Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

8 I Ramnath
bhakti movements immortalized through mystical poetry
since the thirteenth century. Sikhism was originally founded
as an attempt to counter caste hierarchy and religious
division through synthesis and egalitarian social relations.
The birth and evolution of Buddhism too (along with certain
branches of Vedanta) placed a rational and antihierarchical
philosophy at the heart of India's intellectual heritage,
countering the Orientalist portrait of Indian culture
as essentially defined by hierarchy, autocracy, and unreason. I
In this case, those seeking counterparts or solidarities
might be guided not by Anarchism but instead by
that broader principle, tendency, or orientation of which
We stern anarchism is one derivation or subset. The
Liberty Tree is a great banyan, whose branches cross and
weave, touching earth in many places to form a horizontal,
interconnected grove of new trunks.
Some of the touchdown points are in the mutually
informing three sections that organize this book. The first
section further explores some of these theoretical issues at
the nexus of anarchism and anticolonialism. The second is
a series of historical chapters focusing on interccriOn5 between
the Western anarchist tradition and the tapestry of
Indian anticolonialism. Such crisscrossings occurred during
the peak of propaganda of the deed, a popular tactic
for anarchists, nihilists, and radical nationalists alike; at
the international high point of syndicalism, linking issues
of immigrant labor to an analysis of colonial relationships;
and in the presence of critical voices within the development
of organized world Communism until defined
out by schism or purge. My hope is that the specifics of