Vineet Thakur
- Published in print:
- 2021
- Published Online:
- January 2022
- ISBN:
- 9781529217667
- eISBN:
- 9781529217704
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Policy Press
- DOI:
- 10.1332/policypress/9781529217667.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
Valangaiman Sankaranarayana Srinivasa Sastri (1869-1946) was a leading politician, diplomat and educationist in colonial India. As one of the founding members of the National Liberal Federation, he ...
More
Valangaiman Sankaranarayana Srinivasa Sastri (1869-1946) was a leading politician, diplomat and educationist in colonial India. As one of the founding members of the National Liberal Federation, he embodied the contradictions of Indian Liberals in the interwar era. He was a member of the Imperial Legislative Assembly, represented British India in several important external missions, and yet critiqued the British Empire abundantly. Alongside Gandhi, Sastri was widely hailed as India’s premier statesman in the interwar era. Focusing on Sastri’s years as India’s roving ambassador in the 1920s, this book argues for reconsidering our understandings of the British Commonwealth and liberal internationalism as exclusively western ideas, by positioning Sastri as a key figure in their discursive and practical formulation. Through Sastri, the book also delves into the lifeworld of India’s pre-independence diplomacy. Merging biography and diplomatic history, this will be the first book to offer an extended view on Sastri’s life and contributions to India’s diplomacy in the 1920s.Less
Valangaiman Sankaranarayana Srinivasa Sastri (1869-1946) was a leading politician, diplomat and educationist in colonial India. As one of the founding members of the National Liberal Federation, he embodied the contradictions of Indian Liberals in the interwar era. He was a member of the Imperial Legislative Assembly, represented British India in several important external missions, and yet critiqued the British Empire abundantly. Alongside Gandhi, Sastri was widely hailed as India’s premier statesman in the interwar era. Focusing on Sastri’s years as India’s roving ambassador in the 1920s, this book argues for reconsidering our understandings of the British Commonwealth and liberal internationalism as exclusively western ideas, by positioning Sastri as a key figure in their discursive and practical formulation. Through Sastri, the book also delves into the lifeworld of India’s pre-independence diplomacy. Merging biography and diplomatic history, this will be the first book to offer an extended view on Sastri’s life and contributions to India’s diplomacy in the 1920s.
