Alfred Deakin’s ‘Austral-Asia’ and the Making of ‘History for the Future’

Abstract

ABSTRACT In 1893 Alfred Deakin coined the term ‘Austral-Asia’ and argued, in Irrigated India and Temple and Tomb in India, that India and its citizens were central to Australia’s future. By 1901, he was furiously defending the White Australia policy, warning Australian citizens of the threat of non-Europeans to the future of the new nation. This dramatic shift – from perceiving India as an opportunity to perceiving it as a threat – is attributable to the influence of Charles Pearson's National Life and Character (1894) which warned of the end of white hegemony if white men began mixing with the Chinese, ‘Hindoo’ and ‘Negro’ races. Pearson’s work questioned the assumption that white men were born to rule, advocating the preservation of ‘white men’s countries’ to maintain white supremacy for as long as possible. The emergence of a transnational community of white men, in response to Pearson’s call to action, provided Deakin with the language and connections to resituate Australia in the world on terms that were racial rather than regional.