Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist-Leninist)
Encyclopedia
Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist–Leninist) was created through the merger of Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
, Northern Zone Committee RCUC(M-L), West Bengal Communist Unity Centre and West Bengal Co-ordination Committee of Revolutionaries (WBCCR). The formation took place at a unity conference in April 1975. The unity conference adopted a resolution on martyrs, programme, path, method of work, constitution and a statement on unification. The unity conference elected a Central Committee with Devullapali Venkatewra Rao as its secretary. UCCRI(ML) had as its ambition to unite all communist revolutionary forces, including people within the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
(CPI(ML)) fold. UCCRI(ML) started publishing the SPARK as its central organ.
regime. UCCRI(ML) was proscribed and forced underground.
There was a decision on behalf of the Kerala Communist Unity Centre to merge with UCCRI(ML) in June 1975, but that organization suffered internal splits and the merged was cancelled.
In July 1976 T. Nagi Reddy
, who had been the most important leader of the party, died. His death became a severe set-back for UCCRI(ML). In August the same year the organization suffered a split. A conflict had emerged in the CC, and D. V. Rao had been removed from the post of secretary. D. V. Rao accused three other CC members (led by a CC member from the NZC) of having formed a "rival centre", and suspended them unilaterally. In the split the Northern Zone Committee (i.e., Rajasthan
) and Bengal Committee had broken away, along with the "rival centre". The break-away group later developed a pro-Albanian line.
D. V. Rao returned to Andhra Pradesh
and rallied the Andhra organization around him. D. V. Rao pushed through a merger of the Punjab Communist Revolutionary Committee
with the UCCRI(ML) in June 1976. He resurrected a Central Committee including himself, the PCRC secretary Harbhajan Sohi and two leaders from Andhra (Madhu and Anand), which was to function until a regular conference would be held.
UCCRI(ML) of D. V. Rao later evaluated the split in the following way:
Branches were started in Orissa
and Kerala
. In 1978 a group from the Debra area of Midnapore
, West Bengal
joined UCCRI(ML) after some rounds of discussions with the CC. The convenor of the erstwhile Maharashtra State Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (which had left All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
after the expulsion of Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
) joined UCCRI(ML), leading to the formation of a unit in Maharashtra
.
UCCRI(ML) split for the second time in September 1979 when the Punjab committee, under the leadership of Harbhajan Sohi, broke away. HBS had developed a criticism of Mao Zedong
's Three Worlds Theory. D. V. Rao, on the other hand, defended the Three Worlds Theory and the new leadership of the Communist Party of China
. The Punjab committee came to establish a parallel UCCRI(ML)
.
Ahead of the 1980 elections, UCCRI(ML) reviewed their stand towards participation. UCCRI(ML) always saw the issue of elections as a tactical issue. Initially the party had taken the policy of non-participation. But in 1980 UCCRI(ML) came out with an appeal to "defeat pro-super power reactionary forces in elections". An article written by D. V. Rao in the January 1980 issue of Proletarian Line (the central organ of UCCRI(ML) at the time) proposed the following:
The article continues; "Since pro-super power and reactionary forces in general and pro-Soviet forces in particular pose the main danger to our country we will mobilse all those forces who are opposed to them and see that they are strengthened so that they are able to defeat them as far as possible. In this connection, we ask the people to differentiate between genuine and fake anti-Soviet, democratic forces."
In the actual electoral campaign, however, the new policy was not consistent. In Andhra Pradesh
the party promoted non-participation, in reality a boycott, whereas the party supported certain candidates in West Bengal
and Orissa
. In the aftermath of the elections, a split surged with D. V. Rao leaving the party with a group of followers in Andhra. D. V. Rao set up his own UCCRI(ML)
. After D. V. Rao's departure, Anand became the new CC Secretary of the remaining UCCRI(ML).
In 1988 Anand broke away from UCCRI(ML) after a long period of dissent in the organization. The rift between Anand and other surged in the preparations to hold a party conference. Anand was able to win over the Maharashtra
unit. Anand also reopened relations with Sohi's UCCRI(ML). After the split, the faction of Anand together with Sohis faction created the Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India
together with three other groups the same year.
The remaining UCCRI(ML) faction, led by Viswam and Madhu, merged into the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti
in 1992. Madhu signed the merger agreement on behalf of UCCRI(ML).
Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries was a leftist split from the Communist Party of India in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The leader of the group was T. Nagi Reddy, who was a member of the legislative assembly in AP at the time. Other leading figures were...
, Northern Zone Committee RCUC(M-L), West Bengal Communist Unity Centre and West Bengal Co-ordination Committee of Revolutionaries (WBCCR). The formation took place at a unity conference in April 1975. The unity conference adopted a resolution on martyrs, programme, path, method of work, constitution and a statement on unification. The unity conference elected a Central Committee with Devullapali Venkatewra Rao as its secretary. UCCRI(ML) had as its ambition to unite all communist revolutionary forces, including people within the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)
The Communist Party of India was formed by the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries at a congress in Calcutta in 1969. The foundation of the party was declared by Kanu Sanyal at a mass-meeting in Calcutta on the 22nd of April .-History:CPI advocated armed revolution and...
(CPI(ML)) fold. UCCRI(ML) started publishing the SPARK as its central organ.
Overview
Shortly after the formation of UCCRI(ML), the State of Emergency was proclaimed by the 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...
regime. UCCRI(ML) was proscribed and forced underground.
There was a decision on behalf of the Kerala Communist Unity Centre to merge with UCCRI(ML) in June 1975, but that organization suffered internal splits and the merged was cancelled.
In July 1976 T. Nagi Reddy
T. Nagi Reddy
Tarimala Nagi Reddy , often called "TN" was a communist politician from Andhra Pradesh, India.T.N. Reddy was born in Tarimela in Anantapur district of Andhra Pradesh. He studied at Loyola College in Madras and at Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi. During his student days he got involved with...
, who had been the most important leader of the party, died. His death became a severe set-back for UCCRI(ML). In August the same year the organization suffered a split. A conflict had emerged in the CC, and D. V. Rao had been removed from the post of secretary. D. V. Rao accused three other CC members (led by a CC member from the NZC) of having formed a "rival centre", and suspended them unilaterally. In the split the Northern Zone Committee (i.e., Rajasthan
Rajasthan
Rājasthān the land of Rajasthanis, , is the largest state of the Republic of India by area. It is located in the northwest of India. It encompasses most of the area of the large, inhospitable Great Indian Desert , which has an edge paralleling the Sutlej-Indus river valley along its border with...
) and Bengal Committee had broken away, along with the "rival centre". The break-away group later developed a pro-Albanian line.
D. V. Rao returned to 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...
and rallied the Andhra organization around him. D. V. Rao pushed through a merger of the Punjab Communist Revolutionary Committee
Punjab Communist Revolutionary Committee
Punjab Communist Revolutionary Committee, originally the Bhatinda District Committee of AICCCR. The committee was one of the sections that broke away when AICCCR founded CPI. In June 1976 PCRC merged with UCCRI....
with the UCCRI(ML) in June 1976. He resurrected a Central Committee including himself, the PCRC secretary Harbhajan Sohi and two leaders from Andhra (Madhu and Anand), which was to function until a regular conference would be held.
UCCRI(ML) of D. V. Rao later evaluated the split in the following way:
From whatever the discussion that had taken place, we can draw some conclusions.
1. Excepting on two issues, there reflected no divergencies in the CC on political positions adopted by Com. D. V. Rao in the course of whole development.
2. Com. D. V. Rao viewed the whole course of development like this: The NZC and its allies did not accept the line with convictions and genuinity. This was the basic cause for the split. They were manipulators, careerists and doubtful elements. They were incorrigible. Hence the split was unavoidable sooner or later.
Branches were started in 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...
and Kerala
Kerala
or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....
. In 1978 a group from the Debra area of Midnapore
Midnapore
Midnapore is the district headquarters of Paschim Medinipur district of West Bengal. It is situated on the banks of the Kangsabati River . This area had taken a pioneering role in India's freedom struggle...
, 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...
joined UCCRI(ML) after some rounds of discussions with the CC. The convenor of the erstwhile Maharashtra State Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (which had left All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries was formed in 1967 as a pro-People's Republic of China splinter-group of Communist Party of India...
after the expulsion of Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries
Andhra Pradesh Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries was a leftist split from the Communist Party of India in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. The leader of the group was T. Nagi Reddy, who was a member of the legislative assembly in AP at the time. Other leading figures were...
) joined UCCRI(ML), leading to the formation of a unit in 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...
.
UCCRI(ML) split for the second time in September 1979 when the Punjab committee, under the leadership of Harbhajan Sohi, broke away. HBS had developed a criticism of Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
's Three Worlds Theory. D. V. Rao, on the other hand, defended the Three Worlds Theory and the new leadership of the Communist Party of China
Communist Party of China
The Communist Party of China , also known as the Chinese Communist Party , is the founding and ruling political party of the People's Republic of China...
. The Punjab committee came to establish a parallel UCCRI(ML)
Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist-Leninist) (Harbhajan Sohi)
Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India [Harbhajan Sohi], a splinter-group of UCCRI. Since July 1977 the UCCRI Central Committee Member from Punjab, Harbhajan Sohi had started to express criticism towards the Three Worlds Theory of the Communist Party of China. Gradually he got closer...
.
Ahead of the 1980 elections, UCCRI(ML) reviewed their stand towards participation. UCCRI(ML) always saw the issue of elections as a tactical issue. Initially the party had taken the policy of non-participation. But in 1980 UCCRI(ML) came out with an appeal to "defeat pro-super power reactionary forces in elections". An article written by D. V. Rao in the January 1980 issue of Proletarian Line (the central organ of UCCRI(ML) at the time) proposed the following:
We have been treating and are treating the participation or boycott... as a form of struggle and our practice is the same. We do not think that "boycott" can be the slogan of present day.... In the same way it is too premature to think of candidates in the prevailing situation in which the defective nature of electoral system is one. In these conditions our participation will be one of taking measures to advance the revolutionary movement by utilizing this opportunity. The people are being mobilised to see the real face of contesting parties who have not been serving them in any way what so ever.
Keeping all the points in view, we appeal to the people to defeat the game of the two super powers in general and Soviet Union in particular. We appeal to people to defeat the game of landlords who are trying to survive by diverting the agrarian revolutionary movement. Almost all the election parties are connected with these forces in one way or the other.
The article continues; "Since pro-super power and reactionary forces in general and pro-Soviet forces in particular pose the main danger to our country we will mobilse all those forces who are opposed to them and see that they are strengthened so that they are able to defeat them as far as possible. In this connection, we ask the people to differentiate between genuine and fake anti-Soviet, democratic forces."
In the actual electoral campaign, however, the new policy was not consistent. In 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...
the party promoted non-participation, in reality a boycott, whereas the party supported certain candidates 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...
and 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...
. In the aftermath of the elections, a split surged with D. V. Rao leaving the party with a group of followers in Andhra. D. V. Rao set up his own UCCRI(ML)
Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India (Marxist-Leninist) (D.V. Rao)
Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India is a political party in Andhra Pradesh, India. It was formed by D.V. Rao after the 1980 general elections, as a split from the original Unity Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India . D.V. Rao had been the Central Committee Secretary of UCCRI...
. After D. V. Rao's departure, Anand became the new CC Secretary of the remaining UCCRI(ML).
In 1988 Anand broke away from UCCRI(ML) after a long period of dissent in the organization. The rift between Anand and other surged in the preparations to hold a party conference. Anand was able to win over the 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...
unit. Anand also reopened relations with Sohi's UCCRI(ML). After the split, the faction of Anand together with Sohis faction created the Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India
Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India
Centre of Communist Revolutionaries of India was formed in 1988 through the merger of the Anand and Harbhajan Sohi factions of UCCRI, CPI Chandrashekar group, Revolutionary Communist Party and Organizing Committee, CPI...
together with three other groups the same year.
The remaining UCCRI(ML) faction, led by Viswam and Madhu, merged into the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti
Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Janashakti
Communist Party of India Janashakti, abbreviated CPI Janashakti, is a communist political party in India.-History:CPI Janashakti was formed in 1992 when seven revolutionary communist groups merged...
in 1992. Madhu signed the merger agreement on behalf of UCCRI(ML).