HVK Archives: Film on Communists role in freedom movement awaits I&B nod
Film on Communists role in freedom movement awaits I&B nod - The Times of India
Vidyadhar Date
()
4 August 1997
Title: Film on Communists role in freedom movement awaits I&B nod
Author: Vidyadhar Date
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 4, 1997
A young city researcher is desperately struggling to produce a documentary
film on the contribution of the Communists to India's freedom movement.
Mahesh Bharatiya has spent months doing research. He has obtained the
British government's secret documents on the Communists and made frequent
appeals to the information and broadcasting (I&B) ministry to permit him to
make the film but has met with little success.
The government has financed so many films on the role of Congress leaders
in the freedom struggle. Films have also been produced on socialist leaders
like Ram Manohar Lohia and Sarvodaya leader Jayaprakash Narayan. However,
no film has yet been made on the significant contribution of the
Communists, or any of their leaders.
Mr Bharatiya says information minister Jaipal Reddy showed considerable
interest in the proposal when he met him recently but there is no sign that
the proposal will meet approval soon. The proposal has been pending with
the ministry since last year when Communist Party of India (CPI) general
secretary A.B. Bardhan wrote to the then information minister C.M. Ibrahim
to consider the project.
Mr Bardhan said the project would fill a long-felt gap in depicting India's
history. Mr Bharatiya said one bigwig in the government told him to drop
the name Communist from the title of the film and replace it with the more
moderate socialist.
Mr Bharatiya wants to dedicate the film to Krishna Desai, the CPI MLA, who
was murdered in cold blood by Shiv Sainiks in Mumbai in 1970 as part of the
Sena's avowed aim of attacking the Communists who were seen as a stumbling
block to the growth of the forces of fascism.
Mr Bharatiya comes from a family closely associated with people's
struggles. His great grandfather Sambhaji Tukaram Gaikwad had helped Dr
B.R. Ambedkar financially to attend the Round Table Conference in England.
Gaikwad worked in General Motors which had a plant in Mumbai prior to
independence.
Mr Bharatiya wrote a booklet in 1989 to reply to Arun Shourie's writings
about the role of the Communists in the 1942 movement, denying their
contribution to the freedom struggle.
He has already prepared a script for the film which has won approval from
veteran Communists like Harkishen Singh Surjeet and A.B. Bardhan. Mr
Bharatiya has studied extensively in the National Archives, the Nehru
Memorial Library, the Jawaharlal Nehru University and Ajay Bhavan, the C PI
headquarters in Delhi. He has also, met Union ministers and Communist
veterans Indrajit Gupta and Chaturanan Mishra and discussed the script with
a number of scholars including Pradeep Bhattacharya, who conducts classes
in history for the C PI cadres.
"The trouble is the Communists never focussed on their sterling role in the
freedom struggle. With the result, not many people are aware of it, though
objective history has faithfully depicted their role," Mr Bharatiya points
out.
Unfortunately, very little film footage is available of Communist
struggles. The Films Division has some footage on S.A. Dange. Indian
Marxists historians have won international recognition for their insights
into India's social, political and economic history. However, the party is
not seen to have paid enough attention to record its own history,
particularly through the medium of the film.
Mr Bharatiya's script traces the history of the Communist movement from the
days of M.N. Roy, who became a member of the First Communist International,
formed the Indian Communist Party in Tashkent in 1920 after participating
in the struggle of workers in Mexico. Muslims played a prominent role in
forming party units in India. Muzaffar Ahmed functioned in Calcutta,
Shaukat Usmani was a member of the Tashkent group, while Gulam Hussain
organised a group in Lahore and published a paper called Inquilab. S.A.
Dange formed a group in Bombay in 1922 and attracted Lenin's attention with
his book Gandhi and Lenin.
A number of Congressmen were deeply influenced by Communism during the
freedom struggle. Some of them, including Jayaprakash Narayan and
Achyutrao Patwardhan set up the Congress Socialist Party Jawaharlal Nehru
supported Dange and others accused in the Meerut conspiracy case for
attempting to overthrow Her Majesty's government.
Back
Top
|
