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Underground Asia : Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire by Tim Harper
The story of the hidden struggle waged by secret networks around the world to destroy European imperialism
SHORTLISTED FOR THE CUNDILL HISTORY PRIZE 2021
AN ECONOMIST AND HISTORY TODAY BOOK OF THE YEAR 2020
Compelling and highly original … The Asia that we see today is the product of the ‘underground’ which Harper describes with skill and empathy in this monumental work’ Rana Mitter, Literary Review
History Extra podcast : Asia’s anti-imperial revolutionaries
Tim Harper speaks to Ellie Cawthorne about his Cundill History Prize-shortlisted book Underground Asia, which reveals how clandestine networks of anti-colonialist rebels operated across Asia in the early 20th century.
Review by Dr Oliver Crawford
In Underground Asia, Tim Harper explores the intensifying anti-colonial activity across South, Southeast and East Asia that sought to undermine empire ‘from below’ in the opening decades of the twentieth century. Weaving together an amazing array of sources into a memorable and exciting narrative and offering a fresh perspective on familiar events, this is a brilliantly realised work of history, finds Oliver Crawford.
Central to imperial officials’ fears in these years was a new kind of colonial subject: widely travelled, educated in the European style (generally fluent in several languages), well-versed in modern political creeds such as anarchism and Marxism, connected to various international cultural and political networks and implacably hostile to foreign rule. Harper introduces us to many figures of this kind: the Indians Har Dayal, M.P.T. Acharya and M.N. Roy; the Indonesians Semaun and Tan Malaka; and the Vietnamese Phan Boi Chau and Nguyen Ai Quoc. It is this cast of Asian radicals – as opposed to the more familiar pantheon of Asian national leaders, such as Gandhi, Nehru, Mao and Sukarno – whose stories Harper tells in Underground Asia.
Asia’s Anti-Colonialist Journey – newyorker
After the Russian Revolution, a host of activists saw Communism as the way to end European imperialism. Their diverse fates provide an unexpected key to Asian politics.
By Thomas Meaney
The Underground Activists Who Fought for Freedom Across Asia – new republic
Ho Chi Minh, Mao Zedong, and Mahatma Gandhi appear in this history of revolutionary struggles. But the main characters are lesser-known figures.
by Jeffrey Wasserstrom
Rebels in Rubber Soles – history today
The denizens of an Asian underground who waged a clandestine struggle against European colonial powers.
by Christopher Hale
Reviewed by Kevin Gray, University of Sussex, UK
Tim Harper’s book Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire provides an epic account of the upsurge of revolutionary activism and assault on empire that swept across Asia during the early part of the 20th century. Its primary contribution is to depart from the existing methodologically nationalist historiography that tends to focus on revolutionary movements within specific country settings. Instead, the book focuses on how flows of people across the region (and beyond) forged transnational clandestine networks of independence activists and revolutionaries spanning Southeast, East and South Asia. As Asians moved across the region through the interstices of empire, their new experiences led to ‘a reservoir of lived experiences and reimaginings of society’ (p. 72) that formed the basis of their resistance to European colonial rule.
Restless minds – insidestory.org.au
Books | Historian Tim Harper enters the hidden world of early-twentieth-century Asian revolutionaries
by HAMISH MCDONALD
Review by Luis Zuriel DOMINGO University of the Philippines Baguio
At present, Tim Harper is Professor of History and Director of Centre for History and Economics at the University of Cambridge, and is one of the most compelling Asianists working on the region’s larger role in global history. Among all his books, Underground Asia is perhaps the most gripping read. With Harper providing new directions in approaching anticolonial intellectual history, the book is a new addition to the existing body of literature in modern South and Southeast Asia history. While Underground Asia shares stark similarities to previous works in terms of scope and degree of attention to (hitherto) little-known Asian personalities, the book differs in terms of approach. Apart from being focused on intellectual biographies, it gives a panoramic view of Asia’s “global revolution” while also recognizing its failure. Harper’s advantage is his coherent recounting of the distant past showcasing his rigorous training as a historian. From underground movements in Asia and beyond, it is exciting to see what is next for Tim Harper—what historical narratives are left uncovered behind the curtains of empires in the region?
Of Underground Asian Revolutionaries and a Deadly Blow to European Imperialism -thewire
Tim Harper’s latest book, ‘Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire’, charts the lives of a group of Asian revolutionaries who set in motion anti-imperialist movements, including Sen Katayama, Ho Chi Minh and others.
by Rudrangshu Mukherjee is chancellor and professor of history at Ashoka University.
Revolutionaries and their shadowy networks come alive in Tim Harper’s new book – indianexpress
‘Underground Asia: Global Revolutionaries and the Assault on Empire’ is an intriguing history of early 20th century struggles against imperialism
by Ajay Singh
Perpustakaan Online Genosida 1965-1966 