People's Democracy

AKG BIRTH CENTENARY 

A Titan Of The Communist Movement

Prakash Karat 

Comrade AKG (seated second from left) in this group photo of the first Polit Bureau of the CPI(M)

OCTOBER 1, 2004 marks the birth centenary of A K Gopalan, a historical figure in the Indian Communist movement. There are a large number of Communist leaders who have made memorable contributions to the development of the Communist Party in India; most of them made immense sacrifices in the anti-imperialist struggle and the independence movement. But it is given only to a few to be remembered as a leader and builder of the Communist Party by having the unique capacity to be with the people and move them to take up the cause of the Party. A K Gopalan was one of them.  

Commemorating A K Gopalan’s life and work on the occasion of his birth centenary is a reaffirmation of the anti-imperialist, anti-feudal roots of the mass movement which laid the basis of a mass Communist Party. AKG’s life exemplified both these powerful currents – his role in the freedom struggle and his extraordinary record in leading and building the peasant movement in Kerala and the country. 

For a new generation which is reared in ignorance of the significant role played by the early Communists in the freedom struggle, the life of AKG has to be popularised. The saga of a primary school teacher who plunged into the Gandhi-led national movement and with his fiery patriotism and growing socialist consciousness emerged steeled as a Communist has to be retold. At a time when the BJP and RSS peddle their pseudo-nationalism and pervert the very essence of patriotism, the path followed by AKG and thousands of other radical young nationalists has to be emblazoned. 

AKG has a special place in the hearts of the working people all over the country. For four decades he served the Communist Party with tremendous dedication. He was in the leadership of the Party continuously from the fifties, and from the formation of the CPI(M) till his death, he was a member of its Polit Bureau and the Central Committee. He was the president of the All India Kisan Sabha from 1952, and served in that post till 1977. He was the leader of the Communist group in Parliament for a period of 25 years, first of the united party and later the CPI(M). 
 
SPECIAL QUALITIES

However, just listing this distinguished record cannot capture the special qualities of AKG. From an ordinary elementary school teacher, he rose to become one of the most beloved leaders of the peasants and workers due to his burning hatred of imperialism and injustice. His rapport with the working people was unique – transcending the barriers of language, religion and nationality. In Kerala, AKG was the most beloved leader of the masses, whether Hindu, Muslim or Christian. 

AKG’s five decades of political life spanned all the major political movements and upheavals in the country, from the 1930s to the 1970s. He participated in the jail-going satyagraha of 1930 and never looked back. He was the example of an ideal patriot. He spent ten years in jail under the British rule, out of the total sixteen years of his prison life. AKG’s life mirrors the major political currents of the times – the mass awakening under the Gandhian Congress programmes; the radicalisation represented by the Congress Socialist Party (of which he was one of the founders in Kerala); the journey to Communism made by the socialists, and the flowering of a proletarian internationalist. 
 
In Kerala, he occupies a unique position. Along with P Krishna Pillai and EMS, he constituted the troika, which fashioned the mass Left movement and the Communist Party in Kerala. Each of these leaders had their special qualities. In the case of AKG, his outstanding feature was a man of the people. His rapport with the people made him unique. 
 
AKG was a man of dauntless courage. He directed his righteous anger against caste tyranny and imperialist subjugation in his youth. He was beaten black and blue by the priests of Guruvayoor temple for daring to lead the temple entry movement for the untouchables and ringing the temple bell, violating the Brahmanic prohibition. He was unconscious for several days after the beating. 

His escape from Vellore jail in 1941 was a feat of physical daring and endurance which captured the imagination of the people. It symbolised his unyielding spirit which no imperialist jail could suppress. In the post-independence days, his historic hunger-strike at Amravathi to defend the poor Christian peasant interests moved even the staunch anti-Communist, Father Vadakkan, to join him in the struggle. AKG had that quality – by personal example and daring to break down all barriers. 
 
AKG was also the Communist leader who set the standards for Communists in parliamentary work. He remained in Parliament for an unbroken stretch of 25 years, but no parliamentary vice ever affected him and he remained scornful of the petty temptations of a softer life which parliamentary respectability afforded its members. By sheer dint of assiduous contact with the people and an unerring sense of seeing through bourgeois hypocrisy, he could put the government in the dock and command respect in Parliament. 

AKG was the quintessential man of action. But he did not turn into a mere pragmatic politician, because of his deep commitment to Marxism and strong bonds with the people. As soon as a report of a struggle reached him, he would reach the place and plunge into the struggle being waged by the people there. When the people of Gujarat fought for a separate linguistic state, he was there. When the peasants in Punjab fought against the betterment levy (tax), he joined them. There was no place in India, which he did not go to, to fight for the people’s cause. His last days were spent in relentlessly fighting the authoritarian Emergency regime. His indomitable opposition to the Emergency was expressed powerfully in his speech in Parliament on the imposition of the Emergency.  

If today’s young men and women, who aspire to be progressive and revolutionary, have to learn any lesson from AKG’s life, then the first thing that has to be learnt is that one cannot become a revolutionary without fighting caste oppression and the caste-system. AKG’s first significant social intervention was the participation in the Guruvayoor temple entry satyagraha for which he was badly beaten up. Just as EMS Namboodiripad, P Sundarayya and others who joined the freedom struggle, in the case of AKG too, the revolt against the caste-oppression and social tyranny was the elementary social consciousness which flowered into a higher socialist consciousness. 

Another important lesson from AKG’s life is that one cannot become a full-fledged Communist without having a Marxist outlook. It was AKG’s Marxist-Leninist convictions which enabled him at every twist and turn in the Communist movement to stand in defence of Marxism and its basic tenets. AKG did not require great theoretical study to identify revisionism as a danger for the movement or to uncompromisingly reject ultra-Left dogmatism. His unerring revolutionary instincts were nurtured by his unique ability to empathise with the working people and understand their thinking. 
 
AKG has left a precious heritage for all Communists and democrats. His total dedication and relentless struggle for the emancipation of the people, his deep humanity imbued with Marxism-Leninism, his total identification with the oppressed, particularly the peasantry, his affection for the cadres and younger generation of militants, his infectious sense of humour and courage in the face of adversity, a man beloved of the people and the Party – all these will serve as an exemplary ideal for all those who join the struggle for India’s liberation from class exploitation. 
 
In celebrating the centenary of AKG’s birth, we are paying tribute to the pioneering work done by beloved mass leader who helped shape the face of Indian Communism and made it a popular cause. The AKG birth centenary, just as the centenary celebrations of another great Communist revolutionary B T Ranadive, must be utilised to propagate the rich and historical legacy bequeathed by these leaders and to revitalise the ideological struggle to advance the cause of socialism.