Internationalism, empire, and the early Esperanto movement in India

Halladay, Andrew ORCID: 0000-0001-5684-2432 (2025) Internationalism, empire, and the early Esperanto movement in India. Historical Journal. ISSN 0018-246X

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Abstract

The artificial language of Esperanto would achieve remarkable success in early twentieth-century Europe. Its popularity there is not surprising: though designed as a universal language, Esperanto was essentially European in its grammar and lexicon. But this Europeanness – or, more precisely, this near-Europeanness – also spoke to communities living further afield. In India before the First World War, groups regarded as Europeanized by most Indians but as Indian by most Europeans found Esperanto a literal language with which to articulate their social location. As an ‘Esperantist’, there was no contradiction between being Indian and participating in European society, and to claim the label offered a shorthand that others (whatever their relationship to the movement) could readily grasp. This article considers these dynamics against the backdrop of a visit to India by the Irish Esperantist John Pollen, an event that sheds light on both the inner workings of the Indian movement and the importance that non-Indian Esperantists assigned to it. The popularity of Esperanto would eventually decline in India with the First World War, but until it did, the movement – indexical of Europe yet resonant in India – would promise a transnational community to which many in India felt they could aspire and belong.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2025 The Author
Divisions:	International History
Subjects:	D History General and Old World P Language and Literature
Date Deposited:	02 Jan 2025 15:36
Last Modified:	24 Jun 2025 16:03
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/126548

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