Liberal Ideals and the Politics of Decolonisation

Liberal Ideals and the Politics of Decolonisation explores the subject of liberalism and its uses and contradictions across the late British Empire, especially in the context of imperial dissolution and subsequent state- building.

The book covers multiple regions and issues concerning the British Empire and the Commonwealth, in particular the period ranging from the late-nineteenth century to the late- twentieth century. Original intellectual contributions are offered along with new arguments on critical issues in imperial history that will appeal to a wide range of scholars, including those outside of history. Liberal Ideals and the Politics of Decolonisation exposes commonalities, contradictions and contexts of different types of liberalism that animated the late British Empire and its rulers, radicals, subjects and citizens as they attempted to forge new states from its shadow and understand the impact of imperialism.

This book examines the complexities of the idea and quest for self-government in the last stages of the British Empire. It also argues the importance of the political, intellectual and empirical aspects of liberalism to understand the process of decolonisation.

The chapters in this book were originally published in a special issue of The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History.

H. Kumarasingham is Senior Lecturer in British Politics and a Political Historian at the University of Edinburgh, UK. His research is especially concerned with the constitutional and political manifestations of decolonisation in multiple parts of the British Empire.