A Talk on ‘Asia after Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century’ by Professor Sugata Bose

ABOUT THE SERIES
This lecture series at Krea University, proposed by Professor Nirmala Rao, Vice Chancellor, Krea University, addresses current issues in world politics to promote local, national, and global engagement among the student body. Upcoming lecture themes include international humanitarian law, water and environmental security, challenges of climate change, war and forced migration, refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs), global governance and political thought. The lectures will be delivered by a diverse range of academics and practitioners, offering Krea students an invaluable opportunity to connect their academic studies to real-world issues and engage with leading experts. The series will be convened by Sherman Teichman, Emeritus Founding Director of The Institute for Global Leadership at Tufts University (1984-2016) and Dr Dyotana Banerjee, Assistant Professor of Politics, SIAS (School of Interwoven Arts and Sciences), Krea University.

ABOUT THE TALK
The talk is based on Professor Sugata Bose’s monograph, Asia after Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century. Tracking the circulation of ideas and people across colonial and national borders, the talk explores developments in Asian thought, art, and politics that defied Euro-American models and defined Asianness as a locus of solidarity for all humanity. Professor Bose’s work examines early intimations of Asian solidarity and universalism preceding Japan’s victory over Russia in 1905; the revolutionary collaborations during the First World War and its aftermath, when Asian universalism took shape alongside Wilsonian internationalism and Bolshevism; the impact of the Great Depression and the Second World War on the idea of Asia; and the persistence of forms of Asian universalism in the post-war period, despite the consolidation of postcolonial nation-states modeled on Europe.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Professor Sugata Bose
Sugata Bose is the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs at Harvard University. He has served as the Director of Graduate Studies in History at Harvard and as the Founding Director of Harvard’s South Asia Institute. Prior to taking up the Gardiner Chair at Harvard in 2001, Bose was a Fellow of St Catharine’s College, University of Cambridge, and a Professor of History and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Bose was educated at Presidency College, Calcutta, and the University of Cambridge, where he obtained his PhD. His many books include Modern South Asia: History, Culture, Political Economy (with Ayesha Jalal, 5th edition 2022), A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire (2006), His Majesty’s Opponent: Subhas Chandra Bose and India’s Struggle against Empire (2011, 10th anniversary edition 2022), The Nation as Mother and Other Visions of Nationhood (2017), and, most recently, Asia after Europe: Imagining a Continent in the Long Twentieth Century (2024). He was a recipient of the Guggenheim Fellowship in 1997.

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