The Bolshevik Menace

Colonial Surveillance and the Origins of Socialist Politics in Calcutta

Bibliographic Data

ID11447357
AuthorsSuchetana Chattopadhyay (Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India, corresponding author)
Year2006
Volume26
Issue2
Pages165-179
Publication date2006-07-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Asia Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0262-7280 • E-ISSN: 1741-3141
PublisherSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/0262728006066490
OpenAlexW2167436633
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited4

This article examines the impact of the anti-Bolshevik surveillance network created by the colonial state on the urban political milieu of Calcutta during the late 1910s and the early 1920s. The first socialists in Calcutta (1921–24), predominantly Muslims, emerged from the ranks of urban intellectuals and political activists. The article argues that the state's insistence on labelling various social and political segments, including early socialists, as political tools of Moscow demonstrated its inability to grasp the local responses to an international current. It is shown that despite enforcement of various strategies, which tried to anticipate and prevent the spread of socialism, the colonial state failed to counter the emergence of the left in the city

Colonialism · Communism · Economic history · Political dissent · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Socialism · Sociology · State (computer science · Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies · History · Indian Economic and Social Development · Law · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East

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