Belonging across the Bay of Bengal discusses themes connecting the regions bordering the Bay of Bengal, mainly covering the period from the mid-19th through the mid-20th centuries – a crucial period of transition from colonialism to independence. Focusing on the notion of 'belonging', the chapters in this collection highlight themes of ethnicity, religion, culture and the emergence of nationalist politics and state policies as they relate to the movement of peoples in the region. While the Indian Ocean has been of interest to scholars for decades, there has been a notable tilt towards historicizing the Western half of that space, often prioritizing Islamic trade as the key connective glue prior to the rise of Western power and the later emergence of transnational Indian nationalism. Belonging across the Bay of Bengal enriches this story by drawing attention to Buddhist and migrant connectivities, introducing discussions of Lanka, Burma and the Straits Settlements to establish the historical context of the current refugee crises playing out in these regions. This is a timely and innovative volume that offers a fresh approach to Indian Ocean history, further enriching our understanding of the current debates over minority rights and refugee problems in the region. It will be of great significance to all students and scholars of Indian Ocean studies as well as historians of modern South and Southeast Asia.

Andaman & Nicobar Islands located over 1200 km to India’s East are nature’s bounty inherited by India during the process of our Independence. Located on the strategic Sea Lines of Communication connecting the Indian Ocean to the Asia-Pacific region and sitting at the entrance of the Malacca Straits, they provide India with strategic reach and could act as a launch pad in the geographical vicinity of South-East Asia. In this book, the authors have brought in their nuanced views on issues of geopolitical reality of the 21st century, the importance of these islands, and the contribution that these islands could make to the security of mainland India. The book initially provides an insight into the present global strategic environment focusing especially on the Indian Ocean Region, the Chinese ‘String of Pearls’ strategy as well as China’s ‘Malacca Dilemma’. It further brings out the strengths of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, their strategic significance and recommends a way ahead for their development. It finally suggests a set of comprehensive set of policy recommendations.

This first full-length book addresses disasters in the context of vulnerability of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that comprise 572 islands in the Bay of Bengal. It looks at the disasters that the islands have experienced in the last 200 years and analyzes major disasters since colonization by the British. Raising some critical questions, this book attempts to understand the overall profile of disasters – the facts, causes, damage, response and recovery – in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. It discusses earthquakes, cyclones, tsunami and epidemics, as well as impacts of World War II, the penal colony and the post-Independence resettlement on the tribal population. The work will serve as a rich resource with its detailed tables, figures, maps and diagrams; appendices; and database ranging from travelogues, Census of India reports and fieldwork to Right to Information (RTI) petitions that collect hitherto unknown facts. The book will be useful to students of geography, disasters and disasters management, climate and environmental studies, history, sociology, island and ocean studies, and South Asian studies.

Rethinking Asian Tourism addresses some of the latest developments in on-going tourism research in Southeast Asia and the wider Asia region (encompassing, in geographical terms, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea). It examines many of the emerging, as well as established, themes and issues in Asian tourism and promotes the development of critical scholarship within Asia to overcome Anglo-Western ethnocentrism in tourism studies of the region. There is some attention to such familiar concepts as authenticity, commoditisation, culture, heritage, and hosts and guests, but more especially to the diversification of phenomena which traditionally would not have been included within the parameters of tourism studies: retirees and long-stays, gastronomy, family-based leisure, popular culture, and local branding. Above all, the book addresses and develops a conceptual understanding from a multidisciplinary perspective of the character, experiences, encounters, perceptions and motivations of local, national and intra-regional tourism rather than basing concepts, perspectives, emphases and analyses on Western-Asian interactions and on transformations in the West. In this respect it encourages a shift in emphasis towards ‘Asianising’ our understanding of Asian tourism. This is one of the first volumes on Asian tourism written primarily by Asians and, as such, provides them with the opportunity to express their concerns, interests and priorities, rather than depending on the analyses and interpretations of those from outside the region. It also enables a deconstruction of the field of tourism studies, acknowledging that it is an open-ended, shifting, fluid and complex category of encounters and events generated by the processes of physical mobility.