Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

Echoes and Intersections I 143
poverty and breed wars. Moral character of man is
the product of his environment . ... The most considerable
environmental influence is "government"
in the sense of all the social and political forces to
which the individual is subjected. 111ese forces are
nearly all evil, the worst being the vast inequality of
property, giving rise to the insolence and usurpation
of the rich, and the toil, penury and servility
of the poor. The causal connection between political
power and economic privilege, [which also
constrained 1 freedom of the mind is a major evi1.43
The writer elaborates on the minimization of government-even
if pragmatically speaking, its total elimination
were not possible-but anticipates the ideal of a stateless,
classless society to be "worked for here and now;' by guiding
an association "for the sake of mutual assistance and not
so much . .. for the struggle of existence."4'J
The way to "regain paradise" would be through the use
of reason, improvement of education systems, and interpretation
of natural law. Furthermore, "such rationality leads
one inevitably away from the narrowness of patriotism to
cosmopolitanism . ... A wise man will be ready to exert
himself in the defence of liberty wherever it exists . .. but
his attachment will be to the cause and not to his country
as such . ... Always he returns to freedom."15
Is it Acharyas hand we detect in the attached statement?
This certainly sounds-though here unattributed-like
the stance of a seasoned veteran of the revolutionary
movement abroad, plausibly reflective of Acharyas