Gupta’s conviction indicates that Indian nationhood had earlier beginnings than has generally been supposed. The “Mutiny-Rebellion” of 1857, long regarded as a key transformative event, being hailed as the “first war of Indian independence” having “national” elements, was situated within a longer genealogy. This underscored the evolutionary process through which Indian nationhood developed. It also highlighted the multivalence of the revolt. It at once symbolized “power,” Indian agency, and collective identity: cutting across caste, class, and communal divisions. By connecting the revolt with the imperial glory of Mughal Delhi, Gupta mediated the many meanings of 1857, and linked it with a long patriotic past that evoked the idea of India despite endless fragmentation. His remarks hold the key to understanding how the many stories of Indian nationhood converged at complex levels.

As is well known, London became an important literary headquarters for a number of now major literary figures who migrated to Britain after World War II from the Caribbean; many of these were to become formative in the evolution of a black British canon. Whilst the presence of these artists in the metropolis of London has commonly been linked to a literary renaissance which began to transform the parameters of the ‘English’ novel, less attention has been paid to how the bi-focal vision of writers such as Edgar Mittelholzer, Wilson Harris, V. S. Naipaul, Sam Selvon, and George Lamming not only articulated a wider-angled vision of modernity but posited alternative metropolitan imaginaries and aesthetics. Focusing primarily on fiction, this essay demonstrates how the respective and distinct experimentations of these writers with form and voice began to reshape the cultural and literary map of the nation, at the same time interrogating its narrow (and often parochial) borders.