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Imagining Asia in India: Nationalism and Internationalism (ca. 1905–1940)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2012

Carolien Stolte  and
Harald Fischer-Tiné
Carolien Stolte*
Affiliation:
Leiden University
Harald Fischer-Tiné
Affiliation:
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich
*
c.m.stolte@hum.leidenuniv.nl
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Extract

Asianisms, that is, discourses and ideologies claiming that Asia can be defined and understood as a homogenous space with shared and clearly defined characteristics, have become the subject of increased scholarly attention over the last two decades. The focal points of interest, however, are generally East Asian varieties of regionalism. That “the cult of Asianism” has played an important role on the Indian subcontinent, too—as is evident from the quote above—is less understood. Aside from two descriptive monographs dating back to the 1970s, there has been relatively little scholarly engagement with this phenomenon. In this article, we would like to offer an overview of several distinct concepts of Asia and pan-Asian designs, which featured prominently in both political and civil society debates in India during the struggle for Independence. Considering the abundance of initiatives for Asian unification, and, in a more abstract sense, discourses on Asian identity, what follows here is necessarily a selection of discourses, three of which will be subjected to critical analysis, with the following questions in mind:

  • • What were the concrete motives of regional—in this case Indian—actors to appropriate the concept of Asianism? Is the popularity of supranational frames of reference solely to be explained as an affirmation of a distinctive identity vis-à-vis the imagined powerful West, or are there other motives to be found?

  • • What were the results of these processes of appropriation, and how were these manifested politically and culturally?

  • • What tensions resulted from the simultaneous existence of various nationalisms in Asia on the one hand and macro-nationalistic pan-Asianism on the other?

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 54 , Issue 1 , January 2012 , pp. 65 - 92
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 2012

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31 For instance T. Kurose, who enlisted the support of many Bengali youths in Calcutta. APAC, IOR, L/PJ/12/158, Weekly Intelligence Report, 3 Dec. 1938.

32 The Indo-Japanese Society in Calcutta co-funded a monthly review to highlight the “Asiatic” and “anti-European side” of Japan's policy. Other examples include: “A Japanese Visitor,” Harijan, 24 Dec. 1938: 404; Japanese Professor T. Kurose, in the Singh Observer, Dec. 1938: n.p.; and the Tagore-Noguchi correspondence published in both Amrita Bazar Patrika and Visva Bharati Quarterly in September 1938.

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56 Several prominent Indian pan-Asianists living in Japan were also part of the INA, such as A. M. Sahay and R. B. Bose, and as a movement it had its pedigree in pan-Asian thought. However, extensive treatment of the INA falls outside of our chronological and thematic scope here. For details, see S. Bose, K., A Beacon across Asia: A Biography of Subhas Chandra Bose (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1973)Google Scholar; Gupta, S. S., Our Struggle and Rash Behari Bose (Calcutta: Books of the World, 1951)Google Scholar; Oshawa, J. G., Two Great Indians in Japan: Shri Rash Behari Bose and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (Calcutta: Kusa Publications, 1954)Google Scholar; Ramu, P. S., Rash Behari Bose: A Revolutionary “Unwept, Unhonoured and Unsung” (New Delhi: The Freedom Movement Memorial Committee, 1998)Google Scholar.

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86 “Mahatma to Address Inter-Asian Meet?” Bombay Chronicle, 24 Mar. 1947: 1.

87 “Questions and Answers between Gandhi and Delegates,” Harijan, 20 Apr. 1947: 113.

88 Ibid.: 116.

89 Ibid.: 117.

90 Kalidas Nag was not only an admirer of the Bengali poet but also a close collaborator, accompanying Tagore on his tour of France in 1920, and his tour of Asia four years later.

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100 See Handy, E. S. Craighill, “The Renaissance of Indian Culture: Its Significance for the Pacific and the World,” Pacific Affairs 3, 4 (1930): 362–69, 364CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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102 Cited in Gottlob, Michael, ed., Historical Thinking in South Asia: A Handbook of Sources from Colonial Times to the Present (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2003), 161–62Google Scholar.

103 Chaudhuri, Kirti N., Asia before Europe: Economy and Civilisation of the Indian Ocean from the Rise of Islam to 1750 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 58–59Google Scholar. For the background and content of this understanding of Hindu-“xenology,” see also Halbfass, Wilhelm, India and Europe: An Essay in Philosophical Understanding (New Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, 1991), 172–96Google Scholar.

104 Tagore, Rabindranath, “Asian Cultural Rapprochement,” Modern Review 54 (Dec. 1933): 661–65, here 661Google Scholar. Contemporary Hindu-nationalist groups have employed a surprisingly similar rhetoric. See also Susan Bayly, “India's ‘Empire of Culture,’” 210–11.

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107 Hindu Outlook, 25 May 1940: 3.

108 Savarkar, Vinayak D., Hindutva: Who Is a Hindu? (New Delhi: Bharati Sahitya Sadan, 2005), 17Google Scholar.

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110 Idem, letter dated 18 Aug. 1938.

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113 APAC, IOR, P&J/12/45, Far Eastern Department, 29 Aug. 1921.

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118 For Southeast Asian skepticism, see also Keenleyside, “Nationalist Indian Attitudes,” 221.

119 In particular, “Long Live Greater Bharat,” Organiser, 16 Nov. 1949; “Bharat Must Save Tibet,” Organiser, 23 Nov. 1949; “Why India Should Recognize Israel,” Hindu Outlook, 4 Apr. 1950; “The International Aspects of Hindu Nationalism,” Hindu Outlook, 8 Nov. 1953; “Pan-Islam, A Living Force,” Organiser, 22 Feb. 1957.

120 For Sarkar's biography, see Frykenberg, Robert E., “Benoy Kumar Sarkar, 1887–1949, Political Rishi of Twentieth-Century Bengal,” in Berkemer, G. et al. et al., eds., Explorations in the History of South Asia: Essays in Honour of Dietmar Rothermund (New Delhi: Manohar, 2001), 197–217Google Scholar; and Mukherjee, Haridas, Benoy Kumar Sarkar: A Study (Calcutta: Das Gupta and Co., 1953), 3–25Google Scholar.

121 For a biography, see: Mukherjee, Tapan K., Taraknath Das: Life and Letters of a Revolutionary in Exile (Calcutta: National Council of Education, 1998)Google Scholar.

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124 Lecture at Clark University, Worcester, Mass., Nov. 1917, published as: Sarkar, Benoy Kumar, “The Futurism of Young Asia,” International Journal of Ethics 28, 4 (1918): 521–41CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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128 Sarkar, Benoy Kumar, “Sino-Japanese Buddhism and Neo-Hinduism,” Modern Review 20 (July 1916): 39–47Google Scholar; “The Democratic Background of Chinese Culture,” Scientific Monthly 8, 1 (1919): 58–65Google Scholar; “Reshaping of the Middle East,” Journal of Race Development 9, 4 (1919): 332–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar; “The Beginnings of the Republic in China,” Modern Review (Aug. 1920): 119–24; and “Persia and the Persian Gulf (1906–1919),” in Futurism of Young Asia, 38–47.

129 Sarkar, Benoy Kumar, “La Théorie de la Constitution dans la Philosophie Indienne,” Revue de Synthèse Historique 31 (Aug.–Dec. 1920): 47–52Google Scholar; Die Lebensanschauung des Inders (Leipzig: Markert and Petters, 1923)Google Scholar; and “Societá ed economia nell'India antica e moderna,” Annali di Economia 6, 2 (1930): 303–47Google Scholar.

130 In this context, the volumes of Benoy Kumar Sarkar—Barttamān Jagat (The world of today) (5 Vols., Calcutta: Grihastha Publishing House, 1915–1923)—must be noted, in which he brought to a Bengali readership the culture, society, and politics of the countries that he visited during his first long world tour. See also: Mukherjee, Benoy Kumar Sarkar, 19.

131 Sarkar, “Indo-Asian Contacts,” 133–34.

132 Sarkar, Futurism of Young Asia, 333.

133 Das earned a masters degree in Political Science from the University of Washington in 1911, and his doctorate in 1925 from Georgetown University. For further biographical details, see T. K. Mukherjee, Taraknath Das; Das, Ranendranath, Taraknath Das—Ein Lebensbild des indischen Revolutionärs, Freiheitskämpfers und Gelehrten (Berlin: Taraknath Das-Stiftung, 1996)Google Scholar.

134 On the activities and ideology of the Ghadar, see inter alia: Ramnath, Maia, “Two Revolutions: The Ghadar Movement and India's Radical Diaspora, 1913–1918,” Radical History Review 92 (2005): 7–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hoover, Karl, “The Hindu Conspiracy in California, 1913–1918,” German Studies Review 8, 2 (1985): 245–61CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Puri, Harish K., Ghadar Movement: Ideology, Organisation, and Strategy (Amritsar: Guru Nanak Dev University Press, 1983)Google Scholar; and Josh, Sohan Singh, Hindustan Gadar Party: A Short History, 2 vols. (New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1978)Google Scholar.

135 Apparently he managed to travel the Far East disguised as a patent medicine salesman. APAC, IOR, P&J/12/166: File on Taraknath Das (1923).

136 Quoted in Mukherjee, Taraknath Das, 101.

137 Das, Taraknath, “Pan Asianism, Asian Independence and World Peace,” Modern Review (Jan. 1929): 44–52Google Scholar. See also Das, Taraknath, “Awakened Asia and Germany in World Politics,” Calcutta Review (Oct. 1927): 107–13Google Scholar.

138 Steadman, John, The Myth of Asia (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969), 35Google Scholar.

139 Banerji, Asianism and other Essays, 1.