List of Figures and Tables; Acknowledgements; Note on Conclusions, Spellings and Abbreviations; 1. Introduction: Squaring Round Tables; Part I. Geographical Imaginations: 2. Dominion and Dyarchy: The Absent Presences; 3. Community: A Nation and a Table Divided; Part II. Conference Infrastructures: 4. The Conference Method: Between Intention and Desire; 5. Staffing the Conference: Experts and Subaltern Diplomats; 6. The Speech Factory: Palace Materials and Communication Technologies; Part III. The Conference City: 7. A Hospitable City?: Official Socialising; 8. Social London: Residing and Dining; 9. At Homes: Political Hostessing and Homemaking; Part IV. Representations: 10. Petitions and Protests: The Page and the Street; 11. Failure: Ending and Failing; 12. Conclusion: Squaring Round Tables; Notes; References; Index.
Explores the spaces and events of the interwar Round Table Conference which drafted the blueprint for colonial India's constitutional future.
Stephen Legg is Professor of Historical Geography at University of Nottingham, England. He is a specialist on interwar colonial India with a particular interest in the politics of urban space within imperial and international frames. He has analyzed these spaces and frames through drawing upon theoretical approaches from memory scholarship, postcolonialism, political theory and governmentality studies. He published the co-edited volume (with Deana Heath) South Asian Governmentalities: Michel Foucault and the Question of Postcolonial Orderings with the Press in 2018. Some of his other publications are Spaces of Colonialism: Delhi's Urban Governmentalities (2007), Prostitution and the Ends of Empire: Scale, Governmentalities, and Interwar India (2014) and the edited collection Spatiality, Sovereignty and Carl Schmitt: Geographies of the Nomos (2011).
'To think about the geographies of the Round Table Conference is to
appreciate that what occurred 'behind the scenes' was absolutely
consequential to 20th century global imperial history. Legg shows
how critical a variety of infrastructures - from palaces, flats and
tearooms to gavels, coat racks and washstands - were to both
official and subaltern diplomacy during this watershed interwar
event. If London was the great unacknowledged delegate to the
conference, its most public and most intimate spaces are key to
understanding the role of cultural relations in the history of
India's pathway to full political sovereignty. Thanks to Legg's
amazing footwork, we have a whole new understanding of all the
rooms where it happened.' Antoinette Burton, University of Illinois
Urbana-Champaign
'Legg radically reimagines the Round Table Conference (RTC), often
relegated to a stodgier sideshow of state-making and nationalism on
the ground, by focusing on the politics of representation, labour,
infrastructure and space that went into making the RTC. In doing
so, he shows how Indian delegates at the RTC innovated new spaces
of internationalist politics and challenged Western stereotypes of
backwardness. Elegantly crafted, and engagingly written, Legg
offers us rich theoretical tools and incisive methods to understand
the production of internationalism in the 20th century.' Rohit De,
Yale University
'This compelling, beautifully written and detailed account of the
Round Table Conference brings together geographies of colonialism
and diplomacy to exemplify how colonial democracy was practised.
Stephen Legg brings to attention a largely overlooked conference
and the deliberations that occurred and extended beyond the meeting
venue itself, providing captivating insights into how
representation, communication and decision-making unfolded. The
book includes evocative details of how the Indian delegates
negotiated the simultaneously racist and hospitable landscape of
1930s London and draws on archival material to illuminate their
experiences of being lavishly entertained at tea parties,
receptions and soirees. Legg offers a distinctly geographical
exploration of a unique historical event that highlights how
liberalism and imperialism were being played out in the interwar
period. In bringing together geo-political debates with the
intricacies of practices and encounters, this book both delights
and challenges the reader.' Uma Kothari, University of
Manchester
'Legg helps us understand the contentious relationship between
empire and democratisation through an underappreciated forum - the
conference. With forensic and careful argumentation, Legg provides
an intimate political geography of power and representation.'
Robbie Shilliam, Johns Hopkins University
'Stephen Legg's scholarship was already beyond compare. With Round
Table Conference Geographies, Legg has cemented his position as a
historian whose works must be read in order to understand late
colonial India. In particular, for anyone working on Indian
constitutional histories, Legg's book is a must-read. In the
beginning of the book, Legg mentions three doyens of this field
whose works remained close to him, R. J. Moore, Carl Bridge, and
Ian Copland. (13). Undoubtedly, Stephen Legg has to be the fourth
name added by any future scholar working in this field.' Arvind
Elangovan, The London Journal
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