SOAS Research Online

Abstract

This paper makes an archival journey into the making of institutes of international affairs in late colonial India. By exploring the intertwined lives of two such institutions, it unearths an ideational fight over the study of international affairs in India between the Indian Institute of International Affairs (IIIA), established in 1936, and the Indian Council for World Affairs (ICWA), established in the 1940s. From the outset, the IIIA was strongly pro-government and saw the ICWA as an institutional rival and a propaganda front for the Indian National Congress (INC). Closer to independence, the two institutes were increasingly divided on communal and nationalist political lines. The IIIA’s leadership became dominated by Muslims and the Muslim League and the ICWA by Brahmin Hindus and the INC. In this context, a battle for legitimacy and recognition ensued over participation in international conferences and the ability to publish meaningful research. The ICWA successfully organized the Asian Relations Conference in March 1947, which sealed the fate of the IIIA, which moved to Pakistan with Partition and quietly closed down, after coexisting briefly with the Pakistan Institute for International Affairs (PIIA).