Perhaps the most important feature of the colonized world was a sense of division – the notion of the superior colonizer and the inferior ‘other’. In both posters published during the Soviet era and the memoirs of Dada Amir Haider Khan, this categorization seems to be absent in the Soviet union. Ideas of egalitarianism seem to transcend those of nationality, race, and language.

The posters never depict communist revolution as being something that is being imposed on a group of people. Instead, they show the local proletariat overthrowing their colonial masters and revolutionising on their own terms. To assist this, the medium of instruction in the the University of the Peoples of the East was not the same for all students. Instead, they were taught in their local languages, so that they could understand (and perhaps, when they went back to their home countries, teach) important histories and concepts better. In this way, no one language was put on a pedestal and thought of as superior to the rest (which was the case in European colonialism). The main point of focus on communist ideals, and not Soviet culture or language.

The diversity in nationality and race that Soviet posters represent is talked about in Dada’s memoirs as well. Having travelled around the entire world twice, he had not encountered levels of diversity quite as high as he did in Moscow. In addition to the multitude of nationalities and races he came into contact with, Dada also mentions the intellectual diversity present in the Soviet Union. People from all parts of the world, with different levels of education and lived experiences found themselves studying together in what can be called a ‘melting-pot’ of different cultures. This goes to show that the Communist Party was not only indiscriminate in terms to nationality and race but was also not elitist and did not privilege students that were more educated than others, another example of the egalitarianism that the posters imply.

Another instance of equality shown in the Soivet Union that is not present in most other parts of the world is the absence of sexual hierarchies. A number of Soviet posters depict women as being very important contributors to any revolution rather than as just spectators to men’s struggles. Dada also talks about how the female students at the university were virtually indistinguishable from the male ones and were only focused on purposeful activities instead of wasting time on “frivolous” pursuits like other women did at the time.

It is reasonable to consider the ideas put forth by Social Realism and Dada in his memoirs with spoonfuls of salt, given the former’s role as an art form dedicated to propagating pro-Soviet beliefs and the latter’s affinity for and linkage to the communist ideology. Moreover, given the fact that Dada spent almost all his time in Moscow, and mostly under the watch of some sort of Communist Party officials, perhaps the image he paints of the country as being extremely egalitarian and non-prejudiced is not representative of the internal inequality and persecution that exists amongst its territories.

In summary, the lessons he took away from his approximately 2 year stay in Soviet Russia were critical to Dada’s contributions to the Indian national liberation movement. While it did not exactly end up the way the Soviet Union envisioned it would, India’s escape from the ‘waiting room of history’ was the realization of anti-colonial Soviet posters published decades before.

A striking characteristic of colonialism was conflict and division based on differences. These referred to variation and diversity among the colonised and the colonisers. The huge disparity between the powerless and powerful essentially did stem from differences such as those in their origins, cultures and even skin colours. But these conflicts were not confined only to this power dynamic but extended to the conflicts among the great powers of the world at the time. As Sukarno points out in his speech, up until that time difference was only seen as a threat. Europe had always used difference in any shape or form as a reason for conflict. But he firmly believed the opposite. He felt this was an idea entrenched in colonialism which had to be left in the past for the global south to be able to progress. He wanted to use the diversity among the Afro-Asian world to their advantage, to use it as a means of solidarity. He saw only strength in solidarity as long as there was unity in desire. What he wanted to offer to the world was a new form of humanism, very different from the European humanism of the day. He wanted to smash the outdated ideas of colonialism and set new standards of equality. This idea we see resonating even in Dada’s travelogue.

When Dada Amir Haider travelled to the Soviet Union he was a young man, disillusioned by the system in the United States and ready to change the world. One can notice from his travelogue that the thing he finds most profound is how the university he is attending has students enrolled from across the globe. He is taken aback by the diversity of the students as well as the instructors and brings attention to it time and time again. Living previously in either colonial or capitalist states the normalcy of several different races working together, residing together and helping each other out is a completely new phenomenon to the young revolutionary. It is clear that the double standards of equality within colonialism have been thrown out of this new system which is based on real equality.

This real equality, he observes, can only be achieved through education. The communist state embraced Lenin’s ideas regarding education as the only way forward:

Our task is to learn, learn and learn.

Dada internalised these words and took a deep interest in all that he was taught at the university. This idea was inculcated by the state in its citizens. It was made an essential part of their world view. The state, and all who were part of it, saw education as the only path to progress and as the building block to establishing a new world order. This can clearly be seen through the Soviet posters of the time as well. Several examples can be found praising teachers, mentors and in general the pursuit of education.

Attached above are two posters around the time Dada was living in the Soviet Union and could be some of the Soviet propaganda he came across. One depicts Lenin teaching a child while the other glorifies the educators of the country. Seeing Lenin, who was hailed as a hero of the time, involving himself in a child’s education puts the pursuit as a priority in the lives of the people of the USSR. Through other posters education was clearly shown as the path to take or the ride to hop onto for a brighter future, the best route to take in order to leave the old world order behind.

This intense focus on education also ties into the ideas of equality discussed earlier. Dada describes the Soviet educational institutes as accessible to all kinds of people. But this was not the case in the previous order. Education was only for the privileged and places like the university were never open to the general public. These changing state ideologies and values complemented each other transforming the face of the USSR entirely in contrast to its colonial counterparts across the globe.

This number seems to haunt us.

In our initial journey to the Soviet Union amidst the S.S. Patoria were a group of 3^rd class passengers. At the grumbling of a young Bulgarian boy I felt compelled to complain of the tasteless food that was being served to us. The steward’s response was heartless, infuriating but most of all expected- indicative of the problem.

His thoughtless response, that “we were, after all, third class passengers”, prickled all “third class” ears.

In this moment I felt two opposite forces raging inside me; two clashing instincts, fighting to take charge.

The first was submissive; it rationalized the steward’s words. It played on my expectations, this is as it is. This is how it was, and for a long time this is how it will be. One day perhaps things may change, but today is not the time. The sun sets and rises, one has to wait till it appears again. This voice was familiar but I could not tell where it came from; it felt safe, like the voice of a teacher, an elder, a master.

The other voice was red hot and trembling with rage. It was powerful and emotional; it could not accept what was said. It spread out in all corners of my mind, ringing bells and sticking knives. I could not help but feel its urgency; it wanted the steward to make amends now. Instant relegation to a patient silent third can no longer be the fate that the world holds for us.It was tired of the third class, third world and a perpetual third place.

I saw the myriad of pamphlets, posters and images of my red destination. They circled the recess of my mind then an image emerged to elevate the second voice. The image contained an Indian and a Russian, hand In hand, with their flags, looking across each other entirely in sync; two sides of the same coin. They were different but completely alike. The Indian was not third, the Russian was not first, it was no longer a math equation. They were friends- comrades- with the potential to build lasting friendships with all people, tearing the numbers that were tagged over their faces. This poster was symbolic of a third way. The Indian man in the poster was confident in his own brown skin; he did not expect nor accept third class anymore, just as I could not in this instant.

 “Are we third class passengers, not human beings?”

The silence encouraged me to push further, to be more forceful.

“After all we are third class, as if we were not human beings?”

These words broke the shackles my Indian companions still suffered from, the expectation and acceptance of third place. We were materially, psychologically and politically always relegated to bronze, urged to quicken the pace to catch up, so that eventually we too would win gold in this race against time. We had to emphatically reject this notion, even if it was simply telling the steward off for assuming third class passengers cannot have genuine grievances, just because they are third class.

 My Indian compatriots chose not to support my decision, and herein lies our greatest hurdle; our passivity in our everyday. The intertwined Indian and the Soviet stand defiant with their nations behind them, looking to change their tomorrow, today. It is when we abandon the expectations of our third class treatment, attack the very idea that it is acceptable, will we find our third way.

In the 1920s, Dada Amir is struck by the diversity in Moscow’s universities where the new generation of global communists is being trained. Prominently described are people from the ‘colonial and semi-colonial east’, but it seems the whole world could be there.

All are there to be trained and inculcated in a new way of life. The attractions of this life include, prominently, a pride of place. There’s a new world to be created, and in this one, these previously subjugated ‘backwards’ people are the first of this new breed of human and indeed, they shall be the ones to shape it. The Second world seems to offer Dada Amir and those he sees around him a way out of the humiliating circumstances of the first, with its iron-clad hierarchies.

‘What harm is in diversity,’ Sukarno says in 1955, ‘when there is unity in desire?’ While he is using this to describe the gradually decolonizing world, it rings equally true for Dada Amir’s account of the globally ambitious nucleus of the Second World. Desire is what unites the diverse students of Moscow’s University of the Peoples of the East, a nebulous desire for this new world, and the promise of dignity implicit within it.

A geographical shift in importance is evident in both these texts. Amir sees all the world come to gather in Moscow, and Sukarno celebrates holding Third world conferences in their own countries. Each is, in some way, evidence of the convention of a new world – perhaps evidence of a continuous search for an identity to own to be proud of on the part of the colonized – those systematically denied any dignity as an essential part of their exploitation.

Amir sees this dignity in being a proletariat of the Communist International, where his class, his oppression are seen as symbols of pride. Sukarno sees the same in a form of self-emancipation – of creating a defiantly separate identity.

In his speech, he draws an image of diversity in coexistence and cooperation, different ethnicity, cultures and religions, united by their pasts as the disregarded of the world, their recent history of a fight for freedom, and by a vision for the future undefined either by, or in opposition to their previous masters.

He envisions, thus, a third world – defined by this diversity and this pride,
this defiant dignity – in this definition of themselves, by themselves. There’s a
search for worth, a need to reset the terms of engagement. After all, the diverse nations he’s addressing cannot claim preeminence in the ‘modernity’ of Europe. Instead there must be a worth found in what is intrinsic to the Asio-African nations. 

Sukarno finds this worth in a morality lingering within the third world,
otherwise abandoned by a world driven to ever newer and, to him, madder, heights by cold-war polarization.

It is possible to see Sukarno’s words as the next generation of Dada’s vision of hope. Where the Second World essentially offered an alternative to the First, an alternative geography, an alternative scale of value, an alternative opinion of the otherwise epistemic empire, the Third offers a still greater break from what was, eventually, still a European conception of the world. In short, it offers a still greater reclamation of self-identity, if with less hope of a Utopian future attached to it.

In a sense, both texts offer the same thing – a new world in which a new dignity, a new worth, awaits those who previously had none. Their explanations are different – Communism sees the meek (or rather the workers – easily equated to the colonized and oppressed) as the celebrated heirs of the earth, and Sukarno sees Afro-Asia as offering a third way of humanity – a new hope for a grim world. Unity of desire, in both cases, is considered above the conflict-inducing diversity of the first world.

The difference is in the details. Both inter-war Moscow and Sukarno celebrate diversity within the unity of purpose. Moscow, however, treats it as the exporting of the second world, perhaps, where unity of purpose is emphasized over incidental diversity, while Sukarno seeks to make diversity an essential component of his third world – and unity a virtue.

Still, both together represent the evolution in counter-colonial thought, as well as trends in self-reclamation of the identity of the colonial world, first by allying with the diversity-tolerant second world, and then by owning their own diversity within their own identity. Perhaps, if there is one thing that shines through, it is the importance of reclaiming self-esteem, self-worth. Both of them represent a break from traditional first world limitations. Both of them represent hope in a new way – a new world.

Colonial discourse has a temporality encoded within it. It is in the accusation the colonized people were primitive and savage but mostly, that they were backwards with respect to time. They were regarded as the past. In short, one of the crimes that colonialism committed was stealing the colonized of their present. They were seen the past of the colonizers. Then and even now, the colonizers are the benchmark by which the decolonized countries measure their success; a measurement that has always found them lacking.  This assessment enabled the British and the rest of the European nations to dictate their own narrow brand of humanism which proclaimed that theirs was only one way to be civilized, to be modern; the only way to be human.

Where Europeans saw diversity as a threat to their dominance, to Sukarno, and Dada Amir Haider Khan, it was a source of mutual affirmation. In the Bandung Conference, there were representatives from all over the Asia-African continent, all different and yet of one mind in their pursuit of a new form of humanity. For Sukarno, this new form of humanity meant the rupture of colonial time in favour of a new era, one where the colonized countries would stand in accordance against the immorality of the colonizers.  In his speech, we can perceive a sense of palpable fear of the modern world which had fallen into decay at the hands of capitalism and colonialism but there was also hope they as the newly decolonized could “mobilize the Moral Violence of Nations in favour of peace.”

Similarly, in Dada’s account, we feel the same hope and the beginning of a new epoch of history, one that is governed by communist beliefs. Though Dada’s time was before that of Sukarno’s, their belief and strive for a new reality was similar. For Dada, his experience in Moscow was an inversion of the reality that he had experienced his whole life. In Moscow, he and his fellow colleagues were seen as equals. Whereas In India, European prostitutes were not allowed near Indian camps for fear of them despoiling “white virtue or womanhood” and in America, blacks and Indians were dealt as inferior. In Moscow, they were admired, even revered, They had the freedom to speak their concerns and issues without fear of rebuttal. The Russian women walked and flirted with black men. They were all permitted and encouraged to learn and to enlighten through their own experiences; all these banal activities which had otherwise been impossible epitomized the essence of communism for them. In Moscow, Dada had the opportunity to be proud of his origins, of his brownness. Hence both pieces, though written in different time, have similar themes. Fighting against a common enemy, the colonizers, the capitalists, both Sukarno and Dada’s account mention and celebrate the virtue of diversity. In a way, Dada Amir Haider Khan’s experience in Moscow was the physical manifestation of the ambitions that Sukarno articulated in his speech.

In both cases, there is also a shift of the political geography axis the world. For too long, the world was divided and seen in the context of the relationship European nations particularly Britain had with its colonies While Europe was once seen as the centre of the civilized world, during Dada’s time, Moscow had suddenly become the revolutionary capital of the world. Poets, writers, revolutionaries etc. from all over the world came to Moscow for training. Likewise, the Bandung Conference also marked the first intercontinental conference of coloured peoples in the history. It took place in Indonesia, a previously colonized country. The location of the conference itself speaks to the inversion of the shifting political geography. This is not saying that the power had completely been vested from the hands of the British. That was neither the case in Dada’s time in Moscow during the Anti War Period nor during the Post-colonial period when the Bandung Conference took place. However, it certified a different actuality, one that was inconceivable before.

Though Dada Amir Haider’s account and Sukarno speech take place at different times in history, they are easily alignable due to the nature of their struggles. Both revolutionaries were simply advocating for an alternative reality; a new way forward. While neither were wholly victorious in their endeavours, one can not diminish the importance of either Dada’s experience in Moscow nor the existence of the conference itself and the gravity of Sukarno’s speech, either of which would have at one point, been mere wishful thinking. It was a new reality that was constructed- however messy and bloody it ended up being.

The most striking part of Dada’s memoirs for me was when he was bidding farewell to the Soviet Union on the eve of his return to India. When Dada compares his last night in the USA with his last night in the Soviet Union, he remarks that “this parting was in a different context entirely.” Dada goes on to explain that despite some material comforts of life in the US, he had never felt like a part of that society because of how he was treated as a second-class citizen and constantly taunted because he was a “foreigner”. In the Soviet Union on the contrary, he had never felt like an outsider or inferior in any way.

 No one had ever told him to “go back” or judged him on account of his race or class. The recognition of his humanity in the Soviet Union made him fall in love with that world and urged him to create a mirror image of that world in his own “politically slave nation”. When he begins reflecting as to how his brief stay in the Soviet Union completely transformed him as a person, he realizes that he has become “socially aware” which is accompanied by the understanding of his role in creating the classless society that the Soviet Union promised. A world that includes all, and where no one is made to feel small, unwanted or burdensome. I think these two posters do speak to the sentiments that Dada was trying to convey.

The first poster essentially feels like a global comradely struggle for a world that is no longer confined within the realm of imagination and the most important part, which was inconceivable at the time is how there are no racial barriers in this struggle. There was no superiority or inferiority for they were all comrades and I suppose that’s just the beauty of comradeship and the struggle is not a solitary one and maybe that’s why Dada felt so at home in the Soviet Union.

The struggle for a classless society, for a world where there are no hierarchies was more than anything a struggle for reclaiming one’s humanity and therefore the revolution could never be contained or reduced to certain geographical localities because it spoke to the human spirit. Dada also mentions in his memoirs that in the US “individual motive had dominated every aspect of American social life” which again was in direct contrast with the Soviet Union where you were identified with the collective and in Dada’s case his Indo-American group. The revolution again was all about uniting people across the world and making people not only fight for themselves, but for each other.

This was a completely different ethical outlook of inhabiting the world which was based on love for each other and perhaps that is why Dada felt the responsibility of carrying the revolution to his birth country which had certainly not given him anything except his birthright. He chose to carry that burden and sacrifice his life in pursuit of a better world, a world he could call his own. I chose the second poster because it reminds me of Dada himself and all he stood for. By freeing himself from the chains of oppression, he reclaimed ownership to his world as well; he was no longer an object to be acted upon by historical forces but a very conscious subject and as cliched as it sounds a maker of his own fate. He was truly, incredibly remarkable.

Dada Amir Haider Khan ko lal salam

There is much to see in Dada Amir’s account of his transformative experience as a young student in Moscow. His account has all the essential elements of a bildungsroman (a coming of age novel) as his successes and hardships, interactions with many influential people and newfound friendships all lead to his self-realization. Yet it is the journey, the literal journey of two and half months, to Moscow that is crucial to Dada’s eventual self-realization and remaps the world that he and all of us were accustomed to.

This remapping of the world, as he knew it, was a process that perhaps would be impossible without the travelling that preceded it. Along his travels from the US to Moscow we get to see Dada caught in the social hierarchies and his attempts to escape them when he rallies all the third class passengers with him to be treated with respect, we also get to see the confinements placed on him and his fellow Indian passengers and their mobility as they were headed to the “forbidden land” of USSR. But most importantly we see how that “forbidden land” turns into the promised land for Dada and many others like him as the journey progresses.

In many ways, Dada’s journey can be encapsulated in the poster above. Moscow transforms into a place where these borders drawn up by the imperial powers would dissipate and cease to matter and it becomes the hub of a mass movement, a grand revolution, a center of the Earth where the oppressed groups gravitate towards. Therefore, this journey that Dada starts upon draws up a new kind of a world, much like the world depicted in the poster above, where the lines of division slowly disappear and people belonging to different countries but carrying the same history of oppression with them are marching towards a grand task. The grand task in the form of a Kraken like creature with tentacles clasping the world looms over the people marching towards a single destination. Similarly, in Dada’s account there is a hovering sense of urgency as he nears Moscow and his presence in this narrative is made significant.  

It is through the act of traveling how we mostly map our world and where we belong in it. As Dada made his journey from the US to Moscow, the maps that he had consulted all his life became outdated and a new map started to emerge. A map that finally led him to the end of his journey.

Dada and Sukarna, albeit separated by time and geography, are together in their fight against colonialism. Their march towards a world free from colonial traces is marked by acknowledging the power of one. Dada, through his experiences in Soviet, realized the strength of an individual person and Sukarna pledged to bring these people together to raise their voices as a united front. This unity paved way for a brighter future- a future not tainted by silence, rejection and suppression.

In a time where voices of the coloured race were largely silenced, Dada took the courage to tread on a path that directed him to opening unprecedented doors. This unique experiment exposed him to acknowledge his self worth. Upon his induction in the university, Dada’s supposed weaknesses became his strengths. The very colour of his skin which has always been the cause of his rejection became the reason for his appreciation. Dada was just an insignificant person back at home. However, at the Soviet Union, he was the very person who could bring about change.

Through Dada’s travelogue, it becomes apparent that the university in Moscow not just educated its students but prompted a ‘new’ person to emerge from within. The focus of the rigorous curriculum was then to bring the best out of them that would inform each learner of what stands ahead and prepare them to be sent away to export these notions to other areas. While the university focused on equipping students with the necessary skills to become a new well informed individual, Sukarna emphasized on these new characters to come together as an African Asian nation, leaving behind superficial differences of language, ethnicity and religion behind.  The university aimed to craft new individuals. Sukarna aimed to build a new lost unity among them.

Since each one possesses the ability to make revolution, Sukarna recognized the magnitude of the change that can be brought about by uniting these passionate people. He thus invited them to come together and become part of this struggle. They were all united by a common abhorrence of colonialism, regardless in whatever form it appeared. Through his speech, he drew upon examples from the past for instance settling the fight in IndoChina by unanimously doing their part and instilled confidence in his fellows that together they can save each other from the claws of colonial powers. And they can impact the world affairs, for when standing shoulder to shoulder they become a majority, ready to fight the minority that has silenced them for centuries.

The struggle of both Dada and Sukarna is based on the power of one.  Dada embarked on a journey to break away from the shackles of capitalism. This one individual was driven by hope and determination to fight the injustices. Sukarna also worked along the same lines and invited people to unite for a common desire- a desire to shun away the evil of colonialism. For together if they will speak, the world is bound to listen.

Dada Amir Haider Khan’s travelogue presents a break with the old world. It paints a different universe, where diversity is celebrated and people of different ethnicities, different levels of education, nationalities and religion coexist as can also be seen in the posters. Difference is not the basis of leaving people out but rather allowing solidarity to exist. As Dada Amir put it, USSR was about the survival of all. The groups of people that have historically been presumed inferior are given that self worth and respect that they were rid of in a colony or under capitalism. There is no need for amassing or erasing difference and there is room for other modes of being other than whiteness.

The posters above resonate with Dada’s travelogue as they depict the international solidarity that is there when people who have been other-ised in different contexts have joined hands to fight against colonialism, imperialism, and capitalism. ComIntern allows for this solidarity to exist and extend to to all parts of the world where there is a struggle for liberation. Dada Amir mentioned the British working class going on a strike and how people from USSR contributed money to keep the strike going. This solidarity is the means through which ComIntern is anti colonial and thus trains people from the colonised world through education and military training they are well equipped for the struggle. The students at the university are of different educational backgrounds and are given an introduction to different subjects, there was increased emphasis on learning. Within the learning too, there is acceptance of difference where people are allowed to retain their languages.

The Indo-American group would get attention and people would want to meet them. Dada contrasted Moscow with USA and differentiated it in terms of discrimination and prejudice. Blackness also had a different meaning in the USSR, it was a marker of pride as McKay also put it. Here, when black men interacted with Russian women, it wasn’t seen as threatening nor were they lynched as opposed to the United States. 

Alexandra Kollontai argues for the rise of a new woman, a heroine, who is different from women in the past, she is single, no longer the subordinate or the reflex of a man. The women that Dada did mention in his travelogue were a part of the struggle such as comrade Suhashini and enrolled as colleagues with him, although he does not delve much into their lives. He briefly mentioned a young black woman, Jenny would carry a gun on her shoulder. On another instance, he mentioned women protesting when it came to decision making. He also added that women of the communist league were busy in contributing to the struggle.

The posters above represent this new woman who is free from the shackles of the home, is as much a part of the struggle as men. A prominent theme of the soviet posters were women who were represented in different roles, holding children, working, marching alongside men or together. This reflected how women were as much a part of the struggle as men. It is interesting to note that some of the posters represented women as mothers even though it was the time of the “new woman.” The posters also depict the working class women who were aligned with peasants to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Dada narrated an incident where a woman who was a sweeper argues about who will perform childcare.  It reflected how class and patriarchy intersect to oppress women and their rising up against both.

“I too, for the first time, felt in the red flag a symbol of victory over the exploiting system.”

The most striking aspect of this socialist poster is the individual around whom the art is focused. Two things stand out: his garb and the colour of his skin. These prominent features on display are what I will be using to link the poster to the extraordinary life of Dada Amir Haider Khan. This piece evokes a sense of pride that is attached to an individual’s heritage. Dada’s experiences in Moscow can be considered to be an emancipation of a similar ilk. Today we can see that his emancipation was temporary, but that’s precisely not the point. Whilst trying to understand his experiences, we must confine our understanding to the time he spent in Moscow, to get a sense of what that exposure meant to him, not to us. If we consider communist internationalism to be a failed endeavor which channeled elements of tokenism, we are doing a disservice to all those who temporarily regained their individuality in a world in which differences and divisions were rapidly being reified.

There’s an incident over the course of Dada’s university experience which I thought was particularly remarkable. Dada suggested to Comrade Intelginkoff that perhaps the use of one Russian language would be best suited to the interests of internationalism, a parallel being the use of English in the USA. Upon making this suggestion, Dada was criticized for being ultra-leftist. This interaction is what perfectly encapsulates his experience in Moscow. This is what sets you free. A man who had sailed the world twice had finally ended up in a space in which he was not expected to change or alter himself. The university promoted acceptance and tolerance by creating an environment in which you were not discriminated against. In this environment, Dada and his peers from around the world were not robbed of their individuality. Dada can be seen as the vanguard in the poster, representing the South Asian masses and experiencing a break from epistemic domination. This very epistemic domination is what compelled him to undermine the importance of his mother tongue and his identity, the value of was reinstated in this almost utopian spatial imagination that was realized within Moscow. What resulted was both a restoration of pride and a sense of belonging that had been lost since birth, throughout his voyage. His experience in the university was gradually healing the colonial rupture in time that had afflicted many. The body language of the individual in the foreground of the poster implies an existence that is unburdened despite the rupture.

What the poster allows us to imagine is an alternate reality which was very much a possibility, a way out, when Dada was enrolled in the university. This break from time resulted in socio-economic divisions and hierarchies being temporarily negated. While colonial discourse continuously reminded natives that there were intrinsic differences which separated Europe from the rest of the world, socialist reconstruction made an attempt at getting rid of that imposed linearity of time. In this context, language becomes essential component of an individual’s identity. In the background of the poster, we see mobilized masses who can also be perceived to be emancipated. While Dada’s own identity had been healed to a certain degree, this emancipation had eluded his people – the native inhabitants of South Asia. When Dada returned ‘home,’ he was deemed to be a threat to domestic peace and stability. His ‘home,’ instead of being a sanctuary, was plagued by the colonial epistemic framework which did not ascribe any value to native individuality.

Had the ways of communist internationalism prevailed, we perhaps would have viewed Dada as a hero of national liberation. But since it did not happen, his story and his struggles became obscured fragments in time. He dedicated his life to a cause he believed was larger than himself. It’s important to remember his sacrifice. It’s important to remember him.

“So for the first time in my life I began to understand things that had become unknown to me.”