Lenin on India and the Colonial Question
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For example, if tomorrow Morocco were to declare war on France, India on England, Persia or China on Russia, and so forth, those would be "just," "defensive" wars, irrespective of who attacked first, and every socialist would sympathize with the victory of the oppressed, dependent, unequal states against the oppressing, slaveowning, predatory "great" powers. Principles of Socialism and the War of 1914-1915: The Attitude of Socialists to Wars (Chapter One: Socialism and War, 1915) Socialists must not only demand the unconditional and immediate liberation of the colonies without compensation--and this demand in its political expression signifies nothing else than the recognition of the right to self-determination; they must also render determined support to the more revolutionary elements in the bourgeois-democratic movements for national liberation in these countries and assist their uprising--or revolutionary war, in the event of one--against the imperialist powers that oppress them. The Socialist Revolution and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination (1916) We welcome the close alliance of Moslem and non-Moslem elements. We sincerely want to see this alliance extended to all the toilers of the East. Only when the Indian, Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Persian, and Turkish workers and peasants join hands and march together in the common cause of liberation--only then will decisive victory over the exploiters be ensured. To the Indian Revolutionary Association (May 20, 1920)
						photos: Lenin at the Second Congress of the Communist International, 1920.
In his article reassessing the Communist Manifesto ninety years after it was written, Leon Trotsky pointed out that "the Manifesto contains no reference to the struggle of colonial and semi-colonial countries for independence. To the extent that Marx and Engels considered the social revolution 'in the leading civilized countries at least' to be a matter of the next few years, the colonial question was resolved automatically for them, not in consequence of an independent movement of oppressed nationalities but in consequence of the victory of the proletariat in the metroploitan centers of capitalism. The questions of revolutionary strategy in colonial and semi-colonial countries are therefore not touched upon at all by the Manifesto. Yet these questions demand an independent solution.[...] The movement of the colored races against their imperialist oppressors is one of the most important and powerful movements against the existing order and therefore calls for the complete, unconditional, and unlimited support on the part of the proletariat of the white race. The credit for developing revolutionary strategy for oppressed nationalities belongs primarily to Lenin" (our emphasis). See our page on the early Communist International for the "Draft Theses on the National and Colonial Questions" submitted to the Second Congress of the CI, which were drafted by Lenin, his "Report on the Commission on the National and Colonial Questions," and related documents. Marxists on India index Karl Marx on India and Colonialism Friedrich Engels on Colonialism and Revolution in India Karl Kautsky and the Second International on the Colonial Question The Early Third (Communist) International on the Colonial Question Leon Trotsky on India and Permanent Revolution The Trotskyist Press on India/Sri Lanka, 1938-1952 On the development of the Leninist program of fighting for the defense of backward countries against imperialism and the defeat of all sides in an inter-imperialist conflict through socialist revolution, see "Marxism, War and the Fight for Socialist Revolution," Workers Vanguard anti-caste: links email us anti-caste home