Endorsements

This book documents the political and cosmological processes through which the idea of "total territorial rule" at the core of the modern international system came into being in the context of early to mid-19th century Ceylon (Sri Lanka). It develops a decolonial theoretical framework informed by a "pluriverse" of multiple ontologies of sovereignty to argue that the territorial state itself is an outcome of imperial globalisation. Anti-colonialism up to the mid 19th century was grounded in genealogies and practices of sovereignty that developed in many localities. By the mid to late 19th century, however, the global state system and the states within it were forming through colonizing and anti-colonizing vectors. The modern, territorial state predates modern nationalism and creates a contaminated container in which anticolonialism has been constricted by the late 19th century in Ceylon, but also elsewhere in the British empire. By focusing on the ontological conflicts that shaped the state and empire, we can rethink the birth of the British Raj and place it in Ceylon some 50 years earlier than in India. In this way, the book makes a theoretical contribution to postcolonial and decolonial studies in globalisation and international relations by considering the ontological significance of "total territorial rule" as it emerged historically in Ceylon. Through emphasizing one important manifestation of modernity and coloniality - the territorial state - the book contributes the studies in the politics of ontological pluralism in sovereignty, postcolonial and decolonial international studies, and globalisation through colonial encounters.