The book focuses on Henry Irwin, a man who began his life in India as a PWD engineer and subsequently rose to the position of consulting architect to the government of Madras succeeding Robert Fellowes Chisholm, his predecessor in that office. Many of Irwins creations continue to dominate the Madras skyline and are held in high esteem by local denizens. However, the blatant hybridity of some of these monuments, coupled with the fact that they failed to reflect the attempt to legitimize colonial rule, also accounted for their transience as an architectural movement. Parallels drawn with the colonial architecture of Calcutta and Bombay, not to speak of the impact of Indo-Saracenic architecture on some of Indias princely states, draw attention to the movement. Likewise, its authenticity has been questioned against the backdrop of the architectural legacy of the home country during the same period.

Extreme poverty, which intensified in India during colonial rule, peaked in the 1920s—after decades of imperialist exploitation, famine, and disease—a time when architects, engineers, and city authorities proposed a new type of housing for India’s urban poor and industrial workers. As Farhan Karim argues, economic scarcity became a central inspiration for architectural modernism in the subcontinent. As India moved from colonial rule to independence, the Indian government, business entities, international NGOs, and intergovernmental agencies took major initiatives to modernize housing conditions and the domestic environment of the state’s low-income population. Of Greater Dignity than Riches traces multiple international origins of austerity as an essential ingredient of postcolonial development. By prescribing model villages, communities, and ideal houses for the working class, this project of austerity eventually reduced poverty into a stylized architectural representation. In this rich and original study, Karim explains the postwar and postcolonial history of low-cost housing as an intertwined process of global transferences of knowledge, Cold War cultural politics, postcolonial nationalism, and the politics of economic development.

Taming the Oriental Bazaar examines the public market-hall as a key architectural feature of colonial South Asia. Representing a transition in the architectural programme, these buildings were meant to be monuments and markers of modernity in South Asia. The book: Explores how market-halls became an essential feature of colonial settlements from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries Discusses public health policies and legislations central to the concerns of market-hall sanitation Reviews the elements of modernity, including institutions and systems established in the nineteenth century as India went from Company to Crown Studies the specific circumstances and histories of market halls in the towns and cities of Bengaluru, Vadodara, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Karachi, Lahore, Chennai, Pune, and others A key text in the study of colonial architecture, this book will be of interest to students, researchers as well as general readers of architecture, colonialism, history of architecture, history of medicine, public health, urbanism, and South Asian studies.

This photo-essay book is a modest attempt to link our maritime past, along with the entire progress, to the present, and in light of the same, to relate the future of the nation to a distinct maritime orientation with the Indian Navy as the lead national maritime agency. It traces about 7,500 years of India's maritime history and heritage. There are eight chapters, each dwelling on different aspects of maritime heritage namely, trade and commerce, evolution of cultures, influence of architecture, forts and lighthouses, naval battles and the evolution of the Indian navy. With images and artwork, this book will give the reader a vivid insight into our country's rich maritime past.

This exhaustive volume documents the entire landscape around and architecture of the Rastrapati Bhavan estate, starting from its construction as Government House, after the capital of British India shifted from calcutta to Delhi in 1911.

The book focuses on Henry Irwin, a man who began his life in India as a PWD engineer and subsequently rose to the position of consulting architect to the government of Madras succeeding Robert Fellowes Chisholm, his predecessor in that office. Many of Irwin's creations continue to dominate the Madras skyline and are held in high esteem by local denizens. However, the blatant hybridity of some of these monuments, coupled with the fact that they failed to reflect the attempt to legitimize colonial rule, also accounted for their transience as an architectural movement. Parallels drawn with the colonial architecture of Calcutta and Bombay, not to speak of the impact of Indo-Saracenic architecture on some of India's princely states, draw attention to the movement. Likewise, its authenticity has been questioned against the backdrop of the architectural legacy of the home country during the same period.

A carefully crafted selection of essays from international experts, this book explores the effect of colonial architecture and space on the societies involved – both the colonizer and the colonized. Focusing on British India and Ceylon, the essays explore the discursive tensions between the various different scales and dimensions of such 'empire-building' practices and constructions. Providing a thorough exploration of these tensions, Colonial Modernities challenges the traditional literature on the architecture and infrastructure of the former European empires, not least that of the British Indian 'Raj'. Illustrated with seventy-five halftone images, it is a fascinating and thoroughly grounded exposition of the societal impact of colonial architecture and engineering.