The inaugural issue of Reading South-Asia will explore how colonialism, imperialism, and nation-state formation reshaped the region’s spatial and cultural landscapes from the late 19th to 20th century. It attempts to examine the contested notions of ‘South Asia’ and the social construction of space, drawing on Henri Lefebvre’s theory of space as shaped by power, ideology, and resistance. The issue invites interdisciplinary analyses of anti-colonial resistance, border formations, and shifting identities, considering how historical processes continue to influence contemporary understandings of space, memory, and belonging in South Asia.

 

Sub-themes 

• Fragile Borders: Displacement and Migration in colonial and post-colonial times

• Territorialisation, State-Making, Production of Knowledge and Modernity

• Identities, Politics and New Geographies: Ethnogenesis in South Asia

• Sites of Contestation and Resistance: Conflict and Violence

• Conventional and Alternative Archives: Memory as a Site of History

• Mapping South Asia: Methodological Considerations and Challenges

• The Intersectionality of Labour, Urban Spaces and Infrastructure: Evolution through the Long 20th Century

• The ‘Frontier’ and the ‘Metropole’: Conception of Margins and Marginality

 

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 25 July 2025