New Delhi
Subtitle: the last imperial city
By: David A. Johnson (University of North Carolina, Charlotte, USA)
Series: Britain and the world
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Published: 2015
Place of publication: Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire
Language: eng
Number of pages: 261
ISBN-13: 9781137469861
Subjects: History; Imperialism; Colonial influence; Politics and culture; Public spaces; Architecture; Social life and customs; Economic conditions; Social change; HISTORY / Europe / Great Britain; HISTORY / Asia / India & South Asia; HISTORY / Modern / 20th Century; POLITICAL SCIENCE / Colonialism & Post-Colonialism
Description: "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"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: "Seeing Like a (Colonial) State"; title: The Transfer of Britain's Imperial Capital : "A Bold Stroke of Statesmanship"; title: New Delhi's New Vision for a New Raj : An "Altar of Humanity"; title: Colonial Finance and the Building of New Delhi : The High Cost of Reform; title: Competing Visions of Empire in the Colonial Built Environment; title: Hardinge's Imperial Delhi Committee and His Architectural Board : The Perfect Building Establishment for the Perfect Colonial Capital; title: The Cultural Politics of Colonial Space : "A New Jewel in an Old Setting"; title: Land Acquisition, Landlessness, and the Building of New Delhi; title: The Inauguration of New Delhi, 1931 : A British Empire for the Twentieth Century.