Imperial Connections between Ireland and India in the Late Eighteenth Century

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article examines the imperial connections between Ireland and India in the late eighteenth century in order to demonstrate how colonial territories engaged with one another beyond the shadow, or concerns, of the British metropole. Building on the landmark work of C. A. Bayly in comparing Ireland and India’s connected history of nationalism during the long nineteenth century, as well as other scholarly publications concerning migration and land ownership, it explores the broader issue of the circulation of people and ideas during a pivotal moment in the later 1700s. A joint consideration of the two-way traffic that operated between Ireland and India provides a more balanced view of the global opportunities provided by imperial expansion, and of the ways in which Irish and Indian travellers engaged with colonialism. Secondly, the circulation of intellectual ideas between the two countries, and the resonance of domestic Irish or Indian concerns in their corresponding locale, demonstrate how colonial subjects interacted with developments occurring elsewhere in the empire. This article weaves together the varying strands of comparison that scholars have already carried out on late eighteenth-century Ireland and India to argue for a more rounded image of continuous circulation.