Rahul Sagar on the Birth of Indian Nationalism

Today my guest is once again Rahul Sagar, who is a Global Network Associate Professor of Political Science at New York University Abu Dhabi.

We talked about his new book The Birth of Indian Liberalism, the recovery of the forgotten nineteenth-century thinker Mama Parmanand, why his Letters to an Indian Raja counts as the first work of Indian political theory, how Indian liberals had to justify building a state out of chaos rather than restraining one that already existed, their fight against the social tyranny of caste, clergy, and family, the case for binding the ruler and educating the citizenry before extending the vote, the divergence between British India and the princely states, religion as a moral resource, the roots of Hindu nationalism, and much more.

Recorded June 9th, 2026.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.

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Timestamps

(00:00:00) - Intro
(00:02:37) - A Complete Unknown
(00:08:53) - The Historical Context of Emerging Indian Liberalism
(00:15:47) - Features of Parmanand's Liberal Project
(00:21:36) - The Princely States vs. British India
(00:27:47) - Religion and the Development of Indian Liberalism
(00:37:05) - Neither Scientific Nor Divine
(00:46:33) - What Constitutes a Work of Political Theory?
(00:51:27) - The Ethics of Parmanand's Anonymity
(01:02:50) - Outro