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Commerce with the Universe : Africa, India, and the Afrasian Imagination / Gaurav Desai.

By: Material type: TextTextPublisher: New York, NY : Columbia University Press, [2013]Copyright date: ©2013Description: 1 online resource (352 p.)Content type:
Media type:
Carrier type:
ISBN:
  • 9780231164542
  • 9780231535595
Subject(s): DDC classification:
  • 891.1
LOC classification:
  • PK2905 .D55 2013
  • PK2905 .D55 2013
Other classification:
  • online - DeGruyter
Online resources: Available additional physical forms:
  • Issued also in print.
Contents:
Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Ocean and Narration -- 2. Old World Orders: Amitav Ghosh and the Writing of Nostalgia -- 3. Post-Manichaean Aesthetics: Asian Texts and Lives -- 4. Through Indian Eyes: Travel and the Performance of Ethnicity -- 5. Commerce as Romance: Mehta, Madhvani, Manji -- 6. Lighting a Candle on Mount Kilimanjaro: Partnering with Nyerere -- 7. Anti Anti-Asianism and the Politics of Dissent: M. G. Vassanji's The Gunny Sack -- Coda: Entangled Lives -- Notes -- Selected References -- Index
Summary: Reading the life narratives and literary texts of South Asians writing in and about East Africa, Gaurav Desai builds a surprising, alternative history of Africa's experience with slavery, migration, colonialism, nationalism, and globalization. Consulting Afrasian texts that are literary and nonfictional, political and private, he broadens the scope of African and South Asian scholarship and inspires a more nuanced understanding of the Indian Ocean's fertile routes of exchange.Desai shows how the Indian Ocean engendered a number of syncretic identities and shaped the medieval trade routes of the Islamicate empire, the early independence movements galvanized in part by Gandhi's southern African experiences, the invention of new ethnic nationalisms, and the rise of plural, multiethnic African nations. Calling attention to lives and literatures long neglected by traditional scholars, Desai introduces rich, interdisciplinary ways of thinking not only about this specific region but also about the very nature of ethnic history and identity. Traveling from the twelfth century to today, he concludes with a look at contemporary Asian populations in East Africa and their struggle to decide how best to participate in the development and modernization of their postcolonial nations without sacrificing their political autonomy.
Holdings
Item type Current library Call number URL Status Notes Barcode
eBook eBook Biblioteca "Angelicum" Pont. Univ. S.Tommaso d'Aquino Nuvola online online - DeGruyter (Browse shelf(Opens below)) Online access Not for loan (Accesso limitato) Accesso per gli utenti autorizzati / Access for authorized users (dgr)9780231535595

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- 1. Ocean and Narration -- 2. Old World Orders: Amitav Ghosh and the Writing of Nostalgia -- 3. Post-Manichaean Aesthetics: Asian Texts and Lives -- 4. Through Indian Eyes: Travel and the Performance of Ethnicity -- 5. Commerce as Romance: Mehta, Madhvani, Manji -- 6. Lighting a Candle on Mount Kilimanjaro: Partnering with Nyerere -- 7. Anti Anti-Asianism and the Politics of Dissent: M. G. Vassanji's The Gunny Sack -- Coda: Entangled Lives -- Notes -- Selected References -- Index

restricted access online access with authorization star

http://purl.org/coar/access_right/c_16ec

Reading the life narratives and literary texts of South Asians writing in and about East Africa, Gaurav Desai builds a surprising, alternative history of Africa's experience with slavery, migration, colonialism, nationalism, and globalization. Consulting Afrasian texts that are literary and nonfictional, political and private, he broadens the scope of African and South Asian scholarship and inspires a more nuanced understanding of the Indian Ocean's fertile routes of exchange.Desai shows how the Indian Ocean engendered a number of syncretic identities and shaped the medieval trade routes of the Islamicate empire, the early independence movements galvanized in part by Gandhi's southern African experiences, the invention of new ethnic nationalisms, and the rise of plural, multiethnic African nations. Calling attention to lives and literatures long neglected by traditional scholars, Desai introduces rich, interdisciplinary ways of thinking not only about this specific region but also about the very nature of ethnic history and identity. Traveling from the twelfth century to today, he concludes with a look at contemporary Asian populations in East Africa and their struggle to decide how best to participate in the development and modernization of their postcolonial nations without sacrificing their political autonomy.

Issued also in print.

Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web.

In English.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 02. Mrz 2022)