Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

Echoes and Intersections I 193
system of exploitation. For this it is necessary to wean the
anti-imperialist elements in the Congress away from its
present bourgeois leadership, and to bring them under the
leadership of revolutionary socialism."47
At this point he still viewed Marxism as the one true
theory of socialism. Although acknowledging difl-erences
in tactics and approaches, it remained hard to refute the
apparent success of the Russian Revolution. He also still
assumed the necessity of seizing power to effect change.
JP elaborated a program for economic liberation completely
compatible with the then-dominant paradigm
for Nehruvians and Communists alike: state-planned
and controlled development, the socialization of critical
industries, and the redistribution ofland. Since inequality
stemmed from the appropriation of natural resources
and means of production by individuals for their own
ends, private ownership had to be abolished. So did state
support for distinctions of caste, religion, or gender.
But JP was already expressing a preference for pastoral
communities over urban concentrations. His land redistribution
plan was not based on massive collective farms
but instead on evenly dispersed village cooperatives, with
mixed agricultural and industrial economies, to be reorganized
gradually through persuasion, not immediately
through coercion."S
When World War II broke out, JP toured the country
calling for noncooperation with the war effort. For this
he was imprisoned for nine months in 1940, then arrested
again immediately on release and put into a special camp
in Deoli along with other leftist leaders. He tried to send a