Border Crossings
Border Crossings explores how lived experiences, solidarity and shared histories can challenge the borders and identities inherited from empire and Partition, offering new ways to understand community, belonging and the South Asian diaspora.
Publication Date
How can we rethink community, identity and belonging beyond the borders created by empire and Partition?
In Border Crossings, Navtej Purewal and Eleanor Newbigin challenge bordered, identity-based narratives of community by centring lived experiences and alternative ways of seeing and being. Drawing on stories of empathy, defiance, friendship, witnessing, convergence and resistance, the book explores how interconnected histories and experiences can offer new ways of understanding community and society. Navtej Purewal and Eleanor Newbigin examine how solidarities within and across communities have challenged colonialism, racism and the enduring legacies of Partition, while contributing to the emergence of new identities and social and political movements. Focusing particularly on the South Asian diaspora in the UK, Border Crossings considers how inherited borders and identities continue to shape lives, relationships and communities, while opening up possibilities for imagining them differently. The questions explored by Purewal and Newbigin also resonate far beyond South Asia and the UK, offering a framework for thinking critically and creatively about borders, identity, empathy, shared connections and alternative futures.
The book is ideal for students, researchers and academics in South Asian studies, diaspora studies, migration studies, history, sociology, politics, cultural studies and postcolonial studies, as well as readers interested in the histories and contemporary experiences of South Asian communities, empire, Partition, borders, identity and community formation. It will also be valuable to those seeking interdisciplinary and critical approaches to understanding belonging, solidarity and the legacies of colonialism.
How can we rethink community, identity and belonging beyond the borders created by empire and Partition?
In Border Crossings, Navtej Purewal and Eleanor Newbigin challenge bordered, identity-based narratives of community by centring lived experiences and alternative ways of seeing and being. Drawing on stories of empathy, defiance, friendship, witnessing, convergence and resistance, the book explores how interconnected histories and experiences can offer new ways of understanding community and society. Navtej Purewal and Eleanor Newbigin examine how solidarities within and across communities have challenged colonialism, racism and the enduring legacies of Partition, while contributing to the emergence of new identities and social and political movements. Focusing particularly on the South Asian diaspora in the UK, Border Crossings considers how inherited borders and identities continue to shape lives, relationships and communities, while opening up possibilities for imagining them differently. The questions explored by Purewal and Newbigin also resonate far beyond South Asia and the UK, offering a framework for thinking critically and creatively about borders, identity, empathy, shared connections and alternative futures.
The book is ideal for students, researchers and academics in South Asian studies, diaspora studies, migration studies, history, sociology, politics, cultural studies and postcolonial studies, as well as readers interested in the histories and contemporary experiences of South Asian communities, empire, Partition, borders, identity and community formation. It will also be valuable to those seeking interdisciplinary and critical approaches to understanding belonging, solidarity and the legacies of colonialism.
Navtej Purewal is Professor at UAL’s Decolonising Arts Institute, researching borders, gender intersectionality and the politics of culture in South Asia.
Eleanor Newbigin is a historian of twentieth-century South Asian imperialism and decolonisation, exploring creative practices and participatory approaches to colonial legacies.
Open Access License
This book is published under an open license. You are free to use it under the terms of the [Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 4.0 International license][1][1]1 (CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0). Any unauthorized use outside of this license is a violation of applicable copyright laws.
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Open Access Titles
Here is the complete list of published and forthcoming open access titles.
