Dilan Tulsiani

Biography

Background

I am a historian of transnational anticolonialism in the twentieth century. I am also interested in imperial surveillance/policing, visual representations of colonialism and the use of violence on colonised populations during the process of decolonisation.

Prior to joining the HCA as a PhD candidate, I completed my undergraduate (2016) and master’s degrees (2018) in History at King’s College London. I joined the School of History, Classics and Archaeology as a PhD candidate in 2020. Outside of academia, I work with production and theatre companies as a writer-director with a particular interest in film. I have also contributed as a writer to journalistic publications such as: Brown History (2023). 

Responsibilities & affiliations

Edinburgh Centre for Global History (ECGH) 

Centre for the Study of Modern and Contemporary History (CSMCH)

Undergraduate teaching

I have tutored on the following undergraduate courses:

  • Introduction to Historiography
  • HCA Writing Centre 

Research summary

Places:

  • Britain and Ireland
  • The Global South

Themes:

  • Anticolonialism 
  • Surveillance and Policing
  • Archives and Restrictions
  • Antiracism and Eugenics
  • Decolonisation and Violence
  • Visual representations of Colonialism
  • Interwar Cinema

Periods:

  • Twentieth Century and After

Current research interests

My PhD thesis 'Traditions of Dissent' examines the importance of anticolonialism in interwar Britain. More specifically, my research analyses the actions of the British Section of the League Against Imperialism (BS-LAI) and other anticolonial dissidents around Britain in producing a multi-racial coalition. My thesis intends to resituate the link between anticolonialism and antiracism from the interwar period to the era of decolonisation. In doing so, my thesis also emphasises the actions of British policing services, who practiced forms of racialised policing in the interwar period and often violated the civil liberties of their suspects. Ultimately, my thesis intends to highlight the legacy of anticolonial activists in interwar Britain who built upon traditions of dissent which in turn laid the foundations for antiracist organisations in the decades that followed.

Conference details

From Anti-Imperialism to Anti-Racism: The Legacy of Racialised Policing on Dissidents in Britain, University of Liverpool, 2024.

Surveillance, Policing and the League Against Imperialism in Britain, ECGH University of Edinburgh, 2023.

“To Pull Indian Chestnuts out the Fire”: The League Against Imperialism and the India question in the Interwar Period, University of Edinburgh, 2022.

Shouts and Whispers: Surveillance and Transnationalism in the British Section of the League against Imperialism, Humboldt, University of Berlin, 2021.

Organiser

Co-Convener, Edinburgh Centre for Global History Graduate Workshop. 

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