Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

126 I Ramnath
Acharya's closest associates included Chatto, a prominent
figure among the revolutionists in Europe who was himself
tagged with the anarchist label despite his later tics to the
Russian Communist Party (whereas Indian Communists
dismissed him for nationalist deviation).2
As part of the Abhinava Bharat inner circle, Acharya
was involved with firearms training as well as the publication
of the papers TalwIlr and Bandt: Matamm. Copies of
these flowed back to Pondicherry fo r distribution inside
British India, along with KrishnaYarma's Indi,m SociologiJ"t
and the Gzelic American from the United States.' When
Dhingra shot Curzon-Wyllie, Acharya was by Savarkar's
side in court to protest the resolution condemning Dhingra
to death, and when a barrister called Palmer "boxed
[Savarkar 1 in the eye:' Acharya retaliated by hitting Palmer
with a stick, and added insult to injury by penning "A
Straight Indian Lathi" as a rejoinder to Palmer's letter "A
Truly British Blow" in the London TimeJ":' It was reported
around this time that "Savarkar and others were urging"
Acharya to follow Dhingra into martyrdom, perhaps by
returning to India to carry out another ::lss