Anti-colonial Marxism in French and Portuguese India Compared: Varadarajulu Subbiah and Aquino de Bragança's Theories of Colonial Independence

Abstract

This essay examines how two Marxist anti-colonial intellectuals from Portuguese India and French India – Aquino de Bragança and V Subbiah – differentially theorized movements for independence from colonial rule. Through the analysis of primary source documents in French, Portuguese, Italian and English, I compare V Subbiah's Dalit, anti-fascist anti-colonial Marxism to Aquino de Bragança's internationalist anti-colonial Marxism. Both theorists' approaches have similarities in (1) theorizing the relationship between fascism and colonialism given that the Portuguese Empire was administered by Salazar's Estado Novo and the French Empire was under Vichy rule, (2) rethinking Marxism to better fit the Global South context and (3) intellectual and political connections to Algeria were critically important for theory and praxis. Despite the distinct geographic and social spaces in which they lived and worked, both produced remarkably similar theories of anti-imperialism.

Citation

Plys, K. (2023), "Anti-colonial Marxism in French and Portuguese India Compared: Varadarajulu Subbiah and Aquino de Bragança's Theories of Colonial Independence", Plys, K., Priyansh and Goonewardena, K. (Ed.) Marxist Thought in South Asia (Political Power and Social Theory, Vol. 40), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 153-179. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0198-871920230000040009