A Slippery Sovereignty

International Law and the Development of British Cochin

Bibliographic Data

ID2109285
AuthorsDevika Shankar (0000-0002-5462-7349, University of Hong Kong, corresponding author)
Year2022
Volume64
Issue3
Pages820-844
Publication date2022-07-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueComparative Studies in Society and History (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0010-4175 • E-ISSN: 1475-2999
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0010417522000172
OpenAlexW4220674188
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited38

British Cochin was a port in southwestern India surrounded by princely states. This article uses a dispute surrounding its limits to interrogate the role international law played in generating novel forms of political claim-making among European and non-European powers at the turn of the twentieth century. Cochin was located in an area where both physical and political boundaries were hard to define. Situated at the tip of a narrow coastline surrounded by water, it was also lodged amid territories belonging to two princely states-Cochin State and Travancore. Its ever-shifting coastline and proximity to princely states forced colonial authorities to adopt a flexible approach to the port's boundaries, allowing the tiny princely state of Cochin to become progressively more involved with the British port's development over the nineteenth century. The article starts by examining the forces that shaped these entanglements, and then explores a territorial dispute involving British Cochin to illuminate the ways in which, during the twentieth century's first quarter, both the colonial administration and the Cochin State deployed the language of international law to try to extend their powers over the port. By highlighting the Cochin State's partially successful attempts at claiming sovereignty over the waters surrounding the harbor in order to become involved with the development of a port in British India, this article shows how international law emerged as a site through which semi-sovereign territories began testing and even extending the limits of their sovereignty

Colonialism · Geography · International law · Political science · Politics · Port (circuit theory · Sovereign state · Sovereignty · State (computer science · United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea · Engineering · Global Maritime and Colonial Histories · International Maritime Law Issues · Law · Maritime Security and History

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