This book examines the social, political and ideological dimensions of the encounter between the indigenous inhabitants of the Andaman islands, British colonizers and Indian settlers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The British-Indian penal settlements in the Andaman Islands - beginning tentatively in 1789 and renewed on a larger scale in 1858 - represent an extensive, complex experiment in the management of populations through colonial discourses of race, criminality, civilization, and savagery. Focussing on the ubiquitous characterization of the Andaman islanders as 'savages',...

This book provides a chronological analysis of the Princely State in colonial times and its post-colonial legacies. It focuses on one of the largest and most important of these states, the Princely State of Mysore, and offers a novel interpretation and thorough investigation of the relationship of king and subject in South Asia.

Sri Lanka's conflict and peace processes have gained global attention during recent years. This book presents a comprehensive insight into the politics of reconstruction and development in Sri Lanka, focussing on the ceasefire which was negotiated between the Government of Sri Lanka and the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam in 2002 and which lasted until 2006.

Based on extensive empirical fieldwork, the book provides a unique ethnographic account of this specific historical period of peace. It explains how development was shaped by interplay and cooperation, but also by...

The enactment of the national Right to Information (RTI) Act in 2005 has been produced, consumed, and celebrated as an important event of democratic deepening in India both in terms of the process that led to its enactment (arising from a grassroots movement) and its outcome (fundamentally altering the citizen--state relationship). This book proposes that the explanatory factors underlying this event may be more complex than imagined thus far.

The book discusses how the leadership of the grassroots movement was embedded within the ruling elite and possessed the necessary resources as...

This book offers a fresh perspective on gender debates in Nepal and analyses how the international migration of the first generation of professional female Nepali nurses has been a catalyst for social change.

With unprecedented access to study participants in Nepal (the source country), following them and their networks in the UK (the destination country), this ethnographic study explores Nepali nurses’ migration journeys, relocation experiences, and their international migration ‘dreams’ and aspirations. It illustrates how migrant nurses strive to manage social and...