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At Home in the World: Jawaharlal Nehru and Global Anti-Imperialism

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At Home in the World: Jawaharlal Nehru and Global Anti-Imperialism AT HOME IN THE WORLD: JAWAHARLAL NEHRU AND GLOBAL ANTI-IMPERIALISM A Dissertation Submitted to the Temple University Graduate Board In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy By Michele L. Louro January, 2011 Examining Committee Members: Dr. Howard Spodek, Advisory Chair, Department of History, Temple University Dr. Richard Immerman, Department of History, Temple University Dr. Lynn Hollen Lees, Department of History, University of Pennsylvania Dr. Thomas R. Metcalf, Department of History, University of California Berkley © Copyright 2010 by Michele L. Louro All Rights Reserved ii ABSTRACT This dissertation situates Indian nationalist politics in a broad, international context of anti-imperialist movements beginning in the late colonial and interwar period. The archival record is rich with sources on the international and transnational connections of the Indian National Congress (INC); however, scholarship on the independence movement almost exclusively concentrates on the micro-histories of ‘locality, province, and nation’ or the ‘subalterns’ of India. Instead, this project contributes a much-needed international perspective to Indian colonial history. As a case study, this dissertation traces the relationship between Jawaharlal Nehru, then a prominent leader of the Indian independence movement and later India’s first prime minister (1947-1964), and the League against Imperialism (LAI), a significant, yet little studied organization founded in Brussels in February 1927. The League offered a significant space for Nehru, and by extension the Indian National Congress, to interact and build partnerships with political leaders in other colonies, mandates and dependencies in Asia, Africa, and Latin America; as well as North American and European social reformers concerned with working class and racial equality. A history of Nehru and his League connections underscores the significance of the international terrain in which Indian nationalists contested empire. In this project I argue that the making of Indian anti-colonial nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s emerged as a complex set of interactions on the ground in India, but also beyond the colonial borders of the subcontinent. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have accumulated many debts in the course of the research and writing of this dissertation. The numerous research trips would not have been possible without generous funding from many sources. The United States Fulbright program provided the necessary support for me to conduct the bulk of my research in India. I am also grateful to the Center for the Study of Force and Diplomacy (CENFAD) at Temple University for awarding me the Jeffrey Bower Endowed Research Fellowship to complete research at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. The Center for Humanities at Temple (CHAT) offered both an interdisciplinary scholarly community to discuss this project, as well as funds to undertake research in the Netherlands. Temple’s College of Liberal Arts provided several grants for short research trips and conference travel in which I could present my arguments and ideas to other scholars beyond the Temple community. Lastly, the Department of History and University Writing Center at Temple gave me the funds necessary to complete my studies and develop my prospectus and preliminary research. Numerous archivists and librarians facilitated my dissertation. I am immensely grateful to the staff at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (NMML), the National Archives of India, and the P.C. Joshi Archives at Jawaharlal Nehru University. My appreciation also goes out to archivists in the United Kingdom, at the British Library’s India Office Records, the People’s History Museum in Manchester, and the Hull University Archives. In the Netherlands, the International Institute of Social History iv (IISH) is among the most professional and research friendly archives I have ever visited. I offer a special thanks to Mieke Ijzermans for helping facilitate my brief but very important trip to Amsterdam and the IISH. The staff at the Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library at Princeton University and the European Reading Room at the Library of Congress was particularly helpful with my research in the United States. My intellectual journey would not be possible without the guidance provided by Howard Spodek, my long-time advisor and committee chair. I am grateful for his patience, flexibility, and faith in my project during the dissertation process. When others including myself doubted whether I could finish, he was my biggest source of support and encouragement. I thank him for reading multiple drafts of this project from its earliest stages and pushing me to strengthen and clarify my points. Beyond the research and writing, he has been a personal mentor who inspired me not only to be a better scholar, but also a better teacher and person. I am especially grateful to the other members of my dissertation committee who took the time to read the entire manuscript and offer detailed comments. Richard Immerman of Temple University is one of the finest (and busiest) mentors for graduate students at Temple. I thank him for taking me under his wing and teaching me the craft of writing and researching biographical studies and international histories. I thank Lynn Hollen Lees of the University of Pennsylvania, who from a very early stage welcomed me to a vibrant scholarly community in Philadelphia beyond Temple University. She also kept up my morale in the final days of writing and revising this project. I am grateful to Thomas Metcalf of the University of California, Berkeley for joining the committee as an v external reader. I have admired his work on South Asian history for many years. It was a great honor when he agreed to read and comment on this work. In Philadelphia, I had the opportunity to meet and learn from a number of talented scholars. I thank Elizabeth Kolsky at Villanova University for pushing me to read South Asian historiography more critically. At Temple University, I thank Petra Goedde, Will Hitchcock, Harvey Neptune, and Benjamin Talton for discussing with me ideas for this project at various times in the dissertation process. My fellow graduate students at Temple have also offered valuable critique and advice along the way. In particular, I would like to thank Abigail Perkiss, Kelly Shannon, Jay Sylvestre, Sarah Hughs, Matt Johnson, Ben Brandenburg, and Drew McKevitt. I owe a special thanks to Kelly and Jay, the first friends I made in Philadelphia. They made life in graduate school more enjoyable. I thank Sarah for becoming my moral support during some of the most trying years of my graduate study. I am also grateful to Abigail for fostering a sense of community among our cohort. I had the fortunate opportunity to meet and work with many talented scholars that inspired the earliest manifestations of this project. Barbara Ramusack at the University of Cincinnati inspired me to study South Asian history. She has continued to be an informal mentor throughout my intellectual journey. My project took on greater clarity during my Masters degree work at Miami University. Here, I benefited from the guidance of my M.A. thesis advisor, Judith Zinsser, and committee members, David Fahey and Arpana Sircar. In addition, I am grateful to Mary Kupiec Cayton for our discussions on theory and Dan LaBotz for our readings on Marxism. Special thanks go to Jen Faber and Jim vi Ambruske for listening to me obsess about this project and making graduate school more bearable. I benefited greatly from the many people I met in India. I am indebted to the mentorship and guidance of Lakshmi Subramaniam and Mushirul Hasan, who offered time and assistance during my fellowship year. I thank those who made my year abroad more intellectually stimulating and fun. Among them are Rebecca Grapevine, David Alverez, Eric Colvard, Cailin Shannon, Jaspreet Kaur, Suzanne Schwartz, Aditi Mallick, and Maria Framke. To Cailin and Jaspreet, thank you for sharing the great journey across India with me. I will never forget it. I reserve a special thanks to my “internationalist moment” colleagues, Ali Raza, Benjamin Zachariah, Carolien Stolte, Franziska Roy, and Maia Ramnath. They have commented on early drafts of my work and presented with me at conferences in Philadelphia, Madison, and Bonn. They have become my own international community. I would also like to thank Mrinalini Sinha, David Engerman, and Duad Ali for commenting on my paper. A special thanks is in order to Richard Immerman for becoming the driving force behind the “South Asia and the World” workshop at Temple University that enabled my colleagues and I to present our ideas and refine our arguments. Finally, thanks are due to my family. To my mother, Marie Doughman, who has been the guiding light in my life. She has instilled in me the courage to attempt anything and to pursue it with confidence and persistence. I thank her for always believing in me. To my father, Michael Langford, who has challenged me to sharpen my ideas and views about the past and present. I am also indebted to his unconditional love and support even vii though we may not always agree on our views of the world. I save to the last the greatest thanks to my husband, Luis, who supported my decision to leave the comforts of home for a lengthy research trip to India. It was not always easy or what he bargained for when he married me, but I thank him for understanding and patiently waiting for me to return. He has been the source of my happiness and comfort in the longest workdays of this project. Our long walks with Buddy have offered great relaxation and escape from the isolation of writing. Thank you for making my world beyond the archive a better place. viii For Lou ix TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ..............................................................................................iv DEDICATION...............................................................................................................ix CHAPTER 1.
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