Colonial modernities : building, dwelling and architecture in British India and Ceylon / edited by Peter Scriver and Vikramaditya Prakash.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Scriver, Peter.

Prakash, Vikramaditya.

Series:

Architext series

The architext series

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Architecture, British colonial--India.

Architecture, British colonial.

Architecture and society--India.

Architecture and society.

Architecture, British colonial--Sri Lanka.

Architecture and society--Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka.

India.

Physical Description:

ix, 287 pages : illustrations, maps ; 26 cm.

Place of Publication:

London ; New York : Routledge, 2007.

Summary:

Colonial Modernities brings together a selection of cutting-edge historical essays on architecture and building in colonial India and Ceylon. Utilizing interdisciplinary frameworks drawn from architectural and planning history, cultural studies and postcolonial critical inquiry, these essays offer novel interpretations of not only iconic public buildings, but also institutional and domestic spaces and the fabric of the built environment - the everyday architecture of colonial South Asia. Engaging new archival sources to work close to the grain of specific cases, these essays collectively explore ways in which designing and building practices served to construct the highly contested and hybridized social spaces and practices of the colonial-modern world. Each individual essay is a distinct case study, offering an in-depth examination of a particular aspect of colonial architecture, such as the architectural work of the Public Works Department, or a particular building history such as the re-use of an old Mughal tomb as a residence for colonial officials. Of key interest to lecturers, researchers and students in the disciplines of architecture, urban design and planning, human geography and sociology, cultural and postcolonial studies as well as South Asian history, this is one of the first books to study colonial architecture not in terms of formal categories, but specifically through social, cultural and political frameworks. As such it is one of the first attempts to grapple with the complex scenes of colonial-modern India and Ceylon in a manner that offers new insights into the material legacies of previous colonial constructions in the contemporary postcolonial culture of the Indian subcontinent.

Contents:

Part I Frames of Discourse 1

1 Between Materiality and Representation: Framing an Architectural Critique of Colonial South Asia / Peter Scriver, Vikramaditya Prakash 3

2 Stones and Texts: The Architectural Historiography of Colonial India and its Colonial-Modern Contexts / Peter Scriver 27

3 The Stone Books of Orientalism / Stephen Cairns 51

Part II Institutional Frameworks 67

4 Empire-Building and Thinking in the Public Works Department of British India / Peter Scriver 69

5 "Strangers within the Gate": Public Works and Industrial Art Reform / Arindam Dutta 93

6 Between Copying and Creation: The Jeypore Portfolio of Architectural Details / Vikramaditya Prakash 115

7 Institutional Audiences and Architectural Style: The Napier Museum / Paul Walker 127

Part III Domestic Frames of Practice 149

8 A Tomb of One's Own: The Governor's House, Lahore / Sylvia Shorto 151

9 The Other Face of Primitive Accumulation: The Garden House in British Colonial Bengal / Swati Chattopadhyay 169

10 The Trouser under the Cloth: Personal Space in Colonial-Modern Ceylon / Anoma Pieris 199

11 Negotiated Modernities: Symbolic Terrains of Housing in Delhi / Jyoti Hosagrahar 219.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-278) and index.

ISBN:

0415399084

9780415399081

0415399092

9780415399098

0203964268

9780203964262

OCLC:

71173820