From Britain to India: Freemasonry as a Connective Force of Empire

This article aims at exploring the role played by freemasonry in knitting Britain and its Indian empire closer together. It argues that masonic lodges played an instrumental role in facilitating the circulation of men, information, and ideas across the vast interconnected masonic network that came i...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Simon DESCHAMPS
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA) 2017-06-01
Series:E-REA
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/erea/5853
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1841552586958700544
author Simon DESCHAMPS
author_facet Simon DESCHAMPS
author_sort Simon DESCHAMPS
collection DOAJ
description This article aims at exploring the role played by freemasonry in knitting Britain and its Indian empire closer together. It argues that masonic lodges played an instrumental role in facilitating the circulation of men, information, and ideas across the vast interconnected masonic network that came into being by the second half of the 18th century. As a form of sociability, the lodges also contributed to creating a familiar environment, a reservoir of Britishness, that would contribute to making the Briton feel at home, thus creating a social and cultural continuity between the mother country and the Indian Empire, and a degree of of inteconnectedness to the Anglo-Indian world. Studied as a transnational force linking the metropole to the colonial periphery, freemasonry brings together these two spaces within the same analytical frame.
format Article
id doaj-art-3770f220ee6643b9bb0cf8937cae72fc
institution Kabale University
issn 1638-1718
language English
publishDate 2017-06-01
publisher Laboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)
record_format Article
series E-REA
spelling doaj-art-3770f220ee6643b9bb0cf8937cae72fc2025-01-09T12:53:52ZengLaboratoire d’Etudes et de Recherches sur le Monde Anglophone (LERMA)E-REA1638-17182017-06-0114210.4000/erea.5853From Britain to India: Freemasonry as a Connective Force of EmpireSimon DESCHAMPSThis article aims at exploring the role played by freemasonry in knitting Britain and its Indian empire closer together. It argues that masonic lodges played an instrumental role in facilitating the circulation of men, information, and ideas across the vast interconnected masonic network that came into being by the second half of the 18th century. As a form of sociability, the lodges also contributed to creating a familiar environment, a reservoir of Britishness, that would contribute to making the Briton feel at home, thus creating a social and cultural continuity between the mother country and the Indian Empire, and a degree of of inteconnectedness to the Anglo-Indian world. Studied as a transnational force linking the metropole to the colonial periphery, freemasonry brings together these two spaces within the same analytical frame.https://journals.openedition.org/erea/5853networksempireBritish Indiafreemasonrysociabilityinformal power
spellingShingle Simon DESCHAMPS
From Britain to India: Freemasonry as a Connective Force of Empire
E-REA
networks
empire
British India
freemasonry
sociability
informal power
title From Britain to India: Freemasonry as a Connective Force of Empire
title_full From Britain to India: Freemasonry as a Connective Force of Empire
title_fullStr From Britain to India: Freemasonry as a Connective Force of Empire
title_full_unstemmed From Britain to India: Freemasonry as a Connective Force of Empire
title_short From Britain to India: Freemasonry as a Connective Force of Empire
title_sort from britain to india freemasonry as a connective force of empire
topic networks
empire
British India
freemasonry
sociability
informal power
url https://journals.openedition.org/erea/5853
work_keys_str_mv AT simondeschamps frombritaintoindiafreemasonryasaconnectiveforceofempire