Mrinalini Rajagopalan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226283470
- eISBN:
- 9780226331898
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226331898.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Following the Rebellion of 1857 the Red Fort went from being the residence of the last Mughal Emperor to a British military camp. Between 1857 and the early twentieth century, the Red Fort was ...
More
Following the Rebellion of 1857 the Red Fort went from being the residence of the last Mughal Emperor to a British military camp. Between 1857 and the early twentieth century, the Red Fort was successively the locus of imagined and manifest vengeful destruction, mournful memorialization, and historic preservation. The Red Fort carried within it the haunting specter of Indian revolt long after the British military personnel and various bureaucrats had laid decisive claims to the monument. Managing the menace of this memory was a key project of colonial preservation.Less
Following the Rebellion of 1857 the Red Fort went from being the residence of the last Mughal Emperor to a British military camp. Between 1857 and the early twentieth century, the Red Fort was successively the locus of imagined and manifest vengeful destruction, mournful memorialization, and historic preservation. The Red Fort carried within it the haunting specter of Indian revolt long after the British military personnel and various bureaucrats had laid decisive claims to the monument. Managing the menace of this memory was a key project of colonial preservation.
Mrinalini Rajagopalan
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- September 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780226283470
- eISBN:
- 9780226331898
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Chicago Press
- DOI:
- 10.7208/chicago/9780226331898.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
Building Histories traces the lives of five monuments in Delhi—Red Fort; Rasul Numa Dargah; Jama Masjid; Purana Qila; and the Qutb Complex—from the mid-nineteenth century to the twentieth century. ...
More
Building Histories traces the lives of five monuments in Delhi—Red Fort; Rasul Numa Dargah; Jama Masjid; Purana Qila; and the Qutb Complex—from the mid-nineteenth century to the twentieth century. Each monument is explored in an individual chapter, which considers the various appropriations of its history, function, and symbolism by state (colonial and postcolonial) and non-state actors. The starting point for this discussion is the mid-nineteenth century when institutionalized preservation cemented the histories, uses, symbolism, and stewardship of monuments within a rigid archive policed by colonial and later national bureaucracies. Yet this archive was and continues to be constantly interrupted and challenged by affect—the emotive economy generated around the monument at various points in time. It is at this intersection of archival “truths” and affective “passions” that the book charts the changing lives of these five monuments. In doing so it reveals the profoundly mutable histories of these monuments—histories that transformed non-linearly over time; histories generated by unexpected co-optations and urgent inhabitations; and histories authored by various actors often with competing agendas. Building Histories is a book about the histories of buildings; it is also a meditation on the building of histories through these monuments.Less
Building Histories traces the lives of five monuments in Delhi—Red Fort; Rasul Numa Dargah; Jama Masjid; Purana Qila; and the Qutb Complex—from the mid-nineteenth century to the twentieth century. Each monument is explored in an individual chapter, which considers the various appropriations of its history, function, and symbolism by state (colonial and postcolonial) and non-state actors. The starting point for this discussion is the mid-nineteenth century when institutionalized preservation cemented the histories, uses, symbolism, and stewardship of monuments within a rigid archive policed by colonial and later national bureaucracies. Yet this archive was and continues to be constantly interrupted and challenged by affect—the emotive economy generated around the monument at various points in time. It is at this intersection of archival “truths” and affective “passions” that the book charts the changing lives of these five monuments. In doing so it reveals the profoundly mutable histories of these monuments—histories that transformed non-linearly over time; histories generated by unexpected co-optations and urgent inhabitations; and histories authored by various actors often with competing agendas. Building Histories is a book about the histories of buildings; it is also a meditation on the building of histories through these monuments.
