AN EARLY COMMUNIST MUZAFFAR AHMAD IN CALCUTTA 1913–1929 SSUUCCHHEETTAANNAA CCHHAATTTTOOPPAADDHHYYAAYY From an occasionally employed, lower middle- class Bengali Muslim intellectual on the borderline of starvation in the city, he was to become ‘the chief accused’ at the Meerut communist trials started by the colonial government in 1929. What was the road travelled before challenging imperialism ‘from the dock’? In 1913, Muzaffar Ahmad (1889–1973) was just one more individual adrift in the sea of migrants arriving from rural Bengal to Calcutta. His ambition was to be a writer. Yet in the vortex of metropolitan upheavals, his life would take a completely different turn. Taking Muzaffar Ahmad’s early career (1913–29) as its chronological frame, this book examines the dialectical interplay between social being and a wider social consciousness in late colonial Bengal which drew a section of Muslim intellectuals to communism. Muzaffar’s life converged with a significant phase in the social and political history of India and the world: 1913 marked the eve of the First World War, while the Wall Street stockmarket crash set off the Great Depression in 1929. During this period, especially after the success of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, socialist ideas and communist activism became politically familiar in different parts of the globe. In the post-First World War climate, many alienated urban intellectuals from Cairo to Shanghai stood at the crossroads of established identities and radical currents. Informed by working-class protests from below and a leftward turn in the literary/cultural fields, many in India were also moving away from the political routes open to those from their social background to combat colonialism and identifying with alternative visions of decolonization. (continued on the back flap) ISBN: 978-81-89487-77-5 Rs 600 M A U N Z A F F E A R A A R H M L A Y D I C N O C A L M C U T M T A U 1 9 1 N 3 – 1 I 9 S 2 9 T SS UU CC HH EE TT AA NN AA CC HH AA TT TT OO PP AA DD HH YY AA YY i An Early Communist MUZAFFAR AHMAD IN CALCUTTA 1913–1929 ii iii An Early Communist MUZAFFAR AHMAD IN CALCUTTA 1913–1929 SUCHETANA CHATTOPADHYAY Tulika Books iv Published by Tulika Books 35 A/1 Shahpur Jat, New Delhi 110 049, India First published in India in 2011 © Suchetana Chattopadhyay ISBN: 978-81-89487-77-5 Typeset in Sabon at Tulika Print Communication Services, New Delhi; printed at Chaman Offset, Delhi 110 002 v Contents List of Illustrations vi Acknowledgements ix Note on Spelling, Translation and Sources xii List of Abbreviations xiii Introduction 1 CHAPTER ONE Migration 7 CHAPTER TWO Towards the Left 50 CHAPTER THREE ‘Talking Bolshevism’ 94 CHAPTER FOUR Organization 141 CHAPTER FIVE Constraints 194 Class, Language, City 239 Bibliography 279 Index 290 vi Illustrations Muzaffar Ahmad: in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s Photos courtesy National Book Agency and Ganashakti Printers xiv College Square Photo by Suchetana Chattopadhyay 26 Coffee House on College Street Photo by Suchetana Chattopadhyay 26 People’s Corner, one among several bookshops in the College Street area Photo by Suchetana Chattopadhyay 27 A building in the Khidirpur (Kidderpore) area of Calcutta Photo by Suchetana Chattopadhyay 40 City of workers Photo by Kawshik Ananda Kirtania 51 32 College Street: the office of the Bangiya Musalman Sahitya Samiti was located on the first floor of this house Photo by Suchetana Chattopadhyay 66 View from the balcony of the Bangiya Musalman Sahitya Samiti office at 32 College Street Photo by Suchetana Chattopadhyay 67 7 Moulavi Lane: the residence of Kutubuddin Ahmad Photo courtesy Ganashakti Printers; from Pradoshkumar Bagchi, ed., Communist Andolaner Oitihyamoy Thikana / Historic Addresses of the Communist Movement, 2008 75 Title page of The People’s Marx: a book Muzaffar Ahmad read in late 1921, soon after it was published Photo by Suchetana Chattopadhyay; from the Senate House Library, London 77 ILLUSTRATIONS vii Abdul Halim From Arun Chowdhury and Ashok Bandopadhyay, eds., Jibaner Sangrame Comrade Abdul Halim / Comrade Abdul Halim’s Life Struggle, 2002 102 The Masses of India, a successor of Vanguard: this was published by M.N. Roy from Paris and secretly despatched to India Courtesy Archives of the Paris Police Prefecture, France 113 The house at 10/1 Bright Street where Muzaffar Ahmad lived in early 1922; in a letter to the Comintern in March 1922, he gave this as the address of the ‘Bharatiya Samyatantra Samiti’ office Photo courtesy Ganashakti Printers; from Pradoshkumar Bagchi, ed., Communist Andolaner Oitihyamoy Thikana / Historic Addresses of the Communist Movement, 2008 130 37 Harrison Road: the Peasants and Workers Party started functioning from here in 1926 Photo by Kawshik Ananda Kirtania 154 Front page of an issue of Ganabani, ‘weekly organ in Bengali of the Peasants’ and Workers’ Party of Bengal’ Courtesy Muzaffar Ahmad Pathagar, Kolkata 159 An article by Muzaffar Ahmad in Ganabani Courtesy Muzaffar Ahmad Pathagar, Kolkata 160 Advertisement for The Book Company in Ganabani Courtesy Muzaffar Ahmad Pathagar, Kolkata 161 2/1 European Asylum Lane, now Abdul Halim Lane: the office of the Peasants and Workers Party moved to the first floor of this building in 1927 Photo by Suchetana Chattopadhyay 214 A closer view of the PWP office building at 2/1 European Asylum Lane Photo by Suchetana Chattopadhyay 215 The Meerut prisoners Courtesy The Working Class Movement Library, Manchester, UK 225 ‘Dhaka House’, 41 Zakaria Street: the office of the ‘Calcutta Committee’ of the CPI was located here in the early 1930s From Arun Chowdhury and Ashok Bandopadhyay, eds., Jibaner Sangrame Comrade Abdul Halim / Comrade Abdul Halim’s Life Struggle, 2002 227 Muzaffar Ahmad after his release from prison in 1951 Photo courtesy Ganashakti Printers; from Muzaffar Ahmad Janmoshato- barsho Sankhya / Muzaffar Ahmad Birth Centenary Edition, 1989 243