Source: Satyabrata Battacharyya, Saumyendranath Tagore and Communist Movement of Bengal, 1920-1947
(Santiniketan, India : Doctoral Thesis submitted to Department of History, Visba-Bharti University,
2016), Apendix VI.
Published at marxists.org: April 2020.
[Text of a letter from Saumyendranath Tagore in Calcutta to Reginald Bridgeman, 53 Grey’s Inn Road, London, dated 20 June 1934]
Dear Comrade Bridgeman,
I have received your letter of June 1st. Thanks. Besides the League bulletin on the situation in Congo etc., no other material has reached me. The Parts1 and 2 of the “colonial News” have not reached me either. The censorship here is unimaginably rigorous. Even the most harmless things are seized without any rhyme or reason. Everything depends on the sweet will of the officials of the censor department. There even the gods are powerless.
Unfortunately we are thus deprived of all the news of the important happenings in Europe and America. The news that we receive here through the Anglo-Indian Press and Reuter, are mutilated and dressed-up news. It is highly important for us to have all detailed news of the Fascists developments in Europe and especially in England. I will appreciate it very much if you could send me the programme of the Mosley group. It is very necessary to analyse the situation in England correctly and to write about it in the Indian press. Whatever arrangement you can make to supply us with materials on the situation in England with special reference to the development of Fascism in England, will be of very great use to us. If any friend over there could lend us for a month Mosley’s book “Greater Britain” I will be very thankful for it and will return it immediately after I have written about it in the press.
The greatest need here at the moment is literature and right information. Since the ban on the Congress has been lifted, the National Congress leaders have started yelping all over the country. They are sure that they will give Swaraj to India by entering the Councils. But it won’t be quite so easy for them to approach the masses with the old congress programme.
Therefore a Socialist wing of the congress has been created with the specific purpose of fooling the masses and for catching their votes. These dirty trickers are getting active in Bombay, Calcutta and Allahabad. In the meantime an organisation has been formed called the Fascist Organisation of India with an ex-assembly man as the president. It may be said to be the direct result of the Bombay general strike. The political development in India is very significant.
I sent two copies of Hitlerism. I hope they have reached you. More later.
With best wishes.
Yours fraternally,
Saumyendranath Tagore