Arjun Subrahmanyan
Biographic Data
| ID | 958308 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Arjun Subrahmanyan |
| GIVEN NAMES | Arjun |
| FAMILY NAME | Subrahmanyan |
| SIGNATURE | SUBRAHMANYAN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Murdoch University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1677-1670 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 12 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 12 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2015 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Bangkok Transformed: An Economic History, 1820–1950
Peace and Murder in Cold War Thailand
It is well known that authoritarians have frequently stifled democracy movements in modern Thailand, and that impunity for murder is a long-standing privilege they have exploited to crush dissent. Less understood is that the tyrants often react out of weakness rather than strength, and fear instead of calm, when faced with strong opposition. This article examines the murders of several men in the late 1940s and early 1950s that resulted from the …
Liberating Thai History
The nationalist plot of modern Thai history stresses the kingdom’s exceptionalism as the only un-colonized state in Southeast Asia and highlights the steadiness of unbroken monarchy. Critics of the established narrative by contrast argue that Siam/Thailand bore many similarities to neighboring satellites of the Western powers that subordinated traditional authority and hence was a “semi-colony” of the West rather than a truly independent state. T…
Love and Death of King Ananda Mahidol of Thailand
The Royal Thai Government lavishly funds and vigorously maintains an elaborate culture industry to defend the symbolic power of the Bangkok monarchy. The omnipresence of royal imagery in the country is bolstered by a surveillance regime that imposes very harsh fines, imprisonments, and public ruin on alleged critics of the monarchy. When the monarchic truth goes on trial in Thailand, guilt is assumed and innocent people are crushed.Amid the hagio…
A History of Manners and Civility in Thailand by Patrick Jory
Influenced by cultural studies, anthropology, and literary criticism, many historians of colonial and postcolonial societies cite Western powers’ notions of civilization as a partial explanation for their political and economic dominance. The effects of Western hegemony are often presented as creating a two-tiered world that, regardless of how self-serving or racist Western imperial claims to superiority might have been, shows how developing soci…
Asian Labourers, the Thai Government and the Thai-Burma Railway
While the suffering of Allied prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma railway during the Second World War is well documented, much less is known about the Asian labourers employed on the project. Focusing on Thai and Chinese workers in Thailand, this study argues that although Asian labourers often suffered in a way comparable to prisoners of war, they also exercised some agency in their dealings with the Japanese. Many workers were motivated to work …
The Unruly Past
The monarchy and the country’s military dominate discussions of Thai political history. The country’s democratic history meanwhile is much less well known. To many people, historiography – the history of the writing of history – is a dull affair that only concerns academics. But the changing representations of the origins of democracy in the 1932 revolution that ended the absolute monarchy show the politics of history as a continuous problem that…
Worldly compromise in Thai Buddhist modernism
Buddhist modernist movements transformed the religious practice and social engagement of one of the world's principal faiths in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These movements produced diverse effects on Asian societies which, despite generic similarities, are best understood in particular socio-historical contexts. This article examines the work of a group of young Thai monks and laymen who had an ambitious aim to morally improve and emp…
Thailand's Theory of Monarchy
Thailand's Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man . By Patrick Jory (New York: SUNY Press, 2016), £62.93 (hb), £17.75 (pb)
Buddhism, Democracy and Power in the 1932 Thai Revolution
The People’s Party toppled the Siamese absolute monarchy and introduced constitutional democracy in Thailand in June 1932. Scholars have generally denied that the revolution had any popular resonance, but this article shows that in Buddhism, the country’s premier cultural form, democratic rhetoric in the 1930s resonated among young monks marginalised by the ecclesiastical hierarchy. A group of young monks within the Mahanikai, or Great Order, reb…
Fiction and Social Consciousness in Interwar Siam
This article examines representations of Thai society in fiction during the 1920s and 1930s. Initially the hobby of palace writers and readers, by the 1930s the evolving form had come to be widely popular with middle-class commoners. The rise of middle-class society was of profound importance in the interwar period: far beyond constituting a new reading and writing public, social and economic change undermined the political power of the old elite…
Education, Propaganda, and the People
On the morning of 24 June 1932 the 'People's Party', a small group of civil and military bureaucrats, toppled the Thai absolute monarchy and introduced constitutional democracy. This article discusses the establishment of democracy as an endeavour in 'democratic paternalism,' by which is meant the Party's attempt to establish a new moral and intellectual leadership that had as its main goal the creation of a depoliticized democratic citizenry. To…
Education, Propaganda, and the People
On the morning of 24 June 1932 the 'People's Party', a small group of civil and military bureaucrats, toppled the Thai absolute monarchy and introduced constitutional democracy. This article discusses the establishment of democracy as an endeavour in 'democratic paternalism,' by which is meant the Party's attempt to establish a new moral and intellectual leadership that had as its main goal the creation of a depoliticized democratic citizenry. To…
The Unruly Past
The monarchy and the country’s military dominate discussions of Thai political history. The country’s democratic history meanwhile is much less well known. To many people, historiography – the history of the writing of history – is a dull affair that only concerns academics. But the changing representations of the origins of democracy in the 1932 revolution that ended the absolute monarchy show the politics of history as a continuous problem that…
Asian Labourers, the Thai Government and the Thai-Burma Railway
While the suffering of Allied prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma railway during the Second World War is well documented, much less is known about the Asian labourers employed on the project. Focusing on Thai and Chinese workers in Thailand, this study argues that although Asian labourers often suffered in a way comparable to prisoners of war, they also exercised some agency in their dealings with the Japanese. Many workers were motivated to work …
Buddhism, Democracy and Power in the 1932 Thai Revolution
The People’s Party toppled the Siamese absolute monarchy and introduced constitutional democracy in Thailand in June 1932. Scholars have generally denied that the revolution had any popular resonance, but this article shows that in Buddhism, the country’s premier cultural form, democratic rhetoric in the 1930s resonated among young monks marginalised by the ecclesiastical hierarchy. A group of young monks within the Mahanikai, or Great Order, reb…
Fiction and Social Consciousness in Interwar Siam
This article examines representations of Thai society in fiction during the 1920s and 1930s. Initially the hobby of palace writers and readers, by the 1930s the evolving form had come to be widely popular with middle-class commoners. The rise of middle-class society was of profound importance in the interwar period: far beyond constituting a new reading and writing public, social and economic change undermined the political power of the old elite…
Education, Propaganda, and the People
On the morning of 24 June 1932 the 'People's Party', a small group of civil and military bureaucrats, toppled the Thai absolute monarchy and introduced constitutional democracy. This article discusses the establishment of democracy as an endeavour in 'democratic paternalism,' by which is meant the Party's attempt to establish a new moral and intellectual leadership that had as its main goal the creation of a depoliticized democratic citizenry. To…
Buddhism, Democracy and Power in the 1932 Thai Revolution
The People’s Party toppled the Siamese absolute monarchy and introduced constitutional democracy in Thailand in June 1932. Scholars have generally denied that the revolution had any popular resonance, but this article shows that in Buddhism, the country’s premier cultural form, democratic rhetoric in the 1930s resonated among young monks marginalised by the ecclesiastical hierarchy. A group of young monks within the Mahanikai, or Great Order, reb…
Thailand's Theory of Monarchy
Thailand's Theory of Monarchy: The Vessantara Jataka and the Idea of the Perfect Man . By Patrick Jory (New York: SUNY Press, 2016), £62.93 (hb), £17.75 (pb)
Worldly compromise in Thai Buddhist modernism
Buddhist modernist movements transformed the religious practice and social engagement of one of the world's principal faiths in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These movements produced diverse effects on Asian societies which, despite generic similarities, are best understood in particular socio-historical contexts. This article examines the work of a group of young Thai monks and laymen who had an ambitious aim to morally improve and emp…
Asian Labourers, the Thai Government and the Thai-Burma Railway
While the suffering of Allied prisoners of war on the Thai-Burma railway during the Second World War is well documented, much less is known about the Asian labourers employed on the project. Focusing on Thai and Chinese workers in Thailand, this study argues that although Asian labourers often suffered in a way comparable to prisoners of war, they also exercised some agency in their dealings with the Japanese. Many workers were motivated to work …
The Unruly Past
The monarchy and the country’s military dominate discussions of Thai political history. The country’s democratic history meanwhile is much less well known. To many people, historiography – the history of the writing of history – is a dull affair that only concerns academics. But the changing representations of the origins of democracy in the 1932 revolution that ended the absolute monarchy show the politics of history as a continuous problem that…
A History of Manners and Civility in Thailand by Patrick Jory
Influenced by cultural studies, anthropology, and literary criticism, many historians of colonial and postcolonial societies cite Western powers’ notions of civilization as a partial explanation for their political and economic dominance. The effects of Western hegemony are often presented as creating a two-tiered world that, regardless of how self-serving or racist Western imperial claims to superiority might have been, shows how developing soci…
Love and Death of King Ananda Mahidol of Thailand
The Royal Thai Government lavishly funds and vigorously maintains an elaborate culture industry to defend the symbolic power of the Bangkok monarchy. The omnipresence of royal imagery in the country is bolstered by a surveillance regime that imposes very harsh fines, imprisonments, and public ruin on alleged critics of the monarchy. When the monarchic truth goes on trial in Thailand, guilt is assumed and innocent people are crushed.Amid the hagio…
Liberating Thai History
The nationalist plot of modern Thai history stresses the kingdom’s exceptionalism as the only un-colonized state in Southeast Asia and highlights the steadiness of unbroken monarchy. Critics of the established narrative by contrast argue that Siam/Thailand bore many similarities to neighboring satellites of the Western powers that subordinated traditional authority and hence was a “semi-colony” of the West rather than a truly independent state. T…
Bangkok Transformed: An Economic History, 1820–1950
Peace and Murder in Cold War Thailand
It is well known that authoritarians have frequently stifled democracy movements in modern Thailand, and that impunity for murder is a long-standing privilege they have exploited to crush dissent. Less understood is that the tyrants often react out of weakness rather than strength, and fear instead of calm, when faced with strong opposition. This article examines the murders of several men in the late 1940s and early 1950s that resulted from the …
Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies (10 works) · Law (8 works) · Political science (8 works) · Politics (8 works) · History (7 works) · Sociology (7 works) · Asian Studies and History (6 works) · Democracy (5 works) · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies (5 works) · Asian Geopolitics and Ethnography (4 works)