Cinema, Transnationalism, and Colonial India: Entertaining the Raj

Through the lens of cinema, this book explores the ways in which the United States, Britain and India impacted each other politically, culturally and ideologically. It argues that American films of the 1920s posited alternative notions of whiteness and the West to that of Britain, which stood for democracy and social mobility even at a time of virulent racism.

The book examines the impact that the American cinema has on Indian filmmakers of the period, who were integrating its conventions wi...