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139. The Right Honourable VS Srinivasa Sastri (with Vineet Thakur and Ian Sanjay Patel)
The Very Voice of International Conscience
Speakers
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 securing the rights of Indians both at home and abroad. The book also illuminates the contradictions of being a ‘native diplomat’, of being treated as an equal on the world stage while lacking equality at home.
In this episode of BIC Talks, Vineet Thakur Assistant Professor, History & International Relations, Leiden University and author of India’s First Diplomat speaks to Ian Sanjay Patel, Fellow, Dept of Sociology, London School of Economic about India’s roving ambassador in the 1920s. Vineet speaks of Sastri’s most distinctive contribution to India that came through his diplomatic work. But going further, he argues that Sastri is also a key protagonist who shaped the contours of the ‘liberal’ international order.
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Speakers
Vineet Thakur
Vineet Thakur teaches history and international relations at Leiden University, and has previously worked in India, the UK and South Africa in teaching and research positions. His most recent book is India’s First Diplomat: V.S. Srinivasa Sastri and the Making of Liberal Internationalism (Bristol, 2021). His previous book South Africa, Race and the Making of International Relations (Rowman and Littlefield, 2020; coauthored with Peter Vale) won the 2021 Francesco Guicciardini Prize for best book in Historical International Relations.
Ian Sanjay Patel
Dr Ian Sanjay Patel is LSE Fellow in Human Rights in the Department of Sociology at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is the author of We’re Here Because You Were There: Immigration and the End of Empire (Verso).
