League against fascism and war

Responding to an appeal from Romain Rolland and Paul Langevin, in 1936 socialist, communist and progressive intellectuals formed ‘League against Fascism and War’ whose aim was to spread the activities of World Peace Congress and campaign for Abyssinia, Palestine and Spain. One of the prime movers was Rabindranath Tagore’s grand-nephew, Saumyendranath Tagore, shown in the photo, a political thinker and labour organizer, who wrote a pamphlet on Spain in which he described the conflict as “an international struggle between… the reactionary forces of the past and the forces of the people for real democracy and freedom” and called on the “workers, peasants and youth of India [to] organize themselves in millions and stand solidly behind the gallant fighters of Spain”.

Rabindranath Tagore agreed to serve as president of the organization.  Other key figures included the distinguished chemist Prafulla Chandra Ray, the editors of major newspapers: S. Brailvy of the Bombay Chronicle, K. Shantanam of the Madras Daily Express, Tusharkanti Ghosh  of the Amrita Bazar Patrika, and Dr. Biren Sen of Advance, Sarojini Naidu (Indian National Congress), All India Trade Union Congress leader R. S. Ruikar, Professor Surendranath Goswami (Secretary, Progressive Writers Association, Bengal), Sajjad Zaheer (Secretary, All India Progressive Writers Association), Sahajananda Saraswati (Secretary, All India Kisan Sabha), Jayaprakash Narayan (Congress Socialist Party) and S. A. Dange (Communist Party of India) among others. The League printed a pamphlet, Spain, requesting aid to Spain with words from and photos of Romain Rolland, Rabindranath and Henri Barbusse.

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