Introduction
This chapter first offers narratives introducing actors in the book’s major case studies. In India, these include members of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, which has sought to enlist global allies to press the Indian government for stronger action against caste discrimination, and its critics in the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The right-wing populist UK Independence Party’s aims for British secession from the European Union are highlighted, as are its claims that the prospect of European Union accession for predominantly Muslim Turkey is a chief reason why Britain should leave. The Turkish case is introduced via street scenes of activists confronting police amid the country’s rising authoritarianism. Then the chapter outlines the book’s major claims for how a robust institutional cosmopolitanism can be shown to orient to political humility rather than arrogance. Variants of cosmopolitanism are discussed, and the book’s argument is previewed by chapter.