Raymond Betts argues in his book Decolonization: Making of the contemporary world that colonization was based on an assumed superiority on the basis of time. The colonized not only went through a ‘break in history’ from which they could never recover, but they were assumed to be behind actual time: words like pagan, primitive, native, all have connotations of bodies from the past as opposed to the Europeans and later Central America that looked towards the future. A chapter of Dada Amir Haider Khan’s travelogue is also entitled “Break from the Old World”. This highlights that it is this idea of time that the oppressed people collectively sought to address. A new center, away from the Western centre, prepared the unrecognized, oppressed people to learn to together oppose the powers through an education that not only enlightened them but also allowed for them to recognize their own distinct experiences and identity. Yet it was also collective. People from all over the world, differentiated by age, gender, religion, and the color of their skin united as one to march towards the Communist utopia: Moscow. This is what the poster of the oppressed, the workers, also shows. These people no longer accepted being left behind or to be perceived as a thing of the past. There time was now. It was the present that they aspired to change and looked towards a promising future.

In his travelogue, Chains to Lose, Dada Amir Haider Khan illustrates the hope of a promising tomorrow associated with this new center of the world and the Communist International. The above poster entitled ‘Workers have nothing to lose but their chains…’ also depicts this idea of collectivity and the convergence of difference under the red flag that encapsulates the entire circumference of the earth. By inverting the center and leaving United States absent from the face of the earth, Moscow resides in the virtual centre promising better world based on equality and equity. The inversion can also be seen literally in time as the crescent of the moon is laterally inverted. The poster shows a communist leader from whom others appear to be learning. Dada’s travelogue also highlights how in Moscow, the diversity wasn’t the only enchanting thing, instead, the University of the People of the East which harboured people from all parts of the world propagated principles of discipline and taught a new ethic which the people benefited from. The education then also entwined with the need to keep up with the time and to move forward to refute the conceptions of the colonized belonging to the past.

Along with time, the body became central in this new space. The body of the Other was viewed differently in Moscow, the same body that encapsulated threat in the West was celebrated here. The body that was merely tolerated was now intellectually and spatially liberated and was also heard. Dada Amir Haider Khan’s story also shines light on this. The idea of freedom is highlighted as soon as the Communist flag goes up on ship. He says: “As soon as the Soviet crew hoisted their flag and took charge of the steamer, we were free to wander the deck wherever we pleased”. The red flag, also depicted in the picture as going around the world as it almost claws into Australia, broke the shackles that Dada and other people of the oppressed classes, races, nations were bound by. People of different genders and colors are also shown in the poster. Earlier on the ship, he was not even allowed to voice his opinion about the quality of the food because they were Third Class Passengers. Their foreign status and their class position silenced them. However, in Moscow there was greater freedom of mobility as well the freedom to voice one’s opinion. Furthermore, debate and critical thinking was an integral part of the education. Dada asserts at the end of the travelogue that the perception in the United States was that critical thinking and dissent is not tolerated in the Soviet Union, however, it was the complete opposite of what he experienced in his time there. Dada’s class background, his lack of education, and the colour of his skin, as well as his Black companions’ skin colour, did not isolate them. While they were silenced and told to go back to their own countries if they ever voiced alternative opinions in the United States, they were encouraged to do so in Moscow.

The poster and Dada’s travelogue both show the expanse of possibility through the ethic of collective solidarity and education. They both also look at the future as at the end of the travelogue all the comrades go to different places and the poster also shows how the red flag takes over the world.

The world has witnessed many an extraordinary moment. Moments that shifted not only the surface but also the substance of the world, or at least this is what the extraordinary, unbelievable moments promised, and dreamed. It is, therefore, an art to appreciate the strength and might of those moments and decades, following their emergence. I say decades because the time in reference here is not a distant history, neither has it lived through centuries. It will, but just not yet. The memory is fresh, and recognizing the very fact that it has not been long, is enough to make one pause every thought, enter into an epoche and solely devote the mind and the heart to understand, appreciate, and root for the revolutions of the twentieth century. The struggles, the convictions and the fears. What is crucial is to appreciate the powerful, terrific moments not in isolation, but in togetherness. Together in the fight directed against oppression, force, tyranny and conquest. A fight that lived through decades, sacrificed immensely and finally broke through the chains of time, a time undefined and inescapable. A time that was robbed, but that time also gave the motivation and strength to defeat the tyrannies.

 Inconceivable yes, but it did happen.

This fight was as much as Amir Haider Khan’s (Dada) as it was for Sukarno. As much a fight for those fighting for independence as it was for the communist revolutionaries marching to their capital from every corner of the world. Victory in sight, memory of the past and endless hope for the future. The contexts were different but celebrations the same.

Sukarno, in his speech, celebrates the coming together of the new Afro-Asian states in Bandung by ‘choice’, not by necessity. He recognizes their victory in gathering together, not dictated in a foreign land, but in their home country, having seen similar histories of violence, conquest, robbed representation and injustice. This idea and celebration of togetherness was reflected in Dada’s memoir as well. For him, it was a celebration of the coming together of communists from around the world to a ‘home’ that not only welcomed them but promised to provide for their future fights and transformations. A hub that united them under one flag, and one past, though lived separately but under the burden of one reality.

Sukarno was envisioning the unity and wave of fresh, free air that Dada was in fact ‘living’ and breathing in, during his time in the Soviet Union. This was the unity that Sukarno was dreaming for his nation and the nations that had emerged into light and life with his.

In Dada’s world, the racist, unjust, unequal forces had been defeated, or at least he was now out of their reach in the land that had promised him and his comrades the dignity, value and respect they had craved. Dada was in a space that accommodated one and all, bound by a common deeply-embedded ideology. Years later, Sukarno was stressing over the very need to unite, to recognize the urgency of a ‘sustainable’ togetherness. Reading Sukarno into Dada, one cannot help but realize that what Dada had experienced in terms of freedom and liberty was what Sukarno was desiring, idealizing and praying for.  How Dada and his comrades’ lives changed in the Soviet Union was a reality. The words of Sukarno were a longing for that reality. For the likes of Sukarno, Dada’s memoir could be a model not too old to replicate or desire, but far more complex and difficult to achieve. Perhaps, that is why one senses a strange and uncomfortable fear in Sukarno’s speech. In his words, there was less to celebrate and more to fear, to recognize and to work on. There was urgency. There was a search for fraternity. The more one reads through it, the more manifest it becomes.

Sukarno refers to him and the attendees as “Masters of our own house”. While he celebrates the solidarity and agency, he also fears for it. Dada was in the new capital of the world, which stood in direct confrontation against the empires, capitalism. Sukarno knew that there was no one uniting hub for the new nations. They were on their own against the giants, and he recognized the new faces these giants had now taken, in the form of agonizing economic and intellectual control. That was, in the fears of Sukarno, another wave of colonialism. Much to the magic of time, the questions and dreams Sukarno had in his vision reflected exactly those that Dada had questioned and sought answers to for his homeland, India. Why couldn’t the same happen to India, he asked. There was struggle and sacrifice in India as it was in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, why then could the Indians not come out victorious, he would ask. In Sukarno’s universe, they did come out victorious. But could that India, or that Indonesia, promise the kind of power, liberty, equality and most of all, dignity, that the young Dada had lived in the Soviet Union. Was reaching freedom and liberty in its true sense simply not achievable, given the dependency of the new states on the predatory world. Dada saw a center which called him and his comrades from every race, color and country. It was probably that center which Sukarno had in his eyes, but only in the abstract. No defined structure of that center, neither a defined path to embark on. Instead, what Sukarno and his comrades had was an idea, or an ideal, not as easy to accomplish as words felt. Hence, the heaviness and fear in Sukarno’s words, which had immediately recognized that there were many colors of freedom. They had discovered just one.

What is apparent is different stages of a ‘single’ reality; the reality of being (treated) human. While Dada had lived that reality, Sukarno was promising to make it happen.

Thus, one reality was lived, one was dreamt.

‘“Arise the children of starvation; Arise the wretched of the world…” I too, for the first time, felt in the red flag a symbol of victory over the exploiting system.’
From Chains to Lose: Life and Struggles of a Revolutionary by Amir Haider Khan.

In the late 1920s, when Dada Amir Haider Khan was a student at the University of the Peoples of the East in Moscow, the dream of communist internationalism was just that: a dream; albeit one that was being worked towards, and was expected to materialize in the decades to follow. The first five-year plan had yet to be implemented, and there was much work to be done; particularly in the education and training of the working class through newly introduced specialized institutions, and the creation of the ‘new Soviet man’; the selfless, learned, strong ‘ideal’ worker, who would in tandem with his fellow workers, lay the foundations for the rebuilding of the nation following the October revolution. Hence, institutions such as the Swedloff (Communist) University, The Communist University of the Toilers of the East, and the university attended by Dada Amir Haider, existed to serve the purpose of educating and familiarizing the people with a new ideology. These universities, however, were not the only means of ideological cultivation; exposure to socialist ideals was achieved through their representation in art. It was in this era of the late 1920s and early 1930s that the art form termed as ‘socialist realism’ began to gain popularity in the Soviet Union before finally replacing all other art forms, from Avant Garde to constructivist art, as the official state-recognized standard for art in 1934. What set realism apart from other forms of art, was its coherence- its ability to be understood by even those members of the working class who had little or no educational background. At a time when there was a massive influx of political exiles, revolutionaries and refugees from all corners of the earth into Soviet Russia, this quality of realist art proved to be extremely important.

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At first glance, we notice a few common themes across these posters. Each of them depicts the idealized workers’ lives, and each of them promotes socialist ideas while portraying them in an optimistic light. Bright smiling faces and theatrical poses were a common trope in these photo-realistic paintings of people. The above two posters were printed in 1930 and 1931 respectively, and depict working men and women, calling upon their fellow comrades to join them on the fields. Socialist art in general marked a transition from the ‘bourgeois’ romanticism of the individual to the romanticism of the collective. The posters sought to establish a sense of brotherhood among the working class; hence they often depicted people of different races harmoniously working together. The University from Dada Amir Khan’s Memoirs, as an example, serves as the embodiment of this multi-ethnic communal lifestyle, where Indians, African-Americans, Englishmen and Europeans lived, studied and dined together in mutual harmony. Art of this nature reflects the socialist ideal that individuals would identify themselves not as belonging to some ethnic group or rank themselves in accordance with their level of education, but would identify themselves as belonging to a greater cause, i.e. the workers’ cause or communist cause.

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Even the content that was painted was heavily monitored by the state. Only art which depicted socialism in a positive light was allowed to be published. The two posters above allude to the bright future of the Soviet Union, suggesting not only that everything got better after the revolution, but that it was going to continue to do so. The poster on the left depicts a soviet soldier and a Red Army soldier standing in front of the Soviet flag and Russian flag respectively, holding up a child with the caption “You will live happily.” The second poster is from the 1930s and shows its support for the five-year plans. There were also posters printed emphasizing the importance of education and bearing Lenin’s slogan ‘Hasha Zatcha Yeat – Do Tichissa, Do Tichissa,’ our task is to learn, learn, and learn. In the 1940s, posters bearing resemblance to the American Uncle Sam posters began to appear, directly calling upon workers to join hands in the fight against exploitation.  

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One of the more common themes in socialist realist posters was the depiction of everyday people doing everyday things. Each aspect of daily life was represented, as all activities- sport, culture, entertainment and education- had become a part of this new socialist lifestyle. Above are two posters featuring happy families; one is a Hungarian poster depicting a family that is well off after a good harvest. The other poster shows a family listening intently to a radio broadcast with the caption “Listen! Moscow is broadcasting.” In Dada Amir Haider’s memoir, he described the way all activities had been incorporated into the socialist lifestyle; entertainment and sport were very much a part of everyday life, both at the University and at the summer camps.

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It was through these propaganda posters, that the archetype known as the ‘New Soviet Man’ or ‘New Soviet Woman’ was introduced. These personalities were thought to develop alongside pure communism, and embodied certain qualities deemed ideal in men and women both. Of particular interest is the way the New Soviet woman was portrayed to take on multiple roles: Communist citizen, full-time worker, wife and mother. The representation of this figure in art signalled a transition from women being seen as the passive beneficiaries of the revolution, to being seen as its securers. The poster on the right from 1942 represents the women of the USSR who sought to serve at the frontlines of the Soviet army. On the left is another poster from the 1940s depicting a smiling working woman. The communist women described by Dada Amir Haider who he encountered in Moscow embody the same characteristics of this ‘new woman’; hardworking, focused and resolved. Sergei Gerasimov’s 1938 painting where he depicted Mother Russia as a peasant woman with no shoes on is indicative of the changed perceptions of working women during the 1930s.

Socialist realism was essentially a means of educating the public; much in the same way that the University of the Peoples of the East was. In Dada Amir Haider’s memoir, he recounts an educational excursion they had to a Czarist prison, where he and his fellow students observed the remnants of the tyrannical ingenuity of the Czarist regime. In the same way, the purpose of the new art of the 1920s, Lenin believed, was to ‘expose the crimes of capitalism and praise socialism.’ Socialist realism existed to address the doubts and uncertainties that prevailed following the establishment of the Soviet State; it attempted to convince the people that this new socialist state, which was still in the making, would be the answer to all their problems.

Dada’s account of his life in Moscow and the reasons behind his attraction to the communist party provide a practical example of Sukarno’s view of the new decolonized world. While addressing the Badung Conference, Sukarno lays special emphasis on his ideas of how to proceed with the new found freedom the people recently achieved. He highlights the problem among the people to be their difference in terms of desires, but denounces the idea that any other type of differences that come at the time of birth should be the reason behind any strife between individuals or nations. According to him prevention of future conflict and war depends on the ability of the people to accept diversity and still unite to live in peace. I was skeptical of the practicality of his approach, but reading Dada’s account has alleviated some of my concerns.

When Dada leaves his life in the United States to study in Moscow, he is attracted to the difference in the culture in terms of how the citizens coexist. At several instances, he points out the attitudes of the native people towards those of different color, race, region etc and compares it to the way society in the United States functioned. For example, he notices interracial couples which would be unacceptable back home, and declares despite being considered a civilized state; the US was run on “prejudice” and “taboos”. The bigotry that he both witnessed and experience due to being a foreigner with a darker skin color greatly contrasted how he was ingrained into the community in Moscow due to his contributions to the society, despite being a foreigner. The equality he was given, along with judgment for his actions rather than the color of his skin greatly encouraged him to join the efforts of the USSR.

Dada’s decisions and the life path he chose due to the differences in the two societies can be a model of how Sukarno’s vision may come to life. The life and world view he described could possibly limit conflict and promote peace if it is implemented in the way it can influence people the way Dada was influenced. The memoir shows how it is a reasonable plan with expected success, and negates the difficulties I was expecting in terms of having a whole community conform to such an accepting social attitude.