueAll India Youth League is the youth wing of All India Forward Bloc. AIYL is a member of World Federation of Democratic Youth. G. Devrajan is National Secretary of the All Indian Youth League....
- All India Students Bloc
- Trade Union Coordination CommitteeTrade Union Coordination CommitteeTrade Union Coordination Committee, a central trade union federation in India. TUCC is politically attached to All India Forward Bloc. According to provisional statistics from the Ministry of Labour, TUCC had a membership of 732760 in 2002....
- All India Agragami Kisan Sabha (peasants' organization)
- All India Agragami Mahila Samiti (women's organization)
It has also formed an "India - China Friendship Association".
External links
- Party Website
- Constitution of the Party, retrieved at Election Commission of IndiaElection Commission of IndiaThe Election Commission of India is an autonomous, quasi-judiciary constitutional body of India. Its mission is to conduct free and fair elections in India...
website