In 1920, the India Office in Whitehall, London, compiled a comprehensive blacklist of foreigners to be barred from entering the subcontinent. Just two years after World War I and less than three years after the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia, the list was dominated by Russians, both suspected and confirmed communists. It also included Americans, Italians, Finns and Swedes, who were viewed as potential facilitators of the communist movement in India.
On September 19, 1921, the Secretary of the Judicial and Public Department at the British Home Office sent a warning circular to both the Home Department and the Intelligence Bureau in India. “I am directed by the Secretary of State for India to forward, for information, copies of circulars issued by the Home Office regarding the persons whose names are given in the accompanying list, and to state that these persons should be removed in the event of their landing at any port in India,” the circular stated.
In addition to British missions and Indian authorities, officials in places like Marseilles, France, were instructed to be on the lookout for anyone on the list.
The blacklist, driven by intense fear of communism, targeted Westerners sympathetic to Soviet Russia. This included a blanket ban on attendees…
Source: Banned from India: Amid a red scare, the British Raj blacklisted revolutionaries and a dancer
