Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
HR385-6-FY
Indian Ocean lives (in an age of global Empire), 1750-1930
This module explores the Indian Ocean as a historical arena, examining the experiences of a range of
people whose lives were shaped by rapidly-changing seas: pilgrims, pirates, merchants, bureaucrats and
coolies (to name just a few). How did Western imperialism and technology affect the mobility of these
people? What kind of challenge did their cross-border movements pose to the modern colonial state? At a
broader level, did the European presence develop their region or disrupt it? These are some of the
questions we will try to answer as we explore the intense globalization that this ocean has generated in the
past and its continuing implications today.
After introducing oceanic regions as a field for historical study, we turn to explaining how and
why Britain came to dominate the Indian Ocean from the middle of the 18th century. This leads us into the
historical debate surrounding the social, political and economic impact of such dominance, which we look
at in more depth through a study of „piracy‟ and labour migration. To conclude the first part of this
module, we examine the 19th century revolution in maritime communications (especially as it affected
non-Europeans) and introduce that pivotal new urban configuration in the region: the colonial port-city.
The second half of this module begins with a study of the Islamic hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca). We
examine the way this pilgrimage changed during the 19th century and the impact of such change on its
participants (as well as the colonial authorities). We then move to the topic of Indian Ocean pandemics,
continuing with the theme of contagions by exploring the histories of narcotics, female slavery and new
ideologies as they spread across the seas. The module concludes with a discussion of the rise of
nationalism in the Indian Ocean arena.
Module Aims
To introduce students to the history of an oceanic region
To help students grasp an overall understanding of the origins of European expansion and its
impact
To familiarize students with a range of primary sources which make the region‟s inhabitants
actors in their own history
To provided students with a grounded, historical understanding of the concept of globalization
Learning Outcomes
Students who successfully complete this module will:
Have gained a thorough understanding of the theoretical concept and historical reality of
globalization, and be able to evaluate contemporary debates about this phenomena from a
historical perspective
Be familiar with key scholarly debates about the impact of European imperialism on the non-
European world
Have developed a detailed historical understanding (through their seminar preparation) of certain
regions and localities within the Indian Ocean world
Have engaged critically with a range of primary sources including memoirs and oral histories
Become familiar with the concept of „subaltern‟ history and „history from below‟
Be able to appreciate the historical legacies of an earlier period of globalization that continue to
pose challenges for the region‟s modern nation-state。
1
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
Structure and assessment
This module will be taught by a weekly one-hour lecture and one-hour seminar. Most seminars will
involve a student presentation of no more than 10 minutes each, for which you will volunteer in
turn. These presentations will consist of your analysis of the key readings set for the week, although the
manner in which you engage with these readings may vary. You are not expected to prepare formal
written presentations, but rather a series of discussion points which will stimulate debate.
Everyone is expected to participate in the group discussions that develop and your participation will be
graded. However, your final mark will be based as much on your willingness to contribute as the
brilliance or originality of your thoughts. Participation in these group discussions will provide you with a
valuable tool with which to revise for your end of year exam. In weeks when there are no individual
presentations, everyone will be expected to contribute to the seminar debates.
The module is assessed as follows:
50% coursework / 50% three-hour unseen exam
The coursework mark is broken down as follows:
10% seminar participation
45% coursework exercise I: due Thursday 15 December
45% coursework exercise II: due Thursday 22 March
Coursework exercise I (maximum of 2000 words excluding bibliography)
Choose either
a) A book review of Sugata Bose‟s A Hundred Horizons (see below). Ensure that you summarize
Bose‟s key arguments, address what you believe the strengths and weaknesses of this book to be,
and indicate where you agree and disagree with its conclusions or think its ideas might be
developed further.
b) An empathy piece. Drawing on your readings, compose the fictional last testament (in the form of
advice for the next generation) of a pilgrim, a „pirate‟, a merchant or a coolie, detailing his/her
encounter over their lifetime with other peoples and the colonial state. The language of this
composition need not be authentic, but the ideas contained in it should be recognizable as
belonging to the historical period described.
Coursework exercise II (maximum of 4000 words excluding bibliography)
Choose a theme that we have discussed in the lectures and seminars and use it to frame a question you are
interested in discussing. You may take a question listed in this syllabus, but please ensure your essay is an
original piece of writing, not merely a repetition of someone else‟s presentation. You may, however,
develop your essay from one of your own presentations to the seminar.
In completing this essay you are expected to make use of the „Further‟ readings listed in this syllabus, as
well as any other materials you may obtain. If you are unsure about how to frame your question, or
whether it is suitable, please make an appointment to see me before you start your research.
Readings
For each week, a number of readings are listed, including primary sources (where applicable). In the
second part of this module some of your required readings are currently listed as tbc (to be
confirmed). These will be finalised during the Christmas break.
2
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
Those works listed as required reading are necessary for seminar preparation; other works listed are
useful for general background reading and essay preparation. Students are especially encouraged to look
beyond the reading list provided when preparing their final essays by exploring the bibliographies
provided in these works.
While there is no main textbook for this module, we will frequently return to the following key texts with
which students are expected to familiarize themselves:
**Sugata Bose, A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire (2006)
**Michael Pearson, The Indian Ocean (2003)
*Sunil Amrith, Migration and Diaspora in Modern Asia (2011)
Seminars
WEEK 2
LECTURE : An introduction to Indian Ocean history
SEMINAR: Impressions and expectations
There are no seminar readings for this week. However, you are expected to prepare for the seminar
discussion by noting down your responses to the following questions:
What do you know about, and what are your impressions of, the ‘Indian Ocean world’?
What do you hope to gain from this module?
How would you try to explain the concept of ‘globalization’?
Background
Jerry H. Bentley, „Sea and ocean basins as frameworks of historical analysis‟, Geographical
Review, 89, 2, Ocean Connect (Apr. 1999): 215-224
Sugata Bose, A hundred horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of Global Empire (2006), ch. 1
Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean World in the age of Philip II, Vol. 1
(1996), Intro.
K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and civilization in the Indian Ocean (1985), ch. 1
Martin Lewis and Karen Wigen, The myth of continents: a critique of metageography (1997),
Conclusion
WEEK 3
LECTURE: Britannia rules the waves, 1750-1830
SEMINAR: Why did British imperial interests turn from sea to land?
Compare and contrast these primary sources
What do they tell us about the motives for British expansion in the Indian Ocean world?
What do they tell us about the considerations involved?
Required
Robert Percival, An Account of the Cape of Good Hope (1804), ch.17
An account of the island of Ceylon (1803), ch.17
Letters of Stamford Raffles in S. Raffles (ed.), Memoir of the life and public services of Sir
Stamford Raffles, Vol. 2 (1830) ch. 13
3
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
- All three texts are available online at Google Books
Background:
C. A. Bayly, Imperial meridian: The British Empire and the world, 1780-183 (1989) chs. 2-3
K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and civilization, ch. 4
Mark R. Frost, Singapore: A Biography (2009), chs. 4-7
P.J. Marshall „The British in Asia: Trade to Dominion‟, The Oxford History of the British Empire,
Vol. II: The Eighteenth Century (1998), pp. 487-508
B. Metcalf and T. Metcalf, A concise history of Modern India (2006), ch. 2
Michael Pearson, The Indian Ocean (2003), pp. 150-53, 192-97
Further
Emyrs Chew, „The Naning War, 1831–1832: Colonial Authority and Malay Resistance in the
Early Period of British Expansion‟ Modern Asian Studies, 32, 2 (1998): 351–387
Alan Frost, The global reach of empire: Britain’s maritime expansion in the Indian and Pacific
Oceans (2003)
G. S. Graham, Great Britain in the Indian Ocean: A study of maritime enterprise, 1810-1850
(1967)
Daniel Headrick, Power over peoples: Technology, environments and western imperialism, 1400
to the present (2009),chs. 2, 4
John Keay, The Honorable Company (1993)
Paul Kennedy, The rise and fall of British naval mastery (1991), chs. 4-5
R. Morriss, The foundations of British maritime ascendancy (2011)
Percival Spear, The Nabobs: A study of the social life of the English in 18th century India (1963)
WEEK 4
LECTURE: Merchants, old and new
SEMINAR: The Indian Ocean in flux
How far, and in what ways, did Europeans disrupt the ‘old’ Indian Ocean economy?
Required
Frank Broeze, „Underdevelopment and Dependency: Maritime India during the Raj‟, Modern
Asian Studies 18, 3 (1984): 429-457
G. V. Scammell, „After Da Gama: Europe and Asia since 1498‟, Modern Asian Studies 34, 3
(2000): 513-543
Background
Bayly, Imperial Meridian, ch. 2
Bose, chs. 2-3
Pearson, ch. 7
Further
K. N. Chaudhuri, Trade and civilization in the Indian Ocean, ch. 4
Ashin Dasgupta and Michael Pearson (eds.), India and the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800 (1999)
Christine Dobbin, Asian entrepreneurial minorities: Conjoint communities in the making of the
World-Economy, 1570-1940 (1996)
P. Parthasarathi, Why Europe grew rich and Asia did not (2011), esp. ch. 8
Kenneth Pomeranz, The Great Divergence: China, Europe and the making of the world economy
(2001)
4
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
Raja Kanta Ray, „Asian capital in the age of European expansion: The rise of the bazaar, 1800-
1914‟, Modern Asian Studies, 29, 3 (1995): 449-554
Eric Tagliacozzo, „Trade, production and incorporation: The Indian Ocean in flux, 1600-1900‟,
Itinerario 26, 1 (2010): 75-106
Immanuel Wallerstein,‟The incorporation of the Indian Subcontinent into the capitalist world-
economy‟ in Satish Chandra (ed.), The Indian Ocean: explorations in history, commerce and
politics (1987)
D. A Washbrook, „Progress and problems: South Asian economic and social history c.1720-
1860‟, Modern Asian Studies 22, 1 (1988): pp. 57-96
WEEK 5
LECTURE. Piracy: its origins and the historical debate
SEMINAR: Defining and understanding piracy
To what extent do you think piracy was a colonial construction?
Required
Henry Keppel, The Expedition to Borneo of H.M.S. Dido for the Suppression of Piracy (1846),
Vol. 2, ch. 7
- Available online at www.gutenberg.org or at Google Books
Raffles, Memoir, Vol. 2, pp. 91-98
Anthony Reid, „Violence at sea: Unpacking “Piracy” in the claims of states over Asian seas‟, in
Robert J. Anthony (ed.), Elusive pirates, pervasive smugglers: violence and clandestine trade in
the Greater China Seas (2010), pp. 15-26
Background
Bose, ch. 2
Frost, Singapore: A Biography, pp. 108-17
Pearson, pp. 197-99
Lakshmi Subramanian, „Of Pirates and Potentates: maritime jurisdiction and the construction of
piracy in the Indian Ocean‟ in D. Ghosh and S. Muecke (eds.), Cultures of Trade: Indian Ocean
exchanges (2007), pp. 19-30
Further
Raja Ali Haji Ibn Ahmad (transl. V. Matheson and B. Watson Andaya), The Precious Gift [Tuhfat
al-Nafis] (1982)
M. Al-Qasimi, The myth of Arab piracy in the Gulf (1986)
Charles Belgrave, The Pirate Coast (1966)
Lauren Benton, „Legal spaces of empire: Piracy and the origins of ocean regionalism‟,
Comparative Studies in Society and History, 47 (2005): 700-24
Graham, Great Britain in the Indian Ocean
Nicholas Tarling, Piracy and politics in the Malay World: A study of British imperialism in the
Nineteenth Century (1963)
Eric Tagliacozzo, Secret Trades, Porous Borders: Smuggling and states along a Southeast Asian
Frontier, 1865-1915 (2005)
Carl Trocki, Prince of pirates: the Temenggongs and the development of Johor (2007)
5
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
WEEK 6
LECTURE. The war against piracy
SEMINAR: Piracy - escaping the maritime state?
How useful do you think the concept of ‘social banditry’ is in understanding Indian
Ocean piracy?
Was piracy in the Indian Ocean world a form of anticolonial resistance?
Required
Frost, Singapore: A biography, pp. 108-17
Marcus Rediker, Between the devil and the deep blue sea: Merchants, seamen, pirates and the
Anglo-American World, 1700-1750 (1989), ch. 6
Background reading as for previous week.
Further
Eric Hobsbawm, Bandits (2000)
C.R. Pennell (ed.), Bandits at sea: a pirates reader (2001)
WEEK 7
LECTURE. Techno-imperialism I: steam power and Suez
SEMINAR: Technology and imperialism
How far were new forms of maritime technology in the 19th century the ‘tools’ of
European conquest and control?
How much importance should we assign to technology in explaining European expansion
in the Indian Ocean?
Required
Daniel Headrick, Power over peoples: Technology, environments and western imperialism, 1400
to the present (2009), ch. 5 and intro.
Jules Verne, Around the world in eighty days, chs. 9, 16-18
Background
David Arnold, „Europe, Technology and Colonialism in the 20th Century‟, History and
Technology, 21, 1 (Mar. 2005): 85-106
Bayly, Imperial meridian, ch. 3
Mark. R. Frost, „Asia‟s maritime networks and the colonial public sphere, 1840-1920‟, New
Zealand Journal of Asian Studies, 6, 2 (Dec. 2004): 63-94
- Available at http://www.nzasia.org.nz/downloads/NZJAS-Dec04/6_2_5.pdf]
Pearson, pp. 200-205
Further
Michael Adas, Machines as the measure of men: Science, technology and ideologies of Western
dominance (1990)
Daniel Headrick, The tentacles of progress: Technology transfer in the Age of Imperialism (1988)
Daniel Headrick, The tools of empire: Technology and European imperialism in the nineteenth
century (1981)
Loh Wei Leng et al (eds.), Penang and its region: the story of an Asian entrepot (2009)
Sarah Searight, Steaming East (1992)
6
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
WEEK 8
LECTURE. Transoceanic migration: origins
SEMINAR: When the coolie speaks
Compare and contrast Chinese and Indian experiences of migration based on your oral
history readings for this week
Marina Carter, Voices from Indenture: Experiences of Indian migrants in the British Empire
(1996) ch. 2
Chan Kwok Bun and Claire Chiang (eds.), Stepping out (1994), ch. 6
Background
Amrith, Migration and diaspora, chs. 1-2
Bose, ch. 3
Pearson, The Indian Ocean, ch. 7
Further
Robin Blackburn, The overthrow of colonial slavery 1776-1848 (2011, new ed.)
J. Beall, „Women under indenture in Natal‟ in S. Bhana (ed.), Essays on Indentured Indians in
Natal (1990), pp. 89-115 (also published in C. Clarke et al, eds., South Asians Overseas. 2010)
Gwyn Campbell, The Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia (2004)
Marina Carter, Lakshmi’s Legacy: The testimonies of Indian women in 19th Century Mauritius
(1994)
Marina Carter, Servants, sirdars and settlers: Indians in Mauritius, 1834-1874 (1995)
E. Christopher et al (eds), Many middle passages: Forced migration and the making of the
modern world (2007)
Janet Ewald, „Slave, freedmen and other migrants in the Northwest Indian Ocean, c1750-1914‟,
American Historical Review, 105, 1 (Feb. 2000): 69-91
W. G. Clarence-Smith, The economics of the Indian Ocean slave trade in the nineteenth century
(1989)
WEEK 9
LECTURE. Transoceanic migration II: transitions and transnationalism
SEMINAR: A new system of slavery?
What are your thoughts about the ‘freedom’ of Indian Ocean migrants?
Required
Carter, Voices from indenture, ch. 3
Chan and Chiang, chs. 3, 8-9 (drawn on the oral histories included in these chapters)
Background reading as for previous week
Further
Sunil Amrith, „Indian Overseas? Governing Tamil Migration to Malaya, 1870-1941‟, Past and
Present, 208 (Aug. 2010):231-61
Sunil Amrith, „Tamils diasporas across the Bay of Bengal‟, American Historical Review, 114,3
(Jun. 2009): 547-72
Philip Kuhn, Chinese among others: Emigration in modern times (2008)
Adam McKeown, „Global Migration, 1846-1940, Journal of World History 15, 2 (2004): 155-89
Melancholy order (2008)
7
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
Hugh Tinker, A new form of slavery: the export of Indian labour overseas (1974)
WEEK 10
LECTURE. The colonial port-city I: rise and impact
SEMINAR: Segregation and contestation in the colonial port-city
To what extent were colonial port cities a Western imposition?
Why was segregation a key element in their organization?
Required
Robert K. Home, Of planting and planning: the making of British colonial cities (1997), ch. 5
Susan Neild, „Colonial urbanism: the development of Madras City in the Eighteenth and
Nineteenth centuries‟, Modern Asian Studies 13, 2 (1979): 217-46
Further
Raymond Betts et al (eds.), Colonial Cities: essays on urbanism in a colonial context (1985)
Vivian Bickford-Smith, Ethnic pride and racial prejudice in Victorian Cape Town (1995)
Frank Broeze (ed.), Brides of the sea: port-cities in Asia from the 16th-20th centuries (1989)
Frank Broeze (ed.), Gateways of Asia: port-cities of Asia in the 13th-20th centuries (1997)
John Darwin, „Imperialism and the Victorians: The Dynamics of Territorial Expansion‟, English
Historical Review 112 (1997): 614-42
Nigel Worden et al, Cape Town: the making of a city (2004)
Brenda Yeoh, Contesting space in colonial Singapore: power relations and the urban built
environment (2003)
WEEK 11[N.B. Coursework exercise I is due on Thursday 15 December]
LECTURE: British imperialism on the high seas: land and sea compared
SEMINAR: The extent of British control.
To what extent was the Indian Ocean a ‘British lake’?
There are no required readings for this week. However, you are expected to revise the previous weeks‟
readings and select arguments from these writers/sources to argue your case in the seminar.
CHRISTMAS BREAK
WEEK 16
LECTURE. Pilgrims I – The Hajj experience
SEMINAR: A changing hajj
What was new about the the hajj in the late-19th century?
How did the hajj transform its participants?
Required
F. E. Peters, The Hajj: The Muslim Pilgrimage to Mecca and the Holy Places (1994), pp. pp. 266-
67. 274- 291, 297-300
Michael Miller, „Pilgrims‟ progress: The business of the Hajj‟ Past and Present 191 (May 2006):
189-228
8
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
Background
Amrith, Migration and diaspora, ch. 2
Bose, ch. 6
Pearson, pp. 243-48 (also ch. 4)
Further
Eng Seng Ho, „Empire through diasporic eyes: A view from the other boat‟, Comparative Studies
in Society and History 46, 2 (2004): 210-46
Michael Laffan, Islamic nationhood and colonial Indonesia: the umma below the winds (2003)
Barbara Metcalf, „The pilgrimage remembered: South Asian accounts of the Haj‟ in D.
Eickelman and J. Piscatori (eds.), Muslim travellers: pilgrimage, migration and the religious
imagination (1990), pp. 85-107
Eric Tagliacozzo (ed.), Southeast Asia and the Middle East: Islam, movement and the Longue
Duree (2009)
WEEK 17
LECTURE. Pilgrims II – monitoring the Hajj
SEMINAR: The imperial state and Muslim mobility
What did governments in the region have to fear from the hajj?
Required
Peters, The Hajj, pp. 301-315, 343-49, 352-62
Michael Low, „Empire and the Hajj: Pilgrims, Plagues and Pan-Islam under British Surveillance,
1865-1908‟, International Journal of Middle East Studies, 40 (2008): 269-90
Background reading as for previous week
Further
Mark Harrison, Public Health in British India: Anglo-Indian preventive medicine, 1859-1914
(1994), pp. 117-38
Ho, „Empire through diasporic eyes‟
Michael Low, „Empire of the Hajj: Pilgrims, Plagues and Pan-Islam under British Surveillance,
1865-1926. [History thesis available online at http://digitalarchive.gsu.edu/history_theses/22]
William Roff, „Sanitation and Security: The Imperial Powers and the 19th Century Hajj‟, Arabian
Studies 6 (1982): 143-60
WEEK 18
LECTURE. Oceanic pandemics: the 1890s plague
SEMINAR: Disease and Indian Ocean history
How far, and in what ways, was disease an agent of change in the Indian Ocean world?
Required
David Arnold, „The Indian Ocean as a disease zone, 1500-1950‟, South Asia, 14, 2 (1991): 1-21
Myron Echenberg, Plague ports: The global urban impact of bubonic plague, 1894-1901 (2007),
ch. tbc
Further
9
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
I. J. Cathanach, „The “Globalization” of Disease? India and the Plague‟, Journal of World
History, 12, 1 (2001): 131-53.
Harrison, Public health
Low, „Empire and the Hajj‟
Roff, „Sanitation and Security‟
WEEK 19
LECTURE. Indian Ocean vices I – opium
SEMINAR: The world‟s greatest ever drug cartel
Can we blame the British Empire for Asia’s drug problems?
If so, why
Required
Ellen La Motte, The Opium Monopoly (1920), chs. 1-2, 4, 7 and 9
- Available online at www.gutenberg.org
Carl Trocki, Opium, empire and the global political economy (1999), ch. tbc
Background
Pearson, ch. 7
Further
T. Brook et al (eds.) Opium regimes: China, Britain and Japan, 1839-1952 (2000)
Frost, Singapore: A biography, pp. 156-58
C laude Markovits, „The Political Economy of Opium Smuggling in Early Nineteenth Century
India: Leakage or Resistance?‟, Modern Asian Studies 43, 1 (2009): 89–111
James Rush, Opium to Java: Revenue farming and Chinese enterprise in Colonial Indonesia
(1990)
Carl Trocki, „Opium and the beginning of Chinese capitalism in Southeast Asia, Journal of
Southeast Asian Studies, 33, 2 (Jun. 2002): 297-314
James Warren, Rickshaw Coolie (1986)
WEEK 20
LECTURE: Indian Ocean Vices II: Prostitution and slavery
SEMINAR: A man‟s ocean?
What do the experiences of women and children add to our understanding of Indian
Ocean lives?
Required
Janet Lim, Sold for silver (1958), chs. 1-2
Tomoko Yamazaki (transl. K. Colligan-Taylor), Sandakan Brothel No. 8: an episode in the
history of lower-class Japanese women (1998), ch. tbc
Further
Beall, „Women under indenture‟
Campbell, The structure of slavery
Carter, Lakshmi’s legacy
Frost, Singapore: A biography, pp.158-61, ch. 17
10
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
Suzanne Miers, Slavery in the twentieth century: the evolution of a global pattern (2003)
James Warren, Ah Ku and Karayuki-san ( 1993)
WEEK 21 NO LECTURES OR SEMINARS (DISSERTATION WEEK)
WEEK 22
LECTURE. Techno-imperialism II: the information revolution
SEMINAR: Knowledge and power?
What possibilities did the information revolution open up for the region’s inhabitants?
What problems did it pose the British Empire?
Required
Geoffrey Clarke, The Post Office of India and its story (1921), chs. tbc
- Available online at www.archive.org
Frost, „Asia‟s maritime networks‟
Further
Gerald Barrier, Banned: controversial literature and political control in British India, 1907-1947
(1974)
C. A. Bayly, Empire and information (1999)
D. K. Lahiri Choudhury, „Sinews of Panic and the Nerves of Empire: The Imagined State‟s
Entanglement with Information Panic, India c. 1880-1912‟, Modern Asian Studies 38, 4 (2004):
965-1002
Mark R. Frost, “‟Wider Opportunities‟: Religious revival, Nationalist awakening and the global
dimension in Colombo, 1870-1920, Modern Asian Studies 36, 4 (2002): 937-68
Isabel Hofmeyr, „Gandhi‟s Printing Press: Indian Ocean Print Cultures and Cosmopolitanisms‟ in
K. Manjapra and S. Bose (eds), Cosmopolitan thought zones: South Asia and the global
circulation of ideas (2010)
Lakshmi Subramanian, „Community, nation, diaspora and the public sphere in the Indian Ocean‟
in Pamil Gupta et al (eds), Eyes across the water: Navigating the Indian Ocean (2010)
WEEK 23
LECTURE. Colonial port-cities II: modernity and cosmopolitanism
SEMINAR: The port-city as agent of change
What was it about port-cities that distinguished them as loci of historical change?
Did Indian Ocean port-cities generate a common intellectual milieu?
If so, how would you define it?
Required
Kenneth McPherson, „Port cities as nodal points of change: The Indian Ocean, 1890s-1920s‟ in L.
Fawaz and C. A. Bayly (eds), Modernity and Culture, from the Mediterranean to the Indian
Ocean (2002), pp. 75-95
Krishna Dutta, Calcutta: a literary and cultural history (2003), ch. 4 (see also ch. 2)
Further
Susan Bayly, „The evolution of colonial cultures‟ in A. Porter (ed.), The Oxford History of the
British Empire: The Nineteenth Century (2001), ch. 20
11
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
Benedict Anderson, Imagined communities (1991)
Betts et al (eds.), Colonial cities
Frost, “‟Wider Opportunities”‟
Frost, Singapore: A biography, chs. 15-16
T. N. Harper, „Globalism and the Pursuit of Authenticity: the Making of a Diasporic Public
Sphere in Singapore‟, Sojourn 12, 2 (1997): 261-92
Rhoads Murphey, „Colombo and the remaking of Ceylon: a prototype of Colonial Asian Port
Cities‟, in Broeze (ed.), Gateways of Asia
WEEK 24
LECTURE. Nations overseas
SEMINAR: Nationalism and sedition across the ocean
Assess the role of oceanic circuits in the rise of anti-colonial nationalism?
What kind of nationalism developed overseas?
Required
M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa (1928). Available online at www.gandhiserve.org,
selections tbc
Bose, ch. 5
Background
Amrith, Migration and diaspora, ch. 2
Further
Susan Bayly, „Imagining “Greater India”: French and Indian visions of colonialism in the Indic
mode‟, Modern Asian Studies 38, 3 (2004): 703-744
Anderson, Imagined communities
Frost, „Asia‟s maritime networks‟
Frost, “‟Wider Opportunities”‟
Frost, Singapore: A biography, ch. 18
R. W. E. Harper and H. Miller, Singapore Mutiny (1984)
Laffan, Islamic nationhood
WEEK 25
LECTURE. The Indian Ocean as a visionary arena
SEMINAR: Nations and their alternative?
Before 1930, how did Asian writers define Asia?
What was the importance of the ocean in their imaginations?
Why was the idea of Asia so important to them?
Required
Okakura Kakuzo (Tenshin), The Ideals of the East (1904), pp. 1-15
- Available online at Google Books
Bose, ch. 7
12
Mark R. Frost, 3rd year module syllabus
Background
Mark R. Frost, “„That Great Ocean of Idealism”‟: Calcutta, the Tagore Circle and the idea of
Asia, 1900-1920‟, in S. Moorthy and A. Jamal (eds), Indian Ocean Studies: cultural, social and
political perspectives (2010), pp. 251-79
Further
Stephen Hay, Asian Ideas of East and West: Tagore and his critics in Japan (1970)
Manjapra and Bose (eds.), Cosmopolitan Thought Zones
M. Naeem Quereshi, Pan-Islam in British India: The politics of the Khilafat Movement, 1918-
1924 (2009)
CHRISTMAS BREAK
WEEK 30
LECTURE. Empires of land and sea: a comparison
SEMINAR: The imperial state and „maritime enclosure‟
In what way has the sea been the last resort for people escaping the modern state?
There are no required readings for this week. However, you are expected to revise the previous weeks‟
readings and select arguments from these writers/sources to argue your case in the seminar.
Further
Bose, Conclusion
James Scott, The art of not being governed: An anarchist history of upland Southeast Asia
(2009), esp. Conclusion
A. McKeown, Melancholy order
Hobsbawm, Bandits
WEEK 31 REVISION WEEK I
LECTURE: Mobile peoples, stateless peoples
SEMINAR: tbc
WEEK 32 REVISION WEEK II
LECTURE: The state and the seas: imposing imperial order
SEMINAR: tbc
13