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| Ram Manohar Lohia, Acharya Narendra Dev |
Enough has been written about defining and explaining imperialism; what is needed now is to eliminate it from the world.
India’s socialist movement, with its revolutionary ideology and praxis, has several original characteristics:
- It was born out of the Indian Freedom Movement, absorbing all anti-imperialist currents before and after the Revolt of 1857.
- It does not confine social change to the economic system alone, but treats it as a parallel and partly independent process. It views class, class-consciousness, and class-struggle in the context of caste, and aligns naturally with social reform movements against caste hierarchy and patriarchy.
In the crucial task of transforming India’s social system, the socialist movement has aimed to unleash the inherent potential of the Bahujan masses and secure lasting liberation from feudal and colonial structures.
Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia’s call to advance Dalits, Adivasis, backward castes, women, and poor Muslims in society, public services, and politics was a revolutionary step toward transforming India’s socio-economic and cultural order. He believed these marginalized groups, relatively free from the mental colonization of Brahmanical and Western values, could become the strongest opponents of communal fascism and capitalist imperialism.
This idea, applicable to two-thirds of the world, was later reduced to narrow casteism by those pursuing mere social justice politics. Tragically, these groups were drawn into serving communal fascism and capitalist imperialism, while many progressive intellectuals misread Lohia’s vision through an electoral lens. The result has been the fragmentation of the marginalized into caste, tribal, and religious identities instead of citizens of a modern nation.
- India’s socialist movement propounds an independent socialist ideology distinct from both capitalism and communism, as well as from European social democracy. Rooted in the experience of colonized nations, it recognizes capitalism as inherently imperialist and dependent on external or internal colonies. Hence, it stresses changes not only in production relations but also in technology and means of production.
- It rejects both capitalist and communist models of development, opposes resource exploitation for capital accumulation, and advocates prosperity with equality rather than consumerist excess.
- It maintains that the means and the ends of struggle must align; every step toward the goal must reflect the goal itself.
- It upholds non-violent resistance—Satyagraha and Civil Disobedience—as the highest form of revolution, asserting that even a single individual can challenge injustice.
- Deeply democratic in spirit, it enshrines civil liberties, individual freedom, and especially women’s freedom as integral to building a socialist civilization. It also supports the autonomy of culture, literature, and art from state control.
- It stresses decentralization of power and resources, advocating Chaukhambha Raj (Four-Pillar State) in place of centralized hegemony.
It envisions equality among nations and within nations, including a world government and visa-free global movement.
- It promotes a pluralist understanding of Indianness, rejecting fanaticism and essentialism while embracing rational and progressive engagement with culture and tradition.
- It views politics as a search for truth, demanding transparency, honesty, and accountability in parties and leadership. It rejects one-party, one-person, or dynastic rule as undemocratic, aspiring instead to a global civilization based on socialist political conduct.
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To understand Indian socialist ideology, one must study the works of Acharya Narendra Deva, Jayaprakash Narayan, Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, Kishan Patnaik, Sachchidanand Sinha, and other thinkers inspired by them. Socialist thought in India remains open-ended, aiming to eradicate inequality, injustice, and weaponized power from the world. Its architects infused the socialist vision with Gandhian ethics.
The organized socialist movement in India spanned from the formation of the Congress Socialist Party (CSP) in 1934 to its merger with the Janata Party in 1977. Later parties founded by old and new socialists drew on this heritage but often abandoned its ideological foundation. Ironically, even those who denounced dynastic, caste-based politics failed to revive the movement’s core ideals.
The youth must recognize that post-Janata socialists themselves contributed to the weakening of the socialist movement. A political ideology needs a political party to sustain it. Since 1977, India has lacked a strong socialist party, though ideologically committed groups have persisted. Samajwadi Jan Parishad (1995) and Socialist Party (India) (2011) were formed to resist neo-imperialist dependency born of the 1991 New Economic Policies, but they could not build broad organizational strength.
If India—and the developing world—are to free themselves from the corporate-communal nexus and neo-imperialist domination, it can only happen through socialist ideology. Socialism is not the heritage of those merely calling themselves socialists—it is the collective legacy of all Indians and the wider, suffering world. The Congress Socialist Party was itself conceived as the alternative to the Congress.
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To achieve this renewal, it is essential to spread awareness and understanding of socialist ideology among India’s youth. As part of the 90th anniversary commemorations, a two-day Youth Socialist Convention will be held in Delhi under the aegis of the Youth Socialist Initiative (YSI). Its principal resolution is that for the next decade—until the centenary of India’s socialist movement in 2034—youth-led programs will be organized nationwide to promote socialist thought and activism.
The Delhi convention will discuss national policies on education, health, employment, economy, agriculture, development, and culture from a socialist standpoint, through resolutions prepared by eminent scholars. Youth from socialist and other transformative movements will debate and refine these resolutions, which aim to restore constitutional and welfare-oriented policymaking in place of today’s corporate-communal governance. Approved resolutions will be published in a booklet for public dissemination.
The convention embodies the spirit of “If not now, then never.” Its goal is to instill in young minds a spirit of decisive resistance against the corporate-communal nexus and neo-imperialist control. If the minds of India’s youth change, the realities outside will follow.
The struggle will be long and difficult. For India to remain an independent, self-reliant, sovereign nation—true to its socialist, secular, and democratic ideals—the youth must take up this challenge with awareness, conviction, and courage.
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*This is the base paper for the Youth Socialist Convention to be held on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of India’s socialist movement. This convention will be held in Delhi on Acharya Narendra Dev Jayanti, from October 31 to November 1, 2025. It will deliberate on national policies relating to education, health, employment, economy, agriculture, development, and culture from a socialist perspective, especially in the context of the current corporate-communal political nexus. The convention organisers have invited young men and women associated with the socialist movement, as also those from other progressive and transformative political streams, to participate. Senior socialist comrades are invited to guide and inspire the participants
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