Gandhiji' letter to Puran Chandra Joshi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of India (In backdrop of CPI having taken side of the British, when entire nation, including those opposed to Congress, were strongly united in Quit India Movement. In 1942 Stalin, CPI financer, was on British side):
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->JUHU,
June 11, 1944
MY DEAR JOSHI,
I had expected a prompt reply to the questions I had raised at our meeting.
Meanwhile some additional questions have arisen which please, answer when you answer my first questions.
1. What is the meaning of âpeopleâ in âpeopleâs warâ? Does it mean war on behalf of Indiaâs millions, or the Negroes in East, South or West Africa, or the Negroes of America, or all of them? Are the Allies engaged in such a war?
2. Are the finances of the Communist Party, represented by you, subject to public audit? If they are, may I see them?
3. It is stated that the Communist Party has actively helped the authorities to arrest leaders and organizers of labour strikes during the last two years.
4. The Communist Party is said to have adopted the policy of infiltrating the congress oranization with a hostile intent.
5. Is not the policy of the Communist Party dictated from outside?
Yours sincerely,
M. K. GANDHI<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
P C Joshi's answer in next post. Here is the next response from Gandhiji:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AS AT SEVAGRAM,
CAMP PANCHGANI,
July 30, 1944
DEAR FRIEND,
I had duly received your letter1 of 14th June and also your letter
of 26th of July sent with Shri Kumaramangalam.
Your answer to my first question provokes further question for
your reply. I understand that although the chief actors among the
Allied powers are by no means inclined towards real democracy, you
think that by the time the war ends, their designs will be confounded
and that the people all the world over will suddenly find
self-expression and overthrow the present leaders. In the peoples,
according to answer, I am entitled to include us, other Asiatics and
Negroes, for that matter perhaps, also the proletariat of Japan and
Germany. If such is your belief, I must confess that I do not share it
but I keep myself open to conviction. Meanwhile I suggest that the
title âpeopleâs warâ is highly misleading. It enables the Government in
India to claim that at least one popular party considers this as peopleâs
war. <span style='color:red'>I suggest, too, that Russiaâs limited alliance with the Allied powers
cannot by any stretch of imagination convert what was before an
imperialistic war against that Nazi combine, into a peopleâs war.</span>
Holding the view I do, it is superfluous for me now to answer
your argument that âthis war has split the world into two campsâ.
Between Scylla and Charybdis, if I sail in either direction, I suffer
shipwreck. Therefore I have to be in the midst of the storm. I
suggested a way out. Naturally it has been rejected because the powers
that be do not want to relax their grip on India. As I am composing
this letter to you, I have read and re-read your argument. Every
paragraph offends; for, to me, it lacks reality. Please believe me that
my prejudice against your party has nothing to do with my
examination of your answer to the first question.
...
...
If I have been inordinately long in dealing with your answers
which you sent me so promptly, it was because, as you are aware, I was
preoccupied and also because I was examining the evidence that was
pouring in upon me unsolicited against your party.5 I asked them to
let me use their names and they have given me the permission. I take
the latest first, i.e., Babu Manoranjan Chaudhary. I did not even know
that he was coming and when he did ask for an appointment3, it was in
connection with my acceptance of the Rajaji Formula4. Butreally he
took the greater part of my time to tell me that the communists had
done great injury to the national cause. I am using a milder term than
was really used before me. He has left papers which I have not been
able to study. And he has also left with me a printed book5 which I
have glanced through personally and it makes bad reading. The
printed book can be seen by any deputy you may choose to send.
Probably you have seen it yourself.6
The other is Sh. Kaleswara Rao of Bezwada. He also sent me a
long letter from which I quote the salient passages7 (see enclosure).
Add to this the numerous letters I have received from correspondents,
known and unknown, all impeaching the party. I understand, too, that
Shri Jayaprakash Narayan is also âdisillusionedâ.
...
...
Lastly, I ask you to believe me that I want to impress the
services of every one of you for the cause of independence to be
fought along the lines that I have chalked out for myself and the
whole country. And if I am convinced that I am going astray and that
yours is the correct method, I would like to be won over by you
toyour side and I will sincerely and gladly serve as an apprentice
wanting to be enlisted as a unit in your ranks.
Yours sincerely,
M. K. GANDHI
1 Referring to this, the addressee, in his reply dated September 12, said: âIt
hurts us more than you can imagine to read that our nationâs leader pleads prejudices
as standing in the way of examining slander against a young patriotic party.â
2 In his reply, the addressee said: âMudslinging at political opponents is an
old weapon of those who have lost faith in the people and given up all moral values.â
3 Manoranjan Chaudhary was asked (vide âLetter to Manoranjan Chaudharyâ,
24-7-1944) by Gandhiji to meet him on July 27. Dealing with this, Joshi said in his
reply that Manoranjan Chaudhary was the agent of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who
was bitterly anti-communist as he had been exposed by the communists.
4Vide Appendix âC. Rajagopalachariâs Formulaâ, after 5-8-1942.
5 War Against the People, by Kalyani Bhattacharya. Joshi alleged that she was
not the author, but Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee got it written and paid for its
publication.
6 Joshi said that he had not read it but glanced through it. Immediately on
receiving it, he had asked the Bengal Committee of Communist Party whether he
should answer it in Peopleâs War to which they replied: âNeed not bother because it
had been withdrawn from circulation as all decent Bengalees who read it felt disgusted
over it.â
7 Regarding Kaleswara Raoâs accusation, Joshi asked Gandhiji to call
Sundarayya, the Andhra Communist leader, and Kaleswara Rao together and judge or
to hold a trial in public with C. Rajagopalachari and Mrs. Sarojini Naidu as judges.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Letters of M K Gandhi Vol 1 (downloadable pdf)
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->JUHU,
June 11, 1944
MY DEAR JOSHI,
I had expected a prompt reply to the questions I had raised at our meeting.
Meanwhile some additional questions have arisen which please, answer when you answer my first questions.
1. What is the meaning of âpeopleâ in âpeopleâs warâ? Does it mean war on behalf of Indiaâs millions, or the Negroes in East, South or West Africa, or the Negroes of America, or all of them? Are the Allies engaged in such a war?
2. Are the finances of the Communist Party, represented by you, subject to public audit? If they are, may I see them?
3. It is stated that the Communist Party has actively helped the authorities to arrest leaders and organizers of labour strikes during the last two years.
4. The Communist Party is said to have adopted the policy of infiltrating the congress oranization with a hostile intent.
5. Is not the policy of the Communist Party dictated from outside?
Yours sincerely,
M. K. GANDHI<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
P C Joshi's answer in next post. Here is the next response from Gandhiji:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->AS AT SEVAGRAM,
CAMP PANCHGANI,
July 30, 1944
DEAR FRIEND,
I had duly received your letter1 of 14th June and also your letter
of 26th of July sent with Shri Kumaramangalam.
Your answer to my first question provokes further question for
your reply. I understand that although the chief actors among the
Allied powers are by no means inclined towards real democracy, you
think that by the time the war ends, their designs will be confounded
and that the people all the world over will suddenly find
self-expression and overthrow the present leaders. In the peoples,
according to answer, I am entitled to include us, other Asiatics and
Negroes, for that matter perhaps, also the proletariat of Japan and
Germany. If such is your belief, I must confess that I do not share it
but I keep myself open to conviction. Meanwhile I suggest that the
title âpeopleâs warâ is highly misleading. It enables the Government in
India to claim that at least one popular party considers this as peopleâs
war. <span style='color:red'>I suggest, too, that Russiaâs limited alliance with the Allied powers
cannot by any stretch of imagination convert what was before an
imperialistic war against that Nazi combine, into a peopleâs war.</span>
Holding the view I do, it is superfluous for me now to answer
your argument that âthis war has split the world into two campsâ.
Between Scylla and Charybdis, if I sail in either direction, I suffer
shipwreck. Therefore I have to be in the midst of the storm. I
suggested a way out. Naturally it has been rejected because the powers
that be do not want to relax their grip on India. As I am composing
this letter to you, I have read and re-read your argument. Every
paragraph offends; for, to me, it lacks reality. Please believe me that
my prejudice against your party has nothing to do with my
examination of your answer to the first question.
...
...
If I have been inordinately long in dealing with your answers
which you sent me so promptly, it was because, as you are aware, I was
preoccupied and also because I was examining the evidence that was
pouring in upon me unsolicited against your party.5 I asked them to
let me use their names and they have given me the permission. I take
the latest first, i.e., Babu Manoranjan Chaudhary. I did not even know
that he was coming and when he did ask for an appointment3, it was in
connection with my acceptance of the Rajaji Formula4. Butreally he
took the greater part of my time to tell me that the communists had
done great injury to the national cause. I am using a milder term than
was really used before me. He has left papers which I have not been
able to study. And he has also left with me a printed book5 which I
have glanced through personally and it makes bad reading. The
printed book can be seen by any deputy you may choose to send.
Probably you have seen it yourself.6
The other is Sh. Kaleswara Rao of Bezwada. He also sent me a
long letter from which I quote the salient passages7 (see enclosure).
Add to this the numerous letters I have received from correspondents,
known and unknown, all impeaching the party. I understand, too, that
Shri Jayaprakash Narayan is also âdisillusionedâ.
...
...
Lastly, I ask you to believe me that I want to impress the
services of every one of you for the cause of independence to be
fought along the lines that I have chalked out for myself and the
whole country. And if I am convinced that I am going astray and that
yours is the correct method, I would like to be won over by you
toyour side and I will sincerely and gladly serve as an apprentice
wanting to be enlisted as a unit in your ranks.
Yours sincerely,
M. K. GANDHI
1 Referring to this, the addressee, in his reply dated September 12, said: âIt
hurts us more than you can imagine to read that our nationâs leader pleads prejudices
as standing in the way of examining slander against a young patriotic party.â
2 In his reply, the addressee said: âMudslinging at political opponents is an
old weapon of those who have lost faith in the people and given up all moral values.â
3 Manoranjan Chaudhary was asked (vide âLetter to Manoranjan Chaudharyâ,
24-7-1944) by Gandhiji to meet him on July 27. Dealing with this, Joshi said in his
reply that Manoranjan Chaudhary was the agent of Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee who
was bitterly anti-communist as he had been exposed by the communists.
4Vide Appendix âC. Rajagopalachariâs Formulaâ, after 5-8-1942.
5 War Against the People, by Kalyani Bhattacharya. Joshi alleged that she was
not the author, but Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee got it written and paid for its
publication.
6 Joshi said that he had not read it but glanced through it. Immediately on
receiving it, he had asked the Bengal Committee of Communist Party whether he
should answer it in Peopleâs War to which they replied: âNeed not bother because it
had been withdrawn from circulation as all decent Bengalees who read it felt disgusted
over it.â
7 Regarding Kaleswara Raoâs accusation, Joshi asked Gandhiji to call
Sundarayya, the Andhra Communist leader, and Kaleswara Rao together and judge or
to hold a trial in public with C. Rajagopalachari and Mrs. Sarojini Naidu as judges.
<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Letters of M K Gandhi Vol 1 (downloadable pdf)