India’s First Diplomat: V.S. Srinivasa Sastri and the Making of Liberal Internationalism

Lecture by Vineet Thakur (Leiden University).

Chair: Manu Bhagavan (CUNY)

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Abstract

A celebrated politician, scholar and diplomat in his lifetime, V.S. Srinivasa Sastri (1869-1946) is now a largely forgotten figure. Hailed as the ‘very voice of international conscience’, Sastri advocated for racial equality and for securing the rights of Indians both at home and abroad. Vineet Thakur's talk, based on his recent book, will focus on Sastri's diplomacy and the role that this Indian diplomat played in shaping liberal internationalism in the 1920s. Thakur will argue that Sastri's life and work also allow reflecting on the contradictions of being a ‘native diplomat’, of being treated as an equal on the world stage while lacking equality at home.

Sponsored by LSE Contemporary International History and the Global Cold War Research Cluster

The event is part of the series Biographies of Interwar -Isms.