Anarchy or Chaos: M. P. T. Acharya and the Indian Struggle for Freedom

The first biography of an extraordinary political thinker at the heart of India’s struggles against colonial and domestic oppression.

In this fascinating biography of the Indian revolutionary M. P. T. Acharya (1887–1954), Ole Birk Laursen uncovers the remarkable transnational networks, movements and activities of India’s most important anticolonial anarchist in the twentieth century.

Driven by the urge for complete freedom from colonialism, authoritarianism, fascism and militarism, which are rooted in the idea and politics of the nation-state, Acharya fought for an international vision of socialism and freedom. During the tumultuous opening decades of the 1900s—marked by the globalisation of radical inter-revolutionary struggles, world wars, the rise of communism and fascism, and the growth of colonial independence movements—Acharya allied himself with pacifists, anarchists, radical socialists and anticolonial fighters in exile, championing a future free from any form of oppression, whether by colonial rulers or native masters. Drawing on a wealth of archival material, private correspondence and other primary sources, Laursen demonstrates that, among his contemporaries, Acharya’s turn to anarchism was unique and pioneering in the struggle for Indian independence.

Anarchy or Chaos is the first comprehensive study of M. P. T. Acharya. It offers a new understanding of the global and entangled history of anarchism and anticolonialism in the first half of the twentieth century.

Reviews

‘[Anarchy or Chaos] vividly captures the itinerant lives of anticolonial revolutionaries… providing a rare glimpse into the racial Indian diaspora and migrant communities worldwide.’ – Asian Review of Books

‘A thorough and refreshing biography of a fascinating intellectual that will not only prove of interest to students of anarchism or the Indian national movement, but will also provide solid ground for those historians working on intellectuals and mobility.’ — H Soz Kult

‘A rich and illuminating account of a forgotten but significant presence in the intertwined histories of anticolonialism, socialism and anarchism. Laursen’s meticulous research and lucid narration redresses a major gap in the annals of anticolonial resistance and global struggles for justice.’ — Priyamvada Gopal, Professor of Postcolonial Studies, University of Cambridge, and author of Insurgent Empire

‘Shining a spotlight on an under-researched area of anarchism in Indian history, this biography places Acharya fully into the historical record—alongside political giants of his generation such as Subhas Chandra Bose, Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru. An exciting tale.’ — Neilesh Bose, Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair, University of Victoria, and author of India after World History

‘In his impressive biography of one of the main protagonists of Indian leftist activism, Laursen skilfully connects the story of Indian nationalism with the wider global history of communism and anarchism. A compelling, ambitious and highly original book.’ — Harald Fischer-Tiné, Professor for the History of the Modern World, ETH Zurich, and author of Shyamji Krishnavarma: Sanskrit, Sociology and Anti-Imperialism

‘Carefully researched and lucidly written, this captivating book tracks the political life of a dynamic but peripheral figure in South Asian anticolonialism, uncannily present at many critical events in the global history of Indian nationalism. Placing anarchism at its centre, Laursen nuances the development of leftist thought in South Asia.’ — Kama Maclean, Professor of History, South Asian Institute, University of Heidelberg, and author of A Revolutionary History of Interwar India

Author(s)

Ole Birk Laursen is Affiliated Research Fellow at the Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin. His research focuses on South Asian history, anticolonialism and anarchism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. He is the editor of a collection of essays by M. P. T. Acharya, We Are Anarchists.

Asian Review of Books || In Anarchy or Chaos, Ole Birk Laursen sets out to bring the life and intellectual contributions of MPT Acharya, a relatively unknown yet vitally important Indian revolutionary, to a wider audience. This biography delves into Acharya’s involvement in nationalism, anticolonialism, revolution, and anarchism, drawing extensively from memoirs, letters, newspapers, and intelligence reports. The result is a remarkable and comprehensive portrayal of a man, for whom much of his life was spent at the centre of major radical activity.

Born in Chennai in 1887, Acharya embraced nationalism and sedition early in his life, working to promote Indian Independence movements, leading him to seek refuge from British Indian authorities, first in the French enclaves of Pondicherry and later in Europe. His long spell outside of India, Laursen argues, “enables a fresh view of the politics of exile” and also “highlights the existence of anticolonial movements beyond the British empire.”

During a spell in London, at the infamous India House, a hostel for Indian students that was also home to many Indian revolutionaries, Acharya’s life offers a portrayal of the flurry of political activity that many Indian exiles were engaged in. Yet after the assassination of William Curzon-Wyillie, the political aide-de-camp to the Secretary of State for India, by Madan Lal Dingra, another regular India House visitor, the political climate in London became too repressive for Acharya’s political activities. So he set off across Europe, North Africa, Central Asia, the Middle East, Russia & North American, where he was busy “associating with proto-nationalists, pan-Islamists, Muhajirs, communists, Bolsheviks, and anarchists” as part of his efforts to secure Indian freedom from British rule.

The book reveals the complex web of alliances and challenges faced by Indian nationalists during the tumultuous years of the early 20th century and sheds light on the global reach of Indian anticolonialism during this period, exploring alliances with unlikely partners like Germany and the Soviet Union. Lausen asks

How do we understand the global reach of Indian anticolonialism in the first decades of the twentieth century? What does this mean for our understanding of nationalism as an international project.

The book does a good job of answering exactly that. The book highlights how, as the Indian Independence movement fought to become international, how at times power dynamics and other factors both strengthened and hindered this international movement. For example, World War 1 saw Indian Nationalists forging alliances with Britain’s wartime enemies, to defeat Britain’s hold on India, despite the fact the Germans were also colonialists. Indeed, the Germans never really believed in Indian independence; rather they believed in saying what had to be said to gain an important ally in the fight against Britain.

The book isn’t limited in scope to just the Indian independence movement as it shows the myriad of divisions between rest of the world’s socialists and pacifist movements in Ireland, Egypt, Russia, Germany and elsewhere. By studying Archays activity, both in Russia and elsewhere in Europe, “we arrive at a more nuanced understanding of communism and anti-imperialism.” One of the book’s central questions is how Indian anticolonialism reached a global scale and how this impacted the broader understanding of nationalism as an international project.

Throughout, readers encounter an array of supporting characters and witness a flurry of revolutionary and intellectual activities. The book vividly captures the itinerant lives of anticolonial revolutionaries during that era, providing a rare glimpse into the racial Indian diaspora and migrant communities worldwide.

The book packs a staggering number of events and characters into its 240 pages. Indeed at times, the book threatens to buckle under the weight of the sheer amount of meetings, organizations, individuals, publications, and committees. Nevertheless, the book is a significant and invaluable contribution to historical scholarship.

Despite dying in relative obscurity in 1954, Acharya’s intellectual contributions endure, with over 200 articles published in Indian and international anarchist publications. The book, in its own words, is “an attempt to recover a life like Acharya’s, and to think more broadly about its implications for wider political movements such as the Indian freedom struggle and the international anarchist movement”, it succeeded in this aim and its academic contribution is as important as it is impressive.

Maximillian Morch is a researcher and author of Plains of Discontent: A Political History of Nepal’s Tarai (1743-2019) (2023)