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Revolutionary Pasts: Communist Internationalism in Colonial India
In this engaging and innovative history of the communist movement in colonial India, Ali Raza reveals the lives, geographies, and anti-colonial struggles of Indian revolutionaries and how they sought to remake the world. Driven by the utopian visions of Communist Internationalism, Indian revolutionaries yearned and struggled for a global upheaval that would overthrow European imperialisms and radically transform India and the world. In an age marked by political upheavals, intellectual ferment, collapsing empires, and global conflicts, Indian revolutionaries stood alongside countless others in the colonized world and beyond in their desire to usher in a future liberated from colonialism and capitalism. Drawing from a wealth of archival materials, Raza demonstrates how Communist Internationalism was a crucial project in the struggle for national liberation and inaugurates a new approach to the global history of communism and decolonization.
303 pages, Hardcover
Published May 31, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
August 28, 2021
A really special book.
Ali Raza provides an engaging, meticulously researched, moving, and thorough look at the "utopian subjects" who characterised the heady days of Communist Internationalism in interwar India. He analyses their personal journeys, situates them within broader national and international contexts, and illustrates how communist politics grew and evolved over the course of a few decades, mostly in the Punjab region of colonial India.
A fantastic read for scholars, without a doubt, but I think there's a lot to enjoy for the casual reader as well.
Especially towards the end of the book, I was left feeling melancholic about “dreams deferred” amidst the horrors of partition and the disappointments of ‘post’-colonial politics. However, Raza is right to remind the reader of:
“the need to remember. Not just revolutionary histories, but also the dreamers, idealists, and iconoclasts who made those histories possible. They may have not succeeded in their own estimation, but they left in their wake a trail of dreams and possibilities yet to be realised. And whilst the utopias they yearned for may have receded further into the distance, they could find some solace in knowing that they dedicated their lives to a cause larger than themselves."
Ali Raza provides an engaging, meticulously researched, moving, and thorough look at the "utopian subjects" who characterised the heady days of Communist Internationalism in interwar India. He analyses their personal journeys, situates them within broader national and international contexts, and illustrates how communist politics grew and evolved over the course of a few decades, mostly in the Punjab region of colonial India.
A fantastic read for scholars, without a doubt, but I think there's a lot to enjoy for the casual reader as well.
Especially towards the end of the book, I was left feeling melancholic about “dreams deferred” amidst the horrors of partition and the disappointments of ‘post’-colonial politics. However, Raza is right to remind the reader of:
“the need to remember. Not just revolutionary histories, but also the dreamers, idealists, and iconoclasts who made those histories possible. They may have not succeeded in their own estimation, but they left in their wake a trail of dreams and possibilities yet to be realised. And whilst the utopias they yearned for may have receded further into the distance, they could find some solace in knowing that they dedicated their lives to a cause larger than themselves."
March 15, 2025
An interesting and very informative book on the history of communism in India, primarily focused on events in Punjab in the 20th century.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews