2018/09/03 by Mark Frost · 7 citations
Social Sciences · #Colonial History and Postcolonial Studies #Race, History, and American Society #Australian History and Society #Citizenship #Empire #History #Political science #Law #Religious studies #Ancient history #Sociology #Philosophy #Politics
paper · doi:10.1080/03086534.2018.1519243
published in The Journal of Imperial & Commonwealth History 46(5), 845-873 (Taylor & Francis)
openalex publication_date 2018/09/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/19
This article examines three connected campaigns for Indian imperial citizenship which spanned the period 1890 to 1919, and their impact on the emergence of radical South Asian anticolonialism. It shifts our focus from individuals and ideologues who sought the status of British imperial citizens, to address the agitations which commenced to attain such a status within a reconstructed British Empire. Specific attention is paid to the conditions which encouraged South Asian patriots to imagine that the ideal of equal imperial citizenship within an imperial federation was a feasible political objective, to the illiberal official retreat from such an ideal, and to the political ramifications of this retreat. In conclusion, this article argues that the quest for Indian imperial citizenship, which spanned the Empire from South Africa to Canada, has been a much-neglected chapter in the evolution of anti-colonial nationalism in South Asia which deserves to be reinserted in the grand meta-narrative of the region’s twentieth century history.