Blackwell Reference Online

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Born in Nasik, Maharashtra, and inspired by the extremist ideas of Tilak, Shripat Amrit Dange's political career began when he was expelled from Bombay University for revolutionary activities. He participated in Gandhi's non-cooperation movement , but the Russian Revolution (1917) moved him towards Marxism . Dange's pamphlet, Gandhi Versus Lenin (1921), was much appreciated by M. N. Roy and the Communist International. Also impressed was R. B. Lotvala, a Bombay flour-mill owner, who financed Dange's study of Marxism and also helped him build a library of Marxist literature. By 1922 he had started publishing the Socialist , the first Marxist English weekly in India. In 1924 Dange, along with Muzaffar Ahmed, Shaukat Usmani, and Nalini Gupta, was convicted for a four-year term in the notorious Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case. From jail they assisted the Conference at Kanpur (December 1925) in forming the Communist Party of India (CPI). After his release Dange immediately began mobilizing the Bombay textile workers through the Girni Kamgar Union as the general secretary, and embarked on a four and half year-long strike in 1928. Dange edited the official organ of this union, Krant. On March 20, 1929 Dange and 32 others were arrested in the Meerut Conspiracy Case on charges of establishing a branch of Comintern in India. They decided to use their trial as a platform to expose ... log in or subscribe to read full text