000 02331nam a22002177a 4500
005 20180904182409.0
008 180904b xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
020 _a9788173049866
028 _aSARAS Books
_b;2/31,Ansari Road,Darya Ganj,New Delhi-110002
_c;IN37610
_d ;31/08/2018
082 _a320.91824 CHA
100 _aSatish Chandra
_a; Himanshu Prabha Ray
245 _aThe sea, identity and history
_b : from the Bay of Bengal to the South China sea
_c/Satish Chandra
260 _aNew Delhi
_b: Manohar Publishers & Distributers
_c, 2013.
300 _a358 pages
_b: illustrations
_c ; 23 cm
365 _b1050
520 _aThe focus of the book is the wide stretch of water- and sea-ways connecting the coasts of Bengal and Sri Lanka to the coast of Vietnam. The authors address three broad issues through an interdisciplinary perspective. The first relates to boat-building traditions and the communities who traversed these waters. The challenge is to use the ethnographic present and mobility of the fishing and sailing groups for an understanding of the history of the sea and the extent to which knowledge of the waters was vital to the construction of identity of a maritime society. Linked to this movement across the waters, are the narratives of trans-locality inherent in memories of groups in the region. Long-distance pilgrimage and devotional networks have been consistent features of the cultural life of South and Southeast Asia. A third issue relates to European intervention, starting with the Portuguese and the Dutch. The engagement of the English East India Company with the countries of the Bay of Bengal was of a different order from that of its predecessors, as the Company sought to establish a maritime empire. The eighteenth century thus, raised a different set of issues with the colonisation of large parts of South and Southeast Asia. How did notions of a maritime empire impact the study of the regions past? It is these themes that we address in the volume thereby shifting the focus from chronological markers and national histories to communities who crossed the waters and the changes that these underwent in time.
650 _aSocial Sciences
655 _aDiplomatic relations
_bGeopolitics -- Indian Ocean Region -- Congresses.
700 _a Himanshu Prabha Ray
942 _cBOOK
999 _c50130
_d50130