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² These examples refer to a meeting of Indian revolutionaries in Paris in 1909, the Congress of the Peoples of the East in Baku in 1920, and the Pan-Asiatic Conference in Nagasaki in 1926 respectively. See, among others, Çemil Aydin, The politics of anti-Westernism: visions of world order in Pan-Islamic and Pan-Asian thought, New York: Columbia University Press, 2007Google Scholar; John Riddell, ed., To see the dawn: Baku, 1920 – first congress of the peoples of the East, New York: Pathfinder, 1993Google Scholar; Birendra Prasad, Indian nationalism and Asia (1900–1947), New Delhi: B.R. Publishing, 1979Google Scholar.

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⁴ For analysis of this particular discourse see, among others, Mark Frost, ‘ “That great ocean of idealism”: Calcutta, the Tagore Circle and the Idea of Asia, 1900–1920’, in Shanti Moorthy and Ashraf Jamal, eds., Indian Ocean studies: cultural, social, and political perspectives, London: Routledge, 2010, pp. 251–279Google Scholar; Stolte, Carolien and Fischer-Tiné, Harald, ‘Imagining India in Asia: nationalism and internationalism (ca. 1905–1940)’, Comparative Studies in Society and History, 54, 1, 2012, pp. 65–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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⁶ In this way, this study connects to a recent historiographical trend, which has seen a move away from Asianist projects as top-down processes. See Mark, Ethan, ‘ “Asia's” transwar lineage: nationalism, Marxism, and “Greater Asia” in an Indonesian inflection’, Journal of Asian Studies, 65, 3, 2006, pp. 461–493CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Sven Saaler and Christopher Szpilman, ‘Introduction’, in Sven Saaler and Christopher Szpilman, eds., Pan-Asianism: a documentary history, vol. 1: 1850–1920, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2011Google Scholar; Maia Ramnath, Haj to utopia: how the Ghadar movement charted global radicalism and attempted to overthrow the British empire, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2011Google Scholar, esp. pp. 123–65.

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⁸ The concept of an Asian renaissance was liberally used by actors collaborating in international organizations, not least by Taraknath Das: see Das, Taraknath, ‘Pan Asianism, Asian independence and world peace’, Modern Review, January 1929, pp. 44–52Google Scholar.

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¹³ Dipesh Chakrabarty, Rethinking working-class history: Bengal, 1890–1940, New Delhi: Oxford University Press 1989, p. 152Google Scholar. On the influence of reformist ideals on trade union leadership, see also Chakrabarty, Dipesh, ‘Sasipada Banerjee: a study in the nature of the first contact of the Bengal bhadralok with the working class of Bengal’, Indian Historical Review, 2, 2, 1976, pp. 339–364Google Scholar.

¹⁴ British Library, India Office Records, L/PJ/12/166, copy of an untitled 1923 pamphlet by Taraknath Das.

¹⁵ AITUC Bulletin, July 1929, p. 5.

¹⁶ Hell, Stefan, ‘Siam and the League of Nations: modernization, sovereignty and multilateral diplomacy, 1920–1940’, PhD thesis, Leiden University, 2007, p. 54Google Scholar.

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²² AITUC Bulletin, July 1929, p. 5.

²³ Irvin, Warren, ‘Labor conference of American states’, Monthly Labor Review, 43, 2, 1936Google Scholar.

²⁴ National Archives of India (henceforth NAI), Dept of Industries and Labour, Labour Branch, L-1779(1), 1932, Proposal of the ILO to convene an Asiatic Labour Conference.

²⁵ Benedict Anderson, The spectre of comparisons: nationalism, Southeast Asia and the world, New York: Verso, 1998, pp. 73–74Google Scholar.

²⁶ Nehru Memorial Museum and Library (henceforth NMML), AITUC Archive, Asiatic Labour Congress, speech by N. M. Joshi.

²⁷ AITUC Bulletin, January 1929, p. 81, ‘Memorandum’.

²⁸ AITUC Bulletin, December 1928, p. 74, Report of the ninth session, resolution 19.

²⁹ See, inter alia, Geert van Goethem, De Internationale van Amsterdam: de wereld van het Internationaal Vakverbond, 1913–1945, Antwerp: Houtekiet, 2003Google Scholar; Tosstorff, Reiner, ‘Moscow versus Amsterdam: reflections on the history of the Profintern’, Labour History Review, 68, 1, 2003, pp. 79–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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³¹ West Bengal State Archives Calcutta (henceforth WBSA), Police files, 166/22 file 249/22, Weekly report, 24 August 1922.

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³⁹ WBSA, Police Files, Serial no. 49, file 248/36, ‘Extract from the report on the political situation and labour unrest for the week ending the 31^st of January 1924’.

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⁴⁷ IISH, LAIA, file 2, List of delegations.

⁴⁸ Seeley Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University, Baldwin papers, box 8, folder 3, Nehru to Baldwin, 26 January 1928.

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⁵² NAI, Home Political Records, File 1927 37/I, ‘Disclosure of telegrams emanating from objectionable foreign sources to the Director of Intelligence Bureau’. Interception was rarely completely successful.

⁵³ Xenia Eudin and Robert North, Soviet Russia and the East, 1920–1927: a documentary survey, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1957, p. 268Google Scholar.

⁵⁴ WBSA, Police Files, Serial no. 49, file 248/36, ‘Draft propaganda thesis on the Pan-Pacific Labour Conference’.

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⁵⁷ NMML, AITUC Archive, Asiatic Labour Congress, Report of the 9th Session. The letter was signed by, among others, N. M. Joshi, Diwan Chamanlal, V. V. Giri, B. Shiva Rao, and S. C. Joshi. V. V. Giri became the first president of the seceding federation.

⁵⁸ NMML, AITUC Archive, Asiatic Labour Congress, R. R. Bakhale to Yonekubo, 7 March 1930.

⁵⁹ Ibid., Yonekubo to R. R. Bakhale, 9 April 1930.

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⁷³ Ibid., speech by the Hon. Mr. Peri Sundaram.

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⁷⁷ The Trade Union Record, May and June 1934, p. 10.

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⁸² NMML, AITUC Archive, Asiatic Labour Congress, Dov Hos, Secretary of the General Federation of Jewish Labour, to Bakhale, 27 January 1935; Bakhale to Dov Hos, 4 July 1935.

⁸³ Bombay Chronicle, 25 May 1934.

⁸⁴ Ibid.

⁸⁵ Times of India, 19 May 1934.

⁸⁶ The Hindu, 12 May 1934.

⁸⁷ Ibid.

⁸⁸ Friedman, Irving, ‘Indian nationalism and the Far East’, Pacific Affairs, 13, 1, 1940, p. 18CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Stolte and Fischer-Tiné, ‘Imagining Asia’.

⁸⁹ NMML, AITUC Archive, Asiatic Labour Congress, S. S. Fushimi Maru to N. M. Joshi, 17 May 1934.

⁹⁰ Times of Ceylon, 10 May 1934.

⁹¹ Ibid.

⁹² Ibid.

⁹³ See Manela, The Wilsonian moment; Jay Winter, Dreams of peace and freedom: utopian moments in the twentieth century, New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2006Google Scholar; also the editorial and contributions to this special issue.

⁹⁴ Indian Labour Journal, 1 August 1937.

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⁹⁶ Large, Organized workers, p. 184.

⁹⁷ Indian Labour Journal, 1 August 1937.

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¹⁰⁶ Indian Labour Journal, 11 July 1937, 5, Plea for Asiatic Labour Conference; Indian workers’ delegate's speech at the ILO Conference.

¹⁰⁷ Ibid.

¹⁰⁸ Indian Labour Journal, 26 December 1937, 1, ‘Presidential address at the third session of NTUF’.

¹⁰⁹ Labour Forum New Delhi, Planning for labour: a symposium on the occasion of the Preparatory Asian Regional Conference of the ILO held in New Delhi, October–November 1947, Bangalore: Labour Publications Trust, 1947, p. xvi.

¹¹⁰ Ibid., p. xvii. India, a non-sovereign member since 1919, was the longstanding exception.

¹¹¹ International Labour Office, The ILO and Asia: the work of the Preparatory Asian Regional Conference (New Delhi, October–November 1947), Geneva: ILO, 1948, p. 11.

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