Anti-colonial socialism can be re-cast as imperialist proletarian nationalism

Evidence

As the class struggle within a nation is waged for the readjustment of unequal distinctions, so war between nations for an honorable cause will reform the present unjust distinctions. The British Empire is a millionaire possessing wealth all over the world; and Russia is a great landowner in occupation of the northern half of the globe. Japan with her scattered fringe [sic] of islands is one of the proletariat, and she has the right to declare war on the big monopoly powers. The socialists of the West contradict themselves when they admit the right of class struggle to the proletariat at home and at the same time condemn war, waged by a proletariat among nations, as militarism and aggression … If it is permissible for the working class to unite to overthrow unjust authority by bloodshed, then unconditional approval should be given to Japan to perfect her army and navy and make war for the rectification of unjust international frontiers. In the name of rational social democracy Japan claims possession of Australia and Eastern Siberia. — Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, 379

Categorization

• BMF: Kita Ikki’s inversion of Marxist class logic to justify imperial expansion evokes the ‘proletarian nation’ rhetoric in Mohsin Hamid’s ‘The Reluctant Fundamentalist’ — the narrator’s framing of resurgent postcolonial power against Western ‘millionaire’ empires.
• ADDENDUM: Relates to ‘On Sacrifice: The Real Kind, with Corpses’ only obliquely; more directly it is an anti-thesis to ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ in showing ideology weaponized through class-nation fusion — though the connection is thematic rather than specific.
• XREF: connects to: Fabian socialists shifted their reformist project from Britain’s working class to its colonies — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 239; Fabian socialists endorsed imperialism as a civilizing force for workers — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 243; Neoliberals feared colonial anti-imperialism would morph into anti-capitalism — Jessica Whyte, The Morals of the Market: Human Rights…, 251 (+1 more)

Related

• Proletarian-nation rhetoric reframed imperial conquest as class struggle (similarity 0.87)