Globally, cultural movements have accompanied or preceded the political progress of the Left movement – an ideology carried by poets, musicians and thespians. In India too, the Communist Party, in its early decades, attracted prominent cultural figures of the time. Its cultural wings, the renowned Indian People’s Theater Association (IPTA) and Progressive Writers’ Association (PWA), which were founded in 1940 and 1936 respectively, are attested to this fact, as is their roster of publishers. The Bengal chapter, in particular, was one of the prominent ones – theaters such as Bijon Bhattacharya and Utpal Dutt, writers such as Manik Bandyopadhyay and Jyotirindra Moitra, poet-composers such as Salil Chowdhury and Sudhin Dasgupta, filmmakers such as Ritwik Ghatak and artists such as Chittoprasad. .
Nevertheless, a steady stream of creative people left the party and its organisations, even though they continued to adhere to broader leftist ideals. Ghatak and Chittoprasad analyzed why such individuals started isolating themselves…
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