I understand the entanglements of our historical and contemporary eras through the exploration of... more I understand the entanglements of our historical and contemporary eras through the exploration of space at multiple scales, which is best demonstrated through some examples. In my research, I explored the dividing practices of Bombay’s lunatic asylum and hospitals to show how colonialism was manifested in space. This examination revealed the many divisions within the city’s ‘European’ population, even as the colonial regime was encouraging native populations to overcome their resistance to sharing space with diverse religious and ethnic communities in new native public hospitals. Many of Bombay’s philanthropists hailed from the small Parsi community. Making special provisions for their own community in Bombay’s native hospitals, the financial support of Parsi philanthropists allowed Parsis to separate themselves out from other native communities through the construction of wards for the exclusive use of Parsi patients (Figure 1).
Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of The Vernacular Architecture Forum, 2012
“pockets of resistance” to consolidation (89). moreover, in some areas where i am familiar with t... more “pockets of resistance” to consolidation (89). moreover, in some areas where i am familiar with the relevant historical literature, he offers incomplete or inaccurate historical explanations. for example, while economists may have shown a correlation between smallscale governance and elevated school attendance rates in the nineteenth century, “the concentration of power in state legislatures” in the south is certainly not the only or even the primary reason for low attendance rates among southern whites in this period, and i was puzzled that zimmerman, an educational historian, would rely solely on economists who generally excluded qualitative data and presented correlation as causation (19–20). Historians looking for indepth discussion of the architecture of rural oneroom schools would want to supplement zimmerman with the sources on which he draws, including andrew Gulliford’s america’s country schools (1996, 3rd ed.) and wayne e. fuller’s OneRoom schools of the Middle West (1994), both of which contain more illustrations and architectural information than does zimmerman. ultimately, small Wonder shows how the rural oneroom school became a potent and contested educational symbol linked to concepts such as family, home, community, individualism, hard work, freedom, selfreliance, and the nation (6–9). although warranting caution for sometimes weak details, it remains an engaging, concise, and argumentative book. since zimmerman enlivens the text with interesting anecdotes and succinctly lays out the argument in the introduction and conclusion, small Wonder would make a good choice for general readers or for undergraduates.
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Dec 1, 2011
Banmali Tandan . The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh, 1722–1856: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic a... more Banmali Tandan . The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh, 1722–1856: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic and Social Context . Cambridge: Zophorus Books Limited, 2008, 450 pp., 527 b/w illus. $100 (cloth), ISBN 9780955788000 The architecture of Oudh, and particularly its capital city of Lucknow—legendary for its magnificence and the refinement of Indo-Islamic high culture under its rulers, the nawabs of Oudh—is the subject of Banmali Tandan's The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh, 1722-1856: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic and Social Context. Starting in the thirteenth century in northwestern India, the region known as Oudh came under the rule of a sequence of Delhi-based Muslim dynasties. By the late sixteenth century the area became part of the mighty Mughal empire. In 1722 Saadat Khan, a Shi'a nobleman from Persia who was employed by the Mughal emperor, was appointed Subahdar (governor) of Oudh. From 1722 to 1856, these rulers and their successors came to be known as the nawabs of Oudh. While putatively remaining loyal to the Mughal emperor, Saadat Khan worked to consolidate his position and assert control over his domain by undertaking campaigns against the largely Hindu landlords of Oudh. These semi-independent feudal barons were not entirely suppressed. They were forced to pay tax on a regular basis even as their hereditary rights to their lands remained undisturbed. Some of the landed chieftains would become Nawabi courtiers and officials. Despite the Nawabi overlordship, most continued to grow in strength under Nawabi rule. Their belief that they were independent rulers of their domain was signaled by the construction of numerous mud-forts in their lands during this period. After his death in 1739, Saadat Khan's nephew and son-in-law Safdar Jang (1739–1753) succeeded him as governor. At this time Oudh had grown to be a rich province; one that yielded vast revenues, estimated in the 1750s to be …
The British colonial government received requests for assistance in the establishment of charitab... more The British colonial government received requests for assistance in the establishment of charitable institutions in Bombay in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter underscores the role of the colonial government as protector of the European community in Bombay, in contrast with similar efforts towards native communities (ethnic and religious) in the city. In particular, it demonstrates how a study of Bombay’s charitable institutions provides a deeper understanding of what British colonials deemed as “worthy objects of charity” in western India. It is not simply the dichotomy between colonial engagements with charitable institutions for Europeans and native communities that is of interest. What is unexpected and enlightening is that the government's relationship with the charitable institutions of native religious communities---Parsi, Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish--was not always the same. Based on these varied engagements, this chapter reveals the colonial gover...
ABSTRACT:This article shows the centrality of movement – the freedom to move, the inability to mo... more ABSTRACT:This article shows the centrality of movement – the freedom to move, the inability to move and being forced to flee – to the suburban development of Bombay. The reason as well as the spatio-temporal rhythm of movement differed among population groups inhabiting the city. The early suburbs of colonial Bombay were predicated on the ability of a tiny European elite to move to different parts of the city according to the seasons. By the mid-nineteenth century, their movement would no longer be restricted to the several islands that constituted Bombay. Instead, tracing the governor's footsteps they would move many miles away, from Bombay to Poona during the monsoons, to Mahabaleshwar after the rains and back to Bombay for the cool winter season as the seat of governance shifted according to the season. In late nineteenth-century Bombay, the growth of the mill industry would force Europeans to retreat to other areas of the city from their former suburban homes, which were now...
I understand the entanglements of our historical and contemporary eras through the exploration of... more I understand the entanglements of our historical and contemporary eras through the exploration of space at multiple scales, which is best demonstrated through some examples. In my research, I explored the dividing practices of Bombay’s lunatic asylum and hospitals to show how colonialism was manifested in space. This examination revealed the many divisions within the city’s ‘European’ population, even as the colonial regime was encouraging native populations to overcome their resistance to sharing space with diverse religious and ethnic communities in new native public hospitals. Many of Bombay’s philanthropists hailed from the small Parsi community. Making special provisions for their own community in Bombay’s native hospitals, the financial support of Parsi philanthropists allowed Parsis to separate themselves out from other native communities through the construction of wards for the exclusive use of Parsi patients (Figure 1).
Buildings & Landscapes: Journal of The Vernacular Architecture Forum, 2012
“pockets of resistance” to consolidation (89). moreover, in some areas where i am familiar with t... more “pockets of resistance” to consolidation (89). moreover, in some areas where i am familiar with the relevant historical literature, he offers incomplete or inaccurate historical explanations. for example, while economists may have shown a correlation between smallscale governance and elevated school attendance rates in the nineteenth century, “the concentration of power in state legislatures” in the south is certainly not the only or even the primary reason for low attendance rates among southern whites in this period, and i was puzzled that zimmerman, an educational historian, would rely solely on economists who generally excluded qualitative data and presented correlation as causation (19–20). Historians looking for indepth discussion of the architecture of rural oneroom schools would want to supplement zimmerman with the sources on which he draws, including andrew Gulliford’s america’s country schools (1996, 3rd ed.) and wayne e. fuller’s OneRoom schools of the Middle West (1994), both of which contain more illustrations and architectural information than does zimmerman. ultimately, small Wonder shows how the rural oneroom school became a potent and contested educational symbol linked to concepts such as family, home, community, individualism, hard work, freedom, selfreliance, and the nation (6–9). although warranting caution for sometimes weak details, it remains an engaging, concise, and argumentative book. since zimmerman enlivens the text with interesting anecdotes and succinctly lays out the argument in the introduction and conclusion, small Wonder would make a good choice for general readers or for undergraduates.
Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Dec 1, 2011
Banmali Tandan . The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh, 1722–1856: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic a... more Banmali Tandan . The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh, 1722–1856: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic and Social Context . Cambridge: Zophorus Books Limited, 2008, 450 pp., 527 b/w illus. $100 (cloth), ISBN 9780955788000 The architecture of Oudh, and particularly its capital city of Lucknow—legendary for its magnificence and the refinement of Indo-Islamic high culture under its rulers, the nawabs of Oudh—is the subject of Banmali Tandan's The Architecture of Lucknow and Oudh, 1722-1856: Its Evolution in an Aesthetic and Social Context. Starting in the thirteenth century in northwestern India, the region known as Oudh came under the rule of a sequence of Delhi-based Muslim dynasties. By the late sixteenth century the area became part of the mighty Mughal empire. In 1722 Saadat Khan, a Shi'a nobleman from Persia who was employed by the Mughal emperor, was appointed Subahdar (governor) of Oudh. From 1722 to 1856, these rulers and their successors came to be known as the nawabs of Oudh. While putatively remaining loyal to the Mughal emperor, Saadat Khan worked to consolidate his position and assert control over his domain by undertaking campaigns against the largely Hindu landlords of Oudh. These semi-independent feudal barons were not entirely suppressed. They were forced to pay tax on a regular basis even as their hereditary rights to their lands remained undisturbed. Some of the landed chieftains would become Nawabi courtiers and officials. Despite the Nawabi overlordship, most continued to grow in strength under Nawabi rule. Their belief that they were independent rulers of their domain was signaled by the construction of numerous mud-forts in their lands during this period. After his death in 1739, Saadat Khan's nephew and son-in-law Safdar Jang (1739–1753) succeeded him as governor. At this time Oudh had grown to be a rich province; one that yielded vast revenues, estimated in the 1750s to be …
The British colonial government received requests for assistance in the establishment of charitab... more The British colonial government received requests for assistance in the establishment of charitable institutions in Bombay in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This chapter underscores the role of the colonial government as protector of the European community in Bombay, in contrast with similar efforts towards native communities (ethnic and religious) in the city. In particular, it demonstrates how a study of Bombay’s charitable institutions provides a deeper understanding of what British colonials deemed as “worthy objects of charity” in western India. It is not simply the dichotomy between colonial engagements with charitable institutions for Europeans and native communities that is of interest. What is unexpected and enlightening is that the government's relationship with the charitable institutions of native religious communities---Parsi, Hindu, Muslim, and Jewish--was not always the same. Based on these varied engagements, this chapter reveals the colonial gover...
ABSTRACT:This article shows the centrality of movement – the freedom to move, the inability to mo... more ABSTRACT:This article shows the centrality of movement – the freedom to move, the inability to move and being forced to flee – to the suburban development of Bombay. The reason as well as the spatio-temporal rhythm of movement differed among population groups inhabiting the city. The early suburbs of colonial Bombay were predicated on the ability of a tiny European elite to move to different parts of the city according to the seasons. By the mid-nineteenth century, their movement would no longer be restricted to the several islands that constituted Bombay. Instead, tracing the governor's footsteps they would move many miles away, from Bombay to Poona during the monsoons, to Mahabaleshwar after the rains and back to Bombay for the cool winter season as the seat of governance shifted according to the season. In late nineteenth-century Bombay, the growth of the mill industry would force Europeans to retreat to other areas of the city from their former suburban homes, which were now...
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