This thesis examines how ideals of trusteeship influenced British administration of the Palestine mandate. The Covenant of the League of Nations described the mandate system as a 'sacred trust of civilisation'; because of this, the powers who held mandates were obligated to govern the territories they occupied during the First World War with the long-term aim of establishing them as independent members of the international community. British fulfilment of that trust drew on wider influences that had informed its rule elsewhere in the colonial empire; notions of liberalism, utilitarianism, and rationalism, core elements in a British philosophy of colonial rule, profoundly shaped British governance in Palestine. In utilising a model of trusteeship to explore the Palestine mandate, this study also explores how colonial policy-making was shaped by Orientalist representations. Cultural preconceptions enabled the basic premise of trusteeship by providing a binary image of 'backward', inferior subject populations in need of assistance and of progressive, superior Western powers capable of delivering the required 'tutelage'. The influence of trusteeship and Orientalism in Palestine is examined in five key administrative areas: self-government, immigration, land, education, and law and order. Under trusteeship, various forms of local and communal self-government were advanced to provide administrative experience and create a foundation for eventual participation in national self-government; reform ofland tenure and the facilitation of Jewish immigration were intended to promote economic growth and increase prosperity amongst all sections of the population; the government school system was expanded to encourage basic levels of mass literacy and develop vocational knowledge of modern agricultural techniques; and the mandatory administration sought to create local, self-sufficient civilian forces to uphold public security. Such policies allowed British officials to justify their presence in Palestine through discourses of 'progress' and 'improvement', which were required irrespective of any British commitments made to support Zionism.

This thesis explores individual and collective identities and experiences of Roman power by considering the roles of insiders (Cypriots) and outsiders (non Cypriots). Chapter one presents the history of scholarship on Roman Cyprus and considers the impact of previous studies, shaped by the model of Romanisation, on studies of Roman Cyprus today. Chapter two examines the Roman annexation and administration of Cyprus in order to contextualise later analysis of Cypriot experiences of, and reactions to, Rome. This chapter also re-considers evidence for the proconsuls of Roman Cyprus from 58 BC to the mid fourth century AD. Chapter three explores how Roman citizens and high profile visitors from outside the island, along with locally enfranchised elites, expressed their identity in public monuments. For comparison, the monuments of individuals who did not obtain citizenship are briefly considered. Chapter four investigates collective power and identity by turning to the poleis of Roman Cyprus. Central to this investigation is the exploration of the construction of civic identity in the Roman period. Evidence for the use of mythology, particularly foundation myths, and local religious practices are considered in the study of each polis. Chapter five considers the overall identity of Roman Cyprus first by examining evidence for the representation of individuals and the poleis of Cyprus in monuments outside the island. Next, this chapter examines the activities and monuments of the koinon of Cyprus. The final chapter ties together the evidence for individual and collective identities explored in chapters two to five to summarise how Roman power was experienced in Cyprus and what identities emerged in response. Finally, this chapter considers what elements comprised the identities expressed under Roman rule and whether there was a particular quality that could be considered as exclusively 'Cypriot' under Rome.

Dams have had significant impact on the hinterlands of the regions in which they are built. Since the 1980s, there has been a growing body of empirical literature that has critiqued the fallout of dams on populations residing in the catchment areas and face uncertain futures due to inadequate or lack of rehabilitation policies that do not consider the long-term impact of the displacement on the economic, social and political lives of the affected population. Due to such encompassing effects, dams have long been the points of critique for environmentalists and social activists in the countries of the South. In south Asia, the Narmada dam controversy raised questions of displacement and water politics in the decade of the 1990s specifically but raised larger questions on the nature of adivasi relations with the Indian state, and the nature of development and paradigms of progress in the region. However, there are few studies in the field of anthropology or displacement studies that have examined the relationship between development projects and how these are remembered among those adversely affected by them. Based on fieldwork over 8 months, this thesis seeks to explore the different ways in which displacement due to the Ukai dam in the south Gujarat region of India is remembered by a group of 3 adivasi villages. It focuses specifically on the perception of the displaced adivasis and contexts and creation of the varying memories of displacement across social status, gender and generations in these three villages. In remembering the processes of disempowerment among displaced groups, the different groups of adivasis articulate the hunger and marginalisation that pervades their everyday lives. This thesis attempts to look at this fibre of social suffering and how this is experienced and lived out by the displaced villagers 30 years after the event of being displaced due to the dam. Through the focus on remembering displacement, the thesis attempts to examine the process through which pre-existing hierarchies are strengthened in the postdisplacement period and the disempowerment experienced by some of those already living on the margins in the pre-dam socio-economic and political structures. By focusing on the different memories and experiences of disempowerment from a long-term perspective, the thesis calls into question the singularity of an `impoverished community' and the role of development projects in exacerbating pre-existing hierarchies rather than transforming them.

This thesis explores the significance of the Korean War (1950–1953) to British social history. In particular, it examines the subjectivity of individuals who served in the British military during this 'forgotten war'. It uses the conflict as a case study through which to understand the influence of the state in shaping individuals in the Cold War period. This thesis suggests that the construction, control and efficiency of human subjects – and of the soldier in particular – were key concerns for all combatant nations involved in the Cold War. In their recent studies of life-writing Igal Halfin and Jochen Hellbeck argue that state mechanisms were paramount in moulding subjectivity in Soviet Russia, but this thesis argues (also using life-writing as the principal source) that such historical discussion should be extended to other contexts. From the psychological assessment of new recruits to the interrogation of returned prisoners of war, British authorities in the mid-twentieth century repeatedly projected their ideal models of ‘thinking’ military subjects. In making such an argument, this thesis references a particularly influential body of work on the construction of subjectivity which began in the late 1980s, including work by Nikolas Rose, Anthony Giddens and Mike Savage. Yet the following chapters also suggest that there are limits to these interpretations. Using the under-researched and under-theorised letters, diaries, poetry and memoirs of British servicemen (from a range of social and military backgrounds) this thesis argues that soldiers frequently deviated from the models that were presented to them or were ambivalent towards to the structures that sought to shape them into uniform, and uniformed, subjects. In different contexts and over time, this thesis shows how the meaning of being a 'thinking soldier' of the Korean War changed profoundly, with ramifications for society more broadly.

The nationalist struggle in India against British colonial rule brought about the political mobilisation of both men and women. The nationalist leaders required the participation of women in the nationalist movement because the movement's importance and success was dependent on women's contribution to and involvement in it. While the existing research has contributed to my understanding of women's interaction with political life in India, this study attempts to reconstruct the dominant interpretations on women's political involvement. In doing so, it deconstructs concepts such as 'active', 'private', 'public' and 'political'. The argument in this thesis is shaped through three inter-related themes. First, it problematises women's emergence into the public sphere from a purdah-bound domestic existence. Secondly, it locates the domestic as an equally important site of nationalist activities as the public sphere. Thirdly, in the light of the above themes, it is suggested that dichotomous concepts such as public/private do not help to explain the interaction between these spheres, which facilitated the complex process of women's emergence in the public sphere. Moreover, the associated concepts of political/apolitical do not take into account women's political contributions from within the domestic sphere. Within the domestic sphere, women's nationalist identities were continuously re-negotiated to accommodate values of ancient Indian culture and the new Western influences. These identities shifted from an educated domestic woman to a nonviolent and non-antagonistic public woman to a public woman aware of challenging Western ideas, yet primarily confined to the domestic sphere. The nationalist movement also served as an important vehicle for encouraging middle-class women to engage in activities and to adopt new role models. The representations of women constructed by the nationalist project enabled women to play a political role through the avenues they opened, in both the public and domestic domains. However, women's political past and their varied contribution to the struggle was not effective in undermining gender inequalities or improving their status in society. The ideas in this historical study are shaped primarily through oral narratives and Hindi vernacular literature. The interviews with Indian activists, as a non-Western researcher, made me aware of the negotiable category 'Other'. Official and unofficial sources provided an initial framework for the study of this historical period.

This research discusses the post-migration lived experience of the Peraktown Sikhs, a diaspora community of visible difference in the specific context of Malaysia. Using a qualitative case study methodology, I juxtaposed oral life history narratives and extensive interviews, memoirs and photographs, to study eighteen members of a total thirty-five Sikh families who lived in the multi-ethnic township I renamed Peraktown. Their narratives offer a loose historical chronology from the early 20th century to the 1970s of a diasporic group seeking to find home and a place to belong. Using a postcolonial lens, the research demonstrates the complex negotiation between inherited cultural traditions and the appropriation of colonial knowledge. It explores engagement and interaction with broader societal structures and dominant habitus within the rubric of identity construction, hybridity and the idea of home. My focus is the liminal generation, born prior to Indian and Malaysian independence, between 1915 and 1947. Framed in both the concept of diaspora as bounded space and the diaspora as a societal process, I co-opted a concept native to Sikhs, the Pindh, to understand and interrogate their unique understanding of identity, belonging and home. The Pindh or village incorporates relationships with the landscape and social structure in the construction of Sikh/Punjabi identification. In contrast to studies on Sikhs elsewhere, in Peraktown, the nostalgic attachment and identification with the physical spaces of their ancestral homeland and the meaning it imbued is accompanied by the appropriation of concepts and practices that sustain the idea of community belonging, bridging the divide of being at home both ‘here’ and ‘there’. This conceptual category is extended further, creating a Pindh of the mind, not bounded by geography or time. Their position offers this research a place in continued discussions of the complexity and fluidity of cultural identity and belonging and how this is constructed. Their lived experiences offer a map to the continued negotiations of diaspora identities in the newly forged linkages and relationships with land, a recreation of place and space in the course of settlement in the new host country.

This thesis examines the effectiveness of China’s economic activities in North Korea in terms of resolving China’s domestic non-traditional security problems. It studies the implementation of China’s foreign economic policy towards North Korea. The thesis uses qualitative research methodology to study the economic activities launched after 2002 near the Sino-DPRK border and in North Korean ocean territory. It hypothesises that the commercialisation of China’s foreign economic policy towards North Korea is driven by actors below the state in order to resolve their socio-economic problems at the sub-state level. This policy-transition from original pro-aid economic policy to North Korea also has important implications for the regional order in Northeast Asia. These implications include advancing the economic reform process in North Korea, worsening the relationship between China and South Korea, and reducing the effectiveness of the international effort to denuclearise North Korea. The specific non-traditional security problems which have driven three major sectors of China’s economic activities in North Korea, i.e. mineral resource and energy sector, fishery industry sector and cross-border activities sector, include issues such as environment pollution, resource scarcity, labor shortage and cultural decline that diverge from the China’s strategic targets to Korea Peninsular. This thesis explores the link between high and low politics in the implementation stage of Chinese foreign policy through the relatively active role of actors below the state in Sino-DPRK economic cooperation and their impacts at the regional level after 2002 in contrast to the previous dominant role of central government in this field.

As a marginal radical Left group, Chinese Trotskyists who were suppressed by the Communist state and other dominant political powers have rarely been mentioned in the modern and contemporary history of Chinese politics. This is what led to my academic interest in discovering the “unknown” Trotskyist history of Chinese radicalism. Compared to previous studies on Chinese Trotskyism in mainland China prior to 1952, based on newly-available archival sources and other primary materials, this thesis explores the new political emergence of Chinese Trotskyist movement in Hong Kong by investigating the Trotskyists’ role in Hong Kong’s political arena and the political dynamics of the Trotskyist activities mainly in the 1970s. As a result, this research will add something new to previous studies, and will enrich readers’ understanding of the “neglected” history of Chinese Trotskyists’ radicalism at the margin.

Analysing individual motivations, organisational characteristics, security pressures and societal factors, this thesis focuses on organisational motivations for the inclusion of female fighters during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990). It examines why some of the non-state armed organisations (or militias) involved in the war included women as fighters whereas others did not. This thesis is the first comprehensive analysis of the topic, and the first study which takes into account the roles of women in all major militias involved in the war, including the Lebanese Communist Party (LCP), Palestinian Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Palestinian National Liberation Movement (Fatah), Lebanese Kataeb Party (Kataeb), Lebanese Forces (LF), Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) and Amal Movement (Amal). This thesis is based on semi-structured interviews with 69 former male and female fighters, party members, civil society representatives, researchers and journalists. Fieldwork was conducted during four one- to six-week-long field visits to Lebanon between the summer of 2015 and autumn 2016. Moreover, four (auto)biographies of former female fighters were included in the analysis. This thesis argues that the main reason for female participation in the militias involved in the Lebanese civil war was women’s insistence to be included. Organisational barriers to women’s inclusion in those militias that were not entirely in favour of female participation, such as the militias of the (centre) right, was overcome due to the security context. Overall, societal opposition to female participation remained relatively high, which is why (compared with other conflict contexts) the overall number of female fighters was not higher.

Late colonial Maharashtra witnessed a proliferation of sex literature that claimed to be scientific. Sexual-health journals and books on sexual science and eugenics, as well as marriage manuals insisting on sex reforms, were produced in Marathi in considerable numbers between 1920 and 1950. Why did sex reformism blossom in Maharashtra? What was reformed in the name of sex and science? What larger purpose did this writing serve in late colonial times? The present research work answers these questions while problematising the Marathi sexual modernity articulated through this literature. In critically assessing sex reforms, my argument highlights the rearrangement of an inextricable nexus between caste and sexuality that shaped late colonial Marathi expressions of modernity. The proliferation of scientific sexuality in this process, I argue, was an upper-caste resolution of the Brahminical crisis over dominating reformism in Maharashtra. To demonstrate this, my work situates sex literature in the context of Marathi caste politics. While explaining the Brahminical crisis and its resolution through analysing sexual discourses of brahmacharya (celibacy), marriage, and obscenity, this work unpacks the making of sex reforms as a journey to create a caste-sexual subject of Marathi modernity—the respectable upper-caste man.