Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

64 I Ramnath
where the people have political power there is no need for
the use of explosives. It only promotes reaction. But where
the people are utterly defenceless, both politically and
militarily, then one may look on the bomb or any other
weapon as legitimate. Its employment then becomes merely
a question of expediency. We hope to discuss this question,
particularly with reference to India, in an early issue."';l
Back in Maniktola Garden, Hem Chandra Das
(Kanungo) had grown impatient with a string of botched
bombing and assassination operations followed by a year
of relative inactivity. So he took the initiative to seek more
advanced revolutionary techniques through an apprenticeship
with the Russians in Paris:,2 Funded by Rana ostensibly
to study chemistry-often a convenient route to
the science of explosives, it would appear-Kanungo was
joined by his Maharashtrian friend Pandurang Mahadev
Bapat:D Das and Bapat were reported to be in contact
with a female anarchist from the United States in Paris
who Heehs suggests (rather implausibly, I think) could
have been Emma Goldman. Whoever she was, she introduced
them to a mysterious figure known ::lS PhD,
identified only as a leading figure in a French socialist
organization. PhD and one of his comrades, "a former or
flcer belonging to his party:' offered them instruction in
"history, geography and economics, along with socialism,
communism, etc.:' along with notes on the organization
of secret societies, and after some initial hesitation, "got a
member of their party to instruct Hem and Bapat in explosive
chemistry and demolition." French police reports
are vague on which of these was Safranski, since he was