One of Malaysia’s most incisive historians, Dr Farish Noor continues his OtherMalaysia Public Lecture Series with another thought-provoking installment. The blight of postcolonial national histories is the tendency to accept nation-state boundaries as a given and to write national histories that remain confined within fixed political-territorial limits. So there remains the tendency to see India (and South Asia) as something distinct and alien to Malaysia. A closer look at the history of South and Southeast Asia, however, reveals a longer period of trans-oceanic contact and exchange where Indians, Malays, Sumatrans and Javanese were part of a greater trans-oceanic civilisation where both South and Southeast Asia were connected via the routes of the Indian Ocean. This is a call for an appreciation of our collective past, and to re-think our concepts of national identity today. 

Sat 14 Feb, 4.30pm  at The Annexe Gallery 
Admission Free