South Asian Mobility, Marriage and Transnational Anticolonialism in Continental Europe, c. 1910–1950

Abstract

This paper draws on the archival records of attempted and realised marriages between South Asian men and German, Swiss, French and Austrian women, using them as entry points for situating (interracial) marriage within the history of transnational Indian anticolonialism and the history of decolonisation. I seek to contribute to scholarship that has broadened the definition of anticolonial activism to include a spectrum of everyday resistance (in this case, marital practices) undertaken by South Asian political activists, students and migrant workers. I intend to move beyond the mere study of the symbolic and political significance of interracial marriage to focus on the ways in which marriage applications, weddings, and married life enabled and often required South Asians and their partners to undermine colonial authority. While the archival records of South Asian marriages in continental Europe demonstrate the reach of British colonial control over the intimate lives of South Asians, they also illuminate the many ways in which colonial subjects found ways to challenge such policing. By bringing together a number of individual cases, this paper will explore the ways in which deceiving administrators, performing religious weddings, entering into marriages of convenience, and overcoming restrictions on movement to join spouses undermined colonial control.