Professor Maria Misra
My current research interests lie in the field of gender in a global context, and I am writing a single volume global history of gender. I have also written on many aspects of empire, nationalism and post-colonial identity in India and Britain, including the politic of race and business in the late colonial era, the martial culture of Gandhian nationalism and the place of the Raj in Indian memory
I have recently been awarded the first AHRC Fellowship in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Research Interests
- Gender
- Post-colonialism
- South Asia
I began my research career with a cultural study of the role of race and identity in the relationship between British and Indian businessmen in late colonial India. I have since written a general history of India from the late nineteenth century to the present, and have published articles on several aspects of the cultural and intellectual development of Indian nationalism throughout the twentieth century. I am currently writing a global history of gender, taking a long historical perspective: I am interested synthesising insights from cultural studies, literary approaches and the social sciences to offer an integrated analysis of how gender has evolved over time and space in the long duree, and of the interconnections between colonial, colonised and post-colonial perspectives in shaping current debates and controversies over the global gender order.
Guardian Review: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/aug/12/historybooks.features
Independent Review: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/vishnus-crowded-temple-by-maria-misra-462729.html
Telegraph Review: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/non_fictionreviews/3668012/A-modern-history-of-India.html
In the Media
Teaching
I would like to hear from potential DPhil students regarding in all aspects of South Asian history (though especially intellectual and cultural history) of the C19 and C20; also topics in global history, especially gender and the history of ideas
I currently teach:
Prelims: | FHS: |
Approaches to History |
General History XVIII: Global & Imperial, 1750-1914 |
History of the British Isles VII, 1924-present | |
Further Subject, ‘Postcolonial Historiography: Writing the Indian Nation’ | |
Special Subject: ‘From Gandhi to the Green Revolution: India, Independence and Modernity’ | |
Disciplines of History |
Research Centres
Publications
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Gender: A Global History
January 2021|Book -
Indian Aristocrats, British Imperialists and ‘Conservative Modernization’ after the Great Rebellion
January 2018|Chapter|Comparing Modern Empires: Imperial Rule and Decolonization in the Changing World Order -
The Indian Machiavelli: The Reception of the Arthasastra in India, 1905-2012
May 2015|Journal article|Past and Present: A Journal of Historical Studies -
From Nehruvian Neglect to Bollywood Heroes: Memories of the Raj in Post-War India
February 2015|Chapter|Imperial Sites of Memory -
Sergeant-Major Gandhi: Indian Nationalism and Non-Violent “Martiality”
August 2014|Journal article|Journal of Asian StudiesThis article takes issue with recent accounts of the evolution of Gandhian ideas that have stressed his importance as a global theorist of principled nonviolence. It suggests that throughout his life Gandhi's writings display a preoccupation with ideas of martial courage and fearlessness; his stance might best be defined as one of nonviolent “martiality” rather than nonviolence per se. His overriding goal was not to proselytize for global “ahimsa” (nonviolence) but to shape the Indian people into a nonviolent army that could wrest freedom from the colonizers. It explains this concern for both nonviolence and martial attitudes by arguing that Gandhi's thought has to be reassessed and placed within several important contexts: the widespread global popularity of militarism before 1914; an influential intellectual critique of Western “materialist” values; Asian nationalist efforts to develop “indigenous” forms of mobilizational politics in their struggles against imperialism; and Indian thinking about caste (varna), which was central to Gandhi's thought and has generally been neglected in the literature. These contexts help us to understand Gandhi's complex and sometimes contradictory thinking on the issue of violence.