The Intricacies of Premodern Asian Connections

Abstract

In his study of the reemergence of intra-Asian connections published in this issue of the Journal of Asian Studies, Prasenjit Duara has aptly underscored the importance of comprehending the patterns of interactions and connectivities among Asian societies during the precolonial period. The following comments will reaffirm most of his contentions, but also will problematize the issue, especially in regard to some of the neglected topics and the conceptualization of the premodern interactions.

Connections and Disconnections: The Making of Bombay/Mumbai as India’s “Global City”

“…The seven islands were later under the control of the Hindu Silhara dynasty until 1343 until the Islamic sultanate of Gujarat annexed them (Pacione, 2006, p. 231). However, some scholars attribute the 13th-century pre-colonial maritime networks in the region extending from the Red Sea to the South China Sea for the dominance of Asian trade connections in the world economy (Duara, 2010;Sen, 2010). The later European colonial trade and power expanded and built upon these older pre-colonial networks of mobile merchant communities of Asia constituted by the Arab, Chinese, Indian, and (Baghdadi) Jews, involved in long-distance credit networks.…”

Before 1962: The Case for 1950s China-India History

“…17 In identifying these three factors-interest in China-India, the diversity of pre-1949 China-India historical scholarship, and the 1950s as history-and their salience for studying 1950s China-India history, it remains important to recognize a pervasive problem plaguing all such endeavors: the absence of strong China and India studies programs in the respective countries. The outcome is growing interest without language or area expertise in either country (Sen 2013). And while programs devoted to China and India do exist in the Western academy, they remain relatively isolated from each other; each set of scholars largely ignorant about the other field.…”

“…Though the revival in enthusiasm for studying China-India history has yet to permeate the study of the 1950s, the decade itself has become a new frontier within the 14 Elsewhere, Prasenjit Duara (2010) has noted that China-India studies tend to be caught between a "civilization vs. realpolitik" binary. 15 Sen has published extensively on various aspects and periods of China-India history (Sen 2003(Sen , 2010a(Sen , 2010b(Sen , 2012(Sen , 2015. 16 For an accomplished scholarly analysis, see Duara (1995), in particular chapter 7 ("Critics of Modernity in India and China").…”

Introducing a Special Issue on Rescuing Taste from the Nation: Oceans, Borders, and Culinary Flows

“…Linguists have shown us how an Austronesian-speaking people originating from present-day Taiwan dispersed through Hawaii, Indonesia, and Polynesia to Madagascar by a process of oceanic nomadism from 3000 BCE into the first century CE with their canoes and tropical food crops (Alpers 2014). Even conflict is a form of contact (Sen 2010). Excessive attention to the world made after nation-states has muted the weight of such evidence.…”