Abstract
This article appraises the role of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPM) in West Bengal, where the CPM-led Left Front formed government uninterruptedly between 1977 and 2011. It identifies four phases of Left politics in West Bengal: the period during which communists built support for a programme of radical transformation; the post-1977 years when the Left Front introduced land reform and effective local government that produced a ‘party society’ in rural areas; a third stage when popular support was subverted through clientelism tinged with coercion and petty corruption; and the 1990s, when growth in agricultural output petered out, the proportion of landless labourers increased and employment in manufacturing stagnated. The Left had also not delivered significant progress in social policy. The CPM turned to corporate investments and special economic zones. This trajectory points to problems of party ideology and the imperative of renewal to devise an anti-capitalist strategy.
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