The turn to empire in Asia

ABSTRACT

As both a geographical and civilizational category, Asia is and remains a European creation. Its questioning is therefore part of the anti-colonial project in both India and China, where it is part of the sometimes fitful and contradictory way in which imperialism has been simultaneously inherited and repudiated. The economic and political emergence of both countries as global powers has made this inheritance relevant again, this time as a focus of identification, and their futures are bound up with how these states deal with the idea and reality of empire as their nationalisms begin to fragment.

KEYWORDS:

• Asia
• civilisation
• empire
• Europe
• India
• China
• nationalism
• anarchism

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Faisal Devji

Faisal Devji is Professor of Indian History at the University of Oxford and Director of the Asian Studies Centre at St. Antony’s College.