On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of India's first war of independence in 1857, the CPI(ML) pays respectful tributes to the hundreds of thousands of men and women who heroically laid down their lives in the struggle to emancipate colonial India from the yoke of British imperialism. Far from being a revolt of a few disgruntled kings, queens and feudal lords, 1857 was a national uprising of peasants whether in soldiers’ uniforms or without, artisans and small traders, and other sections of the Indian people cutting across caste and creed. The great rebellion gave us the first dream of free India and also the first glimpse of a modern India in its embryonic stage. The Party also pays homage to the memory of Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh in his birth centenary and his comrades Sukhdev and Rajguru who kissed the gallows along with Bhagat Singh on 23 March 1931. While the Indian National Congress formed in 1885 with British blessings could never come to terms with the spirit of the First War of Independence, Bhagat Singh and his comrades resurrected the legacy of 1857 and gave it a firm anti-imperialist and socialist orientation. Bhagat Singh represented the conceptual transition from revolutionary nationalism to communism, developing a basically correct programmatic orientation of Indian revolution, identifying its basic class forces and creatively combining different forms of struggle and organisation to rouse the masses. The Party therefore respects Bhagat Singh as rashtra-nayak (leader of the nation) as well as a great communist pioneer.
The Eighth Congress of CPI(ML) vows to defend the revolutionary legacies of 1857 and Bhagat Singh against all attempts at suppression, distortion and misappropriation and renews the Party’s resolve to advance and carry these legacies to consummation.