A Distant Sovereignty : National Imperialism and the Origins of British India

In this broad study of British rule in India during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Sudipta Sen takes up this dual agenda, sketching out the interrelationships between nationalism, imperialism, and identity formation as they played out in both England and South Asia. It is impossible to understand how the British came to be British without thinking about how Indians became Indian. To a significant extent colonizers and colonized made each other. In this broad study of British rule in India during the late 18th and early 19th centuries, Sudipta Sen takes up this dual agenda, sketching out the interrelationships between nationalism, imperialism and identity formation as they played out in both South Asia and Great Britain This broad study of British rule in India during the late 18th and early 19th centuries sketches out the interrelationships between nationalism, imperialism, and identity formation as they played out in both England and South Asia. Histories of the British Empire and the Commonwealth have seldom wavered from the general rule that while the theater of empire is staged overseas, forces that shape the nation-state belong rightfully at home. Sudipta Sen. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 185-199) And Index.