Socialist ideas, especially in the 1920s, began to spread rapidly, especially because many young persons, who had participated actively in the Non-Cooperation Movement, were unhappy with its outcome and were dissatisfied with the Gandhian policies and ideas, as well as the alternative Swarajist programme. Several socialist and communist groups came into existence all over the country.

In Bombay, S.A. Dange published a pamphlet Gandhi and Lenin, and started the first socialist weekly, The Socialist; in Bengal, Muzaffar Ahmed brought out Navayug and later founded the Langal in co-operation with the poet NazruI Islam; in Punjab, Ghulam Hussain and others published Inquilab; and in Madras, M. Singaravelu founded the Labour-Kisan Gazette.