Cosmopolitanism and Dissent: The Concurrent Rise of the Subaltern in India and the United States

Abstract

There is an indistinct history that binds the two largest democracies of the world, India and America. Through the 1960s, the boundaries of nation and race were vanquished in order to propel the two nations towards accomplishing their democratic ideas. African Americans and Indians established bonds at the heart of this shared struggle. Various activists initiated, what is known as, Colored Cosmopolitanism that transcended the racial discriminations for the emancipation of the ‘colored world’. The American Declaration of Independence was unavailing when the crimes of slavery were set against it. Similarly, the anti-imperialist eloquence was inefficacious to those referred as ‘untouchables’. The historiography focuses on the confrontations of governments and political leaders of America and India wherein it is sharp but narrow. This paper aims at traversing through the relations of the two nations as being far more than just political bodies. The purpose of this study is to examine the transnational encounters of the neglected historical figures and provide an acute portrait of the renowned bridge-builders, such as Gandhi and Luther, of the two cultures. Moreover, it poses questions on multicultural confrontations with normative cosmopolitanism. It has become increasingly instrumental in understanding cosmopolitanism through the lens of dissent.