Podcast Summary:

Podcast: New Books Network – New Books in Southeast Asian Studies
Host: Dr. Natalie Pearson
Guest: Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray (Editor)
Book: Recentering Southeast Asia: Politics, Religion and Maritime Connections (Routledge, 2025)
Release Date: February 15, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode explores Recentering Southeast Asia, an edited volume that offers fresh perspectives on the politics, religion, and maritime networks that have historically connected South and Southeast Asia. Dr. Natalie Pearson interviews Prof. Himanshu Prabha Ray, delving into the book’s origins, structure, and key arguments about how colonialism and area studies shaped knowledge production in and about Southeast Asia. The conversation highlights the significance of maritime connections, critiques nation-bound histories, and demonstrates the plural and entangled pasts that challenge established frameworks.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Prof. Ray’s Intellectual Journey

• Began as an archaeologist focused on material culture
• Shifted attention toward how contemporary politics and colonial legacies shape interpretations of the past ([01:37])
• Explored topics such as colonial archaeology, the role of archaeology in India’s Constitution, and processes of heritage decolonization

Notable Quote:

“Increasingly, I felt that there was more to [archaeological finds] than just looking at material culture, that the politics of the present...has a lot to do with where [authors] are located.” – Ray ([01:37])

2. Origins and Aim of the Book

• Emerged from a 2023 New Delhi conference on shared cultural heritage across the Indian Ocean ([06:09])
• Sought to question artificial divisions between South and Southeast Asia, which are products of colonial and Cold War-era area studies ([06:32])
• Used “recentering” as a framework to shift focus from Indo-centrism or nation-state frameworks toward dynamic and overlapping maritime histories ([09:25])

3. Book Structure and Methodological Innovations

Two Main Sections:

• Section 1: The Making of the Discourse
  • Examines how colonial, postcolonial, and nationalist narratives were formed ([11:06])
  • Shifts from civilizational/nationalist to thematic and maritime frameworks
• Section 2: Beyond Binaries – The Way Forward
  • Introduces maritime and material approaches as alternatives to land-based or area-centric histories

Notable Insight:

“With a coastline like ours...how can you do Indian history without looking at the ocean?” – Ray ([12:10])

4. Discussion of Individual Chapters

• Introductory Chapter:
  Argues that archaeology and heritage practices not only documented but also actively reshaped historical consciousness, often reinforcing colonial and monoreligious narratives ([16:08]).

• Chapter 2: Nehru and Southeast Asia (Madhavan Palat)

  • Nehru’s perspectives, though liberal for India, remained influenced by Orientalist views on Southeast Asia due to reliance on English-language secondary sources during his detention ([20:59])
  • Contrasts Nehru’s approach with Tagore’s more pluralistic and connected vision ([22:52])

• Chapter 3: Greater India Scholars and Decolonizing Diplomacy (TCA Raghavan)

  • Analyzes the 1947 Asian Relations Conference as a turning point from civilizational to postcolonial attitudes ([25:36])
  • Highlights the diminishing post-independence focus on in-depth engagement with Southeast Asia, such as learning local languages ([26:54])

  Memorable Quote:

  “...We lose it when we don’t create another generation who studies and thinks about it.” – Ray ([28:13])

• Chapter 4: Japan, Buddhism, and Thailand (Koji Osawa)

  • Focuses on Chiko Sato, a Japanese businessman and Buddhist, illustrating intellectual and religious mobility underpinned by both commercial and spiritual motives ([29:18])
  • Story of the Buddha’s relics and their transnational journeys

• Chapter 5: Japan and Myanmar after World War II (Takahiro Kojima)

  • Explores how Buddhist rituals and commemoration of Japanese soldiers constructed postwar connections between Japan and Myanmar, transcending previous enmities ([33:49])

• Methodological Turn:
  The book urges re-examination of sites and objects not just as isolated histories, but within broader maritime and pluralist contexts ([36:35]).

• Chapter 6: Maritime Buddhism (Ray)

  • Shipwrecks reveal networks of trade, ritual, and community, moving beyond dynastic or land-based narratives ([36:35])
  • Maritime archaeology in Southeast Asia outpaces that in India, highlighting calls for more underwater research in India ([54:24])

  Notable Quote:

  “Pay more attention to shipwrecks...We need to do something about underwater archaeology, shipwrecks, looking at the coast more seriously and the communities who equaled this maritime domain.” – Ray ([54:24])

• Chapter 7: Rereading Vietnam’s Vajra (Tran Ki Fuang)

  • Reconstructs a vanished Vietnamese vihara from its museum holdings, using spatial and ritual organization as keys, not just stylistic classification ([40:31])

• Chapter 8: Afterlives of Temples across the Bay of Bengal (Emma Stein)

  • Tracks how temples continue to be “reactivated” for new social purposes (e.g., food distribution during COVID in Kanchipuram) ([43:46])
  • Emphasizes heritage as an ongoing, negotiated process, not static or frozen in time

• Chapter 9: The Vocaan Stele and Indianization Debates (Ashish Kumar)

  • Studies a 4th-century Sanskrit inscription in Vietnam as an artifact, not just a textual “proof” of Indian influence; asks who wrote it, in what context, and why ([48:20])

Theoretical and Methodological Insights

• Foregrounding India:
  The book argues for taking India seriously as both a historical connector and a knowledge producer, critiquing the post-independence neglect of maritime and Southeast Asian histories ([51:16]).

• Recenter, Not Isolate:
  Calls for moving beyond studying India and Southeast Asia in isolation or only through the lens of China or the “Greater India” construct, advocating for a densely interconnected global (or at least pan-Asian) history ([52:21]).

• Maritime vs. Global History:
  Ray distinguishes between global history (trade-focused) and maritime history (which includes ideas, communities, religious mobility) ([52:45]).

• Challenging Colonial Legacies:
  Maritime history cuts across nation-states and challenges colonial/Cold War binaries, highlighting multivocality and fluid boundaries ([56:13]).

  Notable Quote:

  “Can one study the Belitung or the shipwreck without breaking down national boundaries? One can’t...and that’s...you need to then look at a broader space.” – Ray ([56:13])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Collecting and Categorization:

  “We see what we want to see.” – Ray, on how colonial collectors shaped records according to their preconceptions ([16:54])

• On the Plurality of Religious Sites:

  “Most sites in India...are multi religious. They are not mono religious...Academically we have issues trying to understand these fluidities.” – Ray ([17:02])

• On Methodology:

  “If our listeners and your readers are to take away one key methodological insight or lesson from the book, what would it be? Pay more attention to shipwrecks.” – Ray ([54:24])

Recommended Timestamps for Key Segments

• Prof. Ray’s research background: [01:37–06:09]
• Book origins and conference: [06:09–09:25]
• Structural logic of the volume: [11:06–14:43]
• Defining “recentering” and moving beyond area studies: [09:25–12:10]
• Mono- vs. pluralist religious categorizations: [16:08–19:32]
• Nehru, Tagore, and Asian imaginaries: [20:59–24:39]
• Shipwrecks and maritime history (methodology): [36:35–39:37], [54:24–55:33]
• Vietnam, heritage, and architectural analysis: [40:31–42:43]
• Afterlives and reactivation of temples: [43:46–47:46]
• Vocaan stele and Indianization debate: [48:20–50:19]
• India as a knowledge producer and legacy: [51:16–52:12]
• Maritime vs. global history distinction: [52:45–53:39]
• Breaking down nation-state boundaries: [56:13–57:18]

Conclusion

Through this episode, listeners gain a rich and engaging introduction to the dynamic, transregional, and maritime histories that have shaped South and Southeast Asia, as well as the colonial and postcolonial processes that have obscured these connections. Prof. Ray and her contributors foreground pluralism, mobility, and the value of maritime archaeology, breaking open new methodological and theoretical possibilities for the field.

For further reading/listening:

• Recentering Southeast Asia: Politics, Religion and Maritime Connections, Routledge, 2025
• Other interviews in the New Books Network’s Southeast Asian Studies channel