Asianism and the Fall of Empire: India's Road to Freedom

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Univ of California Press, Mar 31, 2026 - History - 338 pages

Offering a new global perspective on modern Indian history, Asianism and the Fall of Empire identifies the rise of Asianism in the early twentieth century as the origin and primary driving force of resistance movements that brought down the British Empire. Mithi Mukherjee ties together into a single sweeping narrative two contrasting, conflicting forms of anticolonialism: the emergence of nonviolent resistance movement under Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa and the militant movement culminating in the war on British India by the Indian National Army under Bose in alliance with the Japanese army. Asia emerges in this breakthrough retelling not as an inert geographical category, but instead as a singular agent of change in modern world history.

 

Contents

Post1857 India
37
The Rise of Japan and
63
The RussoJapanese War and the Rise of Militant
88
Gandhi
125
The Amritsar Massacre and Asianism in
150
Gandhi Bose and
178
The IndoJapanese Invasion
201
Notes
227
Bibliography
263
Index
315
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About the author (2026)

Mithi Mukherjee is Associate Professor of History at the University of Colorado Boulder and author of India in the Shadows of Empire: A Legal and Political History, 1774–1950.

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