Overview

To Raise a Fallen People brings to light pioneering writing on international politics from nineteenth-century India. Drawing on extensive archival research, it unearths essays, speeches, and pamphlets that address fundamental questions about India's place in the world. In these texts, prominent public figures urge their compatriots to learn English and travel abroad to study, debate whether to boycott foreign goods, differ over British imperialism in Afghanistan and China, demand that foreign policy toward the Middle East and South Africa account for religious and ethnic bonds, and query whether to adopt Western values or champion their own civilizational ethos. Rahul Sagar's detailed introduction contextualizes these documents and shows how they fostered competing visions of the role that India ought to play on the world stage. This landmark book is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the sources of Indian conduct in international politics.

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Reviews

Foreign observers are often puzzled and sometimes frustrated by what they see as India’s ambivalence about embracing the role of a classic great power. In this rich and original study, Rahul Sagar digs deep into the intellectual history of the nineteenth century to unearth the roots of contemporary debates on this issue. Essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of Indian foreign policy. -- Aaron L. Friedberg, author of <i>Getting China Wrong</i> The essays in this volume shed light on a variety of approaches Indian intellectuals held on international issues prior to the independence struggle which started in earnest in the 1920s. It shows the connections between nineteenth and twentieth-century thinking, reflecting an evolutionary process in Indian views on world affairs. A must read for scholars and practitioners alike. -- T. V. Paul, James McGill Professor of International Relations, McGill University A superb addition to the growing literature on global IR, Indian international thought, Indian foreign policy ideas, and Indian identity and nationalism. Sagar’s anthology is masterfully curated from a trove of writings going back to the nineteenth century and features a pitch-perfect introduction. -- Kanti Bajpai, Wilmar Professor of Asian Studies, National University of Singapore This magnificent anthology is an indispensable resource for the ideas that shaped India's modernity. It is a product of brilliant, painstaking and innovative scholarship, that opens us so many new intellectual vistas. These judiciously selected pieces will unsettle assumptions about how Indians thought of themselves. -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta, author of <i>The Burden of Democracy</i> An impressive and illuminating anthology. -- James Crabtree * Financial Times * Sagar’s scholarship offers nothing short of a profound intellectual service to South Asianists, intellectual historians, and International Relations scholars. -- Martin J. Bayly, London School of Economics and Political Science * H-Diplo * The anthology is an enlightening read for scholars of colonial history, diplomacy, economic, intellectual and scientific history of India’s international relations. -- Gaurav Pathania, Eastern Mennonite University * South Asia Research *

By bringing forth hitherto less-known insightful articles, the book challenges the prevailing wisdom that India had no tradition of scholarship in international relations. The essays in this volume shed light on a variety of approaches Indian intellectuals held on international issues prior to the independence struggle which started in earnest in the 1920s. It shows the connections between nineteenth and twentieth-century thinking, reflecting an evolutionary process in Indian views on world affairs. A must read for scholars and practitioners alike. -- T. V. Paul, James McGill Professor of International Relations, McGill University Foreign observers are often puzzled, and sometimes frustrated, by what they see as India's ambivalence about embracing the role of a classic great power. In this rich and original study, Rahul Sagar digs deep into the intellectual history of the nineteenth century to unearth the roots of contemporary debates on this issue. Essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of Indian foreign policy. -- Aaron L. Friedberg, author <i>Getting China Wrong</i>

Foreign observers are often puzzled and sometimes frustrated by what they see as India's ambivalence about embracing the role of a classic great power. In this rich and original study, Rahul Sagar digs deep into the intellectual history of the nineteenth century to unearth the roots of contemporary debates on this issue. Essential reading for anyone interested in the past, present, and future of Indian foreign policy. -- Aaron L. Friedberg, author of <i>Getting China Wrong</i> The essays in this volume shed light on a variety of approaches Indian intellectuals held on international issues prior to the independence struggle which started in earnest in the 1920s. It shows the connections between nineteenth and twentieth-century thinking, reflecting an evolutionary process in Indian views on world affairs. A must read for scholars and practitioners alike. -- T. V. Paul, James McGill Professor of International Relations, McGill University A superb addition to the growing literature on global IR, Indian international thought, Indian foreign policy ideas, and Indian identity and nationalism. Sagar's anthology is masterfully curated from a trove of writings going back to the nineteenth century and features a pitch-perfect introduction. -- Kanti Bajpai, Wilmar Professor of Asian Studies, National University of Singapore This magnificent anthology is an indispensable resource for the ideas that shaped India's modernity. It is a product of brilliant, painstaking and innovative scholarship, that opens us so many new intellectual vistas. These judiciously selected pieces will unsettle assumptions about how Indians thought of themselves. -- Pratap Bhanu Mehta, author of <i>The Burden of Democracy</i>

By bringing forth hitherto less-known insightful articles, the book challenges the prevailing wisdom that India had no tradition of scholarship in international relations. The essays in this volume shed light on a variety of approaches Indian intellectuals held on international issues prior to the independence struggle which started in earnest in the 1920s. It shows the connections between nineteenth and twentieth-century thinking, reflecting an evolutionary process in Indian views on world affairs. A must read for scholars and practitioners alike. -- T. V. Paul, James McGill Professor of International Relations, McGill University

Author Information

Rahul Sagar is Global Network Associate Professor of Political Science at New York University Abu Dhabi. His books include Secrets and Leaks: The Dilemma of State Secrecy (2013) and The Progressive Maharaja: Sir Madhava Rao’s Hints on the Art and Science of Government (2022).

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