Old Routes, New Dreams: Reminiscences of the Southern Silk Road and Bengal-China Connectivities
In: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the OrientSearch for other papers by Jayati Bhattacharya in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
An increasing optimism at the prospect of “shared prosperity” has revived attention on ancient historical routes such as the Southern Silk Road compelling us to rethink notions of the “centre” and the “periphery” in comprehending binaries of nation-states and agencies of globalization. This article focuses on revisiting circulatory movements and networks from the past across land and sea between Bengal delta and China in strengthening the networks and a new alignment of communities and economic possibilities. It explores some of the lesser-studied historical routes in the region and different dimensions of “place making” in the popular imagination and new synergies to redefine the Bengal-China connections.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Amrith, Sunil S. 2013. Crossing the Bay of Bengal: The Furies of Nature and Fortunes of Migrants. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
-
Appadurai, Arjun. 1990. Disjunctures and Differences in the Global Cultural Economy. Theory, Culture and Society 7: 295-310.
-
Battuta, Ibn. 1983. Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. First edition, 1929.
-
Bayly, C.A. 1983. Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
-
Bayly, C.A. 1990. Indigenous Social Formations and the “World System”: North India since c. 1700. In South Asia and World Capitalism, ed. Sugata Bose. Delhi: Oxford University Press: 112-139.
-
Borah, Abikal. 2014. A Region in a Mobile World: Integration of Southeastern Himalayan Region into the Global Capitalist Economy (1820-1900). Review (Fernand Braudel Center) 37/2: 87-127.
-
Bhattacharya, Jayati. 2011. Beyond the Myth: Indian Business Communities in Singapore. Singapore: Institute of Southeast Asian Studies.
-
Bhattacharya, Jayati. 2017. The Sea of Changes: Shifting Trajectories Across the Bay of Bengal. Asian Politics and Policy 9/2: 245-267.
-
Bhattacharya, Jayati. 2019. Connectivity Across Colonial Bay of Bengal in the 19th and 20th Centuries. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, ed. David Ludden. New York: Oxford University Press. oxfordre.com/asianhistory.
-
Bhattacharya, Rupak. 11 February 2016. The Emerging Bangladesh China Indian Myanmar- Economic Corridor and its opportunities. The Eastern Today.
-
Bhattacharya (Chakraborti), Swapna. 2002. Myth and History of Bengali Identity in Arakan. In The Maritime Frontier of Burma: Exploring Political, Cultural and Commercial Interaction in the Indian Ocean World, 1200-1800, ed. Jos Gommans and Jacques Leider. Leiden: Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, KILTV Press: 199-212.
-
Bose, Pratim Ranjan. 17 April 2018. India starts construction of Rs. 1000-cr Mizoram- Myanmar Kaladan Road. The Hindu Business Line. https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/news/india-starts-construction-of-1600-cr-mizoram-myanmar-kaladan-road/article23577107.ece accessed 3.6.2019.
-
Bose, Sugata. 2006. A Hundred Horizons: The Indian Ocean in the Age of the Global Empire. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.
-
Braudel, Fernand. 2009. History and the Social Sciences—The Longue Durée (translated by Immanuel Wallerstein), Review (Fernand Braudel Center) 32/2: 171-203.
-
Chakravarti, Ranabir. 1999. Early Medieval Bengal and the Trade in Horses: A Note. Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 42/2: 194-211.
-
Chan Jia Hao and Deepakshi Rawat. 29 April 2019. China’s Digital Silk Road: The Integration of Myanmar. RSIS Commentary 084.
-
Chatterji, Joya. February 1999. The Fashioning of a Frontier: The Radcliffe Line and Bengal’s Border Landscape, 1947-52. Modern Asian Studies 33/1: 185-242.
-
Chettri, Pramesh. 2018. India-China Border Trade Through Nathu La Pass: Prospects and Impediments. Himalaya 38/1: 11-22.
-
Collister, Peter. 1987. Bhutan and the British. London: Serindia Publications.
-
Dale, Stephen F. 2009. Silk Road, Cotton Road or…. Indo-Chinese Trade in Pre-European Times. Modern Asian Studies 43/1: 79-88.
-
Eaton, Richard Maxwell. 1993. The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760 Berkeley: University of California Press.
-
Firminger, W.K., ed. 1920. Bengal District Records, Rangpur, 1770-1779, Volume I, Calcutta.
-
Gaens, Bart and Olli Ruohomäki. June 2017. India’s “Look East”- “Act East” Policy: Hedging as a Foreign Policy Tool. The Finnish Institute of International Affairs (FIIA) Briefing Paper 222: 1-7.
-
Ghosh, Lipi. 2019. The Southern Silk Route: Historical Links and Contemporary Convergences. New Delhi: Manohar.
-
Ghosh, Lipi. 1994. Burma: Myth of French Intrigue. Calcutta: Naya Udyog.
-
Green, Nile. 2012. Making Space: Sufis and Settlers in Early Modern India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
-
Gupta, S. 1974. British Relations with Bhutan. Jaipur: Panchsheel Prakashan.
-
Gurung, Shaurya Karanbir. 12 July 2018. Beyond China’s Sikkim’s aggression, a plan to isolate Northeast from rest of India. The Economic Times. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/defence/border-face-off-why-china-tries-to-break-chickens-neck-to-isolate-northeast/articleshow/5 accessed 29 July 2020.
-
Ispahani, Mahnaz Z. 1989. Roads and Rivals: The Political Uses of Access in the Borderlands of Asia. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press.
-
Khurana, Gurpreet S. 2016. Geopolitics of China’s „Maritime Silk Road“ Concept: An Indian Perspective. In China’s Maritime Silk Road and Asia, ed. Vijay Sakhuja and Jane Chan. Delhi: Nation Maritime Foundation, Vij Books India Pte Ltd.
-
Hall, Kenneth R. 2010. Ports-of-Trade, Maritime Diasporas, and Networks of Trade and Cultural Integration in the Bay of Bengal Region of the Indian Ocean: c. 1300-1500. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 53/1-2: 109-145.
-
Hartman, Leigh. 23 September 2019. What is the US Indo-Pacific Strategy? Share America. https://share.america.gov/what-is-u-s-indo-pacific-strategy/ accessed 25 July 2020.
-
Heimann, James. 1980. Small Changes and Ballast: Cowry Trade and Usage as an Example of Indian Ocean Economic History. South Asia 3/1: 48-69.
-
Hunter, W.W. 1876. A Statistical Account of Bengal. London: Trübner & Co.
-
Hussain, Syed Ejaz. 2013. Silver Flow and Horse Supply to Sultanate Bengal with Special Reference to Trans-Himalayan Trade (13th-16th centuries). Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 56/2: 264-308.
-
Iqbal, Iftekhar. 2015. The Space between Nation and Empire: The Making and Unmaking of Eastern Bengal and Assam Province, 1905-1911. The Journal of Asian Studies 74/1: 69-84.
-
Levebvre, Henry. 1991. The Production of Space (Translated by D. Nicholson-Smith). Oxford, Cambridge: Blackwell Publishing.
-
Ludden, David. 2019. “India’s Spatial History in the Brahmaputra-Meghna River Basin.” In Landscape, Culture and Belonging: Writing the History of Northeast India, ed. Neeladri Bhattacharya and Joy Pachuau. Cambridge, New York: Cambridge University Press: 23-37.
-
Ludden, David. 1990. World Economy and Village India, 1600-1900: Exploring the Agrarian History of Capitalism. In South Asia and World Capitalism, ed. Sugata Bose. Delhi: Oxford University Press: 159-177.
-
Magazine, Aanchal and Sunny Verma. 26 July 2020. Explained: How the new public procurement restrictions target China. The Indian Express, https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/india-public-procurement-restrictions-china-6522726/ retrieved 26 July 2020
-
Majumdar, Anindyo J. 2011. Contemporary Security Scenario in the Eastern Indian Ocean Region: The Efficacy of Contingent Realism. In Eastern Indian Ocean: Historical Links to Contemporary Convergences ed. Lipi Ghosh. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing: 100-115.
-
Markovits, Claude, Jacques Pouchepadass and Sanjay Subrahmanyam. 2003. Mobile People and Itinerant Cultures in South Asia, 1750-1950. Delhi: Anthem Press.
-
Massey, Doreen. June 1991. A Global Sense of Space. Marxism Today. 24-29.
-
Mazumdar, R.C. 1976. History of Bengal, Volume-1. Dacca: University of Dacca.
-
Mukherji, Indra Nath and Subrata Kumar Behra. 2015. India’s Trade and Investment with BCIM Countries. In BCIM Economic Corridor: The Road Ahead, eds. Rajiv K Bhatia and Rahul Mishra. New Delhi: Indian Council of World Affairs, Pentagon Press: 25-61.
-
Mukherjee, Rila. November 2008. Putting the Rafts Out to the Sea: Talking of “Bera Bhashan” in Bengal. Transforming Cultures eJournal 3/2: 124-144.
-
Nayar, Baldev Raj and T.V. Paul. 2013. India in the World Order. New Delhi: Cambridge University Press.
-
Patgiri, Rubul and Obja Borah Hazarika. 2016. Locating Northeast in India’s Neighbourhood Policy: Transnational Solutions to the Problems of a Periphery. India Quarterly 72/3: 235-249.
-
Pelliot, Paul. 1959. Notes on Marco Polo, Vol. 1. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale.
-
Prakash, Om. 2004. Bullion for Goods: European and Indian Merchants in the Indian Ocean, 1500-1800. New Delhi: Manohar.
-
Ramachandran, Sudha. 22 July 2019. How Bangladesh Learned to Love the Belt and Road. The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2019/07/how-bangladesh-learned-to-love-the-belt-and-road/ accessed 14 July 2020.
-
Ray, Haraprasad. 2019. Southern Silk Route: A Perspective. In The Southern Silk Route: Historical Links and Contemporary Convergences ed. Lipi Ghosh. New Delhi: Manohar: 29-35.
-
Ray, Haraprasad. 2003. Trade and Trade Routes between India and China, c. 140 B.C.- A.D. 1500. Kolkata: Progressive Publishers.
-
Ren Jia, et al. 2019. Research on Yunnan-India Local Trade. In The Southern Silk Route: Historical Links and Contemporary Convergences ed. Lipi Ghosh. New Delhi: Manohar: 301-372.
-
Rennie, David Field. 1970. Bhotan and the Story of the Dooar War. New Delhi: Manjushri Publishing House.
-
Riaz, Ali. 2 July 2020. As the Sino-Indian rivalry heats up, watch Bangladesh carefully. Atlantic Council. https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/as-the-sino-indian-rivalry-heats-up-watch-bangladesh-carefully/ accessed 28 July 2020.
-
Roy, Tirthankar. November 2011. Where is Bengal? Situating an Indian Region in the Early Modern Period. Past and Present 213: 115-146.
-
Sahoo, Pravakar and Abhirup Bhunia. 18 July, 2014. BCIM Corridor a game changer for South Asian trade. East Asia Forum. http://www.eastasiaforum.org/2014/07/18/bcim-corridor-a-game-changer-for-south-asian-trade/ accessed 9.12.2016.
-
Saint-Mézard, Isabelle. 2016. India’s Act East policy: Strategic implications for the Indian Ocean. Journal of the Indian Ocean Region 12/2:177-190.
-
Sarkar, Ratna and Indrajit Roy. Winter 2006. Two Nineteenth Century Trade Routes in the Eastern Himalayas: The Bhutanese Trade with Tibet and Bengal. Journal of Bhutan Studies 15: 56-83.
-
Sarkar, Ratna and Indrajit Roy. Winter 2007. Political Scenario in Bhutan during 1774-1906: An Impact Analysis on Trade and Commerce. Journal of Bhutan Studies 17: 1-20.
-
Schendel, Willem van. 2002. Geographies of Knowing, Geographies of Ignorance: Jumping Scale in Southeast Asia. Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 20: 647-668.
-
Schendel, Willem van. 2005. The Bengal Borderland: Beyond State and Nation in South Asia. London: Anthem Press.
-
Schendel, Willem van. 2015. Spatial Moments: Chittagong in Four Scenes. In Asia Inside Out: Connected Places, ed. Eric Tagliacozzo, Helen F. Siu and Peter C. Perdue. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press: 98-127.
-
Schendel, Willem van & Erik de Maaker. 2014. Asian Borderlands: Introducing their Permeability, Strategic Uses and Meanings. Journal of Borderland Studies 21/1: 3-9.
-
Scott, David. 2008. The Great Power „Great Game“ between India and China: „The Logic of Geography“. Geopolitics 13/1: 1-26.
-
Scott, James C. 2009. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia. New Haven: Yale University Press.
-
Sen, Jahar. 1977. Indo-Nepal Trade in the Nineteenth Century. Calcutta: Firma KLM Private Limited.
-
Sen, Tansen. 2006. The Formation of Chinese Maritime Networks to Southern Asia, 1200-1450. Maritime Diasporas in the Indian Ocean and East and Southeast Asia (960-1775). Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 49/4: 421-453.
-
Sen, Tansen and Victor H. Mair. 2012. Traditional China in Asian and World History. Ann Arbor: Association of Asian Studies.
-
Vogel, Hans Ulrich. 1993. Cowry Trade and Its Role in the Economy of Yunnan: From the Ninth to the Mid-Seventeenth Century (Part I). Journal of Economic and Social History of the Orient 36/3: 211-252.
-
Waugh, Daniel C. 2010. The Silk Roads in History. Expedition 52/3: 9-22. https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/the-silk-roads-in-history/.
-
Wallerstein, Immanuel M. 1983. Historical Capitalism. London: Verso.
-
Wallerstein, Immanuel M. 1990. Systems Analysis and Historical Particularity: Some Comments. In South Asia and World Capitalism ed. Sugata Bose. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
-
Wallerstein, Immanuel M. 2004. World-Systems Analysis: An Introduction. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
-
Wang Bangwei, and Tansen Sen compiled. 2011. India and China: Interactions through Buddhism and Diplomacy—A Collection of Essays by Professor Prabodh Chandra Bagchi. New Delhi: Anthem Press.
-
Washbrook, David A. 1990. South Asia, World System and World Capitalism. Journal of Asian Studies 49/3: 479-508.
-
Yang, Bin. September 2004. Horses Silver, Cowries: Yunnan in Global Perspective. Journal of World History 15/3: 281-322.
-
Yang, Bin. 2009. Between Winds and Clouds: The Making of Yunnan (Second Century BCE to Twentieth Century CE). New York: Columbia University Press.
-
Yang, Bin. 2012. The Bengal Connections in Yunnan. China Report 48/1-2: 125-145.
-
Zhang, Ruosui. 22 July 2020. Chinese investments in Myanmar: Beyond Myitsone Dam. The Diplomat. https://thediplomat.com/2020/07/chinese-investment-in-myanmar-beyond-myitsone-dam/ accessed 28 July 2020.
-
Zhu Li. 2016. The Maritime Silk Road and India: The Challenge of Overcoming Cognitive Divergence. Asia Policy 22/1: 20-26.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1597 | 245 | 12 |
| Full Text Views | 97 | 8 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 235 | 22 | 0 |
Old Routes, New Dreams: Reminiscences of the Southern Silk Road and Bengal-China Connectivities
In: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the OrientSearch for other papers by Jayati Bhattacharya in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
An increasing optimism at the prospect of “shared prosperity” has revived attention on ancient historical routes such as the Southern Silk Road compelling us to rethink notions of the “centre” and the “periphery” in comprehending binaries of nation-states and agencies of globalization. This article focuses on revisiting circulatory movements and networks from the past across land and sea between Bengal delta and China in strengthening the networks and a new alignment of communities and economic possibilities. It explores some of the lesser-studied historical routes in the region and different dimensions of “place making” in the popular imagination and new synergies to redefine the Bengal-China connections.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 1597 | 245 | 12 |
| Full Text Views | 97 | 8 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 235 | 22 | 0 |
