All Outputs (33)

How to talk about British colonialism in the middle of a culture war (2024)
Journal Article

In this 'Historical Geography at Large' review I recount my participation in an August 2023 summer school led by Professor Alan Lester at the University of Sussex, entitled 'How to talk about British colonialism in the middle of a culture war'. The w... Read More about How to talk about British colonialism in the middle of a culture war.

Enfolding empire into 1930s London: the India Round Table Conference (2024)
Journal Article

This survey reflects on the intersections of global and urban history through brief reflections on the Round Table Conference which took place over three sessions in London between 1930 and 1932. Uniting Indian representatives and the British governm... Read More about Enfolding empire into 1930s London: the India Round Table Conference.

Who were the Early Globalisers? The Historical Geographies of India in Interwar London (2024)
Journal Article

This article explores globalisation’s historical geographies, using the example of visiting Indians in 1930s London to decolonise our presumptions about who helped craft the globe.

Communal Geographies: An Introduction (2023)
Journal Article

This paper introduces a special section comprising eight papers that delve into complex geographies of communal identities in modern South Asia. It situates these papers at a significant intersection of spatial histories and historical geographies of... Read More about Communal Geographies: An Introduction.

Colonial governmentality appraised, from the Danish West Indies: Kristoffer Christiansen, Governing Black and White: A History of Governmentality in Denmark and the Danish West Indies, 1770–1900 (2023)
Journal Article

Carceral and colonial domesticities: Subaltern case geographies of a Delhi rescue home (2023)
Journal Article

This article explores a relatively rare archival account of female subjectivity, experience, mobility, and voice within a carceral institution in late-colonial Delhi. The capital’s “Rescue Home” was created to house women and girls removed from the c... Read More about Carceral and colonial domesticities: Subaltern case geographies of a Delhi rescue home.

Delhi Reborn: Partition and Nation Building in India's Capital. Rotem Geva. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, USA, 2022, pp xiii + 349. ISBN 978-1-503-63211-0 (pbk). (2023)
Journal Article

In this exceptional piece of historical scholarship, Rotem Geva walks the reader through a harrowing Indian landscape. The five substantive chapters take us from the dreams about, and campaigns for, independence in India’s colonial capital, to the vi... Read More about Delhi Reborn: Partition and Nation Building in India's Capital. Rotem Geva. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California, USA, 2022, pp xiii + 349. ISBN 978-1-503-63211-0 (pbk)..

The archival geographies of twentieth-century internationalism: Nation, empire and race (2020)
Journal Article

© 2020 The Authors This paper argues that more explicitly geographical methodologies are required to study twentieth-century internationalism, which invite different conversations between international historians and historical geographers. We show h... Read More about The archival geographies of twentieth-century internationalism: Nation, empire and race.

Imperial Internationalism: The Round Table Conference and the Making of India in London, 1930–1932 (2020)
Journal Article

This paper argues that we can view the Round Table Conference (three sittings between 1930-32) as an international organisation that re-assembled the technology of the colonial Indian state. The conference is traditionally associated with colonial an... Read More about Imperial Internationalism: The Round Table Conference and the Making of India in London, 1930–1932.

Political lives at sea: working and socialising to and from the India Round Table Conference in London, 1930–1932 (2020)
Journal Article

This paper presents new ways of thinking about both the spatial relationality of a political event, and a mobile perspective on interwar imperialism, anti-colonialism and Indian nationalism. Between 1930 and 1932 over one hundred delegates from India... Read More about Political lives at sea: working and socialising to and from the India Round Table Conference in London, 1930–1932.

“Political Atmospherics”: The India Round Table Conference’s Atmospheric Environments, Bodies and Representations, London 1930–1932 (2019)
Journal Article

Between 1930-1932 the three sessions of the Round Table Conference in London drew over 70 Indian delegates to the city, for up to three months, to debate India's constitutional future within the British Empire. This paper argues that the "atmosphere"... Read More about “Political Atmospherics”: The India Round Table Conference’s Atmospheric Environments, Bodies and Representations, London 1930–1932.

A pre-partitioned city? Anti-colonial and communal mohallas in interwar Delhi (2019)
Journal Article

This paper explores the mohallas of Delhi, sub-communities within the city, and asks whether Delhi was pre-partitioning before August 1947. It suggests that the mohalla was a site of political mobilisation that was systematically used by Congress fro... Read More about A pre-partitioned city? Anti-colonial and communal mohallas in interwar Delhi.

Spaces before partition: an Introduction (2019)
Journal Article

This introduction frames a selection of papers that encourage a richer spatial understanding of the years before the partition of India. The papers respond to two types of question. One type is spatial (at what scale to do we approach partition? Thro... Read More about Spaces before partition: an Introduction.

Global governance and place making: India, internationalism and empire in 1930s London (2019)
Journal Article

In this paper I argue that two core components of contemporary British human geography curricula (global governance and place making) can and should be taught together. I also argue that materials from the past provide valuable teaching tools in the... Read More about Global governance and place making: India, internationalism and empire in 1930s London.

New Delhi: The last imperial city by David A. Johnson. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015. (2017)
Journal Article

Decolonialism (2017)
Journal Article

This piece opens with some reflections on the geographies of postcolonial scholarship and encourages us to trace out colonial durations in our lives and in the provocations we face. Two examples are given, from the International Conference of Critica... Read More about Decolonialism.

Empirical and analytical subaltern space?: ashrams, brothels and trafficking in colonial Delhi (2016)
Journal Article

In this paper, I will engage with Gayatri Spivak’s writings on the figure of the subaltern, focusing on a recurrent tension in her writings, and in readings of them. The tension is between two seemingly contradictory definitions of the subaltern. One... Read More about Empirical and analytical subaltern space?: ashrams, brothels and trafficking in colonial Delhi.

Dyarchy: democracy, autocracy and the scalar sovereignty of interwar India (2016)
Journal Article

The 1919 Government of India Act instituted sweeping constitutional reforms that were inspired by the concept of “dyarchy”. This innovation in constitutional history devolved powers to the provinces and then divided these roles of government into res... Read More about Dyarchy: democracy, autocracy and the scalar sovereignty of interwar India.

Introduction: Constitutionalism and the Evolution of Democracy in India (2016)
Journal Article

© 2016 by Duke University Press. The essays in this special section make a significant intervention into debates about the evolution of democracy in South Asia by prompting us to rethink the role of constitutionalism in this process. They focus on th... Read More about Introduction: Constitutionalism and the Evolution of Democracy in India.

Subject to truth: before and after governmentality in Foucault’s 1970s (2016)
Journal Article

In this paper I situate Foucault’s governmentality analytics between his first lecture course (On the Will to Know, 1970-71) and his first course after his two “governmentality” lectures (On the Government of the Living, 1979-80). The lectures are in... Read More about Subject to truth: before and after governmentality in Foucault’s 1970s.