ASIA ANNUAL 2010: NATIONHOOD AND IDENTITY MOVEMENTS IN ASIA: COLONIAL AND POST-COLONIAL TIMES

This volume tells a new story of Asian nationalisms, moving beyond stereotypical representations of Asia as the exoticised/subjugated other of Orientalism. It focuses on the interface between Asian forms of nationhood and identity-movements. Dispensing with Western prisms of looking at colonial / Asian nationalisms, it rethinks the relation between the West and the rest, by returning agency to Asians. Using a multidisciplinary methodology, this volume tracks constellations of unity predating the colonial modern, and sees how these operate within spirals of continuity through change. It traces and compares hitherto unexplored nationalist experiences in West, Central, South, South East and East Asia, gathered under the rubric of an internally-differentiated model of Asian nationalism. This moves beyond sectional micro-studies, connecting intra-regional, inter-regional and transnational / international identities in Asia.