We called it a transformation in the situation and not a mere change of degree. We said that the war which was so far an imperialist war now became a… - Puran Chand Joshi

“ There was surging atmosphere of struggle. Left had been campaigning for a nation-wide struggle, under the Congress, for achievement of national freedom. When war broke out, the question of national struggle became an immediate issue, a practical question.

“ Left nationalism, organised under the Forward Bloc, was born as an independent political force five months before the war. Five months of rapidly marching events after the outbreak have turned it into its very opposite and left it neither as genuine leftism nor good nationalism. It acts not as a progressive but as a retrogressive force. Its words are Left, its practice is anti-struggle, anti-unity, its aim remains settlement with imperialism.

All open-eyed and serious people saw the change but there were two groups in our country who did not—the Congress Socialists and the Forward Blocists (p. 40). We took time to discuss the new world situation. The result of our discussion and collective opinion was embodied in a resolution of the Politbureau of our Party and a booklet by P.C. Joshi, Forward to Freedom. We came to the conclusion that it was an entirely new situation, demanding a new Policy, new strategy. We said: ‘We are a practical party and in a new situation it is our task not only to evolve a new form of struggle for it, but also to advance new slogans appropriate to the new stage, suiting the new form of our national movement. The key slogan of our Party which guides all our practical political activity is : ‘Make the Indian people play a people’s role in a People’s War.’ The second feature in the new situation was the entry of a new Power in the war, a power of a new type, a People’s Power, the Soviet union. We saw the new prospect for humanity that opened through the Soviet entry into the war (Pp. 44-45).