Previous Year Question
Consider the following statements with reference to the Workers and Peasants Party:
The Workers and Peasants Party was formed in 1927 and was given the form of an All India Organisation.
The objective of this party was to work within the Congress so that it could be made a more revolution inclined party and an organisation of the common people.
Which of the above statements is/are correct?
Both 1 and 2
Neither 1 nor 2
Only 1
Only 2
Correct Answer: D
Detailed Solution
Statement 1 is incorrect. The Workers and Peasants Parties initially developed at the provincial level. Separate Workers and Peasants organisations emerged in Bengal, Bombay, Punjab and other regions during the middle and later 1920s. Therefore, it is incorrect to treat 1927 directly as the year in which an All-India organisation was formed.
In Bengal, the organisational roots went even further back. The Labour Swaraj Party of the Indian National Congress came into existence on 1 November 1925 and subsequently developed into the Peasants' and Workers' Party of Bengal. By 1927, provincial activity was becoming stronger.
The decisive point is that an All-India Workers' and Peasants' Party Conference was called at Calcutta towards the end of 1928 in an attempt to bring the different provincial organisations together on an all-India basis. No formal centralised All-India WPP had emerged before 1928.
Therefore, Statement 1 is incorrect because it combines 1927 with the creation of an All-India organisation.
Statement 2 is correct. Instead of functioning entirely outside the Congress, the Workers and Peasants Parties worked as a left-wing current within the Congress. They used the Congress platform for organisation and political propaganda.
Their objective was to make Congress ideology and programme more radical and mass-oriented. They sought to increase the participation of workers and peasants in the national movement and strengthen the demand for complete independence.
This strategy had two major aspects—giving Congress politics a more revolutionary and popular orientation, and widening the social base of the national movement by organising workers and peasants.