New Books in History Himanshu Prabha Ray ed., "Recentering Southeast Asia: Politics, Religion and Maritime Connections" (Routledge, 2026)
Feb 15, 2026
Himanshu Prabha Ray, a trained archaeologist turned maritime and heritage scholar, discusses rethinking South and Southeast Asian connections. She highlights colonial-era reshaping of regional histories. Conversation centers on maritime networks, Buddhism’s cross-border flows, shipwrecks and relics, and how heritage practice reframes political and cultural ties.
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Colonial Heritage Shaped Historical Consciousness
- Colonial-era archaeology and heritage classification reshaped how the past was imagined in South and Southeast Asia.
- Himanshu Prabha Ray argues that these practices created monoreligious site narratives that obscure historical pluralism.
Maritime Lens Cuts Through Area Studies
- Area studies and India-centric approaches fragment histories that are maritime by nature.
- Ray insists Indian history cannot be properly written without engaging the ocean and Southeast Asia.
Sustain Language And Area Expertise
- Preserve and cultivate language and area expertise to sustain diplomatic and scholarly engagement with Southeast Asia.
- T.C.A. Raghavan warns that India lost critical post-independence capacity by not training new specialists on Southeast Asia.
