Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

150 I Ramnath
described as "well decorated and neatly kept with pictures
ofKropotkin and Bakunin hanging on the walls." In Josh's
opinion. this group, with its insistence on immediate action
instigated by small groups or individuals, lacked the
patience needed fo r the long maturation of revolutionary
conditions through mass organizing. "Bhagat Singh wanted
to do something very quick. through the usc of bombs and
pistols. in order to awaken the slumbering youth and students
who had fo rgotten their duty toward their motherland,
something spectacular that would make them sit up
and do some thinking about the soul-crushing enslavement
ofIndia and come forward to make sacrifices fo r the cause
of freedom."\'
Ajoy Ghosh (Bhagat Singh's comrade and coaccused,
later prominent in the Cpr) said that fo r them at the time.
As fo r the most important question, however- ...
[of howl the fight fo r freedom and socialism was to
be waged-armed action by individuals and groups
was to remain our immediate task. Nothing else.
we held. could smash constitutionalist illusions,
nothing else could free the country from the grip
in which fear held it. When the stagnant calm was
broken by a series of hammerblows delivered by us,
at selected points and on suitable occasions, against
the most hated officials of the government and a
mass movement unleashed. we would link ourselves
with that movement, act as its armed detachment
and give it a socialist direction.56