Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire

873 Pages·2020·10.558 MB·English

by  Tim Harper

Underground Asia

Underground Asia
Global Revolutionaries and
the Assault on Empire
tim h a r per
The belknap press of harvard university press
Cambridge, Massachusetts
2021
Copyright © Tim Harper, 2020
all rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
First published in the United Kingdom by Penguin Books Ltd., 2020
Set in 10.2/13.87 pt Sabon LT Std
Typeset by Jouve (UK), Milton Keynes
First Harvard University Press edition, 2021
Cataloging-in-Publication data is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN: 978- 0- 674- 72461- 7
For L.

Contents
List of Illustrations and Photographic Credits xi
Maps xv
Foreword xxvii
Prelude: On the Threshold of Free Asia (1924)
Hypo- Colony 3
Evening at the Victoria Hotel 6
A Man Without a Country 10
The Bicycle Party 14
1. In Search of a Lost Country (1905)
A Swan Escaped from Its Cage 23
Sharing the Same Sickness 33
The Devil’s Snare 44
The Asphyxia of Empire 50
2. Fugitive Visions (1905– 1909)
The World, Steerage Class 55
In the Country of the Lost 65
Under Western Eyes 73
The Birth of the Underground 85
3. Empire’s Inner Demons (1905– 1909)
Anglo- Indian Jericho 97
Across the Black Water 106
‘At Home’ in South Kensington 117
Down and Out in Paris and Tangier 128
vii
Contents
4. The Fury of Enlightenment (1909– 1912)
A Republic of Asia 135
If I Were a Dutchman 148
Graveyard of Empires 156
The Hunt for Fat Babu 163
5. Pundits of the Seas (1912– 1914)
A Modern Rishi 171
The Wedding of the Bomb 184
A Flare That Lights the Way 188
Vancouver to Budge Budge 197
6. The Great Asian War (1914)
A Postcard from London 207
The Battle for the Underground 217
Waiting for the Just King 226
A Lonely Man in a Small Country 234
7. Ghost Ships (1915)
Panic in Suburbia 241
Lahore to Mandalay 254
Isla Socorro to Balasore 260
Dismal Nationalism 272
8. The New Great Game (1915– 1917)
Alone in Shanghai 279
The Merchant of Kobe 290
Reverend Martin Heads East 297
The Plot Against America 304
9. Victory! (1917– 1919)
The Human Nation of the World 317
Rebuilding Babylon 330
Barefoot into the Streets 341
The Packet- Liner Revolution 354
viii
Contents
10. To the New Mecca (1919– 1921)
A Man with No Past 363
Deli: The City of Gold 371
Days in the Hotel Lux 377
Red Jihad 395
11. Rebels in Rubber Soles (1921– 1922)
Nights in the Great World 417
Isolation Colonies 436
The Man Who Would Be King 441
Wild Learning 454
12. The Next World War (1922– 1924)
Berlin to Kanpur 469
Europe Is Not the World 478
First Falling Leaves 485
The Birth of Aslia 497
13. Anarchy Loosed (1925– 1926)
The Bobbed- Hair Woman 507
The Battle of Nanjing Road 521
June Days 528
A Thunderbolt to Clean the Air 540
14. The Long March of the Underground (1926– 1927)
Beneath the Walls of Wuchang 555
The Coming of the Just King 568
Faith and Treason in Doomed Cities 579
No Harvest but a Thorn 604
Epilogue: Out of Exile
Living in Normal Time 617
The Orchestra at the World’s End 632
Fierce Births, and Deaths . . . 641
And Dreams, and Visions, and Disenchantment 650
ix