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Many dharmaśāstra texts, starting from the most famous, the Manusmr+ti, declare sea voyage to be sinful and polluting for a Hindu. At the same time, from remote antiquity, Hindus from various castes, including Brahmans, had actively traversed the seas to the west, south and east of India for the purposes of trade, war, spiritual guidance, adventures and so on. This article seeks to review the geography of ancient and mediaeval Indian seafaring (in which Hindus played a significant role) and, more importantly, to discover why, in colonial India, the notion of sea travel being prohibited to Hindus became widely established, so that the descendants of the merchants who had operated from Aden to the Indonesian and Chinese ports would excommunicate their young caste fellows who desirous to study abroad. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the history of the ice trade between the United States and India that operated from the early-to-mid 19th century. I argue that the ice trade reinforced cultures of colonialism, with its ideas about nature, race, and disease. As a commodity, ice demarcated colonial from colonized space, the tropics from the temperate, and the European from the Indian body. In particular, this article focuses on three central ways in which the U.S.-India ice trade aided in the production of Calcutta's colonial landscape. First, U.S. ice capital illuminates the commodification of nature and the creation of exchange value that was instilled through a series of movements across space, from New England's ponds and ports, to the ship, and finally, into Calcutta's marketplace. Once in Calcutta, American ice dislodged local ice and the established practices associated with the production of the cold. Second, the ice trade promoted discourses of modern colonizing civilization that shaped the landscapes and practices of Calcutta. Conceptions of freshness and purity proliferated through the ice trade, from the object itself, to the perishable commodities that landed in Calcutta frozen in ice. Third, I illuminate how ice was used in Calcutta, especially its promotion in colonial medicine. More than an item of luxury, ice was held to be an indispensable article in the preservation of the colonial body. Ice contained the promise of racial durability in the tropics and the very health of colonial authority. Across these three cultural elements of the ice trade, this article contributes to new geographies of global history, the mobility of race through trade, and cryopolitics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India's connections with Southeast Asia are rooted in history in terms of geography, civilization, culture, economy and strategy. These connections became deeper since the 1990s as India initiated the policy of 'Look East' that resulted in manifold growth with ASEAN and Singapore. The initiation of 'Look East Policy' opened the door for Singaporean Indians for investments and interaction with their motherland. Through the 'Look East Policy' the distance between India and ASEAN ended and India was connected with this region and especially Singapore through trade relations. With this policy, India was able to enter this region and this was the chance for the Indian people to revitalize and energize their social and cultural bonds with their motherland (Pande 2017). These relations were further intensified after 2014 as Prime Minister Narendra Modi officially launched 'Act East Policy'. While 'Look East Policy' was launched by India in the backdrop of the critical economic situation, the 'Act East Policy' is aimed at strengthening our relations in terms of cultural, political and strategic dimensions. Therefore, this paper aims to study and analyse the role of the Indian diaspora as a soft power for making strong bilateral bonds between India and Singapore with special reference to the political and economic scenario. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on India in Turkey began with the establishment of the Chair of Indology in 1936 within the structure of the Faculty of Language, History and Geography at Ankara University (DTCF) under the guidance of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Walter Ruben (1899-1982), the founder of this chair, carried out several studies in the field of Indian literature and history by making great contributions to developing Indology in our country, with the identification and evaluation of sections about Turks in Indian sources. Built on a strong foundation, this field of science provided that a great deal of scientific treatises were presented in the light of Indian sources at great effort by Indologists and historians such as Abidin İtil and Kemal Çağdaş, who had raised been following Ruben. In this regard, studies that are carried out in Turkey on the Turkish period which has left its mark on India are continuing in the context of Indian studies. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate general studies particularly carried out in the area of the History of Turks in India in Turkey and also to present the translated works made in this area, Turkish studies, dissertations for Higher Education and the relevant articles. In the study, we made some determinations and suggestions for the relevant area and we used explanations, comparisons and sampling methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines Chinese and Manchu-language sources on Sino-Indian contact during the 18th century, concentrating on those—chiefly produced on the basis of intelligence arriving via Xinjiang—that describe ‘Hindustan’. During the 18th century, ‘Hindustan’ was an evolving political and geographic concept for Qing observers. At first used in Chinese transliteration primarily by a small cohort of Chinese Muslim scholars, the term rose to prominence during the empire’s westward expansion in the 1750s. In subsequent decades, geographers, officials, and even the Qianlong Emperor analysed its name, location, historical identity and other characteristics. A central issue in these debates was the relationship between newly-prominent ‘Hindustan’ and older conceptions of ‘India’. The intersection of geographic terms and concepts from multiple linguistic and cultural backgrounds, central to interpretations of ‘Hindustan’, was a general feature in the formation of geographic worldviews during the era of Qing expansion, and an important element shaping Chinese understandings of India in the relatively neglected period between 1650 and 1850. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]