42 Facts About Philip Spratt

Philip Spratt was a British writer and intellectual.

Philip Spratt was among the first architects, and a founding-member of the Communist Party of India, and was among the chief accused in the Meerut Conspiracy Case; he was arrested on 20 March 1929 and imprisoned.

Philip Spratt was the Editor of MysIndia, a pro-American weekly, and later of Swarajya, a newspaper run by C Rajagopalachari.

Philip Spratt was a prolific writer of books, articles and pamphlets on a variety of subjects, and translated books in French, German, Tamil, Sanskrit, and Hindi, into English.

Philip Spratt was born in Camberwell on 26 September 1902 to Herbert Spratt, a schoolmaster, and Norah Spratt.

Philip Spratt won a university scholarship in 1921 to study mathematics at Downing College, Cambridge.

Philip Spratt joined the Union Society, the University Labour Club and a private discussion society called the Heretics, of which Charles Kay Ogden was president; Frank P Ramsey, I A Richards and Patrick Blackett often attended.

Philip Spratt worked, for a while, at the Labour Research Department in the Metropolitan Borough of Deptford, and was a member of the London University Labour Party.

Philip Spratt was expected to arrange for the infiltration of CPI members into the Congress party, trade unions and youth leagues to obtain leadership of them.

Philip Spratt was asked to write a pamphlet on China, urging India to follow the example of the Kuomintang.

Philip Spratt was accompanied to India by Ben Bradley and Lester Hutchinson.

Philip Spratt was arrested in 1927, on account of some cryptic letters written to and by him that were seized by the Police.

Philip Spratt was charged with sedition, on account of the pamphlet entitled India and China that he had written on Clemens Dutt's instructions.

Philip Spratt played an active part and described their growth and activities.

Philip Spratt wrote that WPP took initiative to form the Leagues, which became widespread in the country.

Philip Spratt's contributions were collected as An Internationalist, which came out as a booklet in May 1927.

Philip Spratt was interned in the Arthur Road Prison for more than two months.

Philip Spratt had been arrested in 1927 for some secret letters but was charged with sedition for this booklet.

Philip Spratt was an active participant in and organizer of the AITUC and workers' unions.

Philip Spratt gave detailed account of it and played an active role.

The session elected a Council of Action of which Philip Spratt was a member.

Philip Spratt participated in the struggles of jute and other workers in Calcutta, Bombay and elsewhere during this time.

Philip Spratt was, in 1928, responsible for two sweepers' strikes in Calcutta.

Philip Spratt was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, which on appeal, was reduced to 2; he was released from jail in October 1934.

Philip Spratt discusses the psychology of imprisonment in an article which appeared in the Modern Review, Calcutta in 1937.

Philip Spratt spent 18 months in the Fort at Belgaum, and was released finally in June 1936.

Sir Patrick Donner asked the Secretary of State for India whether he was aware of the fact that Philip Spratt was interned in Belgaum Fort under the Emergency Powers Act and whether he would be deported.

Butler replied that Philip Spratt was interned under Section 4 of the EPA within the confines of the Fort, and he had been provided a suitable house.

Philip Spratt attended several meetings of Communists, who were then split into many groups.

Philip Spratt reached Bombay on 8 October 1934, accompanied by Joglekar, and was taken in a procession to the office of Young Workers' League.

Philip Spratt attended the open session of the All India Congress Socialist Conference in Bombay on 21 October 1934.

Philip Spratt was arrested again in December 1934 under stringent emergency legislation passed to deal with civil disobedience struggle.

Philip Spratt was again interned in the Fort in Belgaum.

Philip Spratt began to write strongly in criticism of Soviet policy after the Russian invasion of Finland in 1939.

In 1951, Philip Spratt became secretary of the newly formed Indian Congress for Cultural Freedom, and a frequent contributor to its bulletin, Freedom First.

Philip Spratt settled in Bangalore, and was the Chief Editor of a pro-American and pro-Capitalist weekly named MysIndia, until 1964.

Philip Spratt further believed that the result would be 'the smothering of free enterprise, a famine of consumer goods, and the tying down of millions of workers to soul deadening techniques'.

Philip Spratt believed that the Kashmir Valley should be granted independence.

Philip Spratt argued that Indian policy was based on a 'mistaken belief in the one-nation theory and greed to own the beautiful and strategic valley of Srinagar'.

Philip Spratt further stated that the costs of this policy, present and future, were incalculable, and that rather than give Kashmir special privileges and create resentment elsewhere in India, it was best to let the state secede.

Philip Spratt wrote an autobiographical account, Blowing up India: Reminiscences and Reflections of a Former Comintern Emissary in 1955.

Philip Spratt died of cancer on 8 March 1971, in Madras.