Should India strive to be a great power or a moral one?

Should it protect its markets or support free trade? Should religious or ethnic considerations influence its diplomacy or not? Should it accept Western values or promote its own civilization? As India rises, these questions have come to dominate public discussion. But few realize how deep the fault lines run.

In this groundbreaking anthology, Rahul Sagar shows that contemporary debates on the role that India should play on the world stage actually originated in the nineteenth century. This was the era in which public figures began imagining India’s place in the world. Through newspapers and periodicals that had started circulating in the country, they disseminated competing ideals that shaped subsequent generations and continue to provoke disagreement today.

By uncovering and outlining these historic debates, To Raise a Fallen People sheds new and invaluable light on India’s past –and its present.