CfP: Britain to South Asia: From Imperial Anti-Bolshevism to Cold War Frameworks, 1920–1971 (Edited Volume for Palgrave Macmillan): Additional Contributions Sought2026.6.5 {en}

Britain to South Asia: From Imperial Anti-Bolshevism to Cold War Frameworks, 1920–1971

NOW SEEKING ADDITIONAL CONTRIBUTIONS ON:

Pakistan · East Pakistan/Bangladesh · Sri Lanka · Punjab and Northwestern Borderlands · Post-Independence India

An Edited Volume for Palgrave Macmillan

Editor: Dr. Aritra De, Baden-Württemberg Fellow, Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), University of Freiburg

Overview

This edited volume interrogates the historical transition from British imperial anti-Bolshevism to the Cold War security paradigms that shaped South Asia between 1920 and 1971. Moving beyond nation-centered narratives, the collection situates the subcontinent—including India, Pakistan, East Pakistan/Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka—within a wider imperial and global matrix of intelligence, governance, and ideological conflict. Rather than treating 1947 as a definitive rupture, the volume foregrounds the continuities and mutations in statecraft, surveillance, and political policing that traversed the colonial and post-independence divide.

The volume takes as its point of departure the global Red Scare of the 1920s, when the British Empire increasingly understood Bolshevism as a transnational threat to imperial stability. In response, Britain developed what may be understood as an Imperial Nervous System—a dense network linking the India Office, MI5, Special Branch institutions, and colonial intelligence agencies—which positioned South Asia as a critical site for the management of political radicalism. By tracing the circulation of personnel, institutional practices, and legal categories between the metropole and colonial peripheries, the collection examines how concepts such as “sedition,” “subversion,” and “alien influence” became embedded within structures of governance.

While several confirmed contributors address the colonial foundations of this security architecture, the principal focus of the volume now turns toward the post-independence period and the ways inherited institutional frameworks were adapted across South Asia after 1947. Particular attention is given to Pakistan, East Pakistan/Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and India’s Punjab and northwestern borderlands—areas that remain comparatively understudied within existing scholarship.

South Asia is approached here not as a passive recipient of global Cold War processes but as an active arena where imperial legacies were transformed, contested, and redeployed to produce enduring forms of security governance.

A formal proposal for the volume is currently being prepared for submission to Palgrave Macmillan.

Structure

Part I — Imperial Foundations, 1920–1947

(Largely confirmed. Limited additional contributions sought.)

The British colonial state’s construction of Bolshevism as an existential threat and the emergence of modern intelligence institutions, political policing, and security law across British India.

Confirmed contributions currently address Bengal, Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, the Kanpur Conspiracy Case, and metropolitan-colonial intelligence relationships. Additional submissions concerning Punjab, the Northwest Frontier, or Ceylon during this period remain welcome.

Part II — Postcolonial Adaptations, 1947–1971

(Primary focus for additional contributions.)

The reconfiguration and adaptation of inherited colonial security frameworks in independent South Asia during the global Cold War.

Priority Themes and Geographies

The following themes are indicative rather than exhaustive. Submissions addressing Pakistan, East Pakistan/Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Punjab will receive particular consideration.

Pakistan

• The formation and institutional evolution of Pakistan’s security and intelligence apparatus and its relationship to colonial inheritances.
• The management of political dissent, communism, labor activism, and left-wing movements in Pakistan during the Cold War.
• Security governance in frontier regions and borderlands, including the continued influence of colonial exceptional legal frameworks.
• Intelligence, surveillance, and state responses to political developments in East Pakistan.

East Pakistan and Bangladesh

• The political and intelligence dimensions of the Bangladesh crisis of 1971 and the broader Cold War context of the conflict.
• State formation and security inheritance in Bangladesh following independence.
• The management of radical political movements, student activism, and left-wing organizations across East Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Sri Lanka

• Colonial security institutions and their relationship to wider imperial intelligence networks.
• The adaptation of inherited security structures in post-independence Sri Lanka.
• Regional and transnational dimensions of security governance involving Sri Lanka, India, and Pakistan.

India: Punjab and Northwestern Borderlands

• The partition and restructuring of security institutions in Punjab after 1947.
• Surveillance and political management of communist, peasant, labor, and regional movements.
• Borderland governance and the Cold War dimensions of Indo-Pakistani rivalry.

India: Broader Post-Independence Themes

• Regional studies of security governance beyond Bengal, including Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, and other understudied contexts.
• Intelligence institutions, democratic governance, and legal contestation surrounding preventive detention, emergency powers, and sedition legislation.
• Universities, student politics, and the surveillance of intellectual and political movements during the Cold War.

About the Editor

Dr. Aritra De is a historian of South Asia (PhD, Texas Tech University, 2023). He will join the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies (FRIAS), University of Freiburg, as a Baden-Württemberg Early Career Fellow in October 2026. He previously taught at Tarleton State University (USA). His research focuses on Cold War political culture, state formation, and transnational ideological movements in India.

Submission Guidelines

Interdisciplinary approaches drawing from history, political science, intelligence studies, legal history, international relations, and related fields are welcome.

Prospective contributors are invited to submit:

• An abstract of 300–500 words outlining the chapter’s argument, primary sources, and relationship to the volume themes
• A biographical note of 100–150 words
• Current institutional affiliation and contact details

Timeline

Abstract Submission Deadline: 31 August 2026

Notification of Acceptance: 30 September 2026

Full Chapter Submission: 31 January 2027

Chapter Length: 9,000–10,000 words

Referencing Style: Chicago Manual of Style (Notes and Bibliography)

Additional Information

For further details regarding the broader intellectual framework, thematic scope, and original conception of the project, interested contributors are encouraged to consult the original Call for Papers attached as a PDF with this post.

Please send all submissions and queries to:

coldwar.volume[at]gmail.com

This volume particularly welcomes scholars working in or with archives in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and the Punjab region. Scholars at any career stage—including advanced doctoral candidates whose dissertation chapters closely align with the themes of the collection—are warmly encouraged to submit.

Source: CFP: Britain to South Asia: From Imperial Anti-Bolshevism to Cold War Frameworks, 1920–1971 (Edited Volume for Palgrave Macmillan): Additional Contributions Sought, H-Net: Humanities & Social Sciences Online, licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 3.0 US.