Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

210 I Ramnath
have died since the insurgency emerged in 1989, with no
end as yet on the horizon.
From the perspective of a regional separatist movement
, calling the central state's behavior "internal colonialism"
is already contentious, since the boundaries or
sovereignty are precisely what's at issue. It's colonialism,
plain and simple, complete with the illegll occupation
of territory. But these death tolls are yet another indication
that ethnonationalism does not solve the problem of
colonialism, internal or otherwise.
Activist, sociologist, and social movement scholar Gail
Omvedt writes, "The common denominator" among these
various "assertions of autonomy:' whether in border regions
or interior hinterland areas, "was not simply 'identity politics'
but the drive by the inhabitants of a geographically
delimited area to control its economic and political life
in a situation where they were increasingly coming under
the domination and exploitation of a centralized stateindustrial
machine of capital accumulation."4
Yet the Indian state was originally founded as a socialist
deInocracy seen as a leader :1mong the nonaligned llluvement
of decolonizing nations. This endowed it with the lingering
aura of standing for emancipation, anti-imperialism,
and anticapitalism in the immediate postcolonial decades.
Under the "Nehruvian consensus;' it had a mandate for
progressive development toward economic autonomy and
redistributive justice. Assumptions about its fundamental
legitimacy were common sense, even when subject to criticism
for being ineffectual and corrupt in practice. The ideal
was intact, and the problems lay in not living up to it.