H. N. Goshal

Hamendrnath Goshal (; 1915–1967), also known as Harinarayan Ghoshal or Thakin Ba Tin (, ), was a communist politician and trade union leader in Burma, of Bengali Hindu origin. He was a member of the Bengali cell of the party. He was associated with Subodh Mukherjee, Dr. Amar Nag, Amar De, Gopal Munshi, Madhav Munshi, etc. During the Japanese occupation, Goshal fled to India.

After the death of Thakin Ba Hein, Goshal became the head of the All Burma Trade Union Congress. His activities were mainly concentrated to Rangoon, organizing the largely Indian working class there.

Goshal is said to have visited India just before the Communist Party of India held its second congress of 1948 (some controversy exists regarding this subject; if he was in India and if so, which meetings he attended). The Goshal Thesis was adopted by the Communist Party of Burma at a mass meeting in Pyinmana on March 14, 1948.

In response to the Goshal Thesis, the Burmese government ordered a crack-down on the Communist Party. The party responded by calling on its leaders to head for the country-side and led guerrilla warfare from there. At this point, Goshal argued in favour of retaining the presence of the party in the cities and to mobilize for general strikes and popular protests in Rangoon. Seemingly contradictory to the Goshal Thesis, Goshal was the sole Central Committee member of the party that did not support the Maoist line of rural warfare. He had been on the losing side in a factional conflict following the return of a section of the party leadership that had been exiled in Beijing. He lost an important vote at the Communist Party politburo meeting of June 1965, where he had argued against Thakin Than Tun's proposal to organize a new party school (Thakin Than Tun had returned from Beijing, whilst Goshal had been a leader of the party inside Burma. Thakin Than Tun had proposed setting up a new party school, with teachers trained in China).