International Workshop ‘Empire and (Im-)Mobility in South and South-East Asia (19th and 20th Centuries)’, February 6-7, 2026 [Registration deadline: 31 January 2026]
This workshop brings fresh and original perspectives on mobilities and immobilities created by/in the British and Dutch colonial empires in South and Southeast Asia. The workshop is convened by Harald Fischer-Tiné and Siddharth Pandey.
The event is open for all, but there is limited seating. Kindly confirm your attendance by January 31, 2026 to the organizers (spandey_87@yahoo.co.in and harald.fifischertine@gess.ethz.ch).

Abstract:
In fundamental ways, colonial empires were all about mobility. The functioning of the imperial military and administrative apparatus, the production of colonial knowledge, the economic extraction of local resources, the export of colonial commodities were all based on relentless movement and circulation. This circulation, in turn, relied heavily on the use of various mobility technologies as well as on the creation of mobility infrastructures. It also crucially depended on the spatial movement of segments of the colonized population and/or external labour forces, clerks and military personnel, scientific experts imported from the imperial metropole or other world regions. At the same time, however, imperial formations were at pains to restrict or suppress mobility. Thus, the ideal colonial subject was usually imagined as being sedentary and immobile, whereas ‘subaltern mobilities’ in general and the movements of potentially ‘dangerous’ population groups (such as nomads, ‘criminal tribes’, religious mendicants, diasporic anti-colonialists etc.) were seen as suspicious and in need of close monitoring.
In the spirit of the gd:c’s double emphasis on connectivity and the absence thereof, this workshop wants to bring together scholars of history and neighbouring disciplines that provide fresh and original perspectives on mobilities and immobilities created by/in the British and Dutch colonial empires in South and Southeast Asia (and their respective global entanglements). The temporal focus may also be extended to the early postcolonial states that followed their collapse. While the ambiguities and tensions between forms of mobility and immobility and their relation to power may serve as a leitmotif, the focus of the individual contributions can be on the material, social, cultural, economic and political impact of particular transport technologies (steamships, railways, automobiles, bicycles, tongas etc.) and the basic infrastructures (railway tracks, roads, docks) they required, as well on the movement of certain groups of historical actors on both sides − and beyond − the colonial divide (soldiers, sailors, scientists, ‘peripatetic revolutionaries’, tourists and ‘globetrotters’, etc.) and the measures to control and check their mobility (passports, border controls, creation of surveillance networks). Another area of interest lies in the literary and artistic representation of various mobility experiences in travelogues, guidebooks, novels or films.
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
mwfdelhi (January 27, 2026). International Workshop ‘Empire and (Im-)Mobility in South and South-East Asia (19th and 20th Centuries)’, February 6-7, 2026 [Registration deadline: 31 January 2026]. Max Weber Forum for South Asian Studies (MWF Delhi). Retrieved February 17, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/15a08

