ABSTRACT
29The call to the unity of the English-speaking peoples, seen today in discourse on the Anglosphere, has numerous historical precedents. Its roots lie ultimately in England’s colonial expansion and the dispersal of its people around its settler-colonial societies. The idea has risen and receded several times since the foundation of Britain’s settler colonies, particularly at times of international anxiety. Each time the assertion of unity has come to prominence, however, the question of India’s place within it has been debated by its proponents and responded to by Indian thinkers and political leaders alike. This chapter presents a detailed genealogy of the place of India and Indians within the idea of a unified English-speaking peoples. I argue that there are two primary narratives of India’s place in the Anglosphere: an exclusive, racialized ‘Anglo-Saxon’ centred vision; and a pluralist-yet-hierarchical narrative that can encompass English-speaking, non-white colonies. This second narrative includes India, but places it lower down on its hierarchy. It particularly privileges educated, English-speaking and wealthy Indians.
