Dr. Shereen Ilahi authors new book on British imperial violence after WWI

Shereen Ilahi, North Central College associate professor of history, has published a new book, titled “Imperial Violence and the Path to Independence: India, Ireland and the Crisis of Empire” (June 2016, I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd).

In the aftermath of World War I, the British Empire was hit by two different crises on opposite sides of the world: the Jallianwala Bagh or Amritsar Massacre in the Punjab, and the Croke Park Massacre, the first Bloody Sunday, in Ireland.

Ilahi provides an original and closely researched analysis of imperial violence following the political and ideological watershed of World War I. The British Empire had reached its greatest geographical extent, appeared powerful, liberal, humane and sympathetic to gradual progress to responsible self-government. Yet the empire was faced with existential threats to its survival with demands for decolonization, especially in India and Ireland, growing anti-imperialism at home, virtual bankruptcy and domestic social and economic unrest. Her book is essential reading for historians of empire, South Asia and Ireland.

View Sherren Ilahi’s faculty profile.