Michelguglielmo Torri | Università degli Studi di Torino (original) (raw)

Papers by Michelguglielmo Torri

Asia Maior Vol. XXXIV/2023, 2024

As in 2022, in 2023 Asia was marked by three major developments: the US-China confrontation, the ... more As in 2022, in 2023 Asia was marked by three major developments: the US-China confrontation, the contraction of freedom in many Asian countries, and the fallout from wars in Western Eurasia, including the Gaza war. The US-China rivalry continued to dominate international relations; whereas both Washington and Beijing cautiously avoided direct confrontation, both pursued policies aimed at strengthening their own position and, in so doing, diminishing that of the other power. The Biden administration anti-China policies included an embargo on advanced semiconductors and increased military presence in the Indo-Pacific, particularly through the AUKUS pact. Also, diplomatic ties with Asian countries were strengthened, notably through the US-Japan-South Korea entente and enhanced US-Taiwan relations. Additionally, the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework (IPEF) was launched to strengthen economic ties and counter China's influence in the region.
China, on the other hand, continued its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) – although shifting towards smaller, greener projects – and launched new initiatives like the Global Development Initiative (GDI), Global Security Initiative (GSI), and Global Civilisation Initiative (GCI) to bolster its influence. Through these initiatives China offered a source of financial support to the coun¬tries of the Global South, which was alternative to the sources controlled by the West and, in so doing, it emerged as «the lender of last resort» to developing countries. Also, as theorized in the GCI, China’s economic support was offered without imposing the acceptance of China’s ways.
Authoritarianism deepened in both openly authoritarian states and self-proclaimed democracies. This was a process well in evidence in the two most populous countries in Asia (and the world), China and India, where dissent was repressed and minorities persecuted. Other Asian countries like Cambodia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iran also saw democratic backsliding and human rights violations. Nonetheless, countries like Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Nepal showed democratic resilience, whereas the Philippines saw a reversal of the authoritarian policies previously followed by Rodrigo Duterte (2016-2022).
The economic and geopolitical impacts of the Ukraine war and the Gaza conflict added to regional instability, leading to increased military spending.
On the whole, the evolution of the three major developments characterizing the situation in Asia in 2023 were such as to warrant the conclusion that the situation, as in the previous years, remained bleak and that much optimism about the future of the region was unwarranted.

Nations in the Empire The Many Faces of Indian Nationalism, 2024

In the 1970s, the historiographical debate on Indian nationalism was largely dominated by the app... more In the 1970s, the historiographical debate on Indian nationalism was largely
dominated by the appearance of the so-called Cambridge School, which contributed a series of extremely important studies. These studies, although commended by many for their scholarly depth, had an ideological dimension and were usually couched in such a desecrating and mocking tone to trigger a widespread adverse reaction which eventually pushed the Cambridge School’s contribution into the trapdoor of historiography. This result, however, is deeply regrettable because, in spite of the blemishes undoubtedly present in the School’s approach, its contribution is essential to a full understanding of Indian history in the age of nationalism. In fact, as shown in this article, the heuristic model of the Cambridge School has two apparently conflicting aspects. One the view of Indian society as characterized by the dominance of patron-clients structures headed by ruthlessly opportunistic notables, for whom Gandhi, the Congress and nationalist ideology were totally irrelevant. This was a society where no fundamental antagonism appeared to exist between the socially dominant notables and the colonial regime The other aspect of the Cambridge model is the individuation and examination of the colonial link tying India to Great Britain, which is unambiguously assessed as deeply negative for the well-being of Indian society. In sum, the Cambridge School’s extensive and in-depth research not only brings to light a series of very important information and data, which need to be reused, but, more importantly, once we leave aside as (rightly) irrelevant both certain moralistic judgments on the honesty of Indian notables and the politicians who represented them, what emerges from the Cantabrigians’ research is that nationalist ideology spread on a mass level to the extent and at the times in which the bond of colonial dependence became the conduit of increasingly devastating shocks for Indian society as a whole. Against this backdrop, national ideology appears as the way in which the colonial dependency and its undoubted negative consequences for Indian society were described by nationalist politicians. Accordingly, rather counterintuitively, a School so much criticized as the re-proposition of the old colonialist interpretation in a new garb ends up by validating the importance and accuracy of that theory of imperialism, or drain theory, which was developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, altogether independently of Karl Marx, by the pre-Gandhian leadership of the Congress.

Asia Maior XXXIII/2022, 2023

The year 2022 was characterized in Asia by three main developments: the cascading political and e... more The year 2022 was characterized in Asia by three main developments: the cascading political and economic effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine; the US-China confrontation; the authoritarian involution of most Asian countries. The Russia-Ukraine war was depicted by Washington as a clash between world democracies and world autocracies. This was a narration that, on the one hand, pushed China, initially undecided, to support Russia, while, on the other, did not prevent the supposed «largest democracy in the world», namely India from immediately adopting a «neutrality» which badly disguised its backing for Russia. India’s position, nonetheless, did not bring about a crisis in its relationship with the US and its allies, as New Delhi’s support for Moscow continued to be coupled by hostility for Beijing. All this mixed together and helped fuel the increasingly bitter US-China confrontation, which was characterized by the building or strengthening of a series of counterpoised political and/or economic ententes. This was accompanied by the enhancement of the rhetorical arguments deployed by each of the two superpowers against the other. Still in 2022, there was the shrinking of liberty in most Asian countries, which effected both authoritarian or semi-authoritarian states and self-styled democracies. Particularly worrying was the authoritarian involution of the two largest Asian democracies: India and Indonesia. This shrinking of liberties did not go unchallenged, as in several Asian countries it was resisted by popular protests, whose results, nonetheless, were limited. In the final analysis, in 2022 as in the previous year, the situation of most of Asia remained bleak.

IL POLITICO (Univ. Pavia, Italy), LXXXVIII, 2, pp. 209-227, 2023

Questo è il testo della Bonacossa Lecture, da me tenuta il 19 aprile 2023. Rappresenta la summa d... more Questo è il testo della Bonacossa Lecture, da me tenuta il 19 aprile 2023. Rappresenta la summa delle mie idee sulla storia, sulla politica e sulla cultura indiane, maturata in oltre cinquant'anni di studi.

Asia Maior XXXIII/2022, 2023

This article focusses on the five major developments which characterized Indian international rel... more This article focusses on the five major developments which characterized Indian international relations in 2021 and 2022. The first of them was the gradual disengagement between Indian and Chinese military forces along the Himalayan undefined border. The second was the launching of an ambitious «vaccine diplomacy» aimed mainly to strengthen India’s influence world-wide, but more specifically in Asia. The third was India’s role in the Quad. The fourth was joining Israel, the UAE and the US in a new quadrilateral entente. The fifth was India’s reaction to the Russian
invasion of Ukraine. Concerning the first development, this article analyses the peculiar and undefined nature of the Himalayan border, highlighting the fact that in large areas it exists only on the drawing boards of India’s and China’s military staffs and leading political
circles. This situation – which, by itself, makes incidents bound to happen – is of no easy solution, even if the two parties involved were characterised by a sincere desire to resolve the issue, which does not seem to be the case. In fact, as this article points out, in spite of the process of disengagement along the Himalaya, anti-Chinese feelings
remained dominant among Indian politicians and public opinion. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that, as this article shows, India’s «vaccine diplomacy» (which, after a promising start, failed spectacularly), her participation in both the Quad proper and the new quadrilateral entente (whose official name became I2U2), and her highly ambiguous policy of neutrality on the Russian invasions of Ukraine (in spite of India’s close connection with the US) had all as a main aim confronting and containing China.

International conference 'Gandhi after Gandhi', University of Turin , 2-3 December, 2019

Asia Maior, 2021

This is the introductory essay to Asia Maior, Vol. XXXII/2021, which, on the basis of both the an... more This is the introductory essay to Asia Maior, Vol. XXXII/2021, which, on the basis of both the analyses included in the volume and other sources, singles out the main tendencies characterizing the political and social evolution of Asia during the year 2021. This evolution is described as shaped by three main developments: the COVID-19 pandemic; the US-China confrontation; the authoritarian involution of the region. The origins, developments, interactions and countertendencies characterizing these developments are broached and synthetically examined.

Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, RSC Policy Paper 2022/05 (Published in April 2022 by the European University Institute), 2022

This article analyses the reasons for the dramatic worsening of India-China relations which becam... more This article analyses the reasons for the dramatic worsening of India-China relations which became apparent in the 2020 border crisis, particularly during the confrontation which took place in the Galwan Valley. The analysis focusses on the historical evolution of India-China bilateral relations since the beginning of this century. It has two main themes: (a) the unsolved border dispute between the two countries; and (b) the role played in India-China relations by India’s increasing strategic and military closeness with the US.
The basic thesis of the article is that in 2005 the US consciously upgraded its connection with India to bring it in the arc of containment it was building around its Asian adversaries, including China. New Delhi’s new closeness with the US – a closeness which had a visible military dimension – could not but worry Beijing and cause a worsening of the India-China relationship. Up to the end of 2013, however, by implementing a complex set of policies, India’s policymakers kept this worsening under control, reducing it to a bare minimum. Things changed dramatically in 2014, when Narendra Modi, India’s new prime minister, abandoned India’s previous prudent approach to China, choosing to confront it and force it to accept India as an equal power. This brought about a downturn in relations between the two countries which, in spite of some countertendencies, eventually resulted in the 2020 border crisis.

Asia Maior, 2020

During 2020, India’s foreign policy was unaffected by the COVID-19 and dominated by two key devel... more During 2020, India’s foreign policy was unaffected by the COVID-19 and dominated by two key developments, on whose analysis this article is focussed. One was the turning for the worse of the India-China relation, of which the heating up of the Himalayan border, which saw clashes between the militaries of the two countries, was at the same time cause and effect. The other key foreign policy development in the year under review was the tightening of the India-US connection, which, in 2020, increasingly looked as a de facto anti-China military alliance. The India-China confrontation is tackled by dwelling on three points. The first is the history of the incidents and clashes along the Himalayan border, whose seriousness is proven by the fact that, for the first time in 45 years, there were losses of human life. Then, a main objective cause of turbulence along the China-India border, namely the undefined nature of the de facto border (the so-called LAC, Line of Actual Control) is examined. Finally, the two mirror-like explanations of the border crisis are scrutinised. Then, the focus of the analysis moves on, zeroing on the India-US connection. It highlights the bizarre situation which, during the year under review, saw the worsening of the economic connection between the two nations – a direct result of US President Trump «America First» policy – coupled, however, by their growing military closeness. The fact that this apparently contradictory process resulted in something akin to a de facto military alliance, and the institutional developments that fleshed it out are examined. Finally, the fact is underlined that, even if largely unrecognised by Indian politicians and public opinion, the tightening of the US-India military alliance resulted in India’s loss, or at least drastic diminution of its vaunted «strategic autonomy». As a proof of this, the unravelling of the India-Iran strategic ties is examined.

Asia Maior, 2020

The following article, focussed on the analysis of the ongoing crisis of Indian democracy in the ... more The following article, focussed on the analysis of the ongoing crisis of Indian democracy in the year 2020, is articulated in two parts. The first, after a synthetic summing up of how the crisis started in 2019, is an overview of the main developments which characterized the struggle against and for democracy in the year under review. The crushing of the anti-CAA/NRC democratic movement, the persecution of minorities, the harassing of NGOs, the attacks on journalists and the continuing repression in Kashmir are summarised. The celebration of the transformation of India from a secular democracy into a Hindu Rashtra through the inauguration of the construction of the Ram mega temple in Ayodhya is remembered. This first part ends by discussing the unexpected rise of the Indian farmers’ anti-government movement in the concluding months of the year.
The second part of the article is a case study of the repression of the anti-CAA/NRC movement. It is argued that it was pursued through fascist-like violence on the part of Hindutva thugs, abetted by the police. This culminated in the Delhi riots-turned-pogrom of February. In spite of all, the anti-CAA/NRC movement continued up to the explosion of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, which made the continuation of street manifestations and sit-ins impossible. The analysis continues through the examination of the veritable witch-hunt carried by the police, on the basis of fabricated evidence, against representative members of the anti-CAA/NRC movement and intellectuals known for their criticism of the Modi government.
In the conclusion it is argued that the political set-up prevailing in India is not a full-fledged democracy any more. Rather, it is a hybrid system which, below an outwardly democratic appearance, badly conceals its highly authoritarian nature.

Asia Maior, 2019

The seven months starting with the formation of the second Modi’s government in May 2019 and the ... more The seven months starting with the formation of the second Modi’s government in May 2019 and the end of the year were characterised by the systematic and massive assault on democracy launched by the incumbent government. The highpoints of this assault were basically two. The first was the hollowing out of two key articles of the Constitution, which had guaranteed the autonomy of Jammu & Kashmir, the only Union state with a Muslim majority, followed by its dismantling as a state and its transformation into an internal colony brutally ruled through military force. The second highpoint was the attempt to modify the concept of Indian citizenship by introducing a religious criterion aimed at excluding persons of Muslim religion. Both moves appeared to be in contrast with the Indian Constitution; however, the Supreme Court studiously avoided contrasting the Modi government’s policies. The most important Supreme Court’s sentence in the period under review, far from being related to the possibly unconstitutional activities of the government, dealt with Ayodhya question and de facto justified the destruction of the Babri Masjid by Hindu extremists in 1992. Eventually a reaction to the country’s slide towards authoritarianism set in at the beginning of December, when a mass movement against the modification of the secular concept of citizenship spread in large parts of India and was harshly repressed in the Union states governed by Modi’s party, the BJP.
Modi and his closest aides, while focussing their efforts on the assault on democracy, seemed to be disinterested in the disappointing economic situation, possibly as a consequence of their inability, during the previous term, to manage it properly. Hence, the real dimensions of the slowdown, resulting from the first Modi government’s mismanagement of the economy became increasingly evident. As evident became the inability of the new finance minister to redress the situation. Ominously, by the end of the period the GDP appeared to be sliding back to the infamous «Hindu rate of growth», namely the slow growth characterising the years from 1950 to 1980.

Asia Maior, 2018

In 2018, India’s internal evolution was characterised, at the political level, by two main develo... more In 2018, India’s internal evolution was characterised, at the political level, by two main developments, both a continuation of trends already visible the previous year. The first was the weakening of Modi’s aura of invincibility, epitomised by a string of defeats suffered by the BJP in that year’s state elections. The second was the alarming continuation in the erosion of democracy, highlighted, among other negative processes, by the attack on the independence of key state institutions, such as the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
At the economic level the situation was characterised by the apparent recovery of the economy, after the difficulties experienced in 2017. However doubts emerged that this recovery was more apparent than real, as it was the result of untrustworthy government-released figures. Even accepting at face value these dubious figures, the fact remains that India’s economic growth – whatever its real dimension may have been – appeared unable to resolve a set of major socio-economic problems, in particular the insufficient rate of job-creation and the ongoing agrarian crisis.

Asia Maior, 2018

In 2018, India’s foreign policy was characterised by two opposing trends. The pro- US approach, w... more In 2018, India’s foreign policy was characterised by two opposing trends. The pro-
US approach, which had been a distinguishing feature of India’s policy, in particular
since the beginning of Narendra Modi’s premiership, continued, at least as far as
its military aspect was concerned. However, the growing closeness at the military
level badly concealed a host of problems which were adversely affecting the New Delhi-Washington connection, mainly as a consequence of US President Donald Trump’s protectionist policy.
The increasing difficulties characterising the India-US connection provide the backdrop
to explaining a cautious but visible reorientation of New Delhi’s foreign policy.
This was characterised by a readjustment of India’s China policy, which resulted in
a distinct thawing in relations between the two Asian giants, and by the promotion
of the importance of regional alliances and multilateral ententes, such as SCO and
RIC (the Russia-India-China entente) – de facto in competition with the Washington-
dominated world order.
Once all the above has been pointed out, the fact remains that, at the closing of the
year under review there was no assurance that New Delhi’s reorientation of its foreign
policy was something permanent. The problems counterpoising India to China
remained huge and far from being resolved, the most important among them being
China’s will to become the new hegemon in Asia, and India’s determination not to
accept a subordinate position vis-à-vis China.

In 2017 the Indian economy appeared to be on a declining trend up to Quarter 1 (Q1) 2017-18 (Apri... more In 2017 the Indian economy appeared to be on a declining trend up to Quarter 1
(Q1) 2017-18 (April-June 2017). The data for Q2 of 2017-18 (July-September
2018) – the last available at the closing of the present article – were better, but insufficient
to conclude that the negative trend had been reversed. In turn, this declining
trend was the result of long-term causes, going back at least to Financial Year 2012-
13, which are briefly analysed in the present article. However, its main thrust aims
at analysing the two main economic reforms implemented by the Modi government
- demonetisation and the Goods and Services Tax. The following analysis shows that,
they, far from improving the situation, worsened it, in particular causing the contraction
of the informal sector of the economy, without bringing about any development
of the formal sector. As shown by a plethora of journalistic enquiries, this adversely
impacted the Indian economy although, because of the way in which data on the
economy are collected, at the closing of the present article the actual dimension of this
negative impact was not yet visible in the official statistics. What was clear was that,
in spite of Modi’s promises during the 2014 electoral campaign, job creation was
lower than during the UPA governments.
At the closing of the period under review, the government started to react to the worsening
economic situation not only at the rhetorical level, but by taking some sensible
economic decisions such as reviving the Economic Advisory Council and trying to
tackle the NPA-induced crisis of the banks.

In 2017 the situation of Indian democracy deteriorated, as shown by the continuing attacks agains... more In 2017 the situation of Indian democracy deteriorated, as shown by the continuing
attacks against Muslims and Christians, and by the intimidation against the opponents
of political Hinduism. This intimidation culminated in the assassination of
well-known journalist and BJP critic Gauri Lankesh. Meanwhile Narendra Modi,
in spite of the unsatisfactory economic trend and botched economic reforms, continued
to be India’s most popular politician. Also, during the period under review, Modi’s
party, the BJP, went from one success to another, strengthening its political hold on
the country by conquering four Indian states (Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Uttar
Pradesh and Uttarakhand), and by retaining its hold on two more (Goa and Gujarat).
However, the latest of these elections, the one in Gujarat, although confirming
the BJP in power, saw an unexpected good result on the part of a resurgent Congress.
Some analysts saw this as an indication that the BJP’s tightening hold on the Indian
political system was not unbreakable.
India’s foreign policy continued to be characterised by the increasingly closer and
increasingly militarised connection with the US and by the ever more adversarial
relation with China. It was in this field that the Modi government conquered a
clear (although possibly temporary) success, by facing down China in the Himalayan
Doklam plateau.

C.A. Bayly’s Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars is a milestone in the field of modern Indian historiogr... more C.A. Bayly’s Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars is a milestone in the field of modern Indian historiography, whose importance is difficult to overestimate. It has changed – or should have changed – the received vision on some nodal points concerning the history of India in the 18th and 19th centuries. Yet the monograph has a set of problems, most (but not all) of which related to the extreme complexity of a book that, according to one of its reviewers, is «two or three books interwoven». As a consequence, in the first part of this article, a long and detailed, but selective, summary of Bayly’s main argument is broached out, in the attempt to disentangle one of the «two or three books» which make up Bayly’s monograph from the others. Accordingly, the résumé itself is an (implicit) evaluation of the work under review. However, a more explicit discussion of the crucial contributions given by Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars is broached out in the second part of this article.
According to Bayly himself, the most important part of his monograph is its interpretation of the rise of the Indian middle class as the end result of a long-term historical process, which began well before the British conquest. This process had its main features in the separate coalescing of two social formations, the merchants and the Muslim gentry. Each of them was kept together by a common ethos and a sense of identity which crossed caste identities and, sometimes, even religious identities. According to this reviewer, however, Bayly’s treatment of the 18th century and his analysis of the crisis which overtook India in the 1830s-1850s are at least as important.
Bayly shows that the 18th century, far from being a period of economic decline and military anarchy, was characterised by the emergence of a set of dynamic states, which played a key role in the maintenance of a flourishing economy. As far as the 1830s-1850s are concerned, Bayly shows that, in those decades, North India, far from being vigorously driven by her British masters on the way to modernisation and prosperity, was forcedly pushed into the biggest economic crisis experienced in some centuries.
Finally, this article concludes with the examination of some drawbacks present in Bayly’s monograph: the missing analysis of the role of British violence; the missing analysis of famines; the limitations of Bayly’s thesis on the historical roots of communalism.
Regarding the first point, this reviewers argues that the « the slow drift to the East India Company of [Indian] soldiers, merchants and administrators», which left the Indian rulers «with nothing more than a husk of royal grandeur», was far from being a voluntary process. Quite simply the spectacular rise of British military power in the second half of 18th century left merchants, service gentry and even peasant confraternities with no other option left but taking side with the British.
Regarding famines – to which several references are scattered in Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars – the fact that they are not analysed obscures a very important datum, whose discussion would have been highly relevant for the comprehension of those British-Indian relations on which Bayly focuses much of his attention. Indian and British rulers reacted in opposite ways to famines: the former implementing proactive support policies aimed at helping the population, which minimised the famines’ adverse effects; the latter leaving it all to the working of the free market, with cataclysmic results for the victims of famines. In doing so, the British rulers condemned to death for hunger or famine-related diseases in the famine-affected areas even the members of those influential Indian social groups collaborating with the colonial order. What happened during famines showed that the choice to collaborate with the British (which, as above argued, had not been voluntary) did not even guarantee the (physical) survival of those who made it.
Regarding the limitations of Bayly’s analysis on the historical roots of communalism, the reviewer compares the conclusions reached by Bayly in the work under review to whose reached by him in a later article on the «prehistory» of communalism. In Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars the implicit but inescapable conclusion is that the communalism of the colonial period was the logical and unavoidable result of the different religious affiliation, ethos and social composition of the two sectors that made up the rising Indian middle class: the (mainly Hindu) merchants and the (mainly Muslim) service gentry. In the later article, the conclusion is much more nuanced and highlights the fact that «conflicts between Hindu and Sikh peasantry and Muslim gentry, or between Muslim peasantry and Hindu gentry did not inevitably lead to polarization on communal lines.»

Asia Maior Vol. XXXIV/2023, 2024

Nations in the Empire The Many Faces of Indian Nationalism, 2024

Asia Maior XXXIII/2022, 2023

IL POLITICO (Univ. Pavia, Italy), LXXXVIII, 2, pp. 209-227, 2023

Asia Maior XXXIII/2022, 2023

International conference 'Gandhi after Gandhi', University of Turin , 2-3 December, 2019

Asia Maior, 2021

Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies, RSC Policy Paper 2022/05 (Published in April 2022 by the European University Institute), 2022

Asia Maior, 2020

Asia Maior, 2019

Asia Maior, 2018

This review article evaluates the recent and important monograph authored by Paola Irene Galli Ma... more This review article evaluates the recent and important monograph authored by Paola Irene Galli Mastrodonato on the literary output of Emilio Salgari (1862-1911), namely Italy’s most important writer of adventure fiction. The review article shows how Galli Mastrodonato skillfully highlights Salgari’s “unique writing style” and conclusively proves the disconcerting modernity of a set of novels which, while written in the heydays of imperialism, were deeply critical of colonialism, and, through their stories and protagonists, strongly supported the equal dignity of human beings, quite independently from their ‘race’, religion and sex. The monograph also highlights the dubious reasons of the persistent negative evaluation of Salgari’s work on the part of Italian literary critics. The review, building on Galli Mastrodonato’s analysis, underlines how the persistent critical evaluation of Salgari’s work, on the part of many present-day literary critics is squarely based on a bewildering ignorance of the historiographical research on the non-Western world carried out since the 1960s.

Questa mia cronologia ragionata sul conflitto arabo-sionista dalle origini alla nascita dello sta... more Questa mia cronologia ragionata sul conflitto arabo-sionista dalle origini alla nascita dello stato d'Israele venne da me preparata molti anni fa, quando testi seri in italiano sulla questione erano praticamente assenti. La ripropongo in quanto, essendo di rapida lettura e contenendo anche indicazioni bibliografiche, può ancora essere utile in un periodo in cui l'hasbara israeliana è sempre all'opera.

The reasons and responsibilities for the partition of India are highlighted through the analysis ... more The reasons and responsibilities for the partition of India are highlighted through the analysis of the events during two key years: 1937 and 1946.

Key note speech by Michelguglielmo Torri, CONFERENCE ON US-CHINA COMPETITION, COVID-19, AND DEMO... more Key note speech by Michelguglielmo Torri, CONFERENCE ON US-CHINA COMPETITION, COVID-19, AND DEMOCRATIC BACKSLIDING IN ASIA, organized by the EUI and Asia Maior at Florence, on 28 September 2021.

Italian Scholars on India: History, Economy, Society, edited by Elisabetta Basile and Michelguglielmo Torri, 2022

This essay – which is published as an introduction to a collective work including some notable co... more This essay – which is published as an introduction to a collective work including some notable contributions by Italian scholars to the history, anthropology and political economy of India – analyses the development of Indian studies in Italy. Indian studies are defined as the studies of India by making use of the tools of the social sciences, in particularly history, but also political economy/economics, anthropology, sociology, modern literatures, etc. This essay focusses on the contribution of historians, anthropologist and economists, leaving aside the (important) contributions of other disciplines – in particular modern Indian literatures – as they are analysed elsewhere. It points out how Indian studies in Italy – which started much later than Indological studies – after a false dawn in the 1940s, got going in earnest in the late 1960s, spearheaded by historians, later followed by anthropologists, economists and students of modern literatures.
Although – for reasons analysed in this essay – it is difficult to speak of either an Italian school or Italian schools of Indian studies, three main currents can be identified as made up by scholars who were influenced, directly or indirectly, to a larger or lesser extent, by the research work and/or the teaching of some clearly identifiable scholars. A first current is related to Giorgio Borsa ((1912-2002) and one of his pupils, Michelguglielmo Torri. Borsa and Torri see the history of India as characterized by continuous change and progress, the end result of the autonomous effort of local élites and intellectuals who, often reacting to external challenges or domination, showed the ability to borrow from outside and creatively rethink and rework non-Indian ideologies and political and economic organisational models. A second current is related to Enrico Fasana (1940-2008), who emphasized the importance of tradition and saw traditional Indian society as the «real» India. While aware of the processes of change which effected Indian society, Fasana saw them in a negative light, as detrimental to «real» India. A third current is related to Elisabetta Basile, who, in her analysis of contemporary India’s political economy, sees it as dominated by a regressive and authoritarian form of capitalism, which, although characterised by flexibility and a high rate of production, has, as its distinguishing feature, the structural inclusion of many of those social regulations and non-market features supposedly bound to be dissolved by capitalism.
After analysing Borsa’s, Torri’s, Fasana’s and Basile’s contributions, this essay dwells on the output of the scholars who were influenced by them. It also points out the cases in which the original influence was rethought by these younger scholars in the light of the influence of other, non-Italian senior scholars and/or their own research work.

Intervista al professore Michelguglielmo Torri. A mani nude contro i carri armati. I civili u... more Intervista al professore Michelguglielmo Torri.

A mani nude contro i carri armati. I civili ucraini tentano di fermare i soldati russi, con una reazione spontanea, coraggiosa e disperata. È accaduto più volte nella guerra di Ucraina. Scampoli di non violenza, che però la comunità internazionale, a ogni livello, stenta a intercettare. Il dibattito sul pacifismo spesso si è arenato in slogan ed è sfociato nel caos. Sembra che si siano dimenticati gli insegnamenti del più importante pacifista della storia contemporanea, Gandhi, che ha ispirato le lotte di personalità come Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela e Aung San Suu Kyi.

«La filosofia gandhiana della non violenza non prevede la resa, è una filosofia di lotta destinata a durare nel tempo e ad avere effetti solo a lungo termine», chiarisce lo storico Michelguglielmo Torri, una vita trascorsa a studiare e a insegnare l’Asia moderna e contemporanea. Tra le sue pubblicazioni, Storia dell’India e i tanti volumi di Asia Major, il think tank fondato nel 1989 da Giorgio Borsa e di cui il professore Torri è presidente. Con lui ripercorriamo i principi del Mahatma, attraversando un mondo, dall’Ucraina all’India, dalla Russia alla Cina, dove le democrazie stanno arretrando di fronte a nuovi fascismi.

Atlante Treccani, 2021

Un’intervista in cui si mette in luce come la non violenza non sia la resa nei confronti del male... more Un’intervista in cui si mette in luce come la non violenza non sia la resa nei confronti del male, cioè la decisione di non lottare (come viene spesso presentata nei film di Hollywood) ma, al contrario, una forma attiva di lotta, sia pure con strumenti non violenti. Si mette inoltre in luce come nell’ideologia non violenta gandhiana la lotta contro il male fa premio perfino sulla non violenza. In altre parole, come sostenuto dallo stesso Gandhi, se non si crede nella non violenza, piuttosto che arrendersi di fronte al male è moralmente corretto lottare contro di esso anche con strumenti violenti. Lezioni, queste, che molti pacifisti di oggi sembrano avere dimenticato.

This volume – the third and conclusive one of a history of India since the early human settlement... more This volume – the third and conclusive one of a history of India since the early human settlements – examines the political, economic and social evolution of India from independence to the 2014 general election. It argues that the period is subdivided into two main phases; the Longer Nehruvian Era, which extended well after Nehru’s death in 1964, and the Neoliberal Age. The book shows that the Longer Nehruvian Era was articulated in two stages. In the first, which ended with Nehru’s death, the features which characterized India until the late 1980s and early 1990s came into being. The main ones were a secular democracy, a dominant-party system, and an economy where the state played a crucially important economic role. The second stage of the longer Nehruvian era was characterized by the decline of these characterizing features, which, however, were still in place at the end of the 1980s. The years 1989-1991 – here examined in depth – saw the tumultuous transition to a new historical phase. This new phase, the Neoliberal Age, was characterized by the eclipse of the dominant party system and the implementation of neoliberal economic policies. The neoliberal policies speeded up development but, in spite of some governmental efforts to protect the lower social strata, widened social and economic disparities. The Neoliberal Age was also characterized by the rise of Hindutva. Already in power in the years 1999-2004, it made a comeback in the 2014 general election, whose detailed analysis concludes this volume.

This is the second of a three-volume history of India, characterized by three main arguments: (a)... more This is the second of a three-volume history of India, characterized by three main arguments: (a) Indian history has been crucially conditioned by the manifold and two-way connections linking the Indian subcontinent to the remainder of the world; (b) Indian society was never static, but always crisscrossed by powerful currents of change; (c) colonialism caused both the crystallization of a ‘traditional’ society – which, in that shape, had never really existed before – and, at the same time, the rise of modernity.
This volume examines the history of India from the collapse of the Mughal Empire to the end of colonialism in 1947. It analyses the features of the most important pre-colonial Indian states and the role played by the British colonialism in their destruction or reduction to political irrelevance. Second, the volume highlights the contradictory role of the colonial order in freezing a previously evolving society, causing the coming into being of a ‘traditional India’ and, at the same time, somewhat unwittingly, triggering the rise of a new modern India. Furthermore, the volume analyses the role of India in supporting the British Empire both economically and militarily, and how the implementation of the liberal economic policy by the colonial rulers resulted in the loss of millions of Indian lives. Finally, the volume closely examines the rise and evolution of Indian nationalism, the reasons that forced for the British to end their rule, and, last but not least, the causes of partition and the responsibilities of the parties and political leaders involved.

A History of India, Vol. I: From the First Human Settlements to the Mughal Empire, 2024

This is the first of a three-volume history of India, characterized by three main arguments: (a) ... more This is the first of a three-volume history of India, characterized by three main arguments: (a) Indian history has been crucially conditioned by the connections linking the Indian subcontinent to the remainder of the world; (b) Indian society was never static, but always crisscrossed by powerful currents of change; (c) colonialism caused both the crystallization of a ‘traditional’ society – which, in that shape, had never really existed before – and, at the same time, the rise of modernity. This volume examines the history of India from the first human settlements in the subcontinent up to the death of Emperor Aurangzeb in 1717. The political, military, economic and social developments are analysed against the backdrop represented by the rise, decline, fall and renaissance of flourishing urban civilizations. While the economy remained mainly agrarian, long-distance trade and pre-modern, but quite sophisticated, manufacturing and service activities rose, declined and rose again. This caused the parallel rise, decline and resurgence of intermediate social strata, later resulting in the formation of a modern bourgeoisie. While the existing religious and cultural strands are analysed, a particular emphasis is placed on the relations between the two main religious traditions, Hinduism and Islam. This volume demonstrates that, despite exceptions, an essentially harmonious coexistence, which often extended to cooperation. This coexistence came into being as a result of both Realpolitik and the presence, within both Hinduism and Islam, of surprisingly similar mystical movements extremely influential both at the mass level and at the level of the ruling classes.

This book – which aims to highlight the contribution of Italian scholars to the study of modern a... more This book – which aims to highlight the contribution of Italian scholars to the study of modern and contemporary India - collects the work of 10 of them. In as many essays, some of the most representative Italian students of India analyse the evolution of Indian society through case studies chronologically ranging from the 16th century to the present day, focussed on an extensive set of topics. The colonial impact on Indian society; its reaction to it; the political and social evolution of independent India; the strength and weaknesses of its economy are put under the lenses of six historians, three economists and an anthropologist. The 10 case studies are prefaced by an historiographical essay which sketches out the distinctive Italian tradition of Indian studies and shows the connection of each of the remaining 10 articles to it.