The Meerut Trial (1929-33): Labor, Internationalism and Cold War

Jyotishman Mudiar

doi:10.33687/jsas.008.03.3692

Abstract

The historiography of the Meerut Trial (1929-33) has regarded the Trial as a crackdown on the left-wing movement in India, notably a communist left. Those interested in global history have represented the Trial as a repressive response to revolutionary internationalism. The effects of the Trial have firmly structured the history of its causes. This paper revisits why the British colonial state in India launched the Trial in the first place. For the British colonial state, anxiety about Bolshevism was not new. Many historians and activists have considered the Trial a teleological culmination of a series of conspiracy cases against communism. Notwithstanding its merit, it effaces the importance of the historical conjuncture of 1928-9. This paper argues that what forced the state to launch the Trial in 1928-9 was the unprecedented industrial unrest in the two cities of Bombay and Calcutta. At the face of a labor movement that challenged capitalism and colonialism alike, the state felt that repressive legal-administrative actions alone were insufficient for control and order. In its broader sense, the Trial was a cold war propaganda response of the British state in India to manufacture the consent of its subjects.

Highlights

A LITERAL READING OF THE MEERUT TRIAL In March 1929, 11 persons in Bombay convened two meetings to deliberate on the reorganization of a communist party in India
With no organizational structures in place, they explored the possibilities of a name, objectives, and memberships for the party. They discussed indecisively, if they should affiliate themselves to the Moscow centered Communist International (Comintern) (M.T. -judgment, Yorke, Vol 1 (MT J-1 for further reference): 246)
In the committee of nine to prepare a labour constitution, five of the accused- Thengdi, Ghosh, Dange, Spratt, and Jhabwala were elected. They utilized the executive meeting of the All-India Trade Union Congress (AITUC) in February 1928, Delhi, by successfully vetoing the affiliation of the AITUC to the International Federation of Trade Union despite "reformist" labour leaders like NM Joshi and Purcell's insistence (MTJ-1, 1932: 178)

Summary

Introduction

A LITERAL READING OF THE MEERUT TRIAL In March 1929, 11 persons in Bombay convened two meetings to deliberate on the reorganization of a communist party in India. They utilized the executive meeting of the AITUC in February 1928, Delhi, by successfully vetoing the affiliation of the AITUC to the International Federation of Trade Union despite "reformist" labour leaders like NM Joshi and Purcell's insistence (MTJ-1, 1932: 178).10 At the Jharia session of the AITUC, 1928, the accused could push the AITUC to affiliate itself to League Against Imperialism (LAI) for one year as a note of protest against the arrest of American J.W. Johnstone, an LAI delegate to the AITUC.

Results

Conclusion