"The way to crush the bourgeoisie is to grind them between the millstones of taxation and inflation."Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, commonly known as Lenin, was a Russian communist revolutionary, politician and political theorist. Under his governance, the communist party, Russia had become a one-party communist state. His ideologies are rooted to Marxism and later on his political theories got the name of Leninism. He was arrested several times during the revolution and even sent on exile, where he had to seek passage through Germany and into Sweden to return after the first revolution It wasn't until Lenin's statue in Tripura was vandalised by the right-wing activists that majority of people came to know and research of Lenin's contribution or rather influence on freedom of India.
1. Lala Hardayal who was one of the leading freedom fighter during and contemporary of both Veer Savarkar and Shyamji Verma was deeply influenced by Marxism and the theories of Lenin that called for self governance.
2. When Bal Gangadhar Tilak was sent on exile, Lenin who was on exile too, hailed the freedom struggle of India.
3. Lenin slammed the British government, "The most liberal and radical personalities of free Britain…become regular Genghis Khans when appointed to govern India, and are capable of sanctioning every means of 'pacifying' the population in their charge, even to the extent of flogging political protestors!"
4. Lenin slammed the move of British government against Tilak and remarked that Indians have got a taste of the revolution and will not stop until the British rule is doomed to its end.
5. Lenin's revolution in Russia is known to have a profound influence on the Ghadar movement, Khilafat impulse, and the Reshmi Roomal Tehrik.
6. Jawaharlal Nehru wrote, "Almost at the same time as the October Revolution led by the great Lenin, we in India began a new phase in our struggle for freedom. Our people for many years were engaged in this struggle with courage and patience. And although under the leadership of Gandhi we followed another path, we were influenced by the example of Lenin."
7. British authorities could see the influence and started spreading rumours of massacre and bloodshed against Lenin. Tilak defended Lenin by saying, "Lenin was in favour of peace...he only wants justice for oppressed...he is popular among the people and the army because he distributed land amongst the peasantry".
8. Bhagat Singh and Chandrashekhar Azad and their HSRA movement were deeply influenced by Lenin's open support to Indian freedom movement.
9. HSRA went to Russia for Arms training. Bhagat Singh also wanted to go but was imprisoned. He read a lot of books about Marxism during his jail term. When Bhagat Singh was summoned to be hanged, he was reading Lenin.
10. Kalpana Datta, who later joined the Communist Party of India, a member of the Indian Nationalist Army under Surya Sen, was an ardent admirer of Lenin.
It can be seen that though Lenin did not ever visit India or had a direct connection with India, it was his views, ideologies and political revolution that influenced Indian freedom fighters to call for swaraj. The demolishers of his statue are once showing resistance against what he stands for.
