Dates: 27-29 July 2010

Place: Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore

A. Rationale:

At the two extremes of the Indian Ocean lie port clusters which have,
throughout time, assumed an immense importance in both local and global
histories. On the east lie the ports of the Malacca and Sunda Straits and
the Peninsula with its portages. To the west are situated the ports of the
Red Sea and the Persian Gulf. Each was a bottleneck through which global
commerce had to pass, and in which goods and travelers had to disembark and
linger before re-embarking on the next stage of global voyaging. They
therefore became regions ?made for merchandise?, in Tomas Pires;s
memorable phrase. While the climates of the two regions are radically
opposed, the deserts of the Middle East and the jungles of Southeast Asia
both provided relatively difficult conditions for settled agriculture, so
that their commercial entrepots flourished often despite the hostile
nature of their immediate environments. Even today the two regions
remain home to some remarkable port-states devoted to global commerce and
finance. These similarities and commonalities suggest that the time is
ripe for considering them together, both in terms of connections and
comparisons.

The world's major maritime trade route linked together, for several
thousand years, these Indian Ocean port clusters of the Middle East and
the Straits of Malacca. Each was a hinge on which maritime commerce
turned. While the overland 'silk route' between China and Europe is
justly celebrated for its difficulty and exotic locales, most such
long-distance exchange was in fact by sea, passing through these
crossroads along the way. It was in these two regions that commodities
were collected and traded to markets huge distances away. The Southeast
Asian ports mediated between the Indian Ocean world and the great markets
and production centres of East Asia, while the ports situated on the Red
Sea, the Persian Gulf and the land bridges to the Mediterranean linked
that same Indian Ocean World with the Mediterranean and Europe. The
straits, portages, and entr?pots of these two regions were (and despite
air traffic largely still are) vital centres of mediation, and their
inhabitants were and are encouraged by geography to become commercial
mediators and traders.

With goods went people and ideas. The ports of both regions were inherently
plural, drawing traders, craftsmen and even labour from India and China as
well as from each other. There was much cultural hybridity and creole
identities, but also remarkable enduring identities kept separate by
religion or caste though living in the same crowded urban spaces.

Languages, scripts, literature, foods, sculptures, works of art and sacred
texts travelled the same routes. The Abrahamic religions spread out from the
Middle East along its trade routes, while the Indian religions we today call
Buddhism and Hinduism travelled to and through Southeast Asia to the East
Asian world beyond. Routes of trade became routes of pilgrimage, both to and
through these crossroads. Islam was a central locus of interaction between
the two regions from its earliest days. The Islamic ecumene of the Indian
Ocean involved not only pilgrimage (notably the hajj to Mecca and Medina),
but also the movement of teachers, students and scholars between the two
regions. Arab and Persian teachers came to Southeast Asia, as has been well
documented, but students and scholars also moved in the opposite direction
on a great scale, with madrasahs for the jawi of Southeast Asia established
in the Hijaz. More recently, the waves of reform which have marked Islam
over the past two centuries washed across the Indian Ocean in both
directions.

While these interactions between the ports of the Straits of Malacca and
those of the Red Sea-Gulf region have existed for millennia, they have if
anything gained greater salience in modern times. The steamship and the Suez
Canal linked the two regions more tightly together, pilgrimages became mass
movements, and the debates about the relation between Islam, modernity and
nationalism raged particularly in these two regions.

Southeast Asia long appeared an open frontier to migrants from the Arab
world and India. In recent times it has also been a model of certain types
of modernity, whether urban, Islamic, or plural. But now the movement of
peoples has turned in the other direction, with thousands of domestic
workers, construction workers and technicians of various sorts moving every
year from Southeast Asia to the flourishing port-cities of the Gulf and
Saudi Arabia.

These and diverse other aspects of the comparisons of, and links between,
these global crossroads will comprise the foci of this conference.

 

B. Keynote lecture

The keynote lecture for this conference will be given by Professor Ho
Engseng, Professor of Cultural Anthropology and History, Duke Islamic
Studies Center, Duke University, and will be entitled:

"Pirate or Prince? Rival Port-making Strategies at the Antipodes of the
Indian Ocean"

 

C. Call for Papers

This 3-day conference will examine these two Indian Ocean port zones in
various respects - the specific natures and the roles of these zones as well
as comparisons between these; mutual perceptions between the peoples of the
two zones; the links between these regions in terms of commercial
interactions over time and the effects of such commerce; cultural and
religious interflows between these two ends of the Indian Ocean;
transmission of the ideas of modernity, urbanism, and cosmopolitanism
between these two areas; the effects of European imperialism and commerce;
the commercial and religious networks connecting the two places; migration
between the two places; pilgrims and tourists; as well as the role of India
and Indians in these interactions. There is no restriction on the periods to
be examined.

Paper proposals are invited from scholars engaged in any aspect of related
studies. Proposals should be received by 20 March 2010 and successful
applicants will be informed of their acceptance by 1 April 2010. Paper
proposals should include a title and a 400-word abstract, together with a
short biography of the applicant.

All participants will be provided with four nights accommodation in
Singapore. Requests for assistance with airfares, especially from
participants based in Asian countries, will be sympathetically considered.

 

Proposals should be directed to:

Global Crossroads Conference
Nalanda-Sriwijaya Centre
Institute of Southeast Asian Studies
30 Heng Mui Keng Terrace
Singapore 119614
Email: gwade@iseas.edu.sg

 

Organising Committee:

Professor Anthony Reid
Professor Tansen Sen
Dr Geoff Wade