• In your new book, A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire, you highlight an interplay between nationalism and universalism.

I was concerned in this book to suggest that there were both territorial and extraterritorial dimensions to Indian nationalism and the forging of an Indian identity. I felt that in some of the recent historical literature territorial nationalism had been over-emphasised. At the end of the day, on August 15, 1947, we ended up with a territorially defined nation state. Some of the structures of that state were borrowed from the colonial state. And yet I found that there were fairly strong internationalist dimensions to nationalism, or what I’ve also described as an interplay of nationalism and universalism. This universalism may have taken many forms. For example, think of 1905, the Swadeshi movement. You could see it as regional patriotism in Bengal contributing to a larger Indian nationalism. But you could also see it affiliated with a broader Asian universalism.

All that changed closer to 1947. In the chapter where I talk about expatriate patriots I look into, you know what the Indian communities in South Africa were doing while Mahatma Gandhi was there. And what the Indian communities in Southeast Asia were doing during those crucial two years while Subhas Chandra Bose was there between 1943 and 1945.

• And Tagore?

I was especially interested in talking about different universalisms because there is a sense, particularly in the West, that in the modern period of world history Europe could claim some kind of a monopoly on universalism. That, I have tried to argue, is a false claim. I was concerned to show that there were many Indians who wanted to contribute to the shaping of a global future. Many historians, even those I admire within the subaltern school, had rather overstressed Indian claims to cultural difference. You know, Europe was trying to invade our world, and so in some kind of an inner spiritual domain we protected our own culture. I felt Indians were not as defensive, that they felt they had something to contribute to the outside world.

... contd.