A. A. Powell

Bio: A. A. Powell is an academic researcher. The author has contributed to research in topics: BENGAL. The author has an hindex of 1, co-authored 1 publications receiving 69 citations.

The place which is diaspora: Citizenship, religion and gender in the making of chaordic transnationalism

Abstract: The paper argues for a need to analyse the organisational and moral, as well as the aesthetic dimensions of diasporas in order to understand their political and mobilising power. Organisationally, diasporas are characterised by a chaordic structure and by a shared sense of moral co-responsibility, embodied in material gestures and extended through and across space. Ultimately, there is no guiding hand, no command structure, organising the politics, the protests, the philanthropic drives, the commemoration ceremonies or the aesthetics of diasporas. Indeed, the locations of diaspora are relatively autonomous of any centre, while paradoxically, new diaspora communities reproduce themselves predictably, and in tandem. The internal complexity of diasporas is shown here through the example of the expansion and spread of international Sufi cults and women's activism. Yet despite the fact that contemporary diasporas are marked by their heterogeneity, diasporic communities located in democratic nation-states do sh...

Trade, Institutions and Ethnic Tolerance: Evidence from South Asia

Abstract: I provide evidence that the degree to which medieval Hindus and Muslims could provide complementary, non-replicable services and a mechanism to share the gains from exchange has resulted in a sustained legacy of ethnic tolerance in South Asian towns. Due to Muslim-specific advantages in Indian Ocean shipping, inter-ethnic complementarities were strongest in medieval trading ports, leading to the development of institutional mechanisms that further supported inter-ethnic exchange. Using novel town-level data spanning South Asia's medieval and colonial history, I find that medieval ports, despite being more ethnically mixed, were five times less prone to Hindu-Muslim riots between 1850-1950, two centuries after Europeans disrupted Muslim overseas trade dominance, and remained half as prone between 1950-1995. Household-level evidence suggests that these differences reflect local institutions that emerged to support inter-ethnic medieval trade, continue to influence modern occupational choices and organizations, and substitute for State political incentives in supporting inter-ethnic trust.

Presidential Address: Maps in the Mind and the Mobility of Asia

Abstract: A MAP IS A PECULIAR KIND OF VISUAL TEXT. It seems a mere instrument of utility, showing us where to go and how to put things in place. Invisible ingredients, however, render every map a Pandora’s box. Emotions are undoubtedly the most potent of all of the invisible elements in maps. The cartographic passions that make the headlines may be national ones, but in cities, towns, and villages, people have strong feelings about local maps. Street gangs, real estate developers, insurance companies, zoning boards, planners, and electorates invest maps with local politics. Landowners love their property lines. Universities map their campus identity. The Association for Asian Studies (AAS) signifies itself succinctly in its logo, a map of Asia. Such territorial attachments and many others have striking similarities: they infuse boundaries with iconic significance, tinged with feelings of security, belonging, possessiveness, enclosure, entitlement, and exclusion. Equally invisible in maps are social relations of mapping that produce maps and authorize their interpretation. The most influential mapmakers today work in national institutions, including schools, colleges, and universities. State-authorized mapping is so ubiquitous that most governments do not regulate most map making, but almost everyone draws official lines on maps by habit anyway, in accordance with cartographic regimentation that is so invisible, pervasive, and widely accepted that few people ever

Trade, institutions and religious tolerance: evidence from India

Abstract: This paper analyses the incentives that shaped Hindu and Muslim interaction in India’s towns from the rise of Islam to the rise of European intervention in the 17th century; it argues that difierences in the degree to which medieval Hindus and Muslims could provide complementary, non-replicable services and a mechanism to share the gains from trade has resulted in a sustained legacy of religious tolerance. Due to Muslim-speciflc advantages in Indian Ocean shipping, incentives to trade across ethnic lines were strongest in medieval trading ports, leading to the development of institutions to support inter-religious exchange. Using new town-level data spanning India’s medieval and colonial history, this paper flnds that medieval trading ports were 25 percent less likely to experience a religious riot between 1850-1950, two centuries after Europeans eliminated Muslim advantages in overseas shipping. Medieval trading ports continued to exhibit fewer and less widespread religious violence during the Gujarat riots in 2002. The paper shows that these difierences are not the result of variation in geography, political histories, wealth, religious composition or of medieval port selection, and interprets these difierences as being transmitted via the persistence of institutions that emerged to support inter-religious medieval trade. The paper further characterises these institutions and the lessons they yield for reducing contemporary ethnic con∞ict.

Before Timur Came: Provincialization of the Delhi Sultanate Through The Fourteenth Century

Abstract: The present essay examines information on the relationship of provincial settlements in the territories of the Dehli Sultanate with the capital city during the fourteenth century. This is drawn mainly from hagiographical sources in Persian rather than the much-utilized series of chronicles compiled in the city of Dehli itself. After a brief discussion of some of the factors of continuity and change operative in the fourteenth century in the territories of the Dehli Sultanate, it turns to a series of case studies, where evidence is available, of the processes of settlement of Muslim communities under the aegis of the Sultans of Dehli and in a radius extending from the capital city in northern India. The main routes of extension were to the south and to the east. Evidence suggests a process of growth of provincial centers of power to the detriment of the authority of the Sultan and the administration lodged in the capital city before the collapse of this authority in 1398. The latter part of the paper examines the linguistic consequences of the provincial political developments of the fourteenth century. It is argued that these affected changes in North Indian climates of sensibility that have endured to the present day. L'article etudie les informations sur la relation entre les etablissement regionaux dans les territoires du Sultanat de Dehli et la ville capitale durant le XIV e siecle. Ces donnees sont surtout puisees aux sources hagiographiques en langue persane plutot qu'aux series de chroniques compilees dans la ville de Dehli elle-meme. Apres une discussion concise de certains facteurs responsables de la continuite et du changement en vigueur au XIVe siecle dans les territoires du Sultantat de Dehli, un nombre d'etudes de cas passe la revue — en fonction des temoignages disponibles. Elles traitent les processus d'etablissement des communautes musulmanes sous la protection des sultans de Dehli et dans un rayon autour de la ville capitale de l'Inde septentrionale. Les principales routes d'epanouissment menerent du Sud vers l'Est. Les temoignages suggerent une croissance des centres de pouvoir regionaux au detriment de l'autorite du Sultan et son administration, logees dans la ville capitale jusqu'a son ecroulement en 1398. La derniere section de l'article etudie les consequences linguistiques des developpements politiques et regionaux du XIV e siecle. Il est avance que ces changements engendrerent des modi fications dans les climats de sensibilite dans l'Inde septentrionale qui ont dure jusqu'a nos jours.