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AIPS Trustee, Dr. Matthew Cook Published Book!

Annexation and the Unhappy Valley
The Historical Anthropology of Sindh’s Colonization
Matthew A. Cook, North Carolina Central University

Annexation and the Unhappy Valley: The Historical Anthropology of Sindh’s Colonization
addresses the nineteenth century expansion and consolidation of British colonial power
in the Sindh region of South Asia. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach and employs a
fine-grained, nuanced and situated reading of multiple agents and their actions. It
explores how the political and administrative incorporation of territory (i.e.,
annexation) by East India Company informs the conversion of intra-cultural distinctions
into socio-historical conflicts among the colonized and colonizers. The book focuses on
colonial direct rule, rather than the more commonly studied indirect rule, of South Asia.
It socio-culturally explores how agents, perspectives and intentions vary—both within
and across regions—to impact the actions and structures of colonial governance.

Matthew A. Cook, Ph.D (2007) in Sociocultural Anthropology, Columbia University, is Professor of South Asian and Postcolonial Studies at North Carolina Central University. His research focuses on the history and anthropology of South Asia, Sindh and colonialism. His previous publications include: Willoughby’s Minute: Treaty of Nownahar, Fraud and British Sindh (Oxford University Press, 2013), Observing Sindh: Selected Reports of Edward Paterson Del Hoste (Oxford University Press, 2008), and, with Michel Boivin, Interpreting the Sindhi World: Essays on Society and History (Oxford University Press, 2010).

Photo: 
Date: 
Thursday, December 10, 2015