Philip Spratt

Philip Spratt (26 September 1902 – 8 March 1971) was a British writer and intellectual. Initially a communist sent by the British arm of the Communist International (Comintern), based in Moscow, to spread Communism in India, he subsequently became a friend and colleague of M.N. Roy, founder of the Communist parties in Mexico and India, and along with him became an communist activist.

Philip Spratt

Quotes

• "My recollection is that though the communist group put up a worker, or rather a railway clerk, against him, we were not displeased at his election. We did not regard him as one of us, but we recognised him as one who could be useful. The term was not yet current, or we should have called him a fellow-traveller."
  • Philip Spratt, who was leader of the CPI at that time, writing about Jawaharlal Nehru
  • Philip Spratt, Blowing Up India (London: Phoenix House, 1957 p. 109), quoted in Sita Ram Goel, Genesis and Growth of Nehruism. Vol. 1, Commitment to Communism (New Delhi: Voice of India 1993)

• "For nearly twenty of his years in London, he was known as a close supporter of the communists. People change their minds, but Mr. Menon's recent speeches do not suggest that he has changed his. I should guess that be is one of that considerable band of people in important positions in the free world who, though not technically party members, are in fact disciplined communists. Even if this is disputed, it will be agreed that there is something anomalous in a convinced partisan of the aggressor masquerading as a neutral mediator, and contriving so regularly to serve the aggressor's purposes. I hope people will not think I am suffering from a conspiracy mania; after all, Communism is a conspiracy."
  • Philip Spratt about V. K. Krishna Menon
  • Quoted in Sita Ram Goel, Genesis and Growth of Nehruism. Vol. 1, Commitment to Communism (New Delhi: Voice of India 1993)