368 Resisting Publics
rishnavarma also created some consternation when he sent a cable K
to the conference offering a prize in the name of “the martyr Wardani”
for an essay on the best means to achieve home rule in the colonies.
Since the Ghali assassination had already split the Watani Party in Egypt,
Muhammad Farid was put in an awkward position, as the activists pres-
ent in Brussels had no major objections to the idea. Since the “moder-
ate” base in Egypt disapproved of illegal or violent acts, Farid, to allay
their concerns, claimed the idea was against the principles of the Watani
Party. It may have been, technically; but an observer might be forgiven
for not realizing that. Despite the Party’s insistence that it disapproved
of Wardani’s act, he was defended in court by the Party’s vice-president
and the current president Farid’s ex-legal partner.^37 Although they failed,
and Wardani was hanged on 28 June 1910, the Egyptian Gazette claimed
the Party had formed a fund to help his mother.^38 While a number of
the older members of the Party’s governing board had expressed concern
about the increasing radicalization of the youth, Farid himself hardly
seemed opposed to political violence. The young men who were studying
abroad were certainly not afraid to discuss it, whether in his presence, in
print, or in their meetings.
The metropole
As we can see, the European metropoles played a defining role in nation-
alist awakening through the students who began or sharpened their
political activism there. This is an aspect of the metropole that has not
been sufficeintly addressed, despite a number of very insightful works
on the role of the metropole in imperial and colonial identity. While
the work of such theorists as Wallerstein has addressed the economic
and the sociological role of the metropoles (the heart of the core), his
macrosystem approach does not—perhaps can not—reflect the very
real influences of individuals and small groups on societies.^39 On the
other hand, Benedict Anderson’s seminal work on the subject, Imagined
Communities, does address the role of individuals and small groups, and
is far more sensitive to that ephemeral entity, “culture.”^40 In particular,
Anderson’s conception of the role of the metropole in the education of