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Whilst my research has been more or less connected to ideas of anticolonialism throughout my career so far, the research connection to the Pondicherry ‘radicals’ of the early twentieth century was made possible due to a British Association for South Asian Studies/European Consortium for Asian Field Study/British Academy Fellowship which I received in 2013. As a result, I have run up a huge number of debts to people who have supported this project in innumerable ways. During the Fellowship, I was based at the Ecole Francais d'Extreme Orient (EFEO) in Pondicherry, at that time led by Valerie Gillet, and the space and time provided by the EFEO, together with the excellent support I received from Prerana Patel, made the time spent in Pondicherry extremely productive. Much of my time in Pondicherry was spent working at the excellent research library of the Institut Francais de Pondicherry, as well as benefitting then and since from the advice and discussions with Kannan M. and Mythri Prasad, as well as from the excellent staff at the IFP Library. In Chennai, the openness and generosity of A.R. Venkatachalapathy, and the ability to stay in the guest house at the Madras Institute of Development Studies in early 2015 proved extremely helpful. Elsewhere in Chennai, the staff at the Tamil Nadu State Archives in Egmore, the Roja Muthiah Research Library and the Theosophical Society Library have all provided support at various times during the research. In New Delhi, the staff at the National Archives of India facilitated my research in 2013 during a month long research period.

My colleagues and friends in the Power Space and Cultural Change Research Cluster, and in the wider Department of Geography and Planning have helped to provide a stimulating and happy place to work in the often challenging world of contemporary academia. A sabbatical period in 2015 was essential in providing further time for work on this project collecting data, whilst a further sabbatical at the end of 2018 provided space to allow this manuscript to be completed. Kathy Burrell's support and friendship, especially in our collaboration teaching Third Year Undergraduates on our ‘Postcolonial Geographies’ module here at Liverpool has been invaluable. Speaking to students on that module, as well as discussing post/de/anticolonialism with our taught and research postgraduate students at Liverpool has certainly helped me develop the ideas present in this book. Elsewhere, Levi Gahman, Kim Peters, Mark Riley, Bethan Evans, Arshad Isakjee, Jen Turner, Lucy Jackson, Pete North, Mark Green, Dani Arribas‐Bel, James Lea, Andy Plater, Richard Chiverrell, John Sturzaker, Josh Blamire and Janet Hooke have all listened to me discuss the Pondicherry Gang or the idea of anticolonialism over the last few years with admirable patience, often in times when they'd rather I was talking about something else. Suzanne Yee created the map of South India which appears in the book, and I am grateful to work in a department which still employs her cartographic expertise alongside Tinho da Cruz. Elsewhere at Liverpool, Ian Magedera, Nandini Das, Iain Jackson, Deana Heath and Soumyen Bandyopadhyay have all helped with their discussions of South Asia at various points.

A wider geographical and South Asian circle of scholarship has also proved of huge benefit. I have presented aspects of this book in seminars at UCL, Glasgow, Leicester, Aberystwyth, Sheffield, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, and at various sessions of the RGS–IBG Annual Conference, as well as at conferences in Manchester and in public lectures in Liverpool. All of the comments received have proved extremely helpful in honing my arguments. More specifically, Stephen Legg, Tariq Jazeel, Gavin Brown, Federico Ferretti, Ole Laursen, Peter Hopkins, Rhys Jones, Jenny Pickerill, Santana Khanikar and many more have provided support for this project and my ideas more generally. Thank you all.

Archival staff at the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge, the British Library, London and the National Archives in Kew have all helped with documentation. Manu Goswami helpfully provided a copy of a hard to find article, whilst Jessica Nammakkal kindly agreed to let me reference her twitter discussion about Auroville.

My journey into geographical anticolonial thought would not have occurred without being supervised on a PhD by Richard Phillips and David Featherstone. Hopefully this manuscript is evidence that all of those cups of proper tea added up to something other than theft. Both have also been exemplary mentors as my career has developed, and Dave has been a thoughtful and generous editor for this book. I would also like to extend wholehearted thanks to the two anonymous reviewers of this manuscript, whose advice and commentary helped to sharpen the work as a whole. At Wiley, Jacqueline Scott has been a model of patience and knowledge. Elisha Benjamin and Navami Rajunath have been excellent production editors.

Friends in Liverpool have likewise had to learn a lot about anticolonial radicalism in India and elsewhere over the past few years, often when they didn’t really want to. Thanks to them for their patience – particularly Frazer, Nicki, Steven, Steve, Amy, Kev, Paul, Nick, Lorraine and Paul as well as others too numerous to name. Mam, Dad and Nathan have also been a huge support across these years. Lastly, but most significantly, Caroline has had to deal with my anticolonial obsession on a daily basis for many years, and has provided much needed emotional support, not least helpfully wiring cash to me when I realised my debit card had expired five days into a four‐week trip to Pondicherry in 2015. I promise never to write a book while we're moving house, to help more with the redecorating, and to spend less time with my Indian archival ‘family’ in the future.

Pronunciation and Transliteration

Tamil, as a Dravidian language, is distinct from the Sanskrit‐derived languages of Northern India. I have attempted to use the current standard transliterations throughout this book, but there are areas of inconsistency. For instance, V.V.S. Iyer is often also spelled as V.V.S. Aiyar. I have opted for the latter spelling in this book, but there is no formally recognised preference here as far as I am aware. It is also worth noting that ‘zh’ is a distinct letter within Tamil and other Dravidian languages. When pronounced, it sounds something like an English ‘L’, but with a retroflex position of the tongue – produced by holding your tongue close to, but not touching, the roof of the mouth, and trying to pronounce an English ‘z’, while rolling the tongue slightly. Strictly, the word ‘Tamil’ should be spelt Tamizh in English, although I have avoided this to minimise confusion, but elsewhere, have used zh (for example, in Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, one of the main Tamil political parties of the last 50 years).