Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

58 I Ramnath
justifiable but imperative. Non-resistance hurts both altruism
and egoism."26 Eschewing links with any political party,
Krishnavarma expanded on these ideas in an introduction
to the first issue: "The British people ... can never succeed
in being a nation of freemen and lovers of freedom so long as
they continue to send out members of the dominating classes
to exercise despotisms in Britain's name upon the various
conquered races that constitute Britain's military Empire."
Spencer, he said, had proven that "all despotisms, whether
political or religious, whether of sex, caste, or of custom, may
be generalized as limitations to individuality, which it is the
nature of civilization to remove."27 Hyndman stated in the
same issue that "Indians must learn to rely upon themselves
alone fo r their political salvation, i.e., the fo rcible expulsion
of the British rule from India and not hope for anything
from the changes of governors and governments." 2X
Every Sunday, meetings and discussions open to all
Indians took place, focusing on issues of independence,
and often featuring patriotic speeches, lectures, songs, and
magic lantern projections of martyred resistance heroes.
Scholarship winner Vinayak Damodar Savarbr read week
1y excerpts from his historical work "The Indian War of
Independence of 1857;' and a commemoration was held on
May lO, 1907, the fiftieth anniversary of the uprising.
Meanwhile, more serious activities were unfolding
in the shadows. Since August 1906, arms trafficking occurred
under cover of Nitisen Dwarkadas and Gyanchand
Varma's Eastern Export and Import Company in Gray's Inn
Place.29 In June, a Dr. Desai who was studying at London
University "gave a lecture at the India House on the making