In 1908, an Indian revolutionary from Madras arrived in Marseille, France, and later travelled to Paris, London, Lisbon, New York, Berlin, and Russia with two main objectives: to unveil the brutality of British colonialism and to reject the idea of the universalisation of the nation-state. He made significant contributions to our understanding of resistance to oppression in all its forms, as embodied by the nation-state. He was one of India’s most prominent anarchist activists and theoreticians, M.P.T. Acharya. To explain his life trajectory and the various themes that have shaped it, we are in conversation with historian Ole Birk Laursen.

References:

1. Ole Birk Laursen: Website, LinkedIn
2. Anarchy Or Chaos: M.P.T. Acharya and the Indian Struggle for Freedom by Ole Birk Laursen
3. We Are Anarchists: Essays on Anarchism, Pacifism, and the Indian Independence Movement 1923 - 1953 by M.P.T. Acharya, edited by Ole Birk Laursen
4. ‘I have only One Country, it is the World’: Madame Cama, Anticolonialism, and Indian-Russian Revolutionary Networks in Paris, 1907–17 by Ole Birk Laursen
5. John Steinbeck, Charles Dickens, Samuel Selvon, V.S. Naipaul, George Lamming
6. Spies, Lies and Allies: The Extraordinary Lives of Chatto and Roy by Kavitha Rao (Episode 12 of Navigating India)
7. Shattered Lands: Five Partitions and the Making of Modern Asia by Sam Dalrymple (Episode 15 of Navigating India)
8. Magda Nachman: An Artist in Exile by Lina Bernstein
9. The Ghadar Movement: A Forgotten Struggle by Rana Preet Gill