From Revolutionary Democracy Journal
(29th September 1914 to 7th April 2009)
It is my sad duty to inform comrades that the veteran Indian communist revolutionary MONI GUHA died on the morning of 7th April 2009 in the city of Kolkata. The word ‘veteran’ really has meaning in this instance as this comrade was active in the revolutionary movement for nearly eighty years. It is a remarkable testimony to his personal and political qualities that he was held in high esteem even by his critics. Over the decades he came into contact with and crossed swords with many of the titans of the communist movement such as M.N. Roy, B.T. Ranadive and Charu Majumdar. He was a living legend in the communist movement for spearheading in India the struggle against the 20th Congress of the CPSU within weeks of the event. He was the only leading Indian Marxist Leninist to oppose the ‘Three Worlds’ Theory’ in 1977 and who then went on to point out the divergences between Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and the ideas of Mao Zedong. It has been a privilege for the associates of the journal Revolutionary Democracy to have worked with him in the second series of ‘Proletarian Path’ and to have been in living contact with him in subsequent years despite our collisions on political questions.
Comrade Moni Guha Lal Salaam !
Vijay Singh
Editor
Revolutionary Democracy
April 8, 2009.
We mourn the death of veteran Communist leader, Comrade Moni Guha of Kolkata. We fondly remember our 10 year long association with him. Com. Guha’s pioneering critique of the infamous 20th. Congress of the CPSU will always be remembered. He was one of the first to criticise Mao Thought in India. Com. Guha also veered around to the viewpoint that India was at the stage of the Socialist Revolution. We had a lot of common with him in all this. Together we brought out the journal Proletarian Path from 1991 to 2000 which then used to come out from Patna. We remember that it was through him that we became acquainted of many of the questions of the international communist movement. Our discussions and debates were very fruitful and enriching. Com. Guha will always remain in our hearts and heads. As a tribute to him we renew our pledge to carry on the fight against revisionism relentlessly.
Red Salute to Comrade Guha.Partha Sarkar
On behalf of the Communist Centre of India
10th April 2009.
We deeply regret the sad demise of veteran Indian Communist Revolutionary MONI GUHA who died on the morning of 7th April 2009 in the city of Kolkata..
He was a living history of revolutionary movement of nearly eighty years. He had the honour of being one of the first world wide, to challenge openly and reject the line of the infamous 20th Party Congress of the CPSU in 1956. He was the only leading Indian Marxist Leninist to oppose the ‘Three Worlds’ Theory’ in 1977. He made a valuable contribution in criticising Chinese position against Soviet Revisionism in his booklet “Revisionism against Revisionism” and in other articles. In 1991, he came to the conclusion that India has become a predominantly a capitalist country and hence the stage of revolution in India will be that of socialist revolution. He contributed several articles on the stage of revolution in the second series of ‘Proletarian Path’ started in 1991 and contributed articles in polemics with ‘Revolutionary Democracy’. He critically analysed the origin of ‘Peoples Democracy’ in concrete historical conditions when the fight against fascism was the main target of world proletariat and advocated for a firm and resolute proletarian strategy in order to fight the onslaught of the bourgeois. It has been a privilege for us to be in contact with him for some times and to learn a lot from his valuable thoughts. We always remember him as a staunch pro-Stalinist. His death is a big loss to the communist movement.
Comrade Moni Guha Lal Salaam !Manoj Sinha
Proletarian Politics
April 9, 2009.
With great anguish I read the sad news of the departure of comrade Moni Guha, a veteran Indian communist and firm defender of anti-revisionist Marxism Leninism.
Though I never got chance to meet or correspond with comrade Guha personally, but I have been reading his polemical theoretical articles on his journal’s site ‘Proletarian Path’.
I believe it is a great loss for the Indian Communist Movement and also for the international communist movement. I know that he was one of the main theoreticians of the communist movement post naxalbari.We will keep up the fight for a better world and we will remember Moni Guha every time the red flag flies.
Lal Salaam comrade Guha
Pratyush
April 9, 2009.
Dear comrades,
We should like to express our deep regret over the lamented loss of comrade Moni Guha.
His revolutionary activity, ideas and courage are bright examples for all the sincere communists in India and in every country.
Moni Guha as genuine Marxist-Leninist and brave fighter for the cause of working class and oppressed peoples will live forever in our common struggle for communism!Piattaforma Comunista (Italy)
April 9, 2009.
I am extremely saddened by the news. I had the opportunity to meet him. He was a brilliant communist. Many of his criticisms concerning China which many of us did not heed proved factual. His death is a great loss to the left movement.
Shamsul Islam
10th April, 2009.
Dear Comrades,
We are very sad to hear the news of Comrade Moni Guha who died on 7th April 2009.
With much interest we followed the discussions on ‘the stage of revolution in India’ from Proletarian Path, Alliance ML and Revolutionary Democracy.
Although we never had the privilege to meet him in person we feel this as a great loss.
Please accept our deepest sympathies for his family and comrades.
Long live Marxism-Leninism!
Comrade Moni Guha – Presente!
On behalf of comrades from The Netherlands and Surinam
Kenneth Soeleman
Rotterdam
12th April 2009.
A memorial meeting in Mumbai (Bombay) for Com. Moni Guha was held on Sunday 12th April 2009 who died on 7th April 2009. Comrades present in the meeting, were from different trends of Indian Communist movement.
In the meeting, the role of Comrade Guha in the communist movement and his contribution to the anti-revisionist struggle in India was remembered. At a very young age, Com. Guha took part in the independence struggle of India as a result of which he was sent to jail. In jail, he came in contact with Indian communists and communist literatures and on his release from jail, he joined the Communist Party of India.
In the meeting it was also emphasised that though he did not have a formal education, he was a self-taught man. The grasp of his understanding of the communist ideology was so strong that within a week of the release of Khrushchev’s speech at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956, he, along with other comrades, published a leaflet that called for opposition to the 20th Congress. He also wrote in Bengali the famous article denouncing the 20th Congress as the Congress of Revisionism and emphasised the paramount need of fighting against it which was published in July 1956. Continuing in this vein, Com. Moni Guha consistently fought against what he thought was a revisionist and anti-communist line in the communist movement against the Communist Party of India (M) when it tried to crush the rising revolt of Indian toiling people in Naxalite movement; against the CPI(M-L) when it propagated the line of individual annihilation; against the UCCRI(M-L) when it upheld the three worlds theory propagated by the Chinese Communist Party and against the Chinese position of their criticism against Soviet Revisionism in his booklet ‘Revisionism against Revisionism’ and in other articles.
An abridged version of his well known article originally published in July 1956, denouncing the 20th Congress as the Congress of Revisionism written after the release of Khrushchev’s speech at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in 1956 was jointly read and discussed in the meeting. After the discussion, all were in agreement with Com. Guha.
Some extracts of one of major articles Indian Revolution Democratic or Socialist? published under the editorship of Com. Moni Guha in Proletarian Path, New Series in 1991 was jointly read. In the article it was concluded that after following Prussian Path of economic development by the ruling class since independence, India has become predominantly a capitalist country and hence the stage of revolution in India will be that of socialist revolution, despite a few remnants of feudalism. Comrade Moni Guha also contributed a number of articles on the stage of revolution in India in the new series of Proletarian Path started in 1991 and in polemics with Revolutionary Democracy. A short discussion followed after reading wherein the majority felt that further discussion on this point should be held in the near future.
The meeting ended with a minute's silence in memory of the departed comrade.
Manoj
Proletarian Politics.
Dear Vijay Singh,
Your obituary on Moni Guha will appear in our May 3-9 issue in the form of a letter. I had a long association with Guha when we on the editorial board of ‘Laltara’ in the 70s and 80s used to discuss the then prevailing polemical trends in the Naxalite camp. Also he used to visit Frontier’s office regularly when he was active. He had strong reservations about Mao, particularly Mao’s ‘reactionary’ nationalist approach in place of proletarian internationalism. Samar Babu did not like it but I found nothing wrong in his analysis as the subsequent events proved his point…
All the best,
Yours sincerely,
TIMIR BASU
Editor
Frontier
Kolkata-700013
21st April 2009.
Dear comrades,
Please accept our deep regret about the death of the great Communist Revolutionary Leninist-Stalinist MONI GUHA. The death of comrade Moni Guha is a great loss not only to the Indian communists but also to the communists and the workers in all countries.
Moni Guha remained an adversary of Khrushchevian revisionism and adherent of the revolutionary line of Lenin and Stalin until the end of his life.
He will always be remembered for his struggle against revisionism of all kinds and expressions, for the spread of the communist ideas and for the progress of the working class.
With internationalistic feelings,
The Political Committee of the “Movement for the Reorganisation of the Communist Party of Greece 1918-55”
PO Box 3689, 102 10 Athens
Greece
Tel: +30 2108621543
Site: http://www.geocities.com/anasintaxi
Blog (English): http://anasintaxi-en.blogspot.com
Blog (Greek): http://anasintaxi.blogspot.com
April 22, 2009.
Dear comrades,
I want to offer my deepest condolences to Moni Guha’s family and comrades. I am saddened to hear about the loss of a comrade, who I knew through articles published in International Struggle Marxist-Leninist and references by the Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA. I would like to read more of the works of such an audacious and knowledgeable revolutionary, who opposed Soviet revisionism so soon after the CPSU’s 20th Congress, as well as being an early opponent of Chinese revisionism and the Three Worlds theory. Currently access to his works seems limited in English and online, and I hope that changes. A great Marxist-Leninist has been lost, but our movement continues.
Sincerely,
Michael Pollock
April 28, 2009.
Moni Guha was the rare communist revolutionary who was able to continue to function effectively even in an extended period of extreme political isolation.
While we in the Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA (formerly the Ray O. Light Group) were unaware of some of the outstanding historical merits of this fine comrade, we are not surprised to learn that it was he who spearheaded on the Indian sub-continent ‘the struggle against the 20th Congress of the CPSU within weeks of the event,’ as recalled by Vijay Singh. For this Congress, featuring Khrushchev’s attack on Stalin was the watershed event in the disintegration and the dismantling of the international communist movement and the socialist camp. And, in the thirty years or so that we were in contact with comrade Guha, he was one of the few sharp and scientific consistent opponents of modern revisionism.
Like comrade Guha, our small organization experienced ‘the splendid isolation’ of the principled upholders of the proletarian revolution in this period of bourgeois nationalist retreat and betrayal by the revisionists in their efforts to collaborate with imperialism headed by U.S. imperialism. In 1979, one of the few public mentions of our revolutionary ideological and political work was a citation of comrade Guha at the conclusion of his outstanding ‘Revisionism against Revisionism’. This expression of public agreement and support, along with his substantial letters to us, were extremely encouraging at that historical moment when the socialist camp was already so stagnant and was rapidly ossifying, but was still exercising its deadening influence on every new sprout of revolution in the spontaneous movement of the oppressed and exploited masses against imperialism and U.S.-led reaction. In my one personal meeting with Moni Guha, when he was already at a very advanced age, I was struck by how sharp and alert he was. With failing eyesight and weary with age, he was still energetically building the revolutionary movement with all the human material at his disposal.
Those who failed to work more closely with the comrade should use the occasion of his death to look in the mirror – to rededicate themselves with the seriousness of purpose and the strength of character of Moni Guha. In several of our Newsletters over the past several years, we cited Moni Guha’s brilliant standard of proletarian internationalism, his upholding of the Communist International’s standard. He stated, ‘Today, we behave like the despicable leaders of the Second International, like Titos; for us the national communist movements are supposed to have platonic relations with the world socialist revolution.... ‘Our internationalism is not for ‘mutual benefit’ but the very pre-condition of our movement – communism is a world historical goal.’ Surely Moni Guha lived as did comrade Lenin: ‘A policy based on principle is the only correct policy.’ In this spirit, our upcoming conference in the belly of the beast will include a special tribute to his life and work.
Comrade Moni Guha – we salute you!
Ray O. Light
General Secretary
Revolutionary Organization of Labor, USA
P.S. As an historical footnote on the Bangla national question – while Badruddin Umar, the preeminent Marxist in ‘Bangla Desh’ was born in Kolkata in ‘India.’ Comrade Moni Guha, the outstanding anti-revisionist Marxist-Leninist in ‘India’ who has died in Kolkata was born in what is now ‘Bangla Desh’! When will comrade Stalin’s immortal teachings on the national question be applied once again in the cause of the proletarian revolution on the Indian sub-continent?!
Red Salute to Comrade Moni Guha
The veteran Communist Revolutionary comrade Moni Guha died on 7th April 2009 in Kolkata. Born in what is now Bangladesh, he joined communist movement at an early age and his political life spanned about 80 years. He was with Andhra Pradesh Communist Revolutionary Committee led by Tarimela Nagi Reddy and Devulapalli Venkateswara Rao and co-editor of its organ Proletarian Path along with Com. D.V. Rao in 1973-74 which used its columns to fight against left sectarian line of Com. Charu Mazumdar and to establish mass line. He was one of the first Indian communists who opposed the Khrushchevite modern revisionism.
We mourn the death of Comrade Moni Guha.
Class Struggle
Volume 2 Issue 6
July 2009.
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