‘Restructuring’ a Shared Past: Transcending Colonial Constructs

The book, with an introduction and eight chapters, ‘recenters’ Southeast Asia by examining the role of European colonization in restructuring the shared past of South and Southeast Asia. It emphasizes that colonization redrew political boundaries by creating these blocs with Burma (now Myanmar) firmly placed within Southeast Asia, although it had historical-cultural connections with communities and networks across what is now South Asia. Studying the early maritime history and culture of Burma or other countries in the region, either in isolation or with little reference to South Asia, is counterproductive, and this edited volume provides case studies that transcend colonial constructs and adopts new approaches to understanding a shared past through the lens of political figures, Calcutta’s Greater India Society (1926–1959), the role of Buddhism in post-World War II connections (as the repatriation of the mortal remains of Japanese soldiers in Burma acquired urgency) in the first section, and the afterlives of relics, monuments and inscriptions in the second section.