Dissenting Histories: A Dialogue on Activism and the Left in Decolonizing Asia

In the Global South, activists and scholars both inside and outside the academy have turned to history as a form of dissent against statist and teleological narratives promoted by the postcolonial state. Evolving in the context of the Cold War, these narratives have been used to suppress, vilify, and marginalize the role of the Left. This dialogue brings together a group of activists and scholars from South and Southeast Asia to recover and reflect on the Left's dynamic and contentious history. We examine the ways in which leftist intellectuals, women, and resistance movements have drawn from the narrative of Afro-Asian solidarity during the era of decolonization. We reflect on efforts to nuance these approaches through an attention to historical objects and sources brought into dialogue with the present. We discuss the connections between transnationalism and nationalism in both the past and the present, and the role of both geography and temporality in creating openings and closures for internationalism. Finally, we reflect on the benefits of researching as a collective, and on finding connections among multiple generations of activists—both in the archive and in the group—in ongoing struggles for democracy, pluralism, and social justice.