TRADE UNION MOVEMENT 25 two tendencies in the Indian movement, distinct in principles and aims. The nationalists advocate an autonomous India and incite the masses to overthrow the foreign exploiter upon a vague democratic programme or no programme at all. The real revolutionary movement stands for the economic emancipation of the workers and rests on the growing strength of a class conscious industrial proletariat and landless peasantry."6 After thus counterposing the ^nationalist" anti-imperialist movement and the "real revolutionary movement" of the "class conscious (Indian) industrial proletariat" and landless peasantry^ Roy goes on: "The idea of the proletarian revolution distinct from nationalism has come to India and is showing itself in unprecedented strikes. It is primitive and not clearly class conscious so that it sometimes is the victim of nationalist ideas. Bat those in the van see the goal and the struggle and reject the idea of uniting the whole country under nationalism for the sole purpose of expelling the foreigner, because they realise that the native princes, landlords . . . who would control the government, would not be less oppressive than the foreigner."7 Lenin-Roy Controversy Discovering the existence of Roy's "those in the van" would hardly be a fruitful exercise because there were none in fact outside the periphery of Roy and a few of the emigre Indian revolutionaries who, under the impact of the October Revolution, had already become communists, accepting his leadership under the overall guidance of the Comintern. Roy's views (as expressed through articles, pamphlets and books) began to enjoy almost the status of official views of the Gomintern, particularly after its secpnd congress where the well-known Roy-Lenin controversy made him famous overnight. For our purpose, it is not necessary to enter into this controversy, but the broad issues involved therein need some notice because of their subsequent impact on the relationship between the newly emerging Indian communist groups and the founder-leaders of the Indian trade union movement. Basically, the controversy, arose out of the following main issues: 1) Relationship between anti-imperialist movements in the colonies and the prospects of proletarian revolutions in the metropolitan countries; 2) attitude of the Gomintern (and the different metropolitan communist parties) towards colonial anti-imperialist struggles; 3) analysis of the role of colonial bourgeoisie in the anti-imperialist struggles; and 4) analysis of these movements from the viewpoint of the existing class relations in the colonies.8