Copyright by Sean Patrick Killen 2020 The Dissertation Committee for Sean Patrick Killen certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: South Asians and the Creation of International Legal Order, c. 1850-c. 1920: Global Political Thought and Imperial Legal Politics Committee: Mark A. Lawrence, Supervisor Gail Minault, co-Supervisor Michael R. Anderson Sumit Guha Jeremi Suri South Asians and the Creation of International Legal Order, c. 1850-c. 1920: Global Political Thought and Imperial Legal Politics by Sean Patrick Killen Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin May 2020 Dedication I dedicate this work with love to Amy Ramsey, who has lived with it for many years, and to our families. Acknowledgements I could not have completed this dissertation at The University of Texas at Austin without the intellectual, financial, and emotional support of many people and institutions. The members of my dissertation committee deserve special thanks. Gail Minault and Mark Lawrence were patient advisors, generous with their time and insightful in their critical analyses of my work. Jeremi Suri provided constant encouragement for my project over many years. Michael R. Anderson, in addition to serving on my committee, helped me strengthen my teaching skills when I acted as a teaching assistant for him in numerous classes both in history and in international relations and global studies. Sumit Guha graciously joined the committee shortly before my defense, and his conscientious critique of my work was heartening as I think about the possibility of transforming the dissertation into a book. Other senior scholars warrant special thanks for giving me their time and intellectual support. A. G. “Tony” Hopkins acted as my advisor at The University of Texas until his retirement, and his classes and conversations were invaluable. Mitra Sharafi, Mrinalini Sinha, and Lauren Benton, at various times, shared their time and intellectual acuity to assist and encourage my scholarly development. Historical research and scholarship requires travel to archives, workshops and conferences. The University of Texas provided financial support for my work in the form of multiple research and writing fellowships. The American Institute of Indian Studies supported my research in New Delhi. A fellowship from the American Institute of Pakistan Studies allowed me to conduct research at multiple archives in Britain and v Switzerland. My participation in a Mellon Foundation-funded workshop on the history of the League of Nations came with a fellowship that allowed me to work in the League archives in Geneva. Archivists in multiple locations were critical to success of my research. Thanks to all of these people and the institutions they represent: The National Archives, Kew, London; The British Library, which houses the India Office Records, in London; the Parliamentary Archives in the House of Lords, London; the Labour History Archive & Study Centre at the People’s History Museum, Manchester; the archives of the League of Nations, the International Labor Organization, and the World Council of Churches, all in Geneva, Switzerland; the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library and the National Archives of India, New Delhi; and finally, the National Archives and Records Administration, Silver Spring, Maryland. Thanks, also, to the librarians in the office of inter-library loans at The University of Texas, who were able to secure archival sources on microfilm and rare books. Workshops and conferences offered occasions to share my ongoing work and to learn from other scholars. I was fortunate to receive funding to participate in some of these. In addition to the League of Nations workshop, the Mellon Foundation-funded Mellon Consortium Conference on British History allowed me the opportunity to receive fellowship-writing feedback from senior scholars. The Law and Society Association Graduate Student Workshop provided a similar opportunity along with a unique chance to learn with and from scholars who were studying law from a range of disciplinary vi perspectives. The Summer Institute on Conducting Archival Research, sponsored by George Washington University annually, was an extraordinary introduction to planning research projects and archival work. I would not have completed this work without the support of friends and family. Trevor Simmons, a graduate-student colleague, was always available to read and edit. Jason Morgan, also at UT, was a valuable brainstorming partner on international history. Because graduate studies never end but do sometimes move to a bar, happy hour conversations with Jason, Trevor, Sundar Vadlamudi, Cacee Hoyer, Joe Parrott, and Shari Silzell always led to serendipitous insights into my own work. Ananda Burra, with whom I cut costs in Geneva by sharing lodging during the League of Nations Workshop, and Stephen Legg, who works on the political geography of India and the League as a professor at the University of Nottingham, both remained sources of support long after my August in Geneva. Non-graduate-school friends also deserve mention for tolerating my neglect, for making me laugh, and for reminding me of the world outside of my work: Mike Bicknell, Josh Smith, Hina Shamsi, Erin Conaton, Tim Hughes, Maria Tobia, Raoul Velasquez, Mike Eaton, Amierah Ismail, Pat Guillen, Carrie Guillen, and Eric Rosen. Finally, the support of my parents, Carol and Lloyd, my sister, Stephanie, and my partner, Amy Ramsey, gave me strength and the confidence to persist when I found my own flagging. vii South Asians and the Creation of International Legal Order, c. 1850-c. 1920: Global Political Thought and Imperial Legal Politics by Sean Patrick Killen, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2020 Supervisor: Mark A. Lawrence Co-Supervisor: Gail Minault This dissertation argues that South Asians used international legal discourse both for ideological disputation and to mount political challenges to the domination and subjugation that accompanied British imperial rule between roughly 1850 and 1920. South Asians instigated political and legal disputes in India and Britain, throughout the empire, and overseas, and gained promises and partial concessions to Indian opinions and demands that limited British options in imperial and international relations. In so doing, they compelled the British state to alter the ideology, the policies, and the practices of the state, in India and in its relations with other states both within and outside the empire. Britain’s power, ultimately, meant that South Asians’ argumentation and actions shaped the contours of global order after the First World War. The traditional international-legal framework of treaties, treatises, and states provides little insight into South Asians’ contributions to global order and law between viii roughly 1850 and 1920. This situation exists, partly, because of the perceived and purported normalcy of the nation-state as the fundamental category of international life. Traditional histories of international law argue that international law originated in Europe and regulated European states’ relations until colonized states were granted international legal recognition at the time of decolonization. Recent revisionist scholarship argues that the existence and experience of empire and colonial rule shaped the development of international law and global order throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This dissertation approaches empire in a way that emphasizes the global exchange of ideas and the active connections between colonizers and the colonized. Elite, English- speaking South Asians acted as cultural translators or intermediaries. They engaged in debates as public intellectuals, and they carved out spaces for themselves in the social and political communities that created public opinion. Consequently, South Asians' ideas about relations among different peoples and between states and South Asians' mobilization of these ideas throughout the empire and overseas to make political claims about the obligations of the imperial state and the rights of imperial subjects shaped ideas about global order and the structure of international legal relations. ix Table of Contents Introduction …………………………………………………………………………….. 1 The Scholarly Erasure of Colonial South Asians from International History ….. 9 Inter-Relations in South Asia before the Nineteenth Century …………………. 19 Scope and Summary …………………………………………………………… 25 Chapter 1: The “Rules of Good Breeding:” National Character and British Governance ……………………………………………….. 43 Dadabhai Naoroji (1825-1917): The “Grand Old Man of India” ……………… 47 The Imperial Civilizing Mission and Naoroji’s Formative Years ……………… 51 International Law and the Revolt of 1857 …………………………………….. 65 Naoroji’s Civilizational and International Legal Thought …………………….. 74 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………….. 99 Chapter 2: South Asian Muslim Modernists and the “Standard of Civilization” …………………………………………….. 101 The Eastern Question and International Law in the Mid-Nineteenth Century ……………………………………………………… 106 Religious Disputation, the Eastern Question, and International Law ………… 110 Sayyid Ahmad Khan ………………………………………………………….. 115 Syed Ameer Ali’s Early Work ………………………………………………… 124 Maulvi Chiragh Ali …………………………………………………………… 135 Conclusion ……………………………………………………………………. 142 x Chapter 3: Greater Britain, the