Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy case

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Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case: A brief overview

The Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case was a controversial court case in British India that began in 1924 in Kanpur. It came after the Peshawar conspiracy cases (1922) and was followed later by another in Meerut (1929). The defendants included several leading communist organizers who worked in India, such as S. V. Ghate, S. A. Dange, Muzaffar Ahmad, Nalini Gupta, Malayapuram Singaravelu, Shaukat Usmani, Ghulam Hussain, Akshay Thakur, and others connected with émigré groups like the Communist Party in exile (Tashkent group), including Rafiq Ahmad.

On March 17, 1924, these individuals were charged with being communists who aimed "to deprive the King Emperor of his sovereignty of British India, by complete separation of India from Britain by violent revolution" in what became known as the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy case.

Impact and outcomes:
- The case drew widespread public interest and exposed many Indians to communist ideas and the goals of the Communist International.
- Some defendants faced different fates: Singaravelu Chettiar was released due to illness; M. N. Roy was abroad and could not be arrested; Ghulam Hussain confessed that he had received money from the Russians in Kabul and was pardoned; Muzaffar Ahmad, Shaukat Usmani, and S. A. Dange were sentenced to four years in prison.
- The Kanpur case helped introduce communism to the Indian masses and influenced future political developments.

After the Kanpur case, Kanpur hosted a conference in December 1925, chaired by Singaravelu Chettiar, where Dange, Muzaffar Ahmed, Nalini Gupta, Shaukat Usmani, and others organized a more formal political gathering that led to the formation of the Communist Party of India, with its headquarters in Bombay. Because the British authorities were hostile to open communist organization, the movement chose to operate under a non-federated banner as the Workers and Peasants Parties.

See also:
- Communism in India
- Meerut Conspiracy Case
- Peshawar Conspiracy Cases