Mithi Mukherjee, "Asianism and the Fall of Empire: India's Road to Freedom" (U California Press, 2026)

Offering a new global perspective on modern Indian history, Asianism and the Fall of Empire: India's Road to Freedom (University

of California Press, 2026) by Mithi Mukherjee identifies the rise of

Asianism in the early twentieth century as the origin and primary

driving force of resistance movements that brought down the British

Empire. Mithi Mukherjee ties together into a single sweeping narrative

two contrasting, conflicting forms of anticolonialism: the emergence of

the nonviolent resistance movement under Mahatma Gandhi in South Africa

and the militant movement culminating in the war on British India by the

Indian National Army under Subhas Chandra Bose in alliance with the

Japanese army. Asia emerges in this breakthrough retelling not as an

inert geographical category, but instead as a singular agent of change

in modern world history.