Unsettling Utopia: The Making and Unmaking of French India

After India's independence from the British in 1947, five scattered territories governed by the French imperial state remained. France fully relinquished control in 1962. Western-led ashrams and utopian communities, such as the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville, continued to thrive in Pondicherry, former French territory. Unsettling Utopia by Jessica Namakkal explores how colonial projects persisted beyond formal decolonization, challenging the boundaries of the colonial era and offering new insights into the legacies of colonialism.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 328 pages
Publication date: 22 June 2021
Publisher: Columbia University Press

After India gained independence from the British in 1947, five scattered territories remained under the control of the French imperial state. It took until 1962 for France to fully relinquish its hold on these territories. However, even after decolonization took hold across the subcontinent, Western-led ashrams and utopian communities continued to thrive in and around the former French territory of Pondicherry. Two notable examples are the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and the Auroville experimental township, which continue to attract tourists today.

Unsettling Utopia: A New History of Twentieth-Century French India explores how colonial projects persisted beyond formal decolonization. Through the lens of the French territories, Jessica Namakkal reexamines the complex relationships between colonization, settlement, postcolonial sovereignty, utopianism, and liberation. She raises critical questions about borders, exile, violence, and citizenship from the margins. Namakkal demonstrates how state-sponsored decolonization, which aimed to transfer governance from an imperial state to a postcolonial state, often failed to align with local desires. She analyzes the colonial histories of the Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville, highlighting their continued success as evidence of how decolonization paradoxically opened new spaces of settlement, perpetuating imperial power.

By challenging conventional markers of the boundaries of the colonial era and nationalist narratives, Unsettling Utopia offers a fresh perspective on the legacies of colonialism. It prompts us to think critically about what decolonization might entail in the present and future. The book encourages us to explore alternative visions of decolonization that prioritize the empowerment of local communities and the dismantling of oppressive systems of power.

Weight: 460g
Dimension: 153 x 228 x 21 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780231197694