April 14 marked the 118 birthday of Puran Chand Joshi (PC JOshi) , the first General Secretary of Communist Party of India (CPI). He was the general secretary of the Communist Party of India from 1935 to 1947.He was unceremoniously kicked out from the party for his practical stands on Indian situation and lived a scholars life, later at JNU where his daughter in law was a professor till his death in 1980.
“In 1949, Joshi was expelled from the party for his perceived closeness to the leadership of the Indian National Congress. Though he was reinstated two years later, and ultimately made the editor of the party weekly, New Age, Joshi ceased to be as actively involved in party affairs as he was prior to his expulsion. Instead, towards the end of his life, P.C Joshi began to devote himself to the task of writing the history of the Communist Party of India as a way of understanding why a party which enjoyed a heritage of selfless work had run into contradictions. The collection of documents he had begun in his lifetime became the basis for the Archives on Contemporary History at J.N.U, which was established on 1st December 1970, although when he died in 1980, the task he had taken on himself remained unfinished.”, says JNU’s archival note on him.
Apart from his political activities, he is also remembered for flagging the great Bengal famine during 40s where over a million perished, to the world, though his own writings and photographs which he ensured got out.
Long live the Indian revolution which perished along with the likes of Joshiji, under its own weight.. Long live those souls who worked hard for the poor and neglected of India.
