Asian Encounters: Exploring Connected Histories\
Ed Upinder Singh and Pandya Dhar
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014
One of the many unfortunate aspects of India's tryst with destiny is that its foundational role as a civilization has been largely ignored by historians who were quick to latch on to the notion of India as a "nation state" and its encounter with China, South east Asia and the rest of mainland Asia has been underplayed. This neglect of India's larger role in Asian history was welcomed by the newly emergent nations of the region in the post World War II epoch, even as the Americans and the French were busy fashioning their own spheres of influence in the region. The plea or construct of Autonomous History meant underplaying the civilizational role of India in bringing the written script, ideas of statecraft and kingship, architectural and iconographic themes into the region. The famous notion of Indianization was abandoned and all the states of the region marched to the beat of the nation state. Now it seems the wheel has turned a full circle and the book under review reintroduces themes which had laid dormant over the decades since decolonization. The book brings together 10 papers which have been arranged in four thematic sections. Hermann Kulke sets the historiographical horizon in the very first paper in which he reviews the abiding influence of India on the early cultures of Southeast Asia. After having been driven underground, the study of Indian cultural influences has once again resurfaced as new excavations in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Indonesia have led to the discovery of new artifacts and sites.
Geoff Wade has studied in depth the impact of the Ming voyages of exploration and trade in the early fifteenth century. His study is based on Chinese language sources and is an attempt at explaining the voyages of Zheng-He. There have been several interesting studies of the Ming voyages, and Geoff Wade has reexamined the political and military context of the voyages within the overarching ideological thrust toward providing a historical justification for China and its expansionist policy. Tansens Sen has studied the military intervention of China in the Indian Ocean region and pointedly states that Indian notions of statecraft and kingship excluded the Sea.
The studies undertaken by Osmund Bopearachi, Yumikio Yamada, Suchandra Ghosh are interesting forays into areas which have not been studied hitherto. This book is a welcome addition to the growing body of works on Indian trade and civilizational encounter with Southeast Asia.
Ed Upinder Singh and Pandya Dhar
New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2014
Geoff Wade has studied in depth the impact of the Ming voyages of exploration and trade in the early fifteenth century. His study is based on Chinese language sources and is an attempt at explaining the voyages of Zheng-He. There have been several interesting studies of the Ming voyages, and Geoff Wade has reexamined the political and military context of the voyages within the overarching ideological thrust toward providing a historical justification for China and its expansionist policy. Tansens Sen has studied the military intervention of China in the Indian Ocean region and pointedly states that Indian notions of statecraft and kingship excluded the Sea.
The studies undertaken by Osmund Bopearachi, Yumikio Yamada, Suchandra Ghosh are interesting forays into areas which have not been studied hitherto. This book is a welcome addition to the growing body of works on Indian trade and civilizational encounter with Southeast Asia.
