CfP: Britain to South Asia: From Imperial Anti-Bolshevism to Cold War Frameworks, 1920–19712026.5.15 {en}

This edited volume invites contributions that interrogate the historical transition from British imperial anti-Bolshevism to the Cold War security paradigms that shaped South Asia between 1920 and 1971. Moving beyond a nation-centered narrative, it foregrounds the interconnected relationship between Britain and South Asia, situating the subcontinent within a wider imperial and global matrix of intelligence, governance, and ideological conflict. Rather than treating 1947 as a definitive rupture, the collection explores the continuities and mutations in statecraft, surveillance, and political policing that traversed the colonial and post-independence divide.

The volume takes as its departure point the global “Red Scare” of the 1920s, when the British Empire understood the Bolshevik Revolution as a transnational threat to imperial stability. In response, Britain developed an “Imperial Nervous System”—a dense network linking the India Office, MI5, and colonial intelligence agencies—which positioned South Asia as a critical laboratory for the management of political radicalism. By tracing the circulation of personnel and anxieties between the metropole and the periphery, this collection examines how categories such as “sedition,” “subversion,” and “alien influence” were institutionalized across imperial space.

Crucially, the volume examines how these technologies of rule did not disappear with independence but were selectively adapted and redeployed by postcolonial states. Legal instruments like preventive detention and bureaucratic practices of intelligence gathering were reworked to manage labor unrest, peasant insurgency, and ideological dissent within the context of the global Cold War. By foregrounding this institutional inheritance, the collection highlights how newly independent states drew upon colonial repertoires of governance while navigating superpower rivalries. Ultimately, South Asia is positioned not as a passive recipient of global currents but as an active site where imperial legacies were reconfigured to produce enduring forms of security governance.

The volume has received initial expressions of interest from Palgrave Macmillan (UK), and we aim to submit a formal proposal following the selection of chapters.

The book will be tentatively divided into two parts:

Part I: 1920–1947: Focusing on the British colonial state’s construction of Bolshevism as an existential threat and the birth of modern intelligence and political policing.

Part II: 1947–1971: Examining the reconfiguration of these colonial frameworks during the global Cold War, as the newly independent states managed domestic radicalism and navigated superpower rivalries.

Core Themes for Contribution:

This volume includes, but is not limited to, the following themes:

Part I: Imperial Foundations (1920–1947)

The construction of anti-Bolshevik surveillance, intelligence networks, and legal regimes under British rule

The Colonial Origins of Surveillance: The emergence of anti-Bolshevik intelligence practices, legal categories of sedition, and early political policing strategies in response to the global “Red Scare” of the 1920s.
Metropole–Periphery Feedback Loop: The circulation of intelligence between London and the colonial state, and the ways in which British domestic anxieties—over labor unrest, the General Strike, and Irish republicanism—shaped the surveillance and policing of South Asian radicals across
The Architecture of Vigilance: The development of the Intelligence Branch (IB) and Special Branch (SB) as key institutions of imperial surveillance, and their role in monitoring Bolshevik networks and transnational radicalism.
Legal Scaffolding and Exceptionalism: The formulation of colonial emergency laws, preventive detention, and legal frameworks designed to manage sedition, labor unrest, and revolutionary activity.

Part II: Postcolonial Adaptations in the Cold War (1947–1971)

The inheritance, reconfiguration, and deployment of colonial security frameworks in independent South Asia

The Language of Subversion: The postcolonial reworking of inherited political categories such as “Fifth Columnist” and “Anti-National” to define the boundaries of legitimate citizenship.
Labor, Peasantry, and the State: State strategies for managing radical mass mobilization, including the policing of labor and peasant movements and the restructuring of unions within global anti-communist networks.
Urban Control and Cold War Borderlands: The redeployment of colonial surveillance practices in cities, campuses, and frontier zones as key theatres of ideological conflict during the Cold War.
The Production of the Enemy: The intensification of internal security regimes during regional conflicts (1962, 1965, 1971), and the consolidation of narratives such as the “Foreign Hand” in policing minority communities.

About the Editor and Advisor:

Dr. Aritra De (Editor) is a historian of South Asia (PhD, Texas Tech University, 2023) and will join the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies, University of Freiburg, as a Baden-Württemberg Early Career Fellow in 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.

Professor Suchetana Chattopadhyay (Advisor) is Professor of History at Jadavpur University. She completed her PhD at SOAS University of London. Her research focuses on the early history of the Communist movement in India, the social and political history of colonial Bengal, and the history of state surveillance. She is the author of Voices of Komagata Maru: Imperial Surveillance and Workers from Punjab in Bengal and An Early Communist: Muzaffar Ahmad in Calcutta 1913-1929.

Submission Guidelines:

Abstract: 300–400 words.
Biographical Note: 100–150 words.

Timeline:

Submission Deadline: May 25, 2026
Notification of Acceptance: June 15, 2026
Full Chapter Submission: November 30, 2026 (Chapter Length: 8,000–9,000 words; Referencing Style: Chicago Manual of Style)

Submission Process:

Please submit abstracts and a brief biographical note to:
Dr. Aritra De
Email: coldwar.volume[at]gmail.com

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