The Bolshevik Revolution and the Collapse of the Colonial System in India

ABSTRACT

This article discusses some of the key contributions of the Bolshevik Revolution to the colonial nations such as India and puts them into historical context. It argues that the Bolshevik Revolution and its leaders, especially V. I. Lenin should be recognised as making a major contribution to the anti-colonial struggle and the fight to achieve equality in the community of world of nations. This article then points out how Lenin has provided assistance to the struggle to achieve freedom and end colonialism. He wrote in support of the people who were oppressed for centuries in the colonies and also invited them to Moscow and discussed with them their situation. Colonialism produced economic backwardness in India as British colonial rule led to huge change in the Indian economy to fit the interests of British ruling elites, i.e. merchants and industrialists. The study concludes that the Bolshevik Revolution dealt a significant blow to the imperialist countries. Despite the collapse of the Soviet Union, there is no doubt that the Bolshevik Revolution had changed the world history. It made decolonisation possible and contributed to the defeat of fascism.

KEYWORDS:

• Bolshevik Revolution
• India
• anti-colonial struggle
• exploitation
• imperialism

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Samir Amin and Alexander V. Buzgalin for the discussions and suggestions on earlier version of this paper. I would also like to thank two anonymous referees for helpful comments, which has helped to sharpen my arguments.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on Contributor

Kalim Siddiqui teaches International Economics in the Department of Accounting, Finance and Economics at the University of Huddersfield, UK. He is also member of a number of international economic bodies including: Association for Heterodox Economics, International Initiative for Promotion of Political Economy (IIPPE), and the World Association of Political Economy (WAPE). He has spoken at several conferences in Germany, Portugal, Norway, UK, Pakistan and India and regularly contributed articles in journals such as International Journal of Political Economy, World Review of Political Economy, Journal of Asian Public Policy, Research in World Economy, Journal of Economics and Political Economy, Asian Profile, Social Scientist, and Economic and Political Weekly.