One night P.V Sharma, James’s university lecturer, took James for a car ride to Farrer Park. In a parked car, Sharma pulled out a cyclostyled pamphlet from his shoe and asked James to read it. Sharma also prosed that James join the Anti-British League of which Sharma and his friends were members. James agreed to consider Sharma’s proposal. Although he was unimpressed with the pamphlet he decided to join Sharma’s group.
James like the other ABL members, did not consider how non-communist’s would respond to the communist challenge after they had jointly ousted the British from Malaya. His overriding concern then was independence for Malaya. His personal belief was that a communist society would also offer various freedoms denied by the British in colonialist Malaya.
There was no political movement in Malaya and Singapore to which one could join to fight for early independence. They could not found a left wing party because it would not survive in the Emergency environment which would be crushed by the British. Under the circumstances, James felt that the only was to get involved in the independence struggle was to join Sharma and the ABL.
James was placed under Lim Chan Yong and he recruited Abdullah Majid, Tan Seng Lock, Rajadurai and Nadeswaren into the movement. However his scepticism and his independent views eventually led to differences between him and the ABL leaders in university namely Joseph Tan and Lim Chan Yong. One major point evolved around the Marxist concept of the proletariat.
Apart from ideological differences, the ABL leaders disapproved of James’ tendency to be non-conformist. For instance, the group wanted to test James’ commitment (as others had been likewise tested) and instructed him to carry some ABL publications across the Causeway. James could not see any sense in this risky mission and refused to do so.
All these differences eventually led to an attempt to supplant James as the leader of the Bukit Timah ABL group with either Abdullah Majid or Tan Seng Lock.
1 P.V Sharma was released in 1953 on condition that he returned to India. He later joined the communist Malayan National Liberation Army.