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Author: Prateek Pankaj

Prateek Pankaj is a PhD candidate in history at the South Asia Institute, Heidelberg University. His dissertation focuses on the history of socialism, or samajvad, in colonial and early post-colonial India. His research interests lie at the intersection of social and intellectual histories of political thought, social movements, caste, the state, and democracy.

Indian Samajvad in the History of Twentieth-Century Socialism

As one of the most widely influential political ideas and movements of the twentieth century, socialism had a history that was at once global and had various regional forms depending on the national contexts in which it took shape. In the years after the revolution in industrially backward Russia, socialism appeared to many—especially in colonized countries—not only as the way to challenge imperialist rule but also as a means to effect widespread socio-economic transformation in their countries. Such was the case in India, where socialists began articulating visions of an independent India free from colonialism, capitalism, and existing forms of exploitation. Socialism promised real freedom—not just political self-determination and sovereignty, but also economic freedom for the masses.1

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  1. Jayaprakash Narayan, a leading member of the Congress Socialist Party, sought to present this case at length in his Why Socialism? (Benares, 1936), a key ideological document of the Congress Socialists. [↩]