Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

122 I Ramnath
To which Mukerji reiterated that "if we free ourselves
from ourselves first" -that is. transform our own
\1(!est-imported "gregarious gluttony" -then Indians
would "be able to save Asia from the West. I think. almost
automatically."
But this interlocutor was not sanguine about the ability
ofa subject people to influence the spirituality of the world
from that position; who would give credit to a conquered
race ? "111e West will never accept the spirituality of the east
until by rorce we free ourselves from any We stern domination.
In order to give the spirituality ofIndia to the modern
barbarism of Europe we must beat them at their own game.
We must go through the necessary step of nationalism and
nationality. Until we have a victorious India free from all foreign
control and domination no proud Western nation will
ever care to listen to our spiritual talk." In other words. philosophical
and spiritual influence could only come from a place
of material strength and sovereignty.
By this point, having critiqued nationalism, imperialism,
capitalism, and socialism. Mukerji admitted, "My
zest for anarchism was coming to an end, I began to ,ee
that there was nothing to do but to find a new philosophy.
something that had little concern with the material future
of mankind. It was during this period that I began to rediscover
India:' where at that time "things. both political
and otherwise, were fermenting." As Mukerji witnessed the
trickle ofIndian students grow to a steady stream crossing
the ocean in search of "knowledge and wisdom, the more I
grew convinced that they were coming through a desert to
slake their thirst with the waters of a mirage."