codirection / À partir d’une étude comparée des communautés ayant migré de l’Inde vers l’Indochine française et la Birmanie britannique, ce mémoire étudie la place des migrants indiens dans ces deux colonies pendant la première moitié du XXe siècle. Ces derniers ont une place particulière dans l’ordre colonial du fait de leurs statuts juridiques variés, leur influence politique et économique et leurs divers rôles d’intermédiaires. Ces dynamiques et l’intérêt de les étudier sont illustrés au travers de trois études de cas : 1. le litige entre les policiers indiens et la municipalité de Saigon en 1907 ; 2. les négociations lors de la scission de la Birmanie du Raj britannique en 1935 ; 3. les répercussions du Krach boursier de 1929 sur les discours des administrations sur ces communautés et leur place en milieu colonial. Les interactions des minorités indiennes avec les administrations coloniales sont révélatrices de leurs connaissances du fonctionnement impérial. Elles illustrent leur navigation adroite des structures gouvernementales et leur mobilisation pour défendre leurs intérêts. Étudier leur position d’intermédiaires souligne comment des communautés minoritaires ont joué de leurs relations pour court-circuiter les lignes d’autorités et de pouvoir et éclaire la pluralité des axes de hiérarchie en situation coloniale. Ces trois études de cas permettent de conceptualiser plus globalement les minorités indiennes en milieu colonial et appuient leur complexité, en soulignant leurs allégeances ambigües et la manière dont elles se définissent et se redéfinissent. Les discours des autorités coloniales sur ces communautés mettent en lumière le lien entre la désirabilité des minorités indiennes et la nécessité de leur présence dans les deux colonies. Cela permet de renforcer notre compréhension de ce qu’est un empire et de la place complexe qu’ont pu y occuper des groupes jugés a priori homogènes et marginaux. / Based on a comparative study of the communities that migrated from India to French Indochina and British Burma, this thesis examines the place of Indian migrants in these two colonies during the first half of the 20th century. Indian minorities had a special place in the colonial system because of their various legal status, political and economic influence, and intermediary roles. These dynamics and the interest in studying them are illustrated by three specific case studies: 1. the dispute between Indian police officers and the municipality of Saigon in 1907; 2. Negotiations during the separation of Burma from the British Raj in 1935; 3. the repercussions of the 1929 stock market crash on government discourse on these communities and their place in colonial settings. The interaction of Indian minorities with colonial administrations indicates their understanding of imperial workings. They illustrate their skillful navigation of government structures and their mobilization to defend their interests. The analysis of their position as intermediaries highlights how minority communities have used their relationships to bypass lines of authority and power and sheds light on the plurality of hierarchical axes in colonial situations. These three case studies provide a more holistic conceptualization of colonial Indian minorities and support their complexity, highlighting their ambiguous allegiances and how they define and redefine themselves. The colonial authorities' speeches on those communities highlighted the link between the desirability of Indian minorities and Indian minorities and the need for their presence in the two colonies. This thesis helps deepen our understanding of what an empire is and the complex place that groups deemed homogenous and marginal may have occupied within it.

L’importance du concept identitaire est maintenant reconnue dans la recherche en histoire. Processus à la fois individuel et collectif, le sentiment d’appartenance constitue la base de l’identité d’un groupe. Dans ce mémoire, nous nous proposons d’étudier le développement de la conscience identitaire mandchoue, et du rôle qu’elle a joué dans la construction identitaire chinoise jusqu’à la Révolution de 1911. L’étude historiographique nous permettra de suivre l’évolution du regard porté sur la dynastie mandchoue des Qing par la recherche occidentale, de rejeter complètement la théorie de leur sinisation, lui préférant celle de leur acculturation. L’étude en parallèle des deux constructions identitaires nous amènera à conclure qu’elles sont indissociables l’une de l’autre, objet de notre première hypothèse. En deuxième lieu, nous avancerons l’idée que la Chine a bénéficié de la présence mandchoue, aussi longtemps que la dynastie pouvait prétendre à une représentation universelle. Enfin, notre dernière hypothèse montrera que le facteur ethnique a été d’une importance cruciale dans la gouvernance d’un empire à la fois multiethnique et multiculturel, et le demeure. / The importance of the identity concept is now recognized by the scholarship in History. The feeling of belonging, being at the same time a personal and a collective process, is at the cornerstone of a group identity. In this dissertation, we intend to study the growth of Manchu identity’s awareness, and what part it plaid in the Chinese identity construction process, up to the 1911 Revolution. An Historiographic analysis will allow us to follow the evolution of western scholarship outlook on the Qing dynasty, and to substitute the thesis of their sinicization by the idea of their acculturation. Our first hypothesis is that a parallel comparison between both identity constructions will lead to the conclusion that they are inseparable from one another. Secondly, we will suggest that as long as the dynasty could pretend to a universal representation, China benefited from Manchu rule. Finally, our last assumption will demonstrate that the ethnic component was, and still is, a key factor in the rulership of a multicultural and multiethnic empire.

Using interpretive methods of social inquiry, this thesis explores the socio-political significance of body tattoos made of Chinese-like text, which have recently become popular Western phenomena. It theorizes how contemporary Western tattooing complicates bodily and social boundaries, providing context to interrogate ideas of authenticity. Coining the term "Chinesenough" (from “Chinese” and “enough”), I describe how many such tattoos do not reflect in Chinese what many wearers and viewers assume they do. I contrast how Chinesenough tattoos (re)produce whiteness to the multiple and contradictory Chinesenesses that are also (re)produced. Reading Chinesenough flash art on tattoo studio walls as objects constituting social space, I consider the social meaning of their English subtitles and manner of organization. I theorize the body’s absence from Chinesenough flash art while articulating my body’s sense experience of encountering the same. Finally, I produce and theorize five illustrations that carnivalize Chinesenough iconography to disrupt and transform the phenomenon.

China and India claimed two territories along their borders on the Himalayas: Aksai Chin in the west and the North-East Frontier Agency in the east. The border dispute escalated and, on October 20, 1962, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) opened fire on the two fronts and advanced into the disputed territories. One month later, on November 21, China declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew behind its disputed line of control. In response, the Indian government arrested over 2,000 Chinese living in India and interned them in Deoli, Rajasthan. When the Chinese were released between 1964 and 1966, they found their properties sold off by the Indian government. Many left India and immigrated to Canada. I interviewed four Indian-born Chinese who were interned and who now live in the Greater Toronto Area. I recorded their accounts of life in Deoli Detention Camp in Rajasthan.

Using interpretive methods of social inquiry, this thesis explores the socio-political significance of body tattoos made of Chinese-like text, which have recently become popular Western phenomena. It theorizes how contemporary Western tattooing complicates bodily and social boundaries, providing context to interrogate ideas of authenticity. Coining the term "Chinesenough" (from “Chinese” and “enough”), I describe how many such tattoos do not reflect in Chinese what many wearers and viewers assume they do. I contrast how Chinesenough tattoos (re)produce whiteness to the multiple and contradictory Chinesenesses that are also (re)produced. Reading Chinesenough flash art on tattoo studio walls as objects constituting social space, I consider the social meaning of their English subtitles and manner of organization. I theorize the body’s absence from Chinesenough flash art while articulating my body’s sense experience of encountering the same. Finally, I produce and theorize five illustrations that carnivalize Chinesenough iconography to disrupt and transform the phenomenon.

China and India claimed two territories along their borders on the Himalayas: Aksai Chin in the west and the North-East Frontier Agency in the east. The border dispute escalated and, on October 20, 1962, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) opened fire on the two fronts and advanced into the disputed territories. One month later, on November 21, China declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew behind its disputed line of control. In response, the Indian government arrested over 2,000 Chinese living in India and interned them in Deoli, Rajasthan. When the Chinese were released between 1964 and 1966, they found their properties sold off by the Indian government. Many left India and immigrated to Canada. I interviewed four Indian-born Chinese who were interned and who now live in the Greater Toronto Area. I recorded their accounts of life in Deoli Detention Camp in Rajasthan.

L’importance du concept identitaire est maintenant reconnue dans la recherche en histoire. Processus à la fois individuel et collectif, le sentiment d’appartenance constitue la base de l’identité d’un groupe. Dans ce mémoire, nous nous proposons d’étudier le développement de la conscience identitaire mandchoue, et du rôle qu’elle a joué dans la construction identitaire chinoise jusqu’à la Révolution de 1911. L’étude historiographique nous permettra de suivre l’évolution du regard porté sur la dynastie mandchoue des Qing par la recherche occidentale, de rejeter complètement la théorie de leur sinisation, lui préférant celle de leur acculturation. L’étude en parallèle des deux constructions identitaires nous amènera à conclure qu’elles sont indissociables l’une de l’autre, objet de notre première hypothèse. En deuxième lieu, nous avancerons l’idée que la Chine a bénéficié de la présence mandchoue, aussi longtemps que la dynastie pouvait prétendre à une représentation universelle. Enfin, notre dernière hypothèse montrera que le facteur ethnique a été d’une importance cruciale dans la gouvernance d’un empire à la fois multiethnique et multiculturel, et le demeure. / The importance of the identity concept is now recognized by the scholarship in History. The feeling of belonging, being at the same time a personal and a collective process, is at the cornerstone of a group identity. In this dissertation, we intend to study the growth of Manchu identity’s awareness, and what part it plaid in the Chinese identity construction process, up to the 1911 Revolution. An Historiographic analysis will allow us to follow the evolution of western scholarship outlook on the Qing dynasty, and to substitute the thesis of their sinicization by the idea of their acculturation. Our first hypothesis is that a parallel comparison between both identity constructions will lead to the conclusion that they are inseparable from one another. Secondly, we will suggest that as long as the dynasty could pretend to a universal representation, China benefited from Manchu rule. Finally, our last assumption will demonstrate that the ethnic component was, and still is, a key factor in the rulership of a multicultural and multiethnic empire.

This dissertation is concerned with the formation of the Qazaqs in the context of the custom of political vagabondage known as qazaqlïq in post-Mongol Central Eurasia. More specifically, my study addressed the process whereby the Uzbek nomads inhabiting the eastern Dasht-i Qipchāq bifurcated into the Qazaqs and the Shibanid Uzbeks in the sixteenth century in consequence of the qazaqlïq activities led by two rival Chinggisid families: the Urusids and the Abū al-Khairids. Qazaqlïq, or the qazaq way of life, was a form of political vagabondage that involved escaping from one’s state or tribe, usually from a difficult social or political situation, and living the life of a freebooter in a frontier or other remote region. The custom of political vagabondage was by no means an exclusively post-Mongol Central Eurasian phenomenon. It existed in other places and at other times. However, it was in post-Mongol Central Eurasia that it became a widespread socio-political phenomenon that it came to be perceived by contemporaries as a custom to which they attached the specific term, qazaqlïq. During the post-Mongol period, the qazaq way of life developed into a well-established political custom whereby political fugitives, produced by the internecine struggles within the Chinggisid states, customarily fled to frontier or other remote regions and became freebooters, who came to be called qazaqs. Such Chinggisid and Timurid leaders as Muḥammad Shībānī and Temür became qazaqs before coming to power. The Qazaqs came into being as a result of the qazaqlïq activities of Jānībeg and Girāy, two great-grandsons of Urus Khan (r. ca. 1368–78), and of Muḥammad Shībānī, the grandson of Abū al-Khair Khan (r. ca. 1450–70) that resulted in the division of the Uzbek Ulus into the Qazaqs and the Shibanid Uzbeks in the sixteenth century. The Tatar and Slavic cossacks (Russian kazak, Ukrainian kozak) who appeared in the Black Sea steppe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were the products of the qazaqlïq, or cossack phenomenon. Significantly, Ukrainian cossackdom led to the formation of the Ukrainian Hetmanate, which eventually contributed to the consolidation of a separate Ukrainian identity.

This dissertation is concerned with the formation of the Qazaqs in the context of the custom of political vagabondage known as qazaqlïq in post-Mongol Central Eurasia. More specifically, my study addressed the process whereby the Uzbek nomads inhabiting the eastern Dasht-i Qipchāq bifurcated into the Qazaqs and the Shibanid Uzbeks in the sixteenth century in consequence of the qazaqlïq activities led by two rival Chinggisid families: the Urusids and the Abū al-Khairids. Qazaqlïq, or the qazaq way of life, was a form of political vagabondage that involved escaping from one’s state or tribe, usually from a difficult social or political situation, and living the life of a freebooter in a frontier or other remote region. The custom of political vagabondage was by no means an exclusively post-Mongol Central Eurasian phenomenon. It existed in other places and at other times. However, it was in post-Mongol Central Eurasia that it became a widespread socio-political phenomenon that it came to be perceived by contemporaries as a custom to which they attached the specific term, qazaqlïq. During the post-Mongol period, the qazaq way of life developed into a well-established political custom whereby political fugitives, produced by the internecine struggles within the Chinggisid states, customarily fled to frontier or other remote regions and became freebooters, who came to be called qazaqs. Such Chinggisid and Timurid leaders as Muḥammad Shībānī and Temür became qazaqs before coming to power. The Qazaqs came into being as a result of the qazaqlïq activities of Jānībeg and Girāy, two great-grandsons of Urus Khan (r. ca. 1368–78), and of Muḥammad Shībānī, the grandson of Abū al-Khair Khan (r. ca. 1450–70) that resulted in the division of the Uzbek Ulus into the Qazaqs and the Shibanid Uzbeks in the sixteenth century. The Tatar and Slavic cossacks (Russian kazak, Ukrainian kozak) who appeared in the Black Sea steppe in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were the products of the qazaqlïq, or cossack phenomenon. Significantly, Ukrainian cossackdom led to the formation of the Ukrainian Hetmanate, which eventually contributed to the consolidation of a separate Ukrainian identity.