2 - The Indian Ocean Maritime World in the Age of Nation-States: The Case of Indian Muslim Immigrants in Malaysia.

This study clarifies the dynamics of continuity between the Indian Ocean maritime world as a historical setting and the Indian diaspora in contemporary Southeast Asia, using Tamil Muslim migrants in Malaysia as a case study. This group originated in merchants who flowed into the Malay Peninsula from Southern India, mainly from the 15th century onwards, and who travelled between the east and west of the Bay of Bengal over the following centuries. 

The establishment of ethnic categories following colonization from the 18th century and the birth of modern states from the 20th century had a significant impact on their fluid sense of belonging and mobility, placing them in a marginalized position in the newly created nation-states. On the other hand, the cohesiveness and collective identity of their communities have been maintained until today. This can be attributed to the fact that people with slightly different ethnic or national backgrounds loosely form cohesive entities amid existing networks with the homeland and a constant influx of new migrants.

The maintenance of their group identity based on a polythetic group structure supported by the constant influx of new migrants can be called their strategy to survive their marginalization in the nation-state system, which is based on the monothetic segmentation principle. The contemporary dynamics of the Indian Ocean Maritime world that emerge from this case study is a multilayered structure in which historical maritime networks persist beyond the era of modern nation-states.