Kayden Book Symposium for Lucy Chester's Networks of Decolonization

This symposium brings together scholars from the fields of South Asian history, Middle Eastern history, and British imperial history to discuss Lucy Chester’s book manuscript, tentatively titled Networks of Decolonization: Britain’s Withdrawal from South Asia and the Middle East.  This book examines connections between two important parts of the British Empire, arguing that anticolonial activists in India and the Palestine Mandate exploited the empire’s internal weaknesses and divisions in ways that helped compel the British to withdraw and shaped the new states of India, Pakistan, and Israel.  These activists leveraged British fears of alliances between colonized peoples and played elements of the imperial structure off against each other.  Their pressure contributed to Britain’s withdrawal from South Asia in 1947 and the Palestine Mandate in 1948, despite British efforts to maintain global power. 

 Scheduled participants include Durba Ghosh (Cornell), P.R. Kumaraswamy (Jawaharlal Nehru University), Wm. Roger Louis (University of Texas Austin), Weldon Matthews (Oakland University), Priya Satia (Stanford), and Laura Robson (Penn State University).  Thanks to the Eugene M. Kayden endowment for providing funding. 

 This event is online, free, and open to the public.  Email chester@colorado.edu to register.