Unsettling Utopia: The Making and Unmaking of French India

Jessica Namakkal

Published by Columbia University Press 2021

Unsettling Utopia

The Making and Unmaking of French India

Jessica Namakkal

In the series Columbia Studies in International and Global History

https://doi.org/10.7312/nama19768

Overview
Contents

About this book

After India achieved independence from the British in 1947, France retained control of five scattered territories until 1962. Unsettling Utopia presents a new account of the history of twentieth-century French India to show how colonial projects persisted beyond formal decolonization.

Author / Editor information

Jessica Namakkal is assistant professor of the practice in international comparative studies; gender, sexuality, and feminist studies; and history at Duke University.

Reviews

Tariq Jazeel, author of Sacred Modernity: Nature, Environment, and the Postcolonial Geographies of Sri Lankan Nationhood:
Unsettling Utopia is a fascinating book on the postcolonial history of French India as well as a provocative analysis of the structural relationships among colonial settlement, utopian thinking, and the incompleteness of decolonization. Namakkal’s immense effort to engage the far-flung transnational archives of French India inform this important book and the revealing light it sheds on the messy history of French imperialism in southern India and its spatial, social, and spiritual afterlives.

Ari Gautier, author of Le Thinnai:
Jessica Namakkal’s excellent book reveals hidden layers of Pondicherry’s feigned decolonization and ongoing recolonization. This tour de force is the kind of book you don't want to finish; it keeps you right on the edge of your seat, avidly turning the pages for more.

Danna Agmon, author of A Colonial Affair: Commerce, Conversion, and Scandal in French India:
Exploring the decolonization of French India, Namakkal's lucid and innovative book brings together the history of state-led decolonization and the creation of utopias to reveal how both projects relied on regimes of labor, erasure, and territorial expansion that had much in common with the colonizing project. Engaging, ambitious, and deeply researched, Unsettling Utopia brings new and important insights to our understanding of the temporal boundaries of colonialism and decolonization.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Chronology Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction. On Minor Borders and Colonial Time Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I. Making
1 Carceral Borders: Exile, Surveillance, and Subversion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	33
2 The Future of French India: Decolonization and Settlement at the Borders Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	67
3 Making the Postcolonial Subject: Goondas, Refugees, and Citizens Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	108
PART II. Unmaking
4 Decolonial Crossings: Settlers, Migrants, Tourists Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
5 From the Ashram to Auroville: Utopia as Settlement Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	173
Conclusion. The Messiness of Colonialism Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	201
Appendix Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	209
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	223
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	287
COLUMBIA STUDIES IN INTERNATIONAL AND GLOBAL HISTORY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	303

Language: English
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: August 16, 2021
ISBN: 9780231552295