“I had gone there [India] as an Indian nationalist. I had become vaguely sympathetic to the Communist. No, I didn’t have any Communist associations. Romesh Chandra I’ve met him. He was a young boy, a young university student at the time. He’s a very great activist. So in a coffee-shop, Indian coffee-house in Chitteranjan Avenue, we talked and talked.”
“Even though I was very friendly with these chaps, I opposed the Southeast Asia Youth Conference in Calcutta in 1947 (sic).” The conference was held on February 19 – 23 1948. ” I was torn between my primary preoccupation with National Independence and the Communist ideology, almost cosmopolitan ideology. That of course is a bad word in Communist language. ‘Cosmopolitan’ is a bad word.”
“I was somewhat slightly argumentative. I like to hear my own voice. And I felt the thing that really turned me more to the Communists was when the Indians shot up some of the leaders in 1947, Communist leaders. It seemed to me so vicious, that the language of argument ceased and the language of violence took over in order to intimidate the Communists. So I became more and more friendly with them.”
“I was very impressed by the dedication and determination of the Indian communists especially when compared with Hindu and other conservative forces.” In India James began to read Marxist (or leftist) literature and came to know some leftists/Marxists; for instance the leader of the Federation of International Democratic Youth and a young shaven Sikh, Jaswant Singh who was in charge of the operational side of an organization that James was involved in. This was the Relief Welfare Ambulance Corps which aimed to provide ambulance and other health services to the poor in India. The latter [Jaswant Singh] was a bright man – the Quek Peng Cheng aka William Kuok of India. James recalls that he and these Indian radicals used to have discussions in coffee shops and elsewhere on political questions from the left wing perspective.
“I certainly admired Gandhi. The pseudo religious mythology kept me away from becoming a [follower] because I was not an Indian in that sense. I didn’t come from deep Indian roots because of my education and things like that. I didn’t have deep Indian roots. I was a transient Indian.”