Annexation and the Unhappy Valley: The Historical Anthropology of Sindh's Colonization addresses the nineteenth century expansion and consolidation of British colonial power in the Sindh region of South Asia. It adopts an interdisciplinary approach and employs a fine-grained, nuanced and situated reading of multiple agents and their actions. It explores how the political and administrative incorporation of territory (i.e., annexation) by East India Company informs the conversion of intra-cultural distinctions into socio-historical conflicts among the colonized and colonizers. The book focuses on colonial direct rule, rather than the more commonly studied indirect rule, of South Asia. It socio-culturally explores how agents, perspectives and intentions vary-both within and across regions-to impact the actions and structures of colonial governance.

Matthew A. Cook is Professor of South Asian and Postcolonial Studies at North Carolina Central University. His previous appointments include Michigan State University, Duke University, North Carolina State University, Hofstra University and New York University. His research focuses on the history and anthropology of South Asia, Sindh and colonialism. His previous publications include: Discovering Sindh's Past: Selections from the Journal of the Sindh Historical Society (OUP, 2017), with Michel Boivin and Julien Levesque; Annexation and the Unhappy Valley: The Historical Anthropology of Sindh's Colonization (Brill, 2016); Willoughby's Minute: Treaty of Nownahar, Fraud and British Sindh (OUP, 2013); Observing Sindh: Selected Reports of Edward Patterson Del Host (OUP, 2008); and Interpreting the Sindhi World: Essays on Society and History (OUP, 2010), with Michel Boivin.