CPI(M)

COMMUNIST PARTY OF INDIA AT 100

The Communist movement in India grew out of global socialist ideas and Indian anti-imperialist conditions, formally taking organisational shape in 1925 at Kanpur. It played an active role in organising workers and peasants during the freedom struggle, faced repression through conspiracy cases, and later led major agrarian movements like Tebhaga and Telangana. After Independence, the movement debated between armed revolution and parliamentary democracy, eventually becoming a major force in electoral politics in states such as Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. The 1964 split between CPI and CPI(M) marked a major ideological division, and although the Left later faced electoral decline and new socio-economic challenges, it continues to remain relevant by highlighting issues of inequality, labour rights and social justice in contemporary India.