South Asia and South Asians in the worldwide web of anti-colonial solidarity

Abstract

Over the past two decades the historiography of South Asia has broken out of the local, communal, and national moulds in which it was long cast. This has been accompanied by increasing attention on the ways in which South Asian antiimperialists organised across borders. Between the opening years of the twentieth century and the outbreak of the European phase of the Second World War, antiimperialist internationalism thrived on a hitherto unprecedented scale. As the worldwide web of communication and transport possibilities expanded rapidly, so too did the circulation of people and ideas. Both provided an enormous impetus for international associational life, and a desire for international mobilisation around specific political, social, and religious causes. These developments had a major impact on the emerging antiimperialist movement in colonial South Asia. In turn, South Asian antiimperialists played an important role in shaping a worldwide web of anticolonial solidarity in this era.