1st Edition

The Making of an Indian Metropolis Colonial Governance and Public Culture in Bombay, 1890-1920

By Prashant Kidambi Copyright 2007
290 Pages
by Routledge

290 Pages
by Routledge

290 Pages
by Routledge

This book explores the social history of colonial Bombay in the late Victorian and Edwardian eras, a pivotal time in its emergence as a modern metropolis. Drawing together strands that hitherto have been treated in a piecemeal fashion and based on a variety of archival sources, the book offers a systematic analytical account of historical change in a premier colonial city. In particular, it... Read more
Contents: Introduction; The rise of Bombay; 'A disease of locality': plague and the crisis of 'sanitary order'; Reordering the city: the Bombay improvement trust; 'The ultimate masters of the city': policing public order; Forging civil society; 'Social service', civic activism and the urban poor; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.

Biography

Prashant Kidambi is Lecturer in Colonial Urban History in The School of Historical Studies, University of Leicester, UK.

’... a major, potentially ground-breaking, contribution to historical scholarship on Bombay, and more generally on India's urban modernity.’ Urban History ’Kidambi’s excellent study of the emergence of the metropolis of Bombay comes to us at a crucial moment in the city’s history.’ Economic History Review ’Using an enormous amount and variety of primary and secondary sources, Kidambi analyses important changes in the relationship between society and local government. ...Kidambi’s book is an excellent study. ...Any student of Indian urban history should read it...’ International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter