Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

134 I Ramnath
lotvala
Even ifAcharya introduced the term libertarian socialism
to India. as an institution it must be associated with one
idiosyncratic (and problematic) figure who was its dedicated
patron: Acharyas mentee and correspondent, Lotvala.
Yaj nik, Lotvab's biographer as well as Krishnavarma's, situates
his early years against the backdrop of a vigorously simmering
period in the social and political life of the Bombay
Presidency. punctuated by outbreaks of plague and famine
that catalyzed "agrarian and popular discontent:' and swirling
with new energies of nationalist activity both through
the secular Indian National Congress (INC) and the
religious, social reform-oriented Arya Samaj.
Born in 1875, Lotvala was one of twelve children of
a successful Bombay flour trader. He took over the family
business when his father died in 1894; his mother had died
when he was quite young. Soon revealing a keen entrepreneurial
talent, he managed to expand the business during
the famine of 1899- 1 900, and made a tidy profit thanks to
his stocks of wheat and flour while all the while earning a
reputation fo r integrity. At twenty-five, the budding tycoon
then bought up a mill with its adjacent land and buildings.
But Yajnik claimed that what redeemed young Lotvala
from either decadence or cutthroat profiteering was his
education-a fruitful synthesis of spirituality and rationality.
He had devoured the writings not only ofJohn Stuart
Mill and Spencer but also the teachings of Arya Samaj
fo under Dayananda Saraswati. Yaj nik thought this enabled
Lotvala to "integrate the new doctrines of political liberty