Simi Malhotra

Nishat Zaidi

Dilip M. Menon

Saarah Jappie

"Ocean as Method presents a new way of thinking about the humanities and the social sciences. It explores maritime connections in social and humanistic research and puts forward an alternative to national histories and area studies. As global warming and rising sea levels ring alarm bells across the world, the essays in the volume argue that it is time to think through oceans to realign discourses which better understand our future. The volume: - Engages with the paradigms of oceanic narratives to identify connections between continents through trade, migration, and economic processes, thinking beyond the artificial distinctions between the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans; - Discusses oceanic travel accounts by Muslim travelers to counter the idea that the colonial era was marked by European travel to Asia and Africa, without a counterflow of "native travel"; - Examines the connections between South Africa, South Asia, and South East Asia through histories of Indian indenture and the slave trade, and engages with the idea of the ocean and enforced movement; - Compares and connects recent scholarship in the social sciences and the humanities centering the ocean to break away from inherited paradigms which have shaped world history so far. A unique transdisciplinary collaboration, this volume will be of much interest to scholars and researchers of history, especially oceanic history, historiography, critical theory, literature, geography, and Global South studies"--

Thinking with the Maritime

Ocean As Method

'Cultural History Of Modern India Edited By Dilip M. Menon Definitely Qualifies For Interesting Reading&The Different Approach Attempted Through The Book Indubitably Is A Fresh Endeavour For A Multidisciplinary Approach With Sociologists, Art Historians And Music Theorists Working Within A Historical Paradigm.' The Statesman, 9 December 2006 The History Of Modern India Has Been Narrated Largely In Terms Of The Nationalist Movement, Personalities And What Has Been Seen As The 'High' Politics Of The State. Recent Shifts In History Writing Have Tried To Bring In Subordinated Histories Of Regions And Of Groups. We Are Moving Towards A Wider Understanding Of Politics, History And Of The Ordinary People Who Make History. This Collection Tries To Push The Emerging Paradigm Further By Moving Away From Conventional Notions Of The History Of The Nation And Indeed Of The Political. The Six Essays In This Collection Present Original And Pioneering Forays In The Study Of Cricket, Oral History, Gender Studies, Film, Popular Culture And Indian Classical Music. Whether Looking At Issues Of Caste On The Seemingly Level Playing Field Of Cricket In Early Twentieth Century India; Or How A Nineteenth Century Housewife Comes To Pen The First Autobiography By An Indian Woman; Calendar Art Reflecting Deeper Notions Of Religion And Community; Or How An Idea Of Pure Classical Music Faces The Challenge Of Technology, These Essays Show How Ideas Of Self, Community And Art Are Formed Within A Larger Politics. Moreover, Culture Far From Being A Refuge From The Political Is Also The Space Within Which Politics Comes To Be Worked Out.

Dilip M. Menon

Books

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