Conspiracy in Meerut
Michele L. Louro · 2023
The Meerut Conspiracy Case was a legal trial launched in 1929 by the British raj against international communism and its spread to colonial India. On trial were thirty-two defendants in India and sixty-three abroad, all charged with conspiring with Moscow to overthrow the British sovereignty in South Asia. This chapter traces the global dimensions of the Meerut trial both in relation to British anti-communist designs for the case, as well as the global demands for the release of the Meerut prisoners. Among the chief imperatives for the colonial state was the disruption of connections between Indian trade unionists and global leftists abroad. In legally categorizing Indian politics as distinct from global politics, the colonial state constructed a division between Indian anti-colonialism and internationalism and coded the former as legal and the latter as criminal. At the same time, the chapter draws attention to the international connections that the colonial state worked so hard to disrupt. Surveying the calls to release the Meerut prisoners within global leftist publications, this chapter demonstrates the significance of India and Indians in shaping debates over international communism, anti-imperialism, and anti-racism worldwide.