Introduction exile in colonial Asia: Kings, convicts, commemoration

Exile in Colonial Asia: Kings, Convicts, Commemoration explores the phenomenon of exile within and from colonial Asia between the seventeenth and early twentieth centuries from several disciplinary perspectives: anthropology, gender studies, literature, history, and Asian, Australian, and Pacific studies. Chapters cover myriad contexts from Colombo to Cape Town, from New Caledonia to New South Wales, from Burma to Banda; French, British, and Dutch policies toward, and practices of banishment; various categories of people whose lives were touched or shaped by exile in the colonial period, among them royalty, slaves, convicts, rebels, soldiers and officials; the condition of exile and the ways it was remembered, reconfigured, and commemorated after the fact. Rather than confining themselves to the European colonial archives, the authors, whenever possible, put special emphasis on the use of indigenous primary sources hitherto little explored. In addition to presenting fascinating, little known, and diverse case studies of exile in colonial Asia, the volume collectively offers a broad, contextualized, comparative perspective on a theme that links the narratives of diverse peoples and locales, invites imaginative methodological innovation in exploring multiple archives, and expands our theoretical frontiers in thinking about the interconnected histories of penal deportation, labor migration, political exile, colonial expansion, and individual destinies.