Important Difference between CPI, CPI(M) and CPI(ML)

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The Communist Party of India was formed on 26 December 1925 in Kanpur. S.V. Ghate was the first General Secretary of CPI. The Communist Party of India (Marxist) emerged from a split from the Communist Party of India in 1964.

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CPI(M) vs CPI

During the 1960s, China opposed certain policies of the Soviet Union which according to Mao Zedong not left enough and considered Soviet to be a revisionist state while India established good relationships with the Soviets.
The split happened on the backdrop of the Sino-Indian war, the main reason for the split was the question regarding which political line the party should follow. The leftists took a pro-Chinese stand while the rightist were in favour of the Soviet Union line.
During the 1962 Sino – Indian war, the conservative section of the CPI put its full weight behind the Nehru government. The radical wing of the party, opposed the unqualified support to the Nehru government because of its class character.

Thus, the CPI(M) was formed at the seventh congress of the Communist Party of India held in Kolkata, from October 31 to November 7, 1964.

Policies of CPI(M) :

Accepts democratic elections as a useful and helpful means for securing the objective of socio-economic justice in India.
Critical of the new economic policies that allow free flow of foreign capital and goods into the country.
It was formed in 1964.

Pro-Chinese stand

Policies of CPI:

Accepts parliamentary democracy as a means of promoting the interests of the working class, farmers and the poor.
Opposed to the force of secessionism and communalism.
It was formed in 1925.
Pro-Soviet stand

Communist Part of India (Marxist-Leninist)

The Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) (CPI (ML)) was an Indian communist party formed by the All India Coordination Committee of Communist Revolutionaries (AICCCR) at a congress in Calcutta in 1969. The foundation of the party was declared by Kanu Sanyal at a mass meeting in Calcutta on 22 April, Vladimir Lenin’s birthday.

In 1967, Charu Mazumdar lead violent attacks in Naxalbari in North Bengal, hoping to replicate the communist revolution in China. Ironically, now the CPI-M took to calling them blindly pro-Chinese, using a label applied to them just five years back and Charu Mazumdar accused the CPI-M of “revisionism” and of choosing the “path of class collaboration”. Hence, in 1969 lead the split to form the Communist Part of India (Marxist-Leninist).

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