“Decolonizing Anarchism” by Maia Ramnath

Ramnath’s book is heavy on slogans and post-modernist interpretations of the anti-colonial, anarchist struggle. It relies too heavily on terminology of revolution, such as propaganda of the deed. It does its best when detailing the historical narrative of India’s struggle for independence from British rule. Particularly, she deals in detail with the Bengali role as the intellectual spearhead of independence. The Swadeshi Movement, translated as “one’s own country”, that started in Bengal as a result of British partition, the Ghadar Party, started in America as an independence party for India, and the samitis and akharas, the religious associations and clubs, formed in Bengal to promote Indian nationalist culture all make appearances. Theoretically, she makes her point that while decolonization movements were explicitly nationalistic, they could also be seen as an anarchist launch point. The colonial project was the highest form of nationalism and any effort to destroy it was thus a step towards anarchy. The book fails in that she spends too much time trying to characterize the effort and put it within her narrative instead of letting the anti-colonial events speak for themselves in the historical record.