Abstract

Historians of Empire have for some time researched beyond and across the boundaries of nation-states and empires, tracing networks in the global flow of ideas, people and goods. Yet despite India’s partition itself not being certain until within a few months of August 1947, there is still remarkably little work engaging with the political and social histories of both early independent India and Pakistan within the same framework. Drawing on previously unexplored sources developed in a collaborative project comparing Uttar Pradesh, India and Sindh, Pakistan, this lecture explores the inter-related modes and meanings of citizenship in each early postcolonial state. It argues that citizenship is not just about belonging to one nation-state, but how specific places, especially cities, relate to other settlements sometimes across international borders.