द इण्डियन स्ट्रगल / भारतीय स्वाधीनता संग्राम (नेताजी सुभाष चन्द्र बोस - ऐतिहासिक विश्लेषण)

106 THE INDIAN STRUGGLE who were anxious to demonstrate that the Gandhi method had not become sterile and was still capable of stirring up the country. While the Swarajists represented the main body of rebels against orthodox Gandhiism in 1923, the same year saw the birth of another revolt against Gandhiism which was to acquire greater importance in the years to come. Being dis- satisfied with the Gandhian ideology, a small group in Bombay under the leadership of Mr. Dange,¹ took to study- ing Socialist literature. They had a club of their own and published a weekly journal for preaching Socialism. Among the Congress leaders the only patron they had at the time was the late Mr. Vithalbhai Patel. They soon took up labour organi- sation in Bombay and before many years elapsed, they became the first group of Communists in India. Following Bombay, a similar group was started some time later in Bengal under the name of the "Workers and Peasants' Party"—but it was never able to acquire as much importance or make as much headway, as the Bombay Group. The reason is not far to seek. Bengal, of which Calcutta is both the heart and the brain, has for a very long time been one of the strongholds of the nationalist movement. There the movement is based on an influential and patriotic petit-bour- geois class. Moreover, Bengal does not possess an indigenous and influential capitalist class, as does Bombay. Consequently, class-differentiation has never appeared in Bengal in that sharp and acute form in which it has appeared in Bombay. The petit-bourgeois element is not so strong or influential in Bombay as it is in Bengal and the national movement there is of more recent growth than in Bengal. In these circumstances it is not to be wondered at that the intellectual revolt against Gandhiism in Bombay should take a Socialist or Communist turn. In Bengal, on the other hand, the revolt against Gandhiism took a revolutionary more than a Communist turn. This phenomenon we shall consider in a later chapter on 'the Bengal Situation.' ¹ Mr. Dange was convicted in 1925 in connection with the Cawnpore Bolshevik Conspiracy Case and again in connection with the Meerut Communist Conspiracy Case in 1933, after a trial lasting nearly four years.