| Party Name: | Revolutionary Communist Party of India (Tagore) |
| Abbreviation: | RCPI(Tagore) |
| Colorcode: | Red |
| Split: | Revolutionary Communist Party of India |
| Merged: | Revolutionary Communist Party of India |
The Revolutionary Communist Party of India, also known as RCPI (Tagore), was a political party in India, led by Saumyendranath Tagore.[1] RCPI (Tagore) emerged from a split in the Revolutionary Communist Party of India in 1948. RCPI (Tagore) had a very minor role in Indian politics. Tagore served as the chairman of the party.[2] The party published the Bengali fortnightly Ganabani ('People's Voice').[3] [4]
Tagore, the founder of RCPI in 1934, had been jailed in November 1947.[5] Tagore was released from prison in 1948.[5] At the time a sector of RCPI, led by Pannalal Dasgupta, insisted on turning the campaign of building panchayats into a general armed insurrection.[5] After his release from jail Tagore argued that armed revolution was premature in India.[5]
Dasgupta assembled an All India Party Conference in Birbhum in 1948.[5] Tagore requested to resign from the RCPI Central Committee, a request the Birbhum conference rejected.[5] After the Birbhum conference the followers of Dasgupta began to gather arms and prepare for armed struggle. After the Birbhum conference Tagore, at a public meeting in Calcutta, denounced insurrectional line of Dasgupta.[5] Tagore's speech pushed the Dasgupta group to issue disciplinary action against him, accepting his resignation from the Central Committee.[5] Half a year later Tagore gathered his followers for a separate Party Conference, as its 5th Party Congress, in Burdwan.[5] Thus there were two parallel RCPIs, one led by Dasgupta and one led by Tagore.[5] The former grouping represented the majority in the RCPI.[6] The latter of the two parties came to be known as 'RCPI (Tagore)'.
The RCPI (Tagore) joined the Refugee Central Rehabilitation Council, a body that challenged the main CPI-led United Central Refugee Council.[7] [8]
Ahead of the 1951–1952 general election RCPI (Tagore) joined the United Socialist Organisation of India of Sarat Chandra Bose, but in June 1951 the party broke with the USOI.[9] Instead, on July 18, 1951 RCPI (Tagore) along with the Socialist and the Leela Roy faction of the Forward Bloc formed the People's United Socialist Front (PUSF).[9] [10] [11] [12] RCPI (Tagore) fielded 11 candidates in the 1952 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election.[10] None of the candidates was elected, in total the party obtained 35,645 votes (0.48% of the statewide vote).[10] The election symbol of the party was a flaming torch.[13]
Dissatisfied with what he perceived to be lack of support from the party during the election campaign, Kanai Pal and his Santipur-based group split away from RCPI (Tagore) in 1953.[5]
RCPI (Tagore) joined the United Democratic People's Front ahead of the 1957 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, a front that brought together the Hindu nationalist Jana Sangh and Akhil Bharatiya Hindu Mahasabha, as well as dissident Congressmen.[14] [15] RCPI (Tagore) contested 2 seats, winning none and obtaining 18,602 votes (0.18% of the statewide vote).[10]
RCPI (Tagore) held its Sixth Party Congress in February–March 1960. The Party Congress characterized the Soviet Union as a 'labour bureaucracy' and China as moving towards 'totalitarian, bureaucratic rule'. The Party Congress called for the creation of a new International of anti-Stalinist left-wing forces. RCPI (Tagore) held its Seventh Party Congress in November 1961.
Tagore visited Israel as a guest of Mapam in 1964.[16]
RCPI (Tagore) was the sole party that opposed holding mid-term state assembly elections in November 1968.[17] RCPI (Tagore) contested 4 seats in the 1969 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, but failed to win any seat.[18]
RCPI (Tagore) eventually fell into oblivion, being unable to join the CPI(M)-led fronts due to their ideological purism and history of conflict with the CPI(M)-aligned RCPI.[19]
After the 1971 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election the Revolutionary Communist Party of India (Das) merged into RCPI (Tagore).[20] Tagore died in 1974.[21] After the death of Tagore, RCPI (Tagore) was split, with Das leading one of the factions and Bibhuti Bhushan Nandi the other.[20] As of the early 1980s RCPI (Das) opposed the Left Front whilst RCPI (Nandi) supported the Left Front government from outside.[20]
In 2001, the party merged into its parent organisation, the Revolutionary Communist Party of India.