Shaukat Usmani
M. N. Roy, an ex-member of the Anushilan Samiti, a powerful secret revolutionary organization operating in East Bengal in the opening years of the 20th century, went to Moscow by the end of April 1920,[1] and soon after founded the émigré Communist Party of India at Tashkent on 17 October 1920.
[3] The Indian Military School was closed in April 1921, as a quid pro quo for industrial assistance that Britain promised to Soviet Russia, under Anglo-Russian Trade Pact in March 1921.
The Tashkent-Moscow alumni who had dispersed all over the country did not have a smooth working relationship with the local leadership in India under S. A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, S. S. Mirajkar, S.V.
By this stage, Usmani was operating underground under the nom de guerre of Sikander Sur; his Comintern code name was D A Naoroji (sometimes wrongly rendered as Naoradji).
On 17 March 1924, M. N. Roy, S. A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani, Singaravelu Chettiar, Ghulam Hussain and others were charged 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", in what was called the Cawnpore (now spelt Kanpur) Bolshevik Conspiracy case.
[8] But the industrial town of Kanpur, in December 1925, witnessed a conference of different communist groups, under the chairmanship of Singaravelu Chettiar.
The meeting adopted a resolution for the formation of the Communist Party of India with its headquarters in Bombay (now: Mumbai) .
Usmani along with 32 persons were arrested on or about 20 March 1929 and were put on trial under Section 121A of the Indian Penal Code, which declares, Whoever within or without British India conspires to commit any of the offenses punishable by Section 121 or to deprive the King of the sovereignty of British India or any part thereof, or conspires to overawe, by means of criminal force or the show of criminal force, the Government of India or any local Government, shall be punished with transportation for life,[9] or any shorter term, or with imprisonment of either description which may extend to ten years.Though all the accused were not communists, the charges framed against them betrayed the government's fear of growth of communist ideas in India.
"For example, Lester Hutchinson, later released as innocent after spending four years in prison, was arrested as an afterthought when he took up the task of carrying on some of the trade union and agitational work after the arrest of the others, was a merely journalist on the Indian Daily Mail and unconnected with the trade union movement.
The main charges were that in 1921, Dange, Shaukat Usmani, and Muzaffar Ahmad entered into a conspiracy to establish a branch of Comintern in India and they were helped by various persons, including the accused Philip Spratt and Benjamin Francis Bradley, sent to India by the Communist International.
The aim of the accused persons, according to the charges, was to deprive the King Emperor of the sovereignty of British India, and for such purpose to use the methods and carry out the programme and plan of campaign outlined and ordained by the Communist International.The Sessions Court in Meerut awarded stringent sentences to the accused in January 1933.
[10] The Spen Valley seat was significant since it was the focus of an attempt by the leader of a pro-Tory group of right-leaning Liberals, Sir John Simon, to get back into Parliament.
Since he was a prisoner thousands of miles away, he was unable to conduct the campaign himself, so a deputy to represent him was chosen - one Billy Brain.
The campaign was successful in the sense that it brought into focus Meerut and harshness of British rule in India, which were hitherto unknown to many.
The candidature of Usmani was aimed by the Communist Party of Great Britain to ensure freedom for India, and to highlight the plight of the Meerut prisoners.
The CPI came out with its own manifesto and was affiliated to the Communist International in 1934[12] However, Usmani did not figure in the Party building exercise.
Simultaneously, he continued his research till 1961, resulting in the book "Nutritive Values of Fruits, Vegetables, Nuts and Food Cures", a widely appreciated work.
He then shifted to Cairo, Egypt, in 1964 and remained there till 1974, working as a journalist in the Egyptian Gazette, Lotus of AAPSO, etc.
[13] Much later in life, Usmani published a book on the same theme, Historic Trips of a Revolutionary - Sojourn in the Soviet Union.
[14] The book gives an account of Usmai's part in the émigré Communist Party of India, and other examples of progress in his homeland like the Indian Military School.
