This innovative, multidisciplinary exploration of the unique history of the Andaman Islands as a hunter-gatherer society, colonial penal colony, and state-engineered space of settlement and development ranges across the theoretical, conceptual and thematic concerns of history, anthropology and historical geography. Covering the entire period of post-settlement Andamans history, from the first (failed) British occupation of the Islands in the 1790s up to the year 2012, the authors examine imperial histories of expansion and colonization, decolonization, anti-colonialism and nationalism, Japanese occupation, independence and partition, migration, commemoration and contemporary issues of Indigenous welfare. New Histories of the Andaman Islands offers a new way of thinking about the history of South Asia, and will be thought-provoking reading for scholars of settler colonial societies in other contexts, as well as those engaged in studies of nationalism and postcolonial state formation, ecology, visual cultures and the politics of representation.

In the late-nineteenth century, British travelers to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands compiled wide-ranging collections of material culture for scientific instruction and personal satisfaction. Colonial Collecting and Display follows the compelling history of a particular set of such objects, tracing their physical and conceptual transformation from objects of indigenous use to accessioned objects in a museum collection in the south of England. This first study dedicated to the historical collecting and display of the Islands' material cultures develops a new analysis of colonial discourse, using a material culture-led approach to reconceptualize imperial relationships between Andamanese, Nicobarese, and British communities, both in the Bay of Bengal and on British soil. It critiques established conceptions of the act of collecting, arguing for recognition of how indigenous makers and consumers impacted upon "British" collection practices, and querying the notion of a homogenous British approach to material culture from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Explores how refugees were used as agents of nation-building in India, leading to gendered and caste-ridden policies of rehabilitation.

Pankaj Sekhsaria is the most consistent chronicler of contemporary issues in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and one of the best known. His writings on the environment, wildlife conservation, development and indigenous communities have provided insights and perspective on the life of the islands for over two decades. Islands in Flux is a compilation of Sekhsaria's writings on key issues in the Islands over this period and provides an important, consolidated account that is relevant both for the present and the future of this beautiful but also very fragile and volatile island chain. The book is both a map of the region as well as a framework for the way forward, and essential reading for anyone who cares about the future of our world. In this updated edition, the author provides further insights into recent events regarding the islands.

Manifestations of History highlights the significant, yet underestimated, place of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in socio-cultural and historical studies of the Indian Ocean region. British penal colonialism, the Japanese occupation during the Second World War as well as the post-Independence migration of Partition refugees, repatriates and migrants from all over South Asia left a deep imprint on local society. These features render the islands an ideal sociological showcase for the study of historical manifestations. Multiple castes, classes, communities, religions, and languages reflect the social complexity of South Asia and reveal entanglements between the British Empire, the Indian nation-state, and destination countries of South Asian overseas migration. This volume contributes to interdisciplinary theorizing by bringing together research rooted in historical theory and scholarship stemming from ethnographic observation as well as macro-level studies of South Asian nation-states and micro-level studies of local communities in vivid and meaningful dialogue with each other. Challenging the analytical usefulness of Eurocentric perceptions of time-structured historical models as the only valid means of explaining the present, it explores alternative analytical avenues opened by a space-bound concept of history.

History of the Andaman Islands - Unsung Heroes and Untold Stories' is different and unique unearthing many riddles and facts of Indian and Andaman history. The book is an outcome of the decades-long research on the soil of the Andamans by an Andaman born ethno-historian. Andaman History is neither only of pirates and aborigines, nor about the land of fishes, corals and beaches alone. It is larger, longer, more various, more beautiful and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it. The diverse historical events have left their mark as a reminder of some good and some bad times, of tragedy and hope, of atrocity and courage in the face of it, of great acts of sacrifice and bravery; so much so that the saga of sacrifice and the martyrdom, beginning from the freedom struggle of 1857 to end with the freedom in 1947, can never be forgotten. Despite the unpleasing fact that a large part of the history records were burnt by the Japanese in the Andamans, writing with verve and extraordinary range, the author dividing the book into three parts Time, People, and Place, exclusively unravels the riddles of the history, especially pertaining to the untold heroes of the Indian Mutiny of 1858, the unforgettable events, the unsung stories, the aboriginal attacks and the reasons thereof, the witnessed tales of the torture, the sacrifice and the massacres. Apart from its enlightening role, the book, by giving unexpected important clues about the people lost in wars and struggles, establishes a sentimental value in the hearts of their descendants.

This book explores the social and cultural histories of India, focusing on cultural encounters and representations of subaltern communities from the seventeenth to the twenty-first century. Examining cultural encounters between Europeans and Indians during the precolonial and colonial periods, the book analyzes European, especially English, efforts to exoticize or investigate the social practices of the Other. It also presents the culturally conditioned Indian subject's perspective on Europe and the imperial society. The book engages with narratives of suppressed movements of tribals and dalits, of erosion of the culture and history of ancient communities, and recovers the local narratives of marginalized groups in Andaman and Malabar, which get superseded by the larger narrative of nation-building. Often relying on oral history instead of printed material and sociological fieldwork, the alternate histories are presented through unconventional, literary or semi-literary genres like travel narratives, fiction, films, and songs, thus presenting an alternative interpretation to the central narrative of the progress of mainstream India. Representing cultural history and the view from below, the book shifts its focus from the conventional historiography associated with political history and will be of interest to academics working in the field of cultural studies, the historiography of India, South Asian Studies and an interdisciplinary audience in history, sociology, literature, media, and English studies.