| Publication |
2009.
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| Summary/Abstract |
In the midst of the Second World War, feminist, socialist, and anti-colonial activist Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya spent 18 months travelling and speaking in the United States. She aimed to increase American support for Indian independence, while establishing connections with American feminists and African Americans, and defending the rights of women and people of colour throughout the world. Kamaladevi championed a coloured cosmopolitanism that defied narrow, chauvinist definitions of race, religion, or nation, while simultaneously encouraging the unity of 'coloured' peoples. She envisioned Indian independence as a crucial step toward the liberation of the entire 'coloured world'. By sharing her expansive understanding of coloured solidarity with her Indian readers, Kamaladevi contributed to the knowledge and persistence with which Indians criticized American racism. India's independence, coupled with the rise of the Cold War, endowed Indian criticism of American racial oppression with new power. Beginning in the late 1940s, Indian opinion helped pressure American presidents, Supreme Court justices, and diplomatic officials, afraid of losing the propaganda battle of the Cold War, to resolve civil rights crises and to instigate significant domestic reforms. Tracing the genesis and impact of Kamaladevi's coloured cosmopolitanism reveals the long and diverse history of Indian critiques of American racism.
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