വഞ്ചന / 1942 English
15

P.C. Joshi to Sir Reginald Maxwell on the Madura arrests

Communist Party

Scan of document 15: P.C. Joshi to Sir Reginald Maxwell on the Madura arrests, n.d.
Browned, brittle paper; punch damage down left margin; right edge trimmed, clipping the last one or two characters of several lines.

Contrast-enhanced derivative. The scan shown by default is the unmodified original, so any reading can be checked honestly.

Date
n.d. [c. 1943]
From
P.C. Joshi [General Secretary, Communist Party of India]
To
Sir Reginald Maxwell, New Delhi [Home Member, Government of India]
Page
p. 3 (also numbered -9- and -3 in other hands; "53" at head)
Document type
Letter (Communist Party of India to Government of India)

Signatories

  • P.C. JoshiGeneral Secretary, Communist Party of IndiaAutograph signature, legible: "P.C. Joshi"

Marginalia & annotations

Pencil marginal strokes beside paras 1-2. Manuscript "10" at foot. Red archival "15".

Transcript verbatim

"struggle" and sabotage; they attempted to organise the burning down of
the laboratory at American College but were prevented by our work among
the mass of the students; they tried to organise kerosene riots but our
intervention resulting in the opening of 30 new depots, foiled them. And
finally during this Harvey Mills affair, they have been most active in
issuing illegal leaflets calling on the workers to go on strike, not to
listen to the Communists and so on. And in this situation it is the
Communists in Madura who have seen that the natural discontent of the work[ers]
took an organised and peaceful form.

In fact throughout the last eight months, there has been in Madura
a running battle between us and the Fourth International for the ear of
the people. And in the light of the past, for the local Government to
turn round now and jail some of our most important and responsible comrade[s]
on the ground that they are Fourth Internationalists is to leave the fiel[d]
clear for the Fifth Column to play havoc with the people.

This case, I feel, requires your immediate intervention. Com. Subramanya Sharma, the Provincial Committee Member arrested, is one of our leading comrades in Tamilnad, has been a member of the Provincial Committee since 1940, was one of the accused in the Madras Communist Conspiracy Case. He is one of the best known Communists in the South, popular among students of his old university, Annamalai. The other arrested Communists all command influence and respect and are invaluable in coping with the present situation. All these actions of the Madura authorities, for it appears that in the arrest of all the 29 mentioned, they have taken the initiative and the Provincial Government have simply acquiesced, have helped one organisation only, the Fifth Column. And unless all the Communists arrested are released, Madura instead of becoming a patriotic base of national resistance, will only become a Fifth Column stronghold.

I am, therefore, confident that you will intervene in this matter and see that the 29 arrested are released.

                                        Yours sincerely,
                                        [signed] P.C. Joshi

Sir Reginald Maxwell,
        New Delhi