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The Sea of Changes: Shifting Trajectories Across the Bay of Bengal
Author(s) -
Bhattacharya Jayati
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
asian politics and policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.193
H-Index - 12
eISSN - 1943-0787
pISSN - 1943-0779
DOI - 10.1111/aspp.12321
Subject(s) - bengal , scholarship , geopolitics , vision , bay , historiography , narrative , politics , china , space (punctuation) , political science , geography , political economy , economic geography , economy , sociology , law , anthropology , archaeology , economics , linguistics , philosophy
A major shift of geostrategic visions from territorial dimensions to maritime trajectories for China and India has made the study of Asian maritime spaces significant. In spite of strong historical connectivities, the maritime space of Bay of Bengal separated nation‐centric postcolonial states and became divided into zones, promoting geopolitical demarcations that have subsequently become deeply embedded in academic, political, and public discourses. This article attempts to examine the emergence of new economic and geostrategic horizons in this maritime space, a space that may well become a powerful pivot of a rising Asia. It proposes paradigm shifts in scholarly discourses in and around the Bay, distinct from the prism of conventional western historiography and the narrative of South‐Southeast Asia divergences. A trajectory of renegotiations in the understanding of flows and networks is envisaged, implying a strong possibility of this waterscape emerging as a specialized area of study, and thus a rethinking of scholarship and pedagogy in Asian studies.