MIA: Encyclopedia of Marxism: Glossary of People


Pu


 

Purcell, Albert A. (1872-1935)

Leftist leader of the British union movement and the Anglo-Russian Committee.

 

Purdy, Murray Gow (aka Purdy-Singh)

Party pseudonyms: Yarumji Eedrupji, Comrade No. 1.

Born in South Africa, son of American immigrants. Recruited by Frank Glass, 1930. Founder, Bolshevik Leninist League of South Africa, 1934. Went to Bombay via Addis Abbaba (Ethiopia), 1936. Joined Indian National Congress. Founder, Friends of Trotsky Society, 1938. Founding leader, Mazdoor Trotskyist Party, 1942. Jailed in Bombay, 1944-47. Expelled from India, December 1947, and went to London. Dropped out of Trotskyist movement, 1949, and is believed to have returned to South Africa. Author: Bolshevik-Leninist-Trotskyist Draft Provisional Programme (1938),Lenin’s Last Testament (1940), Marx and Engels Communist Manifesto (1942), Hindi mazdur tratskist part - Karyakram [Program of the Workers Trotskyist Party of India] (1943), Constituent Assembly: Is it Possible in India? And its Alternative. A Marxist-Trotskyist Analysis (n.d.),The South African Indian Problem—A Revolutionary Solution (1943).

Compiled by Charles Wesley Ervin

 

Purohit, Vinayak (1927– present)

Party pseudonyms: Amar, Pankaj.

Born Calcutta, son of Kailashnath Jagannath Purohit, an English-educated accountant/auditor of Gujarati descent. Educated Elphinstone College, Bombay. Joined Congress Socialist Party, 1942, participated in the Quit India movement as part of an underground cell led by Yusuff Mehrally. Joined Bolshevik Leninist Party of India, 1942. Arrested July 1943 and jailed for 7 months. Delegate to Bolshevik Leninist Party of India conference, 1944. Entered SP with BLPI, 1948. Delegate to SP Convention, 1950. General Secretary, Bombay Press Employees Union, 1948-52. Joined Socialist Party (Lohia), 1956. Active in Socialist trade unions in Bombay. Contributor, Socialist Vanguard, Socialist Appeal and Mankind, 1956-67. Executive Editor, Mankind, 1995-2000. Music critic, Times of India, 1956. Journalist, Nirvan . Visiting professor: Panjab University, Chandigarh, 1980-82; Chalmers Institute of Technology, Gothenberg, and Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, 1981; University of the Philippines, Manilla, 1984; and Film and Television Institute of India, 1976-86. Author: Steel Frame (1981), Chauraha (1990), Amina Ane Teno Jamano, Byalis (1990), Parodh Pahelano Andhakar, The Press and the People (1972), Arts of Transitional India: Twentieth Century (1986/88), Sociology of Art and Politics (1989-92), Sociology of Indian Films (1990); Tribheto (1994); and his autobiography in two parts, A Life of Surfeit and Overflow 1927-2005 (2005-06). Resides in Pune (Poona), Maharashtra.

Compiled by Charles Wesley Ervin

 

Pushparajan, T.E.

Editor of the Lanka Sama Samaja Party’s Tamil newspaper, Samadharman [Socialist], 1940.

Compiled by Charles Wesley Ervin