Description: This book focuses on the plight of Tamil plantation workers in Malaysia. Based on seventeen months of ethnographic fieldwork in various plantations and squatter areas between 2003-2009, it describes the fast approaching end of a way of life while exploring how notions of justice as imagines by an aggrieved minority, complicate legal demarcations of ethnic difference in postcolonial states.
Brief description: Andrew C. Willford is professor of anthropology at Cornell University.
Review Quotes: . . . this book is a timely contribution to the field of ethnic minority studies in a context wherein the resettlement of minority peoples continues to pose complex ethical and political dilemmas. . . . In addition to being a valuable resource to scholars of Southeast Asian studies, Tamils and the Haunting of Justice should be required reading for individuals seeking subaltern perspectives on nation-building driven by ethnic-majority nationalism.-- "TRaNS: Trans -Regional and -National Studies of Southeast Asia"