Overview

Presenting a case study of British colonial rule and its aftermath in Sri Lanka, this book explores the collision of competing ontologies in the making of the modern state system. It develops a decolonial theoretical framework informed by the idea of a 'pluriverse' to reveal the empirical and imperial avenues through which the idea of the modern/colonial state became normalised in Ceylon. The book contributes to three areas of scholarly discussion: the politics of ontology as related to sovereignty, postcolonial and decolonial international relations, and globalisation through the colonial encounter. It argues that in order to understand contemporary postcolonial crises rooted in territorial conflicts, we must first understand the historical and conceptual processes that depoliticised and universalised the norm of 'total territorial rule' rather than treating the modern state as a territorial and developmental inevitability.

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9781526191571

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Reviews

Winner of the 2024 Sussex International Theory Prize Winner of the 2025 ISA Global Development Studies Book Prize 'Parasram lays out a thought-provoking argument – while European colonialism and European ideas fashioned a territorially grounded account of sovereignty, in that very fashioning we encounter an ontological collision between modernist-liberal accounts of sovereignty and the sovereign traditions of the colonised. When sovereignty is revalued, the consequences are devastating.' Roshan de Silva-Wijeyeratne (Dundee Law School, University of Dundee) -- .

Author Information

Ajay Parasram is an Associate Professor in International Development Studies and History at Dalhousie University in Kjipuktuk.

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