Eric P. Meyer is emeritus professor of Indian history at Inalco (National Institute for Oriental Languages and Civilizations, Paris) and was until recently president of the scientific council of Bulac (University Library for Languages and Civilizations, Paris). Formertly fellow of the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Research) and director of the CEIAS (Center for Indian and South Asian Studies), he devoted his research to the modern history of Sri Lanka in its interactions with India, in association with colleagues at the Universites of Peradeniya and Colombo, with a special emphasis on rural and labour history, on the interactions between politics and religion and on the social roots of the ‘ethnic’ conflict.
Among his publications in French and English :
Books:
Une histoire de l’Inde: les Indiens face à leur passé. Paris, Albin Michel, collection Planète Inde, 2007
Sri Lanka, Biography of an Island – Between Local and Global. Translated from the French by K. Segond-Baldwin, edited by Ashley Halpé. Negombo, Viator Publications [www.viator-publications.com]. 2nd ed. 2006
Sri Lanka entre particularismes et mondialisation. Paris, La Documentation Française, coll. Asie Plurielle, 2001.
Ceylan, Sri Lanka, Paris, P.U.F., coll. Que sais-je?, 3rd ed. 1994 (1st ed. 1977)
Articles:
« Sri Lankan Diasporas in France » (en collab. with Delon Madavan, Gaëlle Dequirez) in Peter Reeves (ed.), The Encyclopaedia of the Sri Lankan Diaspora, Singapore, editions Didier Millet, 2013, pp. 126-130
« Ecrire l’histoire pour faire l’histoire : l’historiographie dans le monde indien comme instrument politique aux 19e et 20e siècles » in Nathalie Kouamé et al., dir. Historiographies d’ailleurs. Paris, Karthala, 2014 pp. 209-222
« Religions et politique à Sri Lanka à l’ère post-coloniale », in Politique et religions en Asie du Sud, Paris, EHESS, collection Purusartha n° 30, 2012, pp. 137-160, 2012
« Migrations sri lankaises. Origines et étapes », Hommes et Migrations n° 1291, mai-juin 2011 , pp 12-21.
« Introduction » in Delon Madavan, Gaëlle Dequirez, Eric Meyer (sous la direction de), Les communautés tamoules et le conflit sri lankais. Paris, L’Harmattan, pp. 7-13, 2011
« Les paradoxes du fondamentalisme bouddhiste à Sri Lanka » in J. Ries et N. Spineto, Métamorphoses du sacré : acculturation, inculturation, syncrétisme, fondamentalisme. Tournai, Brepols, pp. 301-304, 2010.
« La déroute des Tigres ne résout pas la question tamoule », Le Monde Diplomatique, mars 2009, pp. 14-15
« Les ressorts du séparatisme tamoul à Sri Lanka », Le Monde Diplomatique, avril 2007.
” Labour circulation between Sri Lanka and South India in historical perspective” in Society and Circulation. Mobile People and Itinerant Cultures in South Asia, 1750-1950, ed. C. Markovits J. Pouchepadass & S. Subrahmanyam, New Delhi, Permanent Black & Londres, Anthem Press, 2003, pp. 55-88.
“Des usages de l’histoire et de la linguistique dans le débat sur les identités à Sri Lanka” in Purushartha, 22, La question identitaire en Asie du Sud, J.L. Racine ed. , Paris, Editions de l’E.H.E.S.S., 2001, pp. 91-127
” Sri Lanka, ou les tribulations d’une ‘vieille démocratie’ ” in C. Jaffrelot ed., Démocraties d’ailleurs, Paris, Karthala, 2000, pp. 93-112
“The specificity of Sri Lanka: towards a comparative history of Sri Lanka and India”, Economic and Political Weekly (Bombay), 17.02.1996, pp. 395-398. Republished in Lanka Guardian (Colombo), 15.03.1996, pp. 11-15
“Consensus versus confrontation: a note on the representation of democracy in the Sinhala Buddhist political discourse” in Indian Journal of Asian Affairs, 12,2, 1999, pp. 1-18.
“A dramatic episode of labour migration to Sri Lanka: Marathi coolies in the Sabaragamuwa rubber estates during the early 20th century” Sabaragamuwa University Journal vol 1 n° 1, 1998, pp. 11-28
” Forests, chena cultivation, plantations and the colonial State in Ceylon 1840-1940″ in Richard Grove and
Satpal Sangwan (eds.) Nature and the Orient, Essays on the environmental history of South and South East Asia. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1998, pp.793-827.
” Paddy, garden, chena, plantation: was there a peasant strategy in the Kandyan regions of Sri Lanka before 1940?” in Peter Robb (ed.): Meanings of Agriculture, Essays in South Asian History and Economics. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1996, pp. 182-227.
“On the concepts of violence and non-violence in Hinduism and Indian society” (collab.), South Asia Research 14 (2), 1994, pp. 196-213.
” Les forêts, les cultures sur brûlis, les plantations et l’Etat colonial à Sri Lanka (1840-1930)”, Revue française d’histoire d’outre-mer, LXXX n° 299, p. 195-218. Republié dans J. Pouchepadass (dir.), Colonisations et environnement, Paris, Bibliothèque d’Histoire d’Outre-Mer, Etudes n° 13, 1993
” From Landgrabbing to Landhunger: High Land Appropriation in the Plantation Areas of Sri Lanka during the British Period.” Modern Asian Studies 26, 2, 1992, pp. 321-361.
” ‘Enclave’ plantations, ‘hemmed-in’ villages and dualistic representations in colonial Ceylon”. Journal of Peasant Studies 19 (3 & 4), pp. 199-228. Republié in E.V. Daniel, H. Bernstein and T. Brass eds, Plantations, Proletarians and Peasants in Colonial Asia, London, Cass, Library of Peasant Studies n° 11, 1992, pp. 199-228.
” Seeking the Roots of the Tragedy.” in J. Manor ed., Sri Lanka in Change and Crisis , London, Croom Helm, 1984, pp. 137-152.
Forthcoming:
« Les coolies indiens de Ceylan face à la loi des planteurs au début du 20e siècle ». in Eric Guérassimov et Issiaka Mandé, dir. Engagés et Empires.
« Historical Aspects of Caste in the Kandyan Regions, with particular reference to the non-Goyigama castes of the Kägalla District » in Sri Lanka Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences
