A Break with the Past

In the decades following the second world war, the rise of the Soviet Union as a world power not only signaled the decreasing power of Europe but for Amir Haider Khan Dada, represented an alternative to the colonial order and the path to freedom and liberty for all. It represented a break with the past and the beginning of a glorious future for humanity based on unity, equality and justice. Similarly, for Sukarno, the post war period was a time for a new beginning and the time for the third world to lead the way to a prosperous future of unity, equality and freedom.

Writing about his stay in Moscow and his experience at the University of the Peoples of the East, Dada feels as if he has entered the new epoch of history and has left the colonial past behind. At the university Dada saw black men with Russian women, walked in the May Day procession parade and freely interacted with his superiors at summer camp. Here for the first time he felt respected and on an equal footing with the other races and his origins, his brown skin and ‘Indian-ness’ were a source of pride rather than humiliation and discrimination. A complete subversion of what it meant to be respectable.

For both, Dada and Sukarno, in this new era the political geography of the globe had also been inverted since in the past the geographical relationship between different lands had been based on the link between the colony and the metropole. Europe was the center of the world. No longer was this the case since Moscow was the new place of congregation, the center of revolution and offered a promise of alternate governance and self-determination. The Comintern being the biggest example of this. The conference at Bandung too was a reflection of this inversion. Sukarno called it the ‘first intercontinental conference of coloured peoples in the history of mankind’ and ‘a new departure in the history of the world’. This was one of the features of the ‘new order’ where the power of the colonizers was redistributed by decentering them. This was the new way of being in which the third world no longer needed Europe as a platform to discuss their matters.

Dada experienced true cosmopolitanism in Moscow. Moscow’s cosmopolitanism went beyond just having people from different backgrounds around, rather it was the active appreciation of diversity in which each tradition was considered respectful in its own right. An example of this being the vast number of languages in which the curriculum at the university was taught. The students, coming from diverse backgrounds, were given the opportunity (right) to study in their native tongue and no language was given preference over the other- something new for Dada. Sukarno’s speech gives the same message and emphasizes the spirit of unity and tolerance. He acknowledges the diversity, ‘Yes, there is diversity among us… with people professing almost every religion under the sun… Almost every political faith we encounter here… And practically every economic doctrine has its representative in this hall…’. However, for him this diversity is not harmful. In fact, this conference is one of ‘brotherhood’ and the difference has its own place in the new order while the unity and desire for collective well-being is the primary concern.

While at Moscow Dada learnt about Communist Internationalism which tied the fate of the world together and supported revolution all over the world. The belief that everyone’s freedom was linked led to the purpose of politics being the collective freedom and betterment of all peoples. For Sukarno the new purpose of politics is essentially the same. Now it is time for the people of the third world to redefine politics and go beyond self-interest. A ‘fresh approach’ is needed with the aim of ending war and conflict and striving towards peace and stability.

Since the colonial era, the colonized people had been living in the colonizer’s past. They had no present but were stuck in the time of the ‘not yet’. Communist Internationalism, supporting the cause of self-determination for all, called for independence- now. This meant the that time of the not yet had become a time of the now, breaking away from the colonial understanding of time and taking charge of the present. This breaking away resulted in a sort of temporal rupture. For Dada, Communist Internationalist sought to heal that rupture of time by opening up the possibility of a new reality where all people are free and equal and collective well-being the priority. Similarly, for Sukarno, there has been a break with the past. With the coming together of the leaders of the newly freed nations ‘… a New Asia and a New Africa have been born!’. It is now up to these nations to lead the world into a new epoch characterized by unity, peace, tolerance and morality rather than war, greed, discrimination and exploitation. Just as Russian Communism is the opening up of new possibilities of ways of being, for Sukarno the Third World represents a third way. A new alternate way for the world.

20020042