By Gazi Mizanur Rahman, Ph.D., BRAC University, Bangladesh
Abstract: This article explores transregional connectivity between South and Southeast Asia, which facilitated the mobility of people, goods, ideas, and plants. However, imprecise labeling of diverse South Asian migrants in colonial records has made it difficult to reconstruct the historical migration of specific South Asian communities. This paper proposes techniques to recover their history, using the example of Bengali mobility, by consulting archival documents, oral testimonies, and other primary sources. This study calls on academics, historians, and experts on mobility studies to be vigilant of indiscriminate categorizing systems in colonial records because stereotypes and imprecise ethnic identity in such records may mislead them.
Keywords: colonial records, India, South Asia, Bengal, Bengali Migrants, British Malaya, Straits Settlements, Malay World
Edited by Birgit Schneider
Special thanks to the anonymous peer reviewers.
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© 2024 The Middle Ground Journal (ISSN: 2155-1103) Number 27, Spring 2024 http://TheMiddleGroundJournal.org
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Special Issue Article on “Crisis and Recovery,” the theme for the Midwest World History Association’s 2021 conference.
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