Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Cosmopolitanism, Nationalism and the Global Public Sphere -- 1. The Cosmopolitan-Nationalism of Sarojini Naidu -- 2. Suffrage Solidarity -- 3. Becoming Global Citizens -- 4. Breaking America 5. A Changing World Order? -- 6. Defining Human Rights -- Conclusion

"After the end of the First World War, a small cohort of Indian women activists gained international prominence through their interactions with global civil society, world governance institutions and the international media. This book recounts the history of these interactions, examining the ideologies that drove them and the relationships that sustained them. In doing so, it seeks to establish Indian women as actors in the global histories of Indian nationalism and of the ideas and practices of citizenship, including the history of human rights. It reimagines the history of Indian nationalism, decentering the usually dominant figures of M.K. Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru to reveal the agency and independence of women whose global connections helped draw international attention to the Indian nationalist struggle and secure Indian prestige on the world stage as the new nation state came into being. This argument is extended to illustrate the transnational dimension of Indian nationalism, suggesting that that the independent nation state was not always viewed as an end in itself but rather as a component of a wider global vision in which national sovereignty could be subordinated to the ideology of individual rights on the one hand and an imagined 'universal good' on the other"-- Provided by publisher.