ABSTRACT
For a long time, until the different parts of the British Empire began to assert independence, the focus and context of imperial studies were basically metropolisoriented. This orientation was in perfect consonance and harmony with the concept of the empire which saw Britain as the parent and the other parts as offspring, and which saw British laws, norms, cultural heritage, and thought patterns as the models which her offspring should seek to copy. In such an empire it would be heretical to contemplate a different or separatist identity, much less preach a new-fangled credo of nationalism.
