1932-1941
Birth of A Party

JP’s first jail term was one more bench mark in his life. In 1928, different from Lenin, the Communist International under Stalin denounced Gandhi and national movement as bourgeois and reactionary. Communist party in India pulled out of the freedom movement. This weakened JP’s confidence in Moscow, but he remained a Marxist. Down the line the CPI also co-operated with the government against the national movement. Along with JP, Ashok Mehta, Minoo Masani, Achyut Patwardhan, N. G. Goray, M. L. Dantwala, Yusuf Meherally were some of the most articulate younger proponents of various shades of Socialism outside the Communist Party and were architects of the Congress Socialist Party. JP was just 30 then but was treated as an elder.

After his release, JP hurried to organize his first relief mission in response to the 15th January 1934 earth quake in Bihar. As the civil disobedience movement was petering out, the Swaraj Party was anxious to enter the legislative assemblies as opposed to direct confrontation with the British. JP and his comrades were opposed to any compromise and called a conference in Patna on 17 May 1934, a day before the All India Congress Committee was scheduled to meet to call off the civil disobedience campaign formally and permit the congressmen, who wanted to contest elections, to do so. Acharya Narendra Dev, an outstanding Marxist theoretician and a respected teacher of BHU, chaired the conference. But JP has played the key role with his organising ability and analytical mind and clarity of thinking. Though unwillingly they decided to support the decision to contest elections, they recognised the fact that Congress was the only orgniasation that had a mass backing required for the independence. JP had became a national figure at the age of 32. Resolution to form Congress Socialist party was passed, with Acharya Narendra Dev as President and Jayprakash Narayan as Organising secretary.

Conflict with Congress started surfacing as they condemned the ‘loose’ talk of class war and violence. JP was quick to defend. CSP’s proposed objectives were rather radical. State Monopoly, planned and controlled economy, collective farming were some of the ideas proposed. The Patna conference went on to support the ongoing strike in the Textile industry of Bombay. This antagonized the financiers of Congress Party.

JP and Gandhi were both unhappy with the trends in Congress, reasons were ofcourse different, but both were working to mend the ways. On 17th September Gandhiji resigned from the Congress Party. He did not join any other party for the cause of Independence, but he welcomed the formation of the Socialist Group but at the same time he voiced his fundamental differences with the socialist group.

The Congress Socialist Party was formally inaugurated at a convention in Bombay on 21-22 October 1934, on the eve of Annual Congress session. Indigenous Socialist thinkers like Ram Manhar Lohia, Minoo Masani, Achyut Patwardhan, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, Pushottamdas Trikamdas, Dr.Sampurnanand were part of this new venture. Though CSP stood for complete independence and separation from British Empire, the English officials were not too unhappy as they were playing CSP against the congress party to embarrass them.

JP’s stamp was evident on the organization as well as the policies of the emerging CSP. The content of his political thinking had been refined by his recent experiences. Marxism still seem to provide the only solution for the country’s social ills. Gandhi’s hold on popular opinion was a fact he recognised, but he did not accept his commitment to non-violence or decentralisation of power. On the other hand he did not confide himself to advocating only revolutionary remedies for misgovernment. “Why Socialism” a thesis published in 1936 provided the most comprehensive review of his political and economic thinking at the time. Politics was still totally identified with power politics. His approach was same as his critics who could not later on comprehend his desire to change society without seizing power.

In April 1934 Nehru was once more elected Congress president at the Lucknow session. He appointed Narendra Dev, JP and Achyut Patwardhan to his working committee. Always correct, JP resigned from the post of the general secretary of the CSP. By July congress assumed office of legislature in five provinces. Congresses stand in office was very hypocritical; they tried to combine the revolutionary stand of combating the sovereign by accepting the office. As a result JP resigned as a member of CWC and once again resumed the responsibility of general secretary of CSP. JP devoted himself fully to encourage the like minded radicals throughout the country to join hands. This went on for more than five years during which period we saw JP making a strange balance bitween three political outfits, the congress, CSP and communists.

Communist strategy shifted in 1936. Comintern was shaken by the Nazi victory in Germany. Overnight the independence movement led by the congress cased to be an exclusively bourgeois preoccupation. It became an anti-imperialist national front and the CSP was no longer described as a “social fascist” organization. JP was taken in and insisted on acceptance of the communists by the CSP. Younger socialists headed by Achyut Patwardhan, Minoo Masani, Lohia and Ashok Mehta resigned from the national executive in protest. JP missed the intention of the communists to take over as many branches of CSP and discredit the original leadership of CSP. When his old friend and colleague Ganga Sharan Sinha tried to keep the communists out of the CSP executive, JP even went to the extent of unilaterally and unconstitutionally increased its membership to accommodate them. Soviet invasion of tiny Finland and the party’s reneging JP, concerning the resolution that led to Subhash Bose resigning presidentship of the Congress at its Tripuri Session in 1939, led to some disenchantment. But final break came only when Hitler attacked Russia in 1942 and what till then was an “imperialist war” for the communist, became overnight a “people’s war”. JP could never trust the Moscow-oriented communists again.

At Tripuri JP stuck to the demand of nothing less than independence and a constitution drawn up by a constituent assembly elected on the basis of full adult franchise. Going forward he even asked his socialist colleagues to boycott the constituent assembly because it was elected on a limited franchise.

The struggle between JP’s and Gandhi’s view did not really end until after Gandhi was dead and JP finally recognised the fatal flaw in Marxism – its leaving no room for ethical and moral considerations, the only motivation that can impel human beings to seek something beyond their individual well being.

JP remained a Marxist but his interpretations grew even more humane. This was evident in the draft resolution he sent to Gandhi ji to be put before Ramgarh session of the Congress in 1940 , six month after India was dragged into the war, without consulting the Congress. In response the provincial governments resigned. JP’s draft was not discussed in Ramgarh session, and he was not even able to attend the session. Gandhi ji published it in the ‘Harijan’. JP could not attend the session as he was actively opposing to India being dragged into war. He was arrested for making a “seditious” speech.

His behaviour at the trial closely followed the pattern set by Gandhi, from pleading guilty to thanking the English judge for his courtesy and consideration. Gandhiji came vociferously in defence, but in vain and he was once again in Jail.