Communist Party of India was formed on 17th October 1920 in Tashkent by Indian revolutionaries who were out-side India at that time.
The October Revolution and the formation of the USSR gave inspiration to the people all over the world for a better society based on Socialist / Communist ideas. In India, which was under the colonial rule of the British, the impact was considerable. Although the immediate information was limited, within months the news of the revolution and the changes that is being made in the new system got publicity. The radical nationalist leader Bipin Chandra Pal expressed the situation as below:” There has grown up all over the world a new power – the power of the people, determined to rescue their legitimate rights – the rights of the people to live freely and happily without being exploited and victimised by the wealthier and so-called higher classes. This is Bolshevism”. Many more nationalist leaders welcomed the developments in Russia.
Some of the Indian revolutionaries who have gone to USSR to study the situation there were much impressed and inspired. The first Congress of the Peoples of the East held in Baku in September was participated by the seven Indian comrades also.
Shortly after the Baku Congress, the Indian emigre revolutionaries met at Taskhent on 17th October 1920 and formed the Communist Party of India. The seven comrades who formed the party were: M.N.Roy, Evelyn Trent-Roy, Abani Mukherji, Rosa Fitingov, Mohammad Ali, Mohammad Shafiq and Acharya. It was reported by M.N.Roy as follows:
” The Communist elements present in Tashkent, numbering seven in all, in pursuance of their principles and the plan previously formed in conjunction with European Communists, constituted themselves in to a duly organised Communist Party of India on October 17, 1920″.
Gradually, the CPI begin to grow in India.
The communists were hunted in India and many conspiracy cases to overthrow the British Rule in India was foisted upon them and almost all the leading communists were arrested. The Peshawar, Kanpur and Meerut conspiracy cases against the Communists were intended to finish the communist movement in India at its initiative stage itself. But the Communist leaders utilised these hearings to propagate the ideals of Communism. The British could not terminate communism in India, instead it flourished.
After Independence, the CPI was split in 1964 and the CPI(Marxist) was formed in 1964. The CPI(M) is the biggest Communist Party in India at present.