Lost in Anti-Imperialist Translation

Abstract

This article uses translation analytically in order to address the issue of context. This can be elusive in global intellectual history, especially when the ideas at stake claim to be valid anywhere, with no regard to circumstances. Examples are drawn from the oeuvre of the universalist Indian thinker M. N. Roy in order to argue that his ‘contingent contexts’ of personal political circumstances and tactical decisions can illuminate historical arguments, as well as positing that contexts were not merely what Roy operated in, but also what he operated with.