CPI and CPSU (b)
The following documents are part of the correspondence between the CPI and the CPSU (b) on the relations between India and Pakistan in 1951 which turned on the question of Kashmir. We also include here (Documents VI and VII) materials which directly pertain to the theme of Kashmir: viz. the text of the telegram from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, addressed to A. Ya. Vyshinsky and also to Ya. A. Malik in Paris. Vyshinsky at this time was the representative of the Soviet Union in the United Nations Security Council.
The documents reveal the commitment which both Communist Parties placed at that time on the question of the right of the people of Kashmir to self-determination. They also show the different nuances within the leadership of the CPI on the approach to be adopted on the Kashmir question. The CPSU (b) while noting that both the states of India and Pakistan were collaborating with imperialism recognised the latter state as being more reactionary as indicated by its willingness to allow the US and Britain the use of its soil to establish military bases. As indicated elsewhere in this issue of this journal the democratic right of the peoples to self-determination confirmed by Marx and Engels was repudiated by the bulk of the communist movement in the post-Stalin period and upheld only by the Marxist-Leninists. It must be hoped that the publication of these materials will help to bring about more clarity in the democratic movement on the Kashmir question in India and elsewhere. This is of especial importance as the CPI and CPI (M) have long ago passed over to political positions which are little different from national-chauvinism.
Vijay Singh.