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Indian Ocean World
South Asian Studies February 12, 2023

India after the 1857 Revolt

Decolonising the Mind

M. Christhu Doss

Hosted by Tiatemsu Longkumer
In India after the 1857 Revolt: Decolonising the Mind (Routledge, 2022), M. Christhu Doss brings together some of the most cutting-edge thoughts by challenging the cultural project of colonialism and critically …

Indian Ocean World

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Interviews with scholars of the Indian Ocean World about their new books.

Indian Ocean World February 7, 2023

On the Frontiers of the Indian Ocean World

A History of Lake Tanganyika, c.1830-1890

Philip Gooding

Hosted by Gargi Binju
On the Frontiers of the Indian Ocean World: A History of Lake Tanganyika, c.1830-1890 (Cambridge UP, 2022) is the first interdisciplinary history of Lake Tanganyika and of eastern Africa's relationship …
Buddhist Studies February 4, 2023

Buddhist Responses to COVID

A Discussion with Venerable Soorākkulame Pemaratana

Venerable Soorākkulame Pemaratana

Hosted by Pierce Salguero
Dr Pierce Salguero sits down with Venerable Soorākkulame Pemaratana, chief abbot at the Pittsburgh Buddhist Center and a scholar of modern Buddhism in Sri Lanka. We talk about his role …
SSEAC Stories January 26, 2023

Shaping Civilisations

The Sea in Asian History

Eric Tagliocozzo

Hosted by Natali Pearson
The ocean is more connective device than barrier, bringing together diverse topics, time-periods and geographies. It has linked and connected the various littorals of Asia into a segmented, yet at …
High Theory December 16, 2022

Off-Shore Aesthetics

A Discussion with Sritama Chatterjee

Sritama Chatterjee

Hosted by Kim Adams and Saronik Bosu
Sritama Chatterjee talks about a model of literary criticism that she developed in the process of writing her new essay on shipbreaking in Bangladesh. It is a form of materialist …
Indian Ocean World December 6, 2022

Kala Pani Crossings

Revisiting 19th Century Migrations from India's Perspective

Ashutosh Bhardwaj and Judith Misrahi-Barak

Hosted by Gargi Binju
When used in India, the term Kala pani refers to the cellular jail in Port Blair, where the British colonisers sent a select category of freedom fighters. In the diaspora …
Asian Review of Books November 17, 2022

In Asian Waters

Oceanic Worlds from Yemen to Yokohama

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
In the nineteenth century, one group of American merchants reported an odd request from the Vietnamese emperor. An envoy asked if the traders could help procure a commodity brought by …
Indian Ocean World October 24, 2022

Under Empire

Muslim Lives and Loyalties Across the Indian Ocean World, 1775–1945

Michael Francis Laffan

Hosted by Ahmed Almaazmi
Michael Francis Laffan’s Under Empire: Muslim Lives and Loyalties Across the Indian Ocean World, 1775–1945 (Columbia University Press, 2022) traces a tapestry of historical actors, empires, and ideas across the …
East Asian Studies June 28, 2022

From Policemen to Revolutionaries: A Sikh Diaspora in Global Shanghai, 1885-1945

Yin Cao

Hosted by Shatrunjay Mall
In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Shanghai became a cosmopolitan hub with communities of Japanese, British, Russians, Jews, and others including Indians – most of whom were Sikhs …
Art May 27, 2022

Sea Change

Ottoman Textiles Between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean

Amanda Phillips

Hosted by Tanja Tolar
Textiles were the second-most-traded commodity in world history, preceded only by grain. In the Ottoman Empire, in particular, the sale and exchange of silks, cottons, and woolens generated an immense …
Indian Ocean World May 25, 2022

Transoceanic Perspectives in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy

Juan-José Martín-González

Hosted by Gargi Binju
Transoceanic Perspectives in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021) studies Ghosh’s Sea of Poppies (2008), River of Smoke (2011) and Flood of Fire (2015) in relation to maritime criticism. Juan-José …
Indian Ocean World May 12, 2022

Islamic Law in Circulation

Shafi'i Texts Across the Indian Ocean and the Mediterranean

Mahmood Kooria

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
Analyzing the spread and survival of Islamic legal ideas and commentaries in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean littorals, Islamic Law in Circulation: Shafi'i Texts across the Indian Ocean …
Indian Ocean World May 11, 2022

Dockside Reading

Hydrocolonialism and the Custom House

Isabel Hofmeyr

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
In Dockside Reading: Hydrocolonialism and the Custom House (Duke University Press, 2022), Isabel Hofmeyr traces the relationships among print culture, colonialism, and the ocean through the institution of the British …
African Studies April 29, 2022

An Uneasy Embrace

Africa, India and the Spectre of Race

Shobana Shankar

Hosted by Sara Katz
The entwined histories of Blacks and Indians defy easy explanation. From Ghanaian protests over Gandhi statues to American Vice President Kamala Harris’s story, this relationship—notwithstanding moments of common struggle—seethes with …
Asian Review of Books April 21, 2022

Beyond Liberal Order

States, Societies and Markets in the Global Indian Ocean

Harry Verhoeven and Anatol Lieven

Hosted by Nicholas Gordon
We often neglect the Indian Ocean when we talk about our macro-level models of geopolitics, global economics or grand strategy—often in favor of the Atlantic or the Pacific. Yet the …
Islamic Studies April 1, 2022

Hajj to the Heart

Sufi Journeys Across the Indian Ocean

Scott Kugle

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
In his new book, Hajj to the Heart: Sufi Journeys Across the Indian Ocean (University of North Carolina Press, 2021) and is available as an open-access enhanced edition, Scott Kugle follows …
Indian Ocean World October 4, 2021

Indonesians and Their Arab World

Guided Mobility Among Labor Migrants and Mecca Pilgrims

Mirjam Lücking

Hosted by Irene Promodh
Indonesians and Their Arab World: Guided Mobility Among Labor Migrants and Mecca Pilgrims (Southeast Asia Program Publications, 2021) teases out the complex, often uneasy relationship between contemporary Indonesians and the Arab …
Mobilities and Methods September 23, 2021

Set Adrift

Capitalist Transformations and Community Politics Along Mumbai's Shores

Gayatri Nair

Hosted by Alize Arıcan
The Koli community in Mumbai-which has been practicing fishing for centuries-has experienced rapid changes over the last few decades, in the forms of increased mechanization, export of fish to global …
Indian Ocean World July 30, 2021

What Is Religious Authority?

Cultivating Islamic Communities in Indonesia

Ismail Fajrie Alatas

Hosted by Kelvin Ng
What Is Religious Authority?: Cultivating Islamic Communities in Indonesia (Princeton UP, 2021) by Ismail Fajrie Alatas draws on groundbreaking anthropological insights to provide a new understanding of Islamic religious authority, showing …
Islamic Studies July 23, 2021

Narrative Pasts

The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, C. 1400-1650

Jyoti Gulati Balachandran

Hosted by Shobhana Xavier
Jyoti Gulati Balachandran's Narrative Pasts: The Making of a Muslim Community in Gujarat, c. 1400-1650 (Oxford University Press, 2020) explores the complex power of Sufi texts in creating Muslim communities in …