Satyabhakta (Hindi: सत्यभक्त) (2 April 1897 – 3 December 1985) who used the mononym, was one of the founders of the Communist Party of India December 25-28, 1925 at Kanpur (then spelled Cawnpore).
Biography
Early life
Satyabhakta’s original name
was Chakhan Lal. He was born in Bharatpur district of Rajasthan, on 2 April 1897. His father Kundanlal was the principal of the Middle School run by the princely state.
He subscribed to 'Bharat Mitra' of Calcutta, which deeply influenced Satyabhakta. Satyabhakta came from a humble background and never accumulated wealth or property. He grew up reading revolutionary papers, and learnt about Khudiram Bose, Barindra Ghosh and Aurobindo Ghosh. He was also introduced to the weekly 'Satya Sanatan Dharma'.
He married a Dalit woman, who probably was a widow.
He came under the influence of Ganesh Shankar Vidyarthi and his 'Pratap'. He joined the underground revolutionary movement at a young age in 1912-13, collecting explosives making bombs. He did some senseless experiments in explosives and one severed his finger. Consequently, he was under police watch for the next twenty years. He appreciated Sakharam Ganesh Deuskar's 'Desher Katha', 'Anand Math' of Bankimchandra and 'Japan ka Uday'.
Becoming a Gandhian
In 1916, he became a volunteer of Bharat Sevak Samaj in Haridwar Kumbh and got an opportunity to meet Gandhiji. At that time, Sabarmati Ashram had not yet come into being. Its nucleus was functioning from a village one mile away from Alice Bridge, Ahmedabad, from a hired house. Satyabhakta went there and started doing the menial jobs like filling water, running flour hand-mill, etc., learning Bangla and Gujarati languages also at the same time. There he translated Gandhiji’s ‘Sarvodaya’ and ‘Jail ke Anubhav into Hindi. He came in contact with Gandhians like Kaka Kalelkar, Vinoba Bhave, Mahadev Desai and others. Gandhiji wanted him to stay in the Ashram permanently but Satyabhakta had his own ideas and did not fully agree with the concept of Ahimsa etc. Staying there from 1918 to 1920, he attended Bombay session of the Congress. He began to write from 1916, his first article being life of Dhondo Keshav Karve, then several biographies, articles in nationalist papers such as Saraswati, Maryada, Hitkarini, Pratibha and others. He worked in Bhavishya of Pt Sundarlal, coming in contact with leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit, others.
In contact with Communism
While working in ‘Maryada’ of Krishna Kant Malaviya, Satyabhakta joined non-cooperation movement in 1921. But soon getting disillusioned with Congress politics, he joined Rajasthan Seva Sangh. Then he came in contact with communist views and began to read about and appreciate Russian revolution. Satyabhakta corresponded with Sylvia Pankhurst, editor of Workers’ Dreadnought, organ of Communist Party of Great Britain. Through her, he got lot of Marxist literature. At the beginning of 1923, he joined Radha Mohan Gokulji in his left-wing weekly called ‘Pranveer’ from Nagpur.
He edited it for eight months and brought out its Independence Day Special. He also attracted attention as a correspondent on writing about S. A. Dange. Towards 1923-end, Satyabhakta returned to Kanpur and took part in workers’ activities. There was a strike at the beginning of 1924 of workers of Victoria Cotton Mills, lasting for one and half months. Satyabhakta in a letter in DainikVartman of 31 April 1924, provided details of the strike. He wrote that Mazdoor Sabha had collected two thousand rupees. He further wrote: "…there may be people in the Kanpur labor movement who believe in Communist or Bolshevik theories…". British government raised bogey of Bolshevism to cover up its anti-Communist acts such as Kanpur Bolshevik Conspiracy Case, he said.