The Communist Influence: CPI and CPI(M) in Indian Politics

The hammer and sickle have been part of India’s political landscape for almost a century. Two parties carry this legacy forward: the Communist Party of India (CPI) and the Communist Party of India (Marxist), better known as the CPI(M). Together they form the backbone of what is commonly called “the Left” in Indian politics. For decades they governed entire states, shaped national debates on land, labour, and welfare, and even held the power to make or break governments in New Delhi. Yet their story is also one of division, decline, and a recent collapse that has left them, for the first time in nearly fifty years, without a single state government. To understand the Left in India, you need to understand how these two parties were born, what they stand for, and why their fortunes have changed so dramatically.

The origins of the Communist Party of India 🔗

The CPI traces its formal founding to a conference held in Kanpur from 26 to 28 December 1925. According to the party’s own official history, it was founded in late 1925 in Kanpur, which is now in Uttar Pradesh. The party was rooted in Marxist-Leninist ideology and inspired directly by the Russian Revolution of 1917. Its founders saw two intertwined goals: freeing the country from British rule and building a socialist society free from exploitation.

There is an interesting historical debate over the exact birth year. An earlier group of émigré revolutionaries, including M.N. Roy and Abani Mukherji, had issued a manifesto and attempted to establish a communist presence from Tashkent (now in Uzbekistan) back in 1920. This is why the date is contested. As we will see, the two parties that emerged from the 1964 split actually interpret this early history differently, with the CPI(M) maintaining a 1920 Tashkent founding while the CPI argues for the 1925 Kanpur conference.

Communists in the freedom struggle 🔗

During the colonial era, communists worked actively among workers and peasants, building trade unions and organising the rural poor. This made them a target for the British government. Leaders faced repression through famous court cases, including the Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case of 1924 and the Meerut Conspiracy Case of 1929, in which dozens of trade unionists and left-wing leaders were arrested and tried. Despite repeated crackdowns, the movement spread Marxist ideas widely and embedded the Left within India’s broader anti-imperialist struggle.

The first communist government in the world’s largest democracy 🔗

One of the most remarkable chapters in this history happened in Kerala. After the state was formed in 1956, the first assembly elections in 1957 produced a stunning result. E.M.S. Namboodiripad was elected chief minister of Kerala in 1957, leading the first democratically elected communist government in the country and one of the first anywhere in the world.

This government did not waste time. Within weeks it introduced a radical set of land and education reforms. Tenant farmers were protected from eviction, a ceiling was placed on land ownership, and the rights of agricultural labourers were strengthened. A landmark Education Bill sought to regulate private schools. These measures challenged deeply entrenched caste hierarchies and the old landlord-tenant system, and they laid the foundation for what later became known as the “Kerala model” of high literacy and strong social indicators.

The reforms also triggered fierce opposition. A movement known as the Liberation Struggle, backed by powerful religious and political interests, mounted intense protests. The Nehru-led central government dismissed the elected Kerala government in 1959, after it had begun its land and education reforms. The episode showed both the transformative potential of communist governance and the resistance it would face from established power structures.

Why the party split in 1964 🔗

By the early 1960s, the united CPI was being pulled apart by deep internal disagreements. The result was the 1964 split that created the CPI(M). The reasons were a tangle of international and domestic factors rather than any single cause.

The global backdrop: the Sino-Soviet split 🔗

The worldwide communist movement had divided into two camps. The Soviet Union, under Khrushchev, promoted “peaceful coexistence” with capitalist countries and a gradual, parliamentary path to socialism. China, under Mao Zedong, attacked this approach as “revisionist” and favoured a more revolutionary line. This Sino-Soviet split had repercussions within the CPI, though scholars argue the fundamental divisions in the party actually predated the rupture between Moscow and Beijing.

The domestic flashpoints 🔗

At home, two questions dominated the debate: how to relate to the Indian National Congress and Nehru’s government, and whether socialism could be achieved within the limits of the Indian Constitution. The 1962 Sino-Indian War became a decisive trigger. The conservative section of the CPI supported the Nehru government during the war, while the radical wing opposed unqualified support, and the government jailed the dissenters through much of 1962 and 1963.

By 1964 the differences were irreconcilable. During the CPI’s National Council meeting that year, 32 members walked out, accusing the dominant faction of being reformist rather than revolutionary and an appendage of the Congress. They later met in Calcutta and founded the Communist Party of India (Marxist). One faction leaned pro-Soviet (the CPI), and the other was seen as pro-China and more militant (the CPI(M)). [Image: A timeline graphic showing the 1925 founding, the 1957 Kerala government, and the 1964 split into CPI and CPI(M)]

What the two parties stand for 🔗

Both parties share the same broad ideological foundation of Marxism-Leninism, but the split left them with distinct emphases. Their core commitments include:

Social and economic equality: Both parties advocate building an egalitarian society and reducing the gap between rich and poor. They have historically championed the interests of workers, peasants, and marginalised communities.

Land reforms: Redistributing land from large landlords to landless and poor farmers has been a signature policy wherever the Left has governed. This was central in Kerala in 1957 and again later in West Bengal.

Public sector and nationalisation: The Left has traditionally favoured a strong public sector, state ownership of key industries, and scepticism towards unchecked private enterprise and foreign capital.

In practice, the CPI has generally been more willing to cooperate with the Congress and pursue moderate, parliamentary reforms. Between 1970 and 1977 the CPI was allied with the Congress, and the two even formed a coalition government in Kerala. The CPI(M) initially placed more emphasis on mass movements and direct action, although it too became deeply invested in electoral politics and went on to become the larger of the two parties.

The strongholds: Bengal, Tripura, and Kerala 🔗

The Left never spread evenly across the country. Its electoral power concentrated in three states, each with its own pattern.

West Bengal: 34 years in power 🔗

West Bengal became the most famous example of communist governance anywhere. The CPI(M)-led Left Front ruled the state for 34 years across seven consecutive terms from 1977 to 2011, the longest-serving democratically elected communist government in the world. Jyoti Basu was chief minister for over two decades, followed by Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee.

The early years were defined by rural reform. Through Operation Barga, the government recorded the rights of sharecroppers and redistributed land, with more than a million acres distributed to land-poor households. This built a durable base of rural support and gave the Left an unshakeable grip for a generation.

Tripura and Kerala 🔗

In the small northeastern state of Tripura, the Left Front held power for long stretches, including a continuous run from 1993 to 2018 under leaders like Manik Sarkar. Kerala followed a different rhythm. Power there alternated almost every election between the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF). This regular turnover kept political competition sharp and prevented the kind of long-term incumbency that Bengal experienced.

The high point and the long decline 🔗

At the national level, the Left reached its peak influence in the 2000s. In 2008, the Left Front withdrew support from the Manmohan Singh-led UPA government over the Indo-US nuclear deal, when it had nearly 60 MPs and governed three states. The communists were genuine kingmakers in Delhi.

The decline then came in stages. The first major blow fell in 2011, when Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress ended the 34-year rule in West Bengal, partly fuelled by anger over land acquisition at Singur and Nandigram. In 2018 the BJP captured Tripura. After that, Kerala stood as the Left’s last major fortress. The LDF under Pinarayi Vijayan won in 2016 and achieved a rare re-election in 2021.

A historic turning point in 2026 🔗

The final chapter arrived recently. In 2026 the LDF lost the Kerala assembly election to the Congress-led UDF, ending the Left’s last remaining government and meaning that, for the first time since 1977, no Indian state is ruled by the Left. In the same cycle, the Left was almost wiped off the electoral map in West Bengal. This marks a structural collapse rather than a temporary setback.

Analysts point to several reasons. Scholars argue the Left struggled to address questions of caste and gender, and that its base weakened as trade union politics declined with the changing nature of capitalism after liberalisation. Urbanisation, shifting aspirations, and the rise of identity-based and nationalist politics reshaped the ground beneath the parties’ feet.

Why the Left still matters 🔗

Electoral decline does not erase a century of impact. The reforms the Left introduced are now woven into the fabric of the states it governed. Land redistribution, the expansion of public education and health, and the strengthening of local self-government continue to shape Kerala, West Bengal, and Tripura. Even political opponents now operate within frameworks the Left helped build. The “Kerala model” of human development remains a reference point in policy debates far beyond the state.

The CPI and CPI(M) also continue to influence national conversations on labour rights, welfare, and economic justice, and they retain pockets of organisational strength through trade unions and peasant organisations. There has even been periodic talk of the two parties reuniting, more than six decades after they split. Whether the Left can reinvent itself for a changed electorate remains one of the open questions of Indian politics.

What do you think? Can a political movement that has lost all its state governments rebuild itself by adapting to new social realities, or has its moment passed? And how should we weigh the Left’s lasting contributions to land reform and human development against its eventual electoral collapse?

References

1. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Communist-Party-of-India
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundation_of_the_Communist_Party_of_India
3. https://www.britannica.com/biography/E-M-S-Namboodiripad
4. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/5/4/india-loses-its-last-left-wing-government-after-five-decades
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1964_split_in_the_Communist_Party_of_India
6. https://scroll.in/article/722209/as-cpi-and-cpi-m-mull-merger-a-short-history-of-how-they-split-up-in-the-first-place
7. https://www.theindiaforum.in/history/split-forged-alliance
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communist_Party_of_India
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Left_Front_(West_Bengal)
10. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/34_years_of_Left_Front_led_Government_in_West_Bengal
11. https://www.msn.com/en-in/politics/government/left-parties-left-without-any-state-government-in-india/ar-AA22lB8d