Rahula Sankrityayana's Letter to J.V. Stalin

The publication of Rahula Sankrityayana's two-volume History of Central Asia in 1956-57 in Hindi was a benchmark in historical writing in India. Many of the seminal historical works in this country have been penned by those outside the narrow circle of professional historians. Here the name of D.D. Kosambi immediately springs to mind as a scholar who had been trained as a mathematician and who straddled the field of writing in ancient Indian history and culture as a colossus. The linguistic capabilities of Rahula Sankrityayana extended from the ancient classical tongues of Sanskrit and Pali, the modern Asian languages of Chinese, Tibetan, Persian and Sinhalese to the modern European languages such as Russian, German, French and English. Unlike Kosambi who wrote in English Rahula Sankrityayana elected to express his views in Hindi in his books on History and Archeology. The same was true of his writing on Marxism-Leninism, philosophy, literature, the biographies, novels, plays and travelogues. The entire corpus of the works of Rahula Sankrityayana formed a granite intellectual bedrock for the Hindi-reading democratic intelligentsia of northern India.

The History of Central Asia had its origins in the extensive travels of the author in Central Asia and in Russia. He found that no comprehensive history of this region existed in any language. Such histories as were available were limited in their scope and not based upon modern materials while the considerable body of literature on Central Asia in Russian bore a specialised character and did not cover the successive epochs from the earliest times to the Soviet period. The history of Central Asia opined Rahula Sankrityayana has been of paramount importance for the Indian subcontinent. Intimate relations between the two regions have existed over thousands of years : from the times of Mohenjodaro and Harappa, Khwarizm, the impact of the Aryans, the formation of the Graeco-Bactrian states after the invasion of Alexander, the Hun invasions, and, in the medieval period the Turks and Islam came to India from this region. There was another reason which impelled Rahula Sankrityayana to pen the History of Central Asia. He held to the understanding that the situation of India in the 1940s was analogous to that of Central Asia prior to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917. It was important, therefore, to examine the situation and look at the experience of the communists in that area. The letter to Stalin confirms that the author wished to document the transition in Central Asia from tsarist exploitation to the socialist epoch, giving a clear picture of the economic, cultural and educational achievements of the Soviet period. It is evident that he considered this as the 'most important' part of the book. It further emerges from the letter of Prithvi Singh, which Rahula Sankrityayana cites in his letter to Stalin, that the CPI leadership itself considered this to be an important mission.

Rahula Sankrityayana laboured on the history of Central Asia during his third sojourn in the Soviet Union in 1945-47 where he held the position of Professor of Sanskrit at the Leningrad State University. Over a span of twenty-five months he gathered materials in the library collections of Leningrad and Moscow, purchased old and new books germane to the field and drank deep of the learning of Soviet specialists in the archeology and history of Soviet Central Asia such as Dr. Tolstoff, Prof. Bernshtam and Prof. Yakubobsky. In order to gather further data related to the period of Soviet rule and also to see the region with his own eyes, which would facilitate a presentation of an authentic picture of contemporary realities to the Hindi-reading audience, Rahula Sankrityayana desired to visit Soviet Central Asia for a period of six months. Friends in Moscow who were seeking to gain the necessary official permission were alternately sanguine and despondent on the possibility of success in this endeavour. The author's visit to Moscow in April 1946 to expedite the securing of permission from the government had no positive result. In his letter to Stalin he noted that party comrades had attempted to get the requisite permission, that the cultural organisation VOKS was willing to make all the arrangements for the stay but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs had expressed its inability to grant the request. This was substantially the same line of reasoning which the author was to narrate some years later in his travelogue Meri Jeevan Yatra. From the letter of M. Suslov to A.A. Zhdanov dated the fourth of October, 1946 published below which appears to be a response to the letter of the author to Stalin it is clear that the question of the visit of Rahula Sankrityayana to the Central Asian Republics had been discussed by the Secretariat of the Central Committee of the CPSU(b) in April, 1946 – in the same month that the author visited Moscow – and the decision was taken that such a visit was 'inadvisable'. No reasons were assigned in the letter of Suslov for this decision so that we remain as mystified as Rahula Sankrityayana himself must have been. The author was bitterly upset about this decision. He was later to write that if there was any major fault of the Soviet administration it was that the extent of suspicion had reached its highest point there. With permission to visit central Asia being denied the author was unable to collect the further materials he needed: the planned three-volume history was ultimately reduced to two volumes and it is evident that the major casualty was the section on contemporary Soviet Central Asia.

Gunaker Muley, 'Mahapandit Rahula Sankrityayana, Jeevan Aaur Kritiwa', New Delhi, 1993.

Gunaker Muley, 'Svyambhu Mahapandita', New Delhi, 1998.

Rahula Sankrityayana, 'Madhyasiya Ka Itihas', 2 Vol., Patna, 1956-57.

Rahula Sankrityayana, 'Meri Jeevan Yatra', Vol. 3, Delhi, 1967.

Tkachei 28 gt. I0
Leningrad
30/VIII.1946.

Our dear teacher Camrade Stalin,

Excuse me for taking your precious time, but you will see that it is about an important Party work.

After great difficultis and under the plea of seeing my wife and son, I got the passport from Indian Government and come to Soviet Union in June 1945. One very important task was intrusted to me by the Indian Communist Party is to write a book about Soviet Central Asia (the five republics of Kazakhastan, Kirghizia, Uzbekistan, Turkmenia and Tadjikistan) showing how the Soviet Power (communismus) solved the problems of ages, there, and transformed the tsarist colonial slaves in to the free, prosperous and cultured soviet republics. Such a book will serve very useful purpose, as there are close similarities between the present politico-economic and socio-religious problems of India and those of pre-revolutionary Central Asia.

During the darkest days of war, when even the British government in India, used to show sympathy towards Soviet Union, the Indian big bourgeoisie remained antisoviet; but since the conclusion of the war and the altered attitude of Anglo-American imperialism, Indian bourgeois press and organisations are not only vehimently attaking the Indian Comparty, but are also in fore-front in propagating the anti-soviet lies.

Indian big bourgeoisie – whose mouth-piece is the Indian Congress high-command – is now closely linked with the American capitalists and so the British imperialists are forced to grant more political concessions to Indian bourgoisie. Of course the British offer to give India full freedom with the right of cessation is a mere propaganda trick. How it can be true, when Britain wants to preserve the most reactionary feudal princes. She is also placing a big, overwhelmingly non-Muslin areas under the domination of the muslin communalists, a cause of the permanent civil strife, hence benificial to British imperialism. Besides these, Britain have also in her mind to make Balochistan Khanate and Nagas area in Assam as the second and third Trans-jordan for its military base.

But, one thing is clear, the Anglo-American capitalism is determined to utilise the Indian bourgoisie for the full exploitation of the Indias natural resources and man-power for their imperialist purposes, and to make India a co-labourator against soviet union, as America is trying to do with China.

Under these conditions, the necessity of such a book is most urgent.

I planned to write the book in three volumes The first volume is to deal with the historical development of Central Asian nationalisties, their strife and suffering from the primitive life to the tsarist exploitation and final liberation and achivements under the Leninist-Stalinist guidance. Much of the material for this volume I have already collected. But the most important parts of the book are the volumes II and III intended to give the clear picture of the life of the people, the life in its all auspects the country-side covered with the blooming kolhozes and sovkhozes, their cities full of the factoris and industriad enterprises, their canals, mines hydroelectric stations, their cultural achivements educational institutions, universitis and academies.

My collected materials and the plan of work were appreciated both here in the university and by the Moscou Party – centre camrades. But the materials for the later two volumes can be collected only in C. Asia, for which there was need of my going there. In order to get the necessary permission and to start, I went to mosco in the April last. The party-camrads tried for it, and VOKS was ready to help me, but the ministry of foreigh affairs showed their unability to grant my request. Perheps the international situation was the cause of such a descision, but the same situation also makes the urgent need of such abook. Moreover I did not want to visit all and every place indescriminately. My purpose would have been served by the visit of the selected places with an official guide. I could gather much of the materials for writing and illustration in the cities like Ashkhabed. Merv, Stalinabad, Leningrad, Bokhara, Samarkand, Tashkend, Khiva, Frunze, Jambul, Alma-Ata, Karaganda and villages nearby.

The matter stood there when in the month of June I received again instruction (dated 16-th Feb. 1946) from the Indian Party-Centre "Although we are all eager to see you amongst us but no one of us desires that you should come back without fulfilling your mission."

Hence I am writing this letter to you, our greatest leader, with the request that I may be allowed and granted facilities for six months (or what ever times) trip for the central Asia to collect the necessary materials.

With the best regards, I am one of
your million of followers

Sd/
Rahula Sankrityayana

(Author, member of the communist) party of India, ex-president of the All India peasant conference 1940, at present professor of sanskrit in the Leningrad Government University)

Note – Extract from the instruction-letter, the plan pf book and the names of my books are sent here with in Russian translation.

I am citing a letter of Com. Prithvi Singh (dated 16.2.46) from the Indian centre of the Communist Party, Bombay...

The devoted follower of the Apostle of truth and Non-Violence (Gandhi) Pattabhi Sitaramayya has made an open statement that the thrashing of communists with lathis does not constitute violence. They call upon the masses to remain non-violent in their struggle against the British Government in India and say that the communists should be mercilessly assaulted. The Friends of Truth and Non-Violence stand exposed. The Indian capitalists and their hirelings have decided to destroy the communists in India. Alluring suggestions, threats, terror, individual and mass attacks on the leading members of the party and on the offices of the party committees have become an usual phenomenon. Each day we receive information about this from different places of the country. Apparently, the physical liquidation of the Party Members will be conducted by plan. Although the party has not yet won the confidence of the majority of the masses, yet it has got its roots in the soil and is sufficiently strong to repel all the attacks on its existence.

... Though all of us wish to see you among us, yet no one among us stands for your return without fulfilling the task assigned to you.''

Outline of the Book ‘Soviet Central Asia’

Vol. I. (Historical).

Development of the peoples of Central Asia

Volume II.
Soviet Central Asia Today.

Volume III.
Soviet Central Asia Today.