Return to Bandung Debating the National and Colonial Questions with Ashwin Shantha
In this episode, I’m joined once again by Ashwin Shantha, host of the Journal of International Solidarity podcast, to revisit a crucial but often-overlooked episode in international left history—the 1920 debate between Vladimir Lenin and the Indian Communist leader M.N. Roy over the national and colonial question. In this conversation, posted as a collaborative episode with the Journal of International Solidarity, we summarize the contours of this debate, situating it within the historical context of the Second World Congress of the Communist International, before tackling a wide-ranging discussion of what lessons this debate holds for contemporary internationalists as we navigate the challenges and contradictions of anti-imperialism in the 21st century.
About the show:
Return to Bandung is hosted by Pranay Somayajula, an Indian-American writer, researcher, and organizer based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. His work explores themes of diaspora, (inter)nationalism, anticolonial politics, and the many lives and afterlives of empire. You can learn more about Pranay and read his writing on his website, as well as on his Substack blog, culture shock.
Support Return to Bandung:
If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a review or rating, and subscribe to the show on Spotify or Apple Podcasts! If you’re able, please also consider supporting my work—which encompasses both my writing and this podcast, as well as various other political education projects by signing up as a paid subscriber to my Substack or making a one-off contribution:
Sources and helpful links:
Journal of International Solidarity Substack
Return to Bandung episode with Ashwin on anti-imperialist political education (October 2025)
Minutes of the Second Congress of the Communist International, Fourth Session (July 1920)
Vladimir Lenin — Draft Theses on the National and Colonial Questions for The Second Congress Of The Communist International (June 1920)
M.N. Roy — Supplementary Theses on the National and Colonial Question (July 1920)
Aditya Iyer — The Indian Radical Who Helped Found the Mexican Communist Party (Jacobin, August 2021)
Kris Manjapra — India’s M. N. Roy Was the Pioneer of Postcolonial Marxism (Jacobin, August 2024)
Vladimir Lenin — Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (1917)
Return to Bandung interview with Pawel Wargan on left internationalism (July 2025)
Rosa Luxemburg — The National Question (1909)
John P. Haithcox — The Roy-Lenin Debate on Colonial Policy: a New Interpretation (The Journal of Asian Studies, November 1963)
Social links:
Return to Bandung:
Twitter: twitter.com/returntobandung
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/returntobandung/
Pranay Somayajula:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/p_somayajula
Website: https://www.pranaysomayajula.com/
Substack: https://www.culture-shock.xyz/
Journal of International Solidarity:
Substack: https://intlsolidarity.substack.com/