Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

110 1 Ramnath
Mukerji
In 1908 or 1909, Mukerji left India fo r Japan due to a combination
of educational and political reasons.('" After a stint
of technical training, odd jobs, and some revolutionary support
work, he made his way to San Francisco in 1910. But in
the scramble fo r menial work to support himself in Berkeley,
the erudite young scholar suffered unaccustomed daily racism
and exploitation. He showed up fo r one job armed with
"my bundle and one book, [Ralph Waldo 1 Emerson's Selj
Reliant!':' but was fired in a day when it became clear he had
no clue how to wash dishes. He was finally hired to serve
meals and make beds at a boardinghouse.
Unfortunately, the University of California seemed
to him much less intellectually stimulating than the
University of Calcutta, where there had been
hot discussions with my fellow students regarding
the state, society, and the future of man. And a
very large majority believed, with me, that professors
were not allowed to teach the truth beclUsc
it was dangerous. So whenever we were assigned a
dangerous topic such as the French Revolution, or
civil war in England under [Oliver] Cromwell, we
read up more books on the subject than were prescribed.
We did it fo r the purpose of contradicting
the professor and finding out the truth.
Here, it seemed to him, the students just took notes
passively and never questioned anything in depth. Then an