Repeating here two recent SubStack pieces from Rupak Chattopadhyay on the rise and fall of the West Indies Federation, the Windies cricket team, and The UWI.
Both articles are great reads.
The Nation That Survived in Cricket
June 12, 2026
The West Indies cricket team represents a political anomaly: a multinational institution that continues to embody a nation-state that no longer exists. When it takes the field, players from Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, and the smaller Eastern Caribbean islands compete under a single flag, invoking a shared identity that has no corresponding sovereign state. In a world organized almost entirely around territorial nation-states, the West Indies remains one of the few surviving examples of a political community sustained primarily through cultural rather than constitutional means.
That community was once meant to become a state. The West Indies Federation, established in 1958, was designed as the vehicle through which Britain’s Caribbean colonies would transition into independence. Its architects imagined a federal nation stretching across the Caribbean Sea, large enough to overcome the economic fragility of small island territories and sufficiently unified to exert meaningful influence in global affairs. Yet the federation collapsed in 1962, before it could achieve independence, leaving behind a region of sovereign microstates.
At first glance, the federation appears to be a textbook case of decolonization failure. Unlike India, Malaysia, or Ghana, the Caribbean did not emerge as a unified postcolonial state. Instead, political sovereignty fragmented across multiple small islands and mainland enclaves. Yet this interpretation is incomplete. While the federation failed as a constitutional project, it survived in symbolic and cultural form. Cricket, more than any political institution, preserved the idea of a unified West Indian identity.
Read the rest the of article here.
The second article focuses on The UWI.
The University of the West Indies as a Vestige of the West Indies Federation
June 16, 2026
On one of our periodic walks, my friend George Anderson mentioned how much he enjoyed reading my previous piece on the now-defunct West Indies Federation. He also pointed out what he considered a significant omission. In that earlier article, I had highlighted the West Indies cricket team as one of the few enduring institutions to survive the Federation’s collapse. While the multinational cricket side remains a powerful symbol of regional unity, George reminded me that it is far from the only surviving legacy of the federal experiment. Perhaps an even more important example is the University of the West Indies (UWI), a regional institution that not only outlived the Federation but continues to embody many of its founding ideals.
The University of the West Indies (UWI) stands as one of the most enduring institutional legacies of the West Indies Federation. Although the Federation lasted only from 1958 to 1962, its vision of regional cooperation survived in several post-federation organizations. Among them, UWI has emerged as the most successful and visible embodiment of the federal ideal. More than an educational institution, it represents an ongoing experiment in regional governance, collective financing, and shared development among the independent states of the Commonwealth Caribbean. Its structure, funding model, and persistent challenges illustrate both the potential and the limitations of Caribbean regionalism. In essence, UWI functions as a living vestige of the federal dream.
UWI’s origins predate the Federation. Founded in 1948 as the University College of the West Indies, it was designed to meet the educational needs of Britain’s Caribbean colonies. Instead of establishing separate universities in each territory, colonial authorities and regional leaders chose a single shared institution capable of pooling resources and training professionals for modernization and eventual self-government. This approach mirrored the logic that would later underpin the Federation: small territories could achieve more through cooperation and economies of scale.
When the Federation collapsed in 1962, the university might have fragmented along with it. Instead, Caribbean governments chose to preserve and strengthen UWI. This decision underscored the recognition that higher education was one area where regional cooperation remained both practical and beneficial. As newly independent states emerged, UWI provided a common institutional framework that transcended national boundaries. In many ways, the university became a functional substitute for the political integration the Federation failed to deliver.
Read the rest of the article here.