Paper short abstract:

Mundane socialising may help restore social worlds threatened by violence (Das 2006, Kelly 2008). In Dhufar, Oman, however, everyday sociality helps defeated former revolutionaries to reproduce a social world forged through insurgency, namely revolutionary values of social egalitarianism.

Paper long abstract:

When a revolution is defeated, what may endure over time of revolutionaries' values and aspirations for social change? This paper explores the afterlife of social relations and values associated with defeated revolutionaries by examining veterans from the former liberation movement of Dhufar, southern Oman. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted with veteran militants and family members, I argue that while veterans (who are a diverse group) no longer publicly reproduce their political and economic revolutionary ideals, in the sphere of everyday social relations some veterans reproduce ideals of social egalitarianism. Elsewhere mundane socialising helps restore social worlds threatened or destroyed by violence (Das 2006, Kelly 2008); in Dhufar everyday sociality helps reproduce a social world forged through insurgency. This reproduction of revolutionary values creates possibilities for an "afterlife" of revolution. Revolutionary ideals can be transmitted to a new generation and taken up in other contexts, as has been the case in Dhufar in local electoral leagues and Arab Spring demonstrations.