Philip Spratt
Philip Spratt was a British writer and intellectual. Initially a communist sent by the British arm of the Communist International, based in Moscow, to spread Communism in India, he subsequently became a friend and colleague of M. N. Roy, founder of the Communist parties in Mexico and India, and along with him became a communist activist.
He was a founding member of the Communist Party of India, and was among the chief accused in the Meerut Conspiracy Case; he was arrested on 20 March 1929 and imprisoned.
As a result of his reading during his time in jail, and also his observation of political developments in Russia and Western Europe at the time, Philip Spratt renounced Communism in the early 1930s. After India gained independence from the British, he was among the lone voices – such as Sita Ram Goel – against the well-intentioned and fashionable leftist policies of Nehru and the Indian government.
He was the Editor of MysIndia, a pro-American weekly, and later of Swarajya, a newspaper run by C. Rajagopalachari. He was also a prolific writer of books, articles and pamphlets on a variety of subjects, and translated books in French, German, Tamil, Sanskrit, and Hindi, into English.
Early life
Philip Spratt was born in Camberwell on 26 September 1902 to Herbert Spratt, a schoolmaster, and Norah Spratt. He was one of five boys. His elder brother David Spratt, left boarding school to join the British Army during World War I, and was killed at Passchendaele in 1917. Although raised a Baptist, Herbert Spratt later joined the Church of England. Philip Spratt's own rejection of religion came early on:University and early communist activity
Philip Spratt won a university scholarship in 1921 to study mathematics at Downing College, Cambridge. He wrote in his memoirs: "But I was in no mood to devote myself to my proper studies, or to associate with the dull dogs who stuck to theirs. I dabbled in literature and philosophy and psychology and anthropology." He achieved a third-class award for Part I of the mathematics tripos in 1922. He joined the Union Society, the University Labour Club and a private discussion society called the Heretics, of which Charles Kay Ogden was president; Frank P. Ramsey, I. A. Richards and Patrick Blackett often attended. Philip Spratt, Maurice Dobb, John Desmond Bernal, Ivor Montagu, the historian Allen Hutt, A. L. Morton, A. L. Bacharach, Barnet Woolf, and Michael Roberts comprised the tiny handful of Communist Party members at the university at that time. Spratt, Woolf and Roberts would sell the Worker's Weekly to railwaymen at the town railway station or canvass the working-class areas of Cambridge. Spratt worked, for a while, at the Labour Research Department in the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford, and was a member of the London University Labour Party.In 1926, at the age of 24, he was asked by Clemens Dutt to journey to India as a Comintern agent to organise the working of the then nascent Communist Party of India, and in particular to launch a Workers and Peasants' Party as a legal cover for their activities. He was expected to arrange for the infiltration of CPI members into the Congress party, trade unions and youth leagues to obtain leadership of them. Spratt was also asked to write a pamphlet on China, urging India to follow the example of the Kuomintang. He was accompanied to India by Ben Bradley and Lester Hutchinson.
Move to India
Spratt was arrested in 1927, on account of some cryptic letters written to and by him that were seized by the Police. He was, however, charged with sedition, on account of the pamphlet entitled India and China that he had written on Clemens Dutt's instructions. He was tried by jury and – the judge, Mr. Justice Fawcett, having summed up very leniently – they found in his favour.Hansard records show that on 28 November 1927, Shapurji Saklatvala, the MP for Battersea North, questions Earl Winterton about the wrongful detention of Philip Spratt for six weeks prior to his trial.
WPP and Young Workers' League
Spratt at once got involved in organizing Workers' and Peasants' Party in Bombay, Calcutta and elsewhere. He later rose to their all India leaderships. Young Comrades' and later Young Workers' League were constituted, both by WPP and independently, as powerful mass organisations in 1927–1930. Spratt played an active part and described their growth and activities. He wrote that WPP took initiative to form the Leagues, which became widespread in the country.Philip Spratt and others in the WPP disagreed with M. N. Roy's assessment that it should be a parallel organization to the Congress, as the latter was "practically dead". WPP by its program and constitution was working inside the Congress to strengthen the left and at the same time as an independent organization.
"India-China:" booklet trial
Spratt wrote a booklet, "India and China", published by S. S. Mirajkar on behalf of WPP, which led to his trial. Revolution in China was advancing in 1927, deeply impacting India’s freedom movement. Jawaharlal Nehru contacted the Chinese revolutionaries, including Madam Sun Yat-Sen, in Brussels during the world founding conference of the League Against Imperialism.Communists in Bombay issued a number of articles about China in the daily National Herald. Philip Spratt's contributions were collected as An Internationalist, which came out as a booklet in May 1927. Shapurji Saklatvala wrote its introduction. It proved so effective that the British rulers banned it. House of Mirajkar, WPP offices and even newspaper offices all over the country were searched. Spratt's residence in the YMCA Hostel in Bombay was searched on 6 September 1927 and the manuscript seized. Spratt and Mirajkar were arrested at the office of the Marathi paper Kranti under Section 124-A. Spratt was interned in the Arthur Road Prison for more than two months. The prosecution could not prevent Spratt from a trial by jury, who declared him "not guilty". High Court Judge Justice Fawcett had to acquit Spratt. Talyarkhan was the defence counsel for Spratt. M. A. Jinnah advised Sarojini Naidu to apply for transfer of the case to the High Court and Spratt to give up his demand for a European Jury. Bombay comrades used to address Sarojini Naidu as "mother"! That was the bond of the Communists with the freedom movement. Spratt had been arrested in 1927 for some secret letters but was charged with sedition for this booklet. On 28 November 1927 Shapurji Saklatvala, British Communist MP for Battersea North, questioned Earl Winterton, Under-secretary of State for India, about the wrongful detention of Spratt for weeks prior to his trial, even though not found guilty by the jury and refused bail. Winterton replied that the bail was refused by Justice Devar of Bombay High Court, and as such it was "not proper" to interfere with the competence of the Court. He refused to reply to any further questions.
After Spratt's acquittal, the government of Bombay was not sure "whether the prosecution was good in law"!
AITUC sessions
Spratt was an active participant in and organizer of the AITUC and workers' unions. The 7th session of AITUC was held on March 12–13, 1927 in Hindu College, Delhi. It was attended by prominent leaders like V. V. Giri, S. V. Ghate, Lala Lajpat Rai, S. S. Mirajkar, Nimbkar, Spratt and others. Spratt gave detailed account of it and played an active role.The 8th session of the AITUC, held in Kanpur in November 1928, included S. A. Dange, V. V. Giri, N. M. Joshi, and Spratt, as also some others. Jones, Purcell, and Hallsworth attended on behalf of the British TUC. Rs 1000 was allotted for the defence of Spratt in the "India-China" booklet case. The session adopted 32 resolutions including one on the prosecution of Spratt. The left wing had become very strong by this time, and in fact S. A. Dange presented a separate report on the functioning of the left group in the AITUC.
The session elected a Council of Action of which Spratt was a member.
A comprehensive review of the Indian TU movement written by Spratt was published in Labour Monthly of October 1927, giving details of organization, structure, membership union-wise and industry-wise, and movements industry-wise and section-wise.
Mirajkar, K. N. Joglekar, Mayekar, Spratt, and others conducted processions and strikes of Apollo, Manchester and other mills in Bombay. There were efforts to merge together Girni Kamgar Mahamandal and Bombay Textile Labor
Union, which later resulted in GKU in 1928.
Spratt was included, along with Dange, N. M. Joshi, Diwan Chaman Lall, and others in the sub-committee formed to draft a labour Constitution of India, to be submitted to the Executive Council of India and to labor movement. It led to a widespread discussion. He wrote detailed proposals and articles on it.
Spratt participated in the struggles of jute and other workers in Calcutta, Bombay and elsewhere during this time.
Slogan of Constituent Assembly
Spratt attended the Madras session of Congress in 1927. A Manifesto of WPP was presented to the session, which was prepared by Muzaffar Ahmed in consultation with Philip Spratt. It was published next year, in 1928, and formally adopted at the WPP conference in Calcutta, in December 1928. Spratt was included in its CEC. Significantly, it gave a call for constituting and holding elections to a Constituent Assembly based on adult franchise.The front page of the Manifesto for Madras session included slogans of "A National Constituent Assembly, Universal Adult Franchise and Complete Independence".
Slogan of constituent assembly, as far as is known, was given first by S. Srinivasa Iyengar, the Congress president in 1927, based on a limited franchise. M. N. Roy also had proposed it in his journal in 1928 abroad, but it was utterly sectarian as he called upon revolutionary nationalists not to be misled by "the apparent victory at Madras" gained by passing the resolution of full independence by Congress.
Spratt was, in 1928, responsible for two sweepers' strikes in Calcutta.