Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia : From Improvement to Development

‘Civilizing Missions in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia’ offers a series of analyses that highlights the complexities of British and Indian civilizing missions in original ways and through various historiographical approaches. The book applies the concept of the civilizing mission to a number of issues in the colonial and postcolonial eras in South Asia: economic development, state-building, pacification, nationalism, cultural improvement, gender and generational relations, caste and untouchability, religion and missionaries, class relations, urbanization, NGOs, and civil society.

Carey A. Watt holds a PhD in South Asian history from the University of Cambridge, and is currently Associate Professor of History (South Asia/World) at St. Thomas University in Canada.

Michael Mann holds a PhD from the University of Heidelberg and is currently Professor of South Asian History and Culture at Humboldt University, Berlin.