Blog 2: Break with the Old World

A poster depicting women from different racial backgrounds cheerfully holding hands and walking together, was only made possible in the 1930s within the Communist utopia. A movement that was way ahead of its time for celebrating racial diversity and promoting equal rights for all, men and women. It attracted individuals such as Dada and McKay who reaped all the benefits of being a dignified person. Similar to the women in the poster, both of them acquired transformative roles upon reaching the Soviet Union. Roles that were beyond their comprehension, roles that came with the promise of personal sovereignty and autonomy.

The poster portrays the three women as happy and content, with their new-found freedom of self-expression through the Communist sphere. This is similar to McKay’s feelings, since he mentions that never in his life was he more proud of being a black man. He went through the process of a complete “nobody” being introduced to the idea of “somebody-ness.” The Europeans believed the East had no history as they were stagnant when it came to time and never actually went forward, similar to the way they did. The same people in the East, who were treated as backward in time everywhere else, the Soviet Union made them own time, with this new sense of empowerment, colonialism was dramatically falling apart.

John Stewart Mill’s utilitarian perspective was experienced by persons who were denied individuality for years, he criticised custom to be the anchor weighing down development in South Asia. The Soviet Union took the differences in custom very positively and perceived it as ideal for development. The dressing of the three women is clearly showing the acceptance of equal customs in the Communist world.

Dada and McKay also relished in this, but both of them accepted that the confusion of races persisted in the Soviet Union as well. This was seen when McKay had to explain that white children are actually nursed by black woman in the West, and children aren’t inherently scared of skin colour. Also, when Dada Amir and the rest of the Indians were targeted for not taking communist agenda seriously. However, even though they acknowledged it, they also were given a chance to speak their mind, something which was unfathomable to them in the United States.

The women in the poster seem to be enjoying the present, living in the time of now rather than being hopeful of the future or grieving over the past. This was exceptional for Dada and McKay as the backgrounds they came from, colonialism always took the present for itself. Dada’s and McKay’s account also acknowledges the pleasure of being able to participate fully in the time of now.

Lastly, despite their accounts and the poster being very positive about the Communist utopia that Dada and McKay were in, their historical biographies show a very different story. The crumbling of colonialism promised more than it ever delivered. Dada Amir spent most of his life in prison, and was also refused a passport for most of his life after independence. Therefore, the repeated use of the word “utopia” becomes clear, the taste of freedom the Communist International made you crave, was never what was achieved by decolonisation.