New Delhi: The Last Imperial City

ISBN-13: 9781137469861 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 261 str.

David A. Johnson

Opis

In New Delhi: The Last Imperial City, Johnson provides an historically rich examination of the intersection of early twentieth-century imperial culture, imperial politics, and imperial economics as reflected in the colonial built environment at New Delhi, a remarkably ambitious imperial capital built by the British between 1911 and 1931. India's changed political conditions, exacerbated by previous colonial policies like the partition of Bengal, demanded a new approach to an India which was undergoing tremendous political, social, and economic transformations caused by its long interactions with Britain. At this critical moment and as the pre-eminent symbol of British imperial rule in India, New Delhi crucially displayed a double narrative of promised liberation and continued colonial dependence. This message, rich in ambiguity, created tension between a government intent on satisfying Indian demands for political reform with its equally important need to maintain absolute authority. Britain's last imperial capital in South Asia represented a new model of imperial hegemony based not simply on coercion but on Indian consent to further colonial rule.

Spis treści

1. Introduction: 'Seeing Like a (Colonial) State' 2. The Transfer of Britain's Imperial Capital: 'A Bold Stroke of Statesmanship' 3. New Delhi's New Vision for a New Raj: An 'Altar of Humanity' 4. Colonial Finance and the Building of New Delhi: The High Cost of Reform 5. Competing Visions of Empire in the Colonial Built Environment 6. Hardinge's Imperial Delhi Committee and His Architectural Board: The Perfect Building Establishment for the Perfect Colonial Capital 7. The Cultural Politics of Colonial Space: 'A New Jewel in an Old Setting' 8. Land Acquisition, Landlessness, and the Building of New Delhi 9. The Inauguration of New Delhi, 1931: A British Empire for the Twentieth Century

O autorze

David A. Johnson is a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte, USA with research and teaching interests in British colonial history, transnational history, and urban history.