Metallic Modern

Nira Wickramasinghe is Professor and Chair of Modern South Asian Studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands. Her most recent books are Sri Lanka in the Modern  Age. A History of Contested Identities (2006) and L’Invention du Vêtement National au Sri Lanka. Habiller le corps colonise (2006).

• List of Illustrations and MapsPreface and AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Exploring Sri Lanka’s modern: Multiple Loops of BelongingChapter 1. Following the Singer Sewing Machine: Fashioning a market in a British Crown ColonyChapter 2. Creating a Market ImaginaryChapter 3. Paths to a Buddhist modern: From Siam to AmericaChapter 4. Gramophone. Soulful Sounds and Sacred SpeechesChapter 5. An Asian Modern. JapanChapter 6. Trams, Cars, Bicycles: Modern Machines in the CityChapter 7. A Tailor’s Tale and Machines in the HomeChapter 8. Working like MachinesConclusion: Metallic ModernGlossaryBibliographyIndex

“This is a fascinating book, rich in ideas about what we do with technology’s reception and reconstitution in the colonial world.” · South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies“…this a readable and valuable book that provides insights into commoners’ encounter with modern consumerism and its complex socio-cultural significance in late colonial Sri Lanka.” · Itinerario“This book is academically rich, analytically sophisticated and full of insightful interpretations that make it a valuable source for scholars and students from multiple disciplines. It will also be a pleasant read for those who are simply curious about the dusty machines that sacredly and majestically occupy a small corner of their grandparents’ homes, still covered with a cloth.” · The International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter“Once every few years, a book comes along to transform the study of modern South Asia: this is such a book…[It] is deeply scholarly and yet playful; it is both empirically thorough and rich with metaphor. The book is a model of a way of writing history—non-linear, allusive, braided together—that reflects its arguments and materials. Form and content work together perfectly, and this makes Metallic Modern a wonderful read: the book is as enjoyable as it is stimulating.” · Sunil Amrith, University of London“This is a most engaging book from a well-known author… a timely contribution concerning an important subject that is attracting renewed and sustained interest from historians of late.” · Crispin Bates, University of Edinburgh