Religious majoritarianism in an independent nation in the name of decolonisation is no better than white superiority as the basis for colonisation. While formerly colonial societies have to reckon with the ways in which they continue to benefit from the spoils of enslavement and colonisation, ‘decolonisation’ should not become an excuse for postcolonial states to enact their own forms of oppression. Anti colonialism at its best was based on this ‘reverse pedagogy’ showing the power of mutually tolerant and respectful alliance.

Brockway, who lived long enough to attend the unveiling of his own memorial in 1985, took part in almost every anticolonial movement from the 1920s to the 1980s. Cultures of dissent were also transimperial, crisscrossing and zigzagging wherever criticism and censure arose. Professor Gopal traces the dynamic relationship between anti-colonial resistance (from the Indian Mutiny in 1857 to the Mau Mau in Kenya in the late 1950s) and the few, often isolated individuals and groups in Britain who broke ranks and challenged the idea of Empire.You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice.

Payments made using National Book Tokens are processed by National Book Tokens Ltd, and you can read their Terms and Conditions here. Insurgent Empire examines dissent over the question of empire in Britain and shows how it was influenced by rebellions and resistance in the colonies from the West Indies and East Africa to Egypt and India. Ignore the one star evaluations that demonstrate how colonisers hate the people they colonised even while claiming they did it all with the best of intentions. Against attempts to portray empire as something distant and past, or as something benevolent and enlightened, approaches such as this one are essential. Photograph: Keystone-France/Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images View image in fullscreen CLR James speaking in Trafalgar Square, London, in 1935.Yet, for a great many people, decolonisation still remains nothing short of a vision of radical social emancipation and economic justice, either inspiring or threatening as such. Insurgent Empire’ shows how Britain’s enslaved and colonial subjects were not merely victims of empire and subsequent beneficiaries of its crises of conscience but also agents whose resistance both contributed to their own liberation and shaped British ideas about freedom and who could be free. An assessment of ‘their’ colonialism must go hand-in-hand with an unflinching scrutiny of ‘our’ own tyrannies. Much has been written on the how colonial subjects took up British and European ideas and turned them against empire when making claims to freedom and self-determination. Insurgent Empire shows how Britain’s enslaved and colonial subjects were not merely victims of empire and subsequent beneficiaries of its crises of conscience but also agents whose resistance both contributed to their own liberation and shaped British ideas about freedom and who could be free.

The book contributes something altogether new and exciting to the existing critical literature in its suggestion that the 'internal' opposition to imperial policies and polities was from the outset a dialogical exercise, premised on an active learning from the anti-colonial movements. Priyamvada Gopal examines a century of dissent on the question of empire and shows how British critics of empire were influenced by rebellions and resistance in the colonies, from the West Indies and East Africa to Egypt and India. I would strongly recommend this to any general reader such as myself with a strong interest in the subject, willing to look up a few unfamiliar words in the dictionary. Priyamvada Gopal’s Insurgent Empire challenges the monopoly of metrocentric approaches to British imperial history with her contrapuntal account of the role that anticolonial resistance played in shaping dissidence about imperialism at home as well as in the empire itself. This book is a must read if you want to know the history of dissent in Britain during the days of the Empire.Gopal then goes on to provide some superb sketches of imperial “troublemakers” (to employ a term used many years ago by AJP Taylor). The author demonstrates how liberation was fought for, and won by, Britain's colonised and enslaved subjects, picking apart the myth that freedom was so generously bestowed upon Britain's colonies by the Establishment when they were deemed 'ready' for it. From there, he made his way to India, witnessing a “white” mutiny as the Europeans of Calcutta vetoed the viceroy’s attempt to open up the courts to native Indian magistrates. Our case is more complex given the Indigenous nations within, as well as the intermarriage and assimilation and acculturation (in many directions) that has been going on since before Columbus’s voyage.