ABSTRACT
In declaring the national internal emergency on June 26, 1975, Prime Minister Indira Gandhi pitted the ruling Congress party against all of the other political groups in India, with the sole exception of the Communist Party of India. Indian independence was won by the national bourgeoisie rather than by the Communists. Communism thrives in two extreme corners of India—in the southwestern coastal state of Kerala, and the eastern state of West Bengal. In the elections between 1967 and 1972—a period which displayed contemporary political forces at a fluid stage—the combined Communist electoral vote remained at 25 percent or more in Kerala and West Bengal. The regional character of the Communist support base creates organizational as well as social-psychological problems for both major Communist groups. The government is a hostage to international imperialism, which includes "social imperialism"—i.e., the Chinese Communist conceptualization of the class character of the Soviet Union.
