Shripad Amrit Dange (10 October 1899 – 22 May 1991) was an Indian politician who was a founding member of the Communist Party of India (CPI) and a stalwart of Indian trade union movement. During the 20th century, Dange was arrested by the authorities for communist and trade union activities and was jailed for an overall period of 13 years. His early years were marked by the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Trial, and later by internal controversy over alleged 1924 letters in which he sought leniency from the British colonial administration.
After India's Independence, a series of events like Sino-Soviet split, Sino-Indian war, and dispute over the stand of the party towards Indian National Congress led to a split in the Communist Party of India, in 1964. The breakaway Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI(M)) emerged stronger both in terms of membership and their performance in the Indian Elections. Dange, who remained the Chairman of the CPI till 1978, was removed in that year because the majority of party workers were against Dange's political line of supporting Indian National Congress, and Indira Gandhi, the then Congress Prime Minister. He was expelled from the CPI in 1981. He joined the All India Communist Party (AICP), and later, United Communist Party of India. Towards the end, Dange got increasingly marginalised in the Indian Communist movement. He was also a well-known writer and was the founder of Socialist, the first socialist weekly in India. Dange played an important role in the formation of Maharashtra state.
Early years Shripad Amritpant Dange was born in Marathi Deshastha Yajurvedi Brahman family in 1899, in the village of Karanjgaon in Niphad Taluka of Nashik District, Maharashtra. His father worked in Mumbai as government officer and was a major landowner of the area and lived in a palace-like house in Karanjgaon. Dange was sent to study in Pune. He was expelled from college for organising a movement against compulsory teaching of the Bible.Comrade Shripad Amrit Dange Page 8 While in work, Dange was exposed to conditions of workers when he undertook voluntary work in the textile mill areas of Mumbai. Dange was drawn into active politics by the fervour of nationalist movement against the British rule in India. Bal Gangadhar Tilak, a veteran leader of Indian National Congress from Maharashtra, the earliest proponent of swaraj (complete independence) greatly inspired young Dange. Later, when Mahatma Gandhi launched the Non-Cooperation Movement in 1920, Dange gave up his studies and joined the Independence movement.
He became interested in Marxism, while following the Russian Revolution of 1917. He grew increasingly skeptical about Gandhism, especially about Gandhi's promotion of cottage industries as the sole solution for India's economic ills, while overlooking possibilities of an industrial economy.
1924 Cawnpore Letters In May 1924, while imprisoned in Cawnpore (Kanpur) under charges related to the Bolshevik Conspiracy Case, Shripad Amrit Dange submitted a letter to the District Magistrate of Cawnpore requesting a transfer to Bombay or Poona Jail. In his appeal, Dange cited poor health, difficulty communicating in the local language, and the inability of his family to afford visits from Bombay.
A subsequent joint letter dated 28 May 1924, signed by Dange and Nalini Bhushan Das Gupta, expressed willingness to give an undertaking to the colonial government "not to commit any more offences" and requested early release, stating that they were "undergoing suffering which we cannot sustain".
The letters, later rediscovered and published in 1964, provoked considerable controversy within the Communist Party of India. The CPI Secretariat dismissed them as forgeries, whereas critics within the party, particularly those aligned with the left wing, cited them as evidence of early accommodation with the British colonial government.
Some historians and political commentators interpret these petitions as indicative of Dange's conciliatory posture toward colonial authority, contrasting it with the defiance displayed by contemporary nationalist prisoners.
Gandhi Vs. Lenin In 1921, Dange published a pamphlet titled Gandhi Vs. Lenin, a comparative study of approaches of both the leaders; but, Lenin coming out as better of the two. This work proved to be a turning point in Dange's life. Prominent Marxist leader M. N. Roy read the work and went on to meet its young author, when he came to Mumbai. Ranchoddas Bhavan Lotvala, a flour mill owner from Mumbai who 'concerned himself for radical causes', also read this treatise and was impressed by its contents. Lotvala sponsored Dange's study of Marxism for several years, and together they built up a library of Marxist Literature and published translations of classics.
In 1922, with Lotvala's help, Dange launched the English weekly, Socialist, the first Indian Marxist journal. Later Mohit Sen, Dange's contemporary and a well-known communist intellectual, wrote that Dange's articles in the Socialist impressed Lenin himself.
Influence of Bolshevik Revolution The third decade of the 20th century proved to be formative years for young Dange. The period also witnessed worldwide economic crises. There were long strikes in the industrialized world, especially in Britain. In India, the working class movement gained steady momentum during this period. It was during one of the long textile mill strikes that Dange got himself acquainted with the conditions of labourers.
The period also coincided with influence of Bolshevist ideas, following the Russian Revolution of 1917, manifesting in political events in countries outside Russia. This process was quickened by the establishment of the Third International or the Communist International, or in popular parlance—its abbreviated form – Comintern, an international communist organisation founded in Moscow in March 1919. As a resolution adopted in the Founding Congress of the Comintern its stated objective was to fight 'by all available means, including armed force, for the overthrow of the international bourgeoisie and for the creation of an international Soviet republic as a transition stage to the complete abolition of the State'.MI5 History. The Communist Threat. in chapter The Inter-War Period
Meeting with M. N. Roy M. N. Roy, an ex-member of the Anushilan Samiti, perhaps the most important secret revolutionary organisation operating in East Bengal in the opening years of the 20th century, went to Moscow in by the end of April 1920.Roy, Samaren M. N. Roy: A Political Biography Orient Longman 1997. p. 54. The new Russian government under Lenin evinced interest in him and encouraged him to form an Indian Communist Party. Roy went on to found the émigré Communist Party of India on 17 October 1920Documents of History of the Communist Party of India (ed.) G. Adhikari with the assistance of Dilip Bose. New Delhi: People's Publishing House. 1982. p. 229. in Tashkent. On his return to India, M.N. Roy who had read Gandhi Vs. Lenin met Dange in 1922. Dange at that time was closely associating with Lotvala to spread Marxian ideas. It was during this period that Dange grew in prominence as a Marxist; a sure way those days to invite antagonism from the British Government.
Foundation of the Communist Party of India The British Empire saw the founding of Comintern as a disruptive force that would cause internal disorder. It viewed the nascent leftism in India with great suspicion. During the 1920s, the Government foisted a series of 'conspiracy cases'Criminal cases in which the accused are charged with actions that would alienate the sovereignty of British India, from the British King. against persons whom they suspected to have communist leanings.
Dange in the eyes of the British authorities During this period M.N. Roy, the spokesperson of the Comintern, was seen as the most dangerous of Indian communists. During that time all the letters written by Roy from Moscow to Dange were intercepted and delivered."Ganachari, Arvind". Evolution of Law of 'Sedition' in the Context of the Indian Freedom Struggle 1837–1922 in Dossal, Mariam and Maloni, Ruby (ed.) State Intervention and Popular Response: Western India in the Nineteenth Century Mumbai: Popular Prakashan. 1999. p. 175.
The British government initially did not think Dange was dangerous.In 1923, they came to the conclusion that they did not have enough to prove anti-government activity as "Dange is a pure doctrinaire and nothing here seen of him indicate any real power of organisation." The Government of India soon changed its mind and the file notes that 'The evidence collected clearly shows that Dange has been an important figure in the conspiracy as constant reference to his name would be unavoidable in any event in the prosecution to be instituted against other members of the conspiracy at [Allahabad].The conspiracy referred to here is the Kanpur Conspiracy Case that would catapult Dange to a leader with national prominence.
Ideological controversies Dange's political career was often marked by ideological controversy and differences with mainstream nationalist leaders. A key episode concerns the Quit India Movement of 1942. As a senior member of the Communist Party of India (CPI), Dange and his party opposed Mahatma Gandhi’s call for British withdrawal from India. Following the change in the Communist International (Comintern) line after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, the CPI declared World War II to be a "People’s War" and supported the Allied cause. Dange defended this position, arguing that cooperation with the British war effort was necessary to defeat fascism. This stance brought the CPI into sharp conflict with the Indian National Congress and other freedom fighters, many of whom regarded it as collaboration with the colonial administration.
Another episode relates to a letter Dange wrote to the British authorities in 1924 during his imprisonment following the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case. In this letter, he is reported to have sought clemency from the colonial government, expressing regret for his earlier revolutionary activities. The letter has been cited by critics as evidence of Dange’s conciliatory stance toward the colonial establishment, though his supporters have argued that it reflected tactical pragmatism during a period of severe repression.
Kanpur Bolshevik conspiracy case On 17 March 1924, M. N. Roy, S.A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani, Singaravelu Chettiar, Ghulam Hussain and others were charged, in what was called the Cawnpore (now spelt Kanpur) Bolshevik Conspiracy case. The specific charge was that they as communists were seeking "to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by complete separation of India from Britain by a violent revolution."
The case attracted interest of the people towards Comintern plan to bring about violent revolution in India. Communist trials had taken place in India, in frontier towns like Peshawar where Russian trained muhajir communists were put on trial. "But no case had attracted public gaze like the Kanpur case. Pages of newspapers daily splashed sensational communist plans and people for the first time learned such a large scale about communism and its doctrines and the aims of the Communist International in India."Ralhan, O.P. (ed.) Encyclopedia of Political Parties New Delhi: Anmol Publications p. 336
Singaravelu Chettiar was released on account of illness. M.N. Roy was out of the country and therefore could not be arrested. Ghulam Hussain confessed that he had received money from the Russians in Kabul and was pardoned. Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani and Dange were sentenced for various terms of imprisonment. This case was responsible for actively introducing communism to the Indian masses. Dange was released from prison in 1925.
Formation of the Communist Party of India