The Indian Ocean As A Memory Space

(3)

Language:

English

300

₹ 249 (17% off)

Unavailable

Ships within 48 Hours

Free Shipping in India on orders above Rs. 1100


The Indian Ocean as a Memory Space-Reflections in Indian Diasporic Literature and Culture: The Indian Ocean is a Memory Space for India and her Diaspora. It is a space or site with which, not just the memories of the British colonial period are linked, but collective memories that go back much further in time. Maritime communities from India's Western and Eastern coasts have for over 4,000 years and more, engaged in trade and commerce with the lands in the Persian Gulf, the East and South African coasts, and South East Asia. During the colonial period, indentured Indian labour was taken first to Mauritius in 1834 and then to South Africa and East Africa. The indentured diaspora was followed quickly by the diaspora of traders and professionals. These memories are reflected in Indian Diasporic Literature and Cinema written or made by persons of Indian origins who still live in the littoral states along the African shores of the Indian Ocean, or those who have since immigrated to other spaces such as Canada, the U.S.A. and the U.K. Much research is being done around the world today on the Indian Ocean and its connection with the Indian Diaspora. This international, interdisciplinary collection of essays written by scholars of the Indian diaspora from India and different diasporic locations will value add to the existing scholarship.

Read more

ISBN
9789361835940
Pages
236
Avg Reading Time
8 hrs
Age
18+ yrs
Country of Origin
IN

Format:

This Book is out of stock
This Book is out of stock

Piracy Free

Express Delivery

Secure Payment

About the Book

The Indian Ocean as a Memory Space-Reflections in Indian Diasporic Literature and Culture: The Indian Ocean is a Memory Space for India and her Diaspora. It is a space or site with which, not just the memories of the British colonial period are linked, but collective memories that go back much further in time. Maritime communities from India's Western and Eastern coasts have for over 4,000 years and more, engaged in trade and commerce with the lands in the Persian Gulf, the East and South African coasts, and South East Asia. During the colonial period, indentured Indian labour was taken first to Mauritius in 1834 and then to South Africa and East Africa. The indentured diaspora was followed quickly by the diaspora of traders and professionals. These memories are reflected in Indian Diasporic Literature and Cinema written or made by persons of Indian origins who still live in the littoral states along the African shores of the Indian Ocean, or those who have since immigrated to other spaces such as Canada, the U.S.A. and the U.K. Much research is being done around the world today on the Indian Ocean and its connection with the Indian Diaspora. This international, interdisciplinary collection of essays written by scholars of the Indian diaspora from India and different diasporic locations will value add to the existing scholarship.

Book Details

  • ISBN
    9789361835940
  • Pages
    236
  • Avg Reading Time
    8 hrs
  • Age
    18+ yrs
  • Country of Origin
    IN

Recommended For You

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review...

(3)

4.67 out of 5

Book

67%
33%

The Indian Ocean As A Memory Space reframes the Indian diaspora not through the narrow lens of British colonialism, but through 4,000 years of maritime commerce and cultural exchange. This collection examines how communities from India's western and eastern coasts built networks across the Persian Gulf, East Africa, and South Africa long before European powers arrived. It treats the ocean itself as a repository of collective memory — a space where language, trade practices, kinship structures, and religious traditions circulated and evolved across generations. The essays here ask how diasporic literature and culture encode these older, deeper connections, challenging the assumption that Indian migration history begins in the nineteenth century. Readers encounter a scholarly argument that memory is not just personal or national, but oceanic — held in monsoon routes, merchant lineages, and port cities that remain nodes of kinship today.

What kind of reading experience will this book give me?

This book offers a dense, intellectually layered exploration that asks you to rethink how diaspora is remembered and narrated. It moves slowly, rewarding readers who bring patience and curiosity about how trade, kinship, and cultural memory intersect across centuries. The tone is scholarly but not inaccessible — essays trace connections between ancient maritime routes and contemporary diasporic identity. You will not find personal narratives or fast-paced storytelling; instead, expect sustained engagement with how the Indian Ocean itself functions as a living archive, carrying memory through monsoon cycles, merchant networks, and port cities that still pulse with exchange.

Who is this book best suited for, and what does it expect of its reader?

This collection is ideal for readers with an existing interest in diaspora studies, maritime history, or postcolonial literature who want to move beyond European colonial frames. It expects familiarity with academic writing and rewards those willing to sit with abstract concepts like collective memory and spatial theory. Students of Indian Ocean studies, cultural geography, or South Asian literature will find it essential. Casual readers seeking accessible narratives may struggle with the density, but anyone curious about how India's coastal communities shaped trade and kinship across East Africa and the Persian Gulf for millennia will find overlooked histories here.

What is the cultural significance of the Indian Ocean's memory to Indian readers today?

For contemporary Indian readers, this book reclaims a transoceanic identity that predates colonial disruption. At a moment when India's global influence is debated, these essays ground modern diasporic communities in four millennia of maritime exchange — not as victims of displacement, but as inheritors of merchant lineages, monsoon knowledge, and kinship networks that still shape identity in East Africa, the Gulf, and beyond. It challenges the nationalist narrative that India's history is landlocked, revealing instead how coastal communities built a memory space that was always cosmopolitan, networked, and oceanic — a heritage alive in language, cuisine, and trade practices today.

What makes this treatment of Indian diasporic memory distinctive?

This collection refuses to start the diaspora clock with British indenture or partition. Instead, it treats the Indian Ocean as a 4,000-year memory archive, where monsoon routes, merchant guilds, and port cities hold collective knowledge that precedes European colonialism. The authors ground diasporic literature and culture in maritime commerce — not trauma or exile — revealing how trade shaped kinship, language, and religious practice. This spatial approach, treating the ocean itself as a site of memory rather than a barrier, distinguishes the work from identity studies focused on nation-states. It asks how memory travels through water, not just through blood or borders.

What does this book leave the reader with long after they finish it?

You carry away a fundamentally altered sense of time and space in Indian history. The idea that diaspora begins with colonialism dissolves; in its place, you see millennia of oceanic exchange as the foundation of identity. You will think differently about coastal cities, trade goods, and even monsoon seasons — recognising them as carriers of collective memory. The book leaves you questioning how national boundaries obscure older, deeper networks of kinship and commerce. Emotionally, it instills a quiet awe at the durability of maritime communities whose memory practices survive across generations, and intellectually, it equips you to read diasporic literature as oceanic rather than terrestrial.

View on Rachnaye →

Hurry! Limited-Time Coupon Code

WORDPOWER
* Terms and Conditions applied.

Offers

Best Deal

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat.

whatsapp