A one day conference was held in London on Saturday 6 October to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the 1857 uprising. Speakers from India and Pakistan addressing this conference drew parallels with the current situation in South Asia today. Organised by South Asia Solidarity Group, the 1857 Committee and the Centre for South Asian Studies, SOAS, the conference ‘1857/2007 Imperialism, Race, Resistance’ drew more than 120 participants. Speakers included Indian human rights lawyer Nandita Haksar, feminist educationalist Rubina Saigol from Pakistan; historian and writer on colonialism and patriarchy Kumkum Sangari, Editor of Indian CPI(ML) monthly Liberation Kavita Krishnan; spokesperson of Cageprisoners (the campaign for prisoners in Guantanamo) Adnan Siddiqui; eminent civil-liberties lawyer Gareth Peirce; Iraqi Democrats Against Occupation spokesperson Hani Lazim, and historian and writer on British imperialism John Newsinger.

The conference looked at 1857 as one of the high points of continuing popular anti-imperialist resistance, in which people identifying with different communities and religions but sharing many aspects of culture consciously came together to resist an aggressively racist colonial power. Against this background, contemporary imperialism, racism and the rise of the religious right, and the struggles against them in South Asia and here in Britain were discussed.

Professor Kumkum Sangari highlighted the way in which the British colonialists involved in suppressing the uprising recorded and relished their own violence and acts of torture in pictures and photographs and letters home mirroring the recent circulation of videos of torture in Abu Ghraib and other US prisons. She talked about the participation of women - not only individual leaders but large numbers of labouring Dalit and peasant women who made up the resistance.

Dr Rubina Saigol talked about the way in which representations of 1857 in Pakistan have been communalised and masculinised. Discussing the current situation she emphasised that the notion of terrorism needs to be questioned since it ignores terrorism by States. Pakistan’s current role as a front line state in America’s war had led to de-democratisation with the protagonists Musharraf and Benazir having been pre-selected by the US - while all national data held on all citizens of Pakistan is automatically transferred to the FBI.

Kavita Krishnan argued that the ruling elites in India are still afraid of the spirit of 1857 in which people have fought not only the colonial rulers but what Bhagat Singh called the ‘Brown Britishers’ who replaced them. Highlighting the thread running through from 1857 to Bhagat Singh and Naxalbari she referred to the current struggles against land grabbing by multinational corporations for Special Economic Zones in which many have lost their lives. She also described the popular opposition to the pro-imperialist Indo-US Nuclear Deal.

Nandita Haksar drew attention to the injustice of the Afzal Guru case where a man was facing the death penalty without any direct evidence against him. She read out the judgement of the Supreme Court of India which sentenced Afzal to death to satisfy“the collective conscience of society” Can the collective conscience of any people be satisfied if a fellow citizen is hanged without being given an opportunity to defend himself, she asked?

The conference launched an exhibition on the 1857 uprising which will now be touring the UK and will also be made available in India and Pakistan. It concluded with organisers pledging to continue their campaign for justice for Afzal Guru case and around the issue of Special Economic Zones. 