From the ruins of empire : the revolt against the West and the remaking of Asia

The Victorian period, viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe. As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal Empire, burned down the Summer Palace in Beijing, or humiliated the bankrupt rulers of the Ottoman Empire, it was clear that for Asia to recover a vast intellectual effort would be required.Pankaj Mishra's fascinating, highly entertaining new book tells the story of a remarkable group of men from across the continent who met the challenge of the West. Incessantly travelling, questioning & agonising, they both hated the West & recognised that an Asian renaissance needed to be fuelled in part by engagement with the enemy. Through many setbacks & wrong turns, a powerful, contradictory & ultimately unstoppable series of ideas were created that now lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party to Al Qaeda, from Indian nationalism to the Muslim Brotherhood.Mishra allows the reader to see the events of two centuries anew, through the eyes of the journalists, poets, radicals & charismatics who criss-crossed Europe & Asia & created the ideas which lie behind the powerful Asian nations of the twenty-first century. PANKAJ MISHRA is an award-winning novelist & essayist whose writing appears frequently in The New York Review of Books, The Guardian, & the London Review of Books. From Pankaj Mishra comes a provocative account of how China, India and the Muslim World are remaking the world in their own image, not that of the West. Pankaj Mishra's provocative account of how China, India and the Muslim World are remaking the world in their own image - shortlisted for the Orwell Prize 2013SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2013Viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, the Victorian period was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe. As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal Empire or burned down the Summer Palace in Beijing, it was clear that for Asia to recover a new way of thinking was needed. Pankaj Mishra re-tells the history of the past two centuries, showing how a remarkable, disparate group of thinkers, journalists, radicals and charismatics emerged from the ruins of empire to create an unstoppable Asian renaissance, one whose ideas lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party to the Muslim Brotherhood, and have made our world what it is today.Reviews:'Arrestingly original ... this penetrating and disquieting book should be on the reading list of anybody who wants to understand where we are today' John Gray, Independent 'A riveting account that makes new and illuminating connections ... deeply entertaining and deeply humane' Hisham Matar'Fascinating ... a rich and genuinely thought-provoking book' Noel Malcolm, Sunday Telegraph'Provocative, shaming and convincing' Michael Binyon, The Times 'Lively ... engaging ... retains the power to shock' Mark Mazower, Financial Times'Subtle, erudite and entertaining' Economist, New DelhiAbout the author:Pankaj Mishra is the author of Butter Chicken in Ludiana, The Romantics, An End to Suffering and Temptations of the West. He writes principally for the Guardian, The New York Times, London Review of Books and New York Review of Books. He lives in London, Shimla and New York Prologue -- Asia Subordinated -- Egypt : 'the Beginning Of A Series Of Great Misfortunes' ; The Slow Battering Of India And China ; The New Global Hierarchy -- The Strange Odyssey Of Jamal Al-din Al-afghani -- An Insignificant Man In Rough Garments ; The 'sick Man' Of Europe And His Dangerous Self-therapy ; Egypt : The Polemicist Emerges ; Beyond Self-strengthening : The Origins Of Pan-islamism And Nationalism ; The European Interlude ; Apotheosis In Persia ; In A Golden Cage : Al-afghani's Last Days In Istanbul ; The Long Aftermath -- Liang Qichao's China And The Fate Of Asia -- The Enviable But Inimitable Rise Of Japan ; The First Impulses Of Reform ; Japan And The Perils Of Exile ; The Boxer Rising : More Lessons From Defeat ; Pan-asianism : The Pleasures Of Cosmopolitanism ; Liang And Democracy In America ; The Temptations Of Autocracy And Revolution -- 1919, 'changing The History Of The World' -- The United States And Its Promises Of Self-determination ; Liberal Internationalism Or Liberal Imperialism? ; Making The World Unsafe For Democracy ; The Decline Of The West? -- Rabindranath Tagore In East Asia, The Man From The Lost Country -- Asia Remade -- The Sting In The Tail : Pan-asianism And Military Decolonization ; Intellectual Decolonization : The Rise Of Neo-traditionalists ; The Triumphs Of The Nation-state : Turkey, The Sick Man, Revives ; 'the Chinese People Have Stood Up' ; The Rise Of The 'rest' -- Epilogue : An Ambiguous Revenge. Pankaj Mishra. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. A surprising, gripping narrative depicting the thinkers whose ideas shaped contemporary China, India, and the Muslim world A little more than a century ago, as the Japanese navy annihilated the giant Russian one at the Battle of Tsushima, original thinkers across Asia, working independently, sought to frame a distinctly Asian intellectual tradition that would inform and inspire the continents anticipated rise to dominance. Asian dominance did not come to pass, and those thinkersTagore, Gandhi, and later Nehru in India; Liang Qichao and Sun Yatsen in China; Jamal al-Din al-Afghani and Abdurreshi al Ibrahim in the ruins of the Ottoman Empireare seen as outriders from the main anticolonial tradition. But Pankaj Mishra shows that it was otherwise in this stereotype-shattering book. His enthralling group portrait of like minds scattered across a vast continent makes clear that modern Asias revolt against the West is not the one led by faith-fired terrorists and thwarted peasants but one with deep roots in the work of thinkers who devised a view of life that was neither modern nor antimodern, neither colonialist nor anticolonialist. In broad, deep, dramatic chapters, Mishra tells the stories of these figures, unpacks their philosophies, and reveals their shared goal of a greater Asia. Right now, when the emergence of a greater Asia seems possible as at no previous time in history, From The Ruins Of Empire is as necessary as it is timelya book essential to our understanding of the world and our place in it. From Pankaj Mishra, author the successful Temptations of the West and Butter Chicken in Ludhiana , comes a provocative account of how China, India and the Muslim World are remaking the world in their own image. SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2013 The Victorian period, viewed in the West as a time of self-confident progress, was experienced by Asians as a catastrophe. As the British gunned down the last heirs to the Mughal Empire, burned down the Summer Palace in Beijing, or humiliated the bankrupt rulers of the Ottoman Empire, it was clear that for Asia to recover a vast intellectual effort would be required. Pankaj Mishra's fascinating, highly entertaining new book tells the story of a remarkable group of men from across the continent who met the challenge of the West. Incessantly travelling, questioning and agonising, they both hated the West and recognised that an Asian renaissance needed to be fuelled in part by engagement with the enemy. Through many setbacks and wrong turns, a powerful, contradictory and ultimately unstoppable series of ideas were created that now lie behind everything from the Chinese Communist Party to Al Qaeda, from Indian nationalism to the Muslim Brotherhood. Mishra allows the reader to see the events of two centuries anew, through the eyes of the journalists, poets, radicals and charismatics who criss-crossed Europe and Asia and created the ideas which lie behind the powerful Asian nations of the twenty-first century. A little more than a century ago, as the Japanese navy annihilated the giant Russian navy at the Battle of Tsushima, original thinkers across Asia, working independently, sought to frame a distinctly Asian intellectual tradition that would inform and inspire the continent's anticipated rise to dominance. Asian dominance did not come to pass, and those thinkers are seen as outriders from the main anticolonial tradition. But, in this stereotype-shattering book, Pankaj Mishra shows that it was otherwise. His enthralling group portrait of like minds scattered across a vast continent makes clear that modern Asia's revolt against the West is not the one led by faith-fired terrorists and thwarted peasants but one with deep roots in the work of thinkers who devised a view of life that was neither modern nor antimodern, neither colonialist nor anticolonialist. In broad, deep, dramatic chapters, Mishra tells the stories of these figures, unpacks their philosophies, and reveals their shared goals. - Jacket flap. Offers an account of how China, India and the Muslim World are remaking the world in their own image. This title tells the story of a remarkable group of men from across the continent who met the challenge of the West.