Books by Tansen Sen
Beyond Pan-Asianism: Connecting China and India, 1840s–1960s, 2021
Within Asia, the period from 1840s to 1960s had witnessed the rise and decline of Pax Britannica,... more Within Asia, the period from 1840s to 1960s had witnessed the rise and decline of Pax Britannica, the growth of multiple and often competing anti-colonial movements, and the entrenchment of the nation-state system. Beyond Pan-Asianism seeks to demonstrate the complex interactions between China, India, and their neighbouring societies against this background of imperialism and nationalist resistance. The contributors to this volume, from India, the West, and the Chinese-speaking world, cover a tremendous breadth of figures, including novelists, soldiers, intelligence officers, archivists, among others, by deploying published and archival materials in multiple Asian and Western languages. This volume also attempts to answer the question of how China–India connectedness in the modern period should be narrated. Instead of providing one definite answer, it engages with prevailing and past frameworks—notably ‘Pan-Asianism’ and ‘China/India as Method’—with an aim to provoke further discussions on how histories of China–India and, by extension the non-Western world, can be conceptualized.environmental issues and comparisons between India and China, thereby opening up spaces for a consolidated body of literature devoted to a holistic understanding of India-China relations from national, regional, and global perspectives. It will include broadly four categories of works: fi rst, studies on India-China relations-economic, commercial, cultural, political-in historical and/or contemporary times; second, translations of key primary works from India and China, such as accounts and travelogues of Buddhist monks; third, translations of contemporary writings in the Chinese language into English, focusing on India-China relations; and lastly, works in progress that address research areas as yet unaddressed. Consolidating new scholarship that will enrich the fi eld of India-China studies, this series aims to open up channels of greater dialogue between the two Asian giants. Prasenjit Duara is Oscar Tang Chair of East Asian Studies,
Uncorrected 1st proofs of the Introduction to India, China, and the World: A Connected History (R... more Uncorrected 1st proofs of the Introduction to India, China, and the World: A Connected History (Rowman & Littlefield)
Book Chapters and Journal Articles by Tansen Sen
Anthropology of Ascendant China: Histories, Attainment, and Tribulations, 2024
About the edited volume: This volume represents the latest research in cultural anthropology on a... more About the edited volume: This volume represents the latest research in cultural anthropology on an ascendant and globalizing China, covering the many different dimensions of China's ascendancy both within China itself and beyond. It focuses not only on the real and perceived successes of China in the past four decades, but also on the difficulties, tensions, and dangers that have emerged as a result of rapid economic development: class polarization, state expansion, psychological distress, and environmental degradation. Including contributions by some of the most well-known cultural anthropologists of China, as well as rising innovative younger scholars, this book documents and analyzes China's multifaceted transformations in the modern era-both within Chinese society and in Chinese relations with the outside world. It features the unique perspective of anthropology, with its on-the-ground deep cultural immersion through long-term fieldwork, coupled with a macrolevel global perspective, a strong historical perspective, and theoretically engaged analyses to present a balanced account of China's ascendancy.
Cambridge History of the Mongol Empire, 2023
Unlike much of Eurasia, southern Asia, especially the regions east and south of the Indus river, ... more Unlike much of Eurasia, southern Asia, especially the regions east and south of the Indus river, was not incorporated into the Mongol Empire. This, however, did not mean that it escaped military incursions by Mongol troops, or that the Mongol rulers never contemplated invading the region. In fact, Chinggis Khan (d. 1227) at the inception of the empire and Temür (Tamerlane, r. 1370-1405), at its very end, came close to incorporating what are present-day Pakistan and parts of northern India into their realms. These attempts and even the mere presence of the Mongols in the frontier regions had significant impact on the political, social, and cultural lives of the people in South Asia. In the far south, the coastal regions, including the island of Sri Lanka (Ceylon), were fully integrated into the long-distance trading and diplomatic networks that connected the Yuan empire (1271-1368) in East Asia to the Ilkhanate (1256-1335) in the Persian Gulf. This chapter outlines three aspects of South Asia's encounters with the Mongol Empire in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The first part examines the military skirmishes and diplomatic exchanges that took place during these two centuries. The second section focuses on the commercial interactions between South Asia and the Mongol khanates, especially trade with Yuan China and the Ilkhanate. The final part of the chapter explores the cultural connections, particularly in respect of Buddhism and Islam, that were also integral elements of the relationship between South Asia and the Mongol Empire.
Modern Asian Studies, 2023
Although inspired by the nineteenth-century term 'Silk Road(s)', the phrase 'Maritime Silk Road' ... more Although inspired by the nineteenth-century term 'Silk Road(s)', the phrase 'Maritime Silk Road' has its own origins, connotations, and applications. This article examines the emergence of the latter term as a China-centric concept and its various entanglements since the early 1980s, involving the People's Republic of China's (PRC) political bodies, academia, the 'open door' policy, the pursuit of World Heritage listings, and the current 'Belt and Road Initiative'. These entanglements, the article contends, have resulted in the emergence of what could be called a 'Maritime Silk Road' ecosystem in the PRC. The analysis of this ecosystem presented in the article reveals not only the processes through which a narrative on China's engagement with the maritime world has been constructed over time, but also its association with issues of national pride, heritage-and tradition-making, foreign-policy objectives, and claims to territorial sovereignty. As such, the 'Maritime Silk Road' must be understood as a concept that is intimately entwined with the recent history of the PRC and distinct from its nineteenth-century antecedent, which was used as a label for overland connectivity.
International Journal of Asian Studies, 2022
Amid growing interest in studying China and India together, this special issue, “Methods in China... more Amid growing interest in studying China and India together, this special issue, “Methods in China-India Studies,” seeks to open a conversation on the relevance, approaches, and stakes of China-India research. Why should we pair China and India together, how can we best do so, and to what ends? In this introduction to the issue, the editors first discuss the rationales commonly evoked as justification for studying China and India together. The first section articulates shared intellectual commitments as lending a coherence to China-India studies, and as providing a common ground and point of departure for scholars across disciplinary boundaries. The second section outlines a history of the China-India pairing from the first century CE to the end of the twentieth century, with a focus on how a range of historical actors paired China and India under shifting political circumstances and with differing objectives. This section also offers an assessment of the methodological approaches recent scholarship has extended to studying each of these periods. As a whole, this introduction reflects on the unique challenges and opportunities of conducting China-India research, and outlines some of the contributions the China and India conceptual pairing can make to other fields of study. Special issue edited by Adhira Mangalagiri and Tansen Sen
Beyond Pan-Asianism: Connecting China and India, 1840s–1960s, 2021
Journal of Asian Studies, 2021
This essay traces the development of China-India studies from the mid-nineteenth century to the p... more This essay traces the development of China-India studies from the mid-nineteenth century to the present in order to take stock of the field, which has witnessed a surge in publication over the past two decades. The assessment presented here weaves the main shifts in China-India political relations with the emergence of various strands of China-India scholarship, since the two aspects often intersect. The major lacuna in the field, this essay argues, is a framework needed to analyze the complex connections and the pertinent comparisons between China and India. It contends that research on China-India topics should ideally attempt to combine comparative and connective frameworks with analyses that transcend geographic, temporal, and disciplinary boundaries to address this lacuna.
China and Asia, 2019
By examining the activities of Zheng He and members of his expeditions at the Mala-bar Coast, Sri... more By examining the activities of Zheng He and members of his expeditions at the Mala-bar Coast, Sri Lanka, and Bengal, this article argues that the Yongle emperor wanted to exert military power in South Asia in order to legitimize his usurpation at the Ming court. The essay analyzes Zheng He's intervention in the dispute between Calicut and Cochin, the armed conflict in Sri Lanka in 1410-11, and the expedition's involvement in a dispute between Bengal and its neighboring polity, Jaunpur. These episodes in South Asia make it difficult to accept the modern representations of the Zheng He expeditions as diplomatic missions intended to promote peace and harmony. Rather, they were, as the essay contends, part of the Yongle emperor's aim to establish hegemony over "all the known world under the Heaven" or the tianxia.
In the pantheon of Buddhist divinities, the Ruan and Liang buddhas are virtually unknown. They ap... more In the pantheon of Buddhist divinities, the Ruan and Liang buddhas are virtually unknown. They appear in a small temple built by the Cantonese community in an iconic building on Black Burn Lane in central Kolkata (Figure 6.1), India,1 where the research for this essay started. It became clear in the course of the research that these two buddhas were part of the connected history of the emigrants from Sihui city 四會市 in Guangdong Province in the present-day People's Republic of China who settled in the Malay Peninsula and India during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This essay examines the emergence and evolution of the Ruan-Liang legends in Sihui, the spread of the temples dedicated to the two buddhas to several towns of Malaysia and in Kol-kata, and the reclaiming of the Ruan-Liang heritage by the city of Sihui in recent years. This examination is undertaken in the wider contexts of mobility, the localization of religious beliefs, and the emergence of mixed identities and heritages. The essay attempts to explain the ways in which the migrants from Sihui came to terms with their local surroundings, made efforts to preserve their distinct sub-regional/speech group identity among the other Chinese settlers , and addressed their need for divine protection and spiritual support. With each move, the new heritage produced by these migrants sought a 're-course to the past' ,2 was adjusted to the present and forged new linkages to shape the future. All this involved engaging with local circumstances, sustaining imaginary connections to the ancestral homeland and fulfilling the other-worldly needs of the members of the migrant community. The mixed heritages produced by these migrants eventually became entangled with the present-day circumstances of their ancestral homeland, which, in turn, has had to come to terms with the experiences and expectations of its overseas communities. As a consequence, it is argued, the heritage of Sihui city has also become a mixture of local and overseas experiences and expectations.
This article examines the consequences of the Ming maritime expeditions led by Admiral Zheng He (... more This article examines the consequences of the Ming maritime expeditions led by Admiral Zheng He (1371–1433) in the early fifteenth century on Indian Ocean diplomacy, trade, and cross-cultural interactions. The presence of the powerful Ming navy not only introduced an unprecedented militaristic aspect to the Indian Ocean region, but also led to the emergence of state-directed commercial activity in the maritime world that extended from Ming China to the Swahili coast of Africa. Additionally, these expeditions stimulated the movement of people and animals across the oceanic space and might eventually have facilitated the rapid entry of European commercial enterprises into the Indian Ocean region during the second half of the fifteenth century.
Corrected proofs. Chapter in Ming China: Court and Contacts, 1400-1450.
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Books by Tansen Sen
Book Chapters and Journal Articles by Tansen Sen