Post-independence and Cold War Contemporary history The 2nd Congress of the Communist Party of India was held in Calcutta, West Bengal from 28 February to 6 March 1948.
Either they would work within the constitutional framework of the newly independent Indian state or it would engage in insurrectional revolutionary struggles.
[6] At the time of independence of India and Pakistan in 1947 CPI adhered to a moderate line of 'responsive cooperation' with the Indian National Congress and the Muslim League.
[2] A key factor in the ascent of BTR and the defeat of the incumbent P. C. Joshi clique was post-Partition dissatisfaction with the past policy of alliance with the Muslim League.
[2] Three delegates represented party branches in West Pakistan: Eric Cyprian from Punjab, Jamaluddin Bokhari from Sind and Mohammad Hussein Ata from the North-West Frontier Province.
As a result, the reactionary forces of Congress and Muslim League through a forged alliance ushered in a so-called Independence.
[2] Sen presented criticism of the performance of the party 1942–1948, including the support to Sheikh Abdullah's movement in Jammu and Kashmir.
[17] Thus the Second Party Congress implied a drastic shift in CPI policy, gearing towards armed insurrection against the nascent Indian state.
[17] It also drew upon the experiences of Bengali communists in the post-Partition chaos in Calcutta and the resistance against the Nizam regime in the Hyderabad State.
[17][14] Another meeting held in the city around just a few days before the Second Party Congress was the Conference of Youth and Students of Southeast Asia Fighting for Freedom and Independence, which has been credited with disseminating the Zhdanov insurrectional line throughout the continent.
[9][10] Sajjad Zaheer, founder of the All India Progressive Writers Association and a CPI Central Committee member, was named general secretary of the Communist Party of Pakistan.
[7] The other eight Central Committee members were Mohammad Hussain Ata, Jamaluddin Bokhari, Ibrahim (a labour leader), Khoka Roy, Nepal Nag, Krishna Binod Roy, Syed Abul Mansur Habibullah (from West Bengal, but moved to East Pakistan after the foundation of CPP) and Moni Singh.
[9] Notably, the party structure in East Pakistan would remain under the supervision of the West Bengal committee of CPI for some time afterwards.
[22] Acting as de facto representatives of Cominform, the Yugoslav delegates provided important symbolic support to legitimize B.T.
[22] The Burmese communist leader Thakin Than Tun also aroused the revolutionary fervour in his speech, highlighting that armed struggle alone would provide a path towards liberation.
[10] Along with the Asian Youth Conference, the CPI Calcutta Congress is credited to have influenced the Burmese communists to initiate armed rebellion at home.
[27][28] The West Bengal ban would later be followed by prohibitions of the party in Amritsar, Malabar (1949–1951), Madras, Manipur, Ahmednagar, Hyderabad, Travancore-Cochin, Indore and Bhopal.
[27] In January 1950 the Cominform instructed the party to abandon the insurrectional line, through an article in its newspaper For a Lasting Peace, for a Peoples Democracy!.
[4][24] In April 1951 Ajoy Ghosh became the new General Secretary and the Chinese-inspired guerrilla warfare line was condemned by the new CPI leadership.