Globalization and Contingent Colonialism: Towards a transnational history of “British” India

Global History creates an opportunity to rethink nineteenth- and twentieth-century empire and the extent to which imperial systems were confined to the operations of a single power. This article argues from the example of British India that non-Britons played a major role in staffing and running certain scientific, medical and technical departments and could have a decisive influence on policy. Outsider involvement took a variety of forms and could produce adverse reactions, but the German and American presence in India was particularly marked and extended to commerce and consumer goods as well as to scientific and technical employment.