Palestine and India at the Dawn of Decolonization

About this episode

Esmat Elhalaby discusses the significance of Palestine in anti-imperial movements and the intellectual history surrounding it, particularly in relation to India.

with Esmat Elhalaby hosted by Susanna Ferguson | How did Palestine become central to anti-imperial movements and thought in the global south? In this episode, Esmat Elhalaby asks how Arabs and South Asians contended with the “parting gifts of empire” in the long twentieth century, often by turning to Palestine. He talks about how Arab writers in conversation with India reinvented Orientalism as a critique of empire and reinterpreted the political possibilities and limitations of Islam as a political force. We close with a discussion of Esmat’s new work on the intellectual history of Gaza, the importance of talking about “bad Palestinians,” and what it means to write history at a time of genocide. « Click for More »

People in this episode

Host: Susanna Ferguson

Guest: Esmat Elhalaby

Topics covered

• decolonization
• anti-imperial movements
• intellectual history
• Palestine
• Arab writers
• Orientalism
• Islam as a political force

Keywords

• Palestine
• India
• decolonization
• anti-imperialism
• Orientalism
• Islam
• Gaza
• intellectual history

Mentioned in this episode

Books & works: Orientalism

Places: Palestine, India, Gaza

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