ABSTRACT

The concept of the trans-oceanic is a spatial framework of analysis that allows the scales of oceanic crossings to intersect with the more discrete organization of area studies around singular ocean bodies: the Atlantic, the Pacific, the Mediterranean, the Indian Ocean and the South China Seas. Growing up in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, along the white sandy shores of the Indian Ocean, father would point across the water and gesture toward the horizon saying, “India is thaaaat way.” Contemporary coastal identities along the Kerala coast have burgeoned in symbiotic distinctive epistemological frameworks alongside the rest of India. Under the shadow of the largest fort the Portuguese built in the Malabar, Fort Thangassery, there is a grand old tharravadu, derelict, ghostlike. It was built on what was possibly the site of a Buddhist temple, which later became Hindu. It sits on a hill by the Ashtamudi Lake, surrounded by gentle, rolling hills of coconut trees.