Maia Ramnath - Decolonizing Anarchism.pdf - Libcom

Echoes and Intersections I 75
the Swadeshi movement distinctions could be made between
the Calcutta-based Yugantar group and the Anusilan
Samiti in Dhaka. The fo rmer had more international connections
with activists who would later move into Left fo r­
mations. By cultural default strongly Hindu, upper caste,
and educated, the Yugantar group did not make any of this
foundational to its ideological identity. But the less socially
progressive Dhaka group actively recruited its leadership
based on distinctions of class, caste, and English education,
and explicitly excluded Muslims from membership.61
One way leans toward dangerous cultural chauvinism,
while the other uses the cultural materials at hand to
reach conclusions compatible with, but not derivative of,
something else. Where is the line between these shadings ?
Let's take the path of karma yoga as expounded in
the Bhagavad Gita and central to the applied Swadeshi
philosophy, since its emphasis on the value and meaning
of action is an explicit point of affinity with turn-of-the
century propagandists of the deed. On the occasion of
Khudiram Bose's execution for the Muzaffarpur bombing,
the Bande Mataram commented that "he not only read
the Gita but also acted on it."64 Such a focus on action as
its own justification was still not the same as the reveling in
destruction that was liable to be associated with nihilism,
however-or with the similar characterization of Bengali
shaktism. Among the Bengali militants, it was typical to
fixate on the climactic moment of sacrifice itself rather than
on the tactical outcome or mode of social organization to
come afterward. But there was nevertheless a tactical goal :
to use the symbolic violence to rouse quiescent popular