Banishment and Belonging: Exile and Diaspora in Sarandib, Lanka and Ceylon, by Ronit Ricci (book review)

The practice of banishment, an imperial tool for coercing mobility as a form of discipline or punishment, has been an important force in driving diaspora creation and cultural diffusion across the Indian Ocean world. The experience of physical, social and emotional distance from their place of origin led banished exiles and their descendants to transplant and transform beliefs and practices from their homeland in the process of making sense of, and adapting to, new environments. Ronit Ricci explores these processes with reference to a variety of manuscripts preserved by the descendants of Malay exiles and the community they created in Ceylon, later Lanka, where they were banished by the Dutch and British empires.