Explained : Beyond The Footnotes Of History and Its Impact

When the early history of the Communist Party of India (CPI) is recalled, figures such as M N Roy and S A Dange dominate mainstream historical narratives. Yet the name of Suhasini Chattopadhyay (also known as Suhasini Nambiar or Suhasini Jambhekar), who is widely regarded as the first woman member of the CPI, remains largely absent from these accounts. Recovering her life and political work is therefore crucial for understanding the gendered dimensions of the early communist movement in India, particularly the role of women in building labour, student, and youth movements.

Suhasini was born in 1901 in the illustrious Bengali family of the Chattopadhyays, renowned for their intellectual, artistic and revolutionary contributions. She was the youngest of the eight siblings, which included Sarojini Naidu, the eldest sister; Harindranath, the famous poet, actor, writer and member of Lok Sabha; and Virendranath (Chatto), the revolutionary freedom fighter who believed international support was vital to fight the British. 

Suhasini met her brother Chatto for the first time only in her early twenties in Berlin, as he had left India for his higher education when she was barely a year old.  However, it appears that Chatto’s life and work left an indelible mark on Suhasini. In her political stance, she was closest to Chatto. 

Suhasini was, as her peers described, a woman with a strong personality, deep passion, and many talents. Her dedication towards the Marxist cause is evident from the following lines in Vimla Dang’s memoir describing her first meeting with Suhasini. She says that Suhasini sang ‘”The people’s flag is deepest red” and she [Vimla] noticed that the singer’s face turned red and her eyes almost spat fire as she sang these songs and raised her clenched fist to show her determination to fight for freedom.’

Foray into the world of politics and communism 

Suhasini’s entry into the world of politics and the independence struggle seems inevitable, given her family background and the political ferment of the period. While early on, she espoused Gandhian ideology, her ideological orientation shifted with her exposure to Marxism in Europe.

Suhasini met her first husband, A C N Nambiar, a close associate of Subhash Chandra Bose, at the young age of seventeen. After their marriage in 1919, they moved to London for her higher education. Two years later, she moved to Berlin, where she was drawn into radical left politics and developed closer ties with her brother Chatto.

Due to her deep interest in Marxism, she left for Soviet Russia to study at the Communist University of the Toilers of the East. It was probably in Soviet Russia that she forged deep connections with the Communist International (Comintern), a Marxist organisation that advocated for world communism. 

Contributions to the communist cause and movement building 

Suhasini arrived in Bombay in September 1928, a moment that proved significant both for her political trajectory as well as for the communist movement in India. Having a penchant for art, music, and poetry, Suhasini promptly jumped into organising workers and youth. 

She played an important role in the protests that followed the Meerut Conspiracy Case (1929)—one of the most consequential colonial trials targeting communist leaders and trade union activists. Suhasini led the protests in Bombay by organising the labour movement, conducting agitations, and spreading the message of incarcerated communist trade union workers. It was during this period that the British authorities impounded her passport, preventing her from travelling to Berlin to meet her husband. She was also forced underground for quite some time due to her close association with the imprisoned leaders. 

Although Suhasini’s name is not formally associated with any specific labour movement in Bombay, contemporary accounts suggest that she was intensely involved in organising workers and political networks around the textile mills. Bombay emerged as an early centre of labour activism where women mill workers began organising collectively. 

The Girni Kamgar Union (GKU) was one of the most important trade unions in colonial India and played a central role in organising textile workers in Bombay during the late 1920s and 1930s. Women mill workers participated actively in strikes and protests during this period, particularly around the time of the Meerut Conspiracy case, yet their contributions remain largely undocumented. Within this milieu, Suhasini appears to have played an important role in mobilising women workers and fostering a political consciousness among them. 

Besides the labour movement, Suhasini is said to have played a foundational role in the formation of The Little Ballet Group and the Indian People’s Theatre (IPTA). IPTA had a remarkable cultural impact on anti-colonial politics by bringing its political theatre to working-class Indians. During the Royal Indian Navy (RIN) mutiny of 1946, Suhasini was living in Bombay and was part of communist and labour circles that supported the uprising. It can, therefore, be speculated that she was also part of this struggle, as several of her protégés played a pivotal role during the RIN mutiny, although her direct role in the events remains unrecorded in most historical accounts.

Suhasini’s work in India was focused on strengthening the International Communist Movement.  She was instrumental in setting up various chapters of the Friends of the Soviet Union (FSU), later known as the Indo-Soviet Cultural Society (ISCUS), in both Lahore and Mumbai. FSU was a network to attract students, workers, and artists to become part of the larger communist movement. It also became a front for coordinating revolutionary activities against imperial rule, especially when the Communist Party was banned. 

Suhasini and her sister, Mrinalini Chattopadhyay, who was the principal of the famous Ganga Ram School in Lahore, played a decisive role in bringing several women students into communist and revolutionary circles. Suhasini was one of the first women to have travelled abroad and forged close links with the Comintern. She played a foundational role in forging Indo-Soviet networks and associations. 

The emotional cost of political organising

The sparse references to Suhasini in memoirs and recollections often portray her as a charismatic and uncompromising political organiser. Yet behind this public persona was a deeply sensitive individual who endured considerable personal loss. Her short-lived marriage with Nambiar is a case in point. 

Although the couple became estranged early in their marriage, she remained hopeful of reviving their relationship, even though Nambiar was in Berlin and Suhasini had returned to India. Their letters reveal the emotional blow suffered by Suhasini when Nambiar informed her that he had moved on with a new partner. 

Similarly, when her protégé, Shashi Bakaya, a young student leader and poet, died at the age of 25, Suhasini was inconsolable. Ravi Bakaya, Shashi’s brother, wrote, ‘She [Suhasini] almost lost her mind. Suhasini had reared him as a passionate patriot, and therefore in his death, she suffered both as a comrade and as a mother.’

This reveals the emotional labour embedded in political organising. As Bakaya noted, ‘Suhasini’s methods of work could be and were highly successful only through direct personal contact.’ Yet the personal commitment involved in building a movement can carry a heavy emotional cost, a dimension that history seldom acknowledges.

It is unfortunate that Suhasini, a force to be reckoned with in the communist movement, has been forgotten, and any documentation about her or her work is scarce. Most references about her are confined to the fact that she belonged to the eminent Chattopadhyay family. The other prominent one is a comment made by Edgar Snow, a famous American journalist, during his visit to India. 

He described her as the most beautiful woman he had ever met. Although he spoke about her revolutionary spirit and work with the labour movement in Bombay, these references to her work are overshadowed by the comment extolling her beauty. This also reveals the truth about how women are often remembered: physical attributes over their political work and achievements. 

Notably, Suhasini lived under surveillance for most of her life: first by the British because of her association with Chatto, and later for her work in the FSU, the labour movement, and her role in the Meerut Conspiracy case. After India’s independence, Suhasini and her second husband, R M Jambhekar, were also monitored by the Indian government owing to their alignment with the Ranadive line within the Communist Party. The couple was in Prague from 1948 to 1950 and was unable to return home as CPI was banned by the Government of India.  

However, in 1951, the leadership changed, and Suhasini and Jambhekar returned to India. Suhasini, however, paid the price for being a proponent of the Ranadive line. After their return, they were regarded with widespread suspicion, and according to Ravi Bakaya, ‘virtually debarred from all political activity’.  

It is unfortunate and ironic that most of the information about Suhasini’s life and work can only be found in the archives of the surveillance records of the Bombay Special Branch. Suhasini passed away in 1973 due to prolonged illness. Her close associates speculate that her flailing health was probably due to personal losses and setbacks faced due to conflicting party lines. Ultimately, Suhasini became a spectre, both within the movement, history, and in the memory of people, despite her pivotal contributions to the cause of communism.

References

1. Balachandran, Vappala. A Life in Shadow: The Secret Story of A.C.N. Nambiar—A Forgotten Anti-Colonial Warrior. New Delhi: Roli Books, 2016.
2. Barooah, Nirode K. Chatto: The Life and Times of an Indian Anti-Imperialist in Europe. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2004.
3. Dang, Vimla. Fragments of a Life: A Memoir. New Delhi: People’s Publishing House, 2005.
4. Loomba, Ania. Revolutionary desires: Women, communism, and feminism in India. Routledge, 2018.
5. Sahgal, Lakshmī, and Geraldine Hancock Forbes. A revolutionary life: memoirs of a political activist. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1997.