If you were to ask most Americans why the British Empire no longer rules India, many would probably say it's due to some mix of Gandhi and World War II. However, Gandhi's nonviolent resistance was far from the only protest to British colonialism. Widespread dissatisfaction with colonialist rule led to radical, underground political organizing. And some of it happened right here in the Pacific Northwest.

Let My Country Awake by Scott Miller tells the lesser known history of Indian immigrants in the United States organizing to overthrow the British Raj during the first World War. (“Raj” was the term for the colonial administration in British India, drawn from a Hindi word for “rule.”) These America-based radicals became known as the Ghadar movement. Miller's book explores the difficulties they faced—being nonwhite immigrants in the US in the early 1900s—along with the ways their political activities brought them into contact with other left-wing organizations at the time, like the International Workers of the World and assorted communist, anarchist, and socialist groups.

The Ghadar group shared common causes with the agents of anti-British foreign powers, so they conspired and worked with German and Irish groups during WWI, and that alliance drives much of the most compelling conflict in the book.

In the midst of WWI, the Ghadar were actually working with Imperial Germany—which America was at war with. This made them, technically, an underground subversive element, even as they also drew inspiration from the US's own history of democratic revolt against Britain. This tension powers the legal and political battle that becomes the core of Miller’s narrative.

The stakes of Let My Country Awake are big: The futures of India, the British Empire, and the United States hang in the balance, as WWI rips much of the globe apart. Yet much of the action of the book takes place in the Pacific Northwest. In Miller’s hands, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia, and northern California seem to be the center of the world when it comes to leftist politics and anti-colonial organizing. Miller makes it feel like the fates of empires hinged on the actions of a few industrious radicals, along with the spies and government agents on their heels.

Let My Country Awake is a fun, breezy read for anyone who wants to know more about Indian resistance against the British Empire, or what it takes to organize in opposition to colonialism and imperialism in general. It also offers an illuminating look at immigrant life in the US at the dawn of the 20th century, with obvious parallels to our own political moment.

Scott Miller appears at Powell's Books at Cedar Hills Crossing, 3415 SW Cedar Hills, in Hillsboro; Mon Nov 10, 7 pm, FREE, more info, all ages.