Islanded de Sujit Sivasundaram

Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka, and the Bounds of an Indian Ocean Colony

Sujit Sivasundaram

A groundbreaking retelling of the advent of British rule in Sri Lanka.

How did the modern nation of Sri Lanka come to be? In search of an answer to this question, Islanded returns us to the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and to the advance of the British on the kingdom of Kandy. This advance saw the fall of the last foothold of kingly rule, centered in the highlands of the island. The British undertook a process of “islanding” and “partitioning,” which cast the island, its nature and geography, its religious and ethnic character, and its historical traditions and maritime culture as separate from British domains in mainland India and elsewhere.

Kings had seen themselves as rightful rulers of the whole territory of the island. Now, this right was violently extended by British colonists through the application of a model of crown rule and modern bureaucracy that tied ethnicity to language and religion, employing essentialized but not fully realized patterns that would continue to trouble the modern nation. Picking up a range of unusual themes, from migration, orientalism, and ethnography to botany, medicine, and education, Islanded is a groundbreaking text in Sri Lankan history writing, shaping discussions of the imperial transition in South Asia.

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Paperback (1)	234^.20 lei 3-5 săpt.	+21^.13 lei 6-12 zile
University of Chicago Press – 6 oct 2025	234^.20 lei 3-5 săpt.	+21^.13 lei 6-12 zile
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University of Chicago Press – 5 aug 2013	355^.61 lei 3-5 săpt.	+32^.71 lei 6-12 zile

Recenzii

“Sivasundaram’s elegantly crafted and nuanced account of the early phase of British rule in Sri Lanka offers a new approach to this period. Rather than following the conventional narrative about transition, he shows us how transition is shaped by past practices and constrained by context. . . . Islanded provides an important contribution not only to South Asian studies, but also to Indian Ocean and colonial history. It is accessible and engaging and deserves a wide readership.”

“Islanded, with its welcome range, . . . will be an important resource for scholars of the early years of British colonialism in Ceylon.”

“[A] fascinating examination of the relationship of kingdom of Kandy with the British colonial process. . . . [P]rovides rich material not just for historians of Sri Lanka, but for comparison on the manifestations of colonialism from a variety of viewpoints.”

“Islanded offers a rich and complex account of the process of imperial regime formation in Sri Lanka. It stands in the vanguard of a new wave of scholarship which rejects the false dichotomies of rupture and continuity, national and global. Instead, it offers a specific account of what happened in the early colonial life of the place we now call Sri Lanka. For that reason, it deserves to be read, and read widely.”

“An extraordinary book. . . . It is at once a fine exposition of how connected histories can be written, a fascinating illustration of the making of space—social and territorial—and an innovative interpretation of British rule in Sri Lanka. . . . Undoubtedly one of the most important books to come out on connected histories of empire and colony in the Indian Ocean.”

“A seminal work. It is an original interpretation of historical fact, backed by detailed evidence and perceptive insights. It also questions received wisdom, entrenched narratives and the way we think about our country and ourselves. . . . [This] book is a real delight to read.”

“Beyond its critical import to broader histories of colonialism and the Indian Ocean, this absorbing book challenges boundaries conventional to South Asian history. . . . Impresses in its empirical and conceptual range and depth.”

“Islanded makes a critical contribution to our understanding of South Asian and Indian ocean history and provides a novel lens through which to review both the British taking of and departure from India. Using a wealth of colonial and indigenous documents, Sujit Sivasundaram’s intriguing argument is that during the first phase of their rule, the British undertook an unfinished process of severing or ‘partitioning’ Sri Lanka from the mainland, so emphasizing its Buddhist and Sinhala character.”

“Islanded weaves an elegantly crafted, nuanced account of the recycling and appropriations of knowledges, as well as the movement of peoples, in Sri Lanka and beyond in the early nineteenth century. It firmly entrenches Sri Lankan historiography in the transnational moment, inserting it in wider circles while at the same time ‘partitioning’ it from the dominant Indian frame. The writing is engaging and lucid, a rare quality nowadays. A wonderful read that calls into question many assumptions on the nature of colonial domination.”

“Sujit Sivasundaram’s Islanded is one of the most important historical studies on Sri Lanka on the early colonial period. It deals with the British advent to Sri Lanka in the context of the country’s recent past and its strategic location in the Indian Ocean. It is not simply about governors and rulers and their doings but rather, as the Walrus said, about ‘shoes and ships and sealing-wax’—or, to put it differently, about peoples, places, traders, and such things in the island colony. Islanded is an imperative read for those of us interested in the colonial period in Sri Lanka and South Asia in general.”

Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka, and the Bounds of an Indian Ocean Colony

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Islanded: Britain, Sri Lanka, and the Bounds of an Indian Ocean Colony

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