Connections with India & anti-imperial campaigns

“Though many of us having been living in Britain for two decades, thousands of miles away from our mother land, despite the fact that nearly half of the Indian population is born in this country, it is an undeniable truth that India remains as close as ever. Every development which occurred in India, negative or positive has left its impact and still influences our attitudes.”

IWA, 1980, 1.3.108:1

The IWA(GB) sustained many different types of relationships with India (sometimes called ‘The Motherland’) throughout the organisation’s history. Of particular note is the relationship with the Communist Party of India, and in particular the role of Harkishan Singh Surjeet, the one-time secretary of the CPI – M in Punjab, and Kishori Lal in relation to the Indian Youth Association. Letters between H.S.Surjeet and the IWA(GB) detail his influence on the group, encouraging them to develop youth and women’s sections, to actively recruit more members, and guiding the organisation’s development after the merger in 1991. Archival material includes copies of the conferences and resolutions of the CPI – M, and there is evidence of the connections between the IWA(GB) and the Association of Indian Communists (GB) through shared memberships and mutual support between the two groups. India, and its organisations and politics are then foundational to the IWA(GB). But there are also key moments in the archival material that show different types of relationships with India, and with state and non-state actors, with relations changing at different points in time.

Archival material